The Gamer's POV-Chapter 264: Goldie vs. Athena [3]

From what Cedric knew, Goldie’s power of manifestation was not limited to static objects. She could imagine a sword, yes. But she could also imagine a flying sword, or a sword that was too heavy to be raised. It was all up to her imagination, and Cedric at the moment wasn’t sure just how much of an imagination she had.

’You can do it, Athena,’ he began to mentally cheer on his summon. ’You can do it!’

The two summons clashed again, then separated to give themselves distance, with the angel drifting a bit farther back. But just then, Athena lunged at Goldie, only to suddenly feel a shadow looming over her. Instinctively, she looked up, and her eyes widened as she saw that a massive golden bell had just finished manifesting atop her.

In that split second of sheer peril, Athena flapped her wings backwards with every bit of power she had, narrowly avoiding the bell that was intended to trap her. The heavy bell fell on the ground, shattering the stone tiles with a deafening GONG that shook the air.

But that was just the start because in the next second, Goldie’s five auto-ballistas began to form on the ground. It didn’t happen immediately, though, and were shimmering into existence piece by piece.

When Athena saw them, she decided to get rid of Goldie before they could fully prime their bolts.

However, just as she returned her attention to Goldie and was about to lunge again, an arrow flew towards her with blinding, whistling speed. Athena was able to dodge in just the nick of time, but unfortunately, the arrow grazed the gap between her breastplate and hip-guard. A small line of exposed flesh appeared, and blood slicked the edge of the wound, bleeding out along the golden metal.

But then, in a flicker of emerald light, one of the daffodils on the floor vanished, and simultaneously, the wound began to close on its own.

Looking up from the closing wound, Athena saw Goldie with a bow aimed at her and an arrow was already forming on the string.

’So smaller objects take less time to manifest compared to larger objects?’ She thought as she flapped her wings, but then, a frown immediately ran across her face as she also saw the outlines of ten golden swords materializing in the air.

’This is a problem.’ Athena thought as she narrowed her eyes. ’I need to take her down before things get worse.’

The next arrow flew again and Athena bashed it aside with her shield. However, the impact was so tremendous that a crack had snaked across the golden surface, and she felt her entire arm go numb from the shock. Quickly gaining her momentum, she dashed, closing the space in a flash before another arrow could even materialize.

Goldie abandoned her attempt to nock a third arrow, and used the bow as a makeshift staff to defend herself instead. Luckily for her, and unluckily for Athena, in that exact heartbeat, all her swords fully formed and they all dashed at Athena in a coordinated, lethal swarm.

’Bad!’ Athena thought as she flapped her wings away from Goldie, violently twisting her body and spinning in mid-air to avoid being skewered from the assault.

Using her shield and blade, she tried to deflect the incoming blades, turning the air around her into a dazzling, shrieking blur of gold-on-gold impacts. She parried one, bashed another aside, but for every sword she knocked away, she received cuts from the ones she could not pivot to avoid.

And as if the heavens were against her, the auto-ballistas on the ground fully finished their manifestation. Five simultaneous CLACKS resonated through the palaestra as their mechanisms locked into place, aimed directly at the center of her defensive spin.

’No. I need to avoid them too!’

She gritted her teeth and in that desperate moment, her large wings flapped violently, sending a shockwave of yellow petals outward. The floral explosion dispersed the few swords in a glittering, golden debris cloud.

Then, she dove down with frightening speed just as the ballistas fired their heavy, iron-tipped bolts. The projectiles hissed through the air, missing her wings by a hair’s breadth as she plummeted toward the arena floor.

Landing on the ground with a heavy thud that cracked the stone beneath her boots, she immediately crouched low and lunged forward with predatory grace towards the ballistas, while staying beneath the firing line.

When she came within striking distance, she smashed them either with her sword or delivered a devastating, shield smash that splintered their manifested wooden frames, before dashing to the next siege engine in a blur of golden armor and floral wings.

And as she moved, emerald light bloomed on her skin, instantly mending the wounds on her body.

However, more and more daffodils were disappearing depending on the severity of the injury she was knitting back together.

Despite currently taking down the ballistas, her eyes kept darting around for any other threats from Goldie.

She checked the airspace behind her and could see that the swords which had been harassing her moments ago were not coming for her and had instead disintegrated into golden sparks. Even the large bell had disintegrated into sparks.

’So that’s it. This constructs all manifest themselves from your mana and unfortunately, it seems you are running low already.’

Smashing the last auto-ballista to bits, Athena quickly spun her body to dodge an arrow that Goldie had fired in a desperate attempt to keep her at bay. Then, she pivoted on her heel, her emerald eyes locking onto the angel in the sky as she prepared for a final, decisive lunge.

The ground cracked as she took off into the air with a fierce battle cry, and as she drew closer to the angel, she threw her shield towards her.

Goldie stopped aiming and used her bow to bat the heavy shield aside in a frantic, uncoordinated swing. However, Athena closed the space in that instant. By the time Goldie could use her bow to block Athena’s blade, she became exposed and Athena, seizing that opening dove two fingers of her other hand deep into Goldie’s eyes.

A shrill, inhuman scream tore from Goldie’s throat as she reeled back and clutched her eyes in agony. Golden liquid flowed out from between her trembling fingers, dripping onto her armor like molten suns.

It was then that Athena spoke coldly, her voice cutting through the screams like a winter wind, "You can imagine all you want. But if you cannot see, then your imagination has nowhere to go. That... is your weakness."