The Sins and Virtues of Life

Ch.3 Who's the leader

Nick's POV
We'd been doing this training for the past two weeks consecutively. All other classes had been put on hold until Hercules believed we were ready for battle. Today was no different we were still in the virtual room everyone with their respective weapons. Today's room was a grassy plane with a forest of trees in which to hide inside. The forest made a ring of sorts into a small clearing of grass in which Hercules stood arms crossed. His only form of armour was a helmet, he carried no weapon as he waited for us to attack. I could sense everyone in a respective area with Artemis somewhere above us. Our win record was absolutely shit, but today was gonna be different. I could feel it today's the day we get our first win. I grabbed my sword at an angle and I threw it directly at Hercules like a dagger. He looked directly at me his blue eyes staring deep into my soul. His expression wasn't visible as he began walking to my location.  I smiled he took the bait. Ty grabbed my sword throwing it straight back at me cutting Hercules' arm. I caught as Hercules turned his head to see where Ty was. At that moment the close combatants (me and ty) rushed Hercules. We began dealing him significant damage then his eyes turned red, and he roared. In that moment me and Ty jumped out of range of berserker Hercules. In that moment everyone else rushed Hercules. We're finally going to win I thought, then something strange happened.

Artemis' POV
I watched from the trees, sniper rifle in hand. The rest of the team seemed to be pushing Hercules back until he disappeared from sight altogether. I stared wide eyed wondering how a man of his size vanishes with no sound or trace. At that point I shot a bullet and watched as it led me to his location. As the bullet left the gun it did a U-turn in the air to directly behind me. I turned around slowly to see Hercules staring down at me red eyes glowing through his helmet. Fuck.

Nick's POV
We all looked up behind us to see Hercules holding an unconscious Artemis. He dropped her from the trees as he watched us. "Ty!" I yelled, "On it" he replied as he sparked with electricity running towards her. I turned behind me to see Hercules holding Artemis' knife. He looked different. He'd lost size so now he was around Ty's height. But the biggest difference was the mass of muscle that had once been Hercules now replaced with that of a more lean body.  Hercules' eyes glowed red from within the helmet. He appeared before me with tremendous speed, slicing at me with the knife barely giving me time to react. After dodging the attack he kicked me square in the chest sending me back a few hundred feet. I sat in immeasurable pain contemplating joining in the fight again. I got up slowly, walking towards Hercules, as I noticed the kick had done more damage to me than I first thought. 

I soon reached the clearing, where he stood holding an unconscious Artemis. I looked around and realised only, me, TJ and Sirius where left. As Hercules dropped Artemis, TJ charged. She swung her axe continuously at him, as he dodged every strike as she cleared the trees around her. The two of us watched the fight as she barely did any damage to him, but he was dealing considerable damage to her. Maybe it was the fact that she kept fighting even though she wasn't going to win, but me and Sirius jumped into the fight to provide back up for her. We seemed to be pushing him back until the worst happened. My body began to shut down from Hercules' attack earlier. As I fell Sirius tried to protect me from Hercules' punch by taking it for me, sending him backward a few hundred feet. TJ's axe looked like it had now started to weigh her down as she stood exhausted and bleeding from various cuts from the fight. Hercules looked at us now reverting back to his normal size, "Do you want to continue?" he asked. I stood up slowly using my sword to prop myself up, "Nah we are done." TJ looked at me confused and shocked like she could still go another ten rounds. "Remember you have the next 5 days off to settle down and explore before school starts properly" Hercules called after me as I began walking to fin Ty.

*****************Later that day

We all had taken a trip to the infirmary and had been healed of 80% of our injuries, and that the rest would be healed over night. As we all sat around in the living room doing random things, TJ seemed to be mad but nobody engaged. "So we all gonna sit around like nothing happened" she yelled randomly causing most of them to turn and face her. "That's the plan I guess" I responded plainly. "This is all your fault you know." She stated angrily whilst glaring at me. I turned to face her, "How so?" I asked now intrigued. "Because you decided to call the match without giving us a chance" she responded like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "We were injured, the rest of the team was out of commission, how the fuck did you believe we were going to win" I responded. "Who died and made you leader. It wasn't right for you to call it" she said. "You know what let's vote on a leader then" I stated now tired of the argument. "No that's not fair let's  fight for the position" she said issuing a challenge to me getting everyone's attention. "Cool then tomorrow at 3 we'll fight. But let's make it interesting, if I win you go out on a date with me" I said. Everyone turned to stare at her, "Fine but if I win I get to destroy your favourite pair of Jordans." Everyone's heads swivelled back to me. "Fine so if I win I'm leader and you go out with me. Try not to fall in love". "That won't be hard, get ready to say goodbye to your shoes though".