Artemis and her hunters strolled through a forest in california with a goal in mind; kill all the Stymphalian Birds because they were killing nymphs.
It would be a win-win situation for both of them since they could save the girls and recruit other girls.
Either way, she wanted to get this done as fast as possible since the birds were more deadly than people thought. They were flesh-eating birds whose feathers were Celestial Bronze meaning it could harm even an immortal like her.
Not like they would get the chance to of course.
Still, she was immortal, but her hunters were not. Or not fully anyway. They were granted pseudo-immortality so they would never grow past their initial age. Dying in battle was still very much possible and she understood that clearly.
She thought back to Zoe, Kallisto, Bianca and many others who fell because of her mistakes.
"WOOF!" the hunting dogs suddenly started barking, shaking her out of her thoughts.
She looked on ahead at what they were barking at and saw their target; the Stymphalian birds themselves, looking to a normal onlooker like a normal bird. Artemis however, saw right through it and instantly saw it for what it was.
"Ready your bows ladies, they are here." Artemis commanded.
Without question, all the hunters knocked their bows and were ready to shoot. It made Artemis smile at how coordinated they were.
The birds recognized the threat and acted on it. Their appearances suddenly started distorted and the once innocent birds now grew wicked faces with sharper claws and slitted eyes.
Having seen it millions of times, it hardly fazed her but the same couldn't be said about a few of their new recruits who looked frightened at the sudden change.
Before she could reassure them, feathers were suddenly sent at them at rapid speeds.
"Fire!" she ordered and instantly they all shot as fast as they could at the deadly feathers. However, a few managed to get through some of their guards and stabbed them.
"Thalia, carry the wounded out of here, Medb, I want you to use your authority as a child of Demeter to create a plant strong enough to block out all of the feathers."
They nodded, and Thalia swiftly grabbed all the ones that were wounded by the attack. She would have to heal them later but for now they had to deal with this situation.
Medb, slammed her palms onto the ground and a large tree sprouted out of the ground in an instant, obscuring their sights of the birds and vice versa.
"Listen up, for you new people the birds are as monstrous as any other creature and I expect you to treat them like that too, understood?" her voice held a no nonsense tone that she frequently used.
"Yes Ma'am." they all said in unison.
"Now while they are strong monsters, they also come with their own weaknesses there's being a small point on their chest which will instantly incapacitate them." she explained.
They nodded in understanding.
"The tree will not hold up much longer." Medb said, a bead of sweat dripping down her forehead. It must have taken a lot of energy to create a tree strong enough to withstand feathers that could pierce steel.
Her efforts would not go in vain. Artemis would make sure of that.
Finally, the tree finally gave out and Medb collapsed from the strain.
Her part was not in vain however, as the other hunters were now prepared and once it broke, the hunters were ready and shot thousands of arrows. Their aim? The stomachs of the bird. Artemis personally blessed all her hunters so that they would have all their strikes reign true.
Indeed, it was true as the birds died quickly, and soon enough the last bird fell.
Strangely enough, there was no girls in sight but Artemis chalked it up to them running. Unfortunate but expected. Girls who were not yet trained were fragile and could easily be manipulated at the hands of men which is what their group is preventing. Perhaps they would encounter them later.
The wolves settled down, the girls lowered their bows, for all intents and purposes looked proud of themselves.
"You guys did amazing; I couldn't have asked for a better group. Tonight, we shall feast on only the best of meat so gather round at noon, you guys deserve it." she flashed them a smile before leaving to her tent.
The girls already knew what to do and had set up all the tents, racks, and tables they needed in ten minutes. It was nothing new at this point and everyone here could do it with ease.
She went inside the big tent which was exclusive for herself and her lieutenants and even sometimes guests, Thalia and Medb, followed behind her as usual and they were greeted to the place that was normal to them by now. A large queen-sized bed that was at the far end of the tent along with a table at the side of it. On a rack was different bows of all shapes and sizes that she frequently practiced with.
They sat down, gracefully (Thalia less so.) and began to speak about today and what their plans were for the upcoming days. Suddenly, Medb, asked her a question that made her pause.
"Lady Artemis, is Shirou still at camp Half-Blood?" Medb questioned.
They were approaching the topic of the camp where demigod resides because they were thinking about coming over there in the coming weeks.
Artemis looked at her, "I believe he's left for a quest in the underworld right about now."
"A quest? Isn't that given only to demigods?" Medb said, confused.
"Usually yes, but this is a special case because Hades himself came to Shirou apparently and requested his assistance." Artemis replied. She wondered why she was so curious about Shirou as they'd only known each other for at best an hour and there was no way they bonded in such a short amount of time.
"I think Percy and Annabeth went with him too. They Iris messaged me yesterday saying they were going on a quest but didn't specify to me what. I guess this is what they were talking about." Thalia said, looking a little miffed at not being invited.
'Why are Jackson and Annabeth joining Shirou on this quest? Is it that hard that Shirou can't handle it himself?
"Shirou might be in danger. He is only a mortal and has more limits then us demigods." Thalia stated, worried.
"Only mortal you say? Don't you remember him beating you to the ground a few days ago?" Medb, teased getting a growl from her companion.
Their arguments happened so frequently; Artemis wasn't even miffed by it anymore. Of course, they were just play fighting and were not actually hostile towards each other but still.
"Why you-!" Thalia said but was cut off by the goddess who was quietly watching the exchange.
"Let's not start a fight right now. But I do agree that Shirou can take care of himself if need be. Especially with his… unique skills" Artemis said, gaining a faraway look.
"What even is Shirou's magic? I'm pretty sure we would have heard of something so powerful that it could bring a mortal on the level of-" Artemis quickly covered up Thalia's mouth before she could continue.
"Thalia, you know that the gods take great offense to being compared to humans. Even if he is your father, he will not take too kindly to that." Artemis interrupted.
"S-Sorry." Thalia apologized.
Artemis closed her eyes and sighed. "It's okay just… be careful what you say from now on."
"I also do agree that Shirou's magic is very strange. Do you know where he learned it from Lady Artemis?" Medb questioned, filling in the awkward tension that filled the air.
"No idea, whenever I asked, he answered very vaguely so I assume he learned it from a wizard outside of Olympus' sphere of influence." Artemis guessed. "Either way, I believe he should be fine especially with the help of two of Olympus' greatest heroes."
"Okay then, how do you feel about Sh-"
The dogs who were previously quiet were now barking loudly, alerting all that there was an intruder that was at least supernatural. Humans who happened to stumble upon their group would be convinced by the mist that it was nothing and animals would reflexingly run away because they knew she was here.
Meaning…
The three shot up faster than a bullet and were outside in a millisecond, scanning the area for any signs of an intruder.
"What is going on?!" Artemis shouted to the girls.
One girl, Angelina who was a normal girl answered. "I don't know. The dogs are barking at something north of us but other than that I have nothing."
This instantly brought her on alert. "Thalia, Medb, I want you two to gather all the girls and arm them with weapons. I want them all here where I can see them." she commanded, too alert to be kind.
"My lady, Look right there." Angelina gestured to a man who was walking towards them nonchalantly.
That wasn't the strangest thing about him however, it was the fact that all the light in the area seemed to draw into him like a vacuum and he gave off an aura of power despite wearing only a pair of workout pants.
"That's a god." Artemis stated.
The hunters around them looked surprised. Angelina looked confused. "He's a god? But I've never seen him before and yet he gives off such a large amount of divinity."
Artemis didn't look at her and stayed focused on the man. "The reason you haven't seen him is because he's not allied with Olympus."
Their eyes grew wide. She didn't blame them.
"S-So if he's not with Olympus then he's with the titans?" Angelina questioned.
"Nay. You're thinking too small. He's not associated with Greek in any way. Isn't that right, Lugh of the long arm?" Artemis said to the man.
Lugh laughed. "You got me. I guess pretty boy wasn't lying when he said you guys were dangerous." he then manifested a golden spear in hand. "That just makes it all the more important to silence you and your little girl scouts over there."
"Everyone, get back right now!" Artemis yelled, getting a flinch from everyone. "Now! He's out of your league."
Before she could react, a rock was shot out and struck the back of a retreating huntress, instantly killing her.
"I didn't say you guys could get away." Lugh said, slingshot now in hand.
Why is he here and why is he killing my hunters? He should be in Ireland right now, not in America. I have to report this to Olympus if they aren't already watching.
They would sooner or later notice the foreign power that resonated through the area. But for right now it was up to her to defeat him.
She summoned her silver bow and aimed it at him. "Why are you attacking us right now, Lugh and who sent you here?"
"Oh, I was just in the neighborhood you know. I happened to stumble upon you guys bumbling about and decided to crash the party." he said with a vicious grin.
Artemis shot an arrow at him, but he easily backhanded it away.
"C'mon, half-ass attempts to kill me won't work." he scoffed and grabbed a pebble off the ground. "Let me show you how to shoot a projectile."
He loaded the rock onto the string of the slingshot and shot it out so fast, it nicked her cheek before she could react.
'He's good' Artemis admitted, and rubbed the spot where the cut previously resided. Of course it easily healed but the fact that he could do that was what infuriated her the most.
"If you will not come to me, I shall come to you then!" Lugh suddenly charged her, flaming spear in hand, aimed at her throat. She reflexingly parried the attack with her bow but the force of the attack broke the bow.
She used the components of the bow to form herself her two signature knives and readied her stance.
He started out with a mighty thrust, lacking openings she could exploit, forcing her to flip backwards to dodge and lash out with a kick when he came in close. He managed to roughly grab her, and she could feel her bones cracking then he threw her.
She barely managed to backflip to regain her balance. He stood there; spear ready in a thrusting fashion.
"You're not half bad. For a Greek goddess that is." Lugh said. "But you're not getting away!"
He dashed towards her except this time she attacked first and aimed at his brain, hoping to kill his mortal body before he could do anything. Yet he blocked the attack and thrusted hard, flames accompanying his spear and she could feel the heat from the spear seep through her fingers.
She countered back with a powerful upward strike, leaving him open to a kick in the chest that sent him back a few meters.
It seemed to be ineffective however, as there wasn't even a bruise. And she was sure she used a lot of her strength in that. At this rate she would have to use her divine form because this form was turning out to be ineffective against him.
The problem was that her Hunters were still escaping and should one of them look at her it would spell the end for them. He was clearly on the level on the big three so this meager amount of power wouldn't do.
"Ah, I almost forgot to introduce you to my pet, Failinis." Lugh said and whistled.
Suddenly from within the forest a loud rumble was heard. Artemis at first thought it was some type of wild animal like a bull or a bear but discarded the thought when she heard how loud it actually was.
Crashing through the trees, a massive hound appeared. It had fur that reminded her of electricity because of how bright it was. Its size was easily that of Cerebeus if not larger and wore battle armor that covered up its major weak points.
"You see, Failinis has been my partner for many centuries now having saved my life multiple times and me also saving him. If you care to know, he's a rare breed that was born to a drunken threesome of three men who were cursed by a witch." Lugh explained.
Artemis scrunched up her nose in disgust. She did not need to hear any of that!
"I think that's enough talking though, don't you agree? Failinis, hunt down those pesky hunters but leave one alive, you know who." he ordered getting a nod from the hound.
The hound then dissolved into a pool of wine.
She immediately turned towards where her hunters were but immediately paid the price for it with a scratch on the cheek.
"It's rude to leave a guest by himself you know." Lugh said, slingshot in hand.
She tsked. She needed to help out her girls somehow and in some way. There was no way he was letting her go easily. If she could catch up with the mutt, she could probably kill it with a well-timed blow to the brain, but she didn't exactly have enough faith that her hunters could do the same.
God's animals tended to be extremely strong, usually infused with the god's own essence giving it even stronger powers like a lion that's already strong becoming strong enough to rip open a car with ease or take on older monsters.
It looked like for now, she would have to just put her faith in her family. Thalia could probably hold it off long enough for her to get there.
Her mind decided, she closed her eyes as a silver aura started to resonate around her. Her essence that made her a goddess was gathering together into one spot, enabling her to exhibit more power then she could usually use with her normal body.
She wouldn't make the same mistake she did with Zoe. She refused to lose any other hunters to fights she could easily have interfered in.
Lugh who was watching, grinned. "I see you've decided to finally take me seriously. If that's the case, then so shall I!"
His form also glowed as his essence started to gather together but unlike hers, he had less divinity then she did and as such it was a quicker process.
Lugh now stood at a menacing 6"4. He had blond hair that was as spikey as needles and wore armor that was similar to a Greek battle skirt except it was shorter and had lined going down it. He held a long spear in his right hand and in his left a heater shield.
He stood tall, with an arrogance that wasn't born from just boasting but from actual battles and experience.
When Artemis' form was finally revealed she looked completely different. She was now standing at a whopping 6"1, almost as tall as her adversary, her previous auburn hair was now moonlight silver and streamed down her back like water in a river and finally she was equipped with a large bow easily as large as she was.
She opened her eyes revealing her shining silver eyes. "Are you ready now? I'm not holding back anymore." her voice carried a tonelessness that was impossible for even the darkest of humans.
"Always!"
And so, the battle began.
XxX
Shirou was now reassessing all of his life's choices.
The quest was a spectacular failure and he had no idea how to fix it. The car (thanks to that damn ghost) was currently crashing down and was already erupting in flames. They were high up unfortunately, and so with the momentum they were going at, they or more like he would die, magecraft or not.
Percy was extremely fortunate to have such a power even if it came with its own cost. At the very least it let him stray his mind away from Percy and focus more on himself and Annabeth's safety.
He racked his brain around any ideas that he could come up with, even if it was the silliest like jumping out of the car.
It was then that he spotted a river that was not too far off from where they currently were. An idea hit him like a lightbulb lighting up.
"That's why I can't just fix the car. Trust me seaweed brain, I thought of everything already. Hundreds of calculations, there's no way me and Shirou will survive this unscat-"
"I have an idea." Shirou cut in uncaringly. "If you look just over there is a river that we can fall into to break our fall."
"Shirou, we're not like Percy, a fall from that height is the equivalent of falling from a building, regardless of how soft it looks. Once again, only Percy would survive a fall unscathed." Annabeth rebutted.
Percy grimaced. He must be conflicted.
"That is true under normal circumstances. But this is not, and we have Percy here who can probably manipulate the water particles enough to where we can safely land as if we're jumping into a pool."
"That's… not a bad idea actually." Annabeth admitted.
"Hold the phone, how can you guys put such faith in me? I could mess up and we could all go splat." Percy said, looking for the first time Shirou's seen him; afraid.
Shirou looked Percy in the eye. "There is no other choice. The car is burning as we speak and we have less than a minute before this car crashes. And besides, would you really screw up with your girlfriend on the line?"
Shirou knew it was a dirty move but found it necessary given the situation. This was a quest given to them by the god and he would rather not fail it. He understood the demigod enough to know that when his friend's lives were on the line he excelled.
Percy glared at him a little.
"He's right Percy." Annabeth came to his side. "Even I can't think of anything that would work in this situation. Parachutes would be ineffective because of the wind and everything else is too dangerous so we just have to depend on you."
"Fine." Percy relented. "I'll stay up here so I can control the water better and jump down after you guys. We're jumping on three."
"Sure." Shirou said.
Annabeth gave Percy a quick kiss which Shirou pretended not to see for obvious reasons and opened the car doors, having grabbed everything they needed with Shirou having his bow strapped securely to his back via tracing.
Percy nodded and they jumped off.
Shirou had never been skydiving before or anything remotely similar so this was as much of a new experience as it was to both. He surprisingly was able to steer himself after a minute of flapping his hands around and steered closer to Annabeth.
The river suddenly exploded upwards and a large hand (that kind of frightened Shirou) gently snatched them from the air. The hand then gently put them both onto land after giving Annabeth a head pat and then the water fell back into the ocean.
Percy soon crashed down in the ocean with a loud splash, getting both of them a little wet.
"Percy! You got my clothes wet now!" Annabeth said.
The son of the sea god in mention emerged from the water dry as if he'd never went in. "Sorry, I usually always do cannonballs and I forgot about you guys getting wet."
"It's fine." Shirou said. He was only a little bit wet and it would dry off in ten minutes. "What we should do is find out what we're going to do next now that our only way of getting there is gone. Any ideas?"
"I can Iris Message Chiron since there's water right here and tell him about this situation. He could probably send some help our way." Annabeth suggested.
"Iris messaging is that thing that allows you to contact someone when you flick a coin into water right?" He idly heard Hermes mention it a few times but had never looked into it.
"Yeah, it's something that we demigods and god's use to message people that are far away. It's saved my behind more than once." Percy said.
"That's right." Annabeth said. She then grabbed a gold coin from her pocket- a drachma if he remembered correctly and flicked it into the water.
"Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering and show me Chiron in Camp Half-Blood." Annabeth said and suddenly the water seemed to swirl like a vortex and a rainbow appeared, shocking him. Said rainbow's image turned into the familiar face of the immortal centaur.
Chiron looked around a little before spotting them. "Greetings Shirou, Percy and Annabeth, what is it that you need?"
"Hey Chiron, I wish we were calling to tell you we won the lottery but I'm afraid not, the car Hades gave us sort of crashed because some ghost broke it apart." Percy said, getting straight to the point.
"You said ghosts?" Chiron asked, looking troubled, a look he hadn't seen before.
"Yeah, Casper who was disguised as a hawk, tried to kill us but Shirou managed to defeat it but in its last stand, it managed to tear apart the car's engine and we were eventually forced to abandon ship." Percy explained.
Chiron grew serious. "I only know a few people who use ghosts to do their bidding and none of them are good news. It's clear that whoever attacked you had the intention of stopping you from reaching the underworld."
"Yeah, I also suspected that whoever sent that ghost to attack us is also the one who is rebelling against the Rich One." Annabeth said. Shirou noticed her not directly saying Hades' name and instead saying one of his monikers.
"I see. If this is the case then I doubt that he was the only one sent to stop you and I recommend you guys not to let your guards down until you guys get there and even then you still shouldn't." Chiron suggested.
While Chiron said that Shirou noticed out of the corner of his eye, footprints, human footprints. His eyes immediately narrowed in suspicion and he walked towards it, bow ready to be drawn at a moment's notice.
Percy noticed him walking away and questioned him. "Where are you going Shirou? This is important right now and could save our lives."
"There are footprints that are not our own here which means that Chiron was correct in his assessment." Shirou replied.
They tensed up at the news and he didn't blame them. There was a high chance that someone was watching them right now and listening in on the call. Possibly someone with greater strength then the previous one.
"That's not good." Chiron stated the obvious. "Do not follow the footprints or else you will just be playing into the enemy's hands. Act like you don't see anything and wait for them to come to you. For now, I would advise to inspect the wreckage of the car because there is a good chance that it's repaired by now."
The suggestion sounded good and would be good in other situations but in this situation, where the environment was unrecognizable, they would still be at a disadvantage. But he had no better ideas, so he stayed quiet.
"You're right, Chiron we should check out the car as it might be repaired like last time." Annabeth, always the diligent student, said.
"Thank you for listening. I'm afraid I must go and tend to the campers; we are still rebuilding the Demeter cabin and I must lead them before they lose their heads." Chiron sighed.
With that, the centaur dispelled the call and the rainbow faded.
"So… I guess we should head out, huh?" Percy said, trying to break the overlaying tension that had settled upon them.
They started walking at a reasonable pace deeper into the mountains where more danger could await them.
Shirou looked at the sun. It was somewhere around 8pm right now judging from how the sun was setting and soon it would be too dark to see.
"I think we should set up camp here. We aren't going to make it there in time anyway." Shirou stated.
"I agree." Percy said.
Annabeth hesitated for a moment. "I suppose you're right."
Shirou traced three sleeping bags for them to sleep in and passed it to them.
"Man, your ability is super handy." Percy said, accepting the bag and placing it on the floor.
"It helps." Shirou admitted.
"You don't understand how unique your ability is." Annabeth said, brushing stray strands of hair back. "Even I don't fully get how it works as you seem to be able to make anything. No, you're not creating it are you? This sleeping bag silk feels different from usual ones and I don't think it's because of the brand."
Her grey eyes seemed to drill right into him, trying to discover everything he knows. It was then that Shirou realized how much of a monster she truly is. In a good way (sort of.) She was easily able to deduce half of his ability from him simply tracing a sleeping bag and even managed to tell it wasn't real which was basically impossible because mundane items such as that were almost impossible to tell the difference from. He would hate to have to make an enemy out of Annabeth Chase.
"You're right, I'm not 'creating' something I'm just bringing what I already know (the sleeping bag) into real life." There was no more reason to lie. They were going to be fighting together so much that it would just negatively affect the team if he kept secrets. Plus, she was a genius enough already that she would have figured it out herself if she truly wanted to.
Annabeth looked at him for a while. "You know, every day I think I have you figured out I learn more about you and that just goes to ashes. From where you came from to how involved you are is just one big mystery to me which I will uncover, one day." she promised. Shirou knew she wasn't joking when she said that. Not like he had much to hide anyways besides a secret magical war where you fought to gain a wish.
Other than that, he was as clean as a daisy.
"Lay off him Annabeth, he's not some puzzle you need to solve, and we have greater things to worry about than his strange wizard powers like who's stalking us and why." Percy said.
The magus was glad that Percy finally spoke up, having let her pick him apart piece by piece.
Annabeth sighed like she was just denied her favorite toy or in this case, person. "Sorry, I kind of got caught up with your ability that I went full Athena mode."
The apology was as sincere as they come but she never did say she would stop investigating him. Still, that was the best he was going to get from her.
"It's fine, let's just go to sleep. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow." Shirou said.
"G'night." Percy said.
"Night"
"Goodnight."
As Shirou started to black out, he could have sworn he'd seen an ethereal man who looked to be of Chinese descent, smile at him and tip his long and sharp bladed hat at him.
Sleep soon took him over and he dreamed of a man who was a god of martial arts.
AN:And that's it.
Tomorrow's my birthday so I had to do a little bit of a shorter chapter, only capping off at 5k. Have you guys ever felt it weird to be special on your birthday? Like when everyone's singing happy birthday, it just feels weird having all the attention on me. Maybe it's just me.
Of course, the next chapter will hopefully be longer and more enjoyable I hope. I had to go digging through the internet for all the stuff I could find about Lugh and I kind of have a moveset planned out for him. When I was writing it though I was like "Is this going to turn out to be a dragon ball z fight?" but quickly discarded that idea.
Lugh is weaker than Artemis but he'll have his methods… hopefully or else he'll get his butt served to him by our favorite goddess Artemis.
Moving on, no more news on the Heracles vs Angelica fight yet, still saving that for the next chapter and I've got to decide how I want to play this out and make everyone satisfied.
Lastly, we're about to hit 1k followers hype! And literally the day before my birthday too which is great. I never would have thought I would write this far and get so far. But look at this now, a story with 8 communities recommended into it, I can't thank ya'll enough.
Now if only people would review more and tell me what they liked about it, then it would be heaven.
Anyways, enough brooding, I'll see you guys later in my other story distorted. Until next time, wrath.