Wade stood before the skeletal hydra, his chest heaving, his mind running on fus but burning with raw, frantic instinct.
The hydra’s four skulls reared high above, their eyes burning like dying stars.
"Why won’t you just fucking die?" he muttered through his teeth, lifting his sword.
He activated Chain Step, the air rippling around him as his form blurred.
In an instant, he vanished and reappeared directly above the hydra’s central mass. His hand blazed crimson as he thrust it downward.
"Fireburst!"
The explosion detonated point-blank.
A massive wave of red fla cascaded over the hydra’s spine, blasting bone fragnts into the air.
The shockwave sent Wade spinning upward. He flipped in the air and landed hard, one knee hitting the ground.
The hydra staggered, just slightly, but it was enough to make Wade’s lips twitch upward.
"So you can feel that," he panted, wiping blood from his lip.
He took a deep breath, activating Short Step again and again, his figure flickering like a phantom.
He reappeared to the hydra’s side, slamming a Fireburst into the base of its neck.
Another explosion tore through the air, but before he could recover, the frost head lunged, biting down on where he had just been.
Wade vanished, reappearing at the creature’s flank, and sent another Fireburst into its ribs.
Bone shards scattered. The beast howled, twisting, trying to track him, but he was already gone, reappearing at another angle, striking again, his movents erratic.
Each teleport left ripples of heat in the air, and every blast he left behind scorched the creature’s bony plates a little more.
The hydra, furious, dropped low on all fours, its massive limbs cracking the white-tiled arena.
Wade slid to a stop, sword raised, breathing hard. "Finally tired?"
Then, its heads reared back in unison, and all four of them roared.
The sound hit like a thunderclap, rattling the floor, vibrating through Wade’s bones.
The beast lowered slightly, and Wade’s eyes widened. It’s bracing itself.
And suddenly, he understood what it was doing.
The hydra lunged forward, its colossal body moving faster than sothing its size had any right to.
Wade barely teleported away before the creature’s claws shredded the ground where he’d stood.
But its movent exposed sothing. When it went down on all fours, its back beca a slope.
Perfect.
He teleported again, reappearing directly above the creature’s shoulder blades. Then he let gravity take him.
He landed hard, sliding down its back, his boots scraping against fused bone.
The hydra’s heads twisted toward him, each one glowing with its respective elent.
The lightning head was first, a crackling halo building in its throat.
Wade ducked instinctively.
The bolt shot over his head, slamming into the hydra’s own back, sending sparks flying and cracking the bone plates.
"Ha!" he barked, exhilaration lighting his face. "You’re helping now!"
He dashed along the creature’s spine, the four heads whipping and lunging to catch him.
Each ti he dodged, the hydra struck itself.
Wade leapt over a massive spike in the creature’s spine just as the ice head snapped at him.
He twisted in the air, and the icy breath missed him by inches, instead slamming into one of the other heads.
The struck skull froze instantly, shards of frost racing across its face and down its neck.
Wade landed in a crouch and looked up just in ti to see the lightning head reel back again.
"Oh, you’re beautiful," he whispered.
The head discharged.
The bolt shot like a spear of white fire, smashing directly into the frozen skull.
For a mont, nothing happened. Then the ice-covered head shattered, fragnts exploding outward in a burst of light and bone dust.
Wade laughed, a raw, almost manic sound. "You guys should really learn teamwork!"
The Hydra scread, staggering.
Wade’s heart pounded in his chest as adrenaline surged. He teleported again, appearing atop the lightning head this ti.
The creature thrashed violently, sparks cascading around them. Wade dropped low, clinging to its ridges, his hair standing on end from the charge.
"Let’s see if we can double that!"
As the lightning head began building another charge, Wade wrapped his hand around its jaw, forcing it open wider. The glow intensified, electricity arcing wildly across its fra.
At the last second, Wade twisted the skull, angling it towards another of the hydra’s heads, the fire head, its throat already glowing orange with fla.
The lightning discharged.
The thunderous blast connected with the fire head mid-breath.
The resulting explosion engulfed both necks in an inferno of blue and red fla. The blast tore a hole clean through the hydra’s upper fra.
Wade was thrown backward by the shockwave. He crashed onto the platform, rolling several ters before digging his sword into the ground to stop himself.
He groaned, clutching his ribs. His armor smoked, cracked from the heat. But when he looked up, two of the hydra’s heads were gone, reduced to splintered bones and drifting ash.
"Two down," he rasped, forcing himself to his feet.
The lightning head turned, furious, its jaw sparking with white-hot energy. It aid straight at him and unleashed another bolt.
Wade vanished.
He reappeared in the air beside the ice head, his boots landing on its crown.
Before it could react, he jamd his left hand into the gap between its neck plates. Bone creaked under his grip.
"Fireburst!"
The explosion wasn’t just fire. It was rage, desperation, and triumph all condensed into a single point of destruction.
Flas erupted from inside the skull, blasting upward through the eye sockets.
The head convulsed violently, bones cracking and splitting before the entire thing exploded in a burst of crimson fire.
The recoil launched Wade off the hydra’s neck like a rag doll. He spun through the air, ears ringing, his vision swimming. The world turned white, then black, then white again.
He barely registered the lightning bolt streaking toward him.
It was only pure instinct that made him teleport one last ti, appearing above the creature’s main body.
He hit the ground hard, rolling, before pushing himself up on trembling arms.
The hydra’s last head was rising again, the lightning head, the only one left. It turned toward him, its sockets burning white-hot.
It opened its maw, light flaring brighter than the sun.
"Not this ti," Wade muttered.
He teleported one last ti, appearing right on its skull, just between the eyes.
With a roar that matched the monster’s, Wade drove his broken sword down, shoving it deep into the bone.
Fireburst.
The blade detonated.
A crimson column of fla erupted from the hydra’s skull, bursting through the creature’s head and spine.
The blast ripped through the massive fra, shattering its core. The creature convulsed once, its limbs flailing wildly, before collapsing backward.
The impact shattered the entire platform. Cracks spread like lightning across the white stone, chunks of debris tumbling into the endless void.
Wade hit the ground, rolling to a stop near the fractured edge.
He lay there for a long mont, gasping for breath, his armor cracked, his sword reduced to molten fragnts.
Beside him, the hydra’s bones dissolved into golden dust, swirling upward, fading into the void.
And that was when the notifications began.
Reviews
All reviews (0)