Chapter 187 - Turtle

Zeke endured another gout of flame as he sprinted toward the turtle’s beak. His footsteps thundered into the blackened turf, leaving small craters behind. Taking a two-handed grip, he reared back, and with a move that he’d practiced millions of times, took a baseball swing at his foe. The mace whistled through the air, and just before it connected, Zeke activated [Unleash Momentum].

The mace crashed into the monster’s beak with the momentum of a thousand swings, all directed into a single impact. When he had first gotten [Unleash Momentum], Zeke’s usage of the skill had been erratic, the force resulting in a shockwave that often affected him almost as much as his target. But in the obsidian caverns, he’d managed to harness the skill and force the energy into a straight line. In the months since then, he’d taken firmer control.

The result was more devastating than he could have expected.

The force of the skill hit with the sound of a bomb going off, tearing the lower portion of the turtle’s jaw clean off. Zeke was sprayed with viscera as he turned his momentum into a spin. Even as the monster roared in pain and surprise, Zeke leapt into the air and brought his mace down in an overhand strike that took the turtle right between its eyes. However, unlike the skill-driven first strike, all there was to show for his trouble was a bit of blood and a minor wound.

That, more than anything else, told Zeke that despite grievously wounding the monster, he was in for a long fight.

Zeke’s momentum sent him tumbling down the side of the turtle’s head, and he had to roll before regaining his feet. It was just in time, too, because the monster had recovered enough to snap at him. With the lower portion of its jaw holding on by the barest of sinews, it didn’t pose much of a threat.

Or so Zeke thought.

The turtle used its damaged beak like a battering ram, hitting Zeke harder than he’d ever been hit before. But unlike the turtle, who had mass on its side, Zeke weighed no more than a normal human. Physics being what it was, he was sent tumbling through the air only to land fifty yards away. He tried to control his landing, but there was only so much he could do. So, he ended up rolling to a stop against a particularly sturdy tree.

“Ow,” he muttered, shaking his head.

Luckily, his new armor had taken the blow well, and it was barely damaged. A few scuffs, a couple of scratches, and a minor dent where the monster’s beak had hit him in the chest, but other than that, it was pristine.

Zeke would take that.

Pushing himself to his feet, he saw that Pudge had joined the fight. And when he saw his companion, he was reminded of the bear’s old tactics. When he was younger and much, much smaller, he had fought like a relentless badger, harrying his much larger enemies with sheer tenacity. Despite being the size of a pickup truck, he employed much the same tactics against the turtle, climbing all over its exposed head and alternating between raking his claws across its tough, scaly skin and bathing it in destructive fire. To Zeke’s surprise, the fire seemed the more effective of the two attacks, further cementing in his mind that there was more to it than simple flames.

Whatever the case, Zeke wouldn’t let his companion have all the fun. So, he sprinted back toward the turtle and rejoined the battle.

That’s when it hit him.

Both literally and figuratively. The moment he was back in range, the monster repeated its attack. Zeke tried to dodge, but the thing moved far too quickly. He could barely perceive that an attack was eminent, much less avoid it.

However, as he sailed through the air, he had a thought. The turtle could extend its neck and snap – or, with it missing its jaw, ram – Zeke so quickly that he could hardly even see it. But what if he got onto its back? He suspected that it couldn’t reach him up there. And besides, if the fight proved too much for him, that was where the moss was supposed to be. If push came to shove, he could pluck it free and run away.

But he didn’t want to do that.  Now that the battle was joined, he really wanted to kill it. So, once more, he rose to his feet, but this time, he started circling.  The turtle turned its head to follow him, but with Pudge constantly attacking it, the monster couldn’t spare much attention. Zeke took advantage of that, coming in from the side and leaping atop its broad back.

Once there, he was astounded by how closely it resembled the surrounding landscape. Unlike most turtle shells, it wasn’t smooth or leathery; instead, it was made of porous black rock, with flows of lava a handspan wide separating the scales. Fire coated almost every inch of the turtle’s shell, but Zeke didn’t mind. His race gave him near immunity to the flames.

Hurrying to the center of the monster’s back, Zeke hefted his mace like a sledgehammer and went to work. One hit. Two. Three. Over and over, he brought the head of Voromir down, pulverizing the rocky surface with ease. But regardless of how much force he could bring to bear, it was still a turtle shell, and as such, it provided an insane degree of protection.

The turtle bucked and writhed with each hit, but Zeke’s dexterity and agility was sufficient to maintain his balance. It wasn’t until he’d dug a three-foot deep crater that things went horribly wrong.

Zeke barely had time to notice a pair of pitch black claws extending from one of the lava flows before a monster erupted from within the crevice. It struck, catching him in the chest on the upswing, its claws raking across his breastplate with a hideous screech of metal on metal. He reacted quickly, aiming a front kick at the creature, but it slipped around his foot and sliced at his leg. Again, the armor saved him, this time from being hamstrung.

Zeke leapt away, trying to get a little space, and when he came to a skidding stop, he had a brief moment to study his opponent. It was thin – emaciated, really – and made of leathery sinew that reminded Zeke of black licorice that had been stretched a little too far. Wicked spikes jutted from its elbows and knees, and its elongated fingers were tipped with metallic claws.

It didn’t have a face. Or a head. Where that should have been was a dancing flame. Zeke tried to [Inspect] it, but for the first time ever, he got no response from the skill.

With a mental shrug, Zeke charged the unnamed monster, but when he tried to hit it, the boneless creature slipped around his strike. Like lightning, it struck three times before Zeke could even recover. Not for the first time, he was incredibly grateful for his new armor. Without it, he felt certain that he would have already been ripped to shreds by this new opponent.

“So, you’re quick, huh? Okay,” he muttered, rolling his shoulders. “I can handle quick.”

With that, he waded forward. Flames danced around him, but he ignored the rising heat as he faced off with the slippery creature. With a short jab, he finally connected with his opponent. It didn’t have much force behind it, but that wasn’t the point.

This was going to be a different kind of fight. So, Zeke settled in and started forward.

Typically, he liked to fight with long, powerful swings that could destroy an opponent with a single hit. He’d fought a bit differently when he was using a shield, though – he’d had to – and so, he was quickly able to adjust to shorter, faster attacks. None of them were powerful enough to harm the monster, but that didn’t matter. He was only trying to keep it off balance until he got the opening he needed.

After only a few minutes, during which he hit the thing more than a hundred times, he was rewarded when it stumbled slightly. Seizing the advantage, Zeke flowed into a much more powerful attack that sent the thing staggering to the turtle’s rocky shell. Once it was there, he stomped his armored foot onto its chest, holding it in place. It scratched and clawed at his calf, but it did little good. With practiced precision, Zeke raised his mace and, with all of his strength, caved in the monster’s torso.

It shattered – which was a bit disconcerting, given that it had felt fleshy – sending a spray of rock and lava in a wide arc.

With a sigh, he returned to the crater, balancing as the turtle continued to buck him loose. Once he reached his destination, he raised his mace and resumed the onerous task of digging a hole into the turtle’s back. He only got two swings in before another pair of claws came at him. This time, though, he was ready; he dodged to the side and backhanded the monster with his mace. The blow barely connected, but it stumbled enough that Zeke went in for the kill.

He never reached it because another one of the creatures hit him a second later, sending him sprawling across the flame-strewn shell. Picking himself up, he faced off against the two creatures.

“Damnit,” he muttered. Then, he called out, “Pudge, gonna need some help over here, buddy!”

Coming, Pudge replied.

A moment later, the giant bare bounded across the turtle’s shell and rammed into the creatures.

Keep them busy, Zeke sent to his companion. Kill anything that comes close.

Fun, was Pudge’s response.

Meanwhile, he roared, batting the off-balance monsters like they were a pair of toys. Seeing that Pudge had it well in hand, Zeke went back to his task, hammering his mace into the back of the turtle. When he got a few more feet down, he saw another few of the monsters drag themselves out of the lava cracks. They wasted no time in attacking him.

But by that point, Pudge had finished with his pair, and between him and Zeke, they made quick work of the monsters. It helped that they couldn’t really hurt either of them – Zeke, because of his armor, and Pudge, because of the combination of his thick hide and the effects of [Leech Strike].

Over the next three hours, the pattern continued. Each time Zeke dug a little lower, a few of the monsters would join the fight. Sometimes, Pudge could handle it alone, but most of the time, Zeke had to help. By the time Zeke made it through the outer shell and into the turtle’s flesh, they were coming ten at a time.

In the end, though, even with the numerical advantage, the monsters could affect very little damage. Feeling the effects of fatigue settling in, Zeke activated [Life Scythe] and swung his mace in a backhand swing. It sent an arc of red energy slicing through seven of the creatures, weakening them and returning a good deal of vital energy to Zeke. He was yet uninjured, but it did wonders for his energy levels.

A few minutes later, he and Pudge finished the creatures off, getting rewarded by a shower of onyx shards and lava each time they shattered one of them. With that done, Zeke finished drilling his makeshift hole in the turtle’s shell. He pointed to the six-foot wide hole and told Pudge, “Go crazy, buddy.”

Fun!

Pudge dove in claws first and started digging through the turtle’s flesh. Within a couple of minutes, he’d disappeared entirely; Zeke felt nothing but pure joy from his companion. But then again, Pudge was happiest when he was rolling around in a monster’s blood and guts, so it shouldn’t have been that surprising.

Without anything else to do, Zeke went searching for something that looked like it might be the [Moss of Immolation], and he was soon rewarded with something that fit the description he’d been given. It was bright blue, and usually, it was found at the base of the most intense fires. When he picked it up, Zeke checked his quest, and sure enough, it showed that he’d acquired that portion. Still, he spent a little while longer gathering as much as he could; if it was good enough for a goddess’s quest, it was probably worthwhile to spend a bit of time harvesting as much as he could find.

All the while, the turtle was going insane, sliding around and jumping up and down. Most of the time, Zeke easily maintained his footing, but there were a few particularly violent convulsions that sent him tumbling back to the rocky shell. In those moments, he just grabbed hold of one of the conveniently craggy rocks that made up the turtle’s shell and held on until he could climb back to his feet and continue his search.

It took another fifteen minutes for the turtle to succumb to what had to be massive internal injuries, and it took a further hour before Zeke could coax Pudge out. Once the bear was back in the open air, Zeke activated his looting ability, and was rewarded with a mountain of turtle meat and a fire bladder.

More importantly, he got a message from the Framework:

Quest Discovered! Find a way to the center of the lake and find what became of the Hermit Fiona’s sister. Reward: [Armor], [Weapon], or [Utility Item].

“Uh…well, okay then,” he muttered to himself. He’d fully intended to help Fiona find out what had happened to her sister, but he hadn’t been truly committed. He would have done what he could, but it wasn’t exactly a priority for him. Now, though, with the Framework having confirmed that he could figure out the mystery and dangled a reward in front of him, he couldn’t even begin to refuse. “Guess we’re going out on the lake.”

Of course, that brought with it a host of other problems – chiefly, that the lake was acidic to the point where it would eat right through him if he tried to swim for more than a couple of minutes.

With another tired sigh, he said, “Let’s head back to the tower so we can try to figure this out.”

Pudge eyed the remains of the turtle, then let out a whine.

“Fine,” Zeke said. “But you’ve only got thirty more minutes. After that, we’re leaving, even if I have to drag you out myself.”

Pudge didn’t care. Elation wafted off of his thoughts as he dove back into the dead turtle, happily clawing his way through tons of blood and viscera. For his part, Zeke sat down and started trying to think up a way to get across the lake.