Rei and Vihera had soared into the sky with Set, but the Gigant Turtle was not about to let opponents capable of damaging it move about freely.
Timing its attack to the moment Set took flight, one of the creature's three heads—the one closest to Set—opened its mouth.
"GRAAAAAAAaaaaAAAH!"
Along with that roar, what erupted from the Gigant Turtle's right neck was a powerful blast of wind.
It wasn't anything with direct offensive power like a Wind Blade, but truly just wind—a breath worthy of being called Wind Breath.
Rather than a blade of wind, it was more like a club of wind—a devastating breath that suited such a description.
"GRRRRRRL!"
Naturally, Set had no intention of quietly taking such an attack.
Making use of his small stature—relatively speaking, compared to the Gigant Turtle—he flapped his wings and swiftly darted away from the spot.
The various breaths Rei had seen in past battles were often released over a wide area, whereas the Wind Breath was fired in a straight line toward wherever the Gigant Turtle's head was facing.
That was precisely why it wasn't difficult to dodge, but...
"This is a pain!"
"You said it!"
Rei muttered from atop Set's back as the griffon swiftly cut through the sky, and Vihera, clinging to Set's front leg, shouted back against the wind.
In truth, the one who found the Wind Breath most troublesome in their current situation was not Set, who was flying through the air, nor Rei, who rode on his back, but Vihera, who was clinging to Set's front leg.
The safety line she would normally use was not attached at the moment.
Under those conditions, taking a powerful wind attack like Wind Breath could easily mean being torn from Set's leg.
And if she let go, Vihera, who had no means of flying, would naturally plummet to the ground.
"GRRRRRRL!"
"Don't fall, Vihera!"
A different head from the one that had just unleashed the Wind Breath opened its mouth, and the next moment, a massive torrent of water erupted forth.
Not just ordinary water, but water compressed by magical power.
And though Rei didn't know it, that water was mixed with countless grains of sand coated in magical power.
Set somehow managed to evade the Water Breath flying straight at him, but where it struck—a location far from the battlefield—it violently blasted apart the earth in the next moment.
It was an attack that made one think an explosion had gone off.
"Set, the last head is coming! Circle around to the shell!"
"GRRRRRRL!"
At Rei's words, Set flapped his wings broadly once more.
The third head opened its mouth... and what spewed out was rock.
Not just ordinary rock, but elongated, spear-like projectiles with pointed tips.
Rather, it would be better to call them Rock Spears.
Such Rock Spears were spewed out in countless numbers toward Set as he flew through the air.
Set evaded those attacks while circling toward the Gigant Turtle's shell, following Rei's instructions.
The aim was that the turtle couldn't attack toward its own back no matter what—but as expected, the wind, water, and rock breaths from all three mouths respectively ceased.
However, in their place, the trees growing on the shell hurled vines, thorns, and nuts at Set, who had entered their attack range.
"Treants?!"
Rei shouted at the unexpected turn of events.
But since the Gigant Turtle could be called the very incarnation of the Treant Forest, it wasn't strange at all for Treants to be growing on its shell.
Rei reaching that conclusion and Vihera releasing her grip from Set's leg happened at almost the exact same moment.
Rei's balance was momentarily disrupted, and when he looked down, he saw Vihera falling toward the Gigant Turtle's shell.
Since Set had descended close enough for the Treants to attack, Vihera would have no trouble landing from that height.
"Being there will just get in the way, so I'll attack from here!" Vihera shouted as she fell toward the ground—or more precisely, toward the Gigant Turtle's shell.
That decision was by no means wrong.
Facing a Gigant Turtle that unleashed three types of breath while clinging to Set's front leg with nothing but grip strength and no safety line could only be described as a death wish.
A single mistake would mean being blown from the sky straight into the ground.
Moreover, the fact that Rei and Set couldn't fight to their full potential in order to protect her was something Vihera could not endure.
Following her intuition, she released her grip from Set's leg and dropped toward the Gigant Turtle's shell.
As if understanding her intent, Rei glared at the Gigant Turtle—which was watching for an opening between himself and Set—and spoke.
"Got it. Leave it to me!"
"Right!"
Twisting her body to evade the attacks launched by the Treants, or intercepting them with her Hand Gauntlets and Foot Guards, Vihera displayed movements that seemed impossible for someone in midair as she shouted back.
Though Rei couldn't see how she was faring, he called out to Set while keeping his eyes locked on the Gigant Turtle.
"First, let's take out the heads one by one!"
"GRRRL!"
The first one Rei targeted was the head that spewed Rock Spears—the last of the three types: wind, water, and rock.
Wind had the effect of restricting movement, but its actual destructive power wasn't that high.
Water and Rock Spears, however, both possessed power that could only be described as brutal.
Between them, he targeted the rock-spewing head rather than the water one because Rock Spears could attack over a wider area than Water Breath.
(Well, if it could unleash Water Breath while sweeping it sideways, that wouldn't be a laughing matter either.)
As he watched the Gigant Turtle's three heads rapidly approaching, he found himself slightly amused by his own thoughts.
With a small smirk, he channeled magical power into the Twilight Spear gripped in his left hand.
"Set."
With just that single word, Set seemed to understand what Rei meant.
He flapped his wings harder, increasing his speed.
From atop Set's back, Rei hurled the Twilight Spear from his left hand.
Though it was a throw using only his upper body, the spear's speed was by no means slow.
He wondered if it would be affected by the magical barrier, but this time there was no barrier at all—it flew straight toward the head that spewed Rock Spears.
The Gigant Turtle naturally tried to evade the spear hurtling toward it.
But of course, between the speed of the hurled spear and the Gigant Turtle—a creature whose massive body was like a small hill—the spear was overwhelmingly superior, especially in terms of agility.
The Gigant Turtle likely knew the power and speed of Rei's Twilight Spear, but perhaps it hadn't expected him to throw it while still riding Set.
(So it hasn't completely grasped everything that happened in the Treant Forest?)
When defeating the giant flowers, Rei had thrown the Twilight Spear while riding Set.
He considered that fact for just a moment in the back of his mind, but right now, focusing on the threat in front of him took priority.
The Twilight Spear pierced through the right eyeball of the head that spewed Rock Spears.
Naturally, since it was a strike unleashed while Rei had Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor activated, it didn't end there.
Destroying the eyeball, it plunged through the interior of the head, shattered the skull, crushed half the head, and emerged from the back.
If it had been one of the enemies he'd faced up to now—if it had been one of the monsters he'd fought in the Treant Forest—the Twilight Spear would still have had plenty of speed remaining even after piercing through and shattering the body.
But this time, after crushing and piercing through half of the Gigant Turtle's head, the spear's velocity had already been nearly spent.
However... since one of the Twilight Spear's abilities was that it could freely return to its wielder, that wasn't a problem.
In the next moment, the Twilight Spear that had shattered the Gigant Turtle's head vanished and reappeared in Rei's hand.
"GRROARRRRRRROOOOORRRGH!"
The Gigant Turtle's roar echoed across the battlefield.
It was filled with intense fury.
...Given that one of its heads had just been destroyed, that was only natural.
"Even so, the fact that it has no trouble moving... why is that? Its body—wait, Set!"
"GRRRRRL!"
Set let out a sharp cry at Rei's words and flapped his wings.
In the next instant, the Gigant Turtle's tail whipped through the space where Set's body had been just a moment before.
It was a strike that truly deserved to be called a Morning Star.
If Rei had been even a moment late in noticing it, or if Set had been even a fraction slower in following Rei's instructions, being killed by that single blow might not have been the outcome, but being sent flying was an absolute certainty.
However, that was precisely because it had been a semi-surprise attack.
Despite the fact that they were facing the creature head-on, the tail extending to where they currently were was completely unexpected for Rei—but once seen, a surprise attack loses half its effectiveness.
"GWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
Once again, the Gigant Turtle unleashed a roar.
But this time, the cry was different.
Along with that voice, both Wind Breath and Water Breath were unleashed simultaneously.
However, unlike the Rock Spears, these breaths didn't cover a wide enough area to make them difficult for Set to evade.
Moreover, Vihera was no longer clinging to his leg, and he was only carrying Rei on his back.
Flapping his wings and nimbly weaving through the air, Set easily outpaced the two types of breath the Gigant Turtle unleashed.
Even while performing what could only be called aerial acrobatics, Rei didn't feel the slightest bit dizzy or nauseous.
If anything, he even had enough composure to glance down at the battle unfolding on the ground.
"Don't get under its feet! Just distract it so Rei can focus on attacking! Buy time! It's frustrating, but we can't beat this thing as we are now!"
One of the adventurers shouted as he dove out of the way.
The turtle had shifted its leg to maintain balance when attacking Rei, but even that alone carried enough force to instantly kill any ordinary human who failed to dodge.
And it was entirely unintentional—for the Gigant Turtle, it was simply moving naturally, making it nerve-wracking for the adventurers fighting below.
The adventurers present were almost all those who possessed a certain level of skill or higher.
In other words, it was possible to read ahead and predict the next attack based on the monster's behavior.
But that only applied when facing a monster head-on, and they had never anticipated fighting something like the Gigant Turtle.
On top of that, the Gigant Turtle wasn't attacking deliberately—it was merely shifting its weight or supporting its movements, so the adventurers had no choice but to react on the fly.
Even under those conditions, the fact that no casualties had occurred among the adventurers was thanks to Marina.
Wind Spirits, Water Spirits, Earth Spirits—she was borrowing the power of those three types of spirits to save anyone about to be crushed underfoot by the Gigant Turtle.
"Whoa!"
Set flapped his wings in midair, and the Gigant Turtle once again filled Rei's field of vision as he snapped his gaze back from the ground.
Having lost one head, the Gigant Turtle's remaining two heads were stained with hostility and hatred.
Apparently concluding that breath and tail attacks alone could do nothing to Rei and Set, the next attack those two heads chose was far more direct.
"Grrl!"
"Whoa!"
The head that had been spewing compressed water breath—the Water Cutter—opened its massive maw, and in the next moment, it lunged to bite and crush Rei and Set whole.
The fangs in its mouth each possessed the length of a longsword, if not longer.
It had extended its neck to deliver what was essentially a blade's strike.
Normally, it shouldn't have been able to reach them at all, but that neck... stretched.
(A softshell turtle?!)
Naturally, Rei had never eaten softshell turtle himself, but he had seen one on a cooking show or something.
The sight of the softshell turtle extending its neck that he'd seen back then closely resembled the current attack.
It was only natural that Rei would make that retort internally.
Of course, it didn't end with just an internal quip—as the Gigant Turtle's head whipped past, he swung Death Scythe and carved a deep gash into it.