Even with gusts of wind produced by my magic, it was a horrible experience to go through. My eyes started to hurt soon from the acidic fumes which were still somehow present in the space around me. I could smell them, so I knew from the beginning, but it was bearable, although very infuriating.
"Next time I'm gonna come here, I will have a plan", I promised myself.
The situation went worse the closer to the water I came. I noticed patches of land which if one was lucky, could use to jump and in this way made it further the obvious hunting ground.
I did just that, immediately regretting it. The soil was so wet, that despite dense grass it just fell apart under my feet, sliding straight into the marsh.
"You idiot", I nagged myself taking off to fly instead.
As I soon find out, it was a very smart and also very lucky decision, because from the water a massive hand reached to grab me. It was covered in plants, growing in the puddle below me. I couldn't see the skin, just the intense green of the underwater vegetation.
I flew a bit higher, escaping the grasp in making some space between me and the creature, because soon after, before that hand vanished under the surface of the water, I grabbed it firmly with 'Telekinesis' and then slowly brought it to the surface, to have a good look.
It tried to fight, but my grasp was strong, so It had no chance of escaping.
It was very weird. Kinda nightmarish too. The back legs clearly belonged to a frog and ven of similar, green color to what you could expect. Torso was quite humanoidal with the long hands, which also didn't look that much different from a giant or a cyclops if not for the plants enveloping them densely. It had a bird-like head with a short beak, but no feathers. As I soon noticed, because it hissed at me, there were small but very sharp teeth and a nasty green tongue hidden inside that beak.
To tell you the truth, I had no fucking idea what that thing was, and it really disgusted me, so I just twisted it like a wet towel using 'Telekinesis'. It didn't endure the pressure for too long, quickly turning to smoke, and dropping a crystal, which almost fell into the water. At the last moment, I managed to catch it with my psychic powers and shove it into my vault.
This encounter marked the beginning of me picking up those creatures at hundreds at a time, and murdering them at mass. I had to use 'Eyes of the Void' to locate them, which helped a lot.
Eventually, I reached the center, which was marked by tall trees growing from the swamp. They had massive trunks, and the crows were stretching wide. They had easily above hundred meters, which is something around three hundred feet.
I didn't notice it at first, but they had marks on them, showcasing the world tree and some of them even the throne. The second thing which escaped me at first was the fact that they were forming a massive circle.
I got inside it before I caught on to that detail, but when I entered it was obvious. In the very middle was a massive creature. To describe it in one word it was a fucking hydra. A massive creature with many heads. The body of the boss was covered in thick, black shells with jagged edges, and they all nicely fit covering one another. From between them, a strong, vibrant green light was peaking, like there was something glowing inside the monsters.
I noticed six heads, each with a dragon-like, toothy maw filled with small, needle-like teeth. Hundreds of them. The yellow eyes immediately focused on me, and the beast began slowly moving to attack. It wasn't that fast, because of the heady body, but the heads on six, in total, necks were quite the opposite.
It wailed at me, then began hissing from each mouth at a time, as it got closer. I waited because I found it quite funny how it wiggled itself in the water, swinging the heavy tail behind.
I wanted it to attack me because I was really curious if it really would be like in the legends. If you cut one head, two new ones would grow. From the perspective of time, I don't really know why the attack from the boss was reacquired to check that, but back then I had this idea in my mind, and it seemed rock solid.
Obviously, I was so small, that the hydra tried to just swallow me in one bite, but I slapped its head off so hard, It just burst. The gross meat and blood fell to the side, leaving a gushing wound in the neck.
I glared at it, expecting to see the miraculous regeneration, which would grow two more heads, but instead got sprayed with green acid from a different maw,w which attacked me.
I was forced to shadow walk to escape, and then clean myself with some 'Telekinesis'. When I finished, there were already two new heads grown from that neck I wounded, which confirmed my idea about the monster. Still, I was a bit angry that I couldn't witness it with my own two eyes.
I was really curious about what it would be like.
"Fuck this", I thought to myself, pissed a little bit.
I was already wasting so much time and trying to play around to see that process of regeneration of those heads seemed like a stretch bit too far, so I just flew to the side, creating a swarm of firebirds as I went flying around.
When the amount reached a satisfactory number, I made them all go after the boss, who throughout all this time was spraying acid at me, or trying to bite me.
A chain of consecutive explosions shook the area, spraying the water at first, but the temperature grew too high, and it started evaporating, creating this thick fog around us. The hydra didn't survive, and the area got completely decimated, but the crystal was still there, sticking in the muddy wet earth. I needed to move fast because the water was quickly retaking its ground
Then I left, getting the hell out of that terrible place, to look for the third hunting ground.