Ar'Kendrithyst

‘It’s easier to see at night, anyway,’ Ramizi sent.

Erick had left the Courthouse and arrived at home half an hour ago. The Mage Trio showed up at his house ten minutes after that. They had found the Toxic Hydra. The four of them repositioned to an empty room in Erick’s house, where chairs were conjured and Poi stood in attendance, providing a telepathic network so that they could communicate while they were riding their [Familiar]s. Erick transitioned his senses to Ophiel, and they did the same for their own [Familiar]s.

Eduard sent, ‘You’ll have three seconds once it notices your Ophiel.’

‘Likely less,’ sent Maia.

- - - -

Ophiel flew high in the sky, racing across the dark vault of the empty heavens. Twinkling stars and the slim crescents of the three moons were the only light up here, though Ophiel himself gave off a tiny, almost imperceptible glow. His companion was similarly dark. A blue streak of a fox flew next to Ophiel, completely at ease flying this high up, his icicle fangs glittering in the dim, cold light.

A tiny blip of red bloomed beside the pair of [Familiar]s, scattering yellow and orange light into the dark; Maia’s firebird, [Teleport]ing in for duty. She was two meters from wingtip to wingtip; still smaller than Ophiel, but more than large enough to carry another [Familiar] in her claws. Ramizi’s slick weasel, clear with a touch of white, flopped between both of the bird’s eagle-like claws, but the weasel gave no complaints as he stared forward, at the clouds ahead. The only clouds in the sky.

The fluffy upper reaches of that singular cloud were pristine white, but down below, the cloud was green, and glowing, and touching the ground. An arcane sickness laid heavy in that strange air.

Erick sent, ‘It’s a cloud in the desert. Just like in the reports.’

Ramizi sent, ‘It noticed our scouting and sent up that cloud, but it should still be in there.’

‘It monsterified, so it can’t [Teleport],’ sent Eduard.

Maia sent, ‘Your magic will be greatly diminished, too. You’re going to want to start off strong.’

Erick sent, ‘I read the report, but I want to see what all those words actually mean.’

‘Fair enough,’ Eduard sent.

The ice fox and the firebird slowed to a hover. The weasel in the bird’s claws slinked onto a suddenly materialized [Force Platform]; now they weren’t moving so fast, he could fly around on his own. The Trio’s [Familiar]s remained where they were, as Ophiel flew forward; this was his show, now.

Seven Ophiel blipped into existence in the sky around the hovering group. They turned small, and silent. Three of them stayed behind, while the other four spread out, up and down, left and right, as they flew closer to the cloud. Four kilometers away, then three. Then two. The wind was calm tonight; the grounded cloud was wispy at the edges, but mostly solid. As the three Ophiel neared, the cloud’s green glow turned brighter. A putrid light illuminated the cloud from the inside. Brighter, and brighter still.

Ophiel dodged, rapidly, each a different direction, each of them [Blink]ing again and again.

Seven beams of green brilliance carved out of the cloud, like searchlights, trailing after each of Ophiel’s four bodies. The beams did not hit; Ophiel was fast and quick with the [Blink]s. But the beams didn’t have to hit. The very air around each beam, for dozens of meters in every direction, was laced with green. This secondary effect was practically invisible to the Ophiel trying, and failing, to evade completely. Four Ophiel disintegrated under the onslaught of barely-there danger, while three Ophiel watched.

The beams arced a kilometer or two through the air, before they lost cohesion, turning into so much green liquid. That liquid fell to the ground where it started to smoke and gather in puddles.

There were no agave down there. There were no mimics, either. The Toxic Hydra had killed everything for dozens of kilometers around. That was okay. The hydra was an ecological disaster, but not an impossible one to fix, apparently. If no one attacked the hydra, the crystal mimics of the Crystal Forest could heal all this damage over the course of a day, or at least that’s what Mog’s report said.

But seeing the beast in action, and seeing what surrounded it, Erick wasn’t sure if Mog’s assessment was entirely true.

Two more Ophiel [Teleport]ed in, bringing the count back up to five. One of the five split from the pack, going right, as a white orb materialized around his body, spilling thick air into the night, down to the ground. The sands below crawled with rushing, charging pseudopods made of thick air that raced to the green cloud, crashing against the windwall like so much splattering gel. But some of it snaked below the cloud; some of it got through, and probed deep.

A brilliant shock of green light tore through the cloud, shredding it from the inside out, cascading green fog across the dark Crystal Forest. A roar shook the land. A monster stood among the mist; revealed to the night.

Erick felt his heart beat hard, even though he was nowhere near his body.

The front halves of seven wyrms had been artfully attached to the body of a massively oversized Tyrannosaurus Rex, but there was nothing rotten about this beast. Pristine black scales covered the entire monster, while brilliant green eyes drank in the night. Pristine black spikes jutted all along the back of its seven heads and necks, trailing down to a thick tail, large enough to counterbalance the whole heavy front of the monster. But where the dinosaur would have had tiny front arms, this Toxic Hydra had dragonkin arms, each as large as one of the wyrm bodies on top. Its legs were similarly huge; the Toxic Hydra looked like it could stand, and race, and move, if it wanted, but right now, it laid in a sea of green light, flicking its tail back and forth in the green glow, looking around with seven heads, screaming from each one, searching for its attacker.

Its head pitched back, opening wide, green light pouring from every mouth to slice the fog in every direction, spilling more green liquid everywhere, spilling more clouds into the sky.

Ophiel’s Domain snaked through that green sea, thick air breaking apart atop the glowing waters, but there was more than enough of the spell to reach the hydra. Withering wrapped tight around the monster, and the beast howled. Green fissures appeared between the perfect, black scales. Dark green blood poured to join the glowing sea already under the hydra.

Thick air pulled poison out of the monster, as dark green eyes searched for its attacker, and found nothing, because its attacker was seven kilometers away, and hidden. Ophiel had moved into a divot in the sands Erick had made with [Stoneshape].

The monster dipped two heads into the sea at its feet, drinking down the poison. It bled, a lot. It kept bleeding, as it kept drinking. Dark blood flowed, forming dim swirls in the glowing sea. The hydra drank it all down, in a visceral, bloody cycle.

The hydra stopped howling. And it drank.

A minute passed. Five minutes. Eight. The hydra had long since stopped roaring green magic into the sky; now it just guzzled poison with two heads, as the other five scanned the sky to see what was hurting it. It either didn’t recognize that the thick air around it was a danger, or it couldn’t track the visual distortion to its source, or the very clouds of its own toxic sea served to disguise Erick’s attack.

But it wasn’t enough.

Erick sent, ‘So… I guess I have to try this, then.’

The other three mages just watched, silently agreeing with him that another tactic was required.

An Ophiel rapidly blipped right above the hydra, his body already disintegrating, but not fast enough. He released a glow of blue that crashed down onto the hydra, and blipped away.

The hydra groaned as the blue glow crawled over its body, eliciting green icicles from the seeping green blood here and there. The hydra didn’t seem to care much. After thirty seconds, the blue glow was half of what it had been before. After a minute, it was gone.

- - - -

Erick sat up, saying, “Huh.”

Poi stood to the side of the room, looking on, while Rats stood at the archway, eating from a bowl of potato chips. Jane sat on a couch, also eating from her own bowl of potato chips. Maia, Eduard, and Ramizi, gradually came to; sitting up in their chairs.

Jane saw Erick come back to himself, and munched on another chip.

“Is that a [Dispel] Aura?” Erick asked the mages.

Ramizi said, “No. Spells just don’t last long against him. A lot of toxic monsters are like that.”

Jane frowned, but kept eating chips.

Eduard said, “You can tell which monsters are strong against constant effects based on the glow. A strong green glow like that usually means spells do a lot less damage.”

“Your [Withering] seems to do well, though. Or at least it’s powerful enough to make it to him.” Maia said, “He actually had to start drinking his own poison.”

“A ten-kilometer area of effect can do that,” Ramizi said, smirking.

“It was still breaking apart, though,” Eduard said.

“[Cleansing Fire] on the pool?” Erick asked, “Ever tried that?”

Ramizi laughed. “If you can set water on fire, please tell me how.”

Erick said, “Let me guess. This is one of those monsters that you have to approach with a full-time [Cleanse Aura] active, but unlike other aura spells, like say [Force Shrapnel Aura], [Cleanse Aura] doesn’t suffer from this weakening effect, whereas [Force Shrapnel Aura] does.”

Maia said, “Yup. Common knowledge— Wait.” Her eyes went wide. “You didn’t know that, did you?”

Eduard went deep in thought.

Erick thought, while everyone else went quiet; they were likely thinking their own thoughts on the subject, either regarding the hydra, or Erick.

Ramizi blurted out, “Do not create a way to set water on fire, please.”

Maia glared at Ramizi, saying, “Why in Celes not!”

“I wouldn’t be setting the water on fire, anyway.” Erick said, “Just the radiation.”

“Radiation?” Eduard asked, using the English word Erick had just used.

Erick said, “I don’t think you have a word for it. What do you call a… an energy in the air that harms living things, and that sticks around.”

Eduard said, “Decay.”

“I think we’re talking about different things.” Erick offered, “What about the [Familiar]s, then? Why do they Decay when exposed to the hydra’s glow? They’re not organic. Right?”

Eduard frowned, slightly. Maia thought.

Ramizi said, “[Familiar]s are Force constructs, so you’re right that they’re not subject to Decay.” Ramizi added, “But there are different types of Decay. This hydra’s Decay is also Natural Decay, and everything is subject to that, even Force.”

Maia elaborated, “Decay is Decay. Natural Decay is a form of Fire… Uh. Wait.” She frowned. She said, “Fire... is not actually an element. According to Particle magic. So maybe Natural Decay isn’t Fire at all?”

Jane asked, “Where does Decay fall on the elemental spectrum? That always confused me about Mana Altering.”

Eduard answered, “The pieces to Mana Altering were decided in the early years of the Script, to add back several things that the Script blocked. In particular, fire and lightning magic.” Eduard elaborated, “A lot of ancient history is being dredged up around the world, because of the invention of new magics and Rozeta taking no steps to hide that she is banning several of them and taking away others. Like [Gold Grab]. This tidbit about Mana Altering is one of those facts that a lot of people just forgot about from the early days of the Script, but it was right there in the older books.”

Erick pulled out Mana Altering because he suddenly saw the skill in a new light, and this Toxic Hydra’s Natural Decay seemed very similar to another lesson from Jane’s High School physics background. Or maybe Erick had heard about radiation from somewhere else. The fact was, was that Natural Decay, or radiation, as Erick thought of it, ate away at magic, and that was really weird.