Chapter 20

A radius of one hundred kilometers, that's quite a large area to cover in a mere week. I started hunting from a shallow swamp, where I found some Grade two to three Martial Beasts. Martial Beasts are divided into two categories, Aerial and terrestrial. Each category is divided into seven grades. The higher the grade, the stronger the Martial Beast is. The hunt was faster than expected since Calypso was helping too. I finished sixty to seventy kilometers on my first day., which was one-fifth of what I had to do. It would have been a breeze if every day went like this, but the more I did, the higher the Beasts' grade. On the third day, while I was wiping out Grade three Martial Beasts, I noticed the ground shaking. That immediately frightened me since only a Grade four Beast could cause these tremors, and since I could feel it so clearly, the beast was close, very close. I motioned Calypso to check the situation out while preparing my hellfire since I still had difficulty controlling it and needed a little bit to charge it up.

"Master, It's a hydra…." Calypso reported. Hydras were the strongest of all the Grade four beasts and had the battle prowess of a Peak Dark Realm Stage Cultivator. Worst of all, their nine heads were all immortal. Although I couldn't die with Calypso around, just thinking about it gave me chills.

I frantically started preparing all my trump cards, hoping it would be slow and not reach me before I finished my preparation. I activated fog all around me, took out Asi and poured Hellfire into it, exerted my Qi to the max, and prepared Hellfire. By the time I completed all that, the Hydra had appeared. I had a basic idea on how to fight it since I had always been interested in Greek Mythology ever since I was little. Supposedly, Each time Hercules bashed one of the hydra's heads, Iolaus held a torch to the headless tendons of the neck. The flames prevented the growth of replacement heads, and finally, Hercules had the better of the beast. Once he had removed and destroyed the eight mortal heads, Hercules chopped off the ninth immortal head. Thankfully, I had inherited Calypso's flames, so I didn't need to use torches to initiate my plan.

I told Calypso my plan, and he was intrigued by it. I didn't know phoenixes could be surprised, seeing that they have seen it all. I initiated my plan, cutting the Hydra's heads off while infusing the wound with Hellfire. I did that to eight of the heads, and when it came to the Immortal head, I was surprised, shocked, and in despair.

My plan had failed. When I cut off the Hydra's immortal head, it regrew every single head back. Before I could even blink, the Hydra spit out poison shots, and I died. For the second time in my life, I died.

I went through the same process I had gone through before and emerged through Calypso's horn. This just proved that this Hydra was definitely out of my league. There was no way of defeating it now. While I was about to try to escape, Calypso came up to me and whispered in my ear.

"Yes, we'll do what you say," I told Calypso. His plan could work; it was the only hope if I wanted to get this done on time.