Niflheim was concerned about Izroth, who had been out of contact under the lake for roughly thirty minutes.
However, there was no time or breathing room to formulate and execute a feasible rescue plan; therefore, Niflheim resolved himself to face the worst possible outcome.
As the party's leader, Niflheim understood that he had to set aside his personal beliefs and eventually confront the facts—there was a good chance that Izroth would never resurface from the lake!
If that were the case, it would be up to them to defeat the Hydra with one less party member.
The good news was that they discovered the Hydra's regenerative abilities were not infinite, which was likely caused by the creature's weakened sealed state.
Regardless of the reason, they found that each of the Hydra's original heads could only regenerate a maximum of ten times. This meant that each of the Hydra's heads was the equivalent of facing twenty-one enemies, including the original head. And, so far, Niflheim, Morrighan, Sacred Blade, Colorful Nimbus, and Gram managed to severe a total of 52 heads!
In the process, they successfully put the Hydra's outer right and outer left heads out of commission. With that, the group no longer had to worry about the Hydra's poisonous breath attacks, which allowed the Phantom Queen to focus entirely on damage output. At least, that's how it should have gone.
Unfortunately, the poisonous breath was not the Hydra's last surprise.
After the destruction of its outer heads, the creature's left head started to unleash a fire-type breath attack, while its right head employed an ice-type breath attack.
As if the situation was not already grim enough, to make matters even worse, the time in between the Hydra's breath attacks had been cut in half. It was no longer every two minutes, but every one minute!
Both breath attacks came with their own set of dangers. The Hydra's fire breath engulfed the battlefield in a sea of raging flames, burning everything in its path and leaving behind intense embers.
If not for Gram's fire protection buff, the party would have been walking on a tight rope with no net underneath them.
As for the Hydra's ice breath, its damage was also on the weaker side. But, its primary purpose was to serve as a form of crowd control. The frost created by the ice breath was so cold that it slowed the party's movements, and after a few seconds, it would freeze their bodies entirely! This made them easy targets for the Hydra heads and the skeletal warriors. In the end, there were a couple of close calls where they almost lost a member or two.
Thankfully, during one of the ice breath cycles, Sacred Blade accidentally moved too close to one of the burning embers left behind by the Hydra's fire breath. But, instead of suffering from its burn effects, Sacred Blade gained a temporary buff that made him immune to the effects of the frost for ten seconds.
With Sacred Blade's findings, every time the Hydra used its ice breath, the group would hurry over to the nearest burning embers. They had to time it perfectly; otherwise, they would end up taking burn damage from the embers as a price. Though with Niflheim keeping track of their timing and the party's overall experience, they were able to smoothly adapt.
However, if everyone had to choose the MVP of this battle, it would undoubtedly be the Phantom Queen.
Morrighan single-handedly eliminated 39 out of the 52 of the Hydra's heads—that was 75% of the total kills!
In addition, her wind magic protected the party from the poisonous mist and kept it at bay just outside the battlefield. Morrighan also made sure that the heads she severed fell into the lake to minimize the amount of Hydra's blood that fell on land. And, she drew the attention of several Hydra heads towards herself in the skies to ease the pressure on those below.
If not for the Phantom Queen's presence during this crusade, it's safe to say that Izroth may have never gotten the chance to explore the lake without the party having to pay a terrible price in exchange.
Ultimately, the party was able to find its footing and build momentum to reach its current point. Though with Gram's buffs coming to an end soon, the situation would quickly start to deteriorate. After all, if Steadfast alone ended, the 2.5% damage to their HP every second would instantly rise to 5%. They would also lose their bonus HP and resistances, causing the battle's difficulty to spike. Before that happened, they needed to find a way to end this fight.
It was when this thought entered Niflheim's mind that the Hydra's behavior became unusual. The beast was preparing its fire breath when it abruptly stopped mid-way and started flailing about uncontrollably. And, since none of them did anything that would cause the Hydra to act that way, Niflheim could only speculate that it had to be Izroth's doing under the lake. Whatever the reason, this opportunity was one that could not be passed up!
[Voice Chat] Niflheim, "Phantom Queen, Sacred Blade—don't let up on your attacks. Gram, provide any support you can to boost their damage output. We cannot allow this chance to slip by. While it's confused, we'll throw everything we have at it and take it down once and for all!"
[Voice Chat] Colorful Nimbus, "Hey, hey, don't leave me out here."
[Voice Chat] Niflheim, "For now, you can just focus on recovering and conserving your mana. Other than that, just keep doing what you've been doing and stay safe. Gram's buffs will be ending soon and if we can't end it with this final push here, we'll need your heals more than ever. We can't afford to risk losing you."
Colorful Nimbus was frustrated, but he understood Niflheim's intentions. Since his class was a healer/damage hybrid, Colorful Nimbus felt that he could only display half of his potential against the Hydra only being able to sit back and heal. With his damage skills being mostly close-ranged and having only a few mid-range skills in the mix, Colorful Nimbus felt somewhat dejected.
[Voice Chat] Colorful Nimbus, "Alright, alright, I got it. I'll stay put."
Following Niflheim's commands, Morrighan and Sacred Blade moved into action with Gram's assistance.
However, just as the two were preparing to carry out their assault, the Hydra released an earthshattering roar. The cry was powerful enough to shake the entire second stage and prevent Morrighan and Sacred Blade from approaching any closer.
The water within the lake became increasingly turbulent. Then, for the first time since the fight began, the Hydra moved its main body forward as the beast's massive body rose out of the water!
Everyone was shocked. By now, they assumed that the Hydra was restricted to the lake and could not step out of it. However, it was clearly getting ready to make its way onto dry land. If that happened, the party may be forced back into the poisonous mist surrounding them!
"Look! It's been injured!" Colorful Nimbus called out as he pointed towards the long wound on the Hydra's body.
"Is that what caused the sudden change in its behavior?" Niflheim internalized.
Niflheim scanned the surroundings of the lake; however, he soon furrowed his brows. The Hydra had been wounded and was emerging from the water. But, now, the question remained—where was Izroth?!
"We cannot allow it to reach land!" Niflheim warned.
"Grand Magic: Reaper's Repose." Morrighan waved her wand as a door roughly six meters tall and three meters wide appeared at her back.
The door was made of red and black bones with trapped souls moving around inside.
The next moment, the doors opened and a pair of soulless crimson eyes could be seen lurking in the darkness. Simply staring into these eyes was enough to drive one to the brink of madness.
Phhhhtk! GRAAAAAAAAWR!!!!!
Out of nowhere, the Hydra's body jerked violently as a hole less than three meters in diameter formed near the upper center of its body.
From that hole, a pulsing blue light emerged, followed by a collection of blue slime shaped like a humanoid.
The pulsing blue light shot forward at incredible speeds, crashing onto the land at the lake's edge.
BANG! Rmmmmmmble! Zeeeut!
The blue figure vanished without a trace before suddenly reappearing right next to the pulsing blue light.
"?!" Everyone immediately went on high alert. Was it a new enemy? The Hydra's true form?
"I'm glad to see you all held up well in my absence. It took a bit longer than I anticipated." A familiar voice sounded. It belonged to none other than Izroth!
"I thought I'd bring along souvenir," Izroth stated as he pointed to the pulsing blue light.
Name: Heart of the Immortal Hydra
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