Author's Note: Not much to say right now. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!
Chapter 64: The Enchanted Forest
Laura had taken to flying over the forest, enjoying the feeling of riding around on the gusts of wind without jerk wad boys throwing things at her. Then a unexpected wind gust threw her for a loop causing her to look down at the forest suspiciously.
"I was having such a good day too." Laura flew down to the forest and landed on a tree, quickly finding Ramona and Raven in the process. "What is it what happened?" Laura asked looking concerned.
"Apple's pet got annoyed with her feeding it undead." Ramona stated in perhaps the least delicate manner that she could imagine. "We need to figure out a way of either calming it down or beating it into submission. Preferably without any of us being eaten in the process."
"Not exactly how I would put it. But yes, calming the Hydra down is preferable, as is not dying." Raven stated hand on her chin as she thought about what to do next.
"Um... This is just a suggestion but is Nevermore here?" Laura asked one talon wing in the air questioningly.
"She is but I would rather not call on her if I don't have to." Raven stated prompting a strange look from Laura. "Hydras spit a particularly nasty poison cloud. If you're not an undead then you're a goner." Then a cringe worthy face cross Raven's features as she thought back on the little show Nevermore put on for Lizzie's Birthday party. "Aside from that though Nevermore attracts a... very specific kind of unwanted attention from other dragons. Of the male variety to specific."
"Oh." Then a horrified look appeared on Laura's Face. "...oh. It's way worst then a crush isn't it?"
"Males are known for their 'anything female' type attitude. When one is actually able to stop them the first time then they just end up wanting them even more." Raven stated letting out a sigh and feeling like they were getting off topic.
"Not Nevermore?" Laura stated looking surprised.
"Stallions and Mares. In theory a male can knock up a new partner once every hour." That is when you ignore any connotation of foreplay, or responsibility, or in Nevermore's case, first having to pin her down long enough to forcibly ravish her. "Compare and contrast the female, who has to lay the eggs and incubate them. Well even though I say that at least one of them has to raise them for a while." Raven explained awkwardly scratching the back of her head.
"Or dump the entire process onto the nearest Queen Slime and Mad science them into teenagers." Laura stated recalling the explanation for where the giant hoard of dragons that now made up the bulk of the dragon's games league came from with a amused smile on her features.
"Yes that too. But we're off topic now." Raven stated waving the conversation away with both of her arms. "If the Hydra does get into a fight with Nevermore then this entire forest could be destroyed, and whatever survives that is going to go looking for a new place to live, and a new feeding ground to pick through." So no. They weren't calling the specially bred super dragon to take down the other specially bred super dragon. "What can we actually do about the Hydra?"
"Uhh... Are Hydra's usually this hard to deal with?" Laura asked trying to dig up information about the creature in question, or more accurately jog Raven's memory so that she can think of something to deal with this situation.
"Hydra's are not known for being particularly social animals. Their poison keeps most other creatures away and their high speed regeneration means a huge metabolism which in turn demands massive amounts of food usually in the form of raw protein. But Hydra or no I've never seen a domesticated dragon act like this before." Raven stated turning her attention to Ramona. "Is it properly fed?"
"I saw a giant pile of bones outside it's cave, looked recent, and the calci-whatever in them is suppose to be good fertilizer right?" Ramona asked agreeing with Raven's assessment about the seven headed monstrosity. "It's not like they'd just leave them there doing nothing." There were all sorts of ways that they could retrieve the bones without actually sending anyone into the Snake's den, they could simply just have a necromancer have it pick itself up and walk away for instance.
"So there's something else bothering them. If they're sick then that could be causing their strange behavior. But how do we even learn what their symptoms are?" Saying that Raven finally got a idea worked out for their next move. "Cthulu!"
"And while you're fetching the ugly bugger?" Ramona asked feeling like they were glossing over some steps in the plan here.
"Guys!?" Cue Apple appearing from the woods. "What are you doing? In case you haven't noticed there's a bit of a problem right now."
Credit where it was due, Howard wasn't stupid. He understood the very specific magic used by both Frankie and Cleo, of the two the lightning was rarer, and he could use that to track her. Though this time there would be no spewing of his signature poison or use of deadly fangs, beyond merely grabbing hold of them and tearing them limb from limb that is. It had been a while since they were out of his cave truth be told, the mistress preferred that they don't fight with the other members of the pack, but that also means they don't see much action. Should situations demand that the mistress call upon them, then it would be a poor showing to discover that they're hunting instincts had suffered from life in captivity. Now having gotten the general location of the lightning spewing undead pinned Howard just needed to draw her out. Towards this end another idea struck them, having witnessed the effect of their poison on her making the lightning increase in potency, seemingly uncontrollably. Sadly though the mistress does not approve of him spewing poison all over the forest, but the clouds were circling already, one little poison cloud washed away in the rain wouldn't go amiss by anyone.
"SSSQQQUUUA...!"
"I don't think your mistress would approve of you poisoning their forest." The Snake snapped down on their poison attack as they turned that particular head around to face Ramona, the others were spread out right now. The snake narrowed a glare, she came here with the other two but she did not have the rot of death on her, if she was in this forest then she did not belong here.
"HAASSSS!" The snake head spewed a cloud of poison, unfortunately he picked a gigan as his opponent. With a wave of her stick Ramona trapped all the poison in a ball of air that she then wrapped around her whacking stick, the subtle necromantic magic Raven had woven into it minuets ago to make it able to fix itself whenever Ramona breaks it absorbed the poison and neutralized it.
"Someone needs a spanking." Saying that while tapping the stick on her palm Ramona grew, her mass doubling until she broke the branch she was standing on, until she was a proper werewolf.
"Howard!" Only one person calls them that. Turning around the snake dragon saw the familiar form of their mistress's daughter. "I know you're not running around the forest causing trouble again!" Apple stated in slightly threatening tones. Sadly their mistress she was not, it was so rare that she comes to visit them anymore, and this child had not earned their respect as she had yet. Thus Howard turned their attention back to Ramona. "Don't ignore me when I'm talking to you!" Apple shouted indignantly, the power of her voice drawing the attention of other nearby creatures. A pack of Cerberus and Bargheists, weak creatures that needed to team up into a group to become threatening, had entered the area snarling at them like the barking mutts they were.
"Do I even want to know how this happened?" One of the mutts learned how to talk it would seem. How quaint.
"Nothing much as I understand it. Howard here is just being stubborn is all." Apple stated tapping her foot with impatience.
"It's name is Howard?" Clawdeen asked her face that of someone who was deeply surprised.
"Why is that the part you guys are getting hung up on?" Apple questioned a look of audacity on her features. "Is that really the most important part of this that we should be focusing on?"
"No actually I think that would be whatever it's trying to spit at our safety commission officer."
Luckily only the one head was over here right now, so Ramona's use of wind magic and undead beating stick was enough to deal with the poison smoke while her half transformed state was enough to keep up with the enemy before her.
"Can we help?" Clawdeen asked cocking a curious brow at the princess.
"Can you fight like that?" Apple asked pointing to the half transformed Ramona.
"No but I bet they can." Clawdeen stated as the dogs went ahead and bit down on the giant serpents body.
"We'll need to divert some of them to deal with the other heads." Apple stated as she noticed the rumbling in the nearby greenery of something coming closer.
"There's more than one?" Suddenly three more heads appeared from the woods, seemingly battling a fourth trying to knock off a humanoid figure covered in lightning. "Of course it's a hydra." Clawdeen stated shaking her head. "How did you guys get it so mad at you?"
"Why! Won't! You! Go! Down!?" Frankie zapped the thing enough times to fry it's brain three times over by now, her brute strength enhanced by lightning and poison should have caved in it's skull. Several Bargheists cartwheeled through the air, the chains normally wrapped around their bodies as a makeshift chain mail slashing at the snake's faces.
"They're probably upset that Cleo and Frankie are inedible." Apple explained before she went to business. It seems that the only person who can stop Howard from running wild was her mother at this point, so she was trying to get a hold of her. Alas she had no bars here so she needed a back up plan, luckily the Poison Oak here produces a huge amount of smoke when it's set on fire. Best case scenario she succeeds in producing a distress flare alerting the army that one of the more dangerous creatures were running wild, worst case scenario someone thinks the someone set the forest on fire and the army comes to apprehend them. Well she was setting a fire, a very controlled one in a fire pit, but that wasn't the end goal here.
"You do know that's poison oak right?" Clawdeen asked pointing at the vines Apple was dragging into a hole she had one of the Bargheists dig.
"You do know that's a Hydra right?" Apple asked pointing out the antagonized multi headed dragon snake, but she was right, Apple was going to be itchy later. "Would you mind bringing your friend over here so that we can borrow her lightning to start a fire?"
"Between a poisoned bond fire and a mountain of poison." Clawdeen lamented as she went over to Ramona's side. Of course Clawdeen wasn't stupid enough to take a hydra in a fight, that's what Ramona was good for. "Ramona! We need Frankie's help with something! Can you help free her up?"
"Does it look like I can?" Ramona slammed her fist into the snake's eye and yanked it out, not that the Hydra was concerned given how fast the eye grew back, and the one in Ramona's clawed hand rotted away.
"We think we can signal for help with her electricity!" Clawdeen shouted though her tone spread the assumption that she kind of doubted it.
"Huu." Ramona pulled a 180 degree turn, pulled back her stick like a spear thrower, before chucking it into the eye of one of the Hydra heads.
"AAAAAGGGGHHH!" Letting out a agonizing howl the Hydra turned it's attention to Ramona.
"Come on! Put one right here if you think you're hard enough!" Ramona shouted tapping the gap between her breasts. Between provoking one head and turning her back on another Ramona was quickly caught between two charging heads which then slammed into one another, biting each other in their heads as Ramona rolled out of the way, pushed along with another gust of wind. "Now than." Ramona pulled out by her stick and the eye it was lodged in, though only one of those things lasted for longer than a few moments. "Frankie Tag out!" On Ramona's instruction the undead construct took one look at the situation before leaping off of the head, only to see it pinned to the ground by Ramona chucking her stick into it's mouth.
"Thanks Ramona I needed a break." Frankie stated leaning over, hands on her knees and breathing heavily.
"Frankie was it?" Apple shouted prompting weird looks from the stitched together girl. "Do you think you can ignite this?"
"Is that what this is?" Frankie twisted her hand and popped it off, Apple's face indicated that her brain had stopped functioning until Frankie tossed it to Apple prompting a terrified shriek.
"HHHIIIYYYAAAHHH!" The hand fell to the ground, before hopping up and crawling over to Apple's fire pit, releasing a arc of lightning between two fingers and lit the contents of the pit on fire before crawling back over to Frankie. Wired thread came out of Frankie's stub and hooked into the wrist of the hand before pulling it back in and reattaching it. "Uuuugghhh..." Then Apple fainted.
The sound of bodies hitting the ground caught the heads attention and they saw Apple on the ground unconscious. Foolishness, they had wasted all of their precious time on these foreigners when the Mistress's daughter was directly in front of them. Patience exhausted in a single moment one of the heads struck the head lodged inside of another, tore through it's throat, and snapping it's neck. The now severed head rotted away and a new one grew back just as quickly with the other two heads getting their barrings straight.
"Not happening!" Frankie saw the line of sight connecting snake eyes to Apple's prone and vulnerable form and came to a natural conclusion, the snake's response was to blast the girl with another cloud of poison.
"That again? Haven't you learned your lesson yet?" The cloud was electrified as Frankie started taking it into herself again, unfortunately it also blinded her as the Hydra picked up a boulder the size of a mini-van and chucked it at her. "Ouch..." The state of Frankie's body was best summarized with the phrase not good.
One set of the Hydra's jaws snapped around Apple and retreated while all the remaining heads turned their attention to Ramona and the other dogs.
"So You're not holding back anymore eh?" Ramona tossed her stick to Clawdeen as she cracked her fingers. "Fine. That makes two of us then." Ramona got down on all fours and started growling underneath her breath.
It was still disturbing for Clawdeen to watch, observing bones stretch beyond reason, flesh erupt and mend a dozen times over, skin ripped and regrown like the shedding of a snake's skin. The Greatest mystery of all was how she grew over thirty feet and put on over five hundred pounds, Clawdeen does recall that Ramona usually either uses the industrial scale elevator for giants or the stairs, which probably meant that she weighs that much all the time, but that still doesn't explain where she puts it all. Ramona looked the nearest Hydra head in the eye and snarled in challenge.
Review Section:
ChimaTigon: If you're trying to give me the link to the timeline again then I will save you the trouble: you already gave it to me, however I've also been possessed by a chinese web novel lately by the name of Quanzhi Fashi, here's a link: boxnovel novel/versatile-mage. And here's another reminder, we agreed we were going to save the talk about this to the Private messaging.
Starlord Master: Thank you, and yes I agree. I don't know, I will probably know when I finish it. Thank you again. Anything I give would just be me being bias, what's your one to ten on this story?
