My (Monster?) Hero Life

Chapter 236: Death Breath

Kace roared once again as he confidently charged forward to meet the oncoming, disorientated enemy. The Hydra lunged with an impromptu attack with its fangs. Its sudden attack seemed to be entirely on instinct. However, it appeared overly slow to Kace's eyes, not only that, but it was off target. Probably because it was still recovering from being tossed around. 

Its wide-open mouth with its long sharp fangs passed by Kace harmlessly. Taking advantage of the height difference, he ran directly between the beat's forelegs. Kace dug his claws into the Hydra's soft underbelly with a grunt of effort as he ran beneath it. A wide gash appeared directly over where he had passed. Allowing a generous amount of the Hydra's blood and intestines to fall onto the muddy terrain.

'Now, the fun part. Why does this remind of those times I went cow-tipping back on Earth?' With a vicious grin, he slid to a stop directly under the centre most part of the creature's body. He withdrew his claws and placed both palms on the shiny, soft skin. With the last of his energy, Kace performed a simple jump. 

It was aimed to unbalance the Hydra's weight off to its right side, the gamble succeeded as the Hydra failed to find a way to recover from the sudden change. Its heavy body collapsed with a solid thud like sound onto the thin layer of earth that covered one of Grugda's pitfalls. With a slight cracking sound, it gave way beneath the sudden weight.

The Hydra squealed as it fell sideways into a deep pit. One of the last remaining functional heads became useless as it was impaled through one eye and out the other by one of the sinister spikes that had been placed at the bottom. Most of them broke beneath the weight without doing any damage to its thick hide. However, the same could not be said for the ones that found their way to its unprotected belly.

Kace was pleased to see that the gash he had created was made wider by a few of the spikes that got caught on the flapping, loose skin. Allowing more of the Hydra's organs to flop out onto the floor of the pit. It was clear that such an accumulation of damage spelt the end for the beast. Kace smiled as he realised that there was a good chance that he would soon experience a well-needed shore up of his abilities.

The Hydra hissed pitifully as the last remains of its life fled from its grasp. In its last moments, it unleashed a small cloud of poison gas as its last breath. Kace raised a hand to wave it away as he had done before. However, when he tried to summon the energy needed for it into his arm, he felt a piercing headache suddenly strike. 

He tried to ignore it, but the forceful attempt on his part only made the searing pain in his head even harder to endure. The poisonous cloud slowly filled up the pit in front of his eyes. It seemed like it was reaching out to him, inviting him to breath it in. Kace's eyes turned blurry as he lost the power to remain standing. He could not even muster the strength to cradle his head between his arms in reaction to the pain running rampant inside his brain.

'Fuck. I overdid it!' Kace rued his hasty decision, he had been too eager to claim his prize. His vision darkened as his body collapsed to the ground. His eyes stared out to the edge of the pit that was close by. As he felt his consciousness wavering, the last thing he saw was the first purple tendrils of the Hydra's dying breath emerging from the pit

Meanwhile

Grugda judged from the occasional tremors that the battle had moved away from his position. The question was had the poisonous cloud dispersed from the area yet? It was too early to be sure. The Eljein grumpily sat down on the floor. He was just glad to still be alive. 'I've got to. Test the. Air.'

Grugda tugged one of his medicinal bones its spot around his waist. Snapping it open he laid his eyes on the ointment inside. This was just a small portion that he hastily stuffed inside a few of these bones. Grugda fully believed it was better to be prepared for any situation. Since he would have to open a small hole to be sure of the current condition outside of his shelter, he wasted no time in applying the ointment to his skin.

This would stop his skin from instantly melting if he came into contact with the unusually potent poison of the Hydra. He still had no solution for his internal organs if he accidentally breathed any of it in though. Grugda cast a criticising gaze over his own body to make sure that he had not missed a single spot. When he was satisfied with his own work, he prepared himself to open a small hole.

He started small at first, with something barely larger than a pinprick. After several seconds he decided it was safe to make it a bit larger. Just because the cloud did not immediately invade, that did not mean that it was no longer present. It just might not have discovered the minuscule hole yet. He took his time with the meticulous process. Going through the cycle of enlarging the hole and waiting to see results.

By the time the hole became large enough to fit two of himself side by side, he had concluded that the poison cloud had indeed dispersed harmlessly. Grugda quickly created Earth Column beneath his feet to carry himself up and out of the hole. He preferred this approach to just randomly jumping out in case he was wrong in his assumptions.

His head drew level with the hole as he peered out into the surrounding area. 'What. Happened?' Grugda's three eyes went wide as stared at the misshapen nearby trees. They still had not returned to their normal posture after the passing of the Hydra's body, due to Kace's powerful throws. However, Grugda groaned at another sight. 

The poisonous cloud was still there! It was just lingering at ground level now instead of rising into the air. Soon after his initial observations, Grugda heard a duo of challenging roars in the distance. This was soon followed by what sounded like the death screech of the Hydra. His eyes narrowed to peer down the path that Kace had taken.

'You better. Be. Ok'