The Caldera was isolated high up in the mountains. That would normally mean that they lacked exposure to many animals that would be widespread in other regions. Crabs were a good example. No crabs lived in a mountaintop spring, yet the Caldera was aware enough of crabs to name a similar looking mythical beast after them.
The reason why was simple. Books. The Caldera was populated by the survivors who escaped with grand ancestor Sai and those who survived the crashing cultist citadel. Sai set up the government system of elders and built the ramparts while the cult built the temple and propagated their religion along with the books that survived the crash. Those books included information about wildlife outside the Caldera.
All this was to say, Tristan knew what a turtle was. He had no sense for the appropriate scale, but he had assumed it to be smaller than a cow. These creatures had four tree trunk legs tipped with black claws that supported a dome of a shell. Tristan was taller than their backs, but not by much. The black shell had a glossy sheen that made it difficult to make out the gaps between its plates.
A long green neck extended from the front of the shell. The head was fairly normal with the exception of the lower jaw. Black beady eyes sat in a doughy green head, the serrated lower jaw was made of the same black bone as the shell, giving the appearance of a jagged underbite. All four of them were pawing at the walls, pulling stone out and crunching it into gravel between its jaws before swallowing it.
Vulcan finally answered, “No. Those are tortoises and they are normally the size of one of your cattle dogs.”
Tristan took a step into the clearing. The sun had set and most of the light was being provided by Viral now. All four heads snapped up in unison. Eight beady eyes glared at Tristan. He froze. For a few moments, only the sound of chewing could be heard. Then the nearest tortoise swallowed and hissed. Something changed in its eyes, Tristan was not quite sure what, but he did not intend to sit around and find out.
He sprinted toward the piece of ore in the center of the circle. The hiss cut off, only to be replaced by the sound of thundering feet. Tristan was under the impression that tortoises were slow, a correct assumption but everything was relative. A tier four tortoise would obviously be slower than a tier four horse. Tristan was way slower than a tier four horse and only slightly faster than a tier four turtle.
Vulcan was yelling something about how long its stride was, but Tristan wasn’t paying attention. It did not matter why the mythical beasts were fast, only that they were. He was halfway to the piece of ore when his metal sense alerted him to danger. A large chunk of wolframite was hurtling at his head.
Tristan dove into a roll. Several dozen rocks and a few chunks of metal flew over his head to impact the wall. That was close, without the metal mixed in he would have taken the stone cannonballs to the side. He glanced over to see a tortoise’s neck bloat like a balloon before it collapsed, throwing a storm of stone shards at Tristan.
He cursed and veered off his path. The stones missed and the amphibian chasing him was unable to change directions. After it passed, he started towards the ore again. Another one hissed and ran at him. They had a funny looking waddle that would have been hilarious if they hadn’t been a legitimate threat to his life.
Tristan drew his knife and sidestepped the charging beast. It rushed past, but not before he stabbed it in the neck. The blade sank easily into the soft green flesh running a line down its neck as it ran. Then the edge hit the shell, got caught, and was torn out of Tristan’s hands.
His fingers went numb and he stared in disbelief as his knife was carried off by the tortoise. The neck wound was bad, but not life threatening. He needed a plan, something that the beasts weren’t keen on giving him time to develop. Tristan weaved between two sprays of stone and almost got smashed as the first tortoise bounced off the wall and hurtled at him.
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The tortoise had tucked its head into its shell and rammed the wall at high speed. Stone chipped, but the edge of the shell reacted like rubber, bouncing the creature back at Tristan. The one with his knife did something similar, giving Tristan far less time to react than he had counted on.
While it was difficult, Tristan was making progress towards the ore. Everything that these mythical beasts did was in a straight line. They could run but did not seem to be able to turn or stop. They could spit rocks like cannons, but they always aimed where he was, not where he would be.
After nearly twenty minutes of weaving and dodging, he made it to the fist sized piece of ore. He waited for an opportunity to pick it up. The rock spitting tortoises seemed to be waiting for him to stoop down and pick it up. It was a good plan, as far as these beasts were concerned. Unfortunately for them, Tristan did not need to pick it up.
He kicked the metal rock with the intent of treating it like a ball to get it out of this open area. It was way heavier than he had expected, the stone only rolled a few feet. Tristan almost doubled over in pain. The ore might have been the size of his fist, but it weighed at least fifty pounds. His toes might have just been jammed. Tristan did not have time to ruminate on his pain as the two tortoises decided a stubbed toe was a good enough distraction.
Dropping to the ground saved him, but he was too slow to rise again. The first tortoise rumbled towards him. If Tristan couldn’t stand up in time he would just have to go under its belly. He made his body as straight as a plumb line and relied on the tortoise’s inability to turn. The shell was nearly as tall as Tristan was, but there was a respectable amount of space below it.
As the beast went over Tristan, blocking out the sky, he reached up and used a combination of decay and infusion. Touching the underside of the tortoise, he let trails of decay flow from his fingers. The force went to work rotting out the bottom of the shell. Either there were no nerves on the shell or the beast did not feel pain as it did not so much as grunt from getting a fistful of decay to the gut.
It did not matter, the damage would not heal overnight, so he could finish off the beast later. His foot still hurt, but it was manageable now. On his internal pain scale, a stubbed toe was hardly worth mentioning, it was the surprise of it that took him off guard.
Turning back to the absorption ore, Tristan found that the tortoise that had his knife was standing over it. The creature’s intentions were clear. You’ll take this over my dead body. Tristan was happy to oblige.
Now that he had their attack patterns, he could handle them. It would be a slog, wearing them down with decay. There was even a slight possibility of it taking multiple trips, but he would eventually win. That time was significantly reduced if he could reacquire his blade. With it, he could start chopping airways and arteries.
Tristan rushed the tortoise. Its head snapped forward, serrated jaws opened to take a bite out of Tristan, and he jumped. The bite sailed harmlessly below him. Victory was so close, Tristan grinned, this was the kind of fight he liked. Both sides could win if anything went wrong, it was the feeling that Luke called ‘being alive.’
It didn’t hurt that Tristan was pretty sure he would win. Then the lights turned off. One moment the world was bathed in Viral’s molten light, the next moment saw the world plunged into darkness. Stars were sprinkled across the sky once more, but Tristan couldn’t see them. Tristan was fighting at the bottom of a ravine.
He couldn’t see his hand in front of his face. Thankfully, his metal sense allowed him to grab his knife. He heard a hiss, which was his only warning before a large object batted him aside. Tristan rolled across the ground from what could only be a head whip from the tortoise. He scrambled out of the way of some projectiles.
How could they see him?
The rumbling ground gave away a charging tortoise. It was also on target. Tristan gritted his teeth, he was so close, but a freak coincidence took the opportunity away from him.
“I’ll be back for you,” Tristan growled at the beasts, before fleeing.
He was grateful that the walls were made from a metal deposit, otherwise he would not have known how to escape. Tristan’s anger was dowsed when he exited the ravine. A field of stars lit up the sky along with the crescent of the waning moon. He had not realized how badly he had missed the stars.
He sighed. Tomorrow, he would come back and put the stupid beasts in their place. That exhale also showed him something else. Without Viral, the temperature was rapidly dropping. Winter would make its return soon.