Blinding the Beast

The Great Turtle's aggro was completely focused on us. With this, Alto could safely stack damage while hiding and shooting.

"Leave the rear support to me yo!!"

Bashun, bashun — Alto fired rocks while recoiling backward. And those rocks actually hit the Great Turtle properly. Truly impressive.

"Alright, our turn… let's do this!"

"Mm, Spirit-sama. Tria will do her best…!"

The Great Turtle stuck its head out and glared at us. An intense gaze filled with rage. If looks could kill, I'd already be dead… wait, my HP gauge is slowly getting shaved off!? It really can kill with its gaze!? Light Heal!

"I had Penpen prepare HP recovery potions too, but don't push yourself!"

"Mm, Spirit-sama… Haaaah!!!"

She closed the distance with a short dash. Tria's combat ability was incomparable to when she first faced the Great Turtle. She punched upward at its chin — 25! The Enchant Thunder effect crackled, and she followed up with a kick to its neck. A heavy thud rang out, and though it didn't budge, 47 damage appeared.

… I don't know how much HP the enemy has left, but while its defense seems considerably higher than the Baby Turtles, our attacks are definitely going through!

"Good, it's working! But watch out for its attacks!"

"Huff… hah, okay!"

"BUMOAAAA!! AAAAAA!!! A-A-A-A-A-A!!!!!!"

With an ear-splitting scream that made me want to cover my ears, the Great Turtle swung its neck around. A massive battering ram of flesh. Getting hit by that thing wouldn't end well.

But then, BAGON! A rock flew in and its movement stopped for a moment.

"Hell yeah, 10 damage! Double digits yo!!"

"As expected of Alto, you're so reliable!"

In that moment of pause, Tria landed a kick. A knee strike aimed at crushing its throat, plus Thunder from me!! Combined 40 damage… that's low! Is the throat not much of a weak point, or is regular magic just not effective? Even though this should be a Thunder Kick, the electric effect didn't penetrate — it just slid across the surface like it was being deflected.

Brunn — it shook and knocked Tria-chan back. Oh, it's trying to bite us?

"Good opportunity, let's try this too!"

I tossed out a bomb Penpen had made for us from the inventory, throwing it into its mouth. I could see its tongue moving, trying to spit it out, but then more rocks were stuffed in. DOGON!! 70 damage!! With the rocks, that's 77!

No seriously, Alto is way too reliable. The sense of security is on another level. So glad we didn't challenge this solo…

"Nice shot! Thanks, Alto!"

"Hehe, of course yo."

"Spirit-sama, it's coming!"

Seeing the Great Turtle retract its neck, Tria took a backstep to create distance. The Great Turtle pulled in its head and started spinning — guru, guru, gurururu. We backed up even further. I had to warn her about Baby Turtles behind us. The Great Turtle charged.

"Hey hey hey, it doesn't care that Baby Turtles are in the way!?"

"It's totally enraged yo! Whoa, can't get damage through yo!"

Even Alto couldn't hit the turtle during its high-speed spin and charge — or so I thought, but she was apparently still landing hits somehow. I couldn't even see where the shell openings were.

Then the Baby Turtles retreated into their shells faster than I'd ever seen and got knocked flying. Ah, so it's an attack that at least won't kill its own kind… wait, Alto's over there!?

"Ah, I'm fine, dodged it yo. Had a bad feeling yo."

"… Alto-sama, aren't you way too strong?"

"Her reliability is off the charts."

Also, I didn't realize the minion Baby Turtles worked like that as a gimmick… Good thing we thinned their numbers a bit at the start.

"It stopped! Now's our chance!"

"Oh, it stuck its head out yo! Go for it, Tria-chan!"

"Mm. Y-yes."

The Great Turtle extended its head. Tria aimed for that precise moment. The tip of her right foot traced a trajectory straight toward its left eye. The Great Turtle tried to quickly raise its neck to dodge — only for a rock to stop it. Alto's covering fire! And then the boot knife strike — 1500!! Along with the absurdly large critical hit number, the knife on her boot's toe stabbed into the turtle's eye!

"BUMOAOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!"

"Ngh, urgh!?"

BACHI, BUCHIN! The sound of a string snapping. It was the knife attachment on the boot breaking off. The blade remained lodged in the turtle's left eye, making it shed bloody tears.

It was originally designed to detach under significant stress as a safety measure.

She couldn't gouge the eyeball out, but the left eye was completely destroyed.

"Oh boy oh boy, what an obvious weak point we just created yo!"

And then Alto targeted it. Shot after shot. 74, 80 — more than ten times the damage from before, even higher than our punches. But that was only possible with the skill to land direct hits on the eyeball and the knife embedded in it.

"You're hitting like you're using auto-aim cheats. Impressive."

"Hahah! Alto-chan's body is just that good yo! My body moves exactly how I think it, I can aim perfectly, my vision is crystal clear! Hitting a slowpoke like this is easy mode yo!"

The only time Alto missed was when the shot served as a feint to lock down its movement. The next shot always hit the eye… Forget auto-aim, she's predicting the future.

"… Yo, here it comes! Its aggro shifted to me yo! Now's the time, take out the right eye too!"

"Yeah, we still have one knife left on the other boot!"

"Mm…!!"

The Great Turtle finally shifted its attention away from Tria, who had been engaging it on the frontline. Sure, if you had enough HP that losing a single eye only cost 1500, Alto's single-digit damage probably didn't seem worth worrying about.

But now it was impossible to ignore. And that became the deciding factor.

"…—!!!"

"Thunder!!"

The bloodshot right eye. A mirror-perfect repeat of the left, positions completely swapped. The knife on her left boot was drawn toward the distracted eyeball as if magnetized — 1500!! … And then, as if stepping on a ledge, she bent her knee, used the stabbed eye as a foothold to scramble up, and spun — GURUN! BUCHI BUCHI BUCHI!!

This time, what tore wasn't the string holding the knife, but the Great Turtle's eye itself.

"Bua… BUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

An intense sound. Wind gusted with a GUWAN. And then, a sudden downpour.

The Great Turtle, its right eye dangling like a zombie, howled.

"Crap, visibility's really bad yo! … Ngh!? Ptooey, what the, the rain is red yo!?"

"Hey wait, the shell turned red too!?"

"The body turned black."

Red rain. The shell itself had turned red, and the limbs and head emerging from it had become black as solidified shadow.

… Second phase! A classic for boss fights!!