Ep. 232 The Arena Part 7 (Patreon)

Even as I cut the left head off I am turning my body and as soon as the swing is complete I move as fast as I can toward the right head. The head is already reacting and trying to retreat but I quickly catch up and send it flying as well. I specifically left the middle head for last since it is the one that spits lightning, but as I turn to look it has already risen high into the air.

Ignoring it I move towards the main body, as I do the two headless necks retreat and coil close to the body. I can already see new heads starting to grow, so I hurry and stab my mind blade into one of the cuts I made earlier. I reshape the mind blade to make it longer as I stab it deep into the hydra's body trying to hit something vital.

The remaining head screams as I stab deep into the body and the crowd goes wild. When I withdraw my mind blade from the body it is accompanied by a gush of blood. The blood sprays into my face temporarily blinding me so that I don't see the hydra's tail to dodge it.

Before I can stab into the body a second time the tail hits me like a truck and sends me flying. I fly completely across the arena and slam into the stone wall hard enough to leave a crater. When I fall to the sands of the arena I am accompanied by a rain of chunks of stone.

The breath is knocked out of me and for a few seconds I can't move, if the hydra attacks me right now I am done for. When I manage to make my eyes focus and take a look the hydra hasn't moved. As I finally manage to take a breath and stagger to my feet the hydra still isn't moving, the middle head is just licking the wound in its chest.

That last strike seems to have done something, this is the first time it has paid attention to one of its wounds. The other two heads have almost finished regrowing, my time is running out. At least there is no sign of additional heads growing, and while the heads have been regrowing I've seen no sign of the other wounds healing.

The new heads however look different than they did before I cut them off, they seem more defined. The middle head is still licking the wound I made with my last attack, it is no longer gushing blood. That wound did some damage, I need to do that again, maybe it will bleed out if nothing else.

The middle head doesn't move as I charge in, so to get it out of the way I cut it off. When I cut the middle head off the hydra freezes completely, the other two heads are almost done regrowing so I need to do damage quickly. The blood from the last wound has slowed to a trickle when I slam my mind blade back into it.

I quickly wrench my mind blade back and forth to widen the wound and I am rewarded by blood gushing out once again. This time I was smart enough to turn my head away so I am not blinded by the blood. Twin roars tell me that the left and right heads are done regrowing and it is time to start dodging again.

The regrown heads are much swifter and more accurate in their attacks making me work harder to dodge them. It seems when they regrow they upgrade or something, the necks also seem to be moving faster now than they did before. Meaning if I cut them off again and don't finish the thing then I am going to lose once they regrow again.

Since I am just barely managing to dodge the upgraded heads, if they upgrade again they will be fast enough to hit me. I need to do something before the middle head regrows, as long as the other two heads stay focused on me it will keep bleeding. If I can keep it from healing for long enough then blood loss should kill it.

Of course it isn't that easy, the only way to keep the heads from licking the wound is to keep them attacking me. Now it is a race, will I get exhausted first or will it die from blood loss first. Now I kinda wish I had escaped when I had the chance instead of giving in to my curiosity.

The worst part is I am getting tired and the hydra shows no signs of slowing down despite the fact that it has lost enough blood to turn the sand to mud. The mud is making it so that I have to be very careful of my footing, and almost half the arena is mud now. Getting close to the hydra to hit the main body is also going to be much harder because of the mud.

Step by step I slowly back away, trying to draw the hydra after me and out of the mud so I can get at the main body. That and the more it moves around the more it should bleed, and I need it to bleed. I manage to lure it forward a few steps but then it stops and refuses to move any further.

Blood continues to pour out of its chest yet the hydra still doesn't seem bothered by it and the middle head is almost fully regrown. No more time to worry about it, time to roll the dice! I manage to cut off the left head for the second time but the right head dodges my swing. The head then counterattacks forcing me to dodge, as I dodge I counter and manage to hack it off.

The hydra freezes for a second or two before the middle head finishes regrowing. It hisses at me and the hydra quickly retreats to the far side of the arena. Rather than try to follow it through the mud I jump across the arena to reach it and take a swing at the middle head.

My arrival surprises the middle head and I manage to cut it off before it recovers. Now with all three heads regrowing the body once again freezes, but the heads are growing fast. I have maybe thirty seconds before the left head finishes regrowing, and it looks a lot meaner this time around.