She fell onto one knee behind a tree, concealed from sight.
She was panting somewhat heavily, though she wasn't actually tired. Stamina was just one of her stupid mortal body's limitations and would be a problem that wouldn't burden her for more than a second. Her body was covered in wounds and one of her arms had been sliced off, the stump gushing ichor to the dark ground. Her wounds were quick to heal, however. She takes a deep breath as silver energy pours out of the stump of her sliced off arm, molding into the shape of a brand new arm. She flexes her new arm for a moment before materializing a few more bright, silver arrows.
That beast-like roar, once again, rips through the forest. Artemis hops back onto her feet, nocking glowing arrows into her bow. She leaps out of the way, fast as a sliver of moonlight, just as that large, cylindrical club comes crashing down. She turns to aim at the giant, but before she could let the arrows fly, the knight suddenly appears at her side with a whoosh. Artemis takes out her hunting knife and intercepts the dark broadsword that was slashed at her neck. The goddess easily pushes away the broadsword and steps forward, swinging her knife at the knight. The knight quickly withdraws her sword and brings it up to defend, taking a step backwards at the force of the attack.
Without turning around, Artemis holds up a hand above her, the palm turned upwards into the sky.
The giant's large club comes crashing down towards her, but it is promptly stopped by her hand. The pressure from the swing is strong enough to splash against the dark aura around her and crack the ground underneath her feet, but the goddess herself is completely unaffected. Her knife glows as she swings it at the knight in front of her.
The knight's eyes widened. She quickly brings up her own sword, the red markings embedded within the darksteel broadsword glowing to life.
Silver and dark energy collide, exploding into the sky.
The knight is sent flying backwards into the air. The giant behind her raises his club, but before he could bring it down, Artemis spins around and swings her knife at the air in front of her, a trail of sparkly, moonlit energy following her blade. The energy then suddenly explodes forward, shredding through the giant's skin. The giant lets out another inhuman roar, but of pain this time as a large wound appears across its chest. Dark blood spills, eaten by the dark aura that covers the ground, just like her own ichor. But unlike every other time she had managed to wound it, the wound didn't start immediately regenerating.
To the goddess's surprise, and relief, the giant's body started to fade away.
The knight peels herself off of the tree she had flown into and prepares for another swing, the blade of her broadsword glowing in a tell-tale way that signaled another attack. But the goddess moves before she could.
Before the knight could bring the sword down, Artemis closes the distance, raising her free hand and pushing it upwards against the sword's hilt, preventing the knight from being able to bring it down. The knight's pale golden eyes widen just as Artemis swings her knife at her neck, the silvery blade slicing through the thick metal armor protecting the body part and spilling blood.
The knight kicked outwards, her metal boot pushing against the goddess's abdomen with enough force to push her several feet backwards. Artemis is quick to regain her stance as the knight covers her neck with a hand, as if futilely attempting to staunch the blood loss, while raising her broadsword into the air with her other hand for one final attack. Her blade begins to twinkle with energy, but once again, Artemis was faster.
The goddess swings her knife at her, releasing another large energy blast of silvery energy before the knight could release her own attack.
Artemis would have no way of knowing if her body had crumbled just like the giant's.
At that moment, she feels something tap the back of her head very lightly.
Her eyes widened.
Then a large blast of dark red and violet vaporizes her whole body, leaving behind a mesh of silvery energy shaped like a woman.
That particular development doesn't change things much though, as the goddess quickly reforms her mortal body before turning to address the purple-haired girl with a placid look.
Sakura doesn't respond with anything except lowering her hand. Annoyance was now apparent in her features.
"You do know that it doesn't matter what you do, you can't kill me, right?" she asks.
The purple-haired girl, once again, doesn't respond.
Dark red energy explodes once again from the girl's finger.
This time, Artemis dodges. The girl's eyes widen as the goddess sped towards her at full speed, summoning some shadows in an attempt to stop her, but it was to no use.
The goddess of the moon vanquishes them in an instant and, without mercy, attacks her prey.
"You…how did you…Sakura…?" Shirou starts, his eyes still wide with fright.
"The girl is fine," Artemis says. "I only managed to even touch her a few times near the end of our battle, but anything I did to her would just regenerate right back. Though from what I've seen, she has quite some…curious powers for a demigod. A tad more destructive than what I'd first imagined. But still, there is no possible alternative outcome to what had just turned out."
Shirou doesn't respond, still staring wide-eyed at the purple-haired girl.
"Anyways, I'm sure you know what I want," Artemis says. "I'll have to hear the words come from your own lips though. That you swear under the River Styx that you'll be under my servitude until I have no need for you anymore."
Shirou just continues stares, this time his mouth wide open agape.
Then, the look in his eyes hardened. His teeth come together in a tight grit. His golden eyes seemed to darken into a murky lime green as the shadow of his red hair hovered over them.
Artemis raised an eyebrow at that.
This demigod, despite being in such a condition that not only one, but both of his arms were broken and no more useful than dead limbs, was still eyeing her with such defiance.
He closes his eyes before taking a deep breath.
Glowing, green jagged lines started running all along his body, glowing bright enough to shine through the fabric of his shirt. The redhead takes another deep breath as he spreads his hands, green energy sparking from his palms as he opens his eyes, directing his angry glare towards the goddess.
Artemis just stares at the redhead, a blank look on her face.
Ugh, why are all men so impulsive? Does he think I won't kill his girlfriend just because I'm a matron goddess? Or just because he thinks I need his compliance?
The goddess presses her knife harder against the girl's neck, this time hard enough to break through the skin and press it hard enough to draw blood. The redhead freezes in hesitation, uncertainty breaking through his angry expression.
Artemis was about to ask him one last time whether he was willing to submit or not, just as another voice suddenly broke through the tense silence.
"Lady Artemis!" a female voice rings throughout the forest.
Without turning her head, Artemis's eyes darted to the side to see the two demigods and the satyr approaching the two of them. Their eyes were wide, as if startled with the scene in front of them.
Artemis must've averted her gaze for less than a quarter of a second before she returned it back to Shirou.
However, that was enough for the redhead.
By the time that Artemis's eyes had returned to her target, Shirou's white-bladed sword had already left his hand.
The goddess was met with only the slightest glimpse of Bakuya before the white blade sank through the shoulder of the arm that was holding Sakura, lopping it cleanly off.
Artemis's eyes widened. So did Thalia's, Percy's, and Grover's.
Taking advantage of the goddess's momentary shock, Shirou dashes forward, chucking Kanshou at Artemis's head. Artemis leans to the side, narrowly dodging the black blade just as Shirou suddenly dashes towards her.
Green sparks explode from his hand as he whips his arm across the space in front of him. The duochromatic swords reappear into his hands in miniature explosions of more green sparks. The redhead extends his right arm horizontally behind him.
Then, still dashing forward, he swings it upwards, those jagged green patterns illuminating almost blindingly through the sleeves of his shirt.
The tip of the white blade doesn't even reach the ground. Yet the force of the swing was already enough to send forward a large dust cloud of silt and snow, one no smaller than one that would have been kicked up by a bomb.
Shining, silvery energy pours out of the stump of Artemis's arm, reforming the limb in less than a second. Artemis instinctively moves her arms up to her face to protect it.
A whoosh resounds from right beside her. She turns just in time to see a human-sized blur suddenly skirt right past her in the dust. Almost immediately, she turns around, pointing her finger at the blur in the dust.
There is a yelp of surprise, then a thud.
"This is really testing my patience," Artemis mutters to herself, waving her arm through the air.
A large gust of wind suddenly blew across the forest. In an instant, the thick cloud of debris that Shirou had kicked up was swept away…
Revealing the red-head, lying on the ground, front first. His two swords were lying on the ground in front of him, just out of reach. Wrapped around his right ankle was a tree root that had seemed to have jut out of the ground.
The teen turns his head, seeing Artemis shooting a glare at him from a distance. He reaches forward with his right arm to grab at one of his swords, but the goddess was having none of that. More tree roots emerge from the ground, lashing out at his arm and wrapping itself around his wrist, pinning his arm in place. More roots emerge from the ground, pinning his ankles and wrists to the ground. The redhead hisses out a curse.
"Now, are you going to sit still and be nice until my brother gets here, or am I going to have to put you down like a dog?" the goddess asks, irritation apparent in her expression.
Shirou's body glows brighter as the jagged lines of green energy running along his arms and legs suddenly start producing more light. With grit teeth, he practically rips his arms out of their bark restraints. Two more kicks also quickly free his ankles from the roots wrapped around them.
"Trace on!"
"Gods, you can't actually be seri-," Artemis hisses to herself.
A sound similar to that of a very loud thunderbolt suddenly rang through the air. An almost blindingly bright explosion scattered sparks of green energy in every direction, causing Artemis's eyes to widen as she quickly drew her knife.
The redhead suddenly reappears right in front of her, but instead of the twin black and white swords she had gotten used to seeing him use, gripped tightly in his right hand was a long, red spear, the tip of its blade aimed at her face.
At some point, the red cloth that was wrapped around his left arm had come off, thrown carelessly to the ground behind him. It was immediately made apparent to the goddess that it…didn't belong. For one, the skin on it was tan, very much so. The color of it heavily contrasted the almost pale skin Shirou's body possessed. Otherwise, in terms of outward appearance, it seemed completely normal, if a bit muscular for what should belong to a teenage boy.
Which brought her to her second point.
Artemis tilts her head to the side whilst swinging her knife in a sideways slash. The metal of the hunting knife bats against the side of the spear's blade, veering it off-course, but not before the tip of the spear could leave a small scratch on her cheek.
That arm, how strange that it exudes an aura similar to the one I felt from the knight and giant that the girl summoned earlier, she thinks to herself. It doesn't feel mortal at all, but not quite divine enough to be immortal either. But that spear…
Artemis twirls her knife around in her hand so that she could hold it in a reverse grip. Then, hoisting it at her hips, she slashes it upwards.
Silvery energy explodes from the tip of the knife. Shirou's eyes widened as he held the spear out in front of him defensively.
The surge of energy hit the shaft of the spear with a large explosion of moonlight and energy, sending the redhead flying backwards and crashing into a tree, hand still gripped tightly around the spear. The teen quickly peels himself off, gritting his teeth as he gets back into a combative stance.
That's definitely not a mortal weapon. It reeks of death, even more so than anything I've seen anyone yield before, including my down-in-the-dumps brother. And on top of that…
Artemis brings a hand up to her cheek, only to feel the wound still on her cheek.
My wound hasn't healed.
Artemis's lips curved upwards, her lips opening up slightly to reveal a predatory, toothy grin.
I can feel the pain from that attack, not just from this mortal vessel...but from my true body.
I wonder where he got it from. Is it simply one of the weapons from that world of blades within him?
The goddess dashes forward, her knife pointed at the redhead's chest.
Shirou spun the spear around in his hand so that he was holding it with a reverse grip before hoisting the handle of it onto his shoulder with the speartip pointed directly towards her, taking the stance of someone about to throw his javelin.
A spark of light glows to life from the sharp point. The weapon's entirety seemed to start glowing all at once with a light red aura.
Also at that exact moment, blades suddenly erupted from under the skin of his tanned arm. They covered almost the entirety of the arm, evenly-spaced blades jutting out in every direction from somewhere within the limb.
As curious of a phenomenon it was, it wasn't what had her attention though.
Artemis's eyes widened. She skids to a stop.
That spear's aura…it grew stronger?
"Resign yourself, for your fate is inevitable!" the teen shouts, leaning his body forward. "Without fail, strike for her heart!
"GAE BOLG!"
With that, the redhead throws the spear with enough force to cause an explosion of air behind him, kicking up a cloud of snow and silt behind him.
With the speed and appearance of a red laser beam, the spear shot towards the goddess.
The goddess squinted her eyes at the projectile as she focused all of her focus onto it. Time seemed to slow down all around her, slowing to the point of almost freezing entirely. Though, along with that, she felt something that was...almost completely forgotten to her.
She felt an involuntary shiver run down her spine.
What's this? she thinks to herself, eyes still focused intently on the speartip slowly nearing her. It's as if…every nerve in my body is telling me that I should avoid getting hit by this at all costs.
Once the speartip came within range, she swung her knife at it, sparks flying as she sent the projectile away with the side of her knife blade.
Sparks flew as the red laser beam was steered off its course, bouncing off towards somewhere in the air in front of her. But then…
Her eyes widened as the spear started zigzagging through the air, as if through its own consciousness, and was sent shooting off right back towards her. Artemis hops to the side, managing to cleanly dodge the spear as it zips right past her side, but just like before, the spear didn't just let itself continue down its path. It made two rebounds from the air in front of it at perfect ninety degree angles before zigzagging right back towards the goddess.
I'm wasting time and effort just dodging or blocking the spear. I need to destroy it.
Artemis points the point of her knife blade at the spear as it nears her. A spark of energy appears at the edge of the weapon as the length of its blade begins to glow.
The goddess's intention was obvious: destroy the weapon zooming towards her with a single, concentrated blast of lunar energy from the tip of her knife. Have it break through the tip of the spear and once it has burrowed itself halfway down the inside of the spear's shaft, explode outwards and destroy the weapon from the inside out. Simple, yet effective. But there was one little hole in her plan.
As a goddess of the Hunt, Artemis embodied all the qualities of the perfect huntress. The speed to catch up to any prey and the strength to rip through any obstacles in her way, as well as the wit and brains to track down her quarry and bring it down in the quickest and most efficient way possible, and, most importantly, her instinct. Instinct that allows her to, when attacked, single out the most dangerous factor and quickly evade it before moving onto the next.
When attacked by a weapon that was capable of seriously harming her, it was only natural that her instincts singled it out as the most dangerous factor. But unfortunately for her, they had put a little too much focus on it.
It wasn't until she heard the tell-tale shing of metal flying through the air right behind her that she realized that particular fact. She turned her head slightly just in time to see Shirou dashing towards her with his black and white blades from behind.
Ah, how careless of me! I forgot about the boy!
Thinking quickly, Artemis decides to use one of her powers of the forest and summon a barrier to protect her exposed back. That barrier being a male reindeer.
Shirou's eyes widened as the animal suddenly reared its head and, without warning, charged at him. The reindeer rammed its long, sharp antlers directly into the boy's body, that mysterious energy of his protecting his abdomen and preventing the antlers from breaking through his skin, but not from having him being ragdolled against a nearby tree.
The goddess must've averted her focus for just an instant, maybe even less than that. Yet, with the spear moving as fast as it was, her plan was completely foiled.
She attempted to swing her glowing knife at the spear in another attempt to deflect if to just buy a bit more time, but this time, the spear zigzagged right around her knife blade and her arm.
Time around the goddess, once again, slowed to almost a complete stop. All she could do was watch as the speartip neared her chest, accurately moving towards her now undefended heart.
A weapon capable of harming a god's true form and an aura of death unlike anything I've seen before, as well as one that incessantly seeks out its target regardless of how much it is evaded…
Through slow motion, it was impossible to see, but the tips goddess's lips had curved very, very marginally upwards.
How very, very intriguing. A dangerous weapon, if somewhat useless in the hands of a mortal when compared to the might of a god.
…
The red speartip got nearer and nearer. Not much more time had passed until it got near enough so that the tip was almost touching her silvery parka.
I'd go as far to say that it was almost worth the trouble.
With that, her body suddenly bursts in an explosion of silvery, sparkly light as she finally decides to sheds away her mortal form.
…And both the spear and its owner were blown away, along with everything else in a 30 meter radius, the latter not just flying into a tree but bursting through a couple of them before finally hitting the ground with the reindeer flying past him, and the mystical red spear shattering into nothing more than just particles of green energy.
A/N: I never planned to write out a dramatic final clash like this, but it turned out to be necessary to fill in a few holes. I actually had to redo this a few times and rushed to get this out (which should seem fairly obvious). With this, I think I've established Shirou's capabilities, at least at the moment. I gave Gae Bolg the ability to truly harm a god since it's inherently known for almost guaranteeing the death of its target so, I thought, why not make this small tweak? It suddenly makes Shirou a lot more relevant in the war and opens doors for some changes in the upcoming battles. And yes, I'm aware that there are anti-Immortal Noble Phantasms and I'll be getting to doing more research on those, but from what I've read on so far, Shirou being able to use those completely breaks the power balance I'm trying to maintain and automatically makes him an OP protag, something I want to (somewhat) avoid. It might just be simpler to make modifications to other Noble Phantasms to make them a bit more anti-Immortal. That's still something that's up for decision. Anyways, hope you enjoyed reading!
Oh, also, Artemis isn't capable of slowing down time for any of y'all questioning those certain scenes. It's just that she's experiencing that phenomenon where if someone is so hyper-focused on something, time for everything else may slow down. I just took that to an extreme. The time slow is all in her head, her body is also subject to it as well.
Unrelated A/N: Japan's actually playing Germany in the WC tomorrow. The Blue Lock subreddit is buzzing with Isagi vs Kaiser energy lol.