They leapt in opposite directions just in time.
Fire scorched the arena stone and left a bubbling trench of molten glass.
Craze landed hard and coughed, smoke stinging his lungs. "It evolved?!"
The Ashborn slammed his heel into the ground to stay upright, his molten fists raised.
The hydra moved.
All six heads snapped forward like serpents, jaws wide, teeth flashing.
One head went for Craze's torso.
He rolled beneath it and barely dodged the crushing bite.
Another slammed down at the Ashborn, but his fist met it in mid-air.
BANG.
The head recoiled, its scales cracked, but two more heads came past it at once.
Craze kicked off the wall, grabbed his axe in mid-spin, and cleaved into the nearest head.
Blood sprayed.
The hydra hissed in fury, but this time the wound did not last.
A new head grew back in a second.
The Ashborn's molten arms blurred.
He struck one head across the jaw with a backhand, then spun and drove a fiery knee into its throat, burning scales to slag.
