Gil lied awake in his bed replaying the fight against the six over and over in his head. He had been losing a lot of sleep over it lately, but few people noticed on account of his masks. The team losing to a stronger better trained team was understandable, half of his group were only taking their first steps into this level of fights. On the other hand, for the ones he considered peers to all be taken out so easily, and all for stupid reasons pissed him off royally. He only thought about having to babysit his sisters, not the other demigods. They all fought like they had no clue what their own abilities were! Had there been competent help things would have gone differently. The worst part is none of them seemed bothered by it. Everyone just talked about it like a distant memory and went back to whatever they were doing…Still he shouldered a part of the blame for not going all out immediately, however you call it he was also defeated. Then there was Hope who tried to put up a decent fight only her training failed her against real monsters, and he took the L to go help. Gil took that as another personal loss since Hope trained with him more than anyone else. Since he could barely sleep thinking about all this, Gil figured the time would be better spent in training.
Gil went to his special secluded area in the forest outside the school grounds that he had set up for training in private. Using fuinjutsu he created a series of gravity seals to increase the intensity and barriers to keep away unwanted distractions. Wearing weighted chakra beads he pushed his limits practicing countless kicks of various forms, his ninjutsu and chakra control, and worked on his swordplay. He didn't stop even when the sun had come up nor to go to class, but finally late in the afternoon. Having worked off his frustrations Gil returned to the human house. To keep from losing his cool Gil decided it would be best to go into his bedroom window, avoiding his roommates completely. It was nice being unbothered for once, he didn't even care to check on the damages to the building. This was how he planned to start spending his days until he returned once to find Hope and Ilpyo waiting for him outside the window. Gil started to pretend he didn't see them and go around the building when a rock flew past his head.
"So you were just going to pretend you didn't see us?!" Hope shouted
"Hey, pretty lady…" Gil said turning around casually.
"Don't 'Hey pretty lady' me! Where have you been all week?! You've been cutting classes, you won't answer anyone's calls, and you haven't been home in days! You know your sisters' birthday is coming up soon too. We were supposed to be planning for that! Care to start explaining?"
"I was out training. I come back to feed little Seiryu and go to sleep."
"Wait are you stress-binge-training again?" Hope cut in. "Focusing on your training is fine, but we've talked about you overdoing it."
"Yeah didn't you break a few bones using those gravity seals before?" Ilpyo added.
"Hmm. I thought so." Gil noted to himself.
"You thought what?"
"You are content with losing…" Gil sighed "I had hoped you guys were more upset than you initially let on, but I was wrong. Everyone forgot so easily how badly we were embarrassed by the six. I don't like losing, especially in a fight and I was defeated easily, we all were. Why am I the only one angry about this?"
"What do you mean? No one wanted to lose, they were just that strong." Ilpyo said. "You can't-"
Hearing them accept their loss made Gil explode. "Just that strong? We had so many cards to play! Herc ran up on the worst possible matchup for himself and got folded! I don't even think he knows what it means to be a Senju! I thought at least he or Kelly would've dodged the cards and came to help but I couldn't count on them. I got knocked out trying to save Hope, and the one person whose abilities I had confidence was on my level chose not to use them! You used your power to show off to Minerva and then forgot about them in the field. What's up with that?"
"Well I umm…I thought we were only using kicks. You didn't use anything excessive either."
"So you were trying to show off huh? Keep in mind, martial arts and swords are MY go-to in a fight. You have nearly infinite chakra, more training in ninjutsu and those fox spirit transformations… did none of that occur to you when we were fighting an uphill battle!?"
"Calm down Gil, we will be ready next time." Hope assured him.
"I hope so. Because if we can't beat them Tartarus is out the window, let alone settling our past grudges." Gil left it at that and went inside.
"He's right, we do have to step our game up" Ilpyo sighed. Most of what Gil said rolled off him as Gil-anger, but that last part struck a nerve. His revenge mission was what got him brought to the school in the first place.
"I know, we have a lot of work to do. Still, he isn't the only one who doesn't like losing. Everyone has been working hard since then."
...….
"Landon! You're up!" Kelly yelled in the gym after breaking Raphael's arm in three places. Since fighting the six she had the werewolves working out much harder than usual. With learning about Tartarus and her mother's fate she knew she needed to get stronger, and her pack had to be stronger too. The intensity of their training had become brutal, border lining sadistic but they were seeing great progress. This was owed largely in part to Landon recently unlocking the ability to heal others with his fire. With that, the wolves could go all out and get back at it almost immediately no matter how injured. Landon was getting good practice with his new power too.
"Hang on bro I got you!" Landon said raising a burning hand to Raphael's arm. When the flames touched him, his arm healed completely in seconds. Not only that Raphael felt his fatigue washing away too.
"Thanks. That fire of yours is pretty damn cool."
"I'm glad I got something good, being unable to die was so helpful against the six."
"Don't beat yourself up too much about it. We'll get our chance again." Raphael said.
"You done chit-chatting girls?" Kelly said standing over them. "If you're done it's time for the next round." Landon started to walk off of the mat but Kelly stopped him. "Hold up, you're going next."
"Wait, I thought I was here as a medic."
"I thought about that, and the medics always have a target on their back during war. We both know you don't need to die to be taken out."
"Good point."
"Glad you see it my way. Raf, you fight Landon and don't hold anything back. It's not like you could kill him if you wanted to." She left them to fight. "You over there get off your asses!" Shouting to a few others.
...…
"Could you give the weights a break, you're supposed to be studying." Josie was trying to get Hercules to study in Salvatore's library. Somehow, he had turned their section of the library into a mini weight station, but no one had anything to say about it. "Your reading has barely improved at all."
"My apologies Josie. It's hard to focus on this when I have been having so much fun lately."
"How is lifting oversized weights fun to you?" She didn't see how working out counted as fun.
"Oversized? I thought this was fairly light, but it was the most weight I could fit onto these bars. I wanted to double my workout weight; I shall need a bigger bar for that."
"(Does he know that's heavier than an Olympic standard bar?)" She thought "Again, what's fun about that?"
"Nothing at all, but it shall make me stronger. For the first time since my childhood, I have been beaten…multiple times. I used to think I was invincible, that I could face any challenge and win. It got boring having no challengers…but there was comfort in knowing I could protect what mattered to me. However, I was sorely mistaken. Recent events have shown me a great distance lies between myself and the pinnacle. I could not save my village from destruction, and since coming to Salvatore there have been a fair number of people who are stronger than me. It is disheartening to know I can't protect what matters most to me right now, but it is even more exciting to know I still have so much room to grow. Do you not feel alive overcoming a high wall?"
"I can get a little competitive too sometimes, so I kind of understand." Josie wasn't big on the idea of chasing power, people who got it often find themselves corrupted or would flaunt it recklessly. Power always had a steep cost too, she watched her friends and family pay it all her life. It was strange to see someone like Hercules, who did so with no arrogance or malice driving him. He was almost like a Shounen hero. Admirable but it did get annoying in its own way. "One more question."
"What is it?"
"Why do you pick fights with everyone in the school?"
"I like to test myself, and as friends shouldn't we sharpen one another? Like you helping me understand these incomprehensible books. I still don't get how the alphabet changed so much…Also I have to figure out who the mysterious strongest student is."
"You should know you just come off as a bully when you do that…"
"Really? I was unaware. How should I go about finding them then?" It was clear that was his biggest motive.
"How about this. If you pass this practice quiz, I'll tell you who it is. Deal?"
"Deal!"
......…
"Noraa! Can we stop running? I'm about to die!" Lizzie thought martial arts training would be a good idea, so who better to teach her than the mixed martial arts master himself. She decided to tag along for his evening workout today.
"What? We barely ran a mile!"
"What? You planned to run more!"
"I always start with a five-mile warm-up run," Noraa said still running in place without breaking a sweat.
"I thought you were going to teach me badass kicks or something. You know instant black belt me."
"No such thing as an instant black belt. You gotta build up some muscle for any of that to work."
"Screw that, I'm just going to go learn a new spell. See you later."
"Lazy brat." He ran off and Lizzie called a ride.