Chapter 011: A brawl with the tortoise
It didn’t take the tortoise long to notice that I, whirling my battleaxe, was running at it full steam.
Its eyes swivelled in their sockets as they focused on me. Yet, the tortoise made no effort to move. It did not try to defend itself, nor did it try to fight back — it seemed fully confident that my attacks would not pierce its armor no matter what.
Then I’ll smash your armor to smithereens, I thought, deciding on the spot I would aim for as I gained more ground. Its legs or its head would make poor targets as they could most likely be retracted into the shell. I thus judged that aiming for the shell right off the bat would save a lot of time.
When the tortoise was within striking distance, I struck its shell with all my might.
The colossal impact sent shockwaves down my arms. It was an impact unlike any I had experienced before, which immediately spoke volumes about the hardness of the shell. I may have struck sturdy walls of stone and castle gates of steel in the past, but this was something else altogether. Despite the blade of my battleaxe having chipped a little, the tortoise’s shell sustained not even a scratch.
Just what was this shell made of?
I flipped my battleaxe and swiped at my enemy’s neck with the other blade. Narrowing its eyes and displaying a mocking grin, it reacted as if it had already anticipated this attack by dexterously retracting its head into its shell. Though I tried swinging at the hole through which its neck had passed, the shell rumbled and, to my surprise, the hole closed itself. Never had I expected a tortoise’s shell to do that. I froze in shock when confronted by this unprecedented scenario.
A man holding his axe, wondering how to attack.
A tortoise which had retreated to the safety of its shell.
Time ticked by as neither of us moved an inch.
Seeing that the battle had reached a stalemate, Aruna, who had been watching from afar, called out to me.
「D-Dias! Run! Now! It’s very, very unwise to take on an Earth Dragon!」
Run? I could, but it would be a shame to call it quits and bail at this point — I wanted to give it my all before giving up.
I clawed my way up the tortoise’s shell and found a spot on which I could balance easily. Drawing myself to my full height, I raised my battleaxe into the air. There was no other place to attack, so I had no choice but to continue hitting the shell even though it felt like an idiotic thing to do.
If the first hit didn’t work, I would try a second time, then a third. I would crack it eventually even if it took dozens of tries — with that mentality, I began swinging downwards with all the strength I could muster.
Each blow produced a dull clang. I could also hear the sound of cracks forming in my battleaxe. Unfortunately, neither the second nor the third blow had any more effect than the first. The cracks in my battleaxe grew in size until I had to pause and wait for them to go away.
My battleaxe had the ability to heal itself when left alone. I could also make it do so at will, however, and that was what I did. Focusing hard was key — the self-repair would progress at a rapid rate. As expected, the cracks mended while the battleaxe emitted a faint glow. I heard Aruna cry out in surprise in the distance.
Well, I thought, anyone would be surprised seeing this.
During the war, I had deliberately made my battleaxe work its magic out of sight so as not to alarm the others. Now was hardly the time to make such considerations, so I simply made a mental note to apologise for startling her later.
I confirmed that my battleaxe was as good as new, unleashed another series of attacks, then paused to let it heal again. Despite my efforts, the besieged tortoise continued to hide itself. Aruna, still watching our prolonged battle, had fallen silent.
Either the tortoise’s shell gave way or I ran out of energy — those were the only two possible outcomes I had in mind as neither of us changed our strategy in the slightest. Before we could reach a conclusion, the sun had already begun to dip, bathing the surroundings in a red glow.
Seeing that the shell still refused to crack, I feared that I would have no choice other than to call it a day and head home once it grew dark. It was a terrible shame, but what could I do? It was unfair to Aruna too — she looked almost bored by now.
I decided to give it one last go.
I took one final swing at the highest point of the shell…
…and heard something.
Not the sound of my battleaxe bouncing off the shell. Not the sound of my battleaxe cracking, either. It was a sound I had never heard before.
It sounds like the shell cracking, I thought.
I looked down to find that my battleaxe had gone past the shell and buried itself deep into the tortoise. I froze momentarily as I had not expected to get lucky on my last try. Then, I panicked and hurriedly raised the battleaxe to land the killing blow.
In the end, the tortoise was unable to withstand the siege. The shell rumbled as its inhabitant panicked, and the tortoise’s head and legs began to appear from their respective holes. Its eyes trembling in either fear or fright, the tortoise twisted its neck and opened its mouth in its first attack since the beginning of the fight.
A fireball formed in the tortoise’s gaping maw.
What? If I had known that it could do that, I wouldn’t have picked a fight with it in the first place! Why had it even tried to hide, then?
The red-hot fireball came at me with alarming speed. As I leapt from the tortoise’s shell to dodge it, I swung my battleaxe at the now-exposed legs. The tortoise tried retracting its leg, but I was too fast.
I managed to land a direct hit, drawing a large spurt of blood from the leg and a pained wailing from its owner.
Nu-bouuuuuuu.
Huh, I thought, so that’s what a tortoise’s cry sounds like. I was frankly a little shocked by it. I had been too focused on my attack to adopt a defensive stance, and I hit the ground hard, causing my body to ache in places. However, I knew that attacking the tortoise took priority over paying attention to the pain, so I got up and swung repeatedly at the nearest leg.
Like a typical tortoise, it was slow on its feet and retreating into its shell was its only form of defense. That was exactly what it did — hide its head and legs away once again. Since its head was back in its shell, I no longer had to worry about fireballs. But when I tried to climb back onto its shell, it panicked and stuck its appendages out along with its head… and gave me more opportunities to attack.
I doubted that its shell had ever been targeted as a weakness. Torn between whether to attack or to defend, and overrun by fear and panic at the same time, the tortoise’s movements grew sluggish. Its attacks steadily lost steam. The fireball that had initially surprised me also no longer posed a threat, which meant that I could continue cutting chunks in the tortoise’s legs and neck without having to defend myself.
As blood gushed out of its gaping wounds, the tortoise must have realised that death was near. It retreated back into its shell — which was, for the record, a move I still did not understand — in a final endeavor to protect itself. Feeling a little sorry for it, I brought my axe down on the cracked shell as hard as I could to end its suffering quickly.
It never cried out again.
The entire shell shook, then remained still.
Though it had been a strong adversary, it could have given me a harder time by spitting its fireballs right off the bat. Why hadn’t it? Could its initial indifference towards me have meant that it was confident about the impregnability of its fortress?
So even monsters suffer from hubris, huh.
—
I stood on the defeated tortoise and watched a red-faced, blubbering Aruna run in my direction. She seemed ecstatic, but was also crying, and I could not understand a word she was saying.
Uh… Aruna? We have to move the carcass, right? Are we gonna get the men again?
Her words were still unintelligible, though I could make out something about marriage.
I hoped that it was just my imagination.
Calm down, Aruna. It’s almost nighttime. We have to go home now. We can talk about marriage later, okay? Later…
What’s that? A small part of the tortoise is more than enough?
No, no, it’s not about that! Relax, please…!
Aruna refused to calm down. At long last, the men from the village, who had grown worried about us, came to see what we were up to.
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