Chapter 331: Chapter 331 (1/2)

Act 10

Swhoosh, whoosh—

Pah, pah-ahk—

Hercules’s tightly wound nerve caught numerous noises coming from his surroundings.

Then, suddenly, a sound came from behind him, but he couldn’t turn around to take a look because Su-hyeun’s figure was still visible in front of him, albeit only as a faint silhouette.

“Which one is real?” he asked inwardly.

Whoosh—

He felt the sensation of an oncoming knife.

Claaang—!

Hercules urgently swung his club to deflect the incoming blade.

Slice—

A thin but long line of blood was left behind on his arm. Hercules frowned and quickly took several steps back.

But right at that very moment…

“Wrap him up and strike down…”

Shu-wuwuwu—

Pure-white clouds that had gathered in the surroundings suddenly wrapped around Hercules’s body.

“Dammit! Again…?” Hercules inwardly cursed.

“Somersault cloud.”

Kwa-jajajajajak—!

Lightning flooded the surroundings, which paralyzed Hercules on the spot. Clouds were everywhere, and that meant he had no place to evade this attack.

Swiiiiish—

Clang—!

Hercules hurriedly defended against the sword strike that was flying in from somewhere.

Ache—

Not only the power contained in the strike itself was rather concerning, but Hercules’s body had also been paralyzed, so he couldn’t assume the correct defensive postures at all.

Despite his original intention of deflecting the sword strike, in the end, he was forced back by his opponent’s strength and had to take a couple of steps back. Unsurprisingly, Hercules’s eyes opened wider from the sheer shock of it all.

“I was forced back?”

If he was in a normal state, something like this wouldn’t have happened. However, regardless of whether he wanted to make excuses about this or that, it was still the first time that he had been pushed back by his opponent’s strength.

It was an unfamiliar first-time experience indeed.

Grit—

“Dammit…”

Griiip—

Hercules, who barely managed to defend against Su-hyeun’s sword strike, roused up the last vestiges of his strength.

“Dammit—!”

Fwhooooosh—

It was a true mystery just where he could summon so much strength like this. Even as the end neared, Hercules forgot about his paralyzed body and took the heaviest, strongest swing he had performed so far with his club.

But at that moment…

Crumble—

The very instant his club collided against Su-hyeun’s sword, the weapon he had been using almost half of his entire life shattered into bits, and its resulting debris scattered in every direction.

The club with many cracks running through it had broken apart due to the sudden explosion of Hercules’s strength at the final moment.

“Didn’t I say it? I always fight in the surest way to win.”

Rumble—

Piiit, pi-pi-pi-pi-piiit—

Su-hyeun wielded his sword, and wounds accumulated rapidly on Hercules’s body.

Thanks to Hercules’s ridiculously tough body and the excellent defense afforded by the lion’s hide, none of the sword wounds were deep enough to be grievous, but the situation was similar to how light drizzle would eventually soak your clothes inside out.

Hercules’s body was already full of small injuries by then.

Thud—

Pant, pant—

He fell on one knee.

He tried so hard to not falter, but he no longer had any stamina left to stay upright.

Even if that wasn’t the case, his whole body was paralyzed, and just moving one of his fingers proved to be immensely difficult. His other knee was also precariously faltering and barely holding up.

More than anything, though, he had lost too much blood.

“Did you think you could win as long as you got close to me?” Su-hyeun asked, which only caused Hercules to grit his teeth.

That was indeed true. Hercules mistakenly believed that to be the case after fighting against Su-hyeun who repeatedly distanced himself and threw spears from out of his reach while also relying on other means to keep him at bay.

As long as the distance between them would close, then Hercules believed that he could easily subdue Su-hyeun.

But that wasn’t it.

“The reason why he kept creating distance wasn’t that he was weak in a close-quarter battle, but because I’m weak in the long-distance battle, wasn’t it?” he realized.

Without a doubt, he had never encountered an opponent as adept as Su-hyeun at unleashing long-distance attacks until now.

Magicians with so-so abilities were never much of a challenge to Hercules anyway, and as for the Giants, most of the time, they favored fighting in an old-fashioned way, relying on physical strength alone.

Because of these factors, Hercules didn’t know how to respond to the type of battle where spears kept flying in from a distance and his stamina was constantly being shaved away.

“No, even if that’s all true…”

Tremble, tremble—

Hercules looked down at his palms that were currently trembling nonstop from the impact forces.

“What is the meaning of this?”

He just couldn’t accept it.

With time, Su-hyeun gradually got better at handling his powers.

No matter how exhausted Hercules was and how paralyzed he was from the lightning, it was still no ordinary feat to be able to push him back with sheer strength alone, especially so when his opponent was still so young. Also, to think he had already acquired the godhood of strength, fire, and even cloud.

On top of that, he seemed to be far more proficient at handling the godhood of cloud than the godhood of fire. From the way he used the clouds to defend himself to using them to occupy and control the surrounding space, everything seemed really natural to him.

Step, step—

“Are you feeling exhausted now?” Su-hyeun asked as he walking closer to him. He wiped away the sweat trickling down his forehead.

The battle might have unfolded as he planned, but that didn’t mean it was easy.

He had to repeatedly do the same thing without making a single mistake, and in the process, he had to expend a lot of magical energy as well. Therefore, it was unsurprising he felt tired himself.

Of course, there was no doubt that it was still the surest method.

“Well then, can we have an earnest conversation now?”

“Conversation?”

“Yes. Let’s talk.”

“Weren’t you trying to kill me?”

“If that had been my aim, I wouldn’t have taken such a roundabout way,” Su-hyeun replied as if to say, what kind of dumb things are you saying? “Get a hold of yourself and think. Think about what you were trying to do.”

“I—I only wished to get stronger…”

For a brief moment there, Hercules’s atmosphere changed. His eyes which were filled with dense killing intent suddenly showed signs of confusion.