'We can't win this...'
David and Atalante stared grimly at Heracles, who was rampaging before them.
They had used every trick up their sleeves and had only managed to take two of Heracles's lives so far. Ten more remained.
And then they sadly discovered that their attacks were no longer effective against Heracles.
Neither Noble Phantasms nor any other kind of attack could affect Heracles anymore.
Even David's Noble Phantasm was the same.
Earlier, he could still use [The Five Stones] to stun Heracles. The first time, he even hard-CC'd Heracles for over a minute.
But even though his Noble Phantasm's power wasn't enough to crush Heracles to death, and Heracles didn't trigger his Noble Phantasm's resurrection...
Heracles's body still inevitably developed resistance. The second hard-CC duration shortened to about half a minute.
Later, Heracles, relying on instinct, saw through David's Noble Phantasm and used the axe-sword in his hand to shatter the stones David threw, rendering [The Five Stones] completely useless.
David had actually anticipated this point. After all, what he threw were just ordinary stones, nowhere near the hardness a proper Noble Phantasm should have. Once seen through, it was easy for an opponent to smash them before they hit.
But this flaw could hardly be called a real flaw. As long as the opponent didn't know David's abilities beforehand, it was basically a one-hit kill on the first encounter.
It was just a shame they encountered Heracles, this even greater mechanical anomaly, who not only couldn't be killed but also developed resistance to his Noble Phantasm. It was simply absurd.
"■! To attack me while Heracles was knocked out? That's just too much!"
Looking at the two Archers struggling to hold their own against a Heracles who was hitting his stride, Jason touched the blue and purple bruise on his face, his expression full of resentment.
Upon closer inspection, one could see an arrow still embedded in Jason's buttocks.
The plan to take out Jason first while Heracles was unconscious was, of course, correct.
After all, Atalante, having been on the same ship, had the intel and knew Heracles was invincible. Picking on the soft target, Jason, made perfect sense no matter how you thought about it.
But how could they have known that Jason was not only slippery but also carried the Holy Grail?
The moment Jason saw Heracles actually knocked down by a few stones, he immediately sobered up and scurried off to the side.
While running, he pulled out the Holy Grail and summoned several Shadow Servants to block the two Archers' focused fire.
Although Shadow Servants are degraded versions of Servants and cannot compete with true Servants.
Jason summoned a whole lot of them!
A large mass of pitch-black figures surrounded Jason, running around chaotically. The two Archers simply couldn't take Jason down in a short amount of time.
Even though the two hurried as fast as they could, even using their Noble Phantasms against Jason, he still managed to stall until Heracles woke up.
And so, back to square one. The two had to continue fighting Heracles.
"Why did you follow me here? Weren't you supposed to stay on the ship?"
Jason rubbed his face, grimacing and gnashing his teeth as he asked the purple-haired girl beside him.
Even though Medea had acted promptly earlier, saving his sorry hide under the combined assault of the two Archers, that didn't mean she could ignore his orders and follow him here arbitrarily!
"Because Lord Hector spotted Drake's group. They brought Euryale with them," Medea said gently, while unobtrusively moving behind Jason.
"They caught up that fast? Are they cheating?! I only ran into these two by chance thanks to nighttime sailing and luck!" Jason looked astonished, his tone full of displeasure.
He didn't suspect Medea was lying to him.
Even before coming to this island, to prevent anyone from escaping with the [Ark of the Covenant], he had sent Hector to watch the movements on the island.
He had also ordered Medea to monitor the entire island. Any entry or exit would get a response.
"I don't know. But according to the information from the familiars, they are already heading this way," Medea said with a smile, grabbing the arrow embedded in Jason's buttocks.
"Heh, just saves me the trouble of looking for them—YOWWW!!!"
Jason sneered, intending to mock them, but Medea behind him suddenly yanked hard.
The arrow in Jason's buttocks was pulled out by Medea, bringing flesh and blood with it.
Jason's whole body shuddered, and he jumped straight up, letting out a cry reminiscent of Tom the Cat.
He stood stiffly, not moving, and after quite a while finally felt a bit better. He then turned to look at the culprit.
"Hisss... Damn it, you truly are a witch! Are you trying to murder your husband?!" Jason sucked in a sharp, pained breath, cold sweat covering his forehead as he glared viciously at Medea.
"How can you say that? I just thought the arrow in your backside was an eyesore, so I lent a hand to help relieve your pain."
"Even if you were going to pull the arrow out, not like this, right?! Look at what's on the arrow in your hand!!" Jason pointed tragically at the arrow in Medea's hand, still covered in blood and flesh.
"It's just a little bit of insignificant stuff. This injury can be fixed with a healing spell!"
Medea casually tossed aside the arrow in her hand and said with a smile.
"So, shall I heal your injury for you now?" Magical light flickered on Medea's hand.
"... No need. They can't break free right now. You should first summon your Dragon Tooth Warriors and have them carry the [Ark of the Covenant] over there back, so it doesn't get snatched away again." Looking at Medea's eager expression, Jason fell silent for a moment before stating decisively.
On the other side.
The two still maneuvering under Heracles's assault.
"They're taking the [Ark of the Covenant] away. What do we do?" Seeing two Dragon Tooth Warriors already lifting the [Ark], Atalante said anxiously.
"Should we retreat for now?" As the main force against Heracles, David suggested wearily.
"'As long as the green hills remain, there'll be no shortage of firewood.' That saying is quite right. No matter how we think about it, the two of us can't stop them right now. We might as well retreat first, gather some reinforcements, and try again later."
Heracles was truly difficult to deal with. In terms of combat power, they were just Archers, not as versatile as their opponent. A direct fight was unworkable.
So they had also tried talking.
Knowing that Jason wasn't completely evil, they had tried early on to persuade him that sacrificing the goddess would only lead to the world's destruction, hoping Jason would give up on his own.
But faced with their persuasion, Jason seemed not to hear it—accurately speaking, it wasn't 'seeming,' he genuinely didn't register their persuasion at all.
They had tried reasoning with him several times, and seeing Jason act like this every time, how could they not see what was going on now?
Someone must have done something to Jason and was using him as a tool!
…