The news of me reaching the D rank spread like wildfire. My men cornered Odysseus, Hali and me asking questions about this divine tournament I didn't know shit about, thankfully Odysseus and Hali knew basically everything.
At dawn of the 7th day from the invite we would be teleported and brought to a huge arena were 3 types of competitions would take place, killing was forbidden, but "accidents" happened sometimes.
The winner of the combat division would receive a drop of ichor from their divine parent to reinforce their blood.
For the crafting competition they could commission something from Hephaestus' forge.
While the specialty winner would receive a skill of choice based on their performance.
"Well, there really isn't anything for me to try and win…"
Odysseus looked at me with stars in his eyes.
"Should I get an artefact for you when I win?"
"Cocky bastard, you're not the only genius craftsman in the world and I already told you to chose a fucking weapon to master, why are you taking so long?!"
"But…"
"No. I don't wanna hear excuses. Even Hali is trying her best to understand mana."
Hali puffed her chest at my unexpected comment.
Why is she proud? That was clearly a jab at her inability to use mana. You know what, never mind.
I looked around myself for a bit and finally decided on my own.
"If you are not going to chose a weapon at least get better at hand to hand combat. You've been to reliant on magic."
"Of course I am! I've been a mage my whole life!"
I was not going to let go.
"EURYLOCHUS!! GET YOUR ASS HERE."
As my friend appeared beside me at light speed, Odysseus eyes clouded for a moment before getting back to their hypnotic grey.
"Eurylochus, I want you to beat the living shit out of Odysseus for the next 6 days and engrave in his body our new self defence techniques."
"Yes brother!"
Hali and Odysseus' eyes were about to bust out at Eurylochus' choice of words, I wasn't that thrilled, but to have a real brother and one I could care for without being afraid of backstabs, was something entirely new for me, I was happy.
"BROTHER?"
The shocked voice of the 2 Demi-gods came together.
"Show them."
Eurylochus lowered his chiton to his waist, and there, just like on mine, layed the Crest of Damocles.
When it appeared, I was just as shocked as him, I didn't know someone without the blood of Damocles could receive the crest, but after some pondering I realised my current body didn't have a drop of Damocles blood, it must have had something to do with training.
"Just yesterday Eurylochus received the Crest of Damocles for his enormous effort. With that as proof I acknowledged him as my sworn brother. Eurylochus, I know you understand what being my brother means."
"A FUCKING SHIT TON OF TRAINING AND BECOMING ALWAYS STRONGER TO PROTECT THE FAMILY!"
"Damn right. Now get Odysseus' ass black and blue. I want him to whimper whenever I heal him later tonight."
Eurylochus didn't say anything and just dragged a furiously blushing Odysseus to the training ground.
"Does being a memeber of your family come with a fucking foul mouth? He was so disgustingly respectful before, now he's just an ass."
I looked at Hali curiously, she might have been onto something, but of course I couldn't give her the final word, not if my brother was involved.
"If having a foul mouth was a condition, you'd have become my sister ages ago. Fuck, you actually might be! Check your body later."
"You fucker!"
Lightning and water were clashing again, but both of us had an unmistakably mischievous smile. It was time to fight.
_____________________
Later that night, when Odysseus came back, we were both exhausted, but a sense of fulfilment was clear in our eyes.
"How does it feel to have a brother?"
"How does it feel to be beaten shitless by my brother?"
Our questions came at the same time and we simply started laughing it off.
When we calmed a little I was the first to answer.
"It feels right. I'm happy Eurylochus awakened my family crest. I didn't know I wanted a brother until I got one."
"…"
"What's wrong Odysseus, I can't read minds you know?"
"Nothing… it's just… I'm kinda jealous, for him to be the first you recognise as family… I wanted that for myself."
"I didn't know you wanted to be my brother, you could have just said that."
"Dimitris! You know that's not what I meant."
"Odysseus, look at me."
His eyes met mine and for a brief moment I felt something within me stirring, just for a moment, but I was able to feel it.
"Odysseus, you're asking someone who has never known what love was, to love you. I can't do that. You know how hard it was for me to let you even touch me. I need time to understand these things."
"I know, I'm being patient here! Do you even understand how difficult it is to have your body touch mine and not be able to do anything?"
"I'm sorry… let's talk about this after the tournament. Are you okay with that?"
Odysseus looked at me with droopy eyes, but eventually nodded and made his way to the bed.
Days eventually passed, I wasn't sure of what to do with the specialty category and went to ask my supposedly master.
"What do you think your specialty is?"
"Well, if this happened before the whole Long situation I would have said stealth without a doubt… but now I'm conflicted…"
"Well, specialty is a tricky category, even if you win the skill you can get is rarely something you don't already know to do. Is there a skill you'd like to acquire?"
Indeed, there was a skill I wanted, but I didn't know if such a thing was even possible, I told Merlin how I was able to see the flow of mana during spell casting and how it would be amazing to be able to interrupt that flow and destroy a spell before it had the chance to come to reality. Some kind of mana disturbance or nullification of magic.
"Well, it is possible to disturb another person's spell, but to completely negate it you'd have to use a skill indeed, I can teach you that, it's not extremely difficult, just…"
"What's the problem?"
"Mana flow is something only elves tend to interact with, you will look bad in the eyes of every human."
"Merlin, why should I care what others think? You know I'm ready to do anything to get strong. Elves, Demons, I don't know whatever else exists here. I don't care."
The smile on Merlin's face was bittersweet.
"Haaaa, if only everyone thought the same as you. Well, let's stop dwindling on useless things and start to break some mana flows!"
From that day, except for my morning workout, I'd study with Merlin the behaviour and patterns of mana flows; Odysseus was held hostage by Eurylochus to improve his fighting skills and Hali secluded herself to understand the water element and how to interact with mana without feeling discomfort.
Merlin was right.
Interacting with mana was really nothing difficult, especially thanks to my understanding of Archana and my Elven circuits.
Completely destroying a spell however was a different game all together.
Not only did I need to disturb the path of mana, I also needed to invade the opposing circle with my Archana, a mission tantamount to impossible.
On the night of the sixth day, a good luck feast was held for us, Eurylochus was given the position of captain ad interim and ordered to bring the ship to Delos.
Merlin then explained that each of us would be transported to a camp belonging to our divine parent and would only meet in the arena, he also advised Odysseus to avoid talking about Athena at all costs and he'd probably be seen with hate by most of his camp, since Athena didn't recognise any of her children, she was given a lot of Champions spots to fill in, the same perk the other virgin goddesses had.
I on the other hand, was advised to not take any comment on Hera at heart, I was the special case, not the other way around.
I of course nodded, but had no intention to stay still and let my mother be belittled.
Morning came, Hali, Odysseus and I were waiting to be brought away.
"Don't you dare lose to anyone but me Flower freak! I need to pay you back for all those beatings!"
"Sure sure, come at me as much as you want you Fisherwoman."
Odysseus just laughed at us and soon we disappeared kidnapped by rays of light.
_______________________
When I opened my eyes after the teleportation, I found myself in a huge plain. At the center, expanding wide and imposing a coliseum was erected. All around me a total of 5 tents were ready for me and my supposed sibilings, a lightning insignia above each of them.
Fuck, I'm already angry for mother.
Suddenly 4 more people got teleported near me, 2 guys clearly younger then me and 2 girls.
Everyone donned blonde hair and green eyes. It felt like house Damocles was reunited.
Fuck, they really resemble my old family.
My already bad mood took a turn for the worse, but I was still able to reel it in.
"Who the fuck are you? It's clear you are not our brother with those black hair."
The oldest of them, a girl that was exactly my old self's copy inquired with a disdainful tone.
This bitch. Breath Dimitris, breath.
"Isn't it a rule to introduce oneself when asking for someone else's identity?"
"How dare you give orders to the eldest daughter of The Lightning Bringer!? You need a beating."
At this point I was at my wits end. These brain dead entitled idiots thought they had some kind of privilege.
"You know what, I don't have the energy. If you don't want to introduce yourself just let me be. I clearly belong here, the Records don't make mistakes, do they?"
I started moving towards a tent but was stopped by an infuriated girl grabbing my arm.
"You clearly don't know how things work here."
"You have 3 seconds to release me."
"Or else?"
Oh, hell no. I can't stand these brats.
"You know what, never mind."
Fire lilies of destruction.
Tens of flowers bloomed and started to rotate around the girl's head raising the temperature at alarming speed.
At that the girl finally let my arm free and retreated.
"Ha a cowardly mage!"
"Yup yup, whatever you want. Now state your business or get lost, I need to start my training."
It was morning after all, I'm not skipping just because I'm in a different place.
The girl, reluctant, but calmer started to explain. We needed to fight for the right to pick a tent first.
"Aren't they all the same? Why fight before the tournament?"
"It doesn't matter, it's to establish the pecking order."
I looked around, the other 3 Demi-gods had a fired up look on them clearly underestimating me.
I'll take this instead of my sparring matches with the crew.
"Haaa fine, are there any rules?"
The girl released her aura and engraved a huge circle on the ground.
"Easy, the last one remaining in the circle is the winner."
This is not even practice, what the fuck are they even thinking?
"Haaaa, this is so stupid. Whatever, come at me."
The 4 blonde sibilings darted towards me, all completely covered by electric aura.
Oh right, they don't know about Archana.
I watched how they closed on me and prepared to strike me with their swords, yes, all of them held a sword.
When I saw how all of them had already given me for a goner I snapped my fingers.
Flowery disperse.
Petals erupted from everywhere, the 4 horsemen of stupidity were blinked out of the circle.
When they realised what happened, angry screams echoed throughout the camp, calling me a cheater and other names, I didn't care.
"Listen you dumb, dumber, dumbest and queen of the dumbs. You should never put such straightforward rules against a mage unless you know their grimoire inside out. Now get the fuck out of my sight, this wasn't even a good warmup."
Looking at their dejected face I made my way to the nearest tent, all this bullshit about pecking order and entitlement was getting on my nerves.
"Wait! At least tell us your name!"
"Why the fuck should I when you've yet to introduce yourselves?"
"It's just that you… you don't look like one of our brothers."
"Does it matter?"
"Of course it does! Our father is forbidden to take champions, since that psychopath of his wife couldn't stand his adultery she vetoed him from taking any."
HOW THE FUCK DID THEY CALL MY MOTHER?!
Lightning started to crackle all around me. My Archana running rampant threatening to destroy everything and my eyes a slit of pure rage.
"Apologise this instant."
"Why should we!? That constellation has been torturing us our whole life! Only recently she started to forget about us…"
With those words I realised my mother really had been torturing my father's children forever, and only when I came to this world she stopped harassing them.
"Then bear the consequences of insulting the queen of Olympus in front of me."
But I couldn't care less.
Nobody can touch my family and hope to be left unharmed.
Just when I was about to start a massacre a voice came from behind me.
"Mister. You can't kill your brothers here, please retrieve your bloodlust."
Turning around I saw a golden eagle roosting on top of the central tent.
What really shocked me was not the eagle itself, but what it said.
"What are you talking about? It's impossible for me to develop bloodlust."
"I'm afraid you are wrong Mister. If you'd kindly take a look at your sibilings and the energy flow around them you'll be able to see it."
Turning again to my brothers and sisters, I saw them kneeling on the ground, gasping for air. The flow of my Archana, erratic and violent, was stripping them of even oxygen.
As soon as I noticed what was going on, I was immediately able to calm myself and retrieve my Archana.
"How is it possible… I… I shouldn't be able to develop bloodlust."
"Mister, it seems I was wrong."
"What do you mean?"
The eagle left its roost and came flying toward me, I outstretched my arm as if it was the most normal thing to do.
The beast landed and whispering asked me if I was already using Archana, to which I nodded.
"It seems, mister, that you're extremely in tune with your element, that was the manifestation of a concept. It will be useful to remember this when you reach the 5th circle."
"A concept?"
"Yes, it's the main rule of the [territory creation] spell."