The tiger let out an enraged growl at the Suzaku Guard Captain. It swiftly spread the wings on its back, and fire fshed in the sky as more than ten orange-red fming meteors appeared above the grassnd and came crashing down toward him.

  At that moment, four men and women holding silver staffs in the distance raised them high. A fierce storm conjured itself out of nothing and swept toward the orange-red fming meteors in midair. Caught in the gale, the meteors were sent scattering wildly through the air before finally dissolving into nothing.

  "Full assault!" the Suzaku Guard Captain shouted. He pointed his sword tip in the direction of the strange beast, signaling the four staff-bearers in the distance to attack. They immediately swung their silver staffs, and some thirty fming meteors burst forth from the sky — far more densely packed than before, and far more powerful. The meteors plunged straight down from above, raining upon the strange beast below like a storm of blows.

  The tiger sprinted and dodged across the grassnd in a frantic attempt to evade the meteors, but they were too densely packed, and the wound the Suzaku Guard Captain had dealt had slowed its movements considerably. Unable to dodge them all, it was struck repeatedly. Its body caught fire, and soon its entire frame was engulfed in fmes.

  "Don't stop — keep attacking! Don't give it time to recover!" the Suzaku Guard Captain bellowed at the soldiers nearby. Hearing this, the spear-wielding soldiers charged at the beast immediately, driving their spears into it in a frenzied barrage, while fming meteors continued to rain down from above, hammering it relentlessly.

  Under the dual assault of raging fire and piercing spears, the tiger let out agonized wails and colpsed to the ground, struggling in futile desperation. Gradually, the sounds it made grew quieter and quieter, its thrashing weaker and weaker, until at st it y completely still and made no sound at all.

  Once he was certain the tiger had stopped moving, the Suzaku Guard Captain ordered the attack to cease. He walked over to the tiger and looked at it — it had been reduced to a heap of charred remains, its body riddled with holes from the spears.

  "Lord Euphemia, the threat has been eliminated. We may continue with the hunt." The Suzaku Guard Captain returned to Lord Euphemia's side, his manner perfectly calm and composed.

  A relieved smile spread across Lord Euphemia's face. "You've worked hard, Suzaku Guard Captain," she said. "How are the injured soldiers?"

  "Most of them are fine," he replied. "A few have more serious wounds — I've already arranged for them to be taken back for treatment."

  "Good. Everyone rest here for a while; we'll set out again shortly."

  "Yes, my lord."

  After a short while, the hunt resumed and the group moved out across the grassnd once more. The rest of the excursion went retively smoothly — they encountered no more powerful strange beasts. By the afternoon, the group had reached a wide river cutting across the grassnd, and Lord Euphemia ordered the party to stop and rest beside it.

  From somewhere unknown, a thick, putrid stench drifted into the nostrils of those resting by the river. "Ugh, what's that smell?" someone said. "It's like something's rotting."

  "I smell it too," said another nearby. "It seems to be coming from the other side of the river."

  The two of them went to the riverbank and gazed out at the water. The wide surface of the river was perfectly calm — there appeared to be nothing foul in sight. One of them said, puzzled, "That's strange. There was no smell a moment ago. Where did it suddenly come from? Could something filthy have floated down from upstream?"

  "Maybe whatever it is is underwater," the other replied, "which is why we can't see it."

  Before long, others resting by the river also caught the stench. They made their way to the bank and peered out at the wide expanse of water, trying to figure out what could possibly be causing the smell.

  Then a tremendous spsh rang out, and a vast dark-blue column of something burst up from the surface of the river. It rose straight out of the water and stood vertically above the surface, looking for all the world like a thirty-meter-tall blue pilr.

  The people on the bank noticed this thing appear and turned to look — and when they made out what it actually was, every single one of them felt a chill run down their spine. For what stood upright on the river's surface was a snake. A deep-blue serpent, some thirty meters long and several meters thick.

  "It's a snake — there's a giant snake in the river!" People screamed in panic and fled in the direction away from the great serpent. The serpent turned its head toward the crowd on the bank and surged to shore at tremendous speed. Its enormous head shot toward a person who had not managed to escape in time and bit down on their body.

  The person let out a scream of despair. Caught in the serpent's jaws, they swung back and forth through the air like a pendulum. The serpent opened its maw wide, its neck convulsing violently — and the person was swallowed alive.

  Then came the sound of more crashing water, and a great number of massive deep-blue serpents surged up from the river's surface. Each was over thirty meters long, and they all came swimming toward the people on the bank. When all the serpents had come ashore, the crowd realized with horror that their bodies were connected — they were a single creature, a colossal serpentine monster with nine heads.

  "Lord Euphemia, this pce is dangerous — please come with me at once!" The moment the Suzaku Guard Captain spotted the Hydra, he rushed to escort Lord Euphemia to her carriage, intending to take her away from the area immediately.

  "Wait a moment," said Lord Euphemia. She stood in the carriage, watching the Hydra that had just come ashore. It thrashed all nine of its enormous heads in a frenzied assault on the people nearby. The creature was of extraordinary size — nearly a hundred meters from head to tail — and it moved with terrifying speed. Every lunge and snap cimed another victim, swallowing people alive. Within less than a minute, more than ten people had been seized and devoured.

  Lord Euphemia stared wide-eyed at the Hydra rampaging through the crowd in the distance, her face deeply troubled. "This can't go on," she said. "Our soldiers and the tour group members are going to be killed by this monster. We have to find a way to save them."

  The Suzaku Guard Captain shook his head. "We can't. A beast this enormous is completely beyond our ability to handle. My first duty is to ensure your safety, Lord Euphemia — everything else is secondary. Please, we must leave now."

  "My life matters — but does theirs not?" Lord Euphemia murmured, a look of profound sorrow crossing her face.

  Seeing that Lord Euphemia refused to leave, the Suzaku Guard Captain grew anxious. "Lord Euphemia," he said, raising his voice, "we cannot afford to dey any longer. If we don't leave now, our own lives will be in danger too. Our only option is to fall back and send reinforcements to deal with the Hydra. If we stay here, everyone will be killed by this monster."

  "Very well… I suppose there's no other way…" Lord Euphemia's expression fell into a quiet desotion. She said nothing more after that.