Chapter 166 - Headhydra VII

A scowl on her face, Claire could only watch as the kill slipped out from between her fingers. The wound she had worked so hard to inflict closed in the blink of an eye. No trace of it was left behind, no scars, no sweat, no blood. Because the monster had employed a tactic she found frustratingly familiar.

Worse yet was the lack of opportunity that followed. Farenlight sent her flying with a burst of raw energy and turned itself into a giant radiant cocoon. She had tried to assault it again, as soon as she was back on her feet, but the lizard’s ascension had rendered it invulnerable. The very same energy that had displaced her warded off her attacks. She didn’t know how she was supposed to get past its defenses. Not even detonating the pony had proven fruitful. A fact that left her clenching her fists and teeth alike.

Claire was fresh out of resources. All her divinity had been invested into lengthening her shard, rending the monster’s flesh, and freezing its exposed spine. It was a risky all-in, albeit one that would have proven successful had the mindless mountain spirit not needlessly offered Farenlight his life. It was all his fault; she wanted to make him pay, to strangle him until he compensated her for her wasted efforts, but she had missed her chance. Farenlight had already stolen the one thing she would have wanted to take.

Shaking her head, she looked towards Natalya. The catgirl’s missing arm and broken tail had both healed, but she looked worse for wear nonetheless. Her face was pale as a sheet, her tail was tucked between her legs, and her lips were trembling. Just as violently as her hands.

“Lia.” She placed a hand on her shoulder, but there was no response. “Natalya.” Not even shaking her lightly seemed to pull her from her thoughts, so Claire grabbed the two sides of her face and violently moved her back and forth. “Natalya Vernelle.”

“S-sorry. I was a little out of it.” Smiling awkwardly, the cat placed a hand on the lyrkress’ forearm and put an end to the violent lurching. “I didn’t think it was going to suddenly ascend.”

“You can run,” said Claire. “If you want.”

The catgirl shook her head. “I-I'm not going to run. I was just a little worried because of how much it reminded me of my last big fight.” She took a small breath. “We had the rug pulled out from under our feet.”

Claire shrugged. “Again, you can run, if you want.” She drew her mace, who was clawing at the air in an attempt to escape. “Not you. You’re going to help me kill it.”

Boris didn’t quite seem to agree with the decision. His arms and legs both sped up as he struggled to get out of her grasp.

Log Entry 5980
Paralyzing Gaze has reached level 31.

The lyrkress was not oblivious. Her gut was screaming at her, telling her that she was completely outclassed, but she stood firm. It took time for a freshly ascended combatant to grow accustomed to its new body, and Farenlight would be no exception. The ball of energy enveloping its frame had already shrunk to roughly a third its previous size, and she could see the monster taking shape within. It had an absurd number of heads, far more than the commonly accepted limit of three. It was sure to struggle, when making decisions in times of crisis.

Taking advantage of its befuddlement would provide the perfect opportunity to reap the rewards of its murder. And she was not about to let the opportunity slip out from between her fingers.

“Boris is right.” Having taken another few breaths and finally steadied her nerves, Lia grabbed Claire’s hand and tried to drag her away. “We should run, before it finishes ascending. We’ve already wasted too much time.” But it was shaken off.

“I can kill it.”

Their eyes met. Lia’s were filled with anxiety, but Claire’s were no different from usual. She was wearing the same blank stare as always. Almost the same blank stare as always. Something about it was just different enough, off-putting enough, to send a shiver down the catgirl’s spine. She found every fiber of her being filled with the urge to run, both from the monster and her companion, but she shook her head and held her ground.

“Then I’ll fight too,” said the soldier, with an audible gulp.

“I’ll be fine. By myself.”

“I know. But I want to help.” She was still trembling, but she refused to turn around and flee. “I’m not going to be the only one that runs away again.”

Nodding, Claire turned around, placed a hand on her terrified weapon, and focused all her senses on the monster in front of her, right as its transformation was finally completed. Surely enough, it behaved exactly as expected. Its first step was taken in a drunken stupor—a brief bout of weakness. Everything the lyrkress had hoped for.

Launching herself with her tail, the moose leapt at the creature’s leftmost head and bashed it with both the icy halberd that formed in her hand and the lizard-shaped mallet that she held in her right. Both strikes were true. There was no mistaking that the hits were confirmed. She could feel her arms ringing with the feedback. But there was no effect. It did not so much as flinch when the ice shattered to pieces, nor did it react to the lizard forcefully applied to the hinge that held its jaw.

Prior to the monster’s ascension, the lack of damage could have been blamed on a difference in size. A tiny dent in a twenty-meter-tall behemoth was nothing. But Farenlight had shrunk; its dimensions could no longer serve as the cornerstone of its defense. The base of its neck was only two meters off the ground, and the tallest head could only go as high as six, if stretched all the way out. The one that Claire had struck was the lowest hanging fruit, the one that was hovering just below its shoulders.

Size was not the only feature that Farenlight had lost. Its maturity had also faded with its transformation. Every part of its body was screaming that it was nothing but a child; its limbs were stubby, and all nine of its necks looked like they were disproportionately short, despite being just as long as the rest of its frame.

Still, even in its underdeveloped state, it had completely ignored her attack. The overhead strike damaged only Boris. His exterior still looked unblemished, but his eyes were spinning in a visible daze.

Biting her bottom lip, Claire ducked under a headbutt and quickly backed away. It was a careless, half-hearted strike, as if the monster was shooing off a nuisance, but she was not discouraged. The hydra would think differently, once she found its weakness.

Lia charged in when her companion backed off, as if to take her place as vanguard. Her emerald green eyes were alight with a maddened glow, proof beyond her chant that she had entered a frenzy. It was only a level three berserk with no priority on any specific abilities. But it was enough, enough to bring the fighter into a realm beyond the half-lamia’s reach.

With a yowling battlecry, the Paunsean knight dashed straight at the nine-headed, four-legged reptilian and delivered a dozen slashes in the blink of an eye. They were difficult, almost impossible to follow. But even as mere flashes of light, their grace remained apparent. None of the strikes were haphazard—Belyaev’s Whistle was moving with fine control and finesse—but neither were they particularly powerful. She was unable to remove the monster’s head, even with her sword spinning like a drill, so she settled instead for carving a rune into the monster’s breast.

The symbol did not appear to have any effect, but its canvas remained reasonably upset. Farenlight reared back its stubby legs and roared, with all nine of its heads held high up in the air. Laced into the feral scream was a powerful shockwave, a blast of wind that pushed everything away. Plants, dirt, trees, catgirls. Everything. All that remained was a crater almost a hundred meters across.

Claire was mangled by the blast. Her hands and fingers were bent out of shape, and her ears had erupted into a fountain of blood. She could hear nothing but a high pitched ringing, a painful screech that left her unsteady on her feet.

Lia had also taken a direct hit, but she had suffered nowhere near as much damage. Nothing was broken, and she had managed to land upright, with all four limbs planted firmly on the ground and her blade held between her teeth.

A level four enrage state was invoked as soon as she took her next breath. The few bits of sanity that remained within were discarded for a chaotic blood frenzy. Her teeth bared and her invisible claws at the ready, she charged into the fray again and aimed straight at one of the creature’s necks. Her force and speed had increased to such an extent that the air shattered with a roaring sonic boom.

Had she started with the attack immediately after Farenlight’s transformation, she likely would have been able to claim at least two of its heads. But it had almost been a minute since the battle resumed, and she was not the only one that quickened.

Moving just as swiftly as the cat, the lizard twisted all of its heads out of the way and retaliated with a sweep of its still iridescent tail. It was a deadly swing that came with a dozen blades of wind. But Lia took it head on. She raised her free arm and used it as a buffer whilst charging straight through the storm.

Claire was unable to see the attack that followed, but the results were clear. Natalya’s blade skewed one of the creature’s heads, piercing through its scales, bone, and brain before emerging from the other side.

One half of a two part attack.

Putting both hands on the handle, she spun around and ripped the weapon through the monster’s skull. The spinning blade shredded Farenlight’s face, mashing it like an overcooked potato and throwing chunks of its flesh all over the soggy woodland’s floor.

A dazzling green inferno erupted from within the broken head’s throat, but again, Lia took it head on. She caught the plague flame in her hands and forcibly dispersed it with a squeeze.

Her flesh almost seemed to rot away as she clenched her fist, but it healed itself when she enraged again. The fifth descent. The furthest she could go. Her mana swirled around her body, running as rampant as the insanity that corrupted her mind. Slash after slash, she struck the hydra, with her rapier digging deeper into its flesh each time.

Though a legendary blade, known for breaking countless others, Belyaev’s legacy was Lia’s limiter. The parts of the sword closest to the hilt would follow her hand as she tore it through the air, but the rest of it could never keep place. It bent whenever she swung, sometimes far enough for the tip to touch its guard. The bladed edge would always snap back towards the target like a whip, but on a brief delay.

The lack of unity between her style and her weapon allowed the monster to see through her attacks, to evade them perfectly and retaliate in kind with blasts of wind. Each dodge was faster, cleaner than the last, and each spell inflicted a deeper wound. Time was on the hydra’s side. All that awaited, once all the grains trickled down the glass, was the bitter taste of defeat.

It was up to Claire to intervene, to make the difference that would seize victory from the lizard’s nine-headed grasp. But there was nothing she could do. They were moving too quickly for her to keep up. She would never be able to land any of her attacks. And even if she could, they would be too weak to pierce the lizard’s scales.

Clenching her fists, she glanced briefly at her status. There was still a way for her to make a difference. She just had to disobey her guardian deity, use Alfred’s levels, and ascend. And her pride urged her to follow through. She hated sitting on the sidelines. She hated watching. She hated the fact that she was being factored out of a battle that she should have won. But she clenched her fists and bore with it. Because her father’s words were echoing through the back of her mind.

It was never impossible for her to dominate a foe that completely outclassed her.

She just had to get into its head.

And because it was such a primitive creature, a simpleton with eight useless brains, she found that particular path to victory sitting right in her grasp.

Forcing her fingers back into their intended positions and cracking her elbow back into place, she placed a hand on her chest, floated up into the air, and raised her voice. Slowly, methodically, after waiting for the drums in her head to trill, she started to sing.

The song that left her lips was an ordinary rhapsody, a casual tune that her mother happened to prefer. She had no singing skill, no bard class, no way to lace her notes with magic. But bards were amongst the most common adventurers. The hydra was guaranteed to have encountered them, time and time again. And surely enough, it knew. It recognized the singing as something that was dangerous and raised one of its heads to confront her.

It opened its mouth and produced a spell as soon as they locked eyes. A breath attack that differed from the usual rotting flame. It was a venomous wind, a toxic blast that blistered her skin and made it bubble with warts aplenty. But Claire cared little. She had already achieved her goal. By grabbing its attention, she was able to lock it in place for long enough to mark it as her target and summon a storm. Not a storm of rain, but one of forces. The maximum amount that her mana could afford.

Gravity bore down on the beast like a flood. Not even all the vectors at her disposal could produce enough power to lock it down, but its movements were dulled. Just enough for it to find itself incapable of escaping the lioness’ fangs.

Only three of its heads evaded the blademaster’s attack. The rest were all split off, severed and destroyed with a single diagonal slash, backed by all the force of the dark knight’s oath.

The monster retaliated immediately. It opened all its remaining mouths and prepared to fire a salvo of deadly projectiles. Not even it knew what would come out. And it would never find out. Because the rune in its chest had finally started to glow.

The magical inscription was the mark of false statis, an epitaph that had reclassified itself as a blademaster skill after ten thousand careful repetitions. Once engraved, its effect was to halve the slashing damage that her target received for exactly sixty seconds. And to pay it all back ten times over, once the time had elapsed.

There was not enough hydra left to endure the onslaught that followed. Its whole body was shredded to bits as a seemingly infinite number of magical slashes were carved into its frame. It tried to flail, to resist the spell, but nothing could stop it from being ripped to pieces. A violent explosion of blood and gore.

Log Entry 5981
Your party has slain a legendary level 500 Primal Ikarett Matriarch, titled The Queen of Farenlight’s Den.

This feat has earned you the following bonus rewards:
- 103 points of agility
- 48 points of dexterity
- 61 points of spirit
- 12 points of strength
- 128 (64x2) points of vitality
- 75 points of wisdom

“So much for a lack of confidence.” Claire muttered under her breath as her body fixed its still broken bones. “She practically destroyed it single-handedly.” She moved her fingers one at a time, just so she could be doubly sure that everything worked, before descending from her perch and cautiously eyeing the still berserked catgirl.

At first, she thought it was a mistake, that Natalya was out of control, but she soon realized that the battle was not yet over. Because even though it was dead, even though the entry was right there in her log, above the level up and skill-related entries that followed, Farenlight’s body continued to regrow. Its torso was already fully built. Its legs were in place, and the first of its heads was already on the verge of returning. Lia tried to slash at it, but a powerful barrier warded her off.

Dashing past the frenzied cat, Claire began attacking from the opposite side. She bashed Boris against the defensive spell over and over, but he was useless. It was as impervious to him as it was to Lia’s blade. So she did it herself. Pressing one hand against the defensive matrix, she drained just enough of its mana to rip a tiny hole. Boris was shoved inside, with his lyrkrian master following soon after. The opening closed behind her and tore off half her tail, but she paid it no mind and joined the metal lizard in assaulting the monster’s flesh.

The first thing she grabbed was its neck. Wrapping her fingers around its spine, she tore away the structure that held up its brain. The bits of head that had formed quickly crumbled to dust, but the monster failed to perish; its spines continued to grow from all nine broken stumps.

Its flesh refused to freeze and her forces were incapable of disrupting its regeneration. The only bits and pieces that broke off were the ones that she and Boris attacked directly, with their own bare hands and teeth. But the monster was too big for them to manage on their own. She had to shuffle around on its back to keep all its necks short, and though stealing its health and mana certainly slowed the regeneration process, it failed to grind it to a halt. It looked like she was fated to lose the battle of attrition, until Flux’s voice echoed through her mind again.

Log Entry 5992
You have stolen the essence of Farenlight, the immortal guardian of dungeon 0x48DF49A8CF.

That was the turning point, the moment where all of Farenlight’s regeneration came to a sudden halt. The barrier vanished and the flesh and bone crumbled. Everything in the midst of recovery was turned to dust. The only pieces left behind were the ones that the catgirl had severed, before the beast’s first death.

Log Entry 5993
Your party has slain a legendary level 501 Primal Ikarett Matriarch, titled The Queen of Farenlight’s Den.

Log Entry 5994
You have leveled up. Your health and mana have been restored and all harmful status effects have been cleansed.

Your racial class, Frostblight Lyrkress, has reached level 248.

Your primary class, Llystletein Essencethief, has reached level 229.

Your secondary class, Cloudburst Sorceress, has reached level 203.

You have gained 870 ability points.

She had gained a few levels in each class, and her racial class was on the verge of reaching its cap, but all those were facts she soon casually dismissed. Because the messages at the very bottom of the list had already stolen her attention away.

Log Entry 6001
You have acquired a new spirit guardian.

Its name was that of the beast whose essence she had stolen, but the moniker was one that Claire refused to use. To her, the thing that had casually commandeered Sylvia’s spot was Headhydra, and that was all she would ever call it, whether it accepted the designation or not.

She was tempted to summon the creature and experiment with its abilities, but quickly decided against it. The catgirl had yet to fully calm down. Though her berserk had been dispelled, she was still in an agitated state. There was no telling how she, or any of the townsfolk for that matter, would react to the monster’s sudden reappearance. More convincing, however, was the second entry directly of note, a log that had her furrowing her brows and twisting her lips.

Log Entry 6002
A monster you have tamed has reached level 250 and initiated the ascension protocol. It is possible that this individual’s behaviour may be affected by this change.

Her hands on one of the many klimgor tyrant fangs she happened to have on hand, she kept a close, careful eye on the lizard as he went through a process that she was not yet allowed to complete.

___

Claire

Health: 19210/19210
Mana: 32710/32710
Divinity: 5/5
Health Regen: 7092/hour (14184/hour)
Mana Regen: 26370/hour
Divinity Regen: 5/hour

Ability Scores - 6294 Points Available
- Agility: 2312
- Dexterity: 1815
- Spirit: 937
- Strength: 2428
- Vitality: 1576
- Wisdom: 2930

Racial Class: Frostblight Lyrkress - Level 248.21
- Frostblight Lyrkrian Martial Arts - Level 53.64
- Frostblight Lyrkrian Shapeshifting - Level 49.71
- Paralyzing Gaze - Level 31.97
- Thermodynamic Regulation - Level 14.85
- True Ice Manipulation - Level 55.89

Primary Class: Llystletein Essencethief - Level 229.25
- Catgirl Detector V. 1.00 - Level 7.71
- Charm Catgirl - Level 18.17
- Death’s Dance - Level 34.12
- Essencethief - level 21.70
- Envenom - Level 41.01
- Phantom Blade - Level 37.93

Secondary Class: Cloudburst Sorceress - Level 203.51
- Force Resistance - Level 10.32
- Detect Force Magic - Level 22.94
- Spirit Sorcery - Level 47.16
- Vector Manipulation II - Level 24.94

Unclassed Skills
- Artifact Manipulation - Level 6
- Digging - Level 21.79
- English - Level 25
- Llystletein Authority++ - Level 13.80
- Marish - Level 19.13
- Sewing - Level 1.43
- Sneaking - Level 25.75
- Weapon Mastery - Level 27.40