Sieging A Hydra
Sieging A Hydra
The Mensch tribe lizardmen were rowing at a steady pace towards the hydra god's lake. They all seemed rather uniform and orderly. It was pique discipline. It was to that point that unless one often dealt with lizardmen, it was hard to differentiate one boat from the other.
Well, there was one different ship. The flagship.
Unlike the other boats, this one did not require any rowing. Most notably, however, it was positioned at the lead and on its deck was an upright old man. Eon, the sage of space, and the last of the legendary Epoch family, he was focused on something.
He stood upright and started forth. His gaze seemed to be peering past the deep fog. Without a doubt, it was a picturesque scene. To the Mensch tribe, however, it was also a source of hope and courage.
The calmness of their deity and their courage to look forward... It was inspiring. Many wanted to raise their chests and stare ahead proudly.
But even as they set out into the open water, many were uneasy. Facing the hydra, to say that a good chunk of them would die was already an understatement. Saying that a good chunk would survive was optimism.
"We are here, quiet down" Eon who stood still like a statue for a long while finally spoke and said. Immediately, the lizardmen stopped their rowing.
The water fell still and silence prevailed. There was only the occasional chirp of noisy bugs or the soft splashing of small fish and amphibians.
Eon tried to look ahead. But the lake's water surface was blanketed by deep gray fog. He would usually frown with these circumstances, but this was a good opportunity for him to assess the battlefield undetected.
The sage of space flew off the flagship's deck. He did not dare try to swim, the hydra could notice.
The small ripples caused by the too stupid yet abundant small animals were left uninvestigated by the hydra. Yet, Eon knew from experience that the moment any moderately sized ripple was formed, the hydra would be awoken.
It brought him a sense of terror, but he was more than brave enough to overcome this small sense of unease.
"I must peer into the abyss" He would stare down at the depths of the water and unleash a spatial attack. If the hydra could sense the intent to kill and he was too slow, he just might miss his surprise attack.
As for what exactly the attack... Eon pointed his staff into the air and gathered mana at its tip. The mana was compressed multiple times until a ray of purple light broke past the deep gray fog.
The lizardmen in the rowboats were shocked by the illustrious purple light. It was starting!
The hydra who slept wonderfully at the bottom of their abyss flinched. There was an irritatingly bright light. Their eyes flashed open the very next second, there was an intruder! But Eon's magic went off another second later.
A large gash appeared in the water. Not just the water, but even the fog was split in half. No… not just the fog, the world appeared to have been sliced in half!
The great hydra felt it was well, its body was split apart from the heads to the tail. Even the ground underneath it was split by the spell. It was a spatial rend.
For the affected, it felt like an eternity, but reality mended itself rather quickly. In the end, everything returned to normal, it suggested the previous occurrence was nothing more than an illusion.
But the hydra did not think it was an illusion. It took the brunt of the damage, after all.
"ROOOOOARRR!!!!" A furious and pained roar echoed off into all directions. The surface of the previously peaceful water started to shake.
What was the spatial rend spell? As it said and Eon had demonstrated, it broke the targeted space in half. Given the speed of the cast, Eon was not able to make any actual changes to reality.
The damage caused by this move was only both psychological and mental. The feeling of being split apart… the timeless nature… If this was a video game, the hydra's health would have gone down by at least a third, but most notably its status bar would be filled with ailments.
But even with these debuffs acting, and only two thirds of the hydra's health remaining. Eon was not confident.
Out of the lake shot up a burly figure. Flames exploded out with threatening momentum. It felt as though a volcanic eruption was in the midst of happening!
The gray mist turned red and orange, and a heatwave assaulted the lizardmen around the lake. Not just that, giant waves battered their boats and ships, pushing the boats around like toys.
If these toys were unlucky, however, they would crash onto one another and kill the toy people aboard.
"AAAARGH!!!" "MERCY!!!" From just the aftershocks of the battle, the lizardmen were being rendered useless. This was not the difference between a B-class mob and a peak B-class mob, it was the difference of a whole class! This was a boss monster to boot!
The lizardmen just never stood a chance. Even if the hydra's combat ability only stood at lower A-class, they still would not have a chance. The tough and giant body could be said to be the real killer, as these waves were a direct result.
Still, Eon did try to make a judgement on the hydra's actual class ranking. Yet, when referencing the past history of the beast, all he could tell was that the power of the hydra was nothing as was stated in historical accounts. He floated far above the lake in disbelief as the vermilion flames beneath him evaporated the water.
"They become stronger…!" He thought, his disbelief turning into frustration. But no matter how much he gnashed his teeth, the reality of things wouldn't change.
"Activate your charges!" Eon commanded after performing a short range teleportation towards the position of the lizardmen.
The lizardmen were each handed what was essentially a single use rocket. They could use it to propel themselves towards the hydra and attack, but… right now the beast was spewing bone melting flames!
"Wha- What?!?" "You are trying to kill us!" "Thi- This was a mistake!" They were having all sorts of regrets after being faced with reality. The raging waves were still rocking the lizardmen, and the suffocating heat had some collapsing on the spot. Eon knew he had to do something to quickly change the morale.
"Sigh… it comes to this anyway…!" Eon said before performing another short range teleportation and spewing out a mouthful of blood.
Thanks to his alert state, Eon managed to keenly dodge the purple lightning that arced towards him.
"Tsk!" No longer hesitating, Eon brought out a purple stone. The space magic stone shone a void-like purple. The robe that Eon wore, the Void Seeker, was naturally attracted.
"Hahaha! Cough, so you were saving up some energy since the last time, Cough!" Eon said maniacally. The damned robe was alive, but without power, it wasn't supposed to exhibit such emotion.
"Good!" It was good that it was lively. Eon socketed the magic crystal into the slot on the front of his robe. The runic engravings started to shine a bright purple and soon enough, Eon's robe became brightly lit with mystical purple light.
Eon thrust out his stuff and runic patterns seemed to manifest out of thin air.
The rampaging flames of the savage draconic beast suddenly started to disappear. To be specific, they were disappearing into nothingness! Multiple deep black voids opened up in the areas surrounding the hydra and started to greedily suck in everything.
This was one of the spells Eon came up with while trying to perfect the black hole spell. While eerily similar, the black voids he opened up could only suck in light objects.
Nevertheless, for the hydra, they were still a threat. They were a threat to its supremacy! This was a challange!
"ROOARR!!!" There was a vicious roar followed by what sounded like a screech that then resulted in a sonic boom.
"Urgh-!" Eon's ears started to instantly ring. Before he could even catch a breather, another head opened up its gaping maw. Out of its throat came out sputtering lightning.
Dazed, Eon was unable to dodge on time. A blinding collision!
The lizardmen which practically became nothing but bystanders could hardly understand this radical turn of events.
Eon was unscathed, his equipment automatically formed barriers to protect him from the deadly high voltage.
"L- Let's charge!" None of the Mensch lizardmen knew who made the call, but all of a sudden, they were feeling this was not an impossible task.
In the flagship, Kurgher who was at the verge of puking stood up briskly.
"Assist his divinity Eon!" He declared bravely. None of the boats hesitated anymore, it was now or never!
The device Eon created was inserted in a slot at the back of the boat. It was powered by combustible mushrooms.
With the device clicking into place, sparks flew and a boat was missing from the previously orderly formation.
This boat rocketed forward and, with the large waves as a ramp, shot off into the air towards the hydra's humongous body. The ants which never entered the hydra's eyes were flying towards it, one of the heads looked over in disdain.
It breathed out clouds of green gas which covered the flying pests. All it then took was a timely assist, and the first brave lizardmen combusted into nothingness.
"AARGH!" "IT BURNS!" Howls of pain. With the first direct casualties of the battle, the Mensch tribe now felt it was a lot more personal.
"AAAAAAH!!! DIE!!!" More boats shot off towards the boss monsters and though the heads still looked at it with disdain, the hydra could not afford to dally. One of the heads narrowed its eyes...!
"RAWR!!!" But another head uttered a dying cry. It had been mercilessly chopped off by the surrounding space.
Eon smiled gleefully, blood escaped his lips. If things kept going as they were, the hydra would definitely die and open the passage towards the next floor.