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Athena and Ares were squaring off above their armies, briefly clashing from time to time, testing each other's resolve as they poked and prodded each other for weakness. Neither willing to fully commit without a leg up over the other, knowing full well how capable the other was no matter how much they hated to admit it.

It was then Athena became aware of her city being raided from the inside by a foreign force wishing to capitalize on the situation.

Ares seeing his opportunity as her eyes glanced back, lunged forward with his sword straight out looking for blood as everything seemed to slow down due to their speed, but Athena was no fool. Concentrating so closely on her eye movement, he didn't seem to notice that she was moving her shield at the same time, already knowing what would happen before it happened having fought her brother so many times before.

Slowly watching her shield getting ready to block his sword thrust, he smirked as he abandoned it, letting it go as soon as it connected with the shield so as not to alert the distracted Athena as he continued to rush forwards, grabbing the top of the shield with his free hand, much to the surprise of Athena as he pulled it down and himself up and over with his ax overhead, striking down.

A grin appearing on his face when her eyes widened upon spotting his descending ax aimed at her exposed neck.

With no time to lift her weapon to defend, Athena did the next best thing and began to move back while lowering her altitude and simultaneously ducking away with her shoulder moving the protective cloak that rested on top of it to block.

All of this happening in a mere moment, she just barely survived the strike as his ax glanced off her cloak nicking her neck where she promptly kicked his exposed side sending him back to where he was.

"Ares, you crazy bastard! Have you no shame?" She angrily yelled.

Ares laughed,- "Haha, Shame you ask? Since when did gods have things like that, and to think I was this close to getting you," he said with a nasty grin as he licked the golden ichor off his ax edge.

Repulsed, Athena tried to change tact and asked a question she already knew the answer to,- "My city is being invaded by those Deviants who are most likely responsible for our war now, let's put this on hold until I deal with them and teach them what it means to go against us, of course, you are more than welcomed to join and have some fun, How about it?"

Ares broke into another round of laughter,- "To think the great Athena would need my help."

Seeing her quietly wait for him to finish,- "No, I don't think I will. Let them destroy your precious city, while they take care of it, I'll take care of you and your army and then there will be nothing left for you!" He shouted as he charged for another round, his hand calling back the sword he dropped.

Expecting such remarks, she already had her shield and spear up ready to strike down the mad dog as she called out to her followers,- "Sound the retreat, Enemies have breached the capitol, fall back and defend your homes."

Ares yelled to his follower as he clashed with Athena once again,- "Onward to victory my Spartans!"

Athena scowled as she bashed her shield into him in an attempt to shut him up, growing more and more frustrated at how things were going. She usually always had a plan or something clever up her sleeve, but everything was going wrong for her, ever since she was caught off guard by her daughter's disaster. And now she was once again stuck in a battle with her war-crazed fool of a brother who wished daddy loved him more.

Her Athenians didn't disappoint her though, having lived and learned under her influence, many of them became smarter than they otherwise would have been. She was happy to see the many traps they put in place if they ever had to fall back being used to full effect, killing many of the Spartans who were close behind. They were too blind and angry, amplified under the berserk rage of their god's blessing, they charged on thinking only of victory.

Athena's smirk infuriated Ares to no end as he went into full attack mode.

"Die, die, die, die, you think you're better than me? Better than me at WAR!? I AM THE WAR GOD! THE GOD OF WAR! I will wipe out your people and I will defeat you!" Yelled Ares.

Seeing her brother so unhinged brought a tad bit of worry, they have yet to fully utilize their godly abilities so as not to wipe out the mortals below during their clash, but Ares was slipping into madness as his anger grew, using more of it as time went on.

Zeus would usually step in and stop it in the past, but since he's been bored of late there was no telling how far he would let it go, especially with his recent displeasure with her actions, no she couldn't count on him.

She had to draw Ares away, and there was only one way to do that, she thought sighing to herself as she let her defense lapse while using a spell to activate her temple's aura of empowerment to strengthen her people, so as not to draw any suspicion of why it happened.

Ares not wasting the chance slipped past her guard and hit her with his ax with all his might, sending her flying as it dug deep into her side. Grinning, he blindly chased Athena's crumbled form, feeling victory within his grasp, not noticing how she missed every mountain and soared farther than she ever should have.

Ares's strength, boosted by his enchanted Gauntlets was nothing to scoff at though, Athena paid a painful price, one she fully intended to repay when they were safe enough away, muttering spells under her breath as they went.

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The Athenian army was furious to find their homes besieged by unknown enemies who had strange weapons and armor. At first, they felt outmatched as their gear was inferior, unable to scratch the enemy's armor or stand toe to toe with their weapons as their own swords and armor were sliced through as easily as butter while being shot by strange energy weapons from every other one.

Then they felt the blessing from Athena's temple as their strength grew to match their foes, improved further when they picked up the weapons of the enemies they managed to kill, thus increasing their chances even more as the battle raged on within the streets.

Not wishing to be pincered by the Spartans, they pushed north within and secured a foothold before opening the southern gate, allowing the Spartans to pour in, making it a three-way fight.

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General Kro watching everything on the monitor's sneered seeing the human's last attempts at survival by pulling the armies back.

Pressing a button he contacted Taras,- "Taras, Release the monsters, but remember to hold ours back, they'll be needed for later."

"Are you sure that's necessary my lord, the Delta Force should be enough, I was thinking we would release them once the Olympians interfered," asked Taras.

General Kro watching the monitor knew Taras wasn't wrong, the Delta Force were already slaughtering the humans in droves, but Kro was thinking about the future. He wanted his men at peak condition for what's to come, so the monsters which he never planned to keep alive anyways, were the perfect cannon fodder.

"You heard me, don't make me repeat myself," Kro said.

"Yes sir, sorry sir, it shall be done." Taras quickly responded, regretting he ever questioned him.