CHALLENGE

HYPERION

 His control over magical energy was good, juvenile by my standards, but good. After his unusually long preparation, he lunged his humongous fist at me. I sidestepped before blasting his face with a beam of light flinging him backwards with the concussive force. "Look,even though your gutter mouth has soiled my mood this evening, I'm still willing to let you walk out of this largely unscathed. You do not want me to start taking you seriously ",I remarked. You little shit,he said as he spat out blood and saliva.with a faint tap of his fingers,the eleven men that were with him began to attack. A burly man with thinning blonde hair attacked me with a large battle axe, starting with a downward strike. I swooped sideways when a fast jet of water came right at me. With a swift maneuver,I dodged the ray of water before releasing a bright beam of light at the casters face, probably temporarily blinding him. I returned to the man with dying hair and released a lightning fast punch to his gut making him stagger back before knocking him out with a kick to the skull. I ran at one of the men who had a large club, took it and slammed it on his spine, paralysing him. I then strengthened the club with magical energy, before shattering it on the head of one of the men I believe was strong enough to take it. Seizing a rope latched to the belt of one of the remaining henchmen,I used it to grope the neck of one of the men with a rather scrawny composition. The man,or boy maybe,was cut down by one of the men who had unrelentingly swung his sword at me even though I was holding the boy in front of me. I threw the boys corpse at him before jumping on his shoulder and snapping his neck. I jumped of his shoulders before he hit the ground and brought down one of the remaining five of the men with a dropkick."Look,none of the remaining of you has offended me yet. You can take the bodies of your comrades and leave here posthaste before I withdraw my offer. One of the remaining hooligans carried the corpse of the swordsman and the unconscious body of the man who I had dropkicked,with one holding the long range combatant by hand , and the other two picking up the limp body of the one with the club,the blonde axeman and the man I had smacked with the club who had blood gushing from his head. They gave a quick nod before rushing out of the alley.It appeared the scrawny guy wasn't really part of them".Guess you still want a go",I said as I turned to the leader who was largely unfazed by the whole event."Their use was to hold the lady in place as I handled you. She doesn't seem to be getting in on this,so my plan is unchanged". It seems you still can't comprehend that you're in over your head. Silence brat,that lucky hit seems to be giving you ideas. He pulled up earth from the ground and made a sturdy looking armour for himself as he came at me. Before he got to me, I had transported my self behind him and shot my palm at his back throwing him towards the wall. He had managed to regain balance before hitting the wall. I couldn't see his face through the rock armour but I could tell he was seething. He lunged at me and tried to secure a punch to my face, but I ducked before sweeping his legs. I then grabbed his face and slammed him to the ground. I gave him a resounding punch that shook the earth beneath him. "You see, not a lot of things make me angry", I said as I punched him again." Usually because I don't care much about annoyances that aren't directly my business",I punched him again."You sir, have one of the most annoying faces I have ever seen",I punched him again. "One of the most annoying characters I have ever seen",I punched him again. "And have done one of the most annoying things ever capable of being done to me",I punched him again.By the time I had released the sixth punch,he had lost most of his teeth and was bleeding profusely from every orifice in his head." I would say I'm sorry and I pity your life from now, living without teeth is surprisingly more pathetic than I imagined, but you can just get new ones,and",I took control of the magical energy in the surrounding until I could feel the hair on his skin rise and I could see goosebumps and tears from the pressure. "You won't even live long enough to see how horrible that life is". I shot thin superheated rays of light through his body till I could feel no more life in him. "Are you just going to leave him like that, I thought you didn't want any trouble in Serbik",Ida said. "Don't worry", I pointed at the video recording device stuck to one of the street lights. "Nobody hates me or likes me yet, so unless our shirtless friend from the exam is part of the investigation department of the enforcers,the footage will be seen and the case waived since it was self defence, and we get extra leniency privileges for being high ranked huntsmen,so I probably won't even be called to the station. Now can we leave, the smell of burnt human flesh is nauseating, and It's getting late".

 We got to an inn where a middle aged lady sat at reception."Can we have two rooms, preferably close to each other",I asked. "There is none of those right now, nearly all the rooms have been taken. Due to the huntsman examination,a lot of people have come from out of town", she replied. "We were one of the first people to leave the headquarters. Ugh,I cursed inwardly. Those douchebags made us late,if I had foreseen this ,I would have,I took a deep breath."We'll take the next best thing",I pleaded. "Well, you two seem close enough,there is a room with separate beds available...","we'll take that one",Ida hurriedly replied as she locked arms with me and gave a broad smile.

 After we took the keys from the front desk,we headed upstairs. "Are you intentionally doing this",I asked. "What?", she replied with a puzzled expression. "You're being unnecessarily close",I said as I yanked her arms off mine. "Hmm,are you trying to say we aren't close?,she questioned."Not what I meant, just stop trying to give people the illusion that we're closer than we really are".

 We finally arrived at the door. We opened it to see a room with two beds parallel to each other,three couches arranged perpendicular to each other with a table in front and a kitchen that had a faucet that wasn't well closed and was leaking water,a standard bathroom and a large wardrobe. "You can go take a bath first",I told Ida. "Are you suggesting I take a bath while sharing a room with a guy, isn't that perversion a little off character for you, Rion?",she remarked with a fiendish look." I don't care if you take a bath or not,it was a suggestion. And there is nothing there" ,I pointed at her body," I haven't seen already". She held her body as if she was naked. "How dare you compare seeing me back when I was younger to now,I am way older and have more to hide",she said with a flushed face. "Well hide away,but you have forty minutes till I go in there and I won't come out in a while. "Fine,I digress,she said as she raised her hands in surrender, now can you please be a gentleman and go to the kitchen, and please cook us something to eat while you're there". I scoffed at the statement before walking out of the room." Where are you going?", she asked. "Do you think foodstuff will be lying around in the room?",I asked sarcastically before locking the door.