Moon and Mirage rested until they were back to near peak condition. Then, the horse and rider returned to the crater.
The turtle was no longer there.
A frown ford on Moon's face, the scene before his eyes didn't line up with the turtle's earlier behavior.
A massive hole had been dug into the ground at the center of the basin. Moon stared at it. There had been a hole before, he rembered that much, but it had been small, barely worth noticing. This one was wide enough to swallow the massive turtle whole.
"Did it give up and run? Or is this a trap?"
Moon gritted his teeth, turning it over in his head.
The turtle had never once tried to flee. Not in the first fight, not in the second. Both tis it had stood its ground and t him head-on. If it wanted to escape, it had plenty of chances before now.
Which led Moon to the conclusion that it was still down there, waiting.
If Moon followed it into that tunnel, he'd be walking into a tight corridor with no room to dodge and nowhere to retreat. The turtle would have every advantage.
Moon broke the silence by raising both hands.
He channeled [Ignite] in his right and gathered a powerful wind spell in his left, building both at the sa ti. The air around him grew hot on one side and restless on the other.
Then, he released both spells together.
~Whoosh~
The fireball and the wind blast spiraled into each other as they streaked toward the hole, funneling into the tunnel entrance one after the other.
Moon had taken a gamble. If the turtle had escaped, he would be essentially blocking of the path to follow it, making it difficult or perhaps impossible to track. If it remained…then he had hit the jackpot.
For a single second, nothing happened. Then the ground shook beneath their feet, as tremors began to vibrate across the crater and land.
A muffled roar of fire erupted from beneath the surface. The mouth of the tunnel belched out a column of smoke and dust that shot skyward. Chunks of rock and dirt rained down across the crater. Cracks split outward from the holes, and a section of the ground near the edge simply collapsed inward, swallowed by the blast below.
The rumbling didn't stop for several seconds. But when it did, the crater was quiet for a mont. Then the ground at the edge of the hole cracked again.
A massive jade shell pushed through the rubble. The turtle dragged itself out of the ruined tunnel, dirt and soot caked across its body. Its eyes locking onto Moon's body imdiately. For the first ti since the fight started, Moon could tell the beast was really furious, he had angered it more than ever before.
Moon grinned. "There you are."
Moon looked the turtle dead in the eyes and spread his arms wide.
"You dug a hole to hide from ?" He tilted his head. "I'm flattered. Really. A Supre creature, resorting to petty tricks to fight ."
The turtle snarled.
Moon's grin didn't fade, but his eyes locked onto its shell, studying it carefully. The earlier cracks had spread far and wide on its surface.
The small isolated fractures before were now connected by thin, weblike lines that branched across the jade surface in every direction. The two direct hits inside a confined space had sealed the nail on the coffin. It turned out the shell wasn't as invincible as he had thought, it had simply delayed its collapse.
The shell was finally starting to break. Moon's eyes widened in surprise as sothing caught his attention more than the cracked shell.
Tucked between the turtle's two front legs, cradled against its underbelly, was an egg. It was roughly the size of Moon's torso, pale green with faint jade veins running through its surface. The turtle was clutching it with both limbs, pressing it close to its body.
Moon's expression changed.
Everything suddenly made sense. Why the turtle never fled. Why it never chased them beyond the crater. Why it dug the tunnel instead of charging at them for a third ti.
It wasn't defending territory.
It was protecting its child, which was most likely in an important stage of its birth.
Moon's heart began to hamr in his chest.
'That egg belongs to a Supre creature.'
Unanswered questions began to swirl in his mind at once.
What kind of beast would hatch from it? Would the offspring be born at the Supre rank? Even if it wasn't, a creature with Supre blood would grow into sothing monstrous given enough ti and resources.
And if he took the egg now, while it was still unhatched...
'Could I ta it?'
The image flashed through his mind before he could stop it. A Supre turtle youngling, bonded to him from birth. Following his commands and fighting at his side alongside Mirage.
His mouth went dry at the thought. This was a discovery that he had never imagined he would co across.
An egg of a Supre Rank creature. Its value was enormous. If he were to sell it, Moon had no doubt it could reach tens of billions. And if people truly understood what it was, what it could beco, the price would climb even further. Perhaps into the trillions.
This was sothing that broke through what humans thought was possible.
Moon's eyes hardened.
"This turtle needs to die. And that egg needs to remain safe."
He gulped down the saliva that had built up in his mouth. For a mont, he shuddered at the thought of the egg breaking during the fight. One stray spell. One wrong angle. That was all it would take.
It would be like being the poorest man alive and throwing billions of dollars into a fire pit with your own hands.
Just thinking about it irked him.
He turned towards Mirage. "Mirage, that eggs needs to remain safe. Don't do anything that could result in breaking it, understood?"
Mirage neighed in understanding.
User Comments
0 comments from readers