The battle began.
A hydra positioned itself solidly in the large room.
Behind it was a mana crystal.
Inside that crystal was, as expected, undeniably
When the hydra spotted us, it slowly raised its body.
"Alright, let's go!"
Low like a dog, fast like the wind.
Fast enough to leave everything behind.
But this time, Elinariase was with us as well.
Behind her came Talhand.
His legs were slow.
We advanced at a pace that matched Talhand.
Geese was stationed even further back behind us.
He had no means of fighting and was useless in this situation.
He had no techniques for battling a large monster like a hydra.
But he was there.
If we were all wiped out, it would be his role to escape and report what had happened.
"Raaah!"
Paul reached the hydra.
Simultaneously, three of the hydra's heads moved.
For its size, the hydra was quick.
Each neck moved with the agility of a wild snake.
But— The instant Paul wavered for a split second, one of the necks had been severed.
Good, still sharp.
"Fire Ball!"
I poured every ounce of my mana into the tip of my staff.
A fireball brimming with tremendous heat flew toward the hydra.
—but it was no use.
As the Fire Ball approached the hydra, it shrank, and upon contact, vanished instantly.
All that remained in my ears was an unpleasant scraping sound, like fingernails on glass.
"So I have to get in close and bash it after all."
I couldn't take it down without getting close.
I'd have to use fire magic at point-blank range and burn through the wounds.
"Right on plan, then.
"I'll be fine. It's not like I've only been training as a magician, you know."
Those were my words, but my heart was pounding like a drum.
Close combat was not my forte.
My close-combat memories were painted with defeat.
Starting with Paul, then Gilleen,
I couldn't beat any of them, and that's how the current me came to be.
Well, recently I had gotten to the point where I could hold my own.
Linia, Pursena, Luke.
Using my foresight eye, I had managed to win against them.
But could they beat a hydra?
No.
I didn't think they could defeat the same opponents that Paul and Elinariase struggled against.
In other words, beating them didn't mean I could beat a hydra.
But this time, I wasn't fighting alone.
It was a team battle.
Paul was there, Elinariase was there, and
Talhand's strength was an unknown quantity, but if he was around their level, he would be useful.
I charged forward at full speed and positioned myself right behind Paul.
"Don't you dare stray from my back, Rudy!"
Paul's voice reached me from right in front.
Elinariase was to my left, Talhand to my right.
And Roxy was behind me.
It was a proper Imperial Cross.
"Shaaaa!"
All three heads attacked simultaneously.
The hydra didn't move more than four necks.
Did it lack the capacity for more?
Or were the other necks simply getting in the way?
I didn't know, but either way, it was favorable.
Elinariase deflected one neck, Talhand parried another.
And Paul severed one.
The severed neck writhed on the ground, twitching.
"Go!"
"Yes!"
Hearing Paul's shout, I approached the thrashing neck and launched my spell.
Fire magic lit up the surroundings as it struck the hydra's neck.
The wound sizzled and crackled, turning charred black.
"How's that...?"
I backstepped while examining the wound.
Still couldn't tell.
Another neck lunged immediately.
Paul intercepted it.
Elinariase deflected it with her shield.
At the edge of my vision, blood sprayed from Talhand.
"Kuh!"
"The divine power is rich nourishment—'Healing'!"
Whenever Talhand was injured, Roxy would immediately chant while rushing over to heal the wound.
Everyone was circling around me to keep attacks from reaching me.
I could only confirm the results.
"..."
The neck—the wound, how was it?
Would the charred cross-section regenerate?
Well?
"...Good."
It wasn't regenerating.
The wound remained as it was.
The flesh didn't swell back up and revive like before.
"It's working!"
"Yes!"
Paul shouted and severed the next neck.
I burned it.
Tremendous heat.
The sheer thermal output reached even me, making it hard to breathe.
Paul was dripping sweat from his forehead too.
But without producing this level of firepower, I couldn't burn through the cross-section.
If it was only half-cooked, regeneration was still possible.
If we kept this up...
"...! Cover me!"
My foresight eye caught the hydra's movement.
<Two of the hydra's necks, which hadn't been moving, targeted me> I could dodge one.
But the other would track wherever I dodged to.
"Leave it to me!"
At the moment I dodged one neck, Elinariase threw herself in.
She knocked one neck aside while leaping in at an awkward angle.
She wedged her body between me and the hydra.
She interposed her shield between herself and the hydra.
With a grinding crunch, she shielded me.
A spurt of Elinariase's blood splashed onto my cheek.
"Roxy! Healing!"
"The divine power is rich nourishment—'Healing'!"
Roxy immediately healed Elinariase's wound.
Then, as if nothing had happened, the two of them returned to their positions.
"Rudy! Going for the third one!"
"Yes!"
Paul's shout.
At the same time, a hydra head fell before me, spewing a column of blood.
Burn it.
My job was just to burn.
Burn the flesh.
Keep burning without rest.
Leave everything else to the others.
Focus only on what was in front of me.
Paul cut, I burned.
Elinariase and Talhand protected me perfectly.
And Roxy protected them.
The fourth neck was burned away.
We could do this.
The instant I thought that— The hydra changed its tactics.
Abruptly.
Yes, abruptly.
The hydra moved all five remaining necks simultaneously, targeting Talhand.
"Guah!"
"Talhand!"
He dodged the first strike.
The second one was unavoidable, so Talhand rolled along the ground to escape.
In doing so, he grazed the hydra's body, and a piece of his heavy armor's shoulder plate was knocked off, clattering across the ground.
The third neck.
Talhand caught it on his axe while sitting in the posture from having fallen on his rear.
The fourth neck.
It latched onto Talhand's leg.
Talhand was hoisted into the air in an instant.
"Guaoooh!"
And the fifth neck was about to tear into Talhand's defenseless torso— "Outta my way!"
Thud, thud—heads came falling down.
Hydra heads.
The fourth and fifth necks were severed by Paul's slashes.
"Sorry, you saved me!"
"I'll burn it!"
"The divine power is rich nourishment—'Healing'!"
Talhand's voice, my voice, Roxy's voice.
All heard simultaneously, each person moving independently.
Two hydra necks burned at once.
Three remained.
"Hm?"
There, the hydra's behavior shifted slightly again.
It began to stagger backward, as though afraid of us.
"We can do it! Push in, Rudy!"
Paul moved forward.
No, wait— Was it a trap?
Should we attack without knowing what the opponent was scheming...?
At that very moment— "What?!"
One of the hydra's necks.
An especially large one.
It bit off one of its own charred necks.
"What?!"
The bitten-off neck began regenerating before our eyes.
"No!"
It couldn't regenerate from the burned cross-section.
But if the burned portion was bitten off, it could regenerate from there.
"Don't give it time to regenerate!"
"Yaaaaah!"
Elinariase let out a battle cry as she charged. She charged.
Then she drove the Gladius into one of the regenerating necks.
"May the great blessing of ice fall upon the place you seek.
Receive the turbid torrent of the glacier—'Ice Smash'!"
She slammed the magic at zero distance into the regenerating neck. Elinariase did.
Against the still-scaleless, squishy flesh, a block of ice struck and shattered.
Spewing blood like pomegranate seeds, the neck thrashed.
"Roxy!"
"Let a small ember consume the great bounty—'Flame Hurl'!"
Having followed Elinariase, Roxy unleashed a Flame Hurl.
Though the power was attenuated by the scales, the hydra's neck smoked and burned.
"Good!"
Paul moved in for a follow-up strike.
But the hydra did not lower its necks.
It lifted its massive body and raised its heads to just below the ceiling, glaring down at us.
All three remaining necks.
Was it frightened?
No.
It didn't feel like that.
What was it? Something familiar. Dangerous.
"Something's coming! Stay on guard!"
"Yes!"
Paul's shout.
From there, my movement was instinct.
Or perhaps you could call it experience.
I had seen this posture once before.
A dragon standing upright, taking a massive "breath."
"It's a Breath! Everyone get close to me!"
"Right!"
Paul took a big backstep and came right in front of me.
Elinariase and Talhand rolled to my feet.
Roxy threw herself into the embrace.
I created water.
A thick wall of water.
Almost simultaneously, the hydra exhaled.
From three necks, a tremendous volume of fire breath rained down, striking the water wall.
A massive cloud of steam erupted, and the room's temperature skyrocketed.
"...!"
A dragon's fire breath boasted extraordinary temperatures.
Hot enough to easily melt steel and evaporate a small pond in an instant.
And it was released from three necks at once.
An ordinary magician would have no way to defend against this.
Five, no, nearly ten magicians pooling their efforts to create a single water wall—perhaps that would work.
Even then, it might not be enough.
But my mana was far from ordinary.
"Father!"
"Right!"
Paul lunged at the hydra's lowered neck.
Breaths had usage limits.
I didn't know the reason, but apparently it couldn't fire in rapid succession.
Was it using an internal mechanism, or did it need to recharge mana?
I didn't know the reason.
That was what made it a dragon's trump card.
And he had fired all three at once.
There would be no repeat.
If only one neck had fired, perhaps another neck could have used Breath.
But it didn't do that.
Probably because the other necks would be caught in the blast.
In any case, this was our chance.
"Ooooh!"
Paul severed a neck.
I burned it immediately.
Two left.
A thick neck and a thin one.
Was the especially thick one the main body?
If so, it could wait.
"Father, go for the thin one first!"
"I know!"
Paul charged.
Elinariase and Talhand were handling the thick neck.
With only two left, things were much easier.
"Daaah!"
Paul severed the neck.
I immediately slammed fire magic into it.
We could do it.
One left.
We'd won.
At this point, I wouldn't give it an opening to regenerate.
Even if the last head was immortal, with only one there was no shortage of ways to deal with it.
The moment I burned the neck with fire magic— The hydra convulsed.
I didn't understand what that movement was.
My foresight eye had shown it, but I still didn't understand.
It was too large.
"You bastard!"
"!"
When I came to my senses, Paul had shoved me.
Something enormous passed right in front of me.
There shouldn't have been any heads left.
No.
The heads still "existed."
It was just that the heads had no more "heads on them."
The hydra swung its headless necks like flails.
All eight of them.
Necks as thick as a person's embrace, covered in scales as hard as a cheese grater.
It swung its entire body and swept them all at once.
"Rudy!"
Paul shouted and kicked me rolling again.
Almost simultaneously, something massive crashed down right beside me with a deafening bang.
Something.
Right next to me where I'd fallen on my knees.
Right where I had been standing.
Between me and Paul.
"U-urgh!"
There were eyes.
Desperate eyes.
Cornered eyes.
Eyes that were clawing for survival at the very edge.
The hydra's eyes.
A head with something horn-like protruding from the forehead.
"Ooooooh!"
Reflexively, I plunged my left hand into those eyes.
With a squelching sound, searing heat traveled up my arm.
The hydra closed its eyelids.
Scale-covered eyelids, coming down.
Like a guillotine.
The next instant, I fired a Rock Cannonball.
The hydra's head exploded, and the eyelids clamped shut.
At the same time, I was yanked upward.
After a sharp crack, a tearing sound echoed through my brain.
"R-Roxy!!"
Enduring the pain, I screamed.
The name of my trusted teacher.
"Let a small ember consume the great bounty—'Flame Hurl'!"
That voice was small, but it rang loud and clear in my ears.
The last neck fell, charred black.
The hydra's massive body crashed to the ground with a thunderous roar, collapsing.
Raising a cloud of dust, the headless corpse lay on the ground, twitching in spasms.
I could feel life draining from that body.
No regeneration.
The last head wasn't immortal after all.
"Hah... hah..."
I took it down.
I actually took it down.
"We did... it!"
The instant I recognized that, searing pain shot through my left hand.
I looked, and was struck with horror.
"Ugh..."
My left hand was gone.
The scales that had attached to my eyelids had sliced through skin and muscle, and the powerful muscles of the eyelid had crushed the bone.
Then, in the final instant, as the hydra raised its head, it was torn away.
Blood spurted from the artery in rhythmic jets.
"My hand—my left hand..."
The eyes.
My left hand was inside the hydra's head.
I thought that, and looked at the head from before.
Charred to a cinder by Roxy's full-power fire magic.
The moment I saw that, I understood.
My left hand was gone for good.
I probably wouldn't find it even if I searched.
Even if it was there, while searching, my blood would— Right, I had to use Healing Magic immediately.
"O angel of miracles, grant the breath of heaven to the beating of life.
The sun received in the heavens. God's messenger despises the color red.
Descend upon the sea of light and spread your pure white wings.
Thus shall the red be vanquished.
'Shine Healing'!"
I chanted the advanced Healing Magic.
I knew that advanced healing could not restore a lost part.
But I used it anyway.
Pink flesh swelled and grew from the severed stump, and the bleeding stopped.
In addition, I could feel the wound on my face and the bruise from Paul's kick healing as well.
"Hah... hah..."
My breathing was ragged.
Calm down. Calm down.
I had lost my left hand.
But the hydra had been a formidable foe.
When you considered that it was only my left hand, maybe it was a cheap price to pay.
If Paul hadn't saved me at the last second, I probably would have died.
"...Thank you, Father."
I turned around, looking for Paul.
No response.
Everyone was silent.
Elinariase stood frozen.
Talhand was speechless.
Roxy had her hand over her mouth.
Behind her, Geese came running, his face pale.
No response from Paul.
"...Father?"
At the end of everyone's gaze— Paul was lying on the ground.
Yes, lying.
Facing upward.
But— He wasn't merely lying down.
He was unconscious.
His eyes were vacant.
And— His lower body was gone.
"...Huh?"
I couldn't process it.
"Eh?"
Ah, no.
I knew what had happened.
Yes.
I had seen it, hadn't I?
Paul had kicked me.
Because the hydra's last head was bearing down on where I'd been standing.
That's why he kicked me.
To send one person tumbling out of the way.
You had to kick with everything you had.
I was no longer a child.
To kick with full force, you had to thrust your hips forward like this.
Normally, the recoil would push you back, but Paul was a swordsman of this world.
A capable swordsman, clad in fighting spirit, with formidable strength.
Which meant that even after kicking me, he had stayed right where he was.
And that meant, in other words— In other words.
I didn't want to understand.
In other words.
"Ah, why?"
The moment I said that, Paul's eyes shifted blearily.
Our gazes met.
"............"
Paul said nothing.
He merely moved his mouth slightly in what looked like relief.
He exhaled, as though unburdened.
A weak spurt of blood leaked from his lips.
And then, the light left his eyes.
Paul died.