Boss Defeated

The Great Turtle, its eyes both destroyed, had turned red and black in its second form.

… Could its originally red eyes have been not bloodshot, but a preview of its second form? More importantly, its shell turning red… that would be impossible for a normal creature.

"Oh oh oh! Its face is black and its shell is bright red yo!"

"This part really feels like a game! Wonder if the eyes would've been red too if they were still there."

A face turns red when increased blood flow causes vessels to expand under soft skin, letting the redness show through. The body turning black could be a color change like an octopus's camouflage, but a turtle's hard shell is armor and shield — it shouldn't have such unnecessary functions.

It wasn't that rain stuck to it, nor was blood painted on the shell. The redness was purely an effect. Plus, the grooves in the shell started glowing with fluorescent light.

"GRMOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"

"My, don't you look cool! Ready to kill, aren't you — same here!"

"It's coming yo!!"

A roar. Alto covered her ears while shooting, but her damage was only showing 0s and 1s.

Aiming must be difficult in this downpour, yet she was still hitting. Impressive as always.

"Geh, its defense spiked way too high yo!? If I can't do damage, I'm basically useless yo!?"

"!! No, it's the rain — we're debuffed! … Roll!"

"Got it!"

With a roll and splash into the increasingly muddy ground, a breath — no, a laser — shot through where we'd just been. A moment later, explosions went off in rapid succession. Tria's body was lifted slightly by the blast wave.

"Ohohoh! The laser explodes after a delay yo! What kind of logic is that yo!?"

"Maybe the initial laser embeds bombs or something?"

"I wanna recreate that in real life yo!"

We applied Penpen's homemade debuff-clearing status recovery potion. The stat debuffs were cleared from our parameters, but with this rain, it was only a matter of time before we got debuffed again. Alto had similarly doused herself in potion.

"Guess this means we need to beat it quick — potions aren't unlimited after all."

"Oh oh oh! My damage is back but it's still half what it was yo, be careful with melee too yo! One-hit KOs are possible yo!"

"Whoops, there are Baby Turtles too, both of you watch out!"

"! Actually, this is it, Spirit-sama!"

Then Tria smoothly took down one Baby Turtle, lifted its small-car-sized corpse — Lv 30 sure made her strong — and threw it! CLANG!! A dull impact and 120 damage!

"Oh oh oh! I see, pinball yo!"

Alto shot the corpse, sending it bouncing. BANG! It crashed into the Great Turtle — 83 damage!

"BWAAAAAAA!!!!"

The Great Turtle retracted its head and started spinning.

"Again yo! So predictable yo… No wait, watch out for the laser!! Use a Baby Turtle as a shield yo!"

"Whoa crap! Spinning while firing lasers, seriously!? Tria!"

"Yes!"

We hid behind a Baby Turtle, weathering the laser barrage. Boom, boom boom, boom boom boom! There were explosions everywhere. Without the Baby Turtle as a shield, we'd have been blown to bits instantly. Actually, the Baby Turtle got blasted and went down too. It doesn't care about hitting its own offspring in this form!?

Getting caught in the blast and tumbling, we took cover behind an intact Baby Turtle.

"Gboh! G-got grazed by the blast yo… And hey, the debuff's already back yo, potion, potion!"

"Same here. Sheesh, for a turtle you sure are impatient…"

"Mm, thank you, Spirit-sama."

While using Light Heal, I used another potion. Should've asked Penpen to make more status cleansers instead of HP ones.

Still, in this situation, without friend chat we couldn't even communicate over the explosions and torrential rain. If NPCs had gathered soldiers and charged in like this, they'd have been wiped out by this destructive power.

"Not sure how long the Baby Turtle wall will hold, should we retreat for now?"

"No, we can hold yo. We've almost beat it yo."

Alto shot a rock from behind the Baby Turtle, ricocheting a Baby Turtle corpse into the spinning Great Turtle. It scraped against it with a grating sound — 30 damage. The Baby Turtle corpse went flying.

"Tch, it's harder during the spin yo."

"Any basis for saying we've almost beat it?"

"Its movements are getting sluggish. Isn't it almost out of energy yo?"

Now that she mentioned it, the explosions were becoming intermittent, and the rain seemed to be weakening too.

… But unless we did something about the rain, we couldn't endure. Should've bought an umbrella.

"It stopped yo, now's our chance! Quick and decisive — we'll finish it in one turn yo!!"

"Go, Tria!"

"Yes!"

Dashing to close the distance, I dropped one of Penpen's bombs directly into the hole in the stopped Great Turtle's head. BOOM! 70 damage!

Then its head emerged. Kick! With Enchant Thunder added — 124 damage!

"Haha, damage numbers are so convenient — you can tell right away if an attack's effective!"

"Watch out for bites yo!"

"If it wants to bite, let's give it something to chew on! Here's another bomb — throw it with everything you've got!"

"Right!! Heeyah!"

I put a bomb in Tria's hand and had her throw it at its mouth. At this range, impossible to miss — the bomb exploded deep in its throat. Oh, 100 damage. Timing it right, we kept throwing — 102, 110, 105!!

"Grururu, grururu…!!!"

And that motion was circular. Meaning, it was going straight into the charge-up motion!

"Covering fire yo!"

BOOM, BOOM! Blue-white flame-wreathed rocks harassed the Great Turtle's limbs. Each hit dealing 40 damage… In that opening, charge complete! The target: where the left eye used to be, the still-embedded knife!

"Go, Tria!!"

"Yes — Kick!!!"

"GYAAAAAAAAA!!!"

Wait, a kick!? Charging works for kicks too!? And — 3000 damage!? She drove the knife lodged in its eye even deeper!! That's got to be fatal!!

"We won."

"Hey! Don't say stuff that could raise flags!"

"… That's why I said it after it collapsed yo?"

"Hm?"

Looking over, the light on the Great Turtle's shell was fading away. The rain stopped, and sunlight broke through. Even kicking it more didn't show any damage numbers… Did we win? Oh, whoa, my level jumped all the way to 36!?

"Hah, ahhhh…"

"Wahoo, we did it yo! Boss defeated yo!!"

"Good work, Tria. Light Heal."

"Fwah… Thank you…"

Tria plopped down with a splash on the muddy ground.

There was material collection from the Great Turtle to do, but I figured we'd rest for a bit first… As I watched, a soft white light started rising from the Great Turtle's body — and it vanished with a poof.

"S-Spirit-sama!! The Great Turtle…!?"

"Yeah. Bosses disappear when you beat them, I guess."

"Any drops left behind yo? Oh, found some yo."

"Y-you're so calm… Tria was very surprised."

What was left where the Great Turtle had vanished was a large, deep blue crystal. Despite how red it had been.

Was this the Great Turtle's drop item? Hmm, it looked very much like some kind of key item. I would've preferred materials, but if it's a key item, then it can't be helped… Yeah, we'll just have to make do with the remaining Baby Turtles for materials…

I lifted the crystal, cradling it.

At that moment, a voice came from somewhere — probably from the heavens.

[Congratulations on defeating the boss. "Second Character" has been unlocked. You can select an additional character from the system menu.]

It seemed a new system had been unlocked.