Chapter 5. The Princess

The Queen of the Amazons, Hipolyta, had just been alerted on the presence of a man in Themyscira, and the mysterious appearance and disappearance of a peculiar building.

Man was not to set foot in the Paradise Islands, and she wondered how that had happened.

The first thing she did was obvious, and the second necessary. She first forbade Princess Diana from recklessly pursuing the unknown assailant. Then she ordered her warriors to pursue and capture the man using any means necessary.

As a third, she ordered the instant execution of the man if he proved to be indomitable. (This one kinda stuck in their minds more).

Going back to the first - Princess Diana. Just like any other princess (especially from the Disney World), Diana was bull-headed, and not one to follow each and every of her mother's instructions.

[Princess Diana: Images & GIFs]

She was strong and powerful, just like any other warrior in Themyscira. She had been trained from childhood, under the best warriors at the time. This made her arguably the most resilient woman in the Paradise Islands.

Being the half-daughter of a god also made her a woman of wonder among the Amazons. But there were just a few minor problems with everything I have pointed out above.

For one, she always wondered why she was training so much when there was no war to fight, with the last war dating back to a thousand years. Her combat skills were top-notch. She was a master of the blade, and had already mastered the art of bullets and bracelets.

Using her bracelets, she could deflect any projectiles that came her way with just a swift movement of her hands. But apart from sparring with her friends, how would she productively put these skills to work.

She had long hoped that one day she would become an emissary to man's world and finally get some action, but she didn't know when that would happen. But, this new situation presented a new front for her.

There was a man running away from Themyscira, to the shores of the Paradise Islands.

Do you know how much excitement that gave her? She actually had a chance to fight someone who was entirely different from the Amazons, with some potentially dangerous tricks up his sleeve. But her mother was forbidding it!

That was the second problem. The Queen went crazy hard on her on the training ground but pampered her during the least desirable circumstances. She wouldn't (for the life of her!) let Diana experience any sense of danger even when there were thousands of warriors surrounding her.

But that was her mother, and Diana was used to all her smothering, in not-so-appropriate circumstances. Diana however understood what it meant to be a princess in Themyscira, and a gift from the sand.

She knew it would make the queen angry for a few days, but that didn't stop her from mounting her horse and rushing to fight the mysterious man on the island.

She followed the warriors broadly and roared as they did while heading for the lake with their armor and guard on.

When they reached the cliff surrounding the massive water body, Diana caught the traces of the man swimming at Godspeed towards Lake's forest that led to the shore.

"He must be strong." She found herself admiring as she watched his powerful strokes under the water. His momentum was causing ripples towards the surface, creating a disturbance that followed his movement to land.

He looked like a missile shot directly from a submarine and about to collide to the lower slope of the lake, on the opposite side of Themyscira.

She was impressed, and she wanted to engage in combat with him, and defeat him.

The Amazon Warriors were valiantly shooting arrows at him, which she found to be justifiable, but hoped that the man would survive.

By Aphrodite's Law, which ruled the island, the Amazons would be immortal as long as no man set foot on their island. And if a man did, the penalty was death, which happened to be the current situation with Wan.

She directed her horse towards a shortcut to the lower slopes of the island and raced, hoping to meet the man who had the guts to appear, not on the shores, but on the outskirts of Themyscira itself - city of the Amazons.

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I had never felt so alive as I swam towards the edge of the lake, knowing that I was racing to my death. A barrage of projectiles was still firing at me and it only made my movements harder.

I survived most of the arrows and spears that grazed me or tore into my body, and to avoid getting any critical hits, I avoided swimming straight. I randomized my movements, making myself a harder target fro the archers, but still focused on getting to the edge.

Regrets and desires still flashed in my mind, giving me more strength to push past the dense water and increase my speed. My body accelerated, and before I knew it, I came crashing to the soft bank head-on.

I remember the crash being so powerful that it sent a devastating shockwave through the entire lower slope. The Amazon Warriors that had been waiting for me were left in disarray as they hovered in the air due to the loss off balance.

But most regretfully, my head had smashed into the earth blocking the Lake's water, creating a massive hole that penetrated into the forest. My shoulders had however stopped me from being sucked far into it.

[Ridiculous Moment: Images & GIFs]

It was a miracle that my skull didn't get obliterated from the impact, but I guess I was that strong. I used my hands and legs to pull myself back into the lake as the water rushed to occupy the space in the hole.

I didn't feel woozy, but I felt a significant drain in my strength. But, on the bright side, I had finally made it to the shores of the lake!

I swam to the surface and pulled out of the lake. Arrows had stopped flying towards me as the warriors observed the impact I had caused. The water in the lake was bombarding against itself and the cliff violently, causing a splashing turbulence. Some of the trees had even fallen down from the tremble that had resulted from the impact.

Most of the warriors on the Lake's forest were down, and so were their horses. They were recollecting themselves as they scampered in search of their weapons.

Their instincts were telling them that this was no ordinary man, and they had to up their game. They were fighting a god!

I squeezed the water from my clothes and stretched my neck. I clenched my fists and stretched my back and legs. I knew my demonstration of power didn't put me in the best situation as they would now find me more exciting to fight.

I was the challenge that had been waiting for, for a thousand years.

But my biggest concern was getting to the other side of the forest in front of me, and I would do whatever it took to get there.

I pulled out several arrows from my body and removed my tie, wrapping it around my leg. Hopefully, it could stop my bleeding, even though it couldn't make the pain disappear.

The warriors on the cliff behind me were rounding up with their horses to gather in the forest. I could tell that much from their battle cry.

The ones before me were getting back in formation, ready to pounce on me with their thirsty blades.

Earlier, I would have been more than happy to surrender, knowing that I could weasel my way out intellectually. But from everything I had just experienced, I wanted to do nothing less of breaking some bones and snapping some necks.

If there was any possibility of a negotiation, it would be after half of the Amazons had paid the price for trying to kill me.

Why did I feel so confident at this point?

I had just remembered something that had happened to me while walking down the stairs. The purple light that had appeared strangely had given me a message, and an object.

The coin toss allowed me some sort of technique, although I wasn't sure what that meant. In any case, I was no longer in a simple world, which meant that anything was possible.

I put my hand in my pocket and searched for the coin I had collected after the purple light had disappeared.

Holding the coin with my fingers, I observed the engravings on it once more. The black wolf, and the silver eye.

What did they mean?

I had gotten some super attributes, and I wondered what came with tossing the coin.

"I guess one of this symbols represents the technique I'll get?" I thought as I flipped the coin back and forth.

"How do I do this?" I wondered. "Do I just flip the coin, and then, something happens?"

The sounds of heavy footsteps charging towards me freaked me out a bit, and without thinking any further, I tossed the coin to the air.