We turned toward the serpent’s body.
It was moving.
More precisely, it was standing back up.
And then, as we gaped in horror, we saw something growing from the severed stump.
Or, more accurately, two somethings.
Something, in this context, being heads.
We hadn’t been fighting a serpent.
We were fighting a hydra.
“Uh, Mara?” I held the torch out in front of me.
“…Yyyyeah, Corinnn?”
“How do we fight a hydra?”
“I….uh…” She was shivering, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t just the cold.
The two heads were finished emerging from the neck now. I watched it with a combination of horror and fascination. How exactly did a regenerative process like that work?
Then the two heads snapped their jaws in the air, and turned their gazes toward us.
I looked at Mara. “Nevermind. Pretty sure we run.”
I grabbed her by the arm and pulled.
She required no further encouragement.
We rushed out of the chamber at maximum speed. The hydra howled in fury behind us, slithering closer to snap at us with twin jaws.
Then we were in the tunnel. One serpentine head reached in to try to bite us, but we kept running.
Moments later, we were too deep for the hydra to reach.
But we still weren’t quite safe.
Water was beginning to drip from the ceiling, seemingly from everywhere. It was like it had suddenly begun to rain.
The cold from that was a problem, but not the main one.
The real problem was that the chambers above and below us were filling with water.
If we didn’t move fast, we were going to drown.
We rushed as quickly as we could, still hand in hand. I slipped once, but Mara dragged me back to my feet, and then she was leading the way.
We reached the elevator. Without a second to converse, she threw her arms around me — fortunately, not chopping my head off in the process — and I dropped the torch to lift her.
I jumped. And, then, mid-air, I jumped again, using the ring.
I kicked off the side of the shaft, then jumped again.
Finally, we landed up top.
Water was still dripping from the ceiling up top. It was either some kind of trap, or some spell the hydra had cast. It hardly mattered.
We knew the way out, so we ran.
We were drenched when we finally got outside.
When we finally sat down, we were laughing like madmen.
Neither of us expected the voice that approached from my right side.
The spider loomed over us, arms folded. “You two absolutely ruined my lair. I’m going to expect reimbursement for this.”
And with that, our test was over.
“I admit, I have never seen someone bribe the jorogumo with beef jerky before. That was an inspired tactic.”
Marissa’s teacher was Sir Tanath, a knight of the Soaring Wings. He looked more like a storybook hero than any of the other Soaring Wings I’d seen, his short beard and gleaming blue eyes complimenting his silvery mail and the gold-hilted sword at his side.
“Thank you, sir.” Marissa beamed.
“I’m not done yet. You still left a hideously dangerous monster alive, that could have ambushed you — or someone else — at a later time.”
“But—” I began to interject.
He raised a hand to quiet me. “Nevertheless, too many people fail to realize that intelligent monsters can be used as a resource. I’m a Summoner myself, and that darling creature you met was one of my contracted beasts. I met her in a situation not too different from the one you did, and like you, I realized she was smart enough to be worth working with.”
I blinked. His outward warrior-like appearance made me assume he’d be something like a Guardian, or maybe a foreign attunement like a Soulblade.
Sir Tanath continued. “When I was serving in the Unclaimed Lands, she was one of the best resources at my disposal. I made many other contracts with intelligent monsters there — some were useful, some were dangerous liabilities. A Summoner’s pact is not inviolable; a monster of sufficient cunning can and will find ways to work around it. I am fortunate that thus far I’ve been too entertaining for that particular friend to betray me.
“When you are in a situation with monsters like her, you must ask yourself what the odds are that they will be a threat to you if you leave them alive. In that scenario, virtually all students merely fight her — and lose. You made a wise decision to make a deal. It might have been wiser to simply run, but nevertheless, you did well.”
Sir Tanath turned to face Marissa directly. “I’m pleased to say that by retrieving the axe, you’ve passed the test. By also managing to handle the hydra and jorogumo without any major problems, you’ve earned an A. Once again, you’re near the top of the class. Congratulations, Miss Callahan.” He extended his hand, which Marissa shook enthusiastically.
“Thank you sir! I’m so happy!” Then she raised the axe, grinning. “Uh, can I keep this?”
In the end, Sir Tanath did not let her keep the axe. He did, however, return my sword, with a few stern words about leaving my weapons behind.
I really did have a bad habit of doing that.
Even axe-free, Marissa was in a great mood as we walked, still soaking wet, all the way home.
Chapter VII – Overdoing It Just a Tad
It was much later in the same evening that Derek brought a Diviner friend over.
I was far too exhausted from Marissa’s test to pay much attention at that point. His name was Harold or something.
I’d almost forgotten why he’d needed the Diviner. They were looking for the teleportation trail of that strange dagger that had disappeared. They managed to confirm that something had teleported out of the area, but the Diviner explained that his tracking magic was being blocked by something more powerful.
That was not a good sign.
We did get to bombard the Diviner with a few other questions, though.
The magic ring that Keras didn’t recognize turned out to be something that enhanced physical strength. I was sorely tempted to ask to borrow that as well, but I’d already borrowed two things, and Marissa beat me to it while I was hesitating.
In truth, it was a better fit for her skills than mine, but I wasn’t sure she’d need it. We weren’t planning to bring Marissa with us to the spire, and that was the main reason I wanted to stock up on items.
Still, it would have been useful in the fight outside the spire, and we didn’t know if that might happen again. I wasn’t going to begrudge my friends picking up a couple more items of their own.
Aside from that, Sera wrote a note and asked us to have the Diviner look at her modified attunement. He managed to give us a couple bits of new information.
The attunement was still maintaining connections to multiple external entities — meaning her contracts were intact — and that those entities were still attempting to drain away some of her mana continuously.
He also noted that the connections seemed stronger than normal Summoner contracts, which was both scary and fascinating.
I considered asking the Diviner to take a look at Trials of Judgment to see if he could identify how it worked, but I decided against it. Even if he was one of Derek’s friends, I didn’t know if I could trust him with information that important.
After the Diviner headed out, I took Sera up to her room to discuss what we’d learned.