The Hydra's Curse

Chapter 1 - Hydra

Sasha was enjoying a good nights sleep when the attack started. It began as an unpleasant dream filled with screams and yelling. In her dreams, denizens of hell poured from a portal before any angels could come to meet them. Demons in many shapes alight with cursed fire rampaged and slaughtered with no remorse, descending down upon her with nothing to stop them.

The nightmare quickly turned to reality with the first hiss from the beast, a sound trauma had conditioned her to wake up in panic to. It was a hydra, a beast of hell back for its third run at the village.

Still in her nightclothes, Sasha scrambled out of bed instantly awake from a surge of adrenaline when she realized what was happening. Peering out the window, she could see it about a hundred feet from her little log house, probably more than a hundred heads swarming and lashing at people. The last two times they hadn't killed it. Most of its heads cut off in the last two fights, the giant demon snake had fled from the village, only to return a month later with two heads for every one that had been destroyed. This time the hydra's body had grown too, the giant snake now nearly 3 feet across where it's neck split into the swarm of heads and probably over a hundred feet long. It was a behemoth.

The katana leaning against the wall had belonged to her father- killed in the last hydra attack. Three heads had torn him apart after he'd chopped off a stump housing more than ten heads. Only two grew back there. Not thinking twice, Sasha scooped up the weapon originally bought from a traveling merchant and made for the door.

Outside the people already had the beast surrounded, determined not to let it escape this time. Their village wasn't small, there was at least three hundred of those who could fight and only about a hundred heads to manage. Their biggest concern was to not let it flee and heal like it had the last two times. She watched as some kept the heads occupied while others harassed it's tail, jabbing at it with spears and hurting its mobility.

The beast coiled tighter and tighter to protect itself and prompting the circle to get smaller so only so many people could get at it at once. Sasha took up a spot beside a large guy named Greg. He was her age and hugely built, wielding a greatsword that must have weighed twenty five pounds like it was nothing. He had already taken two heads from the beast.

"Look at that!" He yelled over the chaos, pointing to a root segment that housed about fifteen heads. "I already got the two lower ones guarding it out of the way. When I dive in there make sure one doesn't grab me from behind!"

Certainly enough, there was two flailing stumps that normally would have covered that vulnerable area. She nodded to him and slashed overhead as another snake tried to bite at them. It backed off high into the air like they always did. The hydra's ability to do that made it very hard to fight. The only saving grace was that the beast itself didn't seem very coordinated, like all the heads only tolerated each other's presence.

As the head flared up, Greg saw his opening. For a moment, the thick neck of many heads was exposed and he went for it. The greatsword was sharpened to a razor for this exact moment. The countless hours spent honing the blade payed off, for it cut through the flesh and bone alike. And it nearly didn't either, the blade was almost at a stop when it exited the other side and severed the many heads. There was a screech from the dying heads as they fell to the ground, writhing in pain until the stump bled enough that they lost consciousness. The two of them leapt back and Sasha swung upward again to prevent retaliation.

The rest of the hydra reared and exploded into hissing, the other heads clearly having felt such a tremendous injury. Some people whooped and cheer while took quick jabs at the body while the heads were high in the air, forcing them to fall back down and guard the body. The circle was still tight, they might kill it this time just yet. The beast seemed to realize that too. Nearly thirty other heads had been taken off as well, almost half of them gone.

Suddenly the tight coil the hydra had been resting in exploded outwards, it's thick body slamming into those at the inside of the circle and knocking them off their feet. Sasha was lucky, after Greg's little stunt she had backed off, letting those stronger and faster than her fight. Unfortunately others like her had the same idea and the biggest men were all at the centre when the hydra had struck outwards. All of them were thrown high, some landing and breaking bones while others were injured on their own weapons. Most seemed okay though.

The hydra took the opportunity and surged forwards, running over a few people and forcing Sasha to dive out of the way. It was fast, but there was a hundred feet of body that had to move past her- giving her more than enough time to jump on its back and sink her sword into it. At some point a low branch swept past her and hooked her nightshirt, tearing the thin clothing from her and leaving her topless but she didn't care. This thing had to die. Others had the same idea, all on its back hacking slashing stabbing and twisting. An unholy roar came from its many mouths and it stopped, turning on them once again.

The terrible thing about snakes was how fast they are. It's body just a tube of muscle it can lash out with incredible speed giving one only a fraction of a second to respond. And with so many people having their swords and spears in the hydra's body, they never stood a chance. At least six people were picked up off the body and torn apart by its heads midair. Sasha was either lucky or quick, she wasn't sure. All she knew was that she jumped clear of the body with her sword just in time as the head targeting her mashed it's muzzle into it's own body.

Pissed off, it looked at her, the head low to the ground it's tongue flicking out and eyes glowing red. Sasha was in a sitting position, sword on the ground a few feet from her and completely vulnerable to the monster. Something was different about this head. It was bigger than most and its eyes were red instead of the usual yellow. Sasha would have liked to think right before she died there would be a sense of calm, acceptance of fate so to speak.

Instead it was pure panic as she shuffled away, trying to get away before the head struck. But it didn't strike. Instead it's jaws spread wide open revealing a red glow only visible due to the low light. Sasha only had a moment to react when she realized what was happening.

Hellfire poured from the jaws, a searing jet of cursed flame fired straight at her. Sasha was quick, but not quick enough. All her jump accomplished was to get her legs to take the main jet of fire instead of her torso. People talked about how burns were the most painful of wounds, but it was a fact she never really realized until that moment. Her skin didn't even have time to blister under that heat- it just charred instantly. When Sasha's jump finally carried her clear of the flame the damage was already done. Her hair had caught too- having trailed halfway down her back it was no surprise the volatile hellfire caused it to ignite.

It was only when she stopped to take a breath that Sasha became aware she was screaming. With her hair entirely ablaze when she rolled, it passed in front of her face briefly and the flame lightly touched her eyes and open mouth, tainting them as well.

Hellfire, called cursed fire by some was foreign to this world. Everything about it was bad. It burnt hotter, hurt more and spread to normally non-flammable things. The only saving grace was it burnt out quickly and was only ever seen when generated by denizens of hell or portals to the place itself. But whatever it touched became cursed. If the creature was lucky enough to survive it, they found themselves more demon than not, changed in some way to reflect the origin of the fire, even if their psyche was left intact.

And Sasha had just been burned by a hydra. A giant snake. She'd never even seen them breath fire before and didn't realize that they even could. She had known hellhounds, dragons and shadowcats could, but had never heard of a hydra burning its victims. Maybe it was a size thing; hydra's rarely grew this large. Those thoughts even now somehow occupied the back of her brain, the pain in her legs already fading. She opened her eyes to blurry vision, eyes damaged by the flame, just to watch an extremely wounded hydra escape into the woods. Pretty much everyone had quit pursuing at this point, there was no reason to chase if you were alone.

Instead they were tending to the wounded. Even now Sasha saw legs coming towards her, a voice calling her name in the distance. No, it wasn't that the pain in her legs was fading, she was just losing consciousness. The last thing she remembered was someone grabbing her by the arm, lifting her off the ground...