Contented with the trouncing dispensed, Thor ceases his assault on Ky, using the hammer to bring his momentum to a halt. Boots digging into the dirt, a flick of wrist sees him catch the mallet by the handle, trying his best to shake off the rust he’d developed from not fighting with the weapon for so long a time. He’d had centuries of practice, but it took a mere few months to see his proficiency with hammers dull.

With the other confined to the ground, inviting a challenge, what’s shown of Thor’s bearded face is an impassive mask, unreadable. He could fight Ky, indicate to him what it meant to meddle with a god and the consequences it entailed– but still he grapples with the notion, weighing both sides. It’d certainly feel good to put Ky in his place, but at the same time he’d be playing right into his hands by doing what was expected of him.

Thus, Thor takes a third option, where he favours some easily forgotten shred of moral high ground, selectively rolled out when it suited him. “Whether you shed your human guise or not will not matter. Any such contest will be over within seconds of starting, the victor easily decided– and it will not be YOU.” Regaining confidence in his abilities was still a work in process, but he had made enough strides to at least operate at the level of giving warnings; even if all that had changed was that he held a new fancy hammer in hand, and had his battered pride patched up and healed.

“I will strike you dead where you stand, Ky’lar. Consider this your only warning.”

_{“Doubtful.” Ky thought in this instance, he could defeat the other – it would just take a slight amount of planning. More importantly, it was the thrill of the fight that he was going for; to know that he could take on someone and not be worried about it ending in three seconds flat.}

_{Maybe he should have had higher aspirations, but quite frankly, he didn’t see why they were needed. If it kept him from lashing out, why not take on a God? It wasn’t like he had anything better to do and maybe he’d get some sort of recognition from his family. Maybe then he’d finally be accepted. Maybe then…. he’d finally not be terrified of going back to his grandfather’s realm anymore.}

_{“Many have tried and many have failed, Thor. The one who will come out victorious will be me. It always will be and want to know why? I won’t hold back or stop just because of morality… i will win because I need to. Because it’s the only thing I can do.” A pause. “Failure is not and is never an option…. least of all when you’re involved.”}