The Battle Against the Hydra (Part 2)

[Rudeus's perspective]

Three serpentine heads had gathered mixed light in their mouths, aiming it at the crystal pillar.

My mind went blank for an instant.

Zenith was inside that crystal. If that mixed-element orb of light hit it, the consequences would be unimaginable.

"Don't touch her!"

I charged forward.

My legs felt like lead, but my body moved faster than my mind. I poured all my remaining mana into my hands, ready to blast those three charging heads away with a point-blank Rock Bullet before they could fire. Twenty meters, fifteen meters, ten meters.

My Demon Eye of Foresight flashed again, and I saw it.

The image of one second later flooded into my mind. All three heads released their orbs at once. The mixed-element beam was over two meters wide, and I stood right in its path, my entire body vaporized.

I'm going to die. Charging in means death. Every hot-blooded anime I watched in my previous life is screaming, "Charge!" But every cell in my body is screaming at me to stop. In my last life, I was a good-for-nothing who didn't even dare leave the house. In this life, at least I've made it to almost fourteen. Am I really going to die here like this?

My feet didn't stop.

Because someone inside that crystal had been waiting for me for four years.

Then I saw Paul.

He charged in from my right, coming from a different direction but aiming for the same target: the three charging serpentine heads. His eyes were bloodshot, his lips pale, and veins bulged on both hands gripping his sword.

Father saw it too. He knows what those three heads are about to do. He's going to rush in and stop the orb with his body.

The image of one second later flashed again. Paul stood in front of the crystal pillar, and the orb pierced through his body.

"Father! No!"

My voice had already changed pitch by the time I shouted.

But he couldn't hear me anymore. All his attention was on those three serpentine heads. He ran faster and faster, his armor making a piercing metallic screech in the blue light.

I wouldn't make it in time.

Neither would Paul.

The light in the three serpentine heads' mouths had grown blindingly bright.

[Eris's perspective]

I saw Rudeus and Paul charging toward those three heads.

Two people, coming from two different directions, both charging to their deaths.

The Hydra's three remaining heads were gathering light, aiming in the direction of the crystal pillar. Once those orbs fired, Zenith would be finished inside the pillar. Rudeus couldn't possibly be unaware of that, which was why he'd charged in without a second thought. Paul couldn't be unaware of it either, so he'd done the same.

"Two idiots."

My legs moved on their own.

My body moved faster than thought. The instincts Rujierd had beaten into me over three years on the Demon Continent, the reflexes I'd gained running from swarms of scorpions, and everything carved into my bones after the Dragon God nearly killed me all surged up at once.

I suddenly burst forward at a speed beyond my body's limits.

I leaped down from the Hydra's back, my boots splashing water across the slippery rock, and raced in front of Paul in a few great strides. Wind rushed past my ears, and hot, foul-smelling air filled the gaps in my armor.

The three serpentine heads had charged to their limit. White light spilled from their open mouths, illuminating my entire face. I could feel the heat even from a long way off.

When we'd fought a giant sandworm on the Demon Continent, Rujierd had pierced its joint with his trident instead of its head.

He'd said, "Against a large monster, attacking its joints is more effective than attacking its head."

The Nameless Sword had flown from my hand when the third head hit me earlier.

What do I do?

I suddenly remembered the sword Paul had given me before we set out. Without time to think, I drew the longsword from my waist.

"Paul, thank you for the sword! It really came in handy!"

I aimed for the joint at the base where a charging head connected to its neck. The scales were thinnest there, and the bones and tendons were concentrated in that spot.

"Don't touch him!!" I shouted.

I drove the blade straight in with all my strength.

The edge cut into the joint.

The sword was sharper than I'd expected. The serpentine head's charge was interrupted, and the white light flashed violently inside its mouth before scattering wildly in every direction.

The orb didn't fire at the crystal.

It missed.

The beam grazed the crystal's surface and blasted into the rock wall. The entire underground chamber shook, and rubble rained down from above. A scorch mark appeared on the crystal pillar's surface, but it didn't break.

The Hydra let out a terrible hiss. The head whose joint I'd stabbed tilted to one side, and the light in its mouth went out completely.

But its tail moved.

A final counterattack before death. The tail, thicker than my body, swept in from the side, too fast for me to dodge.

It didn't hit me.

Paul rushed out from behind me and put his left arm in front of me to block it.

There was the sound of bones shattering.

With a sharp crack, the tail struck Paul's left arm, bending it at an unnatural angle at the elbow. The impact sent him flying sideways, and he slammed hard into the rocky ground three meters away. The dull thud of his armor striking rock echoed through the vast underground chamber for several seconds.

"Eris!!"

He was still shouting my name when he hit the ground, his voice hoarse, as if forced out from deep in his throat.

By the time I rushed over, he was already half-unconscious. His left arm was completely mangled below the elbow, broken bones poking through gaps in his shattered armor, blood gushing out like a fountain.

His left arm... his left arm...

Rudeus's scream came from the other side.

I turned to look. The Hydra's two remaining heads were thrashing wildly in their death throes, and one of them had bitten down on Rudeus's left hand. As its jaws closed, the sound of bone and flesh being crushed echoed through the vast underground chamber.

Rudeus was on his knees, his left hand gone. Blood kept spurting from the stump.

[Rudeus's perspective]

Agony. My left hand was gone, crushed in the Hydra's jaws, and the blood pouring from the stump wouldn't stop. I pressed my right hand tightly over it, but blood kept seeping between my fingers.

It hurts so much. Is this how much losing a hand hurts? I saw Paul step in front of Eris. How is he?

"Father... how's Father?!"

I raised my head, my voice so hoarse I could barely recognize it myself.

Eris was kneeling beside Paul, both hands pressed against his broken left arm, desperately using her weight to hold the wound shut and stop the bleeding. Her clothes and hands were covered in blood, and blood had spattered her face too.

She looked up at me.

"Alive," she said, panting, her chest heaving violently. "His left arm... but he's still alive."

I breathed a sigh of relief.

The Hydra finally fell.

Its two remaining heads drooped limply, and its massive body slowly toppled onto its side like a mountain. Its weight sent the water pooled on the ground splashing in every direction, and warm liquid spattered my face.

Then everything fell silent.

There was only Paul's heavy breathing and the agony from my severed hand.

Master Roxy came running over from a distance, a pale green healing light glowing at the tip of her staff. She knelt beside Paul, pressed both hands over the wound on his broken arm, and rapidly moved her lips as she chanted a healing spell. Light covered the mangled flesh, but the shattered arm was clearly beyond reattachment.

"His arm... I can't reattach it." Her voice was trembling. "The injury is too severe. All I can do for now is stop the bleeding."

The crystal pillar was still standing.

Its blue-green light still glowed softly, and the scorch mark and cracks on its surface hadn't damaged the inside. Within the crystal, Zenith's eyes were still tightly closed, her expression peaceful and her hands folded across her chest, as if she were asleep.

Then the crystal suddenly let out a crack.

A fissure began spreading from the bottom, branching out in every direction like a spiderweb. Light leaked through the cracks, growing brighter and brighter.

Zenith was slowly being released.