Surprisingly, for me writing the fight scenes was quite enjoyable and easy [th_084_.gif] . I hope that you will find it enjoyable to read as well.

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Chapter 4 – Strong opponents?

Morning air was cool and fresh compared to the humid air in the afternoon. Birds were chirping along as dawn was breaking. The forest got livelier by the second, as many small animals got to their daily activities.

Then, there was a camp, a few tents, and person, sitting beside the smoldering fire. As he stared at the embers, some small shuffling was heard from one of the tents, there was movement.

"Morning! Did you have a nice sleep?" Kai greeted Sophie as she got out of the tent. They both had 2 shifts at guard duty, thus the last one now was Kai's.

"Ehm, yeah... Good morning," Sophie greeted back with a rested expression.

"Actually, I got to thinking," Kai started speaking after having eaten breakfast, "since I'm not in a hurry anywhere, that might as well explore the labyrinth here. You said that there should be more to it than just the treasure room, right? What are you going to do?"

"Ah, yes, I'll follow you, of course. I must repay my debt to you."

With a troubled smile, he tried to politely refuse, which was more due to her diligence in insisting that she should repay her debt, rather than coming along from complete free will, but Sophie still insisted.

"Okay then, we'll go together," Kai resigned to her persistence.

"Ah, but, this is quite a high level labyrinth. Our group of 10 was annihilated at the first floor boss."

"Eeh, there's no problem. I want to go deeper," Kai stated strongly.

"Then, may I ask what class and rank you are? So that we could make a battle plan according to our strengths. By the way, my class is-," there was a slight pause, in which Sophie put some consideration into her words, "Wind Knight, and my rank is advanced 3."

"Ooh, that is quite incredible!"

"No, well, the leader of our group was the highest and rank expert 1, but now even he is dead..."

"Well, I am The Supporter, and my rank is zero," Kai said unexpectedly proudly.

Sophie was dumbfounded, but managed a polite smile and said, "...Um, I don't mean to be rude, but... A rank 0 supporter?"

"It's THE Supporter, I must emphasize. Is there a problem?"

"How do I say this... I think it's really not a good idea to venture into the labyrinth with just us, the monsters are strong there, not to mention the boss..."

"*sigh, Then I guess I'll have to go alone..." Though he sighed, his tone was resolute.

"Agh, I can't let you do that, I'm coming along."

"Great!" Kai smiled happily, which made Sophie feel a bit weird.

And thus the two soon started heading back to the boss room.

On the way Sophie explained what kind of monsters they found on the first floor and what kind to expect on the next levels, though she wasn't totally sure. As for the monsters, they were strong hobgoblins and their evolved variant, 1st degree ogres.

They quickly reached the final room.

"Now, to search for the entrance? How good are you at that?" Kai asked.

"Not good, I must say."

"Is that so..." Kai responded dejectedly, "Guess we'll just have to search thoroughly..."

It took another half an hour to find the not-actually-that-hidden entrance. The two were just unlucky in starting in the wrong place and the room was also quite large. Still, finding the entrance was rewarding.

As a stone block moved out of the way, it revealed some stairs leading directly down. There were many different ways of moving between floors, such as wind tunnels, jump platforms, local teleportation, but of course, also the most common one – normal stairs.

Going down the set of stairs, as they entered the next room, they were immediately faced with a minotaur. One floor's boss is the next one's common foe? Actually, the one they faced now was much weaker than the boss variant, however, still stronger than the ogres on the previous floor.

Sophie was the vanguard and Kai would be the support – was the plan that she proposed, but Kai was uncomfortable with it. He insisted that he can actually fight, too, but nevertheless the first battle ended without him getting any action.

"Okay okay, if you so want to fight, I won't stop you. When you're in trouble, I'll help..." Kai was the one who actually said that, "you blood crazed woman..." he silently muttered.

And so it did go – only Sophie was fighting when they reached a new room with monsters. It took time but slowly she managed to clear them. However, fatigue soon set in.

"Now then, tag out?" Kai asked joyfully.

"No, I can go on, just let me take a small break..."

"Argh, WHY ARE YOU SO OBSTINATE!" Kai yelled out, shocking Sophie. He then continued with a calmer voice, "Trust me, my self-applied buffs are quite good, I can handle myself going against these enemies."

Sophie remained silent, but eventually nodded in acceptance.

"Very well, now then..."

When Sophie had rested they went on with Kai now leading the way.

In the hallway they met a patrol of 5 medium armored ogres wielding maces and spiked clubs.

Whereas Sophie would have confronted them at a distance one by one, using her buckler and sword effectively, Kai dived right inbetween the group. Seeing the reckless action she wanted to join in into the fight, but then she saw what the basis for Kai's confidence was.

The ogres were also momentarily dazed by Kai running so near to them that they didn't react right away. That was a mistake.

Kai jumped up towards the 3 meter high ogre and kneed him in the face, causing him to fall over. The power behind the strike surprised both the ogre and Sophie. Compared to the weight of ogres Kai was tiny, but still managed to push an ogre over. In the next moment Kai jump-kicked another ogre in the back of the head, making it run face first hard into the ground.

By now, 2 seconds since the beginning of the battle, the other ogres started reacting. Though Kai had managed to incapacitate two very quickly, they were actually quite strong.

Kai was surrounded by three, so 2 swinged their clubs at him while the third stood waiting for him to step into its range. However, Kai stayed put and dodged the first club coming from above, and then jumped over the second one coming from the side.

The second ogre had an opening at its side and Kai perfectly took it. He stepped into range and delivered a crushing blow. Amazingly, the ogre's ribs cracked from Kai's punch. But he wasn't done so he kicked the back of the knee so hard that the leg swung from under it and the ogre fell down. And then just in time Kai dodged the second strike coming from the other ogre again.

'I should end this quicker, they are boring opponents' Kai thought.

Even faster now Kai ran up to ogre recovering from its overswing and jumped and kneed it in the face, and then also elbowed the top of the head. Even then, rather than falling down, Kai grabbed onto the ogre's head. Because the ogres were in rage due to some puny human messing around with them, the third ogre with the mace wildly swung it towards Kai. However, Kai just turned himself over to the ogre's back so the mace ran into its face.

'One dead.'

With swift movements Kai positioned himself near one of the ogre's that started getting up. Then, another wild swing caused a friendly attack on the ogre's side.

'Two dead.'

In a blink of an eye Kai was next to the still standing ogre. The ogre tried hitting him, but Kai effortlessly dodged. A battlecry could be heard, after which the ogre died. Kai had rammed his knee into the incoming ogre's chest so hard that the sternum was crushed and the heart stopped.

'Three dead.'

The very first ogre that had been knocked down was now getting up. However, Kai didn't give it any chance to recover, running towards and jumping on its head. Kai stomped on its face, and stomped again, and again, and a few times more until there was no reaction anymore. And finally, the last ogre, the one who was knocked unconcious second. Kai walked towards it, picked it by the head, and turned it round right round.

"Fhuuu, finally all five dead..." Kai exhaled in relaxation.

It didn't even take a minute to finish off 5 relatively strong and resilient ogres. Sophie was looking at this sight in awe and fear. Kai's battlefrenzy ended momentarily, then he noticed Sophie's stare.

"Umm, what is it?" he asked innocently. He didn't miss her flinching slightly when he took a step towards her.

"Ah, well..." The last two kills were gruesome – the stomping on the head until it was crushed and then casually breaking a neck. Still, she managed to compose herself.

"I mean, that was amazing... You were incredible..."

"Heh, thank you," Kai said with a sly smile.

"But, how is such power possible? You said you were a supporter, a rank 0 even?"

"THE Supporter, again, and I also said that my buffs are good. That's just how good they are."

"Yeah, but... I guess I'll just have to accept it."

"Exactly. Now, shall we go on?"

They now decided to fight together to make the battles even faster. By comparison, against a group of 5 ogres, Sophie took up to 5 minutes fighting them individually, Kai dealt with a group in up to a minute by diving right into them and fighting skillfully, and now together they took around 30 seconds.

Their battle plan was like this – Kai ran right between the opponents, caused confusion and attacked them there, and Sophie stayed at one side out of the ring attacking those at the edge. If an ogre turned towards Kai then Sophie could stab its back, and if one turned towards Sophie then Kai could strike the back of its head. The plan was fairly reckless, relying on Kai's ability to dodge the strikes, but still they managed to do it.

Thus they started clearing the floor at a very quick pace.

2 hours later.

The two were taking a break before entering the presumed boss room.

"So, we finally have reached the final room on the second floor..." Kai said.

"Yes, we managed to clear the floor very quickly. I'm amazed by the speed we defeat the monsters with... But a boss monster is much stronger than the common ones on the same level, I suggest we first try to obserse the opponent rather than run into the fight right away."

"Well, I'm okay with that..." Kai accepted.

When break time was over, they headed towards the entrance.

What greeted them was a room much bigger than most there, and a single monster. However, it was a 6 meter tall demonic minotaur – pitch black skin with glowing red lines running over it like a tattoo, and its armor was infused together with its skin and many spikes protruded out from it. A terrible beast.

The two tried to observe its movements and behaviour before battle, however, the opponent didn't care for such things. This time the minotaur was the first one to charge into battle. Wielding its equally terrifying greatsword, it leaned over and made an insane dash. It was just ridiculous how much stronger the boss was.

The two tried to dodge. The result was – Kai was slower to react but faster and managed to get out of its way, but Sophie wasn't so lucky, though she was quicker to react, she couldn't move fast enough and was grazed by its tackle causing her to smash against the wall.

In a moment Sophie had been incapacitated and the fighting power halved. Well, actually it wasn't like that. From the earlier fights it was already clear that Kai was stronger and more skillful than Sophie. But how much stronger actually?

Seeing that one was thrown aside, the minotaur turned its attention towards Kai. Now he started to approach slowly. Both sides were observing their opponent calmly. However, the one to feel threatened was not Kai but the minotaur. The more the latter observed Kai, the more he started to feel some irrational fear. He couldn't understand why, to him Kai just looked like a tiny helpless human without any armor or a weapon. He would soon find out the reason for his fear.

The fight started with the minotaur making a sharp horizontal swing with its sword. Kai evaded backwards, however the swing was immediately followed by a thrust. It was fast, but somehow Kai managed to redirect and evade it by turning his body.

He now had a chance to close the distance between them to get into reach himself. But the minotaur was skillful, he efficiently retracted the sword and blocked Kai's advance. Kai dodged another slash that followed immediately from the guard.

'Eghh-, he's quite strong...' "Power of the Elite!" Kai called out.

His movements got immediately quicker. He dashed towards the minotaur so fast that there was barely a minimum of response. Kai got under the half of a guard and slipped to the back of the minotaur. In the next moment it felt sharp pain in its leg and fell down on one knee. The minotaur was too high and Kai had decided to reduce its mobility, thus he had kicked and broken the knee.

The minotaur turned and swinged his sword, but Kai moved together with him so the blade never reached. He was still behind its back. Unfortunately the minotaur was still too high to make direct strikes to the head. So Kai just ran up its back and now stood above its head.

'Heh, easy.'

Swinging his hands the minotaur tried to get Kai off, but he was persistent and stayed mounted. When there was an opening, Kai grabbed the head, swinged himself up and kneed the face as he came down. Then grabbed the neck with his legs and started pounding its face.

The punches were so incredibly heavy that the minotaur slightly panicked and wildly swinged towards its own face. Kai felt it coming and dodged and... the minotaur facepalmed. While it was dazed, Kai wasted no time and got back on its head. He grabbed one of its horns and with a crushing blow broke it at its base.

The pain was immense so the minotaur tried to shake Kai off very vigorously. It was also time to try to finish this, so before falling, Kai rammed the broken horn into one of its eyes. Unfortunately while he was falling the minotaur got a lucky hit with one of its wild swings and Kai got blown aside.

By now Sophie had regained conciousness from the initial shock and looked to see what was happening. The first thing she saw was Kai getting slammed by one of the minotaur's swings. Worry and fear overwhelmed her, but then she saw the condition the enemy was in – staggering with a broken knee and a horn in its eye. Perhaps the situation wasn't that hopeless. She was reassured when she saw Kai casually standing up.

Kai thought what to do and then saw the greatsword, which had been dropped, when its eye was struck, on the ground. He ran towards it. Though the minotaur noticed and understood his intention, he failed to grab it in time. That was because Kai used a momentary boost to speed up, almost disappearing from vision.

The sword was heavy, but this was an advantage as Kai made a circular swing. The minotaur was blinded by its side and couldn't see the attack coming, thus taking blow to its torso. However, the protection of the armor and skin infused together mitigated the force, so only slash wound was left. Though that too was dangerous, the combination of the weight and circular movement would normally cleave a body in half.

Then, when the minotaur braced for another attack, he couldn't see Kai anymore. It was too late for anything as Kai had jumped and now came down from above with the sword. The sword cut through the defense and ran deep into its body. The minotaur fell down, leaving Kai standing there gloriously.

"Oh, you okay?" Kai asked when he saw Sophie standing up.

"Ah, yeah, so-so..." she answered, but from her expression it was clear she was in pain.

"Then, let me heal you..."

"You know healing spells too?" Sophie was surprised.

"Ehh, how do you think I saved you the first time? You had a big wound that time too."

"Eh? B-but I had no scars or internal damage, I thought I was just knocked unconcious. How high is your healing skill level even?" she asked in disbelief.

"That time you slept for hours because you had lost a lot of blood. As for the skill level-"

But before Kai could say anything else, another unexpected thing happened.

"LOOK OUT!" Sophie pushed Kai aside and then took blow from the sudden sword. She flew away a few meters.

Kai looked in surprise, 'D'awww...'. Then turned around, "Round 2?" he said, tilting his head.

Before him stood the same minotaur, however, his body was covered in flames and even more spikes were coming out of its body, giving it an even more demonic look than before. This was a rare skill 'demon form', which sometimes those with demon blood in them had.

Kai looked back over Sophie. She had lost her arm and had a gaping wound in her torso.

"Actually-" Kai started to say something but was interrupted by the minotaur's slash. The attack was much faster than before – the demon form enhanced the monster's abilities by nearly twofold. However, it was as if the sword just passed through smoke. Kai dashed towards the minotaur so fast that he had left an afterimage, then appeared right next to it striking its chest with the momentum.

A skill was used – great force was concentrated into the fist, on impact it was transmitted right into the body where it then expanded outward from a single point. The result was great internal damage. The minotaur fell down motionlessly again.

From Sophie's perspective.

She tried to save Kai, but in return was struck herself. Tremendous pain was felt as she took the blow and was thrown aside. The pain was something she had never felt before. She tried to move, but couldn't. Her arm felt weird, and her side was painful and cold.

Someone said something, it was probably Kai. Did he already defeat the monster? But he could not be seen. The minotaur still cried out, guess it was still alive.

But then, silence... Did Kai die? Is she going to die here, alone, in such a dark and cold place away from everything dear to her? Many of her friends had already died the day before. Tears started flowing from her eyes.

'I don't want to die. I don't want to die!'

When a shadow appeared above her, she thought that that was it. However, nothing happened, so she tried to make out what the shadow was. The image cleared and she saw Kai, standing right next to her.

Her mind was already blank, but she felt faintly happy meeting his gaze one last time. However, his eyes were oh so cold, oh so icy blue, just like the endless skies. In the next moment darkness enveloped her.

However, it was not death.

After who knows how long, it felt like an eternity, she felt some warmth, she could feel her body. Suddenly opening her eyes, she was welcomed by a familiar sight.

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