Chapter 154: Archer Heracles
[Beep Beep——Confirming]
[Host, do you confirm to spend one million livestream points to unlock the summoning limit of Divine Spirit Servant?]
"Confirm!"
Ethan immediately responded in his heart.
[Choice received from host, unlocking now.]
[Unlock successful!!!]
[200,000 points consumed, beginning Gacha!]
[Starting draw——!!!]
"Crack crack, crack crack——————!!!"
The giant skeletal serpent heads kept rising from the sea, completely surrounding the tattered boat that was no different from scrap.
Just a light collision more, and it would surely fall apart completely!
"Hyaaa——!!!"
Bitten tightly by the skeletal serpent, Himiko gritted her teeth and used both hands to tear its jaw open, then gathered the scorching sunlight within the "Eternal Mirror that Models the Celestial Bodies" and swept it across the surrounding white serpents!
However, at this point, Himiko had already consumed too much mana. The attack from the mirror had only just pierced through one serpent head when immediately another one wrapped around her tightly!!!
"U..."
Himiko used both hands to try to support her body, using all her strength to resist the attack of the giant serpent.
She stared directly at the boat shaking violently within the vortex.
If this keeps going, that boat will be——
Suddenly, a silver light burst out fiercely from the shattered deck!
Accompanied by the sound of crashing waves and the grinding of all the joints in the giant skeletal serpent's body, the aura on the ship's deck grew stronger and stronger.
"Hisssss——————————!!!"
The enormous white-boned serpent opened its pale mouth wide and suddenly lunged at the deck!!!
"BOANG————————!!"
A deafening explosion!
Even Himiko, unwilling as she was, had to shut her eyes, unable to look toward the ship.
"Kacha, kacha!!!"
Moments later, the white-boned serpent heads emerging from the sea and fiercely attacking suddenly stopped moving.
As if they had all been frozen.
"Kaka————————!!!"
Yet another white-boned serpent suddenly rose from the sea, charging toward the tall ship at a speed too fast to be seen clearly!
At that exact moment, a beam of light struck the head of that white-boned serpent directly!
The moment it was hit, those bones shattered into dust?!
As the smoke cleared, a tall figure appeared on the deck.
"Hydra, pitiful monster, my foe in the labors."
A black-haired, muscular man appeared in front of Ethan, blocking the attacks of the white-boned serpents.
Beside him, the massive bones continued to shatter and dissolve into the sea, vanishing completely.
"Sorry, I'll leave this place to you."
Ethan said that to the man before him.
"Leave it to me, Master. I share a deep fate with that serpent beast."
The tall, black-haired man stared straight at the massive white-boned Hydra in the sea ahead.
Then, a large, sturdy bow appeared in his hand.
Mana surged continuously from the bow, and the tall, black-haired man immediately pulled the bowstring with full strength.
An arrow fletched with feathers from a bizarre bird suddenly appeared on the bow.
"BOOM, BOOM——————!!!"
The moment he drew the string fully, all his muscles swelled, and a torrent of powerful mana surged through his body like lightning.
"——————————?!"
In the sky, Medea, who was struggling to suppress Draco, immediately sensed that aura.
She looked down, her face full of shock!!!
"No way! This familiar mana... it's Heracles?! This man actually responded to the summon?!"
The next second, the air began to vibrate.
"FWOOO——————————!!!"
From the deck, a beam of light shot straight out, directly aiming at the Hydra that had become a skeleton!!!
The sea surface ahead of the arrow split into a trench!!!
The white-boned Hydra, hit directly, showed no sign of resistance, its entire body echoing with violent sounds.
"BOOOOOM————————!!!"
The nine-headed serpent beast, its corpse manipulated after death, exploded into fragments in the blast, completely turning into a pile of white debris sinking into the deep ocean.
The recoil from that shot even pushed the tall ship back slightly.
"Uwaaahhhh, Envoy, is this Heroic Spirit trying to destroy the whole ship?!"
Xu Fu clung tightly to Ethan's leg, shocked as she looked at the terrifying aura emanating from the man ahead.
"...Probably not."
Ethan looked straight at the tall, muscular man standing before him.
His height exceeded 2.5 meters, his appearance no different from a statue carved by the gods, with muscles and blood seemingly filled with pure magic power.
Just being stared at by the opponent might be enough to be completely overwhelmed and unable to move.
When the majestic figure of this Heroic Spirit appeared on the livestream screen, the livestream room instantly erupted into chaos.
[Holy Shitttt, It's Heracles!!!]
[Everybody stand up!!! Who doesn't have a little Heracles in their heart?!]
[Attention units, combat unit has come online.]
[The moment I saw Hydra, I just knew Heracles would show up.]
[Heracles doesn't want to talk to you, and throws a spinning Lancer in your face.]
[Lancer ga shinda!!! Kono hito de nashi!!!]
[Isn't Heracles supposed to be in Berserker Class? That bow he's holding, isn't it the Bow of the Hydra?]
[He can communicate, doesn't seem like a Berserker at all.]
...
[System: 'Magical Girl Illya' has sent 1,000 Saint Quartz!]
[Message: Berserker is the strongest!!!]
[System: 'Real Cu Chulainn' has sent 100 Saint Quartz!]
[Message: Suddenly feeling dizzy and nauseous, anyone know what's happening? It's urgent, waiting for reply online.]
...
The great hero Heracles of ancient Greek mythology.
The one everyone is familiar with as the combat unit—Berserker.
But this time, he was summoned as an Archer.
I really did summon a monster-level character...
"Envoy, what should we do next?"
Xu Fu was completely panicked, lifting her head to look at Ethan, whom she was still clinging to tightly.
Ethan crouched down, rummaged through a pile of miscellaneous items, and finally pulled out a bowl of mapo tofu that still looked steaming hot.
"Do you want to eat this to calm down a bit?"
"Huh???"
Ignoring Xu Fu's bewildered expression, Ethan raised his head and looked toward Medea and Draco, who were floating in the sky.
After finishing off the skeletal Hydra, Heracles also immediately turned his attention to the two in the sky.
He once again drew the bow in his hand, aiming straight upward.
"Heracles, our enemy is Medea, not the one beside her!"
Fearing that Heracles might consider Draco an enemy and shoot her as well, Ethan immediately explained.
"..."
Hearing Ethan's words, Heracles only slightly shifted the arrow to the left.
"Understood."
Seeing his movement, Ethan couldn't help thinking to himself:
Didn't bro just try to shoot both of them at once a moment ago...
Even though Draco is currently using the Saint Graph of Class Alter Ego, she still emits the aura of a Beast.
I'll have to figure out how to explain this to Heracles later.
"Ahaaaaaaaa——————!!!"
Draco, who was bound by a sealing spell, suddenly exploded with power, her magic surging to its peak.
"Crack, crack…"
Cracks kept spreading across the seal—it looked like it was about to go out of control.
"Tch..."
The skeletal Hydra had already been eliminated, and now another enemy appeared.
Medea bit her lip tightly and immediately conjured several fireballs behind her, preparing to fire them directly at the imprisoned Draco from close range!
"Swoosh——————!!!"
Suddenly, a beam of light shot upward from below, aiming directly at Medea!!!
"————————?!"
In an instant, Medea's figure vanished from beside Draco and reappeared farther away.
"Urgh…"
Drops of blood continuously dripped from her left hand.
Even though she used teleportation, she still couldn't completely dodge the arrow launched from below.
"A Stymphalian bird feather arrow… Damn you, Heracles!!!"
Even though her left hand could no longer move, Medea still raised her staff high with her right hand, aiming it directly at Draco.
All her mana converged into the staff in her hand, and behind her appeared dozens of magic circles at once.
At that moment, her mage cloak fluttered as if it were wings in the sky!
At her command, all the magic circles behind her instantly merged into one massive blue magic array!!!
"Rain of Light: Machia Hecatic Graea!!"
Medea, who possessed High-Speed Divine Words, needed only a brief chant to complete this large-scale ritual spell.
The compressed magic particles formed a powerful pillar of light, shooting straight toward the sealed Draco!!!
"BOOM————————!!!"
At the same time, the barrier imprisoning Draco completely collapsed.
"I'll kill you!!"
As soon as she was released, the red light in Draco's eyes grew even fiercer. Using the force of the explosion, she shot straight into the sky, charging at Medea!!!
The attack of Divine Words Magecraft was blocked by the Holy Grail placed in front of Draco. Black mist poured out from the chalice, enveloping her and forming a protective layer that left her completely unscathed.
In just a blink, Draco had broken through the attack, closed in on Medea, and gripped her neck tightly with her dragon-transformed right hand.
"Consider it an honor, someone like you dying at my hands."
"Hehe… Even so… I absolutely cannot bring disgrace upon the magecraft directly passed down from the goddess Hecate…"
Suddenly, Medea drew from her mage's cloak a short purple dagger.
"Reveal your true form… pathetic Beast!!"
With that, she stabbed the dagger straight at Draco—who was completely unguarded.
"Rule Breaker—All Spells Must Be Broken!!"
"Swoosh————————!!!"
An almost invisible strike directly hit Medea's right hand, knocking the purple dagger away.
Immediately after, a second arrow howled up from below!!!
Sensing everything happening, Medea tightly shut her eyes in despair.
"Clang——————!!!"
Suddenly, the force of Draco's right hand sweep knocked the incoming attack off-course, causing it to graze past the heavily wounded Medea and fly out into the distance.
"This prey is mine—no one else had better dare interfere!!!"
Draco raised her head arrogantly, looking down, her eyes meeting Heracles's, who was holding his longbow.
Though neither made another move, it was obvious that these two Servants were not ones who could coexist peacefully.
"So then, how should I torment you, little magus?"
Draco tightened her grip on Medea's throat, savoring her pained moans.
"Hey, Draco!!!"
Ethan shouted up from the ship's deck.
"It's over now, come back quickly!!!"
Hearing Ethan's voice, Draco licked her lips.
"You're right. If no one gets to enjoy your miserable state, it wouldn't even count as punishment. That'd be far too boring."
After that, Draco dragged Medea along, stepping on the shadow of a Familiar below, then returned to the swaying ship deck.
"Draco, are you okay?"
As soon as she landed, Ethan immediately approached to check her condition.
That witch earlier even pulled out Rule Breaker, if he remembered correctly.
"Foolish. That kind of ridiculous magecraft—how could it possibly harm me?!"
Draco said with scorn, then flung the subdued Medea aside.
"But I won't let this magus die so easily. Unless she screams and cries in a way that brings me joy—I won't be satisfied."
"Hold on, let me ask her a few things first."
Ethan then stepped forward and began interrogating Medea, who had completely lost the ability to fight.
"You're Medea, right? Why did you summon Hydra to attack the ship, and why did you set a trap for me???"
There were too many strange things going on in this anomaly now, so he needed to gather at least a bit more information.
Faced with Ethan's question, Medea—lying sprawled on the ground, her body covered in wounds—suddenly burst out laughing.
"Ahahaha, I never thought a human would actually ally with a Beast!!!"
"Whoosh——————!!!"
Draco's tail lashed out like a sharp sword!
"Draco, wait!!!"
Ethan immediately moved to stop Draco's attack.
"Don't act rashly, magus. I can take your life anytime I want."
Draco threatened, her sharp, scaly tail halting just in front of Medea's neck.
"Even if I told you, it would be meaningless."
Medea showed no fear, looking Draco straight in the eyes.
"Rather, the end of this world is already inevitable. The only regret… is that I cannot be the one to personally punish 'that one'!"
As she spoke, Medea revealed a face twisted in hatred and unwillingness.
"'That one'?!... You're talking about Jason, aren't you???"
Ethan immediately thought of a possibility and blurted out that name.
"…So what? Either way, it no longer concerns any of you."
Blood trickling from the corner of her mouth, her face pale, Medea calmly said.
"No, if your target is Jason… then maybe our goals actually align."
"————————?!"