ITK C85: Spring Tortoises

“…This is the second checkpoint?”

Nothing seems out of the ordinary. The trees and the climate around us are still the same. But this faint presence we feel…
…is somewhat tense?

“Lord Saint, please be careful,” says Lampeye.

She used to be a soldier for the royal mermaid palace and has exceptional combat ability, so I have high expectations from her.

“I sense a presence… There’s no doubt there’s a strong monster nearby.”

Even I can sense it, so there’s definitely something somewhere.
Everyone else started bracing themselves for our first real encounter.

Just to reiterate, our dungeon exploration team consists of me, Platy, Lampeye, Belena, and one group of orcs and goblins, each with Orkubo and Gobukichi as their respective leaders.
All of us proceeded with caution without leaving any blind spots.
And then, we soon came upon something in front of us, spinning at an extremely high speed!

“What’s that? Watch out!”

It was about the size of a human shield!
Discerning its actual shape is hard, but it seemed flat and circular enough to spin with ease.

“Maybe it’s a UFO?!” was my honest impression upon seeing it; an Unidentified Flying Object.

In reality, it’s probably different from one.
Furthermore, this pseudo-UFO seems really solid. As it rotates at high speeds, it takes down the trees blocking its path.

“If we confront it head-on, we won’t get out of this unscathed!”

It wasn’t something we’d get out with just fractured bones.
This terrifying rotating object is aiming for us as if it has a will of its own!

And not just one, but five of them!!!
They’re definitely aware of our presence!

“Everyone, interce-”

Lampeye, a.k.a. Witch of Hellfire, makes the very first move. She takes out a leather bag the size of a cue ball and pulls out some pin…

“One…two…three!”

She tosses it in the air!
The leather bag explodes and bursts into flames at the perfect time just as it is about to make contact with the rotating objects approaching us.

“Waaah!”

I was surprised by the intensity of the explosion.
The leather bag was stuffed with Lampeye’s prized explosive magic potion.
The rotating objects were caught off guard by the sudden blast and crashed on the ground.

Now that they stopped spinning, I finally realized what they really were; tortoises.
They were spinning at high speeds and came at us like UFOs!

“What you saw just now was the second checkpoint’s special monster, Lotus!”

There goes Veil’s broadcast echoing again.

“This tortoise monster has the hardest shell of all monsters! They make the best use of this special characteristic and charge at extremely high speeds!”

She’s being so merry about this.

“It took the blow from my unique explosives, yet they didn’t even suffer a single scratch. It’s a huge blow to my confidence!” groans Lampeye as she bites her lips in frustration.
“Now that they have stopped spinning, it’s the orc team’s turn! If you manage to hold down the tortoises with your large build and completely stop their movements, victory is ours!”

Just as I said this, Orkubo and his team did exactly as they were told and pressed their weight against the tortoises. They won’t be able to move in that situation anymore, so now’s our chance!

…But then, something came out from the holes in the four corners of the shell.
Aren’t those the holes where their head and limbs should pop out?
And whenever they sense danger, they protect themselves by withdrawing into their shell.

To our surprise, what came out of its holes weren’t its head and limbs…but tentacles. Long and thick tentacles with a worm-like texture came crawling out of the tortoises’ holes in place of their limbs.

“EWWW!!!”

The tentacles were coiling around Orkubo and the others, trying to drag them down!
Don’t let them get to you!

Gobukichi, Platy, and Lampeye! Provide back-up to Orkubo’s team and aim for the tortoises’ tentacles! Their shell may be hard, but their tentacles seem soft enough to take damage!

“Lord Saint, we have a problem!” says Lampeye in a troubled voice. “There’s more of them!”

About six more lotuses came approaching us! At this rate, we won’t be able to deal with the first ones!!!

“Leave the new ones to me! You guys focus on dealing with those!”

I take out the Wicked-Holy Sword Dreischwartz. It’s been a while since the last time I treated it as an actual weapon.

I finally came to know about its roots during the recent marriage dilemma of the Demon King, and apparently, it has the hidden power to obliterate the entire human race provided certain conditions are met. Originally, you can only unleash its full potential by destroying the rest of the holy swords, but thanks to the Hand of Supremacy, I can do just that by holding it in my hand.

“Take this!”

Just by swinging the blade towards the lotuses’ trajectory, they were all cut right in half.

“WOAH!”

Everyone was astonished, but really, it’s not that amazing.
It’s all thanks to the power Hephaestus gave me.
The rest of the lotuses Orkubo and the others dealt with show no signs of vitality left in them after their tentacles were cut off.

“…We were somehow able to get through that in one piece.”

We successfully repelled the rotating tortoises and cleared one of the many checkpoints Veil prepared for us.

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