Chapter 16: An Old Memory Saves The Day
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Xander darted forward in a violet blur, every movement was nearly inhuman. The cracks of light along his arms pulsed like a storm trying to tear through skin.
Seven heads struck like whips as he weaved, ducked, slid and pivoted, the air hissing as venom missed him by inches.
"You’re gonna have to do better than that, tough shit!" he snarled, his eyes glowing like lightening. One head lunged and Xavier met it halfway as the dagger flashed in a clean arc, perfect strike. Slice!
A head dropped, hissing even as it dissolved another reared behind it. Xander spun and severed that one too. The Hydra screamed and blood sprayed across the clearing, sizzling where it hit the grass. And then the stumps pulsed, shuddered and grew back.
"Of course it regenerates," Xander muttered, backing up two steps. "Fucking hydra logic."
New heads snapped their jaws, twice as fast, twice as vicious, he ducked another head, rolled beneath a second, the dagger slicing through muscle as the sparks continued to erupted from his skin, the glow was spreading along his arms now. His hands were shaking.
And the he remembered sitting in his father’s office, reading his father’s notes on mythical creatures. Never aim for the heads of a Hydra, another strike from the Hydra. Xander barely dodged it.
His breath caught in his chest.
A memory surged clearer now, hands
The scent of old paper drifted through the small office.
An eight years old Xander sat cross-legged on the threadbare rug, a book heavy across his lap. His gruff, usually grumpy father sat behind the desk, a chipped mug of coffee steaming beside him. He glanced up from his own notes, eyes catching the picture upside down.