Free Web NovelChapter 221: Back and Forth Battle
Knowing every second was precious, Commander Levins flew across the Great Western Forest towards the beast at a height of just over 200 metres.
Striking blindly the moment contact was made was a mistake only a novice would do; the best way to defeat, or in this case, delay an opponent was to first understand it.
Of course, Hubert knew he had to act quickly, so he only planned to perform the barest of investigations.
Pushing his Tartan to its maximum speed, despite its unwillingness to get close to such a dangerous creature, Hubert Levins rapidly approached his target and it soon came into full view.
"It’s truly a behemoth," the old man muttered to himself as he caught his first glimpse of his foe.
The Mid Seventh Order turtle was enormous, at least 100 metres long, 50 metres wide, and nearly 25 metres tall. It was easily the biggest creature Commander Levins had seen in his entire life.
The turtle’s hard, weathered shell looked nigh impregnable, and rather than legs, it only had flippers, clearly adapted to a life in large bodies of water. However, despite obviously being a marine creature, it was still able to move shocking fast through the dense forest.
It wasn’t that this turtle was particularly agile, far from it, in fact, but rather that its strength was so immense that not even the tall and thick trees could hinder its movements.
Stretching out behind the turtle was a vast, flattened, swath of destruction, the result of it simply plowing its way forward, toppling everything in its path.
As Commander Levins was observing the beast on his brief flyby, the turtle was also observing him, one of its massive black eyes staring at the tiny being with a mixture of anger and indifference, like how someone would stare at an insect.
Passing within a few hundred metres of the beast, Commander Levins completed his scan of the turtle and swiftly formulated a plan, taking special note of a few things.
Firstly, when his own Soul Sense clashed with the turtle’s, Hubert Levins didn’t sense any kind of coherent warning or attempt to respond when he tried to communicate with it.
Now, this might just be the creature disdaining to respond, but it was much more likely a sign that it was only a Wild Beast, rather than a Spirit Beast.
It was something of an instinctive response to reply when someone called out to you, even for beasts, so Hubert Levins was fairly confident in this judgement.
This revelation was a great relief for the old Commander, as it meant his chances of holding the turtle back and possibly even escaping with his life had just risen from 0%, to at least 5%.
Wild Beasts fought almost entirely on raw emotion and natural instinct, making them easier to lead around and manipulate. That didn’t mean Wild Beasts were stupid and unable to act with cunning, just that they weren’t nearly as intelligent as humans.
Spirit Beasts, on the other hand, combined the strength of their Wild counterparts with intellect on par with humans, making them significantly more dangerous to challenge.
Secondly, even without performing any tests, old man Levins was certain that even his strongest attacks wouldn’t be able to damage the turtle’s shell. Not only was this shell incredibly hard and thick, there was also a stunning amount of Spirit Qi flowing through it, making it pretty much impenetrable to anyone below the High-Rank Spirit Adept Realm.
In other words, if Hubert Levins wanted to hurt this monster to draw its attention away from the survivors left in Redwood Town, he needed to target its head, its limbs, or its tail.
And that led to the third and most crucial point that Commander Levins had noticed in his brief flyover. The beast’s right rear flipper was injured, making it an ideal target.
Old man Levins hadn’t noticed the creature’s injury at first, but as he flew past the beast and began turning around, he had smelt the distinct scent of blood in the air, and when he looked down, he spotted a trail of red connected to the turtle’s rear limb. fгeewebnovёl.com
A Seventh Order Beast’s vitality was incredibly strong, as were its regenerative abilities, so it was obvious that this injury was brand new. Perhaps it was the result of some kind of accident that occurred when the turtle was pulled through the Spatial Tear and landed in the Great Western Forest, but Commander Levins couldn’t be certain.
Whatever the case, it was an opening the veteran warrior planned to take full advantage of.
Pulling hard on the reins of his Tartan, Commander Levins banked hard with his mount and lined himself up with the turtle, which had all but ignored him after their brief encounter.
Ordering his mount to climb, Hubert estimated that the turtle was now just 6 kilometres from where the Sunchaser was currently moored.
From what Lucas had told him, and what he had seen of the creature himself, Commander Levins knew that once this beast got within 5 kilometres of the military camp, it would be able to fully suppress the weakest Body Tempering Realm individuals there with its Soul Sense.
At the turtle’s current, determined pace, that left old man Hubert just 1 minute to stop it in its tracks.
With no time to waste, Commander Levins kicked hard, sending his mount into a dive as he pulled out a special throwing spear from his Space Bag and began channeling his Spirit Qi into it.
Fortunately, the beast still didn’t consider the metal-covered monkey approaching it from behind as a threat, allowing Commander Levins to fully charge the Spirit Weapon and fly to within just 100 metres of its right rear flipper.
Hurling the Firestorm Javelin using a combination of his own arm strength and the diving speed of his mount, Hubert Levins delivered a painful surprise to the Seventh Order turtle which had been ignoring him up until now.
The Firestorm Javelin was a disposable High-Rank Grade 1 Spirit Tool that was similar to the Firestorm Arrows used by Celestina in the battle for Herald City.
The advantage of the Javelin over the Arrow was that it was less complicated to manufacture, meaning it could even be refined by Spirit Smiths from bigger Mid-Sized Kingdoms. It was also made from much cheaper materials, reducing its cost to 50 Low-Grade Spirit Crystals, a tenth the cost of a single Firestorm Arrow.
The downsides were that Firestorm Javelins were much bulkier than their arrow counterpart, making their range shorter, and they were also less powerful, doing about a quarter the damage.
Still, for a Spirit Initiate, it was a useful weapon that was both cheaper and easier to use than Firestorm Arrows.
The effectiveness of the Firestorm Javelin became obvious when the one Hubert Levins threw struck the turtle’s injured flipper and exploded, causing blood and charred flesh to splatter out.
The turtle roared in anger when it felt this strike land and it immediately flailed its forelimbs in the direction it sensed the insect which had dared to attack it.
Obviously, no matter how massive the turtle was, its flippers couldn’t hit the airborne Commander, but the burst of Spirit Qi infused wind it sent out was still enough to make old man Hubert and his mount feel like they had been thrown into a tornado.
Despite being tossed about wildly by the raging winds, Commander Levins was able to maintain his grip and balance and even managed to hurl another ordinary throwing spear back towards the turtle, this time aiming for one of its gigantic eyes.
Forced to close its eyelids to shield its vulnerable visual organs, the Seventh Order Turtle briefly lost track of the pesky hairless ape, drawing more furious roars from its enormous maw.
Taking advantage of this brief window of opportunity, Commander Levins tried to circle around the turtle to get another hit in on its injured flipper.
He knew very well that the only reason he was able to cause any harm to this Seventh Order Beast was because it was already wounded. If not for the creature’s softer flesh being exposed by the large gaping cut on its limb, Hubert wouldn’t have dealt it any significant harm, even with a fully-charged Firestorm Javelin.
Unfortunately, now that the turtle had tasted a bit of pain at the old Commander’s hand, it no longer treated him as just an annoyance and had begun protecting its vulnerability from further attack.
Turning around with surprising agility, the turtle whipped its powerful forelimbs again, sending a storm of rocks and debris sailing through the air, forcing Commander Levins to take evasive action.
Such projectiles might not be able to hurt him, but the same couldn’t be said for his Tartan, so he had no choice but to focus on dodging rather than continuing with his attack.
Having gotten the beast’s attention now, Commander Levins gave up his plan to deal more damage and instead chose to retreat, hoping to lead the turtle away from Redwood Town.
However, whether it saw through old man Levin’s intentions, or simply didn’t consider him worth wasting its attention on now that he was ’fleeing’, the giant turtle promptly turned around and ignored him, instead continuing on towards the weaker monkeys it sensed in the opposite direction.
Seeing this, old man Levins couldn’t resist cursing as he again changed direction and flew back towards the beast, taking aim at its right rear flipper once more.
Sensing the flying monkey’s actions, the turtle responded by pivoting back and shielding its wound while launching more rocks into the air, this time with even greater strength. It even began infusing some of its Spirit Qi into the projectiles, making them more dangerous than before.
The battle quickly settled into a strange kind of back-and-forth struggle, with Commander Levins desperately trying to keep the beast focused on him while not dying, and the beast rampaging about, trying to score a hit on the annoying black bird and hairless monkey anytime they got too close.
This scenario, as awkward as it might have seemed, actually worked out in Commander Levin’s favour. He and his mount were struck a few times by flying rocks, but they still maintained a fair degree of combat capability and their efforts were quite successful in stalling the turtle.
Unfortunately, this stalemate was never meant to last.
