It was several hours after I proposed my plan, of smoking the men out of the temple, to the queen Hypsipyle. It took some time before the plants and leaves to produce the smoke were collected and for the smoke to fill the temple with enough contretantion, to cause the men to be forced out. The queen ordered my ship and supplies to be prepared, but I have yet to receive any information about its location. I had to give it to the queen, she was clever and would not let me know where my reward was located until it was confirmed that my plan worked. Although I suspected the ship had been ready for at least an hour, given that one of the queen's maids informed her about something at that time.
My primary motivation to leave this island as soon as possible was the risk of my illusion being disabled by some accident. Which statistically was ever so more probable, with every passed minute. But so far the island inhabitants were keeping their distance, whether it was due to their respect for my presumed status as a messenger of a goddess or actively avoiding them was noticed and taken into account of my comfort.
The island inhabitants seemed to be quite nice and respectful people. But even then the frustration from the long process of filling the whole temple with smoke was starting to become visible on their faces. In the worst-case scenario, should they become too impatient and decide to do something unreasonable to my person, I would be forced to enact a fighting retreat. Which was not optimal, because that would mean revealing my real body while using protective film formulae, as I had no intention of risking an injury. In that case, I would have to take any ship available to leave the island, should I not be able to locate the boat that has been prepared for me.
But not everyone looked so tense. Observing the temple from a distance, the guards surrounding it and the people who were burning the leaves and grasses to produce smoke, seemed to be rather joyful. I suppose they were more excited for the hedonism to engulf this whole island. Hopefully, at that time I would be long gone from this place.
As it seemed, it would be not too long before I would be able to leave this island. The temple of Athena was stirring up to life and noises of activity were heard from inside by the guards. This information was relayed to the queen by a runner. The Queen Hypsipyle smiled and invited me to tag along to observe the final results of my plan. While I would much rather collect my reward now, this was not an invitation I could refuse, as the queen was the one with the knowledge of the boat's location. I would have to pay special attention not to dispel my illusionary human body while joining the ever-growing crowd of the women, that was amassing in front of the temple of Athena.
Given the presence of the queen of this island next to me, I was given enough empty space to fit my invisible spider body, without the risk of anyone accidentally colliding with it. Needless to say, the sooner men left the temple the better for me, keeping constant vigilance about my surroundings, for the past several hours, was becoming tiring.
"Herc, NO!" a loud woman's shout could be heard through the temple's thick walls.
The woman's voice was unexpected because according to the collected information, there should be no women inside of the temple. Maybe one of the men had a higher-pitched voice, that it could pass for that of a woman? Nevertheless, it was clear that the doors to the temple would be soon opening, if metallic hit noises were any indication of the temple doors being manipulated.
Except that was not the case. Instead of the doors being opened, they exploded outwards of the temple, destroying several of the columns. This killed a great number of guards and bystanders. Which resulted in mass panic and the amassed crowd started to disperse in all possible ways. This caused my illusion to be dispelled when one of the running women hit my spider rear. Which seemed to go almost unnoticed among the panicking mob. The few that noticed a monster among them, were pushed along with the rest of the crowd or were trampled over. The queen did not seem to notice my monstrous appearance though, as she was staring in shock at the now-destroyed temple entrance.
And there among the crowd, just outside of the temple, where no pillar blocks hit anyone, she stood. I recognized her. That woman! That was the god-pretender Athena that turned me into a half-monster. I had an opportunity to kill her. But giving it to my anger would be greatly unreasonable. I had not prepared to fight her and had no actual advantage over her, lest I wanted to waste numerous human resources and hit her through the crowd of civies.
No, the better solution would be to run away, prepare and then fight her on my own ground. Since my illusuion was already dispelled I activated enhancing formulae. Feeling adrenaline coursing through me, I looked for a way to escape, as much unnoticed as possible.
"Athena!" shouted the queen full of anger.
Before I could enact the escape, the human emotions ruined my plans once again. Queen Hypsipyle's anger and subsequential shout, alerted the god-pretender of my position since the queen was standing right next to me. And Athena looked my way, and thanks to my enhanced senses I noticed the look of recognition on her face. Now she knew I was here, that I was still alive and given the fact that I was able to hurt her the last time, she would certainly see me as a problem. Which could to her pursuing me relentlessly, just to preserve her god-pretender status. This was why, I would be forced to deal with her. Or at least deal enough damage to her to make her retreat.
Reaching for my magnifying glass, I redied the optical formulae and took aim at the god-pretender. But she must have anticipated my attack and raised her shield, just in a moment the optical beam was about to hit her. Sadly for her, no mere shied would be able to withstand the power of enhanced optical formulae, I polished over the centuries. Except it was me who was surprised, the beam just bounced off of her shield like it was a mirror and hit the temple, cutting a hole through its roof.
This was not good, as long as she was able to protect herself with that shield, my only confirmed means to hurt her, was useless. The only way to get through her defenses was to outmaneuver her and get a shot at her blind spot. I could not propel myself any sooner, because the moment I left my spot her spear hit the ground. The queen screamed in pain, which meant that she must have become collateral. Truly, no respect for civilians from the self-proclaimed goddess.
I fired another optical formula, this time smaller, as I wanted to judge Athena's reaction time. It was also parried, and as a result, several trees were burned. This had the potential to spread and cause a lot of damage. But neither I nor Athena had time for idle thoughts, as in that moment, with the thundering shout, something leaped out of the temple right at the god-pretender. It was a giant of a man, with hulking muscles hammering down right at the goddess. She was forced to block him with her shield, proving her reaction speed to be highly inhuman.
Sadly for her and the giant, this gave me an opportunity to strike. I spun an optical formula, with a high yield and radius, firing it at the two. The god-pretender was too busy with her other adversary, to even notice it until it was too late. The optical formulae struck her clean through the chest as it did most likely the same to the muscle giant. It could not be visually confirmed. I had to stop myself from celebrating prematurely because I certainly did not expect Athnena to burst into the geyser of sparkly gold fluid, like a balloon.
With the vision obstructed, by the sparkly substance, I could not see the results of my attack. I could preemptively apply the protective film, in case something comes out of the geyser, or I could keep my mobility. This was the exact reason I regretted not having a computation orb, which would allow me to use multiple spells at the same time. Having both shield and mobility would be preferable in this situation.
The decision was made to prefer mobility over protection. This proved to be the right thing to do, because without as much notice, the muscally giant leaped directly at me, without any visible injury, except a missing right hand. The optical formulae must have hit him only partially. The only reason I was able to dodge him in time was because of the adrenaline in my bloodstream. He smashed the ground with a force, that pulzived the place he hit. This proved that I took the correct action in keeping my mobility over defense. One hit of that strength could easily break my protective film.
"What a monster!" I said to myself, dodging a follow-up attack.
After several close encounters with the raging giant, it was clear to me, that he was just another raging berserker thrown my way. This one at least could not use magic. Sadly, he did not leave me any time to counterattack. I was only able to dodge, his strikes, at the very last moment before he hit me, thanks to the adrenaline enhancement. This was not ideal, as the adrenaline formulae would eventually run out, and to reapply it, I would need at least several milliseconds, which was not possible with his speed. At the speed department, he seemed to reach me even when I was using formulae to propel myself away from him.
Because of this, we were at an impasse. My options, on the matter of how to deal with him, were limited. I could try to outrun him and try to acquire some boat to leave the island, leaving the berserker behind. But with how much speed he proved to have, any lead I would gain, would be easily erased by him. Also releasing a boat and leaving the harbour is a rather precise procedure, requiring full attention. This would not be possible with a raging giant breathing on my neck. And even if I managed to set sail, he could be able to catch up with me. In that case, a naval battle would be inevitable, and the destruction of a ship could prove to be fatal this time, given my inability to properly swim.
So, the only real option was to deal with him. Either killing him outright or at least crippling him enough, so that the berserker could not follow me. But how should I do it? The only thing I could do was to dodge, and even my ability to react in time would soon be limited by a lesser amount of adrenaline, coursing through my body, enhancing my senses.
The giant struck and I sent myself up in the air, changing the direction to such an angle, that forced him to reorientate himself. Once in the air, I noticed an abandoned god-pretender's spear. It was embedded in the ground. Which meant that it must have landed with a great force. If I wanted to deal with that berserker, I needed to offset the current impasse, in my favor. With such a spear, I could gain an advantage and deal damage at range, a perfect counterattack option.
In several next dodges, I finally positioned myself in a way, in which I would be able to easily obtain the spear. I landed next to it, grabbed the spear with my right hand and tugged. But the spear was stuck in the ground too strongly. This cost me precious milliseconds in which I could dodge the charging berserker. With that he managed to get too close to me at the same moment I pulled the spear out of the ground. I heard a snapping sound, not so dissimilar to that of boiled crab legs getting cracked open at the moment I propelled myself away from the giant of muscles.
Once I landed again, I was greatly unbalanced, but seeing the broken terrain, with a lot of debris from the ruined temple of Athena, I was not surprised. The berserker turned once again. His eyes were mad and clouded and on his face was spreading a malicious grin. In his left hand, he held something long, bent in several places and with some fluff on it. Which I recognized as one of my legs. The same leg, which was now missing from my body, causing me to become unbalanced.
Yet, the monster that ripped apart my limb, did not give me any time to contemplate the loss of one of my appendages and leaped at me even faster than before. I would prefer to apply analgetics formulae at this point, but dodging his attack took absolute priority. I propelled myself at the lower angle, thanks to my missing limb, flying barely over the berserker's head.
I could no longer play the game of chase, with him. I had to finish him as fast as possible and take proper care of my wound, lest I wanted to bleed out. Rotating in the middle of the jump, I found myself in a favorable position. The bersekr was in from of the temple's wall. Should I throw the spear fast enough I could pin him down and then finish him with maximum output optical formulae.
Aiming the spear at him, I threw it at the exact same moment he leaped. Unlike myself, he was unable to change direction mid-flight. Still, the spear struck the target only partially. But even that was enough. The muscle giant's lower left leg was now missing. He would no longer have the same propelling strength as before, and as a bonus, he was derailed from his leap trajectory. This provided me with several more milliseconds to act. And those milliseconds proved to be crucial. Pulling myself upwards, I aimed my magnifying glass at the scrambling giant and fired optical formulae at maximum output. In that instant, the berserker was terminated, erased without any trace of him left.