Chapter 310
Chapter 310
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 310
Chapter Title: Herculean God-Smashing #10
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Drip, drip-.
Pushing the rock aside with all my might revealed the dark interior.
Without paying attention to the sound of wet droplets falling to the floor, soon fluorescent round objects began to float up from the pitch-black darkness.
Sss....
It didn't take long to realize they resembled the glowing eyes emitted by living creatures.
Sss, scratch-.
The loud scraping of something smooth against wooden planks rang out, and soon massive snake heads revealed themselves, lunging toward me.
Sss.
One, two, three, four-.
A total of nine heads.
It seemed to be a hydra, boasting nine enormous heads.
Hiss!
All the heads bared their massive fangs and charged at me.
The way it skipped any probing and came straight at me made it seem either desperately impatient or foul-tempered.
Shaa-.
A chill ran down the nape of my neck, and I twisted my waist to the left. A gigantic body grazed past my right side without mercy.
If I'd dodged even a fraction slower, I might have been flung like a deer hit by a truck, my bones shattering.
But there was no time to relax after dodging a single attack.
The thing had nine heads.
To put it in perspective, it was no different from a boxer with nine fists, and it began swinging all its heads wildly to prevent me from catching a breath, attacking from every direction.
Whoosh, whoosh-.
Irregular-tempo strikes from the snakes.
Shaaak-!
One head lunged at my body, flashing its razor-sharp fangs. I swiftly ducked and jammed my dagger into the underside of its jaw.
Crunch.
The razor-honed dagger pierced through the scales on its jaw, successfully carving a deep gash.
"Gotcha, fuck! Aura-wrapped dagger—must hurt like hell!"
Gripping the dagger, I yanked my arm back with full force, as if trying to bisect its jaw and head clean in two.
Squelch—the vivid sensation of slicing through bone, thick hide, and muscle followed, but the real problem came right after.
Splatter-.
Dark red blood spurted from its wound, starting to corrode the dagger still embedded in it, along with the leather armor draped over my body.
Seeing it steadily eat away, I hurriedly let go of the dagger lodged in the beast and tried to put some distance between us.
Whoosh-.
"Wha-!?"
Another head clamped down on my leg.
Before I knew it, each of my arms and legs was seized by separate heads, locking my movements.
Not only that—the remaining five heads zeroed in on my head and nape, creating a truly do-or-die crisis. It felt just like the punishment of being torn limb from limb.
The forces pulling from all directions made my arms and legs feel like they would stretch and rip apart. At this rate, my body would be quartered!
"Grrraaa-!!"
I poured strength into my entire body, trying to shake off the heads with fangs sunk into my shoulders and limbs.
Crack—with the sound of muscles tearing, the hydra's head that had been gnawing at me tumbled across the floor. It was the one I'd already wounded with the dagger earlier.
Graaak-!
A massive scream echoed as my body flew far away.
Slamming into the wall of the wrecked ship, I clicked my tongue at the punctured wound from its huge fangs. I'd been bitten by sharp teeth, but there was no trace of poison being injected.
Or maybe I just hadn't noticed.
"Hoo...."
I steadied my breathing, gathering my inner energy. The blood gushing from the hole in my wound felt like it slowed a bit.
Now my eyes locked onto the hydra, its severed head area thrashing in rage all over the place.
Gurgle, gurgle-.
Seeing a brand-new head regrowing from the stump of the fallen one was utterly gruesome and despair-inducing.
"Fuck, can I really beat this thing...?"
Graak-! Ssaak-!
Shhh, shishit-!
The wrecked ship shook violently from the injured hydra's rampage, as if it would sink any moment, so I had no choice but to fall back and let the hydra emerge from its dark lair inside the ship.
*
*
*
"Fuck, nearly died."
As I made it out of the ship, the hydra vanished back into the darkness, hiding away. At least that gave me a chance to catch my breath.
Tritan whistled sharply toward me.
"Thought you went in to clear one corpse. How'd you survive? Just that alone must've racked up some serious karma."
"Fuck, the thing's insanely vicious. How the hell do you even catch it?"
"Vicious and savage. Unless you burn the heads, they'll keep regenerating. How about sealing the entrance with the rock again? Live to fight another day."
"Ah-. So it needs fire, huh."
I wondered what it would be like if Elfride were here. If she'd snapped out of her seasickness faint, we might've taken down the hydra way easier than expected.
Of course, no use wishing for what's not here.
"So, you really just gonna stand there watching? You're the prince of the sea. Okay letting scum like that run wild in your turf?"
"But, regretfully, too many women who'd grieve if I got hurt. Got a precious body—won't do anything as stupid as dropping dead pointlessly here."
Fair enough.
In a way, this Tritan guy was wise.
From his position, where the losses from fighting this hydra outweighed any gains, there was no reason to throw himself into danger.
"Call me a coward if you want—standing here's agony enough for me. Only someone my level could hold out this long."
That was true too.
His face and body were drenched in fatigue, eroded by the pervasive toxic aura leaking from the giant snake in all directions.
"But if you can just lure it out of that ship, even I might lend a hand. It's a pain in my domain—gotta deal with it someday."
"Got it, fuck. Just drag it outside, right?"
Hoo-.
Letting out a small sigh, I slapped both my cheeks with my palms. That alone eased my stuffy breathing a bit.
I tried to calmly face the situation at hand.
What I had to face was a snake.
A massive snake.
Sure, the nine heads were freaky, but it was easier thinking of it as nine separate snakes. I was up against nine snakes.
Against that, my body was just one.
Clear numerical disadvantage.
Any way to turn the tables?
If only I could raise the undead-.
That alone would give me power rivaling those strutting around claiming to be gods or gods' sons.
Ever since honing my aura further and donning this silver-tier necklace, I'd come to truly feel it.
Just how mighty the necromancy I'd wielded was, and how far beyond my station it had been.
Necromancy was forbidden, wasn't it.
But to stop my necromancy, all Jupiter had to do was take the eye pendant around my neck—yet he hadn't.
He'd never cared about trinkets like my necklace to begin with.
What he'd adjusted was my very constitution.
Perhaps the reason I could use necromancy wasn't the relic necklace's unique power at all, but purely my innate constitution?
It was a fact I'd long overlooked and ignored, but maybe I really possessed tremendous potential?
What the hell was I?
My head grew cluttered with all sorts of worries and stray thoughts. I stopped thinking and simply drew the club from my back, gripping it in hand.
"Hoo-."
An unreal weight.
The sheer heaviness swept away all my idle thoughts—nothing left but the imperative to wield it.
Elfride, necromancy.
No point dwelling on what's absent now—just regret.
Right now, I focused only on what I could do immediately.
A club blessed with strength at the human limit, plus graces from various gods.
I was every bit the hero worthy of the title.
Standing before a snake nest that even gods feared, having faced its terror firsthand with my own body yet refusing to flee—didn't that alone qualify me?
And to anyone, this monster snake was nothing but a quest destined to fall to a hero.
"Alright-. Let's fucking do this."
"Your wildly churning karma has settled. You're a fascinating one. Said you're Saturn's descendant, but actually—"
"No."
I cut off Tritan.
"That's not a story for your mouth."
The one who had to answer my questions was someone else.
That man would've casually crushed nine snakes, stuffing their heads in a sack without a second thought. A guy unbothered by bee stings or snake bites—he'd surely handle it.
I clearly felt the blood covering half my body right now.
My half.
The thing that brought me into existence in this world.
Beyond that, the stench of poison in the air, the sound of crashing waves, the sticky salt clinging to my skin, Tritan's heartbeat, and—
And even the massive snake's icy tremor of fear, all crystal clear.
"Called it overly ferocious—you're definitely wounded."
"What the hell's that outta nowhere—?"
"Stay put. Gonna drag it out—then we grab it together."
I swung the club through the air, whoosh-whoosh. The black mists blocking my view scattered in all directions, securing a decent line of sight.
Then I rummaged at my waist and unhooked a small potion vial hanging there.
Without hesitation, I poured the contents over myself from head to toe like a baptism.
"Guh, what the fuck."
Tritan recoiled, frowning hard as if utterly shocked.
"What're you spraying? The hell is that? Gonna pollute the sea! Ugh, what! Get that away! Don't come near me!"
Even his poison-ravaged sense of smell reeled from the stench of what I'd doused myself in.
"What even is it? Fuck, disgusting! Never smelled anything worse! Gonna hurl!"
"Disgusting? That's harsh."
I replied.
"This is affection."
"What're you on about?"
"You'll see."
With that, I strode right back into the dark interior of the wrecked ship.
Sss....
The hydra, which had been baring its fangs with a menacing growl at me just moments ago, showed no sign of emerging from the shadows.
"Looks like the special snake-repellent potion works on you too, huh?"
That's right.
What Luna had given me before heading off to face the hydra was snake-repellent potion.
Among a snake's senses, the most acute and sensitive is the Jacobson organ in its mouth—their sense of smell.
Luna, who always professed to love snakes, apparently knew exactly what they hated too.
Splash.
I took one more step toward the wet floor.
Guaak-!
All nine of the hydra's heads bristled their scales sharply and screamed. They even hesitated, backing away?
The beast had nine heads.
Which meant nine tongues for smelling—and it was safe to say it had a far superior sense of smell as a result.
Guaak! Guaaak-!
It shrieked in utter panic as I drew closer.
Fuck, does it have to hate it that much?
Kinda stings.
Swish.
I raised both hands toward the hydra, which had fled to the dead end of the ship. I'd slung the club back on my back, showing it my empty hands.
"Hey, no need to be that scared. I'm not your enemy. More like a friend, even. That scuffle earlier? Let's just call it water under the bridge."
Guaak-!
But the hydra's nine heads only continued their fierce roars. Pressing closer like this seemed unwise.
No matter how coated I was in snake-repellent scent, the fangs of a cornered beast—especially a wounded one—were nothing to trifle with.
"Hey, don't you recognize this hide? It's your big bro's skin—. Me and your mom—"
Guaaaak-!
Fuck, was that the wrong thing to say.
"Alright, alright."
So I halted my advance and slowly moved my finger to point at what could be called the hydra's main body.
Thump, thump-.
Embedded there was a bizarrely pulsing spike. To be precise, less a spike and more a thick pillar—or akin to the club I wielded.
Drip-.
It was driven deep into the core amid what served as its heads, octopus-torso-like, festering the wound and inflicting agony.
The ceaseless dark red blood oozing from that gash was staining the sea and air black, corrupting everything.
Guaak-!
"That's got you all on edge, huh? Fuck, must hurt like a bitch."
I furrowed my brow hard.
Though snakes were synonymous with monsters or devils, the species itself was actually fairly docile.
They rarely lunged at humans unless provoked first, their territory invaded, or cornered with injuries.
Guaak-!
Of course, separately from that, dangerous ones were just fucking dangerous. Nothing to be done.
So I lowered my stance even more slowly, creeping toward it.
Moving so gradually it almost seemed frozen, silent enough that not even my muscles whispered, inching toward the giant snake's wound.
Finally, I reached the thing embedded in its body that I could call a spike.
Sssik, ssik-.
Eek-.
The hydra's heads let out threatening hisses, displeased with my approach, but they lacked the guts to actually bite someone reeking so foully.
Swish.
I reached out my hand toward its body. Come to think of it, hadn't I done something similar not long ago?
Pulling the sword lodged in the dragon's body—it was exactly like this. Maybe that had been rehearsal for this very moment.
Thud-.
Grr....
Its body trembled fiercely from the pain of the embedded spike. In that instant, I realized.
Everyone talked about slaying it or whatever, but it wouldn't last much longer regardless. The reason was obvious: this thick hunk of wood piercing its body.
I could feel through my fingertips just how deeply it stabbed into the heart at its torso's center, the immense pain it caused, how it was breaking down both mind and body.
It should've been instantly fatal, but thanks to vitality far beyond the norm, the beast endured in eternal torment.
Had it dragged its weary form here to this distant sea, built a nest, and huddled awaiting death?
Ironically, though, this embedded wood was also staunching the wound, prolonging its life.
Pull it out now, and it dies.
I knew it instinctively.
"What do you want?"
I asked the snake.
It was like asking whether to yank this thing—akin to deadly poison gnawing at it—hastening the end granted by fate, or drag out a thin, pained existence.
I didn't yet have the right to arbitrarily steal its life. At least, that's how I saw it.
Sss....
Then all the snake's heads lowered to the floor. The aggressive posture from moments ago was gone, replaced by an almost gentle air.
I lacked Luna's ability to converse with snakes, but I felt like I could grasp what it wanted.
"Before dying, wanted to see your mom? Giant's Forest is close to Delphi, after all."
....
It gave no answer.
Its breaths grew softer, fainter—sss, sss—that seemed answer enough.
"Got it."
In the end, I gripped the club and yanked with all my might. The giant snake bristled every scale and unleashed a thunderous scream.
Graaak-!
Whoosh-.
In that moment, one pillar-like head flew at me, smashing my body with full force. I had no choice but to get flung back out of the ship once more—but the problem came next.
Grooaaak-! Guaak-!
Far from calming now that the spike was out, the venomous dragon hydra began thrashing wildly, screaming.
Crunch, rumble-.
It soon shattered the wrecked ship it had been using as a lair and burst outside.
"Whoa, you actually dragged it out? Nice—hold on!"
As if he'd been waiting, Tritan swung his harpoon through the air. The surrounding black seawater twisted into a bizarre, gigantic hand-like shape that seized the hydra's body, suspending it in midair.
"Got it! Impressive as hell! Actually luring the monster snake out! And it's in agony! What the fuck did you do!?"
But the hydra's body soon went limp within the restraints of Tritan's eerie wave grasp.
Its heads drooped toward the floor like waterlogged roots, exhaling what could only be their final, heavy breaths.
Sss, ss, sss, ssr....