The three-headed monster lunged in at Hirrus.

When it did, Hirrus realized was aware of something new.

As it approached within striking distance and engaged with him, he knew its name and that it was at full health. He wasn’t sure how he knew. The information just came to him.

Krazaj The Solitary One

100%

The middle head snapped at him, its lunge lightning-fast. Hirrus just barely stopped the enormous jaws from closing around his head by ducking down and slipping aside to the right. The head on the right snapped at him next, forcing him to dance back away from the big monster.

“Alric, get back,” Hirrus snapped. He spared a quick glance to see that the man was already at a full sprint away from the fight. Despite his first instinct being irritated that the adventurer had abandoned him, he had been about to tell him to get clear of the fight.

The monster was faster than its size indicated.

Hirrus could have gotten away with the use of his various Arcana, but he needed to get answers from the men hiding in the cart.

Running away would gain him nothing.

And he couldn’t deny that he felt the littlest bit of a thrill rising in his heart as the beast’s three maws bared needle teeth at him, hissing its rage at him in a bestial threat. Deep down, he didn’t want to run unless he knew for a fact he’d lose the fight.

He wanted to know.

By standing his ground, was he biting off more than he could chew? Or would he himself prove to be the unchewable bite?

Jaws flashed down at him again, and his blade lashed up into the monster’s chin. The force of his blow snapped the jaws shut and sent them wide, and dealt over two thousand six hundred damage to the monster. He was aware that it was a relatively small chunk of the monster’s hit points - taking it only to 97% with the strike.

The damage didn’t matter, however. Hirrus was more irritated that the attack was neither a critical hit nor a double strike. He had to hope that it was just poor luck, and that beasts of this size weren’t resistant or immune to such attacks.

The next bite from the creature’s leftmost head was slow, and Hirrus easily ducked to the left, letting it pass over his shoulder. His hooked sword whipped straight up into its neck. The strike was a critical hit this time, dealing nearly four thousand damage with the hit. He was glad for it, as that got him his stack of Crushing Blade, which would increase his subsequent damage.

Its rightmost head lunged again, and Hirrus danced back, expecting another bite. Instead, its jaws opened, and a wave of energy washed out of its jaws. Bright orange sand filled the air, slamming into him like a landslide.

Three thousand six hundred damage smashed into his chest, sending him staggering under the assault. Furthermore, a debuff was applied.

The debuff was called Rasp, and in addition to a nominal amount of damage over time, it reduced his Suppleness, which would affect his physical damage. The debuff was not severe enough to affect his tactics, such as they were. His best bet was still to trade blows with the beast until something changed the situation enough to present a better course.

He was grateful, now, for the legendary gloves from one of the officers of Last of the Strong, since it repressed the damage-over-time component. In the spur of the moment, he couldn’t remember exactly who had dropped them.

It wasn’t important, anyway.

They were nothing now. Relics of the past. A story to be told on the road to strangers.

This creature was far more important.

Hirrus stepped forward, his hooked blade biting into the creature’s side. Another critical hit for nearly four thousand damage again, this one cutting another chunk off of its hit points.

Despite Iron Typhoon being active, he still hadn’t gotten a double strike.

Jaws snapped at him again, even though its own attack had shoved him well out of reach. The snapping maw was easily within his reach, though, and his blade crashed against its nose. Another critical hit. He stepped in and whipped the weapon around, its lighter weight letting him hack into its neck before its next attack. This wasn’t a critical hit, only dealing two thousand four hundred damage, but finally he got a double strike, adding another one thousand six hundred to the strike.

The monster let loose another hissing roar, and one of its heads positioned to strike again, but this time he was wise to the trick. This wasn’t another snapping bite, however. It was going to open its mouth and disgorge a blast of something at him again.

Instead of dancing back, he lunged forward and to the side, rolling under the oncoming attack.

A blast of green-blue energy filled the air above him, howling like a hurricane. He came back up onto his feet and smashed the edge of his weapon into the monster’s side, getting another crit and dealing three thousand nine hundred damage, capping out his stacks of Crushing Blade. It was also another double strike, which added another two thousand seven hundred damage.

The monster staggered as its hit points dropped below the two-thirds mark.

There was a pained shriek and Hirrus looked up. The head that had just blasted at him with blue energy hung limp from the creature’s shoulders. Its forked tongue hung down out of its mouth as a gallon of red fluid dropped from its maw, spattering its side and Hirrus' front at the same time.

The middle head reared back in the same motion that had heralded the first two energy blasts. Hirrus didn’t have time to shake any of the red fluid from him. He quickly rolled around the side of it to get clear of the attack, slapping his weapon into its side for another four thousand five hundred damage critical hit.

Instead of blasting energy where he had been, though, a deep rumbling sound grew in its throat.

No energy burst from its maw.

The rumbling slowly traveled down its body and into the ground.

It was like a sudden earthquake that had struck not the ground, but in Hirrus' very skeleton. Eight thousand damage wracked his body, with no obvious way to avoid it. But that wasn’t the worst part, which was quite the accomplishment for having taken more than ten percent of his hit point pool in a single blow.

The worst part was what the attack did to his Arcana.

Suddenly all of the active Arcana effects he had were gone. Going Ape, Pumped Kicks, and Iron Typhoon were instantly removed. Crushing Blade and Rasp remained, but much of the power behind his physical damage was gone now.

A use of Split Second got Hirrus clear of the monster, giving him some distance to re-evaluate the situation. Split Second’s burst of speed got him quite far from the monster’s jaws, but it lunged after him, seeking to close the distance and bring its fangs to bear again.

With his physical buffs removed, Hirrus turned to his other option: damaging arcana. He started by using the distance he’d gained to cast a longer cooldown ability. X’ruhn’s Balance swapped his physical and magical stats - letting him use his larger Burliness and Suppleness stats in place of his Attenuation and Responsiveness. It was one of the longest cast times in his arsenal, and involved him pressing his fists together as a blue glow on his right side and a red glow on his left side changed places.

The monster’s two remaining serpentine heads lashed out at him right as he finished the long cast time, and he managed to duck under the twin bites and roll back and away. It gave him the space to cast two more buffs. In a fraction of a second, Shining Sprocket and Eyes On Me were active, and he was ready to start dishing out some damage.

He slammed his free hand to the ground in front of himself, and cast Oil Sear. The space beneath the monster was filled with sticky black tar, which instantly ignited, dealing three thousand damage to the monster. The Arcana would continue to tick for damage the longer the beast was within it. It would additionally debuff the creature’s speed, taking some of the pressure off of himself.

The arcana damage triggered the effect on his Cosmic Barrette, healing him for two thousand three hundred hit points.

Jaws snapped out for him again, and he found himself letting out a bark of laughter as he ducked aside. The beast was fast even with the Oil Sear effect on, but Hirrus was faster. His reactions were just good enough that at normal movement speed (as he was no longer benefiting from Pumped Kicks boost) that he could dip his body to the right before the jaws could close around his entire head.

He shot a glare into the monster’s beady slit-pupiled eyes, and let loose Melisune’s Eye.

With Eyes On Me active, he didn’t need to meet its eyes, but he felt a little thrill of vindictive joy as the cone of energy blasted into the monster. It dealt over six thousand damage, but he was suddenly aware of a mental notification that the scaly beast was immune to the Petrified condition. The damage was enough for him, though. Along with the additional activation of his Cosmic Barrette’s healing.

The right head reared back, and Hirrus was moving in and to the right before he had even considered that he was reacting to the next breath attack. Anticipating this monster’s moves was becoming second nature in under a minute of the fight’s beginning.

Orange sand filled the air right beside Hirrus, and he took the opportunity to use Mortal Ray. The blast of energy from his eyes smashed into the monster, almost tipping it over with the force of nearly four thousand six hundred damage. Mortal Ray was supposed to have a knockback effect, but the beast’s bulk meant that he’d only given it a big nudge.

He wondered if it was the size of the thing, or if the monster was immune.

Jaws reached for him again, both at once now, angled to try and box him in, but Hirrus had known it was coming. The way its body moved, the way its shoulders coiled, and the way the limp hanging head had shifted and swung, it all told him where and how the attack was coming before it had properly begun. Instead of ducking left or right, he lunged straight forward., letting both jaws snap shut behind him.

Hirrus had plenty of damaging Arcana effects still available to him, but he was running out of the more efficient options. To that end, he used Seeker’s Spike. He slapped his hand to the monster’s leg and affixed a green globe of energy. It would burst in a few seconds, instead of instantly. While he was in close range and physically touching the beast, he also used Slow Toxin, afflicting the monster with a long-duration damage-over-time effect. Both Arcana would apply significant damage, between the two of them, but it would take time for the damage to be delivered.

Less time than Hirrus expected. The rightmost head shuddered, purple foam forming at the corners of its mouth. Its neck spasmed twice, shaking the snakelike head like a ragdoll for a second before hanging limp, splattering blood all over the place again. The monster still had a little more than a third of its hit points remaining - though the Slow Toxin was sapping them away at a visible pace.

Hirrus watched as the middle head rose up again, rumbling.

He knew the attack was coming that would remove all his stat boosts again.

And he still had so long to go before the first round of them were ready again.

The last leg of this fight was going to become very painful very quickly.

There had to be a way to avoid it, right?

Hirrus jumped.

But he didn’t just jump. He used the Jump arcana, flinging himself high into the air.

From up above the beast, he had the perspective he needed to see that the area of the ground that shook was relatively small, in comparison to the monster’s size. He was still up in the air when the attack finished, and he still had all of his stat buffs on him. The monster’s middle head turned upwards, orienting on him. Preparing to strike.

It would catch him as he fell.

He activated Seeker’s Spike.

Activating the Arcana a second time caused him to appear at the monster’s leg without passing through the intervening - and tooth-filled - space. It also caused it to blast the monster with an explosion of just over three thousand eight hundred damage, and gave Hirrus a significant speed boost, which he used to dart back from the monster.

Slowed - and damaged again - by Oil Sear, with its hit points draining away to Slow Toxin, the scaled monster was on its last legs. More literally, it was on its last head as it tried to stagger after Hirrus' retreat.

In response, Hirrus activated Mystic Dexterity. It was an Arcana he’d picked up upon the defeat of Last of the Strong’s officers. It would dramatically increase the cast speed of the next Arcana he used. The officer who had used it had paired it with another specific Arcana - a very inefficient damaging ability from its prohibitively long cast time. By the numbers, pairing it with Mystic Dexterity was just enough to make it not a waste of time.

When Hirrus' hand came down, it launched a spinning disc of energy that shot from his hand to the monster’s chest in the blink of an eye. Over eleven thousand damage crashed into the beast. Under such a devastating assault, it stopped its charge, and staggered, its third head hanging limply for a moment.

Its hit points weren’t empty, but as its chest heaved and the eyes on its one living head rolled about in panic.

Hirrus took the opportunity to cast a second stupidly inefficient arcana at the creature.

An orb of fire crossed the space between them before exploding in the monster’s face for another nine thousand damage.

After that, it was just a fraction of a second before Slow Toxin finished the job.