Chapter 171
The Spirit Turtle tried to fend us off with its remaining scales. But these two weren't the sort to be stopped by a halfhearted interception.
The two slipped through the approaching scales and closed in on the Spirit Turtle's face. They were probably aiming for its eyes.
"Haaaaaaah!!"
"Hngh!!"
The two launched their full-force thrusts at the Spirit Turtle's eyes.
It looked as though they had made it through. Just as I thought that, their movements stopped in midair.
"Guh!!"
"Tch!!"
The two contorted their faces and tried to move, but they couldn't budge. Then they plummeted straight toward the ground.
The two somehow managed to land, but they couldn't move from the spot. Their movements were as sluggish as though weights had been placed on them.
"Gravity...!!"
As I fended off the scales, I realized the nature of the Spirit Turtle's ability.
Perhaps controlling these scales was another application of that ability.
If so, the two were in trouble. If its ability was related to gravity, attacks directed downward would become far more powerful.
The scales around me suddenly gathered near the Spirit Turtle's face.
Then the scales converged and transformed into two enormous spears.
The spears plunged straight down toward the two of them.
"Don't get carried away!!"
I opened a teleportation gate near Erna and bound the spears formed from the scales with curse chains.
The plunging spears were halted by the curse chains, and Erna moved to the teleportation gate, escaping the effects of gravity.
As for Egor, the spear aimed at him was stopped by a barrier Orihime had erected, and he seemed to have escaped gravity's effects just as Erna had.
That left me in the most dangerous position.
I quickly released the curse chains and moved away from the Spirit Turtle, then teleported the other three together.
"It seems to have a rather troublesome ability."
"Good grief. Being startled seems to have cured the shoulder stiffness I've had for years."
Egor proclaimed this with a booming laugh.
What kind of constitution lets someone cure their shoulder stiffness by being startled?
I turned my gaze toward Erna. She was glaring at the Spirit Turtle without even trying to hide her frustration.
"To slam me into the ground... How humiliating!"
"Good to see your fighting spirit hasn't diminished."
"Of course not! I'll cut it down no matter what!"
"Easier said than done. I doubt it will be easy to approach it, though."
Orihime posed the question.
She wasn't taunting us. She meant that charging in without a plan would be pointless.
She was absolutely right. If determination alone could break through, we would have done so just now.
"The same method will lead to the same result. We need to change our approach."
"What are we going to do?"
"We can't break through its defenses by attacking a weak point after getting close. Then we have no choice but to attack from outside."
I would have preferred to avoid that, but we had no choice but to break through the Spirit Turtle's defenses with everything we had.
If the four of us launched an all-out attack, the terrain would change. But we could no longer afford to worry about that.
If we didn't stop it here, the cities in the north would suffer damage.
However.
"Even so, it seems better to focus on defense first."
It must have seen a chance to press its attack.
The Spirit Turtle returned the scales it had gathered to their individual forms and scattered them around itself.
What was it planning?
"Whatever comes, I shall defend against it!"
"I'd appreciate that. I don't want to expend my strength before our all-out assault."
"Right. I'll leave all the defense to you. That's your strong point, after all."
"Don't make it sound as though that's my only strong point! I have countless strengths!"
"Oh? Is that so? Then could you tell me about them?"
"Glad you asked! My first strong point is my adorable ears! Second, my adorable tail! Third, I am absolutely adorable!"
"That's all about your appearance! None of that will be useful right now!"
"Fourth, I have a large bust for my age! It's much bigger than yours!"
"What did you say!?"
Sigh...
They could really say such ridiculous things with an enemy attack about to begin.
I suspect these people would argue like this even if their opponent were the Demon Lord.
"Egor-dono. They say that a Sword Saint like you can cut anything if given three chances. Do you think you can cut through the scales now?"
"Hmm. I've learned how hard they are. Next, I'll slice through them like thin paper."
As he said this, Egor showed an expression filled with fighting spirit.
That was probably Egor's true face—the face of the man called the Sword Saint.
No matter how much he acted like a kindly old man, his essence was that of a swordsman. He was not gentle enough to tolerate anything blocking his blade.
I couldn't imagine someone as skilled as Egor bluffing, either. He must have genuinely gotten a feel for the scales.
That being the case.
"Female Hero, can you swing the Holy Sword with all your strength?"
"What are you talking about? Of course I can."
"I mean whether you can draw out even more of the Holy Sword's power."
"...You certainly know a lot about the Holy Sword."
"I studied the Holy Sword as well when I learned ancient magic. So? It's the sword that defeated the Demon Lord. It has more power than this, doesn't it?"
"That's right. The Holy Sword has several seals placed on it, so removing them would increase its power even further. But... if I do that, the terrain will surely change."
"The concern is understandable. I had been worried about the same thing. But we can't leave it as it is. Steel yourself."
At my words, Erna quietly closed her eyes, then slowly nodded.
If Erna swung the Holy Sword in earnest, damage would be unavoidable. But leaving the Spirit Turtle alone would only increase the damage.
As I thought this, the Spirit Turtle opened its mouth. It was probably about to unleash its first breath.
We braced ourselves, but the Spirit Turtle did not immediately release the breath it had stored.
Then the Spirit Turtle released its fully charged breath into the sky.
"Hmm!? Has two hundred years made it senile!?"
"Of course not! It's coming back down!"
Just as Erna said, the breath it had fired into the sky dispersed into countless spheres and rained down from above.
It looked like a meteor shower.
Worse still, several scales transformed into shields to control the spheres' trajectories, deflecting the falling spheres and sending them along irregular paths.
Like mirrors reflecting light, the shields formed from scales deflected the black spheres and directed them toward us.
"This is a problem! I doubt I can hold out against attacks from every direction!"
"That's exactly what it's after! Dodge as many as you can!"
I gave the order and moved away from the area.
Even dispersed, it was still the Spirit Turtle's breath. No matter how strong Orihime's barrier was, spreading its power in every direction would eventually overwhelm it.
Orihime and Egor flew to the left, while Erna and I leaped to the right to evade the black spheres.
But that wasn't the end of the attack.
Two, then three spheres came after us.
Amid the chaos, I tried to teleport away with Erna, but her gaze was fixed on something else.
When I followed her gaze...
Erna was already running at full speed.
"You're kidding..."
There were two children in the direction Erna was looking.
A boy and a girl. They had probably become separated from their parents somewhere.
The two stared blankly at the sky.
The black spheres released by the Spirit Turtle had struck all around them, and the shockwaves alone would easily send the children flying.
That's why Erna ran.
To protect the children.
But under these circumstances, that left her fatally exposed.
"Wait! Erna!"
My voice was drowned out by one of the descending black spheres.
I clicked my tongue and opened a teleportation gate, but Erna continued forward despite the danger.
A little way ahead of Erna, a black sphere was heading toward where the children were.
It was a razor-thin race to see whether she would make it in time.
She must have known that, too.
Even so, Erna slid in front of the children and batted the black sphere away.
"Haaaaaaah!!"
But doing so brought Erna to a stop.
Our opponent wasn't about to overlook that opening. Several black spheres flew at Erna, and she couldn't fend them all off before they struck her head-on and sent her flying.