The city rose in front of them. A huge central spire that looked thin like an antennae but they realised how big it was as they got closer.
Caleb was true to his word and as they got close they met a set of uniformed guards.
“Well met Caleb, hows the country treating you?”
“Taylor, I’m sure it’s a lot quieter than city rotations. How did you manage water duty?”
“Told my supervisor I’d open up the next wrymwood user with my sword the next time they assaulted either me or one of my men when we stop them. He agreed I needed a break from the streets so I get to deal with angry barge captains instead.”
“Wrymwood?” James asked Caleb as he was standing next to him.
“Drug produced by a creature that lives nearby the mud flats, leaves this stuff like a slime that makes the user hallucinate but then incredibly violent. Outlawed in the city for obvious reasons, pretty obvious to find it though, the mud stinks.”
“That and the idiot is normally swinging for the nearest innocent bystander.” Taylor added. “And who’s this you’re escorting then Caleb?”
“New friends, an Adventuring team bound for Honshuraskil on the weapon contract. Had a bit of a misunderstanding about the water laws but all got sorted out and then we decided to expedite their journey for them.”
“Ah got it, well we’ll take you into the city, hope you enjoyed speeding along but theres a bit of a snaffu up ahead and the traffic is backed up.”
“What’s happened?” Teddy asked. “Maybe we can help.”
“We’ve got a team on it at the moment, two earth essence users trying to dig it out from either side but its dug itself in sideways and got rammed in place by a barge going either way.”
“I have the earth essence, maybe I can help speed it up?” Kyra added.
“Aye that’ll be good to help, well then Caleb, I’ll take them from here. You guys reckon you can keep up in that pleasure yacht?”
He spun his attack craft round, pointing back downriver and shot off. The team waved to Caleb who smiled and waved them off.
Teddy smiled as he punched a lever forward. The Serenity shot forward faster than any boat had a right to, the hull slipping through the water with no resistance rather than pushing it. When he rapidly caught up with the attack craft that was going full speed he eased a lever down with the palm of his hand and the bow dipped forming a wave in front of the Serenity, it picked up the stern of the attack craft and they saw Taylor captaining the little boat look around in mild panic. He waved them off and slowed down, Teddy altered the controls back to normal.
They soon came between stacked up parked traffic, the various captains all shouting to one another and Taylor to find out what was going on. When they got closer Taylor was nudging smaller boats out the way and reprimanding essence users or people with special items standing on the water to gawk. They saw what was causing the delay in getting the boat unstuck.
“Well that wasn’t there when I left!” Taylor exclaimed.
Around twenty people were fighting an enormous monster. They had studied it in the academy annex as a bit of a case study. It was a Twelve Headed Hydra, more like what the Mitchells knew from Disney’s Hercules. It had a purple body that stood on two short fat legs, its belly rested on the floor. It had a long tail that had fluting all the way down but seemed to be there just for balance. The heads had multiple rows of sharp shark-like teeth that seemed too big for its mouth. It started off as a low power bronze rank monster with one head. When an ill informed adventurer was unwise enough to cut off one of the highly mobile heads which seemed like the obvious threat then two more appeared and it became more powerful. It was called a Twelve Headed Hydra because…
Teddy was quickly counting. “Nonono please don’t…” he said under his breath.
An adventurer with a long two handed sword dodged a lunging neck and struck a fatal blow behind the frill on the back of the head, it fell to the floor with a wet thud.
“Bugger.” Teddy and James said together.
A bright silver light shone from the monster, driving the surrounding fighters back. The monster grew in size, each head became longer, with more teeth. The neck that held the head that had been cut off now split in half lengthwise, a gunk falling off from the slimy film between the halves. The necks became armoured and had spikes along them. Where the body was fat and squat on two legs before it now stood on four legs, grotesquely muscled with huge talons. Two tails came out the rear, long and whip-like with barbs on the end.
“Thirteen Headed Hydra.” Taylor whispered in awe.
The nomenclature for the Thirteen-Headed Hydra was misleading, it could have as many heads as it wanted, they used it to show the distinction between the bronze rank variant and the silver. It had just got a lot more powerful.
“Kyra, Ragnar get on the swivel guns on the bow. Lucy, start banging away at that thing. James we’re going to need whatever poison you can get into that thing however you can, I’m going in to get some of those guys out of there.” Teddy ordered. Speaking out loud for Taylor’s benefit.
Teddy smashed his hand into the big button in the centre of the console and the Serenity went into high power mode. She vibrated subtly as armoured panels slid out of thin slits that formed in the crystal. The Fourth-stage crystal was an incredibly magical and strong material but they had received an upgrade curtesy of the Stonewallers for letting them play with the ship. The armour panels clunked into placed and hummed with power.
Teddy grabbed a magic crystal from a drawer and held it to his throat. “MOVE!” He boomed, augmented by the magical item. Ragnar and Kyra got to the front of the ship and pulled out the swivel guns, two each, having one in each hand. They started pummelling the monster as people scrambled out the way. Lucy started drawing rune circles where she was standing at the back of the ship, one at her feet and one above her head. The one at her feet was a swirling vortex that drew mana from the air into her body, the one above her head she fed the mana to before launching a magic missile into it. It shot off like a NASA space rocket, blowing everyone’s hair as it arced away towards the monster.
Teddy looked over the assembled fighters. He saw a range of gear, most were obviously part-timers, maybe picking up a job with a barge as protection to bump their pay. There were one or two competent adventurers who were trying to coordinate but weren’t having much luck. With shots in the air and the monster fighting again Teddy activated his Eyes of the Swift power and time slowed to a crawl. He suddenly saw the ghostly images surrounding the fight, where the blasts from the swivel guns and the rocket from Lucy would land, he saw the lunges of the Hydra’s heads and so who would get hit. He saw his own ghostly image, planning out his future moves.
When he snapped off the power he dived through a rift portal, the destination portal shaved off the bottom jaw of a hydra head that was about to chomp a prone adventurer in half, luckily it didn’t ‘kill’ the head just mutilated it to be less dangerous but the snout did go over the top of the rift to punch the adventurer in the head. He kept moving as he came out of the rift and knocked another fighter flying, meaning he was narrowly missed by the neck spikes of another head. He threw a Bowie knife at another head, neatly pinning it in the eye and it then got the top of its head caved in by a mighty hammer blow which made it slump to the floor. He skidded to a stop in front of a distracted fighter who was struggling with a clasp on his armour who looked shocked when Teddy smiled and wrapped both arms around him and teleported them out of range just as Lucy’s rocket missile hit the monster.
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James had a few options of how to try and poison the monster. He started spawning his poisonous snakes from his Snake Sorcerer power, draining a considerable amount of his mana in doing so. The variant he started with at iron rank were skinny vibrant snakes with a fin running the length on top which were uncannily good for throwing, he held onto them this time, watching the Hyrdra snatch spears and arrows out of the air with it’s multiple heads before they could get near its body. His Pauldron of Menagerie engravings held a potent poison power that he was hoping could help the battle.
[Going for an olè] James wrote on the interface. As a planned move they had gone through before it brought the plan up on the battle screen as a little card for everyone’s awareness.
He blinked out of existing, teleporting a short distance above the monster. He smashed down at terminal velocity crashing into the monster’s back. But the hydra’s silver rank strength meant that it had little effect, the bleeding and slashing effects that his armour normally produced did little more than scratch the tough hide. He had hit it high on the back where all the heads joined and got a dozen quick punches in with his metal fist thanks to his Scurry power. He had a dozen or so snakes wrapped around him that he let slither off and attack the monster. He slid down the backbone while three of the heads struck where he had been, he transformed his arm into the preying mantis style wing which was sheathed in the multi hued metal and he slashed at the tails. He managed to dig into one quite well before he activated another power.
(James Mitchell) has used the [Wraiths Dash] power from (Theodore Mitchell) [Swift Essence].
[Wraiths Dash] has been used at a lower power than is available to (Theodore Mitchell).
[Wraiths Dash] will allow (James Mitchell) to Speed forward on the ground for an ongoing mana cost.
He dashed away from the monster just as it orientated away from the others to attack him. The swivel gun blasts and the enhanced magic missile smashed into its now more vulnerable back.
[Olè!] Ragnar put on the interface.
[Guys he’s actually doing the pose!] Kyra wrote on the interface.
When they were making the plan Ragnar had asked what olé meant and they had explained about the warriors from their world that faced charging bulls with nothing but a red flag. (They left the part about the cruel maiming of the bull for sport out of the story). They had claimed that the matador pose with one arm over the head and one at the waist while standing on one foot with the other against the calf was absolutely necessary. So much so they had put it on the end of the battle card. The battle cards were a useful feature of the interface, by pulling up the short plans it informed each of the family members of an intent and if it would borrow any powers.
[I hope you have a recording crystal out!] Teddy said.
The welcome break for the fighters meant that they could regroup. James and Teddy were barking orders at the fighters, forming groups. They had the benefit of turning up late and arriving with a bang so it was easy for the beleaguered fighters to accept they were help arriving and acquiesced to their demands.
They grouped the fighters as best they could, there was a deficit of spell casters which meant the few powers that inflicted poison needed to get in close, they needed the affliction damage to take it down, without the ability to ignore rank disparity it was the easiest way to whittle down its health. Teddy collated those with movement powers, they did their best to stick them on a quick tactical net but there wasn’t a lot of time for the in depth features or multiple groups so there were a lot of overlapping messages and confusion.
The strategy developed quickly, if it hadn’t they would all die against the silver rank monster. It was a slog of a battle but they eventually got enough of their bronze rank poisons to get through its resistances and start draining health. All hydra variants had extremely good health regeneration and it took the concerted effort of the big, less mobile damage dealers to add enough bleeding afflictions to shut down the healing.
They had an adventurer who conjured vines which he threw in nets to bundle up the heads, it barely slowed them as the heads were silver and strong but each head was on the lower level of strength than a single silver rank monster, the danger was all of them together. There were the two earth users doing their best to tie up the monsters feet. An adventurer in the less mobile group had water powers which he had used to form three big spheres which he engulfed three of the heads. It was pretty horrible to watch, the heads looked like they were drowning but they shared a body with other heads that weren’t submerged in swirling water so it wouldn’t drown.
James’s big opener had boosted moral and done a moderate amount of damage to the vast silver rank reserves of health. As the monster thrashed around you could just see maybe half a dozen snakes still attached. His snakes had two forms; the bronze rank variant he gained was a large boa constrictor type that would be no good in this fight. The iron rank variant that was now bronze strength either puffed into rainbow smoke after contact like a summoned arrow or clung on, pumping poison in all the time they had a good bite. His pauldron had multiple bonuses to it, one of the more sinister effects was from the evil looking scorpion with a fanged human head engraved on one of the forearm plates.
Effect (Venom of the Merciless Desert [improved]): Inflicts poison damage. Chance to inflict [Milk of the Cacti]. Chance to inflict [Greyscale]. Can only affect living enemies with blood. Must penetrate enemy to inflict poison and [Milk of the Cacti]. Contact with the venom has a smaller chance of causing [Greyscale].
[Milk of the Cacti] (affliction, blood): Causes afflicted enemies to hallucinate and a chance to cause damage to themselves by convulsion.
[Greyscale] (affliction, incapacitating): Affliction that spreads across the skin. Causes joints to lock up and impairs mobility.
When he had used his Peregrine Dive James had transformed his right hand into the bulbous end of a scorpion stinger. He had barely managed to break the skin of the tough monster but as time went on there was the tell tale spread of grey from the wound. He wasn’t sure what [improved] meant on the effect description but the battle log showed it once he used it.
James Mitchell: used Snake Sorcerer
x 20
James Mitchell: used Animage on himself
James Mitchell: used Peregrine Dive
James Mitchell: has attacked [Thirteen-Headed Hydra]
James Mitchell: has afflicted [Thirteen-Headed Hydra] with Venom of the Merciless Desert [improved]
James Mitchell: has afflicted [Thirteen-Headed Hydra] with Greyscale
[Thirteen-Headed Hydra]: has resisted Venom of the Merciless Desert and Greyscale due to inherent rank disparity
[Venom of the Merciless Desert] and [Greyscale]: are [improved] and ignore rank disparity
[Thirteen-Headed Hydra]: has been afflicted with [Venom of the Merciless Desert] and [Greyscale]
The greyscale infection in the tail wound had kept it open rather than healing. The greyscale infection at the base of the neck had caused two of the necks to lock up from the bottom, the raw strength of the monster had caused it to split its own skin at the site and the infection had kept that wound open as well. The poison had been making slow progress through the body and the monster had sunk to its knees, not fighting the effects of the two earth essence users now as it concentrated on fighting the nuisance mobile forces Teddy was coordinating.
They lost two adventurers by the end. One from the highly mobile group who were constantly riding a knife’s edge trying to keep the monster distracted so the heavy hitters could do damage. The other was lost after the monster snapped the mobile bronze ranker in half, no one had the time to distract that head again before it turned to the hammer wielding damage dealer.
Teddy re-adjusted the plan to cover the gap, in his plan of attrition there was always going to be risk but he took the deaths personally, taking more risk on himself to be everywhere at once and a menace to the silver rank monster. He was trying to think of anything new or a different way they could kill the monster when he felt the gold rank aura booming from the city.
He wasn’t the only one, several of the adventurers almost stopped fighting with the relief incoming and almost paid the price. The monster also felt the aura and had enough intelligence to realise what was coming for it. It had enough left in it to stumble to its feet and start to flee. The monster had stayed fairly static on one side of the river using its highly mobile necks to combat the forces arrayed against it. It now saw the fighters and the felt the gold rank aura on its side of the river and the barge wedged sideways across and fled that way.
Kyra was on the Serenity which had moved closer to the fighting. She knew the worth of the magical cannons on board and had stayed on to bombard the monster rather than use her powers which were not fast enough or hard hitting enough to be in the melee. What she saw in front of her was the monster making a break for the stuck barge as a bridge. It would never get away from the gold ranker which was approaching fast but it would get to the far side where the previous occupants of the barge and a large crowd had gathered to watch the monumental fight. She knew that unless something happened they would be killed by the monster before it could be dealt with. She acted on instinct, she knew earth shaping to free the barge had taken too long and they had been interrupted, she couldn’t freeze the monster or stop it so she had to do something about the barge. She pulled out her small hand mirror and looked at the barge reflection that was far enough away to fit in the frame. She strained, both hands going to the mirror, she hit her knees, straining more. Just before the monster got to the barge light shone from Kyra and the barge disappeared.