“Hey, big guy! I thought you already killed this monster on your second labour!” Agave pointed her mace-like thrysus right on Heracle’s head. He was in panic and his legs were shaking.

“No! No! I never! I’m not the real Heracle!!!” He explained, attempting to crawl himself out of the chaos.

“Son of Zeus, do something to save your people!” Agave grabbed the fancy club which was dropped on the floor and put it on Heracle’s hands, then she pushed him towards the Hydra.

“Go Heracle! Go!” She then cheered and the people also started to cheer for him.

Roaring and shaking its long neck, the Hydra noticed the hunky man in front of it. Within a second, the Hydra opened its mouth and headed towards the man..

“Aaargh!!!” He screamed in trauma when the Hydra picked him up by nipping his shoulder and tossed him in the air.

“Chomp! Gulp!” The Hydra catched the falling Heracle with its mouth and swallowed him alive.

“Aaaa! The monster ate him! Heracle was eaten alive! Run!” The people continued their panic mode, while Agave was stunned: “My Dionysus, this lizard sure is hungry!”

The monster then sniffing and searching, noticing its strange behaviour, Agave blew a whistle and shouted “Hey, c’mere! I’m fat and delicious!”

The Hydra took a quick peek at her, but it ignored her and continued to search for something. Its head then suddenly moved towards a cornered crowd with its mouth opened. While the crowd realizing they had been targeted, they scream louder and louder. Pryne jumped out from that crowd and ran with all her strength to get away from the people. The Hydra was looking for her, and tried to capture her with its mouth.

“Dammit! You picky eater!” Agave fired the metal strings from her thyrsus towards the Hydra head. The monster missed Pryne due to the wires strangled on its neck, but those metal wires were unable to cut through its skin. Shaking its head violently, the Hydra threw Agave away. She had to release the thyrsus handle to prevent being tossed to the air.

While the Hydra refocused itself towards Pryne, Matea took the sword from a nearby temple guard and ran towards the dangling thyrsus handle.

“Matea, No!” Arete shouted, knowing what she might do to the monster. With the spear in her hand, she ran towards the Hydra. Matea grabbed the thyrsus and twisted the handle, she learnt that mechanism from Agave, it triggered the wires to retract themselves. Since the end was tangled to the Hydra’s neck, the thyrsus pulled her up instead.

The monster swayed its head again, attempting to toss Matea to the air. But the shortening wires reduced the momentum, tossing her to a shorter distance that gave her an opportunity to land on the back of its head.

“Stop it! Matea! Don’t do it! This is an order!” Arete became anxious. Although she shouted as loud as she could, the area was full of panicking people that screamed for help.

Landing on the Hydra’s neck, Matea stabbed her sword on the neck, wrenching the sword to the side, she cut open the Hydra’s neck and its blood was spilling to the ground like raining. She hit the neck with another blow that fully broke the neck joint and decapitated its head.

“That’s awesome! Mate!” Agave shouted with joy as the Hydra’s head fell to the ground.

“Double trouble ahead, everybody evacuate now before…” Arete started to panic. As according to the legends she learnt, for every head chopped off, the Hydra would regrow two heads.

The wound had stopped bleeding, the Hydra’s neck started to heal itself and formed new scales. Two protrusions formed gradually while its body was still standing. The two Hydra heads grew in seconds, roaring in anger.

Ten years ago, the Year of Claudius, the City-state of Syracuse, under the reign of Lord Amiran.

“In the legend, Heracle defeated the Hydra with the help of Iolaus. This story tells us about the importance of teamwork.” Apollodorus was teaching his students, using a stick and he drew a seven headed Hydra and two stick figures representing Heracle and Iolaus. Arete was among the students, she was confused, and raised her hand.

Apollodorus saw her gesture, and took a big sigh, as he already knew this little girl would interrupt him with strange questions.

“Yes, Lady Arete!”

“Teacher! What if Iolaus is not available?”

A slight smirk appeared on his lips, a good question indeed. It was a great opportunity to deepen the topic.

“Once upon a time, Socrates visited Euthydemus to have a discussion with him. Euthydemus lost his argument to Socrates, but later, his brother, Dionysodorus, came in and helped him out in the debate against Socrates.”

“Soon, Socrates found himself in a situation, where he was trapped into a debate which was designed by the brothers. No matter how he attempts to refute their arguments, the refutation will fail due to the eristic nature of the argument.”

“What’s eristic?” Arete interrupted and asked again. Apollodorus did notice that his younger audiences might not understand what he was trying to explain, thus, he rephrased his reply.

“It is like the Hydra, two arguments will grow after one was refuted.”

“Then why can’t we make them fight each other?” The question made Apollodorus roll his eyes. This little lady sure got lots of strange questions.

“Gabe! Distract the two! Make them bite each other!” Arete instructed.

“Matea, stab only into the eye, deep into its brain! Go right! I’ll take the left!” she added.

“Okie! Let’s do it!” Agave suddenly raised Pryne up and brought her to the other side.

“What… What are you doing?” Pryne shouted in surprise.

“Hey! Lizard! Your delicious dinner is here!” as Avage carried her towards one of the Hydra’s heads, the other head tried to reach them with an opened jaw. While the monster nearly reached them, Agave jumped and caused it to hit the empty ground with its jaw, giving it a concussion. While the head was near to the ground, Matea jumped on top of it and held onto its gills cover.

Agave then brought Pryne close to the neck of that Hydra head, the other head that followed later accidentally bit the neck while attempting to catch them.

Angered by the injury, the left head saw Matea was on top of the right head, the heads started to nip each other. Matea tried to balance and held her position to reach the Hydra’s eyes, while Arete ran to the upper floor through the temple stairway. When she reached the higher level, she jumped off from the balcony, holding on the curtain rope, and swung herself towards the left Hydra head.

Reaching the head, she positioned her spear, stabbing its eye, and using her momentum, she pushed the spear further into the head, until it pierced through its brain. Matea climbed and reached to the eye of the right head and stabbed her sword deep into its eye simultaneously.

Both Hydra heads fell to the ground, sending a tremor that caused the chryselephantine statue of Heracle to crack and then fell on top of the Hydra, crushing the monster.

“Then why can’t we make them fight each other?” The question made Apollodorus roll his eyes. This little lady sure got lots of strange questions.

He turned towards the young girl, and smiled while stroking his long beard and replied.

“Of course, that also explains why we must not go against each other with our allies. Socrates won the argument by making Euthydemus and Dionysodorus go against themselves. To defeat the Hydra, Heracle needs Iolaus. But if Hera made Iolaus go against Heracle, there won’t be any happy ending to this story.”

To be continued…