The instant Ryo made his move, his body split into countless overlapping afterimages.
They weren't illusions. They were the lingering images left behind by speed so overwhelming that even Artemis's vision couldn't keep up.
In the blink of an eye, those afterimages merged into a single streak of golden light. A perfectly straight line. Its endpoint was Artemis, standing calmly with her bow.
A surge of danger exploded through her instincts. As she pondered the meaning behind his muttered "Thirty percent," her body moved on pure reflex, honed by countless battles.
Her right hand rested lightly against the bow.
She sneered, her voice echoing directly into his mind. "Only worthless archers care about distance."
Before she had even finished speaking... Before an arrow had even formed... Silvery moonlight engulfed Ryo.
It wasn't just moonlight. It was a barrage of impossibly dense laser beams, a rain of death woven from lunar light itself.
Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
A rapid succession of impacts rang out as the beams hammered against Ryo's body. Only then did the arrow slowly materialize on Artemis's bow and disappear the instant it was complete.
Watching with both forearms crossed in front of himself to block the barrage, Ryo's eyes widened.
'The attack landed... before it was even fired?'
Artemis's cool voice drifted through the forest. "You wanted to hit me? Then come and try."
Before the last word faded, an overwhelming pressure crashed down onto Ryo. He nearly dropped to one knee.
Then the world around him began to change.
Soft blue radiance spread outward from Artemis, swallowing the entire Barren Plains. Nearly two hundred thousand kilometers of wasteland transformed in an instant.
Tender green shoots burst through the earth. Towering cypress trees erupted from the ground.
Within moments, Artemis herself vanished among the trees.
An eagle's piercing cry echoed overhead. Golden-eyed hunting dogs prowled between the trunks. Bears roared. Birds and beasts answered one another from every direction.
The desolate plain had become a sprawling primeval forest.
Meanwhile, moonlight continued to shine upon Ryo.
Looking at the warped scenery around him, he frowned. "The distorted space-time is creating abnormal gravity... This should be your Moon Authority, Artemis."
He had sensed the same power before from Kurousagi. There was no mistaking it.
_[A/N: Very little is known about Moon Authorities in canon. The only confirmed users are Kurousagi and the Saurian Demon King. As for Artemis, I'm assuming she also possesses one, given her close association with the moon in Greek mythology—just as her twin brother, Apollo, is associated with the sun.]
"Sharp eye." Artemis' voice drifted through the trees. "You blocked my Moon Arrows. It seems you're a little stronger than Hermes."
"...A little stronger than Hermes?" Ryo frowned.
That somehow felt insulting.
Lowering his arms, he glanced at the countless scorched black marks covering the bandages wrapped around them.
"So thirty percent isn't enough." He murmured to himself. "Guess I'll use fifty."
Golden mist began rising from his body, wrapping him in glowing clouds. Moonlight filtered through the dense canopy onto his face.
Artemis answered with the same icy calm. "Fifty percent? Even now you're still holding back. How laughably arrogant."
"I won't give you another chance. The next shot will take your right arm. Until then... My servants can entertain you."
The instant she finished speaking... a massive shadow swallowed the moonlight behind him.
Ryo's instincts screamed.
He spun around to see a gigantic black bear, over three meters tall, standing behind him. One eye was marred by a long scar.
"ROAR!" The bear bellowed and slashed downward with enormous claws.
An indescribable sharpness radiated from them.
Every inch of Ryo's skin prickled. It felt as though his entire body was about to be torn apart.
His heart lurched. Before he could react, the claw slammed straight into his forehead.
CLANG!
The bear staggered backward in pain.
Three broken claws spun through the air. And three faint lines of blood appeared across Ryo's forehead.
They weren't even a tenth of a millimeter deep.
The unease in his chest instantly vanished. Without hesitation, he kicked at the bear.
The force of the kick twisted the atmosphere itself into a gigantic vortex.
Just then, his movement was slowed just enough. And what should have been a lightspeed kick missed.
The bear seized the opening and disappeared into the forest.
As a Seventh Sense Saint, Ryo immediately understood what had happened. "The warped space-time is interfering with my personal flow of time... It's slowing my movements."
His eyes lit up instead of dimming, "Now this is interesting."
He'd spent the entire fight being suppressed. Restrictions everywhere. No chance to counterattack.
Yet the excitement inside him only continued to grow.
'Monster.'
Hidden deep within the forest, Artemis cursed silently.
That black bear had been created using Chiyou's divine war mount as its template. Its claws were so sharp that even the mightiest divines wouldn't dare take them head-on. Yet all they'd managed was a scratch so shallow it was almost invisible.
'His body rivals a Star Spirit... No. It's even tougher. And Little Garden still classifies him as human?'
For the first time in her life, Artemis wanted to curse the Little Garden Central System itself.
'This level of durability makes my beast legion useless. Neither my hounds nor my eagles can match the bear's raw cutting power. I need to find his limit.'
Her gaze hardened. Silently, she drew out a golden arrow.
A Gift from Zeus when she had first been born. An arrow imbued with the Authority of Lightning.
'...Will this be overkill?'
She hesitated.
Then she remembered Ryo's shameless teasing. And the hesitation disappeared.
Ryo remained alert, scanning the forest.
Then Artemis's voice floated toward him once more. "If you're willing to apologize publicly... I may consider sparing you."
Ryo grinned. "Then don't. You can be the one I spare instead."
She seemed to spend several seconds calming herself before speaking again. "For Athena's sake... I'll only take your right arm. You should be grateful. You ill-mannered brute."
"There!" Ryo suddenly whipped around toward the north. At almost the same instant, his eyelid twitched.
His right hand instinctively started to rise.
Then—in that tiny fraction of a second—a golden arrow suddenly appeared, embedded in the back of his right hand.
No warning. No energy fluctuations. No omen whatsoever.
None of his senses had detected it.
Even the Authority of Destruction constantly protecting his body had failed to react.
"How...?!"
His pupils contracted violently.
He looked north. Only then did an arrow slowly leave Artemis's bow.
It drifted gracefully through the air like a butterfly, elegant almost to the point of mockery, before overlapping perfectly with the arrow that had already pierced his hand.
A heartbeat later...
Thunk.
The sound of the impact finally arrived. Yet the fear on Ryo's face had vanished.
Somewhere in the forest, he distinctly heard someone inhale sharply.
Shaking his head in disappointment, he grasped the golden arrow and pulled it free. The wound on the back of his hand measured barely three-tenths of a millimeter deep.
"Even sixty percent wasn't enough. As expected of Artemis. You actually pushed me this far."
The truth was, he'd only stopped that shot by activating Leo's Sun Authority at the last instant.
Without it, the arrow would have pierced straight through his hand, completely destroying his entire right arm.
Still, now he had a much better idea.
'It takes at least fifty percent of my Cosmos while burning it to block that arrow...' He frowned thoughtfully. 'So how much Cosmos do I need to burn... to kill a four-digit rule-breaker?'
_ _ _
Silence.
Hidden among the trees, Artemis ignored his provocation.
Instead, she fell into complete confusion.
'...Did I not hit him very hard? Was I not actually angry enough over what he'd done?'
A ridiculous thought surfaced.
'...Do I actually not mind his flirting? Otherwise... how could this happen?'
She had absolute confidence in that shot.
Even a star the size of the sun would have been pierced clean through.
Yet... This was the result?
The golden arrow was genuine. It was Zeus's Gift.
The very arrow she used to hunt Typhon's descendants. Even the scales of the nine-headed Hydra couldn't withstand its edge.
One shot was all it ever took.
Yet against Ryo...
She stared at his hand. Then froze.
The wound was gone?!!!
The forest fell utterly silent.
Only after a long pause did Ryo's calm voice break the stillness. "Let's make it seventy percent this time. Still without burning my Cosmos."
He lowered himself into a fighting stance. Golden flames roared around his body.
His fist drew back.
"One punch. To clear the field."
His words fell. His fist shot forward.
.
.
.