"Er...Hermes. what are all those accessories for?". Ethan asked Hermes. "Oh... those are magical items I've collected or made over the years." Hermes answered. "Even though protectors have magic of their own,I've come to learn that it pays to have these items around you in battle,even if you are an almighty protector." Hermes informed a wide eyed Ethan who just nodded before asking; "okay,what about those fancy armours over there?" "Aah... you've noticed Hephaestus handi-work. He was the same person who crafted the chain you now have on your neck.", Hermes started. "The armour sets you see there are magical protective armours with special abilities. Not all of them are impressive but all of these armor sets are far from ordinary." Hermes said dramatically. When Ethan said nothing,he decided to continue with his explanation.
"As you can tell. There are eight different armor sets here. Five,even though masterfully made are quite ordinary,at least to we protectors. You can easily tell these ordinary ones from the special sets since the special armor sets are the three glowing ones." Ethan nodded, intrigued. "The five non-shiny armor sets have been graded into; 'very light armour' which favours speed. This particular armour when worn as a complete set will boost the wearer's speed by 85%. It's good for soldiers who favor speed above all things. It's obvious downside which anyone can tell,based on the flimsy material used is that it's defense is almost non-existent. Your anymore only needs to give you one powerful slash with a sharp sword and your life would practically be over." Hermes told Ethan.
"The next armor set is a 'light armour'. This armour set also favours speed and will give it's wearer a 65% speed boost. It's defensive capability is also better than the previous armour but still a far cry from the defense of a 'normal armour' set which is well rounded and which when equipped will give it's wearer a 50% speed boost as well as another 50% defense. A good deal eh?" Hermes asked Ethan who nodded. This armour sounded good. "Well, most protectors favored this particular set because of its roundness. This was also what I was wearing when you caught me the other day.", Hermes glanced at Ethan as he said this. The boy was soaking in everything the Protector was saying. Hermes was glad the boy was paying attention since all he was showing him could one day be of help to him. It will pay to know what Every weapon or armour's property was.
"We now move on to the 'heavy armor'. This armor was built specifically for defensive purposes so forget speed when you're in one of these. This armour set boasts a defensive capability of 65% and a measly speed boost of 10%. You'll come to know soon that a speed boost of 10% is the same as nothing when you're being weighed down by these heavy beauties. Hermes said with a grin. "But what about the rest of the percentages?, Where do they go?" Ethan asked with a frown. He was genuinely puzzled and Hermes could see that so he decided to clear the air for the boy. "Mobility Ethan. The rest of the percentages are for mobility. You don't want to be stationery when wearing one of these things. And as you can tell,the heavy armour has very low mobility. I personally don't fancy it since it makes the wearer very slow and greatly tires him or her after a short time. This is why 'heavy and very heavy armor' is mostly worn by big and and very strong people who don't feel the drag of these things at all." Hermes explained to Ethan. " So don't be surprised that the next armor which is 'very heavy' doesn't favour speed or mobility at all, at least for people like me and you. It's defense though is awesome. No one can hurt you in this thing. Not even the god's would have it easy since this thing was made by a god itself. But like I said earlier, if people like me and you were to put this armor on, we will have the best defense but no offense at all since we won't be able to move a muscle. Which will be kinda stupid since your enemy would have all the time in the world to hack at you till your defense crumbles or he could just meditate until he comes up with a plan to get you out of your armor. Personally speaking,I could still move in this armour since I am much stronger than even top humans but I still don't like the slow reflexes and mobility in general so I normally avoid these types of armour.
Ethan nodded as Hermes said this. He didn't like the heavy armor too just from hearing how it functioned. "So what about those fancy ones?", Ethan pointed at the three remaining sparkly armour sets. "Oh..those are the special armor sets designed by me and Hephaestus. They are 'normal' armour sets that do not favour either speed nor defense but have unique magical abilities that when paired with their lacking others makes them very valuable. As you can see, all of these armours have been made from different materials but the most significant and obvious are the rare stones that you can see on every part of these armours. The first armour which is sparkling white or silver has a rebound or reflective property which causes any attack,be it physical or elemental that has been aimed at the wearer of this armour to be thrown back at the attacker. This ability makes this armour very powerful in warfare or even one-on-one battles." Hermes told Ethan.
"The next armor which is sparkling blue has an absorption ability that can absorp the power behind any attack rendering the attack weak and useless against the wearer. This power That's been absorbed can then be channelled into the the wearer of this armour to strengthen his next attack. Once again,this armour set will come in handy during warfare when you're being attacked by multiple enemies at once. You'll never run out of power or stamina when wearing this armour. The next armor set which is red has the ability to create a force field around the wearer that can be used defensively or offensively. This is the most powerful of the three special armor sets but it has the downside of depleting the stamina of the wearer anytime the force field is used.." Hermes finished. Ethan was looking at the three special armor sets in awe. Thy were so cool,but something was missing. "Why isn't there an armor that has all the three properties at once?, Wouldn't it be more powerful and also solve the the problem the third armour at the same time?" Ethan asked puzzled.
"Indeed,it would but such an armor can't be made. Hephaestus and myself already tried and failed. For some reason,the different ability stones just can't seem to work together when placed on the same armour. Place two or more different stones together on an armor and they will negate each other's power, leaving the armor pretty much powerless and ordinary." Hermes informed Ethan. "The protectors were all waiting for such an armor after they were given the first three. It came as a big disappointment to them when we announced that we couldn't make such an armor. If we had succeeded in making such an armor, maybe we wouldn't have lost as many people as we did in the last war." Hermes said in a voice full of regret.
"At least you won,and saved these world. Even if temporarily." Ethan said in an attempt to cheer up Hermes. "Yh,We did. But we've almost lost this new one which has barely even started." Hermes replied. Ethan didn't know what to say to that. Hermes was speaking the truth. The Protectors had failed woefully to protect themselves and earth alike this time and it was this particular reason that had silenced Ethan. If those almighty gods together couldn't stop one person,then who could? He wondered. "You're our only hope now Ethan. You can't fail us or these realm will be lost forever." Hermes said lowly to Ethan whose head was hanging low in uncertainty. How was he supposed to do this?,just how? He asked himself.