The Hydra's outer right head withdrew as its right head curved and followed after Izroth!
'First Baneful Sword: Destruction Point.'
Right as the Hydra's right head closed in, the energy around Izroth's Sword of The Storm surged as he infused his Essence into the skill.
Zeeeut!
Izroth used Primed Instantaneous Movement to dodge the Hydra's attack and reappeared at the back of the right head.
Wooosh!
Izroth swept his Sword of The Storm downward as a great force erupted from its blade. And, when it connected with the Hydra's heavy-plated scales, the Sword of The Storm effortlessly sliced through—as if the Hydra's scales were made out of tofu.
«Critical Hit»
-83,002
Skill Name: First Baneful Sword: Destruction Point[Fusion*]
Skill Creator: Izroth
Skill Level: MAXED
Skill Rank: S
Active: Deals 600% of the user's attack as physical damage. This skill has a very high chance of causing the «Fear» effect on its target. Damage from this skill ignores all shields and defenses. This skill cannot be «Blocked». This skill can be used without a sword. This skill shares a cooldown with «First Baneful Sword: Destruction». If this skill kills its target, the skill «First Baneful Sword: Destruction» can be used again within 10 seconds, ignoring its cooldown. The cooldown to this skill is not reset when «First Baneful Sword: Destruction» resets.
Special Note: A fusion of the skills «First Baneful Sword: Destruction» and «Fissuring Point».
Cooldown: 6 minutes
〈Battle Alert: «The Immortal Hydra: Right Head» has been severed!〉
In a flash, the HP of the Hydra's right head dropped to zero. However, the cooldown for Izroth's First Baneful Sword: Destruction remained unchanged.
'It didn't reset, after all. I figured it would be this way, but it's still somewhat disappointing.'
Izroth was hoping that the skill reset upon kill would work on each of the Hydra's individual heads. However, the system registered the Hydra heads as a single entity. In other words, even after successfully chopping off one of them, it would not count as an actual kill!
'I guess that throws my other plan out the window as well. Then, we'll just have to do this the difficult way.'
There was another reason why Izroth used First Baneful Sword: Destruction Point to test whether or not the skill would reset after severing one of the creature's heads.
Although the skill had an activation cost of 40% of Izroth's max HP, with his lifesteal and the skill's ability to deal 5,000% of his attack as damage when it reached maxed stacks, he would immediately heal back any of his lost HP.
Of course, the biggest benefit was that Izroth could do it as many times as he wanted since Ruthless Slaughterer had no cooldown!
Unfortunately, the situation turned out different than what initially Izroth hoped. But, that did not mean he was out of ideas just yet.
The Hydra's right head lost the green glow in its eyes as it descended to the ground. However, before the severed head could even reach the earth, the flesh around the headless neck started to boil.
BANG! Phtttk!
Grrrraawrrrr! Grrrraawrrrr!
The instant the lifeless right head smashed into the land, two new heads emerged at the area it had been cut.
"Damn, and here I was hoping that part of it was sealed..!" Colorful Nimbus g.r.o.a.n.e.d.
For Colorful Nimbus, more heads meant more potential damage output, which would undoubtedly place a strain on him as the party's healer.
"This smell…" Sacred Blade frowned as he furrowed his brows and covered his nose with the back of his hand.
Sacred Blade was the closest one to the Hydra's right head when it landed and was immediately hit by an unbearable stench that filled his nostrils.
And, even after covering his nose and lowering his smell sensitivity to the lowest possible setting, it did not get any better!
〈Battle Alert: Player Sacred Blade has inhaled «Blood of the Immortal Hydra»! You will lose 1% of your HP every second for 5 minutes.〉
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Sacred Blade quickly retreated further away from the Hydra's fallen head; however, the damage had already been done.
"Just the smell of its blood alone is making me lose HP?" Sacred Blade internalized.
Since it was 1%, Sacred Blade's in-battle HP regeneration could offset most of it. But, in a fight where every point of HP was precious, it did not bode well.
"Careful! If you inhale the Hydra's blood, you'll receive a DOT effect!" Sacred Blade warned everyone.
As if they didn't already have enough troubles! Now, they had to worry about when and where they breathed?!
However, unfortunately for the party, the impact of the Hydra's fallen head did not end there.
The lifeless head dissolved, only leaving behind a pool of its putrid blood and twelve teeth.
That's when something bizarre happened. The teeth sunk into the hard ground as if the land where it sat had been turned into quicksand.
After a couple of breaths of time passed, miniature fissures started to appear in several areas throughout the battlefield.
In total, twelve fissures developed, one of which formed right next to Gram!
Crrrrck!
"?!" Gram heard a strange sound at his foot and felt the ground shift slightly. But, just as he got ready to move out of the way, a hand of bones arose from the earth and grabbed ahold of his ankle.
Gram went for the mace at his side and swung down with all his might.
Bang!
A few seconds after he did so, the shattered fragments gathered and reformed into a boney hand as a skeletal warrior with glowing green eyes pulled itself out of the earth.
"Where did these things come from?!" Colorful Nimbus exclaimed as he had to fend off a strike from a skeletal warrior that came from out of nowhere.
The sound of rattling bones could be heard as twelve skeletal warriors wielding small shields and swords arrived on the battlefield from the fissures.
Name: Children of the Hydra's Teeth
Class: Minion
HP: [100%]
"Sacred Blade!" Niflheim activated Guardian's Field, causing every skeletal warrior to set their sights on him.
"Already on it!" Sacred Blade called out as an abundance of mystical energy acc.u.mulated within his blade.
The skeletal warriors started to converge on Niflheim's location as they crowded together.
When the last skeletal warrior fell into place, several silver chains with a faint trace of holy aura in them coiled around the creatures.
"Holy Chains of Restraint." Gram clapped his hands together as the chains tightened and dragged the skeletal warriors into a perfect bundle.
"Nice, Gram!" Sacred Blade said as he raced into position. Gram saved him a lot of time and effort by grouping them together.
"Flowing Mystic Wave!" Sacred Blade swung the mystic blade in his hands as a high-pitched frequency noise followed by a violet wave of mystical energy rushed out from the blade!
Skeeeeeech!
Suddenly, Sacred Blade was encompassed in a red aura just as the violet wave shot forward.
〈Battle Alert: You have been affected by the skill «Mass Destructive Tendencies». Your next AOE skill will deal 25% increased damage per target struck.〉
For someone like Sacred Blade with a class whose primary focus was AOE, Gram's buff was like giving wings to a tiger! And, as a result, the power of Sacred Blade's Flowing Mystic Wave rose threefold!
Swoosh!
The violet wave of energy swept over the Children of the Hydra's Teeth. Then, in one clean stroke, all twelve of the skeletal warriors were beheaded!
The headless bodies of the skeletal warriors rattled before collapsing into a pile of bones and ultimately turning to ashes.
Meanwhile, in the air, right after the Children of the Hydra's Teeth were eliminated, Izroth's and Morrighan's attacks bounced right off the Hydra.
«Immune»
«Immune»
Morrighan narrowed her eyes as she stood in mid-air. She sensed a strange change in the flow of mana around the Hydra's outer heads.
'Hm?'
Izroth also observed the sudden change with his Energy Vision Sense; however, his Sky Steps ended, and he had to return to the ground after launching his last attack.
'What is it up to?'
All of a sudden, the eyes of the Hydra's outer left and outer right heads turned purple as they straightened themselves out. The next moment, the outer heads opened their mouths as a dark smog began to develop inside.
When Niflheim witnessed the Hydra's behavior, he recognized it as the prelude to one of the most unforgiving AOE skills a monster could possess in RML.
"Spread out! It's preparing for a breath attack!" Niflheim informed the party as they followed his instructions.
However, Niflheim's warning was useless.
Graaaaaawrrrr!
The Hydra's outer heads unleashed a massive wave of poisonous smog that encompassed more than one hundred meters of the land around the lake in the direction of Izroth's party!
〈Battle Alert: You have been affected by «The Immortal Hydra's Poisonous Breath».〉
〈Battle Alert: Your HP has been reduced by 40%.〉
〈Battle Alert: Your HP will continue to decrease by 2.5% every second indefinitely.〉
