For a while, Quinn inspected the shell, and he could see it was in perfect condition.
He walked back to the others after punching the black turtle shell and could see Sunny giving him a wink. It was obvious to her what Quinn had done, and she thought it was the right decision.
It was best for the Turtle not to know of Quinn's strength. Otherwise, perhaps the Turtle would try to find someone with similar strength as Quinn, complaining about how the undead king had managed to find someone so powerful.
Then they really would have been at a loss. She was just thankful that Quinn hadn't attempted to show off in that situation. Still, those who needed to take part in the test now were a little nervous.
"I would suggest that each of you hit that shell as hard as you can; otherwise, you will have a hard time breaking it," Quinn commented. He had felt it with his own hands, and the truth was, he would have liked to test if he could actually break it or not.
These days when Quinn would come across a new type of beast or enemy, he had made it a habit to think of ways to defeat them. So, when Quinn had seen the turtle shell, he had focused on visualising how he would deal with it.
If its shell was sturdy, then there were many other points that he could attack and hurt the Turtle, but it was about damaging the shell in this test, not fighting the Turtle.
'The Dalki skin also gets tougher as they get stronger, and that was one of the main problems when facing off against five-spike Dalki. If Graham has gotten stronger…no, if the whole of the Dalki have gotten stronger, then we will be facing enemies with similar sturdiness. This will be a good test for them all.'
The one who lined up against the first shell was Samantha, and before taking her punch, she wondered how best to approach the situation. Genbu stated that they could use whatever they wished to damage the shell, but they could only hit the shell once. The other condition, which was a little strange, was that it had to be a hit, like Quinn had done, with a fist or a kick, which was why she struggled a little to make a decision.
"How do you think it will go, Tenth Knight?" Sunny asked.
"Although Samantha has good potential in Qi, and even though this is the reason she has been able to stay in this world without any hardship, she has had no training, so it will be more about how well she uses her ability."
Finally taking a deep breath Samantha, readied herself.
'Before, I thought I needed to get stronger for revenge on One Horn for doing that to my father. I thought after seeing him, my determination might falter a little…but that isn't the case at all. I need to get more powerful, so the next time I don't lose him again.'
The ground from below her feet started to move around Samantha's fist, making it somewhat pointed. Seeing as it was a shell, she thought she needed to focus most of her power on one point. Next, activating her soul weapon, the tip of the outside looked to be covered in a strange metallic colour.
"AHHH!" Samantha shrieked as she threw her fist forward as hard as she could. The image in front of her was of One horn himself, and it was at that moment she felt something rising in her.
"I guess I was a little bit wrong. Maybe it's this world, but it seems she has somewhat improved." Leo commented.
Because he could see that the internal Qi energy had somewhat activated on its own, giving her power of the first stage of Qi, it would interact with her body, allowing her to deliver the strongest punch possible.
It crashed into the shell, and the sparks emitted from it surprised Genbu a little. This was something that hadn't ensued when Quinn hit the shell.
At the shell, Samantha could feel a force almost repelling her. She continued to push forward as she felt a strange power rising inside of her until the metallic point had snapped off from the base of the earth and fallen to the ground.
It caused the rest of her fist with the earth to hit the shell and then crumble to the ground. Although the earth tip with her soul weapon hadn't broken by the base, she had failed her task.
She felt disappointed but, at the same time, looked at her arm, wondering what the energy that had risen in her body was. She had used so much of it, and now she began to feel incredibly weak because they were in the familiar's world.
Seeing this, Leo was about to move forward, but of course, the headless man had done so first, holding her up and taking her back.
"Oh, you weren't wrong when you said you brought some interesting ones," Genbu commented. "But it looks like I was right. Even if I can't sense energy, I will trust my intuition. I did say she had talent, and the others are weak; I am now expecting a lot from the other one."
Some looked towards Quinn, expecting him to be annoyed by these comments, but he just shrugged them off. He wasn't going to get upset just because some familiar called him weak; besides, he knew his strength and was in a good mood seeing how much Samantha had improved.
"Now I am looking forward to the next one!" Genbu turned to the man who had a bow on his back, and he was the one that Genbu believed to have the most talent.
"Alright, I'll crack this shell. Of course, I will!" Abdul said. He had a plan; although he couldn't shoot one of his sharp arrows at the Turtle's back, he decided upon something else.
He held the bow in his hand and formed a sharp arrow with his wind ability.
With this, as soon as he first touched the shell, he would fire an arrow as well, and using the beast weapon's power, it would give him more force into his punch.
'My sharp arrows can pierce almost anything, and it won't fail me now!' This is what Abdul thought.
It didn't take long for him to attempt his attack, as he threw his fist forward with the bow being held in one hand. The others then saw the string being pulled back, and it was doing so on its own without any help from his other hand, which the others found impressive.
It again slammed into the shell, his hand laid there on top, and a smile was still on Abdul's face. The shell certainly hadn't cracked completely; it was still intact, but Adbdul still had confidence.
He was expecting to see a hole after removing his hand, but nothing was there. At the same time, the strange purple sparks that had flashed when Samantha had attacked, didn't appear either.
"Huh? What the…how is his shell so strong?" Abdul said, flabbergasted. He couldn't even hide his surprise that the punch hadn't punctured it. His wind ability was so refined that it should have sliced through anything.
Even if it didn't make a hole as he expected, he did hope to see a scratch. He noticed that the shell was in perfect condition upon bringing his eyes closer.
Abdul just walked with slumped feet back to the others. It was clear that he had failed.
"Well...I guess my intuition is not that perfect." Genbu cleared his throat, a bit embarrassed by this result. "Still, there are two more to go, and although the woman did well, she had failed to impress me.
"The other two will have to do better than her if you wish for me to form a contract with you." The Turtle grumbled.
It looked like it was all down to Layla and Owen in the end. One of them needed to succeed.
*****
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