45. The Lake (2)

Without a word he downed the drink and gave it about thirty seconds to take affect and then he dove into the cold waters of the lake.

Novum realized that he had made a mistake as soon as he tried to move in the water. His clothing was immediately waterlogged and he could barely move let alone swim. He will all of his outer clothes into his amulet and left only his undergarments and his belt. He wanted the extra strength to swim faster. Now that he could move freely he stayed just deep enough in the water that he could still see the bottom and the surface and started swimming for the middle of the lake.

He had not been swimming long when he saw a few things that made him think of Rurik's words again and a shiver ran down his spine. He spotted a few fish swimming a short distance away that would normally be no bigger than his hand and these fish were close to the size of his arm. Suddenly the thought of a giant catfish did not seem so far out of reach. He shook the thoughts out of his head and started swimming again.

Using landmarks on the bottom of the lake Novum swam back and forth from shore to shore making sure that he did not miss anything. He was slower in the water and on the land and he was wondering if he was going to have to enough time in the potion to cover the entire lake. The potion was supposed to last two hours but he wanted to make sure that he had a good buffer and he knew that he had used up a quarter of his time. He took a chance and on the next turn at the bank he made the turn a lot wider and hoped that he would not miss a small clue.

After his next large turn his risk paid off and he saw something in the distance. He marked a spot on the bottom of the lake in case he was wrong and then he started swimming directly towards what he saw. In only a few minutes of swimming what he was looking at became clear. A tower, a huge stone tower was sitting perfectly on the bottom of the lake.

Novum swam right up next to the tower and looked in what he assumed would be a broken window. As he looked in he saw that the wood appeared to be as fresh as it was recently installed. He reached out to touch it and found his hand stopped just before touching the wood. The tower appeared to be protected from everything by some type of magical energy. Novum swam straight down and found that the door looked the same as the window. When he reached out to touch it he could not reach past the barrier.

As he pushed a little harder and the barrier flexed just a little a series of words in a language he did not know appeared on the door. He read over them trying to memorized them but after a few seconds they faded from site. He reached out again and again until he memorized the words. Once he did that he swam circles around the tower over and over as he moved towards the top. When he got to the top he saw a hatch that lead down into the tower but without a ring. As he looked for a way to see about opening it he saw a drop of water fall through the barrier and a bubble float towards the surface. The bubbled appeared to be filled with some type of purple smoke. As the bubble floated higher the smoke seemed to leak out into the water and before it reached the surface it was gone.

So the seal around the tower is leaking and the magic inside the tower is altering the animals around the lake in various ways. I wonder if it is random or how things are changed. If all of the water is contaminated then all of the fish would be changed but not all of them are. And how did only certain land animals get affected? The bears were huge but the deer were all normal. The bees were also huge but none of the other animals in the area seemed to be affected right now.

Novum was curious as to how fast it was leaking and he knew that he still had about half the time on his potion left before he had to go to the surface so he decided to just float there and wait. He watched until his potion was about to run out and then another bubble came floating up but right before it popped it was caught in a sudden current and was headed straight towards the the sure. About hale way there the bubble popped but Novum knew that the magic power would almost all go out with the stream. He looked around and based on where he was at now that current would lead straight to the trees near the bee hive. He thought about it and turned to see if he could spot a current towards the bear cave and it saved his life.

Novum saw a huge form, well huge for a lake, darting at him through the water. Instantly he started cursing Rurik and his damned imagination. Novum will his shield to his hand and braced it for impact. The shield was barely big enough to block the bite of the huge snapping turtle that had darted towards him. The shell of this thing was as big as a small boat. The impact blew Novum back through the water with ease and he did nothing to resist it. In actuality he did evening he could to use that momentum.

Novum willed the shield away and then pushed his arm forward and willed it back into his hand and used it like a boat oar and put both hands on it and pulled with all the strength that he had. That technique as well as the small lead he had given himself when the turtle slammed into his shield was all that was keeping him away from the turtle. He was lucky he had not been a little closer to the bottom of the lake when he attacked. This type of turtle was usually considered an ambush predator and was slower, not necessarily slow, but slower once the ambush was over.

Novum stayed under the water wince he was not sure how good his technique would work on top of the water and he did not have time to experiment. It had not taken him very long and he could see the bottom of the lake getting closer rapidly as he was getting closer to the shore. He saw the area where he had jumped in and with one last huge effort he almost launched himself out of the water like the dolphins in his old world. When he landed on the shore the water was only midcalf on him and he summoned his armor and sword as he came out of the water.

He glared at Rurik, "you just had to say that might be a big damn turtle didn't you."

Rurik saw Novum come flying out of the water and based on his speed and the look on his face he knew that it was trouble. His weapon was already in his hand when he heard the comment about a turtle and knew that it was not a basic turtle if Novum ran from it. About that time the turtle came out of the water a lot faster than many people thought a turtle could move. As Rurik looked at it he realized that the shell was close to eight foot across and that they were in trouble.

Novum saw the turtle was even bigger than he originally thought it was and that he was a lot luckier he came up with that shield technique as quickly as he did. Now all they had to do was kill it. The turtle was all the way out of the water and while it could move on land it seemed like it did not want to get far away from the lake. "Looks like it wants to stay close to the water. Should we just leave it?"

Rurik shook his head. "I don't think we will get it to shore like this again. You got lucky to make it here and if you need to go back I am sure that it will come after you again. Probably best to at least try and take care of it now."

"Good we were thinking the same thing." Novum closed in a little launched a quick attack. The turtle pulled its head back in an instant and the heavily enchanted sword simply bounced off the shell. Novum could not even see a mark. Then the turtle launched its head forward as quick as it could and Novum barely got his shield in the way. The blow knocked him back several feet and his had and arm were already starting to go numb. "Yeah that is going to be a problem." Rurik nodded his head in agreement.

Novum thought back to his old world and everything that he knew about snapping turtles. He almost laughed as he remembered a buddy of his that shot a big one with a .22 pistol and the round bounced off the shell and hit their other friend in the leg. Gashed him open good and they all got ripped a knew one when they got home, but his dad laughed with him about it later since he and some bussies had did the same thing when they were young. While the memory of his father was great it was not the one that he needed. A memory of his grandfather teaching him about snapping turtles and how to kill and clean them came to mind.

"Rurik, we are going to have to find a way to get its neck out. There is no other way that I can think of to hurt this thing. I learned a trick with turtles but this thing is way to big for it to work. I am going to tell you so that you can help me think of a solution." Rurik nodded. "My grandfather would take a stick big enough that the turtle could not bite through it and poke it in the nose until it latched on and the cut the head of quickly. But we would nee a tree for that."

Rurik head the technique about the time that he blocked another attack and he noticed that there was a couple of seconds after a bite before the turtle could pull its head back. It was not a lot of time and if he misjudged the distance he would be in huge trouble. "I have an idea. I need you to back off a few steps so that I am the only threat but keep your sword ready. When I yell out attack the neck with your sword as hard as you can."

"Okay Rurik." Novum was not sure what Rurik had in mind but he would not stand in his way. He quickly took a few steps back. Out of the threat range but close enough he could get right back in the fight.

Rurik moved right in front of the turtle to draw it full attention and made sure that he was ready. He launched a few attacks but none of them were serious. They were enough to keep the turtle's eyes on him and to learn how far out it could attack. After almost five minutes Rurik knew that it was time. "Novum get ready." Rurik knew the turtle was not going to come any further towards him and he started to dig his feet into the ground. Now all he had to do was get perfect timing.

Novum heard that and put his sword in the high position and got ready to attack. He had watched everything over the last couple of minutes to include Rurik digging his feet in the shore probably a little deeper than was safe. But he would not say anything since this was Rurik's plan.

Rurik launched the same lazy attack that he had been using to lure the turtle to bite. It was just close enough to draw attention and make the turtle think it could get him. The turtle launched it's head out in another attack but in the two seconds it took for the turtle to start moving its head back Rurik reached out and grabbed it by the top of its beak. The turtle had a significant overbite. "NOW!"

In an instant Novum was in motion and had his sword on the way towards the turtles neck. The turtle tried to pull its head back as hard as it could, even if it meant drawing the enemy closer to him. But he could not move the dwarf no matter how hard he pulled. In fact his body was coming forward instead of his head going back. But this was not fast enough. The turtle felt a horrible burning pain on the back of its neck and then it felt nothing.

Novum and Rurik were staring at the giant turtle with the sword half way through his neck. Novum looked at Rurik, "think the ladies know how to make turtle soup?"