Chapter 189 - Attack on Hydra

—Teleport Labyrinth, Sixth Floor—

"So what sort of Hydra are we going to face, Cole?", Paul asked, as he ate his breakfast, "I want to plan this out accordingly…letting anyone die here is not an option. While I understand you can bring us back, I imagine we will be pretty traumatized by the experience which is something all of us would like to avoid. Even though they are assholes, they are still dear friends of mine."

"Fortunately for you, the Hydra we are facing is more orientated toward anti-magic instead of physical resistance. The Labyrinth Boss for this dungeon is a Manatite Hydra.", I told him, sipping on my coffee, "While not completely immune to magic, anything Intermediate or below will be ineffective against it. It is important to note that it can temporarily dispel enchantments on weapons for a short time, however, using this ability will overload its anti-magic ability for roughly ninety seconds."

"That is good to know.", Elinalise said, looking at her weapon, "If that is the case, I should probably go in first and have it use that ability on my Estoc. Your blade may fall apart if it loses its enchantment, Paul."

"My blade is not enchanted, it is blessed by Saint Millis…or something.", Paul remarked, unable to recall the details, "Either way, my sword will be unaffected by the Hydra's ability. Instead of our weapons, we should be more focused on our armor at the moment. In case you have all forgotten, all our buffs are enchanted into our armor. The range of its ability is about ten meters, so close-quarter combat will be stupidly dangerous. We need to come up with a plan to make it activate its ability while we are outside its range of effect."

"Hmm…what if we use enchanted crossbow bolts?", Geese suggested, fishing his stockpile of bolts out of his bag, "I have plenty of Explosive Fire Arrows, that should prove to be quite effective. After it takes a few of these, it should use the ability on the crossbow bolt giving us a ninety-second window to attack it."

Liking his suggestion, Paul agreed with his plan and gave him the green light to proceed with doing so. Looking at him like he was crazy, Geese asked him why it had to be him.

"Come on Paul, how about Elinalise or Ghislaine do it? Both of them are far better shots than me!", Geese stated, shoving his crossbow and bolts toward them.

"You are the Thief here, your stealth will let you get closer than any of us could.", Ghislaine commented, throwing them back at him, "Also, you were the one to suggest it so you do it."

"What she said.", Paul said, agreeing with Ghislaine.

"I will head in with Geese to provide support.", I stated, looking to Paul, "I assume there are no issues if I bait the Hydra out and hold its attention so Geese can attack one of the heads?"

Knowing that Geese was unlikely to accept the job without support, Paul agreed to let me act as a distraction for Geese. Turning to Yasaka, I told her I would notify her via Telepathy once the Hydra had used its ability. After they received the signal, Paul's team would charge in and engage the Hydra while I stepped back into a supervisory position.

"It seems like a waste for us just to sit this out.", Ciri remarked, looking at me.

"I know, but Paul wants to sort this out with his party alone. All of them are close friends of Zenith so I get that.", I stated, "Still though, like I told your family Paul, if things hit the fan I am stepping in to kill it. You are not allowed to leave your wives without a husband and your children without a father."

Having already come to terms with this, as Lilia and Zenith would kill him otherwise, Paul made it his mission to avoid needing my help. Scarfing down the rest of our breakfast, we tore down camp and proceeded to the hidden teleportation circle. When we arrived at the circle, Geese fished out the special potions he bought for this trip. Handing out three of them to each of his team members, he told them to only use them if they were poisoned by the Hydra.

"These were not cheap and are in very short supply right now. It is a special mixture of Holy Water and Elixir, according to the inventor, it should be strong enough to eliminate the Hydra's venom.", Geese explained.

"I have never heard of such a potion before.", Tallhand commented, examining the vials, "Where did you get these?"

"From a trusted potion vendor that I know. This stuff does work on Cockatrice and Wyvern Venom…though no one has confirmed if it will work with Hydra Venom. The creator swears that it should work thought!", Geese said, nervously notching a bolt, "Cole…if it turns out that it does not work, you will heal me right?"

"I think I speak for the rest of us when I say, fuck Paul's ego and pride! If one of us gets poisoned, please do not hesitate to heal us!", Elinalise shouted, while glaring at Paul, "While I am touched you acknowledged us as friends again, I will not have a repeat of last time!"

Not wanting to hang around for this argument, Geese and I stepped into the magic circle to activate it. Teleporting us to the next floor in a blinding flash of light, the poor guy started floundering around completely blinded by the flash. Grabbing him by the shoulder, before he stepped into the Boss Room, I told him to wait for his sight to come back before moving forward.

"Is it close?", Geese inquired, rubbing his eyes, "Why can I not see anything, is it pitch black?"

"Yes, the magic crystal lights will not kick on till someone steps into the room. Let me know when you are ready, I will step in and activate the lights for you. When I do this, make sure you close your eyes so you do not get blinded again.", I told him.

"I got it.", Geese acknowledged, closing his eyes, "Go for it!"

Taking three steps forward, light suddenly flooded the room revealing the sleeping Hydra. Quickly waking up from its nap, the dragon roared to life as it focused its attention on me. Initially lashing out at me, it froze up when its eyes focused on me better. Intelligent enough to sense the gap in our strength, it kept a close eye on me as I began walking just inside its strike range.

"I know you are a God, but it is so weird watching someone have a stare-down with a Hydra!", Geese laughed, aiming his crossbow at the nearest head, "Take this you ugly lizard!"

Missing his first shot, the bolt flew between all the heads and exploded on the other side of the room. Taken aback by the fact that he missed all the heads, Geese took a moment to comprehend what happened before reloading. Firing a second bolt, this time the Hydra took notice of it and clamped one of its jaws on the bolt. Moments later a massive explosion engulfed the head, searing the wound shut as the fire slowly crept down the neck.

"Come on, I can only spare a few more of these right now! We do not know if we can kill it in ninety seconds or not.", Geese muttered to himself, firing a third bolt.

Understanding the danger the object posed to it, the Hydra attempted to dodge it by stepping backward. Using Earth Flow to slide the Hydra right back to where it started, the monster panicked and used its ability to save itself from losing another head.

"Now Yasaka!!", I shouted, launching a few Gigawatt Rockets at the monster, "Ninety seconds starts now!"

Entering the room immediately, Paul and company came charging in as the rockets slammed into the beast. Frying many of its nerves with my attack, the Hydra was now stuck unable to move for at least thirty seconds till it regenerated the nerves.

"She is all yours!", I called out, leaping away from the fight, "Happy hunting!"

Drawing their blades out, the team spread out and began attacking the monsters from all sides. Imbuing the blades with fire magic, they slowly started whittling the number of heads down till the Hydra began moving again. Enraged by the loss of four heads so far, the remaining three back violently lashing out at Paul's team.