Good thing she had been gone for no longer, because another head was fast bearing down upon her.
This time, she had time only to leap aside. Then she ran underneath the Hydra and sliced into its hock with her plasma-coated blade. The bioweapon roared in pain.
Rhea darted for the next leg, but the creature was already trying to crush her by lowering its underbelly. Wearing a feral grin, she stepped out from underneath and sliced the blade upward, cutting a gash into its side. Then she leaped upward, landed on the crook of a bent leg, and jumped again, so that she stood upon its back.
The Hydra arose and swept those stinging tentacles down upon her. She bounded forward and out of the way with a flip and landed near the base of its tail. That particular appendage was about half as thick at the base as any of the necks the creature sported—something her bladed weapon could readily sever.
Baring her teeth in a wicked smile, she leaped off. She swung the blade, striking at the tail as she descended, and completely cut it from the body.
She landed rolling in the rubble and then scrambled to her feet.
Blood erupted in spurts above her, and the creature wailed in pain before collapsing. Its heads swayed back and forth, sometimes endeavoring to strike at her, but she’d moved well beyond their reach. The creature kept trying to stand as well: the Hydra would stagger and lurch on wobbly feet, but without a tail, it invariably lost its balance and crumpled. Eventually it just gave up and simply sat there, swaying its heads, wailing.
She almost felt sorry for the Hydra then.
Almost.
Two more bioweapons abruptly crashed into the stricken Hydra from both sides and knocked themselves out.
Will and Horatio had apparently been acting as the bait for these latest creatures, because the pair appeared a moment later, coming to her side.
“Nicely done.” Will nodded at the blade. “Where can I get me one of those?”
She smiled, then dashed to the other two Hydras before they could get up, and she cut off their tails in turn. She returned to Will and Horatio and watched as the screaming creatures tried to stand. Like the bigger bioweapon, without tails the Hydras kept losing their balance and finally gave up.
She broadcast over a general channel: “Defenders of Rust Town: if you have bladed weapons, use them. Cut off their tails. That’s their weakness. Without a tail, they can’t even walk, and will eventually bleed to death.”
The blood spurting from the tail region of the first injured Hydra had reduced to a mere trickle by then, and on cue, the creature lowered its remaining heads and closed its eyes.
The cries of the remaining two creatures would attract other nearby bioweapons, of course. It wasn’t worth the trouble to cut off their heads—more bioweapons would already be incoming.
Sure enough, an alert sounded on her HUD, courtesy of Gizmo. Glancing at her overhead map, she saw two groups of incoming red dots approaching from the north and south.
Rhea grimly turned toward the south, where the bigger group awaited. Plasma-coated blade at the ready, she took off at a run to intercept.
She weaved over and between the debris and kept running as she reached the Hydra in the forefront. She sliced through the hocks of its rightmost legs and severed a portion of the tail—the base of the appendage was too high to reach from her current position on the ground.
She dodged the snapping jaws of the next Hydra and leaped onto the associated neck; she sprinted to its back and crossed to the tail, avoiding the other heads along the way. She slid beneath those stinging tentacles, and then severed the tail at its base before leaping to the next Hydra.
As she made her way over the creatures, dodging and cutting as she did so, she noticed Will and Horatio following on the rubble alongside. Will had procured a scrap of metal to use as a blade, as had Horatio. They weaved in and out, cutting at the hocks.
And then, just like that, she severed the tail of the last of them and leaped down. She continued running for several paces before turning around to survey her grisly handiwork.
She was almost amazed by the carnage she’d caused. Seven Hydra lay sprawled in a line, wailing as they struggled repeatedly to stand. They bled profusely. Only the first remained on its feet, but it stumbled away, hemorrhaging from a tail that had been cut in half.
Rhea continued to cut off tails wherever she went, putting her electrolaser-enhanced blade to good use. After Rhea had sent out her latest broadcast, criminal gang members began coming out of the woodwork, and distributed bladed weapons of all kinds to the fighters. Swords. Machetes. Long daggers. Some of the blades were even enveloped in electrolaser plasma like her own.
Meanwhile, those who could not fight, or were too afraid to, were back to climbing the walls of Aradne, no doubt much to the angst of the city’s rulers. The city was forced to continue supplying rescue flyers, and of course they had to grant asylum to any who made it to the top of the wall.
And so, she continued fighting, doing her part to reduce the population of Hydras that infested the city. She was soon covered in the blood of her enemies, but she fought on, seeking out any hotspots, and giving aid where she judged her help was needed most. Will and Horatio were never far from her side. Bardain, however, liked to stray.
She received a message from her former trainer, at one point.
“Girl, I could use your help,” Bardain said.
She glanced at her overhead map. Bardain was in a hotspot a few streets away, surrounded by six bioweapons, and more were quickly on the way.
Rhea dropped everything and made her way to him.
When she arrived, she saw he had retrieved a machete from somewhere,
