Asclepius rushed forward as soon as Hermes had commenced the match. He had to, in his mind if he was unable to keep the fight in close proximity, he would surely lose. While it only took about five seconds of time for him to close the gap, that time proved to be enough to allow Robin Hood to pull up his loaded crossbow and fire.
Asclepius swerved his face to the right, and the heat and air released by the arrows movement brushed his cheek, but he remained unharmed. He brought his staff up and thrusted it forward, sending it into his opponents gut.
The impact winded Robin, and he slid back a few meters from the strike. Of course, he had felt worse, and he reloaded his crossbow in record time to fire again at the coated man. The arrow whistled through the air and cemented itself in Asclepius' upper arm. He reeled back his arm in pain and thrusted his staff forward, the golden snake adorning it starting to glow.
"WHATS THIS," Hermes cried from up above, "Asclepius was the one to initiate combat? This is quite out of character. Must be due to the god Robin Hood is representing."
In the stands, Apollo made a grimace, "Fucking Asclepius, damn you Kukulkan." a chuckle came from his left, and the goddess beside him responded. "Well, he's quite the good choice, and the whole snake thing is pretty funny if I say myself." spoke the brunette.
"True, I can't deny that my son is quite the candidate, but still, me and him have never been on the best of terms." Apollo said.
"To no fault of his," the Goddess muttered to herself.
"What did you say?" Apollo spoke with a tinge of annoyance.
"Nothing,"
Asclepius stood still and faced Robin Hood, "You are shockingly accurate," he said, "I wonder, are your skills why my father chose you to fight for him? Or do you have those skills due to my father?".
Robin Hood didn't respond, he knew it was provocation to take attention away from something, but what that thing was he hadn't clued into yet. At least, that was until he saw the arrow he had fired fall out of his opponent's arm, and the wound he had inflicted was nowhere to be seen.
Under his medical mask, Asclepius smiled, while Robin was good at masking his emotions in the upper portion of his face, however Asclepius spent his life training himself in the ways of medical care and medicine, and had obtained a good vision for normally missed details, and saw the twitching of Robin's hands and legs. 'Ah, so that's his move' he thought.
Robin jumped to his right while firing another arrow at Asclepius, he hadn't yet analyzed a weakness and if he can heal himself than close quarters was no way to do so. He ran and shot one arrow after another, to hell with accuracy. In his mind also came some choice words for the god he was fighting for. While if he were to be believed he had no knowledge of Asclepius being the chosen fighter, having him kill his own son was something that broke almost all of Robin's morals.
But those weren't thoughts for Robin to explore at the moment, instead he had to fight. Unless...
"So, you can heal?" Robin asked, to which Asclepius gave a head tilt of confusion.
"So you can talk." he replied.
"Look, I know Apollos your father and all, so I don't wanna kill you, could you maybe surrender? It'd make him happy."
Asclepius stood still at the question, before lightly giggling, which then exploded into loud laughter. Robin was confused and on guard, this wasn't how he thought Asclepius would reply.
"Make him happy? Here's the thing, I do not recognize Apollo as my father," Asclepius started. "The fact that his name is brought up alongside mine sickens me. That such a being was ever prayed to and worship makes every part of my body want to vomit. I spent my life learning to help others, and what's the most known about me is that he's my father. It angers me." Asclepius spoke, venom dripped in every word he said.
Apollo's face was disappointed, he knew Asclepius hated him, it was the sole reason he had never attempted to establish contact while he was alive. But to think that hate stemmed so deep.
Robin tried to do damage control, "Woah, sorry then, I wasn't sure where he placed on the father scale, I take it all back."
Asclepius stared at Robin, before focusing on his staff. The staff started to glow a pulsing white, and Asclepius raised it above.
"Robin Hood has made Asclepius mad," Hermes announced, "And now has raised his staff as it glows? What could he possibly be doing." he continued, poorly hiding the fact he knew what was about to happen in his voice.
"I will win this hellish idea of a game, and then I shall finish my work." Asclepius said.
Alarms were blaring throughout Robins head, he had to think of something, but Asclepius had learned his arrows speed and average trajectory, and could properly dodge his crossbow. He also didn't want to get too close to Asclepius in fear of what he was doing.
Robin was berating himself mentally, trying to think of something. Then, his eyes drifted to his daggers, hidden by his cloak. They weren't made for the purpose he was thinking of, but they would have to do.
Asclepius brought down his staff and a large pulse emitted from the impact, however, that was all.
At the same moment however, Robin threw his crossbow in the air and the wielding hand shot down to grab his dagger. He calculated the force required instantaneously and threw the dagger forward, then caught his crossbow in that same hand.
Time seemed to slow down for most of the gods in the audience. The dagger cut cleanly through the air as it made it's path towards it's target. The goddess sat beside Apollo was the most intrigued. 'Such precision, just how skilled are you, Robin Hood.'
As the moving blade came within a meter of Asclepius' staff, a emerald, glowing mass erupted from the ground and blocked the blade. A cloud of dirt covering the scene.
'Shit' Robin thought, he had no idea what Asclepius had done, and furthermore had no clue where he was. He loaded his crossbow and aimed at the cloud, looking for any movement.
Erupting from the cloud was a emerald humanoid, which came charging at Robin Hood, the dagger stuck between its eyes. His eyes widened in shock and Robin ducked, dodging a swipe from the humanoid, before taking his second dagger and thrusting it into the beings waist.
The being relapsed and Robin quickly placed his crossbow on his waist, before using the hand to rip out the dagger he had thrown, cutting through the beings head and making it stop moving, before collapsing backwards.
Robin Hood took a second to breathe, "The fuck was that?" he cried out.
Now it was Asclepius' turn not to respond to his opponent, and his staff glowed once again as he lifted it to the sky.
Fear crawled down Apollo's back, now that he had seen that ability once again, he knew what his son was doing.
"This isn't good," he said.
The brunette replied, "For you, this isn't good for you."
Apollo looked at the goddess annoyed, "I know you have little stake in this but can you at LEAST root for your brother?"
"Well actually," she said, "your choice of champion is quite interesting, I'll give you that."
In her mind were different words, 'should he win, he'd be a good candidate. Yet it's only the first match, I'll hold my tongue.'
Asclepius stared at Robin Hood, each making direct eye contact with the other. Asclepius didn't feel any form of dislike towards his opponent, quite the opposite, they were kindred spirits, each helping others even though in different ways.
"I respect you, and therefore I will tell you this. If you were fighting for any other god, I would have considered your proposal." Asclepius stated, before.
"Anastasis Nekrōn" He said, before thrusting the staff to the ground, that same pulse emitting from it.
Robin stood still, a few seconds pasted and then multiple bursts from the ground erupted surrounding Asclepius.
"This is the proof of my work," Asclepius said.
"The people you see before you are all the spirits of those I failed in life, and now, they shall help me redeem my failures." he continued.
The cloud of dirt and dust settled, and surrounding Asclepius were six figures, each with that same emerald body.
"Now behold, the miracle that nullifies death, the Anastasis Nekrōn" Asclepius stated with a smile.