Only Jinxie’s stoneskin spell, a cue she had taken from Xaerus, saved her from being bitten in half by the monster as it clamped its jaws around her. Angered by its inability to bite down, the Hydra tossed her aside, seeking to snap her body against the trees, but she used the force she had been thrown with to her advantage, catching on to an outhanging branch and twirling around, coming down on her feet with knees bent, facing the beast. It regarded her without concern, stepping forward at a measured pace as it knew that nothing she did now would harm it. It was toying with a meal, to be eaten at its leisure. Jinxie ignored the pain in her side and summoned her magic up to a boiling point within herself; she would not be made into a snack for this atrocity.
Meanwhile, Isset frantically pounded on Speed’s chest, the latter splayed out on the ground gagging as foam began to form at his mouth, the poison from the Hydra’s breath tearing his body apart. He convulsed, throwing Isset off of his body, and then fell limp, the only sound he made the choking rattle of failed breathing as his throat closed in on itself.
“Speed!” she cried out, tears of frustration beading in her eyes, “Speed, you’ve got to hang on!” As he slipped away, her mind raced to try and find a solution.
Jinxie raced along the ground as the Hydra swerved its heads after her, the right and left heads opening to belch fire and ice at her respectively, forcing her to run as it trailed after her. She was hurled off of her feet by the impact of the Hydra’s elemental breath upon the ground, and stumbled head over heels, skidding to a halt against a shrub sticking out of the high walls of earth surrounding them. Dazed, she struggled to focus her vision, and when she did it found the Hydra perched over her, ready to finish off the snack it had been building up its appetite for. She lunged to get away, but found the Hydra’s heads now surrounding her. Her hands felt only rock at her back, and in front of her, naught but death.
“Speed!” Isset shouted as he began to go limp. “Please, Speed, there must be something that – “she stopped her own sentence short, eyes going wide as she shot her head up. “Shoki!” she called out. “Do you still have those vials I gave you?”
The puppet gave a nod of its mechanical head in response, and a compartment within its chest suddenly opened up to reveal a neatly-arranged row of concoctions, all of different color and transparency, lined up within.
“This one!” she shouted, pointing towards a red-shaded liquid which the puppet drew forth at her command. “Quick, Shoki, he can’t swallow! You have to put it in his blood!”
The puppet’s claw-like hand opened up, and a needle sprung forth. Dipping it into the fluid, it drew it up into itself, and then discarded the empty vial as Isset tore the chest plate on Speed’s armor open. With a powerful thrust, Shoki stabbed the antitode directly into the warrior’s heart, shooting it full of the venom antidote it had pumped in. With a gasp, Speed’s eyes flew open.
Jinxie’s foot bounded off of the Hydra’s left neck as she took to the air, riding a wave of air pockets she created as the creature snapped at her. The beast’s right head came forward to snatch her out of the air, but she planted her hand directly on its snout and flung herself backwards, landing on its neck and sliding down the scaly surface to safety. It kicked out at her with one of its giant clawed forelegs, but she tucked and rolled aside, her torn and tattered clothes coming up covered in dirt as she gasped for air. The thing spun around once again, the three heads zeroing in on her. She prepared to run again, but once again the Hydra’s power caught her off-guard.
With a ferocious release of energy, a blast of air overtook Jinxie directly from the Hydra’s body. She buckled under the impact, going down to one knee, and then faltered as she tried to rise. Her whole body felt weighed down, and she struggled to even draw breath as suddenly the pain in her side was magnified, the stress in her joints suddenly screaming at her. The Hydra had pressed down on the very air around them, making it seem as if her body was double, even triple its own weight. In the fight to even lift her head, she managed to roll her eyes up enough to see that the Hydra had finally caught up to her, and this time, there was nowhere left to go.
“Sweet Walahra,” Speed said as his breath returned to him, sweat drenching his brow as the antidote leeched the poison from his bloodstream, “what did you – oh, no. Isset, tell me that wasn’t an alchemical antidote.”
“Of course it was, you idiot,” Isset snapped at him, “I saved your life! Can’t you show a little . . . wait, “alchemical?” You never use words with that many syllables.”
Speed stood up, shaking his head as he brushed himself off, a look of disdain crossing his face as he sniffed at the air, rolling his tongue in his mouth as if unfamiliar with the flavor. “Those things the guild makes attack any foreign chemical agent in the body, it . . . well, not just the poison gets drained out.”
“Speed,” the Puppetmaster’s confused tone clearly displaying her reaction, “what the hell is wrong with you? Why are you talking like that?”
“That damn alchemy shit completely killed my high,” Speed spat out, swinging his axe over his shoulder. “I’m not even a little stoned anymore; I’m just really fuckin’ pissed off.”
“So what are you –“ Isset didn’t get to finish her sentence as a breeze suddenly flashed by her face, and dried leaves stirred at her feet. She blinked once before she realized Speed was gone.
His axe, called an amood by the people of Aht Urhgan, struck the Hydra with such intensity that the beast staggered back not due to pain, but simple physics and the laws of transfer of motion. It recoiled, swinging its heads back down to see its attacker, but found no one. Not even Jinxie, who had vanished from the spot she had been in. It roared, now angry again, as it searched for the source of its frustration. Then it spotted Jinxie, now a distance away beside the body of Xaerus, who still lay where she fell. It charged forward, but was knocked off balance again almost as soon as it began to move. Angrily twisting, the Hydra heard a rush of wind, and then once again its head buffeted back and forth, knocking into each other as one great impact after another struck the monster. It gave a piercing cry of fury, and, dropping out of nowhere, Speed appeared in front of it, his great axe a blur at the rate he twirled it in his two hands, raised over his head. The Hydra’s growl made the earth tremble as it charged forward, recognizing Speed right away. The warrior was suddenly gone from the spot he was standing, and his great axe connected against the Hydra’s massive center skull with so much force that rocks on the ground shattered in response to the reverberations.
Jinxie, in shock at the display, managed to crawl up to a sitting position as she struggled yet under the weight the Hydra had pressed down upon her. She went numb at an attempt to gather in magic to ward off the effects, struggling to maintain consciousness, and then her head went light as a wave of dispelling magic swept over her, and all at once, she felt the Hydra’s energy dissipate around her. She looked up and, at her side, Xaerus stood once more.
“Jinxie,” Xaerus said, coughing as a trickle of blood ran down her temple, “I have to recast my spell, but it will be ready for me this time.”
“Look, Xaerus,” Jinxie murmered, having trouble finding her voice, “Speed’s doing it, he can keep it busy while you – “
“No!” she said with surprising force for someone so obviously wounded, “Speed is distracting it physically, but you have to disrupt the magic in the area. What you did last time, that worked long enough, but it will be expected it again. Try something else, anything, but you have to do it or the second Speed falters, it’s going to come for us again, and we’ll have nothing left to throw at it. Jinxie, remember who this is for.”
The pain in Jinxie’s bruised ribs flared, and the countless scrapes and abrasions criss-crossing her body all seemed to crying out at once. With no soothing balm to bear and no energy to spare for healing, the most she could muster was speaking a single name. “Drake.” She uttered, and then, she pulled herself to her feet, as in her own mind, she silently added “Hubby.”
“Alright Xaerus,” Jinxie said, stepping forward towards the titanic clash going on between the Hydra and Speed, “do what you have to do.” The air began crackling and sizzling around her as overhead, the morning sky began growing dark. Clouds began forming in the air as Jinxie’s magical aura swelled like a dam fit to burst around her. She could hear the Mithra murmering her incantation as arcane energy poured from her own eyes, the blonde Hume’s stare fixed now on the Hydra. “Earth and wind didn’t do the trick,” she said aloud as electricity pulsed between her palms, “so let’s try adding water and lightning to the mix.”
Speed paused in his barrage against the Hydra and cast a look at the sky. The Hydra took the chance to try biting him in half, but its jaws found only air as Speed was suddenly several yards away, looking up at the monster as the clouds above it suddenly burst open. Where the air had been dry and hot, a torrential downpour suddenly overtook the area, centralized on the spot where the Hydra made its nest. The long-thirsty ground drunk in the swell of rain water, but was then blasted as a streak of lightning touched down from the localized clouds, lancing into the Hydra, which cried out in surprise. It roared an unspeakable fury, sensing the magic in the air as the wind began picking up again. Remembering the last time, its eyes searched for Jinxie, but almost immediately Speed was there again, hammering away at the monster with a flurry of blows that it was unable to retaliate against. It cried out in frustration, even as its invincible hide protected it from any real damage.
Jinxie redoubled her efforts, and the wind howled louder than ever, tearing trees free from the ground and smashing them into the Hydra’s hide as thin streaks of lightning danced all around its body. The rain soaked the ground, coming down with such force that the dry earth began bubbling and swelling with water, becoming a mire of mud before their very eyes. Before long, Speed had to abandon his assault, seeking protection from the elements being brought to bear by the incredible might at Jinxie’s command. Rykoshet had once told her that the monsters they fought on a daily basis in Those Guys just weren’t as exciting since she joined the ranks of the linkshell. She wondered how much excitement Rykoshet would find in this, seeing the full extent of her powers unleashed.
The Hydra’s right head, free of Speed’s attack, saw Jinxie through the haze, and the beast flung itself around to face her. Fighting the wind and driving rain being brought to bear against it, the monster stomped forward, the soaking ground now caving under its tremendous weight, and began a slow crawl towards Jinxie. Her eyes glowing like beacons in the night even as she felt her power begin to wane, she forced herself to continue drawing on the elemental force in the Wajaom Woodlands to fight this monstrosity. It edged closer, battling forward one step at a time, intent on ending this battle once and for all.
Jinxie could feel the hot stink of the Hydra’s venomous breath when she felt the magic in the area shift once again.
“HIT IT NOW!” she shouted as loudly as she could, her magic amplifying her voice over the roar of the storm rather than hiding it. With a lurch of her arms as if trying to lift some great weight, Jinxie urged all the magic in her being upwards, and the ground suddenly erupted with the gathered water it had been soaking in. At that same moment, Isset sprung forward, her legs surging with the chi she had been gathering, and she smashed her foot into the ground, sending a wall of muddy earth surging towards the Hydra even as she swung the animator around. Shoki leaped off of her back into the air, gleaming with a golden glow as he burned out the last of his power cells to fully concentrate on earth magic. The ground trembled and quaked beneath the Hydra, and it struggled desperately to escape as it found itself trapped in mire Jinxie had created.
In a flash that could have easily been mistaken for the lightning in the air, Speed’s amood connected with the ground, a shockwave from the impact colliding with the effect from Isset’s Dragon Kick, and with that final push, the ground burst open. The Hydra’s center head lashed out, darting for Jinxie in a vindictive attempt to take her life with it, but the woman pushed forward with all the magic she had left at that same instant. A groaning, heaving earth gave way as wind, earth, lightning, and water all converged on one spot, and the Hydra let loose a final roar as the combined forces against it crushed its bones beneath tons of earth which sank in around it, the cave connecting the area to Aydeewa Subterrane collapsing beneath the stress and burying the Hydra once and for all.
Isset ran forward and caught Jinxie as she collapsed to her knees, utterly drained. Above them, the clouds dispersed, and sunlight almost immediately began pouring in on the blasted area as the magic keeping it away fell apart. Xaerus hobbled forward, blood soaking the blindfold around her eyes as she clutched at one of her shoulders. Shoki lay collapsed on the ground, drained of power for the time being, and Speed simply stood off to the side, arms folded, appearing to be in pain just by standing. Jinxie used what strength she had left to give a weak smile. This was what she had to do; and she had done it.
“How long. . .” she tried to say, “How long . . . before they know . . . “
That’s when it was Isset’s turn to grin. “Oh they already know, Jinxie.” She said with a somewhat self-approving tone. “Shoki can broadcast images back to any other puppet within range of his signal. Every Puppetmaster in Al Zahbi could see the fight going on, and that includes that girl in the Imperial Palace.” Her grin turned into a broad smile as she helped Jinxie lay back, the world already starting to black out around the edges. “Congratulations, Bastoker,” the Al Zahbi woman told her, “you’re officially a hero of the Empire now.”
Even Isset’s words, half-forgotten by the time Jinxie had woken up, could not have prepared her for the reception she received in Al Zahbi. Even in a country so accustomed to battle and bloodshed, her fight against the Hydra had been one of the most spectacular things anyone in the Imperial City could ever remember seeing. She had woken in the care of Abquhbah, the secretary from Salaheem’s Sentinels, who was positively beside himself in joy at her accomplishment. When she found the strength to stand after a few meals in bed and some precious time spent with Drake, she had even found Naja Salaheem herself warmly receptive.
“Ya done the name of the Sentinel’s prrrroud out there, Jinxie,” the mace-wiedling woman had told her, even as she bobbed the instrument up and down on her shoulder. “Everyone saw ya take out that monster with just the four of ya, on a job commissioned by the agency! The coffer’s are gonna be full offa this one for awhile.”
“I did what I was asked, Naja,” Jinxie had told her, “so when do I . . . ?”
“Go t’ the palace?” Salaheem said for her, and then gave a smile which revealed a single fang. “I’d getcher clothes fixed up if I were you, an Immortal delivered yer official summons before ya even got back to town.”
So it was that once again, Jinxie found herself in the resplendent halls of the Imperial Palace. This time though, she felt no awe or amazement sweep over her as she walked through the magnificent halls of the Urghuum Emperors and Empresses past, only a steadfast resolve to accomplish what she had set out to do. This time, they could not refuse her, and as she Immortals swung open the doors leading to the imperial chamber, she sensed that they knew the same thing by the atmosphere in the room. The Grand Vizier, Razfahd, stood with an angry scowl on his face before Nashmeira’s dais, and the court Puppetmaster, Aphmau, grinned like the cat who just ate the canary.
“Jinxie of Bastok,” Razfahd intoned, his perfunctory tone laced with acid, “you have permission to approach the Empress Nashmeira.”
“Thank you, Grand Vizier,” Jinxie responded. She had come on her own, neither of Naja’s mercenaries having permission to enter the palace, and Xaerus once again having vanished before she had recovered from the fight. Her wounds still bothered her, but she stood tall before the Immortals and the Empress, not a hint of her pain showing on her face as she voiced her demands. “Empress,” she said, giving a flourish of acknowledgement to the woman behind the curtain, “I have returned from slaying the Hydra in the name of the Empire, and as such, would hope that you could see fit to perform a favor for me.”
“Welcome back, Jinxie,” the Empress replied in her commanding, yet sincere voice, “and I congratulate you. In light of your triumph, which has greatly benefited the Empire, it has become possible to spare a contingent of Imperial soldiers for you to bring back to your homelands to combat the demon plague.”
Before Jinxie could respond, she was cut off by a cough from Razfahd. Aphmau and Jinxie both turned their heads as the man took a step in front of the Empress, hands clasped behind his back as he spoke.
“Possible, yes,” he admitted, “but still not advisable. If anything, we should use Jinxie’s . . . accomplishment . . . to strengthen our own position in the Mamool Ja’s territory. I see no reason to divert our attention away from that pursuit now while the opportunity presents itself.”
“Razfahd, I have spoken,” Nashmeira stated firmly, but the Grand Vizier moved on smoothly.
“And as your Vizier, your Imperial Majesty, I am letting you know that it is not a wise decision. Our five generals are taxed to the limit keeping up with the constant threats our empire faces, if one of them was suddenly put in a position where they needed extra soldiers and found themselves undermanned, well. . . I would hate for such a dilemma to be blamed on our newest hero, wouldn’t you?”
Jinxie bared her teeth at the man, but Nashmeira spoke over her. “She will receive Imperial assistance for her aid to the Empire, Razfahd, if you can think of any better way to provide it, speak up now.”
“Very well,” the Grand Vizier replied, leveling his gaze on Jinxie. “There is one task you may perform, not as some lowly mercenary, but as a direct assignment from the Imperial Court. Part of the reason our numbers suffer is due to a lack of volunteers; a deficiency which we can trace back solely to one man.”
“Razfahd, you can’t -” Aphmau suddenly spoke up from where she sat off to the side of the throne, but the armored man silenced her with a raised palm.
“You see, one of our most esteemed military leaders abandoned his post some years ago, and since then, things have just not been the same. Find him, convince him to return to service, and the news of his return shall ring far and wide, no doubt causing our military numbers to burgeon to the point of bursting. Then you can take all the soldiers you want, Jinxie.” He said her name with an oily smile that made her have to repress a sneer of distaste.
“Fine,” she replied through grinding teeth, “point me in his direction and I’ll retrieve him for you, whatever it takes.”
Razfahd clicked his tongue once. “If only it were that easy. You see, no one is quite sure where he went; it’s as if he vanished from the face of Vana’diel itself. Take all the time you need to find him, though, we are quite patient, and confident in your ability to succeed.”
“If you don’t know where he is, how am I supposed to – “
“That is your problem now, Jinxie,” Razfahd replied, cutting her off and directing a leveling stare at Aphmau, who drew her hands close to herself, remaining quiet. “You have been given your task, and if you want our help, you will carry it out. Go out into the world, and if you ever expect the Empire to aid you in your war, do not return without the Sixth Serpent General; the Sunserpent, Kkel Solaar.”
Showing posts with label Wajaom Woodlands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wajaom Woodlands. Show all posts
Friday, February 12, 2010
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.
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.
Chapter XXV: Dialogue Between Red Mages
The Wajaom Woodlands were a dry, arid place despite the exotic greenery from which it derived its name, as the summer months in western Aradjiah were always when the high heat swept over the continent, leaving rivers depleted and the ground cracked and dry. The empire of Uhrguum, with its oppressively humid mires, its volcanically active mountains, and its lack of any substantial inland bodies of water, had always been a meteorological hotspot; and now, at the peak of those temperature ranges, there was almost no way to keep one self completely cool.
Thus it may have been the heat as much as anything that brought Jinxie out of her sleep in a sweat, her dampened hair clinging to her perspiring face as she gasped, shooting up into a sitting position within her bedroll. As she had so many times before since leaving for the Empire, she had dreamed of Hubby, and seen him in utter peril. She pulled her knees in close; her breath coming in short gasps as she struggled to control it, and wondered why she had to be tormented with such visions when she had already lost her husband. Dynamis, she recalled, was sometimes known as the World of Nightmares, and it seemed that part of it had stowed away in her mind when she had been taken from her love. She could not escape these terrifying dreams of Hubby fighting for his life against demons swarming in on him, and even as the memory of her dreams quickly fled from her mind upon waking, the impression of fear and despair stayed with her.
Collecting herself in an extended breath, she brought her head back up. She had no time for this sort of weakness now, not with a mission in front of her. Jinxie, Isset, Xaerus, and the meandering Speed had trekked through the underground caverns known as Aydeewa Subterrane for two days before emerging at the spot believed to be the Hydra’s nest. She would complete this task for that bossy shrew, Naja Salaheem, and earn herself another audience with the Empress. The fate of Mindartia might very well have been in her hands, but besides that, she still had Drake. His future was still worth fighting for.
Turning her head, she saw off near the bushes, away from the smoldering embers which remained of the fire they had cooked dinner over, Isset soundly slept curled up in her own bedroll, the form of Shoki sitting deactivated beside her. Against a tree not too far away, his great crescent-bladed axe propped up on the ground and resting over his shoulder, Speed snored loudly, deep in his plant-induced slumber. Every time he had been seen with one of his foul-smelling cigarettes rolled up and ready to light, Isset had promptly smacked it out of his hands, but Jinxie knew that he had volunteered to “scout up ahead” one too many times. He gave an unintelligible murmer in his sleep, and then settled back to snoring.
Then, there was Xaerus. The woman who had brought Jinxie to this sun-scorched land so far from home sat quietly atop a log half-buried in dried leaves, staring out into nothing. If she slept sitting up or simply did not sleep at all, Jinxie had no idea, but the white-haired Mithra was clearly awake now from her posture. She sat straight up, head inclined, her tail slowly swishing back and forth as she looked out into the night sky of the Wajaom Woodlands. Her blindfold was still wrapped tightly around her head beneath the three-cornered hat she wore, a slim white plume stuck in the side of it, but she stared out all the same with her sightless gaze. They had found Xaerus waiting for them near the Chocobo stables in Al Zahbi, fully aware of their mission despite not being present when Naja Salaheem had assigned it to her. The Mithra’s existence brought new questions to light every day, and had thus far never provided any answers.
Casting off the blanket of her bedroll, Jinxie retrieved her tabard from where it had been laid out and slipped it over her shoulders, fastening the clasps on it shut as she walked towards Xaerus, whose feline ears twitched at her approach. She did not turn as the blonde woman slowly crossed the distance between them, sitting down beside her and looking up to where Xaerus seemed to be peering. The clouds were few and far between this evening, the moon high and gibbous in the sky overhead. They sat in silence for a few moments, Xaerus not deigning to speak, before Jinxie finally opened her mouth, but before any words could come out, Xaerus’s left hand flew up, and the Hume found her voice cut off as her head was encompassed by a bubble of water.
It seemed that even before she could register the fact that her air had been cut off by Xaerus’s spell, the Mithra’s other hand came up, and just like that the water evaporated under the power of a blast of heat so strong it dried the humid air around it. Jinxie gasped, falling backwards as her hands instinctively shot back to catch her, taken completely off-guard by the attack. She rushed to gather up her magic and defend herself, but Xaerus sat calmly even as electricity began surging out of Jinxie’s palm. She lay there for a moment, back in the foliage, her hands glowing purple, and realized that the Mithra was not doing anything else; casting no spells, making no move to defend herself, merely looking back up at the moon above.
“I hate it when my hair gets sweaty like that,” Xaerus remarked, not looking back at Jinxie, “I thought I might take care of it for you.”
“Are you insane?!” Jinxie yelled, pulling herself back up to her feet, energy still coursing through her bones. “I thought you were attacking me, I could have killed you!”
Not for the first time, a slim smile crossed Xaerus’s lips as the Mithra carefully groomed her own head of snowy white hair. “Do you trust me so little, Jinxie?” she inquired.
Jinxie lowered her hands, the aura of lightning energy which had been surging through them dissipating in the air as, after a pause to regard the blind woman, she sat down beside her again, her expression quizzical in response to the question.
“Xaerus,” Jinxie replied, “I don’t trust you at all. How can I? I don’t know anything about you.”
“You know that I saved your life in Mhaura.” She replied, raising an eyebrow as if questioning why that shouldn’t be enough.
“I don’t know why you saved my life,” Jinxie shot back, “and you haven’t explained it at all. I’ve learned not to trust people without knowing why I should, Xaerus, and you’ve left me without any reason at all.”
The Mithra gave a sigh, her face unreadable, before replying. “So, what is it then? You want to know more about me?”
“That would be a good start,” Jinxie responded.
“What do you want to know?” Xaerus asked, finally turning her head towards the blonde woman.
Jinxie thought for a moment, regarding Xaerus’s cat-like features. Yet again, despite the blindfold wrapped tightly around her eyes, she seemed to be looking directly at Jinxie, and the Red Mage reflected on the fact that in their weeks together, Xaerus had never required help moving around. In fact, it often seemed she was more familiar with her surroundings than a sighted person would be. Jinxie’s eyes narrowed, and, turning herself to face Xaerus directly, she posed her question point-blank.
“How much can you actually see?” she queried, her tone clearly implying that she wanted no more riddles served as answers.
To her surprise, Xaerus gave a short laugh, a lilting thing that sounded amused for reasons all her own. Turning her head away again, she once more began regarding the stars. “I see what I need to see, Jinxie.”
“Not good enough,” the Hume snapped, prompting Xaerus to turn, apparently surprised at the response. “Why do you wear that blindfold, Xaerus? What happened to you?”
The Mithra sat in silence for a moment, her unseeing gaze leveled at Jinxie. She began to say something but paused, then cast her stare out into the woods, a short breath escaping her lips. “Much has happened.” She finally stated, “and I will tell you some of it, but time grows short.”
“What do you mean?” Jinxie probed cautiously.
“I have told myself since discovering what it is we must do that I should be amused by the idea of fighting a Hydra. Tell me, Jinxie, do you know the story of the Hydra Corps?”
Xaerus’s question seemed to come from nowhere, and it left Jinxie temporarily without a response. The Hydra Corps were an infamous unit from the Crystal War, supposedly an elite cadre bound together by the allied nations in order to infiltrate the very heart of enemy territory and pave the way for a full-scale invasion. However, the entire Corps, to the man, vanished without explanation shortly after their mission began. No evidence had ever been found as to their fate, and their entire existence was the most famous of the unsolved mysteries surrounding the Crystal War.
“I . . . I know what I’ve heard, what everyone knows about them,” Jinxie responded, unsure of what else to say.
“Then you know enough; as much as I did, anyway, when I set out looking for them.” Xaerus said coolly. “I put this blindfold on as a result of my search for the Hydra Corps, and what happened when my journey to discover their fate took me to Xarcabard. It was there, Jinxie, that I saw what became the last thing I have seen to this day.”
“Why would you search for the Hydra Corps? What were you doing in Xarcabard?” she asked, slightly aghast. Memories surfaced in Jinxie’s mind of when Those Guys had ventured into that blighted tundra to do battle with the animated corpse of a great dragon; the journey into that land of the demons and undead was not one she wished to revisit.
“Because that is where the Hydra Corps were going when they vanished. And among their number was my mother.”
Jinxie’s breath caught in a short gasp, but before she could make any kind of motion to respond, she was cut off by a tremendous rumbling of the earth, a shockwave which shook her off of the log which she sat upon, even as Xaerus leaped to her feet at the last moment, her knees bracing against the impact. Another came, a trembling of the ground, and behind Jinxie Isset awoke with a start, shooting up in bed as Shoki suddenly came to life, hopping to his mechanized feet in front of the Puppetmaster. A roar shook the night air, and Speed’s bloodshot eyes whipped open with a snort as he came back to consciousness, eyes growing wide as he looked into the shadows.
“As I was saying,” Xaerus said, holding out her hand as the black-jeweled staff she brought with her flew into her grasp, “our time is short.”
“It would appear,” Isset shouted from behind them even as she snatched her boots off of the ground and began stepping into them, “we were much closer to the Hydra’s den than we thought.”
Jinxie gave no verbal response, but her brow tightened and her fists clenched, the magical energy inside of her swelling up in response to her call. Regardless of the situation or whatever else was happening in the world, her time with Those Guys had taught her that no matter what, always be prepared to fight a giant monster. Her staff and sword lay prepared by her bedroll where she had left them, and her eyes darted back and forth between them and the creature that loomed in front of her now.
Its scale was unimaginable. The monster’s head crested as high as at least twenty feet, thousands upon thousands of rows of glittering scales gleaming in the moonlight. They could see it breathing as jets of air shot out from its nostrils like steam, and the massive paws which held up its tremendous girth left foot-deep imprints in the ground as it walked, claws like battle axes scraping up the ground. Behind it, a tail stretched out endlessly, the tip of it reaching back down over a hill and out of their immediate range of vision. The beast opened its mouth, producing another cry which came out with palbable force. Before the booming sound had even ended, it produced another, and then another, and then, fangs the size of Jinxie’s forearms dripping venom as its serpentine body slid forward, the beast turned its attention on the group spread out before it. It had six eyes perched on three heads, and all of them were focused on the tiny beings on the ground.
“Whoa . . . “ Speed whispered in disbelief, rubbing his eyes feverishly as he took hold of his great axe, mouth agape. “That dude is tripping!”
“Speed!” Isset shouted at him as the monster which was unmistakably the Hydra came charging forward, “Don’t just stand there, hit it with something!”
“Huh? Oh, right!” Speed’s confusion cleared up at the shouted instruction from the Puppetmaster, and without warning he plunged headlong into the beast, axe swinging. A shower of sparks flew from its’ thick hide as Speed’s giant bladed weapon scraped across it, and it gave a cry, snapping at him with one of its heads even as he fell back down to the ground after his initial leap. It’s bite was cut off, however, as a ball of fire struck it in the face, causing its right-most head to give a retaliatory roar, and its attention fell on Shoki, guided by Isset, manipulating magic through the puppet.
The Puppetmaster smiled, throwing one arm up and another back, and Shoki mimicked her movements with the addition of another blast of fire striking the Hydra as it moved. Speed, in the meantime, half-leaped half-stumbled back, avoiding a bone-crunching bite from another head, snatched to safety by the sudden interference of Xaerus, who flicked her hand out dismissively, a blast of ice forming in the air and colliding under the chin of the creature, provoking an angry hiss.
Jinxie, in the meantime, came up from her belongings where she had dove to, bearing in one hand the staff which amplified her magical powers, and in the other, the sword through which she would channel it. Without a second thought, while the beast flailed angrily against the attacks of the three already engaged with it, Jinxie threw herself into the fray. If this is what it took, then this is what she would do.
Thus it may have been the heat as much as anything that brought Jinxie out of her sleep in a sweat, her dampened hair clinging to her perspiring face as she gasped, shooting up into a sitting position within her bedroll. As she had so many times before since leaving for the Empire, she had dreamed of Hubby, and seen him in utter peril. She pulled her knees in close; her breath coming in short gasps as she struggled to control it, and wondered why she had to be tormented with such visions when she had already lost her husband. Dynamis, she recalled, was sometimes known as the World of Nightmares, and it seemed that part of it had stowed away in her mind when she had been taken from her love. She could not escape these terrifying dreams of Hubby fighting for his life against demons swarming in on him, and even as the memory of her dreams quickly fled from her mind upon waking, the impression of fear and despair stayed with her.
Collecting herself in an extended breath, she brought her head back up. She had no time for this sort of weakness now, not with a mission in front of her. Jinxie, Isset, Xaerus, and the meandering Speed had trekked through the underground caverns known as Aydeewa Subterrane for two days before emerging at the spot believed to be the Hydra’s nest. She would complete this task for that bossy shrew, Naja Salaheem, and earn herself another audience with the Empress. The fate of Mindartia might very well have been in her hands, but besides that, she still had Drake. His future was still worth fighting for.
Turning her head, she saw off near the bushes, away from the smoldering embers which remained of the fire they had cooked dinner over, Isset soundly slept curled up in her own bedroll, the form of Shoki sitting deactivated beside her. Against a tree not too far away, his great crescent-bladed axe propped up on the ground and resting over his shoulder, Speed snored loudly, deep in his plant-induced slumber. Every time he had been seen with one of his foul-smelling cigarettes rolled up and ready to light, Isset had promptly smacked it out of his hands, but Jinxie knew that he had volunteered to “scout up ahead” one too many times. He gave an unintelligible murmer in his sleep, and then settled back to snoring.
Then, there was Xaerus. The woman who had brought Jinxie to this sun-scorched land so far from home sat quietly atop a log half-buried in dried leaves, staring out into nothing. If she slept sitting up or simply did not sleep at all, Jinxie had no idea, but the white-haired Mithra was clearly awake now from her posture. She sat straight up, head inclined, her tail slowly swishing back and forth as she looked out into the night sky of the Wajaom Woodlands. Her blindfold was still wrapped tightly around her head beneath the three-cornered hat she wore, a slim white plume stuck in the side of it, but she stared out all the same with her sightless gaze. They had found Xaerus waiting for them near the Chocobo stables in Al Zahbi, fully aware of their mission despite not being present when Naja Salaheem had assigned it to her. The Mithra’s existence brought new questions to light every day, and had thus far never provided any answers.
Casting off the blanket of her bedroll, Jinxie retrieved her tabard from where it had been laid out and slipped it over her shoulders, fastening the clasps on it shut as she walked towards Xaerus, whose feline ears twitched at her approach. She did not turn as the blonde woman slowly crossed the distance between them, sitting down beside her and looking up to where Xaerus seemed to be peering. The clouds were few and far between this evening, the moon high and gibbous in the sky overhead. They sat in silence for a few moments, Xaerus not deigning to speak, before Jinxie finally opened her mouth, but before any words could come out, Xaerus’s left hand flew up, and the Hume found her voice cut off as her head was encompassed by a bubble of water.
It seemed that even before she could register the fact that her air had been cut off by Xaerus’s spell, the Mithra’s other hand came up, and just like that the water evaporated under the power of a blast of heat so strong it dried the humid air around it. Jinxie gasped, falling backwards as her hands instinctively shot back to catch her, taken completely off-guard by the attack. She rushed to gather up her magic and defend herself, but Xaerus sat calmly even as electricity began surging out of Jinxie’s palm. She lay there for a moment, back in the foliage, her hands glowing purple, and realized that the Mithra was not doing anything else; casting no spells, making no move to defend herself, merely looking back up at the moon above.
“I hate it when my hair gets sweaty like that,” Xaerus remarked, not looking back at Jinxie, “I thought I might take care of it for you.”
“Are you insane?!” Jinxie yelled, pulling herself back up to her feet, energy still coursing through her bones. “I thought you were attacking me, I could have killed you!”
Not for the first time, a slim smile crossed Xaerus’s lips as the Mithra carefully groomed her own head of snowy white hair. “Do you trust me so little, Jinxie?” she inquired.
Jinxie lowered her hands, the aura of lightning energy which had been surging through them dissipating in the air as, after a pause to regard the blind woman, she sat down beside her again, her expression quizzical in response to the question.
“Xaerus,” Jinxie replied, “I don’t trust you at all. How can I? I don’t know anything about you.”
“You know that I saved your life in Mhaura.” She replied, raising an eyebrow as if questioning why that shouldn’t be enough.
“I don’t know why you saved my life,” Jinxie shot back, “and you haven’t explained it at all. I’ve learned not to trust people without knowing why I should, Xaerus, and you’ve left me without any reason at all.”
The Mithra gave a sigh, her face unreadable, before replying. “So, what is it then? You want to know more about me?”
“That would be a good start,” Jinxie responded.
“What do you want to know?” Xaerus asked, finally turning her head towards the blonde woman.
Jinxie thought for a moment, regarding Xaerus’s cat-like features. Yet again, despite the blindfold wrapped tightly around her eyes, she seemed to be looking directly at Jinxie, and the Red Mage reflected on the fact that in their weeks together, Xaerus had never required help moving around. In fact, it often seemed she was more familiar with her surroundings than a sighted person would be. Jinxie’s eyes narrowed, and, turning herself to face Xaerus directly, she posed her question point-blank.
“How much can you actually see?” she queried, her tone clearly implying that she wanted no more riddles served as answers.
To her surprise, Xaerus gave a short laugh, a lilting thing that sounded amused for reasons all her own. Turning her head away again, she once more began regarding the stars. “I see what I need to see, Jinxie.”
“Not good enough,” the Hume snapped, prompting Xaerus to turn, apparently surprised at the response. “Why do you wear that blindfold, Xaerus? What happened to you?”
The Mithra sat in silence for a moment, her unseeing gaze leveled at Jinxie. She began to say something but paused, then cast her stare out into the woods, a short breath escaping her lips. “Much has happened.” She finally stated, “and I will tell you some of it, but time grows short.”
“What do you mean?” Jinxie probed cautiously.
“I have told myself since discovering what it is we must do that I should be amused by the idea of fighting a Hydra. Tell me, Jinxie, do you know the story of the Hydra Corps?”
Xaerus’s question seemed to come from nowhere, and it left Jinxie temporarily without a response. The Hydra Corps were an infamous unit from the Crystal War, supposedly an elite cadre bound together by the allied nations in order to infiltrate the very heart of enemy territory and pave the way for a full-scale invasion. However, the entire Corps, to the man, vanished without explanation shortly after their mission began. No evidence had ever been found as to their fate, and their entire existence was the most famous of the unsolved mysteries surrounding the Crystal War.
“I . . . I know what I’ve heard, what everyone knows about them,” Jinxie responded, unsure of what else to say.
“Then you know enough; as much as I did, anyway, when I set out looking for them.” Xaerus said coolly. “I put this blindfold on as a result of my search for the Hydra Corps, and what happened when my journey to discover their fate took me to Xarcabard. It was there, Jinxie, that I saw what became the last thing I have seen to this day.”
“Why would you search for the Hydra Corps? What were you doing in Xarcabard?” she asked, slightly aghast. Memories surfaced in Jinxie’s mind of when Those Guys had ventured into that blighted tundra to do battle with the animated corpse of a great dragon; the journey into that land of the demons and undead was not one she wished to revisit.
“Because that is where the Hydra Corps were going when they vanished. And among their number was my mother.”
Jinxie’s breath caught in a short gasp, but before she could make any kind of motion to respond, she was cut off by a tremendous rumbling of the earth, a shockwave which shook her off of the log which she sat upon, even as Xaerus leaped to her feet at the last moment, her knees bracing against the impact. Another came, a trembling of the ground, and behind Jinxie Isset awoke with a start, shooting up in bed as Shoki suddenly came to life, hopping to his mechanized feet in front of the Puppetmaster. A roar shook the night air, and Speed’s bloodshot eyes whipped open with a snort as he came back to consciousness, eyes growing wide as he looked into the shadows.
“As I was saying,” Xaerus said, holding out her hand as the black-jeweled staff she brought with her flew into her grasp, “our time is short.”
“It would appear,” Isset shouted from behind them even as she snatched her boots off of the ground and began stepping into them, “we were much closer to the Hydra’s den than we thought.”
Jinxie gave no verbal response, but her brow tightened and her fists clenched, the magical energy inside of her swelling up in response to her call. Regardless of the situation or whatever else was happening in the world, her time with Those Guys had taught her that no matter what, always be prepared to fight a giant monster. Her staff and sword lay prepared by her bedroll where she had left them, and her eyes darted back and forth between them and the creature that loomed in front of her now.
Its scale was unimaginable. The monster’s head crested as high as at least twenty feet, thousands upon thousands of rows of glittering scales gleaming in the moonlight. They could see it breathing as jets of air shot out from its nostrils like steam, and the massive paws which held up its tremendous girth left foot-deep imprints in the ground as it walked, claws like battle axes scraping up the ground. Behind it, a tail stretched out endlessly, the tip of it reaching back down over a hill and out of their immediate range of vision. The beast opened its mouth, producing another cry which came out with palbable force. Before the booming sound had even ended, it produced another, and then another, and then, fangs the size of Jinxie’s forearms dripping venom as its serpentine body slid forward, the beast turned its attention on the group spread out before it. It had six eyes perched on three heads, and all of them were focused on the tiny beings on the ground.
“Whoa . . . “ Speed whispered in disbelief, rubbing his eyes feverishly as he took hold of his great axe, mouth agape. “That dude is tripping!”
“Speed!” Isset shouted at him as the monster which was unmistakably the Hydra came charging forward, “Don’t just stand there, hit it with something!”
“Huh? Oh, right!” Speed’s confusion cleared up at the shouted instruction from the Puppetmaster, and without warning he plunged headlong into the beast, axe swinging. A shower of sparks flew from its’ thick hide as Speed’s giant bladed weapon scraped across it, and it gave a cry, snapping at him with one of its heads even as he fell back down to the ground after his initial leap. It’s bite was cut off, however, as a ball of fire struck it in the face, causing its right-most head to give a retaliatory roar, and its attention fell on Shoki, guided by Isset, manipulating magic through the puppet.
The Puppetmaster smiled, throwing one arm up and another back, and Shoki mimicked her movements with the addition of another blast of fire striking the Hydra as it moved. Speed, in the meantime, half-leaped half-stumbled back, avoiding a bone-crunching bite from another head, snatched to safety by the sudden interference of Xaerus, who flicked her hand out dismissively, a blast of ice forming in the air and colliding under the chin of the creature, provoking an angry hiss.
Jinxie, in the meantime, came up from her belongings where she had dove to, bearing in one hand the staff which amplified her magical powers, and in the other, the sword through which she would channel it. Without a second thought, while the beast flailed angrily against the attacks of the three already engaged with it, Jinxie threw herself into the fray. If this is what it took, then this is what she would do.
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