Against The Heavens 129 Teamwork.

Li Yang's right arm was terribly scorched after having suffered under the violet lightning of the hydra, but thanks to the fact that his interspatial ring was made from st.u.r.dy materials he could still access it. He quickly took out a waterskin filled with a cool blue liquid, coating his entire right arm and the parts of his right foot that had been burned, sealing both with a layer of ice to make sure that the liquid wouldn't fly off in the ensuing battle. Fang Ying quickly swallowed three pills to restore some of her energy, Tian Zheng moving his gaze between the hydra and the two of them while giving a quick nod of his head.

"If that's how you usually repay your debts then I gotta make sure to have you owe me as many debts as possible. Xiuying's lost most of her combat ability due to her wounds, Xieren can still put up a decent fight on his own, Peng can't use too much of his energy due to his wounds but he should still be able to at least support us. As you can see, my right hand's beyond f.u.c.ked right now, the blood getting in my eyes is also causing me to occasionally turn basically blind, it's a real b.i.t.c.h. But I can still fight, I should only be a little below Xieren at this point so with you and Ying helping us we should be able to defeat it. I'd ask if you can draw up an array here, but I'm not dumb enough to believe that to be possible."

Tian Zheng gave a quick summary of their current fighting strength in case Li Yang and Fang Ying hadn't noticed their states. He was far more casual than he was when he talked to Li Yang and the others before they entered the volcano, he was no longer as annoyingly polite so it was a bit easier to talk to him. Li Yang gave a slight nod of his head, glancing at Fang Ying out of the corner of his eye.

"How much Qi you've got left and how long do you think it'll take to restore to a proper level?"

Her previous attack clearly took a lot out of her, Li Yang guessed that it might have cost around 50% of Fang Ying's Qi to launch it. Fang Ying's face was gradually regaining it's color thanks to the pills she had swallowed, but she was still breathing rather heavily when she responded.

"Only got about 20% left, and even with the pills I just used, restoring it to my preferred 50-70% will still take about three to four minutes. An extended battle will not be in our favor."

Battles like this would rarely last three or four minutes, only if both parties were completely even in strength would a battle ever go beyond one or two minutes. Fang Ying narrowed her eyes slightly while looking at the now five-headed hydra, which was doing the same as her, vigilantly observing the enemy and trying to come up with a plan. Fang Ying's eyes suddenly lit up, the edges of her mouth starting to curve up as she turned to Li Yang.

"Ey, Yang'er, my dear, would you listen to one of my plans for a bit?"

Li Yang felt his fight-or-flight instincts kick in when he heard how Fang Ying talked, things never went well for him when she talked like that. She nodded in the direction of the hydra, raising her eyebrows a few times while talking.

"Remember that fish living in the Mountain Lord's herb garden?"

Just like he had expected, her plan was nothing good for him. He moved his gaze away from Fang Ying and looked at the hydra, inspecting the wounds on its body, especially the two stumps that remained of its head. He glanced at Tian Zheng and the others after he finished inspecting the wounds, his smile turning bitter as he gave a light shake of his head.

"Really woman, I must have wronged you in some past life to make you hate me this much."

Despite his words, Li Yang still stood up and clenched his left hand a few times. His right arm was too badly wounded to be of use right now so he could only rely on his left arm. Fang Ying smirked at him before turning her head to look at Tian Zheng and the others, addressing all of them.

"We have a way to kill it, but you'll have to help me distract the hydra so that Yang'er has a clear path, try to increase the size of its wounds while you're at it."

Xiong Xieren and the others glanced at Li Yang after hearing Fang Ying's confident statement, none of them doubted Li Yang's strength, they were simply curious about what they were planning. Strangely enough, it was Xiong Xieren that was the first one to agree, stepping forward while leaning his gray trident on his shoulder.

"Alright, since Fairy Ying has that much faith in you, I'll toss my chips in with you, let me see if you can produce another amazing spectacle. But I swear, if you f.u.c.k it up I'll have you working under me for the next G.o.dd.a.m.n millennia to pay off that debt."

Tian Zheng stepped forward shortly after Xiong Xieren, Yuan Peng and Cui Xiuying following shortly after, the four of them taking up positions based on how injured they were. Fang Ying joined up with the group just as Xiong Xieren glanced at the others in the group, his gaze eventually settling on Cui Xiuying, the one amongst them who had the grievest injuries. He made a quick clicking sound with his tongue, his s.h.i.+eld puppet, the only remaining humanoid puppet he had, taking up position next to Cui Xiyuing and s.h.i.+elding her. Once he placed the puppet next to Cui Xiuying, he turned his gaze back onto the hydra, grasping his trident with both arms.

"Right then, here we go."

Xiong Xieren dashed forward the moment he finished his words, suddenly jumping up and actually running in the air with wide strides, a somewhat transparent energy coiling around his trident. Li Yang couldn't see what Xiong Xieren was using to run in the air, but he could just faintly feel them, invisible strings made from pure Qi. This was one of the laws that Xiong Xieren specialized in, the law of strings, the other was the law currently coiling around his trident, the law of corrosion.

The hydra unleashed a thunderous roar, thin blades of wind decimating the area and slicing through the strings, the earth a short distance beneath Xiong Xieren rising up and trying to trap him in a coffin. But just as the earth rose up, Tian Zheng arrived next to it with a thunderous explosion, the earth in his previous position scorched black and torn apart from when he used a fierce explosion to propel himself forward.

He twisted his body slightly to gather all his strength in his left arm, delivering a heavy punch to the rising earth. His fist created a shockwave as it moved, the earth disintegrating the moment his fist made contact with it. Several consecutive explosions rang out through the area after he delivered his punch, the explosions traveling through the air and growing a little stronger each time until they finally collided with the wounded right front leg of the hydra, cracking the single bone that kept the leg connected to its body.

The hydra growled in anger and pain, dark clouds gathering in the sky above the area and pelting the earth with violet bolts of lightning. Most of the lightning bolts were heading for Xiong Xieren, who had just lost the support of his strings and was about to fall to the ground. But before the bolts of lightning could hit him, a breeze blew through the area, pus.h.i.+ng Xiong Xieren forward and turning into a platform he could move on.

More and more blades of wind and bolts of lightning came for Xiong Xieren, but Yuan Peng rode a light breeze and intercepted the attacks, freezing the bolts of lightning and negating the wind by countering it with some of his own, perfectly defending Xiong Xieren. The last two heads of the hydra also started to unleash attacks, the crimson head causing the air to grow scorching hot as several sun-like orbs of fire appeared and started to spit out flaming tornadoes and smaller orbs of fire that quickly grew in size. The lightly brown head affected the area around them, the wooden splinters in the area rapidly growing into entangling roots that were covered in thick spikes. Several of the wooden splinters even rose up from the ground and started to fly around the area, splitting into smaller pieces that then grew into entangling vines or sharp weapons when they were close to someone.

Tian Zheng stomped the ground with all his might, thick cracks spreading through the area as pillars of magma burst out from the ground and gathered into a molten sun above his head. The molten sun attracted the surrounding fire, forcing all of it to come for Tian Zheng and preventing it from stopping Xiong Xieren. Tian Zhen used his left arm to deal with the surrounding earth at the same time, shattering and blocking any attack that the hydra was trying to launch.

Tian Zheng dealt with the fire and the earth while Yuan Peng dealt with the wind and lightning, leaving the wood to Cui Xiuying. Her pouch filled with Demonic beasts was destroyed, but she still had her own strength to rely on, her chest and stomach bulging out as she took a deep breath. She opened her mouth and let out a deafening roar, a visible shockwave extending from her body and pulverizing any wood in the area. While roaring she also took out her crescent moon-shaped blade, throwing it with all her might.

The blade flew through the air in a simple arch, producing a faint whistling sound as it moved. The whistling sound continuously changed in pitch, growing more high-pitched when the blade flew past thicker pieces of wood, resulting in all the wood around the blade to disintegrate. The blade would vibrate faintly on the rare occasions that a piece of wood did manage to touch it, the wood quickly disintegrating. Now that she wasn't using her Demonic beasts to fight, Li Yang could finally discern what laws Cui Xiuying cultivated, sound and vibration. Just like with the law of motion and speed, sound and vibration were two laws that shared a close bond that made it so that most people who cultivated one had some insight into the other.

With the support of the others, it didn't take long for Xiong Xieren to reach the hydra, the energy around his trident already so thick that it had turned into a white mist. He jumped off the wind that Yuan Peng had used to send him forward, raising his trident high and bringing it down on the dark brown head of the hydra.

The hydra reacted almost as fast as lightning, raising its head and opening its maw, blocking the trident with the sharp teeth lining its upper jaw. The teeth started to slowly corrode away, but at least it had managed to block the attack, or so it seemed at least. The moment the attack was blocked, Xiong Xieren's lips curved up slightly.

"Psyche."

Xiong Xieren pushed the base of his trident forward and lodged it in the mouth of the hydra so that it couldn't freely close its mouth. He then let himself fall downwards and grabbed onto the edge of the hydra's mouth and used his grasp to swing himself forward and upwards, arriving right beside the eye of the hydra.

He clenched his left fist and punched out with all his might, a hazy white mist surrounding his fist as it dug into the eye of the hydra, rupturing it and causing it to spray out a milky-white liquid. The hydra immediately let out a pained roar as its eye was ruptured and the law of corrosion started to wreak havoc inside its head, the five different elements it was unleas.h.i.+ng growing even stronger and becoming frenzied.

Xiong Xieren was flung away as the hydra shook its head, Cui Xiuying's waist was impaled by a small shard of wood that had gotten through her defenses, Yuan Peng spat out a large amount of blood when a bolt of lightning managed to resist his ice and crashed into his chest, and the glove on Tian Zheng's left hand fell apart as he blocked another thick pillar of earth that was rising up, a cracking sound resounding from three of his fingers. They had all shown great strength, but the hydra was still a deadly foe, even when it was wounded like this.

But they had done their job, they had distracted the hydra so much that it failed to notice a slight ripple in s.p.a.ce appearing just above the stump that remained of its green head. Li Yang appeared from the ripple and fell onto the stump, falling into the hole that connected that head with the hydra's stomach. He quickly slid into the body of the hydra, sliding along the intestines as he got closer and closer to the hydra's stomach. Li Yang's eyes were closed as he slid deeper and deeper, his ears perked as he listened for a certain sound.

And before long, he heard the heavy and chaotic beating of a pained and panicked heart. His eyes shot open and his golden sword appeared in his grasp, a faint black light surrounding the edge of the blade as he slashed open the intestines of the hydra. He wasn't confident that his fire and lightning would be enough to damage the hydra's intestines enough so he used a trace amount of his law of destruction to carve a way to the beating heart.

Despite the now thoroughly panicked and frightened tossing and turning of the hydra, he quickly arrived in front of the beating heart, which was almost three times as large as him. He immediately stabbed into it with his sword, a black light erupting from the tip and turning into a miniature black hole directly in the center of the hydra's heart.

The heart seemed to implode as it was sucked into the black hole, Li Yang quickly undoing the black hole once he was certain that the hydra was dead. The law of destruction was volatile and horrific, the slightest mishap would result in it going rampant and killing both him and everything around him, he had to be very careful when and how he used it.

Once the black hole vanished, all the energy that was about to be eaten by it had nothing pulling on it anymore, resulting in it quickly pulling back and going rampant now that the hydra was no longer controlling it. The energy tore through the body of the hydra, causing more and more of the energy remaining in the hydra's body to turn rampant and follow with the rest of the energy. Before long, the body of the hydra exploded under the rampant energy, Li Yang soaring through the air for a bit before being caught by Fang Ying. He muttered a quiet complaint, blood, guts, and other foul-smelling liquids covering his body.

"And this, my dear, is why I hate this way of killing someone."