972 Chapter 972 Dangers from the Deep (2)
The force of the blast of water hit Marcus hard, and he immediately began to lose ground.
He could feel the iron chains coiled into a shield in front of him breaking apart, and it was only a matter of time until it shattered completely.
Still, he held on and kept up his defiance.
Soon his tier eight spell was overwhelmed and dissipated, and Marcus felt his mana barrier that was the next line of protection taking the brunt of the attack.
Marcus watched cracks form in front of him as his mana barrier absorbed the force of the Fortress Turtle's strongest attack.
Even with his Shield of the Just Unique Skill active, he was barely holding out and was being pushed back towards the rest of the expedition squad.
'I'm not going to be able to hold it!' Marcus thought with gritted teeth.
His mana barrier then shattered, and the force of the water blast impacted against his body and shield.
Thanks to his physical enchantments, armor, and naturally tough form, Marcus managed to avoid being blown apart, but his attempt to fully stop the fortress turtle's attack ended in failure.
By the time he regained any semblance of his bearings he could see that he had been launched far away from everyone else and had taken considerable damage.
'Ultimate Refresh.'
Being nearly drained of his mana Marcus found his normal recovery speed to be far too slow and used one charge of his Supreme Skill to instantly bring himself back up to peak condition.
Unfortunately, he was several kilometers away from anyone else now and was not able to aid them in defending against the powerful water blast launched by the fortress turtle's main cannon.
Still, his efforts had not been in vain.
Despite his strategy being reckless, Marcus had been able to weaken the water blast to only around sixty percent of its original power.
Thanks to this, the combined efforts of several members of the expedition squad using their best defensive skills and magic managed to hold out.
Several of them were blown away similar to Marcus, but no one had been seriously injured and they had protected Evette so she could finish amassing the mana she needed to cast her spell.
"Demise."
After Evette said the name of the tier nine death magic spell, a dark wave of pure annihilation spread out in front of her and consumed everything.
When the smaller cannon turtles were hit by this magic they instantly turned into light and returned to their source.
The fortress turtle itself realized the danger coming for it and turned around with astonishing agility and began fleeing.
However, it was not fast enough to escape the wave of death coming its way and was engulfed.
All of its defensive abilities were meaningless in the wake of Evette's spell. And when the darkness of the death magic had cleared, the fortress turtle was lifelessly floating in the water.
'That spell is just as terrifying as the first time I saw.' Marcus thought, wide eyed at the overwhelming 11:32
power Evette had displayed.
'That spell is just as terrifying as the first time I saw.' Marcus thought, wide eyed at the overwhelming power Evette had displayed.
Marcus could still vividly remember when Teivel had used that same spell during their battle during the Tralenstein Civil War.
He had managed to avoid being hit by it thanks to using his ghost form, but Marcus still remembered the overwhelming pressure of the tier nine death magic spell.
However, Evette's use of the spell was far more impressive than Teivel's. She was able to not only control it far better, but her range was much greater than the former strongest mage in Tralenstein.
'That hulking turtle was able to clock or tank just about every attack any of the rest of us could throw at it, but even it could not defend against and attack that simply ends life.' Marcus thought as he watched the body of the fortress turtle sink back into the depths of the lake.
Yet, as it was becoming smaller and looked like a dot in the distance another formed appeared out from the dark abyss of this seemingly bottomless lake.
A giant clawed hand gripped around the fortress turtle's body and drew it into its mouth.
An echoing crunching sound reverberated through the water as a creature that dwarfed the fortress turtle in size ate it.
This new monster had the general form of a humanoid, but that was only because it had two arms, two legs, and a head atop its torso.
Its hands and feet were webbed and ended in razor sharp claws.
Dark green scales covered its entire body except for the top of its head which instead of hair was a tangle of black eels.
Finally, its mouth was filled with razor sharp teeth, and it had six yellow eyes that moved independently of each other just above its flattened nose.
'It must be at least a dozen kilometers tall! What kind of monster even is that?!'
With a dumbfounded expression on his face, Marcus could not help but stare down at this new monster as it devoured the fortress turtle.
For several seconds it seemed like the world had slowed down, until Marcus received a telepathic communication.
'We are retreating! Everyone head back towards the surface and return to the shore of this lake.' Evette said, a commanding tone in her voice.
After seeing just two of the giants that lurked in this lake, she had made the decision that it was too dangerous for them to continue.
Perhaps they might be able to fight off this new monster, but if creatures of similar power kept coming up from the bottom of this hellish lake even their group of ace adventurers could be overwhelmed.
Luckily, no one wanted to dispute Evette's order after seeing this new monster emerge from the lake and casually began snacking on the threat they had just beaten.
At least for the moment, this titanic monster was only interested in eating the dead fortress turtle and was paying the members of the expedition squad no mind.
Nevertheless, this could change at any moment and none of them wanted to stick around to find out what would happen.
Swiftly most of the members that had dove into the water to fight the fortress turtle swam back towards the surface, yet a few that were injured were slower to get going.
Marcus could see that Evette was using her healing magic to accelerate the recovery of those that were wounded, but there was no doubt she was the one in the worst condition despite not having a scratch on her.
'That spell surely took a lot out of her. I may not have any tier nine spells yet, but even just tier eight spells are incredibly draining. She must have used most of her mana to finish off the fortress turtle in one blow.' Marcus observed.
Using the power of his boots, Marcus rushed over towards his fellow spirit and activated his Ultimate Refresh Supreme Skill again.
A small silver ball appeared in his hand and with a single thought he sent it flying towards Evette.
All at once the haggard look on Evette's face vanished as she was enveloped by the glow of Marcus' skill.
'Allow me to assist you with healing.' Marcus said, using his own healing magic to take a load off of Evette.
'Thank you, Marcus.' Evette responded, looking relieved.
With the two of them working together, everyone that was injured was healed in just a few seconds and on their way back to the surface.
When they arrived, Evette explained the situation to the entire group.
"I suppose we do not have a choice. Too many of us are not spec'd to fight in the water." Mrazivy said upon hearing the situation.
She then turned back towards the shore and began freezing them a new path since the previous one had been destroyed by the fortress turtle's initial attack.
"I'll stay in the water and monitor the situation from below the surface. With my boots I can maneuver underwater without issue, nor do I need to worry about air." Marcus said before jumping back in without waiting for approval.
He had suggested doing this before they began trying to cross the lake, but ultimately it had been deemed he was more likely to attract beast and monsters than if all of them remined above the surface.
However, this was no longer a problem, as they had already been detected.
From under the water, Marcus could see that the titanic monster was still within sight, just finishing off the last of the fortress turtle.
Marcus made sure to keep a careful eye on it, and for any other threats that might emerge from the bottom of the lake.
Thankfully the monster that had emerged to eat the fortress turtle did not show any signs of ascending to attack them.
Nevertheless, it did not descend back into the depths either, its six eyes were trained on the expedition squad the entire time. It was as if it was saying that they could run back to where they came from, but it would not allow them to cross over to the other side of the lake.
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