Free Web NovelChapter 222: Final Roar
When the Seventh Order turtle returned home after hunting in the deep sea, it could sense that great destruction and havoc had been done to its domain and it was understandably angered.
However, when it searched for who or what was responsible for this offence, the only creatures that seemed out of place were a pair of small, hairless monkeys.
The turtle had lived alone in these waters for over 200 years and had actually encountered similar hairless creatures before, riding on strange wooden constructs, but those monkeys had always run off the moment they sensed it.
Now, it seemed, these hairless monkeys had become bolder and actually decided to invade its territory.
The 2 small monkeys it spotted seemed far too weak to have caused such extensive damage by themselves, so they probably weren’t the primary culprits behind this mess; but still, the turtle wasn’t about to let pests rummage around its nest and escape with their lives.
Just as it was about to squash them, though, the 2 hairless monkeys somehow managed to disappear, confusing and angering the turtle even more.
Scrambling back to shore, the Seventh Order Beast expanded its search further, and at the very edge of its Soul Sense’s range, it was able to detect a large gathering of similar hairless monkeys, some of whom were much stronger than the pair it just lost track of.
Determined to exterminate this infestation, the giant turtle began making its way over to the newly appeared colony when, all of a sudden, it felt a massive suction force on its body and was somehow pulled away from its domain.
Less than a second later, it was dropped into a dark, unfamiliar forest.
It had no idea how it had been transported to this new place, but it did know that in the process, the tip of one of its rear flippers had been badly mangled, causing it great pain.
Stranded in a foreign land, injured, and knowing that even now, its home was being invaded by inferior bugs, the turtle was completely enraged and let loose a deafening roar.
Unable to fully vent its rage just by howling, the turtle began searching for someone to take its fury out on; and when it did, it quickly sensed the original 2 hairless monkeys.
In the turtle’s mind, since these 2 strange monkeys had been ransacking its home, and they were now here in this alien woodland, there was no way they weren’t responsible in some way for its suffering.
There were also some other hairless monkeys around, most of them just as weak as the first 2 while one was a little bit stronger.
Under normal circumstances, the giant turtle wouldn’t have cared about such puny creatures; as far as it was concerned, they were all just bugs it could squash at will. As long as they stayed out of its way, they could keep their pathetic lives.
However, right now, the turtle was seeing red, so all these inferior monkeys needed to die, especially the 2 it knew had defiled its home and then led it here.
Plowing its way through the forest, the turtle could sense that the monkeys were all gathering in one place, seemingly running away from it. In response, it just scoffed.
Even if it was trapped on land, there was no way such weak creatures could escape from it.
In fact, it wouldn’t be long before it could use it aura to suppress the monkeys and begin flattening them. Of course, it wouldn’t kill them all that way, it still needed to physically smash some in order to sooth its anger.
Then, something surprising happened.
The strongest of the hairless monkeys hopped onto a small black bird and flew up into the sky.
At first, the turtle thought this stronger monkey was trying to escape; but then, astonishingly, this monkey actually turned and headed towards it!
The Seven Order turtle had no idea why this monkey would do this; surely it wasn’t going to try to fight it, right? That would be utterly foolish.
After deciding that the approaching bird and monkey were no threat, the turtle decided to ignore them and continue with its original plan.
A couple minutes later, the stronger hairless monkey appeared.
The turtle spared the flying monkey a glance before looking away with disinterest. Its goal was to kill as many of these pests as possible, and knowing its prey could fly, if it got distracted here, the bigger group might just sneak away.
Everything seemed to be going just fine, and it would soon be able to exact its revenge on the heinous invaders, but then the turtle felt that something was off behind it. freewebnoveℓ.com
The stronger hairless monkey had turned back and was now flying towards it again.
Before the Seventh Order Beast could figure out what was happening, it felt something strike its wounded rear flipper, then a burning heat, then a wave of pain.
Letting out a roar, the turtle instantly realized it had underestimated the audacity of the flying monkey and swiftly locked its senses onto it, striking the ground around it in an attempt to knock the pest from the sky.
Unfortunately for the beast, it’s response just now had been more a reflex than a proper attack, so it failed to stop the insolent creature. The hairless monkey even managed to attack its eye, though this time it didn’t manage to pierce its defences
While the turtle was angered that a weakling had managed to hurt it, it still didn’t see the flying monkey as a threat, so it only did its best to chase it away before going back to its original mission.
However, that seemed to be a mistake.
The flying hairless monkey took advantage of its indifference and continued to pester it, causing the turtle to grow more and more annoyed until finally, it couldn’t stand it anymore.
If this flying monkey was so eager to die, then it could die first.
Slaughtering the rest of the weaker monkeys could come later!
.....
Just over 4 minutes had passed since Commander Levins landed his first Firestorm Javelin, and despite several close calls, he and his mount remained in relatively good shape. When he made his latest pass above the turtle, however, he noticed that something had changed.
Since the start of the fight, the Seventh Order Beast had only reacted passively to his taunting, striking back only after he attacked first or when he got too close to its rear right flipper.
Now, however, it had locked its eyes onto him and was following his movements.
Gripping the reins tight, old man Hubert felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. It would be a lie to say he wasn’t frightened right now, being glared at by such a powerful enemy; but this was also the opportunity he had been looking for.
Seems I finally got its full attention, Commander Levins thought to himself before wheeling around and heading back towards the east, again hoping to draw the turtle further away from Redwood Town and buy more time for the others to flee.
The instant he turned his back to the turtle, however, Hubert Levins’ instincts screamed out to him.
Without hesitating, the veteran warrior yanked hard on the reins, sending the Tartan he was riding into a frantic roll, but his reaction came a moment too late.
Commander Levins wasn’t sure what the giant turtle had shot him with, but whatever it was had clipped his mount, blasting away almost half of its left wing.
The Tartan let out a piercing cry as it began to spiral uncontrollably. Not only was it in incredible pain, it had also lost the ability to balance itself properly, so staying aloft was impossible.
Realizing the critical situation he was in, Commander Levins had no time to analyse what had just happened. He had to focus on surviving.
The good news was that old man Hubert wasn’t flying too high right now, only about 150 metres above the ground. A fall from such a height wouldn’t kill a High-Rank Spirit Initiate like him as long as he landed properly.
The bad news was that he was only a few hundred metres away from the giant turtle, and by the time he hit the ground, it would likely already be on top of him.
Frowning deeply, Commander Levins unhooked himself from the Tartan and silently apologized to it in his heart. He didn’t know if this beast had a name, but it had served him loyally against a foe many times more powerful than itself.
This Tartan had proven to be a worthy partner, and it pained the old man to abandon it just like that, but he took a little comfort in thinking he would soon join it in its journey to the next life.
Leaping off the back of the falling Tartan, Hubert Levins did his best to direct himself towards the tallest nearby tree.
Missing the mark slightly, the old man crashed through a couple dozen broad branches as he tumbled to the ground, eventually landing with a thud on his back.
Old man Levins was in great pain, and he could feel that he had cracked a few of his ribs as well as dislocated his right arm, but that didn’t stop him from scrambling to his feet.
By the time he stood up, however, the Seventh Order Beast had smashed its way over to where he landed and was now staring down at him menacingly.
That wasn’t all, though.
Opening its giant maw, the enormous turtle began gathering its Spirit Qi and condensing it into a glowing blue ball.
Observing the giant beast’s actions, Commander Levins understood how he had just been shot down. Obviously, this turtle had not taken him seriously from the start; if it had, it could have easily killed him with just a few of these attacks.
In fact, it still wasn’t taking him seriously as it was leisurely charging up its attack, almost as if it was mocking him.
Commander Levins felt it was only natural that this beast didn’t see him as a worthy opponent; after all, it was many times stronger than him, and it had him completely cornered.
That being said, he wasn’t going to just lie down meekly and let himself be killed.
"You think you’ve won?" Commander Hubert Levins muttered aloud before lifting his head and shouting, "Maybe you have, but I’ll make you regret looking down on this old man!"
Dropping his trusty spear, Hubert began gathering all his remaining Spirit, Martial, and Soul Qi towards his Core, rapidly pushing it beyond its limits.
Blood vessels and meridians all over his body began to rupture, and the pain he felt was enough to make an ordinary man pass out, but through it all, Commander Levins just grinned wildly.
Kicking off the ground, Hubert Levins sprinted towards the beast, an action that clearly caught the turtle by surprise.
Leaping up, the old man let loose a final roar, "If this is where I am to meet my end, then I might as well go out with a bang!"
