Jackson's eyes widened as she closed in on him in seconds and barely brought up his sword as she slashed down. He grunted as his knees almost buckled, the ground underneath giving way like wet sand. She wasn't letting up though as she thrust her left knife forward, watching as Percy glanced at it and made to possibly knock her hand off course with his free hand.
It was a feint.
Half-way her stab stopped and out from behind it her swinging left leg appeared. With no time to bloke Jackson took the full brunt of a devastating side-kick to the ribs and much to Artemis' glee, she felt the cracking of bone. The blow followed through as Percy was sent careening back, his body skipping like a flat stone and carving up the surface of the moon as Artemis gave chase.
She caught up to him before he could even stop and could only place a guard up as Artemis flipped her right knife into a reverse grip before driving that hand into a downward punch, slamming into his crossed arms, driving him into the ground. She could see him wince slightly but before she could keep the pressure his eyes narrowed on her.
His arms opened the guard and instead of grabbing her right hand with his own right like she would have expected, instead she felt a knee get driven into the side of her inner left thigh.
Grunting as she stumbled to the side with the unexpected blow, she watched as he kicked up backwards only to end in a peculiar hand-stand. However she didn't even have time to question the unorthodox stance before he spun his legs around in a windmill fashion, his left foot slamming into her shoulder and punting her back.
The force wasn't enough to blow her off her feet or anything but it didn't make her slide back enough for him to regain his footing, breathing harder as his Viking sword remained trained at his left side. She readied her own weapons, having already learned the hard way that relaxing even slightly would lead to further injury on her part. They stayed in silence for several minutes, neither moving before suddenly Percy rushed her.
She met his charge, her knives colliding against his sword as they strained against each other, their faces barely a foot or two apart. They struggled against each other, both glaring with hatred in their eyes.
"You know, I always wondered," Percy began, suddenly speaking up as they continued in their stalemate. "… Why was it that you were so willing to follow Poseidon's orders?"
"Wha-?" she was about to ask, caught off guard by the sudden question but that lapse in concentration proved painful as in that moment a fist was plowed into her gut, winding her as she slide back.
She coughed as she looked back at him, spitting out a wad of ichor as he continued on even as he slowly lowered his right fist.
"I used to think maybe it was some irrational hatred on your part, what with me having saved you several times. What, did you think I'd take advantage of such a debt, that I would be a typical, piggish male?" he asked with a sneer as he slowly started to paced, circling her as she stood in place. "Come on Arty," he said in a near drawl as his eyes glowed with cold amusement as she grit her teeth, her face following him. "What makes you tick?"
Artemis remained silent for a while, watching as he circled like a predator already sure of having caught his prey. The ease in his posture, the tone of his voice, way his eyes looked at her. She wanted to rip it all apart … but until then, maybe she could get some things off her chest.
"You were a threat," she finally said as her grip tightened around her knives.
"Oh?" he responded with a pause, one eyebrow quirked up.
"After Zoe, I couldn't risk other hunters becoming 'friends' with you only for it to get worse," she continued in a seething voice as she glared holes into him. "I wouldn't stand for losing them to you!" she suddenly shouted as she attacked, coming in with an overhead swing
Percy saw it though and sidestepped it, the edges of her knives almost grazing his side as he swung at her and connected, the edge of his sword biting into side of her suite but failing to cut past the micro-scales within it in time. Not wanting to risk another direct hit that might get passed her armor, she jumped back, clearing several dozen feet before landing with her eyes trained on him.
"That suite's tougher than it looks," he idly commented as he glanced down at the small cut just below her ribs before looking to her face. "But really? You didn't want to risk your hunters being tempted? And I thought you'd let them leave willingly if they so wished?"
Her silence was his answer but he didn't seem to care as he continued on.
"Hmm, I could see how that might work out but still, to go so far as to commit unprovoked murder, that's a little far even for you," he said he patted the right side of his ribs with his free hand, nodding to himself.
She internally cursed at that, now knowing that he likely already healed from the fractured ribs just as her own busted lip along with the slight dizziness her earlier head injury had caused. This fight would take longer than she initially thought.
"Still, to murder my mother in cold blood, what could you possibly gain from that?" he asked, his voice becoming colder.
Artemis frowned slightly at the question before replying softly, "I do regret killing your mother but …" she said as her voice hardened as she aimed her knives at him. "It had to be done and if I was ordered to do it again, I would."
Percy snarled at that and lunged at her, his sword coming down in a slash that she managed to bloke even as her legs threatened to buckle, the ground shattering beneath her.
"You have some nerve goddess," he growled as he slowly started to push her back.
"She was the fool!" Artemis replied through grit teeth. "She should have known that gods never give up what's there's and Poseidon was no different!" she shouted as she gave a heave, managing to break their lock if only to rapidly backtrack and avoid getting her face cut.
"And what? So then you just followed orders like a good little bitch!?" he shouted back as he punched where she'd just been standing, shaking the very moon with the force of the blow.
"I did her a favor," Artemis replied as she charged at him, again going into a flurry of slashes. "If I didn't do it, anyone else might have been sent such as Ares. Would you have preferred that!?" she retorted and actually saw Percy pause in his attack before jumping back.
His eyes were trained on her as he seemed to be in thought, Artemis keeping her guard up and preparing for any sort of attack.
"Perhaps," he said lowly before narrowing his eyes at her. "And Paul, what about him?" he asked.
"Irrelevant," Artemis dismissed off hand only to hear a low growl from primordial.
"Guess I couldn't expect any different. Then again, I considered Phoebe irrelevant as well."
"Don't you dare!" she yelled as she rushed him again, wanting nothing more than to silence him before anything else could be said.
"She was just a nuisance and chew toy more than anything," he continued, tilting his head just out of reach of a quick stab before responding with a right cross.
She tried to bloke it but didn't expect the force behind it, feeling her bracer actually groan from the hit as she was forced to jump back or otherwise get blown off her feet. She steadied herself as she glared at the dark god, gritting her teeth as he dared to call Phoebe nothing more than a chew toy.
"And you know what Artemis?" Percy asked as he gave her a dark grin. "Phoebe didn't even get to go to the Underworld."
"W-What?" Artemis asked, almost too surprised to block Percy's sudden rush, his sword colliding between her crossed knives as he looked at her.
"Oh no. After knowing she was your accomplice and when she tried to shoot Andromeda before I could take her, there was no way I was going to give her such an honor," he said before leaning closer to the point she could feel his cooled breath. "I had a cell in Tartarus with her name on it," he continued making her gasp which only made his grin grow.
"Sadly her soul only lasted about a month under The Tartarus' tender care before it shattered and dissolved into nothing!" he shouted before ramming his head forward, slamming it into her nose and then delivering a punishing kick in the gut.
She rocketed through the empty space, covering several hundred meters before finally impacting the unforgiving ground. She shakily stood up as she recovered her breath, her hair obscuring her eyes as she played back on his words and Phoebe's apparent fate. Her frame started to shake with barely controlled rage as her mind tortured her with all manner of possible sufferings endured by her dead lover. Every scenario more sick and twisted then the last until … something snapped.
Her frame exploded with pure power, a silver wave of destruction following as the moon glowed and shook to mirror her.
"JACKSON!" she roared before she blasted forward in little more than a silvery blur.
She barely noticed Percy's eyes widening a how quickly she'd closed in on him. He placed his blade to guard but it did little as her glowing fist barreled into it, buckling back as his arms gave under the force.
She didn't let up as her knives reappeared in her hands, her left swing at his face as he tilted back but still she managed to cut him along the cheek. Her right came with a thrust and collided with shoulder, right over that jacket of darkness and was met with a sound almost like pierced metal before seeing a spurt of platinum ichor.
Going by his surprised gasp of pain, she knew he'd expected full protection. Using his pain as a distraction she made another slash at his middle, scrapping along the coat but managing to cut in the middle where only his shirt was with another splash of silvery ichor and then another kick to drive him back.
"You should have kept your mouth shut Jackson," she said in a seething voice as she jumped back, her knives disappearing in motes of silver before a blinding glow encompassed her hands. "Because now I'm not just going to kill you but rip apart that mountain and every single person on it!" she screamed as the light faded to reveal a bow.
Unlike her usual bow made of blessed silver, this one looked like it was made of actual, solid moonlight giving off an eerie glow. It had a celestial bronze grip and guard over her knuckles along with a string of woven celestial bronze and solid moonlight. Spanning nearly twenty feet in length from end to end and sporting razor blades along the outer edges, the weapon gave off a pressure that only a symbol of power could.
Without another word she trained the bow on Percy as he recovered his breath, posture immediately falling into millennia of mastery and use as an arrow of moonlight and divine power formed. Percy met her eyes as he looked up at her but she gave nothing away as she let loose. The arrow flew faster than even most immortal eyes could perceive and yet, she saw his arm blur and catch the arrow just before it could pierce his chest even as his feet tore through the group as the force bled off.
He looked like he was going to say something, maybe even taunt her further. However before he could even get a word out the arrow glowed brighter and right as he looked at it…
Boom!
The explosion was comparable to a three metric ton payload, shaking the ground even beneath her feet as dust blocked out the dark god. However she wasn't about to wait for him to recover in any shape of form and soon had another arrow ready.
She let loose and watched as the silver streak smashed into the dust cloud and quickly detonating. In the middle of it she saw a dark silhouette move and kept firing. In and out it moved but she just increase the rate of fire, her own arms blurring as arrow after arrow was launched, carpet bombing the land before her.
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Don't forget to throw some power Stones, to keep the story going.
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