The third head glanced at the other two in confusion as now another had become completely passive and friendly toward this stranger that had taken them from their home and taken away all their food. Just what was going on here? Why weren't they attacking? Was the ice head the only sane one left?

The hydra's legs struggled in the sticky web, but it was beginning to free itself. The webbing attaching it to the ground began to stretch and tear as the giant reptilian body of the hydra overpowered it. The hydra's tail pulled free and swung at Raoul, the powerful tail splitting the air like a massive whip. At the same time, the ice head began to gather its breath again, the air around it growing colder.

Hylltywyll raised his eyebrows as he noticed Raoul was between him and the hydra now, the oaf having moved around to the hydra's backside, and the hydra was about to release a breath attack directly toward where he was enjoying watching the fight.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance and ran across the tree branch, hopping into the next closest tree to get out of the way of the incoming blast. Ugh, he'd make that idiot pay for ruining his perfect spot! That branch had the best view and now it was going to be covered in ice!

Raoul would hold his eerie gaze on the dragon, a faint smile of satisfaction appearing as the situation seemed to simmer down. Even his web was already torn apart from the hydra’s legs all he had to do was just lead it far far away from here so it wouldn’t bother the villagers anymore. However, before he could turn around and start leading it away he felt its large tail smack into him slashing deeply through his coat. He stumbles back feeling a deep guttural pain skyrocket through his chest. The dhampir couldn’t just stand still in anguish though because the third head that remained unfazed was about to blast him with frigid ice.

Raoul gritted his teeth and grabbed the edges of his coat he began flapping his arms (1) and with a big woosh he had taken to the skies. He zoomed to the beast’s left side and flew close to the ground and avoided the beast’s ice cannon. Although his chest hurt significantly he couldn’t let this chance go, he was going to have the beast freeze the area around itself. It was really the only thing he could come up with at this point, with no one else here to help the poor dhampir he was going to have to risk.

He then darted past the beast and flew forward taunting it as he soared magic coursing through his mouth (2), “Hey hydra come try and catch me if you can. I know the perfect place where you can get lots of food. Where you can get plenty to fill you up”.

---

1. Vampire's Cape (1/3)
2. Fluency

"Pfft- Ahaha! That's so stupid!" Hylltywyll laughed out loud, pointing a finger at the man flapping his cape like it was a pair of wings. Granted, the obviously magical cloak actually did let such an act allow him to fly, but still, Hylltywyll couldn't believe just how ridiculous it looked. It was just too funny for him not to laugh. Hyll ducked behind trees and kept his distance, not wanting to get caught up in all the ice breath coming from the hydra trying to freeze the flapping man.

The ice hydra head kept turning, trying to catch the vampire flitting around in its ice breath, turning all of the mud and swamp water around it into brown and green sheets of ice. The lightning head was looking around, following the same movements of Raoul, but not trying to attack. The fire head was similar until it began to blink in confusion and then look around toward Raoul, but this time it did begin to gather a glowing orange light in its throat. The rapidly cooling air around it from all of the ice breath attacks started to heat up again. The magic Raoul had used to pacify it had worn off and now it was pissed.

The hydra's entire body began to turn, blasts of burning hot fire joining the icy winds. Frozen mud melted again and then started to boil as the fire head rejoined the battle with a vengeance, displeased to have been put under the vampire's spell. Both heads either didn't care for what Raoul had to say to him, or just couldn't understand him anyways as the limits of the translating magic didn't extend to animals or monsters like the hydra.

“Yes, that’s right just keep your eyes on me and follow you monstrous creature”, Raoul would call out as he flew.

The situation was the worst that it could be at this point with the swamp hydra almost at full capacity, two out of three of its heads were already fully back to being their normal feral selves while it was only a matter of time before the third was sending elemental breath attacks. He was exhausted of almost all of his vampiric abilities and had no real other way to defeat this thing by himself. But all that didn’t matter a single bit, all that mattered was that the dhampir was luring it away from the village. No matter what the conditions were he had to finish his part of the contracted job, it was part of his code even if it meant almost getting blasted in the process.

Like how he almost got caught by the ice head’s blast narrowly avoiding it and zooming (1) through the skies. This had to be the most dangerous job he’d taken on yet and he kept dropping and flying higher to avoid the blasts. Thankfully for the most part Raoul was managing to avoid the beams of elemental blasts but for how much longer he wasn’t sure.

He couldn’t help but curse out, “Damn you Hylltywyll, you lying little fae bastard for disappearing”.

---

1. Vampire's Cape (2/3)

"Huh? When did I disappear? I'm right here, stupid." Hylltywyll retorted in Raoul's mind, clear annoyance and a hint of scorn in his voice.

Just who did this guy think he was, accusing him of lying and disappearing? He never said a single lie. He couldn't even if he wanted to. Clearly, he knew as little about Fae as he did about how to defeat a hydra. How many times was he going to use something that targets a single mind against a creature with three separate minds? What a fool.

"I did help. I got the hydra out of the town safely, without anyone getting hurt or even that shed getting damaged. That was definitely better than you could have ever managed on your own, and now you're saying I lied and ran off? I said I would help, I didn't say I would do everything. What are you doing to earn your half of the payment? The only one lying here that I can see is you, lying to the townsfolk about being able to deal with this hydra."

Hylltywyll quietly growled under his breath as he skulked about in the tree line. He was really feeling peeved now. What did this guy want, for him to just do everything and only get half the pay? What kind of a deal is that? He'd even helped out just for coin, which he wasn't even particularly interested in. He could have asked for much worse as his payment.

A sudden voice echoed throughout Raoul’s head, a familiar yet enraging one, “What the hell Hyllyywyll is that you? How are you in my head, I thought you left? Must be some sort of fae space nonsense but I sure have a lot of thoughts for you”.

He kept ducking and dodging through the air, his arms growing incredibly weary, the swamp hydra hot on his trail as it followed him. This was exactly what he wanted, they were a decent ways away from the village and now were approaching the forested area. Raoul just had to keep them going for a little longer just as soon as he found some nearby berry bushes or apple trees.

He barked back into his head, “What the hell Hylltywyll I thought the both of us were in this together. Sure you did help get them out no problem but that still left me the entire swamp hydra to deal with. I thought you’d actually be right there helping me take it down. However I guess you were way too scared and bowed out so I guess it’s fine. Also I didn’t lie to anyone I promised to get the hydra out of the village and that’s what I’ve done”.

After a few more moments Raoul spotted a large swampberry field quickly he yelled back, “Hey hydra heads you guys hungry? Why don't you chow down on that?”, before landing right (1) near the berry field. He managed to do it; this was more than enough to feed the gluttonous hydra.

---

1. Vampire's Cape (3/3)-Limit Reached

Scared? Hylltywyll scowled. Who was he calling scared when he's screaming and crying while flying around to avoid the hydra's breaths? Was he even listening to the words coming out of his mouth?

"What do you mean that's what you've done? I'm the one that got the hydra out of the village, not you. I teleported it out of the storage hut and into the swamp, not you. Are you trying to take credit for my actions? You might have promised to do it, but I'm the one that actually did it. The one part I left to you was finding the spot to teleport it to, and from the looks of it, you didn't even do that right. If you wanted the hydra farther from the village, you should have gone farther from the village before I teleported it." Hylltywyll verbally berated Raoul, not holding back his vitriol after being so offended.

Hylltywyll followed the hydra that was chasing after Raoul, the little Fae hopping along the tree branches to avoid walking through the mud. The hydra barreled right through the swampy water, breaking fallen logs and trampling bushes that got in its way as it pursued.

The third head snapped out of Raoul's spell, and now all three heads were furiously firing off their various breath attacks. Some trees were left scorched by fire or lightning, or with a layer of frost on them from an errant ice breath. A few fish floated up dead to the surface of the water they'd been swimming in before a jolt of electricity electrocuted them. At least all of the brush was too waterlogged in the humid marsh flats to be a serious risk of a fire spreading.

When they finally reached the field of swamp berries, the hydra paid the berry bushes no mind as all six eyes focused directly on Raoul with a look of anger. All three heads opened their mouths and aimed, gathering the different energies and preparing to attack.

Just before they could fire their breath attacks, all three mouths suddenly snapped shut as they were bound with dark chains that looked like they were made of solid shadow. Along the hydra's entire body, more chains spread and bound it, tying its three necks together. The chains sprouted from the ground clanked as they retracted slightly, pulling the hydra down and forcing it to lie down in the mud.

Hylltywyll stood on top of the hydra as it struggled and tried to break free, but it could hardly move as the chains bound it. He glared at Raoul.

"Wow, what a plan. Making a hydra angry at you when you have no way to defeat it. Did you think showing it some berry bushes would make it forgive you? You should get out of here while it's still chained up."

---

Scern's God Killer

“Yeah and just left without saying anything else? Do you think that’s anything substantial? There’s still a giant hulking hydra to deal with out of us. I did way more work than you did in dealing with this hydra. You just stood back and I guess just hid in the bushes watching me almost get blasted to death. And yeah I’ll admit I didn’t do a good job in preparing you to get on that front. I’ll own up to my mistakes but you still have to agree that you should’ve helped out more instead of just watching and laughing at me suffering”, Raoul would retort back to Hylltwyll in his mind.

“Ehehe hey guys can't we all just calm down and talk about this?”, he stammered out nervously noticing that his plan didn’t work, the berries didn’t seem appetizing at all to the furious hydras instead they had their attention solely placed on him and him alone.

They charged their ultimate breaths and Raoul’s despair began to rise, ‘Was this it? Was he going to be taken out by his arrogance and overconfidence? If only he had prepared more for this and taken it with the proper precaution and care instead of being blinded by the offer of money.

Closing his eyes, Raoul awaited his punishment only to hear the sounds of chains ring out. Opening his eyes he looked in utter shock as the monster was entrapped by these long and umbral chains that held it in place. Before he could even respond to the situation a familiar voice rang out from on top of it, Hylltywyll. The dhampir held his head down in shame as the dark fae berated him and verbally lashed him. He would hold his hands up realizing that Hylltywyll wasn’t just some pesky trickster fairy but instead a powerful and dangerous entity.

Raoul would begin to apologize, “You’re right, you’re completely correct in everything you have said. I messed up, I let myself be consumed by greed and took on this job without paying too much thought about how I would even finish it. It was a stupid and downright bad idea for me to do. I’m sorry Hylltywyll for putting you up to this job and snapping back thinking I knew better. I didn’t and I deserve none of the reward for this, you took down the hydra by yourself while I just flew around and made a fool of myself”.

He’d then reach into his pocket and take out a bag of solars tossing them up to the dark face as he chuckled, “That rightfully belongs to you I deserve nothing from this mission since you were the one who helped out here. Thanks, Hylltywll for saving my ass today and I swear to you I’ll make it up to you someday. If you’d ever like free drinks or need a favor don't hesitate to reach out” before walking far away from the squirming hydra into the night’s embrace content that at least the village wouldn’t have to be burdened with the monster eating their food.

"Hmph." Hylltywyll huffed indignantly and stared on with suspicion as Raoul left. It was such a polite exit that it made Hylltywyll feel like it was all an act. Even dropping the money that Hylltywyll had been thinking the fool didn't deserve. Apologizing. What was his aim? Was he actually sorry? Did he actually realize how colossally he had fucked this all up? Or was he just saying what he though Hyll wanted to hear so that the powerful Fae wouldn't harbor a grudge later. Was he mocking him?

Hylltywyll wrinkled his nose and sneered at the figure disappearing into the swamp, the trees and a slight fog obscuring him from view before too long. He was heading back toward the village. Whatever. He hadn't been lying when he said Raoul needed to leave while the chains were still restraining the hydra. They wouldn't last forever, and now that he was alone with it, this was his chance to get what he wanted.

He hopped down from on top of the hydra's back to stand next to the middle neck. It wriggled, but it was bound to the ground firmly, with no way to defend itself as Hylltywyll bit into it. The struggle picked up for a moment, but then gradually faded until the hydra was completely still as its mana was drained into Hylltywyll. All three heads felt the fatigue as all the mana in the entire beast was siphoned away.

When it passed out, Hylltywyll finally pulled away with a smile. He was positively giddy. The mix of fire, lightning, and ice mana was delicious and he picked apart the complex weave of the three elements in one creature, like a tapestry with loose threads at the end that he could stretch and pluck. It wasn't dissimilar to his own weave of dark, light, and space. With this, he was one step closer to gaining the sea, earth, and sky domain for himself.

He stepped away and felt his foot tap against something with a clink of metal. He reached down and picked up the pouch of coins. Hmph. Well, fine. Since he got the full payment, he should make sure this hydra wouldn't be a problem for the village anymore. He smirked as he looked back at it. The chains were already dissolving into shadow, but that didn't matter with it passed out from its lack of mana.

Now, what to do with it?