“Alright, I think he’s done.” Nora announced. “I can’t say he did any meaningful damage, but he did make Rainy fire a lot of water bullets. Monsters usually have a physical limit on how many projectiles they can fire, so that’s something.”

“Then let’s move out before she can recover.” Linderman followed up.

The other four teams, including Theo’s, stood up and readied their gear.

“Ok, get into formation behind me.” Nora ordered. “Like I said before, this plan is extremely simple. Don’t worry about coordinating with other teams. Just handle your own team’s head and trust that they’ll handle theirs. All of you have made it to the third layer, so you should be able to do that much.”

The other raiders shouted words of approval as they followed Nora.

A crowd of over fifteen people charged at the Torrent Guardian. Various defensive enchantments were activated as the beast spat out a volley of water bullets. But, to the raiders’ surprise, none of those projectiles reached their targets. Linderman darted forward and raised his storm cloud-like arm.

*Boom*

A sound far more intimidating than the hydra’s spitting rang out. Following it was a beam of bright light. The laser that shot out of Linderman’s arm pierced the bullets, causing them to pop like water balloons.

And it kept going.

One of the Torrent Guardian’s heads hissed as the beam grazed it. Yale had insisted that those scales were tough, but some of them were melting after they touched Linderman’s weapon.

Astonished and grateful cries rose up from the crowd. All of them knew that Linderman’s arm was a platinum-tier treasure, but they had never seen it in action.

Meanwhile, Theo was watching Linderman carefully. The towering raider didn’t seem to be suffering from any pain or exhaustion. He could likely fire off several more blasts. Theo narrowed his eyes. He’d seen platinum-tier treasures before and knew just how impressive they were. If a powerful beam was all Linderman had, then that strange treasure truly was defective.

Morale was soaring, and several people began to fire their own projectiles at the hydra. The Torrent Guardian didn’t falter. It let out a series of roars that seemed to carry an invisible pressure. In response, the rain suddenly grew heavier. Arrows and magic attacks were knocked out of the air as the deluge worsened.

The ground began to shake, and the raiders’ stomachs did a somersault. The Torrent Guardian was charging.

“I’ll stop its body!” Linderman barked. “Everyone else, focus on the heads.”

If anyone else had said it, the raiders would have ignored them and run for their lives. But Linderman had already won their trust and admiration. Once they heard his steady tone, everyone stood their ground.

Linderman’s clothes shone as he activated several enchantments at once. Strength, defense and, oddly enough, weight enhancing auras billowed out. Gritting his teeth, Linderman commanded his stormy arm to grow until it was as long as the hydra’s necks. An enormous crackling hand pressed into the hydra’s chest.

The dour raider slid back a few meters, but then he stopped. The Torrent Guardian let out a surprised hiss when it couldn’t move any further. Its heads swung down to dislodge Linderman, but the other raiders were ready for them.

Following Nora’s orders, Theo ignored the other teams and charged towards his chosen head. It swerved away from Linderman to meet him, but that was what Theo had been hoping for. A lightning fast bite hit air as the outlaw’s headband blinked.

From the hydra’s perspective, Theo had disappeared and then teleported on top of its head. In reality, Theo had jumped up there by combining the weight reduction from his gloves with his cloak’s wind. The cause of the monster’s confusion was, of course, Theo’s headband.

Fake-Out, whose name had been discovered by Vivian’s appraisal, could create illusory attacks. Despite having zero offensive or defensive power, its potent illusions placed it at gold-tier. The headband’s only downside was that it had a short cooldown period.

Theo plunged his dagger into the hydra’s head and the beast writhed as Voidcutter tore through its scales. It tried to throw Theo off, but something froze it in place. Nails seemed to be pushing into its skin, halting its movements. The head’s massive pupils constricted as it realized that this was another illusion.

Vivian lowered her hands once she saw that the spell had taken effect. After opening her storage, she tossed a spear out to Mavis. This was the only gold-tier weapon that they had gotten from a monster.

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In a series of movements that looked normal from a distance, Mavis climbed onto the hydra’s head. Theo dashed over to help it carry the spear. Together, they jammed it into the wound opened by Voidcutter. As mana was channeled into it, the spear began to glow with a frightening intensity.

The high-level spell mental bind, an illusion-enhancing vest dropped by a soul-piercing moth, and a distraction from Theo. This was how they had succeeded in stopping the hydra’s movements.

A few other raiders turned their heads as a furious hiss pierced through the deluge. Their jaws dropped and some of them were forced to dodge as bits of gore rained down. Meanwhile, Theo hit the ground with a combat roll while Mavis landed with a splat.

An injury carved open by Voidcutter, a tremendous amount of mana from Theo and Mavis, and the gold-tier Sunburst Spear. This was how they had managed to destroy a head before anyone else.

Though it looked like a perfect plan, they were just making do with what they had. Even with its enchantment, Voidcutter would have taken ages to carve up the massive head. On the other hand, the Sunburst Spear was too large and heavy for any of them to wield. It took Vivian’s longest and most complicated illusion spell, plus mana from both Theo and Mavis to land a decisive blow on the monster.

A bloody wagon-sized head fell to the ground with a loud thud. At that moment, only six heads remained.

Enthusiastic cheers rose up, and their noise briefly suppressed the rain. But while everyone began to fight more boldly, Nora’s lips curled into a frown. Her red eye gleamed briefly as she glanced at Theo.

“Usually we’re the ones challenging more experienced groups.” She muttered. “No wonder they always looked a bit irritated.”

Nora raised her own weapon, a short bow made out of clear crystal, and fired a glowing arrow. The projectile sheared a few scales off one hydra head before curving unnaturally into another. Nora’s lips moved rapidly as she nocked another arrow. Two enraged heads lunged towards her, but she didn’t move. Instead, she finished her chant and let the arrow fly.

A streak of red light pierced one of the two necks, and then the arrowhead exploded. Enough blood sprayed from the wound that even the rain had trouble washing it away. With its neck barely attached, one of the heads faltered while the other kept going.

As the hydra opened its mouth to swallow Nora, her figure blurred. In an instant, she was already several meters away. By the time the head turned to pursue her, another arrow was sailing through the air. A second explosion rang out as the hydra bore the brunt of Nora’s magically-enhanced arrow.

Two sets of eyes glared warily through the smoke and rain. Neither of the heads had been killed, but they were seriously injured. Meanwhile, Nora had only fired three arrows.

“So tough!” She exclaimed with mild enthusiasm. “You’re only a third layer boss…Is it because you’ve lived a long life?”

One head had been destroyed, two were severely wounded, and the other four weren’t having much luck. Three of them were locked in combat with the three other raiding teams. These raiders couldn’t finish off their opponents, but the same could be said for the hydra. This stalemate was exactly what Nora had been hoping for.

The last head was being held up by Linderman. He had retracted his arm and was fiercely attacking the Torrent Guardian. If everything continued as planned, the pair would finish off their designated heads in no time.

“WHERE ARE YOU, MASKED OUTLAW!?”

Yale’s frenzied voice swept through the forest, marking the exact moment when things stopped going according to Nora’s plan.

“COME OUT AND FACE ME, MONSTER! I’LL TEAR YOU APART AND RIP OUT YOUR CORE!”

A multi-colored blur sped towards the chaos. Even though the connection was unstable, Yale looked very intimidating with all of his body enhancing auras activated. The young master swung his head wildly as he searched for the object of his hatred.

Scowling, Theo turned his attention away from the hydra. He’d expected something like this to happen, but not so soon. Or, maybe he’d expected it to happen a lot sooner. Either way, this wasn’t the ideal time to settle their grudge.

While everyone was trying to make sense of this development, a pair of rabid eyes locked onto the slime. Yale didn’t waste any time as he charged forward. His two swords met Mavis’s and the slime immediately buckled under the pressure.

In terms of raw physical strength, Mavis was already weaker than most humans. It could skirt around this issue by redistributing its mass, but that kind of change would be extremely noticeable. Against Yale’s enchantments, Mavis was like a weak child.

But that was only in terms of physical strength.

“You have always…attacked for…no reason.” It seethed.

The Blade of Dismissal flashed, and Yale’s swords were repelled. He prepared to attack again, but a flicker of movement caught his attention. Yale just barely managed to dodge as Theo appeared by his side.

This time, the difference between their gear wasn’t as pronounced. Yale’s equipment stacked body enhancing effects, while Theo’s was a mixed bag of gimmicks. On top of that, the outlaw wasn’t alone.

Theo created a gust of wind with one hand and thrust his dagger with the other. Yale shrugged off the wind and knocked Theo’s dagger away with his saber. The young master cut towards Theo without any hesitation, but the outlaw’s headband blinked and then he disappeared. Leveraging his incredible speed, Yale avoided Theo’s surprise attack.

Mavis tried to help, but its swordplay was no match for Yale’s.

Vivian was in a similar situation. Her magical attacks, even the mental ones, were less effective against raiders with strong enchantments.

As they crossed blades, Theo couldn’t help but feel that something was off. After a couple minutes, it struck him. Yale had already been severely injured by the hydra. Theo would have been surprised to see him walking around, but right now Yale was fighting at peak condition. Were his healing enchantments really that powerful?

While he was worrying about Yale’s unnatural recovery, a scream rang out.

Theo’s eyes widened as he turned towards its source. One of the hydra heads clamped shut, snuffing out the noise. The leader of a relatively new team became the first casualty of the hydra hunt.

Because of Yale’s interference, many of the less disciplined raiders had gotten distracted. The Torrent Guardian had taken advantage of this opening to secure a kill. Nora grit her teeth as the other raiders’ faces paled. After that fatal blunder, it wasn’t long before every team’s formation crumbled.