"Ever killed a hydra before?" Perseus asked, drawing his sword. Gone was their deep conversation, with understanding eyes and unreadable expressions… Perseus was here to fight.
...
Artemis shook her head, clearing her mind of the… guilt that had welled up inside her. Now was not the time to revert to that line of conversation.
"Not this one!" Artemis yelled back, casting a quick gaze back to the hydra. It was still preoccupied. She raised her voice again, looking at Perseus and the odd three dozen men that surrounded the both. "Listen up! Avoid cutting off the heads! You do that, two more will take their places. Skirmishers, go for the eyes, blind each head if you can. Spearmen get close if you can… hit the body! Pin the heads to the mole with spears! If you get close enough, stab at the underbelly!"
"You heard the Amazonian!" Perseus called out, raising his sword, "Let's get it done!" The men must've looked up to Perseus, because they followed him with enthusiasm, and Artemis watched them all shoulder forward into formation.
Perseus lead the charge, the twenty spearmen rushing to join him. They all stood abreast, which took up the entire width of the mole. Artemis made sure to follow close behind, leading the skirmishers on with her.
"Lady Cleoxene!" A man ran up besides her, bearing only a sling, "I won't be much use here…"
'There was no time to deal with him…' Artemis was about to snap that any well-placed rock would be just as effective as an arrow… when she paused.
"You are quite right, take a message to Alexander." Artemis said smartly, "Get a siege weapon arranged to fire on the hydra, make it an incendiary shot."
"Do you mean King Alexander—"
"YES, I MEAN KING ALEXANDER" Artemis snarled in response, pivoting from the group, and shoving the man backwards. "Tell King Alexander to ready a siege weapon, and sound it with a horn blast! Go! Now!"
Fortunately, the man sensed her rage, or the urgency of the situation, and scrambled backwards over a section of an Old Tyre mudbrick home. He took off running, passing through more hoplite ranks that had surged forwards, forming a secondary line of defense, if the Hydra was to break through.
The sounds of bows and slings sounded from the mole, and Artemis swore, shifting her attention back to the Hydra. Several of the bow-armed Skirmishers had pulled up a ship length away from the Hydra, and had released a volley of shafts at the beasts.
Artemis counted six arrows that slammed into the Hydra, with one finding a weak pot in the reddish scales, behind the frilled ears of one of the heads.
The Hydra screamed, and swung its twenty-four eyes at the approaching men. It was no longer focused on the mole, and its dozen heads screamed a challenge at the long shield wall that Perseus had erected. Around twenty paces in front of the archers. A javelin man took that opportunity, and hurled his spear. It sailed true, and struck the Hydra in its right shoulder, punching straight through the heavy scales.
'Not bad.' Artemis grinned, as she quickly strung up her bow, having grabbed the black yew bow from her back. It was unstrung, but in a matter of seconds, she had it humming to her touch, ready to use.
She pulled the first shaft out of her quiver when the Hydra charged forward, lurching out of the water. Its legs thundered down on the mole, creating a massive churning wake as the Hydra brought itself fully on land. It bellowed a challenge, the sound echoing through a dozen mouths, that hit her eardrums like a series of crashing waves. Heavy scaled legs dug deep the mole, plunging entire sections into the sandy bottom of the channel. Artemis narrowed her eyes, and drew back her bow, her black shafted arrow nestled under her cheek for a split second.
With the slip of her fingers, she released the bowstring, sending her arrow flying. A flurry of other projectiles flew with her shaft toward the Hydra. Artemis snapped off another shot just as she watched her first arrow slam into one of the Hydra's numerous eyes. The other projectiles all found various marks as well, but it only enraged the beast, and it was almost upon them.
"Doorway! Doorway!" Perseus called from the middle of the Macedonian shield wall. The wavering line held, even as the massive Hydra bore down on the soldiers. Perseus walked along the line, shouting animatedly, encouraging the men.
The Hydra made the last lunge forwards, half a dozen heads arcing down on the Macedonian lines, with its gigantic body plunging forwards in the same motion.
As it did so, the Macedonian line dissolved completely, as the various men scattered to the sides of the mole, creating a gap that the Hydra could not turn from. The Hydra screamed, and it turned awkwardly, all its heads and tails flailing wildly as it chased the individual Macedonian spearmen. Perseus himself dodged the Hydra's zipping tail, that sped through the air at alarming speeds
Artemis watched with wide eyes, as she dispatched another arrow, when one of the spearmen dove too short, and was seized around the waist by a Drakon sized mouth. The man screamed once, before he was torn in two by the gaping mouth, revealing bloody serrated teeth. The head turned toward her, hungry and gaping with a leering gaze, when she fired an arrow, burying the shaft in the Hydra's bright glowing yellow eye. A javelin man to her right found his mark as well, piercing the other eye on the same head.
More missiles rained down on the beast, and at such a close range, a mere stone throw, it was impossible to miss.
Artemis stepped forward, shooting another arrow into the beast, testing its body's defenses, and she snared when her arrow ricocheted from the well armored underbelly of the Hydra. But the scattered spearmen were closing in. Perseus was up in front, dodging any Hydra head that had any vision still. Other spearmen had pile-drove some heads into the mole, holding them there with spears and swords, all being careful to not decapitate any.
But the Hydra was by no means dead, and it made its fury known it a tail sweep that caught two men unawares. The heavy armored tail slashed at the breastplates of both Macedonians, cutting through the armor like butter. Blood splattered against the mole, and coated one of the nearby skirmishers in the splash of gore that spurted from the chests of the two victims.
"CLEOXENE! HEL—" A muted scream from Artemis's left cut off, and she only saw a flash of a diving Hydra head, as a severed set of legs plopped down onto the packed earth.
Artemis swore, and jumped back as the Hydra shook off a dozen spearmen who had pined down five of it's heads. The skirmishers around her scattered backwards towards the Macedonian camp, and even the secondary line of hoplites recoiled.
But Artemis would not give ground. She threw her bow across her chest securing it tightly. The Hydra charged forward, screeching as Perseus desperately tried to slow it. He dashed in from the right side and drove his sword into its belly, spilling a massive amount of blood. But it wasn't enough, and the Hydra was undeterred
Artemis grinned, and met the beast head on. Two of the Hydra's heads swept down to devour her, but at the last moment she spun to the side, stabbing at the nearest lunging head with her left knife.
A rush of air blew over her as the cavernous mouth snapped dangerously close, with its rancid smelling breath, but her knife bit, and dig itself into the frilled ear of the Hydra. The head reared back instinctively, but the blade held, and Artemis gripped the handle tightly, allowing herself to be flung upwards. For a full second, she was airborne before she descended, landed directly on the neck of the Hydra.
She lost her grip on the imbedded bronze blade, but wasted no time in dashing forwards, balancing perfectly on the unsteady neck. The head connected to her perch coiled upwards, as two more heads noticed her, and she ran forwards, feeling herself being drawn downwards, on the increasingly sloped scaly surface. Another gaping mouth lunged to bite her, but she slid forwards, sliding down the neck of the Hydra towards the confluence of the writhing heads of the Hydra.
The lunging mouth bit deep into the neck of its companion head, and there was a knot of flashing mouths as the beast stumbled, coming to a halt as it sensed an interloper on top of it.
But it was all too late, and Artemis raised her knife from on her back and drove it deep into the Hydra's upper back. The movement and pull immediately swung her around onto her stomach, and she was now held up by her hunting knife, as her weight and speed dragged the blade deep into muscle, flesh, and bones.
...
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