While Zarius' allies are trained and capable in their own rights, their skills are more suited for other areas excluding monster hunting. Snow is a scout and a survivalist, Eirynor a personal guard, and Shael was Dvoryanin, trained as a racer rather than a combatant. Though they can hold their own most of the time, facing a multi-headed monster that can breathe every element in an environment none of them are used to is just a tall order. They're not meant for this kind of work, and their shortcomings definitely show.

Luckily they are not facing this behemoth alone, and Xalmann has plenty of ferocity to make up for their weaknesses. They’re very fortunate that he showed up when he did, otherwise the lizardman may have found the hydra to be particularly well fed.

The hydra suffers a devastating blow from the lizardman, and it thrashes violently as it roasts from the gaping wound. Indra has a hard time keeping her grip on the creature and releases it, letting it flop down back into the mud. With her talons freed up, the drake has a much easier time staying aloft, hovering in the air over the flailing hydra. The drake starts to gather another bolt of electricity, but Shael pats her neck scales.

“Hold, girl!” While striking now would definitely cause some more damage to the creature, Snow

Snow just avoids the hydra landing on them. Had the giant creature been just a bit closer they would have been pushed under the surface of the swamp water. Luck sure is fickle. While the catfolk is still stuck in the mud, at least they aren’t currently drowning.

Eirynor is still knocked out on what little spit of relatively dry land there is.

Shael looks around for Xalmann, wondering where he ended up. She spots the golem just as the hydra’s remaining flailing heads lock onto it as the nearest target, and in a blind rage attempt to rip it limb from limb.

Blood starts spurting from the remaining heads’ jaws. This creature was not long for this world and seems to just be in its death throes. If they pulled back now, they could leave it to slowly perish.

Deciding that retreat is the safest option given the current circumstances, Shael redirects Indra to pick up Snow out of the swamp and then make her way between the trees over to where Eirynor laid. It’s not easy for the large storm drake to navigate between the awkwardly spaced trees and knotted vines while remaining airborne, but landing now would put them right back where they started with the drake sunk in the bog.

Shael keeps half an eye on the hydra while directing the drake over to pick up Snow. “Damn, where is that scaly guy?” she mutters to herself. Hopefully he didn’t sacrifice himself to kill the hydra like a heroic idiot.

The hydra was in its death throes, like Shael suspected, but its death wasn't nearly as slow as she might have thought. With an intense heat starting to be felt near any of its remaining mouths and a fiery light visible in each maw, the creature was being cooked from the inside out. Within just a few moments, the hydra collapsed to the ground and crumpled, the rock elemental beneath it barely running away in time to not be crushed.

With a stoic expression on his face that was still formed of flame, Xalmann walked out from the side of the dead hydra, phasing through its hide and leaving a burnt Lizardman-shaped mark on the scales behind him. His form returned to its normal flesh and blood with bright red and pale yellow scales. He raised his empty hand and his axe reappeared in it in an instant. He placed it and his obsidian blade in their sheaths before looking to the rest of the group around. Evidently, he hadn't sacrificed himself like a heroic idiot at all. Unbeknownst to Shael, given the choice between himself dying and letting all of Zarius's companions die, he'd save himself in a heartbeat. It was lucky for all of them that that wasn't the case this time.

Xalmann and his earth elemental went over to Eirynor and checked on him. He was still breathing, at least. It was unfortunate that Xalmann had no magics for healing anyone other than himself. He couldn't do anything for him, but it looked like he should survive this encounter. He looked to the drake that was now airborne and the Catfolk that was currently mudborne and waited for them to come over, possibly able to hep their ally now that the threat of the hydra was taken care of.

---

Heat Cloak
Heat Wave
Sweltering Aura
Full Elemental Manifestation- Fire

Indra manages to pick Snow up out of the mud and drops the soggy, mud-caked catfolk off on drier land. 

Eirynor stirs as Xalmann and the earth elemental's shadows pass over him. One eye slowly opens before he manages to push himself to roll over onto his back. The half-elf winces in pain, definitely suffering from some bruising to his ribs, if not a few broken or battered bones. 

He wheezes and looks up at the lizardman. As much as he should thank him, he can't exactly communicate that in his current state. At least the lizardman looks like he made it out of the fight better than he did. 

Snow makes their way over and huffs. "Good job, that was incredible." They praise Xalmann, definitely grateful that he showed up when he did, otherwise the minions likely would have all ended up as hydra chow. 

"Yeah! You're hot!" Shael calls from the back of her drake which refuses to land lest it get stuck in the mud again. 

"Thank you, I mean it. We would have been goners if it wasn't for you." Snow then attends to Eirynor and at least gets the half-elf into a sitting position with his back propped against the base of a tree for support. The catfolk then looks at Xalmann again. "I don't know if there's anything we can do to repay you...but you're an ally, so we will do what we can."

The catfolk smiles, but there's something off about it. There seems to be some sort of underlying anxiety or maybe even remorse behind it.

There's no sign that the minions are here with their boss, it's odd. But it's possible this is normal, Xalmann isn't too familiar with how Zarius' business operates after all, if he has any idea of what Zarius' business even is. 

"Hm." Xalmann just grunted a small acknowledgement of the Catfolk's words, sparing them a glance. He hardly recognized their words as praise for himself, but thought they were more just recognition that the battle was over and he'd been helpful in the fight. He wasn't foolish enough to think he hadn't played a key role in the fight, but he wasn't arrogant enough to think he could have won without the others being there. The hydra had proven tougher than he'd expected. Ten heads was a lot to deal with.

"Huh?"

Xalmann was much more surprised by suddenly being called hot by the Elf woman with the drake. He gave her a look for a moment. What a weird thing to point out. Of anyone, he would be the most aware of the fire magic he has. Was she surprised by it or something? Whatever. It didn't really matter. There were much more important things to talk about.

They were already willing to help him with something and saw him as an ally after this. That was good for Xalmann. Maybe they could bring him to Zarius. He thought the Fellblood would be able to help him. He'd already offered to last time he'd seen him. Now he just needed to find him. He didn't seem to be here with them either.

Xalmann faced the Catfolk who seemed like the most in charge member of their group. He still didn't even know any of their names, other than Eirynor.

"Where is Zarius?"

Eirynor rests his head back against the trunk of the tree and focuses on breathing. His head is swimming from being knocked out, but he should make a full recovery with some sleep and time. He's infinitely grateful that Xalmann showed up when he did, but he also wonders what brings him out here.

He was under the impression that Xalmann was still hiding from the Knights of Duros after the raid on Lilicors village. Maybe with all the other chaos across Charon, they have given up on their manhunt. Still, quite bold of the the lizardfolk to stride around in the Marsh Flats. Hopefully, he's smart enough not to return to the exact scene of the crime. 

At Xalmann's next question, Snow's words catch in their throat. They manage to clear it but then they avert their eyes to look at anything other than the lizardfolk. "He's uh...swamped...with work."

Across the marsh, Shael leans forward in her saddle and rests her forearms on the back of Indra's neck as she watches and listens to Snow talk to Xalmann.

Gods, Snow sucks at lying, even from here she can see how their ears and tail droop. No way this lizardguy will not pick up on that. She looks away from the sorry scene and sighs. 

"Good riddance," she mutters under her breath. 

"Uhm," Snow continues awkwardly, "if you...if you need to talk to him we could deliver a letter."

The catfolk hates this. They hate lying. They hate keeping secrets like this from people. But they can't say anything. They all swore to secrecy after all. The news would spread like wildfire if it got out, and they can't let all of the fellblood's hard work go to waste. They have to keep silent, no matter who it is they have to lie to. 

Xalmann just shook his head. A letter wasn't a bad idea, but it wouldn't work for him. He couldn't write in common and he had no way of knowing if Zarius could read the Lizardfolk language. A letter would probably be useless. He would just continue to head that direction himself. Not wanting to risk taking a boat made the journey a bit more difficult, but he would manage. Also, the time it would take him to get there might give Zarius enough time to finish up whatever was keeping him so busy.

There was just one thing left to do here. With his axe in hand, Xalmann went over to the corpse of the hydra and slashed deeply into the front of its chest. With a bit of effort and a skilled hand with the axe blade, after a few moments, with a loud squelch, he pulled his bloody arm out of a deep gash, his clawed hand holding what looked to be a large, round gem about the size of his fist. The hydra's core. This should serve as proof he slayed it and help him improve his reputation.

He looked at the others to see if they had any objections to him taking the core that was still dripping blood down his arm onto the mud below his elbow. The blood on his arm steamed and dried out from the heat of his scales even as he stood there silently, waiting for any of them to speak. Xalmann didn't even consider that he might look threatening in this moment.

"Oh...okay," Snow replies, unsure what else they can say to Xalmann given the situation. 

No one objects to Xalmann taking the hydra core. They're in no shape to rob the man of his prize and don't want to anyway. 

Shael does make a face of moderate disgust. "Gross." 

Not wanting to linger long enough for scavengers to show up, drawn by the scent of a freshly killed meal, Snow helps Eirynor up onto his feet. 

"We should get out of here. Eirynor needs to rest somewhere safer." 

"Yeah, yeah, back to civilized society," Shael waves dismissively then looks at Xalmann. "You wanna lift to Thunderhoof, hot stuff? We gotta deliver some stuff there."

Eirynor shoots Shael such a venomous look as if she said something she wasn't supposed to. Snow also looks a bit worried, but does their best not to draw attention to it. 

Shael.

Does not care.

She just waits for Xalmann's response as Indra manages to land on some more solid ground so that the group can get up onto the drake's back. 

"Flying's a whole lot better than walking through this mud hole. And we owe you for your help."

Hot stuff? This Elven woman had some strange fixation on pointing out Xalmann's fire magic, and Eirynor looked like it upset him as he gave her a venomous glare. Xalmann didn't understand, but he assumed it was some custom he wasn't aware of as a Lizardman.

The ride on the drake was tempting. It would cut a lot of travel from his journey and save him a lot of time, bringing him from the Marshflats to King's Valley. But, he wasn't keen on being dropping off in the middle of a village in the region that he was sure was one of the most angry at him for siding with the Mudworms in the battle. Shaa's a Minotaur, and Xalmann knew that meant he was most likely from King's Valley if not Thunderhoof Village itself.

He'd planned to pass through King's Valley stealthily, keeping to the forest and tall grass as much as possible to stay out of sight. He didn't suppose they could drop him off on the Zeinav border. These people might be returning to the Ashlands eventually, where he was trying to go, but he also doubted he could just tag along with them until then.

Xalmann thought about it for a moment before wordlessly climbing onto the back of the drake. Worst case scenario, he'd just jump off the drake before they got to Thunderhoof Village. Best case, he'd manage to piece enough broken Common together to ask them to let him off elsewhere on the way.