15 Battle in the Soul World (1/2)
Imagine developing an ability that allows you to materialize whatever you can think of. Most people would start to experiment a bit by creating small objects, and slowly increase them in size in order to completely master the ability. Once that 's done, you would probably be able to create a lot of varied stuff, your mind being the only limit. Now imagine someone just creating the same object over and over. That's so disappointing! What a waste! Now consider the following: with all the heads the hydra was creating, it should have more and more brain for each head. Therefore, why did it never realize how dumb that plan was?
That is exactly what went through Joshua's mind as he saw the hydra just mass producing its dumb head. He was tired to see it by now. One tried to take a bite at their boat, it was no problem to avoid with the speed of the motor. He shook his head and looked at Catherine.
”I will take care of that dumb snake, just focus on the old man,” he said smirking.
Before Catherine could reply, he suddenly hugged her and whispered in her ear: ”Surprise!”
Suddenly they were both ejected in the air. The motorboat might be fast, but Joshua never considered fighting the snake while still at sea, it would give the beast too much of an advantage. Therefore, when he had created the boat, he had included a giant spring that would activate on command, propulsing all the passengers a few meters in the air. The idea was utterly absurd and therefore, fitted Joshua to at.
As Catherine yelled in surprise, Joshua dismissed the boat, it was no longer useful. Instead, he materialized what he really wanted to use to move quickly, a jet plane. As they landed in the cockpit, he gently let go of Catherine.
”We're changing vehicles, this one will be much faster,” he said, sitting down on the pilot's seat. Of course, Luna was piloting, Joshua had no idea how to control a plane. Catherine sat next to him and he helped her buckle her seat belt, as she was unfamiliar with the concept of it. Catherine had been taken aback from what just happened and had just watched the situation unfold with her mouth open. As Joshua fastened her belt, she finally found her senses again. She saw the unfamiliar vehicle they were in right now, move at extremely high speed, avoiding the hydra without any issue. Also, they were flying, the hydra had no way to catch them. She was relieved, but at the same time, she couldn't help but be a little mad.
”WHY DIDN'T YOU INFORM ME ABOUT THIS BEFOREHAND?” she yelled. ”Seriously, it's good you had a plan to avoid the Hydra, but you could at least warn me when we're projected in the air. At least I could have been prepared in case of an emergency.”
”... Whoops. Sorry, that's actually a good point.” he had to admit.
”Yes, madam!” he replied and sent instructions to Luna. The plane suddenly fired missiles at a few heads, which exploded on impact, instantly destroying the heads.
”Ha, turns out the snakes aren't very solid, no wonder this machine has gear made of metal after all.” he thought, high fiving his brain.
Of course, this victory was short lived as more snakes replaced the ones that got destroyed. Joshua considered trying to make a weapon of mass destruction but dropped the idea. It would be too dangerous for Catherine & him and besides, he didn't want to destroy the old man's soul world. Instead, he flew over to what appeared to be the main body, where the old man was trapped in and shot a missile at it. It landed on the lump of flesh but healed nearly instantly. Clearly, this one was much more solid. However, while the wound was still open, he did notice something shine from inside the creature. Confident, he unleashed a few shots, making sure to avoid the old man. As the hydra's flesh was exposed, he did a quick scan regarding the shining parts. It turned out the hydra had some rune inside its body!
Some parts of the rune were unknown to him. He had seen runes on physical bodies before, but this was the first time he saw one engraved in a soul. Still, he could recognize some patterns and could deduce that rune was at the core of the hydra's ability to multiply. That gave him an idea.
”If I get you to the old man, how quickly can you help him?” he asked.
”I think ten seconds should be enough.”
”Good, I'm going to buy you that. Be warned, we're gonna fly again.”
”...OK,” she answered, a bit worried.
Joshua grinned and put his plan into motion. He ordered Luna to get closer. Once they were right above the head, the plane started to dash downward. Joshua unleashed a new salve of missiles and ejected them out of the plane. Like before, he was holding on to Catherine, it was vital they didn't get separated.