"We have no other choice but to fight!" I quickly declared, holding my hammer tight.
Although I did say "fight", we wouldn't do it in the normal way. After all, if we try to tank even one of its attacks, then death is the only result I could imagine. "Run under its belly, now!"
From what I saw before, it had a pretty big blind spot. The biggest ones are the back of its head, the rear side of its shell, and the underside of its belly. Those three spots were the "optimum" hiding locations if we wanted to survive.
However, a problem then arises. How can we hide under its belly without it noticing? It had us within its gaze since a while ago, so we can't just rush underneath, or else we'll simply get squished like a pancake by its mountainlike body.
*KAAAAAA!*
A short roar, as if telling us that we only have a short while left for our lives. As soon as it started firing the large spikes from its back, sending it up in the air and tracing a parabolic path down, it started flying towards us with pinpoint precision.
"Toki, Mina, Kaede, fire all you've got and divert the attacks!" As it had some sort of tracking function, it's useless to dodge. Our best bet is to offset the direction by a little using the girls' attacks.
There were roughly a dozen of those giant flying spikes falling from the sky. If they dallied, then we'd each surely get skewered by at least one of those.
"Tall order, Ruin!" Mina exclaimed, a frown appearing on her face.
*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*
The two revolvers in her hands fired incessantly, emptying the entire clip at once. All her bullets hit the target accurately, but the problem was that they had little to no effect. "As expected..." she muttered under her breath.
"My turn! Explosion!"
Toki waved her wand, sending a small ball of fire ahead. As soon as it touched one of the spikes, the flames spread and created a powerful explosion that dragged all of the projectiles into it.
"..."
With bated breaths, everyone watched the large cloud of smoke in the air, praying that it was able to complete the job. However, soon, the twelve spikes burst through the smoke, their trajectories only slightly averted.
"D*mn, just how tough are those spikes?!" Toki cursed while gripping her wand tighter.
Finally, Kaede stepped forward, arcs of black lightning already covering her entire body. With a gun-shaped finger, she aimed at the middle of the incoming projectiles and, with a quiet voice, muttered, "Bang!"
Like a hungry wolf, all the sparks around her gathered into one line. It flew straight up, hitting the spike in the middle, and quickly spread across the entire swarm. As it did, something magical happened. The spikes gathered together, meeting in the middle like magnets attracting each other!
"Take cover!" I shouted as I realized that the spikes did divert from their path from the impact of them sticking to each other.
We ran perpendicular to the path of the projectile, keeping our distance from the supposed landing point. As soon as it hit the ground, a powerful impact that was enough to cause the earth to shake was released.
A large cloud of dust spread rapidly, covering the field up to the large turtle's feet. As soon as we saw that, everyone had the same thought as me: "A chance!"
Without wasting a single moment, all of us ran straight for the turtle's underside. Due to differences in speed, some were ahead while others were left in the dust. The one in the last position was me.
"I wish I made the hammer lighter," I shouted in retrospection. "That way, I could've run as fast as the others!"
I couldn't place the hammer back into my World Storage now, as the field is dangerous and I have no idea what'll be popping up when. Having a weapon or not when that time comes could spell the difference between surviving and dying.
Soon, the dust cloud dispersed, and to make things worse, I was still halfway through. A large pair of red eyes stared right at me, burning with rage.
*KAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!*
The high-pitched noise exploded once again, making me cover my ears by reflex. Fortunately, I wasn't damaged by it as severely as before. Although a little dizzy, I could still hear sounds and walk straight.
The porcupine turtle took a step forward, shaking the earth with each step. The girls, who were already below its abdomen, were afraid that they would get stepped on or squished but still held their position.
Due to its size, although every action was slow, each step covered a large distance. With the second step, its leg was right above my position already.
"Kuh! Don't think I'll fall that easily!" I gritted my teeth as I prepared to attack, swinging the hammer to my back.
The leg approached, and it was almost above my head already. After determining the perfect timing, I swung the hammer as I shouted out loud, "SMASH!"
The only offensive skill I have as of now, Smash, was finally activated. Combined with its damage multiplier reaching 3x, the OP damage of the hammer finally had an effect on it!
The leg, which received the attack, was flattened until halfway up. The turtle lost one of its legs! The turtle staggered from pain and being off balance, so the girls below it started running to the edge, out of its shadow, while firing as many attacks as they could.
Although each of their attacks wasn't dealing much damage, they would still have an annoying effect on the giant enemy, so it wasn't really a waste.
The main point, however, was that Hailey was able to stand before its other front leg and swing her spear as much as she wanted.
A counter showing 50 popped up, surprising all of us simultaneously. It was the highest number we have seen, but it was reasonable given that this turtle had high energy and a large body.
Hailey already landed 20 hits in under five seconds, making the aim of killing it finally see the light of day.
The turtle didn't wait for its death, of course, and quickly tried to squish whatever was below it using its gigantic body. Fortunately, all of them made it out of there in time, but it cut off Hailey's streak, stopping when there were only 14 hits left on the counter.
I'm not sure how the monster felt about Hailey's piled-up hex, but it suddenly took an action that surprised all of us.
"Ah! Hey, don't hide!" Hailey shouted in exasperation.
The powerful 5th stage monster actually dared to hide inside its shell from a bunch of 3rd class and below humans. Furthermore, unlike normal turtles, the entrances were closed by strong-looking shells, making it an impenetrable fortress!
Although we were thinking that it got scared of us, something didn't feel right. My senses are telling me that we're in more danger than ever. As I stared at the turtle, I suddenly saw all its spikes move. It wasn't pointing up, but laterally. To be exact...
"Everyone, stick to the turtle shell!"
The spikes flew as soon as I shouted. Out of pure reflex, I swung my hammer horizontally, taking down a few that were aiming straight at my face. Cold sweat covered my back, thinking that I had survived only by chance.
The girls, who were standing still, didn't get hit at all. But all the same, they felt a chill run down their spines as their faces turned blue. "QUICKLY!"
As I urged them once more, everyone ran at their top speed and came closer to the underside of the turtle. Although it was dangerous to be this close, it was also the safest position when thinking about the laterally aimed spikes.
"It's not working!" Hailey chagrined as she tried slashing the shell, which made no effect on the counter at all.
Lily was looking around in panic, whispering, "What should we do now?!"
As we were panicking, I turned to Toki and asked, "How long has passed since I came out?!"
"Time? Wait... about 90 seconds!"
Hearing her reply, I quickly looked below us. If my sense of direction was correct, then this spot... Is still a part of the mall!
"D*mn!"
In a few seconds, the mall might collapse, meaning we'll get dragged down with this big guy and could potentially die from the fall. However, if we ran away, we'd be exposed to the laterally flying spikes! "... It's a dead end!"
Twenty seconds left; it's already a do-or-die situation. I gripped the hammer tightly in my hands and ran to where the head's hole was before. "SMASH!"
I swung the hammer again, this time not downwards but upwards!
*BAM!*
The impact, multiplied by the effect of the skill, managed to almost flip the turtle to its tail side at once. Before it started falling down, I turned to Kaede and shouted. "Kaede! Throw me up!"
"...!"
Without missing a beat, she quickly moved into a position to lift my feet. With a running start, I approached her, stepped onto her poised hand, and was lifted with unbelievable force up in the air.
Fifteen seconds are left. I reached the peak of the jump and stared at the shell before me, slamming the hammer downward once more. "SMASH!"
The turtle's tail part, which was slightly pointed, embedded itself into the ground. Underneath was a part of the mall, so it was partially hollow, leading to about a quarter of its shell digging deep, stabilizing it in its standing position.
"RUN!" I quickly signaled.
It didn't seem like my words were needed, however, as they were all running away already. I, on the other hand, placed the hammer back into my World Storage, landed with a roll, and quickly ran behind the girls.
I didn't count the remaining time, but after we reached about a hundred meters away, when the turtle's head and legs popped out once more, a series of muffled explosions echoed from below the ground.
The turtle seemed panicked, but it wasn't able to extract itself from the ground. The floor started giving out like a toppled card pyramid, starting from the middle and radiating outwards.
Soon, the turtle fell into the hole that spanned more than a few hundred meters. We could only hope that it would die from the fall, but I guess that's more like wishful thinking. Well, at least we can now escape!