Chapter 166: The Calydonian Boar Hunt (8)
Theseus and Atalanta immediately began to move.
The difference this time was that they weren’t focused on inflicting wounds on the divine beast’s body—instead, they concentrated entirely on draining its strength as much as possible.
Atalanta’s arrows flew low, skimming the ground and slipping beneath the beast’s belly before detonating.
Boom!
The explosive force didn’t tear through the divine boar’s underbelly hide, but it managed to lift the massive creature about five dactyls (roughly 9.5–10 cm) off the ground.
For those few seconds of mid-air suspension—when its mobility was briefly lost—
Theseus charged straight at the boar.
The attribute he had honed to perfection was severance: mana that could cut through anything coated his blade.
Slash!
Although the pollution spell prevented Atalanta’s and Theseus’s attacks from synergizing, each of their individual strikes was far from negligible.
The pollution magic on the boar was only a simplified, degraded version that Poseidon had cast for permanent effect.
“Ugh! Damn, it’s tough.”
Still, Theseus—whose mastery was not yet complete—felt his mana rebound and scatter the moment it touched the boar’s hide in real time.
Even disguised as Njord, this was still Poseidon’s personally applied mana-pollution spell—and the hide belonged to a divine beast personally raised by Artemis.
Theseus didn’t cling to the fact that it wouldn’t cut.
His judgment was correct. The moment he swiftly pulled back, flames erupted from the spot where he had stood.
Mana wasn’t exclusive to them. In fact, the divine boar wielded it far more freely than they did.
“Atalanta! How much longer?!”
“Wait—I still haven’t found it! That cursed armor has almost no gaps!”
The divine beast had noticed that the two were aiming for something specific.
But it remained confident. Whatever they were planning, it wouldn’t work on her.
—Foolish brats! What do you think you can do in the name of the goddess?!
With that roar, the boar’s body rapidly expanded, and its mana began to take visible, tangible form.
What appeared before their eyes was a monster the size of a giant.
Of course, it couldn’t truly compare to an actual giant race.
But by human standards, once it started running, the ground cracked, and the shockwave uprooted nearby trees and stones—it was nothing short of a natural disaster.
Facing such an opponent head-on, Theseus tasted the flavor of death. No—if things continued like this, he would die 100 times out of 100.
‘Damn it! Just how much more mana is it going to unleash?!’
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Even dodging the charging divine beast by a hair’s breadth was enough to accumulate shock throughout his body. Just as Theseus was about to call for retreat—
“Found it! Meleager!!”
At Atalanta’s shout, someone holding an ordinary-looking black spear shot forward like an arrow.
Stab! Boom!
The moment Atalanta cried out, the boar sensed danger and twisted its body—but it was already too late. The black spear had reached its hide.
A tremendous explosion rang out.
***
The blast was so massive that the earth shook, air was blasted outward in violent winds, and a thick cloud of dust rose.
Everyone watching the sequence of events anxiously stomped their feet in nervous anticipation.
From their perspective, the black spear that had charged toward the now-gigantic divine beast looked no bigger than a toothpick or a thin twig.
All those tense, worried eyes stared fixedly into the dust cloud.
And as the dust gradually settled, what came into view was the pitch-black spear—having grown to match the boar’s size—piercing straight through its hide and out the other side.
“WAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!”
Meleager did it!!!
He overcame Lady Artemis’s trial!!!
Cheers erupted from those watching beyond the walls and nearby.
At that state, the plan was effectively a success.
In their experience, no matter how tough the vitality, a wound like that left no hope of survival. Even for a divine beast, it seemed impossible for it to do anything more.
The same thought ran through the minds of the heroes nearby.
“Did we… succeed?”
“From what I saw, it’s certain. The spear pierced through while dismantling the mana. Even now, it’s breaking down the mana from the inside and preventing regeneration.”
“Hey! You guys! Did we do it?! I brought Jason back!”
“Ugh! Stop dragging me around! Show some respect for someone who can’t even move!!”
One by one, the leaders of the hunters who had joined the Calydonian Boar Hunt alongside Meleager began to gather.
Seeing Atalanta and Theseus visibly relax, it really did seem the hunt had succeeded.
“Hey… but why is Meleager just standing there gripping the spear without moving?”
“He must be concentrating that hard. That divine beast’s regeneration wasn’t normal. He’s probably suppressing it with the spear’s power right now.”
“Yeah… then we need to hurry up and finish it off properly while Meleager’s holding it in place.”
“Right. So shut up already, Jason—you talk too much. We’ll handle it just fine. A grown man acting so fussy won’t be popular with women like me.”
“…….”
When someone finally asked about Meleager, Jason—now the target of concentrated fire—couldn’t even speak from the sheer injustice.
But the rest of the group ignored him. While Meleager held the divine beast in check, they moved in to deliver the finishing blow…
Only for a sudden ambush to strike from behind.
“Kieeeek!”
“““What—?!”””
***
Artemis is the goddess of the moon—specifically, the waxing crescent is her symbol.
Most humans have long prayed to the waxing crescent as a sign of good fortune, beginnings, and prosperity.
But a very small number who knew the hidden side of the waxing crescent described Artemis this way:
A faint but intense blessing of madness.
Jason, Theseus, Atalanta, Caeneus, and Ancaeus were now pouring all their strength into holding back heroes who had suddenly turned into something like zombies.
Fortunately, those attacking them were all either heavily wounded or already exhausted.
“Damn it, why are these guys suddenly acting like this?!”
“How would we know? But it looks like they’re trying to kill Meleager.”
“Caeneus is right. They’re attacking us too, but Meleager seems to be their main target.”
“Ugh! Then wake Meleager up quickly!! Get him out of here!!!”
“Jason, if we could do that, we would’ve done it already. Didn’t you hear what that ancestral spear Meleager brought really is?”
“…Ugh, I was dozing off at the time.”
“Crazy bastard.”
The people rushing in like a horde of zombies showed no sign of pain even as wounds tore open and worsened on their bodies. They charged relentlessly with only one objective in mind.
Even when Theseus and Jason beat them down, they kept twitching and moving.
“We can still suppress them for now, but soon we might have to kill them. We’re all still feeling the aftereffects of the battle ourselves.”
Thud! Boom!
At Theseus’s cold words as he calmly struck and restrained his comrades, the others around him stayed silent.
They all felt the same way.
Unless Meleager woke up soon, they couldn’t even flee.
“In that case… we’ll just have to pray Meleager finishes off the boar on his own.”
***
So what exactly was Meleager doing while unconscious?
Contrary to what the heroes assumed, he wasn’t enduring inside to ensure the boar’s death. Instead, he was locked in combat within his image space, desperately fighting to avoid being devoured by the spear.
“Ugh! How did our ancestor ever subdue something like this?!!”
The pitch-black spear before him flew freely, darting in like an acrobat and wounding him repeatedly.
Even for Meleager—a hero candidate personally watched over by Poseidon and Artemis—resisting this ancestral spear was an overwhelming task.
He had no experience fighting such a bizarre weapon.
The moment it grazed him, mana disintegrated; any place it pierced became contaminated by the spear’s power, rendering mana unusable.
Clang!
Gripping his sword, Meleager deflected the incoming spear once, but before he could catch his breath, it flew at him again.
Hup!
With barely a breath’s difference, the spear tore into his skin.
The moment the wound appeared, black spots began to form and spread slowly across it.
Seeing this, Meleager immediately cut away the affected area with his blade.
“Grrrrrgh!!!”
The pain of slicing off his own flesh with a knife felt vivid even though it was happening within his mental space.
Haa… haa… haa…
Dodging and blocking the relentless spear while enduring the pain, Meleager gradually began to tire until his vision blurred. Yet even so, he could never give up.
For Calydon’s sake—for his mother, his father, and his younger sisters—he wanted to survive and show them the figure of a true hero.
So he had to escape this image space no matter what.
“Haa… Come… I will definitely subdue you.”
***
While Meleager fought desperately in his inner world, a gruesome battle was unfolding outside.
The people who had been ensnared by something were now rampaging without restraint.
Some charged forward even as blood gushed from their stomachs; others swung swords without feeling their torn-off arms; still others let their mana circuits rupture while going berserk.
And watching this horrific scene, Lady Artemis wore a bright, radiant smile.
As if everything was unfolding exactly as she had envisioned.
“Hohoho… Did you see? The ones who finally managed to hunt my beloved divine beast are so pathetic. Even after I personally granted them power.”
Njord sighed as he watched Artemis smile seductively and sinisterly, like Aphrodite when she was hunting a man she fancied.
He had expected some of Hecate’s madness to appear in her from time to time—since she was the goddess of the waxing crescent moon, after all.
“This is terrifying in a completely different way. Especially since what’s happening down there isn’t a curse—it’s a blessing. From the humans’ perspective, that makes it even more horrifying.”
“Hohoho. Anyway, you didn’t care much about them either, did you, Njord? You said you were only watching Meleager to judge him.”
“That’s true… but you know it too. Things aren’t going to end with just this. There are those who are pretending not to be devoured by the blessing, waiting for their chance.”
Njord frowned and looked toward Meleager’s uncles—Toxeus and Plexippus.
In his opinion, if this entire ordeal ended in tragedy, those two would claim the largest share of the blame.
“Indeed. That’s exactly why it’s so enjoyable. The longer they carry my blessing, the more effective it becomes.”
Artemis gazed at Toxeus and Plexippus with a bright, expectant expression.
As if anticipating something…
***
“Haa… Is it finally starting to tire?”
“Don’t let your guard down, Jason. There are still some twitching.”
“Hey! Theseus, Jason—stop messing around over there and come cut their tendons! We don’t know when they’ll flare up again.”
The heroes who had blocked the zombie-like crowd trying to reach Meleager were now methodically severing the tendons of the rampaging victims to end the fight.
Some might call it cruel, but they had no other choice.
Suppressing them was manageable, but actually subduing them without killing was almost impossible.
Above all…
“Thank you, Mage. I never imagined someone of your caliber was in Calydon.”
“Haha, no need to praise me so much. If anything, I’m the lucky one getting to see the rumored female hunter Atalanta in person.”
“Sigh… That’s not true. More importantly, you’re much older than me, yet you look like a boy. That’s impressive.”
“Well, everyone’s shocked when they hear my age. I reached my realm when I was quite young, so this is the result. Honestly, it’s not that big a deal.”
“No, reaching such a high realm at a young age is precisely what makes it worthy of respect. More importantly—please speak comfortably. You’re far above me in both realm and age.”
“Oh? Should I? Honestly, it’s been a bit uncomfortable. Since I’m old and at a high realm, I rarely ever use polite speech with anyone.”
The sudden appearance of this mage allowed them to make such a bold decision so quickly.
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