Diemos and I stood facing each other I had my sword up he attack and I blocked, he swung left and right I blocked, he drove in swung left I block I stepped behind and held the sword at his neck.
"Good you've gotten better."
And then he grabbed my hand and threw me across the room.
"You do realize I'm not a god right" I said in grown.
" You've gotten so good sometimes I forget" he said with a smirk.
"You deserve your rest today."
He held his hand out and helped me up, suddenly the air felt cold and an ominous feeling came over me it made me want to turn run for the door, and the black smoke appeared and the Phobus was came of the smoke, He hair look calm but alert like he just escaped something, he was about to speak then he looked at me and then the feeling just went away.
"It's not just Apollo he's got Artemis on us too."
"Did you get in a fight with her" Diemos said as he scanned his brother.
" More like she shot arrows and I dodged she kept her distance I think she's still shaken up from the last time we met"
They both smiled.
"Where's Eris?"
"We separated she said she had some things to take care of, what's the status?" He looked at me when he said the last part.
"He's fairly good but we won't know until we put him in the field, test his abilities."
"Speaking of abilities, how's that going."
"He hasn't been able to access them he said since he came here they don't work."
"Could be the lack of chaos and the fact that they can only affect mortals while in his mortal state"
Diemos shrugs.
I hated when they talked about me like I wasn't there I'd nearly forgotten about that because I hadn't seen Phobos for awhile and to think I was happy about seeing him.
"About testing his abilities do you have any ideas?"
Diemos smiles and says "I thought you'd never ask,give me a moment."
And then he vanishes into black smoke.
We waited till sunset.
I sat impatiently shaking my legs and checking the clock.
What in heaven's name was taking him so long?
I was beginning to get nervous cus anything that took Diemos so long wasn't good for me, meanwhile Phobos just sat calmly reading a psychology book, he flipped from page to page like there wasn't anything in the world that could make him get up until he finished that book.
"So the god of dread huh that's pretty cool."
He nodded.
"You don't seem like someone to you know dread."
He dropped his book on his lap and look at me.
" That's because you misunderstand what dread means."
I expected him to explain but he didn't he just kept looking at me.
"So what does it mean?" I asked trying to hide my irritation.
"Terror and Dread are two faces of fear, Terror created by your mind to make you aware of a certain danger that involves an external influence whilst dread has no external influence, for example: a man face a pride of lions alone with no weapons and no way to defend himself what he'd feel will be terror, a man who refuses to swim because he scared of drown feels dread, the man could have better prepared himself by learning how to swim but how could you prepare yourself for a pride of lions when you're on a vacation in a safari."
I vaguely understood what said.
"So which is more powerful?"
"Which indeed?,Between a enemy in front of you or an enemy inside of you which Andrew do you think is more dangerous?"
I pondered his question for a while but as I was about to answer he says.
"But to create a more potent effect the combination of the two my friend...it is horrific"he said the last part with a sigh, not a like he was tired but like he was satisfied.
"Is that what happened to Artemis she confronted you and Diemos combined"
"Yes, and boy did she flip."
As I was about to say something Diemos appeared and seem to happy for my liking he was grinning wildly and rubbing his palms together.
"If you could please step outside gentlemen your surprise awaits." He said as he gestured for the door.
We went outside and there were two large empty crates, I walk over to them and read the labels and but it just read 'MC' Phobos walk up behind and says ; "You're kidding right".
Diemos replies "Nope".
"I said 'test him' because it seems you heard something like 'try to kill him'.
"This is perfect way to test his skills stop overreacting and plus they've been trained too you see this " Diemos brings out a whistle from his pocket.
"They've been trained to stop whatever what they're doing and come towards the sound for a treat".
"And what if they find him more treaty"
"Well then let's hope that doesn't happen"
"You couldn't have found a Nemean Lion or something less murderous?"
Diemos ignores his brother and turns to me.
"Go gear up it's time to see if you've been learning"
"What's the test?"
" You are going to kill or survive the things I left out of those boxes"
"What exactly did you let out the boxes?"
"That's for me to know and for you to find out" he said as he winked .
"I was scared but now I'm terrified"
"Come on, don't let old Phoby scare you"
I reluctantly made my way into the ware house and geared up , I came out and Diemos took me past the hill towards a very wide crater as we approached the field I saw two dots circling the sky, I tried to make out what they were but they were too high up.
"Try not to die ok kiddo"
"But for real what am I fighting?"
"You'll see"
We stop in the middle of the crater, I was still looking up at the dots in the sky .
"May Nike be with you" which I later learned was the Olympians way of saying 'good luck' cus you know Nike is the good of luck. As he said said it he disappears in black smoke and the dots start the get closer,when they were close enough my whole body turned cold I saw what they were I recognized them from books when I was a kid.
They were manticores!!!