Adlet had no time to think.

  Every heartbeat mattered. Every second of hesitation narrowed the fragile space between survival and death.

  He pressed his palm against his burned leg, forcing green Aura into the wound. Warmth spread instantly beneath his skin, threading through torn muscle and scorched flesh. The pain dulled—but only slightly. The damage ran deep. Healing like this demanded stillness.

  And stillness meant dying.

  He dragged Polo farther behind the rocks, ignoring the fire tearing through his leg with every movement. Only when his unconscious friend was completely hidden did he dare glance past the jagged edge of their cover.

  The Ruby Turtle was still coming.

  Massive. Unhurried. Inevitable.

  Its molten eyes burned through the haze, fixed on the place where they hid. Barely twenty meters separated them now — a distance it could close in seconds.

  A thunderous roar split the air.

  Adlet ducked as another torrent of fire slammed into the rocks, stone glowing red as sparks rained down around him.

  He clenched his teeth.

  Fighting it head-on was impossible.

  But if he couldn’t defeat it… he could at least pull it away from Polo.

  The green Aura faded.

  Darkness replaced it.

  Black Aura coiled across his arms like living metal, humming with harsh resonance. Strength surged violently through his muscles as the Scarab’s power awakened. He seized a nearby boulder, veins standing out along his arms as he forced it upright.

  Step by step, he advanced, using it as a crude shield.

  Flames crashed against the stone. Molten streaks slid downward like liquid fire. Heat crushed the air from his lungs; every breath burned.

  Still, he moved.

  The Ruby Turtle advanced to meet him, claws grinding against rock, each step cracking the earth beneath its weight.

  Too close.

  Adlet dropped the boulder and shifted Aura again.

  Green energy lashed outward, forming a whip that snapped toward a rocky ledge above. It caught.

  He pulled hard.

  His body swung upward just as fire engulfed the ground where he had stood. He landed heavily on a sloped outcrop, gasping.

  Immediately, green Aura surged back into his leg.

  This time, something changed.

  The healing accelerated — faster than ever before. Muscle pulled together, nerves reconnecting in bursts of burning light. It wasn’t controlled technique anymore.

  It was instinct.

  His will to live forcing his body forward.

  Within moments, he could stand.

  The monster climbed into view again, shell blazing like a field of living gemstones.

  Running wouldn’t work.

  He needed a miracle.

  Adlet flicked his wrist.

  The Aura whip shot forward again, wrapping around the top ridge of the turtle’s shell. He pulled himself upward and landed atop the creature.

  Heat surged through his boots instantly.

  Up close, the shell felt alive — vibrating with immense internal pressure.

  He slammed both hands down, black Aura flooding outward.

  He struck.

  Again.

  Again.

  Shockwaves rippled through his arms — but the shell didn’t even tremble.

  It was like striking a mountain.

  The turtle’s neck twisted impossibly, molten eyes locking onto him even here.

  Not safe.

  Nowhere was safe.

  Adlet leapt off the far side—

  —and landed beside its tail.

  Unarmored.

  Flexible.

  Alive.

  Understanding struck instantly.

  Every fortress has a weakness.

  He grabbed the tail with both hands, black Aura roaring through his body. Shadowed veins spread across his arms as the Scarab’s strength surged to its limit.

  He pulled.

  Nothing.

  The Ruby Turtle didn’t move. Its weight felt absolute — like trying to drag the mountain itself.

  His muscles trembled violently.

  He pulled again, teeth grinding, heels digging into the earth.

  A grinding sound answered him.

  The creature’s claws scraped across the ground.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Only a few centimeters.

  Dust shifted beneath its massive shell.

  Adlet gasped, arms shaking.

  Again.

  He twisted his hips, forcing his entire body into the motion, dragging sideways instead of backward.

  The turtle slid.

  Barely an inch.

  Pain exploded through his shoulders.

  But it moved.

  Adlet roared and stepped into a turn, dragging the tail with him.

  At first, the motion was clumsy — slow, uneven. The creature resisted every fraction of movement, its colossal mass fighting inertia itself.

  He nearly lost his footing.

  Then he stepped again.

  And again.

  The turtle began to pivot.

  Stone screamed beneath its weight as the enormous shell carved a shallow arc through the dirt.

  Adlet spun once around himself, breath tearing from his lungs.

  Too slow.

  He forced more Aura into his legs.

  Again.

  The rotation tightened.

  Momentum began to build.

  The massive body lagged behind him at first — then followed, dragged into motion. Dirt and shattered rock burst outward as the turtle’s bulk started circling around him.

  Pain tore through every joint in his body, arms threatening to rip from their sockets.

  But now the weight was moving.

  He turned faster.

  Each step heavier, louder, more desperate than the last.

  The turtle lifted slightly along its outer edge, its claws losing purchase as centrifugal force began to overpower its balance.

  Adlet felt it.

  The moment the mass stopped resisting… and started following.

  Exhilaration surged through him.

  His Aura flared brighter, synchronizing with the violent rhythm of his motion.

  Faster.

  Harder.

  He spun again — faster now, boots carving trenches into the ground as the Ruby Turtle rose higher with every rotation, its enormous body swinging outward like a living meteor.

  The air howled.

  The earth cracked beneath his feet.

  With a final, desperate scream, Adlet poured everything he had left into one last turn—

  —and released.

  The colossal body tore free from its orbit and flew across the clearing.

  It crashed into the mountainside with catastrophic force. Rock exploded outward, the impact shaking the ground as dust and debris swallowed the battlefield in a deafening collapse.

  Silence followed.

  Adlet dropped to one knee, arms shaking uncontrollably.

  It was over—

  The rubble trembled.

  Pebbles slid.

  Cracks spread.

  The turtle’s head burst free, eyes blazing hotter than before.

  Adlet’s stomach dropped.

  It still wasn’t finished.

  He could run now.

  Take Polo. Escape.

  Live.

  For a moment, exhaustion whispered to him.

  Then memories rose instead — his village, every fight, every refusal to give up, every step that had brought him here.

  Running now would erase all of it.

  His breathing steadied.

  “No,” he murmured.

  He stepped forward.

  The creature’s throat ignited again.

  Adlet ran straight toward it.

  Flames erupted.

  He slammed both hands onto its snout and forced its jaws shut.

  The fire never escaped.

  Instead, it detonated inward.

  A violent pressure surged beneath his palms as the flames erupted inside the creature’s throat, trapped with nowhere to go. Heat engulfed him instantly, searing through flesh and bone. Fire burst from the turtle’s nostrils in violent jets, scorching the air around them.

  His skin blistered. Agony devoured his arms.

  But he didn’t let go.

  The turtle convulsed beneath him, its massive claws gouging deep trenches into the earth as it fought to open its jaws. Every tremor traveled through Adlet’s body, threatening to tear him free.

  Pain became everything.

  His pain.

  The monster’s pain.

  One single struggle, burning between them.

  A battle of endurance alone.

  No technique.

  No strength.

  Only will.

  Resist.

  The word echoed inside him, faint at first, nearly drowned beneath the roar of agony.

  RESIST.

  The heat intensified, unbearable. His arms trembled violently as the trapped flames raged between his palms, pressure building with terrifying force. Every instinct screamed at him to let go — to recoil, to survive.

  His grip slipped.

  For a fraction of a second, the turtle’s jaws began to part.

  Fire surged brighter.

  “No—!”

  Adlet forced his fingers tighter, muscles tearing as he drove every remaining fragment of Aura into his arms. The world narrowed to a single point of contact — his hands against burning scale, his will against a living furnace.

  RESIST.

  His vision blurred. Sound vanished. There was only the violent pounding of his heartbeat and the monstrous heat trying to break him.

  The creature convulsed wildly beneath him, its massive body thrashing, claws carving deep scars into the earth. Flames burst violently from its nostrils, sputtering, unstable now — turning inward, consuming their source.

  Adlet screamed, though he couldn’t hear his own voice.

  Pain ceased to matter.

  There was only refusal.

  Seconds stretched into eternity.

  Then the fire began to weaken.

  The blazing glow inside the creature’s throat flickered… faltered…

  The convulsions slowed.

  A strangled, broken cry forced its way through its sealed jaws — weaker, fading.

  Then—

  stillness.

  The colossal body sagged beneath his hands and collapsed with a thunderous impact that shook the ground.

  The heat ebbed away, leaving only drifting smoke and scorched air.

  Silence returned, vast and unreal.

  Adlet remained frozen a moment longer, unable to believe it was over.

  Only when his strength finally failed did his fingers loosen.

  His burned hands slipped from the creature’s snout and fell uselessly to his sides.

  The Ruby Turtle did not move.

  For several long seconds, nothing happened.

  Smoke curled slowly from its jaws. The scorched ground crackled beneath its immense weight. Adlet remained where he stood, swaying slightly, unable to tell whether the battle had truly ended or if the monster would rise again.

  His heartbeat thundered in his ears.

  One breath.

  Then another.

  The creature’s glow began to fade.

  The molten light within the cracks of its shell dimmed, flickering weakly — like a dying fire struggling for air. A deep, hollow sound resonated from within its massive body, not a roar, not a breath… but something quieter. Final.

  Then the first crack appeared.

  A thin line of red-gold light split across the shell.

  Another followed.

  And another.

  Cracks of light spread slowly across the Ruby Turtle’s body, branching outward like veins of dawn breaking through stone.

  A low, peaceful hum filled the air.

  The enormous form began to lose its weight, its edges softening as fragments peeled away, dissolving into countless particles of glowing light. Red and gold motes drifted upward, carried by an unseen current, as though the creature itself were unraveling.

  They fell around him slowly.

  Warm.

  Weightless.

  Like silent Stars descending.

  Adlet sank to his knees… then onto his back, too exhausted to move, staring upward as the glowing fragments floated past him and vanished into the darkness above.

  A faint smile touched his lips.

  I… did it…

  The last lights faded.

  And darkness finally claimed him.

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