Chapter 7

Fire balls, ice spikes, lightning bolts flew up in the air and hit the minotaur, leaving only the tiniest of scratches.

"Hold on a little bit more!" Adrian yelled.

"It's easy to say!" Max replied while still running.

Then he jumped once more as another set of traps exploded.

The party regrouped once more as Max's running destination was set beforehand by the captain.

Everyone had their jobs to do and being the bait was left to Max no matter how much he didn't want it.

Sage appeared in his vision with her fully decked heavy armor and tower shield. She had thrown her axe and was holding onto the shield with both hands and was waiting right in front of him.

Max ran past Sage and saw Marcus and Eric waiting just behind her.

Just as the minotaur was about to run through them, Sage crouched down and placed her shield above her head. And when she was right under the minotaur, she pushed with all her might.

It worked just a little bit as it was lifted from the ground but not too much.

It was enough for Eric and Marcus.

With its charge stopped just for a second, they hacked and slashed as much as they could.

But when looked closely, all the attacks were aimed at the same spot. Its neck.

The skin was scratched a little bit as a drop of blood fell on the ground.

Then the minotaur shrugged them off and continued charging.

Then came Leopold, who had his silver sword in hand. He was standing in the middle of some marks and ritualistic looking stones.

He was waiting for his target to enter his field.

Max ran around the ritual magic as the minotaur got caught in it.

Its speed was reduced significantly but Leopold was perfectly fine.

He also attacked the same spot which was injured by Marcus and Eric.

Then came Elenwen from the top of the trees. She landed on the minotaur and hastily placed something on its neck then jumped away as soon as the minotaur got out of the range of the ritual magic and regained its speed.

She took out a paper string and lit it and came another explosion.

It was from the neck of the minotaur this time. It staggered a little bit but otherwise fine.

But they successfully caught its attention as it changed targets from Max to Leopold.

Meanwhile Elenwen was trying to extinguish the fire on her pants. The fire on the minotaurs mane wasn't for show.

And it didn't extinguish easily, only when Adrian came and hastily cast a water spell that they were extinguished.

Just as the minotaur was about to charge towards its next target, another man appeared within the trees.

He had long white hair and pointed ears just like Elenwen. "Seriously, what is a minotaur doing here?" Even before a legendary creature, he wasn't intimidated as he slowly drew his blade from its scabbard.

Even in the middle of the day, the blade shone with splendor unlike any other.

There was a source of light in the sword's guard and the blade was golden in color.

"You're late Darien." Leopold said.

"Sorry about that." Darien apologized as he pointed the sword towards his charging opponent.

The minotaur wanted to squash the bug that was standing in its way when suddenly its world was upturned.

The ground became the sky and the sky became the ground as its headless body appeared in its vision and it slowly closed its eyes.

But all of Max's attention was on the blade.

As soon as he laid his eyes on it, all of its history appeared before his vision.

From Darien's legendary feats to its previous users who were no less than Lars.

But most important of it all, its make was extraordinary.

He had seen stars, he saw the galaxy, and he saw the first light that warmed the universe. And he saw a slender hand stretch towards it when his vision was cut off.

The blade was now recorded in his phantasm. Dawnbreaker.

But he didn't dare to project it in reality in fear of dying instantly.

'Who the fuck is that man? But most importantly what the fuck is that sword?' Max was flabbergasted. No matter how he looked at it neither the man nor the sword was ordinary.

No, the man could have been ordinary at first but that sword made him extraordinary.

"This matter should be investigated in more detail. A minotaur wouldn't approach this region without any purpose." Darien said while looking at the corpse of the minotaur.

"Indeed. There are undercurrents we are not aware of going on. Be careful. If it is not aimed at the city, the target should be you." Leopold said.

"I'll keep that in mind." He said then turned to the rest of the group. "Great work everyone." Then left the area.

"Phew I'm glad Darien was in the area." Marcus said but Leopold was in deep thought.

"Indeed. How convenient isn't it? No matter, let's finish the work here and return." Leopold replied simply.

——<>——

The group returned to Horizon while the sun was still high up.

Max was looking around, inspecting the bustling city with countless residents when suddenly a series of notifications appeared before his eyes.

[Beta Testing Online]

[Current amount of Players: 1000]

[Game Forums are Offline]

[Beta Testing will End in: 29d 23h]

'What?'