“Uh, guys?” Flower says. “I don’t know if you can hear me, but I just realized that I forgot to tell you one important thing. Whatever you do, don’t smash the walls. Okay? Good! Now, then, let’s see… I think I’ve got this! Aha!… Okay, no, that was the light switch. Back to the drawing board.”
“Hadrik, there’s no time!” I say. “Just tear down that wall, and we’ll worry about the consequences later.”
“Hah!” Hadrik says. “That’s exactly what I wanted to hear! Here goes nothing!”
The dwarf uses his full force to punch a hole through one of the walls closing in on us. The moment the wall collapses, several sharp spears start shooting out of it, and straight towards us. I realize that one of them is about to hit me in the face, so I step to the side just in time and feel a light breeze on my cheeks as the spear whooshes past my head and pierces the wall behind me. I’m pretty sure that my reaction speed just now was due to the high level in my reflexes stat. If I’d been just a little slower back there, I would have been a goner.
The others somehow managed to get out of this unscathed as well. Hadrik and Kate dodged the spears, while Daren protected Rose and himself with his shield. The walls are now starting to slow down, and soon they come to a complete halt. It doesn’t take long for Flower to make her appearance again, with a victorious smile on her face.
“Haha, I did it!” she says, soon after she drops from the hole in the ceiling. “But I think I should also tell you— Oh my gods, what happened here? Did you smash one of the walls? I told you not to smash the walls!”
“Yeah, we all heard you,” Kate says, “But it seems that some of the members in our group have slower brains, and it takes them a while longer than average to process information in critical situations.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know that!” Flower says, looking genuinely concerned. “I should have warned you earlier. Is anyone hurt? Petal knows a bit of healing magic, so we should be able to help if it’s nothing too serious.”
“Uh, no, I think we’re all okay, for now,” Hadrik says. “Sorry about that, I got a little impatient back there.”
“Okay,” Flower says. “Then, I guess I should tell you about the bad news, now. See, when I was fiddling around with those complex mechanisms upstairs, I… maaay have accidentally activated all of the traps on this corridor.”
“You what?!” Kate asks her.
“Don’t worry, I can still fix this!” Flower says. “I think I know where most of the traps are, so as long as you follow my instructions, you should be fine. I just need to do a quick test run and make sure that I’m not remembering anything wrong.”
The girl starts sprinting down the corridor and makes a surprisingly long jump, which lands her on a large stone with two cracks on either side of it. She then does an elegant pirouette and turns towards us.
“See?” she tells us. “Everything’s under control!”
As soon as she finishes talking, one of the walls opens up and a large pendulum blade comes swinging out of it, aiming directly for Flower. She rolls out of its way and triggers two more traps by accident. There are now dozens of arrows shooting out of both walls, while sharp spinning blades are coming out of the floor and moving in circles all around her. At first glance, the girl appears to be just clumsily stumbling around while evading the traps out of sheer luck. As I watch her more closely, however, I realize that even though her movements all seem erratic, they have a way of flowing into one another which allows her to not waste even a single second between two actions. I guess she wasn’t kidding when she said that she came to this place to train her acrobatic skills.
Hadrik shakes his head as he watches the girl jump around, and then he lays flat on the floor, with his ear pressing against the ground, trying to listen for something.
“Uh, guys, I know this looks bad,” Flower tells us as she jumps off a wall, lands on her left hand and then bounces off the floor like a spring, “but if I keep going like this, I’ll either remember the right path, or end up setting off all of the traps, so it’s a win either way!”
“Yeah, no, this is clearly not getting us anywhere,” Hadrik says, as he stands up, “That fox is going to be here any minute. We can’t afford to dawdle here while the girl tests all the traps. This corridor is compromised, but I could hear some noise below us. These ruins have a subterranean level waiting to be found, and I’m about to create a shortcut to it!”
“Don’t you dare!” Kate shouts.
“What’s that?” Hadrik asks, with a grin. “I’m having trouble hearing you because of all the noise those traps are making!”
He then punches the ground below us, which cracks all of the stones, and sends us falling down along with all of the rubble that used to make up the floor beneath our feet. It was a longer way down than I would have hoped, but fortunately, the surface we landed on was soft enough that we didn’t break anything from the fall.
“Hadrik, how could you do something so reckless?” Kate shouts. “Do you think we’re all giants in disguise like you? Do you realize that if this unusually soft surface wasn’t here to break our fall, we would have broken all our bones? I swear, if I still had my ice powers I would have smacked you so hard in the head that I’d have left you in a coma!”
As Kate talks, I can feel the surface we’re on move slowly up and down. I can also hear a continuous low growl somewhere above us. Something’s not right, here.
I start to look closely at the surface we’re all sitting on, to see if I can tell what it’s made of. It has a sort of slithery feel to it, and if I’m not mistaken, there are small dark green scales covering the whole surface. At this point in time, I could already make an educated guess of what exactly we’d landed on, but still, a part of me did not want to believe it, so I looked up, in the hopes that my intuition was wrong.
Nine snake-like creatures, each at least six times the size of me, were all staring at me, with their fangs bared, and drool falling out of their mouths. All of the nine snakes were connected to the large body we landed on when we fell from the upper level. I’ve only read about creatures like these in books before, but even so, there’s no mistaking it. What we’ve all landed on is a hydra.
Kate and Hadrik are still arguing and did not notice the situation we are in. Daren is only now inspecting the slithery and dark-green scale covered surface we’ve landed on, and Rose is looking up at the snakes, with a terrified look in her eyes, unable to bring herself to speak.
“Guys…” I tell Hadrik and Kate. “I really hate to interrupt you, but I think you should have a look at this.”
I then point upwards, and both of them freeze for a moment.
“Gods have mercy…” Hadrik says, as he seems unable to avert his eyes from the hideous creature’s heads.
“Everyone get down from the hydra!” Daren shouts, as he takes Rose in his arms, and jumps off the monster’s body. “Now!”
I slide off the creature’s slippery body and land on the stone floor below. We then all distance ourselves from the hydra and arm ourselves, waiting to see what its first move will be. The snake heads all roar at the same time, and the monster starts approaching us, slowly, with its long tail swinging continuously from left to right as it walks. One of the snakes takes initiative and lunges for us. Its attack was rather slow, so we all had the time to get out of its way, but its impact with the wall behind us left a big hole in it. Daren wastes no time and uses his sword to cut off the head of the hydra with one swift strike.
“No, don’t do that!” I tell him. “Why would you do that?”
The hydra quickly retracts its headless snake body, and all of the other eight heads start screaming in pain. Then, in a matter of seconds, the severed head grows back, and all of the other heads grow quiet once more.
“What?…” Daren asks me. “You didn’t really believe those old legends about the hydras growing two heads for every one you cut, right? I’ve fought hydras before, and none of them possessed that kind of an abil
ity. Still, the regeneration ability of this one is through the roof. Last time I fought one of these, I had more than enough time to cut off all the heads before they started regenerating, but there’s no way that’s going to work with this particular monster. The only way we’re killing it is if we can find out where its heart is and stab it, or if we use fire, to prevent it from regenerating.”
“Damnations…” Kate says. “If only I had my ice magic, I would have easily cut all those heads off simultaneously…”
“Didn’t that little girl have fire magic?” Daren asks.
He then starts to shout the girl’s name, while looking at the hole in the roof.
“Flower!” he shouts. “Hey, Flower!”
There’s no answer.
“You’re wasting your breath,” Hadrik says. “There’s no way she can hear you from all the way up there, with the sound all of those traps are making.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Daren says, as he readies his sword once more and takes a look towards the monster.
The hydra has taken a few steps back while Daren was talking, and it’s been just standing there for a while, hesitating to attack. It must be afraid that it’ll get one of its heads cut off again.
I can hear someone’s heart pounding very rapidly. Trying to locate the source of the sound, I realize that it isn’t coming from one of us, but from the hydra. I start to block out all other sounds with my mind and focus solely on the loud beating of the monster’s heart, in order to pinpoint its exact location. It takes me a few seconds, but in the end I manage to trace the sound back to its origin: the tip of the hydra’s tail. So that’s where it was hiding its weak point!
“Well,” Hadrik says. “If it’s not going to come to us…”
He doesn’t finish his sentence and rushes straight for the nine-headed creature. The monster attacks the dwarf with four of its heads, but he jumps out of their way and manages to place himself below the hydra’s body. Hadrik then flexes all of his muscles and starts lifting the hydra off the ground, as he roars loudly and his face turns almost red from the effort.
Before the hydra has the time to react, the dwarf sends it crashing into the nearest wall. The creature is now staggering clumsily, trying to get back up. I waste no time and rush towards the monster now, while it’s still disoriented.
Even while staggering, the hydra still hasn’t let its guard down. As I approach it, two of the heads lunge at me, but I was so fast that they missed me by far. Just as the monster’s heart is within reach of my dagger, the hydra moves its tail away from me, and lifts it high into the air.
So, the hydra is aware of its own weak spot. I was careless. The monster has now regained its balance and is using all of its heads in an attempt to drive me into a corner. However, at my current speed, dodging all of these slow overgrown snakes seems like child’s play.
“Boy, what in the blazes do you think you’re doing?” the dwarf asks me.
“Hadrik!” I say. “The creature’s heart is in the tip of its tail. If you can pull its tail back down here, I’ll deal the finishing blow with my dagger.”
“Oooh, now I get it!” Hadrik says, grinning. “Consider it done.”
The dwarf then jumps behind the hydra and grabs it by the tail, pulling it down with all of his force.
“Okay, Barry!” the dwarf says, as he struggles to keep a hold of the tail. “Whenever you’re ready!”
I put all of my speed into this one sprint, and I arrive near the tip of the hydra’s tail in an instant, stabbing it with all of the force I could muster. The screams of all the snake heads as I pierced through the heart were painful to hear, but once I twisted the knife, their howls started to fade, and then the whole creature came crashing down on the floor with a loud thump. The hydra now lies dead beside me, but I almost feel like it’s still watching me with its lifeless eyes, waiting for me to let my guard down in order to deal one last strike.
“Barry, you sly bastard!” Daren tells me as he walks towards me. “You could have told me about the hydra’s weak spot, but you wanted to hog all the glory for yourself. Well, how does it feel to have slain your first hydra? You’re not going to let this go to your head, are you?”
“Of course not!” I tell him. “I always meant to go on an epic monster slaying quest right after winning this tournament. A minor victory like this changes nothing!”
Daren grins.
“You cheeky little—” he starts to say, but he gets interrupted by Flower, who is now descending towards us and using two small jets of fire coming out of her feet to slow down her fall.
“Oh gods, I didn’t know that there was a hydra down here!” she says. “I would have come sooner, but those traps upstairs just kept going and going!”
She then lands and looks at the monster, surprised, trying to see if it’s really dead or just sleeping.
“Wow, I can’t believe you guys actually took down a hydra by yourselves without any magic!” she says. “Is anyone in need of healing?”
“Actually, I could use some healing right about now,” Hadrik says. “This wound on my leg in particular is killing me!”
“We’re on it!” the girl says, as she approaches the dwarf and puts her hands on his wound.
“Petal?” she asks, and then she pauses for a few moments.
The girl’s eyes then start shining with a bright blue light, as her expression becomes a lot colder, and a warm light starts coming out of her hands, slowly healing Hadrik’s wound.
“So…” Hadrik says, while grinning. “You must be the banshee inhabiting the girl’s body. Petal, is it?”
The girl looks the dwarf in the eye without changing her cold expression, but she doesn’t say anything. She then shifts her gaze back to his wound and continues to heal it diligently.
“Not really the talkative sort, are you?” Hadrik asks, still grinning.
As the wound heals completely, the girl’s eyes turn back to their normal green color, and her warm expression returns as well.
“Oh, she’s usually not this silent,” Flower says. “I think she’s just shy around strangers…”
“Well, I think this farce has gone on long enough,” Daren says, as he starts approaching Flower. “I really am sorry that I have to ruin this beautiful friendship, but I’m afraid the banshee has to go.”
“Actually, I don’t think that will be possible,” I tell him.
“Oh yeah?” Daren says. “And why is that? Please, enlighten us, oh, great banshee expert!”
“Because the banshee has already awakened,” I say. “In fact, I think she’s been in this state for a very long time.”
“Impossible!” Daren says. “Everyone knows that an awakened banshee is supposed to look like a genuine monster. Almost nothing should remain of their human host’s appearance.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen a banshee awaken before, remember?” I say. “That doesn’t, however, change the fact that this banshee has already awakened, in spite of all that, since she is clearly no longer in a dormant state. Why don’t you try your purification technique on her, if you don’t believe me?”
“Hmph…” Daren says. “I was going to do that anyway.”
“W-w-what are you doing?” Flower asks Daren, as he approaches her and starts moving his sword in the air around her.
“Flower, it’s alright,” I tell her. “His technique won’t work on you or Petal. I guarantee it.”
“Uh… okay?” Flower says, with a slight tremor in her voice.
Daren waves his sword in the air for about fifteen seconds, trying to get it to light up so he can commence the purification ritual.
“It… It’s not working…” Daren says, after having finally given up.
“Of course it isn’t,” I tell him. “The purification technique can only be used before a banshee has fully awakened, or if the banshee never existed in the first place. An awakened banshee’s aura is just too erratic to be able to get a good lock on it, so the technique will simply fail to ac
tivate. The only way you can kill the banshee now is if you also kill the girl along with her. Is that what you want?”
“No, that’s not… I don’t…”
“Listen to me!” the girl shouts at us. “Petal is here to stay, whether you like it or not! You don’t have to talk to her if you don’t want to. And I’m here too! And… even if I’m not the best guide there is… I’m the only guide you have! I promised that I’d take you all to the room full of buttons and I don’t intend to fall back on that promise! Are you still willing to follow my lead?”
“Sure,” I say. “It’s not like we have a better alternative at this point.”
“I agree,” Kate says. “It doesn’t matter how badly the girl remembers the layout of these ruins. It’s still better than having no information at all.”
Hadrik sighs.
“Count me in too, I guess,” he says. “Last time I tried to take the initiative we ended up in a hydra’s den, so I don’t really have any rights to complain.”
“I…” Rose says, still not having fully recovered her voice after the hydra incident. “I think we should follow Flower as well…”
“Alright, then!” the girl says, as her face lights up. “You’re not going to regret this! Come on, follow me, I know exactly where we’re going!”
She then takes the lead and starts marching like a soldier in front of us, while repeatedly saying “Hut, two, three, four.”
“Oh, I’m starting to regret this already…” Daren says, as we all start to follow in the girl’s footsteps, and leave the hydra room behind.
After a few minutes of walking, we reach what appears to be an elevator made entirely of stone. Inside of it there are several levers, which I assume are used to operate it.
“Okay, this elevator is going to take us back to the upper level we came from,” the girl says, as we all enter it. “It’s going to leave us right at the end of the corridor, so we won’t have to worry about any more traps! Now, if only I could remember which one of these levers I need to pull…”
Magium: The Mage Tournament: Book 1 Page 18
