Book3: Chapter 3 – The Fires of Rage [Part 2]
Book3: Chapter 3 - The Fires of Rage [Part 2]
The village was a maelstrom now. Cornelia rampaged, her heads working in deadly concert. The left head tore into a pen of livestock, gulping down bleating sheep and lowing cows, their bones crunching audibly. The right head smashed a wagon, swallowing chairs, tables, and bundled quilts, the wood splintering in her jaws. The central head chased a group of villagers toward the smithy, their screams fading as they were devoured one by one.
| You have killed Lana Rhodes. 12 experience gained. You have killed Pitr Northman. 13 experience gained. You have killed a Chen Galais. 9 experience gained.
|
The Hydra’s speed was relentless, her massive form weaving through lanes, toppling walls, and crushing fences.
Seraphina raised a hand, summoning the Crystal Dagger spell. A shard of pink crystal materialized. She hurled it with superhuman strength at a man fleeing. The shard struck his arm, exploding in a burst of gore, his limb torn apart in a spray of blood and bone. His body collapsed from the raw shock of it.
| You have killed Caleb Froster. 14 experience gained.
|
Cornelia hissed in annoyance, her left head rising and turning to Seraphina. “Too messy!” she rumbled in the girl’s mind, voice like grinding stones. “Hard to eat when they’re splattered!”
“Then be quicker,” Seraphina snapped, summoning another Crystal Dagger. She threw it at a woman running with a child, aiming for her leg. The shard hit, exploding her thigh into fragments, her scream cut short as she fell. Cornelia’s left head snapped her up, but the child escaped, only to be caught by the right head’s acid spit, melting into a puddle.
| You have killed Esmerelda Valsous. 14 experience gained. You have killed Mathilda Valsous. 3 experience gained.
|
The monster’s rampage continued, her heads weaving a dance of death. One tossed a villager skyward, the fat baker who made the most delicious tarts, only for another head to catch him mid-air, swallowing him with a satisfied gulp.
| You have killed Antoine Miller. 19 experience gained.
|
Another head smashed through a cottage, devouring the thatch roof and the furniture inside, beams cracking like dry twigs. The village was unraveling, its quaint charm reduced to rubble and screams.
Amid the chaos, a bellow rose above the din. Arnell, the bear-like blacksmith, stood before the Hydra, hammer raised, his face a mask of defiance. Beside him, his son Vito wielded an old, heavy sword, trembling but resolute. Arnell swung a two-handed hammer at Cornelia’s right head as it lunged, striking her scales with a clang that echoed like a bell.
The Hydra recoiled, hissing, “Ouch!”
Seraphina’s eyes narrowed. Arnell, the slavemaster who had forced her to work for nothing—even at her worst, the girl had always paid her employees. Arnell, the man who had dared to ask about his son Vito’s prospects with her, had the temerity to resist.
“Cornelia, the boy first,” she ordered. “I want him to feel a fraction of what I had to suffer before he dies.
Vito charged, swinging his bar at Cornelia’s central head. The Hydra’s left head darted down, jaws closing around him. His scream was brief as he was swallowed whole, his bar clattering to the ground.
| You have killed Vito Ironward. 15 experience gained.
|
Arnell roared, grief and rage fueling his swings, but Cornelia’s scales were as thick as the Dragon she had eaten, and they held, barely scratched.
Seraphina summoned another Crystal Dagger, the pink shard gleaming in her hand. She threw it with deadly precision, aiming for Arnell’s head. The crystal struck, exploding in a burst of red, his skull shattering like porcelain. His massive body crumpled, the hammer falling from lifeless hands.
| You have killed Arnell Ironward. 27 experience gained. You have learned Crystal Spear (lvl.1)
|
The girl covered her mouth as she laughed. She had finally learned a spell from the next tier of her magic.
She surveyed the village, now a wasteland of broken homes and scattered debris. Cornelia continued her feast, crunching through a final wagon, its wheels spinning uselessly as she swallowed it whole.
Villagers who had fled were hunted down, Cornelia’s speed outmatching their desperation. One man climbed a tree, only for the Hydra’s tail to uproot it, sending him tumbling into her jaws. A woman hid in a cellar, but the central head smashed through, dragging her out.
There were more kill notifications as Seraphina accrued a paltry amount of experience.
The last pockets of resistance faded, the village reduced to silence save Cornelia’s satisfied rumbles.
The Hydra lowered its head, and Seraphina slid down from Cornelia, landing lightly. She walked through the ruins, feeling nothing but satisfaction. A memory flickered—Mina laughing with Levine, helping at the smithy—but she crushed it, kicking a smoldering beam. The village was gone, its people, animals, and possessions devoured or destroyed. No trace of Mina remained.
The girl felt empty, but it was the good sort of empty. The sort of empty one feels after watching a good film or movie.
Cornelia’s heads lowered, all three tongues flicking out to lightly caress her mistress’s face.
“All gone,” the Hydra rumbled, a hint of contentment in her voice. Seraphina nodded, her face hard. Above, a few Wyrm-drones circled, attracted to the devastation in the fading light. She ignored it, her mind already turning to the next step. Milani was erased, but her past still called, a whisper of Aranthia and unfinished business.
“Come here, Cornelia,” she said, ordering her pet to return to its smaller size. “We will leave in the morning, I think. All this activity has left me feeling quite tired indeed.”
The now much smaller serpent wrapped itself around her mistress's arm and neck, her three heads nuzzling the young girl’s cheek. Seraphina made for Gaellan’s house to rest for the evening, a grave of ash and memory buried in Cornelia’s belly.
“Actually,” she said, stopping herself halfway to Gaellan’s house. “Go hunt for any survivors, Cornelia, while I get some rest, and leave nothing alive save for a horse. You know what a horse is?”
“Stupid animal with four legs…” the Hydra answered as it slipped off Seraphina and grew back once again to its enormous size.
Seraphina was very thorough when she set her mind to something.