I wasn't surprised at the presence of the Swamp Hydra, though I had been expecting another spirit beast like a Crocodile King or something. After all, there had to be a boss behind the sudden mass of Crunchy Crocodiles.
Damn, I still couldn't get over the name. Who the hell came up with that name? I could sense someone cringing beyond the fourth dimension, but I ignored him for now. It was his fault for making up such a dumb name.
Anyway, the Swamp Hydra wasn't that unexpected. The presence of a Swamp Serpent from earlier was an indication that the appearance of its evolved form was a possibility. I would have expected more Swamp Serpents, but they were peak Mystic rank (much like my former Abyssal Serpent) as opposed to the beginner Mystic ranked Crunchy Crocodiles. That was also why even my Yellow ranked aquatic armada could hold out against them.
The Swamp Hydra hissed viciously before launching a highly pressurized jet of brown water at us. It almost looked like muddy water, but yeah, it was pretty much the same hydro torrent attacks that most water type Poke…I mean spirit beasts used.
Fortunately, before the highly pressurized jets of water could reach the elves mustering on the shore and fighting off the Crunchy Crocodiles alongside my summoned spirit beasts, Da Hai materialized and tanked them with his shell. Even though hydro torrents were capable of piercing through steel plates because of the tremendous pressures they exerted, Da Hai's incredible defense protected him from being perforated.
As expected of a Blast Tortoise. Hey, that actually sounded more like Zoids than Pokémon. The only thing we were missing was a cannon on his shell. Wait, that applied to both Pokémon and Zoids. Never mind.
After deflecting the highly pressurized muddy water torrents, Da Hai spun around and fired his own hydro torrent. The clear stream of highly pressurized water struck the Swamp Hydra, but the Earth ranked spirit beast didn't seem affected by it. One of its heads snarled in annoyance.
"Hmm…"
I studied the Swamp Hydra. On the surface, it didn't seem that different from Hei Ba, my Abyssal Hydra. The only difference was the color. While Hei Ba was as black as his name made him out to be, the Swamp Hydra was brown and green. They both had fins and gills, but the Swamp Hydra seemed to have a more amphibious look to its heads, as opposed to Hei Ba's more serpentine figure. like Hei Ba, the Swamp Hydra also had nine heads, though the snouts seemed a little more stumped, and its legs were stubbier and thicker, probably resembling those of a frog's. its tail ended in a huge fan-like finned tail.
There were also sacs here and there, probably containing toxins. We had to be careful. I wondered if the muddy water was venomous, but when I checked Da Hai, he was fine. No signs of being poisoned.
I let out a breath of relief, but knew that unless I did something drastic, the Earth ranked spirit beast would overrun my army. Even my Lantern Sharks were being pushed back. their lightning and thunderbolts were having some effect on the Swamp Hydra, scorching its scales and leaving blackened patches, but the enemy was more enraged than hurt. It lashed out with one of its heads, sweeping across the swamp and throwing up furrows of brown tides across the mangrove.
Fortunately, my Lantern Sharks were swift, and with flicks of their tails, they sped off through the water, avoiding the worst of both the tidal wave and the shockwave. They coasted the surfs and weaved through the panicking Crunchy Crocodiles, but the latter's sturdy builds and armored scales protected them from the tremendous impacts. They were both at home in the water, so it didn't matter whether they were shark or crocodile.
Even so, neither party was interested in being caught in the wake of the Swamp Hydra's rage.
"Damn. Even my Lantern Sharks aren't a match for the Swamp Hydra, huh? I guess I have no choice." I raised a hand and summoned my strongest spirit beast. Well, one of my three strongest spirit beasts. "I'll fight a hydra with a hydra!"
"That's…cheesy as hell." Myria rolled her eyes, even as she flicked her wrist and sent more water whips slicing out of her blade and cutting through the dwindling horde of Crunchy Crocodiles.
"We'll help out!" Sylvie said, not caring about my attempt at humor or Myria's retort. She glanced at Silvia, who sighed and followed her with a flap of her fairy wings. At this juncture, there was no reason to conceal their wings, but neither Morten nor Eliza had noticed the sudden change.
I didn't blame them. Morten was still in the thick of battle, kicking Crunchy Crocodiles left and right and leaving the sprawled predators to be hammered to submission by my Colossal Crabs and King Crab. Eliza was back among her own people, trying to defend the elves of Murkwood from the hostile spirit beasts.
Sylvie and Silvia were free to let loose their fairy abilities. The both of them took position beside me, their hands glowing as they cast new spells. A massive runic circle appeared beneath the both of them, and they caused changes in the weather. Lightning struck from the skies, weaving through the thick, hanging island-sized branches of Yggdrasil to home in on the furious Swamp Hydra. It wailed as its heads were bathed in lethal electricity and its nine necks flailed about, sending more tsunamis of swamp water across the shore.
But it wasn't enough to lay low a monster as powerful as a Swamp Hydra.
Fortunately, that was what I was here for. Gathering my qi, I teleported Hei Ba over. He landed in the swamp with an enormous splash and instantly lunged at the Swamp Hydra. The titanic spirit beasts fought, tearing into one another with their jaws or constricting with their necks. Hei Ba ripped into the Swamp Hydra with his claws, while the latter fought back with greater brute strength and muscle, shoving the former back into the swamp.
While they wrestled, hissing malevolently and entangled with each other, waves of muddy water rolled across the mangrove, drowning trees and even submerging a portion of the village. Many of the elves had to evacuate, breaking off from the Crunchy Crocodiles to seek drier ground. Their retreat was covered by Da Hai, my Colossal Crabs, King Crab, Little Anglers, Lantern Fishes and Lantern Sharks. Myria didn't bother running. An Atlantean, she took the water as a natural, despite it being murkier and muddier than the clearer seawater she was used to.
Sylvie and Silvia took flight, their wings fluttering. Only Morten Pedersen looked like he would be in trouble, but I summoned Xiao Ke, who took him upon his shell and gave him a ride along the waves. Morten was surprised as he flailed about, falling onto a sitting position.
"Whoa! Where did you come from?"
"Be careful of your boots! Don't dig your spikes into my Xiao Ke!" I called out to him. He nodded sheepishly and quickly retracted the spikes back into his boots.
"Man, how many spirit beasts do you have? You keep pulling out one after another."
"Would you believe me if I tell you that I have an entire army of them?"
"Actually…yeah." Morten chuckled. "I was going to say you might have an entire soccer squad of spirit beasts, but you definitely have way more than 22 players, just based off those little guys alone."
He nodded at my Little Anglers, who were swarming up and around my Lantern Fishes to stay in formation. The Crunchy Crocodiles weren't affected much by the waves, and they continued to pose a threat. However, my spirit beasts continued to keep them at bay, whether it was by lightning or pincers or shell. Da Hai smacked them about, using his superior strength to swat them away, allowing my Lantern Sharks to tear into the soft, unprotected underbellies of the Crunchy Crocodiles with their usual, deadly swiftness.
Xiao Ke helped out occasionally as he ferried Morten to safety, unleashing a freezing beam here and there to encase any approaching Crunchy Crocodile in ice. Morten kicked any Crunchy Crocodile that had gotten too close, releasing his boots' spikes when that happened and hurling them back into the ebbing tides.
Speaking of beams, I could see golden beams erupting from Hei Ba's mouths as he bombarded the Swamp Hydra with devastating energies. The Swamp Hydra was no pushover, and it responded with force, raising a tsunami of muddy water to throw at its opponent.
In the midst of it all, I almost missed the notification window from the system.
-New quest issued: Hydra Slayer. Slay the Swamp Hydra and protect the elves of Murkwood. Completion of this mission will grant the appropriate rewards. –
"Huh? Interesting." I wasn't sure what to make out of it, but okay. If the system was generous enough to give me a reward for something I already intended on doing, then I had no reason to say no. Taking a deep breath, I leaped to a massive mangrove tree, trying to get as high as I could. Reaching the top, I stood atop an uncovered branch where I could get an unimpeded view of the colossal battle between the two titanic hydras.
"What's the matter?" Sylvie asked as she joined me, along with Silvia. The fairy sisters had flown up to my position, getting ready to back me up. Silvia was grinning excitedly.
"You just thought of an idea, didn't you, big bro?"
"Yeah, sort of." I watched in amazement as Hei Ba bit off one of the Swamp Hydra's heads. Another golden beam vaporized a second head, but to my complete lack of surprise, the heads grew back. the Swamp Hydra retaliated, several jaws clamping down on one of Hei Ba's necks and effectively decapitating that head, but just like his opponent, the head grew right back.
Regeneration. That was the unique ability of hydras and also the reason why they were categorized as peak Earth rank. they were almost indestructible and very hard to kill. Even if you somehow managed to hurt them, applying enough force to obliterate a head, they would simply regrow it. The only method of slaying a hydra was to destroy all nine heads at the same time, and despite Hei Ba frantically firing off another volley of golden beams, the Swamp Hydra was astute enough to evade at least half of them.
Those that were blown off immediately regenerated.
"Damn, is that monster unkillable?" Silvia grumbled.
"No," I replied with a shake of my head. "You just need to know the right method."
"What do you mean?"
"Can you guys protect me while I execute a killer technique?" I asked. Sylvie nodded and reached out to hold my hand.
"Please count on us."
"Okay. I'll leave my back to you." Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and accumulated all my qi into my dantian. "Trace, on."
"Uh…really?" Silvia rolled her eyes. "Your killer technique is a rip off from one of the most successful visual novel and anime franchises from the Rising Sun Nation?"
"That's right." I had drawn my Obsidian Drake, coalescing all of my azure qi into nine arrows. "But it's the only way to slay the Swamp Hydra."
Now I knew why the system had issued me this mission. It wasn't as easy as it looked, and I was probably the only one capable of slaying a hydra right now.
"Trigger, off."
"…seriously?" Even Sylvie was facepalming at my references. I ignored her for now and focused.
"Nine Lives Blade Works."
Myria smacked me at the back of my head, somehow having appeared on the same branch after riding the tidal waves caused by the clash between titans.
"Can you not do that? You'll get into copyright trouble!"
"Sorry, but as you know, I'm a faker."
With a grin, I unleashed nine azure arrows from my black bow, sending them streaking toward each head of the Swamp Hydra like shooting stars. They swerved about, automatically avoiding the writhing necks of both the Swamp Hydra and Hei Ba, and then homed in onto each head of my colossal foe.
Striking all nine heads at the same time, the azure arrows detonated with meteoric force, engulfing the Swamp Hydra in enormous explosions and outright obliterating every single head.
With an ominous groan, the gargantuan headless carcass of the Swamp Hydra crashed back into the swamp with a tremendous splash.