Lucivar exhaled slowly.
The chaos around him faded.
I can't use skills.
I can't use magic.
But there's still one thing left.
He raised two fingers and pressed them lightly beneath his eyes.
"Eyes of Judgment."
For an instant,
Darkness.
Then the world shattered.
A sharp pulse tore through his skull as his vision split apart, layers of reality peeling away like broken glass. The dungeon froze mid-motion, water suspended in the air, dust locked in place, the hydra's massive heads halted inches from destruction.
Lucivar's pupils burned.
Crimson light bled outward, thin veins of glowing red spreading through the whites of his eyes.
The hydra changed.
Its scales turned translucent, revealing streams of distorted energy flowing beneath its flesh. Each head pulsed differently, some violent, some chaotic, but one stood apart.
The largest head.
Its scales were thick, nearly flawless.
Most of them showed no weakness at all.
But then he saw it.
A faint distortion on its forehead, unstable, incomplete.
And beneath the jaw, hidden under a specific scale, another mark appeared. Smaller. Narrower.
Fatal, if struck precisely.
Numbers, symbols, and fractured lines flooded Lucivar's vision, tearing across his mind faster than thought.
Good, he thought.
The hydra's head lunged toward him, jaws wide.
Lucivar leapt aside just as its skull smashed into the wall, stone exploding outward.
Before he could land, the head twisted violently, swinging sideways to crush him.
Lucivar reacted instantly, pulling back, then bursting forward instead.
He jumped.
High.
His boots struck the hydra's neck, and he ran along it as another head surged upward to devour him.
Lucivar raised his sword, blocking the bite head on. The fangs clamped onto the blade, screeching as they dragged against the steel.
With a sharp grunt, he twisted his wrist and ripped the sword free, using the momentum to keep moving, never stopping, never slowing, as he sprinted across the massive head.
His eyes flicked to the largest of them.
The main head.
The one with the weak point on its forehead.
Unlike the others, it wasn't attacking recklessly.
It was watching.
Keeping its distance.
Waiting.
Gasps rippled through the battlefield.
"What the hell?!" Volrian breathed.
The hydra's head, the one that had been clamped onto Lucivar's blade, was forced backward, its massive neck bending under raw, overwhelming strength. The impact sent its skull crashing past the others, missing them by a breath.
Silence.
Shock.
Every eye locked onto Lucivar.
He didn't slow.
Lucivar kicked off the ground, launching himself skyward. The wind tore past his ears as he shot toward the hydra's largest head, the one that had stayed back, watching. The dominant head. The core.
Its massive forehead loomed before him.
That's it.
A sharp grin spread across his face.
"Now's the time," Lucivar murmured. "Your core… jackpot."
He raised his sword.
Then,
WHAM.
From the side, something monstrous exploded into motion.
Another hydra head tore through the air at terrifying speed, jaws wide, fangs crashing against Lucivar's blade mid-swing. The force was unreal.
Lucivar's arms locked.
Steel screamed.
Before he could recover, the hydra twisted, dragging him with it.
The world spun.
Water rushed up to meet him.
The head plunged downward, hauling Lucivar straight into the lake, its jaws still locked against his sword as both vanished beneath the surface.
SPLASH!
Ripples tore across the lake.
Above the water, the party froze.
"Lucivar!" someone shouted.
Below,
Darkness swallowed him whole.
But even as the water closed in, Lucivar's crimson eyes still burned, unblinking.
Cold darkness swallowed him.
I can't breathe.
Lucivar's chest burned. Instinct screamed at him to inhale, to thrash, to panic.
Breathe. Move.
Then,
He froze.
Wait.
A strange calm settled over him.
I'm a devil.
The realization hit like a switch flipping.
Lucivar released the breath he'd been desperately holding.
Nothing happened.
No choking.
No burning.
Water flowed in and out naturally.
"Hah," he muttered underwater, surprised. "That's… much better."
The hydra's massive head still dragged him downward, its jaws clamped around his sword. Lucivar twisted his body, kicking hard, but the pull didn't lessen.
Tch. Fine.
He let go.
The sword remained lodged in the hydra's mouth.
In the same motion, Lucivar surged forward, seized the hilt with his left hand to anchor himself, drew back his right fist,
and punched straight into the hydra's eye.
BOOM.
The monster convulsed violently, its head jerking as a shockwave rippled through the water. Its jaws loosened.
Lucivar ripped free.
He kicked off its skull and shot upward, water tearing past him.