"Ngh!" I groaned as I was pushed to the side. I immediately got back up and glared at the perpetrator - one of Dong Zhu's lackeys, the one with glasses.

At the same time, all of the other people who had been selected to cut off a Hydra head, had already completed their task. But of course...

Ah...damn it. The central one just had to be mine, huh?

"Fall back!" Bing Yuan yelled as the Hydra's head stumps began bubbling, and in the blink of an eye, two more heads had emerged from every single one of the stumps.

"Who didn't cut one of the Hydra's head off?!" Bing Yuan yelled in frustration as he dodged out of the way of one of the Hydra's attacks, venom spit.

"It was Xuan Kai, sir!" Dong Zhu immediately spoke up.

...Framing me, huh?

"Xuan Kai? Damn it, why didn't you follow instructions?!"

"Sir, I can expl-"

"We don't have time to hear you explain!" Bing Yuan interrupted. "Damn it, now that it's come to this, don't cut off any heads unless you're absolutely certain it's the central one! Remember, the central head was the one who didn't split into two!"

Looks like he's counting on one of us to have remembered the head's location. But amidst this swarm of heads...

Damn it, what the hell is that Dong Zhu thinking? Does he not realize that doing this would possibly get him killed too? By the Hydra, I mean. After all, the more heads this thing has, the more powerful it becomes. We might not even be able to make it out alive at some point, if people keep cutting off the wrong heads.

Ah, there goes one.

As one of the party members cut off the head they 'thought' was the central one, two more immediately came in to take its place.

Yeah, this isn't going to work. Now then...

I noticed Dong Zhu and his lackeys over on one side snickering at me, but I ignored them, and instead backed away from the battlefield and called Mei Gui over.

Mei Gui, noticing me beckoning through a telepathic message, hurried over. "Yes, Master?"

"Mei Gui, do you happen to remember which Hydra head was the one I was assigned to?"

She nodded. "Yes. I also saw Dong Zhu's lackey, the piss pit of a bastard toxic jerk push Master so Master could not accomplish Master's task successfully."

...H-Hold on, where did you learn such vocabulary? A-Ahem, I would have to talk to her about this later, but now is not the time.

"Okay, tell me which one is the right head," I instructed, and Mei Gui pointed at the head hiding within the very center of all the other ones.

Well, of course. It wants to be protected, huh?

I nodded. "Got it. I'll get that head."

"But Master, won't the other heads get in your way?"

I grinned. "That's where you come in, Mei Gui."

Hearing my reply, she immediately brightened up and smiled slightly. "Yes, Master!"

I don't know if she's happy to be helping me out, or she just loves battles, but if she enjoys doing this, then that's fine by me.

She immediately leapt into battle, with me following soon after. Her movements attracted the gazes of everyone present. No one expected a girl of her tiny frame to be able to move so agilely and accurately. She carefully cut any heads that came to block her way, but did not cut them completely off so that the Hydra couldn't spawn new ones. Instead, she injured them just enough for them to back away from the pain.

Soon enough, a clean path was cleared, and that was the moment I was waiting for.

Potentia Excitant: Salire.

I jumped up into the air after casting my jump boosting spell, and directed my katana at the Hydra's central head, now defenseless. It attempted to shoot venom at my face with a shriek, but I easily dodged out of the way.

Space - Eliminate.

Teleporting at the exact moment the venom was about to hit me, I blinked behind the projectile and swung my twin katanas in an x-pattern. I landed on the ground behind the Hydra, right as the central head fell cleanly off. All was silent as this moment occured.

The entire Hydra then suddenly spasmed, shrieking loudly before at last, collapsing onto the ground. Its body began disintegrating into ashes.

"Quick, grab the Hydra Fangs!" someone yelled, the first to come to their senses.

I turned around, and saw Mei Gui, who had already retrieved two Hydra Fangs from the central head that I had slain. She walked over to me, and gave me the two fangs as the rest of the people all struggled to get their hands on one from the other heads.

"Good job, Mei Gui," I said, patting her head gently.

"Mm..." she nodded happily, enjoying the head pat.

I sensed killing intent from behind me, so I slowly turned my head around and saw Dong Zhu with his lackeys, glaring at me in detest.

I smirked, then slowly raised the middle finger towards them.

Seeing this gesture, Dong Zhu nearly couldn't contain his anger anymore, and was about to charge straight at me. But luckily for him, his lackeys had more of a brain than he did, and held him back.

You already got your ass handed to you by me once already. Now you want to try again? Man...some people just never learn, do they?

"B-Boss! Calm down! We'll make sure he's dead before he leaves this city!" the chubby lackey said desperately.

"Yeah, yeah! No need to get him right now!" the short, freckled dude said.

"Don't worry, boss! He won't live to see another sunrise!" the last lackey with the bunny teeth and glasses added.

Dong Zhu gritted his teeth. "Damn it...I'll let you live for a bit longer, Xuan Kai."

I ignored his taunt, and merely went back to patting Mei Gui. The other girls ran over to us.

"Sorry, I wasn't able to get a Hydra Fang...oh, wait, you already got two!" Feng Mian exclaimed.

"Yeah, Mei Gui managed to secure them," I explained.

"Big Brother Xuan Kai, that was so cool!" Qing Yue yelled, before diving into my arms. Mei Gui was slightly unhappy that I stopped patting her head since I had to catch Qing Yue, but she didn't show too much emotion on her face, as usual.

"That was...pretty flashy for someone who usually likes to blend in," Yu An Yan noted.

"Yeah, well...if we just let the battle drag on, god knows how many heads there would've been by the end of it. I figured it would be better to just end it now," I replied. "The thing with Hydras is that the more heads there are, the more powerful it gets. Putting it in video game terms...it scales infinitely."

"Haha, funny pun! Get it, because Hydras have scales?" Xiang Peng interjected, pointing finger guns at me with a wink.

"Shut up," I muttered, which caused her to pout.

Then, someone else walked over to me. It was Bing Yuan. "Good job, kid. That battle was all you."

I shook my head. "Nah, I didn't do much. My golem is just too powerful."

I pointed at Mei Gui, to which Bing Yuan raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure that's a golem? Her movements seemed very...human to me."

"Yeah, it's a pretty high-quality model," I explained, bluffing my way past. "Nearly cost my parents their entire life savings."

Bing Yuan chuckled. "Ho...I see. But about that incident earlier...why did you not follow my instructions and cut off the Hydra head?"

I sighed. "Would you believe me if I told you someone purposely prevented me from doing so?"

"...I would, but there's no evidence, so I wouldn't be able to do anything about it," Bing Yuan said reluctantly.

"As I thought. There's no point explaining, then," I finished. "When are we heading back?"

"Right now," Bing Yuan replied. "Sorry...I'm not able to help you out regarding the framing."

I shook my head. "Don't worry about it. I'm leaving this city tomorrow anyway."

"Oh, where to?" he asked.

"Why do you ask?" I shot right back.

"...Ha, I see. Well, it's understandable you don't want to reveal any information," Bing Yuan said with a sigh. "You're an interesting kid. Just now, I wasn't sure if I even heard you chant an incantation before using magic. And those weapons of yours, too...I've never seen anything like them before, but I can feel that they are incredibly powerful."

"I chanted really quietly," I replied, my usual excuse. I didn't say anything about the weapons, since I didn't have a good excuse for them.

"I...see. Very well. You will be rewarded handsomely, as promised, for scoring the kill on the Hydra and being the main contributor of this fight," he said. "For now, let's head back to the guild."