The Gift of the Lethe

Chains of War

Pallas glances over at Athena from where she is joining the twins against Ares, meeting him blow for blow. The War Goddess is exchanging a flurry of blows with her father, deflecting his lightning away. She's angry, and it's making the force of her blows strong enough that she could shatter many weapons with a single blow.

But Athena is still holding back, just slightly. She's specifically going for disarming blows, and the strikes she does get in aren't as strong as they could be. But why? It's certainly not on purpose, Pallas can see that. Athena has no qualms about using her full strength and skill against Zeus, and it looks like she's trying but it isn't happening.

Almost like some of that strength is locked away. But who would do such a thing to her, locking a piece of her up so it can't be used? If only Pallas could dwell on it further, but well, she is in a middle of a fight. It'll have to wait until the fighting is over and done with. For now, she's satisfied with the backing Athena has, Triton and Dionysus are flanking her and getting blows of their own in on Zeus.

Pallas turns back to her own fight and barely even looking, she blocks Ares' next blow against her with the shaft of her spear. He's been trying to both wear down her aegis and hit her through the cracks in its shield. Each time he hits it, it gets a little smaller to compensate for the power that was lost. She can tell, the shield won't last forever, not in a fight against gods.

She's been using up its power slowly but steadily, and eventually it'll break. When it does, she'll only be able to rely on her own abilities. And speaking of those abilities . . . she stamps her foot and a crack spreads across the marble floor. But it doesn't go to Ares like she'd thought, nor does it go to Zeus, still fighting Athena.

Instead, it travels to where Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Hermes, and Poseidon are fighting Hera. It sends the goddess of balance, stumbling. It gives Poseidon a chance to get a hit in with his trident, grazing Hera's side. Ares must have seen this, for his next attack is furious in its blows.

He manages to graze Pallas' side and the aegis' protection splits, leaving an unprotected spot there. He makes an opening on her other side as well, this one wider as a result of a direct blow. If she hadn't been protected then she would likely have gained a broken rib there. A flash of light obscures her vision and once it clears, Dionysus has switched places with Apollo, though Pallas has no reason why.

Dionysus flashes a grin at Pallas and vines sprout from the ground, winding around Ares' legs. He makes a squawking sound and slashes at them with his sword, giving his opponents a chance to get some hits in. The three of them seem to take note of the effectiveness of this strategy and Dionysus steps back to keep the vines winding around Ares' body, joined by others.

Artemis steps back too, in order to get an even better range with her bow. How she had managed to shoot it in such close quarters before, Pallas honestly has no idea. No mortal, not even a demigod, would have been able to do that, she thinks. With the two of them stepping back, that leaves Pallas a range of space in which to slash at Ares, her blows punctuated by Artemis' arrows.

The goddess gets one in his knee, shattering the kneecap. Ares screams and partially crumples to the ground before pushing himself back up. The arrow is followed by another at that exact moment, and Pallas darts in to slash at his ankles and knees with her spear in two quick motions, disabling him. If he's going to continue to fight, it'll be from the ground. The vines leap at their chance, coiling around Ares' upper body now. He's soon completely incapacitated, swathed in layers and layers of the things. Dionysus claps his hands together like he was swiping dirt away.

"I'll watch him, go to Hera."

Pallas turns away, and someone screams behind her. It's a familiar sound, one that haunted her dreams. Athena made this same cry when Pallas was gored upon her spear. Pallas turns, prepared to dart across the room to defend Athena. But Athena isn't crying out for herself. Pallas realizes that she's the one in danger right as the lightning bolt slams through one of the holes in her shield and the world explodes.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Area is down. That's good. 2. Umm, yeah what you think just happened did happen. So, what do you think this means? How badly has Zeus screwed up? How badly is Pallas going to be hurt? Tell me your thoughts!

Happy reading and I'll see you next chapter!

~ Goddess of Fate, signing out