Chapter 52
Knowing that this must be the way to gain the inheritance, she observed her surroundings as she wondered what the voice wanted her to do.
Becoming more confused by the minute, her question seemed to be answered by the voice as it sounded once again within her mind, "Your challenge to pa.s.s my inheritance is simple, you must get to Island located opposite this one if you fail as I mentioned your answer is death. Even if you wait here on this Island Spirit Beast, you will eventually die of hunger."
After it finishes speaking the voice as quickly as it appeared vanished, Dana's eyes turned serious upon hearing what she must do as she felt that this was to 'easy' for such an inheritance, otherwise many others would have likely pa.s.sed such a task.
Staring at the opposite Island as if trying to inspect why is it so dangerous, her question suddenly became answered as she saw something within the Lava Lake, a figure so large that it made even her within her Frost Wyvern form looks small.
Her eyes widened in shock as she saw such a hulking beast here, 'This is going to be must more complicated than I originally thought.'
Previously Dana believed that this inheritance test must be a measure of talent and not raw strength, she wasn't prepared at all to meet such a beast within here.
Dana thought that this must not the full trial, otherwise, why would the voice want strength over talent?
Dana honestly didn't believe that all of those Tier 4 and Tier 5 sects failed because of their lack of strength, and there must be more to this trial.
Looking around Dana wondered if she could fly to the opposite Island?
But, upon thinking that she immediately discarded the thought as she saw a strange looking barrier within the sky presumably to stop her from going any higher, and if she flew at that distance, then the ma.s.sive beast within the Lava could still manage to get her easily.
She already saw that the cultivation of the beast was at least at the Core Formation, in addition to it having a bloodline of similar strength to her, as already made her incredibly wary of it.
Thinking of a way to remove such an obstacle Dana decided to try and lure it out first so she can know what she is dealing with, flying above the lava, Dana prepared herself to rush back at any moment.
Suddenly a large head popped out of the lava, lunging at her with astonis.h.i.+ng speed, barely getting out of the way, Dana was once again attacked by another head out of the pool, catching Dana surprised as she was caught slightly by its fangs, with it even managing to create a wound upon Dana's st.u.r.dy defence.
Quickly rus.h.i.+ng back to the Island, Dana let out a cold sweat at how close the beast was in grabbing her, and even with it not landing a full strike upon her, it still managed to injure her, showing just how terrifying this beast is.
Seeing the beast for herself Dana know knew she was up against, something in her wildest dreams she wouldn't believe was real.
It was a genuine Hydra, similar to the ones depicted in Greek mythology.
But, upon thinking about it, Dragons were real, so why couldn't they be?
Thinking that the Hydra bloodline may even be compatible with her caused her to feel excited, but upon thinking about it, a sudden disturbing thought emerged as she wondered would she have multiple heads if she received the bloodline of a hydra?
Imagining her human form having multiple heads creeped Dana out fully, but the system seeing Dana's dilemma voiced out.
[Speaking about the Hydra bloodline, yes you will have multiple heads, but this will not apply within your human form even though it shares your bloodlines. As it will merge with you dragon bloodlines, you will have fewer heads than a normal Hydra with that bloodline possess, but it may not be necessarily a bad thing, as it will allow you to have parallel minds, and with your multiple different attributes will enable you to use many at once.]
Hearing the positives from the system, she had to admit that it may be a good thing having the Hydra
The only downside of the high regeneration of a hydra is that it uses the reserves within the body to heal. Thus Dana's monstrous appet.i.te will increase even further.
But, thinking that isn't a bad thing as she does love her food, as all the meat within this world are infused with spiritual energy it tastes many times better than the meat available on Earth, even without being prepared by a professional Chef it was so much tastier.
However, Dana stopped these thoughts, as she hasn't even taken care of the Hydra yet, nevermind being able to use its bloodline.
Thinking that there must be a solution somewhere to her problem she soon found a martial skill within the Island, believing that this must be something good, Dana skimmed through it, instantly realising how to solve this trial.
Due to this being in the Desert area, and its attribute was 'Fire', this martial skill was one was called 'Fire Coating' and is only usable in an area with a large amount of Fire Qi.
It is precisely a skill which lets you perfectly blend within, making the foe unable to realise you are even present as you are perfectly one with the fire.
Of course, the downsides of the skill is it requires a ma.s.sive amount of talent within Fire Qi, not to mention it gets difficult to hide the more powerful the being is.
Especially a creature like the Hydra which was a beast perfectly suited to this attribute with an extremely powerful bloodline and cultivation, thus to hide from such a beast would require Dana to have enormous talent within the Fire Attribute.
Smiling at having a solution to her problem, Dana begins to comprehend the skill slowly, five days quickly past and Dana finally found the confidence to attempt going to the Island.
Using the skill Dana stepped within the lava lake, moving slowly as possible as if not to alert the Hydra of her presence, ten minutes later and Dana almost reached the Island, but within a mere 12 metres away, she saw the large Hydra charging towards her, naturally enraged it failed to detect her presence for this long.
Seeing the Hydra noticed her presence and was coming towards her at an alarming speed, Dana rushed towards the Island with all the speed she can muster, but it was not enough as the Hydras paw smashed into her, causing Dana to go flying as she landed heavily.
Thinking that she probably should have waited a few more days, as Dana had to admit she only came within the fifth day because of arrogance, and at the same time feelings of hunger.
But as she was a dragon with high cultivation, she could probably have lasted a lot longer than now. Thus she felt a pang of regret for making such a foolish decision.
Eyes becoming determined for not going down without a fight, the large Hydra emerged before her as it intimidatingly looked down upon her, as its numerous heads hissed at her, poison dripping down each of its vicious fangs as its red eyes regarded her as nothing, but it's prey, something for it to be toy around with.
Growing angry that the beast dares to look down upon her and treat her as nothing but an ant it can crush as it wished, caused Dana's pride as a Frost Wyvern flair up.
Utilising every skill she can manage Dana charged at the beast, the Hydra seeing the creature it thought as 'prey' dare to attack its eyes grew cold as it prepared to slice it into two pieces, but Dana did something completely unexpected.
Previously, she didn't reveal her true speed against the Hydra. Therefore it greatly underestimated her, causing Dana to dodge out of the way of its intended strike and landed one of her own.
Piercing the Hydras soft flesh, Dana let out as many attacks as she could within this limited time-frame, fire, ice and earth attributed attacks rained down upon its body.
The Hydra wailed upon being hit by numerous attacks, as even though a Hydra had ridiculous regeneration ability its defence was rather poor for its cultivation level, thus Dana managed to inflict a damaging attack towards it despite the difference between him.
Furious at the ant hurting it, caused its to rage as it flung numerous attacks at Dana, causing her to spit blood, as she once again was hurt badly by the attack.
But, refusing to give she tenaciously stood tall as the Hydra looked upon her with a look of surprise at it never expected despite Dana being a mere Xiantian cultivator that she could survive its attack.
Feeling slightly threatened, the Hydra decided to end this once and for all as its fang came close to Dana preparing to inject its poison, but seeing the Hydras action, Dana finally thought of a strategy to work precisely within her favour.
As the Hydra doesn't recognise what beast she is at all, it must not know that she would even be resistant to its poison despite the difference in cultivation level, as both the Frost Wyvern and Four-headed Inferno Hydra both had similarly ranked bloodline.
But, what many don't know is that the Frost Wyvern's poison is the bane of a Four-headed Inferno Hydra, and even with the difference between them, it could cause severe damage, as a Frost Wyvern attribute is its direct weakness, then its poison removes the strongest ability of a Hydra, its regeneration!
Due to there being an enormous difference between them, Dana would usually have no chance to administer her poison within the Hydra, but as a result of its ignorance, then she will have the perfect opportunity to do so!
Inserting its fangs into Dana, the Hydra began to release its poison as it believed that Dana would be incapacitated, and unable to put any resistance any further.
Moving its head closer to Dana as it went about it leisurely, putting up no guard against Dana at all, this led to the Four-headed Inferno Hydra's downfall, as Dana bit into its neck releasing every ounce of poison within her fangs into the creature.
Screaming as if it met its worst weakness, the Hydra wailed as the poison damaged it severely, the wound that Dana caused on its neck which would originally heal almost instantly, was closing at a visibly slow pace, as the Hydra's regeneration was reduced severely.
The Hydra's eyes grew bloodthirsty as it stared at Dana with hatred, believing that this was her opportunity to survive, both Dana and the Hydra went at each other, both dealing blow after blow to each other.
Thus, causing a savage scene to appear as both dragon and Hydra ripped at each others flesh without regard for defence, as the previous dominant Hydra was slowly losing its advantage within the brawl, as eventually both Dana and the Hydra collapsed lifelessly.
Injuries littered both Dana's and the Hydra's body, the Hydra's healing long ago stopping completely, as it simply ran out of energy to do so.
Dana feeling at death's door suddenly heard a voice from the system.
[Host system has detected the rare bloodline Four-headed Inferno Hydra, would you like to integrate it within your bloodlines?]
Feeling that she heard her saviour, Dana responded, "Yes", as her breath was becoming shallower as the minutes past, a sudden painful sensation coursed throughout Dana's body causing her to shriek.
Screams of agony reverberate through the mysterious s.p.a.ce, as Dana began her transformation into a new species entirely, one that has never existed before, a species that shouldn't be possible.