Zethira and Elana approached the shard as slowly and quietly as they could, the former reducing the flame in her hand to as dim as candlelight.  It was a fool’s errand to think they could stealthily avoid a battle with the shard’s guardian.  Even if they could steal the shard, they’d still need to make it out of the cave, climb back to the surface, and make it through the thick jungle where her fire magic was still mostly sealed.  And trying to do all that while being actively pursued by a monster in its own lair was a death sentence.

But there was still a chance, however slight, that they could collect the stone and absorb its power before they had to fight whatever awaited them.  A faint hiss echoed through the caverns, one which Zethira recognized from a month or so before.  It was soon joined by several others, which together formed an eerie harmony that reverberated in Zethira’s ears as they neared.  It was soon joined by the sound of droplets of some liquid hitting the ground and the sound of effervescence as the acidic liquid burned and dissolved the ground.

One… two… seven heads in total.  She silently cursed her luck.  Yes, she and her love had both gotten quite a bit stronger since their trek through the Cuperi Mountains of southern Osteria, and had received some divine power while on top of the Goddesses’ Altar.  But the hydra back then had only three heads, and there had been three of them at the time to take that beast on.  As annoying as she was at times, Vio’s help was essential in overcoming its relentless assault.  But reminiscing wouldn’t summon their former comrade back— it was as she and Elana had said before.  They were in its lair, and it would be a fight to the death.

Zethira approached slowly and silently, floating just off the ground, while Elana stood a few paces behind, lightening her with gravity magic to further ensure the stealth of their mission.  It was slow going as the hydra’s seven heads snoozed just below.  For a moment, one of the heads roused slightly, and Zethira feared that the racing of her heart and sweat building on her forehead and palms had given her away.  But the head just shook back and forth before it returned to its slumbering position on top of the others, and in the center of its coiled-up form.

A thought briefly crossed her mind.  It wouldn’t be too hard to sever and cauterize at least one of its heads before it realized the two of them were there.  But even if she were completely successful and slew two of them— a hypothetical she did not take for granted— that would still leave five very angry heads seeking a pair of morsels as compensation.

Instead, she continued her heist, floating above the ground as she made her way toward the glowing treasure near its tail.  She moved mere inches each minute, less concerned about future wraiths than avoiding fighting the hydra until after she had absorbed the power within the glowing shard that was tightly wrapped around its tail.  She landed on the ground mere inches away from the tip and reached her hand out as quickly as she dared.

As soon as her fingertips made contact with the Aetherial shard, the shard’s golden glow transferred to her body, brightening the surrounding cave as the crystal slowly melded into her.  Just like when Elana bestowed her blessing onto her, Zethira’s body and senses felt heightened and fuller.  Vision cleared yet further, and her ability to see in the dim light was yet another degree sharper.  And her muscles felt stronger, and her tendons tighter as well.

The hissing, which had been but a dull whisper, grew louder and more violent as the guardian roused and thrashed about.  It had awoken, realizing that its treasure was gone, and was angry.  It flicked its long, spiky, mace-shaped tail toward Zethira, who used the opportunity to test her new ability to Push in combat.  It worked far better than she’d expected, effortlessly batting back the swipe and sending its tail back into the earthen wall behind it.  The hydra hacked up wave after wave of caustic saliva, firing it at Zethira, who easily dodged it with her new heightened senses.

The hydra turned its spit into a stream of fluid which spouted at Zethira with immense pressure and speed.  Zethira considered for an instant to vaporize the attack, but realized almost immediately that the gaseous vapors would prove even more fatal than the liquid version.  Instead, she backflipped to the side, strafing around and through the various beams firing upon her, occasionally using her Push rune to shield herself when dodging wasn’t an option.

As she did so, she tried to combine the runes of Wind and Push together, expecting some sort of air barrier, but the technique proved elusive upon first attempt, instead causing her to fly backward toward the wall, slamming into it with more than a little pain and bruising.  The same couldn’t be said for the hydra, which, being far more massive, weathered the air cannon without so much knockback.  It was dazed for a moment, but suffered little more damage than a bit of splashing saliva on its scales.

Elana used the opportunity to sneak behind the hydra while its serpentine heads were focused upon Zethira.  She floated in the air, drawing Elissa’s sword as she neared, and, as the centermost head lifted up and back to unleash another volley, stabbed the head’s two eyes in rapid succession before flying backward.  The damage wasn’t much, but it did enrage the beast and give Zethira the crucial moments she needed to recover and shake off the blurriness in her vision.

Now recovered, Zethira used the opportunity afforded by Elana’s quick thinking to rush forward toward the beast, her Runic Blade in hand.  The creature, for all its might and all of its heads, proved remarkably stupid and easily enraged, though she still exercised caution as she approached.  Right as the beast prepared to unleash its full force of vitriolic saliva toward Elana, Zethira leapt up and severed the beast’s leftmost head with a flaming slash, cauterizing it instantly.  She readied a second slash for the next head, but had to abort at the last second when a trio of heads roared and chomped at her with venomous teeth.  

She Pushed in midair, flying backward to the ground as the creature slithered forward much faster than the previous one did.  There were numerous divots appearing on the ground all around its body, the sign of Elana using her magic to attempt to slow the creature down, but the creature avoided all of them, almost as though it somehow knew how Elana planned to attack and responded accordingly.

With her back against the wall to buttress herself, Zethira again combined the Push and Wind runes, but this time, the force of the cannon in her hands was aimed squarely at the base of the hydra’s many necks.  It was enough to repel the creature’s slithering advance, stunning it for long enough that Elana was able to rush in and unleash her full gravitic might on the beast, knocking one of its heads to the ground and impaling it an instant later with her sword.

“How disgusting,” Elana said, eyeing Elsie’s sword in her arm and sloughing off the acidic blood and brain matter before it could further corrode the weapon.  “To think I had a hand in creating such a creature.”

“Not the time for reminiscing, Elana!” Zethira shouted.  “We can have a long conversation later, but for now, back to the fight!”

Zethira grabbed her love’s body and leapt out of the way, narrowly avoiding the two of them becoming the monster’s prey, and again utilizing Push followed by an air blade to gain some distance.  With two heads slain and one blinded, they were starting to gain the advantage, but Zethira knew well that a wounded, cornered beast was the most dangerous variety, something that Elana seemed ignorant of after her millennium in stasis.

“Thank you, Zethira,” she said.

“Look, I appreciate your help,” Zethira said, throwing another air blade toward the beast to stun it.  “And getting yourself reacquainted with combat will do us good in the long run.  But if you can’t keep your focus until you’ve confirmed the kill, it would be better if you handed my love’s body back to its proper owner.  I know she hasn’t forgotten my lessons.”

“I–”

“We’ll continue this later, Elana!

Zethira cloaked her weapon in a shroud of flame and launched two strikes to bat back the swarm of teeth heading toward the pair, but quickly dispelling the fire as another bath of acid rained down upon them.  The beast’s attacks were quicker, more ferocious, and less predictable than before, but Zethira was faster, sharper, and her mind quicker than ever before.  And even amidst a perilous monster that would have been unassailable even a week ago, she was having more fun than she’d ever thought possible while under peril, learning the nuances of her new godly power and the rune she’d been gifted.

Elana had thankfully set aside her grievances and was assailing the beast from afar, yanking its head or tail up or down from time to time to disorient the creature.  She took to the top of the cavern, deflecting the few attacks that came her way.  And Zethira wasted none of the opportunities the goddess had afforded her, driving searing slashes into the creature’s heads and necks and wherever else she could get a clean hit.

As the creature’s wounds added up and its movements resembled more an disheveled thrashing than a coordinated assault, it launched its tail high up, seeking to impale Elissa’s body with its spiky tip.  Elana intercepted the attack with a well-timed barrier, but she was unable to repel such a fearsome attract, barely holding the spiky limb from her chest with her full might as goddess and monster engaged in a clash of wills and stamina, one in which defeat meant death.

Zethira didn’t have time to think— her body reacted on its own, suffering a few acid burns on her legs and the backs of her shoulders as she swerved in-between the remaining heads.  She launched another gust of wind, mostly to distract the creature, running up its body until it began to taper into the morningstar-shaped shape at its posterior.  There was a small joint just below the hardened tail, and she took aim.

“Elana, the instant my swing connects, use your magic to repel us with everything you have.”

“But–  Yes, I understand, Zethira.”

Zethira leapt up, cloaked her weapon in flames once more, and with a double-handed slash, cleaved the creature’s tail off in a single fluid motion.  Elana followed through as instructed, groaning a sound that might have been arousing in other circumstances.  Zethira launched back toward the beast at a speed even greater than before, and once more, infused the runes of Fire and Sharpness together to cleave through another two heads in a single stroke.

The creature hissed and coiled up, though instead of aggression, it seemed afraid.  Elana dropped to the ground, standing a few feet behind Zethira as she approached.

“Are you planning to slay it?” Elana asked.

“I am.  As injured as it is from what we’ve put it through, I’m doing the hydra a kindness.  And as I said before, I don’t want to have to worry about being chased on the way back to the surface.  Or have it call for whatever else might be lurking in these caverns.”

“Understood.  And, I apologize for my lack of focus earlier.”

Zethira readied her blade one final time and cleaved the beast’s body in twain, before finally severing the remaining three heads, ending its misery once and for all.  She watched the beast for a few more minutes, not responding to Elana’s summons until she was certain there was no life left in it.  Even then, she floated backwards, watching the lifeless corpse as the two made their way back to the same entrance in which they’d entered some half an hour before.

“At least there were no serious injuries, Elana.  What damage I sustained is nothing I can’t manage, though if you or Elsie want to heal me, I won’t say no.”

“I will do it myself.  Thank you once again, Zethira.”