I woke up to the sight of the Hydra. I was confused when I woke up, but the throbbing pain made me remember. The Hydra had healed, and the meter-wide hole was only 2 feet wide. I didn't know how long I was out, but it shouldn't be long.
The pain of the knockback remained, and my body was still healing. I jumped down from my alcove to face the Hydra head-on. It was down to half its strength. If I waited any longer, the Hydra would completely heal.
I landed behind the Hydra. Three heads immediately turned to look at the intruder. Not wasting any time, I cast three fire-lances. They smashed against the heads as they chomped down on the magic. My mana wasn't fully recovered, so I needed to be careful.
The other heads were alert, casting magic—wind, earth, water, light, dark, and barriers. I set up barriers as I walked towards the Hydra, which was on the other side of the room, 50 meters away.
It was turning to face me, but until it started moving, it would be a battle of magic. As the magic flew around me, I cast magic of my own. Lightning spears, light bullets, dark blades, and fire pillars flew to the Hydra. I was targeting hitting the heads.
The magic fire-fight continued as we prepared our main moves. My elemental barrage was on autopilot as I prepared my true magic: a space blade, one of my most lethal moves. I'd been refining it. The Hydra was also preparing magic of its own.
The regenerated middle head handled defenses. The following four heads focused on the barrage while the outer two prepped their magic. The Hydra was now facing me. The body tensed as if preparing for a charge.
I also prepared my charge, a sword condensed in my hand, and the space magic I prepped applied to it. The Hydra launched at me, and I stepped forward, swinging my greatsword horizontally.
The space blade lurched forward, clashing with the Hydra. The Hydra's barriers flickered but were eventually defeated.
The space blade was not only an eighth-circle magic. It was also a conceptual attack that cut through space itself.
No magic on the same level could even compare to it. It was the product of two long years of spatial research. I cut off the Hydra's middle three heads in one strike. With the Hydra's shields gone, I made my move.
The Hydra stopped, so I charged forward, sword by my side. The Hydra was undeterred and launched the magic it was preparing. Two massive beams of lightning hit me from both sides. The magic was almost instantaneous. Using the moment I was charging, the Hydra had ensured a head-on hit.
The attack instantly shattered my space elemental barrier. My neutral barrier only held on a little longer. Yet, the barriers did give me enough time to reinforce my body. By reinforcing my body with neutral mana, I strengthened my defenses tenfold.
It still wasn't enough, as the attack burned my whole body. It would have fried my brain, but the nanomachines absorbed most of the energy. The rest dispersed into the environment. I stood, my skin burned, and sword raised as I stared down the Hydra.
The lightning attack had stripped away the little healing I had. Pain coursed through my body, but I pushed through. Instead of clouding my mind, I used the pain to sharpen my intent.
The barrage of magic stopped as we faced off, conserving our energy. I'd almost depleted my mana, and I could tell the Hydra was in the same boat. My skin was healing, but I stood naked in the middle of the cave—this had been happening a lot recently. Whenever I tried to wear normal clothes, an attack would burn them off.
When my mana sufficiently recovered, I charged forward again, the head snapping down at me. I dodged and countered the maws as I zig-zagged to the Hydra. The beast's body was 10 meters wide, making it an easy target. As I arrived, I plunged my two-meter great sword into the belly.
I continued to burrow it further as I unleashed an electric shock through the 15-meter-tall snake. The Hydra seemed to barely feel it, and an earth wave pushed me back, leaving my sword in the snake.
I condensed another sword as I faced off against the four massive heads. Decapitating each one would be impossible, so I had to remove the heart.
The electric shock told me the rough position of the heart, but I still needed more information. It was somewhere under the middle head. Considering the size of the Hydra, the heart has to be massive as well.
A head struck me from the side as I jumped back to avoid it. Another head struck me in the air. I hit it with my sword first, spinning from the recoil to avoid the deadly bite. The next attack was stone spikes from below.
I threw my sword down, using the recoil of the throw to land to the side. The barrage of attacks didn't stop as the last two heads came to me. One covered the air, and the other covered the ground from the left.
With nowhere to go, I had to face the attack right on. With the jaws on top of me, I stomped down inside the lower head's maw, holding back the airborne head with both hands. The lower head snapped down, taking my left leg with it.
The top head, held open by my arms, released a poison breath. Unluckily for it, my nanomachines made me immune to poison. The machines destroyed all outside material before it could infect me. I fired a fire spear down its gullet, shutting its mouth before blowing up the fire spear inside it.
I then turned around, lifting the head and smashing it down on the head that bit my leg. I let go and jumped in the air. Turning 180 degrees, I used my right leg to axe kick both heads.
The heads retreated, healing their wounds. I didn't have enough time to regenerate my leg. I could only form a metal skeleton before charging forward again. I once again dodged the heads and deflected the magicks.
I arrived in front of the regenerating stump of the middle head before punching out. I reinforced my punch with neutral and elemental mana. The shockwave from the punch spread out through the Hydra's body. The Hydra flew back a couple of feet.
With the Hydra stunned, I applied X-ray and heat vision on top of my vision to see the location of the heart. While not perfect, I still saw the giant heart, the size of a grown adult man. Taking advantage of the stun, I pierced the Hydra with an ice spear and then with an earth bullet to shatter the bone.
Unfortunately, the Hydra recovered before I got to the heart. Remorse to let this golden opportunity go, I started my barrage again. I lashed out against the heads attacking me. My mana was low, and the Hydra surrounded me with its heads. I broke out of the encirclement with a show of swordsmanship I thought I'd long forgotten.
Before the heads could push me back again, I lunged forward. I jumped towards the hole the ice spear created. Taking advantage, I jumped into the bloody flesh. Even as the muscles of Hydra enclosed me, I continued slashing through.
The blood was overwhelming and enough to make even a vampire vomit. I closed my eyes, imagining I was hacking my way through a dense rainforest. Before long, I broke through the bones and reached the heart.
As the Hydra made a desperate move, burning away its chest to get rid of me, I plunged my sword into the heart. Blood spurted, covering me in viscera from head to toe. Before the tidal wave of blood could wash me away, I set it on fire. I also electrocuted the Hydra from the inside and used its blood with a spell to pierce out all over the body.
I cut myself out the way I had come from. The Hydra was bleeding out of every orifice. All four heads sprawled out across the floor. I stood in the middle of the carnage, blood pooling around my feet.
The other mini-bosses came out, sensing the end of the conflict. With the mana still crazy from the after-effects of the fight, I pooled what I could. Looking at the mini-bosses coming out of their caves, I activated my final magic.
"O'beasts. Beasts of destruction, creation, and all that is powerful, heed my call.
See my enemies before you. Use my body as your vessel.
I offer up all that is mine to you."
"[Annihilation]."
All seven bosses fell, their heads gone. My Magnus Opum, Annihilation, was a magic I could only use once. I didn't use it on the Hydra because its natural defenses would have stopped it. Only anything equal to or lower rank than me couldn't resist the magic.
It took my entire mana pool and concentration to do. Annihilation separated every atom in what I wanted. It was able to disintegrate anything made out of matter. I couldn't use it in a fight because I couldn't do anything for the ten seconds it took to cast.
With all the bosses dead around me, I relaxed. Purple light rose around me. It was similar to the teleport circle I used when I first got here. Too tired to do anything, I sat down. Whatever came next would be dealt with next.