Volume 13 Chapter 8 - Mortal Combat

The battle begins.

In the grand chamber, a massive Hydra was waiting for us,

Behind it were the magic crystals.

And trapped in the middle of the largest magic crystal was, without a doubt, Zenith.

When the Hydra sees us, it slowly raises its body.

"Alright, here I go!"

Paul sprints off,

Keeping a low posture like a dog, he is fast like the wind,

The kind of speed that would leave anyone in the dust,

However this time, Elinalise follows Paul’s lead as well.

From behind is Talhand, with a slow gait.

We progress forward, matching the pace of Talhand.

Gisu waits further in the rear.

Since he cannot fight, he's useless in this battle.

He can offer no real techniques for fighting with such a large-scale monster like a Hydra.

However, he is there for a reason.

Worst case, if we should be annihilated, his role is to escape and report what happened.

"RAAaaa!"

Paul reaches the Hydra,

At the same time, three of the Hydra's heads move.

For its size, the Hydra is quick.

All of its heads, each like a wild snake, move nimbly and independently.

But,

In a moment of blurring motion, Paul severs one of the heads from the Hydra.

All right, keep it up.

"[Fire Ball]!"

At the head of my staff, I put the full might of the magic power in my body.

A tremendously hot fireball blasts off towards the Hydra.

--But, it was no good.

The fireball begins to dwindle the closer to the Hydra it gets, and disappears on impact.

I hear an unpleasant sound as if scratching glass.

"As I expected, I'm going to have to get closer to use magic."

If I do not close this distance and approach it, I cannot defeat it.

I won't be able to damage it unless I hit it point-blank with fire magic.

"So that's the plan, eh? Are you going to be able to fight up close, Rudi?"

"I'll be fine. While I trained, I didn't just limit it to magic."

Although I confidently said so, my heart is beating out of my chest.

I am weak in close combat.

Most of my memories of close combat ended up colored with my defeat.

Beginning with Paul, then Ghyslaine, Eris, Ruijerd, and Orsted,

At each time, I was unable to defeat anybody.

Though, somehow, I had managed to get by in recent fights.

The stray dragon, Rinia, Pursena, and Luke.

I used the Demon Eye of Foresight to win against them.

However, can I win against this Hydra?

It's a no.

I don't believe I could defeat an opponent that warriors, such as Paul and Elinalise, struggle to fight.

In other words, just because I had managed to win a few battles recently, doesn't mean I can win against the Hydra.

But, I'm not fighting alone this time.

It's a team battle.

I have Paul, Elinalise, and even Roxy.

Talhand as well, though I can’t verify his full power; surely it must be at the same level of the others.

I take off at full speed, and arrive just behind Paul.

"Rudi, don't you dare move away from my back!"

I listen to the instruction of Paul who's in front of me.

Elinalise flanks to the left and Talhand to the right,

And Roxy casts from the rear.

The formation is exactly like the Imperial Cross.

"SHAAAaaaa!"

Three heads attack simultaneously.

It seems the Hydra doesn't move any more than three.

Perhaps it’s incapable of moving more?

Or is it, because moving more heads would interfere?

I don't understand it, but it's convenient.

Elinalise sidesteps one head, Talhand bats away another.

And Paul cleanly beheads the remaining attacking head.

The head falls to the ground and begins writhing.

"Go now!"

"I'm on it!"

After I hear the shout of Paul, I dash quickly to the severed neck, and release my magic.

The fire magic hits the open neck, and the intensity of the fire illuminates the surroundings.

I scorch the Hydra’s neck wound; while it makes a smoldering sound, the fire completely chars the neck.

"How's that…?"

While keeping an eye on the wound, I back step away.

I don't know yet if it was effective.

Almost immediately, another head attacks.

Paul stops the blow.

Elinalise parries it away with a shield.

At the edge of my view, a spray of blood comes up from Talhand.

"Kuh!"

"Power of the divine, become the nourishment for this body — [Healing]!"

When Talhand became injured, Roxy immediately ran, while chanting, to heal his wound.

Everybody else is moving about, overwhelming the Hydra, so no attacks can reach me.

I can do nothing but confirm it.

"…"

And as for the wound on the neck:

Does the cauterized section still regrow a head?

How did it go?

"…All right."

No new head is regrown.

The wound remains unchanged.

There is no surge of new flesh, and no new head regenerates.

"It's working!"

"Hell yeah!"

Paul bellows and another head falls.

And I scorch that neck.

The heat is terrifying.

Indeed, the temperature of the heat begins to choke me.

However, to scorch the neck sections, I must use at least this much intensity.

If I fail to scorch the neck sections properly, a new head could regenerate.

So, we continue in this manner…

"…m! Cover me!"

My Demon Eye of Foresight catches the Hydra's movement.

<Two of the Hydra's heads that don't move, will aim for me.>

I evade one.

<However, the other one aims for the place that I evade to.>

"Leave it to me!"

In the place where I dodged the first attacking head, Elinalise jumps.

Jumping in with a slightly unnatural stance, she knocks one of the heads back.

She places her body between the Hydra and myself.

The shield is placed between the Hydra and myself.

Even while I hear a snarling sound come forth, Elinalise protects me.

A small squirt of Elinalise’s blood splashes on my cheek,

"Roxy! She needs healing!"

"Power of the divine, become the nourishment for this body — [Healing]!"

Roxy immediately remedies the wound of Elinalise.

And both return to their positions without incident.

"Rudi! Keep your sights on the third one!"

"Got it!" Paul shouts.

At the same time, another head falls, and a pillar of blood erupts.

I grill the neck.

My only job is to grill.

I'm grilling meat,

But I grill it diligently.

I leave the rest to the others.

I only focus on what's before me.

Paul cuts, and I burn.

Elinalise and Talhand protect me.

And Roxy protects them.

The fourth head drops, and I scorch the neck.

It's going well.

At least I thought so,

But, then the Hydra changes its movements.

Suddenly,

Yes, very suddenly,

The Hydra launches all five of its remaining heads exclusively at Talhand.

"Kuuh!"

"Talhand!"

The first attacking head Talhand avoids.

In the place of the second head, that he cannot avoid, Talhand rolls on the ground.

At this time, he grazes the body of the Hydra, rolling and rattling along the ground.

The third attacking head comes.

Talhand, flat on his arse, manages to catch the coming mouth with his shield and axe.

Then, the fourth attacking head:

The Hydra head bites Talhand's leg.

And for a moment, suspends Talhand up in midair,

"Guooooo!"

Finally, the 5th attacking head, reaches to devour the whole body of the immobile Talhand—.

"Oryaa!"

With a ‘boom-boom’ sound, the head crashes.

The heads of the Hydra, that is.

The fourth and fifth heads were cut off by the slashing attack of Paul.

"I'm alive! Thanks for the save!" exclaims Talhand.

"I burned them!" I report.

"Power of the divine, become the nourishment for this body — [Healing]!" chants Roxy.

While we hear each other at the same time, we work separately.

I burn two more necks of the Hydra simultaneously.

Just three remain.

"Hm?"

Again, the movements of the Hydra change.

It appeared to stagger backwards, in fear of us.

"It's going good; we just need one final push, Rudi!"

Paul goes forward.

No, wait.

Isn't this a trap?

Although we should attack, I don't know what this opponent is plotting…

Then, when I give it a moment of thought,

"Naah!"

One of the Hydra's heads,

An especially big head,

It tears the scorched part clean off one of the necks.

"What the?!"

With the cauterized part of the neck bitten off, the head regrows a few moments later.

"This is bad!"

While it cannot rejuvenate heads from necks that are scorched,

If it bites off the cauterized section, the head will regrow again.

"Don’t give it time to regenerate!"

"YAAAAAaaaaah!"

Elinalise, while moving, lets out a war cry. She dashes,

And thrusts her Gladius into the regenerating neck,

"Oh, great frozen protector, to the place thou demands, go.

Strike with the muddy stream of the glacier, [Ice Smash]!"

Magic hammers into the neck which was about to revive a head at zero distance from where Elinalise was.

The premature head, still without scales and with soft meaty skin, meets with a hunk of ice slamming into it, shearing it clean.

The neck writhes around, spraying blood like a freshly squeezed pomegranate.

"Roxy!"

"Oh, small cinder blessed with greatness, burn brilliantly, [Flamethrower]!"

Roxy, who was following up with Elinalise, shoots out the Flamethrower.

Although the scales dampen the magical power reaching the Hydra, the neck smokes and burns.

"All right!"

Paul goes to pursue with the follow up.

However, the Hydra doesn't lower a head.

It rises its large body high up, raising its head to the ceiling, and glares my way.

Only three heads remain.

Am I frightened?

No, it's something else.

It's not that feeling.

It's a feeling of danger.

"Be on guard, something's about to come!"

"All right!"

Paul's confirmation.

From there, I act on intuition.

No, perhaps I can say that I act from my experience.

I have seen this posture only once before.

I recalled the Stray Dragon's body standing erect, then my figure, in front of an impending [Inhaling Breath].

"A fire breath attack is coming! Please gather close to me!"

"Right!"

Paul back steps swiftly, until he is just in front of me.

Elinalise and Talhand matches Paul’s pace, tumbling close to me.

And Roxy leaps towards and clings on tightly to me.

I begin creating water.

A thick wall of water,

Immediately after the wall of water swelled, the Hydra spews its breath.

From all three heads, a terrific amount of flaming breath pours out and slams into the water wall.

Massive amounts of steam form, and the temperature in the room rises significantly.

"…!"

A dragon's flame breath boasts a horrifyingly high temperature.

It can liquefy steel and even vaporize a small marsh, in mere moments.

And this flame breath released simultaneously from three necks.

No normal magician has a spell to match this fire’s intensity.

If five- no, ten- magicians concentrated to create one water wall, they might possibly defend.

But even then, it might still be impossible.

However, my magic reservoir is not normal.

"Dad!"

"Right!"

Paul leaps into the place where one of the Hydra's necks sealed.

The breath weapon seems to have restrictions on its usage.

While I don't know the exact reason, I understand that it cannot perform it in rapid succession.

Is it perhaps related to some kind of accumulation of magic inside the body?

I just don't know the reason.

But, I know flame breath is the last resort of a dragon.

And to spew it from all three heads simultaneously,

There will definitely be some recharging time.

If it was just one head using it, then perhaps another head might set up for a successive breath.

However, this Hydra didn't do it.

Maybe it has to involve the other heads.

At any rate, a chance has come.

"OOOooohh!"

Paul lops off a head.

And I scorch its neck immediately.

Two to go.

One head attached to a thinner neck, and one to a thick neck.

Is the thick neck attached to the main body?

Then that one is the last target.

"Dad, take the head on the thin neck!"

"Understood!"

Paul runs.

Elinalise and Talhand team up to take on the head attached to the thick neck.

"DaaRaaaaa!"

Paul cleanly severs the head.

And I immediately drive in my fire magic.

Excellent,

Only the main head remains.

We're going to win.

Coming this far, we cannot give it any chance to try and begin regenerating its heads.

Even if the last head is invulnerable, our team should be up to the task of finishing the Hydra off somehow.

The moment I scorch the last neck with magic,

<The Hydra makes a trembling movement.>

I did not understand what that movement was.

Although my Eye of Foresight displayed this movement, I didn't understand it.

It was too big.

"Idiot!"

"!"

Before I notice it, Paul pushes me away.

Immediately before me, I feel something huge pass by.

Certainly, there are no heads left.

No, that's not right,

It's not that it was "without a head."

It just happened to be "headless."

The Hydra swings its headless necks around like a rose whip.

Eight necks,

Covered with hard scales like a grater, it was a bundle of necks.

The body shakes, and all at once, it moves in a sweeping motion.

"Rudiiii!"

Paul shouts for a second time, and kicks me back.

At the same time, with a colossal sound like 'daan', something falls right beside me.

Something,

I immediately fall to my knees.

At the place where I am,

Between Paul and I,

"U, uoooh!"

There are eyes in front of me.

The eyes of something at its wits’ end,

The eyes of a cornered beast,

The eyes that try to find a way to survive until the very last second.

The eyes of the Hydra.

From around the area of the forehead, something like a horn appears.

"OOOOOOOOOooo!"

On reflex, I immediately thrust my left hand into the eye.

Together with a 'guchari' sound, a burning sensation transmits up my arm.

The Hydra's eyelids closes.

The eyelids, wrapped in scales, closes shut, like a guillotine.

Simultaneously, I fired off a [Rock Cannonball].

As the Hydra's eyelids shut, the Hydra's head burst apart.

At the same time, I feel it jerk upwards.

After the jerk, I hear a ‘pop-crack’ sound resound in my head.

"R, Roxyyyyy!!"

I endure the pain and cry out, the name of my most reliable Shisho,

"Oh, small cinder blessed with greatness, burn brilliantly, [Flamethrower]!"

Though her voice was small, it reaches my ears.

Roxy scorches the last neck until black, and it begins falling.

The massive body of the Hydra makes a thunderous noise as it performs its death throes.

A cloud of dust shoots up from the headless corpse; it falls to the ground in spasms of fear.

From the body of the Hydra, I could feel the life force disappear.

It cannot perform regeneration anymore.

The last head was vulnerable.

"Haa…Haa…"

Defeated,

It was defeated.

"We did it…tttu!"

In that moment, I recognized an acute pain in my left hand.

When I look, I am aghast.

"Uuuu…"

I have no left hand.

I see the skin and muscles cut by the eyelid’s scales, and I see the bones and muscles crushed with the closing eyelid.

And at the last moment, when it jerked up, the Hydra tore my hand off.

Blood makes a ‘wheezing’ sound as it spurts out of the artery.

"Hand, my left hand…"

Eyes,

In the eye of the Hydra, there is my left hand.

As soon as I thought of it, I see the main head,

Roxy, having used the fire magic with all of her might, carbonized the main head down to the base of its neck.

The moment I see it, I realize it.

There is nothing remaining of my hand.

Even if I search for it, I will probably never find it.

And even while searching for it to rejoin it- all the while- I’m hemorrhaging blood.

Aaah, I have to use my healing magic quickly.

"Angel of miracles, please bestow the breath of heaven which is the pulse of life,

Receiving it from the sky and the sun, Honorable God, who despises the crimson flow,

Spread your white wings, and fly down to the sea of light.

Let where you reach, the crimson not expel,

[Shine Healing]."

I chant the Advanced rank healing magic.

I know that with this advanced rank healing, it cannot regenerate a lost limb.

However, I still use it.

Pink skin swells around the severed part, and the outflow of blood stops.

Incidentally, the part of my face bruised from the time Paul kicked me seems to heal, as well.

"Fuu…Haa…"

My breath is ragged.

Calm down… Calm down.

My left hand is lost.

However, the Hydra was a considerably terrible enemy.

Arguably, it was a cheap victory if it only cost my left hand.

If at the last moment, if Paul hadn't helped me, I would have died.

"…You saved my life, Dad."

I turn around, searching for Paul’s whereabouts.

There was no answer.

Everyone stays silent.

Elinalise stands still.

Talhand is silent.

Roxy covers her mouth.

Gisu runs from the back of the room, pale in the face.

There is no answer from Paul.

"…Dad?"

Everyone glances ahead,

To the place Paul had fallen.

So, he collapsed.

I turn and face towards him.

However,

It wasn't simply a collapse.

He is unconscious.

His eyes are vacant.

And then,

I see there was no lower half to his body.

"…Ah?"

I can't comprehend my sight.

"Eh?"

Aa, I hate it.

What had happened? I know.

That's right.

I see it.

Paul sent me flying with a kick,

Because the main head reached the place where I was.

That's why Paul kicked me back.

For the sake of throwing me out of the way, he kicked; and then he was alone.

So he had to kick with all of his might.

I wasn't a child anymore.

In order to kick with all of his might, in such a way, he must’ve pushed out from his waist.

Paul, as a swordsman in this world, avoided step-back recoil from the kick he gave me.

He is a physically strong swordsman, and is able to wear touki.

In other words, he is capable of sending me flying with a kick, and staying in position.

Another way of putting it: he was blocking.

I don't want to come to the realization of that word.

Blocking.

"A, why?"

The moment I say that, Paul's eyes begin to stir.

Paul’s eyes meet my own.

"…"

Paul says nothing.

But he moves his mouth a little, expressing relief.

Having felt relieved, he exhales.

There is just a feeble vomiting of blood.

And his eyes lose their light.

Paul had died.