Page 149 of The Shadowed Oracle
“Yes!”
Ingrid was nearly ready. “One more thing,” she said to Dean. “The Hydra, it’ll go for Arryn. That’s why it didn’t sink the ship. It was trying to get to Arryn first. Tell the twins to keep a sword pointed at him.”
Dean didn’t waste time with a response. He moved to the other half of their team and relayed the orders. Raidinn and Tyla nodded, moving closer to Arryn with their weapons drawn, knees bent, watching Enitha.
Her golden scales shone like stars in the cloudy darkness as she bucked up from the water, higher and higher until she was fully breached over sea-level and showing her full size, her full power…
And then she spoke.
“Thief. Oathbreaker. Spy.”
Murmurs and yelps sounded off from the crew as they beheld the demon. It was impossible. What was happening before their very eyes was unthinkable. They ran for cover just as Enitha came striking back down on them with all her might, three sets of deadly teeth opening like the pits of hell and slamming again into that wall of red protection.
Ingrid was ready. With serene grace, she scooped out every bit of magic inside her, and let it go. A blast of white light consumed everything around her. Enitha faltered, and Dean and Tyla’s aim was true as they let the arrows fly, piercing right through the shield and heading for the outer heads of Enitha’s Hydra form.
At the last moment, the great beast slithered away, narrowly dodging the attack.
“It’s too fast!” Tyla screamed out.
Ingrid looked to Dean for any show of confidence, but found none. She knew it was a tough order. Even if they managed to release their arrows quickly enough to land, the Hydra’s scales might’ve been impenetrable. They looked like enameled armor.
“Keep trying!” Ingrid screamed out to them. “I’ll see if I can… do more,” she stammered.Do more of what?she thought to herself. She’d only just discovered how to do anything at all. And now she was going to do more?
She looked up to Enitha, thinking, but the Hydra had already opened her three jaws and attacked in unison.
The shield flickered, showing signs of its power waning.
“Look, my lady!” a voice called out. It was Lucilla, standing nearby. She was pointing to a microscopic island in the distance. Stone and soil. Fodder for her power. “If we can push it back for long enough, I can use it.”
“I told you she was brilliant!” Raidinn called out.
“What do we need to do?”
“Closer,” Lucilla said confidently. “Get the Hydra as close as possible.” Her chest puffed out, her eyes hardening. “And I’ll do the rest, my lady!”
Ingrid gave an order to Dean, who quickly informed the captain.
With tired and stunned movements, the older male accepted the command cautiously, pointing the ship west toward the mountain jutting out from the ocean.
“Brace!” Dean called out.
Enitha now struck from both sides, using her tail like a whip to strike from behind them.
“Prepare hard-a-port!” the captain shouted. In order to get Enitha in the desired spot, he’d have to put himself and his shipat great risk, barreling into the island. If they’d rammed into it, the damage to the hull would likely be irreparable. A hard turn would need to be executed at the perfect time.
Lucilla stood her ground next to Ingrid, closing her eyes as Enitha continued to strike. One set of snapping jaws after the other in quick succession.
The ship turned.
The shield bent at the force.
Then Lucilla unleashed. The great rock sang, crumbling above them. Tiny pieces of the islet mountain fell into the sea with a plop, plop, plop, growing louder and larger every second. It was working. Mammoth chunks of stone and earth plummeted like sharp rain until the great Hydra had been trapped between it and Ingrid’s shield. Even as Enitha became aware of the rubble just behind her, she could not evade it.
Lucilla quivered, clenched, and unleashed her power once more, snapping the islet in two. A piece of earth larger even than the Hydra itself came tumbling down on the creature, cracking against one of Enitha’s heads. The three squeals of the beast harmonized into an unbearably loud sound as it sank. Dean and Tyla peppered the Hydra with the last arrows they had while Ingrid dug deep once more, scraping the last bit of magic she had inside.
Blinding white light consumed them.
The sky became a colorless void. All sound had been sucked into a vacuum. A full minute of nothingness—nothing even attuned Viator senses could pick up on.
