As they entered the river, Blanc took the lead and took them towards the current.
He turned to face them and signed to where the current began.
With a nod from the others, marking that they understood what he meant, he entered the current slightly before showing them how he escaped its grasp.
He then pointed back towards the surface, wanting to tell them something, so they swam back up.
"Okay," he said, "I'll go in first. In what order would you all come?"
"Let Lune and Kael go in first, and we follow after," Celine replied.
"Are you sure, sister Celine?" Lune asked.
Celine nodded, "Of course, Lune, it would be best that way."
"So be it," Blanc said, "Once one enters the tunnel, another can enter the current."
To which all nodded.
"See you all on the other side," he said before they all dove back.
The current did what it did before.
It grabbed Blanc and took the lead of his momentum, pulling him towards the entrance of the tunnel.
Right before he entered, he turned to face the others, and as the water took him downward into the tunnel, he waved at the four.
And just like that, he was into the tunnel and back into the pool.
He swiftly grabbed onto the rock floor with the hand in which he held his sword and waited for the next one to come falling through the water.
And the first to come was Kael, who, as he entered the pool, panicked, flinging his arms everywhere, not realizing he was also swinging his sword.
But Blanc managed to grab him by the free arm and pull him onto the cave floor.
"Calm down, Kael, you are fine," Blanc yelled as Kael gasped for air, confused. "Prepare yourself and keep the turtles at a distance until the rest come."
"O-okay," Kael stuttered, putting his sword forward.
And as he did so, another came through the tunnel.
It was Lune, who, as she entered the pool, swam sideways towards Blanc and grabbed his arm.
She didn't panic like her twin did, and as she touched the cave floor, she pulled her sword forward, ready for battle.
"Sister Miyanna is coming next," Lune yelled.
Moments later, Miyanna entered the pool, just as Lune said.
Miyanna's eyes were wide, her hands flailing. She was panicked, and by the way she looked, even more so than Kael was.
But Blanc grabbed her swiftly and pulled her closer to him.
"You are fine, my love," he said.
"Th-thanks," she gasped for air, "I'm fine."
"I'm going to pull you up now," Blanc smiled as he grabbed her by her bottom and pushed.
Miyanna turned to him as she touched the floor, her eyes calmer now.
As she opened her lips to say something, Celine came out of the tunnel and entered the pool.
She swam calmly to the surface near Blanc and offered her free hand, "If I may."
"Of course you may, My Lady," Blanc replied, taking her hand and pushing her on the cave floor.
They were now all inside the cave, facing the turtles, who took the smaller ones behind them and retreated into their shells, just as Blanc got out of the water as well.
"This will be easy," Blanc muttered as he brandished his sword, passing the rest at great speed.
He was behind the line of turtles in less than a second, turning one after the other on their backs.
"I told you I'll be back," he said to them, just as one of the turtles pulled back, turning around only to elongate its neck and snap at Blanc's hand.
Unlucky for it, though, Blanc was faster, pulling his hand away, and as the turtle closed its mouth at great speed, he hit it over the head with his palm.
"That's what you get," he muttered before turning that turtle on its back, too.
Four of the nine turtles present were on their backs, but by the end of a minute, the rest joined Blanc as well, incapacitating the turtles by putting them on their back, and watching them attempt to pull themselves back up unsuccessfully.
"There are nine harvest-worthy turtles," Blanc said to the rest of the group, "We leave the smaller ones alone."
He planned to kill, but he had morals.
Strength ruled both the human world and the beast world, and usually, the weak die first.
But the young ones did not have a chance to grow strong yet, so they have to live.
Such were the morals he held to his heart, morals that helped him remain human through the rivers of blood he had already spilled and will have to spill to grow stronger.
"Kael, since you harvested one already, you get one. The rest of us get two," Blanc explained, "We harvest them and keep on going deeper inside, see where it leads."
With a nod from the rest, they all placed their swords above the turtles each of them chose, and with a crunchy stab that passed through meat, bone, and shell, they put all the turtles to rest.
Blanc took the small baby turtle that was earlier munching on a few strands of his hair as he watched it flail its little flippers, trying to get away.
"Sorry, little one," Blanc muttered as he crouched down near the pool, placing the baby turtle into the water.
"Make sure to grow big and strong," Lune waved at the turtle as it swam away deep into the pool.
"I think you were right, my love," Celine said, as she looked inside the pool, "I don't see the bottom, and the water not flooding this cave system is weird enough as is."
"That's what I thought as well," Blanc nodded, before turning towards the corpses on the cave floor, "Let's leave that for now, though, and let's harvest."
And with that, Blanc knelt down and placed his hand on one of the two large turtles he had killed.
His mind fell below the surface of the world, the water falling into the pool behind him not even a whisper as the harvest of Raw Vita began.
The most precious of Raw Vita.
The Raw Vita of the Turtles.