Commander Eili and the rest of the soldiers turned pale when they saw the enormous Nine-Headed Hydra. A powerful fifth stage monster from legends. Just a fourth stage could already give them a helpless feeling and now... A FIFTH STAGE HAD APPEARED!!!
Feeling the high intensity coming from that monster made their knees collapse. Their strong will was slowly crumbling. With the power of Nine-Headed Hydra, their numbers were useless in front of it. At the very least, to confront a fifth stage monster they should be at the level where they broke the first great shackle of a mortal's body, the fourth shackle.
Four Shackles Realm.
That level of power was the minimum requirement to become a Grain Leader in Athen's Champion. In Giza's terms, it is the starting point of SSS-rank.
In this rank, the fourth, fifth, and sixth shackles belong to this level. The Adventurer's Guild grouped these three shackles as SSS-rank.
That's the bare minimum level which requires in confronting a fifth stage monster. Yet, Commander Eili and the soldiers haven't even broken one shackle. They haven't even reached the path of mortal shredding so how could they fight the Nine-Headed Hydra?
There's no doubt that they would die here.
Commander Eili already resolved himself. He glanced at Eztein and was slightly confused.
"What's the matter, Sir Eztein? The battle had stopped ever since the Nine-Headed Hydra appeared. I'm afraid that Sir..." Commander Eili didn't finish his sentence as he lowered his head.
"Souta is still alive," Eztein said plainly.
"Huh?" Commander Eili lifted his head, extremely confused. He stared at the approaching Nine-Headed Hydra. He shook his head and left. He would help his subordinates first.
Eztein, Yuko, and Yenxa could feel that Souta was alive. They were bound by parasites so they knew that the queen hasn't changed its host. It was still inside Souta's body.
Soon, the Nine-Headed Hydra arrived at the fortress. The steel walls that protected them for several years couldn't even be compared to the size of this gigantic hydra. The soldiers on the other side couldn't even lift their fingers. They felt that they would die from suffocation.
They didn't even notice that there was a figure standing at one of the heads of the hydra. The figure jumped and landed on top of the wall, surprising everyone.
It's Souta.
His appearance shocked everyone including Eztein, Yuko, and Yenxa. Although Eztein knew that Souta was still alive, he didn't expect that Souta was with the Nine-Headed Hydra. This throughly surprised him.
Seeing the state of the soldiers, Souta eyed Kessa. Kessa tilted her nine heads in confusion. She didn't know what he wanted her to do.
"Revert back to your snake form. Also, suppress the best feram in your body. I don't want you to accidentally kill everyone here." Souta spoke using monster language.
Kessa nodded and with a puffed of thick smoke, she turned into a small snake that coiled around Souta's arm affectionately. She loves the feeling around him, it gives her a feeling of calmness that helped her control her emotion.
The [Serpent Dominance] was a better ability than he imagined.
"S-Souta..." Eztein looked at the snake in Souta's arm with wide eyes.
Yuko and Yenxa curiously observed this small snake who was in fact a powerful fifth stage monster. Although Kessa tried to conceal her energy, it was still enough as her body was giving off an invisible pressure. Anyone who looked at her would feel that she was abnormally strong.
"I know what you wanted to ask but I'll explain it later," Souta said to Eztein while patting the snake coiled around his left arm.
Eztein nodded but he still stared at the snake. This monster was on the same level as the overlord of Monster Dungeon back in his world. A fifth stage that could rule an entire race of monsters. If not for that monster not bothering itself with worldly affairs, Eztein knew that the whole world would fall into its hand.
Back then, he didn't think about the strength of a fifth stage but after arriving at Imperium, it was then that he realized the overwhelming power that the fifth stage possessed.
If this snake joined the Astros... Does this mean that they will have the strength to contest for a high-world governorship? As for low-world and mid-world, they already have enough strength after Doranjan reached fourth stage back then.
Footsteps sounded and Souta turned his head. It was only Commander Eili who rushed here after seeing the hydra's transformation. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead as he stared at the docile snake on Souta's arm. It looked harmless like this but he knew how powerful this seemingly harmless snake was.
"Don't worry, everything's fine. Kessa will not harm anyone here." Souta said to Commander Eili. He was exhausted after an intense battle with Gerxuzs so Siuta didn't have a time to explain everything. He just wanted to rest for now.
After saying that he subdued the Nine-Headed Hydra, he left without explaining much. He went back to his tent and lay down flatly. His muscles relax as he spat a mouthful of blood.
"Ah~ I want to sleep..."
Souta spoke thinly. This mission was much worse than he imagined. He never expected that he would meet the famous Gerxuzs here out of all places.
He suffered a defeat this time.
In any case, based on my current level I'm only an intermediate fourth stage I'm still far from reaching peak fourth stage. Souta closed his eyes as he recalled the battle. There was still a difference between him and Gerxuzs.
He was an intermediate fourth stage while the other one was undoubtedly one of the strongest peak fourth stage.
If both of them were at intermediate level, Souta was confident that he could dominate the battle.
He was still unrivaled at the same level.
After a while, Souta sat up. He noticed that Kessa was asleep and she subconsciously tightened around his arm.
He gritted his teeth in pain. Kessa was still a fifth stage and her strength surpassed him. He carefully pulled her before placing her on the floor. Then he closed his eyes and began a round of energy circulation.
One day had passed quickly and Souta haven't even left his tent. He just continued to recover his strength while Eztein was handling things for him. The undead crisis was gone so everything would revert back to normal in this fortress. But it would still take a lot of time before they could regain their previous strength. After all, a lot of soldiers fell at the hands of those undead.
Commander Eili did everything that he could to satisfy Souta's group. They were the saviors of the fortress and another reason was that he was afraid of their powers. Just recalling the sight of the Nine-Headed Hydra made him shudder in fear.
Another day passed, the three kingdoms started their expedition to eliminate the remaining undead to take back the territory that they lose. Souta's fame spread throughout the entire Lerna Island. They dubbed him "Master Hydra", the warrior who subdued the legendary Nine-Headed Hydra.
This title shook Lerna Island and a lot of ordinary folks revered this title. He instantly became a legendary warrior in their eyes.
At this time, Souta's group left the fortress without notifying anyone. He went to the nearest city. The largest church here was Heracles' church. Souta wanted to visit Athena's church but he dismissed the idea. He just realized that up until now, he didn't know Athena's Oracle Chant. If he had time, he would try to learn it in the future.
Souta's group went straight to the old castle where Kessa was sealed before. When he arrived there, he found that the swamp had already regained its clarity. The affected area from his battle against the undead had dimmed down. It's regaining its previous scenery. As expected of a special environment.
'This is a first grade special environment for dead attribute... It is closely related to darkness and curse. This place will help you train a little bit of your darkness element attribute.' Saya explained.
Souta nodded. As for why he came back here... It's simple. He still hasn't harvested the things in this place. He left Kessa here before for her to recover so that when he returned to pick her up, he would harvest the resources here.
This swamp was a special environment and was sealed for several decades. There were a bunch of rare herbs and fruits here.
Souta asked Eztein and the rest to gather all the resources. A bunch of herbs and fruits which could bring them benefits were gathered in just half an hour. Most of the resources here were uncommon and rare. There were only two super rare but it was enough for him. Souta was satisfied with this gain. These would improve the might of Astros even by a small level.
Astros shouldn't just rely on him in terms of strength. Everyone should grow stronger so when someone attacked while Souta doing mission, the Astros could protect itself even without him.
