The Hydra is a very tough enemy to put down. It wasn’t meant to be killed by the challengers but it has been weakened so that they will have a fighting chance against it. He may have failed numerous times but he has learned not to hope to kill the creature.
Now he knows why the heads must be cut off, because only then will he have enough time to do something other than watch the hydra regenerate. This entire experience reminded Soverick of the difficulty of killing him in his past life. It didn’t help that crushing his head won’t stop his regeneration at all. Only debilitating destruction could kill him, but he doesn’t have that kind of firepower to overwhelm the Hydra’s regeneration.
“This isn’t working.” He complained in the safe zone after another 10 runs of failure.
He always sits and reviews his performance after each run. He would change his plan after all variations of an attempt has failed.
The runs usually last a minute at most because the fight is always fast-paced. It takes a minute for a head of ice to be created which means every minute of the fight leads to the creation of more heads that join the fight.
“Cutting obviously isn’t working. Thrusting isn’t either. I need something else. What can the spear do?” He began to think.
He doesn’t know much about the spear but he knows that it could cut, thrust, deflect, sweep, bash, and can be thrown. He was tempted a little to try other weapons but he squashed that thought. He is just too inexperienced with the spear. The best spear users he has seen only use the weapon as a channel to release their power.
Still, he doesn’t want to dwell on his disadvantage with the spear. The challenge is also for those without awakened bloodlines and the ancestral memories that come with it. They too must find a way to pass through this choke point without any advantage but their hard work.
If he were given a teacher, he was sure he would be able to figure out to use the weapon better. But the academy wants them to fumble about a bit to know what weapon suits them instead of having a weapon forced upon them. He had learned something that made the spear different from the dagger. The spear needed strength as well as agility to use it properly.
“Deflecting and bashing it is then.” He decided.
He knows what deflecting means and what bashing means but he doesn’t know how each one will be effective against the head. He intends to use them in tandem or separately to see how it would work. He selected his spear again and went forth to meet the hydra.
Deflect didn’t work. It didn’t work no matter how hard he tried. The head of the hydra is too large and the attacks too powerful to be deflected effectively by the small blade of the spear.
“I doubt it is possible. But if it is possible, then my meager skills cannot achieve it.” He said and sighed after another defeat. But he won’t give up until he has tried everything he could. He understood that he has room for failure now, so he is allowed to fail. Failure now means an opportunity to grow.
So he tried bashing the heads of the hydra with the spearhead. Bashing on the other hand worked wonders. It was unrefined to use a spear like a club but it worked for him. He was able to knock the heads always when he used bashing with the coiling dragon technique.
The possibility of passing through the choke point opened up as soon as he discovered something that worked against the hydra. He collected more information with 3 runs and refined his plan which he executed on the fourth try.
He stepped on the water rapidly as he approached the hydra. It hissed and roared defiantly at him. Then it attacked with one of its nine heads and a second one followed right behind the first. He treated the heads like projectiles which he bashed with his spear. He held the spear with both of his hands and swung the spear to hit the head with the flat side of the blade. He needed the coiling dragon technique for an effective bashing, which means his arms had to reset for a while before he could use them again. He could only use two charges of it because he had only two arms.
So he began to use the coiling dragon technique to the fullest by using it only when needed and recharging it as soon as possible. He would dodge the first two heads, then bash the third head into the fourth one effectively disrupting two attacks with a single move.
The Hydra cried in protest as two of its head smashed into each other. He would have loved to use a single bash to disrupt 3 heads, and he tried, but the power of his bash isn’t enough to affect more than two heads at a time. He is content with just two heads and made it work out for him. It is enough to give him some space to Dodge as many attacks as he can and also use the opportunity to recharge the coiling dragon technique.
If he can’t, he will use his second charge to bash another head into the next one, this will give him time to recharge at least one more opportunity for the coiling dragon technique. If that still doesn’t give him enough time, he would use the striking viper technique to harness the rebound force from knocking off the heads to bash the next head. Using the rebound isn’t as effective as the coiling dragon technique as it can’t knock the head back enough to disrupt another head but it will buy him time to use something more effective.
In summary, he alternated the use of bashing and dodging to resolve the attack of the hydra. It wasn’t easy to do considering that the entire fight is being carried out on the water.
But he was finally able to succeed in this run. The fight lasted 21 seconds and he made it past the finish line onto the beach. The world around him changed and he was back in his training room. There was a screen waiting for him there. On it was a congratulatory message and an evaluation of his performance. He had broken the previous records by 13 weeks.
He felt a profound sense of fulfillment as he read his evaluation. He knew that he had made tangible progress on his path but he has to continue moving forward and making more progress so that the previous progress won’t be invalidated. He shook his head and left the training room. He met Wendy at the entrance.
“Congratulations on completing the final regimen of the physical techniques training. With this, you have gotten the final requirement to move on to the third stage of the training. You will have to complete the Spiritual technique training to acquire the second requirement. Shall we start or would you like to rest first?” Wendy asked. She was congratulating him but her frozen face didn’t show any emotions.
“Let’s start immediately.” Soverick chuckled and answered.
Wendy nodded. “Good then. Wait a moment.”
The tray in her hand disappeared with the five empty memory crystals. Then another tray reappeared in the palm of her hands. It could be the previous tray but it only had three memory crystals on it.
“The Spiritual technique training is split into five regimens. You will learn to be proficient in Spell casting, Speed casting, Multi Casting, and Amplification Casting. Then you will have to overcome the Mind Pressure Challenge. It is recommended to take the regimen in the aforementioned order, but the choice is ultimately yours. What would you like to start with, Soverick?”
Soverick chose to go according to the recommended order. He was also not planning to pull his punches. He had held back in the spiritual preparatory stage but he didn’t want to do that now. He would rather move on to the next stage as quickly as possible so that he can finally learn more about the spear rather than play around with some mind games. His mind is much too powerful and his knowledge of spell craft cannot be rivaled by the battle academy at this stage. The family will no doubt have collected a lot of information about spellcraft but they will still be out of their depths.
Spellcraft is the area of specialization of High elves while it is a side business for battle sage monkeys. Battle sage monkeys are majorly warriors. It is just that the distinction between warriors and mages becomes blurred at the transcendent level because you have to have a strong body and a powerful mind just to have the opportunity to break through to that level.
Spellcraft is an area of weakness for battle sage monkeys that they have decided to resolve through training but it is different for him. Soverick might fumble and flop with a spear but spell craft is one area that he cannot grow in because there’s nothing the academy can teach him.