The Rising of The Masked Hero - The Flames of Ares

Test Thy Steel - Chapter 02

After two days of travelling, they reached the encampment where a large forces of knights and daring warriors gathered by the queen.

"At last, you all made it." said the queen.

"What's the situation now?" said Naofumi.

"I've gathered enough forces to fight against the Spirit Turtle. But some countries have already begun their assault on the turtle."

"They attack without waiting?"

"The Spirit Turtle was destroying their countries. No way they would refrain from fighting the monster."

"Right... Any news on the other heroes?"

"We still have no information of their whereabouts, Shield Hero."

Then, they felt a short tremor on the ground, and it sent everyone on high alert.

"Master! Look!" Filo pointed her wings at a mountain on the horizon.

"Is it just me, or did that mountain over there just moved?" said Naofumi.

"That's no mountain." said the queen.

Now they realized that they were looking at the Spirit Turtle emerged amongs the mountain range. Marius looked at the beast then turned and looked at the queen's forces.

"Do you have enough men to fight that thing?" said Marius.

"I don't have any comforting answer to your question, but this is all the men we can muster."

"You're going to need a god to kill that thing."

"Unless you can pray one to help us, there's really no way except fighting that thing." said Naofumi, "And how did the previous heroes defeated it?"

"According to records, they got inside of it by the city on its back and placed a seal on its heart." said the queen, "Our plan was to set up an ambushes on its course. It seems to be heading towards highly populated cities. We'll sent in an evacuation team to prevent civilian casualties."

"And then we go in and seal its heart?"

"Correct. But I fear such plan will cause more casualties."

"... How about I try fighting it as a test."

"You're insane." said Marius.

"I'm only testing its abilities and mine against it so atleast we know what we're dealing with."

"This is not like your experiment, Naofumi. We're about to face a titan."

"Have a little faith. Didn't you try to take on the zombie dragon once on your own?"

"That one was different."

"We're not gonna kill it. Once we know what that thing can do we'll retreat and report to the queen."

"... Fine. But if we die, I'm dragging you to Hades's domain myself."

"Shield Hero, your performance will affect the morale of our troops. Please be careful." said the queen.

"Yes Ma' am." said Naofumi. "We'll ride on Filo's back. She'll get us there faster."

"Yay!" Filo cheered.

"I have a bad feeling about this." said Marius as he unattached Filo from the carriage.

"We can fight that thing! Have faith!"

"That is hardly comforting."

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Riding on Filo's back, they can see the turtle getting closer and closer, and the more powerful the tremor they felt each time the beast stomps the ground. Filo immediately stopped running and let the others dismount. Then, emerging from the mountains were swarm of bat-like creatures in large numbers flying towards the heroes.