Her right arm, covered in little nicks and cuts sailed forward, the fist brimming with silver divine energy in a wild cross. Her senses pushed to the limit she watched as her fist moved closer to his face, a speck of hope blossoming in her injured chest as she saw the distance closing.
Until … he made eye contact with her.
...
She saw it all and could do nothing to react in time. The way he tilted his head just enough so her fist just barely grazed his cheek, the skin steaming from the contact of opposing divine power before he turned towards her fist while opening his mouth.
She watched as those fangs radiating an icy mist became apparent as he pulled back his lips and opened his mouth further than a human should. She watched in horror as his mouth moved over her armored wrist before he gave her a side-glance and then…
Crunch!
"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!" she screamed in agony as those fangs pierced through the armor forged by Hephaestus himself, the bracers cracking and caving as Percy increased the pressure, ichor splattering and dripping out of the broken armor.
However it didn't end there as Percy suddenly pulled back like a dog playing tug of war, hauling her off her feet and up as he flicked his head before viciously bringing it down. She could only copy a ragdoll as she felt the bones in her wrist and forearm snap under the sudden tug, bits of broken celestial bronze flying around as she slammed into the ground with a resounding boom. Still not done she felt another pull but couldn't scream with empty lungs as she was flung away like discarded trash.
It had all happened within a few seconds.
Her body rolled and crashed, every hit only agitating her injuries further until she finally pulled to a stop. Her breathing was scratchy and labored making her cough up ichor. Her body screamed even if she didn't move and she'd lost all feeling below her elbow on the right arm but that was almost a blessing in a way.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Just hearing him approach made her nearly start to hyperventilate as she slowly turned her head in his direction, seeing him walking so calmly from several hundred meters away, his eyes finding hers in that moment.
Then she blinked as there was a blur of darkness.
And he was standing right before her, towering over her. She didn't even try to suppress the scream of terror as it erupted from her throat but it never made it passed her lips as his left hand clamped around her jaw, his claws digging into her cheeks as the skin started to dull and numb, cracking with the first signs of frostbite as she helplessly thrashed in his grip. He slowly picked her up even as she kicked at his frame but he wouldn't even budge or seem to notice the hits.
Then, she stopped as he started to chuckle, the deep sound echoing with the prominent growl within it, making her shudder in fear as she looked at him. His chuckling then stopped as he looked at her, his feral features smoothing out before he spoke up.
"Well goddess, you're certainly in a pitiful state if I do say so myself," he said while glancing down at her mangled arm as more ichor pooled beneath her. He snorted before looking at her again.
"Normally I'm not the type to go and play with my prey or even talk like this but what can I say? You don't spend fifty years in Tartarus being trained by two of the eldest primordial and not develop a sadistic side which sadly, is all focused on you." He then paused as he looked her up and down again, but this time the way he did made her shudder in a new form of fear. "Now what else to do to you, hmm?"
He gave her a small grin. It was quick and easy, as if done after saying an innocent joke and meant to relax her. It did no such thing as her struggling started again and as she did so, he started talking again.
"Jumping the gun there, aren't we? Well, I can't blame you seeing as how we both know how gods are. Insatiable. We just have this near chronic need to fulfill all manner of desires. To take, to conquer, to show our dominion … and to fuck as we please," he added with a deep, throaty growl that made her shudder in a completely different way much to her horror as Percy grinned.
"Would you look at that? Even in these circumstances, there is some tiny piece that reacts with that inner animal we all have and well, even I can't deny that you're very attractive but …" he trailed off before her face was pulled closer as he snarled, his icy blue pupils glowing with a harsh light. "Even the thought of touching you of all beings in such a way disgusts me!"
He finished that with tossing her away but she didn't let herself just fall back like the last time. That had been too close and the new sense of desperation to kill him and adrenaline was giving her a second wind.
Instead she rolled with it and managed to fall on her feet, freeing up her hands as she started to condense as much divine power as she could between her arms, uncaring of the mangled, frostbitten sight of her right forearm. The silvery orb started to rapidly form, spinning in itself. The pressure started to build around her as sweat coated her brow and the very ground started to crack beneath her feet.
She glanced up and could see him, having paused in his walk as his eyes zeroed in on the forming attack before he looked to her face and smirked again.
Just seeing it turned whatever remained of her earlier fear into anger as she pumped more and more of her power into the veritable bomb she was forming, not caring if she took a good chunk of the moon with it. When her arms were shaking from trying to contain the power she knew it was time and with a last mental command, condensed the orb from being bigger than her head to a ball barely big enough to cover the palm of her left hand.
She clutched onto it and nearly fell over as the sheer density of the power pulled her entire left side down before she grunted as she hefted it like a soft ball about to be pitched.
With that she returned her attention to Percy and nearly shrieked when he again appeared right before her … but that wasn't it. She'd made to throw it, irrelevant that she would be in the blast too but then his own right hand lashed forward and clamped down on her left hand … keeping the orb pressed between both their hands. She could only give him a disbelieving glance before the orb started to glow a blinding light and then everything went white…
BOOM!
Pain. She didn't know if she was sent careening above the ground, impacting it, how much time had passed, or even if she'd been blown to pieces. All there was, was pain. Her ears were ringing and her vision constantly came in and out of focus.
Then, ever so slowly things started to come into focus and she could see the void above her save for the Earth itself, floating on peacefully. However she then noticed what looked like chunks of rock floating around along with a massive dust cloud. Turning her head she saw that it lead to massive crater possibly a mile away, enormous chunks of broken and steaming rock floating around it or higher off the ground with fissures spreading all around.
But there was something more important that she noticed, or more accurately, no longer noticed. The pressure … it was gone. She extended her senses and nothing! The cold gripping her had vanished. Suddenly, she felt a slight rumbling in her chest before her numbed and cracked lips started to tremble.
"He … hehe … he-haha …"
She started to giggle and laugh, sounding broken even to her own ears but she didn't care. He was gone! She'd done it! She could only thank her lucky stars that her own power couldn't harm her as much as it would someone else and now Percy had paid for it with his arrogance! Oh she couldn't wait to return down to Earth and parade the fact before taking her time to rip apart that damn mountain. But for now she would simply laugh and savor her victory, uncaring of the pain she felt or how exhausted she was and it lasted for several minutes…
"What's so funny?"
Her laughter stopped dead as she heard that voice, her own heart nearly stopping. Slowly and in disbelief she turned her head back in the direction of the massive dust cloud, now seeing a dark silhouette walking out. Soon Percy was revealed calmly walking as he looked at his own right hand. It looked mangled and was missing several fingers but he didn't look at all bothered before clenching it.
She watched as it cracked and twitched before darkness coated it, writhing and condensing before it dispersed in short order to reveal the same, obsidian black skin and fingers tipped with icy dark blue claws. He opened and closed his fist several times as he kept walking before nodding and turned back to face Artemis, his face completely blank.
And it was that blank face that left her with nothing but terror. Suddenly she tried to flail her arms, to get up, to move, anything! Her right didn't respond and one quick look showed that her right arm was literally falling to pieces, frozen chunks of flesh and broken metal flaking off.
Her right arm was useless.
She then tried to turn over with her left and felt the arm move but didn't feel anything touching her hand. She also looked only to gape, seeing the smoldering stump missing the wrist or hand in question and still dripping some ichor between the charred skin. She looked at Percy again and his continued approach before she started kicking her legs and managed to flip herself onto her stomach before trying to get up.
Her legs gave out before she could get on one knee, too tired and injured to even support her own weight. Uncaring she threw herself forward, inching and pushing with the strength she could as her body dragged across the barren ground. She could feel the wetness trailing down her cheeks along with the choked, uneven breathing, hear her own sniffling as she desperately tried to get away.
"N-no … ple-ease …" she mumbled, her voice having lost the underlying depth and power to mirror her exhaustion.
She wanted to go home, to see her mother, brother, father, she didn't care! Just to be anywhere but with this demon. She could hear him walking closer, already assured of his kill as her heart threatened to burst. Then another step was heard closer than the rest before a foot slammed down on her head.
She cried out as her face met the harsh ground, tears still streaming down her face. Then she felt a hand grip her shoulder before flipping her over only for her to see his face just looking down at her again, not a hint of emotion showing through.
Silence fell on them, only interrupted with her chocked sobs as the last of her own hope withered within her aching chest. Now she knew without a doubt that she was about to die and there wasn't anyone or thing that was going to save her. As the minutes passed her sobs mixed with incoherent babble, her own fear overwhelming what little reason and control she had left. She watched through tears as he slowly dropped to one knee beside her, looking down at her with that frigid gaze before sighing slowly.
"So this is it huh?" he asked before looking at his own right hand, slowly opening and closing it.
"I've dreamed of this moment for so long to the point calling it an obsession wouldn't be wrong. And then when it was first noticed that I became literally emotionless to counter losing myself to my own hatred, I got scared. The others knew I was going to kill you one way or another but were all worried about what I might lose along the way." He gave a self-depreciating chuckle at that, holding no mirth within it.
"And yet here we are. I'd planned thousands of ways to torture you and make you suffer, maybe even incasing you in Voidice and then leaving you trapped within the shadows of the dark side of the moon, leaving you to wither away for eternity in a place only I can find or reach. But …" he paused as her sobs got harder just imagining such a fate and almost trying to ask him to just kill her now.
It looked like he got it as he looked at her before sighing again and then continuing. "… You're already done. I saw it in your eyes just before that explosion and there is no longer a point to keeping you alive for more. I can be sadistic but even I have my limits and I've already spent my anger on you and taken everything you once held dear short of your virtue. Thankfully I am far more in control of myself than some others but regardless, any more is pointless."
He then flexed his hand again before he moved it around her head making her whimper as he rested his hand over her face, only her right eye seeing in between the space of his fingers, the burning sting and numbing cold of his touch making her want to cry more. He then looked at her directly in the eyes, his icy pupils glowing softly even as a sad smile marked his lips.
"Goodbye Artemis, may Lady Chaos keep you," he said softly before his hand … closed.
The last thing she heard was her own muffled scream cut short as her skull was crushed and everything went dark…
===================
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