The Sunken Highway was not a road. It was a throat.
The subterranean river, black as crude oil and cold as the void, flowed through a cavern so vast the ceiling was lost in a perpetually swirling fog. The damaged metro train, kept afloat only by the buoyancy of the massive boring-drill attached to its nose, drifted silently with the current.
On the roof of the command carriage, the air was thick with moisture and fear.
Varian stood at the prow, the Sun-Piercer held loosely in his right hand. The golden crystal blade was dim, conserving energy, but the heat radiating from Varian's body kept the mist at bay for a few meters.
"Visibility is zero," Lady Venom hissed, pulling her cloak tighter against the damp chill. "My thermal vision is useless. The fog is scattering the heat signatures."
"Rix?" Varian asked without turning.
The Rat-Captain was perched on the highest point of the drill mechanism. His fur was matted with water, his blue-ringed eyes dilated to the size of saucers.
"Quiet," Rix whispered, his ears swiveling independently. "Too quiet. No bats. No fish splash. Just... breathing."
"Breathing?"
"Big lungs. Under the water."
Varian tapped his earpiece. "Legion, secure the doors. Keep away from the windows. If the hull breaches, we sink in seconds."
Gorgon sat heavily on the roof, the red metal of the Crimson Paladin armor hissing as water droplets evaporated on contact. He was calm now, but it was the calm of a volcano waiting to erupt.
"Something is scratching the bottom of the train," Gorgon rumbled.
SCREEEEEE.
The sound vibrated through the metal hull—long, scraping claws testing the steel.
The train lurched. Not from a wave, but from an impact.
"Contact!" Varian shouted. "Lights!"
He channeled the Solar Core. The Sun-Piercer flared to maximum brightness, casting a stark white light into the fog.
The water around them erupted.
It wasn't a tentacle. It was a neck.
A massive, serpentine neck covered in scales the color of bruised iron rose from the depths. It towered ten meters over the train, thick as a redwood tree.
Then a second neck rose on the left. Then a third on the right.
Three heads looked down at the tiny metal raft. They were reptilian, lipless, with eyes that glowed with predatory malice.
[Boss Encounter.][Subject: The Abyssal Hydra.][Rank: Commander (Peak-Tier).][Attributes: Regeneration / Elemental Affinity.]
"A Hydra," Varian whispered. "I thought they were myths from the Deep Core."
"They're real," Venom said, stepping back. "And they're hungry."
The central head roared. It wasn't a sound; it was a physical shockwave that shattered the windows of the carriage below.
The Left Head opened its mouth. Green drool spilled out. The Right Head crackled with blue electricity.
"Incoming!" Varian screamed.
The Left Head struck first. It vomited a stream of concentrated acid.
"Gorgon! Shield!"
Gorgon didn't hesitate. He leaped to the front of the carriage, planting his feet. He raised his left arm—the one not holding the hammer—and the Crimson Armor expanded, forming a red energy barrier.
HISSSSSS.
The acid hit the barrier. It boiled and popped, eating at the energy shield, but Gorgon held.
"It burns!" Gorgon laughed, a manic edge to his voice. "But I burn hotter!"
The Right Head struck next. It lunged, aiming not for the people, but for the water near the train.
CRACK-BOOM.
A bolt of lightning discharged from its maw into the river.
The water conducted the electricity instantly. The metal hull of the train became electrified.
Inside the carriage, the Dregs screamed as sparks flew from the control panels.
"It's trying to fry us from the bottom up!" Scrap-Jack yelled over the comms. "The electronics are frying!"
Varian looked at the beast. "We can't fight it in the water. We need to kill the heads."
"I'm on it!"
A squad of Vanguard soldiers on the roof opened fire with their new M-55 Assault Rifles.
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT.
Hundreds of rounds slammed into the Central Head. The bullets sparked off the iron scales, ricocheting wildly. A few found soft spots near the eyes, drawing black blood.
The Central Head roared in annoyance. It lunged, snapping its jaws shut around two soldiers.
CRUNCH.
It swallowed them whole.
"Bullets are useless!" Venom shouted. "The scales are too thick!"
"Then we cut them off," Varian said.
He looked at Gorgon. "Big guy. Can you throw me?"
Gorgon turned, the red eyes of his helmet glowing. "Where?"
"At the Middle Head."
Gorgon dropped his shield. He cupped his massive hands.
Varian ran. He stepped into Gorgon's hands.
"Launch!"
Gorgon heaved with the strength of an Emperor-Rank Titan.
Varian flew into the air, soaring twenty meters up, straight toward the face of the Central Head.
He gripped the Sun-Piercer with both hands.
[Solar Edge: Maximum Output.]
The blade turned white-hot.
"Open wide!" Varian screamed.
The Hydra snapped at him. Varian twisted in mid-air, driving the spear into the side of the beast's neck.
The superheated blade sliced through scales, muscle, and bone like they were wet paper.
Varian dragged the spear down as he fell, carving a three-meter gash.
Blood sprayed—black and oily.
Varian landed on the roof of the train with a roll.
The Central Head shrieked, thrashing. Then, it went limp, hanging by a thread of skin.
"Got one!" Rix cheered.
"No," Varian stood up, watching. "Watch."
The wound on the Hydra's neck bubbled. The flesh boiled. The cut didn't close; it expanded. Bones knit together in seconds. Muscle wove itself back into place.
The head snapped back up. Its eyes glowed brighter.
And from the wound... a tumor grew. It split open.
A fourth head burst out. Smaller, wetter, but screaming.
"It regenerated!" Venom yelled. "And it mutated! Cutting it just makes it mad!"
"Classic Hydra," Varian spat. "Cut off one head, two take its place. It's a biological fail-safe."
"So we can't kill it?" Rix asked, terrified.
"We can," Varian said, his eyes narrowing. "Regeneration requires cells to divide. Heat stops cell division. If we burn the wound instantly, it scars over. It can't grow back through a scar."
He looked at the Sun-Piercer. He had the heat. But he couldn't get close enough to hold the wound open and burn it for long enough without getting eaten by the other heads.
He needed a distraction. A massive one.
"Gorgon!" Varian shouted. "I need you to be the lightning rod!"
"The what?"
"The Lightning Head! Make it bite you! Your armor eats energy, right? Drain it!"
Gorgon looked at the Right Head, which was crackling with electricity.
"You want me to let that electric eel bite me?" Gorgon grumbled. "Fine. But you owe me dinner."
Gorgon slammed his hammer on the roof.
"HEY! SPARKY!" Gorgon roared, the Crimson Armor amplifying his voice to a deafening volume. "OVER HERE!"
The Right Head turned. It sensed the massive energy signature of the Crimson Paladin. A rival predator.
It lunged.
Gorgon didn't block. He opened his arms.
The massive jaws clamped around Gorgon's torso.
CRUNCH.
Teeth met red armor. Sparks showered the train.
"NOW!" Varian yelled. "Drain it!"
Gorgon screamed—half in pain, half in rage. The red veins on his armor flared blindingly bright.
[Resonance Absorption.]
The lightning from the Hydra didn't fry Gorgon. It flowed into the armor. The Crimson Paladin drank the electricity like wine.
The Hydra's Right Head dimmed. It tried to let go, sensing its energy being leeched, but Gorgon grabbed its jaws.
"No you don't!" Gorgon laughed. "I'm not full yet!"
While the Right Head was pinned, the Left Head (Acid) prepared to spray Gorgon.
"Venom! The Acid Head!" Varian ordered. "Choke it!"
Lady Venom moved. She didn't use a vial. She ran to the edge of the train and leaped onto the neck of the Acid Head.
She moved like a viper, climbing the scales. She reached the gills on the side of the neck.
She stabbed her own wrist with a claw, drawing purple blood.
"Have a taste of Basilisk Neurotoxin," she hissed, jamming her bleeding wrist into the Hydra's gill slits.
Her poison mixed with the Hydra's bloodstream.
The Acid Head gagged. Its eyes crossed. It vomited the acid stream harmlessly into the water, thrashing in confusion.
"Central Head is mine!" Varian announced.
He swapped the core in his spear.
[Catalyst: Magma-Core.]
The blade turned from white to heavy, dripping orange lava.
"Onyx. Propulsion."
The Symbiote on his back formed thruster-vents. It ejected a blast of compressed air, launching Varian upward again.
He landed on the Central Head.
He didn't slash this time. He drove the spear deep into the base of the neck, right where it joined the body.
"Burn," Varian commanded.
He poured every ounce of caloric energy he had into the spear.
[Magma Eruption.]
Lava exploded inside the Hydra's neck. It cooked the flesh from the inside out. The regeneration cells popped and died before they could divide.
The Central Head—and the new small head—didn't fall off. They turned to charcoal.
The Hydra screamed—a sound of three throats dying at once.
The body convulsed.
Gorgon ripped the drained Right Head off with his bare hands. RIP.
Venom leaped clear as the poisoned Left Head slumped into the water.
The massive body of the Hydra went limp, crashing into the river. The impact created a wave that nearly capsized the train.
Varian stood on the floating carcass of the beast, panting. Steam rose from his spear.
[Target Eliminated.][Consuming Essence...]
The rush of power was immense. It felt like drinking a thunderstorm.
[Rank Progress: Soul Soldier (Mid-Tier).]
Varian knelt. He used the spear to slice open the chest of the beast.
He pulled out the Beast Core.
It wasn't a crystal. It was a fleshy, beating heart the size of a watermelon. It glowed with a sickly green light.
[Item Acquired: Heart of the Hydra.][Grade: Commander (Peak).][Effect: Extreme Regeneration Catalyst. Can be used to heal fatal wounds or evolve a Regeneration-Type Symbiote.]
"Jackpot," Varian whispered.
He hopped back onto the train as the Hydra's carcass began to sink.
"Is everyone alive?" Varian called out.
"Alive," Gorgon groaned, sitting down heavily. smoke rose from his armor. "But I taste copper. And I think I swallowed a tooth."
"Alive," Venom said, wiping slime from her dress. "But I need a bath. Urgently."
Rix peeked out from a ventilation hatch. "Rix hid good. Rix is safe."
Varian laughed, a tired, relieved sound.
He looked ahead.
The fog was clearing.
And there, rising from the water like a gateway to another world, was a massive, rusted iron archway. Above it, faded letters spelled out:
[STATION ZERO - AUXILIARY DOCK]
"We're here," Varian said.
The train drifted through the archway. The water calmed.
Lights flickered on overhead—the warm, yellow lights of the station.
On the dock, The Architect was waiting. He held a clipboard. He looked at the smoking, battered train, the exhausted soldiers, and the massive Hydra heart in Varian's hands.
"You're late," The Architect noted dryly. "And you tracked mud on my platform."
Varian jumped down from the roof, his boots hitting the concrete with a solid thud.
"We brought dinner," Varian grinned, tossing the Hydra Heart to the old man.
The Architect caught it. He looked at the pulsing organ. His eyes widened.
"Regenerative tissue," The Architect whispered. "Cellular immortality."
He looked at Varian.
"With this... I can finish the Knight."