Zoë felt pain.

In the countless centuries since she had been alive, there had only been a handful of times when she had experienced true agonizing pain.

This easily topped all of those moments.

Her head spun. She was seeing doubles of everything. If any noise was occuring she couldn't hear it. Her ears were almost completely ruptured.

For once she believed that this might be the place that she'd die.

She wasn't scared of death. She had lived far too long and experienced many things. What she was scared of is losing her hunters to these monsters.

The Empousa had her on her back and she struggled to even move.

She could see the menacing smirk on her face as her claw reared back to stab her.

Zoë didn't flinch. She didn't beg—not like she could even if she wanted to—she merely accepted the outcome the fates have given her.

To her surprise, however, this was not the case.

Instead of her being pierced by the Empousa's sharp claws, the sight she was greeted to was the flat of a black blade.

She looked up and was shocked to see Shirou Emiya standing there, protecting her.

He strained against holding off her attack for a moment before she saw another weapon appear in his free hand, this one white.

He slashed at the Empousa's chest, causing her to stagger back. The monster hissed in pain and held her wound.

It was surprising to see the monster look so hurt despite what seemed like a shallow wound.

Shirou approached her and said something to her that she couldn't hear.

Once the idiot boy realized that she was now deaf, he took on a solemn look.

"Behind… yo…" She tried to say. He thankfully looked and managed to cross both of his swords in time to block an incoming attack from behind him.

One of the other Empousa had approached from behind.

If it's here then…

Zoë looked around her. Her hunters were grouped up and thankfully all still alive but their backs was against the wall and it was clear that they were exhausted.

Empousa surrounded them and due to their special abilities were able to even get the upper hand.

All of the abilities were different from the last. One had elongated limbs, another shadow abilities and one even had fire control but to a lesser extent.

The latter was one of the main reasons they were at a disadvantage.

Zoë got up on one knee and almost immediately fell back down.

Shirou moved his head to her as he still remained locked with the monster. He gave her a look.

She hated it.

Since the dawn of time, women were always looked down upon as the lesser to the general human population.

They were "flowers." They needed to stay where it was "safe." They needed "protection." And they were "fragile."

Zoë rejected that. As did Artemis. They created the hunters to show that women could be easily as capable as men without needing their help.

They were conquered by no one. Vulnerable to no one. And more capable than anyone.

So Zoë stood up.

She wasn't going to fall here. She could still barely see and her injuries were not getting better. But she would fight and protect her hunters.

She looked around. She needed her bow.

Shirou watched her get up and sighed.

Kicking the Empousa away he threw one of his blades to her. She barely caught it in the state she was in.

It was also because of the fact that the blade was quite heavy. Not to mention it didn't look practical and more ornamental. But it was like no other blade she had ever seen before. It was white and had hexagonal patterns on the flat of the blade. On the guard was a yin-yang.

Is this a Falchion? It's shorter than any she had ever seen.

In fact, where had he even gotten this weapon from?

It seemed to just… appear.

The only logical reason was that it was an act of magic meaning he was a magician.

I shall worry about thee later. Now I must protect my group.

She decided that her first target would be the Empousa who took his hearing.

It stood off to the side still nurturing the wound as it looked at it, confused.

It noticed her and hissed, saying something.

Zoë wasn't in the mood for chatting and charged at it.

She swung at her head and she bent as low as she could to avoid the blade and tried to stab at her. She twisted in similar athleticism and spin kicked her.

The Empousa rolled with it and opened its mouth and screeched. Zoë was launched backwards and flew into a tent.

Unluckily for her, this was one of the tents on fire.

The sonic attack did a decent amount of damage but Zoë was already deaf now and the impact was lessened by the tent.

The tent ripped open and empousa charged at her. Thinking quickly, she grabbed the sleeping bag on the floor and threw it at her.

Predictably, she cut in half.

Zoë had already moved behind her and slashed her in the back.

She screeched and swung behind her, angrily.

Zoë slid under it and used that opportunity to grab one of the bow's that was on the floor.

An arrow was not far away so in the span of ten seconds, she had an arrow firing.

It hit the empousa's knee.

It opened its mouth but Zoë stopped it from emitting anything as she dropped her bow and picked up the sword to shove down her mouth.

"Garhhh! Ahhhh!"

She dug the blade deeper into her mouth and it shredded through her face like it was nothing.

Golden dust fell into the floor rapidly and her entire hands were covered in the essence.

The next moment she would be decapitated.

Unfortunately, that didn't happen just yet.

Her back squirmed and a large wing was starting to extend outwards.

Zoë reverse gripped her sword, slashing the wing away. But distance was now formed, letting the empousa form another wing.

The woman turned around, and Zoë saw her cut up face. Her entire jaw was hanging by a thread and her mouth was unable to close.

There would be no more sonic shrieks anymore.

The only part of her face that was untouched was her eyes and she glared at her with her golden-slitted eyes.

If she could, she would be snarling.

Instead she just took action. With her one wing she ran towards her, fury evident and her claws out.

Midway, her sole wing beat and she was off the ground momentarily, as she slammed into the lieutenant of the hunt.

They broke through the tent and Zoë rolled quickly to avoid a claw.

She used her already present action of being on the floor to sweep the monster's legs from under her. Quickly getting on top of her and pinning her, Zoë stabbed downwards.

The wing protected her by expanding and covering her face. Nevertheless, it was able to damage the wing before it beat and knocked Zoë back again. The huntress spared a glance at the people around her.

The flames were still as intense as ever and the smell of burnt wood was prominent. She could still her huntresses battling with the other monsters.

What was surprising though, was the boy. He faced two of the empousa alone. He had another copy of the white sword he had given her along with the black sword and dodged and parried all of their moves.

He didn't get hit once meanwhile, the same couldn't be said for the empousa. There were various cuts scattered across their bodies which didn't heal up. One of them was even brought to their knees.

Shirou finished the two a few minutes later.

He started making his way to her.

"No!" She shouted at him, making him stop and look at her, confused. "If Thou has decided to help then the huntresses are the ones in need of it!"

He nodded and threw her the black blade. It cut through the air and spun to her. She caught it by its hilt. He conveyed a message to her. Pointing to the yin-yang symbol.

She looked at him, confused. What was that supposed to mean?

She had no time to ponder on it as the empousa was rearing to charge again. To her surprise, when she had taken her eyes off of her, she had evolved once more.

Instead of a bronze leg and a donkey leg, they were both replaced with a long serpent's tail.

How many times will this keep evolving?

This was already the third transformation so far. Was it at its limit? Did it have a limit?

If she kept evolving, Zoë knew she was going to be in trouble.

She was still injured. The only reason she was still standing was a mix of sheer resolve, the power of Artemis' blessing at night time and most importantly, her heritage.

She hated the fact that she was reminded of him, now. She had long since made her peace with her father or rather— the fact that they would never cross paths again without trying to kill each other.

She glanced at the blades. It wasn't chipped at all. They were both in pristine condition and felt like real metal. She wasn't a blacksmith but she knew that these were blades of amazing quality. Something that would get Hephaestus' attention.

If there was one advantage she had right now it was definitely these blades. She wasn't sure before but now she was certain. These blades had an affinity for slaying monsters.

Perhaps the reason this empousa she was facing currently hadn't evolved more rapidly was likely due to this blade's properties.

She could work with that.

Spinning her blades around, she interacted with the empousa.

Now with two blades, she was able to block the empousa's elongated claws with greater ease and come back just as fast.

They exchanged numerous blows. Zoe throughout this, realized a problem.

She couldn't score a hit on the monster! Her tail allowed her to maneuver like never before. When she was backed into a corner, she was able to seamlessly slither away and circle behind her.

The exchange was even.

So, it was evident that one of them was going to play it dirty.

When the empousa struck, Zoë blocked as routine, but was hit straight in the face and blasted into a tree.

She groaned as she tried to realize what had happened.

The empousa held onto a large rock with its tail. She had gotten distracted and didn't realize that she had done so.

She scowled as the empousa slithered towards her, closing the distance. She needed time. She threw the black sword at the monster, it spun like a buzzsaw towards her.

She dodged it easily and kept her momentum towards Zoë. The lieutenant had only just managed to get up in time to meet another strike from the monster.

Even though she had successfully blocked it, she was still knocked backwards by the force of the strike. The empousa followed it up by slashing at her in the chest. Three claw marks slashed through her parka, and through her various layers of clothing. She could feel small amounts of blood being drawn from her skin.

She grimaced and tried stabbing her. The empousa read it easily and wrapped a tail around her neck.

The monster couldn't smirk but Zoë was sure that if she could, she would. The lieutenant was lifted off her feet and held as oxygen was deprived from her body. She tried futilely grabbing at the appendage but to no avail with her lack of strength.

Just as she was about to black out, she spotted something black in the distance. It looked like.

The black blade that she had previously thrown had come back faster than ever. The empousa had no time to react as it cut through almost her entire torso.

She released Zoë who gasped in pain keeled over.

"Huff… hufff. Huff…huff."

She greedily absorbed oxygen into her lungs. She crawled over to the monster. She couldn't afford to relax yet. She needed to take out the greatest danger to the group. Once she was over the corpse she could see just how grievous the monster's wound really was.

Her internal organs were shredded, whatever was left of her bones were shattered, her very insides were sizzling like poison.

Zoë stood over her. The empousa opened its eyes. It conveyed fury. It contained sadness and it contained revenge.

Zoë didn't care. Taking the white blade, she stabbed her in the forehead. After doing so, she dismembered her head and pushed it away. She wouldn't take any chances.

Only when the empousa's face was completely unrecognizable did she let up. The monster began to dissolve into golden particles shortly after.

"I pray for a long journey down to the depths for thou."

As she was about to get up, she noticed something that was left behind.

A green gem. Picking it up, she inspected it, turning it around. She noticed that it was translucent. Some type of energy was swirling inside of it. It certainly wasn't a monster drop she had ever heard of before.

Deciding to think about it later, she pocketed it and began to move. She needed to find her hunters.

As she walked, she wondered about Artemis. They were separated shortly after the dragon had exploded with Lamia. A part of her wanted to be worried but she believed truly that Artemis would beat her.

It would be foolish to think a monster that wasn't Typhon could beat a god or goddess.

Especially in their own territory.

But what if Lamia took My Lady, somewhere she was weakened? Something did happen to Pan, so is it too far-fetched?

She shook her head to dispel the thoughts.

No. My Lady is well. Perhaps she is merely taking her time.

Either way, she would handle the situation for when she gets back. That is her role.

Shirou had just finished killing the two monsters that had been tag-teaming him, when he heard collective yells and turned to see one of the hunters on the floor, bleeding.

From what he could see, it was a chest wound from one of the monsters.

His instincts kicked in and he ran towards them.

The fire surrounded them on all sides which is why they were trapped.

As he got closer, he could hear the monsters jeering at them.

"Lookie, here! The hunters are being hunted!"

"It doesn't feel nice to be on the opposite side, now does it?"

"We'll take our sweeet time with y'all. I call that one in the back. I think I remember her killin' me before."

"Finders, keepers, losers… well, dead!"

Shirou didn't slow down his momentum when he approached the fire and instead kicked off the ground, reinforcing his legs to help him jump higher.

His jump took him almost ten feet in the air. He felt no fear despite this being the first time he had done so without the class card.

The monsters—who Shirou assumed had enhanced hearing—looked up and finally spotted him, snarling and cursing at him. Shirou ignored it and focused his energy elsewhere. He scanned the terrain. The hunters were backed into a tree. There were ten enemies. All except two were locked onto him.

He needed to find the weak link.

There!

He spotted one.

The one he had his eyes on was a male and his eyes widened as he saw that the auburn-boy-turned-man was diving down towards him!

He thrusted his arm, and his hands in the shape of a claw stretched into Shirou's direction. Shirou was ready for this and spin-kicked the arm away before severing it with Kanshou.

Without the support of the upper part of the arm, it began to fall.

The monster felt true fear as it desperately tried to throw its other arm.

At the same time, the other monsters regained their senses and began throwing their own projectiles.

Fire, acid, mist, earth. All heading for Shirou.

Taking it as a challenge, he kept his hands to the side and did a dive, allowing him to land faster and cut through the air.

Whenever an obstacle appeared that he couldn't dodge, Kanshou and Byakuya were out and cut down whatever it was.

One of the blades' passives was the ability to negate magic up to a certain rank.

Thanks to this, there was little trouble avoiding all of their attacks.

When he got closer to the ground, he threw Byakuya. The white blade flew through the air, spinning all the while. He aimed it at the elongated monster.

Unluckily, for him, the monster moved completely out of the way of the attack and tried returning to it's flock when it noticed it being targeted. Shirou wouldn't allow that.

He threw Kanshou this time.

It cut off the monster's exit and when he tried to turn he saw Byakuya on the side of him, essentially sandwiching him.

Shirou took that opportunity well and slamming right into the monster. His scales cracked as Shirou punched him in the chest with reinforcement. He flew through the air, bouncing off the floor and into the fire where he screamed and burned.

Shirou kept up the momentum, sliding under an acid-spit attack and grabbing his weapons that were just about to hit the ground.

This allowed him to block a giant fist with the flat of his blade. With the other, he sliced its arm off and quickly cut in half. Shirou picked up its body and used it as a meat shield to block a fire attack and threw it at the acid person who was building up spit for an acid attack.

It had no choice but to launch it at the already dead monster or risk getting crushed by its large body.

The monster dissolved, saving it.

Until a white sword found its way into its skull. It fell back and vanished before it hit the ground.

Shirou was now left with seven. Two fighting the hunters, leaving five for him.

His action seemed to spur the hunters as they began to slowly overwhelm their two opponents, using their teamwork and collective might.

Shirou gave an appreciative nod to them as their handling themselves against the two monsters allowed him to focus on his opponents.

The five seemed to get the memo already that he was above them in skill and so were now circling around him, cautiously.

"Since when did the hunters invite males?"

"They never did, before! And this guy is a freak show! He already wiped out four of us!"

"What kind of demigod is he?"

"He isn't a demigod, Melpomeni. Don't you smell him? He is a human, through and through. Although I smell strong traces of iron mixed in with him…"

"I didn't sign up for this."

It seems they have some sense. Not to mention, they can actually talk. I should approach this with caution.

He looked at his arms. The tan lines were starting to expand from his shoulder to his elbow.

That was the reason he had limited his use of projection. Too much use of it would turn him into Archer completely. He was fine with that when it came to protecting his sister's life, but now?

He needed to limit the use of projection. Although, it wasn't like he had many blades left, anyway. He could use the element of surprise to help with the numbers.

He began to slowly approach one of the monsters. This one was the only one who had yet to use their ability.

If she's been hiding it this long then that likely means it's something that is only effective in close-range.

The monster's forked tongue flicked out as it glared at him.

Although, she didn't have the build of a close-ranged fighter. Maybe she didn't have one? He would still be cautious since she still had deadly claws.

His target began to shift backwards as he started to move towards her.

He charged first and swiped at the snake-lady, aiming for her face. She barely was able to move her head to the side to dodge it. A small line of gold smeared her face.

She didn't get away unharmed.

She hissed as the wound sizzled. It must have felt like hot iron was applied to her skin.

When Shirou approached her next, he went in for a double slash with his swords. They exchanged several blows and it was evident that he was the superior in the fight.

His sword was much heavier and thus much stronger and whenever he would clash with her claws they would nearly break.

He stabbed her leg when the opportunity presented itself, forcing her to kneel. As he went for the neck, he was suddenly forced to dodge a rock slab that was launched at him. He didn't need to look hard to see the monster conjuring rocks. They had finally decided to step in and save their comrade.

"Tsk."

Shirou was getting annoyed by this. He kept being driven back more and more by the rocks. As he just got up from dodging the nearest attack, The fire breathing one released a cyclone of swirling flames at him.

Thinking quickly, he held his swords in an x-formation.

This saved his face and anything major from being charred but not his clothing as the fire began to engulf his clothing. He quickly reached for the zipper of his parka and took it off. He patted down his pants as well.

"Wait, don't approach him so carelessly, Melpomeni!"

One of the monsters decided to get greedy and tried to go for him while he was down. This was the earth one.

A large rock spike was in her hand as she thrusted it at him. Picking up his ruined parka, he threw it at the spike, covering it. Thanks to its tough quality, it was harder for it to pierce through.

Shirou used this opportunity to pivot around her and cut her neck and thus her head off.

"Shit! That idiot!"

Shirou, not one to miss out on an opportunity, rushed them once again. There were only two now. He picked the right one first. She was helpless to his assault as he slashed at her multiple times. As Shirou was about to get the finishing blow, he felt something restricting him.

A python was wrapped around him.

It's the one from before.

She had gotten away because of the earth chunks that was thrown at him. So this was her power.

Shirou felt the tight grip of the python begin to crush his arms tightly against his chest with inhuman strength.

He used reinforcement as best he could to sustain himself. The remaining one had regained their senses and opened her mouth wide to swallow him whole.

It was stopped by a flurry of silver arrows that riddled its entire body.

It dropped to the floor, dead. Shirou, deciding to take action, began to work on fighting against the pythons' grip.

"Garghhh! Ahhh!" Shirou grunted as he was slowly overpowering its strength. Once it had let loose even a little, Shirou reverse gripped his swords and stabbed into its skin.

"Gaaah!" The monster hissed in pain as he dragged the blade along its skin. Golden dust leaked from its body. It fell dead not long after.

Shirou fell down on his butt as he panted in exhaustion. The hunters approached him and he saw—surprisingly— Thelka reach out and hold out her hand.

He stared at it for a moment before taking it and propping himself up.

He nodded at her in thanks.

"You guys handled the other two monsters?"

"We cannot be called hunters if we cannot even manage two of them." Thelka replied, looking around distastefully. "Although, they could hardly be called the standard prey that we face. Managing just those two was a hard task."

Looking at them carefully now, he noticed they were all exhausted and weary. None of them came out of it uninjured.

"That's right. The attack came out of nowhere. It must have been planned for a while now." Shirou commented. "But that being said, where is Artemis? I didn't think she would allow for this to happen."

"Do not refer to her so casually, boy." A girl—Phoebe— said. Her voice lacked the normal

venom that they all used before.

Progress I guess.

"Everything worked out well, huh?" Everyone turned to see Zoë limping her way over to them.

Phoebe ran over to her.

"Zoe!" She approached her and immediately began first aid as she pulled out a roll of bandages from her parka to seal her bleeding wounds. She looked worse than he did. She gasped when she noticed the extent of the wounds. "You…"

"I must warn you, Phoebe, I cannot hear so whatever thy have said, runs on empty ears. But knowing thou, thy must be inquiring as to my health. I must admit… I am not well…" Zoë said with a troubled voice.

The others approached her worriedly.

"Phoebe, you cannot use your powers to heal Zoë yet, right?" One of the hunters asked.

The girl shook her head. "I can't Areti. Not whilst the moon is up."

"Shit!"

"Language…" Zoë chastised, somehow still hearing it. "But I will allow it here… do not worry about me. I will be fine… we must worry about getting into contact with Our Lady."

"Someone get a drachma!" Phoebe ordered. A girl immediately ran to a tent.

They began to speak to each other as Shirou stood there awkwardly. He felt out of place. He was about to leave.

"Shirou Emiya."

The words of Zoë stopped him. He turned around to see the lieutenant looking at him with an unreadable expression.

The other hunters all looked at him too as if they just realized he was still here.

"Thou have defended us. Protected the hunt. Ensured that it remains another day."

"…"

"What I am saying is thou is apart of this group. For now. Until Our Lady says otherwise. Thou will join us as if one was a female and perhaps if thou want I shall put in a word to Our Lady and…"

"No thanks." Shirou replied, already knowing what she was going to say. He did not want to become a female.

Zoë smiled? It was hard to see with the lighting, perhaps it was the trick of the eye as it was gone a moment later.

Shirou looked around. Everyone looked just a little more comfortable in his presence now. It was a weird feeling.

Something impacted his chest and he grabbed it see a roll of bandage wraps. Looking, he saw Phoebe already looking away.

But not, comfortable enough to help an injured man.

Wait, did he just drop a quip?

When has that ever—

"I got it!" The hunter came back with the drachma. They went over to the pot of water that had stayed undamaged.

He saw Zoë grab it and throw it into the water, confusing him.

"Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering and show me Artemis."

A moment later, the water began to mist up and build as a cloud of it floated in the air. It began to take form.

Everyone gasped.

Including Shirou but for one more reason.

For Shirou, it was because he just saw them throw a coin into normal water and a screen like facetime had appeared.

For everyone else, it was because of what the video showed.

Artemis, still in her young form was locked behind what looked like bronze bars in a flat plain.

She looked weak and her image flickered constantly. Still, she managed to lift her head up to look at them.

"Lady Artemis!"

Goddess!"

"What happened!"

Zoë seemed to be gritting her teeth in anger and she bawled her fists.

Shirou was shocked at it as well. Artemis had struck him as a powerful goddess and highly intelligent. And yet, someone had beaten her?

That didn't bode well for them.

"Girls… I need you… to… listen. To me." The video kept cutting in and out, making it hard to hear her words. All of them took in her every word.

"I will call father and Olympus." Phoebe announced, already about to leave to find another drachma.

"No! There is no time!"

"My lady? What does thou mean?" Zoë questioned.

"It means… you all…" The video cut out for a moment completely.

Before it restored itself.

"To run!"

Something told Shirou to look up. And he was glad that he did.

Looking at the sky he saw a sight that scared even him.

A women stood in the sky. Or more appropriately, perhaps, it would be to say, a dragon was in the sky. The women floated with her two large wings that had claws at the tips of it.

She jeered down at them with a menacing grin as something silver began to coalesce in her hands. He didn't know what it was, but it didn't look good.

It was aimed at them.

The hunters saw it as well.

But as they looked at the imminent blast they realized one thing.

There would be no getting away.

Not from that attack. It was surely going to be a long-ranged attack and the radius would be huge.

They decided to merely stand their ground.

"Good evening, hunters. We met before, as you all know. I am Lamia. And…oh? Is that a male? Well? That's new. And a hottie at that. Well, anyways, you all will die. Your goddess is bound and by the time she will break out of it, you will be ashes, I'm afraid. This is goodbye!"

The blast released from her palm and rocketed towards them, releasing a sonic ring at the breaking of the sound barrier.

Shirou was moving before he could even process it, running in front of everyone. What exactly was he doing?

No.

He knew.

"If you want to survive, get behind me." He yelled to them.

Nobody argued.

"I am the bone of my sword." The tan lines ran down his arm, more and he could see the tips of his hair turn white. He didn't care right now, though. He had something to protect. "Steel is my body and fire my blood."

An image appeared in his mind. His strongest shield.

Purple light began to form and shimmer immediately and he felt his mana empty immediately.

"Rho Aias!"

The shield that withstood Hector's sprung forth in a sequence of an opening petal.

And two powerful forces met.

That's it.

A bit longer, now. 5k words to be exact. Not bad, right?

I've counted the reviews and it seems like the majority of people are wanting the first chapter of my new Fate/ Percy Jackson fic, the mirror to this one. So, I'll be posting the first chapter shortly.