Chapter Eleven

"Take off your helmet."

I narrowed my eyes at the arrows that were drawn, aimed right at me.

I didn't have the time for this. The camp was most likely under attack and these children were holding me here in a misguided sense that they were doing a good job at it.

"I was sent here by lord Apollo with a task to eliminate the minotaur."

Technically, it was for the protection of her daughter but they didn't need to know that.

The twelve-year-old girl who had her eyes narrowed at me while she stood right across from me, scowled something mean.

"That wasn't the question, I said to take off your helmet."

I scowled myself, I didn't have the fucking time, it was night, I was rudely woken up, the camp was in danger and this... Child was about to throw a tantrum.

My shield turned back into a vambrace and I slammed the butt of the spear into the ground with a scowl, ignoring the way the girls tensed.

Taking off my helmet without much bravado, I raised an eyebrow at the Artemis, who decided to take the form of a child.

The said goddess looked me over once and waved a hand.

I didn't see what she did, I felt it. Her will traveled to my body, reshaping it. I felt myself get smaller, my limbs shrink, and something emerging from my head.

Did she... Was she serious?

I narrowed my new eyes. It wasn't the first time I had been in a different body type. In a few dozen of my lives, I used shapeshifting magic casually, taking advantage of its versatility.

"Girls. Hunt."

She turned around and started walking away.

I felt a squeaky growl escape my tiny throat before divinity exploded from my small frame. My body returned to its original form. Artemis turned around but I didn't give her any more attention and popped my neck as I felt dozens of arrows heading my way. They weren't even going easy, aiming for my vital organs.

Air swirled around my body, sending the arrows scattering around the clearing aimlessly. Bening at the waist, I grabbed my helmet and put it back on my head.

Looks like Apollo wasn't coming to help me any time soon and killing these kids was not an option either. Instead, I focused on the anchor I left at the camp as a precaution a few years ago and sent one last look at the Huntresses surrounding me.

"Fucking hypocrites."

With that last mutter, my surroundings shifted. I didn't care that a god saw what I did, it didn't matter that I just undid a god's doing. The kids were in danger, and they needed me.

My vision refocused and I surveyed my surroundings. The Ares cabin was unusually empty, but I could feel people who were huddled in a reinforced room that I suggested be implemented for the ones who could not fight.

My head snapped toward the window, hearing the crackle of lighting, and the smell of smoke.

That and the sound of a lion's roar was enough for me to give my undivided attention to.

Divinity flared from my body, as my vambrace turned to a shield and my hand moved for my spear before realizing that it was absent.

In my haste, I had left the spear behind.

Unfortunate, but ultimately inconsequential. It was just a normal spear.

I dashed out of the cabin and my eyes widened at the sight. The bodies of children no older than fifteen were scattered around in front of the cabins, lying lifelessly.

I could not feel them, they were dead.

Claw marks were decorating their corpses, splattering their blood on the ground.

My eyes shifted upward, staring at a giant lion that was busying itself with trying to kill any living thing that stood in its path.

The Apollo cabin members were situated on the roofs and trees and shooting flaming arrows at it, trying to contain the beast to avoid any more casualties but had minimal success.

I felt something wet trickle down my palm but I didn't even spare it a glance.

My surroundings blurred.

In an instant, my shield was impacting the side of the lion's head. The Beast's head snapped to the side and a roar of pain escaped its mouth.

It turned to me, the eyes of the monster staring at me with hate but I did not care. I knew what this was. The Nemean lion. A vicious beast that had killed countless warriors with its strength and cunning.

But right now, as I stared at the beast, I did not feel fear. I wasn't angry, I was fucking Livid.

It lunged and I turned my body, taking a step to the side to avoid its claws.

The ant had impenetrable skin, a minor inconvenience at best.

I raised my fist, Divinity seeping inside the muscles, the bones, the ligaments, the joints all throughout my body. Before the Lion could recover, my clenched hand impacted its ribcage.

The whelp let out a whimper as the sound of bones breaking resounded in my ears.

I waited, waiting for it to realize that it was standing in front of an opponent that it could not overcome, I wanted it to suffer, not just physically, but mentally.

I wanted the animal to feel what it was going against.

The beast recovered, and lunged, much more sloppily and much more slowly than before. Its claws extended forward, trying, and failing, to pin me down.

I lifted my leg and sent a kick at its front appendage, breaking the limb at the joint.

By the roar that escaped the animal's mouth, I assumed that it was painful.

Well, it had the whole night to get used to the pain, because I wasn't stopping until there weren't any more bones to break in its body.

And even that wasn't a guarantee.