Chapter 6

A year passed.

In a forest, a creature that resembled a wolf but had two horns on its head was running while panting heavily.

It zigzagged through the trees in order to escape from its pursuers. Many arrows landed on its side as the wolf dodged while running.

And soon, a river appeared in its vision. It only had to cross it and it was sure that it could shake off its pursuers and make another pack to kill those humans as soon as it had the chance, when it suddenly sensed danger.

It tried to dodge but it was too slow as a projectile struck it from the side, making it fly to the nearest tree and get stuck there due to the projectile piercing through its body.

The projectile was a black arrow. A mere arrow had as much power to not only go through its bones but also throw it into the nearest tree.

And quite a distance away it was a boy around the age of 15-16 with short auburn hair which had patched of white, who was holding a black bow in his hand.

"How was that?" He asked to the person right next to him.

The woman with pointed ears replied, "Not bad at all. Those potshots were well placed. 8/10"

"What? Eight out of ten? How? It was perfect." He denied.

"Nope. You should've gone for the head. Now let's go, we gotta process its corpse."

"Sigh, fine."

In no time the creature was skinned and flayed with precision that showed experience. The work was mostly done by the woman though as the skin in the boy's hand had holes all around it.

"Max! El! Come quick!" Then a shout came from a distance away.

"Was that Eric?" Max asked.

"Yeah." Elenwen or El for short replied then they quickly finished their jobs and walked towards where the sound came from.

There, they saw the rest of the hunting party as captain Leopold, Marcus, Eric and Sage was waiting for them.

"What happened?" Elenwen asked which Marcus replied with a gesture of his hand pointing towards the ground. "Minotaur tracks were found."

"Minotaur?!" Both Elenwen and Max were shocked as a Minotaur's habitat was quite far away from where they were currently.

Even if there was a chance of a minotaur appearing here, it would be lees than maybe even 0.1%.

"It is young. I can't see anything else from the tracks apart from a young minotaur so it is alone. Probably tired too, seeing as it came from such a long distance and the tracks are still fresh. Make your preparations everyone." Captain said as he sat down to meditate.

Max was left to his own devices as he thought about what to do. It was a minotaur. Now matter how young, it was still a legendary creature on the same level as dragons and tyrants.

'Let's hope these arrows are though enough to penetrate a minotaur hide.' He thought as he went on to rest.

After an hour or so, the group started following the tracks as they came upon a cave.

"I have been here before. There used to be ghouls in that cave, other than that there wasn't anything else." Eric said.

"Maybe it is making a stop before continuing." Marcus shrugged.

"Get ready for battle. It is coming." Leopold said.

With the captain's warning, everyone took out their respective weapons. Elenwen took out two short blades, Sage brought her shield and axe up, Eric took out his rapier, Marcus and Leopold unsheathed their longswords meanwhile Max projected a black bow in his hand followed by a quiver of arrows attached to his belt.

There were 24 arrows in the quiver and that was his current limit.

Then came the monster through the entrance of the cave. It had the head and lower body of a bull while its torso was of a human.

Its height easily surpassed 2 meters. 'And this is still young?'

It had a makeshift club in its hand and was staring at the group with its furious red eyes.

It huffed and puffed but the parts didn't flinch as everyone was waiting for that one stark to start off the battle and it came from no one other than a kid with a huge bow.

The arrow sailed through air towards its target but the minotaur struck it with its club breaking and disintegrating the arrow.

But the moment gave the captain enough time to reach it.

He tried slashing the tendons but the minotaur dodged him by jumping.

While it was in the air, Max didn't miss his chance as he shot some arrows but they all ended up the same as the previous one.

*Boom*

The minotaur landed right in the middle of the party with a loud boom.

Sage tried to take the lead by holding up her shield. She was not stupid enough to block a minotaurs strikes, but she could redirect the attacks much more easily with a shield.

It was dangerous indeed but she no other choice as broken arms were much better than a broken body.

The minotaur swung its club while Sage tried to soften the blow by redirecting, Eric and Marcus tried flanking it but the minotaur swung its fist backwards to disperse the crowd.

Eric and Marcus laid flat on the ground and dodged the fist when suddenly a ball the size of a fist was thrown towards the minotaur.

The ball had a rope that was lit on fire attached to it and it was just finished when a loud explosion disordered the minotaur.

In the smoke, two short blades shone when they were striking the hide of the minotaur and they barely made nicks.

Elenwen, whose stealth attack failed, ran backwards to get out of the range.

Then Leopold appeared with his silver longsword in hand as he left a gash on the thigh of the minotaur who cried out in pain.

Leopold dodged as soon as he sensed and attack and the minotaur tried grabbing onto the pesky ant that was bothering it.

While the two were engaged in close combat, the others couldn't easily approach as one wrong move could result in the Leopold's death but it was no problem for Max as he was trying to find the perfect moment to release his arrow.

The the captain stumbled from a mistake, the minotaur found its chance to squash the bug as it threw all inhibitions about defending and swung its club with all its might.

But a sudden arrow struck its eye.

"Raahh!!!" The minotaur was furious. The humans managed to really anger him as all the pain disappeared from its body.

It could feel none of the wounds nor the arrow still stuck in its eye as the rage consumed everything.

Its mane became fire and its nose breather out ash and smoke.

But it was not a mindless rage, it had a target. The human who shot its eye.

He was smaller than the rest and had a huge bow so he could be recognized easily.

The minotaur got down on fours as it pointed its horns towards the target.

"Rahh!!" It gave one last shout as it began the unstoppable charge.

Trees were toppled as nothing could stop its charge as Max tried to run while changing directions but the minotaur was relentless as rocks, animals, trees it smashed them into pieces.

The rest of the group did all they can to stop the creature but it was unstoppable.

Max ran until he reached a clearing and ran until a stop and jumped as high as he could then rolled over and continued running.

The stop where he jumped was marked beforehand by the captain.

The minotaur didn't mind the obvious trap as it continued charging when an explosion occurred and countless needles pierced through its skin.

If it were any human, he would have turned to a porcupine but for the minotaur they were merely scratches.

But they did their job. As the speed was lowered no matter how small it may be.

The minotaurs were never known for their speed. It was the specialty of tyrants. Instead the minotaurs were strong and durable.

And adult minotaur would never be stopped unless they met an immovable object.

But thankfully this was just a youngling.

As soon as the explosion occurred, countless ice spikes was shot from the spot where Max was running to.

There was Adrian who had his classical robes and a pointed hat.

He was panting heavily, it was obvious that he rushed here as soon as he got the news of a minotaur from the captain. "Gods dammit Max! As soon as you appeared here, problems kept popping off left and right!" Even though he was cursing, he kept firing off spells.

"Not my fault!" Max yelled as he passed the wizard and continued running.