Golden Age: Revival

"I can't see in the dark, I doubt throwing icicles at it will do much and I don't have my weapon which even if I did would not be much use in a basement. Also you never want to fight in a basement."

N"So, what you're saying is, you're not confident in your own abilities."

E"This is ridiculous. I'll kill it."

*She takes a step & falls over the coffee table.*

E"Gods damned...!"

"Well, I'm certainly not confident in my night vision."

Taiyo:<Are you okay?>

*Allina acivates her necklace and throws it in the direction of the sofa before wandering into her parents' room, lighting her way with a glowing fist.*

*Once she gets in there, she sees a roughly human shape jumping from wall to wall.*

E"I've been worse."

*The basement door starts being shaked, scratched, & banged on loudly.*

"At least they can't open doors. Bad things happen when things can open doors."

*At that moment, the door flies open, revealing a shadowy figure like a man wearing a cloak. Two glowing red orbs open in it, like eyes. From the "edges," shadowy tendrils form, turning into claws & sharp jaws.*

*Taiyo conjures up a water tendril that lashes out the thing which Azuma freezes turning it into a lance.*

*The lance makes a big hole in it. It responds by splitting in half, both halves looking like haunched-over human sillohettes with claws & grotesque grins with sharp teeth. Nero slashes at one, only for it to attach itself to the wall & slide up onto the ceiling, jumping back down on Euryale. The other disappears & reappears from Taiyo's shadow, grabbing at her mouth & stomach.*

*Taiyo flails around trying to scream. Mimiru goes behind Taiyo and the spirit thing and tries to grab it.*

"You don't seriously expect to punch this monster to death, do you?" Noct asked, running away from the stuff that was spewed at her. "We cannot win here, we should simply run away."

*The Hydra swings its tail at Noctis's backside.*

<I'll be with you in just a moment, do try to hold out until then.>

*Each of the five remaining heads lashes at Gallahad. He pulls his sword back out, smashing the injured one with the blunt side of the blade. He then strikes downward with the pommel on the next one, leaving it dazed. He climbs into its neck so that the next head bites it, & then delivers a punch to the final head, caving its forehead in. Leaving the 3 surviving heads for the time being, he runs across the Hydra's back.*
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*Taiyo feels a shortness of breath & a burning on her stomach & mouth. Mimiru feels a similar burning sensation when she manages to grab the shadow. While trying to strangle the other shadow, Euryale finds herself being tangled up in shadow tendrils, so Nero starts cutting her free.*

*Mimiru begins pulling at the shadow with one hand and punching it with the other. Azuma gets beside the monster sandwich and conjures up an icicle then proceeds to stab the monster.*

Noct's shadow clone severs the tail as she watches Gallahad go to work in stunned silence.

*The shadow becomes little more than a mass of black tendrils that wrap around anything they can reach; Taiyo's stomach, mouth, arms, & legs, Azuma's arm & weapon, Mimiru's arms & her leading foot....Nero & Euryale are having a similar problem with the other one, to the point where they've almost disappeared in shadow.*
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*The clone proves not to be strong enough as the tail ignores the gash & slaps the clone aside before taking another swing at Noctis. Gallahad lands to intercept the tail, while the 3 heads arch up over the monster's back, breathing green wind at them.*

Noct scurries away from the tail towards the front side of the Hydra, and creates a large shadow club and uses it to cave in the necks of one of the heads.

*Gallahad grips the tail on either end of the wound & rips it clean off. After that, he starts coughing.*

<Poison breath, is it? That will not be enough to halt me, monster!>

*The head darts & waves around Noctis's swings & takes a swipe at her legs. Gallahad bats one that comes after him, grabbing the other with both arms, squeezing in an attempt to strangle it.*

Noct turns her leg into a shadow axe, and punts the hell out of the head. When she hears Gallahad say something about poison breath Noct creates a shadow mask around her nose, and mouth.

*As one head is crushed to bits & the other has its neck broken, the Hydra sheds all of the dead weight & starts slithering back towards the river.*

<Can you hit it? I don't know if I've strength to run after it.>

Noct dropped to a knee, and aimed her rifle at the hydra, Got to kill it, got to kill it, got to-- She pulled the trigger, but instead of firing its usual bullet a beam many times the size of the barrel shot out from a few inches in front of the muzzle. While it should have initially hit the hydra, the resulting, "Oh shit" factor, coupled with the intense recoil not only cause Noctis to swing around her death beam towards the city, the sky, the river, the ocean, the ground, and anything else in her way, it also sent her flying backwards until she dropped Fomalhaut, ceasing the fire of the beam.

*Gallahad looks at all of the burn marks on the ground & the buildings, then at the dead Hydra, then at Noctis.*

<Most excellent. I would have preferred a simpler, less flashy approach with less collatoral damage, but you completed the quest, & that is what counts.>

*With that, he drops to one knee & starts coughing.*

<Mmm, apologies, that one slipped out. It'll cease within the hour, I assure you.>

Noct crawls to her gun, grabs it, and sticks it in her shadow, then crawled over to Gallahad, "Are... you alright?" She asked, "I'm tired... I'm very tired." She then collapsed.

*Noctis is awakened by an enormous tremor that causes cracks in the pavement, & makes the river slosh onto the park by a few feet. When she opens her eyes, a man with blond hair & beard in black armor is walking down the road towards them, sword drawn. Gallahad draws his own weapon, wheezing a little.*

Gallahad<Forget everything I said earlier regarding quests & kingdoms. Leave my side & never look back.>

"I... I can't just leave you," Noct said, stumbling to her feet, and putting a hand to her head to quell a mounting headache, "God I feel horrible... Who... Who is that Gallahad?"

Gallahad<...That is Mordred Pendragon. I hope he's here to apologize! Or perhaps he forgot how his rebellion ended the last time?>

*He stops 10 feet away from them & sticks his sword in the ground by its blade, standing idly behind it.*

Mordred<You mean the "end" where I spent over a thousand years trapped in the Underworld? No. No I have not. How did that battle work out for you? I don't see Camelot around anywhere. Or my father. Unless you plan to have the little girl stall me while you flee, you're going to die here, Gallahad.>