SSS Awakening: I Can Class Change at will - Chapter 434 The Four-Headed Hydra [2]

The purple flash struck.

It slammed into the tangled mass of necks with the force of a thunderbolt, unsurprisingly. Lightning detonated on impact, arcs of violet energy ripping across all three necks simultaneously. The scales that could withstand tons of pressure cracked under the terrifying current. The flesh beneath also began to change color, taking on a darker complexion.

The hydra screamed from all four heads, including the one under water. The attack had spread throughout the entire body, unlike what they expected, the damage wasn’t just physical but spiritual, they could feel their spiritual energy also leak from their bodies.

The layered shriek shook the mist, sending ripples racing across the lake’s surface.

The three heads that had coiled together to absorb the blow unwound violently, thrashing in every direction. Burns ran along their necks where the purple lightning had carved its path. Smoke rose from the wounds, and the scales around the edges had turned white from the heat.

The fourth head lost its concentration the moment Moon’s Raiju struck the other three. The attack it had been brewing beneath the lake’s surface was released wildly, sent flying in a random direction without aim or purpose.

~WHOOSH~

A rotating disc of water five meters wide burst from the lake. It tore through the mist, carving a visible tunnel through the fog as it traveled. Pebbles, rocks, chunks of mud, and countless fragments of bone were trapped inside the vortex, spinning at lethal speed within the compressed water.

It struck the ground fifty meters from Moon’s position.

The explosion was enormous. The disc detonated on impact, the compressed water and debris erupting outward in a shockwave that flattened every dead tree within a twenty-meter radius. A crater was carved into the earth, deep and wide, steam rising from its edges.

Moon stared at the destruction from his elevated position mid-air. His eyes were wide.

That had been an uncharged, misdirected attack. Fired without aim, without focus, released prematurely because the head controlling it had been disrupted by pain.

And it had done that.

‘If that had hit me directly, even with my defense, I would have come out with serious injuries at minimum. Possibly dead.’

His gaze snapped to Mirage, who was just a couple of meters away. The horse was fast, durable, and intelligent. But he wasn’t built to tank a hit like that.

‘If it had hit Mirage, it would have killed him.’

Moon’s jaw clenched.

The heads weren’t just attacking independently. They were taking turns. While three engaged him directly, one would hang back, hidden beneath the water or behind the mist, quietly charging an attack until it reached devastating power. Then it would release it.

He had been so focused on the three visible heads that he had completely lost track of the fourth.

‘I can’t keep my eyes on a single head for more than ten seconds. If one of them disappears from my sight, it’s charging. And if I let it finish charging, the result is that.’

Moon landed on a hardened slab of air and reassessed the battlefield. Four heads, four independent minds, each one capable of brewing an attack strong enough to end the fight in a single hit if he wasn’t paying attention.

Moon pressed the attack.

He wasn’t going to give the hydra time to recover. The burns on the three necks would soon begin to heal, he read through the information his skill provided him, and it suggested the hydra had powerful regeneration ability. Every second he waited was a second a longer for the beast to die.

He sent bolt after bolt of purple lightning at the heads, keeping them flinching, keeping them reactive. The soul damage was cumulative. Each strike that landed made the hydra’s movements a fraction slower, its coordination a fraction worse. The fourth head tried to submerge again, but Moon tracked it with a magma attack that created a path for his lightning bolt to strike it under the water, forcing it back up with a pained snarl. It was difficult to pull off, and he had failed many times since the water would immediately restore its cohesion, but with his lightning element speed, and good timing it was possible.

He wasn’t trying to kill it with these attacks. He was wearing it down. Eroding its willpower one strike at a time until the opening he needed presented itself.

The hydra fought back viciously. Pressurized jets carved trenches in the earth around Moon. Water discs spun through the mist in sweeping arcs that forced him to dodge constantly. Two heads lunged at him simultaneously from opposite sides, their jaws snapping shut close enough for Moon to feel the wind of their teeth.

Despite his speed, and various skills, Moon couldn’t dodge forever. This was a powerful beast within the Second Star strength, it was no pushover. He sustained several injuries, but he was quick to use his healing skills, negating their effects.

“You aren’t the only one that could heal.” Moon smirked, casting [Minor Mend], closing down a gash in his shoulder that he had sustained from a pressurized water jet. Had he been a tad-bit slower, he would have likely lost his shoulder.

[Air Step] kept him mobile, bouncing between air platforms. His purple lightning rained down from every angle, never letting the four heads settle into a rhythm.

‘Now.’

Moon whistled.

Mirage’s doppelganger burst, charging straight at the hydra’s left flank, jumping over the water. All four heads snapped toward it on instinct, two of them lunging to intercept.

Their jaws closed on the clone.

In the fraction of a second that four pairs of eyes were locked on empty air, Moon acted.

He cast Thunderclap Raiju from his left hand. At the same time, his right hand crushed a rune skill.

Two purple wolves erupted into existence simultaneously, streaking toward the hydra from opposite directions. They moved in jagged, unpredictable lines, their violet light cutting through the mist like twin comets.