A/N:
(Unedited)
I won't upload tomorrow so have this as compensation. I was saving it till the end of the Volume so... feel Honoured degens.
***
"Uuggghhh," Thor groaned.
*Thud*
"What are you moping around for?" A feminine voice was heard, but he didn't care, he was in too much pain to care.
"Hoh. Ignoring your master are we~" The soft voice reached his ears.
Thor's body shuddered. That tone meant pain, pain beyond what he's felt until now. In a flash, he was standing opposite his master, stance readied.. A sword in his left hand, a halberd in his right.
He watches her every movement. Her swaying iridescent hair in the wind. The fluttering of her black robe, revealing the skin tight suit hidden underneath. She held a weapon wrapped in a special kind of cloth, a cloth that had resisted some of his strongest attacks without effect, having no effect. Finally her face–beautiful, undeniably so–in any other situation, he would find it mesmerising.
But right now, she was looking at him with a look of promising pain.
Amusement for her, agony for him.
He tries to put on a confident smile, but the best he could do was a nervous one.
"Come now, MY Dear Disciple." The possessiveness in her voice somewhat set his mind off to darker places, but he quickly shook himself out of it.
She lost the maniacal smile, seriousness in its place. "You promised me a FULL YEAR of uninterrupted training. It's only been 7 months. That was the cost. You know how we gods can't descend without a price. I did tell you…" She started to stroll towards him dragging her spear in the dirt behind her.
"Not." Her energy leaked out, coating the field in a blood red sea of mana.
"To Open." A golden, divine aura mixed with a sea of blood.
The pressure put on Thor's body causes his feet to sink into the ground. He wouldn't kneel to this, how could he, that'd be disgraceful for himself.
"Pandora's." The density increased. Putting more pressure on Thorald's shoulders.
"BOX!" Her energy exploded further coating the entire Dimension within her aura. The space shook, small cracks in space began to form.
The cloth unravelled, revealing a spear wrapped in a malicious purple aura.
Throughout all of this Thor's previous nervous smile became more and more confident. He started to release his own aura, clashing with her own in a battle of wills.
The landscape crumbled, and cracked. The space caught within the clash warped and cracked. The dimension itself was struggling to contain the mere aura of the two combatants.
"Perhaps I shouldn't have—but Master, you placed Pandora's gift in my hands. Did you truly expect restraint?"
His heart began to race, his heart pumping blood faster, he was anticipating the coming conflict.
"You were expecting this, weren't you? That's why your first offer was one year of training. Just an excuse, wasn't it~" His tone became playful towards the end.
Her aura flickered, just for a moment—enough for his to surge forward, gaining ground. He took advantage of the opening and dashed towards her.
He slashed his sword upwards causing a crescent slash of death energy to rush towards her.
His goal. To distract her with many moderate attacks leading to his main attack.
He leapt in the summoning walls to form around his master unleashing a volley of elements onto her position.
He knew it wasn't the best plan.
Storing the sword into his spatial storage he grips his halberd tightly with both hands, dropping down to her position, ready to impale her in place.
But he knew that anything less, just wouldn't be as fun, now would it.
He also tried to seal her movements, but the runes on her body counteracted his.
His smile grew as he got the expected response.
In the meantime his master wasn't idle, she observed his movements, his actions, his strategy and was proud of him somewhat. Achieving all of this in under a second is impressive for a human.
However, compared to her, it was too slow. 'His progress has slowed immensely compared to a few years ago. This is the limit for humans, if only he'd follow the ritual, he could become a demi-god at the least
No matter, as long as he has me. I'll keep him alive, I'll keep him getting stronger–because in the end he will always be with me. Forever.' A beautiful smile appeared on her face.
She steadied the spear and slashed upwards sending her own divine slash at his. Hers would cancel his out, letting her focus on the absurd amount of runic attacks aimed at her. 'One distraction'
Simply dodging would do nothing as she could see the homing rune attached to them.
She responded with her own runes matching his, the difference, her runic volley would target its opposing element, tracking it, targeting, and overpowering it or neutralising them. 'Two distractions and a counter.
To deal with Thor himself she did the simplest approach. Attack head-on.
"Hahahaha, come. My disciple, show me your growth." She laughed. Her voice rattled the plane itself. The ground around her cracked like a spiderweb as she jumped right towards him drawing her spear back to counter his own halberd.
As they met in the air, hearts racing, blood pumping, crazy looks in their eyes. This. This was all they wanted, each other in eternal combat.
Thor's halberd collided with his teacher's spear causing a massive boom to erupt, engulfing both their forms in the ball of death.
*BOOOOOM*
The energy attacks connected, canceling one another out in a silent clash.
Runic volleys, same aimed at the spear user, others aimed at those very volleys. A series of minor explosions of opposing elements resounded.
***
As the battle continued. A symphony of colours. All witnessed by a trio of two brothers and a sister.
"His teacher sure is scary." One of the brothers stated.
"You're right about that Adam. But don't forget about Thor himself. He's the most powerful human to exist. He even surpassed the arrogant demi-gods at the academies." The other brother present agreed.
"Shut up, both of you!" The sister present hushed the chattering brothers.
She watched Thor's session with his teacher. It frustrated her that she didn't have the strength. All she could watch was envious of his teacher's power.
'Scathach, Queen of the Land Of Shadows.' "Tsk." It annoyed her to no end. Before he met this woman he only paid attention to me.
Her eyes became a swirling pit of darkness, different from her usual vibrant orange.
"I take it back Andrew, sis is scarier than that woman." The two brothers watched their sister once again lose herself as they shivered hoping to not provoke her.
Beep–
She got a notification on her watch distracting her from those dangerous thoughts.
Andrew and Adam let out a sigh
"Hmm?" She tapped 'accept', and a holographic interface blinked to life, followed by a voice.
"Mother! You need to tell Father to come to America right now. An Elder has descended from the void opening. California is already a black sea of death and destruction." She blushed at being called Mother, but that passed the moment she let the AI, Aurora finish.
Eyes wide she pulled out one of the guns she and Thor had developed,
*BANG*
And shot it right into the battle.
On contact with the ground nearby a small localised energy pulse spread, washing over Thor and Scathach. Pulling their attention to the source.
"Catlin?" Thor questioned his voice somehow reaching her ears.
Catlin raised her arm up and flipped the hologram so Thor, who even at such a great distance could still read the report perfectly.
His attention snapped to his teacher. "Scathach."
She nodded, (Missing him using her name) agreeing with his next actions to open a doorway through the dimension.
Once it opened he dashed through it heading to the site of the disaster. A disaster that would be the turning point in his life.
***
End, for now
***
A/N:
A little interlude chapter because why not. I was meant to release it during the week I would take off, but that didn't happen so here it is now. Had to do some editing but I like it. Action is still not my best, but I like it for now.
I was meant to upload the next chapter tomorrow, but I had some thoughts while editing and now it's gone from 3K to 5K words so… more editing and I'm tired from gaming today.
P.S. Should I do more of these in future? Y'know some backstory on Thor's old world. While part 1 of this story is the most planned out. Part 2 and 3 are not yet even done preliminarily. So I could maybe add something in, in the future depending on how I feel.
***