The siblings watched as the beast brutally disposed of the hunters that were after its precious shell. It was fast, for a large turtle. It writhed and struggled as the hunters’ ropes tried to hold it in place.

“Flip it over!” one of them screamed.

“No!” another cried out, “we can’t! We don’t have enough manpower!”

The lot of them screamed as the beast turned its whole body, pulling the men along with it. When a few of them were under it, it would pull in all for legs at once, crushing them. Its neck was also extremely long, able to circle around its shell once, like that of a snake. Its teeth seemed to made of the same material as the shell--it snapped one man in two by just picking him up. When it flung the body away, one half went one way, the next half went the other way.

When most of the men had been killed and the rest began to flee, Zorlo put his own sword forward, striking the beast hard in the shell. His sword vibrated, sending an irritating tune through the air. The fencer rolled backwards, holding his sword arm in the process.

"That's one hard shell, be careful!"

Rain and Rai looked at each other.

“Switch?” She asked, holding out Rain’s katana.

Rain grinned and handed her his kodachi. “Yep,” he responded.

The Grim Angel set himself, putting one leg stretched out forward, and the other leg slightly bent. The fencer looked over at him as he flared his aura--that stance, the Gatotsu, was familiar to him; Rain had used it once in the battle against the fencer himself.

“There is nothing,” the angel, pushed forward, raising a line of dust behind him, “that this Gatotsu cannot pierce!”

A loud CRACK! echoed throughout the area as the sound barrier shattered. That sound was followed by a mind bending vibrating noise as the tip of the blade went straight through the side of the shell.

A trickle of blood ran down out of the crack as Rain pulled the sword out.

This won’t do.

The beast howled, stretching out his neck and swiveling it around searching out its attacker. The head howled once more, and darted towards the one who had just hurt it.

Rain grinned swinging the sword to the side as it came.

There was a flash from above; Raisha came down upon the neck, using the same attack that she had used against Roery in Chinatown. There was a large explosion of sand as she connected. When she came into view again, she was standing outside the crater, watching in amazement as the beast raised its head once more--the attack had no effect.

“It looks like his neck is coated with the metal, too.” the reaper said, as the beast looked at the three. It was mostly interested in Zorlo, who seemed prepared to deliver another blow.

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["Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet"]