Chapter 4029: Traitor Blood (Part 2)

The Upyr in front of her had no qualms about targeting the defenseless humans, nor playing every dirty move in the book. Yet the worst part was that the corrupted Divine Beast who had stopped Faluel’s retreat was also a Hydra.

Melinor was older than Faluel, but the clan had excluded her from the Harmonizer project due to her lack of talent in both Forgemastery and Healing arts. It was also the reason she had betrayed her clan and sought Orpal’s help.

Melinor knew that even if the project succeeded, there was no guarantee that she would find her path to Dragonhood before old age claimed her life. She didn’t trust those who had already turned their back on her to help her, and she trusted her own skills even less.

"How’s the Harmonizer project going, Fanny?" The Hydra-Upyr said with a laugh. "I hope it’s going well, because unless you can evolve right here and now, you won’t live past today!"

"You’re insane, Melly." Faluel’s heads bobbed and weaved the Upyr’s attacks, staring at her former clanmate with a mix of disgust and envy.

Melinor’s body wasn’t stumpy anymore. She had a fully formed torso, long arms, and longer legs. Melinor also had two membranous wings connecting her little fingers to he hips, and a bone spike-ending long tail that whipped the air in frenzy.

On paper, it was the closest thing to the Hydra bloodline’s dream after Ufyl. In practice, however, Melinor’s Upyr form was a taint on everything the Hydra’s quest for Dragonhood stood for.

Melinor’s sea green scales were gone, replaced by a thick, black hide covered in short, needle-like bristles. Her eyes, all fourteen of them, now shone with the red light of undeath instead of the power of the elements.

There was no wisdom in her features, nor nobility in her poise. Melinor’s appearance wasn’t that of a cunning, mighty Dragon, but of a bloodthirsty predator, and the only thing that the members of the Hydra clan felt while looking at her was revulsion.

The mana cores and spells of the two Hydras were evenly matched, and so was their mastery over the art of Domination. Yet Orpal’s blood had given Melinor a physical prowess and mass that eclipsed Faluel’s.

That and Melinor’s Upyr bloodline abilities put Faluel at a disadvantage that she couldn’t bridge, no matter how hard she tried. The Frost Soul of the other Upyrs blocked her elemental spells, while Melinor’s Thunder Soul bypassed Faluel’s Adamant armor, inflicting deep wounds upon her.

Faluel had managed to survive that long only thanks to her multiple heads. Whenever a Hydra was injured, it was easy for them to use Invigoration even in the heat of battle and recover from injuries that would have otherwise sealed their fate.

Alas, it was a game that Melinor could play as well, making Faluel’s cunning and tactics irrelevant.

Faluel’s situation would have been desperate as it was, but protecting the two humans made it hopeless. She had one head less than her opponent due to the sheer focus that protecting Rizel and his mother required.

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome, Fanny." Melinor hissed, clawing at the smaller Hydra. "How many experiments has the clan performed so far? How many times do you so-called geniuses have to fail before giving up?

"There is no path to Dragonhood. Leegaain has forsaken us as a failed experiment. Yet we can still become Divine Beasts. Just look at me!"

"All I see is a raving monster." Faluel unleashed a burst of Phoenix Smash that Melinor countered with a Mirror Wall. "I’d rather spend the rest of my life as a Hydra than become like you."

The Spirit Barrier crumbled under the emerald flames, but what was left barely blackened the Upyr’s armor.

"You mean the next thirty seconds?" Sickly yellow electricity arched across Melinor’s body as she rushed forward.

Due to their lack of prehensile limbs, Hydras rarely used weapons. That and her status as a runaway left the Upyr with only her Lesser Divine Beast-sized armor, rings, and amulets as equipment.

"That sounds like an accurate estimate." Faluel suddenly shapeshifted into a draconic form that strikingly resembled Ufyl’s, missing only the wings. "For you, though."

The moment Life Vision confirmed that Faluel had escaped Frost Soul’s boundaries, the blades on her short fingers and toes joined together in her hands to form her enchanted glaive, Strife.

Faluel planted the heel of the still-extending staff in the ground, impaling Melinor before she could stop her mad charge.

"How-" Faluel twisted the blade as she pulled it out, leaving a gaping hole where Melinor’s heart was supposed to be.

Then she swung Strife in a wide arc, cutting off all of Melinor’s seven necks in a single fluid movement. The heat emitted by the blade instantly cauterized the stumps, sealing the Upyr’s final breath and any possible use of Invigoration.

’I Forgemaster my own weapons and don’t go around advertising them, that’s how, you filthy traitor.’ Faluel thought while using one of her heads to scout her retreat path and the other six to look around.

What she witnessed made her cold blood run even colder. Faluel’s victory was a glimmer of hope in a sea of despair. Not many Hydras could afford an enchanted weapon of their size, and even those who did only fared a bit better than the others.

Frost Soul nullified all enchantments, and the bigger size of the Upyrs negated most, if not all, of the range advantage of the weapons. The gap mass, instead, was something that no piece of enchanted metal could even out.

When an Upyr managed to grab the haft of a polearm or picked up a lost weapon, their opponent had little chance of victory, and a tactical retreat became the only option.

’I would have probably ended up the same way if I didn’t keep Strife a secret and bait Melinor into such a reckless charge.’ Faluel panted, stepping back to get further away from Frost Soul’s corrupted water element. ’If Lotho doesn’t arrive soon, we’ll be annihilated.’

"Where in the gods’ names is Lotho?" Raagu shared Faluel’s worry, but her perspective was much more frantic.

Shattered Moon had crushed all the magical formations she had carefully overlapped, flooding the Mage Association branch with Frost Soul and turning the Warp Gate into a useless pile of rocks again.

Her regular use of Invigoration had kept Raagu at the peak of her strength, but that was a small consolation when facing a 30 meters (100’) tall Upyr-Bastet in close combat.

Akhton had reached the bright violet core long before meeting Orpal, and had kept the relationship with his family decent enough to have one of their best Forgemasters to craft his equipment a little over fifty years ago.

Sure, he couldn’t use any spell or enchantment aside from the Spirit ones like everyone else, but Thunder Soul was unaffected by his Frost twin, and so was the Life Maelstrom Jorl had bestowed upon the Bastet.

Many Hydras had already fallen to Akthon’s spear, Ashen Dread, and Raagu was bound to join their ranks unless she abandoned her position and with it any hope to save Lutia.

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