Chapter 13: Hydra

Chapter 12

Julie

Big, dark, and hairy charged Max who, impressively enough, dodged out of the way. He brought out his funky looking sword and glove routine, while Duke and I brought our weapons to bear. Behind the charging oaf came four more fellows, each dressed like a janitor, but each carrying a weapon that does not come in the standard Janitorial Starter Kit. Max set himself in a defensive posture and blocked attacks.

“What do we do? I think these are mortals,” he said.

“If they are, then your weapon won’t do any damage,” Duke retorted. To prove his point he did his impressive spinning axe thing and sliced up the sword of his opponent, followed by the arm and torso. It was not pretty, but the janitor blew up in a puff of golden dust.

“Monsters,” Duke said. “Don’t know what kind though.” As usually the opponents thought I was the easily overpowered one, probably because I was a girl. I broke them from that Idea right quick. It was humid today in Florida, which means got to use the excess water in the air. I congealed it around one fellows sword arm so he couldn’t attack, then rushed the other. I got under his guard and with three quick jabs, ended the fight. I turned back to the other fellow to see him burst into flames and charge at me. I’m not sure what happened next, only that I did it.

As he rushed me I felt a pull on my stomach and a wall of water solidified in front of me, the burning man slammed into it and started to push through. The edges froze so that the burning man was trapped in a hollow ice cube with water instead of air. He slammed into the ice wall, which cracked, then spears of ice formed behind him and stabbed, breaking through the wall and nearly hitting me. The cube became filled with golden dust. The pull on my stomach stopped and I fell over.

Duke came over to check on me, and since I didn’t have any physical wounds, so he didn’t bother with anything more extensive. Max was still dueling his opponent. He was holding his own quite well though, blocking and stabbing, and whatever else it is you do with a sword to keep the enemy back and off of you. As I took a closer look, however, I could see that there were more than one. There were three. He was full defense mode now, not even trying to cut the opponent. Duke growled.

“Julie, let that fellow loose, I have a bad feeling.” I was about to do just that when it broke on its own. Four guys came out of it.

“What is this? Whack a Mole?” I grumbled.

“Worse, Hydra.” He drew his axes and started towards the four from my trap. I got up as quickly as my aching body could. The figures roared and tackled each other and began to melt together. Once they were done, a seven headed Hydra slammed its clawed feet onto the ground. The three middle heads still had black hair hanging off them.

“This is like a bad horror movie,” Max said. I, honestly, agreed with that. I got my body moving and dashed to the left while Max was stuck in the front. Duke rushed in spinning his axes around.

“Why didn’t yours come back?” I asked.

“Special axes, secrets special acids. Favorite weapon.” Duke grunted. He then swung one of them wide, chopping off a middle head and embedding in the neck of another head. Before he could draw it back the head swung to the side dragging Duke a few steps before dislodging the axe. Fortunately the acid on the blade also dislodged the head. Peachy.

I used the humidity to create a temporary path of water to slide on, allowing me to get behind the beast. It was here I discovered, behind the Hydra is not a great place to be. The tail swung around and smashed the ground in front of me. I was unable to stop moving in time and so changed the dash to a jump. I sailed over the tail, only to be met by said tail as it rose up again to slap at me in midair. I went flying over the fence and into the shrubs.

I clawed my way out of the greenery. Duke was busy dodging snapping heads. Max on the other hand, had sliced his sword through an oil canister and used a spark of electricity to light it. Then he used his glove to grab heads and slice them off, the sword sealing the wound with burns from the fire, or the electricity...or both. I moved in to help Duke.

I dashed in and stabbed one of my daggers into the eye of one of the heads, and all the heads reared back in pain. There were three heads left, one of them was a middle head that was still spewing fire. The other two were keeping back and letting the fire head try to roast us. Duke couldn’t swing his axe around to cut any heads off, and Max didn’t have the range.

Then the other two heads started to bite at the stumps of their fellows. One finished and threw a glob of meat at me (ewww!) and two heads grew from the new stump. Uh, oh. Duke growled and threw his axes at the beat, embedding them in its chest. All five heads roared in pain at the offense.

“Max, I need some cover, I have something that can take this out, but I need to get it.” He yelled. Max closed his eyes and they got that strange glow again. He lifted his hand, and the a hydra head struck, only to be shocked to death by the wall. The rest backed off, dragging the offenders dead head back with them. They continued to revive the rest of the stump heads, throwing the chunks of meat at the shield Max had built up. They bounced off.

Duke, meanwhile, slipped a small box out of his pocket. He pressed a button on the top and it grew into a long rectangular shape, almost as tall as he was, but quite flat. After it finished growing he just sat there and stared at it. A lot of help he was. I turned and brought the water to help again, I formed it into a spear shape and launched it, through the electric wall, into the hydra, freezing the cone shape so that the electricity would flow through the water and into the hydra. It roared in pain, but two of its new heads (we were up to nine now) broke the ice and threw the cone away.

“Duke!” Max yelled. “Whatever your going to do, you had better do it soon.” Just then Duke roared in pain. I turned and looked at him, his right arm was stretched out on the box, in a groove that looked designed for such a thing. Metal cables were jabbed into his forearm and looked like they were drawing something.

“What in the name of the Gods are you doing?” I screamed. He just gritted his teeth and looked at me, his eyes full of pain.

“Keep it distracted.” He said with obvious pain. “The process should be done in a few more seconds and I will be back into the fight.” The design was taking shape quickly, a big, red axe with one blade. I turned back and saw the Hydra watching us carefully, heads throwing random objects trying to find an opening.

“Julie, what is it?” Max had the sense to ask.

“Great Gods your dense Thunderhead,” I said. “It is a Hydra. You need to cauterize the wounds, otherwise two heads will grow back in place of the one we cut off.”

“Lovely, how do we kill it?”

“Chop off its heads.”

“I got this,” Duke said walking between us. He was holding a giant ax, the blade red and smoking. He walked forward and Max jumped, swinging his hand before Duke reached the electrified wall. Duke walked past where the wall had been and kept moving forward. The Hydra, seeing prey approach it breathed a steady stream of fire towards him, but Duke jumped to the side, faster than I had ever seen him move before. He closed in as the Hydra tried to adjust its aim, but it was unsuccessful. In one swipe he slashed off three of the heads, the blade so hot it cauterized the wounds. He landed and jumped again, slicing off the middle three this time.

The remaining three bit at him in quick succession, he dodged the first two and backhanded the jaw of the third, sending it reeling. He then sliced again, taking the last three heads. He sagged as the beast turned into golden dust. We were all tired.

“Get to the boat, I think I can get it moving. We can rest on the way to our destination,” I said, and to back it up I started walking (the staggering was just to make the boys feel better, honest) towards the boat. As I got near Duke he growled, and the axe started shrinking until it went into his arm. Yes, INTO his arm. He turned and preceded me to the boat.

The boat was one of those old ones you see on movies like “Pirates of the Caribbean,” with three masts. As soon as I stepped on board, ropes were flying around getting the ship ready to cast off. Duke slumped down on the deck and waited, Max leaned on the railing. The boarding ramp came up and we were underway.

“What the hell is that thing in your arm?” I asked Duke as soon as we cleared the dock. People had finally noticed and were yelling at us.

“My....superpower lets call it. My superpower from my father is not really that I am skilled with weapons, or can earn his blessing by acting like him. The more pain I am in, the stronger and faster I get, as long as my body can take it. The weapon, brilliantly named War by the way, is cursed. It has no sheathe, it rests inside my arm until it is needed. As long as it is there, it acts like a simple tattoo, no problem. When I need it, it will come out of my arm, and the longer it is out, the more it hurts.” Duke explained.

“So, what your saying is that you get stronger and faster the more pain you feel, which means your basically invincible so long as you can compartmentalize the pain. So unfair.” Max said.

“Not quite Sparky,” Max frowned at the name. Noted. “If I ignore the pain, or take painkillers, my power weakens. I have to feel the pain, I cannot ignore it.”

“Well that sucks.” I said. He agreed. I claimed the captains cabin before they could move, then checked ships bearing. We were headed straight for the Sea of Monsters, and would arrive in six hours at our current speed. I went to my cabin, collapsed into bed and fell asleep.

Thankfully, my sleep was dreamless.

Chapter 14