Ada lowered her spear to her hip and slowly approached Anaka Chimera, the avatar of the Hydra. Anaka matched Ada’s pace.

Ada broke the tension early. Before either had entered striking distance, Ada flicked her arm upward, sending her spear flying from her hip; the throw’s lack of power was made up for by Ada’s mythos which allowed her spear to pierce through anything.

Anaka raised her arm to cover her face. Ada’s spear pierced right through but quickly came to a halt.

Anaka opened her mouth, about to remark, but as she pulled her hand down, it revealed Ada mere inches from her face. Ada knew her earlier spear throw wouldn’t cause any significant damage. Therefore, Ada threw it at Anaka’s eyes, so that when she blocked it, she would obscure her vision long enough for Ada to slip in.

Ada slammed her fist into Anaka’s liver in an attempt to knock her to her feet. She followed up with an overhand swing with her shield. However, before the shield connected, Ada’s jaw was rocked by a hook from Anaka, who was seemingly unaffected by Ada’s initial blow.

Powering through the pain, Ada transformed her shield from a small buckler to a large tower shield. The increased size gave Ada the reach to slam the edge of the shield straight into Anaka’s temple.

Again Anaka--unfazed--counterattacked with a devastating push kick straight to Ada’s sternum. The blow sent Ada stumbling backward, as she reached out for her spear that was still embedded in Anaka’s arm.

Anaka pulled her arm back, and with it, the spear left Ada’s reach. However, just as Ada reached out, the spear suddenly grew large enough for Ada to grab the bottom of the shaft.

Seizing the opportunity, as Ada grabbed the spear, Anaka pulled her arm back, ripping the spear from her arm. Ada was yanked toward Anaka. Utilizing the arm that she had just pulled back, Anaka swung at Ada with a backhand punch.

Fortunately, Ada was able to shift her shield back into a buckler, allowing her to maneuver it up in time to guard against the attack. The crack of Anaka’s bones could be heard as her hand impacted Ada’s shield in full force.

Ada jumped backward, disengaging. The taste of iron filled her mouth.

“How’s pain?” Anaka asked, as Ada spat blood on the ground.

“You get used to it,” Ada replied. “Though you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

“Never felt pain a day in my life,” Anaka remarked. “Used to be a curse, you know? Never could tell when something needed fixing, so people could never help me get better. But now, I can get better all on my own.”

Anaka raised her arm to show that the wound from Ada’s spear had already healed. This complicated things. Anaka pulling a spear out of her arm without any reaction was what initially made Ada suspicious.

Traditionally, when your opponent had regenerative abilities there were a few ways of handling them.

If their regeneration needed something to activate it--such as drinking blood--you could prevent them from activating it. However, from what Ada deduced, Anaka’s regeneration was a passive ability, not an activated one.

The other primary option would be to try and outpace the regeneration with damage. Unfortunately, Ada lacked the firepower, and even if she did have it, she wasn’t trying to kill Anaka.

There was always the option to debilitate the opponent with pain--regeneration doesn’t dull pain. This is where Anaka’s condition complicated matters.

Initially, Ada planned to briefly immobilize Anaka with a burst of pain, and use that window of opportunity to slip the underworld cuffs onto her. However, with Anaka unable to feel pain, creating that window of opportunity would be much harder.

Moreover, with Anaka’s mythos being a mythological creature her natural physical enhancements were a lot stronger than Ada’s. Anaka’s regeneration invalidated any attacks from Ada’s spear; although Ada’s shield could block Anaka’s attacks, Ada still felt the recoil from each one.

Ada didn’t have anything to create an opening, but she wasn’t a fan of giving up. Her eyes darted around the room looking for anything she could use.

Glancing at the ground, Ada noticed small bits of debris moving toward a point in the room. All over the cavern floor, pebbles were coalescing in the center of the tunnel. Given what Ada knew, there was only one explanation for this strange occurrence.

Suddenly, she had an idea.

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The six serpent heads belonging to the avatar of Scylla, Echidna Chimera, rushed toward Lya. Weaving through the cavalcade of serpents sent her way, Lya managed to sneak past the six serpents.

Dust kicked in the air as Lya blitzed toward Echidna. However, as she did, a sudden force pulled her off course, causing her to tumble to the ground.

Kallan Chimera, the avatar of Charybdis, loomed over Lya. He tried to stomp Lya out, but she managed to scramble to her feet just in time. Lya sprinted away just as Kallan’s foot slammed into the tunnel floor, cracking it.

She was surprised that Kallan didn’t activate his mythos to prevent her from running away--though she wasn’t going to complain. Still, Lya didn’t have many options.

Echidna’s serpents kept her at a distance, while Kallan’s whirlpool threw her off balance whenever she tried to get close.

The only grace period Lya managed to locate was just after Echidna attacked, while her serpents were still outstretched, Lya could slip past them, and get in close before she could recall them. However, whenever she did, Kallan would activate his mythos to throw her off balance.

Echidna launched another barrage of serpents. Rather than slip past, Lya decided to sidestep the attack. She wanted to test the serpents' range and observe Echidna’s and Kallan’s responses. In doing so, she learned three things.

First, Lya noticed that despite Echidna having great control over her serpents whenever they were near her back--where they protruded from--the further away they were the less control she seemed to have over them. By simply moving to the side, Lya was able to dodge the serpents, and Echidna seemed unable to redirect the course of their attack.

Secondly, Lya saw that debris from the ceiling and walls had gathered at the feet of Kallan. She took this to mean that his mythos worked not just on the ground, but omnidirectionally around him.

Lastly, Lya observed how Kallan didn’t activate his mythos when she attempted to dodge, even though it would’ve helped bring her back into the direction of Echidna’s assault. Given Lya’s previous observation, she reckoned that Kallan wouldn’t activate his mythos since it would also affect Echidna and her snakes.

This also explained why Kallan didn’t constantly have his mythos activate, instead opting to activate it in short bursts; those short bursts were enough to throw off somebody running at super speed, but not enough to significantly impact Echidna.

Lya told herself to think, but nothing came to her. She couldn’t envision a victory. That’s when a voice came over the communication system.

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“Lya, I need your help,” Ada said.

“Kinda, struggling to help myself right now,” Lya responded.

“I think I can help,” Ada replied.

Ada dismissed her spear and shield.

Anaka cocked an eyebrow and cracked her knuckles. “Oh, this should be much more fun.”

Ada raised her arms, as her hands balled into fists. “I’m not doing it for you.”

Ada closed her eyes and called upon the mythos of the spear and the shield paradox.

Given Ada’s unique mythos, her mythos training was unique. While most focus on strengthening the core aspects of their mythos, the weapons from Ada’s mythos manifested at the apex of their strength. As such, Varrick taught Ada some more advanced techniques.

Primarily, Ada trained to keep aspects of her mythos liquid, in particular, the type of spear and shield from her mythos. Considering the type of spear and shield was never specified in the myth itself, it was an aspect of Ada’s mythos that was left up to interpretation.

So, Ada trained with Varrick to reshape her interpretation of the spear and shield. As a result, she gained the ability to freely modify the physical properties of the spear and shield manifested by her mythos.

However, there was another aspect of her mythos that she managed to unlock. In the mythos of the spear and shield paradox, it is a merchant who has the spear and shield. However, that merchant attempts to give the spear and shield to somebody else. Therefore, Ada believed she should be able to do the same.

An ethereal spear and shield manifested in the hands of Lya. Their silver color--the color of them when manifested by Ada--slowly shifted to a deep orange--the color of Lya’s super speed.

Lya grinned. “Yeah, that’ll work. Alright Ada, what do you need from me?”

“Whoever is drawing things toward them, I need you to have them create a massive pulling force,” Ada requested. “Way more than what they’ve been doing.”

“On it,” Lya responded.

Lya blitzed forward but quickly came to a stop. As she did, she used the momentum she built up to hurl the spear toward Echidna. The spear ripped through the air. Just as it was inches away from Echidna, Kallan pulled the spear toward him, sending it flying off course.

The sudden force of Kallan’s pull necessitated Echidna to use her serpents to stabilize herself.

Lya knew Kallan wasn’t going to unleash his full-force whirlpool if it risked Echidna being knocked to the ground. Therefore, she needed to introduce a threat that required Kallan to use a stronger pulling force. That threat was the spear.

Echidna had one of her serpents sink its fangs into the cavern wall, rooting her in place. This way, Kallan could use his stronger whirlpools to pull the spear off course, without risk of sending her flying.

With a flick of her wrist, Lya returned the spear to her hand. She backed up, ran forward, and hurled the spear again, this time at Kallan. The spear came to a stop mid-air as one of Echidna’s serpents caught it, and tossed it to the ground.

Lya returned the spear to her hand. It seemed striking from a distance wasn’t an option. She needed to get up close, and personal.

Meanwhile, Ada was busy exchanging blows with Anaka. If her plan was going to work, she needed to drive Anaka closer to where she had seen the rubble gathering.

Without her spear and shield, Ada was forced to block Anaka’s hits with her face. From how the two fought, it would be impossible to tell that only one of them didn’t feel pain. At one point, Ada spat the blood pooling in her mouth into Anaka’s eyes to blind her for just a moment.

The crunching of bones, and the tearing of muscles, with just sheer willpower, Ada powered through it all. Despite Anaka's onslaught of attacks, Ada managed to drive her toward where all the debris had been gathering--right above Kallan.

Now Ada just needed to wait for Lya.

Echidna launched her five serpents toward Lya, leaving one to anchor herself in place. This time, Echidna was smart. Rather than send all the serpents at once, she sent them one at a time.

Once Lya dodged one, the next was headed right for where she dodged too. Had Echidna utilized her serpents like this earlier, Lya may have found herself in some trouble, but with her shield, she deflected any serpents she couldn’t dodge.

As the fifth and final serpent sank its fangs into Lya’s shield, Kallan decided to try and knock Lya off her feet.

This whirlpool was far more powerful, though Lya knew it wouldn’t be enough for Ada. Lya skidded to a halt and threw her shield on the ground.

Kallan’s whirlpool drew the shield toward him at rapid speed. Right as the shield was halfway between Lya and Kallan, Lya threw the spear at the end of the shield. The spear impacted the bottom of the shield, causing the shield to spring upward, and slam Kallan across the chin.

The momentary impact was enough for him to lose his focus on the whirlpool for just a second. Lya dashed forward with the spear, but just as she got within striking distance, Kallan called upon the mythos of Charybdis with all his might.

The force of the whirlpool instantly caused Lya’s feet to leave the ground.

Lya considered going for a knockout on either Kallan or Echidna. However, something in the back of her mind was telling her there was something she was forgetting. That’s when Lya remembered her previous observations; the serpents were affected by the whirlpool

Lya spun around to see the five serpents Echidna had launched at her moments ago, now sucked in by Kallan’s whirlpool, barreling toward her. She threw up her shield just in time. The serpents’ fangs latched onto the shield.

Lya discarded the shield, and reached for her spear, but noticed it was missing.

Right as Kallan initiated this devastating whirlpool, its force was felt by both Ada and Anaka, who were positioned right above it. Instantly, both of them were forced to the floor, as if gravity had suddenly increased tenfold.

At that moment, Ada resummoned her spear and despite the force of the whirlpool managed to raise her hand high enough to impale Anaka into the ground.

As Lya flew toward Kallan, she launched a flying kick that impacted the bridge of his nose. The sudden pain caused him to lose concentration on his whirlpool.

Lya fell to the ground behind him. One last serpent, the one Echidna had been using to anchor herself, flew toward Lya, but before it could make contact, Lya resummoned the shield and jammed it into the serpent’s mouth.

With Kallan’s whirlpool down, and Echidna’s serpent’s all outstretched, Lya had nothing stopping her. In a flash of orange, both Kallan and Echidna found themselves bound by underworld cuffs. Once their powers were drained, a quick strike to the back of their necks at super speed was enough to knock each of them out.

Once Kallan's whirlpool vanished, Ada was able to rise to her feet, while Anaka remained pinned under her spear. With Anaka Sufficiently immobilized, Ada was able to wrestle the underworld cuffs onto her, and swiftly knock her unconscious, once her powers had vanished.

“Ada, you good?” Lya asked.

“Yeah,” Ada replied. “You?”

“Just finished,” Lya said. “I have to say, your mythos is more intuitive than I thought. Figured the whole resummoning thing would be more complicated.”

“Funnily enough, I think that was me, not you,” Ada remarked. “I got the feeling that you wanted the spear or the shield to return to you, and so I remanifested them in your hands.”

“And here I thought I was some natural,” Lya joked.

“Give me some credit,” Ada replied. “Wasn’t easy keeping up with your demands while getting pummeled.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re amazing,” Lya said. “Any signs of Draumur?”

“Just reached the vault, and it’s all files,” Ada informed Lya. “No Draumur in sight.”

“Me neither,” Lya replied, examining the vault at the end of her tunnel. “Just jewelry, art, and some other fancy stuff on my end.”

“Sounds like you guys are okay,” Tay remarked.

“Tay!” Ada exclaimed. “How’d things go?”

“Took out Darrius, but no Draumur,” Tay replied.

“Same here,” Lou said.

“Lou is your earpiece alright, you sound staticky,” Lya remarked.

“I may or may not have flooded my tunnel, and gotten waterlogged in the process,” Lou said.

“Honestly, it could've been worse,” Ada said.

“Struggling to think of how that’s possible,” Tay said. “Still, if none of us found Draumur, that means he’s where we thought he’d be at the beginning.”

“You’d think if he knew this was gonna happen he wouldn’t have hid exactly where we expected him to,” Lya remarked.

“Maybe it’s reverse psychology?” Lou suggested.

“I don’t think that’s how that works,” Ada replied.

“I know that’s not how that works,” Tay said.

“Alright, enough chit-chat,” Lya said. “Let’s rendezvous with Charon. We finally got a location on Draumur. Let’s just hope the Dynamic Duo can live up to their legacy, and clear us a path straight to him.”