Chapter 165: The Calydonian Boar Hunt (7)
At the cost of sacrifices from Ancaeus, Caeneus, and others, they successfully stripped away the divine beast’s armor as planned.
Having fought the beast while its most powerful means were sealed, they suffered catastrophic damage the moment the final layer was removed—damage that made continuing the battle effectively impossible.
Limbs flying off was the bare minimum; many had holes the size of the boar’s tusks punched through their abdomens. Without immediate treatment, countless would die soon.
“Jason, Theseus—now!”
But as the overall commander, Meleager clearly understood what took priority over tending to the wounded right now.
“Okay. Leave it to me.”
“Hm. We’ll draw its attention as much as possible.”
***
She was not yet tired, and above all, her true power remained completely undiminished.
The situation had simply reached the point where she needed to invest a little more time and effort.
The boar felt slightly overwhelmed by the humans’ tenacity, but it still hadn’t lost its composure as it watched the two charging toward it.
Even though its armor had been stripped away, it didn’t believe those two could pierce its hide.
Above all, it still brimmed with power.
Unlike before, the boar now fully unleashed its strength. Blue flames ignited across its massive body, and its tusks grew even longer—looking almost like thick lances attached to its face.
With speed incomparable to earlier, it charged straight at the leading Jason.
“Uwaaah! You’ve still got more tricks up your sleeve? That’s cheating!”
Jason hurriedly dodged. Though he complained dramatically, his reflexes were the sharpest among the heroes—he had reached the level of a master in evasion.
However…
The boar was no longer limited to charging straight forward.
As Jason rolled sideways to avoid it, blue flames erupted from the boar’s entire body, gathering and blasting toward the opposite side of his dodge. With the momentum of its charge intact, it slammed straight into him.
Boom!
“Gahk!!!”
Caught completely off guard by the divine beast’s unexpected reaction, Jason was sent flying by its tusk.
“Jason!”
“Urk… gah!”
Fortunately, as someone who had reached the rank of Archon (leader/ruler), Jason instinctively raised mana to block part of the damage.
Still, moving was difficult—he was vomiting blood.
At the same time, the divine beast began charging again.
Theseus hurriedly shifted from containment to offense, but it wasn’t nearly enough to stop the boar’s momentum.
“Damn it—Jason!!”
Just as the boar’s massive tusks were about to crush him—
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three arrows flew from somewhere and pushed the boar back. Though they didn’t pierce the hide, they forced the beast to stagger.
A barrage of arrows rained down on the divine beast in rapid succession.
—Tch! Looks like the humans prepared quite thoroughly.
The attacks weren’t strong enough to penetrate the hide, but they were irritating enough to prevent the boar from easily closing in on Jason.
They were at least powerful enough to hinder its legs.
In that brief opening, Theseus rushed to the fallen Jason, swiftly hoisted him onto his back.
“Atalanta—thank you! I need to get Jason to the rear first. Can you buy us some time?”
“Yeah, leave it to me.”
“I’ll be back soon!”
Theseus carried Jason toward the back, taking advantage of the time Atalanta had bought.
If it had been any other hero, Theseus would have stayed to hold the line himself—but he trusted Atalanta completely.
Among all these heroes, she was the only woman, the only hunter, and the only one who had reached the rank of Archon.
***
Meleager had believed the trial was essentially over once Ancaeus and the others successfully stripped the outer armor using attribute-infused mana, and Caeneus forcibly tore away the mana-pollution layer with raw strength.
They had preserved their maximum combat power capable of channeling attributes into mana.
Among warriors, those who had built their own personal “image” and could wield part of it could cut or pierce anything.
Moreover, they had neutralized the beast’s only real weakness—the mana-pollution technique.
He had thought the hunt was nearing its end…
“To think it still had this much strength left. So it’s finally getting serious? Truly a divine beast.”
Meleager coldly assessed the battlefield even as Jason was struck down.
Rather than worrying for his friend, he focused on the divine beast now fighting Atalanta on equal footing in terms of mobility. He couldn’t tell what else it might be hiding.
Above all, if he had stepped in to save Jason himself, the beast would have immediately recognized the true nature of the weapon he carried.
“As Artemis’s divine beast, it would surely recognize this spear.”
Moreover, in Meleager’s eyes, the mana-pollution technique still lingered inside the beast’s body.
They had destroyed the armor, but the power itself remained.
It was fortunate that Atalanta was handling it alone—for now. If anyone else tried to assist, they would already be vomiting blood and collapsing.
“And to ask me to make that kind of magic permanently sustain itself on a divine beast… no matter how you look at it, Artemis’s greed rivals that of goblins.”
“Lord Njord, are goblins really that greedy? I’ve never heard that before.”
“Yes, Callisto might not know this, but goblins love gold. They didn’t create and maintain those banks for no reason. Guess who they’re doing it all for.”
“Indeed…”
Artemis felt her blood pressure spike so high she might collapse, watching Njord casually badmouth her in front of her own attendant—while Callisto not only didn’t refute it but simply asked more questions out of pure curiosity.
‘So this is what humans call high blood pressure…’
Still, even in her irritation, she knew her own request had been unreasonable.
The mana-pollution technique was, to her knowledge, a direct counter to warriors who had awakened mana attributes—and one of the rare phenomenon-grade magics that wasn’t easily encountered.
Phenomenon-grade magic usually wielded power akin to a small world, capable of twisting the very concepts of reality. Yet this one could be used by anyone—regardless of realm—purely through effort, without needing to establish an image.
Of course, it was disgustingly difficult and felt like taking the long way around compared to an image-based approach.
Looking at the principle alone, mana-pollution was a sorcery-based magic—one of the many systems developed by Goddess Hecate.
Hecate, the progenitor of magic alongside Nyx, had created countless methods under the umbrella of “magic.”
Among them, sorcery was something only a very select few—gods and exceptional mortals—could wield.
So to reinterpret and formulate incantations that allowed anyone to use something so exclusive… that was nothing short of agony.
‘Yes… I was the one who asked for such a spell. I suppose I should forgive this level of rudeness. Just endure it… endure.’
“—That’s what Lady Artemis, who doesn’t understand even a single line of our magic, is probably thinking right now. Callisto, you should know this too. The biggest problem with this spell isn’t that it’s sorcery. It’s the cost and the mana required.”
“Huh? What do you mean? I thought the difficulty came from it being sorcery.”
“Hoho, that’s the biggest misconception. According to Hecate, the problem isn’t the sorcery aspect—it’s the principle itself.”
“What does that mean??”
“Here, let me explain.”
The mana-pollution technique—despite being called phenomenon-grade—was actually extremely simple in principle.
Warriors who reached the realm of “image” (or attribute mana) could imbue their mana with their personal image.
The creator of mana-pollution had a very straightforward idea: when an image was already established, forcibly introducing an opposing image or concept would be tantamount to death. For centuries, warriors had died trying to force multiple images into themselves in hopes of using varied attributes like mages.
So the creator thought: if an attribute or concept that directly opposes the established image is injected into the body, it would either kill them outright or neutralize them completely if two or more images clashed.
Moreover, unlike mages, warriors’ mana constantly circulated between inside and outside, outside and inside.
“Now, here’s the key question: what exactly does ‘opposing’ mean in this context?”
“Uh… normally attributes refer to images… so opposing the image? But that doesn’t make sense. How can someone else negate an image you’ve built yourself?”
“Exactly. Good question. And here’s why this magic is so brutally difficult and rarely used. Imagine mixing Athena’s image with Ares’s. What happens?”
“Uh… probably Ares dies?”
At Callisto’s cautious answer, just as Njord was about to elaborate, Lady Artemis interjected.
“Yes, one of them would die. Either Ares or big sister Athena. Their concepts of war are completely different. Even though both are gods of war, what they pursue is fundamentally opposed.”
Artemis—secretly listening to Njord’s explanation to Callisto—couldn’t help but speak up.
She had known it was difficult, but the depth of the magic went far beyond what she had imagined.
“Yes, yes—the goddess understands perfectly. In short, this is a spell designed to forcibly inject something that cannot be mixed. Of course, the degraded version works on slightly different principles.”
At Njord’s explanation, both Artemis and Callisto realized that what they had known about mana-pollution was merely the tip of the iceberg.
And once again, they looked at this insolent mage in a new light.
If what he said was true, the true mana-pollution technique was a spell capable of working even against gods—or beings on their level.
“Well… most humans only know and use the degraded version anyway. In any case, the conclusion is that Lady Artemis made me suffer like hell.”
Even so, they could only shake their heads at his cheeky words.
‘If only that mouth of his could be fixed…’
‘If only he’d watch that mouth of his, he’d be such a good person…’
***
While Atalanta and Theseus—who had carried Jason to the rear—fought the boar now afflicted with the degraded mana-pollution spell Njord had personally applied, Theseus was feeling it in real time.
This spell, which wasn’t even easy to spectate, was far more troublesome and dangerous than expected.
“How can something like this even exist…? Even for Lady Artemis, to use such magic…”
Naturally, Meleager—who was feeling all of this in real time—sighed inwardly as he thought of Lady Artemis.
If Poseidon—who had just enthusiastically explained everything to Artemis and Callisto—had heard that, he would have given a big thumbs-up in delight.
—Meleager, at this rate there’s no end in sight. Because of this damned magic, Theseus can only coat his weapon in mana right now.
“…Atalanta, is there absolutely no way to break the magic itself?”
—Impossible. We thought we’d easily dealt with it by breaking the mana-pollution armor, but fighting up close made it clear. This spell can only be overcome by someone who has surpassed attribute mana and reached conceptualization. With our current strength, it’s impossible. One wrong move and our images could collapse.
“If your judgment is correct, then we truly have no way forward right now.”
—Exactly. At least your weapon should be fine, but even if Theseus and I attack together in a hit-and-run style, we can’t inflict a meaningful wound. You know that too—without attribute mana, we can’t even scratch that hide. And the moment we both try to attack at once, the pollution immediately surges up.
Hearing Atalanta’s report, Meleager thought:
If that’s the case…
“Atalanta, then is it possible to completely reverse the plan?”
—…It might be possible, but if it fails, you’ll at least be crippled?
“Good. If there’s even a chance, it’s worth trying. Ask Theseus as well, and let me know if it’s feasible.”
—Haa… Understood. You’re the leader right now, after all.
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