Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 12 - Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

Mortal Combat 

T HE HYDRA MADE for an imposing figure, waiting for us in that spacious room. Behind it was a magically imbued crystal. There wasn’t a shadow of a doubt in my mind that it was indeed Zenith who was sealed within. 

“Okay, let’s do this!” Paul dashed ahead. He crouched low to the ground like a dog, moving like the wind—at a speed that left the rest of us in the dust. Except this time, Elinalise stuck right behind him. Behind her was the slow-legged Talhand. We matched his pace as we advanced. 

Geese was on standby behind us. He would be useless in this fight, considering he had no way to deal damage. Still, he remained. His duty was to escape and tell the others what had happened if our party failed and was wiped out. 

“Raaaah!” 

Paul reached the hydra. In the same instant, three of its heads moved to strike. The beast was quick for its size, agile and nimble enough that each of its heads looked like wild snakes as they moved. 

But then Paul blurred, and in that instant, he sliced right through one of the creature’s necks. 

Okay, this is it! 

“Fireball!” I lifted my staff and poured all the mana I could within, packing the flames with heat before launching them at the hydra. 

But it was futile. 

The closer the fireball drew to its target, the more it shrank in size. It evaporated the instant it hit. The only thing it left behind was that unpleasant screech, like nails on glass— Piiing. 

“Guess I’ll have to get up close and launch it directly,” I sighed. I’d have to slam my fire magic into it at melee range to cauterize the stumps of its necks. 

“Just like we planned,” said Roxy. “Rudy, can you do it?” 

“I’ve got this. It’s not like magic is the only thing I’ve been practicing,” I assured, even as my heart hammered. 

I wasn’t good in melee. All my memories of close combat were tainted with defeat, starting with Paul, then Ghislaine, then Eris, and finally Ruijerd. Never had I been able to beat any of them at close range. Sure, I’d won battles before—against Linia, Pursena, and Luke. There were others whom I’d bested with the help of my Eye of Foresight, too. But could any of them have beaten a hydra? 

No. I didn’t see how they could, not when Paul and Elinalise were both struggling. It was illogical to think I could win against it, either. 

But I wasn’t fighting alone this time. I had a team. Paul, Elinalise, and Roxy were all with me. I didn’t know the extent of Talhand’s power, but if he was at all comparable to the others, he would prove useful as well. 

I moved as swift as I could, coming up just behind Paul. 

“Rudy, you stay right behind me!” I heard him shout back at me. 

To his right was Elinalise, and to his left, Talhand. Behind us, Roxy. This was precisely the Imperial Cross formation. 

“Shaaaah!” 

All at once, three of its heads came snapping toward us. The hydra didn’t move more than four of them at a time. Perhaps that was the extent of its ability to attack? Or maybe it was simply that any more heads than that would get in each other’s way? 

I wasn’t sure, but this was good news for us. 

“Hah!” 

“Mmph!” 

“Graah!” 

Elinalise parried one head while Talhand deflected another. Paul cut off the third, which dropped to the ground, writhing. 

“Go!” 

“Yeah!” 

Paul bellowed the command at me, and I approached the wriggling stump, launching my magic at it. The flames licked upward, illuminating the area as it scorched the opened wound. The meat on its neck sizzled, turning a charred black. 

“How’s that?” I inched back to observe my work, but it was too early to tell. 

Before I could confirm anything, other heads came whirring at us. Paul blocked one, and Elinalise deflected the other with her shield. In the corner of my vision, I caught a spray of blood coming from Talhand. 

“Guh!” 

“Let this divine power be as satisfying nourishment—Healing!” Roxy ran to the dwarf’s aid the moment he took the blow, and healed his wounds. 

They were all working to shield me from injury. It was left up to me to check whether my flames had been effective or not. 

How was the wound on its neck? Would the carbonized stump regenerate? 

“…Okay!” 

It hadn’t. The wound was just as Paul had left it. The meat and flesh wouldn’t knit back together as it had before. 

“It’s effective!” I announced. 

“Hell yeah!” Paul whooped before cutting off the next one. 

I burned that one, too. The heat from it was incredible, choking the air around me. Even Paul had sweat dripping down his brow. But if I didn’t put the necessary firepower behind these attacks, I wouldn’t be able to cauterize the wounds. If left half-toasted, the creature would regenerate. As long as we kept up at this pace— 

“Ah…! Cover me!” I called out. 

My Eye of Foresight predicted the hydra’s movement. Two of the heads that hadn’t previously moved will come straight my way. 

I could evade the one, but the other head would predict that motion and aim accordingly. 

“Leave it to me!” Elinalise called out. As I dodged the first, she flew in beside me. She knocked one head away while planting herself uncomfortably between me and the monster, shoving her shield out in front with a screech of grinding metal in order to protect me. 

A drop of blood splattered against my cheek. 

“Roxy!” I called, “Healing!” 

“Let this divine power be as satisfying nourishment—Healing!” She immediately leaped into action with her restoration magic. 

Then the two moved back to their original positions, as if nothing had ever happened. 

“Rudy, I’m going for the third!” Paul hollered back at me. 

“Got it!” 

A pillar of red liquid sprayed through the air as another head came crashing before me. 

Burn! My job was to burn—to burn its flesh, to do nothing more than burn. Anything else, I could leave to the others. Right now, I just had to concentrate on what was before me. Paul cut, I burned. Elinalise and Talhand would make absolutely certain I was protected, and Roxy would heal them if she needed to. 

We burned the fourth head. 

We can do this! 

Suddenly, the hydra’s movements changed. The remaining five heads moved simultaneously, going after Talhand. 

“Gah!” 

“Talhand!” 

He evaded the first one. Since he couldn’t do the same for the second, he dropped to the ground and rolled, trying to escape it instead. As soon as he did, its scales clipped him and his heavy armor went flying, clattering as tumbled across the ground. His butt was planted firmly on the ground by the time he blocked the third with his axe. As for the fourth, he couldn’t even defend himself. It snapped at his feet. 

In seconds, Talhand was suspended in mid-air. 

“Gwoooh!” 

The fifth swooped in, jaws bared, threatening to snap his torso in two as he dangled helplessly. Then— 

“Hyaah!” 

A low boom! resounded as a head hit the floor. The tragic, fleshy stump of a dwarf’s neck…was nowhere to be found. 

It was the hydra’s head that had been lost. Paul had sawed it off. 

“Sorry ’bout that, and thanks for the help!” Talhand said. 

“I’ll burn it now!” 

“Let this divine power be as satisfying nourishment—Healing!” 

Talhand’s voice, then mine, and Roxy’s, respectively. All three of them could be heard simultaneously, all taking different actions. 

I burned two of its stumps at the same time. There were only three left. 

“Hm?” 

It was then that the hydra’s movements changed once more. The creature was beginning to stagger back, as if frightened by us. 

“We can do this! I’m going to press the attack, Rudy!” Paul leaped forward, but my legs were frozen. 

Wait… 

Wasn’t this a trap? 

I had a feeling we shouldn’t attack when we had no idea what our enemy might be scheming. That ill premonition drifted through my head within seconds. And in the next instant… 

“What?” 

It was one of the hydra’s heads. Unbelievable—it was chomping off the burned stumps of its own flesh! 

“What the hell?!” 

And as we watched, meat and bone knitted back together. 

“Shit!” 

The cauterized wounds couldn’t heal, but they would go right back to normal if the hydra managed to chomp them back open. 

“Don’t give it a chance to regenerate!” 

“Yaaaah!” Elinalise let out a fierce cry and swept toward it. She closed the distance, then thrust her gladius at one of the heads that was beginning to heal. 

“I lay before thee a cradle of ice as thou desire, now relinquish thy glacial currents, Ice Smash!” Elinalise chanted, slamming her magic into the regrowing stump at point-blank range. The scales had yet to grow back, so the block of ice burst right through the soft meat. Handfuls of blood went splattering like pomegranates as the head—or what remained of the neck, anyways—writhed in pain. 

“Roxy!” 

“Let this smoldering flame burn bright with your blessing, Flamethrower!” Roxy, who had caught up to Elinalise at some point, unleashed a roaring blaze. While the scales were able to absorb the force of her spell to some degree, she still managed to sear the flesh, smoke hissing from the wound. 

“We did it!” 

Paul moved to pursue, but the hydra didn’t retreat. It lifted its enormous body, stretching its heads—all three of them—just short of the ceiling, and glowered down at us. 

Was it really frightened? No, it didn’t seem like it. What was this? It felt familiar. Dangerous. 

“Something’s coming, watch out!” Paul warned. 

“Yeah!” My body moved on instinct—no, experience. I’d seen a dragon rear up like that before—going back on its haunches, drawing in air. “It’s going to breathe something! Everyone come over to me, please!” 

“Got it!” 

Paul retreated a step, returning to where I was. Elinalise and Talhand came running, almost tumbling, to the base of my feet. Roxy leaped toward me with her arms spread, as if to grab on. 

I conjured a wall of water as thick as I could. 

At almost the same instant, the creature exhaled. Tremendous flames burst out of three of the hydra’s mouths, plummeting down toward us, crashing into my water barrier. Enormous plumes of steam rolled out, heating the whole room. 

“Ah…!” 

Dragon breath was renowned for its fearsome heat. It could melt right through steel or evaporate a small bog in an instant. And just now, three of those heads had expelled that very breath. An ordinary magician alone couldn’t have defended against it. If five—no, ten of them joined together to erect a water barrier, then… No, even that might not be enough. 

Fortunately, my mana wasn’t ordinary . 

“Father!” 

“Yeah!” 

After the creature lowered its heads, Paul sprang forward. 

The hydra’s breath had limited uses. Whether it was creating it through some organ in its body or whether it had to store up mana, I had no idea. I just knew it couldn’t fire it in rapid succession. 

This had to be its trump card. Something it could unleash with three heads at the same time, with downtime between. Perhaps if only one head had fired, then one of the others might be able to use the same ability in succession. But it hadn’t done that, most likely to avoid catching its other heads in the attack. 

Either way, this was our chance. 

“Hyaah!” Paul swept his blade down, ripping through another neck. 

I burned it instantly. 

Just two more to go—a thick neck and a slender one. Was the conspicuously chunky one its main head? If so, we should leave it for last. 

“Father, let’s go for the thinner one first!” 

“I know!” Paul rushed forth. 

Elinalise and Talhand would deal with the thicker one. Things were much easier now that there was only two of them left. 

“Graaaah!” 

His sword danced and the head came falling. My flames immediately seared its raw flesh. 

We can do this, I told myself. 

There was just one left. We’d won this. After coming this far, we wouldn’t give it the chance to recover. Even if its final head were immortal, we could easily deal with it now that the others were gone. 

It was then, just as I was using my magic to cauterize the second to last stump, that the hydra’s body trembled. I didn’t know what that movement meant. I could see it with my Eye of Foresight, but I didn’t understand it. The creature was too big. 

“You moron!” 

“Wait—!” 

Before I realized what was happening, Paul had slammed me out of the way. Something enormous came crashing down right in front of my eyes. 

But…it didn’t have a head anymore? 

No—there was no head, but it did still have a neck. 

The hydra was slinging its headless necks around like spiked whips—all eight of them! Every one of them was coated in tough scales that could shred flesh like a cheese grater. It whipped those necks around all at once, mowing down anything in the vicinity. 

“Ruuudyyyyy!” Paul screamed, driving his foot into me to kick me out of the way. 

Almost simultaneously, a thud resounded as something smashed to the ground right where I’d been a moment ago, in the once-empty space that had existed between Paul and me. 

“Wh-whoa!” 

Horns jutted from the creature’s forehead. An eye glared at me—a panicked, cornered eye. One trying desperately to survive, to cling to the tiny strand of life that remained. The hydra’s eye. 

“Graaaah!” 

Moving on instinct, I plunged my left hand down into its eye. I could hear a squish, like a grape popping, as a fierce heat consumed my arm. 

The hydra blinked from the pain, its scale-covered eyelid coming crashing down like a guillotine. 

In the next instant, I launched my Stone Cannon. The top part of the hydra’s head was blown off as its eyelid clamped down. The force of the collision jerked my arm up into the air. A tear and then a vicious snap—two sounds that penetrated so deep in my ears they seemed to claw their way to my brain. 

“R-Roxyyyyy!” I choked back the pain as I screamed out her name—the name of my trusted master. 

“Let this smoldering flame burn bright with your blessing, Flamethrower!” Her voice, though faint, reached me. 

The final head fell, charred black from the fire. Then its enormous body slowly began to collapse. A boom thundered around us as it crumpled. I could feel the life gradually drain out of it. 

There would be no further regeneration. Its final head was not immortal. 

“Haah… Haah…” 

We beat it. We actually beat it. We won! 

“We did it… Urgh!” The second I realized it was over, sharp pain came shooting up from my left hand. When I looked down, I was shocked. “Ahh…” 

My left hand was gone. 

The scales of the hydra’s eyelid had sliced right through skin and muscle, its ferociously strong muscles snapping my bones apart. Then, in the last moment when it had raised its head, it ripped the whole thing off. Blood was spewing from my open artery. 

“My hand…my left hand…” 

In its eye. My hand…it was in the monster’s eye, I realized. 

I glanced over at the head. The raw power of Roxy’s fire magic had left it a clump of charcoal. The moment I saw that, I knew. 

My left hand was gone. 

I could search for it, but I wouldn’t find it. I would bleed out if I even tried. 

Crap. I needed healing. Fast. 

“Angel of miracles, bestow thy holy breath unto the pulsing heart before thee. O heavens blessed with sunlight, servants who despise crimson, swoop down into the ocean of light, the pure white of thy wings spread wide. Drive away the blood thou seest before thee! Shine Healing!” 

I recited an Advanced-tier incantation. Advanced alone would not be able to restore what was lost. I knew that. I used it anyways. 

Pink flesh swelled over the amputated stump, ceasing the blood flow. Disappearing along with it were the scratch on my face and the bruise from where Paul had kicked me. 

“Phew… Haah…” 

My breathing was erratic. 

Calm down, I told myself, calm down. 

My left hand was gone, but the hydra had been an incredibly difficult foe. I’d gotten through it with all but my left hand. Put that way, perhaps it was a small price to pay. If Paul hadn’t managed to squeeze in there and save me, there was a high likelihood I would have died. 

“You really saved me there, Father.” I glanced over my shoulder, searching for him. 

There was no response. 

Everyone was quiet. Elinalise just stood there. Talhand was silent. Roxy pursed her lips. And behind them, Geese was pale as a sheet. 

Paul gave no reply. 

“…Father?” 

They were all looking at something, so I followed their gaze to where Paul was, collapsed on the ground. Yes, collapsed. There, on his back. 

But…he wasn’t just collapsed. He was unconscious. His eyes were vacant. 

And…his lower body was missing. 

“…Huh?” My brain couldn’t process it. “What?” 

Oh, no. I knew what had happened. 

That’s right. I’d seen it myself. Paul had kicked me out of the way because the spot where I’d stood was exactly where the last head came slamming down. He’d had to kick me as hard as he could to be able to move me. I wasn’t a child anymore, so he had to, you know, thrust his lower body forward for the kick to have power behind it. Normally that kind of kick would send a person reeling back from the recoil, but Paul was a swordsman. A skilled one, one who could wrap themselves in battle aura, one with physical strength. So when he kicked me, his body didn’t move. 

That meant… That meant that the place where I was at… I mean, the place… 

I didn’t…want to understand it. 

I just… 

“But…why?” 

The moment I strangled out those words, Paul’s eyes moved, landing on me. I met his gaze. 

“…” 

Paul said nothing. His mouth just softened—as if relaxed, as if expelling a sigh of relief—and blood gurgled up past his lips. 

Then the light went out in his eyes. 

Paul was dead.