“Guess there’s no turning back now.”

  Those were Hecate’s words as we returned home from our little decration of war against the Aeshima Familia, with the promise of meeting again in the Tower of Babel once the Guild gave their approval for the War Game.

  To say the city was in an uproar that day would be an understatement.

  Once word of a War Game being decred had begun to spread throughout Orario, every god and goddess alike cheered for the exciting new event in their birding mundane lives.

  From what we heard on our way back, a betting pool had already been set up, with the bets being on who would the victor be; st time I’d heard, it was split fifty-fifty between the two Familias.

  “Oh, you’re back.” Garos greeted us once we stepped through the front door, “Did it all go as pnned?”

  “As much as it can.” Drake noted, “It honestly went better than I thought.”

  “I still can’t believe you managed to taunt him into accepting the challenge so easily…” Jeanne noted, “And with such childish words, too…”

  “Aeshima is an extremely prideful SOB.” Hecate expined as she took off her hat and combed through her hair with her hand, “Attacking his pride is a surefire way to get a retaliation from him. In this case, that’s exactly what we need.”

  “A War Game, huh…” Jirou let out a sigh, “Never thought we would get involved in one after all these years…”

  “No one had tried to challenge the Familia to a War Game before?” I asked him.

  He shook his head, “None at all; protection from Zeus and Hera prevented any Familia from trying.”

  “But what about after they left Orario?”

  “A lot tried to gloat us into one, but most of the time, we just headed straight for their Homes and wrecked their pce.”

  “…I’m starting to see why our reputation isn’t that good…”

  “Hey, anything is better than to deal with the troubles of one.”

  Emma raised her eyebrow, “Is a War Game that bad?”

  “It mostly depends on the Familia issuing it, and the overall decision of the gods spectating.” Hecate expined, “Every god that descended to Genkai seeks entertainment above all else, so ‘amusement’ is always prioritized over anything else.”

  “That sounds really irresponsible.”

  “That is the way things are. On the bright side, the rules decided never benefit either side, so both Familia have an equal chance in winning.”

  “Though that means that in this case, me and Jirou can’t take part.” Jeanne noted.

  “Hm? Why is that?” I asked.

  “The Aeshima Familia mostly consisted of Low-Css Adventurers, with only the Familia Captain and a select dozen having reached Level 2.” She expined, “In other words, we will likely be forced to not send out anyone higher than Third-Css.”

  “That means the only ones that are likely to face them are Drake, Tetra, me, Emma and Tris.” I concluded, “And depending on the War Game itself…”

  The types of War Games were vast and numerous in variety, with most of them almost always having both Familia face each other using everyone of their members in some kind of full assault.

  Of course, the Familia with the lesser members would often be given a handicap to even the odds somewhat, though it never seemed to matter if they would get overwhelmed by superior numbers anyways.

  “How long do you think it will take the Guild to give their approval?” Drake asked.

  Jeanne counted with her fingers, “Seeing as we only just informed them, it should take about a couple of days or so, give or take.”

  “You all do not worry about that just yet!” Hecate assured us with a grin and a theatrical flick of her hair, “I’ll make sure that they can’t fully use their superior numbers against us!”

  “I sure hope you can.” Jirou noted, “Because we are screwed if you don’t.”

  “Don’t worry, I will! But for now…” Our patron goddess let out a huge sigh as she rubbed her stomach, “I need food… and coffee… Garos, breakfast!”

  Our vice-captain rolled his eyes as he descended down the stairs and followed the goddess into the dining room, leaving the rest of us alone in the entrance lobby.

  “In the meantime, we should at least prepare for whatever it may end up being.” Drake turned to our newest member, “Emma, I can give you some pointers on those twin swords of yours.”

  “Ye-Yes, please! I’ll be in your care, Drake!”

  “Then you’ll join me, Tetra.” Jeanne said to the young amazon, “I’m not too versed in staff combat, but I can teach you how to fight with it like a spear. If you are going to fight other Adventurers, you should at least know how to defend yourself in close combat.”

  “Oh, does that mean I get a spear of own?”

  “I don’t think we have time nor money for that…”

  “Aw…”

  The four of them then left for the backyard for their respective training regimes, leaving only me and Jirou alone in the lobby as we just shared a look with each other.

  Them bringing up training had me remembering that short bout I had with that blonde man Enoch from the Aeshima Familia, one that I would have lost if Jirou hadn’t stepped in.

  While I was able to keep up with his attacks, none of my attacks even touched his body; even then, he quickly broke the stalemate and immediately had me on the defensive for the rest of the fight.

  The thought of the possibility of being unable to beat the the bastard who hurt Tris and threatened Emma had me involuntary clenching my fist in anger.

  “…I take it that you want some training too?” Jirou asked me.

  “If possible, yes.” I nodded, “I don’t see myself beating that bastard as I am right now.”

  “Not a bad sentiment; allow me to grab some things first then we’ll join them.”

  “Understood.”

  A few minutes ter, I found myself being led into the end of the backyard by Jirou, with the sounds of the others in their own training regimen echoing in the background.

  Emma who was swinging her two swords at rapid succession at Drake who parried each of her strikes just as quickly, Jeanne instructing Tetra on her stance and grip on her staff as they went through the motions of staff fighting.

  Everyone truly was hard at work with their respective training. It made want to try my best with mine as well.

  “If I may have your attention now.”

  I quickly turned my attention back to Jirou, the swordsman wielding the same wooden sword he had used st night that he swung around a couple of times before pointing it at me.

  “First, let us have a quick spar, with no magic.” He told me as he got into a combat stance, “That way, I can gauge what you need to improve on.”

  “Okay.” I nodded and got into my usual combat stance, “I’m ready.”

  “Then let us begin.”

  Seizing the chance to take him by surprise, I unched myself at him and threw a fist aimed for his body; he easily blocked my strike before parrying it away with a swing of his practice weapon that had me stumbling back.

  I quickly regain my footing, and barely managing to duck under a stab aimed for my face; seeing an opening, I threw a body blow strike aimed at his liver—

  “Nope.”

  “Gah!!”

  That was quickly foiled when he moved out of the way while striking the back of my hand with the wooden sword in the process; Jirou already moving out of my effective range as he looked at me with an eyebrow raised.

  Frustrated at my attacks being denied twice in a row, I charged at Jirou and rushed him down with a series of strikes as fast as I could throw them. Yet each strike was either avoided or blocked, none of them came close to touching him.

  It didn’t help that he was also constantly moving out of my range each time he blocked or dodged my attacks, forcing me to chase him down as I tried to nd a single hit on him.

  Then, Jirou parried one of my attacks aside before smming his shoulder into my chest, stopping my assault dead cold and had me stumbling back once more. He then dashed forward and swung his wooden sword down on me.

  I raised my arm up to try and block the strike, only for the sword to suddenly curved mid swing and go around my guard and aimed for my neck, stopping right before touching my skin.

  “Let’s call it here.” Jirou told me as he pulled back his weapon, “I’ve seen enough to understand.”

  I let out a shaky sigh as I lowered my guard, “So… how do I do?”

  “Well, you definitely have the offensive skills down, as well as good instincts and reflexes; though it was clear that you had no experience fighting another person in equal footing.”

  “I-I guess so…”

  Most of my fights up till now had been against monsters in the Dungeon, with the only other times that I had fought against another person were against those drunkards of the Soma Familia.

  Though calling either time a fight would be a gross understatement.

  “Aside from that, your skills leave much to be desired, your stance leaves too many openings, and you clearly had been relying too much on your magic as protection that your defensive skills are greatly cking.”

  “Then, do you think you can help me get better?”

  “…we could get you some experience through daily sparring, though it wouldn’t be much use for anything else. And my unarmed fighting skills aren’t exactly that stelr either…”

  “Yeah, I figured…”

  That was true; I was the only one in the Familia that fought with only their bare hands; in fact, I could not remember seeing any Adventurer that didn’t wield a weapon of some kind.

  It didn’t help that my current fighting style had mostly been just me relying mostly on my instincts and muscle memory to attack in the way I felt was best at the moment, which clearly didn’t do well against another Adventurer of equal skill and experience.

  Unless I had someone to teach me a somewhat decent way to fight with my fists, I couldn’t see myself improving or getting any stronger other than raising the stats of my Falna.

  Jirou then pondered for a moment, “Although… I believe there is something I can teach you that can help you out.”

  That perked me up, “You do?”

  “Yeah, though it would be a little tricky to pull off…”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well… it will be easier for me to just show you.”

  He slightly parted his legs and leaned forward on his front-facing leg, before taking a long and deep breath that… sounded like rumbling thunder; it reminded me of that moment just before he—

  The ground then broke as Jirou suddenly disappeared into a blurry streak, the sound of thunder echoing a short moment ter before he suddenly reappeared on the other end of the backyard.

  It was exactly like that attack he had used against the Amphisbeana days prior.

  “This is Shundo, or Fsh Movement.” He expined when he returned back just as fast, “It is a technique that allows the practitioner to quickly close in on their opponent in a… ‘fsh’.”

  That bad pun got a second of awkward silent as literally everyone who heard it stopped to stare at him accusingly before continuing their training; Tetra even booed him with a thumbs down for awful joke.

  Jirou quickly cleared his throat before continuing, “My cking humor aside, seeing that your attacks required you to be as close to your opponent as possible, this might be the perfect technique for you to use against another Adventurer.”

  That definitely would be the case, seeing as my biggest issue with my fighting style was my cking in range; so a way for me to quickly close the gap would be extremely useful.

  And if I could use it like in the same way he had against the Amphisbeana, then maybe…

  “…Say, what’s with that weird sound you were making before the technique?” I asked him.

  “That’s the tricky part.” He pointed out, “This move requires the use of a special breathing technique to work, so you will need to learn that first.”

  “Oh, is it hard to learn?”

  “More like it is difficult to grasp. Let me demonstrate,”

  Jirou then took another deep breath; the sound of thunder emitting from his lips once more as his chest slowly rose from the big intake of air. And I couldn’t quite expin it, but it felt like his presence had changed drastically.

  It was as if the breath he had taken in had empowered him somehow, like some kind of invisible non-magical power strengthened his body in ways that I couldn’t actually see.

  Then he exhaled it all out, and his presence slowly returned back to normal as if all of that energy just dissipated with his breath.

  He then turned to me, “Did you see it?”

  I nodded, “Yeah, but I can’t quite describe it…”

  “The idea behind it was that we gain energy through our breathing, and this technique is a way to maximize the amount we can get in a single breath.”

  “Uh… really?”

  Jirou shrugged his shoulders, “That is what I had been told anyways. But it doesn’t change the fact that it actually works as intended.”

  “I…I see…?”

  While I was skeptical with the expnation, it was true that it felt like Jirou was getting empowered by something through that strange breathing technique. Maybe there was something I was not seeing?

  Regardless, it couldn’t hurt to at least give it a try.

  “Alright, now you try. First, stand up straight…”

  Following his instruction, I got into a martial arts stance with my legs slightly apart and my fists held next to my hips. Then, I copied what he had done moments ago and took a breath as long and deep as I was physically able.

  Yet, aside from my chest slowing rising, it didn’t felt like anything was happening. Even after my lungs reached full capacity and I was forced to exhaled, it didn’t feel any stronger than I already was.

  “Not as easy as it looked, huh?” Jirou pointed out.

  “It definitely isn’t…” I noted with a frown.

  “It wouldn’t work if you just suck it in like normal. How you inhale, how hard you do it, amount of air you inhale at a time, it all must be precise and controlled for it to take effect.”

  “This technique is starting to be more trouble than it is actually worth.”

  Jirou let out a ugh, “Yeah, it seemed like that at first. But it is pretty handy once you figure it out. Okay, do it again. I’ll try and help you correct any mistakes along the way.”

  I nodded in understanding and took another deep breath; this time I was taking it slow and not inhale as much as before.

  And again, nothing changed.

  “…this is definitely going to take a while…”

  “Hey, it’s not worth learning if it isn’t difficult.”

  The War Game was officially approved by the Guild a day ter, and they got to work preparing for whatever and wherever the event would take pce, with each and every employee within the Pantheon busy filing paperwork for the supplies and possible locations for it.

  Then, a Denatus was quickly held, with almost every god of certain renown had shown up in the Upper Floors of Babel to observe the proceedings, as the common mortals below waited anxiously for whatever event it would end up being.

  Surprisingly, even Freya and Loki had decided to show up to observe; though considering the goddess that had issued it in the first pce, it was hardly surprising that they would also be interested.

  Hecate was widely known by the many gods in Orario to be somewhat of a loner, never partaking in any social gatherings outside of any Denatus that involved her Familia, with only a few gods that were even acquainted with her.

  It didn’t help that she actively avoided interacting with any of her fellow gods outside of those she was acquainted with and would immediately shut down any attempts by any looking to form connections with, often with mixed results.

  So for someone like her to actually challenge another god to a War Game of all things, it was mind-boggling to say the least.

  Those were the thoughts going through the heads of the many gods and goddesses that sat in their seats overlooking the proceedings; this time, being led by Hermes.

  The messenger god gnced over at the two gods responsible for this sudden gathering, his eyes lingering longer on Hecate than Aeshima.

  “This is rather out of the character for you, Hecate.” He pointed out, “What’s the occasion?”

  “It’s none of your business.” She told him with a frown, “And shouldn’t you be leading this?”

  “Right, right…” The sound of his cpping hands got every god’s attention as he called out, “Let us begin the Denatus! Our main agenda today, the War Game!”

  A series of cheers from the many gods and goddesses echoed across the room in response, with a few of them giving dirty looks to Hecate while showing her various forms of hand gestures that ranged from juvenile to vulgar.

  All of which seemed to have elicited any form of response from the goddess, who had been staring down her opponent this whole time; Aeshima looking rather peeved but confident.

  “First item on the agenda, the terms of victory.” Hermes turned to the two gods, “Would you two mind enlightening us to your—”

  “In the event of my defeat, my Familia is yours to do as you see fit.”

  “Yo-You what…!?”

  The terms had left everyone in the room completely stunned, with half of them having their jaws dropped at the daring wager the goddess seemed to be pulling; even her opponent, who was partway to saying his terms himself.

  Freya in particur was quite amused by Hecate’s seemingly reckless procmation, a small smile slowly creeping up the goddess of beauty’s perfect cheeks.

  Aeshima’s grin twitched, greatly shocked by what she had offered, before composing himself and pointed out, “You must be confident that your kids will win if you are going this far.”

  “Of course, I have absolute faith that my children can defeat yours.” Hecate said while running her finger over her witch hat, “After all, the genuine articles are better than any manufactured fakes.”

  “You…!”

  The insult didn’t went over anyone’s head; even those unaware of the red-haired god’s Familia true purpose could tell that she was very deliberately provoking him to retaliate with anger.

  “…Then, Aeshima—”

  He then smmed his palm on the table and roared out with fierce indignation, “Fine! Then I’ll wager the same! If you win, my Familia is yours!”

  And it had worked as intended.

  ‘That dumbass got baited…’ Were the collective thoughts of every gods and goddesses observing the exchange, with a few having their palm to their face from witnessing someone getting pyed so easily.

  “Hahaha!! You sure don’t do things by halves, Hecate!!”

  Loki, on the other hand, was ughing her head off like the trickster goddess that she was.

  “Ah…Ahem!” Hermes loudly cleared his throat to get things back on track, “Now that’s is settled, let us decide on what the theme for this War Game will be! Do you two have any—”

  “Before we start, I like to include one rule.”

  “Keep interrupting me, why don’t you…”

  Aeshima turned to Hecate with a wide grin, “Seeing as I have no Second-Css Adventurer, any isn’t allowed to participate in the War Game. It wouldn’t be fair or entertaining otherwise, won’t it?”

  “Oh, that’s true.”

  “It wouldn’t be fun to watch a one-sided cubstomp.”

  “Yeah, but doesn’t that mean half of Hecate’s Familia can’t participate?”

  “That doesn’t seem that fair!”

  The gods all began voicing their opinions of the inclusion rule, with several finding it fair while the others didn’t seemed to think so and objected to it.

  Hermes, very annoyed about being unable to finish his words, turned to Hecate, “Do you accept?”

  She shrugged her shoulders, “Sure, I accept. In return, you have go with what I pick for the War Game.”

  “Heh, I find no fault in that. I accept your terms.”

  “Okay then. Then that much is settled. Now, Hecate?”

  “A series of Champion Duels.” She stated, “Five of my best against five of yours in a set of one-on-one fights. We can use the Orario’s Coliseum and everyone can watch. That’s pretty entertaining, right?”

  “Heh, already trying to handicap me?” Aeshima scoffed.

  “Oh, I’m doing this for your sake, Aeshima.” The goddess pointed out with a smile, “You want to prove to me that your method works, right? What better way than to pit each of them against mine? Unless, you don’t think they have what it takes…?”

  He let out a growl, “…I know you’re pying me… but, you’re right. I accept. But let’s make it a little more interesting.”

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “Well…”

  …To be continued…

  Chapter complete!

  With that, I thank you all for reading this!