The Greece Antagonist

The middle-aged man with a long, narrow face and somber expression glanced at his subordinates standing around him like stakes and growled through clenched teeth with a blackened face.

At this, three Imperial Guard soldiers wearing water-patterned bronze armor as if awakened from a dream, rushed into the smoke and dust, dragging two bloodied comrades out of the dense jungle, frantically administering aid.

"How are these two useless things faring?"

Seeing several of his subordinates busily failing to make a difference, Dakres, a squad captain of the Imperial Guards, couldn't help but step forward to inquire.

The Imperial Guard soldiers responsible for the healing answered with sweat streaming down their faces.

"Serano's leg is broken, Andries has a through and through wound in his abdomen, they're both bleeding heavily, we're out of magic potions, we didn't bring a medic with us, and we just can't stop the bleeding!"

"Then carry them to a nearby place with water, the blessing of the God of the Sea will heal them, do I really need to teach you this?"

Dakres's long and narrow face clouded over with anger as he cursed furiously.

Under the cold watch of their captain, the three Imperial Guard soldiers shivered involuntarily and hastily carried their two badly injured comrades toward a nearby stream.

"A bunch of idiots, I really don't know how they passed their final assessments!"

Dakres watched as his men scurried away like scattered rabbits, and his irritation swelled, he snorted with gritted teeth.

"Forget it, they're just greenhorns that the higher-ups put in to gild their records, no use getting mad at them."

From behind, a burly man as strong as a bear with his left eye bandaged, stepped forward to pat Dakres's shoulder, offering a wry comforting smile.

Since this pursuit battle had begun, his reputedly calm old friend had grown increasingly irritable, with the frequency of his cursing and kicking rising significantly.

Upon hearing the consolation, the low pressure lingering around Dakres eased slightly, his complexion regained some calm, and he turned to look at the burly man behind him.

"Sorry, Andrew, that was irrational of me."

The Imperial Guard captain's gaze lingered on the sturdy man's bandaged eye for a moment, a hint of guilt flickering in his own.

That lost eye should have been his.

If it were not for his old comrade pushing him aside at the critical moment, taking the hit himself...

Just the thought of that bloody scene turned Dakres's face morose, and a strong sense of humiliation welled up inside him.

What was expected to be a simple pursuit mission had turned into an insufferable nightmare.

One unforeseen "accident" after another had left them running ragged: talking trees, moving grass, hair-trigger magical traps, burst runes activated by the weight of their comrade's corpses...

And then there was that elusive felon, proficient in all manners of curses, who could still hop around even after taking two Orichalcum secret arrows...

All these encounters and factors had brought them endless hardship and severe losses, even he—a demigod—had nearly perished in the midst.

If he were to return now with this band of broken soldiers, one could imagine the fate awaiting his career.

Even if the "Council of Ten Kings" were lenient due to his years of hard service, the smaller and greater Divine Blood families could drown him with their spit.

They had spent plenty of money and favors to have these descendants of Divine Blood gilded into the Imperial Guard.

Yet not only did the gilding fail, but they also suffered nearly fifty percent casualties inside and out; such grave errors demanded accountability.

Regrettably, he was currently the perfect candidate to take the fall.

Unless he could atone for his faults and capture that bastard, perhaps then he might have a chance at survival.

Imperial Guard Captain Dakres sifted through his thoughts, rubbed his throbbing head, and solemnly promised to his unfortunate friend caught up in the ordeal.

"Rest assured, once we catch that bastard and return to report at the Temple of the God of the Sea, I will report the losses to the 'Council of Ten Kings' and take full responsibility for all the consequences!"

"Captain, I..."

The sturdy man was just about to speak when suddenly, panicked cries erupted from the direction of the stream ahead.

The two men's expressions changed, and they immediately rushed to the scene.

"What happened?"

"Poison! Somebody has poisoned the water upstream!"

Three Imperial Guard soldiers answered with fear in their voices, and behind them two wounded soldiers, hastily dragged out of the creek water, now had ashen faces, their injuries not only unimproved but their flesh festering at an accelerating pace.

"Bang!"

Dakres's fist smashed a giant tree that two people could hug together, furiously staring upstream of the creek, and couldn't help but let loose a string of curses in his mind.

——Damn it, beasts!

The Imperial Guards beside him were also full of indignation.

In their lives, they had faced opponents who were mostly Titans or mythical creatures who settled things with strength and fists, directly charging forward to fight. Then, the winner would stand, and the loser would lie down.

Even with cunning intellectual targets, most of their tactics were relatively rough and were used to aid them in combat.

But this was like some sneaky underhanded trickster, using poison, digging pits, setting traps, and ambushing, turning conspiracy and cunning into the mainstream, into an art form.

Since when did such a shameless scum emerge in the Sea of Okeanos?

"That bastard must be nearby! Andrew, you take two people to bring the wounded to the seashore, the rest follow me! We'll chop this bastard to pieces and feed him to the fish!"

Dakres ordered with a grim face, without waiting for his friend to try to persuade him otherwise, he and another demigod deputy captain named "Sanos," along with the remaining four Imperial Guard soldiers, spread out in an encircling move towards the upper part of the stream with rapid speed.

Because they were almost psychologically scarred by the ambush, the two demigods simply ignited the divine fire within their bodies, drawing on vast tides of magic power to form a barrier around themselves that was tens of meters thick with a deep azure glow, then charged forward with themselves as the vanguard.

Instantly, wherever the two light shadows went, there was devastation; the dense forests on both sides of the stream kept bursting forth with explosions like thunder from a clear sky, and dust billowed up.

Six of them?

Good, they've split up! It seems the plan was a success!

At this moment, based on the sounds and reactions of magic powers from the entrance of the upstream cave, Luo En quickly came to a conclusion and breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Generally speaking, on the battlefield, crippling the enemy's soldiers tends to have a better effect than outright killing them,

On one hand, screams and blood could disturb the judgement of the opponents and affect their morale; on the other hand, the injured soldiers would need to be moved and attended to, which means at least one person would be involved in the transfer, sometimes two. This effectively increased the number of combat losses.

At first, Luo En thought this way too and didn't deal a deadly blow directly.

But he underestimated the nearly perverse self-healing abilities and tenacity of life inherent in the creatures of the age of gods.

Furthermore, these Atlanteans, with the blood of gods and the blessing of the God of the Sea, could quickly recover and regain their strength just by soaking in water, even with severe injuries.

Therefore, with no other choice, Luo En had to eliminate his opponents as directly as possible to minimize the threat.

However, this time, his main goal was to escape; using two wounded soldiers and a bottle of poison to restrain another demigod and two Golds was definitely worth more than it cost.

Currently, according to the hint from "Blessing of the Artisan God," the materials needed to repair the "Icarus Wings" were mainly two types—feathers from birds and high-quality wax.

There were plenty of bird feathers in his storeroom, which he had secretly collected when Circe was molting. It seemed that the feathers from the Witch of the Eagle would work much better than those of ordinary sea birds.

Next, only the wax remained as the needed material.

And on his way to the island to heal, it seemed he had seen several beehives to the southwest, which should contain usable beeswax.

Time was short, he needed to speed up!

As the roar outside the cave grew nearer, Luo En made up his mind, determined to burst out of the cave entrance before the pursuers could corner him inside, and take a desperate gamble.

"Found him, over there!"

The six pursuers who arrived rapidly at the scene also spotted the trace of the target, grinding their teeth with hatred as they charged toward the perpetrator of countless vile deeds.