Tales of Demons and Gods : The Legend of Xiao Ning'Er

"The hydra has practically no clear weaknesses. It is resistant to fire and cold, it's scales are extremely tough to breach, not to mention its incredible regeneration ability. Its offensive abilities are equally frightening with a formidable venom in its fangs, as well as ducts to spray a corrosive acid towards its enemies." Ning'Er summarised the characteristics of this demon beast to her friends. "The only positive thing is that this beast usually only reaches the peak of Gold Rank, and very rarely reaches Black Gold Rank because this is the limit of its bloodline. Does anyone have any ideas on how to defeat it?"

"We could...use our cloaks to sneak around it and avoid it completely...?" Linjian tentatively replied.

Ning'Er had noticed that he had been rather quiet ever since entering Snake Valley and punched him on the arm. "If you're scared of snakes, you should have just told us!"

He looked away to hide his embarrassment. "I'm not scared of snakes...I just prefer not to encounter them if possible. And this particular one that we're planning on facing sounds like a lot of risk!"

Ziyun looked to Ning'Er with pleading eyes and hoped that her friend would agree to Linjian. Hearing about how dangerous the hydra was had made her reluctant to face it as well. She could still remember her father's voice in the back of her mind telling her to stay away from risky situations.

Ning'Er looked at them with a firm expression and resolutely said, "I'm not trying to make things difficult for you all. We need to gain strength to protect Glory City. Look at what just happened to my grandparents. We not only have to defend against demon beasts. There's no faster way to increase battle ability and comprehension than real life experience where there are real threats that we encounter!"

The moment she mentioned her grandparents, the rest already knew that they would not be able to change her mind and resigned themselves to proceeding with the fight to come. They continued with discussing their combat strategies and how they could combine their attacks for maximum effect against the demon beast.

Two hours later, they arrived at the exit of the valley. At first glance, it was a beautiful location filled with lush scenery next to a stream filled with crystal clear water. In the middle of a field, there was a small hill with a gigantic tree on it. Ning'Er could once again sense the medicinal aura coming from the fruit hanging on the branches. This would be where the beast would have dug out a lodging underneath to protect the fruits which would give it a small chance to break through to Black Gold Rank!

Without any warning, the hydra slithered out at an unbelievable speed. They could not imagine how large this creature was until it had completely come out of its home. Each of its nine heads was the the size of a full grown man! In an instant, it had reached within thirty yards of them and sent nine streams of dangerous acid in their direction.

They were already moving before this happened, anticipating that an attack would come but Du Ze had not anticipated such a large area of effect and some of the acid splashed on his trailing leg. He grunted in pain, controlling his reaction as they visibly saw large red boils immediately begin forming from just a few drops that had hit him. Their eyes widened in horror as they realised how poisonous the acid was and what it would mean if they were directly caught in it.

The hydra screeched when it realised that they had avoided its rapid surprise attack, and became more wary of the strength of these four strange humans that dared to encroach on its domain. In this moment of the serpent irritation, Ning'Er took action as they implemented their first discussed tactic.

She dashed forward at full speed and launched herself straight at the hydra, releasing three powerful wind blades from her sword that rang loudly against the scales of three of the necks. Although the wind could not tear through the tough scaly defence, it left a clear white scratch wherever it hit, causing small cracks to appear. If the same exact areas were hit again, it was likely that they would be able to break through.

The hydra squealed in anger and shot one of its heads with blinding speed to sink its poisonous fangs at this foolhardy human, but it found its mouth passing right through a clone of lightning. Ning'Er had secretly used a Clone Talisman and in the ensuing jolt of electricity that stunned the head, Ziyun had shot an arrow with an exploding arrowhead right into its throat.

Boom.

There was a muffled explosion as the arrow erupted in a small storm of fire at the back of its throat and the hydra stumbled a few feet back in astonishment and pain. Before it could even collect its senses, Linjian and Du Ze had crept up, jumping up and slashing through the same neck from opposite directions with all their strength.

A moment later, a large head crashed into the ground, the glassy eyes lifelessly staring forward.

The remaining eight heads screeched in fury and sprayed another wave of acid towards the weak humans that had caused it so much pain. Once again, they had anticipated this and had already decided to retreat backwards to observe the effectiveness of its regeneration capability. They easily avoided the poison and regrouped for their next attack, carefully watching the hydra's next movements.

Eight pairs of eyes stared at them, deciding on whether it should aggressively pursue them or reinforce its defensive position at the roots of the tree. The neck where the head had been decapitated from had already stopped bleeding and they could visibly see new flesh growing but it was slower than the stories had told. Adventurers had embellished the stories about the terror of this creature telling tales of instantaneous regeneration making it impossible to kill.

However, from what they could observe, it would maybe take an hour for the head to reform fully. It was just a demon beast after all, not a supernatural, godly being. Of course, if they went away to recuperate and come back after a few hours, it was likely the creature would have fully recovered each time, which was maybe what other adventurers had faced.

Thinking through this, they grew more confident, knowing that they they just needed to defeat every head in one swift session. They had already taken out one and hadn't even merged with their demon spirits yet!

The hydra lost its patience as it watched them analysing it, and lunged forward unexpectedly. This time, it used its acid spray in a larger area to try to hedge their escape routes and ensure that they could only escape in one direction. Although this spread out the effect of the spray to be less concentrated, it had the desired effect as all four of them jumped in the only direction with no acid.

The hydra's eyes widened in anticipation as its body flashed in that direction and started battering the group of humans with its eight heads and even its tail, over and over, not giving them a chance to find a way to counter. As Ning'Er and the two boys used their swords in a blur of defensive techniques, Ziyun stood in the middle behind them, doing her best to shoot disorienting arrows at the heads to disrupt its attacking rhythm.

Eventually, with the overwhelming momentum and angles that the hydra could attack with, using its greater size, weight and velocity, some attacks began to force its way through. Both Ning'Er and Du Ze were bitten in their arms and they felt the venom course through their veins, whilst a devastating tail struck Linjian in the chest sending him flying twenty feet away.

"RETREAT!" Ning'Er commanded as she used a Silent Force Talisman on the ground right in front of the multi-headed serpent, stirring up a cloud of dust which threw it off for just enough time for them to break out of its unrelenting attacks.

Quickly, Ning'Er and Du Ze each drank a vial of Assure Water to counteract the poison. She had given each of them a few vials in the event the poisonous fangs of the hydra reached them, and the purifying liquid would at the very least hold back the effects of the venom until the battle was over. She didn't have time to use her ancient purifying art right now.

"Transform!"

It was time to stop testing the terrifying demon beast and to utilise their strongest capabilities. Very soon, a Divine Winged Lion King and a Giant Winged Roc beat their majestic wings as they hovered, looking down at the hydra as if it were a tasty morsel that they wanted to feast on. Below them, a massive Scarlet Flame Bear stood side by side with a Panterran that rippled with sleek muscle, ready to explode into action.

Ning'Er knew that once she used her Panterran form, the Lernaean Hydra had no chance to win anymore. At her current strength, once she merged with this apex predator, she would be able to battle with early stage Black Gold ranked experts! However, she also realised that her friends would have gained from the experience already, and knew that there was still some distance to the Ning You City Ruins where new dangers would inevitable show itself.

She circled around the hydra with her peerless agility, drawing the attention of four of the heads. She would leave the remaining four heads to her friends to share out. As the enormous strength of the Scarlet Flame Bear crashed against the main body of the hydra, Ning'Er ran in zig zags around the heads she was fighting, viciously slashing deep gashes into multiple places of their necks. No matter how they tried, they could not keep up with her unparalelled speed.

At the same time, the flying lion swooped in and used its powerful jaws to tear out a sizeable chunk of one neck although it came with a cost as another snake head stabbed its fangs into the lion's shoulder. The Giant Winged Roc repeated shot feathers as hard as steel into the remaining two heads to keep them distracted from attacking Linjian, and soon the heads were riddled with many bladed feathers hooked painfully inside their flesh.

The hydra quickly realised it was completely outmatched and tried to run back to its home to escape but the ferocious strength of the bear held on to its tail, refusing to let it move away. It gave out a final, long shriek of rage from its remaining heads before each one was decapitated from its body. Headless, except for the remaining nine stumps linking the necks to its main body, it twitched for another few minutes in its farewell throes of death.

They transformed back into their human bodies and looked at each other with wide mouthed smiles, each panting heavily, as they realised that together, they had defeated such a formidable beast. It was a priceless experience, providing insights that would help them to consolidate their cultivations more solidly and prepare them for their next breakthrough rapidly.