Time slowed to a crawl as the turtle looked upon the distant city.
By now, the turtle was only around 20 kilometers away. Sure, that was a great distance, but it definitely was within the turtle's range.
At that moment, Shang felt like he had come face to face with death.
What could he do?
Nothing.
Just like the entire day up to now, Shang couldn't do anything.
Everything surrounding him at this moment was far above his power. He could, at best, be an observer.
If even the most random soldier decided to kill Shang, there would be nothing he could do.
At this moment, Shang felt powerless.
His life lay in the hands of others.
Slowly, several holes opened on the mountain on the turtle's back again.
They pointed towards Warrior's Paradise.
Shang felt his hair stand on end.
BOOOOOOM!
An explosion occurred.
However, it wasn't within Warrior's Paradise.
No, it came from the turtle!
Shang's eyes widened in shock.
What had he just seen?!
Out of nowhere, a huge part of the turtle's mountain was literally blown off!
The turtle's body swayed to the side as a deep, rumbling growl came out of its mouth.
It was like the turtle had just been hit by a gigantic bullet!
Tons and tons of stone fell off the turtle's back, and blood began to flow out of the mountain waves.
It was almost like a volcano had erupted, but instead of lava, it was spewing blood!
Shang looked at the other Mages to see what they thought of what had just happened. Most Mages were just as shocked as Shang, but the green-robed and the grey-robed Mages only smirked as they looked at the turtle.
At that moment, Shang realized something.
The enemy would have planned for everything.
However, the enemy had still been caught off guard as the traitorous Wind Mages had been revealed, which meant that they had not planned around that.
Or, more precisely, the enemy of the enemy had planned around that.
Shang didn't know how these complex Magic Circles worked, but he guessed that creating a Magic Circle to find out who supplied faulty Wind Mana probably needed preparation.
That meant that Duke Whirlwind's people had been prepared.
And if they had been prepared, it meant that they had probably been prepared for everything.
The enemy had launched an attack on Warrior's Paradise, but Duke Whirlwind had planned around the attack!
However, if they simply stopped the attack, it wouldn't be enough. They also had to gain something out of it.
So, they acted like they had fallen into the trap to lure out the traitors. Now, they had killed four traitors and had two more in custody.
They had made their gains, which meant that the façade could end.
They could finally deal with the turtle.
And what did they use to deal with the turtle?
The Exploding Mountain Turtle had to take several booming steps to the side to regain its balance after such a huge part of its body had been blasted off.
During that time, an inconspicuous speck in the distance slowly landed on the ground.
It was a man with long green hair, Wind Mana storming around him.
It was Duke Whirlwind!
Duke Whirlwind glared at the turtle as he extended his left arm forward. "You better not have killed my friend," he whispered.
At that moment, a black speck shot out of a dust cloud and fled to the distance.
It was the Dean!
However, nearly half of the Dean's body was destroyed, and his spear was carrying him to the distance since he couldn't run on his own.
Duke Whirlwind saw him and smiled a bit.
Then, he looked back at the turtle. "Seems like your death will be swift, after all."
Meanwhile, the turtle had recovered, and it glared at Duke Whirlwind from above.
Over ten holes opened up on its mountain, and in an instant, over ten gigantic rocks were shot out of its back.
CLINK! CLINK! CLINK!
Duke Whirlwind waved his left arm around. With each wave, it was like he was batting away the stones with a gigantic, illusory hand. In the end, all of the stones had missed Duke Whirlwind.
"Trying to fight against a Mage in ranged combat," Duke Whirlwind ridiculed.
Duke Whirlwind slowly walked forward as something appeared in his right hand.
It was a perfectly cut crystal with several emerald circlets revolving around it. In total, there were four emerald circlets around the crystal.
"He's using his Focus," Yiral said from beside Shang. He knew that Shang couldn't see it from this distance.
"How many rings does it have?" Shang asked. By now, Shang had learned what a Focus was.
"Four," Yiral said.
Shang took a deep breath. "Just as I've expected, Duke Whirlwind isn't just an ordinary High Mage."
What was a Focus?
A Focus was the primary weapon of a Mage. Not only did it allow the Mage to cast several spells, but the Focus also gathered Mana from the surroundings to further strengthen any spells it cast.
Focuses were the most expensive equipment Mages had to buy in their lives, consuming most of their wealth.
The circlets described how powerful the Focus was.
A High Mage could only use a Focus with up to four circlets, but that didn't mean that every High Mage had one.
Due to the price of the Focuses, buying a Focus with four circlets required the High Mage to have killed and sold at least 20 True Path beasts.
On top of that, the crystal in the center could also be of different qualities, increasing the price even more.
Judging by the Focus Duke Whirlwind was using, Shang didn't think that he was just an ordinary High Mage.
Duke Whirlwind was probably, at least, in the Mid High Mage Realm.
And the Exploding Mountain Turtle?
It was in the Early True Path Realm.
The Exploding Mountain Turtle continued bombarding Duke Whirlwind with stones as it slowly walked back.
Duke Whirlwind kept using his Wind Mana to deflect the stones to the side as he slowly advanced, Focus in his right hand.
And just two seconds later, the Focus began to shine with a green light.
BOOOOOM!
The turtle's mountain exploded, the top half shooting into the distance as rubble.
The Exploding Mountain Turtle released a painful and intimidating shout, but it didn't help.
BOOOOOM!
Another explosion occurred a second later, and a gigantic chunk of the turtle's left half was destroyed.
The force that hit the turtle flipped it over, creating a quake in the Wasteland.
This time, Duke Whirlwind didn't immediately unleash his next spell.
However, he still spoke Incantations at ridiculous speeds.
And five seconds later, he was done.
Duke Whirlwind held his Focus high.
BOOOOOOM!
From a distance, Shang only saw the air between Duke Whirlwind and the Exploding Mountain Turtle vibrate and distort as the sound of grinding metal and stone echoed throughout the horizons.
And then, Shang saw the turtle separate into two pieces!
A clean cut went through the entire turtle's body!
Its organs were flowing out of its body as blood filled the Wasteland.
The Exploding Mountain Turtle became quieter and quieter until it eventually stopped making sounds.
It was dead.
Duke Whirlwind put his Focus away, summoned a handkerchief, and cleaned his hands.
"And that's that."
