VI.

Artetris struggled to stand back up. Her head was spinning, but she had endured worse scrapes. She spat towards the wood witches, and they exclaimed out in disgust at her rudeness. Once done with them, she refaced the nightmare unfolding before her and immediately remembered what was going on. Herakli's cries rang out into the night as his body became consumed by a spiritual force that was not his own; Artetris' heart twisted in pain at the sight of her friend being distorted into something grotesque. She looked to the ground and found her fears confirmed.

The fowl fey's heart potion from the ground was gone. The vengeful spirit had forced him to take it! Herakli's soul was being devoured by Acteo.

"Acteo…" Artetris growled, her mana boiling in anger. Diana radiated in her grasp as all of her emotions ran through her at once—hate, anger, sadness, fear, regret. However, all of them singled onto one unanimous feeling—madness. "I'll hunt you…"

Her friend was gone, died before her, and she would kill all involved, starting with Acteo…

She'd hunt him down until he was hers…

She'd skin his hide until it had paid for his crimes in blood…

She'd hunt him until time, itself, had ended.

Her head span, but she felt focused.

Her name was Artetris. She was the Huntress Wizard…

She was the Huntress Wizard— Watcher of the Forest—of its lands, beasts, and bees.

Herakli's body grew large and tall, mightier than he had ever been before; Artetris watched her prey with caution. His figure stretched high until it toward beside the wood witch trees themselves. Even they shuddered in response to his massive girth, and Artetris thought she heard a few of them hiss. Even Arbottoma flew back in alarm at the monster that grew before her. Artetris licked her lips; the witch would die too.

Herakli, or Acteo who possessed him, doubled over in pain, holding his body as his shoulders pulsated and pounded as if something inside fought to get out. Artetris' eyes widened with interest as shoulder armor spouted out—thick, spiked, hide armor like a warrior huntsman's. His agonized cries continued as the body twisted from that of a bear's to one more like an ape's but with bearish features. His head grew horns, deer antlers to be precise, and his face contorted and twisted into the shape of a deer's, a white deer with black sclera and blood-red pupils and a mouth sporting a set of fangs. His bear arms and claws spread and sloped at his sides as he caught his breath from the pain and stood up straight, his transformation completed.

Herakli had vanished. In his place stood an anthropomorphic bear clad in hide armor on the shoulders and from the waist down with a head resembling the cursed animal who's spirit had gained full control of its vessel. Acteo's deer face looked about, taking in the sights granted to him by his new, monstrous form.

Artetris shuddered, not from fear but excitement. She grasped Diana and leapt back into the dark cover of the trees and ran to lure him after. She felt the ground shake behind her as Acteo's body turned. He spoke, and his voice thundered and roared as he did.

"You can't hide from this one," Acteo spoke. "The wood witches' song shall sing of your location, no matter how hard you try to lure me in with your hidden tactics. I'm smite your existence from this earth and then take Artemis herself! Rah!"

His roar set a gust into motion through the treetops that made the wood witches cry out in terror. Artetris huffed and felt no sympathy for them, and she stopped—far enough away to hide and think out her tactics. She looked down at the dragon wood javelin in her grasp and its leaf and diamond-scaled point; she could enlarge Diana to match his girth, but to do so would render it unusable for her…

Unless she…

Before her thoughts could finish, however, the wood witch trees parted from around her, leaving a path open for her enemy to see her clearly and charge if he wanted. She stared in disbelief at this and cursed as a javelin of his own appeared in his grasp and flew for her. Artetris summoned her magic and instantly went under the dirt to dodge. The weapon missed as she buried herself out of its path; however, it struck the earth so heavily and deeply that it threw her from underground and back to the surface.

As she rolled to recover, she suddenly found Acteo's mighty claws coming down for her head. Artetris' heart raced, and she scrambled to dodge as he came down upon her in full force. Just barely did his massive paws miss her body, but it slashed her arrows from her back and ripped her cape clean off. The force of it threw her down, and Acteo shook the earth as he smashed to the ground on all fours, making a recovery that much harder. He let out a sound at her that seemed a cross between a bear's roar and a deer's squeak before his jaws came to catch her next and possibly snap her in two if they succeeded.

Enlarging Diana, she jammed the tip up his nose, much to his surprise and horror. With a yell, he stood up and stumbled back in pain, carrying Artetris with him as he went. As blood seeped from his wound, she released her thoughts of the weapon's enlargement, and it shrunk, freeing her from his immediate reach. Acteo stumbled back onto his bum and snarled.

As she fell, Artetris summoned an arrow from her quiver on the ground and shot it deep into the wood witch thicket with her bare hands, a vine latched to the ground behind it. She caught the taut vine one-handed and used it to flip to the ground in safety. Behind her, Acteo groaned from the strike to his snout, and she snorted at his inability to take punishment or pain. The way he sat, his chest rested wide open. She licked her lips with eagerness and readied Diana for the throw.

A sudden jolt went through her, and she shook her head at herself and remembered the strength she had just witnessed. No matter how skilled she was as a huntress, she couldn't take this behemoth in a head on fight. She had to be smarter, wiser.

Precise and on point—she had to make him hunt her and rush him into his own demise.

Artetris hurried off into the wood witch thicket at top speed. As she went, she saw the wood witches making a path so that Acteo could easily pursue her. She gritted her teeth and cursed them and their continued insolence. If she survived, she would remember their treachery and tease them with fire.

"Hyleo!" she heard Acteo bellow behind her, the ground shaking as he recovered.

Artetris stopped to face him, remembering his javelin. Sure enough, she saw that he had grabbed it for round two as he charged. Her mind raced for a solution as his monstrous arm raised it for a throw. She needed to find herself an opening to put her plan into motion. Going underground to anchor it and strike—it would work but only if she timed it precisely. Too soon, and his javelin would unearth her…not to mention her wood witch foes and their roots. Too late, and his paw strikes would ultimately do the same…

But if she rushed at him underground… and rose that way? Would that work?

Acteo's javelin flew, and Artetris dashed forward, dodging.

It had to work. She had very few options in her position. She was…trapped. But she wasn't broken or down. She wasn't going to die. She couldn't.

Her eyes narrowed in focus. She had to stay focused leased her magic bunk things up… Acteo roared at Artetris' boldness with a laugh. The wood witches did the same. Her eyes twitched in annoyance, but her minded remained locked on the task before her.

"You've lost your mind!" he exclaimed. "Such is to be expected of a half-breed wizard nymph!"

As she and Acteo drew close, he readied his bear claws for her while his ugly deer mug let loose a battle wail. In return, she readied Diana for the strike and focused her anger. One strike was all she had.

One strike was all she needed.

Acteo swung, and she guarded with Diana's shaft and a swing.

As mana flowed throughout her body and the weapon in her grasp, both she and it sank harmlessly into the earth from Acteo's attempt to thrash them into nothing. From within the earth, Artetris smiled and acted. As she changed from half-nymph to tree, Diana transformed as well and grew as part of her, much to her shock and pleasure. The power she felt flow through her filled her body with the thrill of hunting, of catching and making the kill. They burst forth from the ground as weapon and tree merged as one to strike at Acteo's heart with Diana's power and Artemis' judgment.

The huntsman gagged in horror as she and Diana ran directly through him as a mighty javelin tree as big as he. Blood flew from the hole and from his jaws. His body went limp as Diana shined, carrying out Artemis' will to slay his vengeful spirit and lay it to peace. As Artetris lost strength and focus, Diana faded, and her body returned to its true shape. Acteo's body also changed and vanished as the ghost of the white deer floated off, no longer bound by its curse to the earth.

As she landed, a firm body covered in soft white fur broke her fall. As Artetris sniffed, her eyes snapped open at who's scent she smelled. She rose up and struggled to hold her tears back upon finding him laying flat on his belly fast asleep. As he stirred, unharmed, he looked back towards her and smiled. She shook her head in disbelief and smiled back.

"Yo!" he said, weakly but with enthusiasm.

"Herakli!" she shouted, diving at his neck for a hug, much to his shock. She heaved a sigh of relief and comfort at feeling his warmth against her. "You're…not dead. It's…unbelievable. This turned out alright!"

"Heh," Herakli chuckled, stretching and standing. "You beat Acteo! I saw it happen. That…was awesome how you merged with that javelin as a tree! You're the mightiest Huntress I have ever seen!"

Artetris smiled with pride at his praise. Yes. She did feel like the mightiest Huntress. She was the mightiest Huntress…

Behind them, the wood witch tress all wailed and hissed in anger at having her death snatched away from them so swiftly, and Artetris shot them a smirk before pointing. They were next. The wood witches hollered with woe, and the air turned chilly with fear.

Artetris frowned at the change in temperature and shuddered. Her anger with them felt no bounds, but for the moment, she would ignore them and deal with them later after daylight returned. She crouched down on Herakli for some comfort, and he laughed.

She was definitely going to make him her com—

Artetris' thoughts fell short as Herakli suddenly staggered and then collapsed. She rose up from Herakli in concern and looked at him for signs of injury. Had they celebrated too soon? Dread quickly filled her as she saw an arrow of green pierced through her snout, one of her arrows…

"Herakli…" she called to him, but he did not answer.

In the wind overhead, she heard the Arba Yaga cackle as well as the wood witches themselves before the witch's laughs faded. Artetris' arrows and quiver dropped from the sky and landed on the path just ahead of her and her friend's dead corpse. Her chest burned with rage and madness at the witch's defiance to the end.

Her voice spoke to Artetris, and she glared. "Acteo was such a bust!" the voice complained. "I'll have the Artemis Band sooner or later, and when I have claimed it, your life shall be the first ones to go. Until then, farewell."

The witch's presence faded, and Artetris felt the power of the wood witches leaving the trees around her in peace as they undyingly followed after their leader. Where were they going? She wondered as her body shook with madness and rage.

"No…" she growled under her breath as her friend lay dead beneath her. She had failed to save him, and his murdered had gotten away and taken her accomplices with her. Artetris' tears finally broke through her barrier and shed against her desire. "NOOO!"

Why had she lost him to her own arrow? Why when they had been so close?