Word that the fight of the century was about to begin spread across campus like wildfire.
Noraa and MG had just stepped out of Alaric's office when something big flew past them, down the hall, and smashed through the wall.
"WHOA what was that!?" MG nearly dropped all of the papers he was holding.
"Hahaha daaaaamn that was Hercules!" Noraa laughed.
"How could Herc get sent flying like that?"
"Someone knocked the fuck out of him! How else" Just then they saw Gil walking down Hercules' flight path, sharingan uncovered. Gil paid them no mind and jumped out the hole in the wall "So it's that time, huh? Welp we better go get good seats. Give the TA stuff a break and come watch something interesting." He slyly stuck something on the office door before pushing MG down the hall.
......….
Lizzie was in her room imagining a chance encounter. "Hey Raf, I didn't expect to see you here. Me? Oh I come here all the time. Oh, thank you! I like your-"
"Lizzie! Come qui-" Josie burst in the door "wait what are you doing?"
"Don't you know how to knock?! What do you want?!"
"Gil and Herc are going to fight! We have to hurry and break it up!"
......….
"Hey, Kelly that idiot Hercules is finally gonna get his dumbass expelled!" A member of the pack ran up to her excitedly.
"Hold up, what are you talking about?" She threw down her weights.
"He picked a fight with Gil. Knowing him he'll go to far and seriously hurt Gil and get in big trouble!"
"Dammit those idiots! This isn't the time!" Kelly rushed out following the sound of the commotion. Raf, Landon, and a few others ran out after her.
"We gotta hurry Herc is going to murder Gil!" Raphael said.
"I'm not sure, I think Gil's hiding something serious." Landon seemed more concerned for Hercules' safety.
......
Soon there was a huge crowd before they even began. Ilpyo was sitting on the roof recording with his phone. "Heheheh, this is gonna be interesting."
"Who's your money on?" Noraa said joining him on the roof.
"Herc of course look at the guy!" MG answered first.
"You just don't know Gil." Ilpyo said "Watch humanities answer to the supernatural and divine. (I bet that sounded cool)" he thought smugly earning a disgusted face from Noraa.
...…..
"We haven't even started yet. Teenagers are messy…" Gil looked around at the crowd quickly amassing. "Wanna move somewhere else?"
"The audience makes no difference. All that matters is victory or defeat…"
"True, just don't be too embarrassed when you lose."
"Hahahahaha! Good show of confidence!"
Having finally found the school's strongest Hercules had no reason to hold back. He rushed Gil and swung full strength, Gil ducked it but the force was enough to knock nearby spectators off their feet. Following Gil, Hercules tried to grab him, but Gil kicked his hand away and followed with a roundhouse kick to Hercules' jaw. Hercules staggered backward but only a step, trading the kick for a punch of his own. Though Gil blocked it he was still sent flying across the yard, composing himself midair he landed to see Hercules fist inches from his face. He leaned back and let his foot rise straight to Hercules' chin for a second kick. That time he was visibly stunned, and Gil took the opportunity to attack several of Hercules' pressure points before falling back.
"Whoa I didn't know Gil was so quick."
"How can he not be? All he does is run away!"
"But that second kick actually stunned Hercules, you couldn't even phase him that one time."
The spectators were surprised to see Gil last this long. It couldn't be luck at this point.
Gil dodged several attacks before quickly slipping back into Hercules' guard and delivered a strong elbow strike into his chest "Arang." Hercules flexed his muscles as hard as possible to defend. Seeing he didn't budge Gil kept up his combo. "Baekdu" a jumping knee smashed into Hercules stomach, but he didn't come off of his feet. "(He's heavy as hell!) Double baekdu!" Gil's other knee struck a second time and successfully lifted him into the air. "Screw punch!" Gil threw a twisting punch, but Hercules caught his arm.
"Finally got you." Pulling Gil into a spine-cracking bear hug Hercules fell backward into a midair supplex. The impact rocked the whole yard and tore up the ground for dozens of feet around. Hercules rolled away and rose to his feet waiting for the dust to settle. The different spectators were surprised by Hercules' need to go so far, wasn't that a bit overkill?
"GIL!" Lizzie shouted. She knew Gil was strong but whose neck could survive that?
"Is Herc trying to kill him!?" Josie exclaimed. She moved to stop the fight, but Hope grabbed her arm. "Let go! If it goes any farther-"
"Look." Hope pointed at Hercules who had never once taken his eyes off the spot he left Gil, he was also holding his ribs.
"You kick pretty hard for such a small man" Hercules laughed trying to ignore his throbbing side.
When the dust cleared Gil was standing there relatively ok. He cracked his neck and dusted himself off. "Your hits are pretty light for someone so big" Gil said sliding into his stance once more.
"Looks like Gil's ready to get serious." Ilpyo leaned in closer. "No more playing around."
Gil and Hercules met each other foot vs fist. Several more clashes and Hercules prepared to end the fight with his next punch. Sensing the vast increase in the power of Hercules' punch Gil dropped under it all the way down to the ground. "Lowest round kick!" A leg sweep from as low as possible smashed into Hercules' ankle and he dropped to a knee. Hercules tried to punch Gil on his way down, but Gil rolled to the side and rose up with a stomach kick. "I had expected more but you really are a long way off." Gil's foot rose high over the cringing Hercules' head. "Renewal axe." Before his foot came down like a guillotine Hercules rose with an uppercut covered in lightning. Their explosive clash sent them both tumbling backward.
"To think a mere human would force me to use this…" Hercules looked at the lightning dancing in his hands then clenched his fists tight.
"Who said you were the only special one?" Gil asked. "But since you're so hung up on this 'son of Zeus' stuff, let me show you the heritage you seem to have forgotten about."
Hercules was grinning like a madman. What kind of monster is Gil? He had more than martial arts in store? "Enlighten me!" Hercules threw a punch and released a stream of lighting straight at Gil. BOOM the lightning exploded into a log. "Huh where did that come fro-" A roundhouse smashed into the side of his head sending him crashing into a tree.
"Stay alert Herc. Fire style: Majestic destroyer flame!" Hercules looked up to see a giant inferno hurtling towards him incinerating all in its path. Countering with another lightning punch the flames exploded in Hercules' face sending him through a row of several more trees. Water sty-" Gil abandoned the next jutsu dodging the fallen tree that Hercules threw at him. "Stupid brute…" Another tree was uprooted and Hercules swung it at Gil.
"He's throwing trees! Wtf is wrong with this guy!"
"So are we not going to comment on how Gil just spit out a literal wall of fire!"
Gil dodged the tree and jumped on it. Before he could reach Hercules, the tree was thrown high into the air.
Somehow Gil's feet remained planted to the tree despite flying through the sky. "Try this one on for size." He threw a scroll up even higher, then weaved several hand signs and lightning began to dance in his palm "lightning blade."
"Oh, you can use lightning too?" Hercules charged up another lightning punch. Hercules jumped up and Gil dove at him. Skillfully maneuvering past Hercules' fist, Gil's jab pierced the demigod's shoulder and sent him crashing back down. Gil started to walk away when Hercules got up. "I haven't lost yet."
"(He's running on fumes now, this won't last much longer…I guess I can take that seal off Alaric's door now.)" Noraa got up to leave.
"You're leaving already Noraa?" Ilpyo asked.
"Yeah, this is over. Herc put up a decent fight though."
"I respect your tenacity if anything." Gil did a hand sign and the scroll he threw spread out above them. With a large puff of smoke, various weapons rained down. "This scroll belonged to your family, the Senju." He caught two Giant shuriken and threw them immediately. Hercules dodged them and grabbed an iron club from among the falling weapons. Gil grabbed a spear and unleashed a fearsome series of thrusts but Hercules smashed it to pieces, not without taking a few jabs himself. The force of his next swing blew the extra weapons out of Gil's reach, but Gil had already grabbed a sword. They had a brief exchange in which Gil overtook Hercules with agile and precise strikes. Pushing Hercules back Gil moved back and forth like a blur, his every flickering kick was accompanied with a flying wave of fire. "Renewal style: Halo dance!" Barely deflecting the oncoming flames with the club Hercules gave his all for one final attack, but Gil cut clean through his club and slashed him across the chest. Hercules staggered backwards but still didn't fall, he forced himself to take a step forward instead. "Not done yet?" Gil started to make another sign, but seeing Hercules was losing consciousness Gil knew he won. He put his hands down and turned away. "Let's leave it here Herc. This fight is over."
"I…I can still…go on…" Hercules held onto the half a club tight.
"I guess a shounen hero wouldn't give up that easily…" Gil sighed. "But I think I've made my point here." He looked at Hercules in his eyes casting a genjutsu, then walked away as Hercules slumped to his knees. "This fight doesn't count by the way." He spoke up for everyone to hear. "Remember who you are and maybe you'll be a match for me. I want to fight you at your best, as Hercules SENJU." With that declaration Gil made his way through the crowd, grabbed Hope's hand and left everyone with their world turned upside down. The bully of Salvatore had been beaten soundly with martial arts and some strange techniques that used no magic at all. Since no one knew what to say, slowly but surely the crowd dispersed.
Hercules sat there defeated with a blank look on his face. Long after everyone left and it started raining, he never moved a muscle. "You're going to catch a cold just sitting out here in the rain." Josie stated holding an umbrella over him but he didn't answer. "Didn't you want to find more people who could beat you? One more loss isn't the end of the world, right?" She didn't really know how to console the childish battle junky.
After a long silence Hercules finally spoke "The last time I looked into Gil's eyes, something inside me clicked…I remember now…"
"You remember? Remember what?"
"Everything…my mother's family and their ways, what happened to my village. Who my enemy is...I remember it all clearly now…I died that day…"
"What do you mean died? It's not like you're a phoenix like Landon."
"I don't understand why I am still here either, but there must be some purpose to it."
"So what are you going to do now? You aren't going on some revenge quest now are you? Or will you hold a grudge against Gil?"
"….Revenge quest? No, I will stay here and hone my abilities more. I doubt I have an unlimited number of lives to spare like Landon…If the fates will it so I will be able to give my people justice in the future…as for Gil how can I be mad at a friend who has sharpened me so?"
"Sharpened? He beat you up…badly."
"Hahahaha true! But because of this experience memories lying dormant in me have been awakened. Behold." Hercules clasped his hands together "Wood style!" Trees grew up all around them making a shade to cover the two of them from the rain. "I was able remember ninjutsu, and in doing so I've taken another great step forward. Today was not a total loss." Despite being beaten within an inch of his life he seemed pretty happy. "But I will beat your brother up when that time comes."
"Sure you will…come on let's get you dry and do something about those injuries."
"If it's alright with you I'd like to sit here a bit longer. I'm still sorting my thoughts out."
"Umm, no problem. Take as long as you need." Josie sat next to him and they watched the rain in silence.