Larsa stared stunned for a moment at the purple skinned reptilian beast which, in an instant, had risen from the water and killed her fellow hunter.

  Its neck was slim in proportion to the rest of its body, leading to a head that was larger than the entirety of Lara’s body at least twice over.

  As far as hierarchy was concerned, it was clear this would be a far greater challenge than the Gargoyle, its motionless body still spraying the black blood nearby.

  “A challenge is only impossible to overcome if you believe it to be so.”

  Her fathers words echoed in her mind, they were the last ones he had spoken before his illness worsened. They were the words she now chose to live by and no matter how intimidating the foe, she would not back down.

  “I am your opponent now, beast, and you will receive no quarter!”

  Larsa reassumed her battle stance, whether she was about to live or die she knew one thing for certain, the outcome wouldn’t be decided without a fight.

  The Hydra roared, its head tilting upwards to the sky before diving straight towards her, prepared to end her the same as her cohort!

  She intercepted it as it got close, smashing her Broadsword into its chin to send its head back upwards to where it started! The Hydra’s skin was extremely tough, even the slightly enhanced blade attack landed as if it was a blunt object rather than a fiercely sharp tool.

  The Hydra’s eyelids narrowed slightly, much like a human would do when deeply scrutinizing something, like it was offended it would have to work harder for this kill than the last.

  “This thing has some semblance of intelligence, can’t let my guard down for even a second.”

  The Hydra unhinged its jaw, a small flash of blue shining from the internal darkness before it unleashed a torrent of pressurized water in a beam-like fashion!

  Larsa evaded backward, the beam horizontally cutting through where she had been standing. It sliced clean through the ground, causing a large chunk to detach and fall into the river, disturbing the waters with large ripples.

  If there was one saving grace she had, it was that the creature's main body was mostly submerged in the Mississippi, meaning the only appendages it could use for offense were its head and…

  The beast’s flexible forked tail wrapped around her torso, lifting her off her feet and slamming her back to the ground a couple of times! She was able to pour some enhancement magic to her spine to lessen the impact, but was still rattled.

  It lifted her high In the air as she swung at the tail, the awkward angle and lack of room to maneuver making it so that next to no damage was sustained from her light slashes.

  It positioned her a few feet above its jaw before releasing its tail, intent to snap her in two as it had done to Bronson!

  She was able to reposition in time to stop the top and bottom parts of its mouth biting together with her legs, needing to pour a large amount of her magic energy into them so her bones didn’t snap!

  The Hydra’s jaw visibly struggled, its multi-ton bite force having never failed to instantly rend apart a foe before. Larsa needed to do something drastic before her energy gave out.

  Thinking fast, she dumped the same amount of enhancement she would normally use on the full power of her blade into her legs and thighs.

  Snap! With great force she’d split apart the Hydra’s jaw completely, the bottom half hanging loose while the tops slit eyes had rolled over!

  She fell back down to the ground by the river, landing on her feet with a flourish. A light sweat coated her brow, while she had long trained to increase her stamina far beyond the norm, it hadn’t yet been put to the true test against a foe her equal or superior.

  The Hydra was completely still, until a movement in its neck caught Larsa’s attention. It began to convulse before tearing in two like paper, the large dead skin of its head falling to the surface of the water beneath it.

  In place of where its broken head had previously been, now lay two twin serpent heads, good as new! Larsa stood slightly slack jawed, she had heard stories from her dad about all manners of beasts including Hydra’s.

  Like the tales of old which had persisted through time and hadn’t been covered up by the Holy Order, where one head was felled another two grew in its place.

  Larsa assumed this mantra only applied to actually lobbing off the head from the neck, it’s why she didn’t attempt to do so at the start of the fight, but clearly even irreparable damage was enough to trigger its mythical regeneration.

  The two heads glanced at each other, another series of hisses that sounded like laughs escaping one while the other let out a more aggressive sound almost like a growl.

  The left head lunged for Larsa again, she met it with a series of deflections that knocked it side to side only for it to keep pressing the offense after each one.

  The right head meanwhile dipped into the river, scooping up a large gulp of water, it prepared to fire its beam attack once more.

  Larsa seeing this out of the corner of her eye decided to push her own offense, when the left head got close once more she pushed off its flat nose area with her palm and front flipped over it.

  Before she impacted the ground she enhanced her right leg, upon collision with it, a large chunk was upheaved, using the flat of her blade she propelled the chunk toward the right head.

  It smashed over its skull leaving it momentarily stunned, by then however the left head had caught up and rammed Larsa in the side with its neck, sending her careening into a tree before she had a chance to enhance her defenses.

  Larsa saw red in her left eye, as she rubbed her temple with her forearm she realized a large gash had opened up and was dripping downward and impeding her vision.

  The right head gathering its bearings once more glowered down at the injured Larsa. The left head retreating upwards next to it hissed something resembling communication to its fellow cranium.

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  The right head opened its cavernous jaw once more, the blue glint heralding the firing of its attack shining seemingly in slow motion.

  There wasn’t time to move out of the way, even intercepting the beam with all the energy she had remaining for an enhancement wouldn’t matter, the force of the pressurized water enough to puncture straight through the blade and her chest in one go.

  “I’m sorry dad, I couldn’t honor the Masterson family name…”

  She closed her eyes, prepared for the end, until the sound of an impact caused her to reopen them with a start.

  A blow knocked the right head to the side as it fired, causing it to accidentally cleave its partner apart, the left head screeching as its hide was torn clean through, it tumbled into the water now detached.

  Before the right head could recover, a large tornado-like projectile rammed into the back of its head pushing it straight down and slamming its chin hard into the rocks.

  “Don’t worry muscles, cavalry is here now.” A familiar voice came, stepping in front of her, a high caliber rifle with runes engraved slung over her shoulder.

  “Yeah we’ll take it from here, no problem.” Another recognizable and nasally voice came.

  “You two…how?” Larsa was shocked to see Miranda and Milo in front of her now, shielding her from any further attacks.

  “Inquisitor Gravely sensed something big here, she would have come herself, but a group of monsters decided to storm a nearby town, so she’s preoccupied settling that down, luckily we were free when she called for us to come settle this.”

  Milo explained while keeping his eyes on the head which was still stunned upon the rocks.

  “Yeah you make yourself scarce, we’ll find a way to deal with this thing.” Miranda said while reloading her rifle, the empty shells popping out onto the ground.

  “This is probably the first time I’m really glad to see you two…but you’re gonna have to put up with me a bit longer.”

  She stood up and moved between them while reassuming her battle stance. They both glanced at her in surprise.

  “A Masterson never stops a fight until it’s truly finished, the three of us together are bringing this creature low.”

  “Heh, you really are something else muscles, if you don’t die this month you’ve got one hell of a future in the order.”

  “It’s getting back up!” Milo declared, the head finally stirring back up from the ground. The nub of its former head began to twitch and two new heads blasted out from the wound.

  All three heads screeched in unison, each locking eyes onto a member of the trio.

  “Alright uglies, now you’re facing a fair fight, let’s see how your bitch ass does without the numbers advantage.”

  Miranda still hadn’t lost her unnecessarily crude mouth in the intensity of the moment, but Larsa couldn’t help a smirk at the remark.

  One head went for Milo who flew into the air using a gust of wind like a surfboard, dodging with high agility each attempt the head made to bite at him, he circled around the neck the wind he was riding forcing it into an awkward angle.

  Another head dove towards Miranda, who slid on her knees beneath the attack, firing the rifle straight into its jaw in a brutal imitation of an uppercut. She rapidly fired a few more times pushing the head upwards in continuous offense.

  The center head targeted its original foe, Larsa now with a second wind intercepted with an enhanced knee straight into the chin, leaving the head wide open for her swinging her blade, a wave of energy emerging from it and crashing into its face sending it far backwards.

  With a hiss the center head dove straight for the water once more.

  “It’s trying to get water for the beam again!” Larsa shouted in communication to her allies.

  “Oh no you don’t!”

  Milo casted a thin veil of wind magic over the river where the head dove, and despite how hard it tried, it could not puncture into it for another helping of the liquid which fueled its strongest attack, the gusts pushing it back upward.

  “Suck on that- oh shit.”

  Milo got spiked downward back to earth by the Hydra’s forked tail, which then followed up by snaking around Larsa’s torso for the second time, lifting her up in preparation of a repeat of an earlier event.

  Miranda though had different plans, the runes of her rifle glowing a light red as instead of an ordinary high caliber bullet, a red beam of intense energy shot out, blasting apart the tail into smithereens and allowing Larsa to tumble free next to the body of the gargoyle which had finally stopped its bloodletting.

  “Grow that one back asshole!”

  Miranda shouted while the creature's three heads cried in a song of joint pain, uncaring of the beast's lack of potential communication in response to her insults.

  Milo sat up near to her, mostly fine thanks to a shield of wind he had surrounded himself with before the impact.

  “Still, this isn’t good, we can’t use lethal force or we risk even more heads sprouting out.”

  He pondered this while getting back to a vertical base. Miranda gritted her teeth, acknowledging the tough predicament they were in.

  “Fuck, if only the Inquisitor was here, she could burn this thing away so there would be nothing left to come back from.”

  Nothing left to come back from…Larsa had a revelation as she recovered with the body of her previous enemy next to her.

  “I’ve got a plan!” She yelled to her comrades as she lopped off the Gargoyle's head with her broadsword.

  “Trust me! Miranda, think fast!” She tossed the head in an arch, Miranda entrusting her judgment to Larsa blasted the skull apart, its loose giblets descending back to earth!

  “Milo push it!” In response the wind mage utilized a particularly powerful gust, sending the pieces hurtling toward the Hydra’s exposed abdomen above the water!

  Most of the pieces bounced off harmlessly except for a few…the teeth. They embedded themselves in the monster's skin. The creature's three heads did their signature hiss laugh, one would assume they thought such minor offence a futility.

  However, slowly but surely, the reptilian skin began to convert from purple into a stone gray, the petrifying effect of the Gargoyle spreading across its body from the points of where the teeth punctured them!

  Two of the heads thrashed in desperation to escape the fate they had been condemned to in their shared body, already the poison beginning to work the trail up their necks.

  The center head, desperate, dove for Larsa a final time, it stopped just short of her, the petrification preventing it from moving anymore before completely encompassing all three heads!

  “Farewell fell beast.”

  With that, Larsa tapped the skull of the center head with her unenhanced sword. A crack formed spanning all the way across its body, then another, then another!

  Finally the monster crumbled apart into pieces, most of them falling into the cold waters of the Mississippi and being washed away by the current.

  Larsa sat down on the rough ground, the exhaustion of the long battle finally settling in.

  “That was some real quick thinking muscles! If you weren’t about to die before we showed up, I’d be contemplating giving you the pass to become a solo hunter ASAP.”

  Miranda had moved up next to her to give her a pat on the shoulder in a friendly gesture.

  “Still, Hydra’s are a more dangerous beast than most, at this rate I don’t doubt you’ll pass with flying colors by the end of the first week. Regardless, that's enough for one night, let's go back to the rendezvous point.”

  Milo gestured to the general direction of where they started the hunt.

  Larsa stood and began to follow them, despite the incredible triumph over such a foe, she couldn’t consider it a perfect victory, for she now had to relay the passing of Bronson to the Inquisitor, a reminder that life as a hunter could be a fleeting one indeed.