Monstrous Labor

Ariana could hardly process what menaced before her. 

The surrounding tides began to roll and rock the ferry; a quiet horror spread as two serpents roared free from the abyss. 

She held Ellie close as tears streamed down her face. Hayden was already preparing a Smite with what looked like a nail. Sophie was sifting through the cart to grab blue potions. Ariana knew there weren't many of them left; she wished she had gotten more. 

Sophie took one, then rolled another one to Hayden's feet. She ran with a third bottle to Ariana. "I'll heal her, you're the damage dealer!" She pushed the bottle against Ariana. She tapped her staff against Ariana for a quick heal and pulled Ellie from her arms. 

Ariana hesitated for a moment, then uncorked the bottle and chugged the potion. She stood once more and moved to the edge of the boat. Hayden released the nail Smite and pushed the ferry back a significant distance. The nail struck true into one of the serpents and blew the head clean off, the body sank below the waves, and the head splashed down. It floated among the frothing waves. Hayden staggered and grabbed the potion at his feet. 

Ariana looked back to see the remaining serpent glowing. It was going to release a water blast. She stirred her hands around in a large circle and summoned up a mass of kelp. It shot around the mouth of the serpent and wrapped tightly. She gripped against the air as if tying off a knot with all her might. More and more kelp shot up to stranglehold the serpent. twisting tighter and tighter. It struggled hard. 

As she fought with the serpent, two more rose from the depths. They started lighting up. Ariana went wide-eyed, her focus darting back and forth between the serpents. She threw her arms to the side, and a sickening crunch echoed as the kelp turned the bound serpent's head violently sideways. The whole mass of the serpent was jerked sideways into another serpent. They slammed into each other like dominoes. 

Hayden readied another Smite with a second nail.

The middle serpent turned and spent its blast, blowing the head of the serpent she bound; its body sank below the surface like the two before it. 

Ariana flinched back, genuinely confused. 

The other serpent was poised to blast. She threw an arm up and slammed another mass of kelp into the readied serpent. unleashed its blast. Ariana threw her arms left and right to try to wrangle the serpent's beam away from the ferry. 

The serpent that blasted the bound one started glowing again, and two more rose from below. Ariana shouted in shock. She directed the kelp to pull the blasting serpent's beam through the necks of the others, beheading them and spending the beam completely. 

Hayden fired the Smite and blasted the head off the remaining serpent. 

It was quiet for a moment, but Ariana suspected it wasn't over yet. 

She took the moment to check her status screen. She hadn't gained any level progress. She hadn't been hearing the level noise. How was that possible? She'd personally taken out at least five of them. Looking at her skill list, she had very few skill points, only a few more than when she'd last checked them. She quickly looked through any skills she might be able to afford. 

Considering the water around her, she scrolled down and down and down for anything water-related. Water-breathing. That sounded perfect. She spent her points on that as a contingency in case she went under again. She still had a few more and skimmed the list one more time for anything else that sounded useful. She saw something called Mermaid's Grace. That would probably be helpful, she thought; mermaids can swim like fish. She took it without reading further. 

As she took this last skill, the sea before them churned and frothed, and a horrifying eight serpents broke from the brine. 

Sophie looked up from healing Ellie. "What the- how many are there?!"

Ellie coughed a bit more. "J-just... one... I saw... below..."

Ariana looked at Ellie and Sophie. "Just one? but..." 

She thought about it. She had been wondering why there was no level gain sound; she'd killed five of them, right? It was difficult to keep track in the chaos. 

Unless...

She hadn't been killing anything. She'd just been cutting heads... and two more came for each that was cut. She turned back to the octet of serpents. 

She gazed upon the Hydra.

The eight heads roared in unison. They lit up one at a time, a dominant display of impending doom that defied the stars.

She poured a great deal of magic into wide, swirling arm motions. The tides rolled and swirled in turn, but not nearly strong enough to move the Hydra's heads. The heads submerged again.

Then, it resurfaced, surrounding what remained of the ferry.

Hayden and Sophie readied their defensive magic. Hayden's hands clasped high up over his head, and one large swirling mass of clear white formed. He looked to be straining. Sophie cast several of the glittering barriers, one after another. Ellie, still clearly not back to full health, did her best to funnel everybody together behind Hayden. Both Hayden and Sophie started performing the same chant, and a field of white and gold began to form around everyone. It was like the protective zone that Father Briggs used. 

Ariana ran into it with everyone and held her hands outwards. Her magic radiated a vibrant blue out from her palms. 

Then came the assault. 

The heads blasted them from all sides. Like the bullets of Hayden's Smites, they refused to be stopped by the zone; it seemed even less effective than it did with Father Briggs. Sophie's barriers could barely stop half of them, and Hayden's diverting light barely altered their paths. The zone did dampen their power marginally, but they still caved Sophie's shields in like rubber. Ariana did all she could to juggle her focus and push the remaining beams up away from everyone. 

One of the beams tore a chunk from her shoulder while she was distracted with another. She screamed out in pain. Her scream echoed out and rumbled the air around them. The scream seemed to disorient the Hydra. 

She was confused and thought as quickly as she could. She hadn't done that before; it had to do with her voice. Did she pick up something that affected her voice? Was it the mermaid skill? Mermaids sing, so maybe it did. She thought about the other skills she hadn't tried yet. The Reaping skill most likely involved cutting, and that had already caused enough problems. 

The Hydra had recovered. It roared again. Ariana threw her hands down hard towards the water.

"CHURNING!"

The water twisted violently to life as she felt the majority of her magic pulled from her. She collapsed, almost knocked out by the sudden release. The whole ferry twisted around and around in a newly born whirlpool. The roar of the water was greater than that of the Hydra. The ferry descended lower and lower, surrounded by walls of water.

The heads of the Hydra struggled to break through the torrent. Ariana lay there barely conscious. The remains of the ferry spun around and around the rotating wall of the waterspout. They spotted it at the eye, the main body of the Hydra. 

Hayden steadied himself as best he could. "ELLIE! GET ME A NAIL! SOPHIE, SOME MAGIC!"

Ellie crawled to her feet, then transformed into a bird. She flapped and fluttered, barely aloft in the crosswinds. Sophie quickly placed her hands against Hayden's back and poured magic into him. Ellie pecked through everything she could, but she couldn't find any nails to spare. She scanned the area and spotted the Hydra head she had been fished out with. She spotted its teeth... its teeth! 

Ellie flapped over to the head and pecked away to no avail. She reverted to elven form to brandish her knife and try to carve a tooth out. She jammed, levered, sawed, stabbed, and chopped; it was messy work. Finally, she ripped a tooth free. She changed to crow form again and swiftly flew it back to Hayden. He took hold of it and readied his Smite. He pumped all of his remaining magic and everything that Sophie gave him into this one.

Ellie reverted for the final time as she was nearly blown overboard. She was grabbed by several of the demonfolk and pulled into the huddle. They did the same to Ariana before she slid over the side. The two were embraced securely for dear life. 

Hayden stood resolute with Sophie's arms wrapped around his waist, desperate not to fall or be blown away. He steadied his hands, took his best guess at where the heart might be, and exhaled. 

He breathed in sharply. 

"SMITE!"

The area turned white.

The resulting shockwave caused a deafening silence; the recoil knocked them back several feet into the huddle. All of Sophie's barriers and the protective zone were shattered.

The ferry tilted back fully vertical and capsized.