by Aneko Yusagi
Black flames erupted from the shield and scorched her hand.
“What are you—”
“I, Ost Horai, command the heavens, command the earth, defy all reason, join, and spit up blood. Oh, strength of this raging shield, rid us of the beasts that best us!”
“Black Dragon Flame!”
Roaring flames burst from Ost’s palms and covered the face of the Spirit Tortoise, turning it into a blazing inferno.
“ROOOAAAAARRRR!”
The insane, rabid Spirit Tortoise suddenly looked confused. It’s face distorted into an expression of agony, barely visible through the wall of searing black flames.
The spell had a cost though. Ost’s hands were covered in horrible burns. Worse, they seemed to be cursed. They were stained black.
“I used the hatred in the shield. I believe I may have bought us a little time.”
“You . . .”
My eyes shot to the countdown. It had risen to read 3:00.
I was amazed. I thought Ost had the best, most convenient spells of anyone I had ever seen. I suppose that we’d be enemies under normal circumstances, but I couldn’t help but be impressed. And it was clear that we were on the same side. She was obviously doing all that she could to limit the damage the Spirit Tortoise was causing.
“Alright! This is still going to take some time!”
“Right. Filo, how long until Fitoria gets here?”
“Um . . . it’s kinda noisy so it’s hard to hear. But I think she’s saying she needs another 30 minutes!”
Seriously? We were only halfway through this?
At least we’d managed to stop the Tortoise’s attacks . . . is what I was thinking when those very attacks began to intensify.
Spikes shot into the air with a loud swoosh. I turned to Ost, and she silently nodded. We’d been holding out for a while, but we had finally arrived at the place where the earth’s energy flowed more freely.
“I guess . . . I guess we still need to keep this up,” I sighed. To be honest, I was ready to give up and get out of there. But when I saw how close we had gotten to the castle, I realized we couldn’t give up. There was a huge town at the foot of the castle, after all.
If the town was in range of the tortoise’s exploding spikes, then it didn’t stand a chance. The whole town would vanish. We had no choice but to keep our heads down and keep on fighting!
“Ugh . . .”
After suffering through a few more of the Tortoise’s special attacks, I was on the verge of losing consciousness. My barbarian armor was battered beyond recognition. And the Spirit Tortoise, having noticed our strategy, had stopped sending familiars after us. Without the monsters around to replenish her energy, Ost could barely keep up with the necessary spells.
We’d already gone through our stock of life force water, and because I was using skill after skill, I’d been forced to eat all of the rucolu fruit, too.
“I hate to say it, but we might have to retreat.”
“But if we do, the destruction will . . .”
“Think of all the time we’ve bought. We can’t help anyone if we die here either. When it comes down to it, we need to cut our losses and get out.”
Under constant barrage from the Spirit Tortoise, I’d completely lost my sense of time. I asked Filo how much more time Fitoria needed, only to find out that she wasn’t able to contact her anymore. The incessant magic and skills must have been so powerful that they were having an effect on the earth’s energy fields.
The support from the queen and her army was slowing down, too.
Every once and a while they would manage to cast a powerful offensive spell, but they were never able to do any significant damage to the tortoise.
What was left for us to do? I promised Raphtalia that I wouldn’t do anything stupid, and I was running out of sane options.
Ost’s hands were stained black from the cursed flames. She had used the rage in the shield to cast spells three times now. The spells she’d cast to limit the SP drain from the tortoise’s attacks were growing less and less effective.
What were we supposed to do?
How many times had I thought, “I can only survive one more attack?”
This was by far the hardest battle I’d ever fought—even harder than the battle with the high priest. I was stronger than I’d ever been, but it wasn’t doing anyone any good.
I was running different escape options through my head when it happened.
A cloud of dust stood over the horizon behind the Spirit Tortoise, and it was moving in our direction.
“Ah!” Filo shouted, jabbing a wing at the cloud.
The ground started to shake, and a furious wind blew over the battlefield. Something sky blue fluttered in the wind. It was . . . It was a filolial queen feather—just like Filo! And it was a color that I’d seen before.
“Sorry it took so long! Good job holding out! Fitoria will make sure your effort was worth it.”
That’s right. It was Fitoria, and she was running full speed for the tortoise.
As if it could sense the gravity of the situation, the Spirit Tortoise immediately ignored us and turned to face the approaching threat.
Fitoria crossed her wings in front of her, and then, twitch, puff! Her whole body started to grow.
A moment later and she was large enough to look the Spirit Tortoise in the eye. Of course, the Spirit Tortoise was still much larger, as it walked on four legs.
“Hyaaaaa!” Fitoria shouted. She leapt high into the air and brought her claws down with force on the beast’s head.
With a sickening crunch, she smashed the head beneath her foot.
Yeah! I was amazed by the show of power. Maybe she really could win?
But then . . .
The head popped back into place with ease. Then it opened its mouth and shot its particle beam straight at Fitoria. It wasn’t fast enough. Fitoria twisted out of the way and let the centrifugal force carry her around for another swift kick that sent the Spirit Tortoise’s head flying.
But the head never tore free of the neck. Instead, the whole neck stretched along with the head, then snapped back into place.
It was the second monster battle I’d seen, and it wasn’t going to disappoint. Last time, it was a dinosaur. This time it was a tortoise. I felt like I was watching a kaiju movie.
But I couldn’t afford to forget where I was. If we didn’t get out of the way, we’d end up trampled. “Filo! Fitoria made it, so let’s get out of here! Retreat! If we don’t, we’ll get pulled into the battle!”
“The support has finally arrived,” Ost said, wavering. I grabbed her before she could completely collapse, and we climbed up onto Filo’s back.
“Let’s go!”
“Okaaay! Haikuikku!”
Filo’s swift legs carried us off like a shot, back to army that had supported us during the fight.
Chapter Eight: The Search
“The legendary filolial… She really does exist.”
Fitoria and the Spirit Tortoise continued their titanic battle in the distance. We had safely made it back to the coalition army line, and let me be blunt: we were looking very worse for the wear. My armor was barely holding together. It was littered with dents and holes.
“Let’s hope she can put an end to all this.”
Fitoria unleashed an amazing series of attacks, one after the other, with impressive speed.
“ROOOAAAAARRR!”
The spike-like missiles on the Spirit Tortoise’s shell shot high into the air, and Fitoria followed them with her eyes. Jumping back to get some distance, she deftly dodged each careening spike and its ensuing explosion.
Again, I was impressed.
“Crash! Charge!” Fitoria shouted as she opened one of her wings. Then the carriage that she had been pulling grew to an enormous size and began to transform!
The carriage became a chariot. Fitoria ran full speed, the chariot in tow, and slammed into the Spirit Tortoise. Then she bounded up over the stunned monster and delivered
a crushing blow to its head and front legs.
“. . .”
She strained against its shell but wasn’t able to push it back any further.
Pulling back to get her bearings, the chariot morphed back into a carriage. The moment that it was free from her attack, the Spirit Tortoise regenerated its lost limbs and head, and it immediately opened its mouth to shoot another particle beam.
“Master! I have a message from Fitoria!”
“What is it?”
“She says that she can’t break the shell. She says that she’ll keep it busy, but that we need to find a way to kill it.”
I sort of wished that she would just talk to us normally, though considering her size, her voice would probably be too loud to understand. It probably would have just sounded like some deafening noise.
“Can’t she use a flock of her filolial friends to attack en masse?”
“She says she had to hurry to get here, so she’s all alone!”
Oh well. I guess I couldn’t expect a large flock of filolials to keep up with her. She was really fast. Furthermore, what was I thinking—expecting normal filolials to put up a fight with the Spirit Tortoise?
“Mr. Naofumi!”
Raphtalia and the others came running back from the direction of the castle.
“How are the evacuations going?”
“The castle town itself is mostly evacuated. I heard that the battle was going to move on to the next stage, so I hurried back.”
“Good idea. Looks like we won’t be relaxing for a while.”
Fitoria was going to keep the Spirit Tortoise occupied, but if we didn’t figure out how to kill the tortoise for good, then we’d end up right back where we started.
I was getting tired of looking at that damn turtle!
I turned to face the queen. “You heard what Filo said, right?”
“Yes. And just like we suspected, I suppose our best option is to sneak inside of the Spirit Tortoise’s body and attempt the sealing procedure. The other option, though it is certainly not a sure bet, would be to search out the remainder of the ancient heroes’ message and hope that you, Mr. Iwatani, are able to read it.”
“I guess we’ll just have to do both at the same time.”
As we discussed our options, the battle continued in the distance.
“What the?!” I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The Spirit Tortoise had more than one head! Worse yet, they were all shooting particle beams at Fitoria.
There was one piece of good news, at least. From where I stood, it looked like the beams themselves were less powerful than they had been. Perhaps it was because they were now shooting more than one at the same time.
“We better get going.”
Ost climbed down from Filo and stood on wobbly legs. She stared at the Spirit Tortoise is disbelief. She had either fallen into despair, or she was upset over what her “true body” was doing.
“Do you think we can get up onto its back?”
“It will be difficult. But, Mr. Iwatani, closely observe the Spirit Tortoise with me.”
“Huh?”
I did what I was told and squinted at the tortoise. When I looked really hard at the new, ragged shell, it was mostly covered in spikes. But I could just make out the remains of mountains still covering the shell, down where the spikes extended from the hard surface.
Maybe, if we climbed up those mountains, we could find a cave that would lead us inside.
I also watched the tortoise’s attack pattern as it grappled with Fitoria. It attacked with its head, its legs, and with the spikes on its back. From what I could tell, it didn’t have any attacks that would hurt a human-sized enemy on its back. Would it be able to hurt us if we got onto its back? We’d be in trouble if it suddenly stood up on its hind legs, or if it spun around, or if it flipped over onto its shell. If Fitoria kept up her attacks to the point where the Spirit Tortoise would try anything, then we might end up getting crushed in the battle.
“Because the Spirit Tortoise is currently distracted by its battle with the legendary filolial, I believe we may be able to get onto its back if we approach from behind.”
“It’ll be dangerous, but I guess we don’t have a choice.” I turned to Filo. “Did you hear that, Fitoria? We’re going to try and climb up onto the shell. We’re going to look for its heart or whatever it is. Can you keep it busy while we’re up there?”
“Um . . . She says she’ll do what she can, but you better hurry.”
Then there was no time to waste. If possible, I wanted to make sure that the battle didn’t get too intense while we were on the shell, but there was no point in mentioning it. “Alright! Everyone, we’re going to climb onto the shell while the tortoise is moving and head for its heart! All of you, stick with me!”
“Everyone! For the sake of the world, let us all do as the Shield Hero, Mr. Iwatani, says!”
The crowd cheered.
“Everyone! You have seen Mr. Iwatani defend us from countless attacks! Did it not rouse your soul to action? Now is our time!”
I had one question for the queen. “Just checking, but are you coming with us?”
“I had thought that I might be needed to distract the Spirit Tortoise, but the current situation no longer calls for it. While the legendary filolial occupies him, I will accompany you in this endeavor.”
“Great,” I said, turning to check on Raphtalia and the others. They were clearly exhausted. Of course they would be. I was exhausted myself, and I wanted to get a few days’ worth of sleep. But there was no time for that.
“Feh . . . Master Itsuki . . .” Whenever Rishia was scared or worried, she couldn’t help herself from whimpering Itsuki’s name. I still found it hard to believe she could see so much good in him.
“Mr. Naofumi, are you feeling alright?”
“It’s nothing I can’t handle, but when all this is over, I’m going to need to get my armor worked on.” It was still holding together, but just barely. If the battle went on for much longer, I’d have to think about changing into something else—not that I wanted to wear one of those kigurumi. Actually, I doubt the kigurumi I had would help much, considering the enemy. Maybe it would make more sense to steal the Filo kigurumi that Rishia was wearing.
“Feh?!” Rishia jumped, somehow intuiting my thoughts, and pulled the kigurumi tighter across her body. Then she held her hand out to Ost, who was still wobbling on unsteady feet.
“It’s alright. We all share the same goal. The battle’s end draws near.”
“Right.”
“If we are climbing up onto the Spirit Tortoise, perhaps the time has come where I can be of assistance,” Eclair said, gazing at the monster battle that raged on the horizon. Her eyes were wide.
“The Spirit Tortoise has changed considerably since the last time we fought it. There’s a chance that the mountain caves leading to the inside of its body have changed too.”
“Good point.”
“And there’s no telling what sort of Spirit Tortoise familiars we are going to find in those tunnels. We’re going to need your help to make it through. Make sure you’re prepared.”
“Right.”
“I’ll be right there with you!” the old lady shouted.
“Yes. It’s time. Mr. Naofumi, let’s go!”
“Yeah!”
The battle with the Spirit Tortoise had reached the point of no return. We had no choice but to sneak around behind it and climb up onto its shell. It was time.
Chapter Nine: The Spirit Tortoise Cave
We made our way up onto the shell without much trouble. The giant spikes dominated the landscape, but the mountain range that covered the shell was still formidable. Trees and shrubs grew between the boulders.
The legends spoke of a cave in the mountains that would let us inside of the monster’s body. We were able to find a cave the last time we were on the shell, but it hadn’t led anywhere.
Unfortunately, the shell was swarming with familiars, and we had to bat
tle large groups of them to progress. We ran into huge groups of the bat and yeti types, but I couldn’t figure out where they were coming from. Luckily we didn’t see any of the parasitic types. But that was the end of our good luck.
It was exhausting searching the mountains and the spikes for hidden caves. It was like we had gone mountain climbing with the coalition army in tow. To make matters worse, the tortoise was still locked in battle with Fitoria, and the constant motion made progress difficult.
“Ost, do you have any ideas?” I was hoping that she would be able to lead us to the cave. She’d told us about the cave that theoretically led to its heart.
“I suspect it may lie in that direction.”
“Then that’s where we’ll go. You all back there, make sure you keep up!”
“Yes, sir!”
I followed Ost’s lead down a winding mountain path.
Raphtalia and Eclair stayed behind us, striking down any familiars that got too close. The queen and Rishia followed them, casting support magic on the group when necessary. But there were so many familiars, and they attacked the group so fervently, that the army was still losing soldiers.
“Filo!”
“Yup!”
She saw the monster I was warning her about and swung her claws to send it flying.
“Mr. Naofumi!”
Screams rang out from the group behind us, and Raphtalia immediately rushed off to find the source of them.
“We have been able to stall the tortoise’s movement, but the vast numbers of familiars continue to be a serious threat. The longer we spend up here, the more people we are going to lose.”
“If only we could have come with a smaller, specialized group . . .” I sighed. If the army soldiers couldn’t survive a battle with the familiars, what chance would they stand against the heart? Could they even survive the journey? From what I could tell, there was an inexhaustible supply of monsters on the shell. It was going to be difficult.
I was fretting over their chances when a splinter battalion of the army came running up behind us. They had been traveling separately from the main group. “We’ve found a cave. We believe it may be the place we are searching for, the cave to the heart,” a soldier reported. He was pointing far off into the center of the mountains. I squinted in the indicated direction, and sure enough, I thought I could make out a dark opening in the rock.
