"You know. Entering the mouth of a massive turtle wasn't on my 'To do' list." Luna hesitated, scared of diving headfirst into its mouth.
"Well, my crimson eye tells me that we won't be able to complete the tracking potion without this flower, so do whatever you want." Somehow Isabella still didn't feel like she slept enough, going back to her nap and leaving the slayer alone.
'Maybe I should thunder step in and out, grabbing the flower on the way.' If she had to do it, better do it in the safest method possible.
One of the trees that grew its roots halfway through the turtle's shell and the other half in the soil around it tumbled over and fell in front of the beast.
SNAP!
The entirety of the tree was crushed in an instant.
'...' Its heavy body didn't look like it did much in slowing the monster down.
Her plan failed before she could even try it.
The distinctive sound of the turtle's jaws let her identify it as the world turtle. Although any mentions of its existence were in children's books, not the monster encyclopedia.
Chances of successfully extracting it at her current level were zero, even if she gave everything she had.
It was also too late to run away as it had already spotted her.
The turtle took a slow step, shaking the earth beneath.
Then another, just as slow as the first one.
Putting her into a false state of security before it jumped in her direction.
Moving its humongous body over a hundred meters in a few moments.
Even with thunder stepping, Luna was barely faster than it.
ROAR!
It screamed again, speeding up even more and pushing the slayer to her limits.
While she had to expertly time her movement not to hit a tree or fall into a hole, the turtle behind just crushed everything in its way with the sheer mass of its body.
A huge cliff was on the horizon, way too wide to run around and way too big to jump through.
Almost like an hourglass, counting the time she has left before the inevitable.
'I have to do something!' Luna was about to take out the dagger and go fight her way out, but Isabella woke up suddenly.
"Drop down the cliff." She told the slayer, her tone as serious as it could get.
She decided to trust the cat's gut feeling, hiding her blade and running towards the steep drop.
When she got there, though, her confidence dropped instantly. Over fifty meters separated her from the ground below.
But the turtle wasn't getting any farther; on the contrary, he was almost in front of the duo.
"Just jump!" Isabella shouted into her ear, pushing Luna over the fear of the fall.
And good that she did, as the giant beast bit the space where she stood moments ago.
The turtle looked down at its prey, roaring angrily that it got away.
But those roars got quieter and quieter to the slayer as she got deeper into the hole, trying to slow down her fall by prying her fingers against the wall.
Luna herself would most likely survive that landing thanks to her abilities, but the fragile cat vessel on her head had to be dealt with with the utmost care.
There wasn't any time to spare as gravity left her on a tight schedule.
But panic and stress were useless in this situation, suppressed by her brain working on full power to think of a plan.
'There is one way out.' Luna opened her eyes widely, throwing Isabella in the air.
[Water prison]
Dense cube of water engulfed the cat, leaving just enough space to let her breathe.
This didn't stop the fact that they were falling, but making sure that the vessel wouldn't break was the highest priority at that moment.
[Black Sea]
The next step in her plan was to let out as much as possible, trying to break their fall with a layer of water.
[Out of mana]
'Thanks for not telling me that I have that.' Luna sighed and accepted her fate.
CRASH!
This time it didn't hurt nearly as much as from the portal.
It didn't mean that the process was painless, though, but she was slowly adapting to the constant injuries.
"Are you okay?" Luna asked the cat, who safely landed without too much turbulence. The cage that kept Isabella safe disappeared after she landed, letting her speak.
"No time for chit-chat! Go that way." She pointed deeper into the drop.
But they didn't need to jump again as there was a steep path downwards. After making sure that all of Luna's injuries started to heal, they were on their way.
To her surprise, instead of finding more rocks and jagged terrain, she saw a very well-kept house surrounded by mangrove trees.
"We don't even need the stupid flower anymore! We are at the witch council's hut." Isabella jumped off of her head and ran towards it, using all of the energy inside her small body.
Luna was right behind her, confused how they got here without a tracking spell. "Isn't this supposed to be impossible to find?"
"It seems their energy source is getting weaker." Isabella pulled the slayer's hand and poked a hole in her finger, dripping the blue blood into the cauldron.
When the amount was high enough for her, she herself jumped in and began chanting runic text.
The spell was clearly something enormous that will take hours, if not days, to complete. Rings upon rings of runes kept fading in as Isabella chanted.
She decided to let the cat be by herself, not wanting to interrupt with the spell.
A few hours passed as the hut kept glowing more and more. To keep her senses sharp, Luna started working out, running from one side of the cliff to another.
Hours turned to days. Just training by running wasn't enough anymore; Luna started digging in the cliff for fun, her head empty due to the boredom and not knowing how long Isabella would take.
During one of her rock mining sessions, she heard something behind the wall, a big empty area.
[Pressure point]
With a burst of pressurized water, she dug out a rectangular entrance to the other side, finding herself in a cave.
Hundreds of bats flew out, but she wasn't able to see due to how dark it was. Luna grabbed one of them and twisted its neck, absorbing it with the purple mist.
[New passive: Night Vision]
The dark space turned bright to her, like it was the middle of the day inside. Enormous marble doors stood in front of her, easily triple her height.
Luna tried to open them, but they didn't seem to budge. When she knocked, no one seemed to answer.
Language she had never seen before was scribed on the wall. She decided to write the text down, just in case she would ever need it.
'I must come back here one day.' She thought to herself while getting out; the runes created by Isabella lit up the entire sky.
The countless amount of rings seemed to multiply exponentially.
All of them got brighter and brighter until...
BOOM!