Spartan put the mission paper down and tapped it, deep in thought. This was going to be a hard mission if he took it on alone, multiple sightings of hydras way outside their normal hunting grounds and apparently large enough to swallow people whole. Normally, one that was this size was a challenge on its own, but there have been 5 sightings in separate villages within the last 3 days, too tight together to be the same one unless it could teleport. That would be a first, Spartan thought, but anything was possible in a world of magic.
 
 
He was in a tavern, the usual drone of a bard in the background as adventurers and commoners intermingled. Looking around, he could easily tell who was what, as commoners usually didn’t socialize with weapons and magic visible for all to see. From what he could see, there were 4 adventurers, although 3 of them were sitting at the same table and were probably a party of their own.
 
 
Which left the one that was currently on her 12th beer, swinging her belly around like a prize to be won. “Come on, anyone else? Come and see if you can drink me under the table and win the pot of 400gp!” She had large black angel wings that complimented her red skin, a flowing black dress that was more aligned with a nobel than someone with a sword and shield on her belt. Her arms were bulked out through constant battles and while her face was currently in a jolly and inebriated state, Spartan could see the experience that she carried.
 
 
Yes, she would do nicely. Taking the mission in his hand, he walked over, making sure that his own weapon didn’t slap against his leg while he walked. He walked with confidence, knowing that first impressions, especially ones where you wanted to make an adventuring buddy, were important in order to create a reason to protect one's back.
 
 
“Sorry to interject, but my name is Spartan. May I inquire of yours?” Spartan sat down, the surrounding commoners having run out of money and interest walking off to find other things to do. The adventurer swayed, finding a chair of her own and landing heavily into it, a loud belch escaping her lips as she did so.
 
 
“Liz. You have a weird name. Not like most humans I’ve met.”
 
 
Spartan smiled. “It’s more of a title, but that’s not the first time I've heard that gripe. I was wondering if you wanted to accompany me on a mission, as I am in need of both coin and to sait my lust for adventure.”
 
 
Liz chuckled. “Why, I already have the coin, but if you are going to threaten me with a good fight, I’m in! What are we hunting?”
 
 
“Hydras. Several of them, or one very interesting one, have been spotted devouring whole towns with gluttonous ease before disappearing into the unknown. I suggest we at least try to have a look around to see if there is something we can find.”
 
 
Liz fidgeted with her belt, seeming to take an interest in the devourment part of what Spartan said. “I mean, there’s no harm in looking, right? Do you know where to start searching?”
 
 
Spartan pulled out a map. “If the pattern is to continue, there’s a town south of here about 18 hours walk that should be the next to see this mysterious hydra. If we double time it, perhaps we could head it off.”
 
 
Liz groaned, feeling her bloated stomach. “Maybe no double time? It’ll take me at least 3 hours to work this off in my system and another 2 to feel 100% again-”
 
 
Spartan reached out a hand and gripped her arm, the glowing light of healing energy pulsing through her and matching her heartbeat. Liz blinked, her gut rapidly shrinking as she felt the alcohol being purged from her system. “How about now? Feeling a little more up to travel?”
 
 
“Ummm, yeah. Cleric, huh? Been a while since I’ve worked with one and forgot what it was like.”
 
 
“Well, it’s pretty rewarding at least on my end.” Spartan responded, twisting his mace around in its scabbard and standing up. “Let’s go, we should travel by daylight if we can. Plenty of things love to show up in the darkness.”
 
 
*****
 
 
The sun was setting by the time the two adventures saw the town. And with that reveal came also the enormous necks that were diving and slithering like snakes between houses, snatching up people and swallowing their screaming forms down with ease.
 
 
“Well shoot, guess we need to double time,” Liz said, picking up the hems of her skirt and starting to run, cutting across the field. Spartan paused, looking out at the town and the writhing monstrosity.
 
 
“Hey Liz?! Think we can get a proper rest after this?!”
 
 
“What?! Why are you thinking about resting?! There’s a bloody hydra currently eating the town and we have to help them!”
 
 
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Spartan said to himself, reaching into his component pouch and pulling out a large feather that gleamed with celestial light. Waving it around like a conductor controlling a storm, he spoke softly under his breath and then sliced it through the air, striking down at the hydra.
 
 
The clouds split, 4 enormous pillars of light crashing down into the town, shattering buildings and burning away the wood. The hydra flailed and roared, the 7 heads spewing bile and blood before falling limp, laying on top of the unbroken houses. Liz stumbled to a halt, looking back at Spartan.
 
 
“What the hell did you just do?”
 
 
“Lvl 9 spell: Abraxas. Perfect against large opponents or entire armies of them.” Spartan shrugged. “Think of it as the cleric's Meteor Swarm. I thought that if this thing was as big as I assumed, I would have it prepared to end the fight before it began.”
 
 
“Yeah, I guess that worked, then.” Liz waited for Spartan to catch up, then walked with him towards the town. “Where did you aim? I thought the regenerative nature is why Hydras are so hard to deal with?”
 
 
“Well, as a sword wielder, I can see why you would struggle. I just aim for the torso, it’s still a monster with organs. Organs that can be ruptured and pierced and dealt with like every other monster.”
 
 
“That’s fair,” Liz said as they got into the town. The townsfolk were slowly picking up the pieces, trying to figure out what had happened and where the light had come from. Spartan looked up at one of the heads, seeing its huge maw lolling open almost 13 feet wide in its dead state. He noticed that Liz’s gaze seemed to linger longer before refocusing at the task at hand.
 
 
“Excuse me, were you the adventurers that saved us?” One elderly woman asked, helping a young father and his child out of the garden they had landed in. They appeared unharmed even if the father did have some bite marks on him. Spartan took notice that the teeth didn’t break the skin before answering.
 
 
“Yes, that would be me, my companion is Liz and I am simply called Spartan. If you may, can you tell us what happened leading up to this event? I am of the understanding that there are either multiple of these creatures or this one had an ability that allowed it to be more troublesome.”
 
 
“More troublesome? Oh dear…” The woman moaned, leading the two adventurers towards the town center. “This monster already went through the trouble of bursting out of our fountain and causing a panic. For some reason, it ignored me but went after the younger folk.”
 
 
“So that rules out attacking because it was hungry,” Liz commented, looking up at the huge body that took up half of the town's square. As part of Spartan’s spell, there was a large chunk missing from the side of the hydra, which they could see consumed townsfolk already climbing out and rejoining their families.
 
 
“No, this was a targeted strike.” Spartan agreed, looking over the body. “But why would it come from the ground? Hydra’s are usually water-dwelling folk.” He frowned. “And where is its tail? The body structure looks wrong, it looks like it continues into the ground.”
 
 
Liz frowned. “Like, another neck?”
 
 
Spartan nodded. “What if this wasn’t actually a body. What if this entire hydra is just one head of something larger?”
 
 
With those words, an eruption of dirt rocked the ground, causing everyone to stagger. Looking over, Liz could see another one of the hydras, 7 heads and all, explode out of the ground and survey the land. Spartan looked over at Liz. “I think this one’s yours, if we are counting that is.”
 
 
Liz shook her head, drawing her sword. “I won’t be able to deal with this, but I can protect the town while you drop another spell aimed for the main body.” She adjusted her belt and spoke a single word, low and as ancient as the mountains themselves. And with the command word, Liz grew in size, swelling to 40ft tall and crushing one of the necks under her foot.
 
 
Spartan looked up at her. “And how am I going to find it? I can’t go digging through the ground and hope I stumble onto it.” Before Liz could say a rebuttal, there was a scaly blur and suddenly Spartan was inside the beast's mouth, the hot air tinged with acidic burns as he was compressed and forced into the tight tunnel.
 
 
“You’ll figure it out,” Liz said as an afterthought, turning her attention to the task at hand. The Hydra was starting to eat people again, causing mass panic as it snaked in between houses and the corpse of its other appendage. Liz knew that she had to protect the villagers, but the hydra was too quick for her to easily swing and cut at without potential accidents to the villagers that were left behind.
 
 
So, Liz had to make sure the Villagers were tucked away in a safe space. And thus, Liz reached down with her free hand, the one that would normally hold her shield, and began to scoop up villages of her own, stuffing them into her mouth and swallowing them down. Being an Aasimar and a Protector Aasimar at that, she knew that they would be safe within her as her biology was constantly healing and protecting living things. The entire vore thing was something she found out with her previous party, who was currently out at a wedding which Liz had elected to uninvite herself from.
 
 
Instead, she was out here, enjoying her belt of Giant size against a Hydra the size of the village she was protecting. She grinned, crouching low and raising her sword above her head. She was going to have some fun.
 
 
Spartan’s trip was long and twisting, but he ended up getting pushed out into a tight stomach, or what he could only assume was it. It was dark, but with a quick light cantrip, Spartan was able to illuminate the interior, causing the other villagers to squint and blink. “Is this everyone?”
 
 
“No, the others went deeper!” One woman yelled, gesturing towards a new tunnel. She slipped and with a slurp, was pulled by her feet into it. Spartan leapt forward, diving into it after her and taking the light with him.
 
 
This tunnel was longer, but the resulting pouch that opened up to him was not only much larger, but stank with acid. Spartan burned his 8th level spell slot to cast Aura of Life, causing a general healing aura to surround him and keeping up the light cantrip to ease the fear and tension. With that out of the way, he decided to use the time to ponder his next move.
 
 
He had burned his two highest level spells already and, he would admit it to himself, completely wasted his 9th on the wrong target. He had his weapon and a number of other spells that he could cast, but the more he thought, the more he realized that there really wasn’t anything he himself could do at the moment. But something he could do was get these people out of here.
 
 
“Hey, if you could, I would love to have you help out. Think you can lend me a hand?” Spartan didn’t often use his Divine Intervention simply cause it felt awkward to try and communicate to a higher power, but he knew the value of it in certain scenarios. And he really didn’t know how it would manifest if his deity did respond, since he tended to go over dramatic effects more than logical.
 
 
However, Spartan felt that his request was granted, as well as a silent prompt of guidance towards a certain part of the Hydra’s stomach. Smiling, he raised his mace and decided to do the classic and favorite of the Clerical spells. And it certainly fit in this moment, as he was responding to divine guidance.
 
 
He cast Guiding Bolt at 7th level straight into the Hydra’s heart.
 
 
*****
 
 
Spartan was flipping through a book when Liz flopped down, kicking her feet up on the table.
 
 
“Any reason why you decided to crash my study session, Liz?”
 
 
“Well, I was wondering if you wanted to join our party, since we worked out so well last week with the Hydra.”
 
 
Spartan smiled. “Sorry, but I’ve grown used to flying solo. But I appreciate your offer, it was nice to be able to see what you can do.”
 
 
“What, grow big and eat people?”
 
 
“Well, I wouldn’t say it quite like that,” Spartan said, leaning forward and setting his book aside. “More like you saved 24 villagers and wrestled an entire pseudo Hydra to the ground, Liz. I would call that quite an accomplishment for even an adventurer of your level.”
 
 
“Yeah, but if I actually thought for a moment longer, I wouldn’t have thrown you in the beast belly.”
 
 
“Eh, I’ve been in worst.” Spartan said. He gestured over to the other table. “Seems like your friends are ready for you again.”
 
 
Liz looked over, then back as Spartan. “Well, I’ll see you again, right?”
 
 
“Of course. I wish you the best.”
 
 
Spartan watched Liz leave, then reached into his component pouch and pulled out its newest addition. He examined the piece of hydra heart, seeing it trying to maintain its pulse that he had torn aside. Perhaps there was something he could use this for in the future, he knew that there had been spells that went beyond the 9th in the past and he was quite eager to see what he could find.