Hermes and Hou Yi

Hermes was on the training ground with Arthur when he says, "Well, I'm Hermes the fastest and the best god in sneaking around. I will be teaching you how to sneak and fight with daggers. They are quite useful in close-quarter combat."

Hermes approaches Arthur as he vanished and appears behind Arthur while having his dagger pressed against Arthur's throat and says, "Like this."

He takes the dagger back as he says, "But you will need to learn my footwork to learn it."

A book appears in his hand and he throws it towards Arthur and says, "Time to learn it. After doing that we can talk about Daggers training."

Hermes begins to move in a different way than Erlang Shen did when he was teaching Arthur as his footwork didn't even leave footprints on the ground and you couldn't even hear the footsteps while Arthur's were quite loud for Hermes.

"To copy my style you need to think like a thief or assassin not like a warrior. Warriors like the ones that taught you only know how to make a grand entrance. Thief and Assassin are different they wait for the right opportunity to appear and strike," says Hermes as he demonstrates to Arthur how fast he is.

Arthur was surprised that not one footstep was heard when Hermes appears behind him and says, "I'm the fastest God beside Merkur. But there are differences between him and me. He is a Warrior while I am a Rogue. He likes to be seen while I don't that's why most consider me faster than him because I appear out of nowhere while you can hear Merkur arrive like a stomping elephant."

"Now then I know that Shura wants you to find your own style but you will thank me one day since those skills will help you in the future," says Hermes as he knew that one day Arthur would need to infiltrate somewhere and being taught how to do that will help him get further.

"Now back to training before our time is over," says Hermes as he had a smile on his face making Arthur feel shivers run down his back.

"A tip, don't show your body to my sister or she will eat you alive," says Hermes warning Arthur as he hits Arthur's back of the head and continues, "Keep working on the footwork you need to learn the basics before two months pass."

The two months pass as Hermes' smile was even creepier than before making Arthur feel quite uncomfortable when Hermes suddenly had two wooden daggers and throws them at Arthur.

Arthur catches the daggers and Hermes had two others as he rushed at Arthur while saying, "Fighting is the best way to learn."

He was about to clash with Arthur when a black sword appears between both Arthur and Hermes.

"Spoilsport," says Hermes as he stopped looking at the sideline seeing Shura standing there.

"You got too excited. Do I have to bring my desk to the training ground again? I know you were there from the beginning," says Shura as he smiled at Hermes who felt shivers remembering that smile that brought him here in the first place.

"You can if you want but you will disturb his training," says Hermes as he juggles four daggers in his hands without Arthur noticing that his daggers weren't in his hands any longer.

"This is one of the skills I will teach you later," says Hermes as he looked at Arthur when he turns to Shura and throws the daggers at Shura.

Shura catches them using his fingers as the daggers were between his index fingers and middle fingers or between the middle fingers and ring fingers.

Shura then throws them back as Hermes just dodges while walking forward making Arthur watch how to do that. Hermes catches two of the daggers out of mid-air and rushed at Shura.

Shura stretches his hand out and the black blade disappeared from in front of Arthur and appears in Shura's hand. He turns the sword around making the sharp edge point toward himself.

He blocks the first attack of Hermes and ducks to evade the second attack. Shura then tries to punch Hermes who jumps by using Shura's underarm.

Hermes twists his body in mid-air while trying to attack Shura's back. Shura blocks without looking with his blade as he turns towards Hermes.

"Again," says Shura as Hermes nods while Arthur was watching.

They were sparring for him right now so he could see how Hermes fights because for Hermes to teach his style he needed an opponent that could keep up with his more chaotic way of fighting style.

Hermes doesn't have a style he uses his instincts to fight against his opponents making it difficult for Hermes to teach his style to Arthur.

Arthur was seeing that Hermes was most of the time in the air or far too near to the ground but never in a straight position making it difficult for his opponent to get him.

Shura had no problem fighting against Hermes as their sparring went on for eight hours until Hermes had Shura's blade on his throat and Shura says, "It seems I have won again."

"You will always win because of your body," says Hermes as he seemed jealous of Shura.

"It's more like a curse Hermes," says Shura as the sword disappears and looks at Arthur and says, "Did you take a good look? That's what you will be learning from today on."

Arthur nods as Shura leaves and says, "Good luck learning from Hermes."

Shura was smiling as he returned to the Palace. Hermes, on the other hand, throws the daggers he was holding to Arthur and says seriously, "Time to train."

Arthur began to copy Hermes' style while Hermes was watching it when he sees the posture Arthur was taking when he was too close to the ground and says, "Make your body as small as possible when you use this position. It's so you don't go face forward into the ground."

Arthur tries it again and it felt far better that way than the way he was using it before when Hermes smiles while saying, "Even if I can't really teach my style I can tell you when the posture is wrong."

Arthur's training went on for the next two years as his body changed a bit from his stocky build to a little less stocky since his muscles became more flexible from Hermes' training. He was still looking like a God of War on paper but he still needed some real experience.

Hermes was thinking about something when Arthur asks, "Is something wrong?"

"I was thinking about what to gift you since you are that clumsy," says Hermes as he snapped his fingers the whole time when he suddenly stopped and says, "Right, you, Mortals, can't summon weapons out of nowhere. For someone like you who always loses his weapons that fast it should be helpful."

Hermes puts his hand on Arthur's shoulder as then a pair of Iron Daggers appear in his and Hermes says, "It's simple to use. You need to mark the weapon of your choice like this."

Hermes was showing it to Arthur as he places a pentagram on the handle of the daggers and throws them away when they suddenly appear in his hand again.

"See quite simple and perfect for your clumsiness since I can snatch your weapon another one will be able to do so as well," says Hermes as he puts the daggers away when a Chinese man entered the training ground and Hermes says, "Well our time is up it seems. I wish you luck on your adventure and remember sometimes being sneaky is better than blasting into the party."

"Hermes," says the Chinese man seriously as he was holding a longbow in his hand that was on fire.

"Hou Yi, why are you here again?" asks Hermes with a smile as Hou Yi suddenly pulled on the string.

A flaming arrow appears and he releases the string as the arrow went for Hermes who just stood still when the arrow was cut in two. Shura was on the field when he says, "Do we have a problem here."

Both feel Shura's aura and begin to show that they were afraid when Shura releases his aura and says, "It doesn't seem so. Hermes time for you to leave. Next time you want to frame a God or Immortal again think twice I will find it out sooner or later."

"Well then kid, see you," says Hermes as he disappears while Shura looked at Hou Yi.

"You know your mistake?" asks Shura as Hou Yi doesn't dare to look into Shura's eyes while Shura says, "Good then train him."

Shura leaves both on the training ground and Hou Yi says, "My name is Hou Yi, also known as the man that shot down 9 suns from the sky."

"Arthur," says Arthur as Hou Yi nods.

"My training and style are quite simple. It's built around mobility and accuracy. You will find out that an Archer that doesn't move is a sitting duck waiting to be killed," says Hou Yi as he summoned a longbow with a quiver full of arrows.

"We will begin right away. We will train your accuracy first," says Hou Yi as targets appeared 50m away from them.

"Try to hit the target. Do this until you hit the bullseye consecutive twenty times. After achieving that we will take the target further away," says Hou Yi as Arthur began to train.

It took Arthur a month as he sometimes broke the longbow by using too much strength while pulling on the string.

Hou Yi then put the target farther back and every week he would do that without Arthur noticing it until it was 200m away. Hou Yi explained that the enemy won't always be in an exact place waiting for him as this went on for half a year.

"From today on we will train your mobility so you don't break your bow because you laid on it. Once you bow break you will begin the whole parkour again," says Hou Yi as the training ground turned into an obstacle course.

The course would change every week getting harder with every week. When Arthur didn't master the obstacle course he needed to repeat it the next week until he successfully absorbed it.