The Scrap Tamer - Chapter 75

Chapter 75: The Test Continues: A Hydra.

The team cleared wave after wave of primals which got increasingly harder but they breezed through them, only needing a couple of boosts from Ethan and his froged beast.

Just after finishing the fourth wave, the place suddenly became darker and it was not from the lightning clouds that Lisa’s dragon summoned.

The entire place was envelope into darkness as if it was a moonless night. A suffocating pressure settled over the place, making the team feel the approach of something terrifying.

Then, the ground shook.

A black fissure tore open in the earth, shadowy tendrils slithering outward like grasping fingers. From the abyss crawled a seven-headed monstrosity—a Hydra unlike any they had ever seen.

Its scales were pitch-black, reflecting no light, as if it absorbed the very concept of illumination. Seven sets of glowing violet eyes scanned the battlefield with eerie intelligence, each head moving independently.

Reid’s eyes narrowed, he was pretty sure that they were still in a simulated environment, with simulated primals but the pressure being emitted by the Hydra made him think otherwise.

Before they could react, it moved.

The Hydra’s seven heads struck at once, each targeting a different person.

“DODGE!” Reid roared.

Rusty [Skipped] backward with Reid, barely avoiding the snapping jaws. Lisa vanished in a streak of lightning, reappearing midair as her wyvern blasted a bolt of electricity toward the Hydra’s center.

Marcus stood his ground, his Ironhide Rhino meeting one of the Hydra’s heads with a devastating charge, sending the beast skidding back a few meters.

But the Hydra barely flinched.

Its wounds—if they could even be called that—began sealing immediately. Before it could try to attack again, the sound of a gun rang out.

Clara had taken a shot and it was a direct hit, completely destroying on of its heads. The hydra’s blood from the destroyed head rained down accompanied by chunks of flesh.

But before the team could celebrate, two new heads grew, replacing the one that was cut.

“Tch. That’s annoying,” Lisa muttered.

The Hydra then proceeded to counterattack.

Its middle head opened its jaws, revealing a swirling vortex of energy. Without warning, it unleashed a dark beam of destruction—an Annihilation Breath—straight at Marcus.

“Shit!”

Rusty reacted first. [Pause].

Time froze around the Hydra’s attack for a brief second. Reid grabbed Marcus by the shoulder, and using [skip] he had just copied, warped him out of harm’s way just as Rusty’s time stop wore off.

The beam obliterated a section of the town wall behind them, leaving only smoking rubble.

Ethan, from his safe position, swallowed hard. “That thing just deleted whatever was there. If that hits any of us…”

“Yeah, yeah, we die,” Clara finished for him, already repositioning. She looked through her scope and fired, aiming for the beast’s eyes.

The bullet connected again—only for the Hydra’s scales to shift, absorbing the impact like a sponge this time.

[Adaptive Evolution] was another one of its skills, Evo informed Reid. The skill allows it to develop features that ensures what killed or destroyed its head once, wouldn’t work twice.

Clara’s eyes widened. “Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me.”

Lisa was already moving, her wyvren roaring as it called lightning down from the heavens. Bolts rained onto the Hydra, crackling and tearing through the ground.

BOOM!

A cloud of smoke rose, obscuring the form of the Hydra.

A tense silence followed.

Then, the smoke started clearing up once more, and from within, the Hydra emerged—completely unharmed.

Lisa scowled. “Oh, come on!”

“How the f*ck do we beat this thing?” Reid was starting to lose his cool but he calmed himself down, he was the leader here so he had to be calm and come up with a way.

He knew it was the same rank as them, gold, but it’s abilities were making it a pain to fight.

“When you said ‘boost'” He turned to Ethan “what type were you talking about?”

“An all round boost in stamina, speed strength, endurance and even core energy” Ethan quickly replied.

Reid nodded and started creating a plan while Marcus, Lisa and Clara kept the Hydra busy.

“What do you think Evo?” He mentally asked. He wasn’t satisfied with the plan he came up with so he asked Evo who might have a better one.

[The beast memoir] Evo somehow sounded like a disappointed Mom but Reid knew why that was the case.

He f*cking had information on every primal that the world has and hasn’t seen just sitting there in his head but he was struggling to come up with a plan to take one down?

He took his time to go through the information he had in his head and came up with a simple plan.

Overwhelm it.

The only way to defeat the Hydra was for it to run out of core energy which would stop its regeneration but Reid wasn’t sure they could last that long, especially with the destruction breath it kept spitting.

So the only other plan was to overwhelm it, not giving it a chance to recover or regenerate.

He pressed his earpiece, issuing an order to them all. “Clara, Ethan—support only. Lisa, Marcus, we’re going all in.”

He then turned to Rusty, “Hope you’re ready for this buddy.”

Rusty let out a low howl in affirmation. The plan was set.

Lisa and her dragon charged at the Hydra again, lightning wrapping all around her like a second skin. The dragon zigzagged as it avoid the hydra’s attack using its speed.

Marcus’ his Rhino came charging in, slamming itself into the primal, making it go a bit off balance, before retreating to safety.

Ethan and his forged-beast were busy boosting everyone, especially focusing on Marcus and his forged beast making their attacks stronger.

Marcus’ rhino tripled in size due to Ethan’s boost and it became a living battering ram, continuously ramming into the primal.

Clara fired shots one after the other and although it didn’t pierce through its scales, it was enough to distract the primal.

“Now!” Reid commanded.

Rusty howled.

[Basic Temporal Domain: Activate.]

The world suddenly slowed to a halt as everyone apart from Reid and Rusty stopped moving.

The Hydra was also frozen.

Reid could feel it, in this Domain, although it was just a basic one, they could play with time as they saw fit, so he released his teammates from the time lock.

Lisa’s dragon struck first, blasting a hyper-condensed breath of lightning bolts directly at the Hydra .

Marcus’s Rhino charged next, its horns glowing with reinforced power as it plowed straight into the Hydra’s chest.

And Reid? He dropped in from above, his bat in hand. He aimed for the central head, already cracking from lightning damage.

BOOM!

The head exploded.

A second passed. Then another.

Then… the Hydra screeched but still couldn’t move it’s body.

Black blood sprayed from its destroyed head, but instead of growing two more, the time-lock had disrupted its regeneration ability.

Reid had set its body to a time in which it had never adapted to any attack and froze its body in that moment, which meant all their attacks would work on it.

It also meant that each destroyed head will be destroyed for good since it can’t adapt to anymore.

For the satisfaction, Clara was the one who made the second attack that destroyed another head permanently.

The sights of he scope locked on the primal and she pulled the trigger. The bullet ripped through the air and exploded upon contact with the hydra’s head.

The Hydra roared in pain as the team rained attack after attack on it before the domain was finally released and the Hydra was finally able to move again but it didn’t matter.

At the point it was completely lifeless and its body which was missing all its heads fell to the ground, joining the corpses of the other primals.

The darkness receded and the simulated environment returned to normal. Reid sent Rusty back to the inventory to rest since it looked pretty drained.

Reid still wondering why the Hydra felt so real but he was distracted by the residents of the town they were protecting who suddenly walked out of the houses they were hiding in and started cheering their heroes.

Although the team knew that they were fake, it still felt good being regarded as heroes. A notification came from their watches again.

Test completed..