Chapter 396: Start to charge, start to charge (5.4k)
The snake-footed giant Pelorus!
In the stone forest, the Argonauts, whose attack was thwarted, immediately recognized the identity of the giant by the faint light of the fluorite.
Before the war, in order to know both herself and the enemy, the goddess of memory Mnemosyne once opened the [library] of the Temple of Memory and popularized the origin and composition of the Guigantes to the humans, heroes, and gods who participated in the attack and defense of Thessaly.
According to the records in the [Divine Genealogy] in the Temple of Memory, there are a total of 150 giants of the Guigantes clan who can be considered to have pure bloodlines.
At the beginning, the endless mating desire of Uranus, the father of heaven, made Gaia, the mother goddess of the earth, very painful, so she united the twelve Titans to overthrow Uranus's oppression. Finally, the youngest son Cronus castrated Uranus with a sickle, and Uranus's blood splashed on Gaia, causing her to give birth to the Guigantes clan.
In terms of bloodline, these giants are the pure offspring of Gaia, the goddess of the earth, and Uranus, the father of the sky. Although they were not born from traditional reproduction, their fighting talent and divine power are only slightly inferior to the twelve Titans and the three hundred-armed giants.
Among these 150 people, there are 13 most outstanding giants, 10 of whom became the soul containers of the god-king Kronos and the nine Titan gods, and could compete with the main gods of Olympus on the ground battlefield.
As for the remaining three, although they do not have the status of main gods, their strength is much stronger than the ordinary Gigantes and Olympian gods.
The snake-footed giant Polorus in front of us is one of the three.
"The offspring of Olympus and humans? What a beautiful smell!"
The snake-footed giant looked at the Argonauts who had broken into the underground palace, licked his lips with his scarlet forked tongue, and his dark vertical pupils revealed a greedy grin. He immediately swung his thick black snake tail and attacked the feast in front of him.
For the giants, fighting, killing and devouring the divine blood of their prey are the most effective ways to grow, and these little mice almost all exude a strong divine aura, which is simply an excellent supplement delivered to their doorstep.
Seeing the monster coming like the wind, Atalanta pulled out a divine arrow carefully crafted by the God of Craftsman from her quiver. At the same time, she pulled the bow of the sky in her hand to its full extent, and poured the violent power from the other side of Artemis, the goddess of the moon, into the arrow.
"Burning shadow, moon-bearing arrow—Dark Sky Eclipse Shot!"
boom!
In an instant, a sharp purple-red arrow of light whizzed forward, and the surging divine power shattered the dome of the stone wall. Dozens of thick stalagmites broke off at the roots and smashed into the stone forest like sharp spears.
For a moment, the monsters and giants that were besieging Hercules were either pierced by falling stalagmites or forced back by flying debris.
But this level of attack was like tickling the snake-legged giant.
The hard stalagmites and surging magic power flowed onto his body, but were easily bounced off by the jet-black scales covering his entire body, leaving only shallow white spots and dents.
At the same time, the abdomen of the running snake-footed giant contracted, and his throat moved. A large ball of dark green venom instantly spurted out of his mouth and sprinkled towards the camp of the Argos heroes.
“Sizzle!”
With a sharp sound like boiling oil entering water, the magic barrier hastily erected by Medea and Helen was quickly melted through, and the dark green venom took the opportunity to pour downwards.
Fortunately, Medea and Helen's magic barrier gave everyone time to react. When they saw the terrible corrosiveness of the poison, they immediately dodged.
But as the venom landed on the ground, a large amount of thick green poisonous fog instantly rose from the ground.
Several Argonauts who were closer accidentally inhaled a breath of it and suddenly felt dizzy and their vision went black.
The Thessalian Blood Guards who were protecting them as they entered the underground had even weaker resistance. As soon as they came into contact, they began to bleed from all their orifices, their skin festered, and they fell to the ground screaming.
“Bang! Bang!”
Seeing that the situation was not going well, the God of Medicine immediately took out two ceramic bottles filled with powerful antidotes from his bag and threw them into the rapidly spreading dark green poisonous fog, thus purifying the terrible poison.
But the few Divine Blood Guards who had been unfortunately attacked earlier had the poison already entered their internal organs, and there was no way to save them.
Their limbs twisted and convulsed, and they kept scratching their bodies until their skin and flesh were torn apart, their internal organs were taken out, and they ended their own lives with their own hands. Only then did a trace of comfort appear on their faces, which were filled with extreme pain.
Everyone was horrified when they saw this.
Hercules' heart sank when he saw the tragic scene behind him.
The first casualties appeared...
Although he had long understood that this expedition deep into the heart of the local area was extremely dangerous and that the heroes participating in it were in danger of losing their lives at any time, when the bad news came, Hercules still felt a little reluctant and angry.
"You bastard! You're looking for death!"
Roaring angrily, Hercules drew out the nameless axe and sword behind him, and all the divine power in his body burst out, forming nine powerful slashes in an instant.
“Puff, puff, puff!”
A cloud of blood mist suddenly exploded from the body of the snake-legged giant Polorus, and he fell to the ground with a scream.
As a professional snake killer, Hercules always hits the vital points with his first strike. His targets are always the fatal weaknesses of snakes and monsters such as the head, lower abdomen, heart, spine, etc.
Normally, if an ordinary snake monster is hit, its soul will go to the underworld.
However, after nine consecutive blows, the snake-legged giant that was almost chopped into pieces on the ground actually staggered to its feet, its broken spine automatically reset, its broken heart grew again, and its torn flesh healed rapidly.
In just a blink of an eye, the monster recovered almost completely, and its dark vertical pupils were gloomy and angry, staring at Hercules, who posed the greatest threat to it.
Damn immortality!
The Argonauts cursed in their hearts as they saw the scene before them.
“Whoosh!”
At this time, Chiron pulled out a cyan-gold arrow engraved with secret characters from his quiver, bent his bow and shot it into the heart of the snake-footed giant Polorus.
A deathly gray aura wafted from the tip of the arrow, causing the snake-legged giant who had just stood up to fall down again, and the healing and regeneration of his body significantly slowed down.
But soon, the pierced heart valve of the Snake-foot Giant began to move on its own, squeezing the arrow shot by Chiron out of the body inch by inch.
Chiron's heart sank when he saw this.
In order to deal with these giants, the craftsman god Hephaestus once hurriedly made a batch of artifacts against immortality for the heroes of the Argo expedition.
The arrow he just shot was one of them.
But the result was very limited.
After all, the giants are blessed by the earth. When they step on the earth, they will be given powerful self-recovery abilities, making them almost immortal.
After they breached the Holy Garden and devoured the large quantities of magic potions and golden apples contained therein, their immortality was further enhanced.
In addition, the power of the ten Titan temples seems to have covered the entire underground maze. The mass-produced divine tools in their hands that restrain immortality are barely enough to deal with ordinary giants, but the three high-level giants stationed underground, such as Polorus, although they do not have the status of the main god, their own immortality has been strengthened to the point of being almost immortal.
Not to mention these divine-blooded heroes equipped with mass-produced divine tools, even if the real Lord God arrived, it would probably not be so easy to really kill these high-level giants.
"Don't get entangled with this thing! The mission is more important!"
Chiron once again shot an arrow that restrained immortality into the body of the snake-footed giant, and at the same time warned Hercules in front of him.
The most effective way to destroy the giants' almost endless regeneration ability is to destroy the Titan Temple that provides them with a constant supply of power.
Hercules obviously understood this truth, and immediately abandoned the snake-footed giant who was still healing on the ground, and swung his nameless axe and sword, chopping and smashing, plowing a bloody path through the dense monsters and giants.
"There is an exit ahead, follow me closely!"
Upon hearing this, the Argonauts decisively maintained a tight formation, with Hercules as the spearhead, and accelerated forward.
After all, their mission was not to wipe out the monsters and giants underground, but to destroy the Titan Temple. There was no need to fight to the death with these tricky monsters here.
While everyone was running wildly, a sharp sound of breaking air was heard from behind.
"puff!"
A thick, black snake tail came like a javelin and pierced straight through the chest of an Argonaut.
Then, the handsome young man vomited blood and was thrown into the group of monsters.
"Xulus!"
Seeing this, Hercules in front showed grief and anger on his face, his eyes were red, and he subconsciously wanted to turn back to rescue.
This young man was not a fake character previously disguised by his teacher Perseus, but his real adopted son and his most trusted homosexual lover.
Although he could not persuade his adopted son who insisted on participating in the expedition, he still arranged Xu Las in the safer rear out of selfish motives.
But unexpectedly, the child still couldn't escape his fate.
"He is beyond saving, go!" Chiron shouted sternly.
Hercules' congested brain couldn't help but cool down. He gritted his teeth and glanced at his adopted son who had been drowned by the beasts and the snake-footed giant who was slowly standing up from the ground. He suppressed the grief in his heart, turned around and led the Argonauts away from this dangerous place.
After passing through the wavy light gate, a familiar feeling of spatial confusion came over me again.
Before the Argonauts could come to their senses, their bodies were falling rapidly. The dark, steep pit and the sharp rock spikes in it expanded rapidly in their eyes.
“Wind, use your lightness to relieve my weight, wings fluttering, soaring without falling!”
The two Argonauts, Zetes and Calais, sons of Boreas, the god of wind, sang the words of God, stirred up the air currents around them, and carried their teammates slowly down.
Puff!
At this moment, dense stalagmites fell from the dome, swift and sharp. The two sons of the God of Wind who were busy assisting their teammates in landing were caught off guard, and several stalagmites pierced their armor and penetrated their wings.
The two Argonauts felt pain and shed blood. They were no longer able to control the airflow and fell into the pit with everyone else.
Telamon and Katniss, who were quick-eyed and quick-handed, immediately smashed the round shields in their hands, which were filled with divine power, to the bottom of the pit. The violent flow of magic mixed with the metal fragments of the round shield shot out, shattering the rock spikes at the bottom of the long and slow pit, and narrowly averted the crisis.
"There's something up there... It's coming here. Let's go!"
The two sons of the God of Wind heard rustling noises all around them, and they painedly pulled out the stalagmites that had pierced their wings, and warned their teammates.
At this time, Atalanta jumped onto the rock wall and looked around in the darkness. Soon, with the excellent eyesight of an archer, she found the exit in front of her that was emitting a faint light.
“There is a road ahead!”
As the rocks above their heads fell, the mixed breath of monsters and giants approached rapidly. Hercules and Chiron decisively ordered people to help up the injured twin wind gods, and led everyone to speed up through this narrow and rugged rift, and rush into the light gate in front before the monsters and giants surrounded them.
However, as soon as they entered the door, dense swarms of monsters and giants discovered their tracks and swarmed over with roars.
Everyone fought hard to carve out a bloody path and then rushed into a door of light.
But new monsters and giants continued to appear.
Just like that, one, two, three...
Five, ten, twenty…
Gradually, the exhausted Argonauts began to notice something was wrong.
"Wait! Look at the traces here. This is the starting point where we came in just now~!"
Chiron stopped everyone who were looking for a way out, and pointed with a grim expression at an arrow mark on the stone wall.
Atalanta recognized that it was the mark she had left behind and her eyes fixed.
"Have we been going around in circles?"
When everyone heard this, they were filled with gloom.
After a brief thought, Chiron issued the order.
"Change the route this time! Take a different passage and leave marks along the way!"
Everyone did as they were told and rushed into the light gate again.
Ten times, twenty times, thirty times...
After an unknown amount of time, they seemed to have finally gotten rid of their pursuers. The scenery before them suddenly became clear, and a courtyard full of fluorescent plants came into view.
On a huge dead tree, seven kingfishers stood on the branches, chirping clearly.
The pleasant sound is like the rhythm of a lyre, reminding people of the afternoon sun, the soft bed, and the arms of a lover.
Even the air becomes as mellow and sweet as aged wine.
The Argonauts could not help but slow down their pace, greedily enjoying the soothing and beautiful melody, and staggered towards the dead tree in the center of the courtyard.
As the crowd approached, the seven kingfishers on the dead tree seemed to sing even more happily.
Zheng~!
At this moment, an exciting note suddenly rose up, like gold and jade breaking, stone breaking, instantly diluting the comfortable and lazy music in the courtyard.
"wake up!"
Orpheus, the talented singer and son of Apollo, played the harp with his fingers like a storm, warning his companions with his high-pitched and sharp music.
The Argonauts suddenly realized what was happening, stopped and looked around, breaking out in a cold sweat.
The fluorescent plant that spread from the dead tree slowly opened its front end, revealing its feeding organ covered with ring-shaped serrations.
The seven kingfishers standing on the branches spread their wings, and their petite bodies suddenly transformed into tall women with bird wings on their backs. Their pairs of claws shaped like iron hooks pierced the heroes' faces.
"Fuck you!"
Seeing a pair of claws already in front of her, Katniss was so angry that she immediately swung the spear in her hand and stabbed a bird-winged girl on the tree through.
“Chiu!”
The injured bird-winged girl suddenly went crazy, screaming and flapping her wings backwards, pulling her body out of Katniss's spear tip and shooting several iron feathers forward.
Katniss quickly turned her spear and used almost all her strength to push away these fast and fierce iron feathers.
"What the hell?!"
Clenching her slightly trembling hands, the Thessaly female warrior, famous for her bravery, looked at the seven bird-winged girls on the tree with horror.
"The Seven Kingfisher Goddesses - Alcyones, are said to be the seven daughters of Alcyoneus, the king of the giants, and are named after their beautiful singing voices. But ever since Kronos devoured the consciousness of Alcyoneus, the king of the giants, and refined it into a vessel for his soul, these seven daughters of Alcyoneus, the king of the giants, have been missing in mourning for their father. I never expected them to become like this!"
Apollo's son Orpheus stepped forward to answer. Looking at the seven kingfisher goddesses on the tree, whose minds were obviously corroded and who were extremely ferocious, his face showed deep regret and pity, and at the same time he cursed Kronos in his heart.
After all, the only person who could transform the seven daughters of Alcyoneus, the king of the giants, into such a horrible appearance was probably the cold-blooded and ruthless Titan king.
"So what's going on with these?"
The Argonauts asked anxiously as they drew their swords and raised their spears, hacking at the fluorescent tentacles that were sweeping in from all sides like a swarm of snakes.
These things spreading out from all around the dead tree looked like a combination of animals and plants. Not only were they extremely tough when cut, but red and black juice like blood would ooze out from the broken ends, making strange squeaking noises that were very frustrating.
What is even more troublesome for the heroes is that the vitality of these things is even stronger than that of ordinary giants, and their speed of destruction cannot even keep up with the regeneration speed of these things.
The God of Medicine standing by sniffed and vaguely smelled a familiar odor from the puddles of red and black juice on the ground. His expression changed slightly.
"Is this... a golden apple tree?"
When the giants broke into the holy garden, they not only ate all the golden apples, but also sacrificed the golden apple tree, which possessed the power of the earth, to the god-king Kronos.
And the dead tree in front of me with its tenacious vitality seems to be the original body of the golden apple tree.
However, due to the pollution of divinity, this thing has become demonic and tries to prey on any living thing that approaches it and nourish itself with the flesh and blood of outsiders.
“Don’t go over there!”
Realizing the origin of this thing, the God of Medicine quickly stopped several Argonauts who wanted to rush up and chop down the dead tree.
However, it was too late.
Roots like snakes and pythons broke out of the ground, and rocks shattered wherever they passed, and dense green plants spread and grew wildly.
“Puff!”
Then, green vines like tentacles tightly bound the legs of several Argonauts, and the glowing roots had already penetrated their thighs, frantically sucking their life force like hungry giant snakes.
In just a blink of an eye, the skin of several Argonauts who were hit shrivelled and turned into skeletons.
Green fluorescent vines sprouted from their eye sockets and grew wildly. The strange scene made the Argonauts shudder.
"Retreat! Retreat!"
Chiron shouted a warning and shot arrows that restrained immortality, cutting off the vines growing from the magical golden apples.
The Argonauts also worked together to stop the seven kingfisher goddesses who were rushing towards them with flapping wings, and evacuated this dangerous area while fighting.
However, when it rains, it pours.
boom!
Rocks were flying everywhere, and in the midst of the thick smoke and dust, thousands of densely packed monsters and giants were leaping out from a ripple of light that had opened up at the rear, heading straight for them.
Upon seeing this, Medea hurriedly threw out the Fang of Piton and several magic crystals, summoning a row of dragon tooth soldiers and magic puppets to briefly resist the swarming monsters and giants and buy time for her companions.
However, faced with a situation where there are wolves in front and tigers behind, these delays are just a drop in the bucket.
The space for everyone to move around was soon compressed to the extreme, and they could only watch these underground monsters pour in like a tide.
Just as the Argonauts, who were on the verge of despair, were preparing to make a desperate attempt, a torch burning with golden flames flew from a rock wall and hit the enchanted golden apple tree.
Suddenly, the demonized sacred tree twisted wildly, emitting strange rat-like cries, and its fluorescent vines drilled into the ground.
"This way, come here quickly!"
A deep voice came from a cave somewhere, and a middle-aged man in a black robe was waving at them.
(End of this chapter)
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