The value of life

How could and angel born to reap death understand what I was going through anyway, I was just extremely delusional in thinking I could get sympathy or anything at all from religion.

I needed to do something, I couldn't just stand in this room feeling the pressure of being watched by beings I couldn't even point at or curse to my heart content.

"Am I entitled to any kind of weapon or training room?"

[you are entitled to all weapons of your defeated enemies and can be teleported in any training room for general use or specific weapon]

At least something to do.

"Bow and arrows, send me to a range or something."

I needed to unleash this anger, I couldn't possibly be able to survive if I went into the next match in this state, better tired then completely blind; and so I trained until my next match with this bow.

_________________________

-Odysseus POV-

This is the 3rd day, I need to find Dimitris soon. If today isn't the day… let's just wait and see.

The battles begin again, the Arena was on fire. After the first 2 days of more or less boring fights, except for Mr. Damocles' fights which were still badly received because of his reaction to claiming the lives of those losers, only stronger challenger remained, notably: a very skilled nature mage, an excellent swordsman and even a young lamia.

What is a monster doing here, I'll never know. But I guess the Tides has his own plan.

___________________________

-Klaus POV-

Being transported to the arena I found myself in front of a lamia.

The daughter of Hecate.

I was not sure why a mythical creature was due to fight in this arena, not that I could ask her anyway. Lamias are snake like women I doubted poison would work against her, so I readied my bow without taking aim.

We still needed the system to announce our fight.

[Mr. Damocles - specialty, stealth vs. Decle - specialty, poison magic; please start the battle]

As soon as our battle begun Decle the lamia started to manifest a magic circle, but suddenly stopped when an arrow was reaching for her hands and barely managed to dodge. But I didn't stop.

I know nothing of poison magic, but I do know a thing or to about poisons, not gonna let her do her thing.

Reaching for the next arrow I simultaneously started movin forward, I needed to get into closed quarters combat, I didn't have infinite arrows after all, but I could try and hold myself with my knives.

While my arrows didn't find their mark once, they were enough of a distraction to let me get near enough to dash to my enemy, but as soon as my knives were about to struck, I felt a weird air movement and immediately ducked.

A scaly tail flew centimetres above my head and I finally understood, my foe was truly formidable.

One extra limb, can she move it in all directions? Fuck.

Close combat was terribly disadvantageous for me, I had never fought with someone with a tail.

Long range was hard as well, I was good with darts, but a bow was still hard for me to get used to in just a day of training; and poison was basically useless.

Then i suddenly remembered.

The rules of house Damocles…

Jumping backwards I retrieved a gas mask and immediately wore it while also throwing out a smoke bomb.

Rule number one - always assume you will be caught, prepare at least 3 ways of retreat at all times.

Dashing inside the smoke I crouched and started to slow my breathing, both breathing exercises from my family, and my newfound experience as Dimitris were helpful in this moment.

My heart rate dropped considerably and with it my presence started to get erased.

Rule number 2 - to hide in plain sight you must erase yourself form the world itself.

As my existence faltered, I started moving. Taking out my darts I approached the snake-like woman and even if poison doesn't work, the basic body structure of all vertebrated living beings was the same, at least I could paralyse her nerves and make her unable to move.

Rule number 3 - value your life above all.

Hypocrites, all of them. They advertise the value of your life, then completely disregard that of everyone else. They play gods holding the reins of other people's life. Disgusting.

My family, the gods, Odysseus.

I couldn't think anymore, I just wanted those five wins and get the fuck out of this disgusting situation. And as soon as an opportunity arises dump that bastard and leave, alone preferably. I would accept being a slave to Circe before staying a second in the same room with that disgusting creature.

Lost in thought I finally noticed that the smoke I was hiding in started to change colour. But I trusted my mask, finally the lamia was moving. It was time to get moving myself, or stop to.

Yes, I was about to play dead.

If the oldest trick in the world holds up, there must be a reason no?

As soon as I noticed wind clearing the smoke I removed my mask, held my breath and lied down, erasing myself meant to basically die anyway. And not a beat to late a loud cheer passed through the Arena. The lamia showing her back to me must have thought she had it in her bag at this point.

Overconfidence is the sin of the winners.

Just as I noticed the crowd go silent to give the judge way to give his verdict I sprung in action. With the darts already in my hands I surgically pierced the spine of my enemy who a second later fell face first to the ground.

Alive? Sure.

Paralysed? Also sure.

The Arena exploded. None could believe what had happened, after all, everyone believed I was already dead anyway.

Turning myself to Odysseus, not even trying to hide my hatred towards the bastard I waited for his judgment, that not even missing a beat immediately ordered me to kill the lamia.

This time I had other plans. I was sick and tired of the useless slaughter. I would not stand for it anymore.

Kneeling in front of the lamia I started my silent prayer.

The Eye looking for the real world, Queen of magic, please accept this kin of yours into eternal shelter, I wish not to kill, but to bless your Decle and give her a chance to reunite with you

As soon as my prayer ended I slashed my palm and dropped blood onto the lamia hoping my blood was enough incentive for the goddess to claim her daughter, and sure enough Ouroboros appeared out of thin air, swallowed the lamia as a whole and disappeared again.

The crowd was speechless, Odysseus was speechless.

Yeah stay mad you bastards, I was to kill, but nobody told me how to, that is up to me.

Satisfied with my escamotage to avoid committing blatant murder like a puppet in the hand of Odysseus I turned away and waited for the Arena to get me back to my room.

I couldn't care less. I was just happy to have found a way to save my sanity for once and was finally able to sleep.

Unaware of the turmoil brewing in the Arena I let myself fall asleep for a more than deserved rest.

Opening my eyes, I found myself in a golden expanse. Nothing but wheat around me, the sun high and the breeze was gently caressing my skin. It was such a beautiful sight I felt I could stay there forever.

No worries on the horizon.

No family to appease.

No expectations on me based on someone else's experience.

No bloodshed.

Just Mother Nature and I.

But alas all dreams must come to an end, they wouldn't be dreams otherwise.

Waking up with the lingering peace of mind gifted by that dream, I started my training immediately.

I may have been lucky in these matches till now, but as soon as an aura user or another mage show up, this body won't be enough.

Sure, I was more or less confident that my original body was basically superhuman with all the training from the Damocles' family but at the same time I didn't know how aura of mana effected the human body. I didn't belong here after all.

[the effects or your relentless training will be directly transferred to your body at the end of the quest.]

Sure, since this body is an illusion and cannot improve being already dead, I guess it make sense to transfer my results to… Dimitris? My? Whatever.

"System, can I obtain the spell used by the Lamia?"

[no, 3rd circle required]

"How the hell did I survive a 3rd circle poison magic?"

[Damocles secret training technique -]

"Say less." I interrupted.

Nobody wants to remember how they ruthlessly torture children.

After sometimes I was brought back to the arena. This was my 4th match and before me stood a full armoured gladiator with a long sword.

Good bye world, it's not been fun. At all.

________________________

-Odysseus' POV-

Are Dimitris and Damocles the same person?

After 4 days of watching relentless fights and thinking again of my quest I could only come to this conclusion.

But why would he be in that otherworldly body, he's also the opposite of Dimitris… well except for their movements.

They did make similar moves, but Damocles had something more sofisticated to himself. Whenever he was fighting, it looked like a play more than a brawl. He danced around his opponent with precision and the way he moved those blades…

It feels like he's able to output 100% of his body potential, something not even I am able to do. But then again, it seems like he doesn't not have mana or aura… if only he'd use a sword I could be 100% sure. I don't know what would happen if my guess is wrong.

Soon mr. Damocles' 4th match begun, this time against the aura user swordsman.

The dance begun.

No darts, bow or blades, Damocles was fighting barehanded against the swordsman who easily parried each and every strike with his blade, palms against iron, the strange thing was that it didn't matter how many times the swordsman tried to slice Damocles, every time the trajectory of his slashes would slightly deviate upon getting in contact with Damocles' hands. That was the moment the swordsman decided to start using his aura and the dance changed drastically.

Damocles didn't dare touch the blade anymore and was slowly trying to retreat. While doing so he stealthily let some of his darts fall on the ground leaving a trail of his movement, his abilities were so precise I was sure I was the only one noticing what was going on.

He is smart. Not only did he realise he couldn't touch the blade or his hands would fly of, but he's also letting poison through the ground in patterns, is he trying to poison his enemy without him realising? Doesn't he know aura will protect the body from those small injuries and the poison won't steep in?

But at this point the swordsman was getting tired and decided to put an end to the fight and with a faint he was finally able to injure Damocles.

The punch was so strong that sent the man flying.

Believing his win was imminent the swordsman basked in the cheers of the audience and didn't notice how Damocles brought out a mask from his vest and proceeded to remove the vest itself leaving his torso naked.

A torso full of scars, so full I couldn't even count them.

What have you gone through Damocles? To have a body with more scars then skin.

And then Damocles took out a shiny little box, his vest caught fire and was thrown to the ground near the swordsman.

The reaction was lightning fast.

SWOOSH

Fire spiralled all around the swordsman and soon caught up to him who concentrating his aura on his blade slashed downward to create a path within the fire to escape, but at the same moment Damocles passing through an almost invisible gap in the fire behind the swordsman threw a blade with all his might lodging it through the gap of the armor it in the shoulder of the foe who let his sword fall from the pain.

The dancer didn't miss a beat, with swift strides got possession of the sword and with practiced ease slashed the knees of his enemy bringing him down.

Sure his body had some burned spots since the gap he used was not only well hidden, but also extremely narrow, but pain seemed to hold no significance to him.

Most importantly, after noticing how Damocles held the sword I was now sure.

He really is Dimitris… but then… we need to talk.

Although the performance was beautiful, the match needed a conclusion.

Dimitris was looking at me with such hatred and disgust that my heart was hurting, but we needed to to what we needed to do.

I didn't know losing your memories would make you so soft Dimitris, we need to fix that or you won't be able to survive in this frightening world.

"System, Dimitris is Damocles. Order the death of the loser."

As soon as my order took place something changed in Dimitris. His once full of hatred eye were now completely devoid of any emotion. He turned to his opponent with sword in hand, opened his mouth and impaled downward straight to the heart.

This was the first time he showed such brutality. The audience was euphoric, but I felt as if I had lost something far more important.

Dimitris left without sparing a glance to nobody.

[you completed your mission. Receiving fragment of Dimitris memory.]

[The Realest hourglass figure laughs at your state]

[you failed to understand how important is the value of life to Damocles]

What have I done…?