Chapter 339: A Hydras Frustration
Violet felt the last of her mana run out a moment after she saw the system notification, a wave of exhaustion washed over her from utilising her limit break skill. Thankfully it was quite limited in its effects given its brief duration of use.
Still it was also coupled with a stabbing headache from mana depletion, a truly unpleasant sensation. So all in all she felt quite battered, yet, at the same time she was elated.
Violet was not alone with that feeling.
Their was a brief moment of silence as all of the assembled beasts took a moment to process that they had indeed just defeated a genuine sovereign.
Sure they had vastly outnumbered him, but he was a full tier above them and a good 60 levels higher than even the most powerful of the assembled Beast Lords.
A wave of raucous roars and bellows rang out from the various beasts, similarly several of them simply collapsed to the ground, utterly spent.
Violet was amongst the latter, she slumped down, making sure that her large head rested besides where Luna was standing with a joyous smile on her face.
Upon noticing the giant draconic head land next to her, Luna turned and rushed forwards to embrace it, hardly able to wrap her arms around even a part of Violet’s head when in beast form.
The two enjoyed that moment of victory, savouring the feeling of victory against a truly superior foe.
Yet they were soon broken out of their trance when a mighty roar, one that echoed upon itself almost a hundred times rang out, its volume drowning out the entire battlefield with its angered intonation.
Violet looked over with a mix of curiosity and worry, only to blink in surprise when she watched as a ragged and bloody human, with tattered ribbons dripping blood was racing away at incredible speed.
All the while a massive and enraged Hydra with close to 200 heads of Violet had to guess chased after him.
Every step that the Hydra travelled shook the ground, then to Violet’s awe and horror the Beast Sovereign began to grow.
Each heavy step it took increased in length, its thunderous roaring growing deeper and more ferocious.
Its growth did not last for long, maybe only 10 or so seconds. Yet during that time, Violet’s understanding of giants was entirely shattered.
Images of the Storm Titan flashed through her mind as she gazed up at the true behemoth now charging after than comparatively tiny human.
In the Hydras true size it was a beast unlike nearly anything she had ever seen. It towered over everything, the giant redwood trees around it seeming small and insignificant before its colossal size.
Violet was not sure where to even behind with assuming its size, at a guess she believed that it may be close to a kilometre tall. Each of its heads large enough to swallow an entire mansion, its belly alone was a good 2-300 meters above the ground.
Violet and just about every single other entity present had halted their battle at this point, all of them watching with terror and awe at the sight of the Hydra chasing after the fleeing human general.
The same general that had utterly dominated the Syan King, who had flaunted his strength and stricken fear into the hearts of both allies and enemies alike.
That same general was now fleeing for his life, looking like he had just been utterly brutalised in a fight. It was a scene that entirely shattered the already faltering moral of the human army, conversely it was met with sparkling eyes of adoration and respect from the assembled beasts, mixed in with healthy fear naturally.
As for the defenders of Syan, they were somewhat conflicted. In one hand they were delighted that the most powerful human was fleeing, yet on the other they were unsure how to feel about the fact that it was a unknown and incredibly dangerous beast that had done so. A beast that looked to be furious at having its prey trying to escape.
Still even with the monstrous size of the Hydra, it rapidly disappeared into the distance as it furiously chased after its rapidly retreating foe.
Violet was slightly concerned that the beast may be slightly angry when it returned, for she was sure that it would return, of that she had no doubt.
But in the meantime their was still a war happening.
Or at least their was, now however, a different scene greeted her when she looked at the battle. The humans were retreating, or fleeing would be the bettter term to describe what was happening.
Everywhere she looked humans were desperately trying to flee away from both the city they had previously been fighting to enter and from the beast army that had them mostly surrounded.
She heard horns being sounded and could only assume that with the departure of the human sword general the other remaining generals of Eldor had opted for a tactical retreat.
But Eldors foes were not willing to just let them leave unscathed.
The beasts were naturally the first to snap back to attention. They simply resumed their attacks, uncaring of the overall strategy involved with the battle. Simply content to tear apart whatever stood in their path.
It did not take the humans long to organise their retreat however. Their retreat led by a sovereign that Violet did not recognise, they floated above their army, dictating the route of escape and eliminating any particularly powerful beasts that tried to block their path.
Thankfully they were not heading towards Violet and her group, or in the direction that the furious Hydra had fled to.
Instead they appeared to be fleeing towards the south.
The retreating army, even when slightly organised suffered ferrous losses during their rushed escape.
Be it from beasts continually charging into the flanks of the forces, or from the more organised soldiers of Syan picking off those that were unfortunate enough to be at the back of their formation.
Violet witnessed that with a glow of satisfaction, knowing that Eldor had suffered a great loss this day. One that would only continue to grow larger and larger depending on how long their were perused.
And based on the delighted expression of the more predatory beasts and the furious expressions on the defenders faces, Violet had a strong inclination that they would not stop pursuing them for quite some time.
The sun had long since passed its zenith, already well on its way down towards the horizon only a scant few hours of daylight remained.
The battle had begun not long after dawn.
Hours had passed since the battle begun and the loss of life was grander than anything Violet had witnessed before. The ground was stained with blood, bodies stacked up in small hills at the base of the battered and broken wall of Syan. Whilst smaller mounds littered the battlefield.
The air smelt of iron and burnt ozone from the innumerable spells cast that day. Giant craters littered the once flat ground, vicious tend in the ground that would remain as a monument to the destruction wrought this day.
Yet at the current moment in time Violet was more concerned with another fact, that being the sound of wind being displaced as wings beat heavily.
She raised her head in the direction of the sound and felt a smile grow on her tired face.
With a grunt of exhaustion she slowly stood to her feet, a flash of blue besides her let her know that Luna had returned to her beast form.
Looking up Violet saw the joyous sight of dragons racing towards her. They were small when compared to the ones she had killed earlier on, yet the sight of them warmed her heart knowing that they had survived the battle. At their head flew the large shape of Andrea, the only other tier 4 dragon that they had managed to rescue.
Some of the nearby beasts momentarily tensed up at seeing the dragons rush towards them, but a growl from Luna halted any potential adverse reactions.
As she watched the small flight of dragons that she had rescued from Sonantis rush towards her another figure stepped up besides Violet, a joyous expression of his battered and beaten body.
Vithrax watched the young dragons close in, a whispered voice entering her mind as he spoke.
"How? How are their young ones here?" His voice was reverent, excited yet to shed with slight apprehension.
Violet smiled as she replied.
"Me and Luna rescued them from Eldor when we discovered a dragon farm. We slaughtered those that ran it and rescused all of the dragons that we could, along with some of the former slaves." Pride was evident in her tone.
Then the dragons landed before her. It was only then that she noticed the slightly battered and bloody bodies of the dragons that she realised that they had not entirely avoided the fight despite what she had instructed of them.
Not that she could truly judge them for wanting to be involved in a battle such as this.
Still she was happy and so were the young ones. They rushed up towards Violet and Luna, pausing slightly upon realising that another dragon stood besides them.
Vithrax carefully observed the dragons before them. Then his telepathy connected with them all and he spoke. "I greet you children, I am most pleased to see that our kin still thrive. I am known as Vithrax."
And just like that he was summarily swarmed by inquisitive dragons causing Violet, luna and Olivia to chuckle in amusement.