34.

Standing on top of a giant turtle’s head as it chased after people wasn’t what I thought would happen when we came to attack the fort. I had expected something more in line with waves of bugs, and maybe some type of boss battle. Instead, I’m perched precariously on the hard skull of a turtle with wind whipping my hair about as I try to find a place to stab it. Every blow so far had done little more than dig a few inches into its skin before hitting impenetrable bone. Leaving a trail of bloody holes, I walked forward a few feet to stab down again, seeking a soft spot.

Luke was working toward an eye the last I saw him, clinging to the side of the creature’s head as he wormed closer and closer to the great orb. Both of us were starting to grow frustrated as everything we did was continually rebuffed. If we could somehow get the beast on its back we could cut our way in. That wasn’t happening without a crane though, so the two of us were now trying to figure a way to get to its brain. It wasn’t going well.

“Stupid fucking turtle!” I shouted as I lashed down. I felt the stir of mana inside, the recent upgrades giving a much bigger power to draw on. It was similar to discovering an unused muscle, just metaphysically, residing in my chest cavity. With a flex of thought and will, a rush of power surged from my sternum, floating up and into the spear as I stabbed down. Hazy red light glimmered around the point as the blade pierced skin, hit bone, and then punched straight through with a crack.

The turtle paused one huge foot in the air. The moment stretched out, I looked around the side of its wide head to see Luke looking at me curiously. Then the turtle screamed. Gale force winds whipped out of its mouth, the grass flattening all around it as I clapped my hands over my ears. My spear stood planted in the skull, quivering as the beast slammed its foot down with force. The ground rippled around it, dust flying out as it created a minute earthquake.

I staggered about, my equilibrium blown away as my ears rang, the world otherwise filled by a horrifying silence. I saw Luke dragging himself up from the side of the turtle's face, blood streaming from his ears. He was mouthing something at me, his jaw working quickly with an angry scowl on his face. I gave up trying to read his lips after a few attempts. A headache was blooming like a newborn star in my head and I just wanted to lay down and close my eyes for a few minutes.

Doing that on a marching four story monster wasn’t the best of ideas, so I had to shelve it. Exhaustion, bone deep and soul wearying, was dragging on me. I just wanted to lay down and take a nap for a week. Instead, I gritted my teeth, grabbed the wedged spear and pushed down with all of my body weight. I was a big man and my strength stat was getting up there into ridiculousness. The spear slowly started to slide deeper, digging through the cracked bone.

Luke saw what was happening and raced up, grabbed the end of the spear, and started to help. I was a bit annoyed that he was butting in, likely going to accumulate some of the experience for the kill, but I wasn’t going to be able to do it myself. While the bone was cracked, the spear didn’t want to go down. Both of us were big and strong and the spear froze, halfway buried in gore. Nothing we did could get it to go further down. Both of us lay nearly parallel as we put everything into just getting another inch. If either of us had been able to hear, we would have undoubtedly been aware of the storm of curse words flying about.

The turtle was staggering about, obviously feeling the spear we were wedging into its brain. It wasn’t falling though, staying on its feet even though it was staggering about like a drunk at three a.m. I let go of the spear, leaving it wobbling as the turtle continued to scream and thrash beneath us. I stayed low to the ground, the ground being a leathery turtle skull, and started to crawl over to where Luke had been trying to pierce an eye. Maybe the eye was the only way we could kill the damn thing.

Looking down the side of its bloody face, I was greeted by the sight of Luke’s spear buried into a black eye. So that hadn’t killed the damn thing either, and if it did have a high vitality, it was already healing. Fucking great. Frustration was overwhelming exhaustion as I started to scoot down toward the eye. I had a plan. It sucked and it was gross. I was going to do it regardless though.

The eye loomed in front of me, a six by three foot pitch black orb. Luke’s spear had been thrust so deep through the center it was almost completely buried. Seven or so feet directly drilled into the soft surface. I started to take deep breaths, filling my lungs and holding it for a moment. I hadn’t really measured how long I could hold my breath since I raised my constitution. I was a heavyset man and hadn’t done much cardio before the tutorial. I could have held my breath in a non-strenuous situation for maybe a minute to a minute and half? Maybe? For some reason, I had a feeling this was going to take longer than a minute or two.

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As my heart rate slowed, each breath holding longer and longer, I made a dagger out of my free hand. Fingers straight I plunged my hand into the jelly-like eye. The vibrations that rattled through me made me think of videos of people using jackhammers. My teeth were rattling around as I clung as hard as possible to the side of its face and in its eye. Still keeping my breaths even and slow. I started working my arm into the eye. The organ parted easily enough, soon I was up to my arm in the soft eye. It was like being in a pool of warm jelly. My rebellious stomach emptied itself, though I recovered quickly, struggling to keep my breathing even and slow.

Transferring over and into the eye was tricky. I was forced to use my arm as a lever to wiggle slowly deeper and deeper. Twice I almost slipped and fell; to what likely would have been a painful, but survivable, landing. I doubted the turtle would have hesitated before turning me to paste, but I think I would survive the fall itself. I had both legs inside of its eye, knees bent so I could fit into the ocular cavity. My feet had pulped the matter until my boots could dig into the bone itself. My right hand was grabbing the shaft of Luke’s abandoned spear, only my head still out in the clear air. I took my last breath, then closed my eyes as tightly as I could.

Crawling through a giant turtle eye wasn’t how I was expecting to spend my afternoon. In truth, I would prefer to do almost anything other than slowly pasting an eye so I could get closer and closer to where the ocular nerve should be connected to the brain. It was the toughest resistance training of my life, the viscosity of the eye was truly horrendous. The hot and slimy feeling invaded every crevice. My nose filled with it, the thick paste wedging between my lips to filly my mouth with its cloying taste. My battered ears, still ringing in the silence, popped as they too were invaded. My clothes became sodden, my boots were soaked. I was becoming increasingly destructive on my clothes.

On the other hand, I really didn’t need to breathe that often. After what felt like an eternity of wading about, I had no urge to take another breath. That was cool! I was fairly certain my mind was doing whatever it could to distract myself from what I was currently doing. I was going to have nightmares about this.

After an eternity of crawling about, I felt the hard ridges of bone. I just had to hope I was in a close enough spot. With Luke watching, I hadn’t risked using mana to further push the spear down or increase the damage. I wanted my ace to remain up my sleeve. Here though, I was more than free to summon the power I had touched on briefly just minutes ago. God, it had only been minutes.

The new muscle I had discovered was sore, aching as if I had just finished a hard workout. I still flexed it, pushed it to summon the FUCKING MAGIC I COULD USE! Even in the situation I was in, it still boggled my mind that I got to use magic. All I’d had to do was kill things. And some people. Fair trade.

I didn’t have the same amount of momentum I had when I had broken through the first time. Instead, I had to wiggle and dig Luke’s spear into the bone. Bone broke and the spear surged forward, I leaned back, one hand braced above the puncture wound, and started to shove and wiggle the spear all around. There was definitely something on the other side, the spear was facing tough resistance as it cut and tore on the other side of the bone wall. I just had to hope it was enough to finally kill the damn thing.

Minutes stretched out longer and longer as my mana was finally exhausted. The straining metaphysical muscle in my sternum cramping and failing and causing me enough pain that I now had the knowledge of what a heart attack felt like. I kept going, using just my natural stats as the urge to breathe started to slowly emerge. I finally gave up, needing to breathe. I slammed the spear all the way in; if for no reason than a bit of malice, then turned to start my way back to freedom. The rush of kill energy took me by surprise.

It bent me in double, heat suffusing me till I was an inferno. I had never felt this much kill energy before, even when fighting the wasp variants. I could swear that the liquefied eye was boiling as I continued on my way out. Something was wrong, the feeling of weightlessness hitting me, my feet rising up off of the ‘floor’. Shit, the big guy was falling. The mass of semi-liquid eye protected me, ironically enough. I felt us hit the ground, the entire damn world shook, but I was floating suspended and felt only the most minor of ripples.

Another few minutes of digging and swimming in the black as my minor urge to breathe was rapidly forming into a burning NEED to breathe. A flailing hand punched out of liquid, feeling the weightlessness of fresh air. I dug and pushed, desperate to get out of the eye. My head broke free, the rush of cold air a soothing balm on my face as I I gasped and took in a lung full of fresh air. Also, a mouthful of eye. It was cloying and tasted of iron and rotting hamburger. I threw up again.

“That was metal! Until you threw up. I think I’m the only one who saw it.” Miguel’s voice was in my ear as the speedster had decided he needed to race up to the now dead turtle and investigate. I was glad I got the teenager’s approval. It meant the world to me.

“Just help me get the fuck out. Please.”

“Since you asked so nicely,” Miguel said with a laugh. He paid little matter to the viscera that clung to him by helping pull me free. He didn’t try to catch me though, allowing me the short fall to the muddy ground. Mud created by blood. I should just give up on wearing clean clothes. The world was out against me.

Congratulations you have leveled (x1)

One level!?!?!?!!? ONE FUCKNG LEVEL!!!!!!!!