346 Chapter 346: Clio's... training montage?
"I... I think I can do it! I can lift it! You did it, Rhys! You granted me powers!"
"...No, the ground's just getting soft."
"Oh."
Clio had been currently trying to lift a boulder the size of an entire carriage for about 3 hours now. But alas, the most she had done was dig through the dirt since she had been standing on it and shaving it little by little—her strength, still as feeble as before.
"Maybe... maybe we should try another power?" Clio stammered as she moved away from the builder; wiping the sweat under her chin as she approached Rhys—her breasts, jiggling and slightly exposed due to how thin her gown was, no. They were not just mildly exposed, they truly were.
Due to her sweat, her pink teats were already showing themselves through. And of course, she noticed this too—but it was not the time for any of that. And since Rhys was also not mentioning it and was completely focused on trying to grant her powers, she too, was not mentioning anything at all.
"What... other powers do you have?"
"This."
"W—!!!" Clio could not help but close her eyes as a blast of water splashed toward her—it was cool, and it somewhat smelled sweet but not sticky at all. In fact, it was cool and made her extremely fresh... it reminded her of the small lake where... where she and Rhys first did the deed.
"Wait..." Clio wiped her sweat off with the water, "...Could it be you created that lake?"
"I did," Rhys nodded as he raised his arm, causing a sphere of water to materialize from his hand. He then pointed his finger toward the boulder that Clio was trying to lift—only for the sphere of water to compress and then shoot out of the boulder... completely piercing a hole through it.
"W... It's stronger than an arrow!?" Clio rushed back toward the boulder, moving to the other side only to see the hole completely go through, "You... are you the son of Poseidon!?"
"...No," Rhys sighed while shaking his head, "But we should focus on trying to grant you an ability."
"Maybe... we should just go, Rhys," Clio also sighed, "I do not care if I have abilities—I will not stand on the sidelines while my people fight!"
"You will die in less than an hour," Rhys shook his head, "And it's also obvious from the soldiers of Thebes before that they're targeting you—as soon as they see you, you're dead."
"That..." Clio could really only lower her head as she heard that. She looked at the equipment that Pythia gave her—and she knew that even if they were actually enchanted, it wouldn't change if she didn't actually have the strength to wield them, "...Okay, let's go again."
"No..." Rhys shook his head, "...I think we're going about this the wrong way."
"Hm...?"
"We... we did it!" Clio then waved the large boulder around, "We—"
Unfortunately for Clio, she was not used to this kind of strength as she accidentally let go of the boulder—which flew toward Rhys.
"Ah, Rhys!"
"It's fine," Rhys, however, was able to catch the boulder in one hand with ease. The truth was, he was slightly nervous at first because he thought that they would actually get a portion of his own power—but it would seem that wasn't the case at all.
Didn't this mean that... this could potentially be his most powerful ability?
"We should run some tests first with how much you've actually gotten stronger," Rhys then carefully placed the boulder on the ground before gesturing to Clio to come close to him, "Come then...
...show me how strong you've gotten."
***
"They... they are breaching the castle!"
Calydon had no walls—and the closest thing they had to it was the barricades that they quickly set up when they heard that the Thebes actually had no plan in marrying their princess, and was instead just doing it as a guise to get something from them.
Calydon was still somewhat fortunate. After all, one of their servants, the very same one who brought Clio her horse, discovered the army that was lying in wait while on her way back to the city—she quickly reported this to the queen herself, who reported it to the King.
The King quickly ordered his soldiers to kill all the soldiers from Thebes—unfortunately for them, that meant that they did not have that much time to set up their perimeter barricade at all.
And right now, with their citizens hiding behind their homes... the soldiers of Thebes were actually already inside their city. After all, Thebes was a large polis—completely different from Calydon.
It wasn't a war from the beginning, not at all—it was a massacre–and so, right now, some of the soldiers were already in front of the castle gates, breaking it down.
"Barricade it! Cover it with—!!!"
And before the soldiers could even do anything, the doors were forced open—completely removed from its hinges and thrown away.
"C...For Glory!" The soldiers of Calydon rushed forward...
...only to stop because it was Clio who emerged from the other side of the door.