The dungeon boss was a giant fire-breathing turtle. When Duncan first approached it, it hit him with a concentrated jet of flames that melted a hole in his armor and incinerated a huge portion of his chest. Duncan healed himself desperately, then Blinked onto its back and used his Spirit Sword to attack it through its shell. It dove into the water in its lair to dislodge him. Rather than face it in the water, Duncan Blinked back to land and used a Mind Spike on it. He was unable to stun it, but its health did drop a tiny fraction in his Assessment’s view.

It turned to face him from underwater, and it breathed another jet of white-hot flame. Water turned to steam and the beam incinerated Duncan’s arm as he flinched aside. He restored his health as the monster came racing out the water, beak open to bite his torso off. How does something that big move so fast? He Blinked onto its back again, but it was charging so fast he went right off the back end. It dug its massive claws into the ground to come to a shuddering stop, and Duncan Blinked back onto its back one more time. He slashed his Spirit Blade through its neck, echoes following. His Assessment Technique showed the creature was barely hurt. I’m already down more than half of my mana from those two big heals. I can’t keep this up. If he hits me with another breath attack, I’ll have to flee.

The monster spun in place and Duncan kept slashing at its neck, taking very small chunks of its health with each cut. The turtle dove back into the water and Duncan wedged his shield between the creature’s neck and its shell to try to maintain his place on its back, still cutting at its neck. He held on for five or six swings, then was swept off by the force of the water. He Blinked up almost to the cave’s ceiling and stood on a sword he summoned from his inventory. He flew erratically around the cavern, landing Mind Spikes from time to time to try to lure the creature back out of the water.

He noticed that the creature’s health was creeping back up in his assessment’s view. It’s regenerating down there. I guess it’s time to take a risk. He Blinked down into the water, onto the turtle’s shell, and started slashing through the shell with his Spirit Blade again. For a good thirty seconds, the beast didn’t seem to notice him. Then the water around it started heating up. After ten more seconds, Duncan had to Blink out of the water to avoid being boiled in his armor. He resummoned a sword to fly on and zipped around near the ceiling as the water below him boiled.

Suddenly, a massive waterspout erupted from the surface below him and slammed into the ceiling, splashing boiling water around the room. Duncan was scalded, but not badly hurt. The turtle charged back out of the water, looking for its tormentor. He Blinked back down to its shell and resumed his attacks with his Spirit Blade. He estimated it was still at half health. This thing has to be the toughest thing I’ve ever encountered. But as long as I don’t get breathed on again, I can keep this up almost indefinitely.

The fire-breathing turtle had no additional tricks. It charged into the water, but Duncan Blinked back to its shell every time he was dislodged. It superheated the water again, and he Blinked away until it cooled enough for him to resume his attacks. He never stopped attacking long enough to allow it to regenerate faster than he was damaging it. The fight took more than an hour, but in the end, Duncan prevailed. He sat on the creature’s shell for a good five minutes after it died. What a magnificent creature. If I hadn’t been able to keep Blinking to its back it would have bitten my head off or clawed me to death or immolated me completely. And a physical weapon would never have penetrated that shell and maybe not even its hide. It really does feel like my build is insanely strong at times like this.

Duncan checked the turtle for embedded Technique stones but found nothing. He searched the cavern, thinking there was no way a creature this powerful didn’t have a treasure. At the very bottom of the flooded part of the cavern, he found a massive chest. It was too big to fit into his ring storage, but it fit just fine into his arm band. I’ll look through that when I get back to the Academy.

He waited in the turtle’s cavern until its body disappeared, recovering health and mana. Then he made his way back towards the entrance, vigilant lest another Sawiskin group have entered. There’s no way that group I killed earlier could have challenged that boss. So it’s possible they just kill the patrols near the entrance. On his way back to the entrance, he found the cave complex continued down a passage he hadn’t seen earlier. Following it, he came to a village of the upright turtle creatures. Oh. Maybe the fire-breathing turtle was a rare spawn for me, and the chief of this village is the intended boss.

Duncan estimated there were at least fifty of the turtle people in the village. He waited at the entrance to the village cavern until one of them saw him and raised the alarm. About a dozen of the creatures rushed to attack him. He Blinked into their midst and attacked with his spirit sword, sweeping it through multiple opponents, its echoes following. He felt the blood poisoning take effect, and kept attacking until it made him nauseous, then removed the affliction and continued fighting. I can’t keep removing that as soon as I feel it, or I’ll run out of mana. But hells, that feels awful as it progresses.

He finished off the large group and looted them, then proceeded further into the village. He Blinked on top of a hut to get a better look at the remaining creatures, lying down to remain unseen himself. It appeared that they were organizing into three big groups. One was staying close to the chief’s larger hut, and the other two were preparing to go out, probably to look for him. There were about a dozen monsters in each group. One of the two roaming groups headed straight for the passageway he’d arrived from, and the other started searching the village.

Duncan decided to give them a few minutes for the first group to go down the passageway and the second to move far enough away from the chief’s hut that he could ambush it without drawing the group guarding the chief. He Blinked to another roof further from the chief’s hut and heard the sound of battle coming from the entrance passageway. The monsters he’d been following heard it, too, and rushed to investigate.

Duncan summoned a sword and flew up to the ceiling, then advanced into the passage. It was mayhem. The first group of turtle men had run into a group of eight Sawiskin and had evidently been losing when the second dozen arrived. The Sawiskin were blocking a narrow part of the tunnel with a line of three wielding tridents and shields. The turtle men were pelting them with salt and poisoning their blood, Duncan assumed. Others were trading spear thrusts with the front line of the Sawiskin. Mages in the back lines of the Sawiskin were attacking with those water jets that had pierced Duncan’s armor when he fought them. The shells over the turtles’ bellies fared no better, and several were already down.

The Sawiskin healers could evidently remove the poison, too, for none of their troops were falling. Duncan started stunning Sawiskin with Mind Spikes – eight would be a real challenge for him, so he wanted to help the turtle men reduce the odds somewhat. Two of the turtle men tucked their heads and limbs inside their shells and propelled themselves into the Sawiskin back lines, the sharp edges of their shells slicing up the Sawiskin casters but the effect was minimal as the watery armor the Sawiskin used blunted the attack. The front line of the turtle men took advantage of the stunned Sawiskin to cut down one of the front shieldbearers.

It still looked to Duncan like the Sawiskin were going to wipe the turtle men out, so he Blinked behind the back line of the Sawiskin and attacked one of the two healers from behind. His Spirit Sword and its echoes took the creature in the back, and it shuddered but didn’t turn, focused on the creatures ahead. Spirit damage really is insidious. It doesn’t realise I’m hitting it. He hit it twice more and it died without ever knowing he was there.

As it fell, the other healer let out a loud hiss, and several of the Sawiskin turned to look. When they saw Duncan, there was a clear panic as they tried to get away from this strong new attacker but were hemmed in by the turtle men. One of the casters gestured and a wall of water sprang up between Duncan and the Sawiskin. He stabbed the remaining healer through a fold in space, his spirit sword and its echoes doing their subtle work. Its health dropped by a third according to his assessment.

The Sawiskin pushed hard at the turtle men, trying to break out of the trap. They probably assume there’s a whole group of humans on this side. Duncan continued to hit the healer with his spirit blade through a fold in space. Belatedly, it realized it was dying and healed itself. Duncan hit it with a Mind Spike and another two sword attacks, and it dropped.

Without healers to remove the blood poison from the turtle men, the tide of the battle changed. The Sawiskin moved away from the wall of water between them and Duncan, so he summoned a sword to fly on and Blinked through the wall, appearing near the ceiling of the tunnel. The Sawiskin had broken through the turtle men line and pushed into the cavern itself, but they were not looking healthy. All but one were staggering drunkenly under the effects of the blood poison. There were still eight turtle men attacking them.

Two of the Sawiskin used their water jet Technique, and then there were six turtle men remaining. Duncan dropped down behind a turtle man and struck it through its shell. It slumped, and a second thrust finished it off. The turtle men completely ignored Duncan, focusing entirely on the Sawiskin. Maybe some sort of racial hatred? I may as well not be here as far as they’re concerned. He killed another, and the two Sawiskin mages took down two more. Then Duncan Blinked behind the Sawiskin and killed one of the mages, weakened as it was by the blood poison.

The remaining Sawiskin attacked Duncan, but they were very weak by this point, and couldn’t hurt him. He killed the remaining mage, and the turtle men finished the shieldbearers. Duncan promptly killed them. That was convenient, he thought as he looted them. Twenty-four turtle men and eight Sawiskin, and I was barely scratched.

That left the group of twelve guarding the chief’s hut, plus the chief and any bodyguards he had inside the hut. If the chief and his guards didn’t come out to help the others, he should be able to handle them relatively easily. So, after recovering his mana and health, he approached the remaining turtle men guards and Blinked into their midst. The fight went as he’d expected, with him having to remove the blood poison three times over the course of the fight, but he was in no danger of running out of mana, and the turtle men fell to his spirit sword.

He moved to a shuttered window on the chief’s hut and peered inside. He could see enough of the room to Blink in, so he did. The turtle man chief and two bodyguards leapt to attack him. They were bigger and stronger than the other turtle men had been, but they had no new Techniques to offer, and the battle felt a bit anticlimactic to Duncan. There was a small treasure chest behind the chief’s throne, and Duncan stored that along with their weapons.

Duncan returned to the dungeon entrance with no further trouble. He pulled out a flying sword, and went through the portal, then Blinked straight up three times in a row before mounting his sword. Looking down, he saw no Sawiskin ambush, or indeed any Sawiskin at all. So they won’t even know what killed their groups.