'strength'
That word rung in his mind as he clashed with the beast once more, a blow to his face that he withstood and returned a gut punch and followed up with an uppercut that lifted the beast off the ground, grabbing it by its tentacles he then slammed it on the ground using it as a hammer as if to level the floor of his house.
However, that was a mistake on his part. The tentacles latched on to his body and quickly coiled around him, realizing the problem they would caused Hercules acted quickly and tried to pry them off but unfortunately that prove to be much more difficult that he had anticipated, his strength seemed to fail him, Typhon capitalized on its advantage and opened it mouth wide, revealing rows of razor sharp teeth that it used to latch down on Hercules shoulder, sinking it's teeth deep in his bones and tasted his red blood.
"Urrghh"
Hercules muffled a scream while he struggled with extreme difficulty to get the beast of him and that was futile, for some reason the monster seemed to have gotten stronger, the reality of losing in contest of strength baffled him, he never considered himself to be the strongest being however he has never lost to any monster in a contest of pure strength, this was unprecedented for him. A reality he did not wish to see.
Unfortunately for Hercules and much to his dismay he was brought to a knee, his left knee touched the ground as he unknowingly lost strength, the teeth that were being sunk on his shoulders penetrated deeper in his bones and nearly tasting his bone marrow, he was lucky that his body was durable otherwise if he was a regular human he would have lost a significant part of his body.
"nnghh"
As a last ditch effort he pulled every bit of strength from his soul and rose to his feet, as display of his spirit and unyielding mind, he absolutely refused to lose and with such spirit he overcame the beasts strength and stood upright and then bent his knees, veins appeared on his calves as he used his lower body strength to jump high in the air. If he can not pry the beast off his body, then he would have to slam it off, a simple strategy.
Having jumped off the ground using every fiber of his being, he had launched himself to the sky at great speeds and reached even greater heights.
"cushion my fall, foul beast"
He hugged the holding it close and positioned himself in such a way that the creature would touch the ground first, he had survived fall from great heights before but he was unsure he was survive this, after all he had jumped all the way above even the clouds, he was certain that even birds never reached such heights.
The descent was slow, but it rapidly sped up, increasing in speed every second. He could he hear whistling in his ear as he fell and In mere seconds the ground was near, Hercules grit his teeth and braced for impact unfortunately for him Typhon suddenly shifted its form to that of a slimy octopus and slithered off from his grasp and quickly grew wings on its back and let Hercules crash on to the ground by himself.
He didn't even have time to comprehend what just happened as he crashed onto the ground with devastating force and speed. The force of the landing was enough to cause the whole isle to shake and create a massive crater on the ground. The shockwave caused pieces of rock to fly everywhere, forcing the spectators to run for cover.
Typhon reverted back to its form. However, this time, it used a more humanoid appearance without the tentacles at its lower body, and instead, the tentacles were on its mouth and by the looks of it. The beast planned to eat Hercules judging by the dripping saliva. The taste of his blood had been more delicious that initially anticipated, a light snake before devouring his primal target, Apollo followed with a buffet.
Hercules coughed up blood, and it splattered back on his face as he lay there on his back. He could feel his left hand and shoulder were broken. He had managed to shift his head and landed with his left shoulder first on to the ground as result the left part of his torso had suffered immense damage, he could feel some of his bones piercing his organs and he wanted to scream from the pain but held it back. Unfortunately for him, he seemingly could not have his eyes remain open for long, his vision was blurred, and his eyelids felt too heavy to have them open, and he could only close them.
Landing on the ground right beside Hercules, who was bloodied and bruised. His body was healing but slowly much slower than any God, but it still healed. For some reason however before Typhon could devour Hercules It felt something, a desire to speak and say something to mock for thinking that he, food would could resist, however it had no idea how to do that so instead it simply delivered a kick at his head. Typhon then kneeled down beside Hercules and used its hand to wipe off the blood from his face and then licked it, a taste test of sorts, after confirming the taste Typhon grabbed an arm and began to eat however the monster was interrupted.
A punch to the monsters face, one that was delivered with enough force to shatter its jaw completely and sent it through the walls of the crater, Hercules was not unconscious and not many of his bones were broken only one side, he may have been bloody and bruised but he was far from defeated, His healing may have been slow compared to the gods bit it was fast enough for him to recover as long as he got at least 30 seconds of reprieve which is what exactly what the punch bought him.
'Strength'
Again that word echoes in his head, it was desire that he had wanted for a long, time, as a child he was always stronger that most, one time he nearly killed his mother because he was reckless, however despite having plenty of strength he still sought more of it, it was never enough, what would he use it for, he didn't know he just wanted it, it was selfish desire born from nothing but his human greed. When he witnessed the gods battle last year, that desire for strength only burned brighter and greater.
"I'll give you credit beast, you're strong, ptui"
He spat out a mouthful of blood and began Standing on his feet and cracked his knuckles, his body felt light as paper and his mind was clear a day, he calm, cool and focused, nothing else mattered accept for the opponent he was fighting.
"but I'm stronger"
Typhon burst forth from the ground and let out an ear piercing roar, that Hercules took as a war cry, However, Typhon was roaring simply out of frustration and indecision on one hand it could abandon this meal and connect back to its body and chase Apollo or it could give up on Apollo and focus on Hercules. The snack was proving to be a much more worthy meal than the actual meal.
....
A/N: chapter on Sunday or Monday. Also the chapters will be 1k 1.5k for a while, I don't want to burn myself out by writing to much since I'll be alternating between this and the other one.