Edited
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Hiding the shock of hearing the snake speak, Valgrim observed the battle taking place in front of him. It seemed pretty even by his sight. While the bear and dwarf had succeeded in removing one head, by tearing it off the body, there were still 4 heads left. Also, the cut off head would eventually grow back, with a decent chance of having a twin as well. Hydras gained new heads through a combination of age and battle experience, one without the other would not make a new head. Hydras were born with 4 heads, gaining a fifth one on adulthood. Judging by the scars on the torso, it was likely time to grow a sixth one. Luckily, this seemed to be a normal Hydra, so no breath attacks thank goodness.
Valgrim contemplated his next move.
One, he could leave. After all, this was not his problem and he didn't know the dwarf.
Two, he could fight with the dwarf and bear. If he joined, the Hydra would most certainly die, but he had no idea of the dwarf was friendly or not.
Three, he let the hydra kill the two, then kill the hydra and loot all three bodies. This was the most profitable course of action he could take. The only downside was that the battle could result in damage to anything valuable on either body.
Unfortunately, before he could put the plan into action, one of the hydra head's turned around and noticed him staring from the bush.
"........" - Valgrim
"........." - Hydra head
A moment of silence ensued, than the head breathed fire at him.
"Shittttttttt." went the undergnome as he dodged the flame, rolling away as fast as his little body could go, his back hot from the close encounter.
"Hu, hu, hu, hu." He breathed deeply. That had been too close for comfort. Then he heard a soft hiss of laughter. Valgrim glared at the snake, which had wiser moved away from him before the fire.
"Okay, now I'm pissed." He declared, turning toward the hydra. After all, he almost lost his favorite hat, and no one messed with his hat. Also his life, which was also pretty important to him. He rolled up his sleeves, kissed his ring, and began his fight----by praying to god. At least, his own god.
Contrary to his looks and clothing attire, Valgrim was a cleric. He was a follower of the gnome god of the undergnomes, who specialized in working the earth and it's metals. This was reflected in his Valgrim's abilities; he was a professional at crafting and could wield many metal and earth based spells. He could shape the earth of Riftera to his purposes and bend metal to his will merely by touching it.
Crafting was looked down upon in a community that had a policy of taking from those who couldn't defend themselves. It was a crawler eat crawler world in the tunnels, with only family to look after you until you were old enough to be used. A simple introduction of his abilities made some view him as a weakling who only crafted, yet no one messed with him underground. This was most likely because the introduction included his tendency to melt metal armor while it was still being worn or cause ceilings to collapse. Decent reasons why he wasn't a slave and was never robbed.
Wielding his divine powers, Valgrim cast two spells onto his person: haste and ironskin. Haste increased his running speed and ironskin raised the defensive properties of his clothing. Finishing, he dashed toward the battle, taking care to direct all his killing intent toward the Hydra. Only the one head was aware of him, the other three were still chomping at the bear and dwarf.
The Hydra head unleashed another blast of flame breath at him, forcing him to tumble to his left. A quick jump to his left allowed him to avoid the jaws snapping shut around where had just been. It swerved up and lunged again.
"Ruddy thing." he muttered as the head snapped at him from above, forcing another roll to the left. This time, the head's teeth stuck on the ground for a moment. As it pulled his mouth out of the ground and glared, Valgrim threw a vial at it's eyes, which broke and released a sticky substance that covered and blinded him.
"Raaahhh." The head roared, shaking his side to side to try to remove the gunk from it's eyes. Valgrim allowed a grim smile before running toward the bear. The potion had been expensive,for it mimicked a wizard spell that created a spider web over an area. Useful for ambushes, the normal spell was temporary, but the potion version lasted awhile longer. Enough time to distract the head so he could reach the bear. Unfortunately, this also had the added effect of alerting the other heads aware to his presence, resulting in another spray of fire from one of them. A quick dive took him out of harms way.
"Hothead, it just had to be a hot head." he muttered as another blast of flame singed the air near him. "Darn breath users always look like a normal Hydra, why can't they have a marking or something. As he closed in on the bear's position, he entered the other head's ranges, forcing him to dodge another jaw that jammed shut just above him. In a feat of agility, he jumped over a head and landed near the bear.
The bear growled at him, but couldn't do much at the moment. It was deep in the middle of it's own fight, locked in combat with a head, snarling and swiping at it. It was at this time that the stump blossomed into two more heads.
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"Brilliant." Valgrim muttered, "This just get's better and better."
Regrowing heads, as one might imagine, is quite disorienting, so the Hydra paused to accommodate its new brains. Not that it got smarter, just more irritating. Taking advantage of the pause, Valgrim quickly recited a prayer spell and touched the spikes on the bear. "Metal blessing of Flame." He whispered. He then quickly dodged an ax from the ornery dwarf.
"Oy, what ye doing to me kin ye hairless bastard!?" Came an angry shout accompanied by an ax.
Dodging a Hydra head, who had recovered with it's fellows, Valgrim shouted, "I just enchanted his spikes, they will burn the hydra now. Tell the bear to use it so the heads won't grow back!" This time he ran zig-zag to avoid flame and a chomp chomp. "And I happen to have wonderful head of hair under this hat I'll have you know!" He cried indignantly. It was important to be clarifying in tense situations.
The dwarf snorted, but didn't resume swing at him, opting to resume his pounding on the Hydra heads. Valgrim launched himself on one the heads and began striking it with a small knife he kept in his hidden pocket, trying to get it into an eye. Failing to overcome the dragonic skin, he dropped down next to the dwarf, barely avoiding being eaten by another head. Now that he was close, Valgrim could get a good look at his ally.
Short and stocky were typical dwarf traits, though this one was a little leaner than the average dwarf. He wore a spiked helmet which resembled a certain beast used for milk. Chain mail covered his leather clothes, and besides the battle ax the dwarf also had a bow on his back. The arrows were on a pouch on the bear. The dwarf seemed to have kind eyes, but the huge foot and a half beard covered any indication of smile line. That combined with the angry foam coming out of his mouth made him pretty intimidating in this particular situation.
'Well, I think it's a him.', he thought, "It can be hard to differentiate dwarf men and women."
While he was making all these observations, his spell was activating on the bear's armor. Metal blessings were temporary enchantments that made metal extremely powerful at a cost depending on the enchantment. The flame blessing acted like a pan on a fire, over time the metal to heat to near melting, then cool down. This ruined armor and weapons by warping the shape of the metal, but as the metal in this instance were just spikes it would be easy to fix.
The spikes were now reaching their peak temperature, causing the metal to take on a faint red glow. The air around the bear started to shimmer, sending the closest Hydra heads back in caution as they took in the glowing bear. The moment when the metal reached it's peak was when the bear, showing a hint of cunning, threw its whole body into a Hydra neck. Upon coming in contact with the scales, the bear began using the spikes as an anchor, rotating it's body rapidly. The resulting force ripped the Hydra head from it's body, burning skin, bone, and muscle to medium rare. The result....a delicious scent of cooked meat arose from the well-done stump as the head twitched and died on the ground. Taking a moment of shock, the Hydra began backing rapidly from the bear, retreating toward the forest as fast as it's legs could carry it.
"....."-everyone, "Oy, get back here!"
Angry that their quarry was running when the battle was beginning to look up, the three began chasing the Hydra. As the Hydra entered the forest, however, a loud noise cause everyone to freeze and look down.
"(chomp)"- went Nevian
In the commotion, no one noticed the serpent slide up and bite the leg of the Hydra.
The hydra heads all turned, looking down at the snake. The serpentine head all seemed to be asking, "Why?", and then fell on the ground foaming at their respective mouths. A weird, sickly color traveled up the leg and soon covered the entire body. The twitching soon stopped as it was dead. Dead.....in one attack.
The three that had done the actual fighting stared at their dead opponent, still filled with battle lust and a need for blood.
"....FUEEEE!"
"What the heck!"
"Growl, grunt, head smack." (the bear)
The serpent looked at them. "Ara ara, did I not mention my venom?" it snickered. It paused, looking closely at the reactions of the trio in front of it. For some reason the snake did not fathom, ominous shadows appeared behind each of them, taking the various forms.
"Eh? Demonsss? Letsss talk about thisss friendsss.." The serpent sputtered as it backed away slowly. It suddenly felt a distinct fear for it's life, one that was rapidly growing.
"Sure, lets have a nice long talk." Valgrim said ominously, his hands glowing with black magical energy.
"I be needing a pair of leggings, seems a good size." The dwarf remarked, hefting his/her battle ax.
"Grrrr." Growled the bear, who was now standing on it's back legs, punching one paw into it's other paw in repetition.
Loud screams soon came from the clearing, sounding almost like cries of "Forgive meee" and "I'm ssssorry!"