I looked around the space in front of me. There were rows and rows of seats at the bleachers on both sides of the place, and a wide, red rubber mat covered most of the floor.

"Where's everybody?" I asked as I scanned the empty gym. "This place is usually full of people."

"I cleared them out," he said smugly. "Perks of being the principal's son."

"Well, lucky you, you spoiled brat," I teased. "But where's Athena and Poseidon? I thought you three were going to teach me or something."

"They won't be joining us today. I told them I'm the one who's going to train you first," he said. "The three of us, as well as our mother, finally agreed that we'll let you join us in our next mission."

"Oh, that's great!"

Zeus walked towards me and started circling around, his hands behind his back. "But, of course, you'll have to get through a series of intense training for you to be prepared. It won't be much, since the mission will be a few weeks from now, but it'll be enough for you to know how to survive. I hope."

He stopped in front of me.

"Okay. . . What will you teach me then?"

Zeus went back from his initial position and took a huge duffel bag that I've noticed just now. He came back and let the bag go, revealing a bunch of. . .

"Are those weapons?" My eyes widened at the sight of the shining metal objects in front of me.

"Yep." He bent down to take out a familiar iron sword and inspected it closely. "I specialize in weaponry, particularly in close-range weapons. Like swords and stuff."

"Wow, that sounds. . . great," I said. "But shouldn't I start with basic things, like hand-to-hand combat or something like that?"

"Nope." Zeus gestured at the bag of weapons. "Okay, the first step of the training: Take your pick."

"Wait, what? I'll have to. . . choose?"

"I really can't force you to use a weapon that doesn't fit you," he said. "That will make it difficult for you to master it."

"But what if I don't know what I like?" I asked. "What if I choose a useless weapon or, or what if it's not—"

"Whoa, whoa. Just chill out, okay?" He patted my shoulder. "Just take a look at every weapon, feel them for a bit. If one of them gives you this— how can I say it— a feeling of. . . oneness, then it's the perfect one."

A feeling of oneness? That's kinda confusing.

"Okay, then." I squatted down near the bag and began rummaging through its items.

The first thing I saw was a wooden bow carved with slim curves along its edges. The bow's appearance reminded me of a certain silver bow that we lost a couple of weeks ago. Shaking the thought away, I set it aside and continued searching.

From small knives and daggers to big swords and spears, there were quite a variety of weapons in the bag, some of them looking a bit larger than the bag itself, like the bow and Zeus's sword from earlier, that I wondered how Zeus managed to put them all inside.

Each weapon I saw and touched looked more dangerous than the last, but nothing seemed to fit my standards of what I really want. They also didn't give out a feeling of 'oneness', whatever Zeus meant by that, and all of them looked pretty much the same to me.

Except for one.

Deep inside the bag was a small, cylinder-like stick. It had no decoration whatsoever, making it look plain and ordinary. It was bigger than a pen but when I held it in my hand, I felt more weight in it than it suppose to have.

"Oh, an interesting choice you have there," Zeus said as he stopped beside me.

I looked up at him and showed him the strange object. "What's this?"

He grinned. "Jerk your hand quickly and see for yourself."

Curious, I did as he told and the so-called stick suddenly extended, its original length quadrupled. I instinctively let go of it in surprise and it rolled on the floor.

"Oh my god." I turned to Zeus. "Why the hell didn't you tell me it could do that?"

"That wouldn't be exciting now, would it?" He laughed. "Just look at your expression!"

"It's not funny." I frowned. "Just tell me what it is."

"Okay, okay. . . That weapon you've got there is a staff," he said as he picked it up and handed it back to me. "It's retractable as you can see, so it's pretty handy when you want it to be hidden."

I inspected it, running my hand through its smooth surface. Unlike its plain look from earlier, the staff now had lined patterns carved along its extended parts.

"If it's so handy and useful, why didn't any of you three use it for yourselves?"

"Well, Athena already has Aegis and her daggers," he said. "Poseidon doesn't use weapons most of the time since he has already mastered his water powers, but when he does, he uses a sword."

"And how about you?"

"I also use swords, of course," he said. "I'm part of the school's fencing team, so using swords is one of my strengths. You can say that I'm a very skilled swordsman."

He pointed at himself rather proudly, which got me rolling my eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. You're great at swords, whatever." I waved my hand. "But can't you just use your lightning?"

"Using my lightning drains a lot of my strength whenever I use it." He shook his head. "Plus, I can't depend on my powers all the time for defense. That's a bad strategy."

"Yeah, you're right," I said as I stood up and started to swing the staff around. "So, what else can this thing do?"

I continued swinging it around like a kid playing with a toy sword. I slashed it on my left, then on my right. I felt new energy rush through me, which got me swinging the staff faster and harder by the second.

I repeated doing that again and again until I swung it to where Zeus was standing.

I got too carried away that I didn't saw him there. I tried slowing it down by making my arm loose but I swung the staff too hard and was about to hit Zeus.

But, all of a sudden, he swiftly raised his sword on the staff's way, the two metal weapons clashing against each other. The metallic sound resonated through the empty gym.

Zeus grinned at me, amused. "Having a great time?"

I dropped the staff and raised my hands a bit, as if in surrender. "I am so sorry, I— I didn't mean to! I was just trying the thing out and I—"

"Amelia, it's fine, don't worry. Trying it out is definitely normal," he said. "So how did it feel using it?"

I glanced at the staff lying on the floor. I then slowly picked it up while staring at my warped reflection on its surface.

When I first saw it in Zeus's bag of weapons, it looked somewhat. . . attractive and interesting. I felt a weird, glowing aura from it. Like it was calling me to touch and hold it or something.

I told Zeus what I thought of the staff, trying to describe it in every way I could.

"Well, then, it's the one you're looking for," he said after I was done talking.

"The one? A-are you sure?"

"You're the one to decide, Amelia," he told me. "What do you think?"

Gripping the staff tightly, I looked at it one more time before giving Zeus a small nod.

"I think it's this one."

Smiling, Zeus began my training by showing me basic parries and blocks. Since he used a sword while I had a staff, he had to adapt some of the stuff he taught me to match with my weapon.

We continued for a while until my clothes were drenched in sweat. Zeus stepped back and put his sword down. Panting, I set my staff aside and crashed down the floor in exhaustion.

Zeus began stretching his limbs around. "That was nice. Good job, Amelia."

Ignoring his compliment, I groaned in exhaustion. "I'm so. . . tired. . ."

"Are you kidding? That was just a warm-up," Zeus said, grinning. "You have more techniques and moves to learn."

"But I'm so tired already!" I exclaimed. "Can't we continue the training tomorrow? I have other important stuff to do, like catching up with my classes."

"Not gonna happen," he said. "Stand up and chin up. We have a long afternoon ahead of us."

I closed my eyes and sighed heavily.

Yep, it's going to be a long day for me. . .

After what seemed like forever, Zeus finally decided to call it a day and told me to come back tomorrow at the same place and time.

I didn't have the energy to think of what he said at that time because I headed out to the dorms as fast as my tired legs could take me. As soon as Athena opened the door for me to come in, I immediately landed on my bed and slept with my sweaty clothes on, even if it was totally gross. I honestly didn't have the strength to move a muscle. I was too tired, mentally and physically, of Zeus's training that I didn't spare a minute to do some catching up with the projects that I've missed.

He wasn't kidding when he said that the first lesson was a warm-up. He didn't give me and my poor, unfit body a break to suck it all in too. He also made his lessons look too easy, which made me try and fail some of them embarrassingly.

For the next several days, Zeus continued teaching me how to wield my chosen weapon. He taught me the basics in the first and second days and then he carried on to some advanced lessons for the rest of the week. He was patient with me whenever I didn't understand something, which I was thankful for since I found it hard to copy some of the moves that he taught me. He also was very strict when it came to me applying what I have learned by sparring.

When I say strict, I mean the perfectionist type of strict.

Whenever I made a tiny mistake while doing a certain technique or move, especially the hard ones, he would make me start all over again until I got it right three times in a row. That was the reason why I got so beaten every time I go back to the dorms.

"Why are you pushing me too hard, Zeus?" I asked once when he gave me a five-minute break during one of those advanced lessons. "I feel that this is too much for me to handle."

"Look, I'm not doing this to make things difficult for you. I just want you to be prepared for what's going to come." Zeus sighed. "I'm. . . afraid that this training that I'm giving you won't be enough. I'm afraid that you won't be able to defend yourself against them."

I smiled softly, sincerely touched by his concern. "Zeus, I'll be fine, okay? I'm sure I'll be able to defend myself when that time comes. I'll be better because I've got a good teacher like you."

He smiled back. "So you're fine now with me pushing you to your limits?"

Standing up from my chair, I nodded. "I'll try."

"Okay, then," he said. "Let's continue."

A few days later after that, Zeus decided that it's time for me to put my newly learned skills into use.

By defeating him in a duel. Or that's what I understood from what he said, at least.

As he said those words to me, I was just so surprised that I swear my jaw dropped to the ground.

I immediately thought of an excuse to delay his plan. "But. . . but I'm not ready yet!"

Yep, what a lame excuse I just made.

Zeus chuckled. "What are you talking about? Of course, you're ready!"

"But it's too soon!" I argued. "And I feel that I'll lose against you."

"Hey, don't be pessimistic about it, okay? It's not much of a big deal," he said reassuringly. "I believe that you can do it."

"Really? You think so?"

"Yeah! Even though you had a rough start, you did far better than I expected," he said. "Besides, it'll be Athena's turn to teach you after me. I figured I end our weaponry training with a fair duel as a test."

"Athena's going to teach me too?" I looked at him in disbelief. "She doesn't look like someone who would want to be a teacher figure."

Zeus laughed. "That's what I thought so too, but she's got a lot of tricks in her sleeve, I tell you. She's the Chosen of the goddess of wisdom after all."

"Okay then. That's going to be interesting," I said. "Do you have an idea of what she'll teach me?"

He shrugged. "Not a clue. She didn't tell me or Poseidon about what she'll do with you."

"I'll just wait for her to tell me then," I said. "So, um, when will be the duel?"

"Tomorrow."