“Not a fan of getting sliced in two?” quips Yvette, who backs towards the pillar Zagreus got thrown into, blasting Asterius this time.

“We fight together, villains! You shall not tear our bonds of brotherhood apart!”

And then he throws a spear at Yvette, again.

Who turns to starscape before it hits her. The starscape opens a hole for the spear to pass harmlessly through, before reforming into her construct. This is admittedly mostly just for show, but there’s a tactical consideration besides intimidation. It also helps to keep them focused on the construct instead of all of the bits of ambient starscape floating around.

... but yeah, mostly it’s to look pretty.

Okay good she can handle herself so he can go fight the godsdamn bull.

Yes he can.

The first section of the fight is fairly straightforward. Yvette doesn’t have all that much combat experience, but she knows that, and generally stays out of Zagreus’s way as much as possible. She blasts Asterius from afar when an opening is available, and takes every available opportunity to get out of melee range if anyone tries to get close to her. Since she can shift to starscape and skirt across the ground as a super maneuverable puddle, she doesn’t usually have that difficult of a time getting away whenever anyone tries to close the distance.

But most of her attention is spent being the most obnoxious little shit to Theseus in particular. Not to injure him, just to keep him busy and buy her teammate time. She throws starscapes in his eyes, trips him when he advances, and creates another construct of herself behind him to blast his back and throw him off guard. At one point, she even verbally harasses him to get his attention, though she’s not actually angry enough for the insult to have any real teeth. (“I thought you were the champions, do you really have this much trouble when a fight’s closer to fair?”) Her entire time here is spent leading Theseus, and sometimes Asterius, on a merry little chase around the arena while Zagreus does the real harm.

Needless to say, it’s great fun.

Whether it is also fun for the Champions is somewhat less clear. Asterius is taciturn, and Theseus is a prick, but they're both pretty relentless. Asterius's attacks start getting some more bite a while into the fight, shooting energy beams forwards and to either side whenever he leaps at Zagreus (or, occasionally, at Yvette, if she looks particularly appetising as a target).

This does make Zagreus's life slightly harder, but on the other hand Athena's blessing allows him to deflect Asterius's energy attacks right back at the minotaur so ironically it only speeds up his demise.

Until eventually: "You have... grown strong..." he declares, as he falls to his knees and starts dissolving into red motes of light.

"Asterius, no!"

And... that is when Theseus proceeds to get angry.

"Fiends! I'll not allow him to go unavenged! O mighty Lord Zeus, king of the gods and master of the heavens—" The air starts to feel charged, the hint of lightning in the air, "—I ask your aid so I might smite my enemies."

"Oh, fu—"

And then Yvette is blasted with lightning! It hurts rather a lot. More than being blasted with ordinary lightning would, actually, and more than it rightly should. She doesn't actually have all that many pain receptors in this construct! It hurts a bunch anyway! Why this! Why this thing!

"... Ow," she whines, and then snarls and blasts Theseus with a very large sunbeam, because ow, that hurt!

And now that Zagreus can focus on Theseus it is game on. He sends one of Ares's spinny blade discs and then immediately dashes through and past it and Theseus himself to start hacking at the Athenian hero and sandwich him there.

He blocks the sunbeam, then twists and sidesteps the young god and the spinny blade disc. His shield stays pointed at Zagreus, and he steps out of the way of the admittedly rather predictable path of the disc.

"Not today, villain!"

And then it is Zagreus's turn to get blasted with lightning.

Yvette meanwhile is actually still a little bit distracted by pain. Ow, ow, ow ow ow, why did she go and make a target of herself again, she doesn't recall. Oh, look, that's a spinny blade disc, isn't it. Zagreus made that. How about she just, attempts to shove Theseus into it, that seems helpful to do at this present time of no seriously ow.

This works, briefly, and Theseus's face is a grimace of pain before he changes his footing to charge at Zagreus with a jab of his spear, half a second after the bolt of lightning.

Zagreus is not literally quicker than lightning but after getting hit by it once he has the presence of mind to jump away from that spot since an attack of opportunity is the obvious thing to do.

He looks slightly singed and annoyed but not like he's in extreme pain like Yvette is, and he immediately sends another disc then leaps towards Theseus to land in a spin, splashing Poseidon's water in all directions.

Theseus sidesteps the direction of the disc and keeps his shield up towards the splash of water and Zagreus himself, barely being knocked back by the force.

Yvette is recovering, though she still feels a bit like agony itself. Gosh, what is happening to his footing, there? He’s just sliding right into the disc of blades and whoops is that another sunblast, her hand must have slipped. So sorry.

“Rrrrgh you cursed witch,” hisses Theseus, and Zagreus gets to eat another bolt of lightning while Theseus decides to go after the squishy caster that has been a thorn in his side this entire time. He spins and lunges towards her much faster than he’d been going before.

Yvette considers whether or not she wants to keep puppeting a body for this fight or not.

... No, not really. This is dumb and silly, and she thinks it’s tactically smart to go help Zagreus predict lightning strikes instead. Since they don’t need to keep two people busy at the same time, anymore.

She pools all of the important bits of her into the dirt beneath her feet, and she sets a trap in her construct while she retreats.

“Got you, fiend,” growls Theseus as he impales ‘Yvette.’

Who smiles sweetly at him. “Did you?”

And then she explodes.

(Ow, why did that also hurt, most of her wasn’t even there! It was just a shell, without any nerves to feel pain with, why does being stabbed hurt! The explosion didn’t hurt! That’s not fair!)

A suspiciously starry shadow emerges from the ground beside Zagreus, returning to his shoulder.

“I think I can predict the lightning,” she informs him, igniting her golden iris to watch the sky.

Zagreus's M.O. is and has always been win the game of attrition through sheer stubbornness, so he has been on Theseus's tail throughout all of this, pressing the Athenian with a flurry of attacks, the blade disc, and Poseidon's wave, all the while shifting extremely quickly from one point to the other. Nevertheless, when he hears Yvette ask "Did you?", he finds himself halfway across the arena from her because he is really sure something is about to happen.

Then it happens.

And.

...

........

............that was really hot. Damn.

"... You okay, there? I don't think that got him, he—yep, he just looks pissed off. Lightning, dodge!"