Chapter 66 - The Minotaur (2)

[Skill Critical Sight was activated.]
['Middle Trunk' was selected.]

CRACK!

I feel my blade chipping, but it doesn't matter as I slam the sword forward with so much force that even an Eldwood trunk can't withstand the Critical Hit, and it snaps in half so quickly that the purple blade bounces backwards past the minotaur's shoulder.

I skid to a stop 30 feet away, clutching Raeki as carefully as I can.

"Hey, buddy," I say with a soft smile, trying to ignore the gaping slash tracing from inside his shoulder to halfway down his stomach. "You're gonna be okay, don't worry."

He grins. "Did you see how I stood up to the bad guy? Pretty bad ask, don't you think?"

I laugh. "Bad ask as duck," I reply, pulling my white hoodie out of my Inventory and placing it on the cut to try and staunch it. I can't keep ignoring it.

"Hey… did you name your style yet? I thought of something… else, since you didn't like the other one…"

"Actually, I do like it, and it inspired me for the name I came up with. You wanna hear?" I say, biting my lip as the white cloth slowly turns red. 'It's not enough. Is there something around?'

He grabs my arm, pulling my attention back to him before I can start looking around. "Tell me!" he says weakly.

I grin slightly. "What do you think of Storming Moon?"

His eyes begin to shut. "Awesome," he mutters.

"Consider it named, buddy," I say with a clenched jaw. He doesn't respond, and I lay him down gently. He still had a heartbeat.

For now.

Slowly standing, I turn to face the amused minotaur. "Done with the weird feely human stuff? You seem like you might be a good opponent."

Instead of responding, I flipped him the bird coldly. "My style's name is Storming Moon."

"Huh?"

[Name registered.]
[Erratic Swordsmanship is evolving.]
[New Skill being created…]
[Skill 'Storming Moon Style' (Ultra Rare) was created.]
[Skill Underdog+ was activated.]

And then, my mind went blank.

* * *

Eniyala darts around the corner to see a giant flowing purple axe being flung her way. She halts, unsure how to react, but once it gets more than ten feet away from its creator, the axe disappears, throwing the balance of the handle off. It crashes into the ground in front of her, and she moves around it to see Raeki in Klum's arms.

"Oh, no."

The color drains from her face. 'He can't be…'

Klum stands after gently setting Raeki down, turning to face the minotaur in front of him.

The dialogue exchange between the two passes through one ear and out the other for the girl as she looks at the stained hoodie covering her brother's chest.

Suddenly, she darts towards him. 'There has to be something I can do. Has to, has to, has—'

A pressure so heavy Eniyala's knees start to buckle hit her like a wall, and the killing intent layered into it is so strong her body is screaming at her to run. She looks over to see Klum, UnHoly Raze in hand, with dark mist oozing from several parts of his body. An image of the man who destroyed her town flashes through her brain, and she gasps lightly. "No…"

Moving in an opposite manner to the slow darkness, the purple Mana in his eye is so thick and rapid, it looks nearly black itself as it streams upwards. Despite being nearly black, it burns so brightly that a shadow is thrown over his other eye, and only the crosshair shape of his iris can be seen. Soon a trickle of blood runs from his eye. The pure rage emanating from him is so strong even the minotaur takes a few steps back instinctively.

[Skill Critical Sight…]
[Skill Critical Sight…]
[Skill Critical Sight..]

'The same thing that happened at the end of our match,' Eniyala realizes. Remembering her brother, she takes a slow, weighted step forward, but before she can force another, a large hand grabs hers.

She looks back to see Lynsel, with a face of pure terror, trembling in fear as he tries to hold her back. He shakes his head slowly.

Lynsel has never felt such hate before, and even he could tell that one wrong step and his head would be separated from his neck.

He didn't know where Yorun had gone, but that didn't matter. He had to make sure Eniyala didn't get caught in the crossfire.

Instead of heeding his warning, she breaks free of his weakened grip and slowly steps her way to her brother. She walks past Klum, and as she is about to pass him his head whips over to look at her. The pressure grows so intense she forgets how to breathe. Lynsel bites his tongue in fear, still standing by the corner. 'She's dead,' he thinks to himself.

But, as if designating her not a target, Klum turns his attention back to the minotaur, who still hasn't moved after backing away. She falls down to her brother's side, trying to control her breathing as she moves the hoodie away to check the damage.

"Fuck!"

Immediately, she casts Healing Waves, trying to repair as much damage as she can, which isn't much. The most it could do was stem the bleeding, which is all she could ask for now.

The minotaur roars, shutting out its Instinct and projecting another weapon head onto the shortened stick, swinging it down at Klum.

The shadowy figure seems to disappear, but she spots him stepping onto the top of the stick and swiping his blade up towards the mutated Bull's chin. It turns its head up, but the tip of the blade nicks it.

SLAM!

As if Klum had managed to cut directly into its face, a large cut runs up Beheem's face, cutting up to its eyelid.

'I've seen that before. It has to be some type of Skill,' Eniyala wonders as Klum lands on the ground, never taking his eyes off the monster. The mist is streaming so heavily that his white hair is flowing back, appearing black due to the dark Mana. Drops of dark blood hit the ground from Klum's eye, fading to a normal color after a few seconds.

He moves again, and Eniyala finds it even harder to see him.


[Skill Sprint+ was…]
[Elemental Infusion…]
[Skill Lightning Blade…]

A flash of black lightning coats his body and blade as he appears, swiping at the minotaur's neck. The monster holds up its left hand to catch it, but with a rapid lightning bolt movement the blade zigzags back and cuts a deep gash into the giant's forearm.

This continues, with Klum darting about like a zip of electricity, and the minotaur trying to hit him or defend its vital areas. Every so often the sound of a slight hit would amplify twofold, and the cut would deepen and lengthen itself.

After this had happened a few times, and the minotaur was sporting several cuts, it roars, drawing its arms in before throwing it out.

[Named Monster Beheem activated Skill Greed.]
[Named Monster Beheem is learning a new Skill.]
[Named Monster Beheem is learning a new Skill.]

Several messages continue to pop up in Klum's vision, but he pays them no mind aside from instinctually swiping them out of his line of sight. He isn't sane enough to be able to comprehend them, anyway.


(Named Monster Beheem activated Skill Berserk.)
(Named Monster Beheem activated Skill Intimidating Roar.)
(All Stats decreased by 2.)

Although her Skillbook had only told her of the monster activating Greed, Eniyala soon found out what it did when the minotaur activated two Skills it hadn't had before. "Shit…"

Even if she wanted to, she knew she had nowhere to run. She had just hit Level 20 after finishing off the beasts Klum had been incapacitating, and hadn't even had the chance to distribute her three new points yet.

{A/N: Are y'all annoyed of my A/N's yet? :P also, at Level 10 the gained Stat Points people get in general drops to three, and drops to 2 at Level 100, and so on. Max Level (A secret for now!) gifts 10 Stat Points, but obviously you can't Level Up anymore. That is why she received three, not five.}

Her father, looking incredibly pale, appears beside her, his prosthetic leg malfunctioning without proper Mana. He swipes his hand, grabbing a tiny vial of blue liquid from his Inventory and chugging it. It only restores about 20 Mana, but it was enough to cast a Healing Cascade.

The Spell heals a bit more of the barely held together slash, but neither Spells can recover the massive amounts of blood lost or the shock his body was going through. Eniyala bit her lip so hard that it began bleeding, but there wasn't anything she could do right now.

She looked up to Klum facing off against the minotaur. Even with the debuff, he seems unbothered.

Mostly because he's so intent on killing the big cow in front of him, he couldn't be stopped by whatever came into his way.

* * *

[Name: Klum]
[Age: 18]
[Lv: 17]
[EXP: 1420/28000]
[Class: Sword Saint's Disciple]
[Health: 61/67]
[Mana: €%/111]
[Stamina: 26/67]

STR: 16(-2) MAG: 15(-2)
AGI: 32(-2) DEX: 18(-17)
VIT: 10(-2) INT: 28(-2)

ACC: 25
DEF: 13
POW: 21

[Skills: Klum's Reincarnation (Unfound), Sword Saint's Sigil (Unfound), Disciple's Mastery (Legendary), Critical Sight (Ultra Rare), Storming Moon Style (Ultra Rare), Lightning Blade (Super Rare), Underdog (Super Rare), Analyze+ (Super Rare), Fury Slash (Rare), Skill Hermit (Rare), Sprint+ <+ Elemental Infusion> (Uncommon)]

[Spells unavailable]


[Party Leader Stats]

[Name: Eniyala Ignios]
[Age: 19]
[Lv: 20]
[EXP: 980/16000]
[Class: Spellsmith]
[Health: 50/50]
[Mana: 125/176]
[Stamina: 23/50]

STR: 13(-2) MAG: 35(-2)
AGI: 16(-2) DEX: 11(-2)
VIT: 8(-2) INT: 15(-2)

ACC: 13
DEF: 10
POW: 25

[Skills: Spellbind (Ultra Rare), Spell Create (Super Rare), Magic Eyes (Rare), Analyze (Rare), Magic Heart+ (Rare), Sprint+ (Uncommon)]

[Spells: Fist of Ignios, Ignios Familiar (Eniyala), Ignios Stand, Fiery Fingerblades, Ignios Arrows, Chains of Ignios, Hellfire Chain Storm, Barbaric Ignios, Ignios Smithing, Flaming Boost, Enhance, Healing Waves]