Chapter 2123 - 2123. Dive
"Is that what you do?!" The upper tier turtle hissed in anger as blood came out of the scales pushing on Noah's blades. "Do you attack my pack as soon as we decide to trust you?"
"When I say to dive, you dive," Noah growled. "You don't understand anything about these matters. Remaining silent and following my orders is the least you could do."
"Look at my pack!" The leader continued, and Noah didn't need to unfold his consciousness or divert his gaze to understand what it meant.
Noah's group had weak links, but they were relatively small, and the strong experts among them could compensate for the others. Snore and Noah's ambition were also great assets that could cover an area large enough to make the team pass safely through the dark storms and the red rain.
Instead, the pack was in a far different situation. The turtles' huge size was a weakness, and they couldn't even express their full speed outside the water. Moreover, that group had hundreds of weak specimens, and many of them failed to avoid the red rain that pierced the black storms.
The turtles' numbers had more than halved during the reckless charge, and their leader blamed Noah for that loss. Its anger got the best of its reasoning for an instant, but that was enough to make it disregard the greatest threat and charge at him.
"Do you want to know how many underlings you would have lost if we charged after the next attack?" Noah questioned through a growl.
The upper tier turtle wanted to answer, but the seabed launched more attacks. The scarlet flares' power had increased significantly. It was now halfway through the upper tier.
The leader didn't know what to say in front of that sheer might. The pack and Noah's group would have probably managed to defend if they had remained in the sky, but launching attacks would have been impossible.
Also, even the upper tier turtle understood that the seabed's power was increasing sharply. The battle would have inevitably forced them to charge forward at some point, and the new might of their opponent would have caused far more losses.
Noah, his group, and the pack had avoided the various cracks during their landing, so the flares didn't touch them. Everyone had been fine in the middle of that threatening offensive.
The leader didn't want to admit that Noah had been right, but its actions betrayed its thoughts. The upper tier turtle stopped pushing on the blades and started to retreat until its head didn't touch those sharp edges anymore.
"Are you ready to follow orders now?" Noah asked through a cold growl. "I don't mind dealing with you first if you won't cooperate properly."
The statement was arrogant and unreasonable. The leader knew that Noah didn't mean that, and not due to vague goodwill in his mind. The battlefield was simply too messy to hold a fight between them.
Still, Noah's tone didn't carry any hesitation or lies. He appeared willing to fight an upper tier magical beast among that chaos, and he meant that. The leader might not be forced to believe him due to their tragic situation, but he was ready to remove eventual hindrances before dealing with the seabed.
The upper tier turtle slightly nodded, and Noah immediately diverted his gaze to point it at the seabed. He could sense that the creature was still going through changes. That was part of the reason behind its struggles to get used to its power. Still, that also meant that it was getting stronger.
"Let's dig through!" Noah roared before unleashing the entirety of the power accumulated in his swords.
Noah's companions joined the offensive by adding everything they had to the slashes that left his swords. The parasite launched its dark-purple liquid and seeds, Snore spat its destructive dark matter, Night sent black lines from inside his figure, and Shafu spread the openings created by the attacks.
Only Duanlong remained still next to Noah. The odd dragon was his best defensive method, and he wanted to keep it ready for anything that his other assets couldn't stop.
The upper tier turtle echoed Noah's order through its hisses, and the pack soon started to launch attacks at the seabed. June, Fiery Mountain, Old Tyrant, and Gabrielle did the same, but their offensive tried to converge on the fissures that Noah was opening with his methods.
The seabed was an upper tier creature, but its structure lacked harmony. It had many weak spots, but its size made the deep cracks opened by its enemies relatively pointless.
Noah didn't care about that apparent lack of results. He continued to launch attacks even when another deep growl came out of the metal. He sensed some areas behind him turning red due to the many flares, but most of his focus remained on his offensive since the rain didn't try to converge on him.
June and the others could coordinate with Noah, and the rank 9 magical beasts among the pack also developed an intelligent approach. However, the weaker turtles struggled to keep up or be effective against their opponent. They weren't dumb, but the shockwaves radiated by the red flares flung them away and ruined their concentration.
The leader revealed its ruthlessness soon enough. Its situation was peculiar since it had been stuck with the same underlings for countless years. The turtles had even lived in peace, so they had developed bonds that went past the simple subservience.
However, the survival instincts and the pride of a leader never left a magical beast. The upper tier turtle disregarded its underlings' lives as soon as it accepted that helping them might endanger the mission. The event was a cull that would select those worthy of advancing through the Labyrinth.
Noah was even better than the leader at ignoring his surroundings to focus on his task. He continued to dig the seabed until he reached an opening that forced him to change direction. He wouldn't risk getting in the trajectory of the red flares.
His companions imitated him, but many magical beasts died as soon as the seabed launched another offensive. The flares had grown stronger again, and their shockwaves became an annoying event that even Noah couldn't ignore.
The situation only made Noah push forth with greater strength. His drawbacks tried to slow him down, but nothing could stop him when he moved the entirety of his ambition to his bloodlust. His mind felt on the verge of exploding, but the seabed saw countless black lines spreading through its structure. The shapes they created even carried a profound understanding of the laws connected to destruction.
The seabed's energy increased as time passed, so the shards that fell from its body became valuable materials that could help the group's recovery. Noah couldn't divert his attention, but Duanlong and Shafu made sure to seize everything they could.
The digging eventually led to another opening, and Noah's first instinct was to change direction again. However, the red light hidden among that darkness attracted his gaze, and the strange state of the space-time array in that area eventually made him decide to shoot toward the glow.
Noah released a deafening roar to alert everyone about his decision. The vast army transformed into a descending river that converged toward the source of the scarlet light, but no one touched it after reaching their destination.
Noah couldn't help but feel surprised when he arrived in front of the rotating scarlet sphere hidden near the seabed's center. He couldn't find it during his previous inspections, and the reason for that even was clear. The floor had created it after the metallic bottom had started to take life.
'It's not ready,' Noah exclaimed in his mind after inspecting the sphere shortly.
The scarlet structure was trying to create a passage, but everything was far from stable. The sphere even continued to launch attacks during the process, and Noah had to use Duanlong's innate ability to dodge it due to his position.
"Fuck it!" Noah roared as the dark world expanded and tried to complete what the teleport was missing. "Gather up."
Noah waited as much as possible before jumping into the sphere with his dark world.. Flares were trying to escape the scarlet structure, but everything vanished as laws tried to teleport everyone away.