Chapter 8: A powerhouse (1/2)
Alex therefore made the untimely decision of jumping, and he felt his body speed up and slide down the steep hillside at lightning speed. It was quite fun but to make it even more exhilarating, He decided to stand up and he was now able to control the direction and speed of his descent. It was arguably one of the most fun things he's done in his short years of life. He soon caught up to the cloaked man, who turned around and tried to replicate what Alex had done, although he failed miserably and curled his body. The two men laughed. Alex went to the direction the man was on and gave him his hand and supported him as he stood up. The man, now stable on his feet, gave him a thumbs up.
After a few minutes of reckless skiing(?) and more than a few obstacles along the way, they reached flat ground, the man turned around and said excitedly.
”Cool, really cool! Who would have thought that Demeter's handiwork had such potential for fun! And you were good at it! How do you maneuver that skillfully in the slippery snow?!” The man kept asking him such questions. Alex couldn't tell him he learned how to control himself at high speeds due to Hermes' swiftness bonus, so he only laughed and stated that it was a specialty of his.
”Alex, huh? I'll remember you, kid. You NEED to come to one of my parties sometimes.” It seemed like the man considered him a friend now, and he proceeded by asking Alex ”By the way, where are you headed once you reach Olep?”
”I'm going to go to Abdera” Alex told the man truthfully.
”Bummer! I'm going to Thessaloniki. We're not going to follow the same route at all.” The man seemed genuinely sad that Alex could not join, although it could be said that he was just drunk.
They had no more subjects or reason to talk so they just kept walking in silence, and soon, the snow started dissipating, slowly replaced by green woodlands and the density of the forestry surrounded him started to increase to the level of a forest.
The man turned to Alex and said ”Olep is a 30-minute walk away south going through this forest. Do you want to stick together?”
Alex nodded ”Sure.” They had no reason to disperse and the man's presence wasn't bad.
They therefore kept walking through the forest, only interrupted by the occasional wild animals and streams of water. At the midway point of their trip however, they heard howling in the distance, and it kept getting closer and closer.
Soon enough, the source of the howling was in front of them. It was a large wolf, the size of 3 ordinary wolves and it had only one large eye that instilled fear into his victims. It stood a fair distance from them, drooling as if it was a starved colosseum lion. Alex looked at the monstrous creature with fearful eyes, he turned around to see the man's reaction. He didn't seem all that scared from his body language.
”Troubles follow everywhere, huh?” The man asked Alex a rhetorical question.
”We need to fight this thing. Are you confident?” The man turned to him to see his response.
'It looks very strong....But I'm also stronger now....If I can't beat a run of the mill monster then how can I call myself a god?' He thought to himself. He then nodded confidently to the man, although his hands were shaking and his palms covered in cold sweat.
The man laughed and said to him ”I need some time to beat it, can you distract it until then?” He then poured some wine, which gave off a strong smell of alcohol and threw it at the wolf and miraculously, the wolf began moving sluggishly and turned a slight red, as if it was drunk.
The wine...the fact that the man was in Olympus....making the wolf drunk.....these dots connected in Alex's mind and gave him an idea of who the man might be, though it wasn't the time for that.
He took advantage of the monster's state and started running it, confusing the monster and allowing him to hit the monster here and there. He felt that his fists were quite strong and with his swiftness allowing him to escape the wolf's clutches he was able to slowly gain advantage in a battle of attrition against the monster. He then heard a loud bellow behind him and when he turned around he was surprised to see the man had turned into a large bull and was charging right into the wolf. Alex stepped aside and watched as the wolf groaned in pain and bled out from every corner of his body in response to the bull's brutish attack and it soon collapsed, probably dead.
It was an overwhelming victory. and Alex finally had a chance to see his newfound strength for himself, even if the man stole the limelight with his finishing attack.
The bull turned back into human form and the man clapped and congratulated him ”That was excellent, really cool”. Alex smiled in response, feeling a bit embarrassed considering he only lightly battered the beast, and the man's overwhelming strength was the deciding factor in the battle.
Feeling his apprehension, the man further elaborated ”That transformation takes time and if not for your contribution and distractions but also damaging him I would have had a hard time finishing the battle off”
Alex actually felt a bit proud at himself, even though the man had killed off the beast, he nonetheless contributed and even he felt a bit surprised at the strength he emitted in the battle, strength superior to the most excellent fighters back on Earth without any technique or training.
He also didn't regret choosing to remain with the man at all...
The following events to the wolf's death surprised Alex to the max.
Out of nowhere, a blood-red river appeared on the location of the wolf's corpse, and on the river was floating a small boat, paddled by a silhouette composed of darkness that seemed to only be held together by the dark robe it was wearing. The silhouette paddled until they reached the monster's carcass and single-handedly grabbed the corpse and threw it onto the small boat that should normally sink but kept afloat. The silhouette then nodded at the man and turned to look at him for a second before leaving, the boat then disappeared into nothingness and the blood river instantly dried up, leaving no trace of the supernatural occurrence.
”What was that?” Asked Alex in a fearful tone, that was too sudden and brusque. From the boatman appearing out of thin air to taking the carcass then disappearing, only a dozen seconds passed.
”Oh. Don't worry about it, just a little trick of mine” From his tone, Alex guessed he didn't want him to investigate too much into this 'little trick'. It was understandable, everyone had their secrets, and that should be no different in a supernatural world.