chapter 25
25.Nine-headed snake (4)
“John, this is amazing. I can’t believe it even though I’ve seen it with my own two eyes…”
“I need this much to catch him.”
Karina opened her mouth at the traps I set in the clearing.
It’s cute. She looked a bit dumbfounded, but since she was a beauty, she just looked cute.
The body is not cute at all. I tried to look away from Karina and take one last look at the traps I had created.
A super-sized trap to catch the huge Hydra. The trees around them were cut down and gathered together, and stakes with sharp ends were driven into them, and the traps, each with sharp rings made of bear bones in between, seemed like they would get mortal wounds even if they were scratched. And even a log trap hung between giant trees just in case.
If the trap works properly, catching the hydra should be easy.
If you catch the hydra, you will forever say goodbye to the disgusting snakes. All the snakes would have been wiped out by the acid poison anyway, so if you kill the Hydra, there won’t be any more threats to this island except for the dungeon.
“…I don’t know when Lenny will come.”
I looked in the direction Lenny was rushing towards. The open road she was in was quiet.
When will it appear?
Raise your eyes upward. The weather is sunny. The unbelievable peaceful sunlight stings the eyes on the day of the decisive battle. Normally, I would yawn happily and find a place to lie down, or work in the shade, but now it’s time to calmly wait for the Hydra’s attack.
I now have enough time to rest for a while.
I decided to sit down against a tree and enjoy a short break. I don’t intend to close my eyes… But I can’t relax too much. I shouldn’t be too nervous.
“Compassionate Calon…”
My head naturally turned to the side at the clear voice I heard from the side.
Of course, it was Karina.
In the first place, the only ones I can talk to in this forest are Karina, me, and Lenny, who should be dragging the hydra by now. It’s something I see often, but today it’s something different. It was because he was praying while wearing armor that warriors would wear, not the priestly uniform he had worn stitch by stitch.
Looking at him praying with only his helmet off, he looks like a paladin that often appears in games. After all, Lenny is closer to a paladin, but to be honest, I don’t think Lenny is religious. Because it’s Kalon and Lenny wants Karina.
He’s the guy who will take Karina’s side even if Calon comes down and announces her excommunication to Karina.
Let’s call it a loyal dog.
I’m a mad dog to my enemies.
“I think I need to loosen up a bit.”
I thought it would be better to warm up a little before the final battle with the Hydra. If you are halfway resting and go into battle in an unresolved state, you won’t be able to fight properly. I got up and started doing some light stretching.
—————-
“It’s terrifying.”
The air is shaking.
It’s not really like that, but somehow it felt like it. I fixed my shovel while looking at the eight snake heads that began to appear in the distance. The fight will begin soon. I looked at Karina, who stood up from her seat while holding her hands tightly.
Her hands are shaking.
A face stained with fear is visible through the swaying pink hair. No matter how much she is called a saint, the essence is that after all, she is a girl who has never been in this situation, so it is natural.
I went up to her and patted her on the shoulder.
“Don’t be afraid. It will end easily.”
It is a strategy that starts on a thoroughly planned board. If there are no other variables, a chance to finish the 10-year fight neatly.
“…It’s my first time doing something like this, so I’m very anxious.”
After saying that, the pink-colored saintess looked up at me. Two eyes meet. Odd Eye. Her eyes, which should have been pink, had a golden glow. Are you refining your divine power?
“Don’t think too hard. If I do my part, it will be over easily.”
“What if things go wrong?”
“You will die.”
Yes. Will die
I don’t intend to die, but the result of a failed operation will be fatal.
In the worst case, you could really die.
So I was going to do my best in this fight.
“John is calm…”
“Because I’ve been through this many times.”
“You must have suffered a lot.”
Suffering.
I did a lot of dirty work.
Considering the hardships we’ve gone through so far, we can see that this operation is full of hope. At least it’s three people this time. Even if someone makes a mistake or an unexpected variable occurs, there is someone who will cover it. When I lived alone, when something like this happened, the game of gambling with my life would begin immediately.
Die or live.
The days when we put each other’s lives on stake and danced with swords on top of the pole. I’ve always been the winner, but I’ve never won unscathed.
The rough traces engraved all over my body are proof of how dangerous this hellish island is.
…Huh, let’s not think about it.
Because now I have to focus on the battle.
I came to my senses and looked at Karina again. Karina’s body stopped trembling as if her tension had been relieved by the conversation with me.
“…Coming soon.”
“Yes. Yes. John. Can’t we just use purification magic the moment we fall into a trap?”
“…That’s right. The moment you fall into a trap, you can write it right away.”
With that alone, the first plan can be achieved.
If it ended here, it would have been absurdly easy, but if that hydra was still alive, we would have to move on to the next plan. I tightened the hand holding the shovel and released it.
The ground rumbles.
And I see Lenny and Hydra running this way.
It is the beginning of the operation.
“Stay back. You might fall.”
Karina nodded her head at my words and took a few steps behind her, clasping her hands tightly and placing them on her chest. I averted my eyes from the sight and looked ahead again.
The distance is getting closer.
Raise your hand. It was a signal he had set up with Lenny in advance. Seeing my signal, Lenny jumped over the trap at once with his ignorant leg strength. Incredible leg strength that can jump over a trap with a diameter of 20 meters at once. I admired the look and activated a gift for the hydra that stretches her head towards Lenny.
The ground shakes.
It was the signal that a super-large trap with a diameter of 20 meters was activated.
The head of the hydra, which she had to look up at so that the nape of her neck hurt, suddenly came closer. The trap seemed to be working properly. I immediately called out.
“Now!”
“Almighty Calon… Please purify the wicked evil with the power of light.”
I covered my eyes from the flashing light before Karina finished speaking. I looked at the struggling hydra with frowns at the more brilliant light than I thought.
Smoke was rising from the body of the hydra. Flesh falls off her body. The zombified body was being forcibly purified by divine magic. I’m contorting her whole body as if she’s trying to escape, but my trap isn’t so easy that she can escape so easily.
The numerous stakes and bone hooks driven into her trap will hold onto the hydra’s body and won’t let go. Some will break, but I didn’t think it would last indefinitely anyway. All I had to do was hold out until Karina’s purification magic ended.
Yeah, maybe it’s because she’s a saint, but the effect is amazing.
“!@*()$(&)!*)$!(*!”
“Ahh, my ears…That’s really hard.”
Lenny grumbled, clutching her ear as if her ears were hurting from the hydra’s roar. I wanted to plug her ears, but I couldn’t. She had to prepare for a counterattack, because if the hydra wasn’t completely dead, she would counterattack.
But what I was worried about didn’t happen. Because the 8 heads that were running wild fell to the ground and caused an earthquake. Although we stumbled, we remained vigilant.
I didn’t think the hydra pup would really be knocked out.
A confirmation kill was necessary to gain certainty.
I glanced at her and checked Karina’s condition, then turned my gaze back to the hydra that had stopped her movement. It was a futile end compared to what had plagued me for 10 years. I didn’t think I would be able to win so vainly.
I approached the motionless hydra. Of course, he was holding a shovel.
I climbed over the head of the fallen hydra and with a shovel, I lowered the area where the hydra’s brain would be with all my might. The leather is scratched. I didn’t stop shoveling until the skin ripped open, the skull exposed, and I shattered the skull and smashed the brain. It was after sweat poured down my face when I ripped out my brain.
It’s filthy hard.
“What are you doing?”
“You have to smash all her heads.”
“Oh, I did.”
Lenny also joined me in the head smashing operation. With two people working together, the work was quite easy.
Unlike me, Lenny slashed her sword at once and moved it around to mess with her brain and then repeated her drawing. It’s an embarrassing power. It wouldn’t be something that could be done so easily.
One, two, three, four…Breaking the seventh head, I moved on to the last one. The closer I got, the more I remembered my past, where I suffered from this bastard.
Every time I look back on the history of that long bloody battle, the murderous intent buried within me comes to mind more and more.
The days when I was like that dog.
You f*cking snake.
In the end, it was me who won, you bastard.
The end is in sight.
The end of a long bad relationship.
I lifted a shovel full of brains. Those closed eyes will never open again.
It was then.
The world suddenly turned upside down.
“Damn it…”
“John!”
“… God!”
My whole body hurts as if it would tear. It was the first thought that came to my mind as I felt a terrible floating feeling.
The last head of the hydra, receding away, stared at me, sticking out her tongue eerily.
Eyes full of cunning.
Wounds that are gradually healing.
Hydra is resurrected.