Faith: [Returning to the main battlefield with the five of us standing tall and strong,]
Zack, Abrianna, and Ali were staring at Faith like she was going insane. Their looks of confusion and disappointment caught the attention of Sean, which caused him to explain.
Sean: [Just ignore him. He believes he's the main hero in some anime.]
Faith: [A large pearl dragon lays before us in this hot desert-like plain, with its eyes piercing the hearts of its enemies!]
Parker: [I can release Rocky if you guys want.]
Faith flinched and began to nervously chuckle only for the Hydra to release a screech moments later, regaining their attention and piercing Faith's ears. The battle was to begin. Zack reformed his Kanzaki stance and tightened his grip on his sword. As soon as the dragon stopped its screech,
Parker: [So, what's the plan?!]
Paladin Zack: [Thanks to Ali, we learned that the dragon is weak to fire!]
Faith: [A dragon weak to fire? I'm beginning to believe I'm the only sane one.]
Paladin Zack: [You guys know how the Hydra monster works, right?]
Parker: [You cut off one head, two grow in its place.]
Parker stared at the dragon and slowly raised his head to the dragon's serpent heads. There he noticed one of the heads had already been ripped out, but there was an extra.
Parker: [Someone already took one out?]
RK Ali: [That's what gave me the idea. Someone before us figured it out, but probably died when they did.]
Parker equipped his staff.
RK Ali: [I have a plan, but will you four be able to handle it?]
He turned to the four that suddenly arrived at the battlefield. Confused, Faith turned to Sean and Abrianna expecting them to know how to answer him, however, they didn't say a word. Coming from behind them, Parker gripped his staff and looked at the ground for a moment.
Parker: [I can be back up. My healing has gotten better and can replace a Max Heal potion.]
RK Ali: [Seriously? Sweet. You're more useful than I thought.]
Parker: [I want to be a helpful asset to the fight.]
Faith: [Woah, I guess I'm in too! What's the plan?!]
Ali looked at Sean and Abrianna expecting to get a response from both of them, and his response was positive. Faith was awed at the sight of seeing Sean equipping his gear and beginning to enjoy himself in this world.
Ali: [Judging from your party bios, all four of you are helpful! What I need is for Sir Soukone and Lady Abrianna to come with me. Zack, you and Faith are put up with the task of distracting the Hydra. Make sure it never lets you out of its sight!]
Faith: [Distraction is what I do best! Time to use my most useless ability! Reverse Camouflage.]
Ali nodded with a smile.
Faith: [So that leaves Parker. Does he just stay back and heal whenever needed?]
Parker: [A medic is the most important role in any MMORPG, Felix! Especially when it comes to a boss fight without preparation.]
Abrianna: [Sorry... who's Felix? And why do you two refer to Faith as a guy?]
Parker blankly stared at the elf girl making her blush the longer he stared. It took him a moment to realize he was being disrespectful and quickly turned his head.
Abrianna: [By the way, I also have healing powers. They aren't as skilled as a classical Healer though.]
RK Ali: [Don't worry, I'm sure your healing will come in handy!]
Abrianna smiled as he turned his head and whispered.
RK Ali: [When push comes to shove, that is.]
Paladin Zack: [Alright! Shall we begin?]
After a nod from the entire team, Zack ordered everyone to begin.
Cracking one of her fingers and jumping onto the blue phoenix, a transparent black smoke trail followed Faith as she soared in the sky on her blue flame bird. The bird took her up to one of the Hydra's many eyes, and from there, Faith blew a raspberry and flew away. Gaining the attention of two Hydra heads, Faith left the rest up to Zack and the others. She kept close to the heads so they didn't move much, but all of their attention was on her.
Running toward the Hydra's tail, Zack had no clue how he was planning on getting the attention of the remaining head. Jumping onto the swinging tail, Zack used it as a swing to get on the massive dragon's back, and from there he glanced at the idle head. He stared until he got an idea, which widened his eyes from a furrow. Pulling his sword out of its sheath, he raised it into the air, and suddenly a light aura formed around it; eventually shooting its light into the air like a beacon. The bright blue-green light that caught the attention of the remaining head had strange waves rising to the clouds.
RK Ali: [Alright! Our turn!]
Grabbing both of their shoulders, the three of them instantly vanished and reappeared high above the Hydra's back. After a short moment of panic, the two that have never teleported before regained their confidence and stared down at one of the Hydra's necks.
RK Ali: [NOW!]
Waving a circle in front of her, Abrianna's hands let out a green trail that followed them.
Abrianna: [Wind Siphon!]
Dozens of condensed blades of wind formed around the three that had been floating midair. As Abrianna pushed her hand forward, the dozens of blades rushed towards the serpent's neck and after being struck by all of the blades, successfully cut one of the heads clean off. Abrianna's eyes widened in excitement as Ali shouted at Sean.
RK Ali: [Sean! Now!]
Nodding his head, Sean wiped out his wooden staff, and the once blue orb that was centered was now red.
With this sudden change, Sean closed his eyes and read aloud a couple of chants.
Sean: [Sức mạnh được trao cho tôi sẽ kết hợp với nhau và trói một mũi tên làm từ ngọn lửa và tấn công kẻ thù của tôi bằng một ngọn lửa không bao giờ kết thúc!]
After speaking a foreign language, the red orb released a red mist that concentrated and formed into a single large red arrow. As Sean opened his eyes, the arrow in front of him began to release a red mist that felt immensely warm as it came into contact with the skin of everyone around him. The red flames awed Sean before he threw his staff forward and shouted,
Sean: [TẤN CÔNG!]
The large flame arrow darted straight towards the Hydra's severed neck, and pierced through its orange guts, combusting into an array of hot flames. The burning of the Hydra's guts released an awful smell into the air that made Faith vomit in her mouth.
As Sean, Abrianna, and Ali celebrated, the remaining Hydra heads turned their attention toward them, completely ignoring Faith and Zack. As the remaining heads snarled and growled, the three somehow floating in the air nervously stopped their celebration and stared at the slit pupils and the orange-yellow eyes of the Hydra. They squirmed in silence.
While watching from the ground, Parker noticed the Hydra's tail making its way toward the three of them.
Parker: [WATCH–!]
The tail smacked them before he could finish his sentence, but Ali managed to get away. Getting hit by the tail felt like a million school buses ramming right into them, or a single space rock colliding right onto them and dealing no damage to the terrain around them. Being shot into a mountain miles away within a split second and indenting the mountainside, Abrianna and Sean's health bars dropped to a point that the color of the bar turned red.
Parker: [SEAN!]
RK Ali: [I got it!]
He instantly vanished and returned with a crippled Sean and Abrianna in his hands. With blood oozing from their heads, eyes shut, and clothes ripped to shreds, Parker prepared his wooden staff and attempted to concentrate on healing.
RK Ali: [I couldn't get them in time. I'm so useless!]
Parker: [Don't get mad at yourself. It won't help anyone right now.]
Ali looked at Parker while the tip of his staff began to emit a green light.
Parker: [You helped us get one head out of the way. Only two more remain.]
Gripping his staff tightly with both his hands and moving the tip of the staff closer to Sean's face, the green light shined onto Sean and Abrianna's faces which seemed to have been healing their cuts and bruises.
RK Ali: [FAITH, SIR ZACK, KEEP THE DRAGON COMPANY! OUR ATTACKERS ARE DOWN!]
Paladin Zack: [FAITH AND I CAN–!]
With a rumble, the Hydra cut Zack off by lifting itself off with a heavy push from its wings.
Zack: [Woah!]
Faith: [It's trying to fly!]
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
RK Ali: [DO NOT LET IT GET AWAY!]
Ali turned back to Parker.
RK Ali: [Is it possible to speed this up?!]
Parker: [No. It takes a lot of time to save someone from death's door.]
Ali started grinding his teeth and began to stress out.
Parker: [Felix and Zack are more than capable of doing what these two did.]
RK Ali: [Why do I feel like I've heard that name before? Felix, Felix.]
Parker: [Tell them to do exactly what these two did. Healing Sean will take several more minutes.]
Nodding after Parker, Ali turned back to the two next to the airborne Hydra and checked out their stats and abilities. Ali has already known about Zack's wide arsenal, but Faith's never-ending list of dark abilities shocked him.
RK Ali: [Faith! Pick up Zack with your bird and repeat exactly what we did a few moments ago!]
After a nod, Faith's phoenix shrieked and dived down toward the body of the beast. Diving towards Zack gave him the opportunity to run to the edge of the Hydra's back and jump off to grab Faith's soft-reaching hand and gently sit on the back of his phoenix. The cool temperature of the bird surprised him.
Faith: [I know Ali told us to do exactly as they did, but I feel like putting our own twist on it.]
The phoenix swiftly dodged the Hydra's enormous flapping wing.
Zack: [What do you mean?]
Faith: [Your sword can cut through the thing's scales, right?]
Zack: [A holy sword can cut through anything, why?]
Faith: [We can do this the boring and more efficient way by spamming Wind Siphon and Reaper's Breath, or we can have a little fun with this and test out one of my abilities.]
Zack: [Are you serious? You want to test a new power at a time like this?]
Faith: [It sounded really powerful and I didn't want to waste it on an Ultra.]
Down on land, Abrianna's eyes began to shake a little as she mumbled and groaned. Ali was surprised to see her waking up so soon. As she slowly opened her eyes, she came to see Ali and Parker sitting side by side with Sean laying in between them.
Abrianna: [Oh my god!]
The blood covering the top half of his face surprised her.
Parker: [I can use some help here!]
Nodding her head, Abrianna got on her knees and put out her hands. The same light that surrounded Parker's staff formed around her hand. While they did that, Ali pulled out four blue potion bottles and began to chug them down.
Abrianna looked at him a bit and began to question his thirst habits.
Abrianna: [You sure do drink a lot, huh?]
RK Ali: [Teleporting takes nearly a quarter of my stamina. Doing it four times runs me dry.]
He lifted one full bottle and observed it.
RK Ali: [These are the most important thing for me to bring to battle.]
Abrianna: [What happens if you get full? You won't be able to consume anymore.]
RK Ali: [I can only drink about twenty of these before getting extremely full.]
Parker looked at Ali from the corner of his eye and also began to question his motives.
Parker: [You just told two random strangers your weakness.]
Ali let out a soft breath before responding.
RK Ali: [Anyone Zack can trust is someone I can trust.]
Parker: [Zack doesn't know our quest giver, and to be frank, neither do I. Don't put your trust in random strangers.]
Parker was extremely serious about all of this. Even though all of his concentration was put towards healing Sean, he didn't want to lose one of the battlefield's strongest fighters.
Returning to the sky. The Hydra had flown above the clouds with Zack and Faith by its side.
Zack: [Your idea sounds way more efficient, but this new ability is the only thing I don't trust.]
Faith had told Zack the entire idea of how he wanted to take the Hydra out, but he wasn't sold on it. The ability she proposed was a sorceress exclusive that he had never seen before. Although Faith's explanation could have had something to do with it.
Zack: [What if the fire isn't hot enough?]
Faith: [All I know is that the flame can burn a Blackstone in less than a second.]
[Zack: A Blackstone? Really?]
Faith nodded. Much like Tungsten on earth, Blackstone is a refractory metal that has an abnormally high melting point and is often used as a metric to calculate the temperature of a flame. Amongst the three metals with the highest melting point, Blackstone is a very valuable and rare stone in the northeast.
Zack: [Woah, I guess it will work.]
The paladin stood up and pulled out his weirdly shaped sword.
Paladin Zack: [Let's do this!]
With a smile, the phoenix soared higher into the air until it was a far distance above the Hydra's head.
Faith: [Ready when you are!]
Looking down at the Hydra, Zack's sword began to emit a bright yellow light that somehow relieved Faith of any pain and worry the moment she looked at it. Zack hopped off of the phoenix and went diving legs first down to the Hydra with a full plate of armor, no helmet, and a transparent yellow light trailing him. His brown hair rose upward as he was falling at dangerous speeds. Tightly gripping his sword, he tilted forward and began shouting out of the top of his lungs.
Paladin Zack: [HOLY WIND SIPHON!]
Cutting the sky below him, an enormous blade of wind the same color as the light Zack's sword was emitting appeared.
Faith patted the phoenix's back which signaled it to nose-dive downward. The yellow blade of wind began to dart downward towards one of the Hydra's heads. With a smile on his face, Zack watched as Faith and his bird zipped past him and was flying toward the blade of wind. Faith's bright smile gave him a sense of reassurance but reminded him of the mess-ups Felix would make back in the normal world.
The enormous blade cut through the Hydra's serpent neck like it was butter.
Paladin Zack: [NOW FELIX!]
While diving, Faith stood on the phoenix's back and held her hand out towards the fresh guts of the Hydra's neck.
Faith: [PURE AMATERASU!]
A white flame sprouted out from the inside of the Hydra's neck and began to burn the Hydra alive from the inside. Now beneath the beast, Faith waited for Zack to come from above so she can give him a boost. While waiting, she was awed at the combined magic actually working. The screech of the single Hydra head wasn't nearly as loud as when the other heads were around, so Faith's ears were safe and he could watch peacefully.
When Zack came around, he jumped onto the phoenix's back and used it as a trampoline to launch himself back into the sky with his sword glowing again. The trail following his movements looked as if they were cutting through the sky, releasing sunlight as if it were a hot summer day.
Paladin Zack: [NATURE'S BEAUTY!]
With a single cut of his blade against a single scale, the entire serpent neck came clean off and began to fall.
To Faith's surprise, without calling out or using the magical ability, the white flames used against the previous head immediately spread onto the second head's neck, frying it and releasing the nasty toxin into the air. With no heads to keep it going, the Hydra's body stopped flapping its wings and went crashing towards the ground, where its heads rotted. Surprising Parker and the others with category 2 winds, Faith and Zack flew downward towards them after everything had calmed down.
Faith hopped off the phoenix with pure joy and excitement.
Faith: [We did it!]
Ali smiled once he caught a glimpse of her happiness. Zack came walking up to them and wrapped his arm around Parker's shoulder.
Paladin Zack: [That was a catastrophe-level beast, and a couple of amateurs just took it down.]
Parker: [We couldn't have done it without the both of you.]
Abrianna: [Yeah, royal knights are really impressive.]
Paladin Zack: [Vise Versa. You guys did great!]
Zack turned to the Hydra laying dormant on the ground behind them with a serious glare.
Paladin Zack: [We need to get those wings and legs off of it before it becomes conscious again.]
Sean: [Leave that to me.]
Shocked, everyone turned towards the sleeping wizard.
Sean: [I… I–]
Parker: [Don't talk. I can almost use a potion.]
Abrianna suddenly put more effort into healing Sean, which was only evident by the expression she made once she heard his voice. Faith turned back to the Hydra and chuckled.
Faith: [Guys, I don't think doing anything more to the Hydra is a good use of our time.]
She noticed that the white flame from earlier was seeping its way through any open gaps from within the Hydra's body and slowly engulfing the entire thing into an eternal flame. The white flames rising out from inside the Hydra matched up with the color of its scales, but only for a fraction of a second. The heat from the fire fried the Hydra's scales in less than a couple of seconds, making them black and crispy. It almost looked like the fire was a flame aura.
Faith: [If only the fire was black.]
RK Ali: [That fire of yours is something else. How does someone like you have access to magic like this? It's almost seems holy.]
Faith: [I honestly have no idea! Maybe this world's chains can't hold me in place!] She smiled brightly again and flexed her slim arms.
Parker: [Aaand, you're done!]
With Sean's health bar at a halfway point, Parker pulled out a bottle identical to the ones Ali was carrying around, but it was more chunky around the edges and withheld a red liquid. Throwing the potion and watching it shatter before it could reach him, the red liquid seeped around Sean's body, healing every single injury Parker and Abrianna couldn't. All four of them watched as Sean opened his eyes and looked around.
Abrianna: [We're ready to find Ruby!]
Paladin Zack: [I still don't think it's a great idea to get yourselves involved in–]
RK Ali: [I can take you guys there… as a token of my gratitude.]
Ali pulled up his message interface and sent a message to Zack. Abrianna smiled at Ali's response. Hope seemed to have been restored in her, and being able to see her lost friend for the first time in forever had her more than excited.
Before they left, Faith, Sean, Parker, and Zack received rewards for defeating 'The God of Dragons'. This reward consisted of:
* Twenty levels of experience points.
* A golden badge with a Hydra head logo embedded into it.
* The title 'Elite Dragon Slayer'
* An exclusive, one-of-a-kind cut scene.
As their vision darkened, they were all brought into the same Point of View and were forced to watch a man coated in red skin stare at the burning Hydra while on his knees.
Red Man: [You killed my baby...]
The PoV began to slowly pan out from the Red Man, revealing more of his terrain as well as the people around him. Demons coated in silver armor surrounded the Hydra and the red man in a dark room made of red brick. How the Hydra ended up there was unknown, but neither of the four could say a word, let alone make a sound.
Red Man: [Keeping you around was a mistake!]
He stood up and made fists.
Red Man: [I'll make sure you die.]
The red man turned towards the camera, revealing the nasty face of a beat-up demon. He had scratch marks all around his face, long curly hair that nearly covered his entire right eye, as well as teeth and a pupil as sharp as the tip of a blade. His gold eyes, sharp elf-like ears, and wavy eyebrows set his design apart from the rest of the demons. This was the Demon Lord that was feared throughout the world, and his very presence instilled fear in the hearts of the Elite Dragon Slayers. Faith could feel her heart drop and something clog her throat. Parker's eyes began to water and his teeth clattered. Zack and Sean only seemed to get agitated, the Paladin more so.
Demon Lord: [It's only a matter of time.]
Returning back to real-time, Faith turned to everyone that had been affected. With total shock and amazement riddled all over her face, she stood speechless. Before she knew it, she was shaking all over. Zack narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip on his sword.
Paladin Zack: [I just saw the Demon Lord. I assume you guys saw the cutscene too.]
Parker: [Yeah, it was a first. The Demon Lord put a bounty on our heads. Shit... I need some Api Juice.]
Parker opened his inventory.
Sean: [We don't know when he will attack, so for now, let's focus on the mission at hand.]
Paladin Zack: [Not only that, but after all this is over... there will be changes to the way you guys enjoy your lives here.]
Faith: [Guess we gotta say goodbye to the chill life.]
Abrianna: [I'm sorry, what happened to you guys?]
The sudden shift in their mood confused the young elf. Looking at the Paladin, the person that was supposed to be the symbol of hope and prosperity, was like looking at a villain with a sullied face. His narrowed eyes, tensed body, and explosive aura were unlike what she had seen a moment prior. Zack turned to her worried face and calmed himself down.
Paladin Zack: [It's nothing to worry about. We should get going.]
Ali had everyone on the battlefield grab hold of him and instantly teleported, vanishing from the battlefield and leaving the burning Hydra behind.