CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTY

The Third Labor, Part 1

Farsight’s words instilled Sam with enough confidence that the blood-curdling roar he heard as he approached the monster kept his anxiety at bay.

ALERT! Your HP has risen back to [50%]. It is still not advisable to approach the Nemean Lion without raising your health more.

“Thanks for the advice, Triple-A,” Sam smiled at the floating notification, “but I can’t do that…”

He glanced to his left and noticed that a crowd of spectators had appeared on the other side of the bridge’s railing.

“Lesson number two… a true hero never stops to answer the call when it’s given.”

Sam was walking tall toward the savage personification of death, and those who watched him began to feel a stirring in their chests. He didn’t know it, but his courage—his resolve—was inspiring them. It wasn’t just humans either. Even the gods seemed glued to Sam’s unfaltering steps.

Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt, looks upon you with favor. Your patron, Apollo, God of the Sun, has his hands raised high in excitement. Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, is curious about your plan of attack. Ares, God of War, scoffs at your impudent stride. Dionysus, God of Revelry, toasts your daring with a glass of hundred-year-aged wine.

Sam’s eyebrow rose at the sight of the gods’ messages. Although he didn’t have time to be annoyed with their voyeurism. He had much bigger worries at the moment.

WARNING! The Nemean Lion (α) has fully formed.

“Yep”—he watched the great beast shake its mighty mane—“I noticed…”

The Nemean Lion didn’t even wait for Sam to get close enough to be within range. The great beast—its cat eyes glaring menacingly at Sam—pounced on the hero with savage ferocity. But unlike earlier, Sam was ready for the monster’s blitz attack.

“Lesson Number One”—despite the pain coursing through his body, Sam flung his fist without reserve—“believe!”

[Mortal Fist (ζ)] activated.

With the sound of a roaring thunderclap, Sam’s fist—bathed in an aura of his life force— smashed against the massive, sharp-clawed paw of the Nemean Lion—and the very air seemed to warp as these two powers collided.

***

To the surprise of the civilian spectators whose feet seemed glued to the spot because they couldn’t help but watch the fight unfold, it was the giant lion—a beast so massive it rivaled the strange-looking black school bus idling close by—that was blown away by its clash with the unknown hero.

Who was this weirdly-dressed newbie, they all wondered, that he could knock such a massive and powerful-looking monster away with a single punch?

“Uh, is it just me, or did that hero yell his name out loud a while ago?” asked a brown-haired woman in a baseball cap. The slanted-eyed man standing next to her replied, “Seriously? Announcing your name to a villain is such a nineties thing to do.”

“Dude’s dressed like he’s from way before that though… That armor’s older than my Lola,” the tan-skinned bystander behind the woman commented. “What’d he say his name was?”

“Uh, I think it was… Herculean?” The woman in the baseball cap answered.

“Herculean?” repeated an African American man in a Warriors jersey standing on the other side of the woman.

“Yeah… He’s Herculean.” The woman in the cap’s hands tightened into fists as she watched Sam fight along with the other civilian spectators who’d opted not to run away because they stopped feeling like they needed to. “I hope he lives up to the name.”

***

Just like a cat, the Nemean Lion landed on its feet without much trouble, but it was unprepared to counter Sam as he appeared right next to it.

A single leap had sent the hero flying across the Golden Gate Bridge and right into attack range. Then, with Onus in one hand, Sam unleashed a mighty swing that clocked the Nemean Lion in its jaw. The great beast staggered backward from the blow. It shook its head—its mighty mane bristling in anger—and then something weird happened. To Sam’s surprise, his hammer did more than just blow the monster’s head back. It was barely a moment, but he’d seen the Nemean Lion’s body shift—like a computer glitch in a program or a distortion in a painting—revealing the villain underneath all that thick fur and muscle.

Your attacks seem to be having an effect.

“Really?” Sam raised a skeptical eyebrow at the notification window. “How exactly?”

Perhaps the strength of your attacks is adversely affecting Apex’s transformation and causing cracks to appear in the relic’s enchantment.

“But the Violator and those landmines did nothing against him?”

Neither carried the power of [Herculean (Δ)] in them. Perhaps the similarity in your energy signature is the cause of this glitch.

“Huh, that’s interest—”

The monster’s head snapped forward, its jaws wide open. It might have ripped Sam’s head off his shoulders too if Sam hadn’t raised his left arm and summoned Bulwark to defend against it. An ethereal, round shield made of brilliant teal aura wrapped around his left arm and lodged itself between the Nemean Lion’s jaws before the great beast could chomp down on Sam.

“You mean this ungodly bastard”—Sam pushed back against the power of the Nemean Lion’s jaws—"isn’t invincible?”

him?”

The relic certainly is, but its wielder would have limitations. Especially if Apex wasn’t meant to be its true inheritor.

“What kind of”—Sam’s head leaned away to avoid the drip of saliva falling off his shield—“limitations are we talking about?”

Perhaps the amount of damage Apex can endure from your shared energy signature before he’s forced to revert to human form.

“So, basically, what you’re saying is,” Sam grunted as his feet began to slide back, “this thing’s just like the Cannibal Boar and,” he shoved his shoulder against his shield and braced, “I should just keep hitting it until the enchantment breaks?”

It’s a crude tactic, but whatever works, right?

“You’re sounding more and more like Chiron now…”

Was that a compliment?

“Nope!”

While Bulwark kept the monster’s mouth in a low enough position, Sam smashed Onus against the Nemean Lion’s snout, forcing the great beast to dislodge itself from Sam’s shield so it could yelp indignantly at the hero while it pulled away from him. This brief reprieve came just in time too, because cracks had already begun to appear on the shield’s surface.

“Gods, your breath stinks,” he called to the retreating monster whose eyes had watered thanks to its nose being hit. “You don’t floss, do you?”

The Nemean Lion unleashed an almost offended-sounding roar before it launched itself at Sam once more.

Dodge!

However, it was as if time had slowed. Either that or the Nemean Lion had suddenly become much faster. Sam had no time to dodge its sharp claws. All he could do was raise his shield to deflect the attack. And, although he did manage at least that, the power behind the monster’s claws was so great that Sam was flung sideways and sent crashing into the Golden Gate Bridge’s railing which saved him from falling off the bridge.

WARNING! That attack dropped both your health and stamina to below forty percent. The system recommends you stay still while [Regeneration (Δ)] works to heal you.

“Not an option,” Sam grimaced.

Then it is recommended that you drop [Herculean (Δ)] for now.

“I can’t do that either…”

It worried Sam that a single blow had done such heavy damage to him. It was something not even the Dragon Kholkikos could do even after Sam was stuck inside its belly.

It’s coming again!

“Geez, this cat’s way too clingy!”

Out of a desire to catch his enemy off balance as it had just done to him, Sam flung his shield forward with all his might. It hurtled through the air and smacked against the Nemean Lion’s front leg—a spot Sam hadn’t even been aiming at—and caused the great beast to stumble. Amazingly, the glowing round shield didn’t disappear despite being away from the aura that clung to Sam’s body. Instead, it bounced into the air and back toward him so that Sam caught it in his hand almost out of instinct.

“Triple-A…” He stared dumbfoundedly at the ethereal shield that had automatically attached itself back to his left forearm. “What just—”

[Bulwark (Δ)] can now temporarily exist separate from the life force flowing out of your body.

“Holy Zeus… that’s awesome!”

It will certainly expand your defensive capability. Although the expense to your HP will also increase when used in this way.

“I can handle that much,” Sam insisted. Then inspiration flashed across his face. “It doesn’t have to be a shield, does it?”

You are limited only by your imagination and the amount of life force available to you.

“Well, years of being a loner has made me an expert at imagining stuff…”

Self-deprecation… the creator would be proud.

“Shut up…” Sam couldn't stay mad at his virtual companion though. Triple-A had just given him a clue on how to best Apex after all. “Just sit back and watch… It's time to be amazing.”