Escape and Escort Are Two Different Plans

Hydra.

Hyacinth had seen this kind of deep-sea creature at the Rongcheng Aquarium, which was why she recognized it at a glance.

This creature had a distinctive shape—an attachment point at its base, a column-shaped body, and transparent tentacles drifting elegantly from where its head should have been. Its venom was potent enough to prey on creatures larger than itself.

But hydras were usually only as big as a pinky finger, and even the largest were no bigger than a palm. The translucent hydra before them, its tentacles swaying in the air, was as large as a full-grown adult.

"Careful."

Hyacinth raised her shield in front of the civilian girl, sword in hand as she warily watched the strange hydra, which had yet to make a move.

"Th-that's the monster that was wandering through the hallway!" the girl hurriedly warned, her nervousness impossible to hide.

Wandering through the hallway? This umbrella-like thing? Hyacinth was somewhat taken aback upon hearing that.

Even if hydras became monsters infused with magical power, they could not escape their nature as sessile predators. Even if they could move, those tiny legs around their attachment points could never give them much mobility.

Ha, it's just a hydra. I'll take it down with my shield and greatsword!

Hyacinth stepped forward and slashed with her sword.

The magic-infused strike cut into the hydra's head, splitting its entire umbrella-like cap vertically. There was no scream or wail, and its tentacles merely curled instinctively into a tiny ball, as though Hyacinth had easily finished it off with that one blow.

However, things were not that simple.

Just as Hyacinth turned to tell the civilian girl behind her to hurry and evacuate from the floor, the girl's terrified expression and the pressure surging from ahead put Hyacinth on high alert. Her