Chapter 244_ How To Kill A Hydra (2)

Willow's gaze remained fixed on the Multi-Headed Hydra as it sniffed the air once more, its hundred heads raised to the sky. The anticipation in the air was tangible, the moment charged with a mixture of tension and curiosity. 

The monster’s gills cluttered, as it let out a deep, guttural moan before it laid all of it’s heads down, coiled around it’s large trunk of a body, nesting. 

It was about to lay it’s precious egg now. 

Willow raised his index finger and pointed it at the Hydra, before signaling that they should be as ready as possible. His two party members gave a solid nod of their heads.

The ground rumbled. The forest’s woods hushed. Everything was silent, except for the creaks and moans of paining escaping the monster who was giving birth. Its sinewy muscles clenched and unclenched, a testament to the strain it endured in this pivotal moment. 

This continued for a couple of minutes, right before Willow began to see the head of the egg coming out. Surprisingly, for such a large beast, its egg was considerably smaller, perhaps around only 35 feet in height. 

A couple more labored push from the big monster, and its egg came out, bone-white and ashy, lacking the protective covering found on most reptilian eggs, just as described in the game. This was it. So delicate.

Willo understood right then and there why these monsters were so fiercely protective of their eggs. But, what was more fragile than the egg was the mother who had just recently given life.

The forest seemed to hold its breath, the rustling leaves and chirping birds falling into an eerie silence. Time seemed to slow as Willow's mind raced.

Willow was quick to act. The moment had arrived, and he was ready to seize it. 

With a flicker of resolve in his eyes, Willow lowered his lens and took a deep breath. 

"Now," Willow whispered, looking over at Amelia's direction.

Just as they'd planned, Amelia, her smirk replaced by a focused determination, adjusted her stance, her magical energy crackling around her. She had always sought to prove her worth, to show that her intellect and skill surpassed the expectations placed upon her. This was her moment to shine, to demonstrate her true potential.

“ᚠᛁᛋᚢᛚᚲᛖᛞᛁᚾ ᛒᚱᚨᚢᚲᚨᛞᛁᚦ ᚠᛟᚱ ᚷᛖᚹᚨᚢᚱᚾᚨᚦᚨ ᛁᚱᛞᚷᛁᛏᚢᚾᛁᚱ, Wind. Life.” Amelia called upon the element of the wind, fusing it with the element of life, as she directed her staff at Raegis. “Barrier.”

At her command, the wind around Raegis was compressed, making an invisible shield that enveloped Raegis. The wind barrier was also enchanted with a golden sheen of life, that would enhance Raegis’s strength, and other attributes, and most specifically, her senses as long as she was in the barrier. Even if she did get hurt, most of her minor injuries should also be healed from the barrier. 

Raegis’s eyes narrowed into slits even more. She felt great inside the barrier, she felt better than great. She gripped the handle of her steel sword. It felt light in her hands, inside this barrier. 

She called for her aura. “Steel.” Infusing the mystical silver aura with her sword, it gleamed sharp inside her grasp, but she did make sure that Willow’s [Purify] enchantment hadn’t been overpowered. Her grip tightened around the hilt, a palpable anticipation emanating from her. When was the last time she felt this excited?

Amelia wasn’t done. Her long chant wasn’t for the barrier that protected and enhanced Raegis. No. 

It was for this. 

Mana gathered at the tip of her staff. “ᚨᛚᚢᚱᚾᛋ ᛖᚢᚲᚨᛚᛋ-” Then, mana changed to heat. With the wind blowing life into it, it turned into flames. 

“ᚢᚱᛖᚲᚨ ᛒᚢᚾᚨᛗ-” Amelia compressed the flames into an orb, before blowing more and more wind into the flame, making it larger and larger. It was now hot enough that any nearby leaves were starting to smoke, but this still wasn’t hot enough. 

She needed more. Amelia gritted her teeth and continued to chant. The strain on Amelia's mana pool was evident, but she pushed past it, knowing the importance of this pre-emptive attack.

Willow's plan had been clear—to aim the fireball carefully at one of the Hydra's many heads, temporarily blinding it without causing harm to the precious egg. The success of their strategy hinged on precision and timing. 

“ᚱ ᚾᚨᚷᚨᚱᚢᚾ ᚠᚨᚱᛖᚱ-” She started to compress the fireball, making it smaller and smaller. The flames started to change from red-hot, to orange. Just a little bit more. 

She envisioned the sun in her spell. No, more specifically, she wanted to make the sun pop so she started to squeeze. As the fireball in front of her started to get smaller, it’s heat started to rise. 

It was now hot enough that any leaf or branch around her was burning up in flames. But, she still wasn’t satisfied. 

Amelia wanted to crush the sun in her hands. Then, something akin to a glass breaking cracked inside her head, and she had done it. 

“ᛋ ᛏᚨᛋᛋᚨᛈᚱ. Fire.”

She opened her eyes. Right there and then, in front of her emerald eyes, a white sun, the size of a tennis ball appeared. Everything around her had already turned to ash.

But, she shook herself out of the stupor. As the fireball reached its peak, Amelia's eyes narrowed in concentration, her aim locked on the chosen target.

“Die.” Then, she released it, completely unaware of the absolute look of horror on Willow’s face.

***

Willow couldn’t believe his eyes. He shouldn’t have underestimated how much of a magical genius Amelia had actually been. The first step of the plan was to get her to throw her best fireball at the Hydra while it was tired, creating a sort of preemptive strike and a distraction for Raegis to descend, and attack the Hydra from the ground. 

He should have known what was about to happen when he felt the extraordinary amount of heat even from his position. He should have stopped Amelia when he sensed the sudden influx in mana. 

But, instead, he watched as Amelia had attempted to, and very well, succeeded in creating a miniature sun.

He watched as anything near her had been scorched down to ash already, as the miniature sun seemingly wanted to burn even the air down. 

He watched as she had released the sun down on the weakened Hydra, herself being blown away from the inertia of her mega-spell.

It was like he had watched a nuclear bomb in real life, only on a very much smaller and controlled scale. It was a second, since that was all it took for the sun to blitz past the hundreds of meters that separated them and the Multi-Headed Hydra.

The Hydra, caught off guard in the midst of its post-birth vulnerability, barely had time to react. The sun-ball hit it’s mark with unerring accuracy, only this time, it immediately blasted past around five of the Multi-Headed Hydra’s heads, causing an arc of scorching white flames upon impact.

By the time Willow had gotten to his senses, it was slightly too late. “Take cov-” was the only thing he could say before the force of the blast had reached even them, as terrible, strong winds slapped against his frame, knocking him back into a couple of trees which were also bending backwards from the force of the winds. 

The only thing he could hear was the Hydra screeching in agony. 

“KRIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!”

Writhing in agony, the creature contorted and thrashed, its movements reminiscent of a wounded serpent. The world shook from the force of it’s tumbling. 

By the time the winds had settled down mostly, Willow searched for Amelia and saw that she was mostly okay, just that her mana pool was mostly depleted and she wouldn’t be able to participate in the fight for the next couple of minutes or two. 

Willow turned to look at the Multi-Headed Hydra, and saw that it was still in pain. The plan may have deviated a little bit, but it deviated in a very, very good way as he screamed at the top of his lungs. “RAEGIS!”

A flash of wind past by the forest, as Raegis, without even saying a word had leaped out of her hiding space, as she landed on the clearing. 

There was around a couple hundred meters of distance between her and the Multi-Headed Hydra, and yet, she could still feel the heat, even through her wind barrier. Raegis took only a second to look at the writhing monster, and thought to herself never to underestimate the long-ears again, or to ever give her that much time to cast her spells. 

Again, she made a note. There was around a couple hundred meters of distance, and usually it’d take her a little too long to cover it, but not today. 

Oh, dear, definitely not today. The long-ears had done both of her job in a way that exceeded her expectations. 

“Thanks for the buff, long-ears,” Raegis lunged her legs backwards, adopting a sprinting position, carving the dirt backwards as she did so. The dirt felt soft under her feet. “It’s my time now.”

And then, she disappeared forward.