I charged.

The Hydra charged back.

Physics suggested one of us was about to have a really bad day.

Spoiler: It wasn’t going to be me.

The center head opened wide, fire building in its throat like a furnace getting ready to blow.

I slid under its chin, bat already swinging up.

Spatial Cleave activated on instinct.

The invisible blade cut through scale and muscle like they weren’t even there.

The head separated from the neck in one clean stroke.

Blood sprayed. Black and viscous. It smelled like burning rubber mixed with rotting flowers.

The head hit the ground with a wet thud.

"One down!" I called.

The left head snapped toward me, lightning crackling between its fangs.

"Look out!" Celeste shouted.

Too late.

The bolt hit me square in the chest.

Every muscle in my body seized.

My vision went white.

My teeth felt like they were vibrating out of my skull.

But Rockstar Made kicked in the moment my heart stopped for half a second.

The pain became fuel.

My stats jumped five percent across the board.

I grinned through the electricity still arcing across my skin.

"Thanks for the power-up, asshole."

The right head inhaled.

I recognized that particular brand of doom.

Ice breath incoming.

I rolled left as the freeze ray carved a trench through the concrete where I’d been standing.

Came up swinging.

Sever lashed out in three rapid cuts.

The right head came off at the base.

Then the left.

Two more heads on the ground.

Blood pooling around my boots.

"Satori!" Natalia’s voice cut through the chaos. "Problem!"

I looked at the center stump.

The flesh was already writhing.

Reforming.

Growing.

The severed head dissolved into black smoke, and a new one erupted from the neck in a shower of crystalline scales.

"Oh come on."

The left and right stumps did the same.

Three heads. Back in business. Looking extremely pissed.

"They regenerate!" Natalia called.

"Yeah, I noticed!"

The Hydra reared back.

All three mouths opened at once.

Fire. Lightning. Ice.

All aimed directly at my face.

"Shade Cloak!"

I phased into shadow form.

The tri-elemental blast passed through me like I wasn’t even there.

Re-materialized behind the creature’s back leg.

Swung for the ankle joint.

Spatial Cleave carved through tendon and bone.

The leg buckled.

The Hydra stumbled, throwing off its balance.

"Natalia! Now!"

Purple energy wrapped around all three necks at once.

Telekinetic pressure squeezed.

The heads thrashed, trying to break free.

Celeste moved in from the side, her hands weaving complex patterns.

"Glacial Serenade: Winter’s Waltz."

Ice spread from her fingertips in branching fractals, coating the Hydra’s chest and crawling toward the exposed core in its torso.

The creature screamed.

The sound shattered every remaining window in a three-block radius.

Then the regeneration hit overdrive.

The severed leg grew back in seconds.

The ice coating its chest cracked and fell away as internal heat melted it from within.

Natalia’s telekinetic grip broke as the necks expanded, growing thicker and stronger.

"Not working!" she gasped.

The Hydra’s tail whipped around.

Caught me across the ribs.

Sent me flying twenty feet.

I hit a car hard enough to dent the frame.

Blood filled my mouth.

My ribs screamed.

The regenerator brace sparked against my chest.

But I stood anyway.

Because lying down meant dying.

"Okay," I spat blood. "Plan B."

"What’s Plan B?" Celeste called.

"Still workshopping it!"

The Hydra turned its attention to Natalia.

The center head lunged.

She threw up a barrier of spinning debris. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

The head smashed through it like tissue paper.

Jaws closing around the space where she’d been standing.

But she wasn’t there anymore.

Celeste had grabbed her, yanking her back at the last second.

"Thanks," Natalia gasped.

"Don’t mention it."

The creature pivoted toward both of them now.

Three heads. Six eyes. All locked on my girls.

Something cold and violent twisted in my chest.

I raised the bat.

Channeled every ounce of heat the Dragon Witch’s Ring could produce.

Ember surged through the metal until it glowed like a miniature sun.

"Hey!"

The Hydra looked back at me.

I grinned.

"You want to play with fire? Let me show you how it’s done."

I swung.

Not at the creature.

At the ground between us.

The bat connected with concrete.

Thermal energy exploded outward in a shockwave.

The pavement cracked. Molten rock sprayed everywhere. A wall of heat rolled across the plaza like someone had just opened an oven the size of a city block.

The Hydra recoiled.

Its scales glowed red from the ambient temperature.

Good.

Now it was my turn.

I charged again.

But this time, I had backup.

Crimson lightning arced across the sky above me.

Not natural lightning.

Aspect lightning.

It slammed into the Hydra’s back with enough force to blow out three of its spinal plates.

The creature roared.

I looked up.

A girl stood on top of a nearby building.

Crimson hair whipping in the wind. Combat suit tight enough to be illegal in twelve countries. Emerald eyes that promised violence.

She had one hand raised to the sky, electricity dancing between her fingers.

"About time someone interesting showed up," she called down.

Reyna Cabana.

La Sirena herself.

The Crimson Comet.

The girl who’d looked at me like I was prey on my first day.

"You’re late!" I shouted.

"I had to do my hair!"

Another bolt of lightning crashed down.

This one split into three branches mid-flight, striking each of the Hydra’s heads simultaneously.

The creature convulsed.

Its regeneration stuttered for half a second.

That was all I needed.

I closed the distance.

Spatial Cleave carved through the center neck.

The head toppled.

But instead of watching it dissolve and regenerate, I channeled Ember through the stump.

Superheated the wound.

Cauterized it at the molecular level.

The flesh sizzled.

Turned black.

Stopped growing.

"There we go," I muttered.

One head down.

For real this time.

Reyna landed beside me in a crouch, her boots sending up sparks when they hit the concrete.

"You figured out the trick."

"Heat stops the regeneration."

"Obviously." She stood, rolling her shoulders. "I’ve been fighting it for ten minutes while you were playing with your bat."

"I was testing theories."

"Sure you were, Stray Dog."

"Don’t call me that."

"Too late. It’s trending."

She raised her hand again.

A construct of pure electricity formed above us.

It looked like a marionette made of lightning. Humanoid. Eight feet tall. Crackling with enough power to run a small city.

"Volt Marionette: Crimson Storm."