The first chapter of 2026! It was a little more rushed than I'd like with New Years stuff, so I haven't had a chance to proof it yet. Hope you like it though!
Also, for those interested in the audiobook, Book 5 is scheduled to come out Feb 2026, and Book 6 is looking like a December release date this year too.
Another head fell to the ground, the neck thrashing violently as blood spluttered to the stone ground. Hump was already moving, staff raised, fire swirling from its focus. He unleashed it in a torrent of flames, scorching the writhing stump and charring the flesh black. The cavern filled with the acrid stench of burning scales, the air shaking with the hydra’s piercing scream.
But again… another head lunged forward and tore open the wound. The regeneration wasn’t stopping. Hump gritted his teeth. It wasn’t hot enough.
He poured more essence into his staff, condensing it. It blazed to his spellbook in streaks of fire, the pages gleaming with power. Flames boiled in the crystal, white hot at the core. The runes along the shaft smouldered in his grip, his flame thickening—less like fire, more like lava. Sluggish and heavy with raw power.
“Fire Blast,” Hump barked again.
It was different this time. The blaze erupted, not in a cone, but a great roiling ball that detonated over the wound like tar, igniting in a hellish blaze. The hydra’s scream was different this time. More desperate and filled with visceral essence that Hump felt to his core.
Hump almost cheered, when Nisha’s panicked alert screamed across their bond.
The smoke and flame parted.
A burst of light pierced through through, radiant as the sun in the dark cavern. A sigil glowed on the tallest head—Lady Light. Hump readied a Shield spell on his lips.
On instinct, Hump shielded his eyes just as Celaine’s arrows sang through the air. They must have struck true because the light vanished in an instant and the head shrieked in fury.
Hump peaked out just as four more heads surged like basilisks. They were fast. So fast, even Accelerated Thought barely gave him time to react.
Bud intercepted one with a bellow and a sweeping Frostfire slash. The others didn’t slow down, ignoring Bud. Their eyes only on him.
The flames must have drawn them to him.
Hump threw up a Shield. The first impact sent him flying, boots scraping the stone as he staggered. A crack split his barrier down the centre. Second came at him from the other side, jaws clamping down on his dome barrier. He poured essence into it, its blue colour flaring as power leaked from all directions. Venom and spit sprayed from its gaping jaws, the back of its throat glowing blood red with the power of Byzantius.
There was a crack. Hump felt the shock of essence dragged from him.
His spell wouldn’t last.
“Dimensional Snap!”
With a crack, Hump vanished, reappearing ten paces back as the jaws snapped shut on empty air.
The head froze, confused. Hump didn’t waste the moment. He spun toward the head Bud had chopped off, hurling a blast of fire at the cauterised stump he’d created. The flames crawled up the neck, then another head came from the side.
He twirled his staff, heaving it to the side, Parry Shield flaring to life around its tip as he slammed it into the incoming head. The two connected. He felt himself being pushed back. “Shatter!”
His Parry Shield erupted with essence, detonating right against the hydra’s head. The explosion launched it back, smashing it into the chamber wall with a sickening crack. It slumped to the ground sluggishly, stunned, shaking its head.
Hump was panting now. Everything was blurring. Time pressed on slowly thanks to Accelerated Thought, but his body couldn’t keep up much longer.
“Hump, behind you! Dylan shouted.
Too late.
Hump turned just enout to see flame ignite in his periphery. He braced for the heat, wondering if his robes and charms would hold against this kind of heat. Then something slammed into his ribs and he went spinning. He hit the ground hard, rolling with the impact. Half a heartbeat later and the breathlessness and pain didn’t hit him. There was no fire. No broken bones.
His stomach sank.
“Celaine?” he gasped.
She was already dragging herself up from the ground nearby, one leg smouldering, her trousers signed and blackened but not consumed.
“You okay?” he shouted.
“I’m good,” she said. Though the way she avoided any weight on her leg told another story.
“Dylan!” Hump shouted. “Celaine’s hurt.”
Dylan shifted forms mid-spring, the Aspect of the Ape taking over. He leapt through the battlefield, launching off his quarterstaff and dodging a snapping head to reach Celaine’s side. His vines still grappled with another head, though they didn’t last long.
Hump moved to cover them, Shield already in position. “Sorry.”
“Not you’re fault you’re slow,” Celaine said, grinning through the pain.
“It’s not serious,” Dylan said. “Keep fighting. We’re wearing it down.”
Hump nodded, guilt gnawing at him, but he shoved it aside. Bud was already moving onto the next. Time passed in a blur, slowed thanks to Accelerated Thought. Two more heads fell the knight’s onslaught, Emilia providing support.
As the heads fell, Bud roared. “Burn it!”
Hump let the Shield drop and rushed forward, levelling his staff toward the severed neck, fire already bubbling from his staff. The wound crackled beneath the heat, blood stopped flowing, and as the flames cleared a black crust had formed.
Five heads remained.
Minutes passed. The hydra fought back with frenzied desperation, tearing at its own wounds with claws, teeth, and magic to reopen the cauterised flesh. But it was tiring. It had stood guard for a millennium, and it showed now. Hump could sense its strength waning. It was becoming more sluggish, its essence use slow.
They were overwhelming it.
Bud launched himself into the air, Wings of the Frostfire Phoenix unfurling behind him. He came down hard on another neck, cleaving it in a single strike. Still in midair, he drove his blade into the wound. Frostfire surged. Ice exploded from within, crystallising the creature’s flesh in jagged, gleaming shards.
The remaining heads shrieked. A blinding light burst from the central head once more, but this time Celaine’s shadows swelled in response, cloaking the area in darkness as she and Dylan returned to the fray. But the burst had done its damage. One of the heads lunged and snatched Dylan by the ankle, hoisting him into the air.
“Dylan!” Bud shouted.
The druid didn’t panic. His wooden prosthetic burst with green essence, fingers erupting into vines. They snapped out, coiling tight around the hydra’s neck. With a twist and a snarl, it flung him upward. The druid spun through the air, quarterstaff held overhead. Growth made its size thicken into a massive tree-trunk of wood. He slammed down with it, the cavern quaking from the impact. Flesh caved. Bone shattered. Another head hit the ground, twitching beside Hump.
Its eye, level with him, glowed silver with the essence of Imira.
Too big for fire, and too close, Hump raised his staff, bronze essence churning in its focus. “Titan’s Wrath.”
A spike of black obsidian formed before his staff, radiant with bronze light. He shot it forward, piercing the eye and burying it deep.
The silver light went out.
The head went still.
Hump didn’t lower his staff, keeping it trained on the creature in case regeneration kicked in again with fire to cauterise the wound. But it didn’t.
“Its regeneration is slowing down!” Hump called.
Only three heads remained, and the creature knew it. The hydra readed back, its movements erratic now. Panicked. No more fury. Just fear. But there was nowhere to go. Its tail slammed against the rear of the cavern, legs chained, body emaciated and trembling from exhaustion.
Essence built in its throats, fire and light coalescing once more.
“Emilia, left!” Dylan shouted.
Briar Cage erupted around the left head and neck, thorns the size of tree limbs choking the creature’s flame. Emilia used the vines to climb through the chamber, rapier flashing in a blur of red light. The head dropped moments later, cleanly severed.
The other two reacted, one unleashing a beam of gold, the other scarlet fire. Hump threw up a Shield around them all. The attacks colleded with his barrier, heat searing, light blinding, piercing Celaine’s shadows. Nishari clung to his side, wings shielding her eyes.
The moment the flames died, the last two heads came at him together.
There was a boom as they slammed into Bud’s Aegist of Sanctuary. Ice cracked but held, protecting them with a wall of smooth frost. The response was swift. Emilia leapt atop the central head from the left, blade flashing. Bud launched himself up on his wings and a blaze of Frostfire. In perfect tandom, they struck down the two final heads, sending them crashing to the ground in a fountain of blood.
Hump sensed the essence leave the hydra. Its power had faded. The light in its sigils were gone, as all heads dropped, its necks twitching but losing their vigor. It was over, but he took no chances.
“Nisha, burn them.”
The dragon surged forward, excited to help, breathing fire onto one of the severed necks. Hump turned to the other, flame already bubbling from his staff. Together, the scorched the wounds black, while Bud froze over the last.
Silence fell.
Hump dropped Accelerated Thought. His mind throbbed from the strain, sweat pouring down his face, while a deep cold rose from his core, spreading through his body. He turned slowly, checking the others. Burns marred their clothes, but Dylan’s healing had healed them quickly, while Bud’s blessings had shielded them from the worst of the heat.
“The spectres,” Emilia said in rush.
“Holding back,” Celaine said. “Something is keeping them from here.”
Hump gazed up the hole they’d come through. Spectres filled it, staring down at them, their faces unreadable. He leaned heavily on his staff. “That’s right. You all stay right up there.”
“We killed a hydra,” Bud said with a sudden laugh, clapping his hands together.
Hump stared at the corpse of the great beast. “We sure did.”
“I’m not sure it counts as a good kill,” Celaine said. “That thing was chained up and trapped down here.”
“It definitely counts,” Bud said. “Do you think that’s it?”
“There better not be any more guardians,” Dylan said, massaging his ankle.
“I can’t believe you still have an ankle,” Emilia said. “Your foot must have slotted right between its teeth or something to drag you up into the air like that.”
Dylan chuckled nervously. “I’ve lost enough limbs for now I think.”
Hump stumbled over to Celaine, who was on one knee, inspecting her leg. He winced as she peeled back her trousers to reveal red, blistered flesh. “Are you alright?”
“I’ve had worse,” Celaine said.
Nisha approached her, whining quietly. The dragon pressed her head to Celaine’s side, and Hump could feel her worry and desire to act.
“Do you think you can help me?” Celaine asked. “Like you did with Dylan?”
Hump imparted the meaning through their bond too, watching as Nisha tilted her head. He could sense her understanding. She wanted to help. The gold flakes on the tips of her scales shimmered. Essence built. She opened her jaws and as if on a whisper, a gentle flame escaped her mouth, bathing Celaine’s leg. In moments, the blisters faded until all that remained was red flesh.
Nisha’s fire stopped, and the dragon slumped against Celaine, tired, but happy. Her tail whipping back and forth. Celaine laughed, hugging the dragon to her. “Thank you.”
“I want to keep moving,” Emilia said, still watching the spectres above. “It may not be long before they decide to come down here after us.”
All of them turned toward the great door on the other side of the chamber. Made of solid metal, it towered four times as tall as Bud. Runes marred its surface. Some large, but many so small and intricate that it reminded Hump of altari runecraft.
Loften had said he would need the Book of Infinite Pages to breach his prison. Now he supposed it was time to find out if it would be enough.