13 The Hydra (1/2)

Joshua counted the heads of the hydra. For now, he counted five of them. Being a cultivated person, he was familiar with the legend of 'The Labours of Hercules'. Hercules faced a hydra for his second task. According to the legend, if you cut one head off, two other would grow in its place. That was of course nonsense in Joshua's mind. For starters, if you kept cutting heads off, the hydra would eventually have so many it couldn't support its own weight. Still, the creature in front of him was apparently able to separate its heads and send them individually on errands. It was a spirit though, so maybe he should compare those snakes to the drones he made.

A lot of random thoughts filled his mind. For example, he had seen several mythical creatures since he came to this world. Amongst others, there was a pegasus, an angel, a dragon, … Joshua couldn't help but wonder why people on Earth knew of those creatures that didn't exist there. Were they once real on Earth too? Did Earth have summoners as well? So many mysteries! That was so much fun for him to think about.

The hydra's roar interrupted his daydream… Oh right! He better had to help the others first, he could be philosophical later.

The group had sprung in action, while the creature was more dangerous than before they were no longer on a boat and had thus more room for movement. Cynthia, Catherine, and Boris drew their weapons and took a step forward while Lydia, Eric, and Joshua remained in the back.

Eric didn't waste time and unleashed a big ball of fire against the creature. Due to its size, it couldn't dodge and one of the heads was hit and started to burn. The head screamed, but then Joshua noticed an all too familiar process, the creature simply dismissed its head.

”Did it work?” Eric wondered, hopeful.

However, before he could have his moment of glory, the head simply reformed, no damage to be seen.

”Damn you!” Eric cursed.

”This thing is similar to me, it can dismiss and reform its body at will,” Joshua started. ” So in order to defeat it, we should apply the same method we would use to destroy me...”

Saying this made Joshua realize… how could he be destroyed? One of the perks of this new form of his was that he enjoyed being nearly invincible.

”Hmmm, Catherine, you're the expert in spirits, how do I destroy myself?” he asked her, forgetting the main issue.

As she was jumping up, another head tried to make a bite attack toward her. Lydia shot a few arrows toward it, but they all bounced off. The creature's mouth was wide open, so Catherine had an idea. She waited until she was about to get swallowed to summon a pillar of ice right in the monster's maw. The ice would only last a couple of seconds, but it gave her enough time to stab the inside of the mouth a few times before retreating. Since the mouth was stuck open, Joshua used the opportunity to send an explosive drone inside that head's throat and blew it up immediately.

Meanwhile, Cynthia was not having as much success. Using her own martial skills and wind magic, she didn't have too much trouble evading the heads attacking her, the problem was her staff couldn't penetrate the beast's thick scales. Both opponents were getting pretty irritated at this stalemate and it was the beast who broke it. As Cynthia was continuing to avoiding blows, one of the heads vanished. Unlike Catherine, she couldn't see spirits so she had no idea where it went. Suddenly she was surrounded by darkness as something was taking form around her and she realized too late the beast recreated its head with her already inside the creature's maw.

Plunged in darkness, Cynthia didn't realize what had happened. Her feet landed on something wet. She bit her lip and surrounded herself by a thin layer of air, but the ground suddenly moved. She was thrown backward as the beast executed a swallowing movement.

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She finally understood what was going on as she was going down the hydra's esophagus and fear overcame her, but she wouldn't go down without a fight. She tried to spread her staff in order to prevent herself from reaching the stomach. Unfortunately, her staff broke in the process and she kept being slowly being pushed down. She tried to grab anything she could but any part she came in contact with was extremely slippery and she couldn't get a hold. With no other choice, she used her wind magic to try and push herself upward, but this merely slowed down her descend. This was the best she could manage and she had no other choice but to hope her friends will help her out of there.