Chương 29: Chapter 28: Pin

Mariane stopped walking abruptly, her gaze turning downward. The pale grey of her eyes seemed to sharpen, focusing on something below them. Rellen stopped too, his hand still wrapped around Tessa's. He watched Mariane warily, clearly trying to read what she was thinking. Mariane raised one hand, motioning him closer with a simple gesture. His jaw tightened. He clearly wasn't a fan of what was happening, but after a moment's hesitation, he moved forward, pulling Tessa along.

"You've memorized the plan of the sewer system, correct?" Mariane asked.

"What's beneath us?" He took a moment to think, his eyes unfocusing slightly as he presumably pulled up mental maps.

"A large water reservoir," he said finally.

"Expansive. Mostly water running in and out, part of the filtration." Mariane nodded, as if this confirmed something she'd already suspected. She stepped back and moved between Tessa and Rellen, positioning herself precisely in the middle with their grasped hands behind her back. Both of them turned to look at her, confused— Mariane's arms wrapped around their waists simultaneously, one on each side. Her grip was firm, like iron bands.

"Wait—" Rellen started. But she had already lifted one armored boot and brought it down hard against the ground. A strike that carved through brick and mortar as if they were paper. The floor gave way beneath them. Tessa's stomach lurched as they plummeted. The sudden shift from standing to freefall hit her so fast she didn't even have time to scream. Cold air rushed past her face. All she heard was crumbling stone, rushing water, and— Her free hand scrabbled uselessly, trying to grab onto Mariane's arm, anything.

But Mariane's grip around her waist was absolute, holding her in place like a child being carried. They were falling straight down through the broken floor into the water reservoir below. Tessa finally found her voice—a sharp, terrified yelp that echoed off the walls as they dropped.

"Finally found you," Mariane said, her voice carrying a note of satisfaction. Tessa's gaze snapped downward, and her blood turned to ice. Below them, rising from the murky water of the reservoir, was a monster. A massive reptilian body, easily the size of a building, covered in scales that gleamed sickly green even in the dim light. But it was the heads that made her breath catch in her throat—seven of them, each attached to a long, serpentine neck that writhed and twisted independently.

Each head bore rows of teeth like daggers. Frills of spines ran down each neck, and when one head opened its mouth, she could see a forked tongue the length of her leg. [Hydra - Level???] They were done for. Completely, utterly done for. That thing would tear them apart before they even hit the water. Then she noticed something else: thick chains, crude but heavy, wrapped around each of the seven heads. And in the water below, knee-deep, stood five figures.

They held the chains, seeming to lead the hydra, guiding it like handlers with a canine. The figures noticed their dramatic entrance immediately. One of them raised his hand, and flames erupted from his palm, rushing upward toward them in a spiraling column of fire. Mariane released them both. With the grip gone, Tessa fell freely. But before panic could fully set in, Mariane's hand pushed, sending both Tessa and Rellen backward through the air, away from her. She herself dropped straight down, raising her buckler.

The fireball struck the small shield with a sound like thunder, and deflected, the flames scattering harmlessly to the sides as if they'd hit a mountain rather than a small disc of metal. The people below began shouting. Rellen grabbed Tessa mid-air, pulling her close against his chest. His free hand moved in a sharp gesture, and suddenly there was something beneath them, a platform of shimmering, translucent energy that appeared to catch their fall.

They landed with a jarring thump, her bare feet finding purchase on what felt like solid glass. A mirror platform, hovering in the air above the water. Rellen stayed wrapped around her, his breathing rapid against her hair. Below them, Mariane landed in the water with a tremendous splash, her sword already drawn, her eyes fixed on the five figures trying to control the now agitated hydra.

And the hydra itself, all seven heads turned toward the new arrival, mouths opening to reveal rows of teeth, a chorus of hissing screams filling the reservoir. Tessa pressed herself against Rellen and tried very, very hard not to look at the Hydra's faces. Mariane launched herself forward, a blur of grey and brown armor cutting through the reservoir toward the five figures. The handlers released their grip on the chains, turning to face her. Two of them raised their hands, magical circles flaring to life.

Mariane simply moved. She didn't dodge so much as flow around the attacks. The fire spell passed harmlessly to her left. The ice spike shattered against her buckler without even slowing her down. Then she was among them. Her sword moved with brutality. The first handler barely had time to register her presence before the blade caught him across the chest, not a killing blow, but enough to send him crashing backward into the water, unconscious before he hit. The second tried to run.

Mariane's buckler caught him in the temple with a sickening crack. He went down hard. A third pulled a dagger. Mariane sidestepped, caught his wrist, and twisted. The dagger clattered into the water. Her sword pommel came up and caught him under the chin, and he folded like a puppet with cut strings. The fourth attempted a binding spell, glowing ropes of energy shooting toward Mariane. She didn't even look. Her sword carved through the magical construct as if it were mist, and then she was on him.

A sweep of her leg took his feet out from under him, and her buckler pressed against his throat, pinning him in the water. The fifth, the one who'd thrown the initial fireball, backed away, hands raised in surrender. His voice cracked as he tried to speak, to plead. Mariane knocked him unconscious with a casual backhand. The entire fight had taken maybe fifteen seconds. Tessa stared, her mouth hanging open. She'd heard stories about high-level warriors, about the gap between fighters.

But seeing it, watching her dismantle five presumably dangerous criminals like they were children playing at combat, was something else entirely.

"Tess." Rellen's voice, quiet but urgent, cut through her stunned observation. He was trying to get her attention without raising his voice, his hand gripping her arm.

"Tessa," he repeated, more insistently. She tore her gaze away from Mariane and followed where Rellen was looking. One of the hydra's heads, freed from its handler's control, had turned toward them. The massive reptilian eye fixed on their floating platform with unmistakable focus. The mouth opened slowly, revealing those dagger-like teeth, and a magical circle formed in the back of its throat, glowing with a sickly green light.

"Mariane!" Rellen called out, his voice cracking slightly with nerves. Mariane's head snapped up. Her sword rose, and she swung. A sharp flare of sword energy burst from the arc, invisible until it tore through the air and slammed into the hydra's neck. The head came free in one clean motion, severed just below where the magic circle had been forming. The cut was so clean Tessa could see the vertebrae for a split second before the massive skull tumbled into the water below.

The magical circle flickered and died, unfinished. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. But then the blood came. A hissing, steaming torrent of acidic blood sprayed from the severed neck stump, splashing into the water around Mariane. Where it touched the reservoir, the water bubbled and frothed, acrid smoke rising in thick plumes. The stone beneath the water corroded, cracking and pitting.

"Interesting," Mariane muttered, backing away from the spreading acid. Her eyes flicked to Tessa and Rellen. Her gaze hardened.

"No more cutting." She sheathed her sword and held up her buckler.

"We can't stay as floating targets," Rellen said, already dissolving the mirror platform. They dropped into the water with twin splashes. The cold hit Tessa like a shock, soaking through her clothes instantly. It came up a bit past her knees, murky and foul-smelling, but blessedly free of acid, for now. Rellen kept one hand locked around her shoulder as they waded toward the nearest wall. Stone walls rose up around them on all sides.

There were drainage pipes, small ones, far too narrow for a person, and the channels where water flowed in and out, but those were barred with rusted grates.

"There's no easy exit." Rellen's jaw clenched. His eyes darted around the chamber. But everywhere he looked confirmed it. They were in a sealed reservoir, accessible only from above. From where they'd just fallen.

"We're trapped for now if we do not want to risk making our way up again," he said quietly. The hydra's severed stump was already writhing. Steam rose thick from the exposed flesh as it bubbled and expanded with grotesque speed. Tissue reformed. Bones sprouted. Scales materialized. Two heads burst from the stump where one had been, both screaming with rage as they oriented on their surroundings. The hydra now had eight heads instead of seven. Mariane stood her ground in the center of the reservoir, buckler raised.

The hydra's attention fixed on her, the one who'd dared to wound it. All eight heads swayed and hissed, circling like serpents preparing to strike.

"Stay near the wall," Mariane called over her shoulder.

"And stay out of the blood." One head lunged. She met it with her buckler, slamming the edge into the creature's snout with bone-crushing force. The head recoiled with a shriek, teeth cracked, but no blood. Just blunt trauma. Another head struck from the side. She pivoted, bringing her buckler around in a sweeping arc that caught the creature across its jaw. The sound of the impact echoed through the chamber.

As two of its heads lashed outward in tandem, one ducked low behind the other, avoiding a feint before striking with alarming speed. A third launched a glob of acid toward the wall, not to attack, but to redirect off the stone and toward Mariane's blind side. She spun cleanly, her buckler deflecting the acid harmlessly upward. It splattered against the wall, stone hissing and melting where it struck. The reservoir was in chaos.

Hydra heads struck from every angle, tails thrashing through the water and sending waves crashing against the walls. The water level was rising, creeping higher up Tessa's waist as the creature's massive body displaced more and more of it. Seven chains still dangled from the hydra's long necks, now hanging uselessly with no handlers to control them. They swayed and clinked with each impact, tangling occasionally around a thrashing neck before slipping free again. Tessa watched, heart pounding, as Mariane fought.

The warrior was holding her own. But she couldn't attack, couldn't do more than defend and deflect. Every strike with her buckler drove a head back, but another would dart in from a different angle immediately after. But could she win like this? Without cutting as cutting meant acid. Acid meant potential death for anyone caught in it, especially someone like Tessa, whose health points were pathetic. Rellen's hand tightened on her shoulder.

"We need to do something."

"What?" her voice was hoarse.

"We can't fight that thing!"

"Then we think of something else." His eyes were wild, scanning the chamber.

"There has to be—" One of the hydra's heads noticed them. The mouth opened, and a magical circle began forming in the back of its throat.

"Move!" he yanked her sideways, pulling her through the water as fast as they could wade. A bolt of sickly green energy lanced through the space where they'd been standing, striking the wall and exploding in a shower of corroded stone. Mariane was there instantly, her buckler slamming into the side of the attacking head hard enough to shatter fangs. The head recoiled, shrieking, and the others turned their attention back to her. Tessa had seen something in that moment.

As Mariane struck, as the hydra pulled back, one of the chains still attached to its neck had swung wide, nearly wrapping around a thick metal pipe that jutted from the wall in a large loop. The chain had come within inches of it before the head thrashed in a different direction. Her eyes darted around the reservoir. The walls were dotted with them, industrial pipes, part of the water system, protruding in wide loops and bends. Sturdy metal, built to withstand pressure.

"Rellen." She grabbed his arm, her voice suddenly urgent.

"The pipes. If we can get those chains wrapped around them—around the pipes on the walls—I can Pin them." He blinked.

"What?"

"My Emergency Pin skill, the one I used on the bridge. I can't Pin the hydra itself, but those chains are still attached to its necks. If we can get them close enough to those pipes, I can stitch them together. Lock them in place so the heads can't pull free." Rellen stared at her, then at the hydra, then back at her.

"That's insane."

"Do you have a better idea?" He didn't. He reached to his belt and pulled a pouch free. When he pressed it into her palm, she saw mana crystals. Hers, the once she harvested and gave to him.

"You'll need these," he said quietly. She blinked.

"You didn't use them?" He gave her a tired grin.

"Didn't get the chance." She clutched the pouch tight.

"Okay. We need to get those chains wrapped around the pipes. Create enough tension that when I Pin them, they hold." Tessa watched the fight. Watched how the heads moved, how they struck and recoiled, how the chains still attached to their necks dragged through the water.

"We need to guide them. Drive the heads toward the pipes. Get the chains close enough that when I Pin them, they hold." Rellen's eyes narrowed, scanning the walls.

"There are pipes all around the chamber. If we can get each head near a different section of wall..."

"Exactly. Tether them outward. They won't be able to coordinate."

"Mariane!" Tessa called out, her voice cutting through the chaos.

"The chains on the hydra! Drive the heads toward the wall pipes! We can Pin them there!" Mariane's response was a curt nod. She shifted her stance, no longer just defending in place. When a head struck, she deflected it toward the nearest section of wall where pipes protruded. When another lunged, she positioned herself so that its momentum would carry it toward a different anchor point.

Rellen's mirrors flared into existence around the chamber—phantom reflections positioned near the real pipes, designed to confuse the hydra's depth perception and guide its attacks exactly where they needed them. A head lunged at a mirror near the eastern wall, passed through the illusion, and its momentum carried it close to a real pipe jutting out in a thick loop. The chain attached to its neck swung wide with the motion, wrapping partway around the metal. Tessa raised her hand, focusing on the chain and pipe.

The hydra thrashed, the chain threatening to slip free. [Emergency Pin] A line of golden thread shot from her palm, lashing forward through the air. It pierced through the chain links, through the pipe's metal surface, stitching them together in a complex web of reinforcement. The thread blazed briefly before fading to a faint shimmer. The chain held—absolutely locked in position, bound to the pipe as if welded. The hydra's head jerked against the restraint, unable to pull free, unable to break it.

"That's one!" Tessa shouted. Mariane didn't waste the opening. She baited another head forward with a feint, then spun under its strike and drove her buckler up into its jaw. The impact sent the head reeling backward toward the southern wall, directly toward another protruding pipe. The chain dragged through the water, swinging close to the metal loop. Tessa was already ready. Pin! Two heads bound to opposite walls. The hydra screamed, its tails lashed wildly, sending waves of water crashing against the walls.

One tail struck near Tessa, the impact throwing her off balance. She stumbled, nearly going under, but Rellen was there, steadying her.

"Keep going!" he shouted, his hands moving in rapid gestures. More mirrors appeared near each section of wall, creating a dizzying maze of false and real targets that the hydra couldn't parse.

"I'll keep it confused!" Three heads lunged at once. Mariane met them head-on, her buckler deflecting the first toward the western wall, her armored shoulder checking the second toward the north, and her boot kicking the snout of the third back toward the east. All three recoiled in different directions, and Rellen's mirrors guided each one close to waiting pipes. Tessa ran, she needed to be closer. Her bare feet slipped on the wet stone, her lungs burned, but she pushed through. First pipe—Pin. Second pipe—Pin.

Third— A head broke through Rellen's illusions, ignoring the mirrors entirely. It dove straight for Tessa, jaws open wide. Mariane was faster. She launched herself through the water, her buckler coming up to intercept. The hydra's teeth closed on the buckler instead of Tessa, and Mariane twisted, using the creature's own momentum to wrench its head sideways toward the nearest wall section. The chain whipped around a pipe at an awkward angle. Tessa didn't hesitate. Pin! Three heads caught. Then four. Then five.

The hydra was panicking now. It could feel the trap closing, feel its mobility vanishing as more and more heads were tethered to different sections of wall. The two free necks lashed out wildly, no longer coordinated, just desperate. One struck at Mariane, who deflected it toward a pipe on the northern wall. The other dove for Rellen. Tessa saw it happening. Saw the head descending, saw Rellen's hands moving to create a barrier but too slow, too slow— Mariane's hand shot out, her fingers splayed wide.

The air around the diving head seemed to warp, a visible distortion rippling outward. The hydra's head jerked violently sideways mid-strike, as if seized by an invisible hand. Its trajectory bent unnaturally, no longer diving down but hurtling toward the western wall instead. The chain attached to its neck whipped through the water, following the forced motion. The chain swung wide, wrapping partway around the last available pipe. Rellen caught the opportunity immediately.

His mirror constructs solidified around the pipe, creating the illusion of additional wrapping, confusing the hydra's perception just long enough for the real chain to settle into position— Tessa was already moving her thread. Pin! Seven necks. Seven pipes around the chamber's walls. The hydra thrashed once more, a final desperate surge of strength. Its body writhed in the center of the reservoir, each head now tethered outward to a different section of wall like spokes on a wheel.

Its tails struck the water like thunder, and a wave of sludge smashed into the far wall hard enough to crack the stone. But the heads could no longer move independently, could no longer coordinate their attacks. Each struggle pulled against the pipes, creating opposing tensions that cancelled each other out. A crown of iron chains. A prison of its own restraints. Tessa slumped back against the wall, her legs giving out. She slid down until she was sitting in the water, breath coming in ragged gasps.

Her whole body shook.

"It worked," she whispered, then louder, disbelieving: "It actually worked." Rellen dropped to his knees beside her, equally spent. His mirrors flickered and died, the magic dissipating as his concentration failed. He started laughing—a breathless, slightly hysterical sound.

"I can't believe we just did that." Mariane waded over to them, her buckler still raised, eyes still on the hydra. Only when she was certain the restraints would hold did she lower her guard. She looked down at Tessa and Rellen, both soaking wet and trembling, and something almost like approval flickered across her face.

"Good," she said simply. Then, after a pause: "Now let's finish it before it decapitates itself and grows more heads."