You tense the muscles of your legs and vault over Athena as she rushes towards you. Twisting through the air like a cat, you evade her trident by precious inches. As you land behind the goddess, you know you have to seize this opening for all its worth. Your hands blaze with brilliant energy as you draw them back to fire an immense blast of ki.
“HA-OH SHOKOKEN!” you cry.
Athena begins to return her normal form, and looks over her shoulder in surprise as your blast screams towards her from behind. She tries to turn and block the attack with her shield, but she’s too slow. The blast strikes with such force it knocks her offer her feet and sends her skidding across the floor of clouds, super-heated steam trailing from her skin.
You grin, feeling encouraged. Athena may be a goddess, but she’s not invincible. If you keep this up, you may yet be able to claim victory.
But Athena has no intentions of letting that happen just yet. She picks herself, looking more furious than hurt. “An admirable effort, but I’ve suffered worse blows than that. Now learn the difference between a goddess and a pretender!”
Athena gestures, and a massive golden lion appears beneath her. As Athena raises her sword, her mount opens its jaws and roars. From the depths of its throat, three immense fire-balls scream towards you.
There’s no time to dodge, and you have no choice but to block the attack as best you can. You raise your arms, turning your face away and gritting your teeth as the take the blast. The skin on your forearms is singed, and the sheer forces shakes your bones, making your arms ache, but you manage to negate most of the damage and keep your footing. The moment you look up, you see Athena rushing towards you, her sword aimed at your chest.
“You can’t escape!” she cries, launching her thrust.
You sidestep the attack with a yelp and quickly retaliate with a quick series of punches, desperate to put Athena back on the defensive. She raises her shield, blocking the blows, and draws back her sword for an over-hand strike, but you leap backwards, out of reach, and hurl a blast of ki down at her. The blast strikes her clean in the face, and for a moment she staggers. With an aggravated huff, she conjures a magical bow. You land and quickly duck as an arrow whistles past your head.
You’re at a fair distance now, and it seems as if neither of you has a clear advantage. Athena puts a finger to her mouth and whistles, and suddenly, an immense yellow cockatiel appears. You blink, slightly baffled at this bizarre sight.
“What the heck is this!? Are we in Heaven, or an aviary?”
Athena leaps onto the cockatiel, her cloths shifting to a white, mid-riff tunic as a pair of wings sprouts from her back. She lands on the cockatiel’s back on her feet, perfectly balanced.
You’re not even sure what the hell Athena is about to do, much less how you should respond. It looks like me might be going for some kind of aerial attack, but if she’s just planning on riding the cockatiel, why go to the trouble of sprouting wings?
Well, whatever she’s planning, you’re going to have to come up with a plan of your own.
