The energy radiating off the Hydra in menacing waves placed it firmly in the realm of a mid-to-high platinum core from my home world.

I balked, the adrenaline that had surged through me moments before draining in a woosh as the Hydra roared again, this time lacing its war cry with necromantic energy fueled by an aura of pure terror. My muscles froze under the weight of its cry. I wanted to run. To scream. To collapse.

But I couldn’t move. Every monster in sight stood still, paralyzed by the same overwhelming force. I had no doubt the Eldritch could kill them all within minutes. That it could end me with a single breath.

Before, it had been nothing to me.

Now, I was nothing to it.

Even at full strength, I would stand no chance. The Hydra wielded power equal to a platinum core—mid-to-high stage, not a novice. With my single heart ring, my core was still just barely in the silver realm. There was no contest to be had. No hope of victory.

If it had been human, I might have had a chance to enter its Mindspace. But a Hydra? There was no guarantee it even had one, and I doubted I could pull it into mine unless it allowed me to.

Could monsters even enter a Mindspace?

I didn’t know and there certainly wasn’t time for me to figure that out.

What should I do? I thought, the veins along my muscles pulsing with the effort it took to move. A part of me still resisted any action. I knew, rationally, that I had to move. But the Hydra’s roar had triggered some ancient, primal part of my brain, the part that knew humans were prey to such beasts.

I tried to shake my head, a futile attempt in the aura of terror dominating the area and my mind. My chin barely twitched.

Mentally, I pushed back against the mental attack of laced terror, even if I couldn’t physically. I wasn’t prey. I had never been prey. I had never allowed myself to be prey—not to a platinum core monster, not to anything.

I had been in the Diamond realm. A cultivator beyond legends and stories.

And this creature dared to make me cower before it?

“Never,” I hissed through clenched teeth. The icy grip of fear on my heart shattered like broken glass, unable to withstand the force of my Will.

Just as I began to feel the release of freedom, the Hydra’s tail lashed toward me, faster than I could register. I didn’t react in time, and it slammed into my left side, reopening the gash my healing had just sealed and sending me crashing into a pile of Brute corpses. Pain exploded from my shoulder as something tore and the force blasted me through the dead monsters, none able to stop my momentum.

The Hydra exhaled another plume of black fire, but I barely heard it. Curled into a ball, I forced my body to turn with the momentum, protecting more vulnerable parts from impact. My back slammed into a solid slab of stone that arrested my momentum and knocked the breath from me with a painful and unintentional gasp. Still, I was at last able to stumble forward and breathe, inhaling deeply, my lungs screaming for air.

Whatever structure the stone had belonged to was gone now. Eradiated from existence. All that remained in my wake was dirt, rubble, and debris. At the far end, the Hydra continued its rampage, purple flames licking at everything alive. It moved with baleful stomps, hunting anything that dared to breathe.

I took another soul-deep breath, wincing as pain flared from my left shoulder, forcing me to drop to my knees. When I glanced at the damage, I cursed aloud and the pain multiplied.

“By Ashwash’s saggy balls.” My shoulder was a mess of torn flesh, sharp rocks embedded in a horrific pattern. Blood poured from gashes, pooling where my arm should have been. I bit back a scream, summoning lunar energy to my remaining hand and giving it heat. My tattered shirt failed to cover the mangled skin, allowing gusts of wind to sting against the freshly tarnished appendage. Gingerly, I pressed my burning hand to the stump, clenching my teeth as the lunar flames seared the wound closed and stopped the free-flowing blood.

I staggered to my feet, my heart energy drained from trying to survive the Hydra’s tail strike. If I hadn’t already released the full extent of my core, that blow would have likely split me in two or left me as nothing more than a smear of blood and gore on the side of the road.

Fortunately, the Hydra seemed uninterested in me now. It simply wanted to kill, to destroy, to cause destruction.

I leaned against what remained of a wooden frame, trying to calm my racing heart. Reaching into the dregs of my heart energy, I extended my senses to search for Nida and Nasq. My senses were rebuffed anywhere within a fifty-foot vicinity of the Hydra, so I searched around and looped back only when the Eldritch moved away from its previous location.

I was about to give up the search, figuring they’d done as commanded, and left the village, when a weaker pulse of energy brushed up against my senses. That small pulse latched on, almost panicked in its desperation.

There wasn’t much I could do except hold my senses out, guiding the source toward me. Minutes passed in the chaos of Brightstone, but the resolve behind that pulse was strong. I knew it would find me. They would find me.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Nasq’s pointed ears and black hair came into view first, followed by the streak of Nida’s black-and-white hair as she sprinted toward me. I allowed myself to slump against the broken frame.

“I told you both to leave,” I muttered, leaning my head back against the teetering wooden frame of a doorway. “I had it.”

Nida’s face hovered above mine, pale with concern and anxiety, her eyes wide with horror as they fixed on my missing arm. “My… my lady,” she whispered, tears streaking through the blood on her face. “Your arm…”

“It’s fine,” I said, stifling a groan as phantom pain surged when, out of habit, I attempted to move the missing limb. “It’ll regenerate with the next core realm. This is…” I winced, “temporary. I should be glad this is all that happened against a high platinum core monster.”

I chose to leave out the part where I was the one who had made it that strong.

“We need to leave, my Lady,” Nasq said, kneeling beside Nida at my side. “Most high-level mental communications are being blocked by that…” He trailed off.

“Hydra,” I finished.

The mage nodded, not bothering to ask how I knew what the beast was. “Yes, the Hydra. It seems to be cutting off most forms of mental communication around it. But I was able to reach out to Brianna before it began its rampage. She’s heading toward the carriage. As long as the driver hasn’t taken off in a panic, she should be able to have them fly close. We just need to get out of the Hydra’s reach while it's distracted by the monster horde.”

“It’s a shame,” I grumbled, grabbing Nida’s shoulder to pull myself up. “If that Eldritch hadn’t gone berserk, I could’ve reached the next stage—my second heart ring, through battle. I was so clo—”

My words were cut by the excited pulsing of my core as I looked inward, spotting a brilliant black and white heart ring spiraling around my silver core. I didn’t bother to resist the gasp that escaped me. I’d formed not just any type of heart ring, but a heart ring filled almost completely with pure attribute energy. That shouldn’t have been possible until the third Gold realm ring.

I would need to study it later. For now, Nasq was right. I despised the thought of retreating, but we had to go.

I was not the Diamond core Queen of Aedronir right now and it was years too early for me to engage on equal grounds with a person or beast with strength surpassing a gold core.

I grunted, nodding toward Nasq. “Most of the Brutes were entering from the west, just left of where we entered Brightstone. Let us head in that direction. Should any monsters arrive, I will need the two of you to handle it for the time being while I recuperate some of my strength.”

“I will tear them to fucking shreds,” Nida snarled, continuing to glance at me. Worry was obvious in the etched wrinkles of her face and the deep frown that seemed to carry more weight than she was letting on.

“I would expect nothing less,” I said, releasing my hold on Nida and moving forward on my own though the tigerkin woman stuck close to my side. “How did you two survive for so long? And how are you not depleted?”

“Nasq set up a barrier after you started your rampage,” Nida responded for the mage, whose face was contorted in concentration, likely trying to use his magic to sense the area like he’d done earlier. I was too exhausted to send out my own senses to confirm. “We tried to attract as many of the beasts as we could to try and deplete the amount you were pulling.” She could only offer a shrug. “I guess we just weren’t as appetizing. I wanted to join your side, but he,” she jerked a thumb in Nasq’s direction, “told me we would have only been a burden.”

“We would have,” Nasq said, confidence wavering as he glanced at me. I nodded in confirmation. Instead of looking relieved though, Nasq cast his eyes toward the ground and I could hear his teeth grinding.

“It’s fine,” I muttered, scanning the area around us for any incoming creatures. The west side of the village seemed all but deserted. Most of the corpses I’d caused were closer to the town center, and the Hydra was rampaging to the east. The ground still trembled from the monster’s power, but at this distance—two or three miles—we could relax, if only slightly. As long as it didn’t turn on us, I was confident we would make it out.

“No, it’s not fine,” Nasq shouted, his face turning a deep scarlet.

“Keep your voice down,” Nida hissed. Nasq slapped a hand over his mouth, his expression twisting into a grimace as he extended his senses once more. That same warm feeling briefly washed over me before vanishing, replaced by the cold, brittle air of Brightstone’s deathly aura. We seemed to be in the clear as Nasq opened his eyes, relief evident on his face.

“Sorry,” he mumbled sheepishly. He stopped walking and turned to face me, his expression dead serious. “The next time we’re in danger, I won’t be a burden. We’ve gotten used to Ethan carrying the heaviest burden in battle alongside you. But he’s not here anymore. I swear this will never happen again.” His fists clenched white with anger and shame at his failure—his shortcomings. It was a feeling I knew all too well from my days training under my father. Nida nodded vigorously, clearly in agreement.

“We’ll discuss training later,” I said, though a surge of pride filled me at the loyalty they both showed. At their willingness to stand by my side. I had never experienced such devotion in Ordite, beyond the expected allegiance given to the Queen. I didn’t know how to respond, so I merely continued westward, my face set in a stoic mask.

No monsters interrupted our journey; the echoes of their deathly screams and howls trailing behind us. We reached the outskirts of Brightstone, where the cobblestones and dirt instantly gave way to sand as we crossed the border.

Barely a second passed after stepping onto the sand before a new, piercing cry split the chaos. It was powerful and unfamiliar, and it matched the vengeful outrage of the Hydra. The sound carried on the wind, whistling with an intensity so fierce and outlandish that all three of us collapsed to the ground. I instinctively raised a hand to block the sound, only to find myself missing an arm.

Nida and Nasq leaped toward me, clamping their hands over my ears as blood trickled from their own. I shouted at them to protect themselves, but neither of them listened as the Windwalker’s scream reverberated through Brightstone.

I ground my teeth, fighting back against the sheer overwhelming force of the Windwalker's scream that pushed viciously against all my senses. My vision blurred as my remaining arm scratched against Nida's hand, trying to peel it off so she would use it for herself. The piercing wail stretched for what felt like an eternity, and the pain lanced deeper into my skull with each passing second.

Nida and Nasq, hands clamped over my ears, were visibly shaking under the strain, more and more blood flowing from their unprotected ears. The longer its wail dragged on, the more their forces contorted with agony, red liquid beginning to flow from their eyes and mouth.

I fought to breathe and pulled on whatever energy I'd earned from finishing my second heart ring, summing every ounce of remaining energy until I felt as if the only thing left to draw on was my life force. I pushed that little energy outward, encircling our trio to form a shield of protective energy that trembled and quaked under the force of the creature's shrill scream.

But it held, providing a slightly soundproof barrier protecting against the terror of the Hydra's responding roar, and the ear-piercing wail of the Windwalker.

"Let's go," I said, or maybe screamed. It was hard to tell given the damage to my ears, but it seemed the paragons understood my intent. We scrambled back to our feet, darting as far from the battle as we could get.