Shit!

The word slipped out before I could even think. My throat felt raw, like I'd been holding my breath for hours, and maybe I had. The air inside this barrier was thick enough to choke on—blood, dust, and something sharper, like burned ozone clinging to the back of my tongue. Every breath I took hurt, but I couldn't stop. I couldn't look away.

The goddess hovered in the air, pale hair whipping in the heat waves rolling off the Minotaur's massive frame. Her glow was still there, silver and sharp, but it wasn't steady anymore. It flickered, faint tremors running through it the same way her shoulders trembled with every breath. She wasn't untouched. Not anymore. The blood on her lip glistened like a stain she couldn't erase, and even from here I could see how tightly her jaw was clenched to hide the strain.

The Minotaur stomped forward, every step shaking the ground like it wanted to split the city in two. Its chest heaved, steam pouring from its nostrils, and the arrow still buried in its abdomen pulsed faintly with light—as though her own power had turned traitor and was now fueling the monster. Its hide, torn and shredded a hundred times over, had knitted back together in grotesque cords of muscle. That wasn't normal healing. It was like something had hijacked its body, forcing it into this berserk parody of survival.

And I was stuck here with them.

My palms were slick, trembling when I pressed one against the barrier beside me. It pulsed faintly, alive, as if reminding me that I wasn't just watching a fight—I was a rat in a cage, and the predators inside hadn't decided if I was worth noticing yet. My chest ached from keeping my will suppressed, clamping down on the urge to flare my Haki like a drowning man clings to air. One slip, one ripple, and she'd notice me. Or worse—both of them would.

Her voice broke the silence first, sharp and low, carrying across the ruined street. "Who. Was. It?" She wasn't whispering to me. Her eyes, cold as frostbitten steel, never left the beast.

"You were meant to be a blemish on the hunt. Nothing more."

"So who interfered in my sacred hunt?"

Hearing her whisper, which meant whispers, I also started guessing.

Zeus?

No, he should be busy humping a dry wall like a man on a mission.

Hera?

Could be. As in the original mythos, she chased Artemis and Apollo's mother to the end of the world, not letting her give birth.

Then Aphrodite?

She is said to be her rival in mythos. Their contrasting domains make them natural enemies.

Ares?

Nah—

Before I could continue to speculate on some more names, suddenly, blood red mist started ejecting from the Minotaur, taking a form the mist.

Her silver glow rippled, sharp and furious, like the very name had struck her deeper than any wound.

The Minotaur's roar drowned out everything else, but I saw it—the faint outline inside that blood-fog, tall, broad, plated in jagged crimson. A phantom, not flesh, but presence. Rage made manifest.

And she wasn't wrong. Even without knowing the myths inside out, even without hearing her voice spit the name, I could feel it. That war-drum pressure in the air, the way my chest locked up as though invisible hands were squeezing it, the raw violence rolling off that form—it all screamed war itself.

Artemis's bow trembled in her grasp, not with fear, but with recognition. Her jaw tightened, her eyes narrowed, and for the first time, she looked less like a divine judge and more like prey who had been caught in someone else's snare.

"Tch~ Tch~ Tch~ Artemis, Huntress, you sure are damn reckless."

The voice wasn't hers. It wasn't the Minotaur's either. It slithered out of the red fog, layered, distorted, like a dozen voices overlapping until it was impossible to tell where one ended and the next began. Male, female, beast, spirit—it was all of them, and none of them.

Her head snapped toward the mist, bow taut, aura flaring like a star on the edge of collapse. But even from where I stood, I saw it—the way her pupils constricted, the tightness in her breath. Whoever, whatever, that was… she knew it. She feared it.

The Minotaur bellowed again, its horns crashing against the barrier she'd conjured in front of herself. But this time, the sound was different. Not just rage—there was rhythm to it, cadence, like a chant beaten into flesh. The blood-fog thickened around its bulk, seeping into its wounds, and every place her arrows had pierced was now glowing faintly crimson, not silver.

It wasn't just resisting her anymore. It was feeding on her.

"Show yourself!" she spat, her voice ringing like steel drawn in the dark. She loosed an arrow into the fog, the silver light tearing across the street like a falling star. It hit, but the mist only hissed, boiling for a heartbeat before swallowing the radiance whole.

My stomach knotted. This wasn't just a beast gone mad. Someone was behind this. Someone powerful enough to hijack a goddess's hunt and twist a monster into a weapon.

And I was still in the middle of it.

The fog pulsed, a heartbeat that wasn't mine, wasn't the Minotaur's. The overlapping voices laughed, cruel and distant.

"Enjoy your little game, Huntress. But know this…"

The Minotaur stomped, cracking pavement into rivers of stone. Its body lurched forward, faster, stronger, horns tearing through the goddess's next volley as though they were nothing but mist themselves.

"…your arrows are wasted. Tonight, you are the quarry."

Her glow spiked, furious, but she was late—the Minotaur was already on her. Horns and light, blood and moonfire collided in a thunderclap that sent me sprawling against the barrier, ribs screaming, ears ringing.

Through the haze of dust and crimson glow, I saw it.

Her pale body thrown back, silver hair whipping as blood sprayed from her shoulder. Not divine ichor. Not untouchable. Blood.

She'd been gored.

"Zeus! He will not let this slide! Meddling with another god's domain is sacred—"

Her voice broke, the words raw with fury and pain. The silver light around her flickered, guttering like a candle in a storm. For the first time, I saw something human in her expression—anger, yes, but also fear.

The Minotaur didn't stop. Its horns tore upward, scraping sparks against her divine barrier, and she barely twisted away in time. Her bow snapped another arrow into being, but the glow wavered, stuttering as though her own will was faltering. She fired anyway.

The shot cut through the beast's neck, sizzling flesh, leaving a glowing furrow that should have dropped it cold. Instead, the wound closed before my eyes, veins glowing crimson beneath its hide, as if the mist itself had become its lifeblood.

The laughter from the fog coiled around us again, closer now, seeping into every crack of the ruined street.

"See, Huntress? This is your worth. You think that just because of taking Styx's oath of chastity, you become someone above all? You're nothing but playing hard to get. I was just trying to court you, but what did you do? You attacked me, cutting my 'own flesh'. Foolish, arrogant girl."

Wait. Wait. Wait a fuckin' second.

This bloody uncle here is talking about a freakin' rape attempt gone wrong?! And by 'cutting my own flesh' I was speechless. Bro got his wiener sliced off by Artemis, and now he's whining about it while orchestrating some god-tier chaos through a drugged Minotaur? I blinked. Twice. Nope, this reality was definitely bending.

Wait a second, where is everyone else? Unconscious people stacked from before. Even those two girls are missing now that I've noticed.

Did she eject them earlier? Due to increasing collateral damage? Then why the fuck am I the only one still standing here, like a fucking idiot glued to the centre of a battlefield I had no control over? My heart hammered, my ribs screamed from leaning against that barrier for too long, and the taste of copper filled my mouth. Sweat ran down my temple, stinging my eyes, but I couldn't move. I couldn't even breathe normally.

The Minotaur bellowed again, hooves cracking the pavement in rhythm with the malicious laughter from the crimson fog. Sparks and shards of concrete erupted with every strike it made, each one echoing through my chest like a war drum. The thing wasn't just alive—it was adapting, surviving, learning, and it was goddamn terrifying.

And the goddess… she was bleeding. Not a scratch, not some token wound. Blood. Real, red, dripping blood. Her left shoulder was the worst, streaked with gashes that glimmered faintly silver in the morning light, as if her own power was still trying—and failing—to seal it. The way she twisted in midair to dodge and fire her next arrow, her aura flaring unevenly… I saw it all. Artemis, the "untouchable goddess," is faltering.

I swallowed hard. My fingers itched with Haki, screaming to flare just enough to give me the leverage to move if something went sideways—but I knew even the faintest ripple would draw her attention. And this wasn't my fight. Not yet.

The Minotaur's horns rammed into her latest barrier, and a shockwave slammed into me, throwing me back against the asphalt. I gritted my teeth, bracing, and felt shards of debris bite into my palms. My lungs burned, my vision flickered, but I couldn't stop staring. The fight was too insane, too primal, too… orchestrated. Whoever had set this up didn't just want a beast loose—they wanted a goddess broken.

The fog whispered again, closer now, voices overlapping until I could barely parse the syllables. "…Your arrows are wasted. You are prey. You will fall."

The Minotaur's body surged forward, sinews bulging, muscles twitching, veins glowing crimson under torn skin. Every arrow Artemis fired, every spear of light, every slash of energy that should have incapacitated it… nothing. Not only did it survive, it fed on it, turning her own divine power into fuel for its berserk frenzy.

Her next arrow sliced through the air, missing by a hair, and I realised how fast she was actually deteriorating. Her shoulders were tight, her fingers trembling ever so slightly on the bowstring, and her breath came faster, shallower, almost desperate. That wasn't divine perfection anymore—that was a huntress, and she was human, and she was hurt.

Something in my chest tightened. Fear, yes, but also… awe? She was still floating there, shooting arrows with surgical precision, but every arrow that struck only fueled the Minotaur more. Every strike was a gamble. She was brilliant, merciless, but even brilliance has limits.

And it seems she is done for, as the very next moment, from the Minotaur's back was sliced open from within, and a hand phantom crawled out.

And that was not the thing; there was a weapon. A spear to exact.

And from Artemis's reaction, it was not a simple weapon—

Tti-Ring!

[A divine weapon is detected in the vicinity!]

[Urgent Quest: Defeat The Enemies!]

[There are enemies nearby that intend to kill the host. Defeat all the foes and ensure your safety.]

[If you fail to follow the orders, you will be given a Penalty.]

[Number of foes to defeat: 2]

[Number of foes defeated: 0]

THE FUCK?!

I staggered back against the barrier, feeling every impact reverberate through my bones, my lungs screaming for air I couldn't catch. The system's notice—loud, intrusive, almost mocking—burned against my consciousness like a slap. Two enemies? Two?! Are you joking? Do you even see who's in front of me? A goddess whose bowstrings could slice continents, a berserk Minotaur tearing the asphalt apart like it was nothing more than paper… and now the system had the audacity to classify this as a simple "kill two enemies" quest?

***

Stone me, I can take it!

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