"You shall not pass!"
The nearby Little Medusa could no longer contain herself and immediately summoned the bronze snake armor, darting toward Scylla. Her bronze chained sword slashed and stabbed along the way, leaving ghastly gashes across the mountain of octopus flesh.
"Ahhh~!"
The female heads among the six screamed in pain and anger, their faces twisted in agony. Twelve octopus-like tentacles thrashed and swept through the air, trying to swat the pesky fly out of existence.
However, Medusa was naturally gifted with flight. Now, coupled with the assistance of the bronze snake armor, Little Medusa's agility and speed were boosted to their limits.
Facing the heavy, forceful tentacles slamming down, she evaded with ease using her superior maneuverability, repeatedly finding openings to drive her chained sword into the body of the beast.
"Die! Die!"
The cumbersome Scylla couldn't capture her quarry and could only futilely curse in rage, spraying venom and venting her frustration on the scarred earth.
But, as time passed, her reaction speed and the strength of her flailing tentacles increasingly weakened.
In contrast, Little Medusa fought more vigorously as time went on, her body bursting with a continuous flow of divine power, her essence soaring, her face seemingly filled with a sense of satiation.
In fact, Medusa fed on blood, and so did her sword.
As she continually wounded her opponent, the creature's blood and divine power also nourished Little Medusa, who wielded the chained sword.
If the battle continued at this pace, and without mistakes, Little Medusa could eventually exhaust the massive entity of Scylla to death.
However, the divine-blood kin of the sea clearly would not give her this chance.
Seeing their offensive stymied again and again, the mermaid-like Siren sisters finally had enough, straightening their bodies to sing in unison.
"Aaaaa——!"
With the soaring notes echoing over, the countless Sea Beasts on the surface immediately grew restless and vicious, once more rallying into a vast tide, sweeping toward the coastal fortress of Crete Island.
Under the crisp starlight, the Siren sisters, inciting the Sea Beasts, flashed their sharp, tiny, white teeth in a grin, looking more beastly than human.
In fact, in nature, the more beautiful and vibrant the flower, the more likely it is to be toxic.
The Siren sisters were no exception. They loved to use their delicate appearance and enchanting voices to lure passing ships, then drag sailors and crew members into the sea to drown and devour them.
Therefore, in the Sea of Okeanos, these fish-tailed Sirens, though beautiful, were not benign but rather high-intelligence deities of cruelty and terror.
Moreover, aside from their seductive singing, they excelled in controlling storms and tides. According to Circe, the Sirens were natural mages of the sea.
If the top-tier demigod Siren sisters joined forces, then the coastal defenses were bound to face a tremendous onslaught.
"Laaaaa——!"
As expected, the Siren sisters changed the pitch of their song, summoning monstrous waves of unparalleled force that rolled in with fury.
The power of this assault was even several times greater than the whirlpools raised by Charybdis!
With the towering waves advancing in layers, a powerful sense of suffocation gripped almost every Minosian heart.
"With our sincere prayers, we beseech the winged serpent that connects the sky, the earth, and the darkness, the wise queen who comprehends the intelligence bestowed by the heavens, our souls' sovereign, our city-state's protector—she is Pallas, her name Athena!"
Clearly, she had been lurking nearby, plotting for a long time.
Snakes are adept at concealing themselves and hunting, patiently waiting for the most opportune moment to deliver a fatal bite.
And as a primeval Lamia, a top-tier Demigod, she had perfected this instinct to a divine art.
Beneath the shimmering symbols, the snake woman with her body covered in golden scales, eyeballs removed from their sockets, revealed a sinister smile on her face.
But the King of Minos standing squarely in front, sensing the malicious wind behind him, also curled his lips into an even colder and more cunning smile.
"Pfft!"
Simultaneously, from within the crowd, a glint of cold light emerged, an ancient bronze sword thrusting diagonally, like a meteoric downpour, piercing directly through the Lamia's chest, nailing her firmly to the battlement.
"Ssss~!!"
Wracked with intense pain, the Lamia screamed and curled up, her face, bathed in tears, looking pitiful and evoking sympathy.
However, the hand gripping the sword's hilt didn't pause for even a moment, stirring viciously, shattering the beating heart within her chest into pieces.
"Pfft!!"
Suddenly, with a huge hole burst open in her chest, the Lamia with golden scales ceased her struggle, and her lifeless body slid down limply.
And at the moment Luo En and King Minos made eye contact, confirming the target was devoid of life, they both visibly relaxed, as if a great weight had been lifted.
At last, the sixth top-tier Demigod was dealt with!
Indeed, from the moment the tide of beasts started to gather for the landing, the two most astute among them had sensed that the swarm wasn't led by five top-tier Demigods, but six!
And that one of them had been lying in wait the whole time, biding her time to strike.
But, beasts are after all just beasts.
Long spells of slaughter and their wild magic nature had made them forget that humans were the most cunning and deceitful species in the world, the most cooperative, and the most skilled at hunting.
Thus, aside from a few stealthy moves, Luo En had remained hidden among the crowd, all to wait for this top-tier sea monster Demigoddess to fully expose herself, and then, in tandem with King Minos as the bait, to jointly remove her and sever one of the enemy's limbs.
From the outcome, they had succeeded.
Now that all the command centers controlling the Sea Beasts were exposed, then...
King Minos and Luo En exchanged a nod of understanding, and thereafter the old man abandoned his passive defense, raising his golden scepter high, pointing toward the dense, unending tide of beasts, chanting solemnly.
"Undying through tribulation, reborn from fire!"
The old man took a deep breath and unveiled his final trump card, bellowing resolutely.
"In the name of the King of Crete, I command you to rise—Bronze Giant, Talos!"
"Boom, boom, boom, boom!"
Accompanied by the crisp sound of snapping chains, a violent rumbling and trembling rose from beneath Crete Island.
To the astonishment of both friend and foe, a hundred-meter-tall metallic giant, composed of rock as flesh and bronze as skin, emerged from the earth like a descending titan, towering over the land!