Poltus's tragic death was truly shocking.
"These Dragon Tooth Soldiers... how on earth are we supposed to deal with them?" Before Jason could even speak, Telamon burst out in loud complaint.
"Sure, any one of them alone we could take down with a bit of effort, but now there are a full hundred of them!"
"You're right," Meleager added gravely.
"Against one Dragon Tooth Soldier, I could end it in seconds; against ten, I could divide and conquer. But facing a hundred? That's genuinely tough..."
"Does this mean... we have no choice but to pile up lives to complete this trial?" Jason rasped out a harsh truth he dreaded facing, his voice hoarse with reluctance.
"Perhaps... that's the way it is." Orpheus stood nearby, his heart as still as dead water.
The successive deaths of his comrades over these past days had deepened the already melancholic bard's despair.
In truth, these Dragon Tooth Soldiers, while powerful originally, hadn't been this formidable.
Though summoned from genuine dragon teeth, such soldiers typically possessed only basic judgment and a warrior's instincts.
Their strength could compare to the heroes without being utterly crushed, and they wielded weapons with expert proficiency, but where would they get formations from?
Where would the team coordination come in?
All of this stemmed from Alaric's enhancements layered atop the original Dragon Tooth Soldiers.
Through enlightenment spells, the Dragon Tooth Soldiers were granted sufficient intelligence, and their memories were infused with team coordination skills beyond mere weapon handling.
More crucially, via psychic links, the Dragon Tooth Soldiers were actually directed by a commander behind the scenes.
That commander was none other than Cho Chang, concealed beneath her cloak and hood, watching the battle from the sidelines.
Among Mystra Academy's oversight committee, only she and Ginny Weasley had ever commanded... Quidditch teams, so they had some experience, at least.
With a period of intensive cramming, commanding a hundred-strong force to besiege a single foe posed no issue.
Alaric himself hadn't taken personal command; otherwise, with his abilities, Poltus might not have inflicted any casualties on the Dragon Tooth Soldiers at all.
After all, back in the World of Warcraft, he had been the Alliance's commander second only to Anduin Lothar, a figure the orcs and trolls regarded as a mortal enemy.
But if he had, the Argonaut heroes might never pass this trial, which clashed with his goals.
Cho Chang's level was just right.
And with real combat, her skills would only improve.
In other words, the next Argonaut hero to step up would face even more seamlessly coordinated Dragon Tooth Soldiers.
After a period of disheartened silence, soon enough, the next victim... no, the next brave challenger took the field.
He was Phalerus, the one and only son of Alcon, hailing from Athens like Poltus, skilled with an iron-gray war spear.
Yet, watching his resolute, tragic back as he advanced without hesitation, Alaric knew this man was likely doomed even faster than his fellow Athenian.
After all, he was a spearman... and in the Type-Moon world, spearmen had notoriously bad luck.
Sure enough, though the Dragon Tooth Soldiers now numbered only eighty-nine, for the besieged Phalerus, the difference between eighty-nine enemies and a hundred was negligible.
Moreover, their commander, Cho Chang, had gained considerable experience in mobbing a single target.
This time, she fully utilized the Dragon Tooth archers, using opportunistic shots to force Phalerus into constant evasion, while the frontline soldiers seized the moment to steadily compress his maneuvering space, ultimately cornering and slaying him.
And Phalerus's toll on the Dragon Tooth Soldiers fell short of Poltus's, only seven fell to his hand.
The ensuing scene mirrored yesterday's almost exactly.
The Argonaut heroes were trapped in a grim necessity: expending lives to whittle down the Dragon Tooth Soldiers.
Following Phalerus were Eurythion, Erybotes, and Periclymenus.
Eurythion was the son of Ilus and grandson of Actor; Erybotes was the son of Teleon and brother to Poltus; the third, Periclymenus, was the eldest son of Neleus, king of Pylos, Poseidon had once bestowed upon him boundless strength, allowing him to transform into various animals in battle.
All three were veterans of warfare, yet against the Dragon Tooth Soldiers manipulated by Cho Chang, they each met defeat and demise.
Eurythion took down eight Dragon Tooth Soldiers, Erybotes nine.
Periclymenus, with his shapeshifting ability, inflicted the heaviest damage on the Dragon Tooth Soldiers.
His powers were akin to a druid's; among the beasts he transformed into, the rhinoceros boasted the strongest defense and charging power, instantly breaching the Dragon Tooth Soldiers' defenses.
The bear balanced offense and defense, the lion combined ferocious attack with agility.
And he even shifted into an eagle at the end, leaving the ground-bound Dragon Tooth Soldiers powerless until a hail of arrows brought him down, gravely wounded, but not yet dead.
Periclymenus slew nearly twenty Dragon Tooth Soldiers, dealing a severe blow to their ranks.
Finally, with only forty-four Dragon Tooth Soldiers remaining, Atalanta took the stage.
This mighty archer was once again the decisive force.
With their numbers halved, the Dragon Tooth Soldiers' numerical advantage was no longer so overwhelming.
And Atalanta's tactics starkly differed from the other heroes'.
As an archer, aided by her innate agility and Alaric's "Boots of Swiftness," she employed kiting tactics.
Originally, against a hundred Dragon Tooth Soldiers, she wouldn't have dared attempt this.
The battle was confined to a set area; within those bounds, facing a full hundred, she'd eliminate too few before being cornered with no escape.
But now, things were different.
Forty-four Dragon Tooth Soldiers struggled to fully encircle her.
With the "Boots of Swiftness" enhancing her, Atalanta unleashed the full prowess of a legendary archer's mobile marksmanship, firing on the run, even counterattacking with poise while dodging the Dragon Tooth archers' shots.
And the Dragon Tooth Soldiers?
Faced with this distant sniper picking them off one by one, they had no choice but to abandon formation, forming squads to launch a full pursuit and encirclement.
Alas, against only forty-four, Atalanta slipped through like a nimble fish, darting effortlessly amid them, breaking their encirclements time and again while inflicting wound after wound.
Squad tactics couldn't contain her at all.
Yet the Dragon Tooth Soldiers couldn't afford to scatter further.
Otherwise, isolated soldiers stood no chance against Atalanta.
For beyond her peerless archery, Atalanta possessed formidable close-quarters skills, having even developed a potent bow-fighting technique.
Blessed by the goddess Artemis, the "Bow of the Heavens" was sturdy enough for Atalanta to wield it like a staff to bludgeon foes, or use its string to slice, strangle, and more.
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