Yang had gone off to throw rocks into the channel. Which wasn't the smartest thing to do in a strange area.

It was chilly this far north, even though it was sunny, but she hardly noticed.

She was just pissed at them all. They didn't know how good they had it, having anyone to stick up for them. No one would do that for her; she always defended herself. They could at least be grateful!

Why did she bother..?

She thought moodily that Ruby probably could have broken it up, and everyone would have just thought she was being a good leader. She could always pull off that because she seemed so innocent. Yang was the one people just thought was angry all the time.

Heck, even Weiss could have pulled it off, because they thought she was just reasonable. Or Blake... Anyone could have had more credibility than Yang. Pyrrha just had to open her mouth and people listened to her.

"Well, I guess I don't exactly seem like the peacemaker." Yang glanced at the water and her distorted reflection in it. "But still..."

"Oh, I completely agree," someone said.

Yang jumped. But she didn't see anyone.

Raising her gun arm, she said, "Who's there?"

"Sorry to startle you," the voice said. "It's just me. Hi."

Yang glanced around, then she looked at the water and saw there was something dark sticking out of it.

It was colored black and reddish, something like a Grimm, but it didn't have the face of one. It just looked kind of like a small lizard's head with more intelligent eyes than a Grimm.

"Who are you?" Yang was more used to animals talking after Underland, but her first thought was it must be one from there that was somehow in Remnant.

"Oh, no need for violence," the head said. "I just was overhearing your little tiff. I think you're right, you know. It's not fair."

"What are you doing out here?" Yang said. "How did you get here?"

She thought she heard some odd hissing in the background, but nothing was visible.

"I've lived here for a long time," said the head.

"No, I have," said another voice.

Yang blinked.

Another head was sticking out of the water not that far away.

It was like the first one but with slightly different markings and horns around it.

"Not as long as I have," said a third.

This one was more colorful, but distributed differently. More black than white.

"You always quibble over who's been here the longest," a fourth one popped out of the water. It seemed to have some seaweed stuck to it. "Look, I found a decoration."

"Hey, I liked that one," a fifth head said. "Give it back."

"It looks better on me," said the fourth one.

"No, it doesn't. Besides you have plenty of other ones in the trove."

"No, you have more than I do!" the fourth one said.

"Oh, please stop talking," a sixth head popped up.

Yang backed up. "What are all of you?"

"You could say we're all one big, happy family," said the first head complacently.

"They say two heads are better than one," said the second. "But I'd want more than that."

"How did talking animals get to this part of Remnant?" Yang said angrily. "Did you come from Underland?"

"Underland? Where's that?" said the first.

"It's this magic land that's...under Remnant," Yang said.

"That sounds nice," said the third.

2 other snake heads had appeared farther off and were watching this, without speaking.

Yang thought they must all have been some kind of serpent, from the shape, a whole family of them.

But they didn't seem to be Grimm. They would be attacking her if they were.

"If you live here, maybe you can tell us the easiest way to get across this channel," she said slowly. 

"You want to go across?" the first head said. "Why? Looking for greener grass? I agree the grass on this side is kind of faded."

"It's better over there," said the second head.

"No, it's better if you go farther along the shore towards the humans," said the third.

"You're both wrong. It's better at the bottom of the ocean," said the fourth.

"No one ever comes to talk to us. What were you and your friends arguing about?" said the fifth.

"Not much," Yang said flatly. 

"Do you really want to go to the other side?" said the fourth more eagerly. "We've been to the other side loads of times."

"I mean, yes," Yang said. "All of us do."

"You should go now," said the second. "If you find it first, they'll have to apologize to you."

"And they were wrong," said the third. "You were just trying to help. It's not fair that things are always worse for you. We were just saying below the surface that you were quite right about that. It's just how it is for us. Things are always harder for us than everyone else."

"I think things are easier for everyone but me," said the fourth one. "I'm the smallest--you all catch more than I do."

"You get what you deserve," said the fifth nastily. "And you always take more from me anyway."

"That's just because you don't give me anything," the fourth said.

"Don't mind them," said the first. "They're so petty. It's not really about the random garbage you find on the ocean floor. The true joy of collecting things is finding things that hardly anyone else has. Like that arm of yours. That must be quite unique."

Yang rubbed it. "It was made for me." 

"You must have done something very noble to earn that," said the second head. 

"I...well, I lost my arm trying to save a friend," Yang said. "That's all. I dunno if it's really noble, but..."

"But of course it is. All humans are so selfish, usually," said the first head. "But you are so brave. I think we should help her."

"Yes, yes," they all chorused. "Clearly she has earned it."

"Look, thanks and all," Yang said a bit warily, "but I think I should wait for my whole team."

"Yang!" Weiss's voice broke into her thoughts.

She came running up. "Who are you talking to?"

"Oh...it's...these things." Yang pointed at them.

"Hi," they all called at Weiss.

"AH! What are those?" Weiss cried.

"Well, she's not as strong as the other one," Weiss heard one of them whispering to its friend.

"She certainly looks a bit more stuck up," said the 4th one.

"I like her color better though," said the third. "Perhaps we should help that one instead."

"Well, let's see which one is smarter and show that one the way across," said the 2nd.

"Why are they talking?" Weiss asked.

"I don't think they're Grimm," Yang said.

The heads quivered slightly.

"What are Grimm?" said the 5th one.

"Big, soul-eating monsters," Yang said.

Weiss thought Yang's eyes looked a little odd, like she was looking right past her.

"Uh, Yang, they look like Grimm to me," Weiss said.

"Oh, she's a clever one," said the 5th. "Shouldn't trust random heads at first sight."

"Well, that's only fair," said the 4th. "We don't trust random humans at first sight either."

"No indeed, they like to attack us too much," said the third.

"But perhaps these two are more reasonable," said the second.

"I say the yellow one is, and the white one isn't," said the first.

"Weiss is reasonable enough," Yang said.

"I'd say I'm actually more reasonable out of the two of us," Weiss admitted. "But that doesn't mean I trust you talking heads."

"Well, we're more than just heads, you rude hussy," said the 5th.

"And what are you but a talking head on a human body?" said the 4th.

Yang snickered.

"That's not funny!" Weiss said.

"Well, you do talk a lot," Yang said.

"You're talking to weird water snakes, and I'm the one who's talking a lot?" Weiss said.

"Well, it matters if you talk better, not a lot," said the third one.

"I definitely talk better," Weiss sniffed.

"Oh, please," Yang said. "You talk like a robot."

"Yang!" Weiss stomped her foot. "This is not why I came over here."

"That's right, listen to Weiss," said the first one. "She knows better than you, after all."

Yang frowned at it.

Weiss didn't remember actually saying her name aloud or hearing Yang say it.

"Or do you know what's best?" said the first head, coming a little more out of the water.

"Hey, there's more to it than that," Weiss said. "Don't make me out like that."

"People don't understand you at all," said the 5th one. "They think you're mean all the time. Not like Yang. Everyone likes Yang right off, because she's easy-going. They think you're the ice queen."

"Well, that is true, but how did you know?" Weiss said.

"Oh, we picked up a lot of your conversation," said 4th. "And you were just trying to help, Weiss. It's just not fair, is it?"

"Well, no, it's not fair that people think that, but people are wrong a lot," Weiss said. "And it's not really any of your--"

"Maybe you could help us settle our argument," the 3rd head. "Which of us do you think is more handsome?"

"Handsome?" Weiss wouldn't have described any of them as handsome. They were pretty ugly-looking snake heads.

"It's me!" said the 2nd one.

"They always say it's you" said the 3rd, "but I think it's me."

"It's my turn," said the 4th.

"It's never my turn. Pick me," said the 5th.

"Wait, why is this important?" Weiss said.

"Oh, just pick one," Yang said impatiently. "I mean, you're so smart, right?"

"Why don't you pick one, if you're so cool?" Weiss shot back. "You care about this more than I do."

"So, what, now I need to try harder than you to look good?" Yang said.

"Well, some of us actually put effort into our appearance," Weiss retorted.

"Weiss!" Blake interrupted them, before Yang could shove Weiss into the sand for that. "Yang!"

She had her weapon up. "What are you doing just standing there while that Grimm is watching you?"

"It's not a Grimm," Yang and Weiss both called.

"You just had to get your word in first," Yang said to her.

"Me? You jumped in there," Weiss said. "Ugh, this is why you're so annoying--you're just so uncouth."

"And you're just such a princess!" Yang said.

"What are you doing?" Blake's ears went back. "Are you actually fighting? They're right behind you."

"We didn't mean any harm," said the first one.

"What's her problem?" said the 2nd.

"We just asked for their opinion," said the 3rd.

"Cats, they're always so jealous of their friends," said the 4th.

"Blake always likes to be the center of attention," said the 5th.

"Blake, just leave us alone," Yang said. "We're trying to get help."

"From a Grimm?" Blake said.

"It's not a Grimm," Weiss said.

Blake stepped forward. "Can't you hear that weird noise?"

"What noise?" Yang had forgotten about the noise she heard, and now she heard nothing.

"That hissing noise," Blake said.

"Blake, what's going on?" Sun joined them. "Ew, what is that?"

"Hi-i-i-i!" said the heads again.

"Why do you keep saying hi to everyone?" Weiss asked them.

"Because you're boring us," said the first one. "We asked you a question. Maybe we should ask them instead."

"Hey, I could answer!" Weiss said. "Yang was the one interrupting."

"I think you started it!" Yang said, making a fist at her.

"Are they fighting each other while there's Grimm behind them?" Sun asked Blake.

"I know, right? Something's weird about those things," Blake said. "Whatever they are."

She frowned. "You two always do this. You act like your problems are just so much less of  a burden to you than anyone else, while the rest of us actually feel the weight of what going on!"

"Uh...Blake?" Sun said. "You're talking kinda weird now."

"No, I'm not," she argued.

"She always talks weird," Yang said.

"At least she doesn't talk like you," Weiss said.

"You want to say that to my face?" Yang said.

"I just did." Weiss narrowed her eyes.

Yang shoved her into the sand.

"How dare you!" Weiss summoned a big knight.

"Oh, sure, make that fight for you. It's so easy for you to win a fight when you don't have to get  in there yourself." Yang made a fist.

"You want to see me get in there myself?" Weiss made the knight vanish, and she held out her sword.

"Both of you are so overdramatic!" Blake said. "I have a real actual problem here to deal with!"

"Blake, snap out of it!" Sun grabbed her shoulder and jerked it. "That thing is getting bigger."

It wasn't growing so much as the snake heads were all pushing themselves up out of the water.

"Sun is just distracting you from what's important, Blake," said one.

"You think?" Blake looked up.

"Huh?" Sun said. "Who are you talking to?"

"The head, you idiot. Didn't you hear it?" Blake said.

"Uh...no, I didn't hear anything," Sun said. "The Grimm isn't talking, Blake. It's just hissing."

"What do you mean it's not talking? They just talked a bunch of times," Weiss said.

"He's as stupid as he looks," Yang said.

"Not as stupid as you look," Weiss said.

"So you do think you're smarter than me, huh?!" Yang said.

"I know I am!" Weiss said. "You think you're tougher than me?"

"Oh, I know I am," Yang said with attitude.

"What are you doing?" Sun put his hand to his head. "Have you all lost your minds? Is that thing hypnotizing you?"

Weiss promptly attacked Yang anyway.

"Stop it!" Blake rushed down to get in between them, but it just started a cat fight. [Ha ha.]

All three of them were just trying to shove the other two off.

Sun didn't bother to interrupt, because he was staring at the actual Grimm in the water.

The girls were completely oblivious as it grew up, up, up--each snake was at least 20-no, 30 feet long. No, 40...50...60...

Sun lost count after that point.

They were blocking out the sun along the horizon.

A bird flew past Sun's shoulder and said in Raven's voice,

"What in the h--- is that?!"

"I don't know what it is." Sun had his staff ready. "But I think it's messing with their heads somehow. Can you, like, freeze them with ice or something?"

"Hi!" the snakes said to them.

Raven ruffled her feathers. "That's a jarring sound..."

"She thinks he's too stupid to know what's going on," said one head.

"Okay...now I hear voices," Sun said aloud.

"What?" Raven said.

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Sun asked her.

"More so than I think anyone else is?" Raven said.

"I just heard them say you thought so," Sun said. "But I figure, that's just what a Grimm would say."

"I think that one's seen too much," said one head.

"Better to just eat him," said the 4th.

"They won't even notice," said the 5th.

Before Sun could say anything, the 4th and 5th snakes dove at him. Opening their mouths wider, they stuck out long fangs and hissing tongues.

"Whoa!" Sun jumped out of the way, and both heads hit different parts of the sand he'd been on.

Raven flew up over them.

More of the heads snapped at her.

"It's a tiny bird," one said.

"This bird seems to be human also," said another.

"This will please the mistress," said the first head.

Raven evaded the heads and flew toward the girls who were still bickering.

"Yang!" she said, landing on her shoulder. "Stop it! It's a Grimm! It's messing with your mind, like the Apathy."

"Of course she would say that," said one head. "She's always so sure she's right."

"She just thinks that you can't think for yourselves," said the second.

"Leave me alone, Mom." Yang shoved the bird off her shoulder. "I can handle myself."

"What?" Raven said.

"Shoo!" Weiss waved at her. "This is our fight."

"We don't need your help!" Blake said. 

"Yeah, Miss Know-It-All," Weiss said.

Raven noticed their eyes weren't very focused.

Well, never one to be subtle, she resumed human form and gave them all what was almost the "mom" look.

"Did you not hear me?" she said. "Those Grimm are messing with your heads, making you fight amongst yourselves. Look behind you."

"That's the oldest trick in the book," said the first head.

"She thinks you'll fall for that?" said the second.

"So she can get in a lucky shot," said the third.

Raven heard none of what they said.

"We're not going to fall for that." Weiss held up her sword.

Raven had had enough lip from Weiss.

Shrugging, she held up a hand and used magical fire to send Weiss back onto the sand.

"Hey!" Yang and Blake cried.

Raven kicked Blake aside with the speed of an expert huntress, and then ducked Yang's attempt to strike her.

Yang's eyes had turned red... Raven could have sworn there was a greenish tint around the pupils.

Stepping back, she caught Yang's other arm with her own hand--Raven was pretty strong, and Yang hadn't powered up that much yet.

But Yang was still stronger, and it wouldn't take her long to break free.

This took Raven back, just like sparring with Tai.

Not the time to think of that...or how Summer had always managed to get along better with everyone...

She looked up at the heads and saw one was right above them.

"Move, Yang!" She pushed her forward.

Yang only saw the head at the last second before it snapped Raven up inside it.

Turns out they were much bigger than they'd looked in the water.

"Mom!!" For a second Yang snapped out of it.

Inside the Grimm's slimy maw, Raven stuck her sword into the roof of its mouth before it could swallow her, though it was trying to.

"I did not come this far to get eaten alive by a Grimm!" She strained, struggling to pry the teeth open.

It was a lot stronger than it looked from a distance.

"Hey, give me some of that!" said one of the other heads, snapping at the one that had eaten her.

"No, I want it!" said the 3rd.

They both attacked the first head, that began to choke a little in the effort to keep Raven in place.

Yang fired at them, but it didn't do much.

"Yang, what is that thing?" Qrow suddenly was there.

He, Vara, and Theo had all followed Raven and the others.

They looked up at it.

"Where the heck were you?" Sun was still dodging the other two heads.

Weiss pushed herself up. "Oh, you thought you could just stop our fight!" she said, angrily.

Her eyes looked a little more green than blue right then.

Yang blinked. What had she been doing?

"Careful." She turned to the others. "It's doing something to our minds! It talks!"

"I don't hear any talking," Vara said.

"Hiiii!" said the snake heads to her.

"Ah!" Vara screamed and covered her ears.

"It ate Mom!" Yang yelled at Qrow. "That big one."

"What?" Qrow covered his ears.

"Dude, help!" Sun said, swinging at one of the heads snapping at him, but it didn't do much.

He made some clones, and they swung at the head too.

The other serpents rose more out of the water.

And...Yang saw they weren't snakes.

In fact, they were all attached to the same thing, a huge, ugly body that was bigger than a Goliath's.

It was warped and mottled like the Grimm, but as if it was camouflaged against the white sea foam.

It had four long legs that were much more like a lizards, but less splayed out, and with talons.

Each of the heads was attached to a neck that was as tall as a tower, and fused at the bottom.

Yang had only counted 8 before, but now one more rose out of the water. It was the largest and ugliest out of them all. It looked at them all hungrily.

And then it promptly shot fire at the beach.

"Hii..." the other heads said. Now it sounded menacing even in Yang's mind.

Yang almost threw up on the spot... In fact the voices were making her dizzy.

She fell onto her back.

"Wait, I know what that is," Theo suddenly said, as Vara was wincing from the noise. "That was in the book Vic gave us before we left. The pictures didn't make it look so big, though--It's called the Hydra!"

[Props to all of you who knew what it was before he said it, Greek Mythology fans out there.]

"Is that because it's making that'hiiii' sound?" Vara asked, looking sick.

"Maybe. I think that's the sound it uses to hypnotize people with." Theo had the book out, of all things. "Apparently the monster tricks people by implanting some kind of anger in them so that they fight each other, and then it eats them while they're distracted, once it's had its fun watching them fight... I really want to know how the friend of Ozpin's who wrote this got his information."

"Theo, focus!" Qrow said. "Can we fight it?"

"Uh...it doesn't really say," Theo said. "These entries aren't very long, you know. More like bio pages. I guess just think happy thoughts and try to cut its head off."

"Good plan," Qrow said. [😬🤦‍♀️]

He pulled out his scythe and went for the one that had Raven in it.

Theo threw his boomerang and hit the head in the eye.

That distracted it, and Qrow suddenly chopped the whole thing off.

It turned into smoke.

Raven was dropped and landed on the ground, sword up.

Then she sat up.

"Huh...that was shorter than I thought," she said.

"Hey, sis!" Qrow circled back around and then landed as human. "Look alive. And don't think anything angry."

"Only when I see you--" Raven began, then the head suddenly sizzled in front of them.

The other heads weren't even trying to eat them. They were glancing at the others and hissing menacingly.

But the one Qrow had just cut off, the nub started bubbling like the Grimm Hounds, and very suddenly out popped two more heads.

They were a bit smaller than the other ones, but still with teeth and the angry eyes.

"Tell me I didn't just see that," Qrow said.

Raven smacked him in the leg. "What did you do?!"

"What did I do? Did you see that?" Qrow said.

"You did something. They're not supposed to grow back!" Raven said.

"I don't know. Cinder's arm grew back. Maybe this thing is the same," Qrow said.

The new heads struck at the same time, and they dove in two different directions.

"So what do we do?" Raven asked.

"I don't know!" Qrow said.

By now the rest of the team had run this direction. They heard the commotion, and they saw the heads.

"What is that?" Jaune asked.

"Hydra," Theo called. "Watch its heads. They grow back."

"And that middle one breathes fire," Vara cried. She'd had to put out one on her cape after the edge got singed.

"What?" Jaune said.

The middle head shot fire at them.

"Don't listen to what it says to you," Theo said, diving out of the way. "It's a trick to get us to fight each other."

"Look out for Blake--she's already in a trance," Sun called, running away from one of the other new heads.

"This is the weirdest thing I've seen in a long time," Neptune said.

"I've seen worse." Meridian pulled out an arrow. "So we can't cut off its heads? What if I just shoot an arrow through its brain? Would that work?"

He tried it.

The head disintegrated...and then grew back two more.

"I'm gonna say no," Neptune said in a small voice, holding up his trident.

"How do you defeat it if it grows back after you kill it?!" Jaune cried.

Now they had 11 heads to deal with.

[I should clarify--some of you have probably seen the Hydra in movies, and they rarely have 9 heads. I imagine that is because it is hard to animate that many heads. But the original myths says 9. Only the middle one breathed fire.

What is not clear is if that was the number when it was made, or if it started at one or two heads, and some idiot got it up to 9 by the time Hercules fought it, because people don't learn.

Other fun fact that strikes me as relevant to Salem: It was bred by Hara specifically to kill Heracles (Hercules) because she hated him, since he was a child of one of Zeus' many flings.]

"Holy crap!" Shine had finally found them.

Pyrrha ducked as fire shot over her head, and rolled along the sand.

Shine pulled out her sword and flashed it brightly.

The Hydra howled in pain.

Raven got clear just in time.

She threw ice at its feet to try to freeze them into the water.

The middle head blew fire and evaporated it.

"I'm just going to guess its probably immune to fire," Theo said.

"Is it immune to rocks?" Vara asked. 

"In the myth," Shine called, "Hercules stops its head from growing back by setting the stump on fire once he cuts one off."

"Wait, that doesn't make any sense," Jaune called. "If fire would do that, why would one head breathe fire? Wouldn't it risk stopping itself from growing back?"

"I mean, it would have to be a pretty bad aim," Sun called.

"Does anyone have a strategy to fight this thing?" Winter demanded.

The Hydra made its weird whining noise. "HIIIII!"

Winter wasn't looking behind her, but suddenly Cinder pounced on her from behind.

"Gimme it!" she yelled. "Give me that power!"

"What?" Winter began, and her face got shoved into the sand.

"It's not fair that you all have so much power while the rest of us starve!" Cinder cried, lighting up her one good hand while she used her feet to pin Winter down.

A sudden glyph popped out of the ground, smacking Cinder off of her.

Winter rubbed sand out of her eyes and stood up, eyes flashing blue fire.

"Winter!" Shine called. "It's the Grimm. Can't you hear it? It's whispering something to us."

"I hear nothing but hissing and whining," Winter said.

"That is what envy sounds like," Shine said. "And greed and jealousy and selfishness...look out."

Winter glanced back. One of the heads snapped at her.

She launched herself into the air and dodged it, then she sliced its head off and set it on fire.

To her surprise, it worked. The head didn't grow back--it just bubbled on the end of the stub in a nasty way.

A lot like Cinder's arm...

Cinder looked up, and her arm stub smoked.

She looked at it and hissed in pain.

Shine hit Cinder in the face with her sword, while it was still flashing brilliantly.

"AHHH!" Cinder howled in pain and grabbed at her eyes.

"Snap out of it," Shine said. "You want to rival something? That monster there thinks it's smarter than you. Why don't you kill it instead?"

Cinder snarled and pulled her hand away from her face with a murderous look at Shine.

Then she fixed her eyes on the Hydra.

"It's toying with me!" she snapped.

A glass longsword formed in her hand, and she flew up and dove at the Hydra, cutting one of its other heads off and then setting it on fire with more energy than was strictly necessary.

But Shine took it as a silver development that she was focused on the Grimm instead of the humans.

Back down to 9 heads, the Hydra seemed to be thinking it might not win a fight against this many people.

It began to retreat into the water.

"Don't let it get away," Jaune called. "We won't know where it is then. It could attack us at any time."

Oscar, who was watching this, called, "We need to keep its attention on a few of us so that the  rest of us can kill it. Attack its stomach."

"Right, that could work." Pyrrha blew sand and hair out of her face. "It probably doesn't have as much armor down there."

"If only one of us could go under water," Meridian remarked, "and not drown."

"Dude!" Neptune said.

"Just saying," Meridian said. "Now might be a good time to face your fears."

"In the middle of a fight?" Neptune said.

"We could slip under there, easy," Meridian said. "No one else has to go in the water, just you. Stick your trident up there into its heart, and we're done."

Neptune frowned at it. That did sound slightly less dangerous than anyone else being around...

Yang was hiding behind one of the rocks.

Raven was dodging one of its other heads--and with a speed and agility that showed her years of training more than her magic powers.

Like Qrow, she could turn into a bird and out of it in a kind of rhythm.

Qrow was doing the same thing, trying to keep the thing's attention on him.

But what surprised them was that Vara got in on it too.

Instead of using magic, as she always had, she just took to the air and took out the sword that they'd never seen her use before.

"You want to play games?" she shouted at the Hydra. "Play with this, you overgrown eel!"

She ducked the first head, with a quickness that no one would have expected from her, and jabbed her sword into the bottom of its jaw.

The thing howled and snarled at her, but the blow wasn't enough to kill the head so that it regenerated, just to annoy it.

Then Vara flipped higher into the air, like she was swinging off a trapeze, and landed on the top of its head, then she rammed her sword into both its eyes so fast that it didn't have time to duck.

"Ow..." Nora was wincing from where she was watching. "That's brutal."

Ren was using his Semblance to hide them and Emerald and Mercury from the Hydra, since they couldn't do much with their abilities.

The Hydra head snapped at Vara blindly.

She held on tightly like she was riding a horse.

One of the other heads snapped at her, and she just jerked the first one upward so that it hit that head instead, and she cut into that one's eye also.

"What is she doing?" Sun asked Theo, who'd helped him out.

Theo held up his boomerang.

"It's been a long time since I've seen Vara use her actual skills," he said, kind of dreamy like. "But that, kid, is why she was known as the Terror of Close Range Combat for years before she retired. Her Semblance makes her able to gauge exactly how far to hit something to inflict the amount of damage she wants on it. She's able to hit that thing just right to not kill it, but she's mutilating it enough to make it hard for it to nab the rest of us. Beautiful, isn't it?"

"Uh...not the word I would use." Sun was more of leaning toward "terrifying."

Vara slipped along the other side of the neck, running like it was a tightrope, and sliced the other eye of the second head too, then she cut a groove on it like she was sliding down a pole, still not killing it, but she made it mad.

The one head chomped at her, but it just bit its own neck instead.

And that head turned to smoke.

Vara vaulted into the air and set it on fire.

Then she sliced the first head off and set that one on fire too.

The ninth head blasted fire at her, now mad, and she ducked it like she could see it without even looking. It hit one of its other heads in the face instead, making that one angry at itself.

Vara ducked down toward the main body of the beast, and some of the other heads followed her.

They got tangled up with each other.

"Hey, loser, over here." Vara waved, and they tried to bite her and only got in their own way.

Vara was sliding a bit on the back and wincing at it.

"D---." Raven was staring.

"She can't have all the fun," Qrow called. "Hey, sis, let's try that team attack. I want to go for the fire breathing one."

"Fine," Raven said. "But Tai's not here--Yang, run that way."

"What? Are you crazy?" Yang said.

"Just do it." Raven turned into a bird and flew.

Qrow did also and got in front of the ninth head before it could try to blast Vara again. He flew in its eyes, and it turned to follow him.

One of the only other remaining heads tried to snap him up--and a huge Nevermore shot feathers through it.

Winter was watching coolly.

The head vanished, and she shot fire at that one too.

The thing was down to 6 heads by now, counting the fire-breathing one.

Vara had two pretty well focused on her, and Theo was helping by hitting them with his boomerang.

Meridian and Neptune were sneaking towards the water while they were distracting it.

The others, not sure what else to do, were just yelling to keep its attention on them.

Raven flew up as a bird to the other side of the 9th head as it was attempting to blow fire at Qrow.

She turned human and hit it with her sword.

It turned to look at her.

Qrow turned human, holding his scythe out on the other side.

At the last second, Raven ducked and opened a portal.

Qrow fell out of that one and cut his scythe through the head, then resumed bird form and flew out of another portal which let out next to Yang, who was gaping.

Raven set the head on fire.

This head smoked anyway--and looked like it might grow.

"Oh...right," she said. "That one might be fireproof."

She froze it instead.

That seemed to do the trick for now.

"I'm really not sure about this." Neptune was in the edge of the water and looked at Meridian nervously.

"All you have to do is just wade closer to it," Meridian said. "No need for anyone else. You can do it, mate!"

His Semblance kicked in. Neptune felt a lot braver suddenly.

Before he could really question if he should go through with it, he rushed into the water.

The Hydra had a half over the sand and was a half still in the water.

It was starting to notice that something was under it, but Neptune ducked under the water before it could really see him.

Then he popped back out and jabbed his trident into the thing's chest.

Vara was preparing to cut two more of its heads off--

But all at once the whole thing vanished into smoke.