Chương 30: Chapter 29: Restrained

The air was choked with the bitter reek of scorched flesh, proof of the hydra's venomous breath. Rellen eyed the restrained beast, water streaming from his soaked clothes.

"How long is this going to hold?" Tessa stared at her trembling hands, the ache of mana loss gnawing at her. She fumbled with Rellen's pouch, fishing out the mana crystals. The instant her fingers closed around one, a familiar spark danced through her veins—mana surging in, only to rush out again to keep her skill alive. She was channeling through the crystal now, using it as a conduit to keep the golden threads stable.

"Four minutes and twenty seconds," she said after a quick calculation.

"That's how long the crystals will last at this rate." Mariane hummed thoughtfully, her eyes still fixed on the hydra.

"A useful skill you have." A flush crept up Tessa's neck.

"It's nothing, really. Just a little trick."

"I disagree." Mariane's tone was matter-of-fact, not patronizing. But she didn't press the point, simply letting the words hang before moving on.

"Does anyone know where a hydra's heart is positioned?" Silence. Tessa shot Rellen a hopeful look, silently begging for some hidden knowledge of hydra anatomy. He only shook his head, his eyes mirroring her uncertainty. Mariane hummed again. The hydra continued to thrash against its restraints, sending ripples through the water with each violent jerk. She turned back to Tessa.

"Do you have any skill you can use on me? Something to enhance a weapon or provide a buff?" Tessa blinked.

"Why?"

"Do you have such a skill?" She asked again.

"I... yes. I can give an item a temporary enchantment." Tessa's brow furrowed as she tried to understand.

"But why would you need that? It is not very powerful." Rellen sighed beside her, already seeing where this was going.

"Tessa. Don't think too much. Just do it."

"But that'll drain my mana!" she protested, glancing between them.

"That means even less time for the Pins. We'll be down to barely four minutes—""Do it," Mariane said, her voice carrying the weight of an order. Tessa's gaze snapped to Rellen, looking for support, for someone to back her up on this. But he just gave her a tired, knowing look that said: You're not going to win this argument. She swallowed her nerves and slogged through the water toward Mariane, clutching the mana crystal like a talisman.

"Fine. What do you want enchanted?" Mariane unsheathed the blade and held it out horizontally, the metal still dripping with water. Tessa pressed her free hand to the blade's flat. Tinker's Touch answered with a gentle surge of heat, her mana draining faster as power streamed from the crystal, through her, and into the weapon. Temporary enchantment: Enhanced durability and sharpness. Mariane lifted the sword, examining it with what might have been satisfaction. The corner of her mouth twitched upward.

"Good," she said simply. Then turned and began wading toward the hydra. Tessa shot Rellen a puzzled frown.

"I don't get it. The buff just makes the sword tougher and sharper, but it's already perfect. It's basically pointless." He just shook his head, something like sympathy in his expression.

"She's doing you a favor."

"What?" She blinked.

"What favor? I don't—""You should get out of the water for this part," Mariane's voice cut through. She hadn't turned around, still facing the thrashing hydra. Tessa opened her mouth to ask what this part meant, but Rellen was already moving. His hands gestured smoothly through the air, and shimmering mirror constructs materialized, stairs rising up from the water to form a larger platform above the reservoir's surface. He started climbing without a word, pulling Tessa along by the wrist.

The mirror steps were solid under her bare feet, yet icy, like treading on frozen glass. When they reached the platform, she sat, grateful for the chance. The surface was too hard, too slick—but it beat standing in the water. Rellen remained standing beside her, arms crossed, watching Mariane. Below them, she approached the hydra's massive body. The creature's necks were stretched taut, pulled in different directions by the chains binding its heads.

The hydra thrashed again, its tails whipping through the reservoir. Waves crashed against the walls, but Mariane didn't flinch. She reached out and placed one hand on the creature's scaled hide, just below where the necks converged. Her hand glided slowly over the hydra's hide, palm pressed to the scales as she traced what might be its torso. Did hydras even have torsos? Or was it just endless body? Tessa realized she'd never cared much for monster lore and never enough to know their insides.

Mariane's hand stopped. Her fingers splayed against a specific point on the creature's body, and she went very still.

"There," she said quietly, more to herself than to them. She drew her sword back and plunged it into the hydra's body. The blade sank deep, disappearing up to the hilt. She twisted it, pulled it out, repositioned, and struck again. Then again. Tessa's stomach twisted. She was stabbing blind, playing a gruesome game of needle in a haystack. She didn't know where the heart was, she was just guessing. The first stab brought blood.

Acidic, hissing blood that sprayed from the wound and splattered across Mariane's arm and chest. The armor protected most of her, but where it touched exposed skin—her wrist, the back of her hand—the flesh began to redden and blister. Mariane didn't stop. She pulled the blade free and struck again, this time lower. More blood. The hydra screamed through all heads simultaneously, the sound so piercing that Tessa clapped her hands over her ears.

The creature's body convulsed, thrashing against the restraints with renewed fury.

"Rellen," she whispered, unable to look away from the scene below.

"The water. All that blood, it's contaminating everything. Won't that be dangerous for the people above?" Rellen didn't take his eyes off Mariane.

"This isn't the first time the reservoir's been contaminated. There are fail-safes in place. Filters, overflow systems. They'll catch it before it reaches the city supply."

"You're sure?"

"I'm sure. Don't worry about that." His voice was flat, but his jaw was tight. He was worried about something else entirely. Below them, Mariane continued her grim work. Another thrust. Another spray of acid. This time it caught her shoulder, eating through the leather straps of her armor. She shrugged the damaged piece off without pause, letting it fall into the water with a splash. The hydra's tails whipped the water into chaos, waves battering the walls and sloshing over the mirror platform's edge.

Tessa clung to Rellen's leg for balance, her heart pounding like a drum. Mariane struck again. Acid splashed across her hair, and Tessa could hear the sickening hiss as it made contact. Strands began to singe and curl, the pale color darkening where the blood touched. She pulled the sword free and drove it in again, deeper, harder. The hydra's body was riddled with punctures now, each one weeping that terrible acidic blood.

It pooled in the water around Mariane, turning it a sickly greenish color, steam rising from the surface. Then Mariane changed tactics. Instead of just stabbing, she began to carve. The blade sliced through scales and flesh, cutting away layers of tissue to expose what lay beneath. She was surgical about it, even as blood poured over her hands and forearms, eating away at her skin. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Tessa could see bone now. Ribs.

A massive ribcage that protected something vital within.

"She's going to kill herself. We have no healers here," Tessa breathed, horrified. Rellen's hand found her shoulder, squeezed once.

"She knows what she's doing." Did she really? Tessa doubted it. Acid splattered across Mariane's face, searing her cheek and jaw. Angry red blisters rose instantly, but Mariane's face stayed impassive, her pale eyes locked on her work. She wedged the sword between two ribs and pushed, using it as a lever. There was a sickening crack as bone gave way. Then another. She was breaking through the ribcage, forcing it open, creating access to whatever lay inside. The hydra's screams reached a fever pitch.

Its entire body convulsed, and for a moment, Tessa thought the chains might snap from the strain. But the golden threads held. Her Emergency Pin held. Mariane reached into the cavity she'd created, her arm disappearing up to the elbow in gore and acid. Her face twisted, not in pain, but in concentration. Then she found it. She pulled her arm back and raised the sword one final time. This strike was different. She drove the blade down through the broken ribcage with all her strength, straight into the heart.

The hydra's scream cut off abruptly. Its massive body went rigid, every muscle locked in place. The heads jerked once against their chains, mouths open in silent agony. Then, slowly, the tension drained away. The thrashing stopped. The water stilled. Mariane stood motionless for a moment, sword still buried in the creature's chest. Steam rose from her arms and face, where the acid had eaten away at her skin. Her hair was ruined, parts of it shorter than others, leaving uneven strands. But she was alive.

And the hydra was not. [+ 91542 XP Gained - Combat Contribution Detected] [Patchwork Crafter has leveled up to Level 29 → 46] [You have 85 unspent Stat points] Tessa stared at the glowing text, her brain struggling to process what she was seeing. The numbers didn't make sense. They couldn't make sense. Level 46. Seventeen levels.

"What..." she breathed, her voice barely audible.

"Congrats on the levels." She nodded mutely, still staring at her notification. Eighty-five stat points. That was... that was a lot.

"That's—" She couldn't finish the sentence.

"A Hydra with a level in the hundreds," Rellen said quietly, his eyes distant as he presumably looked at his own notifications.

"Even with us doing the bare minimum... yeah. That tracks." Tessa's gaze dropped to where Mariane stood below, still motionless in the water beside the hydra's corpse. Steam rose from her damaged skin, and even from this distance, she could see how badly the acid had burned her. She'd done most of the work. Most of the damage. Most of the risk. And yet the system had credited Tessa with a combat contribution significant enough to catapult her through seventeen levels.

"I didn't..." Tessa's throat felt tight.

"I didn't even fight it. Not really." The notification continued to hover in her vision, patient and unyielding. [You have 85 unspent Stat points] Eighty-five choices, each a path to more power, more speed, more skill. And she'd earned them all in less than four and a half minutes. The air above the reservoir shimmered, and suddenly there was a person standing on the water beside Mariane, as if they'd simply stepped through an invisible door. Tessa recognized her immediately.

She walked across the water's surface without breaking through, her boots barely touching the acidic liquid. Where her soles met the contaminated water, thin tendrils of steam hissed up, but she kept moving, never staying in one spot long enough for the acid to eat through the leather.

"Hold still," the Rogue said, her voice carrying that same melodic quality Tessa remembered. She pulled a large flask from somewhere within her dark clothing—the container itself seemed too big to have been concealed there—and uncorked it without ceremony. Red liquid, thick and viscous, sloshed inside. Mariane closed her eyes. The Rogue upended the flask over Mariane's head, and the potion poured out in a steady stream. It cascaded over her singed hair, down across her blistered face, over her shoulders and arms.

Where the red liquid touched damaged skin, steam hissed up—different from the acid's steam, cleaner somehow. The Rogue's hands massaged the potion into Mariane's skin wherever she could reach. Her fingers worked across the burns on Mariane's face, along her jaw and cheek, down her neck. Then her arms pressed the healing liquid into the angry red welts that marked where acid had eaten through flesh. Mariane stood motionless through it all, eyes closed. If it hurt—and Tessa suspected it did—she gave no indication.

She watched for a moment longer, then dismissed her notification with a thought. The stat points could wait. They weren't going anywhere.

"Can we help?" she called down, standing up. The Rogue's head turned, though her hands never stopped their work.

"No," she said, that melodic voice somehow carrying clearly across the distance despite the reservoir's acoustics.

"Stay where you are. Both of you." The Rogue continued her ministrations, working the potion into every visible wound. The flask seemed impossibly deep, still pouring out red liquid even after what should have emptied it twice over. She moved from Mariane's arms to her hands, carefully spreading the healing solution across blistered palms and fingers. All the while, she shifted her weight subtly, never letting her feet rest too long on the acidic water, steam rising continuously from where her boots made contact.

Finally, when the burns had all been covered, the Rogue stepped back. The flask disappeared into her clothing again, the movement so smooth that Tessa almost missed it.

"Step away from the corpse," the Rogue instructed, gesturing toward the far side of the reservoir.

"Wash up with water. Get the residue off." Mariane opened her eyes and nodded once. She pulled her sword free from the hydra's chest with a wet sound and began wading away from the massive body. The water she moved through was still tinged green near the corpse, but it grew clearer as she put distance between herself and the creature. When she reached a section of the reservoir that seemed relatively uncontaminated, Mariane knelt, submerging herself briefly before rising again.

She cupped water in her hands and washed her face, her neck, running wet fingers through her hair. The Rogue watched, arms crossed. She stood on the water's surface, boots creating small plumes of steam where they touched, constantly shifting her stance in a subtle dance that kept the acid from lingering too long in any one spot. Tessa glanced at Rellen.

"Is she just... walking on water?"

"Looks like it." Rellen's tone was thoughtful.

"Some kind of skill or item." Below them, Mariane continued washing, scrubbing away blood and acid and the remnants of battle. The red potion seemed to be working, the worst of the burns were already looking better, the angry red fading to a more manageable pink. But her hair was still ruined, uneven lengths framing her face. Mariane stood, water streaming from her damaged armor, and turned back to face them. Her eyes found Tessa's across the distance.

"Your skill," she called up.

"You can release it now." Tessa released her hold on the Emergency Pin. Relief hit her instantly, like releasing a muscle clenched for hours. The golden threads flickered, then burst into drifting sparks. Mana, once streaming out, now flooded back in, making her gasp at the sudden rush. The hydra's massive body, no longer suspended by her skill, dropped. It hit the water with a crash that sent waves surging in every direction.

The impact echoed through the reservoir, a deep, resonant boom that she felt in her chest. Water sloshed violently against the walls, spray reaching even their elevated platform. The mirror beneath her feet trembled but held. The hydra's heads, now freed from their restraints, flopped lifelessly into the water. Its tails settled with smaller splashes. The creature that had been thrashing with such fury moments ago now lay still and silent, just another corpse in the contaminated reservoir.

She became aware of movement beside her, not Rellen, but something else. A shift in the air, reality folding in on itself in a way that made her eyes water if she tried to focus on it. The Rogue was suddenly there, standing on the platform behind them. Rellen didn't flinch. He'd been expecting it.

"The artifact has been secured," the Rogue said.

"It's being held at the academy. You will head there now," she continued, meeting Rellen's gaze.

"Acknowledged," he said simply. His hands moved through the air, and new mirror constructs began to form. Not a platform this time, but stairs, broad, solid-looking steps that rose upward, angling toward the massive hole they'd created in the reservoir's ceiling. The mirrors caught what little light filtered down from above, creating an oddly beautiful pathway through the darkness. Rellen started climbing without another word. The Rogue followed. Tessa hesitated, one foot on the first step.

She looked down at the water below, where Mariane still stood. The woman was examining her damaged armor, turning pieces over in her hands.

"Mariane?" Tessa called down. The woman looked up, her eyes finding Tessa's immediately.

"Will you..." She paused, suddenly feeling foolish.

"Will you come with us?" Mariane looked at her for a long moment. Tessa half-expected her to refuse, to say something about not needing company or being perfectly fine. But then she nodded. It was a small movement, barely more than a slight dip of her chin. But it was an agreement. She gathered the pieces of her damaged armor—the shoulder guard where the leather straps had been eaten through—tucking them under one arm. She straightened and looked up at the platform where Tessa stood. And rose.

Without warning or effort, Mariane rose from the water, as if gravity had simply let her go. She floated upward, perfectly upright, water pouring from her clothes and hair in glistening sheets. She reached their level and settled onto the platform with a soft tap of boots against mirror. Her hair was still dripping, the uneven strands hanging around her face. The burns on her skin had faded to pink patches, healing but still visible. But her eyes were clear and steady.

"Thank you," Mariane said quietly. Tessa blinked.

"For what?"

"For asking." Before she could respond, a thought struck her. She glanced back at the dark water below, then at Mariane.

"Wait—what about the people you knocked out? Where are they?" Mariane's expression didn't change.

"No need," she said, her voice flat.

"I got a notification for each of them. They're all dead. Properly drowned." Tessa's stomach churned at Mariane's callousness. Tessa stood there for a moment, processing what had happened. Then she shook herself and followed, her bare feet finding purchase on the cold, smooth surface of the mirrors. The climb was long. Rellen had created the stairs at a comfortable angle, but they still had to ascend the entire height of the reservoir.

She kept glancing down as they climbed, watching the hydra's body grow smaller below them. The water had mostly settled now, though patches of green still marked where the creature's blood contaminated it.

"Watch your step," Rellen called back. Tessa looked up and realized they were nearing the top. The hole in the ceiling was directly above them now, a ragged circle of broken stone. Rellen reached the opening first, pulling himself up and through. The Rogue followed with that same eerie fluidity, seeming to step through the hole rather than climb. Mariane went next, and again, Tessa saw the casual use of gravity magic; she simply floated up and landed lightly on solid ground above. Then it was Tessa's turn.

She grabbed the edge of the hole, feeling the stone under her fingers, and hauled herself up with trembling arms. Hands reached down—Rellen's—and helped pull her the rest of the way.

"Come on," Rellen said.

"We're not done yet." Tessa groaned but took his hand, letting him pull her.

"Let's go."