Chapter 98 The face-slap...
Outside the SSA, General's Residence Building, Meeting hall.
"There are only three ways to kill a hydra properly, if not killed properly it would regenerate to full health if given enough time, thus making your mission a failure..." (General)
"Thus if the students want to finish this mission successfully, they have to at least do one of the following things to kill that hydra...." (General)
The first method to kill a hydra is by cutting or destroying it's all its five heads together, which is a very difficult task, a single person may find it impossible but since there are many students to fight it, this method may seem actually the most feasible but this is the most dangerous one.
Any one individual mistake can end up in the failure of all the attacking parties and it may even lead to fatal injuries. After all, each of the five heads can use different types of breath attacks like, thunder, fire, poison, etc. and the range of these breath attacks is very wide thus making it difficult to target the heads properly.
If Link and Rio choose to use the first method they will most likely put the group of newbies in danger and since the breath attacks are very wide in range the newbies are likely to get injured in this attack. Thus this method might be the most dangerous one.
The second method is to target and destroy the mana core of the hydra that is responsible for its seemingly infinite regeneration and also is the source of its vitality if it is destroyed the hydra will die too.
But the problem is that the mana core moves all over its body continuously thus it's very difficult to locate the precise position and attack it. Thus it makes it a very risky task to actually do it.n./OVELbIn
As for the third method, it is quite straightforward. It is to just simply destroy the hydra with so much firepower that not even a shred of it is left alive. Basically, you need to be an S-ranker to do that, even a peak A ranker can't kill a hydra in just one attack, even if they don't have that much firepower.
Only S-rankers have the firepower to reduce a mountain range into flat ground in just one or two attacks. That's the real horror of breaking your genetic limits and venturing into the realm of legendary. This is the reason why they are revered so highly, they are basically walking nuclear weapons that can flatten mountains change the course of rivers, and make the sky rain, with just a simple gesture of their hand.
But obviously, the students aren't S-rankers, if they were wouldn't they have already got the title of a general at this point why would they waste time, fighting a hydra, which they could kill in a fraction of a second...
"Hmm, indeed your planning is quite thorough, but I am still doubtful after all the students we have this time are some of the most talented ones, they have the talent to even reach the SS realm, and we will be slapped in the face if we underestimate those children..." (Neo)
"Actually, I agree with Neo too, this is one of the few times in human history when so many of the most talented types of geniuses have gathered together in one generation. I am quite sure that if they all grow up properly then maybe the human race will have its second golden era and this generation may also claim the title of the second golden generation too, but that's just my thought hahaha..." (Ashtel)
"Golden generation.... That's setting the expectations too high, in my opinion, if only one of them became an SS-ranker in the future it would be a great achievement for us as the ones that looked over them..." (Raji)
As Ashtel mentioned the topic of the 'Golden Era of humanity' the atmosphere became a bit depressed, seeing the awkward atmosphere General Bismoil changed the topic to stop it from escalating too much...
"W-well that's a topic only someone at S or above rank is qualified to know, let's not talk about it here, there are several people in this meeting room.... Ah! How about we look at the battle of the students with that hydra via the micro cameras that we installed beforehand in the battle arena!" (General)
"If my guess is correct the students must have already engaged the hydra in battle around this time, Let not dwell too much on the past and focus on the future, these kids are the future pillars of humanity after all...." (General)
While saying that General Bismoil gave commands to the officer responsible for monitoring the battle of the students via the cameras.
When the General ordered him to display the battle on the bigger screen the officer had a strange expression on his face, he seemed to want to tell the general something but the general stopped and didn't think much about the strange expression of the officer and hurriedly asked them to get the things ready.
The officer sighed and finally started to do his work, after a few seconds the main screen that was situated on the opposite wall of the general's seat lit up with the live battle recordings but it was not exactly a battle recording.
All the officers had their mouths opened in shock when they looked at the situation on the screen, even General Bismoil stood up from his seat due to shock. All three of the SS-rankers also had a dignified look on their faces, a strange silence appeared in the room, after all the recording was so different from what they were expecting originally.
The hydra was lying flat on the ground with a huge hole in its enormous chest, the hole had pierced through its body, and three of its heads had been cut off and were lying around the battlefield with huge pools of blood scattered around the arena. This scene was extremely shocking because it hadn't even been half an hour since the fight had started.
But the most shocking thing is that none of the students is injured one bit, some of them have a few small scratches but even they were being healed by Riya and one other healer student from Liam's group.
Looking at the Hydra it is clear that it was defeated using the second method, its mana core has been destroyed, its two heads have been cut, and one was smashed into pulp. Its wings had been cut off and its tail was to ashes. It could be said that the hydra was massacred very mercilessly. Its fate was very miserable, to say the least.
The officer in charge of the monitoring wasn't shocked perhaps because he had already seen this while monitoring the battle data. Thus he zoomed the camera towards where Lia and her group were sitting near the severed head of the hydra.
...
Lia opened the mouth of the hydra and tore apart an organ out of it, she showed the newbies the huge organ.
"Look this is the organ that helps the hydra use its breath attacks so efficiently it is actually very similar to the venom-spraying organs of some animals we commonly read about in the books, if you cook it properly and eat it you can increase your magical affinity, increasing your mana capacity...." (Lia)
The newbies looked numb from seeing Lia, they seemed to have been accustomed to Lia giving people monster organs to eat. All they had in their mind was:
"I want to go home!"
The camera then moved towards the head that was beaten to a pulp, Link was standing near it with his group:
"Hahahaha, like I said nothing can stop my fists, not even the steel-like skin of a hydra is a match for me hahaha" (Link)
"You are amazing Link Senpai! (Lenn)
Lastly, the camera moved towards Liam who was standing near his injured wyvern with his group.
"Liam Senpai your wyvern is amazing, it stood against a peak A rank monster even though it's only a peak B rank monster..."
Liam smiled and stroked his summoned beast while hearing the praises of the newbies:
"Haha, you think too much this guy has always been very brave since the day I summoned him... he is one of my best buddies, he can't talk though, hahaha" (Liam)
lightsΝοvel.cοm (Rio is sleeping in the corner, thus the camera doesn't focus on him. I sometimes wonder if he has a hidden ability that lets him avoid the spotlight very easily.)
...
The meeting hall
"W-well this is.... Unexpected... I would say...." (Neo)
"Ugh, these kids.... They face slapped us so hard.... it seems I am getting too old... and the younger generation might surpass me very soon, sigh~" (Ashtel)
Raji just stayed silent, but she could also see that this might be the beginning of a legend she was witnessing....
...
...
Author's Notes.
Question of the day.
Have you ever been face-slapped this hard before?
(Personally, I once mocked my friend that you are an idiot and wouldn't even be able to pass the exams, the next thing I knew of that guy was that he became the top scorer of the year, even the principal praised him and he got several rewards. I can still feel the burning sensation of that face slap... So nostalgic~ )
By the way, don't forget to use those power stones and also leave a review if you like the story. Comment your opinion about the chapter. Your support is my motivation.