About five kilometers away, a figure with glowing yellow eyes watched the battle, hidden by the shadows of the forest. After the hydra had been decapitated, the figure pulled out a dart filled with liquid and threw it at the headless hydra.

“Looks like those humans put up quite a show with my pet but it would be boring to have it end so soon.”

***

“Whew, that was close. There were a couple of attack I wasn’t sure I would be able to dodge. Let’s go back to town and have ourselves a nice long nap.” Dulhan made an exaggerated sigh as he stuck his spear into the ground and fell on his back. However, anyone could see that he did not actually have to exert himself much in that battle.

On the other hand, Medony was still as boisterous as ever. “Oh come on, none of us even got hurt aside from a few scuffs here and there. I would have enjoyed it more if I could have gotten a few more swings with my axe before it went down.”

“Personally, I’m with Dulhan on this one. Let’s rest in the town for the night before going back to the palace to report to my brother. Maybe the sages back at the capital can find more information about the hydra using its corpse.”

“We’ll let the mayor take care of the transportation. Let’s just get back to tow-”

HHHRRROOOOOAAAAAHHH!!!

Medony was interrupted by a roar coming from behind. When she turned toward the source, she couldn’t contain her shock.

“W-what the hell?”

The hydra they had recently killed had been struck by the dart and started shaking as the trio was talking. It only took seconds for the serem to drain into the hydra and regrow its severed heads and heal its injuries. Revived, the hydra let out an angry roar that drew all eyes toward it. Worse,the serum had actually caused a sixth head had grow out as well.

Dulhan was gaping in disbelief. “How is that possible? Our fire attacks should have cauterized the wounds preventing it from regrowing its heads! And it’s even grown a sixth head!”

“We killed it once. Looks like we’ll have to do it again. Come, Bailong!” Barton lifted his hand and a summoning circle appeared. Out of it appeared Bailong the Heavenly Dragon.

“Bailong, provide us covering fire.” The dragon nodded and with a roar, flew up into the sky and started shooting energy from his mouth. Barton then turned to Dulhan and Medony. “We have to take this thing down before it gets used to its new power! Summon Altoras and Azun. We’re going to need all the firepower we can get.”

“Come out, Altros! Show that thing Hell!”

“Let’s go, Azun! It’s time to bring the thunder down on this thing!”

Dulhan and Medony both raised their hands and summoned the Nightmare Horse and Lightning Griffin. After being summoned, Altros started to shoot blue flames at the hydra while Azun shot white lightning.

At this moment, the hydra had finished evolving and regained mobility. Although the contracted beasts were high in the air and out of immediate reach, their masters weren’t as lucky. The hydra swung its massive tail at the trio. Barton reacted quickly, intercepted the attack by putting up a three layered barrier as well as his shield. Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough time to use a stronger barrier. The hydra’s tail shattered the barrier, dented the shield, and flung Barton about half a kilometer away through trees and boulders. If he hadn’t absorbed some of the impact with his shield and barrier or if his armor were of lower quality, he most certainly would have died. Luckily, his armor was made by a Dwarven master and was able to absorb damage for him to remain conscious.

The once majestic blue armor was currently in a sorry state. There were dents and cracks all over and even some parts of the armor were broken away. Although Barton could not be considered to be alright, at the very least he was still alive. Furthermore, he accomplished his goal. Him intercepting the attack had caused the hydra’s tail to miss Dulhan and Medony and give them time to counterattack.

As the hydra had thought it had gotten rid of all three with that attack, Dulhan and Medony were given enough time to collect themselves and renew their attack. Unfortunately, it had learned from the previous battle and the evolution of the additional head had increased its strength and reflexes exponentially. Even with the added support of their contracted beasts, they were having a much harder time against the hydra than before.

Crap, that damn hydra hits freaking hard. Looks like I've three broken ribs, multiple leg fractures, left arm is broken in four different places. I guess I won’t be able to fight in this state.“Spirits of nature heed my cry, heal me with your blessed light. Healing Aura!” Barton used a healing spell to stop his bleeding and start healing some of his more major injuries like his broken bones. As a Knight, Barton was neither as physically strong as Medony or as fast as Dulhan. However, Knights were versatile, being able to fight physically as well as cast any type magic.

In order to get back to the battle more quickly, Barton poured mana into his armor, not even waiting for his healing spell to finish. A pair of translucent wings began to take shape on his back stretching about a meter on each side. With these wings, Barton was able to get back to the battleground in mere seconds.

Although only about a minute had gone by since Barton had taken the hydra’s attack, he still feared what it could do to Dulhan and Medony with its power. They had been holding back considerably against the hydra when they were fighting before but even if they were to go all out, Barton feared for the worst. Thankfully, they were able still okay when he got back.

Dulhan had been able to blind one of the heads with some assistance from the contracted beasts. After that, he had managed to blind a second head with some support from Medony although his arm was hurt in the process. His broken left arm was swinging uselessly at his side while he was still trying to blind another head with his spear in his right hand. His once flawless black armor was now covered in cracks and dents. Although his arm was broken, his overall condition was actually a bit better than Barton’s before he had used the healing spell.

Medony’s armor had many more dents than before but it seemed that she was as energetic as ever. This was due to the fact that a trait of the Berserker Class was to dull pain and the special ability of Medony’s bloodline was to convert damage into physical power. The more damage she took, the more powerful she became. In fact, as Barton arrived at the battleground, she had been able to cut off one of the hydra’s heads on her own. This act left her open for the other heads to attack though.

Thankfully, Barton was able to launch a Blade Storm at the heads seeking revenge just in time, managing to hit an eye on two of the heads. As the swords exploded on impact, the hydra recoiled in pain as two of its eyes exploded.

Barton continued on by casting a wide area healing spell in order to ease their injuries. “Spirits of nature, hear my plea, cast your merciful light on us. Healing Sanctuary! Sorry I’m late but at least I took out two more eyes. Don’t think that will work a second time though. So you still complaining the five headed hydra was too easy?”

“Oh shut up. Dulhan’s managed to blind two of the heads and I’ve chopped off one of them. Your attack just now partially blinded two more. That leaves one more head that’s completely fine and I’m not entirely sure we have enough left in us to win.”

As the three gathered up, the contracted beasts were keeping the hydra busy. When Dulhan reached the perimeter of Barton’s Healing Sanctuary, his broken arm and other injuries started to heal. However, the hydra had developed acidic breath that it was using on the contracted beasts meaning they didn’t have time to just stand around.

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Similar to a dragon’s breath, hydras could produce and launch this acid by using the mana in their bodies. Although it wouldn’t kill the contracted beasts, getting hit by that acid would still take them out of the fight.

“Altoras and the other contracted beasts are at their limit as well. Looks like we’ve got no choice. Barton, Medony, help me stall for about 5 minutes.”

“I’ll try but seeing as how much trouble it’s been up to now, I can’t make any guarantees.”

“I’ll do it but if you let us down and we die I’ll bring you back and kill you again.”

With those parting words, Barton and Medony started attacking the hydra once more.

Meanwhile, Dulhan put down his spear, twisted his Class Crystal, and pressed it again. In a flash of light, his black armor and spear was replaced with a black robe and a short staff. After this, he raised his staff and started to collect mana into the orb on his staff.

Normally, one person could have only one Class. However, there are exceptions to the rule. In rare instances, a person could possess the ability to use two Classes. These individuals were called Dual Class users. Around the world, it only happens in high ranking nobility although nobody knows the reason.Dulhan’s family, the Vortals, had fallen into ruin in his great grandfather’s time so much that Dulhan had spent his earliest years on a farm, his great grandfather had been a Duke.

Although his family had since been restored to its former glory due to his father’s tireless work, another large contributing factor was that Dulhan was discovered to be a Dual Class user. When the country finds a Dual Class user, they are sent to a special school that finds what Classes they have an affinity toward and provide train them in those Classes. After all, Dual Class users could be an important military asset in times of crisis.

Dulhan’s alternate Class was Summoner. As the name suggests, Summoners use mana to summon creatures to do battle. However, Summoners are physically weak and generally need comrades to protect them as they prepare for summoning. Though Dulhan’s Dragoon Class increased his physical abilities slightly while he was a Summoner and likewise the Summoner Class would have allowed him to summon weaker creatures while he was a Dragoon, the increase was not significant enough to make a difference in this battle. That was why he still needed Barton and Medony to protect him.

While Dulhan was gathering mana, Barton and Medony were both frantically defending and attacking against the hydra. With some trial and error, Barton had found that he had to use a five layered barrier in order as well as his shield to avoid being knocked back by the hydra’s tail attack and a three layered barrier would be sufficient to block the hydra’s attempts to bite them. Furthermore, he would launch a Blade Storm whenever the hydra started to turn its attention onto Dulhan.

As Medony had the greater striking power, she left her defenses to Barton and continued to attack the hydra to lure it away from Dulhan. Even if she was unable to cut off any more heads of the hydra, the deep gashes on its body were more than enough to turn its attention to her.

The contracted beasts were also continuing to shoot down at the hydra from the skies. Facing these attacks coming from different directions, the hydra decided to try a different tactic. Although the attacks from the humans hurt it, the attacks from the contracted beasts hurt it more. Thus it decided to prioritize taking them down first.

The hydra raised all five of its heads to the sky and started focusing its acid breath on one contracted beast at a time. The first to go down was Altoras as despite his great speed, he was unable to dodge five different attacks coming from different directions. Before he hit the ground, Altoras disappeared in a flash of light. Although contracted beasts could be killed like any other living being, they rarely die in battle. This is because they are able to return from where they were summoned if they take a large amount of damage to preserve their lives. Although they cannot be summoned again for at least a day, their lives would not be threatened.

His defeat was followed shortly by Bailong who attempted to counter the hydra’s breath attack with his own. Because he was still young and couldn’t maintain his breath, Bailong lost the struggle and was sent back as well.

Azun was able to last a little longer because she was able to accelerate at the speed of lightning. However, this put a strain on her body and the hydra was able to strike her down after another minute.

Medony had used those precious few minutes given to them by the contracted beasts to charge up another Berserker Slash and cut another of its heads while Barton focused his attention on healing some of their injuries. However, after Azun fell, the hydra turned its acid breath on Barton and Medony.

“That won’t work on us! Mirror Reflection Shield!” Barton raised shield and placed up another five layered barrier between them and the hydra. When the hydra’s acidic breath hit the barrier, it was absorbed and shot back. The Mirror Reflection Shield was one of Barton’s spells that combined his Magical Construct ability with magic. The result was a spell that could reflect any enemy magic as long as the layered barrier stayed intact. Unfortunately, it could not reflect physical attacks and if a magical attack were to break through all the barriers, the reflection effect would not activate.

The hydra had never expected its own acid to be shot back at it and recoiled as its scales and flesh started to smoke and bubble. It appeared that both scale and flesh were beginning to melt.

HRRRAAAAAAAOOORR!!!

It let out a pained roar and started thrashing about. Although the injury looked grievous and would take a large amount of time to heal, the hydra didn’t seem to mind the pain. In fact, while it seemed much more violent than before, it seemed almost as if it was most offended by the fact that its own attack was used against it.

Shit! That didn’t go as well as I thought it would. “Dulhan are you done!?!”

Suddenly a large magic circle appeared in front of Dulhan. Over a hundred shadowy wolves appeared and started attacking the hydra. Their claws and their fangs clawed and bit into the exposed flesh from the previous attacks. Rather than summon something large to attack the hydra head on, Dulhan had decided to summon a large number of weaker beasts to overwhelm it with sheer numbers.

“Just finished. Now take that thing down while my Midnight Wolves have it distracted!” While Dulhan was controlling his Midnight Wolves, he was unable to change back into the Dragoon Class. Thus it was up to Barton and Medony to decapitate the remaining heads of the hydra.

Before Dulhan had even finished talking, Medony had already jumped up and decapitated one of the hydra’s heads. With a swift motion, she kicked the smouldering stump and brought her axe down on the neighboring head, head, dyeing her axe and armor a brilliant crimson.

Barton did not stay idle though. He charged his longsword with mana and launched a flaming wave of magic at another head. If the hydra had not been distracted by the sudden attack of the wolves, it may have been able to block or dodge the attack but the energy wave severed another head from the hydra. With two heads remaining and the hydra still struggling with the countless wolves clawing at its injuries, Barton and Medony charged with their respective weapons and struck down two remaining heads, finally bringing the battle to an end.