31 Watch Out!

The tortoise had enough of this shenanigans and released a cry of pain while the other head scoffed at the other heads reaction and puffed up its cheeks.

Dean had begun to run away from the tortoise, turning back to see how it was coping, he was instead greeted by a generous laser of rocks.

One head was slowly accepting the pain while the other coughed up rocks one after another.

The boulders launched itself towards Dean without a moment of hesitation.

Leonard saw the struggle and instantly made his own move.

Stopping the assault of water bullets, Leonard positioned himself behind the tortoise as the head was too busy crying to notice his presence.

His Longsword wasn't as effective as Dean's polearm in severing a leg.

If Leonard cleaved the tortoise's leg then it would take minutes, allowing the tortoise to kill Leonard whenever it wanted.

Understanding that his strike had to be effective to make sure he wasn't dead weight to Dean, Leonard stabbed the tortoise by penetrating the leg.

*SNAP*

This sound originated from two things.

The bone of the tortoise popped and was instantly fractured causing the beast to be in immense pain that made one wince and stop its barrage of attacks, and another cry in excruciating pain.

Unfortunately for Leonard he took back his blade only to see that the top half was completely shattered with specks of metals stuck inside the structure of the tortoise

It was a despairing moment for Leonard as he had used this blade for the whole duration of the Hundred Thousand Beast Forest trip.

This was the weapon that helped him lead himself all the way to this point. Without it would make everything more troubling.

But this was the exact respect for blades that allowed Leonard to be skilled as a swordsman.

Sighing at the unexpected loss, it was still a success.

"Watch out!"

To the side Leonard had heard a distant scream and saw Dean running towards him.

Confused, Leonard looked around to see that a beam of water struck his temple.

'How can it shoot water?'

Accepting his fate, he brought his broken blade in front of him to attempt to block any water he could but the sheer power instantly made him fly into a tree.

Dean saw this sight before him and the words started to resound within his ear.

"Just... one attempt"

The tone vaguely resembled Ivan's voice and altogether turned into a sound that slowly became inaudible.

Leonard was still in danger as his body was striking through multiple trees, one after another, collapsing without their foundations.

Dean challenged the Earth Endowing Tortoise and stared at it with green eyes.

A burst of Battle Intent followed the trace of Dean as he started his assault on the tortoise's heads.

The right head was too distraught by the pain and couldn't think properly, promptly ignoring Dean's cleaver that had just beheaded him.

Blood squirted everywhere as the neck refused to accept its fate and swayed everywhere in a random manor to stain everything.

The left head had noticed the disturbance to its left and promptly stopped its attack but it was far too late as Dean had already beheaded it.

'Why was it so easy?'

Leonard and Dean had quite a substantial difference in strength despite the fact that both had only a small difference in cultivation realm.

The main factor in this fight was that the expended blood that the tortoise had lost made it drowsy and with one of the heads basically disabled due to the intense pain allowed Dean to win at the end.

Their battle had crushed a part of the land and the beautiful plain was now ruined with an overdose of water, littered tree logs and random boulders.

A beautiful scenery had been reduced to shambles because of the destructive capabilities of the tortoise.

If the Earth Endowing Tortoise had somehow reached enlightenment during the fight then both would have a high chance of dying.

Dean had already removed himself from the battlefield as he had brought Leonard to their campsite.

He was completely soaked in water which could cause a cold so Dean lit up a fire and replaced the clothes with his spares.

Any blood that was coughed up was already washed away.

There was no permanent damage dealt to Leonard however the strike to his head will cause him to feel dizzy but with his alchemy pills it should be fine.

The blade had absorbed most of the damage but it was now whittled down into just a hilt while his back was scattered with bark that impaled his back.

Removing piece by piece there was yet to be any serious injury that could cause harmful effects to Leonard.

Most of the wounds were shallow and once simple ointments were applied Leonard would be fine.

Knowing that the soft food would be best for a sick patient, Dean had been simmering broth with rice and the tortoise meat they had just earned.

3 hours later, Leonard had yet to wake up but Dean could hear some rustling in the distance.

A childish voice questioned someone

"Sis, do you smell anything good?"

the question was soon followed up by a girl

"Probably a passerby cooking up his dinner. Joe, have you found any traces of the tortoise. We have been hunting it for 4 days and yet to have any results."

A boorish tone joked

"I would have but Lirgo spent too much time setting up fish traps."

Hearing this, Dean recalled that there were indeed traps in this area that he had already dismantled and came to the conclusion that it was probably this group that had set them up.

But if they wanted to cause trouble then it would only be their misfortune.

The girl called "Sis" scanned the area and gasped

"What happened!?"

The rest soon followed her reactions as their face was drained of color seeing the wasteland before them.