Dwarven City Arc 4: Robbing the Robber 2

A foot stuck out of the cave entrance. It was gray and scaly. With very sharp claws, the huge foot was almost as big as a small boulder. Its head glanced out of the cave. It had a head of a snapping tortoise but its two horns made it look menacing.

"Alph! Get these intruders!" The large man pointed at us. The tortoise monster came out of the cave entrance and we could see it was as tall as three men. On its back was a tough shell that could probably survive a hit from a heavenium weapon. Its long legs slowly made its way out of the cave and it moved like a stalking tiger toward us.

The tortoise monster raised its head and roared loudly, scaring the birds away from the forest. I stared at the monster as it stared back at me. I recognize that thing. It was a large tortoise used for sieging castles. While many called it a demon tortoise, it had nothing to do with real demons.

"Heh. I was supposed to use that to distract those fools at Aon, but now I'm forced to use it against you." The large man snickered.

He looked like he won. The tortoise slowly made its way in front of me. The way it looked at me was like it was trying to decide how to eat me. It stopped and breathed heavily at me.

"Kill him!" The large man commanded the demon tortoise. The tortoise roared at me while large globs of spits were flying at me. He ruined my robes! I pointed at the tortoise and stared into his eyes directly.

"Bad tortoise! Who told you that you could ruin my robes?!" The tortoise backed a bit with a surprised face. I started reprimanding the tortoise."Look at me while I talk to you! Who told you that you could spit all over my robes?! And what is with your breath? It stinks! Do you wash your mouth often?" I scolded him.

The tortoise looked over the side while sitting like a dog.

"I said look at me!" The demon tortoise slowly turned to me with upturned eyes. He whimpered at me. Is this thing a demon tortoise or a demon dog?

"No! Bad demonic tortoise used for sieging large cities! Bad!" I stomped my feet as the tortoise's head lowered further.

"Alph! I told you to kill him! What are you doing? Eat him! Just chomp him up in one go!" The large man shouted at the tortoise.

The tortoise didn't budge and I sighed hard. I turned towards the large man and once again tried to negotiate with him, "Now that there's done with. Stand and deliver."The bandits started to drop their weapons one by one as they began to give up. My companions began to tie them up and we mixed the bandits that we had captured previously together.

"So, you're going to kill us, now?" The large man asked me. I shook my head and then moved to help my companions gather the plunder.

"Boss, you're going to let them go? As I said, this would cause a problem in the future," Sarjay told me. I dropped a box with the other loot and rubbed my hands together.

"It would be a waste to kill them. They've already surrendered," I explained to Sarjay.

I signaled the demon tortoise to come closer. It obediently followed my orders and my companions started loading the plunder on the tortoise's back. The tortoise was bred to be a siege weapon, so the top of its shell was somewhat flat to allow soldiers to put a bunker on top of it.

"Besides, these guys will be stuck here for some time." I turned slightly to Sarjay. The bandits are tied together with nothing but the clothes on their backs in the middle of a thick forest. It should take some time before they could get out. Asha came up to the tortoise and inspected him. He sniffed her a bit before losing interest.

"I'm surprised you managed to tame a demon tortoise. It would take years to train one. Especially since these guys are uncommon." She slid her hand across the tortoise's legs.

"Uncommon? These guys are everywhere, right?" I asked Asha.

"What? No, these guys were nearly driven into extinction a few centuries ago. They managed to get their numbers up in the past few decades." She tapped the scales on the leg. This would be a bit problematic, then. If a nation saw a demonic tortoise, how would they respond? But it would be unnatural to think that a group of less than 20 would try to siege a city.

"There are some merchant guilds that use demon tortoises as pack animals. They're better than horse carriages since the demon tortoises can be taught to attack anyone hostile. Besides, they're stronger and faster." Asha patted her hands.

Well, that's good. We could also keep the demon tortoise outside of cities since we don't necessarily need the tortoise inside the cities. I was thinking of a place to store our loot and souvenirs but I got lucky that I got this mobile storage.

"Not to mention that demon tortoise scales sell pretty high, because of how strong they are. They could be used to forge armor or weapons…" Asha muttered as she inspected the scales. She probably pondered how she could get those scales without getting eaten by the tortoise.

Luckily for her, demon tortoises would shed some old scales and grow new ones from time to time. She could use those fallen scales instead of risking angering the tortoise. We left the bandit camp behind as we started to make our way back to the road. With the tortoise, we could travel faster and lighter, since we don't have to carry all of our belongings with us at all times.

We started to disguise ourselves better with the equipment we got from the bandits. Our gear now included ragtag gear with our strong armor and weapons hidden between them. That way, nobody could point out that we all have extremely rare weapons and armor like how Asha did. We also got some plunder which we could use to sell to get some more money. I still opted to stick with my plain robes. I changed the dirty slob-ridden robe with a new clean robe. I will have to wash these things later…We got slightly side-tracked, but it didn't really affect us since we had an eternity to explore the world!