Aswelth

Aswelth looked at the turtle beast with a grim look in his eyes. The beast was clearly more powerful than him, but that would not stop him from killing it. Calling on his Qi, he sent a wave of fire towards the beast, making sure to spread it evenly enough that its entire length was blue. Sadly for him, the turtle was not so easily outdone. The beast erected walls of water around itself, letting the wave crash into it.

And then the dance began. A deadly dance of man and beast as they tried to kill each other. Aswelth made waves of elements, smoldering the forest around the turtle to restrict its movement. So that the next time the turtle moved around, it would find itself in stepping on molten rock or boiling water.

The turtle was not having that. The beast conjured huge waves of water, spreading them around and forcing Aswelth to dodge into the air where an attack awaited him. A quick reaction had him conjuring a shield, but that did little but delay the attack.

Cones of earth pierced into Aswelth as he sent out three waves of Fire in retaliation. The turtle attempted to escape, clearly not expecting its prey to attack while it was in pain. But the turtle had a shell and Aswelth did not. A smoldered shell did little to actually hurt the turtle, an arm with cones in it was far more painful.

Aswelth sagged in the air as he pulled the cones out, sparing precious Qi to heal the arm. But the turtle did not give him the time he needed, it had already sent cones of Fire at Aswelth while he was healing. Veering away from the cones, Aswelth sent a wave of water at the cones, extinguishing them but wasting too much of his Qi. And that was when Aswelth realized the real advantage the turtle wielded. The turtle's method of using Qi was far better.

While Aswelth could only use mass attacks, the turtle could target him. When Aswelth counterattacked, the turtle would erect walls of countering elements.But Aswelth would put up a fight nonetheless.

Gathering more Qi, he once more tried to corner the turtle. A wave of fire from the right, ice from the front and Lightning from the center to finish it off. But the turtle was still not having it. Almost immediately, walls of countering elements stood up to stop the waves, confirming that it did indeed have two separate methods.

The battle was hopeless. Eventually he would run out of Qi as the turtle kept on defending and counterattacking. But if he was about to die, then Aswelth would take the turtle down with him. And like that, Aswelth began to fight.

Altura

I emerged from the room to find Xerte waiting for me, his face haggard and his clothes a mess. Clearly, something had gone down that I was unaware of.

“What happened?” I asked him.

“A Treeling stage beast has approached the fortress, your grace.” Xerte replied. “I was sent to wake you up, General Aswelth has gone to kill it and… it’s not going very well.”

“How not well?” I asked back as we started rushing towards the wall.

“The scouts report that he is losing your grace. I would recommend that you call upon the Diamond adventurers and the Division commanders to assault the beast. Perhaps with you in the Treeling stage we can deal with it.” Xerte suggested.

“Agreed. Get them to move out, I shall go and check out the situation.” I replied as I took to the air. Waiting around would just put aswelth in more danger. Besides, I trusted the rest of them ot handle the situation.

Finding Aswelth was easy. Just look for the Giant turtle fighting against a bloodied man. The plethora of magic that was in use did not help either.

But Xerte was right. The battle was not going well. No matter what Aswelth used, he would get shot down by the turtle. In many ways the turtle was similar to me, using two techniques to maximize their effect. As I watched, the turtle attempted to shoot Aswelth down from the sky, forcing him down with wave after wave of cones.

The walls that it erected around itself stopped most of Aswelth’s counters, though I could see a few doing damage. The turtle was certainly not getting away scot free, but Aswelth was losing.

‘Fire, Ice and Lightning! Come to my aid! Show me your power and wreck this turtle’s face!’

I poured thirty thousand Qi into the endeavor, the amount now doable with my new Qi pool. The turtle’s defenses faltered as it came under new attack, something that Aswelth should have taken advantage of. But he didn’t. Blood ran down his face as he bled from seven different places across his body. Shaking, he tried to stand up from the ground only for me to stop him.

“Retreat Aswelth.” I ordered. “Retreat and recuperate. I will handle this from here. And should I fall, run. Abandon the fortress, evacuate the City and run. The turtle might be our last enemy, or it might be the first of many more the waves have in store. I deem you heir to this duchy, and should I pass today, I give you command.”

Frankly, if there was one person I could give the duchy to, it was Aswelth. No one was more familiar with the duchy and its workings than him. But that was enough of that. I had a beast to kill. Aswelth nodded at me, not yet taking flight but instead resting by a nearby tree trunk.

I assessed the turtle from afar, observing it for weak points. The turtle was slow, as most turtles were. The best way to counter it seemed to be to take to the air and circle it, but that would just put me in the same fighting position as Aswelth. And then there was the turtle's main weak point. The belly. Get below it and it was dead. The slow speed and lacking natural defenses would sign its death certificate.

But the problem was the walls. The turtle seemed to have too many of them. Now to see if I could do anything about that. I took to the air, keeping my altitude very low, only a few meters above the ground, as I shot attacks at it, varying my elements so that it couldn’t just counter them.

I suppose this was another failure of Aswelth’s, his attacks took way too much Qi to use, and the turtle could easily counter them. Sadly for it, I was not as limited. I incanted as I went, setting automated attacks to occur all around the turtle to confuse its senses as I controlled a more flexible Fire attack with my self-founded method.

Finally, I got close to the turtle. I feinted with a Lightning attack, making it counter using an Earthen wall. Then I used my true attack, a blast of Fire.

The Fire burned through the rock, leaving a smoldering trail, but it still failed. I had forgotten that Earth was actually a better option. While Water was the traditional counter, at these high speeds it would be hard for Water to extinguish fire. Earth would force Fire to drill through it.

But I was not about to give up just yet. I conjured another Fire attack, burrowing through the wall and breaking through the rest of the way. A bad decision. The turtle was slow, its magic was not. Boiling hot geysers greeted me on the other side, the turtle had set up a trap to kill me.

The thing had now withdrawn into its shell, depriving me of my target. I floundered in the air as I tried to escape the geysers, desperately trying to put up shields and freeze the geysers with ice.

Perhaps a large spell was in order. I conjured an image of snowfall in my mind, imagining the temperature dropping. And it worked. At the cost of over a hundred thousand Qi, I summoned snow to quench the geysers. I had, by now, spent over two hundred thousand Qi on this turtle.

I suddenly knew why people didn’t just kill higher stage beasts. And why there were so few Trees. The difficulty increased absurdly. But I was not dead yet. The snow had effectively countered the geysers, and the turtle was now in a defensive posture.

The only way I was ever gonna win was if I finished it off before it realized I was still alive and attacked. I floated close to the biggest opening in the shell, the one that had to have the head. The opening was blocked by an Earth wall, presumably a thick one.

I gathered the rest of my Qi, sending it out in a single Fire attack. Sadly, no other element would be effective. A huge string of FIre shot out from my hands as it breached into the wall, burrowing deep and fast, reaching the other side at an astonishing pace.

And then it was time for the final attack. Before the turtle, which was already reacting, had time to defend itself, I detonated it. A massive, uncontrolled explosion within the confined area of the turtle’s shell

I was still thrown back by the sheer force of it as the turtle exploded from within. I angled myself to land and erect defenses to weather out the explosion when I suddenly found myself under further assault.

A dagger pierced my body, teleporting past my remaining defenses. I heard a faint voice call out as I lost consciousness.

“Such a waste. But that is what awaits those that oppose the Shadow Prince.”