1

With their usual cocktail of buff and light spells, the members jumped back up to the sixth floor and then the seventh. Zack leaped into the enormous room after Damon’s cadre of mage replacers. He was immediately struck by how cold the room was, far more so than the other rooms they had completed. As he exhaled, the warm air from his body exited like a dragon’s breath.

After seeing the mobs lined up against the circular wall, he turned to the orc general. “Hah. Even I know what these are. Minotaurs, baby, minotaurs!”

He scanned the room while the other members hopped into the center of the room. The ceiling was two times higher than that of the other rooms, and he wondered if the team’s leaping spells would reach that high. He observed the same large limestone bricks, except for portions on the west side, where two large caves led deeper into the earth. The blonde orc couldn’t see any further than fifteen feet into the darkened tunnels.

He returned his gaze to the twelve mobs standing at the other end of the room. They were much smaller than he would have expected, approximately six feet tall, which was two feet shorter than the orcs. Aside from their bullish heads, the top half of the Minotaurs’ bodies were humanoid, covered with a thick, dark brown hide that was mostly hairless. Starting at their waist, the monster’s bodies reverted back to their bull-form. Their triple-jointed legs were covered with a thick layer of black fur.

From their gold ring-pierced nostrils, the monsters started chuffing and clapping their hooves against the stone floor. Their eyes shone cobalt blue as they lowered their heads, pointing their large, sharp horns at the teammates.

Just then, Zack’s Creature Description details came up.

MINITAURS (Level 20)

HP: 313

MP: 97

STRENGTH: 63

CONSTITUTION: 31

DEXTERITY: 31

INTELLIGENCE: 9

WISDOM: 6

XP: 143

DESCRIPTION: These little scamps still pack a punch.

Zack belly-laughed and brayed, “Ah-haha. Mini-taurs! They’re fucking minitaurs!”

Behind him, Thao ordered the members to cast Leap, and it wasn’t a moment too soon as the dozen monsters charged at them. Everyone jumped—except for Zack, who hunkered low to the ground, dug in his heels, and held his steel battle shield in front of him.

“What are you doing?” Thao yelled as she rose in the air.

Zack leaned into the oncoming rush. “I just wanna see how—” Two minitaurs struck his heavy shield, blowing him off of his feet. “Whoaaaaa,” he shouted as he flew head over heels toward the wall. He crashed into the bricks, ten feet up from the floor, then landed on his shoulder. “Ow,” he said, laughing as he got up.

As his teammates landed from their leaps, the two bulls rushed him again. This time, the stubborn Marine jumped and the mobs bashed into the bricks. He landed behind them and slashed his sword across both of their backs, cutting deeply into their flesh. The monsters roared and dislodged their horns from the wall. When they turned around, Zack swore he could see purple their eyes now.

That, and rage. Lots of rage.

The duo bull-rushed him and Zack leaped again, doing a somersault and enjoying his newfound acrobatics despite the danger. He landed on his feet, but the bulls ran past him and were out of striking distance. They weaved into the crowd of his teammates, who were having an easy time with their minitaur encounters.

Zack cast Greased Lightning, the glitched spell he shared only with Silo. To Zack, it had cost him a good amount of pride, while Silo seemed to get away unscathed. “May as well use it for something,” he muttered. It ate into his regular mana pool, but Zack didn’t care. It wasn’t like he used a lot of spells anyway.

With the extra burst of speed, he caught up with the two runaway bulls and sliced into their broad legs. The minitaurs staggered forward, pulled by their momentum, then turned and glared at the Marine. Zack extended his arms and pantomimed waving a red cape, mocking the beasts. They charged at him and he leaped again, bringing his sword down onto their shoulders.

As he planted his feet back onto the cold floor, he shouted derisively, “Ole… ole, ole, ole,” but his mischievousness was cut short as hot pain seared through his right quadricep. He looked down to see a third minitaur bending over, its horn buried into his flesh, between the seams of his steel pants.

The monster craned its head upward, and Zack felt the sharp point of the horn burrow deeper inside his leg. He screamed and clutched at the monster’s head, trying to alleviate the leverage and acute pain. Now six feet off the floor, he lifted himself off of the horn with his hands pressed into the minitaur’s broad shoulders.

“Serves me right for making fun of you guys,” he groaned, wincing in pain before he dropped hard back onto the stone floor. His hit points plunged from 552 to 470. He looked down. The wound was five inches long. His calf was coated with blood.

The bull growled at him. Its eyes shone a bright red now.

“I’ll be damned,” Zack said as he tried to limp away from the mob that backed him against the wall. The veteran orc held out his sword between them, but his mobility was hampered now. He received a notification that his mana pool had fully depleted. The Greased Lightning spell switched off.

“Huh, figures,” he chuckled.

The minitaur batted away his sword and rushed him. Zack rammed his shield into the monster and used the impact to roll over the monster, jumping off from his uninjured left leg. As he surged into the air, he saw the bull’s red eyes chart his course. The monster moved slightly to stay under him, extended its arms and angled its horns toward the ceiling. As he reached the apex of his leap, Zack realized the monster was about to gore him.

2

Rachel didn’t have any flights of fancy about the minitaurs like Zack did. They looked big enough to her. She had activated the Leap spell when Thao called for it, and it came in handy instantly as one of the bulls charged her. She jumped over it, then tried to locate Armando in the room. The battle had taken him to the other side.

“You’re on your own, Miss I-want-to-encounter-new-species,” she said, mocking her naivety in signing up for the mission in the first place.

But she had no time for reflection.

She leaped again as another man-bull charged at her. The tip of its horn caught the edge of her leather boot, which accelerated her descent and threw off her balance. She landed on her torso and knees, smacking her face against the ice-cold floor. Tits down, ass up, she thought. This can’t be good. And the punctuation of her summation came an instant later as the minitaur’s head connected with her rump. Its horns speared through the leather armor that was wrapped around her waist, and she yelled as long gashes were gouged on both sides.

Then she was airborne, circling through the cold air, landing hard and bouncing painfully across the limestone floor. She tried to stand but only stumbled around as her ass throbbed with agony. That’s my coccyx, she realized. Shit. That’s going to hurt for days.

Another minitaur spotted her. It pounded its bull legs across the floor, racing toward her from the other side of the room. Rachel looked around for an escape route. She noticed that one of the caves carved into the western wall had a lip protruding around the edges of the opening. It was large enough to support her and keep her a safe distance from the roaming minitaurs—if she could aim her jump perfectly.

Rachel bolted for the ridge and leaped the twenty feet she needed to reach it. She landed at a sideways angle, her thigh just catching the edge. But she was still moving. She clutched at a nearby crevasse gouged into the limestone wall, hoping to stall her momentum. Her fingers caught, her arm hyperextended, and the momentum swept her off of the ledge. As she fell unceremoniously, Rachel tucked her head in. Her body crashed against the rough surface of the floor.

The minitaur stomped toward her and lifted her vertically from the cold limestone. Its thick fingers pressed onto the sides of her armpits, bruising her pale skin. Rachel moaned from the pain. The creature stared at her for a moment, then roared. Saliva splattered against her face as air shot from its nostrils, blowing pale, white gusts against the damp and frigid air.

Rachel screamed and tried to wiggle out of the minitaur’s grasp. The monster raised her above its head and threw her into the darkened cavern. The healer bounced off the walls of the curved cavern before slamming into the dug earth. Her HP was 178 out of 297. The bull-human hybrid followed her in, stalking her, terrorizing her.

As she struggled to get back up, she rested her hand against the earthen wall of the cavern. The soil there was frozen solid. Rachel realized she had never equipped a weapon. She had spent her whole time in the minitaur room running away from threats, evading attacks.

Now she had nowhere to run to. She was trapped. Her attacker was still advancing into the cave. Meanwhile, a low growl began emanating from the depths of the cave. Whatever that was, it was bigger than the monster that was pursuing her.

She equipped her short sword in one hand and cast Boulder with the other. She shambled toward the black silhouette that stomped from the lightened room to the dark cavern.

“Come and get me if you want me,” she growled at the monster, deepening her voice and trying to sound threatening.

Had her colleagues from San Diego heard her, they would have burst out laughing. But they weren’t here, and California was another world away. The minitaur was within ten feet now. Rachel felt that was close enough to trust her aim.

She whipped the boulder at the beast. It skirted to her side, just as she expected. Rachel lunged forward and thrust her sword into its midsection. The bull monster roared, a cry that echoed down the curved walls of the cavern.

Behind her, the larger creature responded, bellowing its rage. As heavy footsteps reverberated from the back of the cave, Rachel ran by the injured minitaur, which was preoccupied clutching at its wound and the sword buried in its flesh. The monster turned and chased after her, its hooves clacking on the frozen cavern floor.

“This time, stop, then jump,” Rachel told herself as she sprinted toward the amber-lighted room. “Stop and jump.” She ran unabated, unsure if the minitaur was closing in on her. And not knowing what abomination was following it. She reached the edge of the cave, stopped, turned around, and looked at the outcropping for a fraction of a second. Then she jumped.

3

Rachel performed a slight twirl as she leaped from the side of the massive cavern. As she rose, her back turned toward the wall. She clutched at the ledge and her fingers scraped roughly against the jutted rock. Her butt slammed against the wall, driving more pain into her coccyx, and her back hit the hard surface next. Her body bounced forward from the impact, tottering on the lip of the cave.

Rachel yelped, her fingers curling tightly around the outcropping. “No, no, no,” she cried as her body tilted forward and gravity pulled her downward. She bent her knees acutely and the backs of her feet slammed painfully against the cave’s ceiling. The move enabled her to counter her forward momentum. All the muscles in her body strained, becoming as rigid as the stone she clung to, as she slowly moved flush against the dungeon wall.

Once she was stabilized, Rachel’s first thought was of the mammoth beast that was rumbling forward from the depths of the cavern. Then she thought of the minitaur that had been stalking her. She queued a Boulder, ready to defend herself again—only this time without her sword. The minitaur walked out of the cave. She could see it directly below her knees. She saw that her sword, which still protruded from the mob’s midsection, had dropped its hit points from 313 to 237. It was looking for her, swiveling its head left and right.

Rachel whipped the boulder at the monster’s head, hitting it squarely between the horns. She heard a loud cracking sound as the mob was driven to the floor. The minitaur’s fall pushed her sword deeper into its flesh and the bloody tip of the blade ripped through the other side, just missing its spine. Its HP plunged to 154.

As she readied another boulder, the monster staggered to a half-standing position. Back of the head, she thought as she heard the other beast’s louder stomps drawing nearer. If the boulder doesn’t finish the minitaur, it might knock it out.

Rachel hurled the rock. The projectile bashed into the monster’s head. The minitaur slammed to the floor, its arms and legs extended in a spread-eagle position. Blood flowed from the back of its head. It hit points flatlined to zero.

She took her eyes off the downed minitaur and looked around the room. From her elevated position, she had a great view of the battles taking place on the floor. As she readied another Boulder, she tried to determine who was in the most danger.

She spotted Zack to her left. He was bleeding and backed against the wall with a minitaur bearing down on him. It suddenly charged at him. Rachel slung the boulder at the menacing beast, but as the rock flew through the air, Zack leaped awkwardly over the monster, using his shield as a springboard. Rachel redirected the boulder, trying to stay locked onto the predator. As Zack fell back down toward the dungeon floor, her projectile hit the side of the minitaur’s head, twisting it. Rather than being impaled on the raised horns, Zack hooked his arm around one and buried his wide sword into the monster’s back. It dropped to the floor and the former Marine finished off the beast, pulling his sword from its back and striking it three more times. Then he fell to the floor, his adrenaline spent and his right leg no longer able to hold his weight.

Rachel’s attention was diverted when a gigantic beast emerged from the cavern below her. As its hooves deafeningly pounded on the frozen earth inside the cavern, she saw the beast’s horns. Only there were four of them now, and double the size. The top of the monster’s head, almost as wide as the cave opening, shuffled out under her. Then she saw the back of its neck, covered in wiry, black fur.

It’s bending over, she thought, because it’s too big to fit through the opening. As more of its coarse fur brushed against her legs, Rachel realized the golden opportunity that was being presented to her. It doesn’t know I’m here. I can deliver a critical blow. With her sword gone, her next best weapon was the trilance struss.

She equipped the weapon, but its weight and length made her lose her balance again, tipping her forward. Fear rose up her throat. Damn, she thought as she crunched her calves against the cavern’s ceiling. The muscles in her arms screamed as she tried to hang on to the weapon. She stared at the double axe near the tip of the struss. Damn, that is going to hinder the blow, she thought.

“Lose the axe blades,” she whispered, and was shocked when the twin blades disappeared.

Yes!

Rachel tried to direct the pointed end of the struss toward the monster’s spine. The weapon wasn’t fully vertical, but she was sure it was enough of an angle to pierce through the beast’s thick hide.

Rachel lunged forward, dropping off the ledge. The widening struss drilled through fur and skin. The giant roared, a sound that pounded against the healer’s eardrums as she landed on the giant’s back. The monster swiped at the struss lodged in its back. Rachel saw the massive hand race toward her. She had no time to react. It slammed into her body and punted her across the room. She crashed awkwardly into the joining of the far wall and the floor, cracking her left shoulder, then bounced next to the orc whose life she had just saved.

4

Damon was just finishing up with a trio of minitaurs when Rachel went flying by him, crashing into the wall. He looked toward the two cave openings and saw two bull-beasts, only these were five times the size of the mini bulls. His Creature Description details appeared.

MINOTAUR (Level 4#)

HP: 5##/6#9

MP: ###

STRENGTH: 1##

CONSTITUTION: ##

DEXTERITY: ##

INTELLIGENCE: 2#

WISDOM: ##

XP: ##1

DESCRIPTION:

Aside from their size, the Minotaurs’ bodies were similar to those of the smaller mobs. They had a bull’s legs and head, but the human part of their anatomy was covered with black fur this time. The Minotaur on his left was slumped over with a silver weapon protruding from its back.

Is that Rachel’s struss? Damon wondered.

The monster was also contaminated by a glitch. The black-and-white void ran down the front of its body, from the monster’s left shoulder to its right triple-jointed leg. It would have looked like the creature had been sliced in half if it wasn’t for its backside, which appeared untouched. The fur at the edge of the front corruption sparked and sizzled with a small electrical current. The glitch continued from its shoulder into its left arm, which was frozen under a thick layer of ice. The appendage looked more like a blue battering ram than an arm. With its right arm, it tried unsuccessfully to reach the struss buried in its back.

Just exiting the second cavern on the right, the other Minotaur roared at them. The giant wielded an enormous sword that dragged noisily across the limestone surface. Its red eyes fell on the dead mobs scattered on the floor and the teammates standing over them. It snorted into the cold air, and its white breath looked like the exhaust of a steamrolling train.

Suddenly, the Minotaur swung its massive sword horizontally across the expanse of the large room. Most of the teammates leaped over the attack, but Silo was caught flat-footed. Despite the weapon’s size, it was incredibly sharp. The blade sheared through bronze, flesh, and bone, chopping the British orc’s legs off at the thighs.

His body crashed face-first onto the limestone floor while the remains of his legs flopped over. He screamed agonizingly as blood jetted from his severed leg stumps.

Damon raced to him as the behemoth pounded forward. Silo continued to scream, sweat flowing down his tortured features. As the orc general drew close, her heard the massive sword slam against the limestone floor and then the giant’s fist slammed down onto the Brit’s writhing body. Blood and organs splayed fifty feet across the dark stone.

“No!” Damon cried and pounded his hammer into the Minotaur’s leg, making it stagger.

The beast clutched the crushed remains of Silo’s body as the other team members retreated to the walls. It threw the corpse into its mouth and used its flat teeth to grind Silo’s remains into mush. Still chewing, the monster extended its neck toward the shocked team members, flaunting its brutality as it chewed. The Minotaur swallowed, then snorted again. This time, the hot, white breath was pink with Silo’s blood.

Yelling with rage, Damon charged at the beast’s lowered head and swung. The hammer’s marble block bashed into the center of the beast’s head, ripping through its hide, but the blow didn’t penetrate the Minotaur’s thick skull. To his left, Armando jumped over the Minotaur’s dropped sword, raced in and struck the same spot with his bone axe. A fragment of white skull shot out from the Minotaur’s bleeding injury.

The boss rose back up and picked up its sword. Damon charged its right leg, crunching his hammer into its lowest knee. The giant staggered and groaned painfully. Then Damon saw a gleam overhead and dove to his left. A moment later, the monster’s massive blade slammed into the limestone floor, fragmenting it. Shards of rock sprayed against his steel battle armor, ricocheting to the walls.

The Minotaur brought its massive sword down again, this time on the other side of the room. It was trying to defend the other Minotaur, which hadn’t advanced and was still trying to clutch at the struss buried in its back. The members on that side evaded the blow… barely.

Realizing how much they missed Harper and Sierra, Damon shouted into the frenzy, “Gamers! We need a goddamned plan!”

No one responded, and the Minotaur continued to strike at the team. As he rushed in with his hammer again, Damon knew it was just a matter of time before another teammate went down.