The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL] novel Chapter 173

Chapter 173: Trapped

Fear had been an underlying emotion for everyone alive in this day and age, and the father-son duo thought they knew fear.

But then, apparently, there was still dread.

And then terror.

The creature’s eyes glowed with an unnatural light, its gaze locking onto Talen and Kael as if sensing their intrusion.

The beast was stalking them—an odd sensation considering that the beast was one giant tortoise.

It moved sluggishly but with an ominous inevitability, each step causing the lake to bubble and hiss as it exuded pools of acidic corruption.

If anything, it should be what used to be a lake.

Because frankly, no one would classify that as one, considering the current conditions.

For had they touched that still body of liquid, their mechas would’ve started corroding.

"Kael, run!" Talen shouted, drawing his blade—a relic from his younger days as a mecha pilot. But even as he spoke, he knew escape was futile.

The Sludgeborn Tortoise was slow, but its territory was its prison—and no one who entered ever left.

Kael hesitated, his eyes wide with fear but also defiance. "We can’t leave without the Jade Vine!"

Talen cursed under his breath but nodded. "Stay close to me."

The beast let out a guttural roar that echoed against the jagged peaks, the tentacles on its back lashing out with terrifying speed.

"Goddammit!"

One wrapped around the arm of Talen’s mecha, its slimy grip threatening to burn through the metal frame like acid.

Talen slashed at it with his blade, severing the appendage, but another quickly replaced it.

Kael darted to the side, narrowly avoiding a tentacle that smashed into the ground where he originally stood.

"!!!"

The eldest son felt like he had used all his luck just for that one moment and hoped he wouldn’t need to pull another one.

As the creature’s acidic wallow expanded, the air grew thick with the stench of decay, turning the lake’s remnants into a bubbling swamp that threatened to trap their feet if they landed.

Talen fought valiantly—or as valiantly as an insect could fight off a stone golem.

His blade flashed as he hacked at the tentacles and dodged the snapping maws that emerged from the creature’s shell.

Meanwhile, Kael scrambled toward the Jade Vine, the mecha’s hands reaching for the glowing tendrils even as the ground threatened to pull him under or corrode him off.

But then it happened.

A tentacle coiled around Kael’s leg, dragging him toward one of the gaping maws on the tortoise’s shell.

"Father!" he cried out, panic in his voice.

Talen roared in fury, lunging toward his caught son, driving the blade into the tentacle to free the tangled mecha.

But it was a sacrifice that left him vulnerable.

Another tentacle lashed out, wrapping around his torso and pulling him toward the monstrous shell.

"Kael! Take the Vine and run!" Talen shouted through their comms, his voice strained as his mecha struggled against the creature’s grip.

"I’m not leaving you!" Kael yelled back as his long-held-back tears began to stream down his face.

The beast let out another roar as it dragged Talen closer to its shell.

The gaping maws opened wide, revealing rows of jagged teeth that looked ready to digest anything they could touch.

Kael’s mind raced.