"Sentiment," she said, driving the butt of her spear into the back of his knee.
Thane’s leg buckled. He went down on one knee with a grunt that I felt in my own bones.
"Is a tactical error."
She raised the spear to strike the back of his neck.
"No!"
I didn't think. I reacted.
I didn't reach for a weapon, there was no time, instead I reached for the bond, grabbing the golden threads connecting me to the four of them, and Iyanked. I pulled on Kaelen’s rage,Flynn’s speed, Elias’s vision, and Thane’s endurance, funneling it all into a single point of focus.
I thrust my hand forward.
I didn't cast fire or lightning. I castVoid.
Be Not.
The command ripped through the air, a sphere of distortion that warped the light.
It hit Athena.
She didn't crumble to dust. She was a goddess; her reality was too dense to be easily unmade. But her armor, the woven starlight she wore, flickered. For a split second, the divine protection failed, creating a gap in her perfection. The force of the blast shoved her backward, her boots sliding screeching across the stone.
She stumbled.
It was a small thing. A loss of balance that lasted barely a second. But in a battle of gods, a second was an eternity.
"Now!" I screamed, the voice harmonized, five throats speaking as one.
Kaelen crashed into her from the left, his sword engulfed in black flame. He struck the spot where her armor flickered. Metal shrieked.
Flynn was there an instant later, appearing from the shadows of the ruin, driving a dagger into the joint of her armor at the hip.
Elias clapped his hands, and the gravity around Athena doubled, pinning her to the spot.
Thane roared, surging up from his knee, swinging the hammer upward in an uppercut that caught her shield arm.
Athena grunted, the first sound of effort she had made. She was knocked airborne, tumbling backward. She twisted in mid-air, landing in a crouch twenty feet away.
She stood up slowly. There was a scratch on her cheek, oozing glowing gold ichor. Her armor was smoking where Kaelen had struck.
She wiped the blood from her face, looking at it on her finger.
Then she smiled.
It wasn't the cold, mocking smile from before. This was sharp. Enthusiastic. It was the smile of the Goddess of War finding a worthy opponent.
"Better," she said, her voice ringing clear over the sound of the disintegration storm on the horizon. "Much better. You’ve learned to coordinate. The pack is hunting the lion."
She spun her spear, the weapon humming with a pitch that made my teeth ache.
"But you are fighting like mortals," she said. "You are fighting with limbs and steel. Look around you, little fools. Look at where you are."
She slammed the butt of her spear into the ground.
The plaza shifted.
