Chapter 294
Chapter 294
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 294
Chapter Title: Hydra's Demise
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His vision darkened, and his body grew heavy. He could feel his body slowly dying as the poison deepened.
Lee Soo-hyuk paused for a moment to catch his breath. This was probably the first proper breath he'd taken since the fight began.
"Fuuu-."
He could feel the poison mixed in with the breath drawn up from his lungs and exhaled.
'Was it like this back then?'
It felt similar. The Hydra's poison wasn't any weaker just because it had one fewer head.
His head spun, his body burned like lava, and his feet felt as heavy as if they were sunk in a swamp.
With a body like this, and taking a sword to the back on top of it, it was no wonder he'd lost so helplessly.
"Now... just two left."
Kyaaaah-!
The two remaining heads howled toward Soo-hyuk.
The severed heads were no longer regenerating. Cutting them off and suppressing regeneration in those areas had taken the most effort.
But this wasn't enough.
'I haven't completely blocked the regeneration. It's just a temporary fix.'
Twitch-
He could see the cauterized wound slowly regenerating bit by bit.
If he left it alone, a new head would grow back.
A few hours at the shortest, three or four days at the longest.
That was plenty of time to settle the fight. He just needed to lop off the remaining two heads and cauterize them properly.
'Two... I can handle that.'
Soo-hyuk checked his condition.
What mattered now was how much power he could squeeze out for one big shot.
Time wasn't on his side. The poison would keep gnawing away at his body.
The brief respite to catch his breath was granted for that very reason.
The Hydra was cunning. It knew Soo-hyuk was poisoned.
'It's waiting for me to wither away.'
If so, it had miscalculated.
It should have pressed him harder. With his stamina at rock bottom, it should've kept its fangs and stingers coming relentlessly, denying him even a single breath.
That might have made the fight far more grueling.
"Lost a head and your brain's slower too?"
With his breath caught, his focus returned, even as the cave floor came into sharp view.
Tssst-
Blue lightning coiled around his sword. His Thunder Heart pounded fiercely, unleashing the restrained output.
Soo-hyuk looked up.
High in the sky. His eyes met Thor's, who was watching the battle astride his heavenly horse.
Soo-hyuk recalled his first meeting with Thor.
Back then, Thor had gripped his thunder hammer, a monster devoured by it.
Soo-hyuk couldn't overpower him with brute force. Breaking Mjolnir and extracting the thunder hadn't been about dominating Thor physically.
That was what he needed now.
To become the monster.
Or more precisely, to entrust his body to the thunder.
'Become like it.'
He gripped the sword tighter. Consciously, he imagined it wasn't a sword in his hand.
Sword or hammer—it didn't matter.
What mattered was the power in his hand right now. How to wield it—that was all he needed to think about.
Lightning. Thunder.
Soo-hyuk released control over all the power dwelling in his body.
Until now, he'd used his power to avoid being swallowed by the lightning. This time, it was the opposite.
'Swallow me.'
Kurrr-
Thunder roared through the black clouds. Dark blue lightning sparked in his eyes, drawing power up from the depths.
Tssst-
It was a message he'd never heard before. Like the first time he'd used Master of Lightning, a sensation of something possessing him took over his body.
Kyarrrr-
The remaining Hydra heads began eyeing each other warily.
Instinctively, they sensed the crisis. As innate monsters with tenacious life force, they could instinctively recognize threats to themselves.
And the Hydra heads made their judgment.
Giving Soo-hyuk more time could be truly dangerous.
Quadddud-
Soon, the Hydra churned the earth and slithered toward Soo-hyuk. Each head was dinosaur-huge, but their speed was viper-swift.
"Yeah, come on."
Tssst-
Dark blue thunder dwelled at the sword's tip.
Soo-hyuk's grip on the sword was different from usual. Less like slashing, more like swinging—with both hands gripped thickly on the hilt.
Kyaaaah-!
The first head to charge opened its maw toward Soo-hyuk. It bared its fangs as if to swallow him whole in one gulp.
And in that instant.
Flash-!
----!!!
High into the sky, a dark blue bolt of lightning surged upward.
Kwaaaaang-!
Sploooosh-
The thunder unleashed from the sword tip shredded the Hydra's scales and blew its head clean off.
No need to cauterize the stump. It had blackened before blood could even flow.
Now, only one head left.
Ignoring what happened to its sibling, it lunged at Soo-hyuk with jaws wide.
Quaduk-
The Hydra head flipped the ground. It swallowed Soo-hyuk whole, dirt and all.
Crunch, crunch-
Siiiizzle-
The Hydra chewed the rocks in its mouth. The hard stone crumbled under its bite force, melting like snow in its potent venomous saliva.
But Soo-hyuk, the real target it was trying to chew and dissolve, was unscathed.
"Does losing heads make you dumber or something?"
Tssst-
In the pitch-black maw.
Soo-hyuk was bracing the Hydra's palate with his back.
"...You don't even remember how the first head got blown off, huh."
Kruk-
As if understanding, the Hydra exhaled and widened its eyes.
But Soo-hyuk, now inside its mouth, had no intention of letting it off easy.
Kaaaang-!
--!!!!
Lightning pierced through the palate and shot skyward. It didn't streak in one direction—it burst outward in all directions.
The head shattered into fragments. At the same time, Soo-hyuk's body dropped limply downward from inside the mouth.
'I won.'
He never knew falling could feel so long and exhilarating.
He couldn't even remember how he'd fought. He'd entrusted his body half to instinct and trusted his abilities and experience.
He'd beaten the Hydra. Half-baked or not, a win was a win.
A smile crept across Soo-hyuk's lips. As his consciousness slowly faded, messages arrived.
Soo-hyuk felt like he'd been unconscious for a very long time.
Fainting must be a skill that improves with practice. Thinking back, every stream involved teetering on the edge of death.
'How long was it?'
His body felt adrift. He couldn't tell if it was day or night, or even where he was.
All he felt was the hard floor.
Ironically, the first thing that came into his blurry vision was the chat window in the corner.
The viewers were deep in heated debate about how much time had passed.
The chats were mostly comparing Lee Soo-hyuk to Lee Soo-hyuk—Real Soo-hyuk versus Fake Soo-hyuk.
Lee Soo-hyuk, who soloed an 8-headed Hydra. And Lee Soo-hyuk, who conquered a full Hydra with a raid party.
Between the two, who was greater?
'This debate still isn't over.'
Of course not.
Without someone to definitively answer, there was no objective way to know.
Unless past-life Soo-hyuk and present-life Soo-hyuk squared off in the Colosseum and traded blows, the argument would never end.
Memories tend to get romanticized or downplayed, after all.
"Awake?"
Thor's voice reached him before his eyes refocused.
Thor’s thick face filled Soo-hyuk's view as his eyes opened.
Soo-hyuk slowly sat up. His body felt a bit heavy, but the poisoning seemed fully resolved.
Not too high, not too low.
The significant drop in fatigue meant his condition wasn't terrible. The Hydra's poison lingering in his body appeared fully purged.
"Where are we?"
"Found a nearby cave. Better than the roadside."
"How long?"
"About a day."
Not as long as he'd thought. No wonder the viewers hadn't dropped off too much.
Soo-hyuk looked around. A campfire burned inside the cave, but it was otherwise empty.
No one who should be there, either.
"Hermes?"
"Headed back first."
"First?"
"Yeah. Tough without the heavenly horse. But it's Hermes—he'll manage."
It was a good distance even flying on the heavenly horse. For him to head back on foot meant something urgent.
Probably related to Soo-hyuk slaying the Hydra.
'Tied to the next scenario, most likely.'
Yeah. It couldn't end here.
Killing the Hydra was just the bare minimum to obtain the lightning. The real trial was about to begin.
'Still, though...'
Soo-hyuk recalled the rewards from this scenario and smiled faintly.
'The results were good.'
Just as Soo-hyuk was about to check his trial rewards.
Thor, who had hesitated for a moment, spoke in a grave tone.
"There's a guest here to see you."
"Me?"
Thud-
The cave rumbled.
It shook as if the ceiling might collapse any second. Soo-hyuk's gaze turned toward the source of the force.
Thud, thud, thud-
It wasn't something massive like the Hydra moving. Each step carried immense power.
Someone entered the cave. Too dark to make out the face clearly, but it was a large man—that much was obvious.
Soon, he stepped into the firelight.
"Let me introduce him."
Thor, who must have spoken with him earlier, made the introduction.
"It's Heracles."