I swept down in a flash, and with one fell swoop ran the sword through the new monster. However, when the blade made contact with the body, it splashed into a giant pool of water! I moved past the new monster, and looked back in confusion. Then, from the ground a large mass of water moved to reform the new monster. It could transform its physical form into liquid H2O. It was just my luck. The most difficult new monster would be saved for me.

I moved in again, and began exchanging melee attacks with the creature. It swiped and kicked at me, and I blocked and dodged everything. It had great strength and agility, and appeared to be faster than the previous ones (Unus, Duo, and Tres). The strikes were hard and swift. Plus, when I would counter, if the new monster could not dodge or block, it turned into water, and flowed in strategic position to reform and try to attack. It did this every time I would land a hit, making it impossible to harm it. I had no clue how to defeat the creature, so I continued to fight it in the same fashion for a while. However, Leviathan kept moving in closer and closer each second. I knew I had to defeat the fourth creature soon.

While fighting against the new monster, I grew frustrated and pushed myself to attack faster and with more power. I began sacrificing position and footing to do so, often exposing myself to counters. At first, I was fine. Eventually, though, the creature landed a blow on me. It clawed me on my shoulder after dodging an attack, while my momentum prevented me from defending myself. Yet, I was able to swing my other arm around to hit the creature unexpectedly. The shield smashed into it and knocked it back. I realized I might have to let the new monster hit me, in order to effectively strike it. I did not want to do so, as any attack could cause serious harm. Yet, it did not seem like I had a choice. That was, until the approaching Leviathan heads gave me an idea.

The massive monster was walking forward to devour Astor and me. It had one intention: to eat us both. At that moment I realized being eaten was the way to kill the new monster I was fighting, and letting it hit me was the way to make it happen. Thus, when we engaged in exchanging strikes, I let the fourth creature get a swipe attack inside my guard. It scratched my torso, but I forwent the pain, and used the shield to trap its arm against me. Then, using all my speed, I launched us towards a Leviathan head with lightning speed. Before either of us could blink, we were airborne. Then, when we were close to the head, I released the fourth creature and stopped. The momentum carried the new monster directly into the mouth of the wide open Leviathan head, which was anticipating swallowing us both. However, it was just the new monster that hit the back of the head’s throat. I saw the fourth creature turn into water upon impact, but that did nothing. The water simply slid down the Leviathan throat on its way to the belly. The fourth creature was finally dead.

Other Leviathan heads moved in to attack next. I dodged them, though, and flew back towards Astor to defend him again. I noticed his condition was finally improving. When I yelled to see if he was alright, he did not answer right way. But when he did answer, he told me something that caught me by surprise. He said the Leviathan heads were all the same color except one. He saw 8 of the 9 remaining heads as yellow, but one was red. I took it for gibberish at first, since he had been hallucinating for a while, and told him he was still suffering from the toxins. He yelled for me to listen to him, and urged me to cut off the fifth head from the left. So,I figured, what harm could it do to try. Therefore, I flew back up at Leviathan. Instead of having the shield and sword, though, I dropped the shield and picked up my bone staff. It was time to see if Astor was right.

After weaving through the attacking heads, I neared the fifth from the left. I realized Leviathan was backing away for the first time. It was defending its vulnerability. Astor was right! I don’t know how he knew, but he did. Thus, I pressed on and attacked some more. The other heads snapped and bit at me, while the massive monster was trying to move back into the water. It knew I was coming for the head that would result in its death if severed, and was desperate to retreat. However, I was too fast and determined. I was not going to let Leviathan escape.

When I reached the right head, I knew I could not simply cut it off. Leviathan was going to fight to the end. So, I decided to use a dangerous tactic. I flew directly at its mouth, and when it moved to chomp on me, I moved my bone staff into a vertical position, and placed it directly behind the top and bottom row of teeth. This halted the head from being able to close its jaws. It continued to press down to try and snap the bone staff, but my weapon did not budge. I wound up Astor’s sword and, with all my might, I swiped at a space between the back teeth, near where the jaw connected to the head. The blade went through the skin and bone, and traveled into the bottom part of its mouth. Half of the lower mandible was split, and as I continued striking with golf-like swings, the sword cut further into the wound. After a few more strikes, the entire bottom mandible was severed. My bone staff fell to the ground, as did half of the head’s jaw. Leviathan began dropping the neck down, due to the head being crucially damaged too. The monster was almost dead!

All I had to do was finish the job. Therefore, I flew out of the mouth and around to the neck. Other heads came at me, but I was too fast. I swung Astor’s sword with every bit of strength left in my body, and I chopped the head off. Instantly, Leviathan’s entire body went limp. The other heads all plopped down to the ground, as the necks lost form. The torso sunk in and collapsed to the ground. The massive monster was finally no more.

I flew back down to Astor, wiped the blood and saliva from Leviathan off of me, and shook off my monster hide cloak. He was doing better, though I could still tell his senses were out of whack. He did have his right mind back. We discussed how the toxins could have revealed to him which head was the one to cut off. We concluded that each offspring was a part of Leviathan, and as such, their anatomies and brains had to be in tune with the main body. The toxins must have made Astor in tune with how the offspring see Leviathan after emerging from a severed head. And since the vulnerable head did not have an offspring in it, it looked different to them. Whether or not that’s what actually happened, we will never know. All that mattered was, Leviathan was slain, and we could continue on our mission. With that, I returned Astor’s sword and shield, picked up my bone staff, and we moved on into the woods ahead of us, on our way to Castle Rathegalia.

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