The Reimagining of the Bow Hero

Chapter 45 - Spirit Tortoise Battle

Chapter 45 – Spirit Tortoise Battle

Author's Note: It's tortoise time!

"Ah, I understand."

The generals had spent a great deal of time telling me everything they knew about the tortoise and pitching their own ideas on how to defeat it.

Apparently, the Spirit Tortoise had taken a stronger interest in the coalition army than targeting population centers. This wasn't that big of an issue since Prustein, the largest Confederation city near the Melromarc border, was fully evacuated, but it was one of the largest intact cities in the Confederation and if it fell, it would deal a huge blow to the economy.

I also learned that the Spirit Tortoise's attacks had gotten much more powerful, but it had less familiars this time. It had also not used any powerful attacks such as last time, and now and then it rested for 30 minutes, up to two hours. This was good, since it gave time for the armies to coordinate and avoid its attacks.

Gathering all this information, I devised an excellent battle plan, using ideas from everybody in the room. It would involve me taking out the tortoise's heart, and Naofumi taking out its head. There were only a few dozen minutes until the tortoise was bound to move again, so we had to make haste.

Good news was, the Arcian Army, not the New Army organized from the new territories, had arrived. They brought along limited amounts of new weapons I had designed, such as mortars modeled off those used by the Americans in the Vietnam War, some mid-20th century breech-loading artillery, and even a rocket launcher system, modeled off the Soviet BM-21 Grad but using different propellants, explosives and dragged by a horse. Hopefully these would do something. I ordered the strongest troops to operate these weapon systems for maximum efficiency, and they were placed near a hill for better protection and a better firing angle against the tortoise. I ordered these artillery systems to also target tortoise familiars if they got too close or posed a large enough threat to the ground forces.

"The tortoise is moving!"

A soldier screamed from an observation post, ringing a large bell and sounding off alarms across the military formations.

The Spirit Tortoise shot a round of spike-like missiles from its back.

"Fire!"

A barrage of rockets fired from the rocket launcher system, taking out a few tortoise projectiles. The rest fell upon random areas, which the army luckily avoided.

Looking forwards, I saw Naofumi, Eclair and the rest of his party careening towards the massive body of the tortoise, ready to carry out his part of the plan. The giant creature was preparing to launch an attack on Naofumi and his companions.

"SCREEEEE!"

The Spirit Tortoise fired spikes from its shell into the sky. Naofumi and his party barely dodged the attack, Filo drifting to avoid it with great agility.

"Fire!"

A barrage of artillery and mortar rounds fired at the tortoise, hitting its head and causing it to flinch for a split second.

The thing was too powerful for these attacks to work, but they were great distractions.

While the beast was focusing its attacks on Naofumi's party, I reckoned it was time to carry out my half of the plan.

"Let's go!"

Indigo, who was standing on top of a tall hill overlooking the battlefield, leapt off a cliff with Ost, Rishia, Welst and I on his back. We brought Ost along, since maybe she would be useful in finding an opening into the tortoise's interior. He slowly began to glide towards the ground. The rest of my party stood back, assisting the New Army.