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20. Minotaurs in Another World
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Balrung charged straight at Bea. Lyra began charging up another cast, as I took it upon myself to interfere this time. I darted in front of the creature, interrupting its line of sight, but the beast would not slow it's assault. I had to think fast. I don't know whether or not to use offense or defense. I'm not even sure if my defensive magic could stand against something like him.
*Offense it is then.*
I tucked my head down and pointed my wings backwards, gathering flames at the tips of the feathers. As Balrung charged towards me and Bea, who was directly behind me, I brought my wings forward and with them two large waves of flames from each wing barreling towards the monster. They collided with each one of his shoulders, but didn't slow him down at all!
He powered through, still running towards me, when he quickly slowed, lifting back his right leg to give me a swift kick. I only had an instant to react and set off some of the defensive magic that I did know and created a wind egg around me. The force of the kick still blasted me backwards towards the wall past Bea and then the egg shattered on impact with the wall leaving a huge oval dent and causing me to drop to the ground just as Wexel had on the opposite side.
"Duc!" shouted Bea as I looked up at her.
She had turned back to look at what happened to me and when she did that, Balrung was already on top of her! Another ice bolt cascaded into his side. Lyra had pierced the beast's rib with her ice attack! Balrung let out an angry roar still facing Bea, and slapped her back at me as she tried to defend herself.
I tried another force of wind to slow Bea, but she just crashed into me instead. I rolled out from under her. She was down and out, at least for the moment. I looked back towards the action to see what was going on. Balrung had pulled the icicle from its side and threw it to the ground as it slowly walked towards Lyra.
Lyra was casting again as he approached, but there was a look of fear and uncertainty on her face. *I've got to do something!*
I got to my feet and tried to come up with some sort of plan, but nothing came to mind. Balrung was just going to brush off my attack again and I could feel it…
[Consume.]
*No. Not again!*
[Consume.]
My body started to violently jerk in the direction of the minotaur. No one was looking at me to see what was happening. An unseen force pulled me forward towards it and I fell to the ground along the way. I turned my eyes from the attack that was about to happen on Lyra to my wing. Blackness was seeping out of it. Oozing.
*No!*
[Consume!]
"Quaaaaaaaaack!" I cried in pain as my body arose, floating in the air.
Black tentacles swung out around me. From my stomach. From my wings. It felt like my insides were on fire! Not like when I'm creating fire, but an actual burning, sizzling of my blood.
*What's happening?! I can't... I can't control it!*
Balrung stopped in his tracks and turned towards me. The power emanating off of me must be huge for him to acknowledge my presence after so easily batting me off before. Lyra seemed to stop her casting and gazed upon whatever unholy appearance I was taking on as well. She backed away.
[CONSUME!]
Balrung was close enough to throw a punch and as he did my stomach exploded or rather blackness shot from it and caught his fist. It held the creature dead in its tracks with shock on its face. Furious, it reached back with it's other fist and swung it too. But my body reacted exactly the same way and stopped that one as well.
The darkness that leeched out of me started overtaking the beast's arms. Balrung roared out, dropping to his knees. My little body hovered there as it overtook the giant minotaur, and I could do nothing.
I could see through my eyes but it reminded me of a horror movie in my old world. One where the body was taken over by something else, but you were still present. You still watched as it did things, even though you weren't in control. Like a body snatcher!
The darkness wrapped around Balrung completely and pulled him towards me, sucking his giant body into my little one.
*I think I just killed him…*
The blackness oozed back through my body as well, receding from my wings and into my chest and I fell to the ground, unable to stand. I lied there conscious and breathing hard, as Lyra stood looking across the floor at me... scared. *Again…*
Pain shot through my body, mostly in my head to the point where I let out a giant cry. Nothing was stopping it. Nothing. I slammed my head into the rock hard floor and the pain of that didn't ease the pain overall or take my mind off of it. My flesh was ripping.
Lyra put her hands over her mouth, watching with intrigue and disgust. At this point, I had become too exhausted. The pain ceased, but I could not move. There was a shifting in the shadows. Although I didn't have a grip on my powers at the moment, Balrung's energy should be gone, but I still sense him!
The ground began to shake and out of the darkness ran the giant minotaur right towards me!
*What?! Impossible!*
"How can that be?" Lyra asked out loud as she began casting again, but I think we both saw ‘the how’ at the same time.
This Balrung's arm was damaged in the same spot Bea had cleaved it and Wexel had helped. He never healed. There were two giant minotaurs the whole time! No party had figured that out before? But also, no wonder they didn't, if each one stuck to the shadows as the other fought and tagged in when they got hurt bad enough, seemingly healed. That alone might have been enough to scare away some parties.
Balrung 2 was charging straight for me, no doubt wanting revenge for the death of Balrung 1. There was still nothing I could do.
*I can't move. I can't feel anything. I'm conscious and can watch, but that's it. This might be the end for me.*
As the beast was about to reach me, Lyra launched off another ice spear blast. It was enough to distract the minotaur for a moment. A sword slashed across its heel causing it to fall to it’s knee briefly before rising again. Wexel was back in the battle.
"Miss, I'm afraid it's time you use that weapon as intended," Wexel said, deflecting off Balrung's fist as it clashed with his shield.
Lyra looked down at her sword. With all this time spent training and learning her magic, she can't believe she started to forget the reason she had a sword. It was because she was a fighter! You could see her resolve solidified in her face.
As Balrung was looking away, Lyra shot forward with a burst of speed using wind magic underneath her feet. This put her above the minotaur's head. She thrusted downward with her sword piercing through it's right eye and causing him to scream out. Lyra jumped away to prepare for another attack, but at that moment, a hatchet flew by and stuck into it's other eye. Bea had gotten back to her feet as well! And now, Balrung was blind.
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End Part 20
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⋆༺𓆩The.Fellow𓆪༻⋆
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