As they progressed deeper into the cave, Marie began to get an unsettling feeling.

"Are you positive there's nothing down here?" She asked Rukhar.

"Not entirely, but I'm pretty sure." Rukhar replied. "But I have my bow pre-loaded just in case."

Marie took out her gun and slung it over her shoulder in response.

"Guys! I found some cool rocks again!" Callie said, up ahead.

Rukhar looked over. "I can't see them, what do they look like?"

"Kinda wet... And rainbow colors!" Callie said.

Rukhar's heart stopped for a moment.

"What is it, Rukhar?" Marie asked, seeing his expression change.

"Run. Now." He said, turning. But there was no easy escape.

"Aaaah holy squid the hell is that?" Marie yelled, grabbing her gun.

"A huge problem." Said Rukhar. "I hunt big creatures, but these are a bit much, when I'm not in close quarters."

The creature in question was easily 12 feet tall, had 2 heads, both with a mane of sharp crystals. Rainbow saliva dripped from the left heads mouth, and the right on watched where it fell carefully. It stood on four legs, each very stocky and 5 feet long, and had a long tail with more sharp crystals forming barbs on the end of it. The right head roared loudly, forcing Rukhar and Marie to cover their ears, and attracting Callie.

"Hey guys, what is going....." She trailed off.

"Gem Hydra." Rukhar said. "Full grown, rainbow quartz. The toughest kind besides Diamond."

"How do we kill it?" Marie asked.

"With a lot of patience." Rukhar said. He slowly loaded a poison arrow. Marie began charging an ice shot.

Callie went to get her hammer, but Rukhar said "No! Any sudden moves and he will attack, the right head is already mad."

"Can we tame him? He's so cool!" Callie said.

"Only babies, and even they are very hard to handle." Rukhar said.

"So we shoot for a weak spot." Said Marie.

Rukhar slowly aimed his shot at the throat of the left head. "Aim there. We gotta keep that head from spitting or we are totally screwed."

Marie nodded, and turned her aim.

"On the count of three, Callie will draw her hammer, and we will shoot. Ok?"

"Got it." Marie and Callie replied, nervous.

"1...2...3!" Rukhar said, firing. Marie followed suit a quarter of a second later, and Callie drew her hammer. In the split second before the shots landed, the Hydras heads both tipped slightly back, showing their throats a little better. Both shots hit their marks, and the left head coughed violently, spraying the pent up saliva everywhere.

"Duck!" Rukhar said.

Everyone hit the floor, as gobs of the stuff flew over their heads.

"Up and run!" Rukhar said.

Marie took several more ice shots at the Hydras legs to slow it down, and the group backed up to make space.

The right head growled in pure rage, and the beast began to charge. Rukhar loaded one of his spare short swords into the bow, and fired it at the heart of the beast. The sword cracked from the impact, and barely left any purchase on the Hydras tough armor.

"Keep shooting there!" Rukhar said. "We need to injure it direly to get close enough to kill it."

"That's his heart? Won't that kill him first?" Marie asked.

"Hydras can survive up to 7 hours without a heart or lungs." Rukhar said. "But it will cause it to get tired fast."

"Ok!" Said Marie, releasing an ice shard at the right head, and shooting the dent left from Rukhar's sword.

"By the way, how are you gonna get that back?" She asked.

"Usually I fight in the open, but in here I only have 4 swords left." Rukhar said. "Provided we live, I'll pick them up as we leave."

He pulled out a tomahawk, and threw it at the left head, just as it got over it's coughing fit.

"Callie, try to use your hammer and toss rocks at than left head!" Rukhar said. "If it gets to spit, someone will die. That drool is highly acidic, and explodes if the other head can use a fire breath on it."

"Ok!" Callie threw a rock at the beasts right head.

"Other left Callie." Marie said. "There's a reason you don't have a driver's license."

"Marie, that's mean!" Callie complained, this time hitting the left head.

"Keep it up, don't let it advance to fast, or we will run out of space. This cave is only so deep." Rukhar said.

Marie hit it with another slowing shot, and saw the right head opening it's mouth. The inside glowed yellow.

"Lightning breath!" Rukhar said. "Roll to the side!"

Marie rolled left, Rukhar rolled right, but Callie wasn't fast enough.

"Gah!" She cried as the lightning glanced of her side, bouncing off and almost hitting Rukhar.

"Callie! Marie and Rukhar shouted in panic.

"Guh..." She gasped.

The attack had done almost all of her health, because it barely clipped her.

Rukhar shoved a red crystal from his neck into her hand, and focused on it for a moment. It resonated bright red magic, and Callie's breathing became less pained. But she was unconscious.

Rukhar picked her up, and said "New plan! We need to subdue the heads ourself. Keep it slowed!" Rukhar said.

Marie fired another shot. "That's what I've been doing. Is she gonna be ok?" She asked worriedly.

"I used a special charm on her. Her health is back to full." Rukhar said. "But she's out cold."

The right head open it's mouth again. This time, it glowed silver.

"Iron breath!" Rukhar said. "Cut it off!"

He threw another tomahawk, while Marie sent an ice shard. The combined mass of the two projectiles caused the attack to burst early, and Marie and Rukhar squeezed back to back, narrowly avoiding the attack.

"Ok. He is getting too close, we need to fall back!" Rukhar said.

Marie fired another slowing shot. "I can't keep this up for too long, it's getting tiring." She said.

"I can't really help with that." Rukhar said. "We don't have time for me to get anything that's not on my quick draw list. So no potions."

Marie nodded grimly, and shot another slowing shot, while Turing and running. Rukhar fired a stun arrow, poison arrow, explosive arrow, and draining arrow in quick succession, and turned to follow.

The Hydra roared in fury, and started barreling after them, albeit slowly. A few seconds passed, and the slowness shot wore off.

A loud crashing was heard. "I think he is angry!" Marie said, still running.

They reached another decent sized space. "Time to rinse and repeat!" Rukhar said.

The Hydra burst into the room seconds later, causing rocks to fall from the ceiling, peppering both the Hydra, and Rukhar and Marie. Callie was still out, but started to toss and turn in her sleep.

Marie shot a slowing shot as soon as she could see, and kept firing in the Hydras general direction until the dust cleared. Rukhar sent another poison arrow, and then a second sword.

The right head opened it's mouth again. It glowed an angry red-orange.

"That's the fire breath!" Rukhar said.

Marie rolled forward, and sent an ice shard into the Hydras mouth, just as he fired. The crystal instantly evaporated, and the fireball flew towards Rukhar, but he jumped to the side. Faint traces of molten lava sprinkled the area he had been standing. But when the right head closed it's mouth, it began chocking on the water, now condensing in it's mouth.

"Nice shot!" Rukhar said.

The Hydra had stopped moving for the moment, so Marie and Rukhar were able to send a torrent of attacks on its now very damaged chest plates. On cracked under the strain. Rukhar was quick to shoot his third sword into the crack. It stuck in place.

"If Callie can wake up soon, she can hammer that sword right through." Rukhar said. "But keep attacking it."

The right head stopped chocking, and the left head was looking ready to spit again.

"Left head! He is gonna spit!" Marie shouted.

Rukhar dove to the side, and almost made it out unscathed. Marie sent an ice shard and several shots at the left heads neck, and ran to Rukhar. A couple horrible chemical burns we're in his trailing right leg, and part of his boot had been scorched away. The right head opened it's mouth, and Marie shot the inside several times. Blood filled it's mouth, which was now glowing yellow again. It intended to finish Rukhar and Callie both off. In desperation, Marie hurled her gun as hard as she could, just as the Hydra fired. The gun hit it in the nose, making it turn it's head down involuntarily. The powerful lightning left a large burn mark on the ground, a few feet from the group. Marie followed with several ice shards, while Rukhar shakily stood up, wincing in mortal pain. "I forgot how bad this hurt..." He groaned. He saw Marie, gunless, attacking the Hydra. She drew her pickaxe, the last weapon she had, and flung it into the right heads eye. The eye was put out, and more dark blood flowed over the heads face.

"It has no depth perception, and the other one is still chocking." Rukhar said in minor optimism.

He begun shaking Callie, desperately trying to wake her up. He couldn't run, Marie was out of things to throw, but the Hydra was venerable. Callie wouldn't wake up no matter how hard he tried.

"Damn. Guess this is it..." He thought. Marie went squid form, and barely ducked a tail swipe, as the Hydra fought with the only weapons it still had, teeth and claws. She super jumped away as the Hydra tried to stomp in her, and turned back. She grabbed Callie's pickaxe, and flung it into the left heads mouth, just as it began opening. That head was rendered useless as well. The Hydra however kept pushing closer, taking many attacks from Marie. Rukhar slowly loaded his bow with another explosive arrow, and fired at the ceiling above the Hydra. Many large rocks fell on it, temporarily stopping it.

Amongst the constant noise, Callie slowly woke up.

Marie turned and saw this. She sent another ice shard into the body, and ran to her cousin.

"Callie! Thank goodness you're ok! We need help, can you stand?" Marie said.

The Hydras left head burst free from the rubble. Rukhar sent several regular and poison arrows into it.

"I... I think." Callie shakily got to her feet.

The Hydras right head broke out. It met the same treatment, but less. Rukhar was tiring.

"We need you to hammer a sword into that monster." Marie said. "It's already in place, it's just buried. If you hit it hard enough, the monster will fall asleep."

Despite being horribly tired still, Callie could tell the situation all came down to her, and that it was dire.

"O-ok." She said. She grabbed her hammer, and went into squid form. She charged her superjumped, and waited.

The Hydra batted off the last rocks, crushing them to dust. The sword had already been pushed in a bit, and many cracks adorned the area around it. Callie jumped towards the sword, as the Hydra raised with bleeding heads to the ceiling and roared. The long roar cut off and Callie turned back, slid painfully on the ground, and sunk the sword as far into the Hydra as she could. It was completely submerged, and a thick spray of foul blood began spouting from the Hydras chest. It roared wildly, but weakly. But it got to it's feet, and began half walking, half dragging itself around to attack Callie. She superjumped straight up, reverted to humanoid, and used her fire Slamdown on the Hydras back. It jolted in surprise, and the left head swung around and knocked her off, misjudging it's bite distance. Rukhar took advantage of the distraction, and fired his fourth sword into the Hydras open mouth. The left head began convulsing, but was still active, despite the sword punched cleanly through it's head. The right head gargled, and it's mouth began to glow a faint light blue.

"This thing won't die!" Rukhar complained. "Ice breath incoming!"

The Hydra spat out the ice breath, and a large amount of blood. It caught Marie's lower body, but she could still counter. Callie tossed a fireball near Marie, melting enough ice so that she could break free. The right head opened it's mouth to bite Marie, and Rukhar shot his final sword into it.

Despite having a sword in both brains and a third in it's heart, the Hydra was still advancing. Callie cracked it over the heads with her hammer, and was slammed against the cave wall by the Hydras tail. However, the Hydra was getting drastically slower.

"Just keep it moving guys!" Rukhar said. "It can't take much more strain."

He finally got to his feet, and stayed up. His crystal wasn't as fast as it normally was, because he healed Callie, but it had been slowly healing his leg. There was a grotesque scar, but his leg no longer had holes in it. He loaded several poison and explosive arrows, as well as a single draining arrow, and shouted "Barrage incoming!" He shot all 13 arrows at once, pushing the Hydra into the far wall. It roared in anger, then fainted, it's strength spent. Except for it's tail, which was still actively pinning Callie to the wall.

"How it is not dead?" Marie asked in pure disbelief.

Rukhar walked up, and pulled out another tomahawk. "We gotta finish the job." With 2 clean slices, he beheaded the beast. The tail twitched, which scratched Callie a few times, and finally collapsed.

"Now, to remove my swords..." Rukhar said. "And I'm totally keeping these skulls."

The group went about taking out the 3 swords and 2 pickaxes from the large corpse, as well as taking off all the crystals growing on it, and picking up the other weapons strewn about. It was a task that would take several hours, especially since Rukhar insisted on skinning the whole body and cleaning the skins afterwards.

"How often do you do this?" Callie asked, watching Rukhar deftly clean the 250th piece of hide.

"Quite often, usually every couple days. Just not this... Large." He replied, still stunned at what had just went down.

"Cool. I wanna come sometime!" Callie said, as she resumed picking off crystals.

"Hmm. That would be nice, actually." Rukhar thought happily to himself.