Chapter 45 - Spirit Tortoise Battle

Chapter 45 – Spirit Tortoise Battle

Author's Note: It's tortoise time!

"Ah, I understand."

The generals had spent a great deal of time telling me everything they knew about the tortoise and pitching their own ideas on how to defeat it.

Apparently, the Spirit Tortoise had taken a stronger interest in the coalition army than targeting population centers. This wasn't that big of an issue since Prustein, the largest Confederation city near the Melromarc border, was fully evacuated, but it was one of the largest intact cities in the Confederation and if it fell, it would deal a huge blow to the economy.

I also learned that the Spirit Tortoise's attacks had gotten much more powerful, but it had less familiars this time. It had also not used any powerful attacks such as last time, and now and then it rested for 30 minutes, up to two hours. This was good, since it gave time for the armies to coordinate and avoid its attacks.

Gathering all this information, I devised an excellent battle plan, using ideas from everybody in the room. It would involve me taking out the tortoise's heart, and Naofumi taking out its head. There were only a few dozen minutes until the tortoise was bound to move again, so we had to make haste.

Good news was, the Arcian Army, not the New Army organized from the new territories, had arrived. They brought along limited amounts of new weapons I had designed, such as mortars modeled off those used by the Americans in the Vietnam War, some mid-20th century breech-loading artillery, and even a rocket launcher system, modeled off the Soviet BM-21 Grad but using different propellants, explosives and dragged by a horse. Hopefully these would do something. I ordered the strongest troops to operate these weapon systems for maximum efficiency, and they were placed near a hill for better protection and a better firing angle against the tortoise. I ordered these artillery systems to also target tortoise familiars if they got too close or posed a large enough threat to the ground forces.

"The tortoise is moving!"

A soldier screamed from an observation post, ringing a large bell and sounding off alarms across the military formations.

The Spirit Tortoise shot a round of spike-like missiles from its back.

"Fire!"

A barrage of rockets fired from the rocket launcher system, taking out a few tortoise projectiles. The rest fell upon random areas, which the army luckily avoided.

Looking forwards, I saw Naofumi, Eclair and the rest of his party careening towards the massive body of the tortoise, ready to carry out his part of the plan. The giant creature was preparing to launch an attack on Naofumi and his companions.

"SCREEEEE!"

The Spirit Tortoise fired spikes from its shell into the sky. Naofumi and his party barely dodged the attack, Filo drifting to avoid it with great agility.

"Fire!"

A barrage of artillery and mortar rounds fired at the tortoise, hitting its head and causing it to flinch for a split second.

The thing was too powerful for these attacks to work, but they were great distractions.

While the beast was focusing its attacks on Naofumi's party, I reckoned it was time to carry out my half of the plan.

"Let's go!"

Indigo, who was standing on top of a tall hill overlooking the battlefield, leapt off a cliff with Ost, Rishia, Welst and I on his back. We brought Ost along, since maybe she would be useful in finding an opening into the tortoise's interior. He slowly began to glide towards the ground. The rest of my party stood back, assisting the New Army.

"Zweite Tornado!"

Jets of spinning, twirling win emerging from Indigo, Rishia and Welst spun outwards, propelling Indigo into the air at a strong forward angle. This lifted us higher into the air, approaching the Spirit Tortoise at an incredible speed. Indigo couldn't fly, but this was the closest thing to it.

Down on the ground, Filo was digging her claws into the tortoise's skin, causing blood to spray into the air. Raphtalia was repeatedly slashing the beast's neck, exhausted and panting from the effort.

"Zweite Tornado!"

Indigo, Welst and Rishia used the move again, launching Indigo, who was nearing the ground, up into the air again. I grabbed on tight to his feathers, nearly falling off to my certain death.

We were really close to the Spirit Tortoise now. I could clearly see what Naofumi's group was doing, and they were heavily damaging the roaring beast.

"Zweite Tornado!"

We were lifted into the air again, though with less power than last time. This time, we were at around the height of the tortoise's shell.

"Indigo! We need to go higher!"

"Drifa Tornado!"

"That's not enough! We're too low!"

"Oh god! We're gonna crash!"

Indigo was gliding headfirst into the tortoise's side, running out of lift from the last Zweite Tornado.

"HELPPPPP!" We all screamed.

"Gravity Reversal, Float!"

I could barely make out Ost chanting a spell, which barely lifted Indigo further into the air, leading to us landing on the tortoise's shell by a smidgen.

"Thanks, Ost."

We were all laying down on the shell, exhausted from the flight. Soon, we were jolted by a giant crash.

THUMP! CRASH!

Raphtalia, with a swipe of her sword, took the tortoise's head clean off. My party members and the armies were cheering.

"There's no time!" I ordered. "We must head to the heart!"

My deductions proved correct. Quite soon, the fallen tortoise grew another head, and it started attacking again. The army was dead silent.

I waved a flag, signaling for the artillery to fire another barrage. The barrage hit a particle beam that the tortoise emitted, which slightly deflected the beam, but not enough that it wouldn't hit Naofumi.

"Argh!"

The beam smacked directly into Naofumi's prison cage, causing it to break on impact as well as the force field barrier.

A battalion of dragon knights from the New Army, which I equipped with WWI era Le Prieur rockets, were swirling above head. I didn't use them to get onto the tortoise, as they were far too valuable of an asset and they wouldn't survive a direct assault on the tortoise. Also, they weren't as stealthy as a gliding Indigo was, so they were mostly on lookout and containment duty.

As I searched through the mountains and spikes for a way into the tortoise's heart, fighting thorough large swarms of familiars, I could hear the tortoise sending familiars and special attacks at Naofumi. It was a miracle that he could tank all those things, but since he was a Shielder, he should be fine.

"I think the cave opening is this way."

Ost pointed towards an opening in the mountainside, led to by a tattered mountain path.

SPLAT!

The tortoise's head came clean off for a second time, and a third, along with its front legs. This must have meant that Fitoria had arrived. It was about damn time that bird redeemed herself for all the damage she had inadvertently caused.

However, the lost limbs would regrow, so all she could do was keep it busy. She probably wasn't strong enough to break through the shell.

I started hiking up the rocky and perilous trail, eliminating more familiars along the way. Who knows how long it took until I reached the opening?

"Mr. President! We're here to help!"

A contingent of a thousand or so Arcian soldiers, from the original army and the New Army, marched up beside me. They were armed with state of the art technology which I had recently developed, or other modernish weapons that were of the highest caliber, in comparison to the rest of the technology of this world.

"How did you all get here?"

"Well, since Fitoria arrived, and our help wasn't needed, one of the generals which is now your general had sent us up here to assist with whatever you might need. The dragon knights landed us up here in many waves."

"Good job with the fight. Since you are all here, follow me into the cave."

"Roger that."

All one thousand of them lifted their arms and saluted me.

Using a map that the queen provided us after her expedition into the tortoise after it was defeated the first time, I wandered through the cave system. The map was quite wrong, probably for the reason that the cave system changed after the tortoise reawakened. After wandering through a long, winding path, we reached a large chamber of some kind.

"What are those?"

Eight four-meter-tall turtle men looking things were standing around.

"Everybody stay back first. Indigo and I will deal with them."

I changed my bow into a rocket launcher and fired it at them. Indigo chucked his halberd at another one as well. We aimed for the soft parts for maximum efficiency.

They died immediately.

The rocket launcher reloaded itself due to the legendary bow.

"Fire!"

This time, I aimed the rocket launcher in the middle of where two turtle men were standing facing each other. They both died. Indigo took his halberd and swiped at three of them, killing them instantly.

I changed my rocket launcher into a Light Maintenance Rifle machine gun variant.

"Eat lead."

I hip-fired the firearm into the remaining turtle men, which keeled upon absorbing so many bullets. They collapsed onto the floor, their lifeless bodies joining their fallen brethren.

The soldiers cheered.

"I know that the average level of an Arcian soldier is around 40 or so. What level are you guys?"

"We're around 65."

"That's pretty good. You guys will be very helpful in the upcoming battle."

"Thank you for your praise, Mr. President."

Truth be told, those levels were higher than what I expected.

"However," I continued. "The tunnel ahead is too narrow for all of us. The 50 strongest men should follow us, while the rest should keep guard."

"Understood."

We wandered through the tunnels for a while longer, finding ourselves at the exit facing the temple. The town around the temple had been completely destroyed, with no stranding structures. Towering spikes were everywhere.

I noticed a stone inscription that was heavily faded. Deciphering it, I could tell that the way to defeat the tortoise was to destroy the head and heart at the same time, which I had already deduced a while ago. That was our plan, after all.

Seeing no other purpose to remain in the destroyed town, we left it and walked back through the tunnel, coming across a mess in one of the narrower tunnels before arriving where the troops were.

"Satoshi! You're here! We met fake versions of L'Arc and his group in one of these tunnels."

An exhausted Naofumi was standing there, all battered up. Raphtalia and Filo were with him, and Éclair and Granny too.

"Explain. I'd like to hear."

Naofumi sat down and told me what he encountered.

"Ah. Lucky I avoided that."

"But I had to deal with it."

"Anyways, we've confirmed that we have to simultaneously destroy the heart and head. Come on. Men, come along as well. We never know when we need your help."

We wandered around, looking for an entrance to the heart. We found a suspicious tunnel, walking through it and finding an hourglass. Ost informed me that when it filled up to 100%, it would cast the world protecting barrier. Now, it was barely at 10%.

Going further down the tunnel, we found a meaty, beating heart, that was absolutely colossal. The troops that I had brought along just in case were terrified.

The heart, noticing our arrival, filled the chamber with an enraged roar. Its eyes, which it somehow possessed, opened wide, and the heart began to beat faster and faster.

Swarms of familiars, which the heart sent out, began attacking the troops.

"CHARGEEE!"

The wizards of the troops, mostly originating from the new army, were chanting a ceremonial sealing spell. Filo, Raphtalia and Indigo were attacking the heart itself. The troops equipped with firearms and other weapons fought off the familiars and unleashed hellfire upon them.

"Ugh!"

The heart emitted a massive beam, originating from its eyes, and it wiped out a few of the Melromarc troops that had come along with us. They arrived shortly after my troops had done so.

We had been holding the heart off for a short while. I was getting tired from all the arrows I was spamming.

"Drive a wedge to stop the Spirit Tortoise, one of the four spirits of destruction!"

Did it work?

The heart began to twitch, sending flying white blobs in all directions.

Naofumi, reacting quickly, cast a bunch of shields to protect the wizards. He protected most of them, but a small number of Melromarc wizards were lost.

Soon after, the eyes shot another beam.

"Keep fighting!"

The heart formed a force field to block everybody's incoming attacks. Meanwhile, the wizards were still chanting.

"Cast the spell now!"

"Drive a wedge to stop the Spirit Tortoise, one of the four spirits of destruction!"

An enormous collective of light formed in the air surrounding the heart, swirling and multiplying before contracting around the heart.

The heart slowly stopped beating, and then stopped.

The fight was over.

Chapter 46 out soon! This chapter was heavily condensed due to my personal time constraints, but hope you liked it!