Strange New Companion

Being stunned by hearing the giant turtle speak to him felt like it would be wrong. Seeing as he could literally disassembled whole aircraft with just a thought. The turtle continued to stare at him, obviously it was waiting for a response.

"I was hoping to establish a connection with you, so the gift was actually unintentional. You're welcome all the same though." Matt said.

"What connection are you trying to form if you don't mind?" the turtle said.

"My group is heading to Japan to start a base. With my ability, I plan to wipe out the infected and claim the land as a safe haven. Having a large mutant such as yourself on my side would be very beneficial. I wouldn't as you to do it for free though since my energy seemed to be of some use to you." Matt said.

"That is an interesting proposition. Creatures that have reached the same size as myself should be very few and even if they have, I have the advantage of defense as well as true intelligence." the turtle said.

Hearing that statement, Matt was astounded since the turtle was saying that the majority of creatures either did not or would not develop intelligence. Drawing that as a base line, there could only be a hand full of reasons as to why this turtle could speak.

"You grew to this size and developed intelligence because you devoured a hybrid with a mental type ability didn't you." Matt said.

"You would be correct in that assumption. The person that I ate had telepathy and could use his mind to communicate with others, but used it in an attempt to enslave me. My kind live to be very old so I was many times older than the person trying to control me, making my mental strength stronger than his." the turtle said.

"I would make a wager that even with the ability that you have acquired, you would not be able to defeat me in a battle of mental strength." Matt smiled and said.

The turtle grew silent in contemplation at Matt's words. It seemed to be considering the wager seriously and considering the benefits that it could gain from winning.

"What would be terms of this wager?" the turtle said.

"We would establish a mutual connection for the duration of the wager, that way we have the same opportunity to use it making it a fair dual. If I win, you will come with us to Japan and act as a line of defense against sea creatures as well as a ferry in a sense since my base will be established right here on your back. If you win, I will give you two thirds of all the energy that I can obtain from Japan. The energy that I create becomes more pure and concentrated the more infected I kill with it which will give you an advantage in terms of mutation speed compared to all other creatures. To sweeten the pot, I will give you two more abilities that will give you greater strength and attack." Matt explained.

"When do we start this wager?" the turtle said.

"Right now if you like." Matt said sitting down

The turtle nodded and helped establish a mutual connection between the two so that they could have their dual. With the preparations done, Matt invited the turtle to go first.

Using its' full strength, it put pressure on Matt's mind to make him surrender. It went all out from the beginning since it viewed Matt like any other human, weak and frail of mind. Contrary to its' expectations, Matt did not resist the pressure and simply let it weigh on him to get the full experience. Doing this allowed Matt to understand how to do the same back to turtle when it was his turn. The turtle tried for a total of two hours before letting Matt have his turn since the most it had done was make him sweat a little.

Matt nodded when the turtle passed the ball to his court. Taking a couple of deep breaths to regain some of his strength, Matt readied himself. He did not want to use his full power right off the bat since he didn't know how strong his mental force really was. With his preparations complete, he gave his warning that he was starting so that the turtle would brace itself for what was to come.

Matt started slow to get a feel for is mental power a little at a time. After fifteen minutes, the pressure was starting to build on the turtles mind. The look in its' eyes said that it was shocked at the mental force that Matt had and it was still increasing.

'How can a human posses such force of will with such a small life span? Creatures should only get stronger with age not being born that way. What could have possibly happened to him to make him this way?' the turtle thought

Forty minutes into the second half of the dual, the turtle was beginning to get worried as the force it was being put under was immense when suddenly it stopped growing. The turtle felt relieved for only a second when suddenly, it felt like death itself was sitting in front of its' nose. Matt was done testing and he was starting to get tired so, he got serious. His eyes glowed blue and the sand around him began to levitate. At the same moment, the turtle slammed its head down on its shell and surrendered in the face of death. Matt didn't understand why the turtle gave up so quickly right after he went all out, but the turtle did. Through the mental connection, it could see into Matt and in that moment, it saw now way to win. An abyss of darkness and rage was all it could sense and it wanted no part of its full weight.

"You have no intentions of backing out of our deal right?" Matt said.

"Even if I had ten times the courage, I would never dare back out against a being as strong as you are." the turtle said.

"Alright, with that settled, what should I call you now that we are going to be companions?" Matt said.

"My apologies for not properly introducing myself this entire time. I am called Alpha, the first of this new species that I have become. Since you are the boss, you may call me whatever you like though." Alpha said.

"I think it suits you so we will stick with it. To get to Japan, we will need to head due west of our current position." Matt said.

Alpha simply nodded in response and changed direction to head the Matt had just pointed. With Alpha on their side now, it would make traveling the sea much safer while areal creatures would surely steer clear.

With that done, Matt continued scouting the island while cleaning up debris to pass the time and get energy to begin setting up a base. In that time, James and Chris finally returned giving Matt the lay of the land.

Matt gave them a run down of the events that had transpired and told them to scout for a place to set up base. Now they only had to wait to reach Japan and begin their operation.