trouble - evnne

10

As the hydra made a move to step forward, it was immediately frozen in place, it evidently was resisting hard but eventually its massive body sank down to the ground. Multiple shrill snarls of rage were released by the many heads, so the hunters took that chance to start attacking. Minseoung acted first, releasing multiple thick shards of ice to pierce at the hydra, just to get a sense of how tough it would be to remove a single head. The ice looked like toothpicks wedged into the hydra's skin, making Minseoung frown in annoyance.

"Between the three of us, we should all individually focus like crazy on a head, its skin is really thick," Minseoung suggested to the other two T-guild members, before diving out of the way as one head came zipping towards them, gnashing its teeth.

"Are you guys able to hold the heads down so they don't-" Junghyun's words momentarily cut off when one head took notice of him and threw itself towards him, "-holy shit those necks are long-"

"I'll try," Jay said, gritting his teeth as he strained. "This guy is tough," Sungmin complained. But soon, some heads did indeed get smashed to the ground, which Haruto took the chance from where he was strategically nestled in to send out a thin disc of crystal. The disc sliced about half-way into the neck of one head, which growled and tried to find the aggressor. Yunseo, deciding not to waste time, torched that neck with a bolt of lightning, successfully nudging the crystal through the neck and frying the flesh at the same time.

Everyone beheld the bleeding head on the ground, and Haruto triumphantly yelled, "Focus on thin ice, you two!"

Woojin managed to laugh at the double meaning, before he and Minseoung returned their attention to chopping off heads.

In the meantime, Evnne was also trying to electrocute the hydra, cracks of lightning filled the area as Keita ruthlessly struck a single head repeatedly, and though it made the head dazed, the head wasn't coming off. Similarly, Junghyun was working with the head Minseoung had embedded with ice, aiming to see if the rapidly melting ice could help to conduct electricity.

Yunseo suddenly twisted to look at Junghyun, "Aren't you gonna try your knives?" Junghyun wrinkled his nose, "If Minseoung's ice couldn't cut through, what makes you think my knives will?"

The duo's conversation was disrupted when Minseoung managed to dislodge another head, which Keita immediately toasted with a loud bolt of lightning.

"Just try, what's the worst that could happen?" Yunseo urged, "At most, it'll still come back to you." He then raced off towards the right, wanting to get a better view and angle of the beast. Since Jay was concentrating on holding down as many heads, the hydra managed to raise itself up, only for Jongwoo to crush one of its legs, sending the hydra tilting to a side, wailing in pain.

Junghyun quickly withdrew two of his knives and flung them out, as expected, they didn't do much, poking out from between the scales, but it did manage to anger that specific head. He suddenly had an idea, it might be dumb but he figured it was worth a shot. He ran along the cliff's edge, eyes pinned to the neck as the head swerved in an attempt to find him. When he decided he was at a good spot, he called the knives back to him, where, to return to their owner, they tore through the neck of the hydra, removing yet another head. While Junghyun was giddy with his discovery, cradling the bloody knife. the neck started to twitch. Keita guessed the heads may be starting to grow back, so he zapped the still-bleeding neck quickly. Junghyun shot a grateful smile to his leader, who shook his head fondly but ordered him to stay focused.

The hunters on the ground were now splattered with the hydra's dark blood, but they continued working tirelessly. Sungmin, learning from his leader, was working on disabling another of the hydra's legs to further immobilise it. Haruto was shooting out frisbees of crystal, looking so relaxed and carefree from his comfortable position.

"Having fun?" Minseoung grumbled to his Toz counterpart, his own skin flecked with spots of blood. "Yeah, I'm completely clean," Haruto cooed back, smug.

They were making significant progress, only a handful of heads remained. There was no telling how long they spent in the dungeon, the only way to keep track of the time was the sun slowly crawling through the sky. Minseoung decapitated one that charged towards him, the severed head landing right at his feet, its neck was handled by Yunseo. Junghyun worked on his own, slicing off heads and electrocuting them after, his many laps around the cliff edge resulting in sweat running down his face.

And soon, they were left with a single head. Jongwoo's shoulders sagged, hopeful that they were about to finish up. Woojin sliced the head off cleanly, Keita followed up with a strong strike, and finally, the wrecked body of the hydra slumped down, defeated.

"Whoever made this dungeon is going to hell," Jongwoo mumbled darkly, wiping at a smear of blood on his forehead.

For good measure, Junghyun stabbed the body and summoned his knife from the other side of the body, hoping to have penetrated the heart the hydra may or may not have.

Just like the outside world, the sky was rapidly darkening as the sun started to set. Overwhelmed with relief, the hunters all collapsed to the ground, some couldn't even hold their heads up. "I think we spent only a whole day here," Haruto noted.

"Okay," Keita sighed, completely sprawled out on the ground, "Now we have to walk out."

"Fuck."

"We have camping supplies, don't we?" Jay asked, "Can't we spend the night here?"

"Deal."

an: not entirely accurate depiction of the hydra but this isn't a greek mythology fanfic lol. also was this a bit messy? i wanted to show all the nine members but juggling them was wild.