Chapter 22: Hydra

After another week of doing quests, the party manages to collect the funds and immediately asks Mr Odi for him to make a set of adamantite armour, a heavy and lighter version for Trevor and Wain. And they also order dragon scale armour for the rest of the party membersHe needs to place orders from the mining company for the adamantite ore first though. Adamantite ore requires extreme flame temperature to be refined and requires a large amount of fire stones as a fuel. It takes a whole day of heating for it to even be malleable.He had to refuse every other order for him for 2 weeks once he received the materials. He works on them continuously, with focus and determination.…The time eventually comes.He had finished crafting everything. Adamantite armour polished and shining with hints of turquoise colour.Wain armour is a combination of adamantite with dragon scales, reducing its weight while keeping its defensive capability close. The dragon scales armour has a slight glint with dark red colour.Everyone is ready for their first Mithril rank quest. Elvis went to the guild and went to see the staff handling missions."We are taking a Mithril level quest".She nodded. She already knew the party is excellent and is qualified to take Mithril level quests.She went to fetch a crystal tablet device and channeled her mana. It displayed all Mithril and Adamantite level quests in the entire human lands. There are no urgent requests, but only quests that are from possible sightings and is for adventurers to hunt them.They are a rare encounter after all so it's nationwide."Hydra. Signs near Crescent Village in Ascaria Kingdom. It would take a week to travel by carriage there from here. Here's the details".Elvis read through the little amount of documents she gave. The specific word of the witness, and short information on the environment."There's also a sign of Empress Bee near a village in Vaeyan Kingdom west. There's a sighting of a giant bee. It's possible the bee is just wandering and is very far away from the nest however. It would be difficult to find and if you do find it, you have to face hundreds of Giant bee soldiers. It might as well be Adamantite rank in my opinion so I don't suggest it unless you team up with others".The empress bee honey has a magical medicinal property that is said to prolong life, antimicrobial effect and extremely delicious."Then there's a sign of Fenrir at North, out of the border of Pecuria kingdom. It's just a sign of it though, searching for it will be difficult since it's an unexplored area and there's many beasts around".Elvis takes the documents and sits on the table with everyone.The Empress bee herself can't use any magic. Her and her army's strength is silver rank strength and are weak individually. But hundreds of flying soldiers attacking at the same time are the problem.The info on the Fenrir is severely lacking. It might take so many days to find it if they exclude the danger of other beasts.As for the hydra... They found a large cavern system nearby. And it's highly likely the hydra lives there. Might as well knock on its door.Hydra is a 7 headed creature. Its 7 heads individually can use specific magical elements. Although they are not spells and raw elemental magic. Apart from the major element of fire, wind, water, earth, lightning, the 2 other heads can use the 'life' element and 'death' element which can heal and regenerate and corrode materials for the latter."Let's try to kill the hydra". Elvis spoke. Everyone nodded in agreement.Everyone had their heart excited. To think they are challenging a Mithril level rank beast. Fay isn't worried. By the way, Fay had never transformed ever since his body got upgraded into a true dragon body. His ice magic alone, with 10x mana capacity and the regeneration from Kyubey tech Dragon's Heart make it a breeze without use of space magic.Safety is the least of his concern, and as for overpowering his opponents, he is very confident.They ride a carriage from town to town, crossing the kingdom of Worsted into Ascaria Kingdom. They travelled until they reached a small village, Crescent village.It's a very small village with shacks and huts. Tall wooden walls protect the village like other villages. Elvis went to see the village chief. It's a very young woman. Her father had died recently and she took over temporarily.She led Elvis to the person who found the cavern. He is tending to his field, his face is sweaty.He nodded at the party's request. Elvis generously gave him a gold coin. He bowed profusely to him.He led them for half a day deep inside the forest. They finally found a rather large cave entrance. It's very dark.They said their farewell. Fay took out some torches. They walk into the cave, to find that it seems endless. The area is really huge. Moss and mushrooms that glow in the dark illuminate some part of the cavern.Amber sense something with her spell that detects mana signature and ask everyone to stop.Lisa uses her enchanted ear cuffs to increase her hearing. A very faint breathing sound is heard."It's close now. Everyone, prepare". Elvis let everyone prepare their mindset. Each of the party members steeled their hearts.It's their first Mithril level beast. Fay too won't hold back.He conjured his soul gem. It had a dragon scale like design on its glass and still shines bright with a silver light.[Transformation scene]Everyone looked at Fay in surprise. Even Fay is surprised.Because his red dragon scale light armour got integrated into his magic transformation. Making him now wearing an elegant silver scale dragon armour. And what's more surprising is..."Fay... You have horns. And your eyes". Wain looked incredulous.Fay had silvery dragon horns growing out of his forehead. Some silver scales seen on his neck. And his eyes had a slit like dragon eyes.And Fay noticed something on his butt.He moved it to the side and he's surprised he had a dragon tail now."Your magic transformation is also upgraded from your dragon's body". Kyubey explained shortly.Fay nodded."I see..."."Wait. Kyubey, why don't you scout ahead?". Fay wondered why Kyubey seems lazy and had never offered his help. Kyubey is like a nail that he had to hammer for him to do something."Okay". He crawled down Fay's head and just went forward.'I let kyubey scout ahead. Let's wait for him to return'.Everyone nodded. Soon kyubey returned."There is indeed a Hydra. It has 7 heads like descriptions. It's currently resting in a large area. It woke a little bit when I came in. It has a very keen perception. Prepare for battle immediately once you reach the end of the cavern. Also, battling here may cause the cave to collapse. I suggest you be ready to use your ice to support the structure".Fay conveyed the message. Everyone nodded.Everyone ready their formation with Trevor leading the team. They finally reach the end of the cavern. The heavy breathing is heard."Support the walls it's attacking!". Kyubey reminded.A small fire is seen in the middle of the darkness, followed by 7 pairs of glowing eyes opened up as they get up.One of the hydra heads shoots a fireball at the entrance and hits the wall above the cave entrance.Lisa and Fay quickly create some extended roof forward, preventing the entrance from being closed.Everyone dashed forward hurriedly.Elvis hurriedly lit up a crystal attached to an arrow. It shines bright with a blinding light. He shoots the arrow to the roofs giving some vision to the hydra.Trevor had dashed forward and bashed his shield while using the taunt skill, attracting the hydra focus and hatred.Elvis shoots more of the light to the walls and ground to give more vision to the Hydra.Wain readied himself by enchanting his sword with blue flame enchantment.The 10 meters tall hydra, gets angry. 6 of the Hydras shoot each type magic to Trevor.He raised his large adamantite shield to block them. The small fireball only slightly pushes him back. The heat can't even reach him. The lighting simply deflected to the ground. The wind cannon can't even leave a scratch to him. The water has high pressure but it only slightly pushes him back. Some Earth spike formed from the ground beneath the hydra and head directly to Trevor's side but it can't pierce his armour. But the dark misty breath, while not affecting his armour affects his body because he breathes it in. He felt nauseous and felt sick. But he endured.Trevor is unmoving and even keeps moving forward. Some of the heads went to bite him but were blocked by his shield. Trevor bashed the head that had come to bite him.Seeing the head go closer, Wain went to dash and slash at it with full force, injuring it. The head retreated back to high position.One of the heads suddenly stands with its neck straight while greenish light shines from its mouth onto itself. The injured head healed fast in a few seconds."The 2nd from the right can heal!", Elvis shouted.Amber finally tore her scroll. The magic circle forms as large water agglomerates.The hydra shifts its focus to Amber sensing the danger.But due to Trevor's timely activation of his skill, it managed to attract half of the hydra's heads.But 3 heads still launch projectiles to amber!Fireball, lighting, wind cannon all launched at Amber.Lisa formed an earth wall.It's unnecessary because Fay had opened a portal to return the projectiles back to the hydra!The hydra is caught by surprise as some of the heads get hit by their own elemental attacks from a portal above.Now they target Lisa, Fay, Amber and Elvis individually.Fay made a portal shield for everyone and it simply launched back the individual projections. Elvis uses the portal as a cover as he keeps shooting at the healing hydra head to slow its healing.Wain finally managed to cleanly cut one of the heads of the hydra that used earth magic.The healing hydra uses its magic again and the head slowly but surely is growing back but it's slowed down tremendously.Trevor went to bash the water head of the hydra, causing it to suffer concussion. Wain took another slash to halfway behead it.The hydra suddenly took steps backward.The water head shoots water all over the ground while spraying water like rain. While the lighting head is charging up."Careful!", Elvis shouted.Fay saw this and quickly freezes the water on the ground. Lisa also raises the terrain a little bit to block the effect. Elvis jumped onto Lisa heightened ground with his wind enchantment. The lighting head shoots sparks of lighting at the wet ground. It is conducted into the water until it reaches the frozen part of the water, failing its attack. Trevor and Wain tanked the attack head on. They only felt slight tingling as their Adamantite boot can't conduct electricity.At the same time the healing head uses its full power and heals every injury completely. But it looked weakened and seemed to slow down.Afterwards all 7 heads gather together and opened all their mouths. Different mana attributes gather at the same point.They are going to unleash their ultimate attack! Magic energies above them creates a brilliant prismatic ball of magic and had signs of instability as its shape distorts here and there. The unstable gathering of different elements of magic gives it destructive explosive power.However, it's an opportunity!This is exactly what amber is waiting for. Amber had finished her magic and held on for this moment and used her hyper water jet!It shoots straight from the left head to the right, beheading 3 hydra heads consequetively causing the prismatic ball of magic to lose its stability abruptly causing it to explode!Everyone at the back is slightly pushed from the shockwave while Trevor and Wain hiding behind him withstood the impact.The cavern shook and seems like it will collapse due the force. Pieces of rocks falling from above. Fay and Lisa quickly cast ice and earth wall that covers the entirety of the cavern preventing it from collapsing.Elvis used wind gale spell to clear the dust and shoot more light emitting arrows to the walls and ground.The healing head tried to heal but it had slowed down drastically due to their severe injuries.Elvis shoots an arrow and manages to pierce straight to its healing head eye and into its brain, killing it as the head plop down.The fire and wind heads, although injured heavily use a combined magic attack, shooting a small fire thrower like a mini dragon's breath to Trevor. Trevor stood his ground and withstood it with his shield protecting his face.The death head shoots some slimy dark projectiles to Lisa. Fay had prepared a portal to simply return it back, causing the slimy substance to hit its own head back.The head rots as pustules form and explodes with blood causing the head to scream in pain.Wain went to slash at its body. While Elvis keeps shooting arrows at the death head.Fay creates a larger blade with magic that he holds with his two hands.It's time to try out his own dragon body strength in magic transformation.He slashed with full force into a thin portal, causing the blade to appear in a portal right next to the wind head neck.The blade went through the neck with some resistance but ultimately it got beheaded entirely as blood spurted out of the neck staining the floor with blood.The fire and death head shoots small fireballs and slimy substances at everyone randomly, seemingly not hitting anyone specifically. It's just panicked and is struggling.Trevor effortlessly blocked it. While Fay simply makes portals in front of Elvis, Amber, Lisa and himself as they just stand behind it. Any projectiles that went through it returned back through a portal some distance away.The fire head got angry and shot at one of the portals above its head.The fire ball shoots out from the portal in front of Fay to the front and hits the ground right next to Wain, startling him almost making his heart stop."Hey!" He panicked a little and glared at Fay."Sorry!". Fay didn't expect it to shoot onto the portal above its head.Both of them stop shooting as it runs out of energy.It just went to charge to trample Trevor to death with its body. It literally slammed itself onto him.'Help!!!'. Trevor stood helplessly while the hydra just slammed its whole body to Trevor.Fay and Lisa used magic walls to prevent it from completely crushing Trevor as he hurriedly crawled below the earth and ice holding the hydra body.Elvis keeps shooting its remaining head.Wain took a stance and used all his strength. He plunged forward and thrust into the deep wound at its chest. It halfway went in, causing the heads to scream. It directly launches a melee attack at Wain. Wain dodged and Trevor took over its aggro.While it is focusing on Trevor, Wain once again chops one of the heads, the wound reaches deep into its brain killing it.The fire head is losing its life as it flays around from being shot by Elvis. The head eventually drops to the ground, wanting rest. It still lifts its head a little and only a little spark of fire comes out of its mouth.Elvis gave it the last arrow, extinguishing the last life force of the hydra. The body fell down, shaking the ground a little bit.After brief moment of silence, they finally confirmed of their success."Hahaha. Our first mithril beast!". Trevor exclaimed."Technically it's our second". Wain replied to Trevor's excitement with a smile. It's been a long time since he heard Trevor's laugh. He really missed his friend. Even his anger almost disappeared and he forgot the bad things for a moment. He too, felt excited.Fay went to hug Wain as a cheer of sort. He felt so excited as well. Although its technically easy. Of course, he's not so insensitive to say he can solo it by himself, even if that's true.Elvis thought for a moment. He is thinking if they could do it without Fay. He believes they can if they replace him with another excellent mage like Lisa. Although Fay's portal is a cheat, the hydra magic firepower isn't really high.Elvis side-eyed Fay, who had his dragon tail wagging like Wain while he went to hug him in excitement. Gosh they truly are a couple. Even he thinks they look cute wagging their tails like that.Anyways, Fay can chop its head in one swing from long distance accurately. And he's pretty sure Fay is holding back a lot. Where's his tens of flying swords? And he used a lot of mana to make the ice walls surrounding the cavern. If he put everything into offense, the hydra would be dead from him alone.But he tried to not feel disheartened. Fay is too overpowered. And he felt grateful for Fay holding back for them. He's aware of it.Still, he congratulated everyone for their hard work. The adamantite armour truly helps. Trevor and Wain remain unscathed mostly even under multiple assaults of different types of magic.Fay released his hands from Wain. He went to see Trevor, looking at them.Lisa and Amber are having their own cheer by themselves. Fay felt a bit sad for Trevor, he seems lonely again.Fay went to him just to cheer with him."Nice job!". Fay smiled at Trevor and went to high five him.He had his hand hanging in the air, waiting for Trevor to high five back.?'Fay I am not sure what you're doing'.Oh. There's no high five in this world?"It's like this".Fay held Trevor's hand. He got startled, feeling his soft hand touching his palm."You do it like this".Clap!'High five! It's a cheer of sort, saying good job, or something like that, I think(?)'."I see. High five?".Trevor lifted his hand and palm facing forward.Fay went to clap it.Trevor can't help but smile.Wain also comes over. He felt a bit jealous."Me?". Wain also raises his hand. Fay smiled and clap it back."High five!". Wain carved a smile seeing how cute Fay looked tiptoeing reaching out his palm.Wain looks at Trevor in the side.'You alright?'."I am fine. The armour is so strong I barely feel a thing"."Yeah. It's lighting magic barely tingles". Wain replied. But he doesn't know what to say next.Elvis felt sobbing seeing they seemed like usual for a second. Even he went closer to them and compliment them. Lisa and Amber followed suit. They only say a word or two to Trevor, since they haven't fully been able to forgive him and it's quite recent for them."The body is so large... How long would it take to dismantle them.", Trevor said.Elvis thought for a moment."Let's just cut its body part and put them into Fay's inventory space for now and give them to dismantle later".Everyone nodded.Fay takes out a large sword from his inventory space and chops its body with his dragon strength with minimal effort. Wain also did the same. The flesh and bones aren't as tough as the dragon back then. Amber used a small water jet to cut it into pieces.They found 7 magic crystals of different elemental affinity. The life magic crystal is especially rare. It is heavily used in research for healing magic that isn't from divine power.So far, it still has a big flaw of risk causing uncontrollable growth of flesh and tumour. They are still researching to figure it out how to use it safely. But the magic crystals are usually sold as a set because of its special property to combine different elements when used together.Since they are done here, Fay opened a portal back into town back in Angis.To celebrate, everyone agrees to eat fancy in the capital. Fay suggested they go to the restaurant that the 2nd prince brought them to. Wain felt a bit jealous hearing about this 2nd prince treating Fay to fancy dinner.Everyone followed. They take a full 5 course meal. A noble family there seems to be scrutinizing them since they are just adventurers and they don't really know the right cutleries for which food. And probably having a complaint about them being chatty. But no one cares the food is good.They went back to their room satisfied.It's a nice day. Fay hopes they can stay like this really.Wain is tired out and went to sleep early. Fay had a dragon body so he never really feels tired.He went out of the room and went outside to take some fresh air. He sat on a bench outside. The stars are visible in the sky due to lack of light pollution.It's been a year since he is transferred to this world."Fay?".'Trevor?'. Trevor also happened to want to take fresh air outside and they met.They looked at each other, but don't say much as they both look at the streets and the sky."Fay...".Fay looked at him."What do you think of me?".Fay wondered for a while before he says his thoughts."Emm… I think, you are a nice person. You are a good friend alright. I like how you make things cheerful. I noticed you know; you teased me and Wain here and there. I like your presence a lot. You were a nice friend to have". Fay said honestly. He knows Trevor had a lot of things in his mind. He want to give him assurance.'Do you, really forgives me?'. Trevor can only look to the side. He still felt guilt in his heart."Trevor. I already forgiven you. You are a nice person, that just made a mistake. As long as you don't do anything like that again, I will always be your friend". Fay said genuinely.'...'. Trevor can only remain silent. Fay really had forgiven him. He had a bit of tears pooling but he kept it in.They stay there, watching the stars.'Fay...'.Fay looks at him.'I love you...'. Trevor looks at Fay with soft eyes full of affection.It was, a surprise for him to hear it. It felt quite random in a sense. He thought about it, but he can't complain."Thank you". Fay can only say his thanks. He sees the way Trevor looks at him. At least, he can tell it's genuine.Trevor bit his lips. Is that all? A thanks?'Fay I...'.Trevor clenched his fist. He leaned in closer to Fay.'I want to be with you'. Trevor held Fays soft hand.Fay can only see him with conflicted heart and sadness.He held Trevor's big hand with gentleness. His hands are big and strong, and warm.Trevor had his hope up, feeling Fay holding his hand."I am sorry Trevor".'Why...? I promise I will be good. I won't do anything I did ever again. Can't you... Give me a chance?'.Fay is not sure why Trevor is insisting on this when it's already obvious."What about Wain?".It's obvious he is in a deep relationship with Wain already. Fay shouldn't have needed to say it to Trevor.'I... I still want you'.Fay is not sure what to say to him. But he had to reject him firmly.'I can't be with you Trevor. I am sorry. I loved Wain, and I only want to love him. You can still find someone else; you know? There's a lot of good people out there. I am sure you will find someone new'."Fay... I don't want anyone else. I just want you'Fay felt a bit frustrated. He had already told him he would love Wain and only him. It's as if he completely ignored that part."Sorry Trevor. I love Wain, and only him. We can remain friends".Trevor bit his lips."Then can we... just sleep together?".Fay twitched his eyebrows a bit. If he hadn't dated Wain yet he might have said yes. But he is committed right now. Did he misunderstand something? Trevor is too, insistent."Trevor, I won't do anything that would hurt him".'He won't know. I will keep it a secret'. Fay furrowed his eyebrows even deeper."He's your friend". Fay has to say it sternly. Even Fay has his own moral bottom line.Trevor can only look to the side. He knew its wrong.'Sorry Fay... For asking you like this...'."It's okay". Fay slightly smiles at him and pat his back."Maybe you can try to date new people. I am sure many would like you. But… not me". Fay had to say it to him, in case he gets any other ideas.Trevor felt his heart broken. He is greedy after Fay forgave him. But now... He can't seem to have any chance. Fay doesn't judge Trevor since he expressed his feelings to him properly.Fay went back to his room first, while Trevor kept on watching the streets and the stars. Wain is still sleeping it seems. Fay went to lay down and hug Wain's tail. It's so fluffy. He sniffed them and smelled the familiar KFC. He loves him a lot really....After their second official Mithril rank beasts' subjugation, the party is now listed among the top adventurer teams in the human kingdom nationwide.From auctioning the hydra parts, they gained 6 platinum coins. It's lesser than a young true dragon and most of it comes from their magic crystals auctioned in a set. Because the 7 magic crystals from the hydra have a unique property that when used together are able to combine different attributes of elements (although it's quite unstable).They are taking a break for few days. This time they just do nothing and do their own thing in Angis. But a surprising news come from Amber later - that would lead to them going to Kingdom of Atlanta.