"Kraaaah!" Came the howl of a monster.
"Aaaah!" Followed the scream of a human.
Vanitas and Eleanor both heard the sound.
"Vanitas!" Eleanor cried in a panicked voice.
Even without her yelling, Vanitas understood what he needed to do.
Nodding his head once, he took off at high speed and Eleanor ran, lagging behind him quite a bit.
The sound had come from the western region where the dungeon was located.
With how fast he was moving, he covered a distance of miles within a minute.
In the middle of the forest towards the west, there was a large monster standing and howling. The area around it was completely devastated. There were marks of burned soil and trees. The trees that were not burnt yet were broken at an unnatural angle. The monster had destroyed everything around its immediate area. Vanitas recognized the monster. It was a hydra.
The hydra was a seven-headed monster. Out of the seven heads, the one at the center was bigger than the rest. All the seven heads moved in completely different directions as if each had a mind of its own with a shared body. It had about eight legs with sharp talons. The body was large and thick. The seven heads were connected to the body through their long necks that were covered in rough scales. Being about eight meters tall, they were imposing and intimidating.
Black miasma covered its body and it spout black, smoky breaths from its seven heads at the two figures who were in front of it. They were Dominique and the female captain that had accompanied her.
The hydra continued to release black, poisonous breaths but it had no effect on the two. The reason was simple. The poisonous breath that the hydra emitted was nothing but the demonic essence it had. If it were any normal human beings, they would die immediately as the demonic essence was poisonous to them. However, being demonic contractors themselves, it had no effect on the two. That didn't mean that they were unharmed.
The female captain, whose name was Elina, was bleeding from her arms and legs. Parts of her armor near her leg had been torn apart and she was breathing heavily. Dominique, although she was less injured than Elina, had few cut marks on her left hand.
The seven heads opened their mouths at the same time and something like a black ball of water formed between their jaws. They were about to shoot the miasma-contaminated water at the two girls but before they could, seven blood-red swords manifested in the air around Dominique.
"Go!"
She screamed and following her orders, the seven bloody swords shot toward the hydra. Each sword landed inside the mouth of each of the seven heads, destroying the ball of black water before they could shoot them. The water dispersed and as it reached the ground, the soil underneath burned and turned black.
Its attack interrupted, the hydra let out a howl once again and from its seven mouths, countless spikes were shot towards the two girls at high speed.
Dominique manifested many of the same bloody swords and sent them towards the approaching black spikes. The red and the black clashed, destroying each other. But many of the black spikes reached the two. Dominique and Eleanor bother readied their sword and swung their swords at the black spikes. Although they were able to destroy the ones that aimed for their vital body parts, they weren't able to parry every single one of them. The cut at the hands and feet of Dominique and Elina. More blood oozed out from the cuts and wounds. Elina was especially tired and couldn't keep up with the fierce rain of black spikes. Dominique realized this and moved to cover for Elina.
'If this goes on for any longer, the both of us may die here.' Dominque had that thought.
'No, I can't die. Not when I still have not attained my revenge.' With her unattained revenge propelling her to not give up, she swung around her bloody sword and manifested as many of the swords she could that moved to intercept the black spikes.
With the black spikes still raining, the hydra moved towards the two girls.
Despite its large body, it moved with ease and in no time it had appeared before Dominique.
It raised its large legs covered with shape talons. Dominque understood its intent.
'It is planning to crush us to a pulp.' A feeling of dread assaulted her. The rain of spikes still continued. If she let up swinging her sword for even a moment then she was sure the spikes will pierce their body and they will die. But if she didn't focus on the leg overhead and dodge, she will be crushed as well. It didn't matter which choice she made, all that she will meet will be sure death.
'Damn it!' She cursed internally.
Just as the leg was about to crush her, she - along with Elina - dodged back. For a moment, she stopped swinging her sword. Her other manifested swords were there but the number had reduced significantly as she had used up a lot of her blood already.
One of the spikes lodged itself into her left wrist.
"Aaah!" She let out a scream and her grip on her sword was gone. The sword dropped to the ground.
'Shit!' She panicked and tried to pick her sword back up. However, as she did, she found a large black spike approaching her head.
'I am done for.' She thought as she watched the pointed edge inch closer in slow motion.
She was sure that the spike will pierce her in the middle of her head and she will die here but something unexpected happened.
Just before the spike could touch her forehead, it was sliced into half with tremendous speed. The two halves shot past her head on two sides, blowing her hair.
"Eh?"
She couldn't believe what had just happened.
As she spent a few seconds in stupefied surprise, she found that the spikes had stopped raining.
No, it wasn't that the hydra had stopped shooting them. It was because someone was there, in front of them, slashing and cutting each and every one of them with ease.
She looked ahead and saw the back of a man. He had black hair and in his right hand, he held a black sword that was swinging around so fast that she wasn't able to see more than a flash of it. Every spike that rained down on him was met by his sword without fail. They were cut in half or shattered in pieces.
'How can he manage to hit every single one of them? When there are that many and they are moving with such high speed.' That was what Dominique thought as she continued to watch the man from behind.
Eventually, the spikes stopped raining. The hydra, probably wary of this newcomer, took a step back.
That was when he suddenly dashed in.
Dominique was sure that she had been watching him closely but he had disappeared from her sight all of a sudden. She felt a strong demonic presence surround him. He probably used the power of his contracted demon to increase his physical abilities. The intimidating aura that was emanating from him felt somehow familiar to her.
"Dominique!" She turned around to see Eleanor sprinting towards her.
She came to a stop in front of her and squatted down.
"Are you alright?!" She asked worriedly.
"Although I am injured quite a bit, I am not in a state where I can't move around or fight if needed." She assured Eleanor while hiding her left hand from Eleanor's sight and suppressing the pain in her left hand.
"More importantly, why and how are you here?"
"We were by the river searching for something Vanitas wanted when we heard your scream and ran here as fast as we could. Thank god you are alright." She hugged Dominque tightly and then went over to Elina who was more injured than her.
'We? Vanitas?' Upon hearing those words, the familiarity that Dominique had sensed earlier made sense.
She looked in front, towards the hydra. Vanitas suddenly leaped off the ground and stood level with the hydra's seven heads. That made her remember the first time she had met Vanitas in this forest and his fight against the minotaur lord.
'That is...Vanitas.'
A smile broke out on her face.
Back then and even now, Vanitas had saved her twice. Not to mention, in such a short span of time.
'It almost feels like I am here to just get saved by him again and again.' She laughed. Her laughter was a mix of helplessness and frustration.