Kaboom

After they returned home, Claire and Zayne still gave strict instructions to Brea to keep the children under control, then left for the beach once more. 

Today, there are more lobsters than yesterday, but they are still not the tide that the first entrants to the dungeon would have cleared. 

Zayne pointed and shot, Claire picked up the loot, stored them away. 

It seems like there's no limit to the number of beasts she could put in the ring. She put every beast that did not drop an equipment into the ring, no matter where they died. 

They walked forward in that manner, cleaning up every last animal in the path. 

As they advanced, a feeling of deja vu crept up in Claire. 

Zayne became more and more alert as they proceeded towards the seven mile mark. 

Paradise beach is shaped like half of a crescent. There's a narrow end, and there's the wide end. Dungeon entrance opens into the narrow edge, which is twenty meters wide. There are palm trees on one side, and a shallow sea on the other side. The beach continues in a bend to the wide beach, with beach width increasing, shallow sea width decreasing. By the time you get to where shield turtle boss appears, one step off the beach, you will be plunging into a deep sea of hundred of meters depth. 

They have reached the two kilometer mark, from which place they will move a little slower. 

As they walked forward collecting drops, Claire realized what's so strange. This area was cleared far too recently. 

And the party that cleared did not care about drops either. 

That only meant there's another dungeon hopper, like herself. Not just that, he was of a far higher level than herself. 

She stopped Zayne all of a sudden. 

" Zayne ! Someone's here. " She said, gesturing towards the palm trees. 

They carried their bamboo baskets on their back, and moved forward cautiously. 

As Claire had predicted, no one was there at the seven kilometer mark. There are some signs of fighting, and drops all abound. 

The earth was trembling a little. Claire knew without doubt the boss battle started from the tremors. 

She paused for a moment, then decided to collect all the drops on the ground. These are drops which will usually be picked up, even by the polaris team. 

If they were not picked up, it meant there was an unexpected situation. The polaris team acted early to fight the field boss, exit the dungeon. 

Going forward, they probably only killed the bare minimum amount of beasts they need to kill. 

Though not by much, the area around the palm tree was the safest in paradise beach. 

Claire walked towards the tree line, Zayne followed. After getting there, she tied a knot around the tree, and another knot around her waist, then cast Fly. 

She shot up into the air, rattling the tree. 

Two snakes fell down from the tree. Zayne burned their heads off before they could so much as hiss at him. Two lights rose from both the snakes, went straight to Claire. 

Zayne watched the scene in surprise. 

After knowing such creatures existed on top of the tree, he paid attention to the treetops. 

There were two more snakes on the other tree. Zayne shot fire balls, which killed them instantly. Two marbles fell down the tree. He walked over, picked them up casually. These very much look like the marbles they picked up in the slime dungeon. 

' They drop everywhere ' Zayne thought, as he put the beads in Claire's basket. 

Claire looked at Zayne, and nodded. Then she cut off the fly spell. 

The moment she did, she fell. Zayne caught her mid air, his arms coming up against her waist, while she braced herself on his shoulders. Their faces were within the kissing distance. Before Zayne could act, she scrambled to get out of the hug. 

" Two groups are fighting each other and the turtle at the same time. I think we can fish in troubled waters there ! " Claire said excitedly. 

After a second, she caught herself. 

" Wait ! if we both go, and something unexpected happens, no one will look after the children. Should one of us remain behind ? " Claire wondered. 

Zayne shook his head. 

" You teleport out in that situation." he told her. 

" Hey ! I am not good enough to take on the responsibility of three more children just out of gratitude ! " Claire exclaimed. 

" Then, take it on for love ? " Zayne asked hesitantly. 

Claire shook her head. 

" At times like these, you should say,' I will never die before you, so just wait for me at home. ' " Claire taught him how to flirt. Just because she hasn't set her cap on Zayne doesn't mean she can't have some fun. 

" No. I don't want to live in a world without you. " Zayne said reflexively, very nonchalant. 

Claire blushed. 

Damn ! If he keeps saying words like this with that sincere factual tone of his, one day she would probably fall for him irrevocably. 

Zayne did not think he said anything earth shattering. 

" Let's go. It's best we are not discovered. " Claire turned around. 

He followed behind her easily, not at all catching on the shift in her attitude. 

They both walked to the area where the shield turtle was. 

Looking from nearby, it's a very scary sight. Even with all her skills, and Zayne's super powerful fire balls, they wouldn't be able to do anything to this turtle. 

It was built like a fort, and it was the size of a two story house. In many places, the turtle is injured. It's paddles were all bleeding, exposing the tough stringy muscle inside, the shell is gleaming copper and red in areas' where it was attacked. Yet, the shell was not broken. 

They both hid behind a tree, and watched the fight. 

There are two parties indeed. 

One party was ten knights and a young boy, on the exit's side. 

The other party was made of six people, one of them looked like a mage, the rest looked like a ragtag bunch of hooligans, with their different hair colors and steampunk outfits. They very much looked like the rebels. 

" Protect the young master " one of the knights in base uniforms shouted. 

Four knights moved away from the ten man knight formation, forming a square around Dinkin. 

The remaining split into two and four, four attacking the turtle frantically with wide range, maximum damage spells, while the other two played defense and offense, by trying to push enemies into the turtle's path. 

One of the rebels with blue hair and a black sword attacked the turtle head on. 

The tower shield from the base bashed on the blue haired rebel. The blue haired rebel changed his stance at the last minute, jumping and stomping on the tower shield. 

With the tower shield knight's bashing action, and his own jumping power, combined with the angle, the guy was at just the right angle to slice through the turtle's neck with his black knife. 

He soared through the air like an eagle, his cape fluttering on his behind, his legs folded in beautiful flying posture, his knife elongating and sharpening. The light glinted off the sword at the blue rebel's black sword. His scarf fluttered in the air. 

The next second, the knife will cut through the turtle's head. 

At the last minute, when everyone thought the guy would succeed, the turtle's tongue flashed out like a frog's, the next second, the eagle blue knight was eaten by the turtle. 

The moment it swallowed the guy, the turtle screamed. 

" Damn ! it's going to blow itself up ! we need to run ! " the round shield knight from the base shouted. 

This is a rare phenomenon that only happens by combining a lot of coincidences. 

One, the shield turtle is female, in its last gestation period, and has only one egg, which will give birth to a king turtle. This turtle drops the highest value drops in all of the turtles, including blue star bracelet, which has a water repelling effect underwater. There were only three known blue star bracelets in the entire world ! 

Second, the turtle must be a volcano born, which has the skill explosion, which is the rarest among sea beasts. It's usually only dropped in volcanic dungeons, that means this turtle is a dungeon hopper. 

Third, it must have the skill portal or teleport, both of which are rare drops, and very much prized. Ofcourse, the last point is not discovered at this time, but Claire knows this, but others don't. 

The square formation of the knights pulled away Dunkin wale. 

The shield knights rushed back, along with the attack knights. 

The turtle, despite giving off that flash of heat, did not explode yet. 

" Captain ! the slave collar ! " one of the men reminded man with blond hair. 

" That son of a Bi*ch ! " The man called the captain cursed, as he removed a bracelet from his hands and threw it down, cutting off the magic supply to the bracelet. 

The next second, all five of them gathered together, holding the arms and hands of the mage. They vanished from the place. 

Kaboooooooooooooomm … ! 

The turtle exploded.