Sam had a smirk on her face as he stood up.


    Athena also stood up and touched the sh on her corbone. She also had a faint smile.


    "You are enjoying this." She looked at Sam and said with an amused expression.


    "Of course, it has been a while since I had a technical fight like this. All this while, I couldn''t feel the pressure. This is refreshing."


    He said as spun his dagger and took a fighting stance.


    "Come on, we are talking."


    Sam shed to the side and metal nging sound appeared. The throwing dagger that Athena threw before, appeared out of thin air.


    In their brief exchange, the dagger disappeared and Athena seemed to have thought that Sam forgot about it. But of course, he didn''t.


    "That is sneaky."


    "What? You are going toin it is unfair?"


    "Why would I? I haven''t seen youin since the start of the fight." Sam smirked as he destroyed the throwing dagger that wanted toe back to life once again. Athena smirked.


    She understood his implication. He is telling her that this fight is unfair to her and she is notining about it.


    "You have way too much confidence. Let''s bring it down a little."


    As she spoke she did a continuous throwing movement. A bunch of throwing stars appeared out of thin air and all of them were thrown at different angles, but they all have the same destination. Sam.


    He held his dagger and danced around as he shed against one throwing star after another. Of course, meanwhile he kept a close eye on Athena.


    But she showed no signs of making any other attacks. She just kept on throwing the stars while Sam moved around trying to block them and dodge them.


    As Sam is dancing around, Athena manifested a bow in her hands.


    She aimed at Sam and shot an arrow.


    *ZOOM*


    Sam could hear the explosive sound from the arrow as it shot towards him. He was dumbfounded by the speed it came at. Of course, he is not dumb enough to staypletely still, he tried to dodge the attack, but a throwing star hit him in the same spot he had the dagger gash from before.


    He looked at the wound and clicked his tongue.


    He hid his dagger and took out his staff. He spun it a bit and all the throwing stars disappeared.


    Athena raised an eyebrow and threw them once again. Sam on the other hand didn''t just spin his staff this time, instead a metal card appeared in his hand. He spun it in the air and precisely hit its edge with the staff.


    The metal card shot forward in a curve and hit multiple shooting stars,pleted the curve and even came back to him.


    Sam just spun his staff again and hit it, making it go for another round.


    It is Athena''s time for being dumbfounded. Never had she expected such an attack. Not just from Sam, but anyone she ever encountered.


    Sam spun his staff once again and gestured Athena to continue.


    She thew another batch of the stars and started shooting a volley of arrows. Each arrow would have killed an average cultivator a dozen times over. They are that lethal, but Sam just danced around with his staff as he hit every arrow right on the mark.


    *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*


    The whole area turned into an explosive mess.


    Athena observed this and started moving closer to Sam. The distance is not much to begin with, but she is moving very slowly.


    Sam just stood there and attacked the shooting stars as well as the arrows. He appeared to be in the defensive, but the cheeky grin on his face as he yed around gave it away that he is very chill.


    Athena''s bow increased in size and the arrow also doubled in power.


    She shot them continuously and even abandoned the shooting stars.


    As she closed in the distance, Sam hit one arrow after another and his eyes never left her. She felt provoked. She wanted to defeat and destroy him as fast as she could, but she is unable to do so.


    As much satisfaction she might get from this fight, she still couldn''t bring herself to finish the fight. She had used many techniques that she hadn''t used in a very long while. Just like Sam, all her fights were over in an instant.


    As she thought to this point the arrow seemed to have increased in lethality with the energy condensed it multiplied by many times and it also happened so fast to the point that Sam was stunned for a fraction of a second.


    He spun a bit and energy gathered in the staff as she swung it at the arrow along with void style.


    *BOOM*


    Sam was blown away by the resulting explosion. He hadnded a few meters away from his initial position. He was really surprised by the intensity of the attacks. He is a master at condensed energy attacks by now, but he has never seen or even done an attack of this range before.


    And his surprise didn''t end there.


    Athena just jumped through the explosion and reached him with a halberd in her hands. She shed at Sam with all of her strength.


    Sam blocked the attack with his staff.


    He felt his feet go a couple inches into the ground. He felt like a nail being hammered.


    The next attack came at his legs as Athena shed with all of her might. Sam once again used his staff and blocked the attack. But he was blown away again.


    Hisbination of Physical strength and Spiritual energy is not working anymore.


    He was dumbfounded by how offensive Athena suddenly became.


    As the third attack came, Sam once again blocked with the staff and this time he managed to brace himself.


    Athena wanted to do another swift attack, but the next moment, Sam disappeared in a puff of ck smoke and the staff was left there.


    The force that was keeping the halberd in its ce disappeared in an instant.


    He reappeared behind her back and to her surprise hended a proper kick on her head.


    *BANG*


    Athena felt like she lost her hearing for a moment and crashed into the ground as she was sent flying. She was really caught off guard.


    Sam grabbed the staff once again and activated his lightning fusion. He charged at her like a silver sh and threw an attack.


    *BOOM*


    It was Athena''s turn to block. But even though she blocked it, she felt like the energy is rippling into her body.


    "Ripple Style"


    She muttered before she was blown away by the explosive force.


    Her whole body dimmed down. The condensed energy obviously lost its lustre.


    Sam didn''t stop though. He might have been enojoying the battle, but that doesn''t mean he couldn''t get serious. This moment where she waspletely off guard is very rare and there is no way he wouldn''t be taking advantage of that to the maximum extent.


    As he charged with another fierce attack Athena braced herself for that, but to her dismay, Sam changed from lightining fusion to water fusion. He freely and slickly went past her and threw the attack from behind.


    *BOOM*


    Athena was thrown into the air and felt like she is an arrow shot from a very powerful bow. She controlled herself and got ready to get back in the game. But at that moment, she felt a sudden spatial fluctuation.


    She turned around and swung her halberd, it went through a shadowy figure and destroyed it. Too bad it is not Sam and shadow undead instead.


    *BANG*


    Sam threw another kick to her head. She fell like a meteor towards the ground, but Sam didn''t give her a chance that easily. He charged forward even more and before she could hit the ground, hended a kick induced with earth element. The rtive gravity for her increased by a lot and she hit the ground being unable to get back on her feet.


    Samnded right next to her and pointed his staff at her throat.


    Athena''s lustre was gone. Her energy body is almost depleted. She looked at Sam with tired eyes and snapped her fingers. Sam could see a sense of unwillingness in her eyes.


    The formation and the puppets disappeared.


    Her energy body disappeared before a silhouette made of spiritual energy appeared in front of Sam. Sam could see her face more clearly now.


    "It was a great fight. I made a mistake by rushing there and you made no mistake by capturing that moment. Congrattions."


    Sam was surprised by such humility.


    "Thank you. It is indeed an interesting fight."


    "When you visit Olympus,e and meet me. I think we will get along fine."


    "Are you hitting on me? I thought you are an eternal virgin devout to your battles."


    "What can I do? No man worthy has born yet. Or maybe I just met him."


    With those words Athena disappeared with a smile.


    Sam shook his head with a smile and went back to the city. It was a good fight.