By reflex, Kal almost activated Wrath Incarnate but stopped himself at the last instant and instead activated Flesh of Iron.
“Don’t move! You can’t leave the array. I’ll handle it,” Kal grunted as he continued activating skills.
Slayer’s Intent, and Flames of Wrath were next as he stepped forward through the darkness, crimson flames spreading across his arms and up the length of Exterminator’s Regards.
Entities Marked: [Seeker Shadow Hydra | Hostile]
The demon surged over the rise and Kal frowned as a fifth, sixth, and seventh appeared as well. The thing was huge. It was like seven seeker dark serpents had been literally merged together into one new monster.
Its body was a mess of half-fused serpent bodies and in place of legs, it had grotesquely twisted limbs made from badly fused tails. Kal’s improved mana sight mixed with his killing sight made seeing the demon’s features easy but unpleasant.
Four of its heads were staring directly at him through the darkness, their eyes like black-purple orbs of hate scanned him up and down as he readied himself. Kal could feel his soul clashing with the killing intent of the shadow hydra and its bloodthirst rage back in return.
Kal wasn’t thrilled to be fighting something like this without Wrath Incarnate but when did things ever go the way he wanted?
Health:
4160/4160
Stamina:
7880/7880
Wrath:
4312
Kal moved, charging towards the hydra with his sword raised, and in the same moment the hydra’s eyes flashed purple and shadow mana swirling around him surged. As he left the place he had just been standing a spike shadow made solid pierced the ground with a boom.
Ander cried out but Nyx grabbed hold of him to keep him quiet and Kal dashed closer to the demon. Three more spikes of shadow threatened to pierce him through before he had even gotten in range and a fourth was close enough that he was forced to bring his sword around to deflect it.
He managed it but just barely. Exterminator’s Regards hacked into the edge of the spike and it barely moved, it was more the rebound of the clash that saved him from being pierced. Kal staggered backward away from the strike and then a bone-shattering strike slammed into his back. The blow threw him off his feet and into a large metal plate that bent under the force of his landing.
Kal looked up toward the hydra to see one of its heads slowly retracting and another surging toward him. Kal kicked off the wall as he activated Wrathful Regeneration. His sword dug deep into the second head's skull but a third head lashed out to knock him free with as much force as the first attack.
He hit the ground and rolled with the momentum as several more spikes pierced the ground around him a fourth head speared down toward him as he was recovering and snatched him up with its huge head.
One of the demon’s huge fangs pierced straight through his chest and Kal grunted with the pain, completely unaffected by his usual activation of Wrath Incarnate. Kal expected the fang to inject a dense stream of shadow mana into his body but interestingly he watched it flow through the hydra’s head and into its fangs. He saw it clash with the remaining will tendrils covering his torso and stop dead.
The will tendrils seemed to wilt slightly before the hydra’s skill ended but Kal wasn’t waiting around to watch and brought his blade hard down on the neck of the head holding him. Cutting through its flesh was almost too easy compared to his time with the dark serpents. Dark black blood sprayed in all directions as his blade hacked through the flesh of one side of the fourth head’s neck, severing the spine and almost all of the muscles and tendons.
The head fell limp and Kal fell free of the now paralyzed head.
Health:
3721/4160
Stamina:
6780/7880
Wrath:
3312
Kal grunted as his regeneration burned his nerves, sealing the pierced flesh of his chest back together. He dodged another attack from the first two heads and barely deflected two more shadow spikes before it was done.
He needed a way to deal with the spikes, having to avoid them alongside all the bloody heads was difficult, to say the least without Wrath Incarnate. After seeing the interaction with his will tendrils Kal got an idea that he was a bit ashamed he hadn’t thought of it immediately.
Kal moved back toward the head but focused his Eyes of the Slayer on the shadow mana around him. Now that he focused on it just like in The Place Between threads of mana coursed through the air before lancing toward him but here instead of simply striking at him they spine into a spiral before the spike manifested to pierce him.
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Kal grinned and with a flicker of will his tendril lashed out to sever the thread of shadow mana. The air directly around the shadow mana detonated with a flash of purple-white light and the thread disintegrated.
One of the heads that hadn’t attacked him directly yet arched back with a dissonant hiss as the destruction of the thread traced the thread back to its source. Kal’s tendrils were in a sorry state compared to what they were in the trial but there were enough of them for this.
Now on the offensive Kal moved between exploding threads of shadow and light, dodging the fangs of its three remaining attack heads and carving chunks of black scale and flesh each time. If he had Wrath Incarnate he knew each strike would have been far more lethal as his strength and speed without it didn’t allow him to punish the hydra’s movements as much as he would like.
The six remaining hydra heads hissed with anger as it withdrew its wounded heads and all six twisted into a spiral. From deep within its grotesque body a dense pulse of shadow mana surged up its combined throats, merging together to form a dense braid of shadow threads. Its heads all angled toward him and shadow mana exploded from their maws as one.
A column of darkness lanced toward him but then it angled low and changed direction to surge toward the array.
----------------------------------------
Nyx held the crying Ander tightly to her chest with her good arm as her lor- Kalum fought in utter darkness. She could see nothing passed the edge of the circle besides the flashes of searing white and purple light that arced through the air around them.
Droplets of dark blood splattered onto the two of them as whatever Kalum was fighting hissed in rage and anger. The blood burned slightly wherever it landed but not enough to cause true injury even to the unascended Ander.
The fight seemed to last forever and despite her wretched state Nyx itched to take up a bow and help but by the sound of it, Kalum didn’t need help.
The rage-filled hissing continued but suddenly Nyx felt something change. Her hair stood on and she heard Kalum curse. Then darkness around the twisted before her eyes and out of nowhere a column of darkness surged toward her. Nyx’s body almost threw her from the array by reflex but Kalum’s warning held her firm, instead, she ducked down away from the lance of death keeping herself between it and Ander.
Nyx watched the column reach her but in the last moment as it passed the edge of the circle Kalum was there, his legs planted in warrior’s stance and left arm upraised. Before her eyes, his left arm disintegrated as the column tore chunk after chunk free.
Kalum grunted but pivoted. His sword suddenly gained a pearlescent glow and swung down toward the column. As the two clashed the air around them both exploded into blind white light and darkness around them was completely dispelled for an instant. In that moment Nyx got a glimpse of what Kalum was fighting and her heart froze.
[Seeker Shadow Hydra | Abyssal Spawn 83]
Kalum glanced back and his eyes flashed brilliant gold and dark crimson, the sight both chilling and beautiful. Then Nyx saw his smile and the fear she felt vanished.
----------------------------------------
Health:
3009/4160
Stamina:
5230/7880
Wrath:
2321
His arm vanished with a gut-wrenching pain that threatened to overwhelm his concentration but still, Kal’s blade sundered the hydra’s skill. Kal switched Wrathful Regeneration to its quicker variation to seal the stump that was once his left forearm before charging surging toward the demon once more.
Kal cursed himself for neglecting Nyx and Ander. He was not used to needing to protect someone other than himself. It had cost him, but he wouldn’t let it happen again. The necks unraveled and continued their combined assault of shadow manifested spikes but they were worthless now.
Losing his arm was painful and less than ideal but he was ready now. Kal’s will lashed around him, sundering skills manifesting around him as he made his way back to the hydra’s huge form. As he reached its body again it tried to repeat its shadow lance attack but Kal didn’t give it the chance.
Exterminator’s Regards hacked once then twice into the neck of one of the already wounded necks as condensed shadow reached its throat. Pearlescent light detonated in the thing's neck and a sphere of darkness tore the head completely free, the force of the detonation snapping a second and third neck.
Kal leaped on the writhing and wounded body of the hydra and continued hacking down on the remaining stunned and agonized heads.
Mutilation bonus added to total!
Mutilation bonus added to total!
Mutilation bonus added to total!
Black blood sprayed in all directions as he severed multiple important arteries across all of the remaining heads, making the area reek of tar but Kal kept going. Only after the final head was cut free did he finally receive the notification he had been waiting for.
You have slain [Seeker Shadow Hydra | Abyssal Spawn 83] bonus experience awarded due to killing a higher leveled entity.
Level up!
The moment the final head hit the ground with a wet squelch the shadow mana obscuring the area began to fade. Kal didn’t return to Nyx and Ander straight away just let his regeneration run for a while. He switched it back over to its more thorough mode and allowed it to restore his missing arm.
He’d rather not let the kid know he had lost his arm. Ander was from the cultists so he had probably seen enough bloodshed recently, there was no point letting him worry about it.
Health:
3874/4190
Stamina:
5650/7960
Wrath:
0
Using all the wrath he had gained from killing the hydra and Slayer’s Intent he managed to grow back his arm.
“Kalum! Are you ok!”
It was Nyx. The shadow mana had faded but not enough to see well in. Kal felt a bit bad suddenly for leaving them in the dark so instead of waiting to heal the rest of his injuries, he walked back over to them.
Kal stuck his head through the side of the array, “I’m fine. Are you ok? I’m sorry for the close call.”
His sudden arrival made Nyx jump as his head suddenly appeared, “Gods… I mean. Never mind that. That was incredible! How could you even see? Some kind of perception skill?”
Kal let out a breath but stopped himself from answering immediately. His skills and abilities were clearly not run of the mill and he didn’t know how much he could actually trust this woman. Sure she had saved him from the prophet and apparently her order wanted him to return but why?
“Something like that. We can talk about that later. Now I need to get back to getting you two out of this circle before something else arrives,” Kal replied, dodging the question.
Nyx’s expression was disappointed, probably seeing straight through him but she nodded, “ Of course.”
The shadow mana had cleared enough that you could at least see the top of the rise. So Kal sat down on the ground and crossed his legs in his usual manner,” I will be focusing for a while. Warn me if something arrives.”