The goddess of the hunt hadn't taken the time to truly inspect her opponent during their earlier duel, and so she felt it would behoove her to do so with the human pinned to the ground, it was during her inspection that she realized her opponent was in fact a female, her face was still obscured in the shadow of her hood however and Artemis could make out no details other than the fact it was rapidly approaching, and then it hit her, before reeling back and slamming into her face again and then for a third time this time with a significant response from Artemis as she finally staggered back off the human her nose bleeding yet unbroken.
Alaina's skull was pounding it felt like she had been hit in the head several times in rapid succession by Havel the Rock, yet her gamble had paid off and she was no longer pinned to the ground.
Her opponent however seemed to recover from the attack far faster than the Undead did, for she was already attacking her again. The only difference was it seemed the goddess of archery was taking initiative and summoned her bow along with an arrow before firing at the dazed Undead.
Even dazed as she was Alaina's reaction speed was nothing to scoff at as she sidestepped the arrow, before ducking beneath another, and rolling into a forward somersault and lunging from her lowered position and tackling the goddess with as much force as she could muster, and in their tumble she found herself at a disadvantage once more as Artemis took her bow and pulled it against her throat attempting and inevitably failing to choke her out even despite that Alaina discovered she couldn't find any leverage to push the goddess away from her, she may not have been getting choked out, but the position she was trapped in was not ideal.
Under other circumstances Artemis would have respected such determination to win from anyone even a male, but right now after the fight they've had she was beginning to lose her patience with this human.
She just wanted this fight to end, and even with her bow pulled against the girls throat she was still thrashing about trying to throw her off, it was as if she wasn't choking at all.
Until she finally stopped thrashing and instead placed her hand against her chest before pulling it away covered in fire, and slamming it into the ground beside her.
Artemis leapt away as a pillar of fire erupted from the ground beneath her, but it wasn't done as more pillars erupted one of which struck her in the side making her stumble away into another, the feeling of fire slamming into her chest with the force of a hammer, caused her to gasp as she continued to maneuver around the other pillars of fire.
With the attack over Artemis slid to a stop and turned only to receive a bolt of lightning slamming into her shoulder, forcing her to spin from the force alone, the electrical shock dimming her vision. To her credit however she only grunted in pain from the attack.
Artemis continued with the spin however recovering quickly, her eyes fell upon the subject of her ire. The female she had been fighting didn't even seem to be breathing heavily from her actions, she just stood there, waiting for Artemis to make a move.
For the first time since the beginning of the fight Artemis examined the surrounding area, she noted the state of the tree she had thrown the girl into smashing it into splinters, the small boulder that had been cleaved in half by a blow from the humans sword, and she wondered whether or not it was worth continuing this fight, her thoughts were interrupted however when she felt a knife sink into her shoulder.
Springing back into action Artemis summoned her sword and cut a second knife out of the air, before knocking a third to the side as she ran at the girl, slashing horizontally at her neck, missing but catching her in her duck with a kick to the face before grabbing the girl by the throat and slamming her to the ground.
She wasn't done though and filled with an anger she hadn't felt in ages, she grabbed the girl again by the back of the head and slammed her face into another small boulder, pulling back and slamming forward again. And again. And again, until to her surprise the rock gave way, breaking apart, before the human did.
Releasing the girl and allowing her to slump to the ground, Artemis backed away taking note that the girls blood was in fact red, before to her disbelief the girl rose unsteadily to her feet, blood pouring from her shadowed face, before pulling a flask filled with an orange liquid out of the pouch on her side and bringing it to where her lips would be beneath the mask and swallowing some? Stopping the bleeding.
It was at that moment as well that Artemis felt something emanating from the girl, no… from herself but she felt it because of the girl, she felt guilt, not just for what she had done to the girl, but for all the terrible or morally questionable things she'd done in her immortal life.
Artemis felt overwhelmed, she felt so desperately for the need to beg this girl for forgiveness just to make it stop, but she reigned those feelings in, if only just barely. Settling for a different approach.
"What are you?" Artemis nearly shrieked at the girl, the answer she received wasn't one she expected and it scared her.
"I'm like you, but quite… different." The girl didn't seem to be finished however as she seemed to mull over a proper way to answer, she didn't seem to be able to come up with a better one.
"Who are you then? I must know!" Artemis cried out attempting to calm the situation. The response she received didn't help in that venture.
"Unimportant… are you finished speaking, I didn't begin this fight, but I'll finish it." The girl seemed to growl it out even more so than with just her husky voice.
"No, we must stop this, it's over. Please." Artemis replied, and while she would never admit it aloud, she could tell this girl was, not only better at combat than her but judging by what Artemis was feeling more powerful as well.
The girl snorted but nodded, choosing not to reply as she walked over to her abandoned blade and shield before sheathing the sword and dissolving the shield into ash, turning back to face Artemis she inclined her hand telling her to lead.
As Artemis entered the camp her hunters had set up in her absence, she realized that she hadn't told them she was bringing back the very same person who had incapacitated nearly half a dozen of them, and they probably wouldn't be happy to see this new arrival.
The girl herself didn't seem to care as she walked into the camp, standing tall, idly looking around the campsite receiving glares from nearly all of the hunters.
"I will explain recent events to you all soon I promise, please be patient." Artemis called out to her hunters quickly in an attempt to keep aggression at bay, as she power walked to her tent and motioned for the girl to enter, fortunately the girl had some tact and entered quickly.
Entering behind her Artemis motioned for the girl to sit as she did the same asking the first of what would be many questions from both sides, only she didn't get to as the girl beat her to it.
"You said your name was Artemis, and you said how you are a goddess and that you have a brother, the more important question is who is your brother?" After a pause she continued, "I must meet him, you said he was the god of the sun, unfortunately I have had bad interactions with Lords of Sunlight, and I must make sure my suspicions are false."
Artemis was speechless, this self proclaimed goddess who wouldn't even tell her her name and had the red blood of mortals, was demanding things of her, an Olympian, this wouldn't stand.
"Now you listen here mortal, you should–!" As she was cut off sharply.
"After our little brawl you still think I'm a mortal… ha, you don't seem to understand I don't care what you think about me based on my blood versus your blood, and I wasn't asking to see your brother!" The girl's cut-in left absolutely no room for misunderstanding, or disagreement, and she certainly caught Artemis off guard, for she had no response available as her mouth opened and closed liking a fish.
After several long moments Artemis finally chose to reply, complying with the girls wishes.
"Very well, I will contact my brother for you to speak with on one condition… you tell me just who you are." Artemis felt that a trade might be appropriate for in this interaction.
"If that's what you want, my name is Alaina Vice." She accentuated her statement by pulling both her mask and hood down, and staring into Artemis' silver eyes with her own gray and blue eyes.
"You said you were a goddess, or at least Immortal, what did you mean?" Artemis asked, looking for another straight answer in the young woman's face.
"That wasn't the question. You said you would contact your brother if I told you who I was." The moment Alaina finished her response she thought about it, before coming to the conclusion that Artemis' second question did in fact lay in the boundaries of her first and she continued, "Even still I told you who I was and that's all you need to know right now."
"I disagree I think you owe me that much before I do what you asked of me." Artemis smirked as she looked upon Alaina's face, and with a huff Alaina replied almost whispering her response.
"I was a goddess, until I was cursed to be mortal and died before coming back, now I am as close to being a goddess as you can get without truly being one anymore." With that said Artemis wasn't sure how to respond to such a claim, so she chose to simply give her condolences and move on.
"I see, I'm sorry I'll contact my brother now." The only response she got was a small nod of gratitude, as she stepped outside, and began trying to get her brother to come by.
Her thoughts lingered however on the young woman in her tent as she wondered just what it would be like to live as she did, to be a goddess and get that stripped away, only to come back and not get to be a goddess again. If only she knew the full story.