Alex lay on his back in the gooey black liquid on the floor of the root cave. He felt the world shaking.
He opened his eyes and saw the dead head of the Hydra being dragged away. The root cave began collapsing.
He started running outside as gooey black liquid began raining on him.
He could taste it even in his mouth—it tasted like rotten vegetables with a much more horrible smell.
He reached the spot where he had left Hati.
The wolf cub's grey and purple fur was now turned all black from the liquid, and Hati was retching like a cat.
Alex smiled, showing black teeth, gooey liquid sticking to his teeth.
"Yeah, Hati, I know it tastes like shit. Let's get out of here."
He picked up Hati and ran as if a Hydra were chasing him, said in a frustrated voice,
"I would fight a Hydra, but eating this shit? I can't do that."
He emerged into the light, the ground caving in behind him.
He ran as trees slid down, the cracking and breaking of wood echoing all around.
He ran and ran until the earth stopped sinking.
He collapsed with Hati at the border of the hole. After a while, he heard cracking sounds like something was climbing up from the hole, and the ground started shaking again. He backed away as far as he could.
Then he saw it: in the forest full of tall trees, a creature with six necks, green skin like poison, heads pointed, and a crown of horns around it.
With sound like falling mountains, it moved with shaking earth.
It roared into the sky. Alex closed his ears; the roar almost burst his eardrums. He looked up at the sky, fear apparent in his eyes, and thought:
I have to kill that? A creature that can devour a whole city? How can I beat it? How can I possibly think of being able to beat it?
He fell down on his ass, fear and despair evident in his eyes.
When Hati saw this, he came before Alex and growled toward the colossal Hydra, trying to protect his only companion.
When Alex saw this, he came back to his senses.
What was I thinking? Why would I feel despair? I'm afraid, but -
He picked up the wolf cub, brought its face toward his, and looked into its eyes, with forced smile,
I shouldn't feel despair because I have to protect this one little guy who came forward without thinking to protect me from that colossal being.
Alex stood up with resolve in his eyes, but fear didn't go away; fear was still there.
He moved barefoot, touching the cold earth floor, the cracking of leaves underfoot, and smelling like shit, toward the Hydra roaring in the sky.
He came near it and saw the seventh head hanging dead from its body.
He saw the Hydra's colossal body near the taller Mother Tree. He hid behind a broken tree and erased his presence.
When the Hydra came out of the sinkhole, it summoned its children—the corrupted elves.
They lined up in front of the Hydra, more than 200 elves still corrupted. The Hydra, with all six heads, started eating them. It was afraid of something; it was trying to increase its strength.
The main head, the one with the biggest horns on the back of its head, said with a stone-grinding voice:
"WE EAT, AND, WE GO, WE HURRY."
As Alex saw this, his face turned grim.
The Hydra was eating the corrupted elves like snacks, the crunching sounds echoing in the clearing. The corrupted elves weren't running away; they were waiting to be eaten.
When Princess Aersith, Legolas, and others saw their brethren being eaten in front of them, they couldn't do anything to save them.
If they tried to even go near the Hydra, they'd lose their will. With the sight in front of them, all the elves knelt down with tears in their eyes, saying goodbye to their brethren.
Alex put down Hati near a broken tree that looked like a boulder and whispered,
"Hide here, Hati. Don't move from here."
Alex moved along the broken tree and found a little opening under it.
He slipped down and moved along the border of the sinkhole opposite the Hydra's eating spot.
Alex was near the tail of the Hydra; his heart was in his throat.
Sweat from his head dripped into his eyes. He wiped the sweat with his arm and moved carefully with his bare feet, erasing his presence completely, slowly moving.
Creek.
His eyes widened, heart stopped. He looked back instantly toward the Hydra's heads; it was still munching on the elves. He let his breath out, took his foot back, and stepped away from it.
He reached the Mother Tree by tiptoeing, his heart racing, back drenched in sweat.
The Mother Tree was hiding most of the Hydra from the other side but not all of it.
Let's climb now.
He started climbing slowly, without making any sound to avoid alerting the Hydra.
The Hydra was almost done with its snacks.
Alex reached eye level with the Hydra; when he saw that, his heart almost stopped.
He bit his tongue; with pain and the taste of blood in his mouth, he came back to his senses and resumed climbing.
The Hydra finished its snacks; all six heads looked grim with red snouts and blood dripping from their mouths and glowing green eyes.
They started eating the dead head.
Alex reached far above the Hydra; now he could see all of the Hydra's colossal body.
It looked like a colossal being appearing from a black abyss into the world of light.
Now let's see if my gamble can work.
Alex looked carefully at the Hydra's colossal body; the whole body was covered by jagged scales, dark green, giving it a sinister appearance, with smooth green legs and a smooth long tail ending in an emerald green Morningstar tail.
Where's the core? I don't have much time until it starts attacking this tree.
He channeled all his wood elemental power into his eyes and looked down on the body, where he could see blue lines, all ending at one point below ridges like scales.
Then he felt something warm trickling down his cheeks. He closed his eyes and wiped the blood from his eyes.
Hey Mother Tree, can you hear me?
No sound came.
He didn't have much time, so he used wood elemental power on the branch of the Mother Tree, made it sharper like a blade, and extended it longer like a spear, strengthening it with all his remaining wood elemental power.
Now that's done, let's go down and kill a Hydra. I know it's a gamble. I've lived my life up till now always near death, but this will be my first time instead of running away from it, I'm going toward it. In the end, I still chose protecting—that's not a bad way to die.
Alex looked toward the endless forest and whispered,
"I hope you live a good life, Hati."
He jumped straight down from the skies toward the body of the colossal being.
An ant trying to kill an elephant by crushing itself against it?
He channeled all his dark elemental power into the spear he made.
As Princess Aersith saw a dark star shooting down from the sky, its aim was the back of the Hydra.
The Hydra was still busy eating its own head with crunching, cracking sound, black liquid dropping on the ground from the bites.
Alex shot down with air currents increasing sharply, leaving cuts on his face. He kept his eyes open, spear pointed above his head, holding with both hands, not faltering even a little despite air cuts on his hands.
He was targeting the point at the back at the base of the highest ridge where he saw all the blue lines meeting.
Before he could make contact, his clothes were torn asunder, body covered with blood, several sharp cuts, more abundant on his extended arms.
The dark star fell on the back of the Hydra.
Boom.
The earth shook.
Roar came from all six heads.
"ROARRRRRR!"
All six heads came crashing down instantly, making the sinkhole even bigger and dragging the trees like an avalanche.
Creek...