After a bit of scouting and worrying, the day of the big turtle fight arrives. Jeppo has arranged for Ivar to be second in the lineup. The others wait in the stands, and deign to put a little money on Ivar's victory (odds are running against him). The turtle is revealed - it's as big as a cart, with a long neck and a fierce beak. The first fighter out finds out both these things as he theatrically leaps on the turtle's back, only to be snapped in two as the turtle arches its long neck back and catches him in its terrible maw.
Betting turns even more against Ivar, and the rest of the team lays some more money on him. He starts out with a ferocious chop to its neck and the turtle quickly decides it wants none of him and makes its way up into the stands, routing some of the onlookers. Ivar pursues it but is pretty severely mauled when he corners it and is knocked down, but as it comes for him he manages to wrap himself around its head and neck and beat it savagely into submission with his axe. He hacks off its head, and with a little prompting throws the head to the Duke.
At that the Duke invites everyone back to the castle to feast on the turtle. Ivar is taken up on a cart for viewing, and spends the beginning of the feast being plied with wine and bad conversation. The rest of the team makes their way up as well, and after the turtle is served in its plum sauce, they break into the secure parts of the castle as people begin to hallucinate, by bringing a plate to some of the guards who are blocking their way. John Courage is spotted at the beginning of the evening posing as a mariachi, but when they try to spot him as the chaos starts, he has vanished.
They retrace Sasha's earlier route through the viewing chamber and into the basement, where they run into the cats that she neglected to mention. They are able to run off the cats and make their way down the length of the cellar passage, following the prompting of the gold-compass, until they find themselves in a larger cellar with a very secure door on one side. Listening, they hear two guards, but when they devise a plan that involves persuading their way in, Lucia, dressed as a servant, knocks only to be greeted by John Courage! Who winks at her before shutting the view slit again.