[Third Person Pov]
Artemis continued clinging tightly to Lucian’s thick fur, her face ducked low against the rushing wind. “They’re just up ahead, aren’t they?” she whispered close to one of his upright ears.
Lucian gave a firm nod of his massive wolf head in confirmation. Artemis quickly secured her legs around his sides for better balance, sat straight up, and reached behind her to grab her bow and quiver of arrows in one fluid motion.
In the distance, Lykaon was rushing forward at the head of his forces, riding atop a tall, imposing white wolf. A crown made of bones sat confidently atop his head, giving him a savage, regal appearance. Surrounding him was an entire army of wolves—an organized pack of white and grey beasts, all seemingly eager to answer his every beck and call.
“Kehahaha…” Lykaon cackled maniacally to himself. “Do you sense it, boys? The times are changing. Thanks to Kronos, I will bring down these so-called pretenders who call themselves gods and expose them for what they really are—”
Before he could finish his boast, Artemis leapt gracefully high into the air above their heads. She rotated in an elegant barrel roll, three gleaming silver arrows already nocked on her bowstring, the metal glinting sharply in the sunlight.
She released all three arrows in rapid succession. They struck with devastating precision: one hitting the wolf Lykaon was riding, and the other two slamming into wolves flanking him. The force of her shots caused their heads to explode violently on impact.
“You bitch!!” Lykaon roared furiously as he barely managed to leap off his mount in time to avoid the same fate.
Artemis landed smoothly on her knees in a mid-spin, already extracting another arrow from her quiver. She fired it directly at Lykaon with blinding speed. He twisted his body at the last possible moment, catching the arrow with his bare hand while beginning his transformation.
His body started to bulk up dramatically. Thick tufts of fur erupted across his skin, rapidly covering him entirely. His face elongated into a savage snout, and his eyes flared a menacing blood-red. The arrow shattered uselessly in his transforming paw.
“Kill her!” Lykaon roared, his voice now a monstrous growl. “She appears to be alone without her hunters—proving to everyone that gods are nothing but a figment of desperate mortal imagination!!”
At his command, the entire pack of werewolves surged forward at once.
They instantly surrounded Artemis in a wide, threatening formation. One particularly bold mutt broke rank first and initiated the attack, lunging straight for her.
Her shadow expanded unnaturally wide across the snow. “Alone, you say?” Artemis smirked, her smile growing dangerously wider with confidence.
As the werewolf opened its massive maw, intending to swallow her whole, Lucian exploded out from the depths of her shadow in his giant wolf form. His own jaws stretched impossibly wide as he tackled the attacking wolf out of mid-air. His powerful teeth sank deep into its flesh, a hot gush of warm blood flooding his mouth.
With a sudden, violent wrench of his head, Lucian tore the creature’s head clean off in one brutal motion. He spat it out onto the snow, blood dripping heavily from his jaws as he positioned himself protectively in front of Artemis. A deep, threatening growl rumbled from his chest while he bared his bloody fangs in warning.
“It’s hard for me to be alone these days,” Artemis chuckled darkly as the rest of the wolves suddenly charged all at once, their eyes glinting with feral, bloodthirsty rage.
The battle erupted in full force. Artemis moved with lethal grace, swinging her bow like a staff to smash one werewolf aside before finishing it with a perfectly placed arrow. Lucian shifted back into his human form mid-combat, catching one of the attacking wolves by its open jaws. With raw, terrifying strength, he violently tore the creature in half using nothing but his bare hands.
The wolves were fast—faster than ordinary wolves and far quicker than what normal demigods could ever hope to react to. But neither Lucian nor Artemis were normal. One was an ancient goddess of the hunt, and the other… had no logical definition at all.
Lucian swung his open hand forward and activated his [Child of Persephone] ability. The surrounding trees were violently ripped from the ground, their roots snapping as they lifted into the air. In an instant, they transformed into giant logs that were then elaborately carved and sharpened into massive wooden spikes. The werewolves caught in their path had their bodies erupt into gruesome showers of blood as the spikes impaled them mercilessly.
Lykaon roared in fury, slashing through the wooden projectiles with his bare claws. His eyes narrowed with savage, unbridled intensity. Foam dripped from his snarling mouth—he wanted nothing more than to tear both Artemis and Lucian apart.
Without warning, Lucian grabbed Artemis by the arm and tossed her high into the air. She flipped gracefully mid-air, twisting so she was upside down, and unleashed arrow after arrow with deadly precision while airborne. Each shot found its mark with devastating force.
Lucian’s hands suddenly began to tremble and vibrate with his other special ability. He moved at superhuman speeds, using his hands like living blades as he weaved through the chaotic battlefield alongside the frenzied werewolves. His strikes were surgical and merciless, dissecting the creatures the moment they crossed his path.
Lykaon could only watch helplessly as his once-formidable forces were systematically slaughtered before his eyes. Whenever he tried to take a single step forward, Lucian’s piercing gaze always seemed to find him, no matter where he tried to counter and intervene from. A crushing wave of dread would seize his heart, freezing him in place.
Lucian placed a hand atop the heads of some of the last surviving wolves and dramatically increased the density of his limbs. The sheer weight crushed their skulls into a bloody pulp the instant they slammed into the snow-covered ground.
“You know, you’re honestly very brutal,” Artemis remarked casually while she pulled the bowstring tight, the cord slicing clean through a werewolf’s neck in one smooth motion. Fresh blood coated her bowstring as the creature collapsed, its head sliced clean right off with surgical precision.
“Like you’re one to talk, Madame Executioner over there,” Lucian shot back with a smirk, flicking blood off his hands. “And you haven’t seen brutal from me yet. This is all light work.”
Lucian’s eyes suddenly transformed into glowing blood-red rubies. His shadow powers exploded outward in a massive, dark wave that blasted everything nearby. Artemis was forced to raise her arm to shield herself from the sheer force of it. “Brutal,” he continued coldly, “is me using the souls of their families and friends against them.”
Artemis watched in stunned silence as black and red wisps began rising from the fresh corpses scattered around them. The spectral energy coalesced and took the form of large, shadowy wolves.
Wherever Lucian walked, the souls of the dead rose to join his growing army. Artemis scoffed lightly and lowered her bow to her side, walking confidently beside him once she realized there was no longer any need for direct fighting.
Lykaon’s entire body trembled with raw terror as he watched Lucian approach. He took one shaky step back, then another, as the last remnants of his pack were devoured by their own shadowed kin.
In a desperate panic, Lykaon turned and tried to flee. However, thick roots suddenly burst from the ground, wrapping tightly around his ankles and yanking him down hard. He began crawling backward frantically, slashing at the roots with his sharp claws. “You’re no gods!” he shouted desperately. “You’re not even the offspring of one! You’re the devil!! In what world is this considered divine?!”
Lucian and Artemis continued approaching him with cold indifference, surrounded by Lucian’s newly summoned army of spectral wolves.
“The devil?” Lucian scoffed, tilting his head. “Technically—and I mean this as technically as I can—that title would belong to my father. As for me?”
Lucian grinned darkly. He leaned forward, slowly licking the blood from his thumb with a predatory smirk. “Well, I’m just the Prince meant to inherit that position.”