Zoe Nightshade, the lieutenant of the goddess Artemis's prided Hunters, was someone who stuck by her side for thousands of years.
Although she had never really seen the full extent of the goddess's destructive ability, she did have a general idea of her maximum potential. In her divine form, she was capable of razing entire cities with nothing more than a snap of her fingers or a wave of her hand. Although she wasn't quite as powerful in her mortal form, like the one she used when around her Hunters, she was still very, very powerful. She possessed physical strength and speed unlike anything Zoe saw in any other entity, except maybe her brother, and supernatural abilities that still held very potent amounts of power.
She had no doubt in the omnipotent might her goddess held.
The purple-haired girl, Sakura, had done something that caused a hole to appear in the essence of darkness right in front of her. Dark, black goop then rose from the hole, molding itself until it assumed the shape of a figure. Once it rose to the height of a moderately tall person, the goop fell away, revealing what appeared to be a woman with unusually pale skin and pale wheat-colored hair, which was tied into a bun, and pale golden eyes. She was dressed completely, from the neck down, in dark violet armor and in her hand was a long, broadsword made of some kind of darksteel with glowing red insignias running up the blade.
Zoe's goddess raised an eyebrow at this. She let out a quiet "oh?", doing nothing more than stare at the new figure.
There was no way that the lieutenant could've known what was going to happen next.
The girl uttered a short, simple command, pointing at the goddess. Although Zoe couldn't quite hear it very clearly, she assumed it was something along the lines of "kill them" or "kill her."
Because after the command, the female knight gripped her broadsword with both hands, raising it into the air. A large pillar of bright, red and dark violet energy suddenly shot up into the sky from the sword's hilt.
Her and the other Hunters were left gaping at the display, eyes wide open and bodies frozen in surprise and fear. Artemis's eyes also widened, but for an entirely different reason.
The goddess twisted around to them and held out a hand in their direction. The next thing Zoe noted was that a familiar silvery aura had appeared around her body. A second later when the aura disappears, she and the rest of the Hunters suddenly find that Artemis has disappeared. A quick look around, however, confirmed that rather than disappear, the goddess had teleported them all away somewhere else in the forest.
The next thing she heard was a loud boom.
A short distance away, a large, black and dark red shockwave of pure energy suddenly shredded through the forest in front of her.
Zoe's eyes widened. She was about to run to the site of the damage until...
"What the-...teleportation?"
It wasn't until that moment that she, or any of the other Hunters lying around on the ground, realized that they weren't the only ones that the goddess had teleported away.
The red-haired Japanese boy, Shirou, takes a dazed look around, muttering something absentmindedly about something that sounded like "true magic." It takes him a second to realize the group of Hunters standing right next to him.
For the next couple of seconds, the Hunters and Shirou just stare at each for a moment, a moment of awkward silence permeating the forest.
That silence would then be broken by a loud boom.
By then though, Shirou had already sunk into a defensive stance, his black and white swords held at the ready as the Hunters all fired their arrows at him.
"Hmm, so you did have more to bring to the table. That definitely caught me by surprise."
Artemis drops from the tree branch she was on and back onto the ground, the dark energy underneath her parting as her bright aura neared the ground, revealing silt and snow.
Sakura doesn't respond as the darksteel-armored knight in front of her just stands there, her broadsword still tightly gripped with both hands.
"Hmm, I wonder who, or rather what, is that knight?" Artemis asks. "She doesn't feel like a mortal, but not like a demigod or god either. But not like a monster either. In fact, she feels a bit…undead."
The knight doesn't respond. Instead, she raises the broadsword once more into the air.
A spark of dark purple and light red energy explodes from the tip of the blade. A large pillar of sheer energy of the same colors shoots up into the sky before the knight swings the blade back down towards her.
Another large shockwave of energy is fired from the blade. Artemis disappears in a shimmer of silver particles before reappearing a safe distance away on Sakura's other side. The purple-haired girl merely turns around to acknowledge her with an emotionless stare.
Wow, that's dangerous, Artemis muses to herself. If I get hit by that, this mortal form would be reduced to nothing. And I'm pretty sure I made sure to teleport a bit farther away. I'm surrounded by the girl's aura, so it's hard to judge distance properly at a moment's notice…
The goddess quickly raises her hunting knife just as the knight suddenly blurs into appearance right in front of her. She quickly slashes the glowing blade at the knight's neck, the knife blade blurring into nothing more than a mesh of silver light as it sliced through the air. The knight ducks under the blade, letting it soar past the top of her head as she brings her broadsword back to her side, a spark of energy once again exploding from the hilt.
Artemis disappears into more particles just as the large shockwave of energy shoots off from the broadsword. The energy rips through the foliage and shoots off into the sky, leaving behind flames in its wake.
Just as the beam is fired, Artemis suddenly appears right behind the knight, knife already on its path to her neck in an attempt for another jab. The knight releases one of her hands from her broadsword and quickly brings it up just in time to intercept the silver blade with the side of one of her grieves.
Hm, she's fast, too, Artemis ponders to herself, turning to the flames and watching as they disappear. Hm, looks like I can still do mundane things like that. But I wonder…those attacks from that knight, they weren't exactly small. Have we not attracted any of the other gods? Especially at this hour, my brother should be nearing soon. Well, no mind.
Artemis aims her bow at the knight.
I'll finish her off first. Then I'll take the purple girl under custody and use her to force the boy's cooperation. Now, how shall I approach thi-
"Berserker," Sakura says with a snap of her fingers.
Artemis just barely manages to register the whoosh behind her. She launches herself to the side just as something very large slams into the ground at the spot she was on an instant before.
She quickly turns around just for a second to register the shadow of a large, hulking giant that had seemed to appear out of nowhere behind her and fired her arrow at it. She watches as the arrow burrows into the giant's head and explodes, illuminating the forest with a large explosion of silver energy.
Her eyes widen, though, just as the light dies down enough to reveal the muscular giant, its empty, glowing red eyes locked onto her, completely unaffected. It lets out a very loud roar before suddenly appearing right in front of her in a blur of motion, its club having already been swung horizontally at her. The goddess wills herself to teleport away...
...just as the club slams into her side.
The force of the hit sends her shooting off to the right like a bullet. She eventually hits a pine tree hard enough to almost rip through the entirety of the width of its bark with a loud crash, causing the tree to topple over. Ichor splashes out of her mouth and onto the ground, where it seemed to sink into the darkness covering it.
Artemis manages to get back onto her feet and hop out of the way just in time to dodge another large shockwave of red and dark violet energy that is fired at her.
The goddess takes her perch on the high branch of one of the few remaining pine trees that hadn't been incinerated, bow still in hand. She takes a moment to survey her surroundings, feeling a bit of remorse at the destruction all around her. Then, she turns to assess her opponents or more specifically, her new opponent.
The girl and the knight were already a serious fighting force, both alone and together. But now, she had one more thing to worry about: a large, muscular, dark-skinned giant that was easily more than quadruple the height of the other two. Despite its humanistic figure, its features made it seem more like a rabid beast than a human. In its hand was a large, cylindrical club made of some kind of stone that was as large as a tree.
Well, this complicates things, Artemis thinks to herself. The brute's not only huge, it's also fast. And durable enough to take an attack from even a goddess such as myself without taking any noticeable damage. And I don't believe its physical power to be anything less than immense. But even worse than that…
Artemis attempts to teleport to another nearby tree branch. Her eyes widen a fraction when nothing happens.
This whole forest is lost to me. It feels as if I'm in an empty void rather than my domain. And this girl's aura is also somehow eating through my powers somehow. I'm no longer capable even of easy transportation. I wonder…if I stay under it for too long, will I lose my control of even the moon? Well, no matter…
If she doesn't have a way to deal with my immortality, then it is impossible that she can find victory in this battle.
Artemis turns up to the sky. Sunlight was just starting to peek out from the horizon.
Looks like my brother will be here soon. I wonder…can I kill the knight and the giant before he gets here?
She reaches for a few arrows from her quiver and nocks them into her bow. The silver arrows glowed with silver light as they came in contact with her fingers.
Seems like a welcome challenge.
With that thought, she lets them fly.
Shirou ducks his head just in time to dodge another knife slash. The silver blade whistles through the air as it passes right above the top of his head, taking a few strands of red hair with it.
Before the Hunter could retract her arm, Shirou reaches and grabs her outstretched elbow before reinforcing his muscles and slamming the Hunter into the ground.
The redhead turns around, dashing off into a random direction just as arrows suddenly peppered the spot on the ground he was standing on less than a minute prior, leaving behind several more unconscious Hunters.
Shirou's battle with the Hunters had become somewhat more of a chase than an actual battle, with Shirou on the defensive. However, despite that, the ones that were being whittled down were the Hunters.
Slowly, the redhead picked away at their numbers, taking out the ones that had dared to drop from the trees and confront him in close-quarters combat, even with the knowledge that they didn't have their "blessing of Artemis" and were basically fighting a weaker Servant as normal humans. The dangerous ones were the ones in the treetops, firing a seemingly infinite barrage of silver arrows at him with the accuracy and speed of a dozen weaker Archer Servants, even without their goddess's blessing. It was just dangerous enough to prevent him from being able to actually go up there and force him to constantly move around.
He had to find a way to deal with that.
Shirou takes one more long stride forward before turning around and chucking Kanshou at one of the treetops. The two Hunters sitting on the tree's top branches both move to take cover behind the bark just as the black blade sinks through the wood, the blade burrowing itself in hard enough to have the tip peek out through the other side. That stops the two of them from firing just long enough to create an opening in the barrage of arrows.
Shirou takes that opportunity to launch himself towards the tree. Reinforcing his arm once again with prana, he swings Bakuya at the bark, the Servant-strength slash being strong enough to slice easily through the thick wood. The tree topples over, bringing the two Hunters along with it before they could hop to another perch.
Shirou quickly dashes forward, leaping upwards to grab one of the Hunters and force her to his front, holding her in front of him like a human shield. The Hunters stop firing at him just long enough for him to turn around and elbow the other Hunter in the face hard enough to break her nose and knock her out and hold the edge of Bakuya's blade up to the neck of the Hunter in front of her.
The whole battle comes to a complete stop as Shirou and the Hunters regard each other, the Hunters in the treetops still had their bow and arrows aimed at him, but there was a feeling of uneasy tension in the air now. Shirou's eyes flitted side to side, making sure to keep all of the remaining Hunters within view.
He takes this moment to consider his next problem: his slowly decreasing prana flow.
He hadn't realized it until a good few minutes into the chase, but the Hunters weren't as much actively chasing him down as they were keeping him deadlocked into a battle of attrition. And it was one in which he had to fight off more than thirty assailants (well, twelve now, actually) by himself.
If I run out of prana, I might have to use Archer's arm, Shirou thinks to himself, pressing Bakuya's blade to the Hunter's neck a smidgen harder when she twitches slightly. That's not good. I might kill them all by accident if I take off the shroud.
I'll have to end this with a single decisive blow.
Shirou jams the flat side of Bakuya's handle into the side of the Hunter's head, knocking her out. She immediately lets go of her as, almost instantly, the other Hunters above fire their arrows at him.
Time seemed to slow down as he held out his right hand. Sparks of green energy explode from his palm as tendrils of green lightning crackled to life in the air around him.
Cooperate with me here, Archer.
"Trace on!" he shouts just as the arrows begin raining down towards him.
More green energy illuminates the forest around him as the glowing green form of a long-bladed katana appears in his hand. The green energy peels away, revealing a long, purple grip and a long, thick steel blade that gleamed under the moonlight, almost double the length a katana blade should be.
Gripping the katana handle with both hands, he lets his hands fly as the katana blade slices through the air. Despite the size of the katana, he's able to easily maneuver the blade around in the air, parrying away the He very briefly notes the surprise of some of the Hunters up on the trees.
"Hmm, not a bad choice overall," Shirou says, eyes flitting to the katana in his hand. "I can work with this."
He grips the katana's handle with both hands tightly before getting into a classic samurai attack stance, closing his eyes.
Alright…clear your mind. Let the weapon steer your hand.
Then with a deep inhale…
"Tsubame Gaeshi."
With that, the katana's blade glowed bright purple. And then…
The world seemed to come to a complete stop.
But push it to its limit…and then push it even farther…
Even at the cost of your own body.
Shirou felt his body launch forward against his own cognition as he felt his arms swing the katana side to side again and again. However, he does nothing to resist it, instead letting his body move through the actions unhindered.
When he finally feels himself come to a complete stop, he opens his eyes once again.
The first thing he notices is that he was a distance away from where he was initially. He stands up from his stance, bringing the katana to his side and turning around to find himself behind the trees that the Hunters were aiming down at him from.
And then, time seemed to resume.
Almost instantaneously, all at once, large, purple slashes suddenly appeared out of thin air along the forward path that Shirou felt himself travel, cutting right through the barks of the pine trees along his path as well as in the ones in a rectangular area around it. They were either perfectly or diagonally horizontal and their width seemed approximately equal to the length of the katana in his hands.
The slashes disappear just as quickly as they appear. Then, not more than a second later, the sound of trees toppling follows soon after.
The Hunters were all thrown into chaos as they suddenly found their perches falling to the ground in what seemed no more than just an instant. That causes the deluge of arrows to stop almost immediately.
By the time that the trees had started hitting the ground, Shirou had already dashed forward, this time through his own actions.
He takes out the first five Hunters with ease. They were knocked unconscious before they could even raise a finger to defend themselves, too lost in their own surprise to react in time to Shirou's attack. Their unconscious bodies limped lifelessly onto the uneven pile of fallen trees.
The other Hunters had managed to get back on guard just as Shirou had gotten to them, but it was futile. They were practically defenseless against him as he zoomed from one Hunter to the other, picking through their numbers with relative ease.
Soon, there was only one left.
Shirou turned to the last one which, ironically enough, happened to be the Hunters' lieutenant, Zoe. Despite him coming to a complete stop, the Hunter lieutenant hadn't attempted an attack on him. She just stared at him, eyes wide with a mixture of surprise and horror, as if Shirou was a mythical entity rather than just a teenager.
"What…in Hades' name are thee?" she says in a quiet voice.
Shirou doesn't answer. Instead he just stares at her for a bit. Then he dashes towards her and slams the blunt side of his katana's blade into the side of her head. The Hunter lieutenant falls to the ground like a sack of rocks.
Shirou takes a moment to survey his surroundings. All around him were fallen trees and unconscious Hunters. The Noble Phantasm held in his hands had started slowly disintegrating into green particles that rose, disappearing into the early morning sky.
Shirou takes another deep breath. He tries to move his arm to stretch them, but they don't move. He looks down at both of them, watching them as they sway lifelessly at his sides. Despite the lack of pain, he had a pretty good guess of what had happened.
Ah, I might've just shattered my arms.
Well, it wasn't like he hadn't expected something like that to happen. His very-much human arms, even if reinforced, had no chance of pulling off a Servant's ultimate attack undamaged, much less a more advanced version of it. It was actually probably due to this that the attack stopped at all.
Oh well, no time to dwell over that.
The redhead looks up to the sky, noting the light of the sun starting to peek over the horizon.
I've gotta go find Sakura…
He hops to the ground, careful to not jostle his arms around too much as his feet sink through a bit of snow covering a small portion of the silty ground.
The redhead stops.
Wait, snow?
Shirou takes another look around him.
The dark energy that had once covered the whole forest had seemed to disappear completely.
Shirou's eyes widened. Instantly, he was flooded with a combination of anxiousness and concern.
Sakura?!
"Looks like you made quite the mess here."
The redhead whips his whole body around to the sudden voice that just seemed to pop up out of nowhere beside him, ignoring the stab of pain that shoots up his arms due to the sudden movement.
The moon goddess was walking up towards him, her bow strapped to her side. In her right hand was a glowing, silver combat knife. However, that wasn't what caught his attention.
Gripped tightly in her left was the collar of the back of Sakura's white dress, with the purple-haired girl in tow. Sakura appeared almost lifeless, her eyes closed and her body completely motionless. Shirou felt an inkling of relief though as her chest rose slightly before he turned his eyes back up to the goddess.
Artemis sighs, raising the unconscious girl up into the air effortlessly in front of her and pushing the sharp side of her knife blade up to Sakura's neck. The look in her silver eyes was something that Shirou could only describe as predatory.
"Well, are you feeling a bit more cooperative, now?" she asks, her lips slowly lifting into a smug smile.
A/N: So I had a stroke of luck. Apparently, I had this document open in the Google Docs app on my phone after I basically accidentally deleted the entirety of my Google Drive on accident (not just put in the trash can, I mean like DELETE delete because putting stuff in the trash still means its in your Drive storage which kind of just takes the purpose out of the trash can entirely), which I meant I could still read it, but not edit it or even refresh the page without it being lost to me forever. I was able to copy and paste the whole thing onto a new document so...yeah, it's back now.
I noticed that there are a lot of people in the comments saying that Artemis doesn't stand a chance against Sakura. Canonically, it's actually the other way around. In the PJO universe, the gods are actually superior to even other immortals. Even with limited abilities, Artemis's speed and strength already makes her much, much, MUCH stronger than a Servant, and that's not even considering that Artemis is immortal. Even with unlimited prana to work off of, not even Saber and Berserker would stand a chance against someone who could've instantly destroyed the entire forest on a whim had she chosen to.
With that battle finally over, we bring a close to the first arc of this story. During the next chapter, the curtains will open to introduce the next one.
Anyways, until next time!
Unrelated A/N: Damn, I'd never think in a million years that 4chan would be capable of something like Katawa Shoujo. I played it for the first time not too long ago and just finished the Emi route and man it really hits you with feels. I'm considering starting a short Katawa Shoujo fanfic crossover with Blue Lock, a short one with hopefully five chapters at most that falls under the crossover category just because it focuses on one of the Blue Lock's characters. It's focus on soccer as a sport will be pretty minimal. However, that won't get in the way with the development of the next chapter for this fic.
