As Medea's hand chop connected with the Calydonian Boar's forehead, both stopped in place, accompanied by a sudden burst of air.
Medea was neither sent flying by the Calydonian Boar, nor did the Calydonian Boar continue its charge; instead, it stopped abruptly as if it had crashed into an impenetrable wall.
After several seconds of silence, with a dull thud, a astonishing sight appeared: the Calydonian Boar's massive body suddenly stood on its hind legs, then collapsed to the ground with a pained howl, making the earth tremble violently.
"How is that possible?"
The Heroes present immediately looked at Medea with horrified expressions; she had just completely overturned their worldview with her actions.
This was even more bizarre than the rumors about Heracles. At least, Heracles himself was the strongest man in all of Greece, and his power was still within the Heroes' imagination. But Medea, with such a frail body, was able to knock down the Calydonian Boar, which charged head-on, with a single bare-handed strike. This had fundamentally violated some basic laws of the world.
After knocking down the Calydonian Boar, Medea did not deliver a finishing blow. Instead, she glared "fiercely" at the hunters she had just been arguing with, and drew her thumb across her delicate neck, as if to say, "You're next."
Several hunters were scared witless and turned to run.
Fortunately, in this farce, some still soberly saw an opportunity. After being struck by Medea, the Calydonian Boar had fallen to the ground, exposing its vulnerable underbelly. White foam and blood flowed from its mouth and nostrils, and it was panting heavily, clearly severely wounded and unable to get up for a while.
Seeing this opportunity, Calydon's Prince Meleager quickly shouted loudly:
"Quickly seize the opportunity to attack! This Boar is down!"
With that, he took the lead, holding his spear, and rushed to the Boar, gripping the spear and thrusting it fiercely into the Boar on the ground.
The spear successfully pierced the Boar's soft underbelly. The latter let out a shriek, spat out a few sparks, and shook its head, forcing Meleager aside. But it was clear that its movements had become very weak and slow, obviously at its last gasp.
Seeing Meleager's attack take effect, the surrounding hunters all gathered around. A group of Heroes surrounded the Boar, which was at its last gasp, constantly plunging their weapons into its abdomen. Soon, the Calydonian Boar was riddled with various long and short spears and arrows, its wounds resembling a hornet's nest.
Meleager finally stepped forward and thrust a spear fiercely into the vital spot at the Calydonian Boar's heart. His spear pierced so deeply that it got stuck in the Boar's strong muscles, and he even had to step on the Boar's body to pull the spear out. But it was precisely because of this heavy blow that the Calydonian Boar on the ground finally lost its life, letting out a whimper before becoming completely still.
After seeing the Calydonian Boar die, Meleager swiftly and completely skinned the Boar's head and the entire hide from the Boar on the ground, then diligently presented them to his beloved, Atalanta.
"Atalanta," he said to Atalanta, holding the hide with the Boar's head, "Please accept this trophy. By rights, it should belong to me, but I believe a greater honor should be yours!"
Atalanta looked at the Prince of Calydon, then recalled what Medea had told her before the hunt began. She was not foolish and naturally saw that Meleager had feelings for her, but Atalanta had no interest in matters of love.
In her youth, she had received a prophecy from the Sun God Apollo. This god told her that for her own good, it was best not to seek a companion, which was why Atalanta had always held her chastity as incredibly important. Later, in the wilderness, she had encountered two centaurs who tried to rape her. However, driven by this belief, Atalanta, despite being weaker than them, successfully shot them with her bow and arrows.
It was precisely because of this feat that she gained the favor of Artemis, who bestowed upon her the Bow of the Heavens.
Therefore, regarding Meleager, her former comrade-in-arms, she merely considered him a passerby. However, since Meleager was willing to give her this best trophy, Atalanta would not be polite with him, after all, she had also participated in the hunt for this Boar.
However, upon seeing Meleager's actions, all the hunters who had come to participate in this hunt, except for the Argo Heroes, were greatly displeased. Some of Meleager's uncles even directly blocked Atalanta's path, waving their fists at the female hunter and shouting:
"Put down the trophy, woman! You are not worthy of it; it belongs to us!"
Atalanta immediately looked at these Heroes as if they were idiots, and Medea jumped out, threatening them: "What, what? Do you shameful Heroes actually want to steal things? Come on then, who wants to experience my fist-fighting, ha!"
With that, the petite girl, who had disguised herself as an Attendant, hopped and skipped in front of the Heroes, making strange sounds from her mouth while performing movements similar to "snake-style cunning hands" towards the group, looking quite comical.
However, while Medea's actions were comical, they successfully intimidated the Heroes. They had not forgotten that the Calydonian Boar had just been knocked down by a single hand chop from this seemingly harmless little girl. If her hand chop landed on their heads, their skulls would probably explode like ripe watermelons, very spectacularly.
However, being intimidated by such a young girl made Meleager's uncles feel somewhat humiliated. They were the brothers of Queen Althaea of Calydon, and by rights, in Calydon, they were the local strongmen; the situation should have been the other way around.
Therefore, one of Meleager's uncles quickly signaled with his eyes for his retainers to go into the city-state and blow whistles to call for people.
Upon seeing their actions, Prince Meleager immediately became enraged. His uncles' behavior was not just about disrespecting him in front of his beloved; it was also about presumptuously using retainers and troops, who only a Prince could command, right in front of him.
So Meleager roared, brandished his spear, and advanced on his uncles.
"You bandits!"
His anger flared, and he raised his spear, about to thrust it at his uncles:
"I am ashamed to be associated with you!"
Unexpectedly, Meleager's thrusting spear was suddenly gripped by a powerful hand. The spear, held in that large hand, seemed to be cast in steel; no matter how hard Meleager pushed, it did not budge.
Cold sweat beaded on Meleager's forehead. He stared intently at the owner of the large hand gripping the spear, and immediately saw a handsome, muscular man wearing lion-skin armor standing nearby, looking at him with curious eyes.
No one present had even noticed this man's arrival; he was so strong, yet he had arrived silently, which was very terrifying.
However, the moment he saw this man, the young, yellow-haired Jason, who was at the back of the group, let out a joyful cry.
"Heracles!" He looked at the strong man, his expression overjoyed: "You're finally back!"