It took Barton’s group a little over a day to reach the eastern border of Leferon including a stop to eat and rest. When they reached the village where the hydra had last been spotted, they dismissed their contract beasts and went to the mayor’s house to question him about the hydra. Apparently, it had appeared from the Great Forest and attacked a group of traveling merchants and had even eaten several before the survivors were able to escape.

Currently, the group were in searching around the trails of the Great Forest. However, their search had been fruitless so far. After all, the Great Forest was one of the natural barriers that protected Leferon from invaders and the trees of the forest grew tall and dense.

Dulhan let out a relieved sigh. “Looks like we’re lucky. According to the townspeople the hydra only has four heads. That means that it hasn’t reached maturity yet. I doubt we’d be able to deal with it if it had six or more heads.”

Hydras reached maturity when they gained six heads. In order to face a six headed hydra, at least 250 soldiers would be needed. However, an immature hydra would generally require no more than 100 soldiers to kill.

Medony slapped Dulhan in the back hard. “Come on, what are you so happy about? A mature hydra would have been a great challenge. An immature hydra can’t even spit acid yet and I’ve heard stories of hydras with 11 or 12 heads. Oh what I would give to witness one of those battles. Well I guess we’ll have to settle on an immature hydra for today though.”

“I would really appreciate it if you stopped slapping me with so much force. You should really learn to watch your strength. After all you’ll have trouble finding a husband if you smack him around like a gorilla all the time.”

“Who are you calling gorilla? Besides I’ll probably find a lover sooner than you. After all, who would take a lazy bum like you as a husband?”

“Just because I don’t want to spend every free moment working out doesn't mean I’m lazy. In fact-”

“If the old married couple are done bickering, we should really be focusing on finding the damn thing. According to the mayor, the hydra attacked those merchants somewhere around here.”

““Who the hell are you calling married!!!””

Although he really did want them to focus on finding the hydra as soon as possible, Barton also enjoyed teasing the two of them from time to time about their relationship. After all, they had grown up together and although they had arguments every other day, Barton knew Dulhan and Medony cared about each other deeply even if neither noticed. Or maybe they just didn’t want to admit it. Barton didn’t know for sure but he decided to just stick with the occasional teasing and let them figure it out on their own.

The two continued bickering as they went deeper into the forest. Suddenly, Dulhan stopped talking. “Shhh! Did you guys feel that?”

The ground had just started to tremble as if an earthquake had occurred. In the distance, the trio heard a roar followed by the sound birds taking flight and forest animals fleeing. The source of the roar was coming from a clearing in the forest about a kilometer away. Barton stared at the towering black monstrous creature in the distance.

“Well, pretty sure we’ve found the hydra.”

***

When they reached the clearing where the hydra was located, they found it greedily devouring a group of recently slaughtered deer. From its heads to its tail, the hydra was around 30 meters long. It’s black scaled body was covered in the blood of its prey and it’s red eyes had a hint of madness as it greedily consumed the deer.

“Wait looks like the information was inaccurate. It’s got five heads.”

“So it was able to grow a new head in the time it took us to get here. There’s still not much difference between a five headed hydra and a four headed one. Let’s go!” Medony was the first to attack, equipping her axe and armor by pressing her Class Crystal on her wrist. She used strengthening magic to enhance her body and shot at the hydra leaving behind a sonic boom. Berserkers possess herculean strength that easily surpassed reason and this included Medony. A red aura surrounded her as she made her first strike. Although she hit the hydra in the leg, its scales were harder than she expected so the wound she inflicted wasn’t very deep. However, the wound still hurt the hydra and it let out an anguished screech.

Dulhan and Barton followed soon after, activating their Class Crystals as well to fight the hydra. “Mana of fire, wreath my blade in flames and burn my enemies! Burning Strike!” Dulhan jumped into the air and channeled mana through his spear. The spear started to glow with a fiery aura Dulhan quickly stabbed at hydra’s eyes. With a cold look in his eyes and mercilessly striking with his spear, Dulhan looked like an uncaring war god in his shiny black armor. Blood started spurting out of the wounded eye and the hydra started flailing around.

Of the trio, Dulhan was the only one who consistently chanted to use magic. Medony usually lacked the patience to chant in a fight while Barton prefered to keep enemies guessing whether he was using magic or not so he rarely bothered with chanting. Although the chants were not necessary to use magic as long as the caster knew the spell, verbally chanting would increase the power of a spell by around 50%.

Meanwhile, Barton charged his sword with mana to strengthen its cutting power and slashed at its relatively unprotected underbelly. After that, he raised his sword and dozens of swords of various different elements started to shoot at the hydra.

Magic Constructs were the special bloodline ability of the Leferonian Royal Family. Using it, one could make magical objects with different properties such as elemental swords and barriers. After being made, they would last around an hour before fading away unless it had a constant stream of mana. This versatile ability was the main reason Leferon’s first king was able to found the kingdom a thousand years ago. By mass producing magical weapons and armor to his troops and having them provide the mana to keep it from fading themselves, his army outclassed any other army at the time. In fact, the Magical Constructs that Barton could make were still a bit superior to the weapons current footsoldiers generally used.

Although Barton had caused the swords to explode on impact, the hydra’s scales were too hard for them to do any major damage. However, it was still sufficient in drawing its attention away from Dulhan who continued to attack its eyes.

Feeling threatened, the hydra tried to run but it suddenly fell down. “Looks like I just needed a bit more power to cut through those scales.” Next to Medony was one of the hydra’s severed legs. “Sorry but we’re not letting you loose so you can eat more citizens.”

As Barton and Medony continued to strike the hydra’s body, Dulhan used his great speed and reflexes to dodge any attack the hydra tried while blinding each of its heads. Dragoons specialize in swift and sharp stabs as well as having a great emphasis agility and accuracy and Dulhan was no different. After about 15 minutes of fighting, he had succeeded in blinding all of the hydra’s heads.

“Let’s finish it off! Barton, tie it down!” Dulhan’s spear started to glow with white flames.

A hydra’s major organs are located in its heads. As a result, the only way to make sure a hydra dies is to cut off all its head and cauterize the wounds. Otherwise, it would eventually regrow its heads.

“Alright!” Barton planted his sword into the ground and clasped his hands together. Chains of light appeared behind him and started to entangle the hydra. This was Barton’s Divine Bindings, the most powerful chains he could make with his ability. Furthermore, it had strong sealing properties that weakened the hydra further. After that, he redrew his sword and started channeling fire mana into the blade.

“Don’t forget about me!” Medony’s entire body started to glow golden and she had a bloodthirsty grin plastered on her face. At the same time, her axe was glowing with a red hot glow.

“Oh holy flames, burn white and true to smite my enemies! Holy White Spear!”

“Spirits of violence, imbue my blade with the flames of war! Berserker Slash!”

Perfectly in sync, Dulhan and Medony lept into the air and beheaded two heads of the hydra each. At the same time, Barton slashed the air sending a wave of fire energy to decapitate the final head.