Second World

They were already in the third hour since the Hex of Power Restraint's activation. The artifact's duration only had a bit more than half an hour left. While the dragon turtle still had around half of its HP. Finishing the dragon turtle before the Hex's power ran out of duration seemed to be an impossibility.

The merfolk were probably also aware of this grim prospect. Their assaults were getting less aggressive as if they were losing hope. The lower-ranked merfolk kept on glancing at their sea mother, expecting her to call off the attacks. This caused them to lose focus from time to time, which gave the dragon turtle more openings. Thus, casualties among the merfolk increased.

"Fight...! Keep on fighting, my warriors! We will show this beast who is the true ruler of this gulf!!" Ama shouted. She finally noticed her merfolk's half-heartedness.

Another thing caught her attention. She was one of the few natives who could sense and manipulate mana. One of the ranged attacks sent by the outworlders had mana manipulation imbued into it. It inflicted higher damage than others. She traced the attacks and found that they came from the leader of the outworlders, Saint John.

She had looked down on that outworlder because he had coerced her into promising a special class reward. After finding that this outworlder possessed a mana manipulation ability, she had a different view of him. Perhaps it was not a bad thing to associate with this outworlder.

But even so, their situation was far from ideal. Neither she nor her warriors could execute any high-damaging skills or spells due to the Hex of Power Restraint, so they could only chip away the dragon turtle's HP slowly. But if they shut down the Hex, they would be the ones in trouble due to the turtle's dual-world domain. She couldn't think of a way out of this situation.

She didn't let this worry weaken her focus though. Her attention was still fully on the battle. Her trident continued to stab relentlessly at the turtle whenever she saw an opening.

Suddenly, she noticed the strange movement on one of the outworlder's range attacks. That particular range attack flew in a curve and chased after the dragon turtle's head as it tilted away. It then flew in a circle before stabbing into the turtle's left eye. The turtle roared in fury and pain.

Ama didn't question where that ranged attack came from. Only one outworlder she knew here had the mana manipulation ability.

While the dragon turtle was still leering, another ranged attack flew past its head and then circled back and hit its right eye. It was now closing both its eyes.

"This is our chance, attack...!!" Ama exclaimed.

Though the dragon turtle was momentarily blinded, it wasn't exactly paralyzed. Its four limbs and tail flailed around wildly, trying to hit any approaching opponents by luck. Not every merfolk could utilize the opportunity, only those who had the best swimming ability could capitalize on this chance.

As Ama stabbed the dragon turtle frenziedly, she noticed another thing. There was another outworlder down there! A melee-class dwarven outworlder. This outworlder was currently punching the underside of the turtle, its plastron.

'What's the point?' Ama thought. Once the dragon turtle recovered its bearing, if that outworlder didn't run away, he would be squashed flat. He could only attack in a short time. How much damage could a standard attack do in such a short time?

But then, she sensed something unusual. The outworlder down there also attacked using mana manipulation. The spot that the dwarven outworlder struck had the mana lingering. The next spot that he struck, the same thing happened. Furthermore, the mana between those two spots formed a linkage and they intensified each other greatly.

'This...' The revelation caused Ama to pause for a bit. The dragon turtle had slightly opened one of its eyes now. It spotted Ama who was staying still. It immediately lunged forward for a bite.

"Sea mother, look out...!" One of the nearby rare elite merfolk rushed in and pushed Ama away. In doing this, he was the one getting caught instead. The dragon turtle's powerful jaw snapped at him, delivering high damage.

The dragon turtle didn't let go of the merman. Its powerful jaw continued to clamp on his body, repeatedly biting down. The merman was powerless as his HP went down with each bite. He tried striking the turtle's eye with his trident but the turtle closed its eyes. A prey was already in its grasp, there was no need to see.

"No!" Ama yelled. She was feeling guilty. This was her fault. She struck the turtle repeatedly in an effort to free the merman, but the dragon turtle just tanked through the punishments. At one point, she was smacked by one of the turtle's forelimbs due to her reckless assaults.

She was slammed hard to the bottom of the tunnel. She looked up in dismay as the merman who had saved her finally succumbed. His body was severed by the turtle's jaw when his HP reached zero.

At the same time, from down there, Ama noticed the dwarven outworlder. He was still swimming around under the turtle and punching at different spots. There were now five glowing and linking dots under the turtle's body. The dwarf punched a sixth time and that sixth spot also glowed and linked with the other spots.

Ama didn't know what this dwarven outworlder was doing but it was not anything simple. The mana that she sensed from those spots had intensified to a dangerous level. It could explode at any time. She realized then that that was perhaps the point.

The dragon turtle also realized something was wrong then. It could also slightly sense mana, even if it was not as advanced as the natives or outworlders. The momentary blindness and frenzied attacks from the merfolk had taken its attention away, but now the unnatural energy buildup inside its body had become very unstable that it couldn't afford to ignore. It looked down and spotted Jet who was currently swimming toward the seventh and final spot.

Ama also saw the turtle's reaction. She immediately acted without thinking. She knew by instinct that if they were to win, that outworlder had to be allowed to complete whatever he was doing. That fist of his had become their hope!

She shot forward just as the dragon turtle opened its jaw and was about to elongate its neck toward Jet. Ama didn't worry about anything else. She just knew she had to take the turtle's attention. Her trident stabbed deep at the side of the turtle's head.

With her trident stuck deep, she grabbed the turtle's neck with her other free hand and forcefully pulled.

"Sea mother...!!!" The other merfolk shouted anxiously. Seeing Ama take a risk like that, they couldn't afford to play safe. They also rushed in and grabbed the turtle's body. Stabbing it while forcefully keeping it from moving.

With all these merfolk hindering it, the dragon turtle couldn't do anything to Jet. It flailed its body around, trying to shake all these merfolk off. It even forcefully swam to the side, slamming many of the merfolk who were hanging onto its body to the wall, damaging them.

"Stay still, will you?!" Jet uttered. He was grabbing one of the bones of the plastron so he remained close to the turtle while it moved around. But with such erratic movements, it was difficult to strike the seventh spot.

"Shit!" He uttered. He saw the glows on the six spots were starting to dim. He would have to start over if those glows fizzled. He couldn't let that happen!

The dragon turtle was still flailing around. Jet tried to catch the rhythm. His eyes remained on the seventh spot. When he thought his chance was as good as any, he let go of the bone he was holding onto and pushed his body forward. The flailing body of the turtle moved away when he let go of his hold, but it came back again soon once he was close to the spot he was targeting. He stabbed his katar which was already empowered by his Seven Injuries Fists.

"Success...!" Jet celebrated.

The seventh spot glowed and formed links with the other six spots. The glows continued to intensify until all seven spots fused into one large blinding glow. The dragon turtle roared in pain as it felt the chaotic energy running rampant within its body. The rampant energy then exploded spectacularly.

The force of the blow threw everyone away, even the merfolk who were clinging to the dragon turtle's body.

The explosion also stirred the water around the dragon turtle. Water bubbles covered everyone's vision. They couldn't see the dragon turtle's condition.

John was the only one who could still see the dragon turtle using his God-eye monocle. He saw a red outline of the turtle inside the water bubbles. It was still alive and moving. Not only that, Jet's Seven Injuries Fists only managed to take out around twenty percent of the turtle's HP.

The dragon turtle still had around thirty percent HP left.