The Minotaur raged towards the group as it dragged its giant axe on the ground, the hard stone gave way to the strong weapon and the rubble it left in its wake was proof of that. The stomping hooves grew louder and sent out vibrations that Damien even felt on his head, the hulking beast was now upon them, although the team had only been stunned for a few seconds, it was enough time for the Minotaur to close the distance to nothing.

Half expecting a mad bull headbutt, the surprise grew when the Minotaur instead stopped his sprint with a thundering step, the momentum he had built up however was transferred into his right hand which wielded his weapon, Damien shouted as he threw his body out of the way, “Jump!”

Fortunately, while the strike had a lot of power, it was very clearly telegraphed, its path of destruction was easily seen, and the warning had been enough to jolt them into action. Ducking, dodging, and jumping out of the strike’s range followed soon after, the Minotaur roared in anger after missing to cut through his prey. They had to figure out a way to stop his movements, he was too wild, he swung in huge arches at every direction he saw a person, truly a mad bull.

“Mage! Archer! Get to the back! You guys have skills right? Use them from the back!” Damien tried to strategize; it was a difficult thing to do with the giant axe that was coming at him every three seconds. But he was right, ideally only the warrior should be up on the front taking the brunt of the assault, but a Warrior’s abilities had a direct relationship with damage taken, if an ability did not work as the description explained then the Warrior might be crippled for the rest of the fight, or worse.

They had discussed their abilities while they had been waiting their turn, but they had been reluctant to try them out since they all had MP and SP costs, if they ended up needing that extra MP or SP, that would be disastrous. Still they had explained each other’s abilities in great detail, each of them was given a Fighting Style that allowed them a basic understanding of how to use the weapons they were given, furthermore, each one was given two skills. The ones that mattered most right now where the Warrior’s.

Heavy Blow Lvl 1: Imbue your sword with your strength and unleash it against your enemies. Charge a sword swing for 3 seconds before you unleash an attack that deals 80% more damage, 40% chance to inflict the Stun status effect to your target. Parry Lvl 1: Your sword is not only a tool for offense, it will serve as your shield. 75% chance to redirect an incoming attack safely away, chance decreases with level difference of opponent.

Heavy Blow in particular would be instrumental in defeating the seething monster, but unfortunately, it relied on a secondary effect with a small chance to really get a good use of it, not to mention that getting the Minotaur to sit still while the Warrior charged for three seconds would be incredibly difficult, even now the beast was raging and swinging its axe as it tried to hit Damien, he was lucky that the large weapon did not give much in terms of maneuverability and in combination with his boost in agility, he was more or less fairing well now that the shock of seeing the other teams' dead bodies was wearing off.

With each swing and each charge from the Minotaur, a plan was quickly being out into place inside Damien’s head, they needed a way to kill to the Minotaur before they grew exhausted from fighting, judging by the fact that the first team took 30 minutes before the door opened up again, it was somewhat safe to assume that they had done the same thing his team was currently doing but had failed to deal a massive blow before they ran out of stamina, the second team must have done the same thing but had made a fatal mistake that had cost them their lives, if he didn’t think of something and soon, they would end up sharing their fate as well.

“Mage! Use your Arcane Blast to create an opening in its guard, try creating an opening near his face, and you Ranger! Try your best to land a shot on his eye, the opening won’t stay open for long so make it count!”

One of the Mage’s skills was Arcane Blast, it allowed the user to create a ranged concussive attack that did a small amount of damage, and had a low chance of disarming an opponent, but more importantly, it was the high chance of making an opponent lose his guard for a bit. Although the Minotaur was a wild beast that was striking at the closest thing in front of himself, he never seemed to drop his personal guard, it kept an eye on both Damien and the Warrior and made sure that every attempt to strike him was met with either a powerful kick or a vicious punch.

If the Mage managed to make the Minotaur drop his guard for even just a little, then that was enough opportunity for the Ranger to poke out an eye and create a blind spot for them to exploit and deal a decisive blow.

The Mage raised his wooden staff and pointed it at the monster before him, the only warning came from his shout, “NOW!”

A blue ethereal like force was launched from his staff, it traveled through the distance between the Mage and the Minotaur in an annoying slow fashion, next time the Mage should stand closer to avoid giving the enemy extra time to dodge the attack, for now they would have to improvise. The monster saw the attack coming and prepared to move out of the way, before he could take another step Damien had jumped into the air, short sword in hand, he performed the first true strike he had done in this entire ordeal. The result surprised even him, the sword was held with a strong grip, it sliced through the air with extreme precision, never deviating from its target. A wonderful strike indeed, but the Minotaur was faster, it managed to pull up its axe in time to prevent the sharp blade from reaching its neck, sparks illuminated the poorly lit room as his blade ran across the surface of the axe, but it was enough.

The Arcane Blast was now too close to avoid, its impact hit the face of the Minotaur straight on, the force of the magic could even be felt a few feet away as the power dissipated into the surrounding atmosphere. The beast was pushed back, the moment was brief indeed, but its guard had been dropped, on cue a metal-head arrow flew through the air, it soared through the lowered guard and found its mark deep inside the monster’s right eye.

The Minotaur exploded with a wave of violent anger; it had become enraged as it howled in pain. The arrow the Ranger had successfully shot was sticking out of its eye socket and the loss of an eye had caused the Minotaur for the first time to be fearful, although its attacks had been wild before, now they were instead frantic, the blind spot created was certainly living up to the expectations that Damien had for it.

They were close now, the conditions to have the Warrior properly land his Heavy Blow attack were now ready, he just needed to be the bait for three seconds, “I’ll distract him, hit him from his blind spot with your skill, NOW!”

Damien now stood in front of the beast’s left eye, the eye which had once been white was now glowing red, its pupil focused on Damien’s form, the personification of the pain that had come to the Minotaur, using him as the outlet for his rage, the Minotaur began his all-out attack.

All this time, Damien had been avoiding the Minotaur’s attacks by moving out of its range and away from the monster itself, but that would not work at this point. The Heavy Blow skill was not something that the user could charge and then move to deliver it, once the charge started the user was not allowed to move from the initial position, if Damien dodged the attacks by moving, then the Minotaur would follow and exit the Warrior’s very limited range, he had to dodge while not increasing the distance between himself and the bloody giant axe; Not at all easy. But he had no choice.

“Mage and Ranger, throw everything you got!” They had resisted doing so until now because they risked getting the Minotaur’s attention, they were more useful outside of the beast’s range, so it had been necessary, but now this was an all or nothing, no point in holding back. As soon as Damien’s words left his mouth, arrow after arrow came into the fray, most missed but some landed and dug themselves deep into the flesh of the Minotaur, even a concussive blast was sent its way, surprisingly the beast did not care to acknowledge them whatsoever, they hurt him but he simply cared more about killing Damien.

Here goes nothing, Shadow Step!

Shadow Step Lvl 1: Shadows are your friends, let them be your guide and no attack will find its way to you. +200% to AGI (+250% if user is in shadows) +50% PER.

Damien’s body immediately felt lighter than before, the leather than had been restraining his movements slightly up until now was pushed to the back of his head, it was a strange feeling, but not an unwelcome one, then came his surroundings, he was suddenly aware of a lot more things that were happening around him. The slight wind that ran through the room, the faint scent of water that had been overpowered by the smell of iron in the blood, the small sound of a beating heart, and of course, the giant axe that was making its way to him. He was aware of it all at once, he was able to react much quicker with speed that he never dreamt of using, the blade barreled down to him, but he simply sidestepped and completely avoided the strike.

Damien now was sure that he must have been crazy from before he arrived here, because despite the dangerous monstrosity that towered over him, the crazy axe of death that would surely bisect him in one strike once again coming for him, despite the ever increasing danger of the situation, he couldn’t help but feel laughter trying to escape his mouth, when the pressure of all this peril was coming at him from all directions, he could only feel the joy of overcoming these odds, the thrill of facing hardship and clawing his way through. He wanted to win.

Jumping over the next axe swing, he barely moved quick enough to narrowly avoid his body being sliced like a piece of ham, the longest three seconds of his life were over, “Arghhh!” the Warrior brought down his blade which was now glowing a white hue, the sword moved with deliberate motions and tore into the ribs of the Minotaur, the first real damage they had dealt during the whole fight.

Notice: Minotaur (F+) has been afflicted with the Stun status effect. Effectiveness of capture & assassination skills is greatly increased.

Jackpot.

Damien had been hoping the stun would activate, he hadn’t planned on it, but he kept his hope and sure enough, Lady Luck had answered, it was time to hopefully deliver the finishing blow.

Shadow Strike Lvl 1: Your blade is your soul, sharpen it till even the world is cut away. An assassination skill that deals +250% damage (+15% True Damage if enemy is unaware of attack or with the Stun status effect).

All the stars had lined up for this one strike, Damien’s blade silently dragged itself through the air, it was a single fluid motion that extended the will of its user to carve out his wish, a wish for victory. The blade danced across the Minotaur’s neck severing it off the rest of its body, the attack was so mesmerizingly perfect, even Damien found himself lost in its simplistic beauty; the beauty of winning.

You have slain a Minotaur (F+), EXP has been disturbed evenly across all party members. You have beaten the first of many levels Anathum has to offer, please continue to do so, congratulations on your success! The System officially welcomes you to the race for the End. Title earned!: The Beginning, you have started on your journey to the End.

A light not unlike the one that teleported them from the stone doors to the waiting area enveloped the winning party, it once again only lasted for the briefest of moments, the next immediate sensation that assaulted Damien was the fresh air, he wasn’t sure that he had ever been in air this clean, it was incredible. Then it was the light, unlike the dark cave he had been up until this point, he could now see a sun directly above his head, he groaned as he adjusted to the light, once his eyes were able to more or less see, he spotted buildings all around him, people walked around with horses and carts, their clothes and the architecture of the buildings made him feel like the place was uncannily similar to older times, but just as quickly as the thought came to his head, it was erased, much to his annoyance.

His more immediate surroundings was a large circular stone plate with intricate lines going through it, much like a magic circle, the team he had formed were strewn about it just like he was.

“Ah the new batch of Climbers, an unusually low number, the test must have been rather difficult his time.”

He turned to face the new voice, an old man wearing what looked like farmer’s clothes was staring at him, the old farmer smiled and waved at Damien’s confused demeanor, “Nice to meet you! Name’s Samuel, bet you got tons of questions but I’m not very suited to answer them, I barely know enough about this Level, much less the other levels so I can’t do much, but if you head down the road into the Mercenary Guild, they’ll explain things to you in exchange for you to listen to their recruitment pitch. Good luck fella!”

Mercenary Guild?