The Daughter of War and Medicine

Duel of Prodigies

When Kassandra came crashing down into the forest, she actually landed on her feet. The impact was powerful enough to leave a miniature crater, but she didn't really feel it. As she brushed herself off, she grabbed her daggers which had fallen not far from her.

Touching her 'crown' she dissolved the thing and from it jumped Hector.

"What's the course of action m'lady?" he asked, helmet already on and sword drawn with a lengthy javelin/pilum/spear on his back.

"Can you make yourself invisible to the eyes of mortals?" she asked.

"Yes, though monsters and gods can still see me."

"Great. I need you to do exactly that and make haste back to camp. Ichiro is far too dangerous to be handled by even powerful warriors like Jason and Annabeth. Besides, he has far too large of an arsenal of monsters for the demigods to handle, he can just keep re-summoning them. So go help them, I'll be fine here."

With a nod, the spirit of Prince Hector took off in a dust storm. Now to deal with the other monster. She stood defensively, ready for him to appear from any direction.

Luckily, Ikari took no such approach. He slammed down into the earth from above, right in front of Kassandra. Yet when he landed, he left no trace of impact on the ground. Weird.

"I can see you've gotten stronger since our last encounter. I hope you can provide some much promised entertainment this time."

The ex-huntress narrowed her brows. "I will provide much more than entertainment." She sheathed her daggers, reconsidering her plan of attack.

Ikari laughed. That damn laugh was driving her insane. "Then please, do show!"

Kassandra initiated. She darted forwards just like at the palace of Aeolus, but instead of going for him directly she changed her charge to his legs in a dive motion. And it paid off. Sure, Ikari seemed faster, but Kassandra was smarter.

When she was a pace or two from him, she dropped to the ground and planted her left hand firmly on the ground. Then, like some sort of break dancer, she swept her right leg straight at his legs. He shouldn't have been able to react in time. Yet still...

As if the earth itself moved, her arm was yanked backwards and she lost proper balance, for the kick. Determined though, she found herself moving her lower body up and into the air. She wrapped her legs around Ikari's neck, and used him to swing herself around to get back up to her feet. The whole move took a mere second or two.

Now she was behind the brother, Kassandra hoped she could play more aggressive, but Ikari had other plans. From his pockets he drew the same pocket knives and spun around, slashing wildly yet with extreme accuracy. The daughter of Bellona threw her arms up to cover face, and she quickly enforced her arms with a plate of energy like armour. 

The onslaught of slashes was rapid, a few strikes getting past her protection and leaving thin cuts on her arms. However they were too small to have any effect on her, and she could feel her body already closing up the wounds.

Kassandra had been forced to give up valuable ground, taking slow but steady steps backwards whilst Ikari pushed forwards with pleasure. The ex-huntress studies his attacks. They were random and wild, but she was looking for some sort of pattern, something that she could play to her advantage. And then she saw it.

When he arched his arm over his head to cut downwards, there was a small window of opportunity to sneak a hit in. She just had to wait for a chance for him to slip up.

Just when she was getting close to being pressed against a tree, she found her opening. It would have been more effective to plunge a blade into the opening, but her fist would do just fine. Dropping her left arm, it moved like lightning, striking hard and fast with pin point accuracy.