The west winds raced across the realms bringing moments of cool and comfort to tired farm hands and workers of the fields.
The west winds parted storms and held clouds aloft, yet as it came down upon The Swamps of Shara, the west winds stilled as the hot pungent smells of the marshes rose to the skies, the west winds veered off to join the southern winds.
A puddle with water dyed brown and green started to ripple, not concentric rings, but lines of ripples like little waves, and here puddles of filth were a common sight, in each puddle that littered the swamp the same phenomena showed.
The water of the dirty puddles lapped against their muddy shores, battering the basses of 10-foot tall reeds that were swaying with the waters, little snakes amongst other things slipped from the waters and raced as fast as their slippery bodies could carry them through the muddy surface.
When a large round body the width of a tree trunk came crashing down, it compressed the reeds beneath it and sent the surrounding muddy splashing a hundred feet away.
"Grawww," a rumbling snarl was heard as the thick body started to vibrate, it twisted and twirled as its grey leathery skin emitted plumes of steam.
A large head of draconic nature pulled itself up, a layer of sharp barbed teeth extended outside of its mouth as it snarled, then several more heads appeared in a cluster next to it, each of the heads releasing a guttural snarl of their own.
Steam built up around the jaws of the hydra's heads, then their maws opened wide and…
"ROOOOOAAAARRRR!!!!!"
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Aridex took a step closer to his prey, it towered eight meters (26'3") over him when it extended all nine of its head.
As its maws opened wide its vile acid gathered in the back of each of its throats, then it roared, releasing its acidic breath.
Aridex moved his gloved hand forward and planted his feet in the muddy soil, as he sucked in a deep breath.
A purple glow extended over his glove and hundreds of runes flashed into existence, the acid raced forward, and just as it reached him, he let out his built-up breath into the array in the palm of his hand.
A burst of blue flames raced out meeting the acid, turning it into a vapour, sending a wave of scorching flames across the nine heads of the hydra.
A second later Aridex waved his hand as more purple energy built up on it, an array quickly came to life, and as he waved his hand, a powerful gust of wind shot out dispersing the acidic mist that still hung on the air, and cleared out the smoke that still surrounded the torched heads of the hydra.
The hydra swayed about its feet sinking into the surface of the swamp, with all of its heads swaying from side to side.
Aridex walked up to it and deliver a punch to its massive body that knocked it across the swamp floor, its eighteen eyes all bulging as it started to throw up, the good thing about hydras was that their acid was so potent that when they threw up it wasn't chunky, just a little bubbly.
Aridex strode forward with his black cape fluttering a little as he broke into a dash and delivered another brutal fist to the hydra's belly, this time the 30-ton beast got knocked off its feet and let out an anguished whimper from all 9 of its heads.
Aridex jumped up and delivered a full-on double kick to its side, that sent it soaring through the swamp, it smashed down with a deafening thud, and ground to a halt taking out an acre of reeds with it.
Aridex landed with a soft thud and made his way to the hydra, it wasn't moving, but it was still alive, he brought both his hands together and once more energy flowed into his gloved palms as he slowly pulled his hands apart an array with hundreds of runes took shape.
Aridex threw the rune circle to the ground and the entire swamp floor seemed to come to life, the mud reached up like the hands of a giant and wrapped around the hydra caking it in layers of mud that quickly hardened and locked it in place, leaving only the nine heads open.
Aridex pulled his great sword from his back, it soon lit up in a blaze of flame, he took a single slash and eight massive heads fell to the ground, only one remained, whimpering and crying out in pain as it looked to its eight castrated heads.
"They'll regrow," Aridex grumbled at the weeping hydra as he collected the eight heads placing them into his spatial ring.
Then he waved his hand and the hardened earth crumbled into dust, the hydra crawled up, its massive body still towering over him, as it snarled.
He reached back and gripped the pummel of his great sword, as he looked it in the eye.
The hydra looked from side to side before turning on its tail and fleeing, its massive body crushing the reeds in its way.
Aridex turned to leave with his bounty, when a voice greeted him from above, "Fancy meeting you here Aridex," a soft melodious voice came from above.
Aridex jumped backward, putting as much distance as he could between himself and the voice, his long black hair swayed falling over his right eye.
His great sword held firmly in one hand the blade already alight with blinding flames that added to the stuffy air of the swamp, another small blade appeared in his free hand as he looked up to see a woman standing in the air just a dozen feet away from him.
She wore a red cloth warrior's outfit, it fit snuggly on her body highlighting her perfect curves, the golden ornamental rings that locked the sleeves in place bore the golden lion crest of Mercurion.
As he studied her, he took note of the platinum blonde hair and the light grey eyes that were looking at him with bright interest, "Alphea Mercurion Goldore?" he asked, he couldn't be certain, but he'd heard the rumour of her recent activity, targeting people that caused trouble for the Ancient lineages or Mercurion.
Alphea smiled as she looked down at him surrounded by the reeds, "It's good to see that Ouroboros's information network is still good, I take it from your stance that you know why I'm here," her face flushed red with excitement as she spoke.
"Why waste time mincing words, you're already here so why don't you come at me!" he shouted the flames on his great sword raged from bright blue to a blinding white.
Alphea smirked, "You don't really think you can beat me, or have you not realised that I'm of the violet lights?" she asked a bit of princess slyness seeping out as she dangled one of her long legs in the air.
"I think that you should speak to your friend Malfer Umbar about that and see what he has to say on the matter?" Aridex retorted a smug satisfaction leaking into his voice.
"Hahaha," Alphea started to giggle in the air, her legs kicking cutely in the air as she wrapped her arms around her stomach.
When she finally regained control of herself, she wiped away a couple of tears from the corner of her eyes, "You know Malfer has refused to be seen in public for the past two years ever since you gave him the slip,"
"It's the greatest disgrace he has ever brought onto the Umbar family, you know they spent months preparing that trap for you," she giggled her melodious laugh carried across the winds like a soothing song.
"But if my memory serves me correctly you didn't beat Malfer but managed to escape," she giggled like someone who had just caught someone in an embarrassing lie.
Aridex furrowed his brow with a bit of gloom setting into his eyes.
"But you don't need to worry," Alphea added, "I'm not here to capture you," she chuckled.
"Yeah, then you why are you here?" Aridex asked unconvinced he didn't lower his guard for even a moment, at that moment the entire swamp around them had turned to ashes from the intensity of the flames.
"Don't believe me huh?" Alphea muttered and a layer of shadow seemed to leak from her body making her vanish from sight, a second later she reappeared just a foot outside the range of Aridex's sword.
"See, if I hadn't announced myself earlier I could have snuck up on you and killed you while you were still bullying that hydra," she added nonchalantly standing over the flames.
Aridex narrowed his eyes, with her control of shadow essence he knew that he wouldn't have been able to react until she was within 5 feet of him.
He grimaced and let the flames die down to a dull blue, "Out with it," he reluctantly chose to hear out the princess.