The Strongest Mortal

"Damnit!"

*BOOM*

A massive explosion followed the frustrated yell, scaring off all of the birds nearby.

In the shattered remains of a once large and rocky hill stood a teenager who looked to be about eighteen years old. He stood at an intimidating height of 6ft4 (193cm) with at least 350lb's (160kg) of muscle on his frame. He looked to be Japanese despite his blue eyes and long blonde hair, as well as the short blonde facial hair that seemed to be sprouting on his chin. The cherry on top of this already intimidating figure was the green martial art's Gi he wore, indicating that not only was he strong, but he also knew how to use that strength in a fight.

This was, of course, Callum, five years after his fight with the Minotaur.

His parent had kicked him out not even a month after the fight, apparently because no son of theirs would ever waste their potential to become a violence obsessed delinquent. He tried to reason with them, to help them understand that what he sought wasn't violence, but the betterment of his art. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be, as in their minds it was all the same.

So, he set off on a journey across the world, hoping to find masters of his art that he could battle with, wanting to experience a fight that was a true work of art.

But the world itself seemed to be against him, as he had spent that past five years of his life, traveling from dojo to dojo, country to country, and continent to continent, and yet he hasn't found a single person who could truly challenge him.

Sure, he had fought powerful beings and monsters during his travel that were stronger than the average human, but they were master level at best, and thus weren't able to push his art any further.

He had fought Youkai in Japan, giant lizards in Australia, Angels in Europe, Cat people in Africa, literal zombie's when he visited Greenland (though he was pretty sure they were called something else there), and much more. Despite all this, the only thing that has been able to challenge him since his first fight has been the Minotaur, who had apparently taken his advice and learned a martial art, or more specifically Krav Maga, and has challenged him every once in a while since.

And now, he was once again frustrated with the world he lived in, as he had just finished searching through South America and Mexico, yet he still found nothing. He began to lose hope that he would ever find anyone that he could share the beauty of martial arts with. That he had become to strong for him to be pushed further.

He was only eighteen years old and yet he had already reached his limit? Martial arts were the only thing that could ever make him passionate, and now he was left with nothing. He realized that he was damned to live an empty life devoid of excitement doing something he hated until the day he died, which he was pretty sure wouldn't happen for a long time because of all his training.

"HAAAAA!" Callum let out another angry yell as he punched the ground again, causing another resounding boom to echo through the Mojave Desert and a massive crater to form where his fist met the floor.

Callum collapsed on his knees, panting. He lifted his head and looked around, immediately feeling guilty. The hill he had destroyed wasn't the only victim of his rage, as there were dozens of other craters just as big surrounding it.

He had destroyed so much of the terrain, and for what? Because he couldn't control his temper? He was just glad he wasn't in a forest.

*Sigh*"Why? Why isn't there anyone who can equal me? Why is everyone so weak!" He asked no one in particular. He knew that what he was saying wasn't fair to everyone of the warriors he had fought that had put in decades, sometimes centuries of work to get to where they were. He knew that they weren't weak, but rather he was just a freak of nature. But he needed something to blame, and at that moment he was to prideful to blame himself.

He sat in that crater for hours, staring at the sky and trying to find a reason for his misfortune. Why would the world bless him with immeasurable talent, enough to let him graduate collage eight times within the span of a year, or to master every martial art he came across with a single glance, but then curse him with a love for challenges in a world where nothing could challenge him?

Why couldn't he have as much talent as all the other martial artists in this world? If he were born with that instead, then maybe he would have something to work toward!

The worse part of it all was that he had nobody to talk to about his problems. He never had friends since everyone from his school was too intimidated by his intelligence to even talk to him, and he never stayed in one place while he was traveling for a long enough time to form a bond with someone. He didn't even have his parents anymore to support him. The only relationship he had with anyone was his rivalry with the Minotaur, but since there was no friendship beyond that it's not like he could just show up and hang out with him.

"I need to stop feeling sorry for myself." Callum told himself, forcing himself to stand back up. "I don't know if I'm making excuses or not, but it doesn't matter. Whatever it is, it's not helping me solve anything."

Sighing again, he took a step forward, only for his foot to freeze before it touched the ground, his danger senses screaming at him not to move. His body tensed, ready for anything, as he slowly looked down.

Below him was what looked like a small part of what was probably a massive engraving into the ground. He hadn't noticed it before because he wasn't looking directly at it and it seemed to be camouflaged by some supernatural means.

Even after his breaking of the environment, the engraving and stone it was built on seemed to be completely intact, which to him was strange as he was able to break every material humans have access to with just a punch. Well, every material accept supernatural metals, such as imperial gold, which his hand just fazed through due to his mortality.

But the engraving didn't seem to be made of metal, and as far as he knew there wasn't any form of supernatural stone, so how did it resist his attack?

Ever so slowly Callum moved his foot away from the lines of the engraving, making sure not to touch anything. Setting his foot down, he leaned down to inspect the supernatural shimmering around the engraving.

"Damn, what the hell is this? It's almost as nature based as the stuff the Inca monsters used to conceal themselves, but it's also as violent as the Roman Mist." Callum mumbled to himself as he tried to identify the source of the illusion.

Throughout his years of traveling he had come to learn about illusion barriers that hid anything supernatural from the mortal world, with different Pantheons having different versions of it, and every version had a few distinctive quirks. For example, Greek Mist was steam-like and difficult to interact with while Norse Glamour was like a glittery light that somehow came off as drunk.

He was one of the rare mortals that was born with the ability to see through natural illusion barriers, and since he didn't have any direct association with any pantheon as a child he could see through all of them (unless of course something was purposefully using the illusion to hide). This ability is what allowed him to meet and fight monsters from all over the world, while also allowing him to see the differences between illusion barriers.

The illusion barrier he was looking at right now was water-like, signifying that it's pantheon had a strong connection to nature, while also spinning and turning violently like an ocean during a storm, showing that it was a violent and war-based pantheon.

"Nature and War? What pantheon would be based on tha-" He stopped as his eyes snapped back to the engraved lines in the ground, confusion evident in his features. "Aztec? But that Puma monster I fought near the Inca temples said that pantheon was destroyed centuries ago. Was it lying? No, it would have no reason to. Maybe it just didn't know? But how could it make that mistake?"

He was told that there was some kind of territory war between a few different pantheons back in the 1700's and the Aztec pantheon was wiped out before a truce was called. So how was it's illusion barrier still active?

"Well... There's probably only one way to find out." Callum said with a hint of excitement in his voice as he grinned and reached his hand toward the marking his danger sense was desperately telling him not to touch.

How could he resist? The Aztec's were a war based pantheon and probably had their own martial arts to show off! War based pantheons always had stronger monsters, with the strongest monster he's faced being a master class from the Egyptian pantheon. So whatever was here was probably really strong and had a unique martial art to boot!

Ignoring his blaring danger sense, he touched his fingers to the marking. The effect was immediate.

*RUMBLE*

The ground began to shake with the strength of a magnitude 8 earthquake, the winds picked up to hurricane force speeds, and a storm seemed to materialize out of nowhere. The marking began to glow, with the rest of the buried engraving shining through alongside it, revealing a massive circular Aztec symbol that had a half-mile long diameter stretching across the desert.

"Oh shit!" Callum cursed as he felt the sand and dirt beneath him begin to heat up. Reacting quickly, he jumped out of the circle, just in time to as it flashed with a pillar of blinding light. When the light cleared, it revealed the entirety of the circular stone engraving, having vaporized the sand to reveal it.

'This is going to be a really big monster isn't it?' The martial artist thought as he prepared himself for battle.

The stone slab seemed to retract downward before slowly splitting down the middle and opening like a door. This, for some reason, caused the rain and storm to pick up more, with winds blowing in from the west at speeds far beyond a hurricanes.

His heart beat quickened with excitement as he prepared to fight the monster that was advanced grandmaster class if not higher! Would he finally get to push his art further? Would he finally get to experience the beauty of an equal battle between martial artists?

*SCREECH*

A shrill screech sounded from below the now open gateway. And the creature that flew out next caused Callums excited heart to freeze.

After he realized that mythological creatures were real Callum had taken a dozen more mythology and religion classes to gain knowledge on them. So when the massive, blue-feathered snake with wings flew out of the ground, Callum recognized it on site.

"Quetzalcoatl." He breathed out, aw struck.

This wasn't the Aztec monster he thought he would be facing, no, this was one of the Aztec gods! He should have been scared as this was the first god from any pantheon that he had encountered, but instead his heart beat picked up once again and went even faster.

This was his chance to push his art to the level of a literal deity!

A chance to have a battle so beautiful even gods could enjoy it!

With a smile of excitement and determination, Callum entered a combat stance and prepared to fight, and by the looks of it, the creature now hovering in the sky staring daggers at him was happy to oblige.

*ROAR*

The Quetzalcoatl let out an earth-shaking roar as lightning struck it's back, running up its body and concentrating just in front of it's mouth. Less than a second later a dense beam of lightning was shot out of it's mouth, aimed directly at the mortal in front of it.

Callum dodged the lightning easily, sidestepping to the left before running forward, intent on closing the distance as he didn't have any long range attacks powerful enough to effect it at a three hundred meter range.

The god didn't seem to care as it to flew toward him, stopping short just as they reached each other before twisting on the spot and leaning back. This confused Callum for a second before he realized what it was doing and relaxed his entire body.

"Shaori."

Not a moment later the serpents tale snapped forward like a whip, crashing into his body with enough force to destroy a mountain. Callum was sent flying into the ground like a bullet, kicking up a dust cloud as he landed.

Standing up quickly, Callum focused his mind, clearing it of all distractions, and activated the Ryuusui Seikuken. An inch thick blue aura surrounded his body, flowing around him like some weird mixture between a fire and a river.

Leaning back, he just barely managed to dodge another strike from the creatures tail, but not the wind produced by it's movement. The Mach speed wind following the tail as it moved slammed into him, knocking him off his feet and sending him rolling across the ground before he quickly readjusted himself and landed.

He jumped upward, and not a moment later a third tail strike hit the ground where he was standing, crushing the desert floor and sending rocks flying in every direction. Callum smirked and landed on the now extended tail, before proceeding to run up it at his top speed.

The creature noticed immediately, and roared. Before Callum could register what happening, the serpent was suddenly on fire, powerful green flames covering it's entire body.

Feeling himself catch fire Callum launched himself into the air as fast as he could, making sure to kick the creatures body as he did so. It was pushed back a little bit, but other than that the god seemed to be unaffected.

'Okay, he's tough, but I expected that. I'm just going to have to use everything in my arsenal.' Callum thought as he twisted to the left, dodging another tail strike and punching it as he did so, smacking it away.

"Ryozen-Blast!" Callum shouted, focusing his Ki through his leg and kicking down, causing the air below him to explode, giving him enough momentum to move forward.

He launched right into the gods face, deactivating his Ryuusui Seikuken and compressing hi Ki, releasing it all through his fist.

"Seidou Goitsu!"

The effect was immediate as a sonic boom rung through the sound of rain and lightning, and the head of the god was forced backward, visibly wounded by the punch.

Callum began to freefall again. 'Shit, if I fall again I may not be able to close the distance for another attack. I need to stay in the air! But I'll exhaust myself if I keep using my Ki for the Ryozen-Blast. What do I do?'

Just as the serpent recovered from the punch and attacked once again, this time with another lightning beam from it's mouth, Callum got an idea. The Ryozen-Blast was meant to be a powerful but nonlethal technique that combined his Ki into the air, allowing him to create a small explosion. But what if, instead of using a large amount of Ki to explode the air all around him, he used a small amount to create a focused explosion just below his foot?

Hoping his new technique would work, Callum focused a small amount of his Ki into his foot, before combing it with the air and kicking. A small explosion was created, but it was focused, appearing like a rocket rather than a bomb. Callum was pushed through the air and out of the way of the lighting beam, before he grinned and repeated the action in his other leg, kicking down and backward.

He was once again launched toward the serpent-god.

'I wonder that I should call this technique? Eh, lets keep it simple and call it the Ryozan-Step. Good enough.' The martial artist thought, using his new technique to dodge the lighting bolts and wind blades that his opponent was now throwing at him.

Deciding that playing defense wasn't going to help him in the long run and that this was the perfect chance to test another technique of his, Callum burst forward with the Ryozan-Step, shooting straight toward the creatures mouth. The god noticed and opened it's mouth, lurching forward to bite the mortal in front of it, but at the last second Callum exploded downward, just below the serpents jaw, and rotated his entire body, extending his fist toward the creature as he did so and releasing his Ki in the same way he had when he used the Seidou Goitsu.

The attack had all the strength of every muscle in his body, all of his Ki compressed and focused into one point, and the kinetic energy he built up from rotating his body at hypersonic speed, all focused into his fist just as he made contact with the gods jaw.

"Boshiken!"

*BOOM*

The shockwave created could only be compared to that of a nuclear bomb, not to mention the force on the point of impact. The god was forced backward by the energy, and had been severely injured. Callum meanwhile couldn't withstand the shockwaves as he hadn't yet reached the level where he could tank a nuclear bomb.

He was sent flying back even faster than the god, crashing into the ground legs first and breaking every bone in them in the process. Despite this, he didn't notice, as he had fallen unconscious from exhaustion, this having been the first time he ever used that technique so his stamina wasn't strong enough to keep up.

Quetzalcoatl steadied himself, having never received such an attack from a mortal before. He could have easily withstood it if he knew that it was coming and prepared for it, but he never even considered that a mortal would be able to attack with the force of a minor god in their true form!

Exhaling slowly as it regenerated itself, the god flew toward where the mortal had landed, curious. It had thought that it was fighting the mortal that sealed it away, but that mortal was way to weak to fight like that, so he needed to figure out what was happening.

After getting a closer look at him, the mortal looked nothing like the humans he was used to. 'He looks like one of those humans from the other side of the world! How did he get here? How long was I sealed away?'

Looking up at the sky, which was now full of stars as they had started fighting at sunset, he quickly calculated the time he had been gone.

"Four hundred years?" Quetzalcoatl mumbled to himself in confusion. How had he been gone that long and nobody came to free him?

Looking down at the mortal, the god quickly healed him and forced him awake, intent on getting answers.

Callum groaned as he woke up, still feeling extremely sore despite being healed. Looking up, he met the eyes of his opponent once again and forced himself into a combat stance, ignoring the pain.

"Relax mortal, I have no intention of continuing our fight and you are in no condition to do so anyway. I merely have a few questions that I need answering." Quetzalcoatl said, landing on the ground and coiling it's lower body, it's head remaining upright.

Callum relaxed and fell back onto the floor, then looked up and nodded at the snake. "Alright then, I'll answer if I can. Not like I can do much else at the moment anyway."

"What is you name mortal?" Was it's first question, catching Callum off guard.

"My name? Uh, it's Callum. Why do you even want to know?" He asked, confused as to why a god would even care. From what he had heard all gods viewed mortals as nothing more than ants no matter the pantheon.

"Callum? A strange name. You are indeed from the other side of the world aren't you? To answer your question, you have earned my respect by achieving the power of a minor god, albeit incomplete, despite still being mortal. As such you are worthy to be referred to by name." It replied, a hint of respect in it's tone.

"Oh." Was all Callum could say. Minor god? He had already attained power close to a minor gods?

"Yes, well, next question. Why is it that I can't sense any other gods of my pantheon? It seems as if they had all disappeared." It asked, it's tone hardening.

"Gone? Oh, right, the war. Well, I don't know for certain since your still here, so what I've heard may be wrong, but I was told that there was a war about three hundred years ago between various pantheons here in America as they tried to claim territory. During the war the Aztec Pantheon had ended up being wiped out by the Romans." Callum explained all he knew, unknowingly giving the god a target.

"Three hundred years? I see. So that's why nobody freed me sooner." The god mumbled, before looking back down at Callum. "If all of my people were wiped out, how is it that you came to know of me and free me?"

"Ah, well, I didn't. I was just on my way back to New York after exploring Mexico and came out here to blow off some steam. I had started punching the ground and one of the craters I made revealed your "seal". After that I touched it, hoping to find something that could fight me, and then you showed up." Callum said somewhat sheepishly, still ashamed that he had thrown a tantrum.

"You were looking for a fight? I see. You are no doubt the strongest mortal I have ever come across, so I imagine that it would be difficult to find a worthy opponent." Quetzalcoatl nodded, understanding his struggle.

"Not just difficult, it's impossible! I've been searching around the world for half a decade and haven't found a single thing that could challenge me! My only passion in life is to improve my art and spread it's beauty, but I've already become to strong for any of the other humans or even the monsters to actually push me! I'm only eighteen years old!" Callum vented unintentionally, but the god didn't seem to mind and nodded.

"All things exist in a balance, and there is a negative for every positive. Strength, power, wealth, fame, all of it has it's own curse to accompany it's blessing. You are young so your naivety is understandable, however you mustn't give up. There is always a solution that you haven't thought of yet to every problem, though, in this case your solution is quite obvious." The god smiled, an expression which somehow didn't seem weird on it's snake/bird face.

"Obvious? What is it?" Callum asked immediately. He was a genius yes, but unless it involved fighting or martial arts, he was laughably uncreative.

"What do you think? All of you opponents were trained by teachers of their strength, not of yours, so they haven't been able to challenge you. In order to challenge you they would have to be trained by someone of your strength." The god explained patiently.

"But I just told you, there is no one on... my... level." His words slowed to a stop as his eyes widened. Then, with a loud slap, his palm met his face. "I'm an idiot."

Quetzalcoatl just laughed, "Often times the simplest solutions are right in front of you, and yet just out of sight. Do not blame yourself for your oversight, as I said, you are still young so a mistake such as this is expected."

"I guess your right. I just can't believe it. I've traveled to countless dojo's at this point and have seen masters training their students hundreds of times, and yet the thought never even occurred to me." Callum said with a tired voice.

The god simply smiled at that, before suddenly his head jerked up and he looked to the north. His eyes narrowed. "I apologize Callum, but I will have to cut our conversation short, there seems to be an... old friend heading this way. He must have sensed my awakening and our fight. I wish you luck in your endeavor, and hope to battle you again once you've grown."

Before Callum could even ask if that was all the questions he had, the Aztec God had zipped off, traveling miles away from him in seconds.

"Huh. Well, that was kind of abrupt. Oh well, I'm sure we'll meet again some day. But for now, I need to look into buying some property and getting a license to teach. Do you even need one of those to teach martial arts? Eh, I'll just find out when I get back to New York." Callum said, and began running toward his home state with renewed vigor.

---------------------------------------

Meanwhile

Unbeknownst to Callum, rumor's of the "Invincible Superhuman" had spread throughout the martial arts community. Every dojo he had defeated, and every reclusive hermit he had fought, had began to train harder than ever, pushing their body and martial arts to their limits. Martial artists across the globe began to gain strength at a speed never before seen and there was a sudden spike in news reports on superhuman activity.

Footage of men jumping from roof to roof, or punching walls apart, or casually running beside cars started to sprout up every where. It was happening so often now that people began to realize that it wasn't just some sort of mass media prank, but rather it was the real deal.

On the supernatural side of things, there was a sudden drop in attacks on Demigods, Magicians, and others of the like from various pantheons. This was due to monsters from all over the world shifting their focus from killing/hunting things to training in hopes of becoming strong enough to kill the "mere mortal" who had defeated them so easily. Of course, this only applied to the intelligent monsters. Creatures like the Chimera who wasn't smart enough to know what training was continued on with it's usual routine of hunting Demigods.

This was nothing however, when compared to the growth of a certain cow monster, who, after years of training his art and fighting the Invincible Superhuman, had finally reached the grandmaster class of skill. And upon hearing that his rival was planning on opening a dojo, he immediately did the same, determined to prove that even if he wasn't yet strong enough to defeat him in single combat, his students would be.

---------------------------------------

Sorry this one took so long to put out. I had originally written this with Callum fighting a different god, but changed my mind so I had to rewrite it halfway through, hence why it took so long.

Anyway, If anyone here hasn't read Kenichi and didn't understand what things like "Master class" were, then I will summarize it here, but leave the detailed explanation for later when Callum explains it to his students.

Low-Class Disciple- Athlete level

Mid-Class Disciple- Almost Olympic level, this is where most martial artists where before Callum

High-Class Disciple- Peak human/borderline superhuman, this is where most of the weak monsters are

Expert Class- Superhuman, this is where most of the martial arts "masters" are at now after fighting Callum and training

Low-Class Master- Superhuman, have mastered their martial art to a certain extent, this is where most of the strong monsters are

Master Class- Superhuman, have truly mastered their martial art, this is the level of the strongest monster Callum has faced

Grandmaster Class- High level superhuman, they have not only mastered their martial art, but have advanced it and created their own style, this is where the Minotaur is with his Krav Maga.

Advanced-Grandmaster Class- Even stronger than the last class, they have mastered and improved multiple martial art styles.

Legendary Master- The level where they can easily move at hundreds of times the speed of sound, these guys have mastered and improved upon multiple martial arts while also creating their own. This is Callums current level. These guys are almost as powerful as a minor god in their true form and have a decent chance of taking one down.'

Callum is the reincarnation of an old Kenichi who had already beaten the elder and likely not only learned the legendary 108 techniques, but also created his own techniques on the same level. That's where things like the Boshiken and Shaori come from, they are moves Kenichi had created and Callum is remembering.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Leave any criticism you may have, but please be polite about it. Comment as often as possible, as comments are what motivate me to keep writing.