The stunned silence that greeted Ath3na's words seemed more deafening to Leo than any raucous cheering. Even he was left speechless for a few seconds, and if it weren't for Morgana elbowing him in the ribs, he probably wouldn't have been able to call out to Ath3na before she stepped into the black pool that would take her to the prison.
"Even the strongest among the first challengers barely defeated a dozen shadow beasts," Maestro reminded her. "This game isn't so easy that you can slay the remaining fifty alone…"
This was especially true for Ath3na who Leo knew was low on soul energy already. Even Lyghtning had to nearly deplete her soul core for just one Revenant Knight, and there was more than one of those inside the prison. Not to mention the great shadow beast that had yet to make its appearance.
"I'm still going to do it," Ath3na insisted.
Then she turned away from Maestro and jumped into the pool.
Leo thought he heard no arrogance in her words, just a steely determination to achieve the impossible. And as he watched her go, he could almost feel the heavy weight Ath3na had just placed upon her own back. It was like she was deliberately shoving herself into a corner.
"Greatness born from extreme circumstances," he whispered, and inside him, Leo became hopeful that he was about to see something awesome occur.
Despite her many accomplishments in the Abyss, no one really believed Ath3na could do what she set out to do.
"It's a bluff," someone said.
"She's crazy," another called.
"All that fame's gone to her head," a third person sneered.
And yet, they all watched with their eyes wide and their mouths agape as little by little, Ath3na proved them all wrong.
For Leo, the scenes being depicted on the screen were the kind he wasn't likely to ever forget. For Ath3na shone like a brilliant flame that refused to go out, burning ever brighter with each foe she encountered.
Her first opponent was a chimaera, and unlike the others who took swift action to dispatch their targets, Ath3na took her time dealing with the mighty shadow beast. She adopted a hit-and-run strategy that forced the chimaera to chase after her in a circle. At the same time, she used the barest amount of energy, activating and deactivating [Spectral Cloak] in quick succession to dodge its attacks, a feat no other wraith warrior could manage.
Ath3na had taken the time to polish her abilities over and over, and in doing so, awakened some of their hidden potentials. [Spectral Cloak], while still having an activation period of two minutes, now had a consumable timer which wouldn't trigger a cooldown until the two minutes was fully consumed. This allowed her to use it sparingly, and to great effect.
Leo received another elbow from Morgana, prompting him to elbow Donatella as well so that the commentary, which had vanished since Ath3na's declaration, could finally resume.
"Y-yes, Ath3na's decapitated another head," Donatella began in a flustered tone. "Her Red Death's clearly a powerful weapon…"
"Did the single stroke beheading give it away?" Maestro chuckled.
After she'd slain the chimaera, Ath3na went deeper into the prison, and in the middle of a hallway full of open cells to either side of her, she found herself surrounded by fel arachnids. Two landed in front of her while another two appeared at her back.
"It's like she's dancing," Donatella commented.
It was an apt description for Ath3na twirled like a ballerina to avoid the webs being slung at her, and with the momentum of her twirl, she managed to slay the first fel arachnid with a mighty side swing of her halberd.
She jumped out of another arachnid's reach and backflipped toward the hairy top of the arachnid directly behind her.
The spider tried to throw her off its back but she placed a hand on it and said, "Life-draining touch!"
Leo watched Ath3na's eyes roll back, a smile begin to play on her lips, her body quivering slightly — the telltale signs of pleasure — and he wondered just how far gone player number one really was. But then her eyes snapped back and she quickly withdrew her hand, and Leo realized she was fighting hard against the desire to consume life.
"Amazing," he whispered with Maestro's lips.
"Yes, she's showing off incredible skill just like the previous challengers," Donatella agreed.
The arachnid beneath her was stunned long enough for Ath3na to plunge her halberd down its back and out the other side of it, skewering it right down the middle like a very disgusting shish kebab.
Then she was gone and moving swiftly toward the last two opponents in this cell block. They didn't last long either.
Despite this triumph, the audience remained speechless. It made the whole affair feel more like a movie in a theater instead of a grand sporting event in a sport's stadium.
Ath3na moved further into the prison and slew two griffins in the same courtyard Argonaut encountered one.
She deftly held off the griffins until one of them, in its annoyance at her spear jabs, finally took flight. That's when Ath3na made her move.
She latched onto the escaping griffin's left wing with [Wraith Chain], and instead of dragging it down, the chain flung her toward the much heavier shadow beast. With this forward momentum doubling the force of her swing, Ath3na cut off one of the griffin's wings.
Then, in true shock and awe fashion, she straddled the falling shadow beast as it plummeted down, and only activated [Spectral Cloak] right before the griffin smacked hard against the ground with a bone-crunching splat.
The second griffin wasn't so easily defeated, and Ath3na was battered and bruised before it finally exploded into a thousand shards of glass.
Despite her wounds, Ath3na had her fist held high in triumph.
It was then that the crowd came to life, and the wild cheering for, "Goddess of gaming wisdom!" arose.
"I think 'goddess of battle strategy' sounds more appropriate now," Maestro commented.
"Although one must wonder how she'll manage to continue on with so many wounds on her already… and she's only slain seven shadow beasts so far," Donatella reminded everyone.
"You're forgetting that she has an ace up her sleeve," Maestro countered. "Let's just see how it goes."
As wounds continued to cover her body — her armor battered and chipped — the goddess that should have been defeated simply continued to deliver an inspiring performance that made even the lifeless heart of Leo's soul form want to beat again.
"She always was my favorite," Morgana said as even her eyes were wide with delight at what she was witnessing.
The audience had their fists pumped to the sky, and their cheers only got louder with each successful kill Ath3na managed.
"Ath3na~~a!" Donatella yelled. It was a yell the audience echoed, "Athena~~a!"
Death should have come for her, but her good use of her abilities kept her alive long enough to face off against opponent number forty-nine, which was her most gruesome battle yet against the third and final Revenant Knight of the prison.
"Just when you think she's running on empty, she manages to steal more life away from the Revenant Knight with her Life-Draining Touch," Donatella reported.
"And she skillfully manages to avoid another deathblow with the help of Spectral Cloak," Maestro added. "Are you watching this, wraith warriors? She's taking you all to school."
A timely [Wraith Chain] up to the Revenant Knight's shoulders and a full blast of [Soul Pulse] right in its face gave Ath3na her forty-ninth victory.
This caused the entire coliseum to shake with the roar of the crowd. "Ath3na! Ath3na!"
"Is this the true strength of the Abyss' player number one?" Donatella asked.
"It's not over yet," Maestro countered. "We saved the best for last…"
With both hands, Ath3na pushed open the door to the final room in the prison, the one the last Revenant Knight had been guarding. It was pitch black inside but her [Dark Vision] allowed her to get a good grasp of the interior.
It was a spacious square room with stone walls and a high ceiling. At the other end of it, something moved just at the edges of Ath3na's sight.
A second later, a small flame came to life.
"Oh, my," Donatella exclaimed. "This is quite the rare specimen… especially here in the Abyssal Plains where the fires of the River Phlegethon do not reach…"
"Yup, that's a nasty final boss we've hidden in this prison," Maestro agreed.
The small flame was attached to the tip of a massive tail that slowly began to uncoil and reveal the shadow beast hiding behind it.
Its skin was leathery red with splashes of black across its back. The spine jutted out of it in feathery spikes that caught fire in the same way the tail did.
Ath3na's eyes widened with recognition for though she hadn't encountered such a shadow beast in the Abyss before, she'd played enough games to know that such a creature does exist in everyone's mythology.
The shadow beast raised itself on its hind legs, and as its wide mouth opened with, it revealed rows of sharp teeth and a forked tongue that was also alight with flame.
"I'm not afraid of you," Ath3na said as she glared back at the glowing red eyes staring at her through the darkness that lay between them. "I've beaten salamanders loads of times on MnMII…"
The salamander roared, and as it did, the three pairs of antenna-like horns jutting out the sides of its face blazed to life.
"Here I go," Ath3na yelled, and then she stepped into its lair.
---
In a dark corner of the mine he'd spent the last few days in, Black Howler sat on the craggy ground and listened to the Whisper Thorminator just sent him. And after the crow was done whispering into his ear, a toothy grin appeared on Black Howler's face.
"Ata girl," he laughed out loud. "You wouldn't be a worthy rival if you couldn't at least manage that…"
"Did something good happen, sir?" Jaybird asked.
The chubby newbie was sitting opposite him while wiping his falchion with a piece of dirty rag.
"Just the results of the second games," Black Howler answered. "My friend made one hell of a splash…"
Jaybird looked up from what he was doing; his eyes were alight with curiosity.
"Are you sure you don't want to head back and watch the rest of it?" the blonde boy asked.
Black Howler ignored the question and instead pointed to Jaybird's weapon.
"You sure you can handle that?" Black Howler asked for the fifth time since he gave the boy his new blade.
Jaybird nodded.
"My rod's broken so my firebolt might not have the same punch as before," he hefted the falchion's single edge over his other palm, "but fighting melee seems to suit me too, sir…"
Black Howler grinned. The boy was brave and eager to prove himself.
"You get to tank then," Black Howler said as he stood up and stretched his arms. "Come on… a few more levels down and we'll get to hunt the second ingredient on our list."
Jaybird got to his feet and sheathed his falchion. "Y-you really think I can tank, sir?"
"Won't know unless you try," Black Howler responded. "And you'll only go for the small fry… the big one's all mine."
"You mean the salamander, right?" Jaybird asked, sounding hopeful that he didn't have to go to toe to toe with such a mythical creature.
"Yeah," Black Howler answered. "That one's mine."
In his mind, Black Howler recalled a pretty face with long flowing, white hair and pale lips that were smirking back at him almost as if to goad him on.
"I can do whatever she can do," he whispered. "And I'll do it faster too."