As Darren came to a sudden halt, it felt like time had come to a total standstill. The sound of rattles and snakes grazing past the dry leaves and branches brushed by my ear. I felt the surroundings looming closer to us, snatching the breath away from our lungs. The choked silence continued until Sirius twitched his spear, the sharp tip of which gleamed a sparkle of light into my eyes.

“It’s a Corteus Hydra,” Sirius opened his mouth, breaking the silence, and the world started moving again along with his whistling voice.“A guardian?”

My mind easily glossed over his questioning tone and latched onto the sight of a horror that I didn’t even dream of in my worst nightmares. I swallowed my saliva as cold sweat trickled down my back and forehead. The air was heavy, and intense, threatening to crush me down on the ground with its weight. Gritting my teeth, I allowed my rough breath to smoothen out as my knee’s shaking slowly came to a stop.

I took in my surroundings with the newfound senses that I gained only after coming to this world, the layer of whose understanding only deepened with my conscious effort. My skin prickled at the touch of the soft but bare bondors whose density was a lot higher than what I was used to. They were tainted, ever so slightly by a dark and vicious signature which caused them to avoid me and float into nothingness. I could instinctively tell where all of its sources were. It would be wrong to call it the source as the creature was only responsible for tainting the ambient bondor with its own black and gory bondor.

Above the sight of the tree tops that hid us, there were four serpent-like heads covered by hard thick scales that on my first look seemed extremely similar to that of the ‘Mareux’ that we came across before. But on further inspection, it wasn’t so same. I flared my eyes into it but wasn’t able to look past the invisible shield created by it. It appeared Just like how an inanimate object or my own body looked through my eyes dimensional and placid.

Normally, it would have been easy for me to read the bondor flow inside a living creature, especially a named monster that could control the bondor. But that wasn’t the case with the hydra before me. I could feel the intensity, the pressure exuding from its body but I wasn’t able to see it.

The scales in its forehead climbed upwards into a thin rounded horn on both sides, flowing backwards like a gentle wave has shaped them. The dozens of eyes, moved in different directions at once as they diluted inwards, with its heads rocking back and forth in the air. It was quite far away from us and its silhouette created a huge shadowy figure above the canopies. There was a distant hissing sound coming from there which added more to the eerie feeling.

Darren’s role as the vanguard was switched soon after Sirius took the lead, guiding us into a deeper part of the forest but not too far from where we were before. All of us found a place to stop, rest, and discuss our further actions. It required no telling that the best case would be to avoid that thing, but a part of me also knew that might not happen. After all my companions had a purpose to come to this forest, a mission intense enough that they were willing to put their lives at risk and an expedition that someone or somebody wanted to sabotage.

Darren took out a water pouch and asked. “What’s the plan, Sirius?”

Sirius had found himself a suitable sitting place with his chin resting above his palm. There was a complicated look shadowed across his face and it was the first time I‘d seen him looking like that. He wasn’t faking it like before. It made me realize the situation might be more serious than I’d expected.

He remained silent for a while as Darren handed me the pouch after drinking from it. I took it and thirstily drank almost all the remaining water inside it. We had been traveling for almost the entire day without even a single break. Even after getting used to this kind of life, it was far from easy for me. It would have been quite impossible for me to do something like this on Earth, and maybe the mysterious powers of this world had a significant impact as to why I was able to last this long.

Finishing my drinking session, I gave Darren a side eye asking what we should do and he just shrugged. “If Sirius doesn’t-”

His words were cut off by Sirius's adamant voice, “We will fight the hydra. That’s my decision.”

Darren sighed and Octus jumped down from the branch that he was sitting on. I found it absurd that he intended to fight something like that. I didn’t know what rank that creature belonged to but it sure was strong enough to kill all of us. And Sirius clearly understood that fact.

“A Corteus Hydra which is a ‘Carcass’ Wouldn’t be here unless it's a guardian Beast. There should be a dungeon nearby.” Sirius said.

I frowned at his words the longer he continued as lesser and lesser sense it made. I’d assumed I knew quite a bit about this world by now with them informing me about it and the frequent flashes of images that popped up in my mind because of Basak’s memory. But that turned out to be arrogant thinking on my part.

I whispered to Darren who was standing beside me “What did Sirius mean by Carcass and Guardian Beast?”

Sirius despite sitting a little further away from us was easily able to pick up whispering words with his superior senses. “Brethren is the initial rank used to identify the strength of named monsters. Carcass would be the next in terms of strength and mystic terms they would be as strong as Rank 2 mystic. The little that I read about the Corteus Hydra in the ancient text mentioned its strength equals that of a Rank 2 advanced mystic. Of course, if the mystic was more of a support then the comparison would be invalid.”

If I remember correctly Eadric was a newly ascended Rank 2 ‘Mindless Wanderer’. Despite his main ability being just teleportation, it was very difficult for us to fight against him. The hydra probably had stronger and more versatile powers than him. So, it was very reckless for Sirius to fight against the Hydra.

“Is this related to your mission? The reason why all of you have been sent here and why Eadric was sent to kill you all?” I asked the question that had been plaguing me for the longest time.

The chance of their mission being to chart the unknown territories of the forest of Zoria was very low. For the last couple of days, I’d understood that their pace had been increasing as if they did not have much time left.

Darren sighed, “Yes. The council had tasked our team with an important mission. The details of which I can’t share but it is related to that dungeon, or more specifically any dungeon.”

“Wait…it’s fine if it's some other dungeon? Then why not find another one?” I asked, confused.

“The best case scenario for us is to find another dungeon. But we don’t have much time left and finding another dungeon and then returning to our town would take way longer than we can afford right now. That is why even if it is risky we have to fight against the Hydra because this is our last chance to complete the mission.” Sirius said, and after a moment's pause he continued, “That is why Zareth you don’t have to fight with us.”

His words were met with mostly silence as I remained quiet for a while. He was right. There was no reason for me to involve myself in this fight. It was dangerous more so than ever. The gears of my mind churned trying to think of the pros and cons of staying behind. In the end, I decided against it.

“Thank you Sirius for making that suggestion. But I wish to fight alongside you all,” I said and Darren smiled back. “Unless all of you survive my chance of finding my way out of this forest is very low. Besides I might be killed by the dangerous monsters in this place. That is why the best thing for me was to help you guys so we can all survive together.”

“Sirius now that we have decided to fight the Hydra how do we go at it?” Octus asked.

“About that,” Sirius said, picking up a broken branch and drawing something on the soil below.

The plan was simple. Sirius and Darren would be both the scouts and also the first ones to attack the hydra. Darren will first locate the core of the Hydra and then they will attack the creature. Once they do Octus and I will ambush the Hydra from behind it. It was a very simple plan but I didn’t see any fault in it.

The hydra’s core was something that I asked Darren about and he explained that, unlike mystics Monsters did not have any bondor inside their body, and that included even the named monsters. The core acted as the catalyst to both channel and also stored the bondor inside it. That was why my destroying the core was the easiest way to kill a named monster. But unfortunately, because the body of the Hydra was very large it was impossible to predict where that core might be.

Darren’s limited range of sense was the reason why Sirius and him was going to attack the Hydra first.

Sirius asked for a confirmation of whether everyone understood their respective roles.

“I don't understand something,” I said and Sirius motioned me to continue, “Aren’t named monsters able to sense the bondor of a person?”

“That’s true but only for normal people who can’t neither sense nor control their bondor. The same goes for the sprouts as while they can sense the bondor fluctuations around them, they lack any control over the bondor. This causes them to leak out their presence. But for a mystic that isn’t the case.”

“What about me?” I asked.

“Don’t worry, Zareth. While I can sense your bondor signature, the hydra won't be able to until you use any of your abilities. You don’t leak any bondor without using it. And now that I think about it, your bondors are in more control than before. It seems that learning about it has eased it out.” Darren said.

Sirius clapped his hand gathering our attention. “Alright since everyone is in the clear we will start making our preparations. The earlier we finish this fight the better. I don’t wish to drag the fight until nighttime. We only have a few hours on hand. Now Hurry !”