Death takes no bribes

The ball whizzed past the net and bounced on the very edge of the service box. I reached out with Herculean effort to hit the ball as it tried to curve away from me. Relief! My return sped towards the middle of the court, only to see him already at the net, Apollo at his back. He sliced the ball to my forehand, I rushed and managed to get to the ball, and turned, waiting for the succeeding surge of energy to do battle with against this unstoppable foe. His next ball roared past me and crashed against the fence. Vulcan walked past me, blurring my vision a bit, and my shirt clung onto me while a soft breeze cooled my melting skin. I wiped the sweat from my brow and could taste the salt as I walked toward the baseline, bracing myself for the next onslaught, I smiled, this was going to be fun.

The spear of Mars shot towards me, I licked my lips, the warm sweat caused me to withdraw my tongue in disgust, a slight throbbing in my skull was gathering my attention, but at the last possible moment I snapped back to the world around me and chopped at the incoming ball. The ground had turned to water, he was Neptune--I, Gaia--and he sailed around the court while I strained and heaved, my body soaking and my skin clammy, as I attempted to stop him. Splish, splash, the ball was becoming heavy and I continued run, my nostrils choking on the salt hanging in the air, and finally he swam towards the net, his ball zoomed past me once again--a shockwave cooled my skin and strained my ears, the fence bent, the ball bobbled.

I felt the water recede, but Ares had already done his work and a million little needles were poking at my skin. I fought through the haze once more and steadied myself at the baseline. The ball screamed through the air as it attempted to pass me, “Godspeed”, I thought, and my return glided past the net. I ran to the right, slicing back his inbound shot, then to the left, lunging toward the next ball, my shot cleared the net by a hair and he continued to move me back and forth across the court: my lungs burned, eyes blurred and hands bristled as I continued to fight this pointless struggle, yet he wasn’t going to get off easy, of that I was sure. He finally decided to end this tussle and he flew to the net, and fired his backhand volley to the other side of the court, sure that this battle was over. Digging my feet into the ground I dashed towards the ball, strained my arm and lashed at it. I watched as the ball curled around his outstretched racquet, and landed in the court beyond. He gave a slight shrug and turned toward the baseline, the Battle of Thermopylae had begun.