Chapter 35: Great Hero Albrecht

I knew I should have been terrified. After hearing about stats from Athena I had a pretty good idea of just how out-of-this-world strong Albrecht was and the way my now supernaturally powerful body had stumbled when he'd clapped me on the back earlier had driven the point home, but honestly I was thrilled.

I was going to be able to face off against my idol in a place where no permanent consequences could befall either of us, a place where we could go all-out. It would let me prove just how powerful I'd become in my adventures.

The Heroes had decided to turn it into a spectacle, the evening's main event, Albrecht against the man sponsored by no god who had still become a Great Hero.

As I walked towards the coliseum I noticed Athena walking right next to me. She was looking rather nervous.

“Everything alright?" I asked. “I'd almost think you'll be the one fighting with the way you're fretting.”

“I'm nervous for you, idiot," she said. “Do you know how powerful Albrecht is?”

“I think I've got a pretty good idea," I said. “His Strength is ridiculously high and he wields a sword as big as my entire body.”

“If it were only that," she said. “The main thing you need to watch out for is his magic.”

“He's a mage?" I asked. “I didn't see any casting tools on him.”

“Yeah," she said. “That's one of his greatest tricks. You know that necklace he wears?”

“Of course," I said.

“It's a mythic tier magic item," she said. “Hephaestus spent months on that thing.”

“What's it do?" I asked.

“See, Albrecht has the potential for magic, but his Intelligence stat isn't high enough for his spells to be particularly powerful," she explained. “Except that necklace lets him substitute his Strength stat to cast his gravity magic instead.”

“So not only can he swing that giant slab of metal he calls a sword ridiculously hard, he's also a master wizard?" I asked.

“The transfer isn't quite one to one and he doesn't wield a traditional catalyst," she hedged, “but yes, he's not just a brute, he's also a powerful mage.”

“Lovely," I said. “So, what are my chances of winning?”

“I can't tell," she said. “It doesn't work all the time.”

“Well, we'll just have to see," I said.

“You've got this," Alisha told me and I looked over to see her at my other side. “I believe in you.”

I smiled and leaned down to kiss her forehead. Then I looked over to Athena and saw her glaring at me. “You want one, too?”

“N-no!”

“You sure?" Alisha teased.

“Not in front of all these people," the goddess muttered quietly.

“Alright, I'll do it once we're in private then," I said.

“Fuck you, Tailor.”

“Patience," I told her with a smile.

And at just that point we'd reached the edge of the coliseum, meaning the dome surrounding the giant crater.

“So how does this work exactly?" I asked Melinoe, who was already standing at the edge of the crater.. “Allegedly nobody can die in there?”

“Exactly," Melinoe said. “If your body expires you simply appear right here, good as new. If you suffer wounds in there they will be healed once you leave. If an item you carried was damaged in there it will be repaired when you step out. Oh, and any abilities used inside the dome cannot exit it.”

“That sounds like an insanely complicated piece of magic," I said.

“It is," she said. “It's mostly time magic to roll you back to perfect condition and mixed with a little mind magic so that you can keep the memories you gained in there even if the rest of your body is rolled back to before the fight.”

“I see," I said. “So, do I just walk in, or...” I trailed off as I saw Albrecht simply leaping through the spines making up the dome and then sliding down the slope of the crater. “Alright then.”

“I'm not going to wish you luck because you have all the luck you'll ever need," Athena told me.

I couldn't help but chuckle at that. “Fuck you too, Athena," I told her in a warm voice.

“Good luck," Alisha said and gave me a kiss, full on the lips this time.

And before I could turn around I felt a tug at my sleeve and turned to see Yume next to me, eyes closed and lips puckered, so I leaned down and kissed her, too. That, of course, broke the dam and I had to kiss both Selene and Anna as well before I could go down to face off against a legend. It was time well spent.

**

The inside of the crater was huge, at least two hundred yards of moderately even ground before the slopes became too steep to traverse effortlessly. Dotted around the crater were many smaller rock formations that I assumed could be used as cover. And directly across from me stood Albrecht.

“Heroes of Elysium!" he bellowed. “This man came to us asking for help! The Great Heroes called for him to show his worth and I am here to test him! And if he is half as impressive as he claims this will be a battle the Elysian Fields won't soon forget!”

Deafening cheers erupted all around us.

He drew the giant blade from his back, a massive slab of steel that could generously be described as a greatsword, and raised it high above his head, then pointed it at me. His left hand was open, a pale purple glow surrounding it, a spell waiting to be unleashed.

I took a deep breath and made sure my cloak was sitting just right before I drew Helios Edge.

“Begin!" Melinoe called out, loud and clear, her voice amplified in some way.

**

There was a distance of fifty yards between Albrecht and me and I started the fight by running at him in a full sprint.

He let me approach for a moment and then yanked upward with his free hand. A flash of purple magic was all the warning I got before a slab of stone shot out of the earth, timed perfectly so that I would run into it. Except the flash of magic had been just enough warning for me to leap up, landing on the slab of stone as it came out the earth. The speed at which it shot out of the ground sent me flying once more and I spun through the air, pulled out a thin dagger from out of my cloak, and threw it at Albrecht as I soared high above him, intending to land behind him and attack him with my sword.

“Not good enough," he bellowed and used his gravity magic to yank me towards the ground but the throwing dagger struck his chest the moment the spell took effect.

It didn't so much as scratch him but the weapon hadn't been meant to hurt. I'd thrown not just any dagger but a dispelling stiletto. It did what it was supposed to and instantly canceled out spells on impact, so I only felt the power drawing me down for an instant before the spell cut off and I landed behind the mountain of a man undeterred.

The shock to the system caused by the dagger made him slow to turn around and I had enough time to thrust my blade at him, sending out a lance of fire alongside the stab.

He was just barely fast enough to intercept the stab with a bracelet on his wrist so the physical attack bounced off harmlessly but still the fire lance washed over him.

Any other man would have dropped and rolled to put out the flames spilling over his form, but not Albrecht. He instead spun around to backhand me before using a flash of purple magic to put the fire out.

That backhand sent me flying fifty feet and I skidded along the ground before I was able to right myself. It hadn't been enough to seriously injure me but if this was what a flailing backhand could do to me I was sure I didn't want to get hit by any proper attacks this man could throw.

“Still not good enough?" I asked as I got up off the ground.

He was a little singed but gave a hearty chuckle. “Wasn't expecting that. I won't make that mistake again.”

“Good," I said and ran straight at him once more.

This time he threw his arms wide and a pulse of purple magic caused a dozen fist-sized rocks to levitate off the ground and circle around him before shooting out at me. It would have been easy to avoid a single barrage of them but he'd spaced them out just far enough that I had to stop sprinting at him and instead circled around him in order to avoid them. But two could play at that game. I snatched one of the rocks out of the air, drew up my Qi and then used a Qi Burst to throw the rock at him as if shot out of a dwarven musket.

The rock shot at him and smacked against his shoulder. On a normal person that rock would have blown a chunk out of their shoulder but Albrecht only grunted in pain and twisted with the hit. Before I could boggle at how tough this man had to be to withstand a blow like that I felt a rock crashing into my shoulder blade from behind. Shit. He'd yanked one of the rocks backwards for a second pass. When the rock hit me there was a loud crack and my vision went white for a moment, telling me that my left arm probably wasn't going to be very useful to me in the near future.

I gritted my teeth and summoned forth my Qi again, channeling it to heal the damage done, at least enough that I could function again. Thankfully Albrecht had to nurse the blow I'd given him for a few seconds as well.

“Smart and resourceful but not a wimp," Albrecht said. “A rare combination.”

“And you're much more shrewd than I gave you credit for," I said.

“I have my moments," he said with a boyish grin. “But it's good to see that you're worthy of my full attention.”

And then he came at me with that giant sword. By the time he reached me I could move my arm again though it was still painful. But even if I could make use of my arm again I had no interest in facing this weapon head-on. Even with my Qi techniques there was no way I was stopping this thing cold.

So instead I weaved and sidestepped, letting the weapon miss me by mere inches, kicking or shoving against the weapon every time it passed me in order to bring Albrecht off balance. For how ridiculously big and heavy and unwieldy the weapon was he could swing it far faster than I was comfortable with so throwing him off balance was the only way I could buy myself the time necessary to do anything other than dodge.

And I used that time to keep harassing him with small slashes from Helios Edge, though he was so ridiculously tough that I barely made nicks in his skin with the legendary weapon. I was sure I would be able to cut him deeper with Qi techniques but I simply didn't have the time to use any. I needed a new strategy.

Unfortunately, Albrecht was clearly thinking the same thing. When he realized that he couldn't hit me he stomped on the ground accompanied by a flash of purple magic that made spikes of rock shoot out of the ground. I had to scramble to get away from them and even then I took a few smaller hits.

This wasn't like fighting some mindless monster that could be exploited. I was fighting a Great Hero, someone who was at my level and then some.

He used my momentary imbalance to come after me again with that giant sword of his but before he could reach me I called on my Qi and used a single Qi Projection to launch a diagonal slash at him and he only barely brought his blade up in time to block the slash. Except blocking Qi Projection didn't work so well and there was a noticeable nick in his blade afterwards.

“That's new," he said.

I smirked. “What can I say? I'm just full of surprises.”

“So am I," he said and swung his blade forward, both hands on the handle this time.

The effect was unlike anything I had expected. I'd known his Strength was prodigious. Even if Athena hadn't told me about stats, the fact that he could wield this giant weapon one-handed was proof enough of that. But what I hadn't expected was the powerful blast of air the swing sent out, caused merely by him swinging his blade with both hands.

The blast of air almost took me off my feet and I had to stab Helios Edge into the ground to anchor myself.

This was ridiculous. No matter how much stronger I'd become there was no way I was beating this guy with brute force. That thought brought me back to a conversation I'd had with Syr months ago.

You're still underpowered in the grand scheme of things. You're the one who outsmarts his enemies and that's what you need to keep doing.

I bit my lip as I thought through my options.

Albrecht was storming towards me, the massive sword raised up and ready to take my head off. And I smiled as I realized I knew how to beat him. No, I wouldn't beat this guy with brute force. But I didn't have to.

I waited until the very last moment to dodge the attack, throwing myself to the ground to let the sword whistle by above me and then jumping back up to ram my elbow into his shoulder, shoving him forward and forcing him to overextend himself as I dropped an item from my bag of holding onto the ground.

“You're as slippery as an eel,” he told me as he regained control of his momentum, then swung the sword around to strike behind him, where I'd just been. By the time he'd managed to wrench his sword around I was long gone, though.

“Thank you,” I said as I sent a bolt from my crossbow at him, from just outside his sword's reach.

He tried to raise his arm to intercept the attack with his bracelet but he was a hair too slow and I was gratified to see the bolt sink into the flesh of his shoulder. It barely made him wince but at least the pulley system of my crossbow could build up enough force to pierce his ridiculously tough skin.

“It wasn't a compliment,” he told me.

I'd been hoping he would pause to pull the bolt out of his shoulder and thereby give me time to use a more powerful attack but he was smart enough to realize that as well. So instead he decided to deal with the pain and left the bolt in.

I grinned.

Again he raised the sword to swing at me and while he had no issue wielding the blade we had been fighting long enough that I could tell the bolt was bothering him. He was a hair slower to raise the weapon, a fraction of a breath slower to swing it. Against monsters it wouldn't have made a difference but at our level that fraction of a breath was all I needed to keep up with him. I danced out of his reach once more.

He growled and balled a fist, the purple glow alerting me of another spell. I was wise to his tricks now, though, and threw myself flat to the ground so that the rock that had been aimed at the back of my head struck him in the chest instead.

“Haaaaauuuggghhh!” He let out a sound of pure pain and frustration and the earth trembled beneath him. Purple haze saturated the area and tiny pebbles rose up from the ground.

For a moment I thought these pebbles were his next attack but then I realized in sheer horror what I was seeing. This area of purple haze, stretched thirty feet around him in every direction, was the man's aura. Alisha's aura barely extended half an inch out from her skin, except for the butterfly wings on her back. Yume's aura was a film an inch thick except where it gathered around her tails. This man's aura was orders of magnitude bigger than theirs and I found it difficult to breathe within its confines.

Evidently 'Starfall' Albrecht had only just begun to take me seriously.

“Let's see you dodge this!” he bellowed and a dozen rocks, each the size of a boar, rose out of the ground and orbited around him before launching themselves at me.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” I growled as I broke into a run.

The first rock came at me and I dodged it handily but before I could relax I realized that I hadn't heard the rock smashing into the ground. I looked behind me to see it curving around to hit me again and the others corrected their course as well.

Homing boulders. Lovely.

I took a moment to reorient myself and realized that the little thing I had dropped was far enough away that it might as well have been in the royal bleeding palace for all the good it would do me. But I wasn't beat yet.

As I ran I pulled out another dispelling stiletto and lined it up to throw at Albrecht. Before I loosed it, though, I noticed something else. Those tiny pebbles I'd seen floating before? They were orbiting him at high speeds and I had no doubt he would have enough control over them to use them to smack projectiles aside.

Gods damn it, I needed more time, more power, more... I smiled as I realized what I could do.

I ran at him, the dozen boulders now right behind me. As I had suspected, he sent several small pebbles out at me as he saw me approaching. Each of the pebbles had a moderate portion of the speed my pebbles thrown with Qi Burst would have had but that modest portion was still far too slow for me to feel threatened and I dodged them very nearly without breaking stride.

When I was almost upon him I saw him grabbing hold of his massive sword and threw two dispelling stilettos at him. One he knocked away with a pebble, the other he blocked with his sword. But by the time he'd raised his massive sword I had used a flash step to get behind him and jammed another dispelling stiletto into the back of his neck before quickly dashing away.

His skin was so ridiculously tough that the stiletto only sank an inch in but the counter-magic discharged nevertheless. All the pebbles dropped to the ground. Much more important, however, was what happened to the boulders. They didn't merely drop. The magic winked out but they still had their momentum behind them and were currently hurtling towards Albrecht. And Albrecht had been momentarily dazed by his magic winking out.

It was a testament to just how tough this man was that he did not immediately turn into paste from the impact of the first boulder but eleven more hurtled towards him, crashing into him and burying him under his man-made avalanche.

I was breathing like a bellows at this point. He had to be done now. Albrecht was by far the strongest and toughest foe I had ever faced on my own but even he wouldn't be able to get back up from this, right? Being crushed by those massive rocks would be too much for even him to walk off. Right?

Purple light began streaming out from between the boulders, growing stronger by the second.

“Ares' fetid dick cheese,” I cursed as the boulders fell away to reveal Albrecht, bruised and clearly in pain but not broken.

He huffed and puffed and when he spoke his voice didn't come out as booming as it had before. “There's only two people on the Elysian Fields who can keep up with me the way you can.”

“Odysseus and Atalanta?” I asked.

“Precisely,” he said and with every word he righted himself a little more. He was clearly still in pain and now that he was standing I could see that his torso didn't look as solid as before, as if he had more than a few broken ribs. “As far as I'm concerned you're a Great Hero.”

I was about to put away my blade. I'd come down here to prove just that, after all. But before I could let go of my weapon he continued:

“But now I have to know, I have to see.” He raised himself back up to his full height, though he had to ram his sword into the ground and lean on it to do so. “Show me what you can do. Let me finally meet my match.”

He pulled the massive sword out of the ground and pointed it at me. Evidently he could finally stand without its assistance again, though that didn't mean he wasn't still battered and bloodied. In fact, the trail of blood coming out of his mouth made his grin look positively feral as he bellowed out:

“Fight me!”