Five imperial dragons, five elements, five dragon heads, five kinds of breath.
It was simply too terrifying.
The Argonauts had never witnessed such a scene before. In a single exchange, five or six of them were killed by the dragon breath.
Before they had even come to challenge the dragon, the Argonauts had already been reduced to just over twenty survivors.
Now, three more had been killed earlier by the dragon's breath and physical attacks, and with the Five-Emperor Dragon's transformation, six more were slain in an instant as five different breaths struck at once.
On top of that, the two mages who had exhausted all of their mana to grant "Primal Might" and "Enchanted Weapons" to the group, Asclepius, the party's medic, and the weakest among them, Jason, were now unable to fight.
The number of those still capable of combat had fallen to fewer than ten.
And the dragon before them had only just unleashed its first wave of breath.
At this rate, the remaining people would not even survive two rounds of the Five-Emperor Dragon's breath before being wiped out completely.
How was this supposed to be fought?
The Argonauts still tried to struggle on.
They attempted to close in on the dragon, surround it, attack from all directions, and slip into its blind spots to avoid the dragon breath while dealing greater damage.
However, reality proved that this method, which might have worked against the original dragon, was completely useless against the Five-Emperor Dragon.
Unlike the original dragon, the Five-Emperor Dragon possessed five dragon heads in total. Its long, slender necks allowed it to watch over every direction of its body, leaving no blind spots at all as it spewed dragon breath in all directions, rendering any encirclement tactics meaningless.
With things like this, did they still have any chance of defeating this dragon?
Seeing the five dragon heads begin to draw in deep breaths, and with the next terrifying wave of dragon breath about to descend, Jason, who had been hiding at the rear, finally broke down.
A battle with absolutely no hope, why continue fighting at all?!
"Stop!" His voice cracked with sobs. "Stop fighting! We surrender! We'll hand over the Golden Fleece, isn't that enough? Please don't hurt my companions anymore!"
Jason's plea came just in time, and the Five-Emperor Dragon did not seem as terrifying or as bloodthirsty as it appeared.
Hearing Jason's desperate cry, the Five-Emperor Dragon hesitated slightly, and when it released its breath, it raised its heads just a little, causing the dragon breath to immediately deviate from its intended trajectory.
Flames, frost, lightning, a torrent of metal, and corrosive energy, five terrifying dragon breaths swept past the heads of the targeted Argonauts, wreaking devastating destruction.
But the Argonauts survived this attack.
Jason saw clearly that if the dragon had not raised its heads even slightly at the last moment, at least five more heroes would have died to the dragon breath.
In that case, among the remaining heroes, perhaps only the archer and Orpheus, who provided support through music, would still be able to fight.
Fortunately, this terrifying Five-Emperor Dragon was a divine beast belonging to the gods, not a brutal demonic monster. She still possessed a trace of compassion.
"Thank you… thank you for showing mercy," Jason said hurriedly after the Argonauts retreated to his side. At the same time, he took the Golden Fleece from his embrace.
"I will return it to you now."
"Jason!"
"Captain!"
"How can you hand over the Golden Fleece?!"
"We can still fight!"
His actions immediately drew cries of alarm from the others.
No one was willing, nor reconciled, to give up the Golden Fleece just like that.
Yet Jason shook his head.
"Face reality, everyone," he sighed helplessly. "We no longer have any capital left to fight. How many of us can still battle now?
Not even a fifth of what we had when we came. In our current state, it's impossible to continue. Otherwise, what awaits us is total annihilation."
Jason's words made everyone lower their heads.
In truth, the other Argonauts understood this very clearly.
They had personally experienced the terrifying combat power of the Five-Emperor Dragon just moments ago, dragon breath that killed in an instant, power increased by more than fivefold.
Such a horrifying existence was simply not something they could contend with.
They even believed that even if the Argonauts were at full strength, even if Heracles were present, they still would not be a match for the Five-Emperor Dragon.
The two were not on the same level at all.
In their eyes, only the gods themselves or the most powerful demons could stand against the Five-Emperor Dragon, even a being like Hydra would be no match for her.
Their earlier refusal to hand over the Golden Fleece was nothing more than unwillingness to accept it.
After all, along this journey, how many heroes and companions had they sacrificed? More than fifty Argonauts had set out at the beginning, and by now, fully three-quarters of them had fallen.
Such immense sacrifice, yet failing to achieve their goal; the Golden Fleece, already in their hands, had to be surrendered, anyone would be unwilling to accept that.
Some among them, such as Telamon, even wished they could die here immediately if it meant securing victory.
As heroes, they simply could not tolerate returning in defeat.
But reality was reality.
Even if they could not accept failure, when failure was already inevitable, they still had no choice but to face it.
And so, they could only watch helplessly as Jason placed the Golden Fleece before the Five-Emperor Dragon.
"Foolish ants, you really won't shed tears until you see the coffin," one of the dragon heads picked up the Golden Fleece, while the other four heads hurled sharp mockery at the heroes.
"It seems only death can teach you a lesson."
The Five-Emperor Dragon's ridicule dealt them an even heavier blow.
Indeed, from the very beginning, they had been fighting an enemy they could never defeat.
Yet they had clung to that sliver of hope, struggling on, sacrificing again and again, until they were finally driven into complete despair and forced to give up, making all those sacrifices utterly meaningless.
Faced with such mockery, they had nothing to say and could only remain silent.
The Five-Emperor Dragon clearly had no intention of further conversation. Soon, she spread her wings and flew toward the center of the Sacred Forest.
Left behind were the Argonauts, immersed in the pain of defeat and the remorse over their fallen companions.
The brutal losses left everyone wordless.
They could only silently gather the bodies of their comrades and carry them back onto the Argo.
The one who suffered the most was Jason.
As the initiator of the expedition, he was the one who most desired the Golden Fleece.
Yet as the one who had led so many heroes into this journey, he was also the one who least wanted to see his companions die.
And now he realized that he had gained neither the Golden Fleece nor the lives of his companions.
The voyage of the Argo, the title of Argonaut, it was all a joke to him.
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