The so-called ''star hydra,'' hydrus stellaris, is so named because of the colorful constellation formed by its luminous eyes in the darkness. Though nearly every other creature has a maximum of exactly one soulspell, the star hydra can have as many as one for each head. The specific capabilities of any given star hydra can only be learned by experience, and for some reason, no one has returned with sufficient information to create a proper compendium.


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    They arrived at the swamp the monster claimed as its home with plenty of time to prepare. The star hydra lay sleeping atop a mound of its destroyed prey and stolen horde of magical shiny objects.


    Or so Eythron claimed. From what everyone else could see, the whole scene was indistinguishable from a pile of skulls and vaguely magical trash half submerged in a horrifying-smelling pit of swampy mud.


    Any monster present was completely invisible.


    "You sure this is the right place?" Raina asked.


    Eythron held up a slate of glowing symbols. He turned it toward the forest, demonstrating how the light dimmed, then brightened dramatically when he pointed it back toward the central mound. "It''s there. It won''t attack us until it notices us, but once it does we have to move fast."


    "Star hydras are intangible, not invisible."


    "Unless it ate something invisible," Okaya proposed. "It might have done since the last time we were here."


    "You''ve been here before?" Qahrvirna asked. "And you didn''t tell us?"


    Okaya and Eythron exchanged a look that spoke of things none but them could comprehend. Even Uqiar looked between them, faint confusion in his glowing eyes.


    “Information from a hundred years ago would only have muddied the water,” Okaya said. “We do not know if the hydra is anything like the creature from back then.”


    “And it might be exactly the same,” Qahrvirna retorted. “You’d rather we go into this blind than with potentially outdated information?”


    “Yes,” Eythron said quietly. “You’ll understand better what you experience for yourself.”


    “I have to say,” Jair interjected, “I’m with Qahri on this one. I know it’s your nature to be secretive and not tell anyone anything ever, but you have existing intel on this specific hydra and didn’t think that was worth mentioning?”


    It didn’t matter so much now, since they could scout it and revert, but when Eythron sent him against it in the future the man hadn’t even mentioned its potential capabilities. Every time he thought he’d reached the limits of what the old man was hiding from him, something new came along.


    “This is not up for discussion.” Eythron shoved the detection tablet into Jair’s chest. “Go stab the thing or get out. Some of us are here for a reason.”


    “And what exactly is that reason?” Qahrvirna demanded. “You offer me a feast, I’m not going to turn it down, but this is a bit much.”


    “It was too long ago,” Okaya insisted with finality. “Get into position.”


    Knowing how stubborn they could be, Jair let the issue drop. He circled the designated section with Eythron''s hydra-detection tablet, and it continued to point directly inward to the pile of hydra loot. Any hopes of it having been further into the jungle were dashed.


    “Yeah, it’s there,” he reported once he’d completed a full circuit of the open area. “Either invisible or under the water.” Perhaps both. Couldn’t be sure of anything with star hydras.


    “Well?” Eythron demanded. “You going to stab the thing, or keep standing around like you’re trying to invite a girl to dance?”


    “Why don’t you send Skyclaw?” Raina asked. “Do you have to do it yourself?”


    “The unsevered pact is a soul-level tie, but it’s external,” Jair explained. “It can’t be undone without killing one or both of us, but if one doesn’t mind destroying the pact target it’s not hard to do on a soul level. The pact will have weakened Skyclaw’s soul defences as it is.”


    “Besides,” Qahrvirna added, “what would they do? Try and claw it? They’d just be an overly large target and liabilities we can’t get back once they’re gone.”


    Jair’s hand tightened on Maelstrom''s hilt, biting the blade into the flesh of his palm, ready to darkflame or revert at a moment''s notice. Less than a moment. A blink. A thought.


    His heart raced madly. This was exactly the kind of fight he did not want to get involved in, and here he was about to throw himself into it anyway.


    One deep breath, then he darkflamed himself into the middle of the swamp, atop the center of the mound.


    The hydra didn''t wake up. It didn’t rise from the depths to surround him with a dozen heads breathing fire and death.


    As far as any of Jair’s senses could tell, the hydra wasn''t present.


    He hopped down from the pile and splashed around in a circle, murky swamp water up to his knees.


    Nothing.


    He kicked into a large submerged rock and stumbled awkwardly as he tried to reclaim his balance in the water. Yet even that moment of weakness, no monster appeared to take advantage of.


    "You sure it''s here?"


    "It''s here. Just stab it."


    Jair summoned Maelstrom and stabbed it down into the ground with a mighty cleave.


    The water surged, going from knee-high to waist-high in a vast swell as something very large displaced it from below.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    Jair darkflamed himself to the far side of the clearing just in time. Water lapped at his shins, flooding out over what had formerly been dry ground.


    A soft growling hiss echoed through the swamp.


    The hydra’s translucent form rose from the water like a spectral creature made of smoky glass frosted with blue-green scale texture. It hissed in sinister chorus as its heads looked in all directions, then turned to glare down at the gathered intruders to its domain.


    Jair scanned the whole thing in a heartbeat, cataloging everything he could observe about it in the split-second between arriving at his original destination and reverting himself away.


    It was bigger than he remembered. Even ducking its necks to half height they were too far above him to reach with Maelstrom even if he were to stand on Uqiar’s shoulders.


    Eight heads stared down at him in a loose array. Another two heads hung dead, strapped tight to the creature''s chest with a combination of vines and the untanned twisted hide of some beast that stank of rot and death to keep them out of the way.


    Most of the hydra heads were clearly empowered by various monsters from the Oriad.


    Two were brobeg, yellow-green eyes watching him hungrily. One was vylix, the neck and head bristling with spines, with crimson eyes and tearing teeth instead of stabbing fangs. Another glittered crystal like the arachnids that haunted the upper layers of the jungle canopy, its eyes silver-tinted yellow, as though made of glowing liquid metal. This head had the thickest neck, and it hung lowest as it stretched forward toward Jair hungrily.


    Topmost, towering above the others, a smaller head on a thinner but more flexible neck watched haughtily with glowing golden eyes like threads of molten amber. Beside it on the sides were one that had teal eyes, another with blue, and below them a gleam of pink.


    Good enough to start with.


    He reverted to before they’d woken it, just after Eythron had told him to go stab it. Eythron, Raina, and Qahrvirna stumbled awkwardly as they were interrupted mid-motion and thrown back into the past. Uqiar and Okaya looked at them curiously.


    “Alright, here’s what we saw. The vylix, red, and crystal octide, silvery-green, shouldn’t be a problem as long as we avoid being physically bitten. Iit also has two brobeg heads, yellow-green. You’ll want to avoid those. Their fangs can cut through magical shields with impunity, and I’m not sure how effective their hides will be against them.”


    “Minimally.” Eythron tapped at the armor on his arm. “It’ll block spirit and spell attacks but once it pierces through, there’s nothing more to be done. The bigger problem will be them interfering with our spells. If a brobeg head catches your fireball, it’ll pop the mana right out of it before it can do anything.”


    “So keep track of which head is where. The blue-eyed one will spit scalding-hot water in brief but intense streams sharp enough to tear through most materials in seconds. The pink one likes creating illusions. I’ve never seen the gold or teal ones before.”


    They all turned to Eythron expectantly. The old man shrugged. “That’s more than I know. I suspected the blue one would have something water-related. The red-eyed one is very aggressive and likes to chew, not just bite. If it gets hold of your leg it’ll be perfectly happy to start eating you alive right there, without waiting for the rest to get at your soul. Might even let you try to limp away before dragging you back.” There was an edge of anger in Eythron’s voice, the faintest hint of a deeply-controlled tremor.


    They spent another few minutes going through the size, shape, orientation, and other details of what he’d witnessed, then spread out to start the fight for real.


    Jair elected to start the combat from a distance this time. He hurled Maelstrom into the space where the invisible, intangible hydra lay sleeping, using Bladewalk to guide it in a flawless straight line.


    The hydra snapped awake. Its body mistily came into form and its many glowing eyes all fixed on him. An angry hiss rose from all eight throats at once, and the battle was joined.


    The topmost head kept its golden-eyed gaze on Jair as he used a combination of Lift and Bladewalk to keep Maelstrom darting at the hydra’s throat. The monster always managed to sway just out of the way in the last moment, never once being scratched.


    Meanwhile, the body and other heads rampaged about wildly, thundering across the swamp, sending up waves and splashes of vile water, crashing into trees and snapping them clean off.


    Jair darkflamed himself to the side of the clearing. The blue-eye head was facing him before he''d finished turning and a scalding stream of water blasted out at him.


    Jair cursed as he barely managed to darkflame away to another side of the area.


    Fire was waiting for him, as the vylix head lunged and the pink-eyed one set up a barrage of the flame.


    Jair ignored the flame—illusory flame, with no heat or substance—and slashed out at the vylix head.


    Yet again, the whole body moved away, yanking its head out of his reach at the last moment.


    Another head dove at him from the side.


    He jumped away, then swung out at it.


    The hydra took a step forward and to the side, the top head scanning the area as two of the others lunged at him.


    Jair darkflamed himself out of the growing swamp and into the farthest tree he could see. The tree was promptly crunched into splinters as the hydra lunged with three heads and an echoing hiss.


    It wasn’t his imagination. It was fighting the others, but in a rather obligatory manner. Its main focus was on him. Jair darkflamed back out of its range, but that wasn''t going to last for long. There was no way to escape it at this rate.


    Good thing the goal wasn''t to escape.


    It threw itself forward, sending water arcing up. Jair hopped onto Maelstrom and flew around the hydra in a wide circle, trees crashing in his wake as it lunged out at him again and again.


    Jair risked a glance back to see how the others were doing.


    Raina and Qahrvirna threw spells at it, which the brobeg heads were doing a good job of intercepting. Too good. As far as Jair could see, none of them had landed a single hit apart from his starting blow with Maelstrom.


    Uqiar roared and charged it, grappling two of the necks at once, one in each of his enormous black-furred arms. Unfortunately, he was so close to the trunk of the hydra’s body that he barely even wobbled the long necks, and it provided them an easy, stationary target.


    Jair reverted just in time, to a few seconds ago, as the triumphant pink-eyed head dove down to grab the beastkin’s soul in its fangs.


    “Look out, Uqiar!” he shouted. “Above you!”


    The beastkin released one of the heads and let himself swing down and out of the way.


    Okaya jumped into the fray again, only to be forced back by a blast of illusory fire.


    “The fire isn’t real, pink head is illusions!”


    “I’m a sunfist,” Okaya snapped. “I know fire when I feel it.”


    Jair caught sight of the pink-eyed head hissing at him in amusement, even as the teal head fired out another blast of fire.


    So they were augmenting each other. That complicated things.


    Eythron rushed in with Soulcutter gleaming at the edge of his blade. Unlike Maelstrom, Eythron''s weapon looked quite standard and had no embellishments to set it apart from any other soulsword.


    But though it looked fully ordinary on the outside, its core was as strong as any. Perhaps better. There was little Eythron couldn''t do and this moment showed his skill in a way that little else could.


    Unfortunately, as fast and well prepared and equipped as he was, the hydra was faster. Eythron was fast and agile, as was Jair, but the hydra remained a step ahead of them and moved to evade strikes before they were even begun.


    Jair took a quick breath to recenter himself. The hydra needed to die, whether it could predict his movements or not. Jair''s loop superseded whatever time-sight power the hydra had. His timeline could progress with impunity. As long as he was able to checkmate it fully, he didn''t need to worry about anything else.


    All he needed to do was completely outmaneuver a creature that could react in a split second, had a range of hungry heads with various magical powers of their own, and could see the future at least to some extent.


    Easy.


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