Totem 16: Man vs Turtle (Patreon)

I reached for my spirit fire, but the spirit snapping turtle was faster. It opened its beaky jaws, revealing a hooked beak, and a jet of fire roared out.

"Duck!" I yelled, my voice swallowed by the deafening roar of the inferno surging towards me.

I threw myself to the side, landing in the squelching mud and rolling repeatedly. The air was so hot it was nearly blistering.

Nearly.

Miraculously, the fire blasted over me and I wasn't roasted. But we weren't safe yet. My next concern was for Annika. Had the fire ignited her veils?

Frantically scanning the area, I spotted Annika and Russell about forty feet away, sprawled face-first in the mud. They looked dazed, filthy, but thankfully unharmed.

That fleeting moment of relief was short-lived. The snapping turtle had locked its malevolent, crimson gaze onto me.

I scrambled to a crouch, leaping aside as its neck extended and its sharp jaws snapped shut where I had just been. I rolled, rising again, focusing on my spirit fire. My desperation and fury manifested in a fire blast shaped bizarrely like an outstretched wing.

The fiery wing flew at the snapping turtle, striking just above its beak, right where the big slit nostrils were. It didn't seem to cause any harm, but it certainly aggravated it.

The beast parted its jaws and hissed, revealing its grotesque, worm-like tongue. My heart sank. That was my best blast, and it had been ineffective.

Fuck. We were so unprepared. A sword, or even a freakin’ kitchen knife would have been useful. But I had never seen swords in this world. Whether that was normal or just because my village was tiny and not militaristic, I didn’t know.

Either way, stabbing the damn turtle wasn’t going to happen. I didn’t know how to defeat it. Turtles were kind of defense experts. Not only did it have a shell, that shell was covered in three feet of mud. Burning through that was a distant dream.

With a menacing hiss and the hint of fire crackling behind it, the turtle kept its focus on me. I sidestepped, trying to keep it guessing where to fire next. It ignored Annika and Russell, who were now picking themselves up out of the mud.

It made sense. It was a spirit beast, and Annika and Russell hadn't accessed their Totems yet. It was drawn to my vibrant core.

I needed something to take the next hit for me. Fortunately, debris littered the area, the aftermath of demolished huts. As I shuffled aside, I reached down, grabbing a partially charred plank of wood, which might have once been part of a fence. Then, I charged towards the turtle, shouting and brandishing the plank.

True to its name, the snapping turtle lunged at me, its beak severing the wood as easily as one would slice through butter. I suddenly understood how the severed arm I'd found had been detached from its owner, and why there seemed to be no bodies around. This snapping turtle had needed snacks.

I let go of the plank as soon as the turtle bit through it. It was merely a distraction.

The next distraction came unexpectedly from Russell, who, for some reason, thought hurling a clod of mud at the giant spirit beast was a brilliant plan.

Luckily, he had great aim. The mud hit the turtle square in the eye. The creature blinked, its strange sideways eyelids clearing the obstruction, but that momentary distraction allowed me to maneuver around it.

Annika joined in with a fearsome—though high-pitched—battle cry, charging at the creature with her club held high. Displaying more sense than me, she stopped just short of its snapping range, brandishing her weapon menacingly.

Meanwhile, Russell hurled another clod of dirt.

These antics were kinda dumb and effective only because the turtle, although enormous, was still just a turtle. In the few seconds that had elapsed, it hadn't yet unleashed another stream of fire.

But those few seconds were all I needed to scramble up the shell-hill of its back and leap onto the leathery expanse of its neck.

Suddenly, the turtle let out a roar that I didn't expect from a turtle. Its head swung frantically, fire spewing from its jaws. Its feet—each claw as long as my arm—dug into the mud, but its reach was limited, unable to swat me away.

As I stared down at the neck, an image of a goose snapping out with its beak in a painful pinch flashed in my mind. Mimicking this motion, I snapped my fingers and thumb downward, fingers stiff and palm blazing with spirit fire.

My goose pinch scorched a focused blast that seared an inch-deep circle into its flesh, the radius of my spread fingers.

The turtle roared again, then did what turtles are famous for—it began to retract its head, neck, and limbs into its shell. The problem was, compared to the creature, I was no bigger than a beetle on a normal turtle.

Zoop! As its neck retracted beneath me, I was drawn in along with it, disappearing under the shell's edge.

I heard Annika cry out my name.

I was sure I was about to be crushed by folds of reptilian skin. But there was just enough space for me to breathe in the small, dark, space.

And that’s when I learned what being claustrophobic felt like. There was nowhere to go, barely any air to breathe. I couldn’t spread my wings…

… But I still had my magic.

My gosling core blazed with power and my hands echoed that with bright fire. Kneeling, I repeated the goose pinch, searing the flesh beneath me again and again.

The entire creature trembled, and I could almost feel its scaly feet pounding the earth. But this was a turtle—it wasn't going to roll over or dig me out.

Fear fueled my strength, pushing me beyond what I thought was possible. I fire pinched again and again, my hands diving deeper into charred flesh with each strike. Then I hit something hard. The spine.

The shaking and roaring ended shortly after. Abruptly, light flooded in as the creature's head slumped forward from its shell.

I gasped, inhaling the fresh air as I crawled out.

Instead of making a triumphant escape, I tumbled out and fell onto the muddy ground. My legs didn’t have enough strength to hold me.

It was more than just an adrenaline crash. My gosling, too, had closed his eyes and gone back to sleep. The core around it was dark and empty. We’d used all the excess energy we had to kill that thing.

A moment later, Annika and Russell rushed over and helped me sit up.

"Are you okay?" Annika asked, her voice laced with worry.

"Of course, I'm fine," I gasped out, "Just... tired. I won." I grinned.

Ash's voice came from off to the side.  "Yes, you did.”

We all turned to see the man, miraculously clean of any mud, strolling up to us. He clapped his hands together in a sarcastic applause.

"Your first corrupted spirit beast kill. Well done.”

I felt like grunting, No thanks to you. But no one likes a sore winner.

Ash’s next words helped make up for it. “Now, let me show you how to harvest this monster, so you can replace some of that chi you lost."

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