Chapter 911 Chapter 910: Kat the Commander (3)
"Pull back, raise shields!"
Rearing its beaked head back, the tortoise glared down at us as a new sphere of water gathered between its jaws, something that we had gotten a brief taste of earlier when the magic had been redirected into the ceiling - something that was still causing chunks of rock to fall and crash to the earth beside us.
The Demons pulled back and raised their shields, pushing their mana out of their arm and creating an interlocked barrier as the tortoise began to lower its head, aiming its maw at us and releasing a barrage of pressurized water.
Dozens of smaller spheres burst free from its beak, separating from the main sphere and hurtling down towards us like buckshot from a shotgun, crashing against the barrier and exploding as the mana was slammed against another, stronger barrier of mana.
Each sphere burst against the barrier and tore away a chunk of mana, which was swiftly replaced as the Demons held their ground, their feet planted firmly whilst their shields rested against one another, with Jahi taking the middle and anchoring both walls of shields on either side of her with her giant tortoise shells shield.
I watched as the burn and missing flesh on the tortoises' face was regenerated, that thin epidermis of water giving the tortoise an incredible healing factor that was proving to be troublesome - just like I thought it would be.
And as it parted its maw again, I clicked my tongue before shouting "Dig in! Anput, Leone, come here!"
The two women turned and swiftly made their way over, and I quietly cursed as I realized how trivial this fight would be with Ammit, the Lightning wielding Demoness having perfect synergy with Anput to roast this tortoise alive with large quantities of electricity flowing through metal rods.
But, as I glanced at Leone, I frowned for a moment before quickly asking "Leone, can we combine our magics to create Lightning, or no? My Wind, your Fire?"
She blinked in surprise - and Anput just stood there waiting for her part - before opening her mouth, only to close it as she gave it some more thought; meanwhile, the tortoise sent another barrage of bullets hurtling towards the barrier, each bullet bursting and showering the barrier in water that chewed away at the Demon's mana slowly but surely.
"I... no, not just off the cuff with no preparation or research."
She came to a quick conclusion though, which made me sigh as I shook my head, scrapping that portion of the idea, though I had some more - with a high healing factor, outputting a large amount of damage all at once could kill this tortoise easily, or we could go the long haul with it; Jahi could manage to kill it, yes, but...
"Anput, restrain its legs and prevent it from moving. Leone, take a crack at its shell before focusing on its head again. Since it wants to cover itself in water, we can burn it away or freeze it... or both."
My two lovers nodded, and Leone began to trace out runes instantly, sending a bolt of flames hurtling through the air and exploding it against the tortoise's head, knocking the water sphere away again and buying us a couple of seconds to work.
The line of Demons in front of us remained in place, watching on as spires of rock erupted from the earth beneath the tortoise's feet and pierced into the flesh, before spikes jutted out of the main spire and hooked into the monster's flesh, ensuring it couldn't escape easily.
Those spires took on a metallic hue as Anput strengthened them, and as the tortoise let out a long hiss of agony at having its taloned feet anchored to the ground, it could only try to intercept the large sphere of flames that Leone was moulding above her head, the yellow flames gradually whitening as they became hotter and stronger with each passing second, something that the tortoise was determined to avoid, and yet...
It couldn't, not when its front feet were anchored to the ground, and so it charged up another water sphere and send it flying towards Leone, who shot her sphere forwards without a care, the two colliding and producing a loud hiss as the water was boiled away almost instantly.
Floating slowly towards the back of the tortoise, the sphere elongated and turned into a giant spear, before it plunged down and slammed into the shell of the tortoise, boiling away the water and making the monster screech as it tried to move.
Meanwhile, as Leone charged that spell, I decided to do the same, only instead of going for the harder outer shell like Leone was, I targeted the belly instead, the runes of a spell flashing in front of me as I crafted a Ritual Circle in moments, which I sent sliding across the ground until it was just below the tortoise before activating it.
From above, a giant spear of flames was boiling the monster's blood and trying to pierce its thick shell, cracking it and allowing the heat to seep further into the monster's body, while below nearly a dozen crystalline spears stabbed into the softer shell covering its belly, searching for the kinks in its 'armor' and exploiting the weaker chitin from below, which allowed my spears to puncture through and burrow into the meat.
Two extremes were targeting its body at once, and it couldn't move much thanks to the metal spikes that had broken and replaced the bones in its front legs, trapping the tortoise right where it was and allowing this to happen; but, the monster wouldn't go without a fight, and it screeched again as it summoned the water from the river to coat its shell, trying to extinguish the flaming spear from above, whilst the water that went below tried to push my spears out and allow it to heal.
"Jahi."
As it did so, I just said the name of my blue lover and watched as she rushed forwards, breaking away from the shield wall and taking advantage of the tortoise's split attention to close the gap between us and it.
It wasn't the cleanest fight, nor the most... efficient - that I can already tell - but it got the job done and ended when the Demoness slashed her golden blade up into the thick neck of the tortoise, cleaving through the blue skin and severing its head from its body, killing the monster quickly enough.
As soon as her blade made contact with the monster's neck, Leone's flaming spear dissipated, leaving some of the previous shell for us to scavenge for some armor... and enticing us with the interesting smell of cooking tortoise meat.
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