[Arc 1] Chapter 29: Turtle Party
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The first move was done by the raptor team. Virt dashed forward, leaving the other two behind, and aimed at the turtle snakes neck. The turtle snake quickly withdrew itself into its shell.

'No way to attack it like that' was my thoughts, but Virt started to fire Dark Bullets, the LV10 spell of [Dark Magic], into the opening for the head in the shell. 

*Bang bang bang!*

And a triple-shot to boot! Damn, Virt is turning more and more merciless by the day. Is it my fault? Nah, no way.

The turtle snake tried to counter-attack by biting after Virt, but that only ended in being dodged. Virt spun around on the spot and gave the turtle snake a good one with his tail, covered with [Poison Attack].

A little poison-trivia: the poison of [Poison Attack] is a combination of the fluid-type, like [Poison Bite]'s venom, and an aura-type, meaning the poison can from anywhere on the skill user's body. This one is more of a poisonous aura than a real poison. The auras toxicity is lower than Bite's as well, but Attack can be used in more varieties with that, like the tail-slam just now.

Magic is off-limits for the skill, as one could guess. The fluid-type poison is leaking from the fangs and claws since the Attack skill is the evolved version of those poison skills.

Back to the fight. After taking that tail-slam straight to its face, the turtle snake isn't looking too good, but not incapable of continuing.

That's the problem with the raptors poison skills, they are way weaker than my own. Forget the turtle snake, even frogs need to be chomped on for a while before succumbing to the poison. Is it their race that weakens the poison, or was my poison just ridiculously strong from the start?

Even when I was thinking of stupid thoughts, the fight between Virt and the turtle snake was still on. But practically, the fights already over. The turtle snake can't hit Virt, due to their speed difference, and the dodging training I've made for him, which involved my own, and Riri's magics.

Even if the turtle snake tries to protect itself, Virt can just fire more magic into the open holes of the shell. Said shell also makes it slow to escape. The only bad part for Virt is that even with all that speed and skills, he's just scraping off the turtle snakes HP, little by little. In the end, though, the winner will be Virt. Even if it takes time, as long as the turtle snake can't attack back, there's nothing that can stop Virt from depleting the turtle snakes HP.

While fighting, Virt also tries to bite the turtle snake, to secrete poison straight into its body, Internal poison damage is worse than external ones after all. The turtle snake isn't slow on that part though, withdrawing any body-parts that are in danger to be bitten. Guess this battle will take a while.

---

*dunk!*

And there it falls. Took some time though. I thought this would be a team battle, but Virt just soloed the whole thing from start to finish. They were serious when they said they wanted to challenge the T-Rex on their own, even if they would pass the baton during the fight.

They will become awesome if they manage to safely evolve. They won't become the T-Rex since one of the evolution requirements is to have the [Pure Water Dependency] skill. I checked it on one of the max-leveled royal guards, by appraising its evolution options.

The part that I'm worried about is that there could be no evolutions for these guys, even after reaching LV20, the max level. They could train their stats in the old fashion way, but evolution is way faster. I'm not dissing the old-school style of becoming stronger, but if we are keeping this pace, Terra Sol is gonna become one big sandbox before we're ready.

While I was thinking about the future, Virt came up to me with his eyes sparkling. Sent and Riri was the same, wait a sec, you two didn't do a thing. Oh well, I nodded towards them, gesturing that they did a good job. There are some inconveniences by not being able to directly talk to each other, but this way works well enough. I could use that, but I need to kee-

*splash**splash**splash*

p that se-, what are they doing now? Riri started to fire Poison Bullets at the river for some reason. The poison was washed and purified away in a flash, so what's the point?

*SPLASH!*

What?! A turtle came up from the river! And not just one, but a dozen, wait, twelve of them?! Did they always live in the river? They didn't surface when I was dumping failed poisons in the river before. Was it because I was at the top of the pillars when I was dumping it? Or was it because, this time, it was a real attack? It could just be my [Stealth] back then that did the difference. 

*Chomp*

Gwah, too close! This isn't the time to escape reality! And you three, don't look so happy, you battle maniacs!

*Chop**Chop**Chop*

After dealing with a swift String Fist chop punishment to the three idiots, I started to get into position. Unlike the first turtle just now, we can't take our time dealing with these guys one by one. Therefore, several poison-attribute [Ultima Thread] harpoons, coming up! While making the harpoons, I ordered the raptors to cover me till I was finished, with hand signals and eye contact.

You didn't hear wrong, I'm able to add attributes to my threads now. When the skill reached LV15 during the raptors' training sessions, I got the ability to enchant my threads with attributes. Only the ones I have as element skills though. The enchantment isn't all that good either.

The light threads are illuminating around a tenth of a regular Light Sphere. The shadow threads are just for show, and since the shadows look like black smog, it isn't exactly hiding them either. Don't make me start on the dark threads. They just turn black, and I could do that already. 

The poison enhancement is the best one amongst them, as it lets me do [Poison Thread] faux attacks. The bad points are that the poison is weaker than even the Weak Poison. The second point is that attribute enchantment takes lots of MP to use, so it's easier to just use regular magic.

Since I don't have any other long-range poison attacks, I have to use the poison threads. I usually don't make use of them, but the situation is this after all. Finished. Then, let's go, dammit!

*Swish, swish, swish, swish!*

*Stab, stab, stab, stab!*

=====================================================================

EXP has reached the required amount.

Individual [Reha Zera] has reached LV8

Life attributes have been recovered.

All basic attributes have increased.

0.3 skill point(s) acquired.

 

EXP has reached the required amount.

Individual [Reha Zera] has reached LV9

Life attributes have been recovered.

All basic attributes have increased.

0.3 skill point(s) acquired.

 

Proficiency has reached the required amount:

Skill [Parallel Thoughts LV49] has become [Parallel Thoughts LV50]

Skill evolution is available.

[Parallel Minds LV1] is now available as a skill evolution for [Parallel Thoughts LV50].

=====================================================================

Four turtle snakes were taken out from the harpoon attacks aimed at their eyes. Even if they have hard scales together with that shell, that won't protect their eyes. Even if the brain wasn't damaged, with the poison inside their heads, they won't last for too long. 

I got a huge level up since the last one from the training sessions. [Parallel Thoughts] hit the level limit and obtained an evolution as well. Not a bad start and there are still eight turtle snakes left. My MP and SP recovered thanks to the level-ups, so let's keep this pace. 

Riri started to snipe at several turtle snakes' heads with Dark Bullets, while Sent body-tackled another one, for then keeping it busy by letting it bite him while protecting himself with a barrier. Virt ran around, aiming exposed body parts with [Poison Attack] and Dark Bullets, throwing the turtle snakes into chaos.

It's still too early to count our chicks yet. The remaining turtles are still in good health since the poison that the raptors have been weaker than my own. They'll be on guard for the next harpoons as well, so let's try something-

*BANG* *CRASH*

different? Sent just knocked a turtle into the next week, or at least, into the pillar. The blow was so fierce that the pillar collapsed on top of the turtle. That must have been [Counter]. The turtle snake's jaw strength was used against it, powering up the counter-attack. Sent has become the hardest hitter of our little team. That depends on the opponent though. 

That's one more turtle snake down, so there's seven left, I hope. For the next one, let's make it this guy that's charging at me. It must have noticed that it takes some time for me to create another poison harpoon, so it charged at me, to not give me that time. Cutting thread is good enough for this guy anyway.

Just as I was readying myself to counter slash the turtle snake, a Dark Bullet hit it straight in the eye. Riri, ain't you a little too good at strategic warfare? She's getting scary good at predicting where to aim next, and were on the battlefield that needs to be dealt with first. Glad she's on my team. The turtle snake is writhing in pain due to the poison, so it's a little difficult to aim at its neck, but... there!

*Slash*

=====================================================================

EXP has reached the required amount.

Individual [Reha Zera] has reached LV10

Life attributes have been recovered.

All basic attributes have increased.

0.3 skill point(s) acquired.

=====================================================================

The turtle snakes are turning into a package deal with level-ups included. Six left, or not. There's four left. Sent made another exploding counter-attack, and Virt and Riri tagged up on another one, bombarding it with Dark Bullets till even the shell was turned to mash. The remaining turtle snakes are starting to look a little worried, but there's no mercy to be found here.

Another turtle snake tried to sneak up on me but to no luck. The golden trio of [Sense Foe], [Magic Sense], and [Thought Acceleration] let me notice it way before he was even close. Just as it tried to bite me, I dodged the attack by jumping, for then producing some Strong Poison, and threw it down its throat when it tried to bite me in the air. The result was an insta-kill. Ingestion damage, when I make the monster eat the poison, is way more effective than covering them with it. or injecting it by biting them.

There are just three turtle snakes left, so this fight is as good as won, would people think. Alas, things are never going according to one's wishes. But did it need to go that far? I've had it with the enemies getting protagonist moments!

Appraising the remaining turtle snakes revealed that they had used their skill points to get [Free Movement], [MP Auto-Regeneration], and [Accelerate].

---

COME ON! It's always this! The really strong enemies get some superpower, just when I'm close to finishing them off! Are they the protagonists here? Or am I just a villain? That's demon discrimination!

Thanks to the new skills the turtle snakes had bought, they started to rush at us while withdrawn into their shells. You already know about [Free Movement], since its a skill I used to have, but how were they able to obtain that?! I mean, they are turtles! How free are their movements?

[MP Auto-Regeneration] is more understandable, since the only MP-recovery potions I can make needs turtle snake materials as ingredients.

Finally, that [Accelerate] skill is kinda like my Accel Leap, using MP to boost their speed for a certain amount of time. When you think about how fast they can move their necks, it's plausible that they could buy that. Even so, why [Free Movement]...

This isn't the time to complain, me! Whoa-!

*CRASH!*

Damn, with those two movement skills, the turtle snakes have withdrawn into their shells and started to rush at us like crazy bulls. They've become like those turtle shells that famous plumber throws at the enemies. In this case, the shells are at the size of a minicab and can move on their own.

Sent tried to endure one of the charges, but was blown away like some old newspaper. I used some Turtle Potion on him, the last one, I might add. After that, we have been on the defensive, dodging all charges that come our way.

This runaway shell plan of theirs isn't such a stupid one. Not only does this give them an advantage in attack power, since they have withdrawn into their shells, but they've also solidified their defenses as well. They can keep on accelerating since the auto-regeneration skill replenish the used MP. Their skill levels keep on increasing, and they will reach a level where they'll be able to hit us soon enough.

Then how should we stop them? Magic will just bounce off, the threads broke by the massive force (that's a first), and no way physical attacks are a good idea. Sent is living proof for that, despite its stranger for him to be alive after something that won't lose to the car accidents back on Earth.

Wait, 'something that won't lose to the car accidents back on Earth'? That gives me an idea.

I stopped jumping around, waiting for the turtle snakes to come closer. Two of them took the bait and headed straight towards me. A little closer now. Just as the turtle snakes reached just an arm's length from me (human arms), I activated the spell I had prepared beforehand: Light Sphere, at maximum power.

The damn bright light even affected me, and I had closed my eyes and switched back to the [Magic Sense] camera that I used when I was a Grey Demon. The two rushing turtle snakes had it worse since their eyes had adapted to the darkness inside their shells by now. Just before they collided in me, I jumped up in the air, and above the turtle snakes.

*CRASH!!*

Ouch, that must have been the loudest one today. The blinded turtle snakes collided into each other, knocking them unconscious for the time being, giving us some breathing room for the final turtle snake.

=====================================================================

Requirements:

  • Use the [Light Magic] spell, Light Sphere, to blind 10 or more individuals
  • Use [Light Magic] spells 50 or more times
  • Have the skill [Lesser Light Element] at LV10 or more

are fulfilled.

The spell, Flashbang, is added to [Light Magic].

=====================================================================

Hey, I got a new magic spell. The same happened when I got Hologram, but requiring the light element is new. I've used Light Sphere on more occasions like this before, but the three turtle snakes must be just enough to get the new spell. Its effects are... this is a good one. Let's try it out!

I started to run at the remaining turtle snake, who had stopped while resting its eyes after the light show. Almost there now.

Tch, it noticed me, and at the worst range. The range that its neck could reach. It didn't waste a moment in trying to eat me, but too bad. I've got my protagonist's power-up ready to fire! While jumping back, I threw my new spell at the turtle snake. Go, Flashbang!

*Boom*

Yikes! That's some force! The Flashbang spell makes a ball of light, smaller and weaker than Light Sphere, for then shooting the ball of light at a target. After a while, the ball of light will quickly expand and generate strong light and a huge, deafening bang. The blast has the shock-attribute on it, resulting in shutting down the target's sight, hearing, and sense of touch.

It lives up to its name. Even I, the spell caster, got a little affected by it. Heck, even the raptors, who were even further away, were also affected by it. The turtle snake, the one that got the freaking bomb straight to its face, is lying down, K.O.-ed. Ah, forget that its already trying to get up.

The force of the blast must have been too weak. Its just a newbie gimmick spell, so I ain't too depressed over it, but it worked long enough. From my storage, I took out my crossbow and a Vengeful Poison arrow. The first kill that my new spell helped me with, needs to be done awesomely.

*Twang* *thud*

Straight into the eye. No way it can survive that, along with my best poison. Then, all that remains are-

=====================================================================

EXP has reached the required amount.

Individual [Reha Zera] has reached LV11

Life attributes have been recovered.

All basic attributes have increased.

0.3 skill point(s) acquired.

=====================================================================

to let the raptors chew up the remaining turtle snakes' throats, I guess? I got some EXP since I contributed to the kill, just enough for LV11. This is my highest personal level yet. The Grey Demon could only reach LV10, after all. How about those three then?

=====================================================================

Name: Virt

Race: [Glavras Slipraus]   | Level: 20

Karma Value: 93

Skills: 16

Evolution available

 

HP: 89/89   | MP: 66/66   | SP: 198/198

STR: 71  | VIT: 40   | MAG: 63

RES: 78   | SPD:  114  | DEX: 103

INT: 99   | LUC: 93

=====================================================================

=====================================================================

Name: Sent

Race: [Glavras Slipraus]   | Level: 20

Karma Value: 72

Skills: 16

Evolution available

 

HP: 121/121   | MP: 41/41   | SP: 193/103

STR: 51  | VIT: 102   | MAG: 33

RES: 91   | SPD: 95   | DEX: 87

INT: 91   | LUC: 92

=====================================================================

=====================================================================

Name: Riri

Race: [Glavras Slipraus]   | Level: 20

Karma Value: 73

Skills: 16

Evolution available

 

HP: 61/61   | MP: 122/122   | SP: 141/141

STR: 42  | VIT: 38   | MAG: 111

RES: 71   | SPD: 102   | DEX: 93

INT: 97   | LUC: 92

=====================================================================

Hey, they can all evolve now. That explains why they are so excited at the moment. While I hate to crash the party, I gave them the order to collect more food, and place them at the secret hideout we had made in a huge, forgotten cave. While they looked dissatisfied, I made another picture, showing that you will starve to death if you don't have food ready after evolution.

I told them this before, but they forgot it in their excitement. While making apologizing faces to me, I then pointed over to the turtle snakes. While they didn't get the message from just that, I started to crack my knuckles, indicating that they were in-

*Zoom**Zoom**Zoom*

trouble. They finally got it and ran to hunt monsters. I hope they don't get into trouble while hunting. This event has proven that they can be a little, no, more than a little reckless. 

I should do my part, collecting the turtle corpses. They are too valuable as medicine ingredients to be eaten or laying to rot. Thinking about it, won't those three become something awesome after evolving when they already can take care of a group of turtle snakes? I helped a lot, but still. 

I need to be strict in choosing what evolutions they're allowed to take, after getting the food ready. They can't become a T-Rex since they've lost [Pure Water Dependency], but it looks like the system has found some other options to them.

I'm starting to get a little excited myself.

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