Aren and Aiden ran side by side, a straight path to the Hydra that was ahead, but while they did, Aren scanned the area with shadow sense.

'Boulder to the left, big enough to hide something. I should plant a shadow there,' he thought, still scanning.

'Another, far back. I'll find a way to plant there.' Those were his two key points, a secret necessity in the battle.

The Hydra lifted all eight heads into the sky.

Its throat glowed.

The heads snapped down.

Lava with immense pressure burst forth.

The eight streams of lava collided into one, creating a massive blast of lava that the two were forced to dodge, but rather Aiden stepped up, he gripped his sword.

Right foot planted forward, eyes ahead.

Sword over his head, a blue hue covered it. He slashed, the blade packing an immense amount of soul energy in that moment.

The lava slammed into the sword, and the energy from the sword exploded out in a massive slash, cutting a path right through the lava for them.

Aren had never seen him use this, but there was no time to be shocked. He already bolted, running beside Aiden and heading to the front.

The Hydra readied another attack, heads raised, necks glowing.

The distance between Aren and the Hydra was short, but it would unleash before he got there for sure.

That was when backup came, ice lances and spatial spheres from behind. Kira and Zero attacking.

The ice lances and the spatial spheres slammed into different parts of the Hydra.

Boom. Boom.

Explosions ripped through it. The damage done wasn't lethal, but enough to stop its charge up and allow Aren to get close. While the Hydra flailed around in pain from the attacks, Aren got into the right position.

"Let's hope this works." He muttered, and immediately, shadow tendrils lunged from the ground. Two to a single head, sixteen tendrils in total. They wrapped around the heads of the Hydra, pulling down fast.

"Aiden, move." Aren yelled.

Aiden lunged, sword first.

His target was one head, the closest to him.

His feet pressed hard against the ground, so much that he left cracks.

His sword carried the blue hue as he slashed.

Aren moved as well, first head right before him.

He blasted like a rocket, leaping into the air.

His gaze locked on the neck, and then he unleashed a claw strike and shadow blade.

Both heads were cut at the same time, black blood spilling, pain shooting all through the body of the Hydra. It jerked as the pain filled it, roaring and trying to escape the tendrils that held it.

"Kira, now!" Aren yelled.

Kira and Zero were at the back. They would need to cover the distance in an instant. That was where Zero came in.

She grabbed onto Kira by the waist, a platform forming under her feet and throwing them into the air.

Both in the air, Kira looked down. She analyzed. She needed to somehow freeze both at the same time. Fear gripped her. This was a risky move, but she knew that they were banking on her. Her desire to not let them down crushed her fear. She leaped from the platform.

Diving like a skydiver, she had both hands to her side, the hot air pressing hard against her face. She forced her eyes to stay open, and when the time was right, she pulled both hands to the front.

"Please work." She muttered, and then unleashed the ice from up there.

Her plan was simple. Use it to slow her fall and freeze at the same time. Each hand was pointed to one severed neck. She aimed perfectly, and the stumps were frozen. She landed safely, but the tension didn't stop for a moment.

The Hydra pulled extremely hard. The tendrils snapped, and six heads rose. Everyone backed up a bit except Aren. He stood there, waiting to see what would happen.

The frozen stumps tried to heal. Steam rose from them, but it couldn't work with the ice. The heads didn't heal, and no extra came. Their plan worked.

Sadly, their excitement was short lived, as this sudden development pushed the Hydra past its limits.

In rage, it lifted all six heads to the sky above. Its necks glowed once again. They believed this was another attack like before, but instead it was a roar of lava into the sky.

ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!

It sounded absolutely terrifying and loud, its pain carried in that roar, as a jet of lava shot out, so high into the sky it looked like a beam. Then it began raining down, massive chunks the size of heads.

Everyone covered themselves, Zero in her dome, Kira under an ice dome with Aiden, but Aren rushed ahead.

The lava fell hard, slamming into their defenses, steam rising from it.

Aren, on the other hand, was dodging. Shadow sense picked up the lava falling, and he avoided it easily.

'If we stop now, it will allow it to recuperate somehow. It's flustered. We have the win in our hands. A few more moves to go and it's checkmate.' Aren thought, and then summoned multiple ants, and they all spread out, a total of ten. Five rushed in the direction of the first boulder he found, the next five toward the one far behind.

He did this before the heads of the Hydra came back down, which meant it didn't see. All it saw when its heads came down was Aren lunging at it.

Roarrrrrr!

It roared at Aren, then attacked.

All heads forward like bullets.

Mouths wide open and teeth showing.

It lunged.

First bite, Aren slid under, rolling and getting on his feet.

Second bite, teeth grazed him, but his double armor protected him. He slipped past that and kept moving.

Third bite, he leaned back, dodging it barely, but another bite came from the side, too fast to dodge. It locked onto him, but he spread his hands apart and held the jaw open.

The force of the bite was immense. He could feel his arms shaking already, but there was still a smile on his face. All six heads were now focused on him, and his party that were rushing forward to help.

'I don't need their help. I've already won this.' Aren thought as the teeth started to close in. He could already hear the throat of the Hydra moving, ready to swallow.

The other heads were moving in, each one ready to bite off a piece, but right then Aren vanished, and an ant shadow replaced him as the teeth crushed it.

As for Aren, he was already under all the necks.

While he had been in the mouth, he had one of the ants sneak in under, and that was all he needed. With all the heads converged together, the necks were close.

"It's now or never."

He unleashed tendrils, wrapping around all the necks at once, slamming them together even closer.

"Shadow Blades, Claw Strike, Barrage!" He yelled out a cooked up name for what he was about to do, and then unleashed hell.

Claw strikes and shadow blades, as much as he could get, slashed through the necks of the Hydra. Black blood spilled endlessly as he cut through them.

"Kira, now!" He yelled as all the heads fell in an instant.

She was stunned for a moment, seeing what had just happened, but she snapped out of it and unleashed her ice, freezing all the neck stumps at the same time.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.