The Hydra was charging towards Dengar at an alarming rate, her many heads snarling viciously bearing sharp bloodstained teeth. Her scaly skin was coloured a vivid green and red, with bizarre tropical blue stripes across her back like slash marks from a sword. No doubt this creature was from the Rain forest or maybe even the misty forest, but for some reason she was over here in Salquedor, by Lake Aelin. Dengar turned to run but he knew it would get him no where. The Hydra's Heads were rearing backwards as it stormed across the grass and then as a group they cut through the air, each one of them desperate for their share of meat running down their own throats. He could hear the monsters heads slicing through the air and each of her heads panting and snarling, snapping their teeth furiously at the guardian. Dengar would definitely make a decent meal for the beast, and was indefinitely a tasty treat compared to what it was used to eating. His fat legs pounded into the ground but he just couldn't outrun the creature, and he found himself falling face down into the ground.



The reason the guardian of War was in one of the most peaceful places on Arda was a simple one; he was lost. Yet again his quest for food had led him into the misty forest where he hoped to snatch up a few Wargs and snack on them for a while. It had been a long time since he'd sampled the delicacies of the Misty forest, and every time he returned he always managed to find a dozen new species he'd didn't spot last time. The forest was plentiful of tasty grub and the insects there made delicious appetizers for some of the main meals such as deer, Drow (there were sometimes a few of these wandering around) and Orc. He tended to round off his little banquets with some fresh frogspawn from the Swamp nestled within the trees. It was normally around about this time that the trouble started.

You see, it's easy enough to get into the Misty Forest but the tricky thing is getting out again. There were plenty of maps around Eä telling you where Salquedor is and where the Misty forest is, but maps for inside the misty forest are very rare, and tend to be extremely misleading anyway. As Dengar discovered yet again, the Misty forest is an incredibly dense maze of trees, and is nearly impossible to simply navigate through to the edge of the forest. He had spent a couple of weeks at least angrily stomping through the undergrowth, searching for any clues which might point to an exit. He came to a small clearing, which lead to a larger clearing, which lead to Lake Aelin. This is where he found the Hydra, slurping up the lake and no matter how hard he tried to avoid its gaze, he soon realised that he would be her next victim.



The Hydra was not prepared for the sudden collapse which Dengar accidentally performed, and stampeded onwards trampling over his chunky body. The guardian could do nothing but shield his head and roll frantically out of the way of the monster, hoping that one of the four giant thighs wouldn’t splatter him into the soil he was lying on. Peace was not on his side, and an unforgiving foot clumsily crushed down onto his foot, snapping it like a twig. It just fell off, just like that. Even a mammoth like Dengar couldn’t support the weight of a fully grown adult hydra.

Dengar screamed with pain and agony, as the arteries in his body pumped out blood from his left leg’s gaping hole onto the fresh grass, staining it a deep scarlet red. Pain, Anger and Fear filled him, as he realised that this could be the day that Dengar… died! He knew that he was immortal, invincible and he could never be completely destroyed, but his ‘outer shell’ could be broken. Lizarians were a very favoured species of the guardian, and they were ideally suited to a war mongrel such as himself. The other thing that scared him was being split apart from his shell, literally speaking. It was fairly painful to die, but to have your soul ripped out of your body was an entirely different experience. The ultimate pain to be sure.

The Hydra did not stop at severing Dengar’s foot. Its many heads swung round to snarl at him, a small amount of saliva dangling from each of their jaws. She stopped her charge and began making her way towards the shattered wreck which was the guardian of war’s body. One of the heads, the middle one to be precise, sniffed the air and smelt the delightful odour of blood waft into its nostrils. The others followed pursuit and began feasting on the smell of blood, which was enticing the heads closer and closer to Dengar’s broken body. For the middle head, temptation was just too much and it lunged forth, jaws ajar hungry for meat. Her greed would be her downfall as Dengar was not quite defeated just yet. With a vengeance, he struck his blade of war upwards, clutching it with two hands and thrust it through the roof of the Hydras mouth. A ripping sound could be heard, and then a gushing waterfall of blood ensued. Blood rained down from the Hydras mouth and sprayed downwards covering Dengar’s body into the hot and sticky mixture.

‘One down, three to go’ thought Dengar whilst grimacing with pain from his left foot (or rather the lack of one). The Hydra head which had been stuck reared backwoods screeching with rage. Its eyes blazed as it went back to strike at the Lizarian but it never made it, as it slumped to the ground dead before it got to him. The other heads were more surprised than angry or upset, they hadn’t expected the lame and feeble lizard creature to pack quite a punch. They regained their senses fairly quickly though, and snapped their jaws violently towards him. Dengar had no choice but to get out of the way, he would not be able to take on three heads even if he was perfectly healthy! He rolled left and missed being torn in half by a hydra head or two, then swung his blade over his shoulder cutting a gash in the nearest head. It didn’t seem to do anything but enrage the beast and he continued to roll and evade strikes from the remaining three heads whilst occasionally swiping outwards trying to take out another head. Knowing that he wouldn’t be able to keep this up for more than half a minute, he needed help. He kicked his good leg upwards and frantically crawled away from the beast, which was a fairly stupid thing to do when he couldn’t outrun it when he was running.

Thankfully for him, the dead hydra head got caught up in the stampeding monster and tripped the Hydra off of her feet! She fell down towards the ground, giving Dengar more time to scramble away. Futile maybe, but a second more as a Lizarian was a second he would treasure. The Hydra wasn’t subdued for long, it simply gnawed off the dead and useless head so that it wouldn’t get in the way again, then the three heads remaining furiously gave chase and charged towards the Guardian.

((Dengar has decided to take on a Hydra (not voluntarily mind you!) but now he's in need of a little help! Of course, what you want and what you get are two completely different things, so anyone is welcome to join whether it is to help him out of a sticky situation or to aid in destroying his chaotic remains!

He has already lost his left foot... surely he won't lose anything else?!))

War could feel his breath shortening, the air that had tasted so sweet moments ago become dry and sour. He kicked again at the Orc that had hunted him so savagely. Then, ducking beneath the creature's sword, the man elbowed the creature in the back and sent it to the floor. Grabbing the curved, bloody sword, War brought it down upon its master with a fustrated cry.
He took a breath and dropped the sword as the wound from that same blade made itself apparent. A slender slice across his ribs- no more than a deep scratch, but still stinging with the recent memory of its creation. Ripping off a thin fragment of his sleeve, War began to bound it across his chest, wincing every time the rough fabric slid across the cut.
Finally, he thought, as he tied the last knot and fixed his shirt back on. Grasping the sword and another deep breath, he plunged on through the woods, a small smile from his victory tugging on his lips.

He knew his time was nearing. He had been dropped into this forest- captured by those he did not know, blinded, and pushed into this forsaken place. He had no food, no supplies, and almost no appetite- which couldn't be very good. The wound hadn't stopped bleeding since its making, and was quickly staining what was left of the made bandage. Yet War trudged on, knowing this entire forest, with all its space, couldn't be completely empty of other people.
War reached a ledge, hanging over a steep hill and more green below. Green and blue- the colours he now despised, for they had never left his site in the time being here. But it wasn't the colours so much that had worried him.
Trees below were toppling, roars- numerous roars- were shaking the earth, and a single scream of pain. He now knew he wasn't alone- but would that be for long?
Impulse took him. War closed his eyes in concentration, though the transformation took no time at all. He was too used to it. In seconds, the man was no longer in sight... but in his place stood a dragon.
His skin, once tanned and dirty, was now slick and shiny. Metal covered his entire body, for metal was his entire body- all eighteen feet of it. Wings folded from his back, thin steel plates that rang with every movement. On his tail hung a mace, thick and full of jagged cones, perfect for landing a fatal blow to the enemy.
Gripping onto the ledge with hooked claws that dug into the dirt with ease, War felt the finaly transformation take place. Horns reaching from his skull, protruding in the most painful way. Yet once they stopped, he knew there wasn't a way they would be less painful to the enemy.
Time to help, thought War, the human in his mind. Time to kill, echoed the dragon side, licking its lips in delicious delight. With a metallic, angry screech, he leapt off the cliff and took flight.

The Hydra that rose before him was huge. The three heads were inflicted with rage beyond rage, and a savage hunger that War had seen too many times in beasts. Yet, even with the vastness of the creature, he didn't slow down. It was his job to help, his duty. His privilege.
Sharp blue eyes caught the figure on the ground, crawling with all its strength, covered in a mass of its own blood. It took seconds for the dragon to register that this was human- part of what the dragon was- and who he needed to assist. With another metal screech, the dragon collided with the Hydra, sinking all twelve claws, front and back, into the creatures' scaley body.

Dengar panted and clawed himself across the trampled ground to what he thought might be safety; A cluster of rocks and shrubs. His movement was painfully slow, nowhere near fast enough as it should be in order to avoid death. However, it was his best shot. Determination was flooding his veins but his perseverance was not helping in the slightest. This was probably one of the most painful experiences of his life, crawling across the mud of the Lake Aelin grass covered in his own blood and bits of shattered bone, along with a ton of hydra blood which stunk of acid. Although he had to admit, this wasn't as painful as when he got the permenant slash across his chest from a dragon tooth. Now that was painful. The lengths he had to go to just to be able to get his ribs fixed was unbelievable.

Speaking of Dragons, something was flying through the air towards the Hydra. From a distance it looked like a small red bird, but after Dengar blinked the blood out of his eye the creature was near enough to be distinguished as a shining steel Dragon. Impressive, Magnificent and Powerful. A saviour for the guardian perhaps? He could only hope. The Hydra was on his tail again, the heads were swaying around from side to side, almost as if it was trying to hypnotise the lizardman. She never got near enough to attack him though as she was impaled from above by the steel dragon. Dengar could just make out of the confused wails from the Hydra and the screaming agony in his mind the screech of the metalic dragon, the emotion it was conveying was very mixed and confused the guardian.

Dengar had no clue as to what side the steel dragon was fighting on. He could have been attacking something which looked like a suitable prey, or perhaps he just hadn't spotted the small (in comparison with the Hydra that is) Lizarian collapsed on the gound. Either way, this provided the guardian of war with the kind of distraction he needed. He had considered attacking the hydra with his flail, but surely that would do nothing but agrivate her. Besides, he needed some room to build up a swinging momentum, meaning that it would be near impossible to attack with it whilst lying on the floor.

He instead decided to cast Dark Regeneration on his leg, to help numb the pain he was feeling. As far as he could tell, the dragon was more than capable of tackling the Hydra himself, and the less involved Dengar got meant the less pain he might end up recieving. He raised a fat hat over his crippled leg and spoke as loud as he could (which wasn't very loud considering how weak he was feeling) the words for the spell. Nothing seemed to happen. His leg was still emmitting blinding pain as before. Suddenly it dawned on him, it was the same mistake he made every single time. He had just cast Improved Gravity instead! He glanced up towards the steel dragon, his stomach dropping. This was the last thing he wanted, two enemies which were both at least triple the size of him was not what he wanted, not at this moment in time. He gulped and anxiously waited for the cramping and doomful effects of improved gravity to take effect on the undeserving creature.

Rallika had rarely come to Lake Aelin, or anywhere with healthy, big trees for a fact. Before it was a kind of vacation, this time he was looking for excitement, perhaps someone to help. He was looking to improve his swimming here also. To get to the lake he would have to get through a lot of trees and that was exactly what he was doing. As he neared the edge of the tree lot he heard a loud roar and an agonised scream. Just as luck would have it Rallika had hoped he would help someone today. He quickened his pace through the trees. As he passed the last tree he saw a huge steel dragon and a hydra of the same size.

The scream had come from a lizarian that was being chased by the hydra, and apparently has been badly wounded. The hydra had lost one of its heads and the blood smelt bad, even from a distance. There was a lot of blood stained grass and the dragon was charging right at the hydra. It impaled it with all twelve claws and obviously really hurt the hydra. Rallika wondered whether the hydra would ignore the dragon and the wounded lizarian and go for him or the dragon would. What is a dragon doing here anyway? Puting these thoughts aside Rallika ran down the hill toward the lizarian.

The momentum of the hill caused Rallika to slightly lose his balance, but not enough to make him fall. Then strangely the gravity really intensified. This made Rallika fall and slide down the hill on his body armour. As he reached the bottom he heard a loud snapping sound that came from behind. He turned around to see what it was and a huge tree came crashing down on him. "Oh jeez, GET OUT OF THE WAY!" He jumped to the side, narrowly dodging the tree and it crashed into one right beside the lizarian. Luckily Rallika jumped to the side the lizarian was in so he wouldn't have to either run around the tree or climb over it. The gravity was pushing his armour down and it was killing Rallika's shoulders. He got it off and dropped it on the ground. He ran toward the lizarian and inspected the damage. "Hey wait, you're the Guardian of War right? Let me help." Rallika cast his healing spell on the guardian but it didn't do much, only closed the skin up halfway. "Damn, you need professional help. Stay here and keep under cover. I'm going to help kill that hydra." I hope I don't end up getting killed. This is practically suicide! Rallika drew Raku's Bane and faced the hydra. Damn, this is going to be tough, and that dragon doesn't look too friendly either.

The dragon heard- more so, felt- the intense cry of agony from the Hydra beneath him. It writhed uselessly in attempt to throw him off, but the attempt was fruitless. Ready for the final strike, he raised his mace-like tail. A huge ball on the end of his plated tail layered with long, conical drills, it was a lethal weapon. As well as his best. Gripping tighter onto the raging Hydra, the dragon prepared to crush the creatures' skull.
He had anticipated some sort of manuver of defense from the Hydra- some sort of body roll, or the three heads to twist and find some weak spot on him... but not this. The mace-tail dropped to the ground, as if attracted to the blood and dirt below. As hard as he tried, the dragon could not rise it again.
It became not only the tail, but his entire body. Twenty-four tons of solid, living steel became suddenly more apparent. While this mass hadn't been a problem to him before, now, the dragon felt as though the metal was on top of him rather than part of him. He began sinking to the ground, the last thing he felt being the Hydra weakly crawl out from under him.
Each giant claw became a massive thud on the ground. His knees were bending, head bowing. The dragon felt he would sink through bottomless pits if the pressure didn't stop.
All of a sudden, his arrogant side kicked in like a boot to the chest. A raging voice trembled in his head, growling with determination.
I will not by beaten.
His jaws opened their greatest width, grinding painfully like a creaky gate. Rather than fire escaping the metal teeth, lightning shot forth. It crackled dangerously like whips, shining a bright gold. With a thunderous bang, it hit the Hydra square in the chest.

A crack like thunder erupted through the usually still air, as a gigantic and powerful bolt of lightning blasted out of the dragons mouth. For a second, Dengar was blinded by a brilliant blue beam of light, before blinking away the disbelief and facing reality. An armoured warrior leapt to Dengar's side and spoke above the corruption and chaos, "Hey wait, you're the Guardian of War right? Let me help. Damn, you need professional help. Stay here and keep under cover. I'm going to help kill that hydra." A small dose of pain relief washed it's way up his leg, through his veins as the unknown stranger healed him. The pleasure was only mild and short lived, plus the pain's returning impact was worse than before. The warrior drew a weapon crafted by the gods and stood boldy to face the gigantic Hydra, who was wailing and screeching, swinging all her heads across the bloodied battleground.

Dengar opened his mouth slowly, wincing all the while to mutter some words of advice. His voice was low and croaky and it sounded as if someone had taken a bite out of half his voice box. "Do not be a fool. Hydra is many times bigger than little man. Death is destiny." His English was even poorer in this state of mind than usual. No matter how badly injured he was (physically and mentally), he was never going to surrender to the opposition. He never had given in to the enemy and today would be no exception to tradition. He would fight the beast until death, on either his behalf or hers. Slowly and tentatively, Dengar pulled himself off the scarlet mud and stood to one side of the warrior, his injured leg hovering uneasily above the ground. It was times like these that Dengar realised the incredible height difference between himself and most humans, something that still continued to shock him to date.

"We will take her together..." the guardian panted, "...Or not at all." he finished, his eyes watching the dragon blasting a beam of lightning at the hydra. The great hydra was badly wounded and would not be able to win the battle now, but the sooner she was dead, the more satisfied Dengar would feel. He conjured his flail of war from thin air and gripped it firmly with his right hand, a grimace smothering his face. He waved a hand over his right leg and murmured the incantation to the spell duplicate which duplicated his right foot onto his left foot. Now you could say he had too right feet, if you pardon the pun. "Are you prepared for this small man?" Dengar asked the warrior beside him, who was underneath Dengar's shadow.

"Are you prepared for this small man?" Rallika chuckled. "Small man? I may be 17 but that doesn't mean I'm small! Besides I'm not even human!" To prove his point Rallika transformed into his demon form. Black claws grew to replace his fingernails and toenails. Red fur covered his arms and legs and thick scales formed on his torso, adding to his armour. The skin on his face turned red and the iris in his eyes did the same. To finish a tail grew from his tailbone, which always makes him wince and wings grew from his back. He easily shook it off as the morph was complete. "See? Now let's smash this Hydra!"

Rallika ran at the Hydra and as he as about to attack the Hydra snapped its jaws right in Rallika's dragon-like face. It seemed that the Hydra still had some fight in it. Eternal peace could be arranged. The Hydra snapped again but this time Rallika swung his axe at the Hydra. The axe blades impaled the Hydra's left head's right eye. "Yeah, take that!" The Hydra screeched and its breath stank. It snapped some more but they all missed and received damage, mainly at the nosebridge. Rallika wanted to kill off this head here and now. "Blade of Fire!" His axe blades lit with scorching fire and he used his wings to glide over the Hydra's head, slashing at any snaps made. He landed and lifted the axe high. He slashed it down and the intense gravity helped, but made the previous glide hard. Rallika kept hacking at the neck until it was completely cut loose. He used the flames on his weapon to light the flesh on the revealed neck so it doesn't grow another head. Rallika used this oppurtunity to burn the neck of the centre head. "That'll make things easier. Alright Guardian, make your move!"