Chapter XXVI: Giant Monster Number One

The Hydra roared hungrily as it bore down upon the four sent to slay the creature. Jinxie stood defiantly in front of it, her sword pulsing with the eldritch force within her as she faced it down. Pushing back on the balls of her feet, she sprung away as its hundreds of needle-like teeth between enormous canine teeth which jutted out of its gaping maw snapped just in front of where she had been. With a slash at the air, she sent a cutting wave of magic into the face of the beast, which it treated as though a bite from an insect. The Hydra gnashed its fangs, the blonde Red Mage skirting the attack as she raised up her staff, a bolt of fire surging from its crystalline tip. The beast before her treated the blast as nothing, and its attack pressed on.

Beside her, the Hydra’s left head was engaged in a fearsome brawl with Speed, who seemed to recklessly swing his axe about in haphazard patterns without a sense of strategy or plan of attack. The warrior managed only enough to protect himself from this beast before him, blocking and parrying wherever the Hydra’s head went, yet unable to muster any offense of his own. It was astonishing, but each of the monster’s three heads seemed wholly independent from the others, able to think, act, and react all on its own. As Speed hacked away with his moon-bladed axe, the Hydra’s right head dealt with another set of attackers.

Isset ran forward on the hard dirt floor of the Wajoam Woodlands, and in front of her, Shoki extended his arms and created a brace from which the woman sprung forward, a flipping backwards in the air and delivering a kick straight to the extended jaw of the beast. It roared as Isset came down on the ground, crouched to strike again, but was silenced as a blast of fire flew forth from Xaerus’s extended palm, the incandescent burst of power striking it in its serpentine eyes. The Hydra plowed through the blast like it was nothing, Xaerus avoiding the snap of its beastial fangs by mere inches as she hastily threw her arms out beside her, a stone-hard barrier of magic forming around her skin. Isset yanked her hands back as if pulling at invisible strings, the cross-shaped animator she used to control Shoki’s actions between her fingers. The puppet’s darkened eyes lit up suddenly, and with the Hydra’s head just over it, unleashed a crack of lightning which struck it in the chin. Skittering away, the puppet managed to avoid the crushing claws of the mythic monster as it sought to stomp the mechanical man into scrap for its affront.

Jinxie could see from the outset that this fight was an impossible task. The monster shrugged off every blow they directed at it and kept pressing onwards, forcing them back with every new onslaught. It would not be long until they had no new ground to retreat to, and once they were backed up against the surrounding cliffs, their fate was as good as sealed. Slashing her sword at the Hydra’s enormous paw as it stomped down towards her, the Red Mage felt her footing give out from underneath her, and saw the terrible jaws of the Hydra coming her way, realizing that death was even more imminent than she had believed. . .

Her back hit the ground as Xaerus collided with her, tackling her out of the way. The central head of the Hydra swerved and snaked after them, but Xaerus rolled, holding Jinxie against the ground as she tore away from the battle, and then pounced back to her feet with catlike agility, hands outstretched, already reweaving the magic wards she had placed around herself. Jinxie gasped as Xaerus turned, revealing the back of her tabard had been torn to shreds by the Hydra’s fangs, and only her stoneskin spell had saved her life. The Mithra clutched at the air, feeling for something unseen, and then spoke, her mass of white hair flying around her as she turned her head back to Jinxie.

“There’s something around it,” she told the Hume woman, “that’s why we can’t hurt it. It’s got some sort of magic barrier; it might even be a part of its own skin.”

“How do you know?” Jinxie’s own magical senses detected nothing of the sort.

“I can smell it.” Xaerus growled, turning back towards the beleaguered Speed and Isset, now trying to fend the beast off by themselves. “I can work through it, break it, but you’ve got to buy me some time.”

Jinxie drew in a breath. There really was no way to hurt it, but maybe, with some luck, she could deep it busy. “I’ll do what I can,” she said, pulling herself to her feet, “but this thing is like a force of nature.”

“Then fight it with nature,” Xaerus replied. Jinxie turned to ask what that was supposed to mean, but immediately saw that the Mithra had begun whatever it was she planned to do for them to break the Hydra’s defenses. She was on her own.

Speed continued whirling his blade ineffectually against the monster as the duo of Isset and Shoki worked in tandem with a combination of stunning attacks, both physical and magical, but with every impact the Hydra grew only angrier. Pressing forward, it contemptuously batted at Speed, knocking his axe from his hands as the dull-eyed warrior struggled to keep up with its remarkable quickness. Isset, with a hand spring launch, knocked Speed to safety as the Hydra’s left head came at her, but Shoki met it with a magical barrier that it conjured up, only to have the monster smash through it with a second strike. However, in the moment it was distracted, Speed recovered his crescent-bladed weapon, and the raven-haired warrior sprung back into the fray, the dust swirling at his feet as he went into the air.

It continued swirling long after he had once again met one of the Hydra’s snakelike faces with his great axe, increasing in intensity. The arid winds of the Wajaom Woodlands stirred and writhed, gathering the dust and cracked, dry dirt of the ground as they convalesced on a single point. Isset and Speed turned, and with rising alarm, realized they were in the wrong place to be as they instinctually dove out of the way to avoid what was coming next. Several yards behind them, directly in the path of the advancing Hydra, Jinxie stood with her staff held in both hands in front of her. All about her, the wind and the dust increased, a miniature tornado being created out of the elements on hand in Wajaom, and when she opened her eyes, they had taken on a fierce golden glow from the earth magic she was summoning.

The two insects in front of it temporarily gone, the Hydra’s six eyes focused all at once upon Jinxie as she continued her spell, the winds whipping around her like a hurricane as the dust became so thick that it began stripping the bark off of nearby trees as the wind drove it against them. It was impossible to see through that cocoon, but the Hydra knew where the threat lay, and with another terrifying roar, it crashed through the wood, mouths agape, preparing to end this annoyance before it began. Its shadow from the rising sun behind it was touching Jinxie when she finally struck. When the attack came, it came with everything she had.

In one spectacular blast of wind and earth, the duststorm she had created blew outwards, stopping the Hydra in its tracks as its mouths and eyes filled with sand, its flesh felt the tearing of the winds, its nostrils became too caked to breath. It cried out, but its roar was lost in the wind, the same wind that tore the ground up at its feet, impossibly forcing it to move backwards, step by step, all three heads struggling in unison to fight against this power brought against it, and failing. Jinxie’s hair whipped about her as she stood in the eye of the storm, using the wind and the earth magic she had learned not directly, as she had been trained, but rather harnessing them to take control of their namesake elements in the area, and bringing that power to bear. To stop a force of nature, she used a force of nature, and miraculously, it was working.

Cutting off the flow of magic, she let the winds gradually die down. All around her, trees were bent and snapped in half, the dirt on the ground stripped to the point that enormous piles of dust had built up against the high hills surrounding them. Speed lay pressed against the ground, arms over his head as he cringed, with Isset standing over him, staring at the Red Mage with wide eyes. Shoki dropped to the ground, whirring and clicking with the effort maintaining his magical shield had taken in the face of such fury. Jinxie, breathing heavily, stared at the Hydra still in front of her as it gasped and snorted; its lungs full of choking sand and debris, its evil red eyes blinded by the stinging dust and wind. She drew her sword, preparing to attempt another strike, but in that one moment of hesitation, the monster let out a deafening shriek, and from inside of it poured out a veritable mountain of dirt. Like a snake shedding its skin, it rid itself of the impurities within it, and then it stood there, eyes full of reptilian hunger and anger, focused on Jinxie as she realized all she had done amounted to nothing against this seemingly impervious monster.

Then there came a shift, so imperceptible that the blonde woman was not even sure she felt the tickle against the back of her neck, but it was there all the same. Something about the magic in the area had just changed. The Hydra froze where it stood, and looked for all the world as if it had been shattered where it stood.

“Now!” Xaerus screamed out behind them. “I’ve dispelled the enchantment on its scales, you have to attack it now before it puts it back up!”

“Speed, Isset!” Jinxie barked, her tone bringing even Speed back up to his feet, “Go for the throat!”

“Which one, lady!?” Speed demanded, even as his axe scraped the ground, he himself rushing forward to fight once again.

“Pick one and hit it with everything you’ve got!” she replied, and then, with all she had left, did just that.

The Hydra, even weakened, had no intention of laying down to die, and shrieked out its hideous intentions as it clawed at Jinxie, who stepped up on a burst of air magic she created beneath her boots, launching her into the air with a slash of her enchanted sword. There was bright spray, a cry of pain, and then the Red Mage descended to the side of the monster. Where she had just been, directly across the center of its massive middle head, a slice of scales and flesh were carved out of it, and a bleeding trail lay in its place. The abomination was vulnerable, and with a panicked realization reflecting in its serpent’s eyes, the monster understood the same thing.

Isset struck first, launching into the monster with the creulley sharpened claws she wore across her fists, battering it with a flurry of blows as she masterfully manipulated her animator at the same time. Shoki sprung to life again, and from its hand a bolt of lightning snaked forth into the side of the Hydra as the puppet ran alongside it, hearkening to the call of its master. The left head of the monster reared back and struck out at the puppet, the impact of its jaws on the ground knocking Shoki off of his feet even as Isset came down on hers. Jerking the animator back, Shoki’s arms and legs swung out mechanically, creating a cushion of air magic that it settled to the ground on. As the Puppetmaster turned to resume her attack, she found herself on the receiving end of a ramming blow from the Hydra’s central head, and was nearly knocked unconscious as she was buffeted into the air.

His arm lashing out with startling precision, Speed caught Isset and crouched low as he landed on the ground in front of the Hydra. Its right head moved to strike, but then cried out as Jinxie slashed into its throat at the base, another spray of dark, thick blood staining the ground. Speed lowered Isset down as she sat up, holding her ribs, and brought his great axe to bear once more. The monster, realizing the danger now imminent, quickly retreated a step, Speeds’ slash catching only air, but now it viewed the warrior and his massive weapon as a legitimate threat, and hissed as it struggled to avoid the blows against its tremendous bulk. Its two side heads occupied, the middle head sought a way to turn the tide of battle back in its own favor. That was when it spotted Xaerus, still standing where she had been, chanting under her breath the incantation which was disrupting the natural enchantment which rendered the beast invulnerable. Eyes flaring up in comprehension, the monster changed its plan of attack.

Jinxie saw it first, realizing what the Hydra had seen, and slashed at its legs to try and halt it. It was no natural barrier which rendered her strike useless, merely the thick layers of armor-like scales covering the beasts’s massive hide. It plowed onwards as she lanced out a bolt of ice, the magic breaking over the back of the Hydra’s central neck, not slowing it down in the least. Xaerus, unable to move for fear of breaking the spell which made the Hydra vulnerable, stood exposed as the creature broke free from Speed’s assault and continued charging towards her. Isset sliced the animator upwards, and in response Shoki let loose a wave of razor-sharp condensed air, but the monster once again ignored the assault, focused solely on Xaerus, which it know understood to be the source of its pain.

Through its hide, it barely felt the impact as Speed touched down upon its back, but it definitely felt what came next. The spry warrior, his makeshift armor glinting as the sun rose in the distance, pushed forward with all the strength he had, and with a sickening thud, buried his axe directly into the neck of the Hydra’s left head. It gave another roar, this time one of agony as its dark red blood began pouring like a fountain from its wound. It halted in its tracks mere yards before Xaerus, screaming its cacophony of pain as Speed dug his axe free, and then, with a grim look on his face, swung it in a complete circle, letting the momentum build up force, and then struck again right where he had hit the first time. Gore and viscera poured out, bubbling up like a fountain as the left head of the Hydra tumbled to the ground, severed from its body.

The pain-stricken Hydra bucked Speed to the ground with its writhing as it screamed its hideous cries, stomping at the ground and flailing wildly as the head on the ground began to hiss and shrivel, separated from its source of power. Jinxie dove clear of the monster’s rampage as it tore blindly across the open space, lashing out with animal instinct. For a moment, her hopes of victory reached a mountainous peak as she prepared to strike out with her magic directly into the heart of the creature. In the next instant, those same hopes were dashed upon the valleys below.

In its convulsing, the tail of the beast, at least fifteen or twenty feet long from base to tip, drove into the ground with a wild and concussive force. Rocks and trees sprung free from where they had been as the Hydra’s tail pulverized the ground, and Xaerus, still unprotected as she poured her magical energy into keeping the monster vulnerable, was struck down by the debris and collapsed to the ground, unmoving. Instantly, Jinxie could feel the shift back. Whatever magic had been in place before had just reasserted itself in a dramatic fashion. With a silence that was far more deafening than its roars, the Hydra stopped screaming, both of its remaining heads drawing up as it too felt the change come upon it. It had regained the magical bulwark protecting itself from harm, and with eyes blazing with cold-blooded hatred, it turned back to its attackers.

“Speed,” Jinxie shouted as the warrior ran back towards the monster, preparing to finish it off, having no clue as to the magical forces at work, “don’t!”

With enough force to cleave another head in two, Speed struck once more, and even his befuddled mind registered shock and confusion as nothing but a shower of sparks was returned for his efforts. The Hydra’s now-impenetrable hide was unscathed, and its eyes fell upon the one responsible for the pain it had suffered. Speed took a step back, mouth slightly agape, as Jinxie rushed forward to try and save him, but was knocked back as the right head swiveled into her, throwing her to the ground. She could only look on in horror as Speed stood defenseless in front of the Hydra’s fangs.

With a burst of smoke and a wicked hiss, an aqueous cloud of purple vapor sprayed out of the Hydra’s mouth, enveloping Speed with its foul-smelling mist. He stumbled out of it, gagging, as Isset shouted his name. The Hydra reared its head back with what could only be described as a grin on its face as it saw Speed take a few halting steps forward, and then, his face turned a deathly pale shade as he collapsed, spasming on the ground as the poison of the Hydra wracked his body.

Then, with a sound that would haunt her nightmares, like veins popping and bone snapping, the Hydra lurched, venom still dripping from its fangs, and stuck its two heads straight out, giving a soundless roar as from the hissing, bleeding stump where its left head had been, the exposed wound suddenly began scabbing over. It didn’t stop there, as the monster gave a splintering cry, making Isset clutch her ears in pain as she covered Speed’s body. The skin at its neck bubbled and surged, and then, horrifically, a new head burst forth from the Hydra’s body. Jinxie couldn’t even scream as the sight unfurled before her, the monster regenerating a severed head as any other lizard might an arm or a tail. Eyes rolled into place from the back of its newly-grown skull, and with a fearsome hiss, it turned to regard the scene. The other two heads turned towards where Jinxie was crouched, struggling to rise after the blow she had been struck. Slowly, with deliberate intent, the monster began turning around to face her.

Isset clutched at Speed, desperately trying to make him respond. The warrior lay motionless on the ground, not a breath being drawn from his body. Yards away, Xaerus lie, still unmoving after she had been struck. There was only Jinxie now. In front of her, the monster who had proved itself invincible now loomed its full, terrifying height over her, all three heads growling menacingly as it stared down at the sole remaining fighter that had come before it.

Not knowing what else to do, indeed, perhaps not even having any option left, Jinxie clutched at the broken tree behind her to pull herself up, and with a trembling hand but a firm gaze, brought her sword up in front of the Hydra.

Flecks of liquid venom and saliva flecked into the air as its three heads all came crashing down towards her at once.