#Immortality

Erois runs through the woods, ignoring the blood running down his arm and the cuts on his back. Navigating the dense woods is easy for him, but he couldn’t understand how the Human could do it better than him. Erois’ ears pick up on a noise, and he instinctually ducks. Perfect timing, a dagger hits the tree in front of him, splitting it.
Erois didn’t know that there were Humans this strong. If he didn’t know any better, he would think that she was trying to kill him. He was the last of his classmates left. The others got picked off very quickly, Erois may have even assisted in a few, but now he is regretting it and thinking they should have stuck together.
Erois pushes forward. The goal couldn’t be far now. All he had to do is. Fuck.
Instructor Maria was standing in between him and the flag he needed to pass the assignment. She was the embodiment of how a killer looks. Cold stare, perfect stance, unnatural smile, yep, he’ll be waking up in with the sweats in the morning after this.
“So, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that there is no way to talk my way out of this?” Erois throws out and puts on his charming smile.
“No, but I will take my time with you, Erois. I have to admit, you’ve been the most fun I’ve had in a very long time. Most can’t last quite this long with me.”
“Well, you know me, I aim to please. So does that extend to your boyfriend as well? Is that why you’re so angry all the time.” Erois can’t even enjoy his joke. As soon as the words are out, he’s dodging fist, daggers, knees, and all other forms of attack from his instructor.
She catches him with a knee to the stomach and follows with an ax kick to the back of his head.
Erois swipes his dagger at her ankles, and when she evades the attack, he flips up and tries to escape- only to find that Instructor Maria set an electric wire trap between him and his goal.
“Gee, you sure are thorough. You wanna go ahead and take this trap down? You know you can’t kill me.”
“Where is that said in the rules?” Instructor Maria says, prowling over to him.
“Well, you know they brought us kids here to become Gods. It just seems like a bad business move to kill us off is all.”
“And that is what’s wrong with all of you. You think that becoming a God is such a great thing. It’s not. You may gain all those powers, but you gain the greatest weakness.”
“Annoying people asking you for things?” Instructor Maria kicks Erois in the face, knocking him back into the trap. Which has him lurch forward. He crawls to get some distance, then goes to a knee.
“Immortality.”
“A simple wrong would have worked, but I get it.”
“You don’t get it, Erois Na’garin. You and everyone else here don’t get it. Why do you think I’m one of the only Human trainers here? My mortality makes me think harder than those with longer lives. When I know that I have less time, I use it more wisely. Like right now, you should be in fight or flight mode- which is good. You need that to become stronger.”
She wasn’t wrong. Knowing that she was okay with killing Erois has his brain in full gear. He pulls his throwing knives from his belt and starts tossing them. He aims just enough at her to make her think that she’s the target, but she isn’t. Instructor Maria easily deflects all the knives that are a threat, then looks on Erois with a scowl.
“Did you listen to anything that I said!”
“Sure did,” Erois says, pulling the pin on a magnetized grenade and tossing it at Instructor Maria. She moves to deflect it, but when it sticks to her dagger, and she realizes that all the knives that Erois threw are electrified, her heart sinks.
Using an emp, Erois disables her trap then dashes through the trap. The flag that he and his classmates were trying to capture is insight. He grabs the flag, but his victory is short-lived when he is tackled to the ground by Instructor Maria. Her hand firmly on his throat, Erois holds up the flag to protest that the exercise was over, but something told him that she wasn’t paying attention.
“Maria, enough,” The God of the dark spirit realm, Lynal Jounce, says, stepping out of a portal. Instructor Maria reluctantly releases her grip and screams in frustration after letting Erois up. “You’re proud of him, and you know it.”
“I will kill you too. You know that?” Instructor Maria says, shooting the god a look.
“I doubt that very seriously,” Lynal says with a smirk. “Erois is the first student of yours to get past you and grab the flag. There is no way you would kill him. And me … well, you know why you won’t kill me.” Instructor Maria reaches for a knife but remembers that Erois took those. She settles for flipping the god off.
“Congratulations, Erois, you’ve impressed her.”
“I’m not sure that’s such a good thing,” Erois says, still on his back with a strained voice.
“Oh, you’ll be fine. If she isn’t trying to kill you, then you’re wasting her time.”
“That is possibly the greatest compliment that you’ve ever given me,” Instructor Maria says, then smiles for the first time today.
“Lucky me,” Erois says, finding the strength to get up. He notices that Instructor Maria tosses a ring to him. He looks up at her, confused.
“You’ve earned it. Use it well.” Erois puts the ring on and notices that his senses have increased. His pains were worth it in the end.