Chapter 33: Trap Turtle
Shin stood and looked outside, his eyes scanning the area around them for any abomination. "Wait here for a moment, I'll rush outside and see if I can spot any caves." He went out and started running in the snow.
As far as his eyes could see, he could only spot dead trees, snow, and dead bushes, but among them, one large slop appeared to be a bit out of place, the snow on it was quite shallow to the point he could see some stones and shrubs.
He stopped by a tree and snapped a branch to use as a weapon, he then ran around the slop to check it out. With everything covered with enough snow to sink a man to his knees, there is no way this slop shouldn't be fully buried down.
The conditions might be harsh but the overgod didn't drop them in a death trap, if they think well and look closely at their surrounding they'll find a way to survive. Just as Shin thought, the moment he got close he noticed a faint movement in the ground, this wasn't any slop.
The snow cracked open and a massive pair of jaws flew at his head. 'Just like a snapping turtle.' He dodged the attack with ease thanks to his new shoes landed beside a tree, his eyes looking at the large abomination with a glow in them.
The abomination before him was a house-sized turtle-like creature, highly armored but heavy and slow, the only fast thing about it was the fast snapping neck that could strike at an extreme speed and a range of about seven feet.
While fighting beneath the world tree roots in the underworld he faced far stronger enemies with even bigger power gaps. He probably had no way of damaging this abominable turtle, but that didn't mean he couldn't win. If he had learned anything in his life is that the bigger something is, the harder it'll fall.
Shin dodged the turtle's attack and guided it to a large tree. As he stood with the tree stuck to his back, he took a deep breath as he stood still and let the turtle approach him. It couldn't move faster than a human's walking speed, but that thing must weigh several tons and bite like a bear trap.
The turtle got close and he was in its range. Shin could feel sweat dripping across his back as his breath burned, looking at the monster's frog-like eyes. The moment he saw a wiggle in its pupils he dodged.
The turtle's jaw snapped shut, ripping a chunk out of the tree as Shin survived with a hair strand. All he needs to do now is make sure this slow thing doesn't walk away or retract its neck. He swung the stick he was holding at the turtle's eye, gouging it out. It roared in pain, and he immediately swung again, stabbing the base of its neck.
The wound wasn't enough to kill it, it was nothing more than a harmless poke, but since Shin aimed it at the base of the neck, each time the turtle tried to pull its neck back it was jolted with a stinging pain, causing her to keep her neck out.
With one blinded eye and a painful neck, the turtle growled in confusion, staying in its place as it looked for Shin, oblivious to what was coming. The tree it had bitten earlier was titling aside, almost falling.
A second later, the tree cracked and fell down. The turtle finally noticed it and tried to move its head out of the way. It couldn't pull it into its hard shell so it tried to move out of the way. At that moment Shin jumped out of the snow and stabbed her other eye with another stick, holding it in place.
Unlike the turtle, he's a human and can dodge the tree at the last moment. As the tree fell, he managed to evade it and the turtle ended up with its head crushed beneath the heavy trunk.
{Notice: First abomination killed, Trap Turtle.}
Shin wanted to celebrate his win, but he's fingers were already freezing to death, that could wait. He stole a glance at where the turtle was sitting before and a smile crossed his face as he ran back to the tree.
Ase and Mary were already getting worried about him, it's been several minutes since he left. Seeing him return the two jumped out of the tree, "What did happen?"
"I found something nice, bring a torch, and let's go." He said with a happy face but Ase dragged him by the hand into the tree. "Calm down, your lips are already dark blue and you're shaking from head to toe."
The two dragged him to the flame to warm up. Even with the resistance he got, he wasn't immune to the cold. As they sat him beside the flame he finally noticed how cold he got, his bones were stinking in agony.
"Sweating in this deathly cold isn't a wise idea it seems." While running or fighting the hot blood flowing through his veins would keep him feeling relatively well. But the moment he stops and the sweat evaporates it'll freeze his skin and bones in an instant.
Mary approached him, holding his shaking hands. "Calm down. What did happen?"
"I killed another abomination, a massive snapping turtle. It was slow so it wasn't that hard." He looked at them with a large smile on his face, "But I found something amazing where it was sitting."
After he warmed up he led the two back to where the turtle was. The two couldn't believe their eyes seeing how massive that thing was, and its head was crushed like a melon beneath a large tree.
Ase looked at it with an amazed face and Mary could only smile. She was right, whatever martial arts this man taught, they were priceless. Look at him killing a monster that should've taken five armed knights by just using the environment.
Shin took the two to where the turtle was sitting and they looked with shocked faces. A tiny hole in the ground led to darkness, a warm gust of air gushing out with a faint stream of steam dancing above it.
"A warm cave probably leads deep into underground, we might find the egg inside." Shin looked at them, "But who cares about that now? It's warm in there, the turtle was using this to survive."
He jumped inside and the two followed him. Now that they were inside the hot cave, Char could finally walk out of Ase's hair without fear of instantly freezing to death. She stretched her tiny limbs and looked around. "Where are we?"