13 The Hydra (2/2)

In the meantime, the head that had swallowed Cynthia had taken a hell of a beating. As soon as she got eaten, everyone focused their attacks on that head. Eric had burned it, Boris hit it several times with his morning stars, Lydia even managed to piece one of its eyes out with several arrows, Joshua kept sending electric discharges against it and Catherine tried to get closer to stab it while shooting some ice arrows at it.

The beast was howling in pain but it didn't give in, it was clearly determined to keep this head alive until Cynthia reached its stomach. The head in question hid behind the others who formed a wall to keep it safe while the hydra sent energy toward the head to heal its injuries.

Catherine and Joshua were able to determine Cynthia's position thanks to Luna. At the speed she was being swallowed, she would reach the main body in about ten seconds. They knew once Cynthia got into the stomach she would quickly get dissolved by acid. The situation was looking grim and they needed to act without delay.

Joshua's mind was racing. They needed a solution immediately. He had tried to get swallowed too by the mouth to then unleash an exploding drone, but the hydra was weary of him and no longer tried to eat him. This trick would no longer work so he needed a new plan.

Software developers often had those plans of grandeur where they would design an elaborate solution for a problem that would last for years. But then they're told it needs to be done in an absurdly small delay. In those cases, they have no choice but to implement what is often called a 'quick and dirty' solution. Something that works, but is ugly and needs to be replaced as soon as the urgency is over. Fun fact, most of those solutions become permanent since they're never given the time to fix the issue permanently. Although different, Joshua couldn't help but compare the current case to such an issue. He needed a solution now, no time to experiment and test carefully.

If the hydra wouldn't eat his bots anymore, he would unleash them on something else. Hoping it would work, he sent his bots against the ceiling, right above the hydra. This obviously caused a big explosion and several pieces of rock fell down the ceiling, right on the creature. One of the heads got crushed by a giant stalactite that fell right on it. The others did their best to avoid the rocks, but most of them were still hit. The head Cynthia was in was well protected though, and remained unharmed. Regardless, Joshua's plan more or less worked and the wall formation was destroyed. The party used the confusion to bypass the other heads and assault their target.

The head had healed most of its wounds in the meantime, they knew it wouldn't be dismissed like the others. They had no other choice than to cut the long neck open and get Cynthia out of there. Boris launched two attacks toward the neck, but unlike before he didn't strike the beast but allowed the chains of his morning stars to circle around the neck. The chains made a few rounds before trapping the beast. Using his enormous physical strength, Boris started to strangle it. This bought Cynthia a few seconds, as the passage she was going down was suddenly blocked by Boris's chain. Unsure what was going on, she started to hit the walls from the inside with all her strength. In the meantime, Catherine was doing her best to cut the long neck open with her rapier, right above the chains' location, but the process was very slow and the other heads would soon recover and attack them again. They were running out of time.

Having no other choice, Joshua made an exploding drone appear and stuffed it in the small cut Catherine had made. He told her to get back and made the drone explode. It wasn't as effective as having it explode from the inside of the beast's maw, but it still did enough damage to make a decent hole.

Cynthia was blasted upward by the sudden explosion but was mostly unharmed. She saw a small light appear, which for her was a ray of hope and rushed toward it. The hole wasn't very big and her petite figure could barely crawl through it. On the other side, she saw her sister reaching for her and grabbed her hand. Finally, she was out of the beast.

There was no time to celebrate though, they all retreated out of the beasts reach in a hurry. They ran for a few hundred meters before halting and catching a breath. Cynthia was injured so Catherine administrated some emergency healing magic to her.

Joshua looked at the hydra. The beast was still busy healing its wounds, no end in sight.

”How much energy does this thing have? We've been smashing its heads for a while and its still healing like nothing.”

”You're right, with all the damage we've been administrating it, it should be out of energy by now…” Catherine started, ”I can only think of one thing.”

”It's being supplied by a constant flow of energy?”

”Probably... We have to find that source and cut it off.”