-POV Arges-
It's hard for me to admit it, but I'm enjoying this. The fear in the mortal girl's eyes, the creaking of the boy's bones as he struggles against my grip, and this feeling…this fire coursing through my veins. Like I was meant for this, born for it. I get that I'm a monster, but I always believed myself above my baser instincts, my only desire being to craft better and better artifacts. Even more so, in the past my time was spent getting this feeling from crafting, and crafting alone.
Yet, I will never do so again. Not after what happened. No one, not even me, gets the privilege of having a weapon created by me or my brothers.
I'll simply have to rip my weapons from the corpses of those foolish brother gods. Of course, I'll get to that once I've completed my terror run on their children so far that the gods will dread my name even being thought of. Yet no matter what they manage to come up with, they'll have no choice but to stand ready for my arrival like the power-hungry, childish worms they are.
I think I've thought enough as is though. It's time to make this half-blood suffer.
"First thing first, I think I'll eat the girl." I say casually as I throw the boy onto the ground once again and stomp down on him, making sure to hold him in place.
The girl's face is filled with shock and fear, but the boy is eerily quiet. Even through the haze of pain, he's focusing on something, and I don't like it. Based upon the tales I've heard of demigods of the past, letting them think or focus for too long only leads to disaster.
So I stomp down on him once again, knocking him out cold, before lifting my foot off of him fully. He won't be waking up soon anyways.
The mortal girl's gasp was gratifying, and let me know that all of this is going quite well. "And here I was hoping that he'd be awake to see this, but I can't take any chances. Half-bloods are always too crafty for their own good. He seems to like you quite a bit though, so I'm sure he'd still gain some form of trauma when he finds your dismembered body when he wakes."
I lean over and grasp the girl, pick her up and bring her eye-level to myself. I grip her arms with my fingers, and begin to pull.
-POV Noah (118 Seconds Earlier)-
Think Noah, think. What do I know? I'm a massive nerd, for one. With all the media I've consumed, I'd become some sort of mythology extraordinaire. I know who Arges is, I know who Apollo is, and I know what a demigod is. I even demolished Arges in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, my archery build was too OP. (Yes, I played every single Assassin's creed game, I needed something to do the summer of my 8th grade year.)
At least I understand it now. My energy problems, my good looks, and even my athletic abilities. It all came from him, from my dad. That usually wouldn't be a surprise to most, but my dad's a god.
Focus, now isn't the time to think about all of that. This is my life, and it's up to me to save both myself and Gwen. I can feel Arges lift his foot granting me momentary relief, before he brings it right back down, and for a moment all I knew was black.
What is this? It's dark, and I feel as though I'm wading through an infinite sea. There's also this mystic, wavy golden hue to the edges of my vision. Heh, it kinda reminds me of golden glitter if I'm being completely honest. It's also incredibly trippy here, but it feels euphoric as well. If this is something that'll happen more often, then I know that I'm gonna get addicted to this feeling.
A figure of pure light, battling what looks like giant metal monsters in space. A girl my age dressed in all black and I swear she kinda looks like an 80's rock-star, her body crackling with lightning as she fought against a black haired boy with water swirling around him, their rage towards each other even being felt by an observer like me. Whoever that girl is, she wears that outfit quite well.
Uhhhhh….I'm not too sure what I'm looking at right now. It's like a giant face created from a mix of pure darkness and space itself. It's staring at me, not even making a single movement. This just went from beautiful to genuinely unsettling within the span of 20 seconds. Time to shift my focus, these visions or whatever they are aren't important as of now.
I need to find a way to get out of here and save Gwen. Apollo is the god of the sun, and from what I've read, demigods usually get some form of blessing or power from their godly parents. From what I've gathered, the sun gives me an increased amount of energy, so could I potentially harness that energy?
I'm not even sure where I'd start with that though. If there's anywhere in my body I think I'd be able to channel this power, it's my legs. I've never done anything like this before, so my only hope is that visualization and heavy focus can guide me to survival.
I can already feel myself waking up, my excess energy speeding up the process. Time to see what I'm made of.
-POV Gwen-
"No please, you don't have to do this! We've done nothing wrong!", I plead to the gigantic monster in front of me. My words were ignored, as in the very same moment my right arm was torn off.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH"
Please…whoever may be listening, watch over my father. Guide him through his pain, as I know losing me will devastate him, especially after mom. No one should have to go through something like that.
I can't breathe, I can't think. This is too much. I don't know who I'm saying this to, but I'm sorry. Maybe I shouldn't…have gone…on…this date…
-POV Noah-
I want to yell. I want to scream in rage, but I can't waste any energy right now. I've never done this before and it might drain me, for the first time in my life.
Push. Push. PUSH!
"Oh my…", I mutter. My legs are glowing, and the ground is burning! Wow, that's a very satisfying sizzle, if I do say so myself. Focus. I have to move before Arges can react. In the time it's taken me to activate this, he's already dropped Gwen on the ground like a sack of potatoes and started charging towards me.
"When running, it's always good to have an explosive start!", I say aloud with a grin.
Why did I say that? Doesn't matter, just move!
I charge towards Arges as well, and as I reach him I jump into the air and block both the hands coming towards me with a hook kick from my right leg, before using my newfound lower body strength to kick myself into position to deliver a power kick to his eye while using his left hand as my leverage.
The moment my left foot touched his eye, I pushed even more energy into it, causing it to burst into what seems to be a golden star-burst that also shot into his eye from my foot, amplifying my kick and hurting him even more. The scent of burning…whatever eyes are made of and burning flesh disgusts me.
"AARRGGHH, damn you demigod!", Arges said while nursing his eye with one hand and madly swiping with the other. "I've got too many other targets and objectives to possibly lose my life to some no-name half-blood, so I'll be taking my leave. Rest assured, I will be back, and by then I know we'll start seeing each other eye to eye."
In the next moment, a portal of orange sparks opened up under the injured ancient cyclops, and I just know that I can't reach him from here. Using my great decision skills, I try to visualize changing my legs back to normal as I run over to Gwen.
Now if I remember correctly, Apollo is the god of healing. In most situations I'm sure that someone would probably pray to him for health, but nah, I'm not doing that. I may not be able to grow Gwen's arm back, but I'm going to do everything I can to heal her as much as possible. That fight must not have been long, seeing as she somehow hasn't bled out. I wonder how fast Arges and I were moving.
A thought for later.
"Okay Noah, you've got this…you've got this.", I mutter to myself aloud as I gather the energy into the palms of my hands. I really hope I have this.
Think calm and healthy thoughts. A nice flower bed. Bright and full of life and sunlight. I can smell the lavender. I think it's working, seeing as the golden light's gone from a mist-fire like look into a more liquid form. Now it's just time to…PUSH!
With this thought, I can see the process of her arm healing itself. The blood clotting and the flesh knitting back together. I don't know the science behind any of this, but something tells me that science has no hold here. If that's the case, then maybe the thought of not being able to bring her arm back is just a limit I left on myself.
I try to visualize her arm growing back. It's difficult as hell, seeing as I don't know too much about the human body, but it's working. I don't know if I can keep this up. I'm tiring out way faster now that I'm going further and regenerating her arm.
-POV Noah (3 Hours Later)-
I finished regenerating Gwen's arm, and let me tell you, good lord that took a toll on me. Unsurprisingly, she didn't wake up afterwards, so I had to carry her home. Luckily enough for me, Captain Stacy was probably still at the station, as I didn't see him when I dropped her off.
I made sure to be extra kind and careful, and I tucked her in. Tonight was enough trauma to last a lifetime, so I'm gonna make sure that she gets all the comfort she can get. I'm walking back home right now, so that I can rest for the night as well.
If there's one thing that today taught me, it's that high speed combat and supernatural powers have exactly what I've been looking for. I can't go back to a normal life after this, not after I've finally discovered what it is that I've been missing. Is it wrong that I wish the fight was longer, and maybe had a bit of an extra challenge too?
This new world that I'm a part of now…it's almost like it's calling out to me.
My visions from earlier even told me where I have to go if I want to start on my path toward exploring this whole new world even further. Due to the fact that I wasn't really all that focused on the visions at that moment, the only details I've got are that I need to find a summer camp on the north shore of Long Island. It's a four day weekend, and with my newfound abilities, I shouldn't take too long to get there anyways.
Leaving Gwen like this isn't ideal whatsoever, but I know she'll want answers, answers that I don't have. So I'll just go and get answers for the both of us. She may end up hating me, but I'll be fine. She's downright amazing, but the world's too big for me to be distraught about what one girl feels about me. Not to mention the fact that this world just got even bigger.
I hope you're all ready. Gods, monsters, or whatever you may be, I'll blaze a path beyond all of you. I'll leave a mark that no one will be able to scuff away. I'm meant for so much more than all of this, and I know why now. I will be more than I am. There is no alternative.
I've just gotta sleep first.