It had taken me an embarrassingly long few seconds to understand what Inertia had meant when she uttered the word Hydra.
Once I did it was rather obvious. The whole reason she had gone immediately for her warform was so we could go hunt down the Hydra. Because doing so would allow me to progress through Hydra-soul.
“Inertia, you didn't have to-”
She cut me off with a single raised finger, one far larger than I was. “War.”
“Right. Fair enough.”
Tracking down the octohydra was disgustingly easy using the Waygate Network. Was pretty sure Ventus would’ve had a fit, if he’d seen how much of his effort I was able to bypass.
The, hopefully, octo-hydra had managed to stay off the radar of most of the Forgeborn, apparently not causing as much destruction to them as it had to Terra Vista’s outlying villages.
I suspected that had something to do with the fact Forgeborn made for remarkably poor eating compared to an elf. Then again it might also just have been feeling rather full after digesting the phase queen, which it had gotten away with more of than I'd realized at the time. We’d only noticed when we’d gone to process the corpse that in addition to the queen’s head, half its thorax was missing.
For hunting the octo-hydra, we didn’t take the Iron Curtain. While I was in the process of adjusting its enchantments to be more offensively focused, it was a tricky thing to do mid-flight.
Instead, we climbed onto Inertia's Warform’s shoulders and rode her into battle.
“A most bracing experience, wouldn’t you agree, master Percival?” Calbern asked as we soared through the air.
“Yep,” I yelled back.
Inertia was fast. Not quite as fast as Bahama, though it felt the oppositie, since unlike Bahama, Inertia didn’t shield us from the wind any more than absolutely necessary. She might’ve been holding back because so that we didn't get swept off.
“I believe we’ve arrived,” Calbern said, inclining his head to the side, Inertia tilting to circle the area.
The Hydra had set up in a former dragon's den.
Not that we realized that at first glance. The ice-covered cave certainly stood out from the surrounding wasteland, but that could’ve had all sorts of causes. It was the half-eaten skull lying outside the cave that gave away the identity of its former occupant.
Even as we circled I could hear the crunching of bone, followed by a loud slurping noise. It seemed we'd caught it in the middle of eating. I guess my original theory about Forgeborn not being particularly tasty was holding up. I just hadn’t considered that dragon was on the menu.
As we watched, I saw a chunk of bone disappear in a flash of blue light.
Seemed it’d been working on its teleportation ability. Which had me thinking back to an earlier conversation with Starbreaker.
“How do you intend to stop it from running? Even I would have a difficult time chasing it, were I bored enough to do so.”
“One, rude,” I said, holding up a finger in his direction. “And two, what do you know about worlds magic, dimensional weight, and moving through the higher dimensions?”
“I know those words, though I don’t understand what they have to do with the keeping the hydra in place.”
“So basically nothing,” I said, shaking my head. “To keep it simple, I’m going to create an enchantment, forcing it to always teleport ‘downhill’. Since we already know the most ‘downhill’ spot in the Forgelands, we just need to herd it that direction, and eventually…”
“So either you defeat it en route, or your traps finish it. Are you not worried about the Waygate’s destruction?”
“That’s the best part. It’s not the gate,” I said, chuckling. That’d been a surprise, but then it wasn’t like the gate had been used often in the last few thousand years. There was a nearby collection of caverns nearby known as a natural hazard.
The Caves of a Thousand Doors. Turned out it’d been the storage system for the Waygate Nexus, which is why the Nexus had so little juice. The caves had cracked open, but they were imbued with enough worlds mana that anyone without a high atunement would have one hell of a time trying to find their way through. Calbern and Starbreaker had tried and I’d had to rescue them.
Twice.
If we made it that far, it’d be down to just me and the hydra. Wasn’t sure if that’s what I wanted.
The components I collected from the phase hawk weren't any use for my ascension but for an array to restrict a hydra’s movements, one delivered by a harpoon sized for Inertia’s war frame…
They turned out to be about half of what I needed. The rest came from Inertia.
All in all, our preperations had taken a day and a half. Most of which I’d spent in my palace iterating on the design or running through our plans. The enchanting work itself had been relatively simple. As I was working on the design, I realized I truly had specialized in worlds, even if only in my expertise.
However, the whole purpose of the hunt was to… well, integrating the octohydra would allow me to continue growing, even in the fields I wasn’t proficient in.
Yet.
I was, as most mages measured things, incredibly young. Even when accounting for my years on Earth. Starbreakers was over four-hundred, a fact I’d only discovered in passing. If this hunt went as well as we were hoping, I’d be nearing his power at… well, there was a reason they’d called Nexxa a prodigy.
The preparations for the final phase of the hunt had made me realize Worlds was the only one I wanted to dedicate myself to. And not simply because I'd put my efforts there, but because it was the one I enjoyed the most. Working with Arcane and Nature and Fire and Ice were all useful but none inspired me. None caught my imagination.
It was humbling to be on the precipice of unlocking the power of a true Arch-Mage and then discovering I didn't want it. Maybe that was the reason why they didn't rush new Mages through Mage-souled to Astral.
Starbreaker flashed forward off of Inertia's shoulder, moving to flank, breaking me out of my thoughts.
At the same moment, Inertia launched the enchanted spear from her Tresla-infused cannon.
It occurred to me now might not be the time for such rambling thoughts, even if I had been waiting for Inertia to be ready. At least I wasn't afraid. I thought after losing two fights to this thing I might've developed fear. Instead I simply had a respect for its tenacity. That was something I could see in myself.
The spear launched by Inertia didn't bother with anything so mundane as a clear line of sight. It made its own line of sight, smashing through the stone surrounding the dragon's den.
To no one’s surprise, except the hydra’s, the spear struck true. The enchantment activated, mana flooding directly into the Hydra's thick hide deep beneath the rubble. As we expected the Hydra immediately retaliated, sending every energy it could into the spear even as it phase-shifted away.
Fueling the enchantment.
Those energies it threw about were put to work, converted into branding the enchantments across its body. I doubted it’d work on most mages, since we all had an understanding of how a grimoire worked. How it required a mage’s personal mana to imbue the spells and enchantments. That there were seemingly beneficial effects they didn’t want.
The enchantment came with a basic understanding that it would allow the hydra to teleport more cheaply, so long as it was moving in a certain direction.
The hydra had none of that knowledge. Instead, it fed the enchantments, and made them their own. Another reason it wouldn’t work as well on a mage. They’d be able to reverse engineer it in a matter of minutes. Besides, if you could hit a mage with a spear carrying an enchantment, there were far more devestating enchantments to deliver.
None of those would work against this particular hydra.
I only hoped this one did.
I didn’t know how long the enchantment would last, but I suspected its regeneration would cause it to fade fast. Even a normal mage could purge a magical tattoo they didn’t want. If Tamrie ever decided to change her mind about children, it’d take her less than a week to purge the anti-pregnancy tattoo.
With our opening move complete, the fight began.
Inertia’s new form immediately proved its worth, her bladed hand removing a head with a single swipe. Which made the hydra much more cautious, no longer throwing its attacks as constantly.
After a second, its seven remaining heads focused on me.
The eyes narrowed, then widened, and, to my surprise, it ran.
Either the hydra didn’t notice the effect of the enchantment or, if it did, it didn’t understand the relevance. It took the fastest, cheapest route away it could, straight towards the trapped caves.
We didn’t let it escape unscathed.
Inertia was able to take off between one and three heads with any swipe of her claw sword that landed. At the rate it regenerated them, it was like chunking away at a health bar.
Other than the initial launch of the spear, the Tresla Cannon wasn’t used. Powerful as it was, we didn't want to risk the octa-Hydra becoming something more by somehow absorbing Tresla's power as well. For the same reason Starbreaker kept to swordplay.
Calbern’s newly empowered blows managed to score the occasional strike that would’ve been devestating on any other target.
The octo-hydra simply shed the head or limb and continued its flight, soon leaving even Inertia’s impressively fast warframe behind.
Yet I continued to harry it, ensuring it felt as though we were always on the edge of catching up.
Then it arrived at the cave of a thousand doors. It didn’t hesitate, plunging into the depths.
I cracked my fingers, a smile tugging at my cheeks. Looked like I was getting a chance to earn my victory afterall.
Probably shouldn’t have been so excited to face a creature as powerful as the octo-hydra in mortal combat. If I’d been facint it directly, I might have been more worried.
Instead, I let the nature of the thousand doored cave do most of the work. None of the waiting traps were complicated. They weren’t even well hidden. Except the hydra was so large it didn’t have much room to maneuver in the rooms where I’d set them up.
In truth, I didn’t do much. I’d occasionally pelt it with low-cost spells and allowed my mana to recharge, letting it run itself deeper and deeper. For a creature that had given us so much trouble, its eventual defeat was closer to a whispered goodbye than a last hurrah.
Even then, as it lay there collapsed, I knew it was just a matter of time. It had depleted most of the traps, and it was still alive.
The worlds head watched me warily as I approached its side. There was an attempt to teleport me, but expecting it, it was easy to use Translocation Matrix to subvert its effort.
Having seemingly used the last of its energy, the head collapsed beside the others.
Which just left me with the grisly task of making sure it didn’t get up.
With a blade forged of the same alloy as the claws of Inertia’s new form, I set to work carving into its hide. The regeneration that had kept it going was still there, though it was considerably slower. By the time I’d carved my way a half-dozen feet deep, I felt the hydra stirring.
It didn’t even seem to notice my intrustion. Or maybe it figured a little puncture wound wasn’t worth worrying about. After it’s earlier rush, it now seemed more cautious. I only felt the tingle of teleportation a half-dozen times before I reached my target.
“Of course it has eight of the damn things,” I grumbled, staring at the cluster of barely visible hearts. Even with enhanced vision, the insides of a hydra were dark. Still not as bad as changing a transmission in the middle of winter in one of my old man’s friend’s backyards. That’d been dark and cold.
Other than the bit of frost the one heart was giving off, it wasn’t too cold inside the hydra.
Just gross.
And now that the regeneration had kicked in again, hard to move about in. I tried not to think about it as I worked to make Vaserra proud.
At least, I liked to think she’d appreciate the effort I was putting into tearing this thing’s hearts out.
The hydra didn’t notice my work, since I was keeping it to enchanting. This was imbued with my magic though, not the hydra’s. Only after I’d layered all eight hearts in runes was I ready. The process had taken over an hour, during which I suspected the others had caught up.
Not that I’d notice, even if they assaulted the hydra.
The enchantments were simple modification of the shape tool spell, engraved into bands of the alloy Inertia gave me. It was a good thing she’d given me plenty to spare.
A quick activation caused the bands to transform into bladed rings, severing every one of the life-giving organs from their system at once.
The hydra definitely noticed that, though it didn’t get time to react before I’d placed them all in storage.
Intuitively, I suspected if I wanted to incorporate the hydra into my own soul I would need all eight hearts to do so.
Might need the heads instead.
The choice could affect who I became. I'd take it back to the Diagnosis Center to be certain.
I suspected that the skulls would increase my destructive capacity and the hearts would increase my ability to regenerate. That was the impression I’d gotten from reading through hundreds of possible ingredients. Honestly considering my preferences, if I was right, the second felt suitable. Though I would check to see if both were possible. It was ok to be a little greedy.
Once it finished thrashing around, which didn’t last long, as the source of its regeneration were indeed the hearts, I cut my way out.
Then I set to the gruesome task of butchering it. No way I was letting any part of such a valuable monster go to waste.
When I emerged from the Caves of a Thousand Doors a few hours later, Starbreaker was perched atop the dragon skull I’d seen earlier.
Calbern and Tresla were waiting nearby, standing in the shade of Inertia’s massive warform.
“If you'd be able to spare the dragon's head, that would go a long way to appeasing my sister’s greed,” Starbreaker said after we were done within the cavern.
I raised an eyebrow at him and looked towards Inertia's massive form then back to him before letting out a shrug. “Sure, why not?”
Speaking of greed, with the hydra dead, our attention turned towards the dragon's hoard. The Iron Curtain was waiting nearby, having not known where to wait for us.
The poor dragon’s hoard was nowhere near as impressive as Bahama’s. In truth the dragon and hydra's bodies were likely worth more than the entirety of the horde.
Even so, it did have a certain splendor to it.
A splendor only slightly marred by the blood. Both from our initial assault and likely the fight over the den. The dragon's ideal collection mostly consisted of shiny coins of the silver and copper varieties. It especially seemed to like rusted oxidized Copper coins.
Despite the splendor, it was worth even less than I’d initially thought. There wasn't a single affinity material buried within nor were there any rare herbs or components that could be used for kinya baths. Not a single tasty spice for Tresla’s collection. Even the metals were basically worthless. There wasn't a single gold coin among them and silver and copper were easily transmutable through magic.
A literal dragon's hoard and I’d been born into the world with more wealth as a neglected son of a Djinn-souled.
Poor dragon indeed.