chapter 19

"What's in it for me?" asked Ares with all seriousness.

What YTA was asking of him was just too much. All he wanted was to live a peaceful life without having to sweat and hustle. 'That is all just hard work. Unnecessary hard work at that.' He thought.

YTA was shocked at Ares' statement. 'No sense of responsibility at all!' he bellowed in the crevices of his mind.

"Of course, if you were to give me a hefty reward, I would reconsider. Like some land or money or even jew…."

Ares didn't have time to finish his statement as YTA started attacking him immediately with a right hook. With their height difference, YTA's hit didn't have much impact on Ares but it still grazed him.

"Such a disgrace! A full bloodline being wasted with the likes of you." YTA shouted.

Ares had been caught unaware, and as such the hit he took was rather powerful, powerful enough to send him hurtling through the air. Even though he was sure he was tough, Ares felt like his whole body was being broken apart.

'What was the point of all those street fights if I can't even take a hit from an eight-year-old?!' 

Ares was beginning to question his very existence as YTA kept on delivering a one sided beat down. His every strike was on a vital point with enough force to cause him pain while not killing him. All Ares could do was cover his face and protect his head as he couldn't fight back.

*

"Did that beating help you out?" YTA asked as he rubbed his wrists and knuckles.

Ares was off to the side with a face red from the pain. It was really a beat down and he didn't even have a chance to fight back.

"How could it have helped me? What exactly were you after for you to beat me up? Hmmm…? Care to share your thoughts, oh great and mighty system!"

"Are you still full of yourself? Reward? Are you really apart of the Maltimore family with the way you act?" YTA asked Ares who was sprawled on the ground.

He had had it! Ares was angry! All his life he had heard people say the same thing to him.

'How are you a Maltimore?'

'Are you even a Maltimore? You can't do this simple thing? Guess you're not much.'

He was done hearing such things! 

"Who are you to ask me whether or not I am a Maltimore? I know best whether I am or not! You have no right to judge me!"

Ares went into a blind rage and started randomly attacking YTA. Clearly, there was a disparity between the two from skill to mere strength of which YTA was better than Ares. Yet, he kept on fighting.

"Ha-Ha, do you think you can defeat me? You are hundreds of thousands of years too early for that!"        

      YTA put his hands together and generated light sparkly spots of white that all converged towards Ares, sticking around him.

"Wh…at? What is this?" he stuttered as he tried to shake them off, only to hurt himself as his whole body was aching. 

Ares was a mess; his clothes were filled with holes while his limbs were a dark purple from blocking YTA's attacks. He didn't how or why but he was able to resist them even though his hands felt like falling off. 

"I need to get up and fight back. I need to get these white lights off of me." He thought as he fell down from the increasing weight on his hands. 

It was the white lights! They seemed to be increasing the weight of everything that they landed on making it hard for Ares to move. 

Ares, who was used to knife and fist fights, felt like he was in a pickle, something that had never happened before to him while in a fight. He didn't know how to free himself or how to fight back. All he could do was block.

'Is this how it ends for me?' he thought. 

"Ha-ha, what descendant of the Maltimores? You are just a free loader who doesn't know how to be grateful! It's no wonder that you will never inherit any of the Maltimore goodness!" taunted YTA. 

If one was attentive, they would realize that YTA was pushing Ares to fight back, almost like he was trying to discover something in Ares that he didn't he had. Unfortunately, Ares was blind-sided with rage so he couldn't understand any of this. 

'Will I never be good enough? Will I really just be a free loader of the Maltimore family?' Ares thought. He had never had such negative thoughts about anything in his life. He had never doubted himself until YTA pointed out his flaws.

'Learn from your mistakes.' Ares could still hear his great grandpa's voice echoing in his head from when he lost his first race. As a ten-year-old, his pride was hurt and he felt that he would never race again. His grandpa told him of his mistakes and he changed from there to become the best in his age group. 

"Right, let me learn from my mistakes."  

Ares felt something snap in him, almost awaken. It bubbled from the darkest pits of his soul all the way to his heart. He didn't understand it, I wouldn't either, but he knew when not to question magical phenomenon.

His short black hair pulsed a dark purple, making it stand on end. Rings of dark purple flashed around his arms moving all the way to the tips of his fingers. Ares looked on amazed, lost in thought. He didn't notice how YTA had lost all color and was practically sweating.

"Whoa! What's this? A hidden power, gem?" asked the curious Ares. 

YTA was too shocked to answer him.

"It's too soon! Too soon!" 

This was all that kept on running through YTA's mind as he sought for a way to stop Ares's power advancement.

Ping!

"New power unlocked!"

…