Horse With No Name

Everything seemed peaceful. They had slowed after the pixie colony to give the engines a rest, and Phoebe had once again gone back to showing off her most recent inventions. There was no trouble for some time, other than dark, heavy nimbus clouds approaching from their left.

“The model it’s based on ran on some sort of oil, and had a top speed of three hundred kilometers per hour. I disassembled it to see how the technology worked, and made my own design. It’s powered by mana, and has a top speed of about 600 kilometers per hour,” Phoebe explained, brushing the digital display between the handlebars of the motorcycle with a microfiber cloth. “It also has a hover mode with the same top speed, for rough environments. That consumes more mana though. The battery holds 5,000 standard mana units at full, and can run at top speed for about three hours with a full battery, one and a half in hover mode, though that wouldn’t be very healthy for it. It has a complex computer inside that identifies its rider, the extent of control given to that rider by the owner, and different voice commands like activating hover mode or transferring control.”

“That’s amazing!” John said, inspecting the bike for himself. “How long did it take you to build it?”

“Reverse engineering the other motorcycle, getting the materials together for this one, outsourcing the computer, and putting it together all took about ninety days,” Phoebe answered, stroking the chrome handlebar lovingly with the same cloth used to clean the screen. “I haven’t found a committed buyer yet, but I want to sell it for five platinum. It’s the first of its kind, so I have no doubt once I can advertise it well enough, people will come.”

I have ten platinum but… I can’t just impulse buy this thing, as cool as it is, John thought, looking over the hot rod. “Have you tested it out before?”

“Of course! I had a prototype before this, made with most of the same parts, but… Josephine got into a bit of an accident on a practical test. This one has only seen the road once, but it performed the same,” Phoebe explained, looking upon her pristine invention with the utmost content.

“Interesting…” John said aloud, tempted more and more to buy the machine for himself. I shouldn’t. When would I use it? It looks similar enough to a mundane motorcycle to pass on the streets, but… I’d need to get a license plate. I don’t even know how I’d go about that.

“You mentioned that you had something else in the car with us? Your other project?” John asked, hoping to get the attention and his temptation off the motorcycle.

John! A forest hydra just entered the road, a hundred meters up. It looks like it’s getting ready to use its fire breath. There’s no way the convoy can get far enough away in time, and the forest is too dense for us to go around! Amy’s thoughts yelled into his mind in a panic.

“Sorry, Phoebe, that’s going to have to wait. Put the cars in reverse, now. There’s an angry hydra in the road,” John explained, leaping out the window as the terror-struck inventor ran over to the center console. Everybody, to the front, NOW. Abigail, double time. Get ready to absorb some fire.

Cinder, direct what you can into the air and away from the convoy. His flame elemental burst out of him at the command, flying toward the massive snake head in the middle of the road. There were three total, a large one blocking their path and two smaller ones still up in the air, unconcerned with their brother below. John tried to use Advanced Spy on it, but no sheet appeared. Amy, does this thing have any weaknesses? Is it normal for it to be acting like this?

Hydras are very magical creatures. They resist most elemental attacks and have very resilient scales, but a strong enough arcane attack might knock it out. While the three heads have minds of their own, it is a little odd for the middle one to put itself in such a **** position while its attack charges, and to not react to our presence. I attempted to communicate with it, but its mind felt… empty, she replied, riding Ignis back toward him. I’m going to dismiss Ignis, and summon something more suited to our needs.

John ran past her toward the open snake mouth in the middle of the road, at least as big as the cars they had been riding in. Abigail was beside him in a matter of seconds, looking at the colossal beast before them. Its two other heads were docile, and the one in the middle was content to ignore them as its mouth slowly turned orange, flames brewing inside. Here’s the plan. Mandruzzo, Amy, Grace, put up any defense for the convoy you can. Abigail, absorb all the fire you can. I’m going to charge up a mana bolt. Does this thing have any weak points?

Its heads multiply if cut off, but if you’re just using an arcane attack, they should be the weak point, Amy explained, a giant stone tortoise rising from the ground. It slowly looked around before munching on foliage of a nearby tree. Amy leapt onto its head, surprising John with her agility since the creature was at least as big as the hydra head before them.

“Come on, Oogway! You need to hide in your shell!” Amy commanded, and the beast seemed to ignore her, but quickly complied after finishing its snack. The massive shell blocked the road, ensuring that the flames wouldn’t get past without a fight.

Mandruzzo put his palm to the ground, and a giant frozen bubble formed around them, slowly getting colder and thicker as he fed more mana into it. “I can only keep this up while I’m inside, so I hope this works.”

Abigail looked between John and the hydra as if asking if she could punch it out, but John simply shook his head. Pouting, her body slowly turned to flame from the bottom up. She charged up a giant swirling explosion of flame in her hand, emptying her mana pool so she’d better be able to absorb the oncoming flames.

John ran toward the slowly retreating convoy and his other allies. Grace finally appeared, eyes wide at the massive threat before them. “Grace, feed me mana potions as I charge up a spell. I have three left, we’re probably going to use all of them.”

Taking her hand, he Jumped behind the frozen bubble shield Mandruzzo had erected. He got his last three mana potions out of his inventory, handing them to her. He pulled up his character sheet and slid it over so it would be in front of her. “This charges up at a rate of about a hundred mana per second. When you see my mana hit two hundred, give me a potion.”

“Aye aye, cap’n,” Grace said, looking worriedly between him and the oddly immobile monstrosity.

“Grace, everything is going to be alright,” John said, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. “When you give me the last potion, get in Mandruzzo’s bubble. I’m sure he can do that.”

The ground shook as a deafening rumble issued out from the beast. It exhaled for the first time since they had arrived. Its eyes, which had been unfocused, rolled around once before settling on Abigail. The veins in them reddened, and it let loose an ungodly stream of flame.

Abigail hurled the explosion she had been collecting into one of the skyward heads before the flames enveloped her, and John watched in amazement as none of the flames made it past her. Her arms fell to her sides, and her fists clenched as raw power surged through her veins. She let loose a maddened laugh, absorbing enough destructive **** to level multiple city blocks.

For half a minute this went on, the flames that would incinerate them utterly absorbed by the tiny catalyst before them.

Another second and it was too much. The overwhelming shock of a rapid influx of mana was too taxing, and she lost control of herself. Nervous system overwhelmed, darkness quickly closed in on her vision and the flames made it past her. As her final act before she fainted, she released all of the flames she had absorbed as an abrupt conical blast toward the same head she had targeted before. This brought the smaller head down, but the larger persisted, unabated. The pyromancer saw none of this, the flames of her own body flickering across her skin once as she crashed to the ground.

Hydra sub-head 1 defeated! Exp split between party members

The attack passed by her lifeless form, the heat a comfort to her in that state. The curse laid upon her protecting her life thanks to the flame immunity it granted. John looked upon her **** form with fear, glad that the attack passed by her to no effect.

The stream of flame crashed into the frozen bubble shield, cracks forming on the surface immediately upon impact. Mandruzzo, Amy, and Grace scrambled behind the giant stone tortoise as the shield quickly melted, flames leaking inside. Another second and the flames pierced through, washing over the giant stone shell in their path. Within his shell, Oogway let out a howl of pain.

I’m doing all I can to guide the flame away from you, but it’s too much! Cinder’s usually emotionless thoughts called, this time tinged by fear. Master, you must flee!

No, John said, holding in his hand a Mana Bolt charged with over four thousand mana. Using the last forty in his reservoir, he Jumped forward, his health tanking from the few seconds it took him to point Ebony into the center of the beam, and the smoke and flames therein suffocated him. I can’t leave them behind! This ends now!

A beam of pure mana issued forth from his shadowy weapon, pushing back the overwhelming heat and light. It pierced the flames heading their way and impacted directly on the beast’s skull, the flames sputtering for a moment. Mandruzzo, hit it with whatever you have left now!

The giant head shook back and forth, eyes blurry as they settled on John. It started to open its mouth again, but brilliant blue bubbles overcharged with arcane destruction flew past John and settled on the creature’s eyes. They detonated all at the same time, and the head finally slumped down, flames abated.

Hydra main head defeated! Exp split between party members.

John fell to his knees as the pain set in, removing the mask to gulp as much air as possible despite it not obstructing the action in the first place. He looked pleadingly to his fire elemental, who floated down to him with a hand outstretched. I can place a healing flame on one of you, and another in about a minute, less if you regenerate mana.

You have moderate mana potion sickness! -50% Mana Regeneration for 6 hours! -50% Mana Capacity for 6 hours! -50% Channel Rate for 6 hours!

“Put it on Abigail,” John choked out, falling onto his back as he looked up at the foreign sky. Piece of cake, right everybody?

The third head! It’s… leaving? Amy called, and John looked up to see she was right. It looked from them to its two fallen brothers before winding its long neck under the fallen heads and scooping them up, walking off. After its massive head and body cleared the road, a sinister black figure was revealed right behind it.

“What the fuck. I finally get that thing to do what I want. I set up a prank for the next people to come through here, and you just don’t even care?” The man jumped onto the hydra. John activated Symphony of the Night to get a better look, and watched as the man plunged his hand past the scales into the final head. His hand emerged with a glowing orb, and the man shoved it into himself, shuddering all the while. His face was hidden by a plague doctor mask, but John got the feeling he was shuddering from pleasure.

The Hydra’s lifeless body fell to the ground, and the man jumped off it onto a tall tree. He looked back to them, sizing up their party.