Shang looked over the wall, and his eyes widened at what he saw.
This was a turtle?!
Shang could only see a mountain move across the Canyon!
It swayed to the left and right as it slowly crept forward. From time to time, the mountain hit one of the Eternal Spires, which quickly began to vibrate. Some ore fell from the Eternal Spires from time to time, but most of them were still in one piece.
However, Shang knew that if the turtle decided to destroy the Eternal Spires, it could do so. It was just too troublesome to destroy the Eternal Spires, which was why it walked around them.
Additionally, if such a gigantic Spire collapsed onto the turtle, even it would feel that. After all, the Eternal Spires weighed way too much.
"Mages, red alert protocol!" the officer in golden armor shouted.
Shang looked over and saw the Mages on the wall move around. Nearly half of them were gathering in one place while the other ones continued shooting at the powerful flying beasts.
The Mages in the Wasteland retreated closer to Warrior's Paradise as half of them suddenly shot to the sky as they activated their Jumping Talismans.
The hunters also retreated to the north. Up to now, there had been a dividing line going from the east of Warrior's Paradise to the west. Now, it moved up north, creating a protrusion in the dividing line. The protrusion was Warrior's Paradise.
This meant that more beasts would attack Warrior's Paradise and that fewer beasts would attack the hunters. After a while, the beasts came closer to Warrior's Paradise. The remaining Mages in the Wasteland bombarded the beasts, but with the added pressure together with their fewer numbers, several beasts were closing in.
BANG!
Suddenly, one of the beasts was split apart together with the ground beneath it.
Just now, the Mana Austerum in the middle of the city had shone with a green light.
At the same time, at the base of the Mana Austerum, some of the Mana Stones that had gathered the pure Wind Mana had turned grey.
The Mana Austerum shone green from time to time, and in the end, no beasts managed to reach Warrior's Paradise.
Several beasts noticed that other beasts had died a mysterious death, and they decided to avoid Warrior's Paradise.
They traveled further north, which was where the hunters were waiting.
Initially, the pressure had been normal for the hunters.
Then, when the line had retreated, the pressure on them had let up.
No, the pressure returned to normal with the added beasts charging to the north.
Everything was planned perfectly.
The Mana Austerum dealt with the added pressure after so many Mages had jumped back into Warrior's Paradise.
Of course, every single use of the Mana Austerum burned money, but that was still better than Warrior's Paradise being destroyed.
The Mages that had come back to Warrior's Paradise were manning the defenses while nearly half the Mages gathered in one gigantic diagram.
The Mages all stood in certain places, and their bodies formed several rings that extended into each other.
At the place where all rings met were two old men. One of them wore expensive green robes while the other wore expensive grey robes.
Shang hadn't seen a grey-robed Mage yet, but he had learned about them in Vice-Dean Ranos' class.
They were Mages that focused on Element-Neutral Magic.
Soul, Mind, Arcane, Mana Manipulation, and all such things counted to Element-Neutral Magic.
The Mages all began to chant.
Boom!
Shang could hear a loud explosion coming from the distance, and he looked over.
The gigantic mountain had stepped out of the Canyon!
Now, Shang could see the entire thing.
At first glance, this beast definitely didn't look like a turtle. It simply looked like a walking mountain with giant feet made of stone.
However, a head filled with stone shards and stone spires extended out of the mountain as it looked down on everything beneath it.
The head resembled the head of a snapping turtle a lot. Its stone spires and stone shards reminded Shang of the aggressive outcroppings of the scales of a snapping turtle.
In a way, it resembled a dragon's head quite a lot.
It seemed ancient, aggressive, mighty, and filled with wisdom.
The explosion Shang had heard had come from a step the Exploding Mountain Turtle had taken.
Cold sweat ran down Shang's back as he saw this monster.
It was a moving fortress!
It was a moving island!
It was a moving mountain!
It didn't move very fast, but it didn't need to.
It still moved faster than a city, which was all the speed it needed right now.
"Is this normal?" Shang asked absentmindedly as he looked with shocked eyes at the Exploding Mountain Turtle.
"No, it's not," Yiral said from the side. For the first time, Shang could hear nervousness in Yiral's voice. "Around every second Day of Chaos, one True Path Stage beast leaves its area in either the Empress Cobra Zone or the Storm Eagle Zone."
"When they exit, Duke Whirlwind deals with them most of the time, but I can't see the duke here today. That probably means that there is something holding him up, which is probably another True Path beast."
Shang nodded. Yiral hadn't heard the Dean's words, but he was right. The Dean had told Shang that there was a True Path Stage beast in the Empress Cobra Zone too.
"Every four years or so, there are two True Path Stage beasts that leave their area," Yiral said. "However, as far as I know, they have never left their area at the same time."
"Over the course of eight hours, what are the chances of two such powerful beasts leaving their habitat at the same time?" Yiral said with uncertainty.
Neither Shang nor Yiral spoke for a while.
"Do you think there's something behind that sudden change?" Shang asked.
Yiral looked with furrowed brows at the distant Exploding Mountain Turtle.
"Less something, and more someone," he said.
Shang lifted an eyebrow. "Do you think a human is involved?"
"The duchies and kingdoms are at peace, but only superficially. There is an intense competition and conflict going on, and many people would benefit from Warrior's Paradise's destruction," Yiral said.
"If Duke Whirlwind loses his biggest symbol of status and wealth, he would be less valuable for the Skythunder Kingdom," Yiral explained.
Shang became more nervous as he looked at the approaching Exploding Mountain Turtle.
If this were a coincidence, it wouldn't be so bad. After all, coincidences happened at random.
However, if a human was behind this, it meant that the human had planned around everything and that they were very certain in their plan to succeed.
The Exploding Mountain Turtle was moving rather slowly, which should give them a lot of time to prepare.
But if the planning human was still willing to go through with their plan, it meant that the speed of the Exploding Mountain Turtle had already been accounted for.
That meant that its speed didn't matter.
As Yiral and Shang became more nervous, the Dean had finally arrived at the Exploding Mountain Turtle.
And then, the Exploding Mountain Turtle showed why it carried its name.
