"What the hell? Did it just use the energy in its shell to create a barrier?" Travis said, surprised, before opening his eyes wide." Did it use the other symbol you talked about to do that? Is that possible?"

"That's my theory. It looks like different symbols can interact with each other in some ways." Nathan said.

"Well, that barrier might be annoying, but if it uses the energy it gets from the other rune, we should be able to continuously waste its energy before it can attack," Marianne said as she raised her staff into the air.

Realizing his companion was right, Travis activated his staff again to make it gather fire-energy from his surroundings while using his own to throw small fire projectiles toward the turtle.

In the meantime, Nathan used his staff to release a large amount of energy, and after compressing it into the shape of a spear, he made it fly towards the turtle's head.

The turtle activated its barrier again, and even though it managed to stop the projectile again, the spear still managed to penetrate the barrier by a few centimeters. This caused a crack in the turtle's energy protection, which grew in size until it covered the whole barrier and forced it to break apart.

Seeing their enemy's defense falling apart, Nathan used his energy to create small projectiles that he shot toward the turtle. With that, Travis and Nathan distracted the magical beast while Marianne prepared her attack.

She didn't usually attack directly, as she had specialized in supporting others, but as she had a large amount of earth-energy available in her staff, she decided to use it to try to land a good hit on her enemy.

After seeing how both her companion's attacks had worked against the beast's barrier, Marianne decided to create a large stone spear, as it seemed like it was better to focus all the might of her attack on a smaller spot if she wanted to penetrate through its defenses.

The spear floated for a few seconds above Marianne as she shaped the stone to the shape she needed before it flew at high speed toward the turtle, again aiming at its head.

This time, not only did the turtle summon its barrier, but it also hid its head inside its shell, clearly feeling the danger that Marianne's attack could cause it.

As predicted, the stone spear managed to traverse the barrier and even stab the magical beast's shell, and even though it didn't deal a lot of damage to it, it still got stuck, adding even more weight to the beast's body, making it harder for it to move.

Seeing itself in danger, the turtle began to walk toward the tree as if its life depended on it. Realizing what was happening, the three cultivators did their best to try to stop it.

While Travis and Nathan continued shooting projectiles, Marianne did her best to modify the floor under the turtle, trying to immobilize a leg or cause it to trip. Sadly, their efforts were in vain, as the beast managed to reach the tree either way.

Once it got there, it extended its head toward one of the shining fruits and ate it whole.

While this was happening, Travis managed to fill up his staff with energy again, and as before, he injected a small amount of energy into it to release its content. But this time, instead of a fireball, Travis used all that energy to create a flamethrower.

Using all that energy, the flames were so hot that the nearby tree's leaves caught fire without the need to touch the fire.

But when it looked like the turtle was done because its head would end up scorched, its shell began to shine with greater intensity than before, and a new barrier appeared in front of it.

This new barrier did not only block all the fire's damage to the beast but also covered the tree's body so it wouldn't catch fire.

When Travis's staff ran out of energy, the barrier in front of the beast disappeared as it opened its mouth. From it came a dim purple light before it shot a corruption ray toward Travis.

He realized he didn't have time to evade the attack, so he placed his staff in front of him and mentally prayed to Heaven that his plan would work the way he intended.