“Oh Shit!!”

………

The dual colored 15ft monster was charging right for us, and my battle-plan was at best stall and try not to die while running away somehow. I’m aware it wasn’t the best of plans, but to be fair I spent most of my original planning time throwing myself on a cross for Alexis who decided to stay around.

I can’t be upset about it though, she decided to stay around even knowing she might die. But now we’re stuck with a charging monster angry about someone daring to take her egg, and she was rapidly approaching.

“Alright, you go left and I go right. We’ll have to send out Jareth and Hemlock if we want to stall it for any amount of time to come up with a plan. Tell Hemlock to focus on ranged attacks, and use Musashi to move away from any of its’ attacks. Save your dodging skills for when you really need them.” (Thomas)

As I was telling her this, I was also informing Jareth through our bond to go up and protect Hemlock from being focused on. I also had him leave his normal weapon since it would scratch the thick hide of the dragon-kin at best.

I was banking on the gravity hammer being able to do some actual damage, speaking of, the only areas really vulnerable to attack were its’ legs since the rest of the body was tall enough to make attacks awkward at best.

We split up after I finished, with Alexis riding Musashi and myself on the back of Jotun. I veered right where the fire element head was at and had my frost wyrm take some distance so we could hopefully dodge any projectiles.

Alexis was on the left where the ice elemental head was at, and she decided to reach even further since Musashi had no ranged attacks at this moment. I hoped by splitting the monster's attention in two directions we would be able to handle it better.

“Jareth and Hemlock, focus on the knees of the legs. If we take at least one out we can outrun the monster.” (Thomas)

It seems like my comment was unnecessary since Alexis had the same thought as myself judging by how Hemlock was already darting in towards the bydra to take some quick swipes while doing her best to dodge the long whip-like tail that the monster was using to attack within close range.

The tail was too fast for the poison drake to dodge, and instead, Jareth was able to ward off the attack by hitting the near end of the tail with his extended hammer. It was a close call, and only his longer limbs and even longer reach of the hammer let Jareth get in front of the speedy limb.

I didn’t see the bydra using its’ claws or legs to attack aside from moving around slightly while facing the two tier 4 summons. It seems like the bulkier body of the monster was preventing it from using any claws to attack since it would destabilize the bulky body.

The monster was staying still for the most part after its’ charge petered out from our group separating and leaving it confused on which direction to head towards. It also seemed like staying still was a fairly common tactic for the monster as it immediately switched to ranged attacks and began spewing out waves of frost and flame towards Alexis and me.

We managed to get out of the way in time, but we could definitely feel the sharp temperature drop from the breath attacks. I was even more terrified after seeing the trail of flame remaining on the ground as if someone had sprayed the ground with a flamethrower in a straight line.

Any vegetation was now ash, and the even scarier part was how the flames remained for a while after. Getting hit by this attack would leave you drenched in flames that would continue to burn and cause damage until it was put out or wiped off. That of course relied on you still being able to think properly while burning alive.

The two close-ranged summons working on the legs of the monster were doing their best to at least inflict some damage. Unfortunately for us, Hemlock’s main attack being poison was unable to really affect the bydra as her attacks wouldn’t make it through the skin.

It seemed like the surface exposure to the poison wasn’t doing much either. Usually, at least some poison would be absorbed through the skin, but the hide was so thick and dense that barely any was able to pass through.

Seeing that if nothing changed soon we would get wiped out, I decided to redirect the tier 4 summons’ focus by shouting out, “Jareth try and make a wound for Hemlock to shoot poison into, quick!”

He seemed to have heard me as he was focused on making cuts on the surface of the skin than doing some deep damage to the muscles and bone. After a few quick swipes, a forearm sized diagonally downward gash was made in the front left leg of the monster right above the knee.

This effort was made at the cost of Jareth being brutally smashed with the whipping tail and sent shooting back into a large tree, which now had a Jareth sized indentation into one of the larger trees to the side of the clearing.

Even I was shocked at just how much power was packed into the attack, it seemed like the bydra mother was extremely pissed off. Luckily, Hemlock managed to take advantage of the opportunity given to launch a large lance-like stream of poison into the wound with unnerving accuracy.

It seemed like the pseudo-tier 5 felt the burning of the poison in its’ body as it ceased the breath attacks towards Alexis and myself, and aimed both right towards Hemlock. She didn’t even have a chance to run or dodge before the beams of fire and ice blared right towards the purple drake.

None of us had any time to react before a giant explosion went off and left in the spot where Hemlock had stood was a crater of molten and frozen mud and rocks. I was left in shock that in one moment one of our strongest summons was vanquished in the blink of an eye.

“Oh come on, it’s not enough that the giant two-headed dragon can breathe fire and ice, but the attacks together create giant explosions that can kill a drake in one hit.” (Thomas)

“Hemlock!! Dammit, if I could kill this bydra I would.” (Alexis)

“That’s kinda the problem Alexis.” (Thomas)

“Not the time Tommy. Oh, and I’m so kicking your ass for this later.” (Alexis)

I decided the best course of action would be to shut my mouth and focus on the giant killer monster. Jareth had recovered from the blow into the tree, but was knocked right back down again from the aftershock of the blast.

Deciding to go for broke while we were behind I shouted over to Jareth who was charging forward again towards the slightly injured and now poisoned left front leg, “Jareth, use your rage skill and try to stay focused on injuring that leg if you can. Remember, we’re relying on you to keep the hydra from killing us all.”

His skin quickly began to flush red and veins and muscles began to bulge out visibly from his skin. With a giant roar, the multi-armed platinum ogre rushed towards the destructive beast currently endangering our lives.

He sprinted with gravity hammer in hand and used all of his forward momentum combined with a spin to further build up force and activated the hammer at just the right moment for maximum damage right where he had previously damaged the bydra.

The wound had turned a sickly purple/black hue and seemed to be spreading in thick black web-like veins up the leg. Hemlock’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain as the condition of the beast seemed to deteriorate from the poison. It was noticeably more still and the wound itself seemed to be growing larger with pus forming in pustule clusters along the vein lines and blood flowed freely.

It seems like the poison Hemlock had used was a combination of anticoagulant and plague characteristics, which for a beast of this size was the best tool for the job. It was too large for a paralytic to be effective, and anything attacking nerves would be next to useless as the monster didn’t move much, to begin with.

The bydra was practically a living tank with a deadly set of projectile weapons, but with the foothold of damage we had carved out through sacrifice we now had a better chance at surviving this encounter.

The anticoagulant would help remove some of its’ health and stamina, although it would take far too long and much more poison in order to bring down the monster. The plague element would allow for more damage to be added to the wound by weakening its’ defense and rendering it less mobile by inadvertently disrupting the nerve signals and weakening the muscles in the leg.

Neither Alexis or myself remained idle while Jareth charged almost suicidally at the monster, I had Jotun fire a large ice-ball to fire at the fire breathing head. Alexis was proactive as well and brought out Holly her harpy to shoot feather projectiles at the ice breathing head in order to distract it, she was too weak to actually do any damage, but she would work just fine as a distraction.

With both heads occupied and fortified by his rage skill, Jareth brought the hammer down on the knee of the draconic enemy and at the moment of contact the bone broke and the skin was ruptured after being violently struck after being weakened by the poison.

The furious mother became even more enraged after having been played and damaged so badly, she completely disregarded the nearly powerless summons distracting it, and brought her heads around for another devastating explosion beam.

I was powerless to stop the attack, and Jareth at this point had lost what little rationality he had ass the rage consumed his mind. He continued attacking and threw in two more blows before the beams were shot out directly at him.

Apparently the bydra was unconcerned with Jareth being so close to her at this point and let loose with dual beams that at the point of contact with each other exploded right in front of my first and strongest summon.

I knew that this would be our only chance to escape the wrath of the wronged mother and yelled at Alexis on the other side of the clearing, “Run away now and don’t look back, I’ll be right behind you and meet up with you at the gate”.

She looked conflicted at my words, but after a second of internal debate decided to heed my words and rode off as fast as Musashi could take her from the battle zone while unsummoning Holly so she didn’t unnecessarily lose any more summons.

I wanted to do the same, but needed to know whether Jareth had survived the blast. I wouldn’t abandon him to face certain death if I could help it, especially since my objective of limiting the monster’s mobility was completed with that initial strike of Jareth’s on the knee.

Luckily even the bydra couldn’t unleash these dangerous attacks on a whim and some time was required in between blasts, this allowed me to wait around on the edge of the marsh by the pond in the clearing with Jotun ready to run away.

After the dust cleared, I was shocked to see that my faithful summon had managed to survive the blast, although his body was riddled with horrible wounds and looked like he would die from a minor strike. He was covered in blood and dirt, and had a multitude of burns, frostbitten skin, and ruptures from the violent explosion.

Despite my gratefulness for Jareth not having perished as a result of the defense buff from his rage skill and naturally tough skin, I was a bit saddened by the loss of the gravity hammer Jareth had on him. It was an incredible weapon, but was now laying on the ground smashed into pieces from the explosion. Judging by the state of the weapon, I would say that the reason Jareth survived was that he used the hammer to intercept the explosive attack and allow for more room between him and the blast.

The dual-headed dragon-kin was just as shocked and likely the opposite of relieved at seeing Jareth remaining, albeit on the ground and riddled with a myriad of injuries all over his body. Intent on finishing the incapacitated ogre off, the bydra brought back its’ tail and swiftly brought it down to smash into the immobile summon.

Knowing that if I didn’t act Jareth would certainly die from this next blow, I remotely unsummoned him just in time for the tail to pass and smash through where he had previously lain. With my brave summon safe within my storage, I had Jotun hightail it out of the clearing as fast as possible with directions to head to the gate to meet up with Alexis.

I felt elated to know that we hadn’t been dealt any irreversible damage from this dangerous encounter, although Hemlock did die during the fight. Luckily, she was a summon and could be brought back at the expense of any experience gathered since she had last evolved or in this case since she had become a summon.

I would really have to make it up to Alexis for not only bringing her into such a dangerous situation due to my greed, but for allowing one of her summons to sacrifice herself in order to allow us to escape. I would get a nice little gift for Hemlock as well, since it was my mistake that let her die, this would also serve to lessen Alexis’ ire at me.

I didn’t really have any money on me at this point since the last auction had left me nearly penniless, so I guess gifting the egg we had gained from this dangerous venture to Alexis would smooth things over between us. Not to mention that I probably would have given it to her anyway since she needed more summons and especially ones that would be effective at a range.

I heavily considered just giving the egg to Mira to keep her safe, but after seeing what the egg actually contained it would be a waste to give it to her. Don’t get me wrong, I want her to have the strongest summons possible to keep her safe, but such a potentially powerful summon would be underused if she was given it.

Whereas Alexis would add another powerful fighter to her roster, which would, in turn, benefit me since we fought together and were partners. Her strength was mine, and mine was hers so long as we remained partners.

There wasn’t really a way to justify not giving the egg to her as much as it saddened me to give it to someone else, but I had learned my lesson for now and wouldn’t let my greed control me. These idle thoughts were cut off as I heard a rushing sound coming rapidly nearer and nearer to my location.

I turned around to see what could be making that noise and saw a blur of blue and red blaring directly towards us. It seems like the mother bydra didn’t give up just yet on killing the thieves of her sole egg and blew another combined explosive beam towards me in retaliation. She couldn’t chase us after were rendered her nearly immobile, but it seemed that she wasn’t out of the fight yet.

I noticed that the beam was shot quite a bit sooner than the usual time in between explosive blasts, and the color and size of the projectile was smaller than the previous ones. This was all the time allotted for me to think as the beam of doom rushed imminently closer.

With all synapses firing in my head I simultaneously activated the energy shield within my newly acquired necklace while also short-range teleporting myself and Jotun a few feet to the left of the blast. I could only pray that this would be enough to at least save our lives if not protect us completely, although I wasn’t really holding out too much hope on coming out of this with no damage.

Milliseconds pass and finally the beam sets off an explosion of bright light and a large concussive blast. I register the feeling of pain all over my body and shortly after darkness creeps into my vision as I fall unconscious. My last thought is that I hope Jotun is at least conscious enough to get us out of here rather than fall prey to any predators nearby that might be drawn to the sound of the blast.

Finally, my thoughts cease as I lay on the ground while still remaining in contact with Jotun whose scales I feel underneath my right hand.