Devouring World Dragon

Chapter 353: The End of the Hunter's Legend
Since he already had the power to remove the curse, the hero naturally reached out and stroked the lion's head.

Just one touch, and the strong lion rolled on the ground and regained his human identity. He was a handsome young man, looking at his palm in surprise and delight.

The great hero touched another lion and the other little lions, and the once cursed huntress and her young children all returned to their former appearance.

It was not until then that the great hero saw the female hunter whom he had never met. She was just as beautiful and tall as people imagined, with bright eyes.

The female hunter bowed to the hero in gratitude.

"Thank you, Hercules. Without you, I don't know how many years it would take for my husband and I to regain our identities and appearances."

"I accept your thanks, but I also ask you to promise me one thing. Please compete with me in archery."

The hero readily accepted the huntress's gratitude, but also made a request.

He had heard the story of this female hunter a long time ago. It was said that she had been taught archery by the hunting queen Artemis, so she never missed her target. In the end, she successfully killed the Calydonian boar with her archery skills.

Of course, he wanted to compete with such a person.

The female hunter agreed, and the three decided to find a place to fight. However, in order to take care of her children, the female hunter needed to clean up her house and go find the hero to fight later.

So the hero went to the nearby city first and waited for the huntress and her family in advance.

But before the hero arrived in the city, he met an old woman on a small road. The old woman looked very pitiful and kept crying.

The great hero softened and asked in a kind voice.

"Old man, are you in trouble? If your son is unfilial, please tell me and I will teach him a lesson for you. If you are short of food and clothing, I have some money here."

The white-haired old woman wiped her tears and choked.

"I was not bullied. My sons were all well, and I had enough clothes and food. But I was bullied as an old woman who had fallen into misfortune, and no one could help me. When I thought of this, I couldn't help crying."

The great hero wondered.

"Who bullied you? Tell me about it."

The old woman raised her head, looked at the hero in front of her, and said sadly.

"To be honest, I used to be a respectable and reputable person, and my family had a lot of land. But recently, two rude people made trouble in my house. So I complained to the judge, and fortunately, the judge was kind and fair, and sentenced them to do a hundred days of hard labor. Unexpectedly, after only a few days of service, the judge's son listened to the two people's appeal and felt that the punishment was too heavy, so he changed the document and erased their hard labor."

"Young man, people are laughing at me now, saying that I am old and useless, so I am bullied by others. I am so angry that I am hiding here crying silently."

The old woman beat her chest and stamped her feet, her voice full of complaints.

Then she asked the great hero.

"Young man, you are an honest and fair person. Tell me, if you do something wrong, should you be punished?"

"Of course, if you do something wrong, you should be punished."

"So what did I do wrong?"

The great hero thought that one hundred days of hard labor was not too much, so he said.

"Since they made trouble in your house, they deserve to be punished. One hundred days of hard labor is not too long, as long as they repent and reform. Old man, where are they? I will go and capture those two and bring them to you to continue doing hard labor."

The old woman stared at the hero in front of her for a long time.

After making the hero feel uncomfortable, she slowly nodded, revealed a satisfied smile, and laughed while covering her mouth.

"Haha, young man, you are really honest and kind-hearted. You are willing to talk to me for so long. Well, I am not a bad person. In fact, it is just two young people who made mistakes. You are right, as long as they know their mistakes and correct them. I don't force anything. I don't want them to serve me for a hundred days. As long as they serve for half of me, it will be fine."

"Do you still need my help?"

"Oh no, that's not necessary."

The old woman waved her hand and smiled.

"I just heard someone tell me that the judge's son still thinks the sentence should be upheld. This way, I, an old lady, can rest assured."

The hero felt something was wrong and wanted to ask a few more questions, but the old woman walked slowly into the jungle. The hero had no choice but to continue walking towards the city, but the more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong. Suddenly, an idea flashed in his mind, as if some kind of puzzle had been broken.

"not good!"

He suddenly shouted, turned around and ran back.

When he hurriedly crossed the jungle and came to where the huntress's family was, he saw a family of huntresses whose upper bodies were human and whose lower bodies were four-legged lions.

"How sad, great hero! The goddess of nature, Cybele, still refuses to forgive us and has turned us into this half-man, half-lion appearance."

The female hunter said helplessly.

At this moment, the hero's conjecture was confirmed. The old woman he had just met was the goddess of nature, Cybele. It was because of his carelessness that the huntress was punished again.

He wanted to remove the curse from the huntress's family once again, but found that his hands were no longer effective, as if the half-human, half-lion appearance was their true form.

The great hero felt extremely ashamed. The always invincible hero felt that he had let down the two people in front of him.

The female hunter comforted him.

"It's okay, hero. Compared to how it was before, things are much better now."

As she spoke, she extended her hand.

The hand that once was had become a lion's claw and could no longer hold a bow.

After handing a gorgeous arrow to the great hero, the female hunter said sincerely.

"This is a precious arrow given to me by the goddess Artemis as a reward for my service to her. I have kept it with me and would not give it up even if I turned into a lion. Now that I can no longer draw the bow, I only hope that you can make good use of it."

Taking this gorgeous arrow, the golden arrow seemed to be made of gold, exquisite and beautiful. It was more like a work of art than a weapon. No wonder the female hunter kept it.

Neither of them mentioned the agreed competition again until they parted. The two most skilled archers in the entire Greek world ultimately never got to compete with each other, and it was a pity that they missed the opportunity.

After that, the huntress and her family disappeared quietly.

Later on, the great hero would occasionally hear some rumors.

Legend has it that the female hunter and her husband went to a distant place and gave birth to many half-lion, half-human offspring, who then married mortals. Therefore, in that distant place, you can see some humans with lion ears, lion tails, and lion claws. They are their offspring.

Of course, these are all things that happened later.

At this moment, the great hero only felt a deep sense of powerlessness.

Even as powerful as he is, he sometimes has to admit that there are some forces that he finds difficult to resist.

"Gods..."

He said this sadly, but he had to force himself to move on and complete his mission.

Such troubles finally reached their peak when he encountered the rampaging big white bull.

The powerful bull was causing earthquakes on the earth to punish the mortals for its master. When the hero arrived, the bull was lying on the ground and resting leisurely.

The great hero did not intend to take its life, so he tried to subdue the mad bull with his strength.

He held the bull's horns tightly with both hands. When the bull was awakened by the hero, it tried to break free frantically. The force was strong enough to crack the ground. But even such a strong force could not resist the hero's strange power.

The great hero rode on its back and forcibly tried to tame the bull.

After a fierce confrontation, the bull was out of breath and had to admit defeat, howling as he surrendered to the enemy on his back.

So the great hero rode on the big bull that could walk on water, prepared to cross the sea, return to the king and ask for his reward.

However, when the bull came to the sea, the sea immediately became angry, with surging waves and tides, turbulent, showing the power of its master.

Finally, a majestic face vaguely emerged from the sea, with its lips opening and closing.

"Demigod, this is a feud between me and the king. It has nothing to do with you. Go away!"