Hera POV
The next morning when we wake up we prepare and go up to Olympus so Karai can fight Zeus a second time. She's smiling proudly and excited to fight him again.
K-I have a new way of fighting that despite looking weak is deadly strong. Fitting for a goddess. With that I will surely beat him up.
Ha-I'm pretty sure that even without any new technique you would win. You were pretty close to it last time.
K-I got a lot better since then.
Ha-Yes. Can you explain your new technique.
K-Surprise.
We reach Olympus and we go to the arena where everyone is and we all take our places respectively. Karai's smiling face turns to a deadly serious and inexpressive face, cold as ice, heartless and fierce and mercy less. She takes her stance and so does Zeus. They both have new tricks but only Karai has grown in strength. Karai closes her eyes and Zeus looks insulted by it.
Z-Are you mocking me?
K-No.
The fight begins and Karai keeps the same stance as Zeus deflects towards her and she evades every single blow considerably without changing her expression and that angers Zeus even more as he keeps punching and kicking until Karai delivers a punch to his side. He grunts and she jumps backwards out of his reach. When she looks up I see she has opened her eyes at last and she's mad at hell. She sprints forward but when she's close enough to him she jumps and delivers a kick to his head that he evades by a hair. All of Karai's next attacks are with her lower body only. They are evenly matched but Karai seems to still have a trick up her sleeve. In one turn she makes a wrong movement giving Zeus an opening which he uses to land a breaking punch on her left shoulder. She screams in agony as her arm falls to her side. She jumps backwards and she hits her arm gently on the joints and she recovers some movement. She makes a stance with her hands in open palms and she attacks him, the first attack hits but the next ones don't as he realizes they are deadly dangerous if they hit. When she finishes her attack she jumps backwards and prepares her next attack. She mutters something under her breath and turns to attack again.
K-Two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty two, sixty four, hundred and twenty eight, two hundred fifty six, five hundred twelve, THOUSAND AND TWENTY FOUR.
She gives the final blow but is not enough to beat him. She's exhausted by that last movement but she tries to not show it. Zeus gets up and he cleans his forehead from the sweat pouring down. Karai shakes her head as if shaking of some kind of weakness from her. She takes half a step back and wipes her eyes not noticing Zeus coming until he's too close to evade completely. She leaves her arms up for protection falling backwards. When she stops she passes between his legs and punches his back before she jumps backwards. She takes the defensive as Zeus attacks her repeated times. In a moment of separation she takes the lead and attacks him, he gives a kick on her knee and she falls down to a knee. She looks at him and before he can attack again she jumps backwards giving him a kick strong enough to throw him backwards. I see as Zeus throws a kick to her side but she bends to one knee to catch his feet over her shoulder and then she grabs and throws him towards one of the columns that are over there breaking them down. She gasps in horror and she apologizes for the column promising to fix it afterwards. She rubs her arm softly before she takes a step backwards. She takes off her shoes and destroys them with her aura burning them to dust. I grab Hades's arm and he rubs my hand comfortingly. When I turn to see the arena again Karai is sitting down on the center and I see as Zeus walks towards her menacingly. She stays still in place and I see as her aura starts flowing through the entire field as if they were little waves coming from her and going all around her making themselves bigger and bigger and they start to grow bigger and bigger until the make a sphere around her traapping her and Zeus inside it. We can barely see clearly but we can figure what's happening. I see as the semicircle suddenly disappears completely and we turn to see that Karai is now standing. She has a layer of aura around herself with her fists and feet ending in sharp deadly points powerful enough to cut.
K-Deadly gentleness. Two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty two, sixty four.
She deals that last blow directly into his gut throwing him backwards. He hits the wall but he still can fight as we see him get up.
-I didn't realize she got this strong in such short time.
Ha-That's not even half of her strength. That's barely one tenth of her total strength.
I look at Hades and he smiles at me before our attention goes back to the fight. I follow Zeus's movements as he draws forth his aura and after throwing a thunderbolt at Karai's head, she quickly evades the attack bending backwards and when the attack disappears she goes back all the way until she stands again on her feet. Before Zeus can attack she does with slow powerful kicks to his chest and his back. He tries to attack but Karai doesn't leave him counterattack for a few more hits before she backs away. I see as Karai puts her hands in her pockets and starts attacking Zeus. I look as Zeus blocks her attacks just barely. I watch as her aura grows and grows and grows and it keeps growing until it goes all the way moving almost without control and she jumps back and takes an elegant position as she raises two fingers to her mouth and closes her eyes as she focuses on her aura. I watch as Zeus attacks her but she deflects them all moving only her free arm with incredible speed.
A New Power
Zeus stops attacking as he studies her carefully before he jumps back as a blast of power comes out of Karai and we have to cover our eyes. When we open them again we see instead of Karai a black panther stretching, we only recognize her as Karai when we see the aura flowing through the body. She takes a bit of time before she can adjust to her new form. She scratches her ears, and takes a few careful steps before she walks forward a couple steps and she lies down while she watches Zeus closely waging her tail from side to side. Zeus slowly and carefully gets his aura towards her and she growls when it gets too close to her. She stands and walks around him carefully, growling slowly as she hovers over him menacingly. In the fraction of a second I see Zeus attacking and then the next thing I know Karai is on top of him trying to hold him down with a bite by the back of his head. Not so hard but not to loose either. Zeus pulls off her tail and she grunts but doesn't let go until a second after. She rubs her mouth throughougly as if something's bothering her. She turns back to herself and she wipes off her mouth in disgust and coughing up. After composing herself she turns into the black panther again but this time more ferocious than before. She runs towards him and jumps on top of him making him fall down, she walks off of him cautiously and when he tries to get back up she bites on his foot holding him down. She stays focused on not letting him go as she evades his attacks only with her aura. On a moment she jumps back and let him go and I understand why when a lightning bolt hits Zeus on his own foot and I hear a couple laughs from the other gods as well as my own and Hades's too. I notice that Karai has covered her eyes with her paws. She turns back to her normal self unable to control herself and she smiles and laughs as she evades numerous thunderbolts thrown at her. I notice her not attacking but evading instead tiring him off. When Zeus is too tired to keep going she finally relaxes a bit as she goes towards him and offers him a hand to help him up. He takes it happily and she pulls him up as easy as she breathes. They whisper something between themselves before they exchange smiles and nods and they turn to look at us.
Z-I declare that Karai has won today, she is as of now amongst the top three strongest gods.
I can see Karai smile as she helps him stay up on his good feet. Hades and I go down there with them and Hades takes Zeus away from Karai and she stretches as the weight leaves her and smiles as she hugs me tightly.
Ha-Told you. Are you okay? Both of you.
K-I'm fine. Zeus on the other hand, not so much.
Hades laughs a bit before he turns to Zeus.
Z-The only bad thing here is my foot, you chewed it off. Why would you do that?
K-In my defense, most of the damage was done by your own lightning bolt.
Z-Trying to get you.
K-And I was faster. Good luck on your recovery. Perhaps I'll go visit one day.
Z-Thanks.
With that they transport away and Karai and I go back home. Once were at home I sit her down and question her about her power.
K-You really want to know about my power.
-Of course, why don't you tell me how you do it or when did you mastered it or discovered it. How did it happened or or, okay better yet, why don't you tell me everything in order with details or like that.
K-Can I say it when dad gets here?
-Sure, one more question. Is the panther the only animal you can turn into or can you turn into other animals as well?
-Oh no, I turn into a panther there because their jaws are the most powerful and strongest ones and if could manage to have a bite it would be next to impossible to get out of it unscathed or unhurt even for a god. I can also turn into a snake, other big cats, and there is one animal that I want to try out but I'm a bit skeptical on actually doing it.
-Why? Well then, let's talk about it later with your dad gets here. Yeah, rest a bit before he comes back.
K-Okay, I might just do that.
She positions herself on the couch and closes her eyes to rest a bit. I give her a kiss on the cheek and she reacts with a smile as I go away to make dinner. I hear Hades coming in a while later and he comes towards me in the kitchen.
Ha-Is Karai doing fine?
-Yes, I couldn't get her to tell me how she did the shape shifting stuff but she's going to tell us when we get together all three.
Ha-She's going to rest first.
-Oh, she is resting right now. She was only relaxing but there is a pretty high possibility that she's deep asleep by now.
Ha-With all that fighting, who can blame her? She needs to rest.
I get dinner for us and make a bit for Karai when she wakes up later. We eat and go to sleep as well so we can hear about Karai's newfound ability when we are all well rested and all together.
