"What's going on over there?" Emma followed her gaze to the crowd before her face changed into a familiar smile.
"That. It's a mock challenge for the Champion of Argo."
The two then joined the gathered crowd as they spread out in a circle of about ten meters in diameter. Three people walked in, two men and a woman. The man wore a white vest and a pair of black jeans. He had white hand wraps going all the way to his elbows, and he proceeded to rile up cheers from the crowd who responded with a chant of his name.
"He must be very popular?"
"He is the three times reigning Champion of Argo. The title definitely comes with its perks."
His opponent was a smaller, thinner young woman with long flowing hair tied on the back of her head. Unlike her male opponent, she had no wraps and was dressed in a black sports bra and a pair of loose-fitting blue shorts. Both opponents were barefooted.
"On my left…" The third person presiding the fight was dressed in a short-sleeved white shirt and a pair of swim trunks, "…we have a new challenger…"
"What are they?" Ray found himself asking whilst trying to extend his senses towards the combatants.
"She is a Harpy. Zeus' personal hounds, while he is a Centaur."
"I still can't read them let alone tell the difference?"
"Well. I know the Champion of Argo; his name is Bob. The girl I know by smell. Any supernatural being who can take the form of a beast or a hybrid has a characteristic smell you could use. That is if you know what smell to look for, or see them while transformed." Emma explained.
"Are they going to…"
"No, not with the rules. Both combatants assume human form. Otherwise, we could get exposed, and that has consequences."
"Contestants, you all know the rules. May the best fighter win." He then moved over to the edge of the circle leaving the two fighters to size each other.
"I'm going to enjoy killing you, little harpy." Bob taunted.
The girl just smiled, the Centaur took that as a challenge and charged her, she responded with a charge of her own. She was able to cover more distance than Bob and immediately went for a sweep. Bob saw the move and jump into the air to evade before working on switching his direction to double back for another charge.
Building momentum again he went for a take-down, but the Harpy proved to be the faster of the two by rolling to her side before jumping after him. Realizing his second attempt failed, Bob quickly turned to plan his next attack only to be met by a kick to his chin, the strike pushed him back a little, but he quickly recovered and responded with a right hook.
The girl dropped low to avoid the hit but came back up to follow his lost balance with a roundhouse kick to his chin again. This time she had enough power to stagger him backwards. "Is that all you got?" Bob sneered before assuming a boxing stance.
Raymond realized his opponent was faster than him and he was done making himself look like a fool, he opted to wait for her to come to him, and she did. The girl now slightly cocky after getting two good hits in, attacked again. Feigning another roundhouse kick only to rotate her body and come back with a low sweep.
Bob saw the feint and held back for the real attack. The decision was rewarded after he saw a telegraphed low sweep from her eyes. Knowing his superior strength, he bent his knee forward to low his center of gravity before going for an uppercut. It connected with an audible crack, and a loud collective gasp escaped from the crowd.
She was thrown several feet off the ground only to drop back like a sack. Bob took that opening to capitalize on his advantage by going for a finish, only to find her out cold.
"And there we have our winner. The defending champion and Champion of Argo… Bob… Haze." The presider said as he held Bob's hand high for everyone to cheer.
"Just like that and he becomes Champion of Argo?' Raymond frowned.
"No. There is an official contest once every year where all kinds of supernatural compete. Then the winner becomes the Champion of Olympia for the next nine months. From then on, they can choose to accept a challenge for two months by anyone who thought they could have beat the winner if they had squared off with him or her during the contest.
"If they win then they garner some rep and sponsors, and if not, then they wait until the annual competitions to begin, and they can formally try again."
"How long till the competitions?"
"Three more weeks to go."
"And it will be held here?" Raymond asked.
"It's a big competition. There is an island far out in the ocean where it takes place." Glancing at his drink again Raymond decided to down the rest of the drink and went to grab the larger bottle. "Ease up on the stuff, especially since you're a newbie."
"It tastes really nice," Ray argued as he had decided to drink from the larger bottle instead of pouring it in his smaller one.
After the fight, the music resumed, and a DJ had taken over the crowd when Emma grabbed him and led him to the dance floor. Squeezing their way into the crowd, she began grinding on him provocatively as she grinned.
Raymond instinctively responded by grabbing onto her waist, pulling her sexy ass tighter to his groin with his left hand whilst holding on to his drink with his right. Her lustful gyrations stirring his up to now forgotten primal urges as the drink mixed with ambrosia once again slowly took over his mind.
The duo danced for a long time when Emma suddenly turned and pulled him in for a kiss. The two disengaged after a few seconds before she looking him in the eyes
"I realized if I keep waiting for you, then I'd probably go home with soaking panties."
Raymond felt his already tightened jeans almost bursting. He immediately reached for her, but she playfully moved out of his grasp. That elicited a little twitch from his pants. A deep growl escaped his throat when she eluded him the second time.
"That's for being a dumbass. You want me. You're going to have to catch me." She practically purred her words: He wasn't surprised he could hear her over the music, before melding into the sea of bodies and nimbly took off towards the ocean.
Being left behind, he finished the bottle of the sweet tasting ambrosia, before he too carved a path out of the sweating bodies to find a route that would lead him towards the ocean. In his haste, he failed to see a bear of a man who had his back turned to him before bumping into him and without looking, uttered a mild sorry before proceeding to the now visible ocean.
By the time he was free of the crowd he was done ripping off his t-shirt and was furiously working on his pants. He came to a stop at the shoreline before someone shoved him, causing him to stumble forward and almost fall into the water.