DA : Chapter 92: Hunter Turned Hunted IV

"Do you really think you can face me, monster?" Artemis asked as she readied her knives. She may have been cut off from her full power but she'd still managed to get over half.

"I don't think," Medusa quipped before suddenly lunging forward in a burst of shadow only to materialize in front of Artemis. "I know…"

...

Quicker than Artemis expected, Medusa slammed a fist into Artemis' gut doubling her over and making her spit up ichor but Medusa wasn't anywhere finished with that.

The very force of the blow blew the rain away around them before Medusa kept pushing up and unceremoniously launched Artemis skyward. She only got to glance up at the dark and stormy clouds before she felt a bitingly cold chain wrap around her waist. She couldn't even see before she was violently tugged down only to meet the unforgivingly hard ground.

Boom!

A the size of a small pool formed around Artemis along with setting off a miniature earthquake, her entire body screaming in protest of the pain as her vision went in and out of focus.

She could hear her own blood pumping, water pooling around her as she fought through the pain to take stock of her injuries. A flash of pain in her lower back was not a good sign at all.

"Hello?" Medusa called mockingly as she leaned over the edge and looked at Artemis with unrestrained glee. "Don't tell me that was all you had Arty. For shame. Keep this up and there won't be a Hunt left to go back to."

What did she—?

Artemis gasped as she felt it. One of her hunters just died. She focused on her link to them for a moment and that was all she needed to feel their panic and fear. There were some in pain too, their desperate prayers for help coming to her before some were violently silence.

Artemis felt tears stinging at her eyes before her fury returned as she looked at the grinning Medusa. How dare that bitch taunt her as her hunters were killed!? Her anger knew no bounds as she grit her teeth and started to get up, ignoring her body's protests.

"I'm going to skin you alive," Artemis growled as she forced herself to her feet even as a faint crack sounded from her back.

Her hair was matted with ichor, her clothes in tatters, and one of her knives looked like it was close to breaking … but she didn't care in the slightest. All that mattered was making Medusa suffer so with that in mind, Artemis pumped the power of her gathered essence she'd managed to collect from her core into her muscles and senses.

Her body partially healed and strengthened even further with her conscious effort to turn it into offensive capabilities. Her eyes were visibly glowing as she looked at the now stoic Medusa, said monster tightening her grip on her knives.

Artemis kept their gazes locked for another few seconds before her legs twitched. As if dual bullets finally fired, they launched at each other with knives ready. They met in a mighty clash, sparks flying as Artemis glared into the eyes of Medusa.

They didn't speak as they separated only for a second before meeting again. Artemis swiped her knives, every strike lethal in nature but Medusa expertly kept tab with each, using not only the knives but the chains to block and deflect every attack.

It was a dance of death with sparks being the only marker of their blades clashing as they moved throughout the clearing. One moment Artemis was ducking as Medusa lashed out with a roundhouse kick, smashing through the tree that had been behind the goddess.

The next Artemis recovered brought her knives together into an X fashion to cut Medusa's exposed back but in the nick of time the monster brought a chain up taut, stopping her knives flat. Artemis didn't pause though, even as she felt another hunter die making her angrier.

She rolled to the side avoiding an overhead kick that caused another small explosion of pressure pushing away the rain from the combating duo. 'This is ridiculous!' Artemis thought as her hands shook from holding the knives for so long with the impact. Medusa's strength was about on par with that of Hercules before he became a god, and even then his strength was monstrous.

The fact that Medusa was keeping up with her, the strongest goddess of Olympus by a slight margin over Athena, was blood curdling. If Umbra had even a dozen fighters capable of this level of combat, without including himself, then this war was going to be nothing short of a bloodbath.

"Food for thought goddess?" Medusa quipped as she jumped over Artemis and spun around for a kick which Artemis blocked with the back of her wrist. A decision that she was coming to regret quickly judging by the throbbing pain following it.

"Just shut up," she spat venomously as she reversed the grip on her knives and lunged forward, missing Medusa's hip by the skin of her teeth.

"Oh come now, no playful banter?" Medusa asked as she back-flipped out of Artemis' range. "Jeez, so uptight. Tell me, was the eternal maiden thing by choice or was it because no guy could stand you long enough to bother getting into your panties?"

"Shut up!" she bellowed as she threw a wild hook from her right, crushing the boulder that had been behind Medusa.

"Only lover you found was a girl literally stuck with you via oath … can that count as a marriage making you a widow?" Medusa asked with a giggle even as she threw her left knife too quick for Artemis to properly track. It sliced past her shoulder with a chilling sting.

"You're so lucky my freezing curse is minor compared to my lord's. How is Deimos by the way?"

Artemis ignored her as she jumped back for some distance before she pressed a hand over the stinging cut, blasting it with a wave of raw divine energy and basically cauterizing the cut while nullifying the curse.

"How did you know about him?" Artemis asked through grit teeth as she returned to a combat pose.

"Oh we have our ways," was the cryptic reply. "Just as we knew that you and your baby brother are planning on running a taxi service for the little whelps."

'They know, how? Is there another traitor?' Artemis wondered before she rushed forward with a flurry of slashes.

Medusa parried most but a few got through, cutting Medusa's cheek and the lower end of her ribs to the left side making the monster click her teeth in irritation. Artemis kept the pressure though and jumped, her knee flying forward, forcing Medusa to block it but she was too late and Artemis' knee struck her cheek, the force sending her skidding back.

Artemis landed back with a slight smirk, pleased at finally getting some damage on the monster woman. Medusa was surprisingly strong but in the end, there were gaps in power between the monstrous and divine that Medusa couldn't hope to match.

Besides, it was only a matter of time before the other Olympians noticed Artemis disappearing if they hadn't already and breaking down the barrier. Then Artemis would unleash her full fury on Medusa and make sure the bitch wouldn't reform for a century at least.

With that in mind she focused on the oddly silent monster before her eyes widened at the sight. Where she expected the usual dark, nearly black blood of wounded monsters, Medusa's was golden just like hers. Artemis gapped, unable to understand how was it that Medusa had ichor running through her veins.

Too caught up in her surprise she barely noticed that Medusa suddenly closed the distance to her.

"You really shouldn't get distracted little goddess," Medusa said, her voice devoid of the prior mirth.

Before Artemis could react Medusa spun on her heal and delivered a devastating kick to Artemis' gut, an audible snap and pressure wave erupting off the contact before she was launched several meters through trees and rocks alike before finally crashing into the muddy ground.

Artemis gasped for air as she turned over and got onto wobbly feet, her head spinning as she started to lean more to her left side. She was about to turn when she screamed as one of Medusa' knives pierced her shin from behind, dropping the goddess to her knees.

She heard Medusa's steps over the rain and tried to muster the strength to stand but after pushing herself to the limits imposed by the barrier, she was nearly spent. She couldn't stop another scream as the knife was violently ripped out before a hand grabbed her hair and yanked her face up.

"My lord," she heard Medusa purr as Artemis forced her eyes open to a surprising sight.

Merely a few feet in front of her was Lupa, still in her human form, but what was more surprising was the tall man besides her looking down at Artemis coldly.

He wore a hooded coat reaching to the back of his thighs that seemed to writhe with darkness, only his lower jaw and strange, flaming black eyes with icy pupils were visible to her. Looking into those eyes so full of utter hatred directed at her made her shiver, feeling so weak and vulnerable beneath his gaze.

"Umbra …" she tried to growl but it came out almost as a whimper, unsure of just how she knew but those eyes immediately connected to that name.

He didn't speak, as if she was unworthy of even being acknowledged by him beyond simply being looked at. How it stung her already wounded pride but her body was exhausted at this point, her energy taking a dip with every hunter she felt die.

He gave her a once over before shaking his head and turning away, showing Artemis another shocking feature. Feathered wings, so dark that they seemed to drain the last dregs of light left underneath the raging storm, and radiating a cold that even at a slight distance she could feel it numbing her face.

Umbra spread them, squatting his knees slightly before blasting off into the darkened skies and with a mighty beat, burst into darkness without a trace. Artemis kept her eyes on the spot Umbra disappeared before she looked to Lupa as she shuffled closer.

"I don't know whether you are lucky or not that the master didn't want to kill you yet," she said with a sigh before glaring down at Artemis. "But your time will come little hunter," she spat with disgust while raising her fist.

"This is for every roman demigod killed before his time thanks to your misguided judgement and that band of barbarians you tug around. Pups that I reared and trained to make New Rome proud. Say high to your family for me."

Then her fist struck Artemis right across the temple, jarring her skull as Medusa released her hair. She fell limp, unable to get back up. She was tired, cold, hurt … and scared. Nearly out of sight she watched as Medusa and Lupa walked away, dissolving into shadow just like their master had.

Idly she felt the barrier disappear and only moments later felt the arrival of several Olympians, her father and brother yelling for her. She felt them getting closer, heard their footsteps splashing in the rain and mud, before unconsciousness took her…

...

( POV [???] )

From his throne he sat, watching as servants and advisors alike moved about before him. They muttered lowly, none daring to raise their eyes to him … as was their place.

Diminutive and weak, but useful in their own ways. Yet, it was the fact that he needed them to act as proxies for the time being that enraged him. Titans, his siblings in a sense, being born after The Cataclysm to his mother, Gaea.

At least these ones had some modicum of power and intelligence unlike his other siblings, the Elder Cyclops and Hundred-Handed Ones. To think that their mightiest had been the incomplete fool known as Typhon. Why his mother ever even tolerated the reject's existence he would never know.

At least that was one thing that new council, those usurpers, had done right in ridding the world of that stain. Regardless he would see them cut down soon enough. Their mercy and unwillingness to fight at full power in order to spare the mortal world would be their undoing.

For now though, it would simply do to gain some more fodder and maybe a few key individuals. With that in mind he turned his gaze to the far side of his massive throne room, spotting a particular man studying over a world map.

"Koios," he called, his voice booming with authority making the man straighten up and turn to him.

He was tall in his natural form, towering at twenty feet without even assuming his divine form. Coppery skin, startlingly bright green eyes, a trimmed, black beard to match his short cut hair along his sculpted jawline.

Broad chested and well-muscled, dressed simply in a white tunic, slacks, and drakon leather boots. Koios, Titanic god of Heavenly Bodies and Intellect, one of his newest and best strategists.

"You called … my lord," Koios replied, looking troubled in having to address him as such.

'No matter, he'll learn proper loyalty soon enough,' the lord thought as he waved the titan over.

"Tell me, how favorable would the previously discussed alliance work?" he asked as he leaned down slightly to loom over the smaller god.

"With the recent attack on the Olympians, it would seem that Poseidon would be more open to negotiation," Koios replied dutifully.

"His armies are still gathering though there is rumor of discontent amongst his court and the presence of Oceanus on the edges of his territory is causing a stir with some of the merfolk. Waiting would have two possible outcomes.

Either he allies to us and calms his people while focusing on the new council or he goes against which could lead to a civil war if Oceanus pushes further, using the already tense court of sea nobles against Poseidon but that would result in loss of potential forces and resources for us."

"Hmm … what a choice," he murmured as he scratched his long beard, his swirling blue eyes moving to look through the crystal ceiling of his throne room.

Above he could see all manner of sea life swimming across the frigid waters of the north, the occasional whale or monster passing overhead.

"Send an emissary under a white banner and tell Oceanus to come here. We will try to parley but if negotiations fail then we can get a little more … aggressive," he continued before glancing down at Koios.

The titan gave a curt bow and turned to leave, milling through the throngs of servants as they raced about to give maps, messages, and even food to his gathered military heads. He watched this all, his thoughts already planning on how to move Poseidon to his side…

===================

Don't forget to throw some power Stones, to keep the story going.

...

if you want to support me or just to read ahead of the public release, you can join my p@treon :

p atreon/Moonhorse