Fantasy Cursed Island

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle looked at her with a smile. "Don't worry, I've been thinking it nonstop since we took down that really big cyclops. If anything here was gonna kill us, it would've been that thing."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Shuffle, we've survived on superior strategy and group cooperation, it's not brawn that's getting us through, it's our ability to work together."

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle nodded. “And that makes us invincible!” She gave an excited hop, her tail wagging hazardously behind her.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry facepalmed at Shuffle's reaction and looked apologetically at the others. "I'm trying, okay?" There was a surprised "Whoat!", as Shuffle's waging tail took out Veo's knees and put her on her back.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle paused as she felt her tail hit something. She glanced back at Veo before turning towards her, her tail calming down. “Oops. Are you alright?”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Veo groaned and rolled over to get up as Emfa rushed over to help her companion. "I landed on my tail," Veo groaned, reaching back and feeling to make sure it wasn't broken.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle leaned over to look at her tail as well. "I'm sorry..."

Erina spoke up. "You should be careful with that tail of yours, Shuffle. It's quite the weapon."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Veo waved off the fall. "It's not the first time," she said, making sure everything was where it was supposed to before the group continued.

 

[Fangs9090]

The passage soon brought them to another arena type room, only this one was different. Rather than coming out on an overlook, this time they came directly onto the arena floor. On the other side of the room was a massive snake, towering above them with five heads connected to the one body.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry and Veo did the reasonable thing in this situation. As they giant serpent came into view, the coward and the non-combatant turned to go back into the hall and let the murder machines deal with it. Joanne and Emfa were having none of it, each grabbing their companion by the back of their shirt and pulling them back into the arena. "Plan."

"You want a plan for a giant snake?!"

"It is a hydra, only one head has a true brain, the others cannot survive without it," Joanne shrugged, "They are rare on the surface but we were taught how to defeat them." Jerry just looked dumbfounded and pointed to the empty clip where the love potion had been previously.

"I don't have anything I can do, here, and my chimera's a blob. You're a canned meal to that thing, Emfa and Veo are walking steaks, Shuffle and Fia are snacks, Erina's not even an oversized bug to that thing, Adran and Beri probably don't even register as actual danger. This isn't a dragon, it's a hydra, and we gotta hope we can get out of dodge before- crap, it's looking at me!"

 

[Fangs9090]

Emil felt a little left out of the lineup, but he decided not to mention it. "Severing the heads make it's less of a threat, at least until they regenerate. At least, if the tales of hydras have any merit to them."

Seeing that the hydra had turned to come towards them, Shuffle hopped forward onto all fours. "I'll keep it busy while you make a plan!" She charged ahead.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"No, Shuffle! Shit!" As Shuffle kicked up dust as she blitzed towards the approaching hydra. Jerry didn't really get to make a plan, however, or even contribute to one, as Joanne and Emfa made eye contact, nodded, and split, going in two separate directions to meet the hydra from three directions with Shuffle. Adran drew his bow as Beri got ready to run interference.

Left with no options, Jerry drew her bow as she and Adran took aim at the eyes and pit organs on the hydra, the two also running in different directions, leaving Veo behind with Emil. Veo did the only thing she could do without someone large to hide behind, and shuffled backwards into the tunnel.

 

[Fangs9090]

Emil grabbed his lute and started with a song that focused on physical strength. They'd need it if they hopped to cut through any part of the snake. Erina stayed back with Veo as Fia took flight.

One of the hydra heads focused on Shuffle, rearing back before it lunged with it mouth open wide. Shuffle watched it before jumping to the side, letting it slam into the ground instead. She dug her claws into the ground to stop quickly before jumping onto the snake, grabbing onto the neck just behind the head. She scratched it as she tried to grip, tearing off a few scales before managing to get a grip and kicked with her back claws. The head reared back again, trying to shake her off.

Two of the other heads focused on Joanne and Emfa, similarly lunging for them once they were within range. The last two heads watched Jerry and Adran for what they would do.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Joanne didn't even try to dodge. As the hydra's mouth clamped down around her, her sword suddenly stabbed out the bottom jaw and the thunderclap of a branding smite blew up inside the snake's head. Emfa, on the other hand, jerked to the side, swinging her axe and lodging the blade in the serpent's eye, latching on as it pulled back and doing it again to the other side before using the axe to slow her fall as she slid down the back of the neck with the axe carving a bloody canyon down the neck until she ran out of momentum about five feet down.

Jerry and Adran took aim at the two heads, Jerry's magic tracking arrows shooting towards one head's pit glands and Adran's magic explosion arrows shooting towards the other's eyes. Beri kept up with his master, getting ready to jump on at a lunge.

 

[Fangs9090]

Joanne's snake head jerked back up from the attack inside its mouth. It held it jaws open and shook its head, trying to spit her out.

Emfa's snake reeled from her attacks, blinded and well wounded from her axe carving into it.

Jerry's snake recoiled from the hit before lunging at her with its mouth open. Adran's snake responded similarly to him, though its aim was a bit off.

Shuffle continued clawing at the first head, keeping a firm grip on it. The head, finding it couldn't get her off, instead opted to lunge at Emfa on one of the other necks.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

The hydra had made the same mistake as the dragon in letting the paladin into it's mouth, and Joanne's grip on her sword was solid. With it's mouth open, she was able to plant her feet against the teeth for a stronger grip and repeated the thunderclap smite continuously. Something had to give, either the snake's spit would loosen her or she'd blow a hole in it's head.

The reeling launched Emfa straight up as Shuffle's head slammed straight into the neck of the one she'd just been launched into.. Minotaur, axe, and a chunk of snake going almost to the roof of the arena before gravity brought her straight back down, slamming her axe with all her might directly into the braincase of the snake as gravity and leverage gave her the force she needed to penetrate.

Jerry rolled to the side, reached back, and pulled out one of the smoke bombs that hadn't been burst by the misadventure with Shuffle and Fia, chucking it into the snake's mouse so it burst, creating a cloud of smoke around the snake's head wherever it went as Adran ducked to the side and whistled, letting Beri scrabble up the serpent's head, ripping scales off as he found handholds.

 

[Fangs9090]

The snake hissed as Joanne get blasting away inside its mouth before it finally collapsed, too wounded to continue.

Shuffle jumped off as she saw Emfa coming back down. The axe smashed through the snake's head before it collapsed. Fia swooped in to catch Shuffle midair, flapping frantically just to keep them airborne before Shuffle jumped to another snake, landing on the neck of the one facing Jerry.

Jerry's snake moved back as smoke billowed around it, shaking its head with its mouth open to try and get rid of the smoke bomb. It was too distracted with that to notice Shuffle on it now.

Adran's shook its head as Beri climbed on, trying to dislodge him.

Emfa's snake tried to move back away from the fight now that it was wounded.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

The the snake with Joanne in it's mouth slammed back down to the ground unable to continue, there was a sickening crunch noise as the paladin inside felt her bones crack and her armor dent.

As Emfa's axe lobotomized a serpent, the falling snake jerked Emfa's axe out of it's head and dropped the minotaur out of the sky, landing on top of Joanne's serpent, somehow unharmed for the moment.

Jerry couldn't see through the cloud of smoke, but the magick bow could, and three magick arrows came flying at the serpent as Shuffle ripped into it from above.

Beri slipped and slid against the scales, scrabbling for handholds before he locked his claws and managed to hang on, while Adran continued to pelt the eyes, nose, and mouth of the serpent with arrows.

 

[Fangs9090]

The snake reeled from the shots before lashing towards them, blindly trying to strike back.

As Adran's arrows hit, the snake recoiled, giving a brief moment of it holding still.

Fia flew down to check on Emfa and Joanne while the others kept on fighting.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

With the snake blind and a huge cloud of smoke telegraphing everything it tried to do, dodging it was easy for Jerry as she continued to rain glowign magical bolts into the head, neck, and throat of the snake. Adran, meanwhile, took this opportunity to form and fire a fireball into the snake's mouth while it was still. Beri slashed at the flesh of the snake under the scales he'd managed to rip out.

Emfa was okay. "Get off me, I'm fine!", she grunted at the harpy. Joanne, on the other hand, was not fine! Unconscious and with her limbs sticking out at odd angles and barely breathing.

 

[Fangs9090]

Jerry's snake flailed about, just taking more and more damage from Jerry and Shuffle. Adran's reeled back from the blast of fire in its mouth. And the third head didn't seem to be doing well, coughing out some smoke. It seemed Jerry's smoke bomb was filling the hydra's shared lungs with smoke, making it hard for it to breathe.

Fia tried to pulled the hydra's mouth open as she found Joanne, but she really couldn't do much. "Emfa, help!"

 

[Deadwood Deer]

The group continued their onslaught on the hydra, ducking and weaving and shooting and clawing, while Emfa rolled over, got up, saw the paladin's twisted legs sticking out of the mouth of a dead snake, and heaved the thing open. "Well, that ain't good," she commented as she wedged open the head with her axe and pulled Joanne out.

 

[Fangs9090]

With all three remaining heads blinded, it was only a matter of time before two of them took too much damage and collapsed, Adran’s first, then Jerry’s. Shuffle rode the head most of the way down before jumping off and rolling to her feet. The remaining head just hissed, still bleeding from its wounds.

Fia fluttered nearby as Emfa retrieved Joanne. “Veo and Emil can help her, right?”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

With the final head remaining, Beri hopped off as Jerry and Adran took aim again at the fifth and final head. They took aim at the head, drew back their arrows as far as their bows could handle, and fired.

"Veo is a gifted healer," Emfa huffed, "But she can't heal fatal injuries, I don't know if she can help the paladin." When they got back to the safety of the tunnel with Veo, Veo explained that she needed Joanne out of her armor to learn what her injuries were, in between bits of panicking becuase someone was dying on her watch again.

 

[Fangs9090]

The shots hit at once, making the snake reel back before it collapsed.

Seeing the snake was dealt with, Emil decided to lend Veo a hand. He played a different melody, one for calming nerves and improving focus. Fia tilted her head. “I don’t know how any of her armor fits together.”