Trust not the horse, O Trojans. Be it what it may, I fear the Greeks when they offer gifts.

-Virgil

Gabalawi took his defensive stance in front of the Minotaur while Seph circled around to its back, thinking of targeting the legs from behind.

Flowers were circling The Minotaur’s face, even though they had a sharpness to them, they couldn’t pierce its metallic hide.

The Minotaur ignored the whirlwind of flowers, and attacked with all its might. The huge hammer swung down, targeting Gabalawi.

Gabalawi wasn’t sure to avoid or attempt to block, but he resolved to trust his strength and launched a double fist strike towards the oncoming hammer.

To his and everyone’s surprise, his strike was strong enough to repel the hammer that it hit the face of the Minotaur for the second time in this fight.

A big lump of black substance dropped from the stricken beast's face, but instead of the face becoming slightly smaller this time, the body became smaller instead and the face regained its original form quickly.

There was something about this beast they couldn’t put their finger on, something inexplicable.

What were the lumps that kept dropping each time they hurt the beast?

That wasn’t the only effect of the strike though, for the monster tumbled backwards and dropped on its back on the ground.

Seph narrowly escaped getting crushed by it, but right after he avoided that gnarly fate, he started launching palm strikes toward the huge Minotaur.

With each strike landing, smaller lumps dropped from the monster. Seph thought that must be the difference between his strength and Gabalawi’s strength.

But while Gabalawi had the advantage of sheer power that seemed to only be getting stronger, Seph had the advantage of being able to land multiple strikes in fast succession.

The beast seemed to have dropped 5% of its weight mid-fight. The black lumps started evaporating, unleashing a foul stench, but Dahlia made a new whirlwind that drove the smell away from their immediate vicinity.

The Minotaur lashed out with its backhand, hitting Seph, who flew back, hitting the wall behind him, but it didn’t hurt badly.

The beast rose to its feet again and tried to stomp Gabalawi instead. It wasn’t very smart really, because its foot was more vulnerable to his attack than its hammer.

The beast fell down again, and Seph ganged on it with his palm strikes again, but to everyone’s surprise Esme showed up, and she started attacking with her hair as well.

At first she thought she could pierce its metallic structure, but it turned out she could since it was only a metallic hide.

She just had to focus her hits on the same area, not allowing it to heal fast enough.

The monster attempted to backhand Seph again, and he succeeded, which made Seph feel stupid.

It had reduced in size 10% more and it was looking less and less scary.

It looked at Esme with glaring angry eyes before it tried to get back up, which gave Esme an idea.

Gabalawi got the idea to not let it even get back up, so he stomped the ground with his feet after giving his party a warning.

The Minotaur couldn’t hold his ground against the localized earthquake, and fell on its behind.

Gabalawi ran straight towards the monster and struck it twice with his fists on its stomach, making it lose its composure even more and fall on its back.

Looking up at the ceiling, it suddenly saw a mass of hair right in front of its eyes.

Earlier, Esme got the idea of blinding the beast, and she did just that when she launched her hair spikes down on the fallen beast.

Surprisingly, it didn’t even seem to hurt more than it usually did, and what’s even more surprising was the fact that even blind the Minotaur hit Esme away, but she protected herself by blocking the hit with the hardened hair.

The team breathed a sigh of relief that they have to fight a blinded beast now, that had already lost 25% of its mass.

Seph was the most relieved out of all of them. He was landing palm strikes with not a care in the world, not worried at all that the beast could hit him now.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

But the beast did and launched him back again. He felt something crack in his back this time. He was hurting, so he took out his last wolf's heart and ate it.

Not only did the monster attack Seph, but he also launched his hammer at Gabalawi, knowing exactly where he was.

Gabalawi screamed, “He is not blind! Take care, everyone, he can still see somehow.”

He dodged the hammer strike this time because the monster caught him off guard.

The team looked stumped and just stared at the monster’s eyes healing in front of them.

But this time, they noticed some things moving on the Minotaur’s face, heading for its wounded eyes.

Seph used the Eye of the Veteran on them.

Name: Metallic Slime

Class: Slime

Cultivation stage: Body Dismantling (I)

“Wait! What the actual fuck! There are slimes moving on that beast and healing it! Where the hell did they come from?” Seph screamed the new information to his team.

The beast didn’t give Seph a chance to think and attacked him with the hammer, but he dodged.

“Focus on the fight now. We will figure out the rest later.” Gabalawi screamed back, trying to keep everyone alive as the team tank was a tough job.

The monster was as tall as the wall now, before he towered over the wall with 6.5 feet.

But it all meant that he was easier to manage at this point.

The Minotaur attacked Gabalawi again with his hammer, and again he blocked it, launching it back, only this time the monster was much shorter than the beginning of the fight, and instead of hitting him in the face, the hammer just flew away from the beast’s hands.

It fell back again, and the team ganged up on it. When it tried to strike Seph this time, he struck the hand away with a palm attack, and because the beast was smaller, it worked.

The beast tried to grab Gabalawi instead and with it now being 65% of its original size, Gabalawi just overpowered it and forced its palm open.

At this moment, the monster did something none of them could expect. It split in half, all while morphing into a new shape, and from each half came forth a metallic warhorse, each one 2.5 meters tall.

They both stood on their hind feet and neighed loudly before breaking into a fast gallop.

Seph used the Eye of the Veteran on the new creatures.

Name: Metallic Warhorse

Class: Horse

Cultivation stage: Body Dismantling (III)

How could this be happening? First a Minotaur, and then I see slime healing it. Now two warhorses?

Seph thought to himself, completely not focusing on the fight.

“Wake up, you idiot.” He heard Esme scream at him. He woke from his absent-mindedness to notice her barely steering one of the war horses that was about to run him over.

“I am taking care of this one. It can’t harm me with no hands. Help the others fast!”

Seph looked to the side to see the other horse run into Gabalawi head first, and it was head wrestling with him, pushing him towards the wall.

Seph ran toward him while thinking, These things must be made from the metal slimes somehow, if I were to fight a monstrous warhorse I would target its feet they are vulnerable, but if I am fighting a warhorse made of hundreds of metal slimes, then the smartest choice would be to target where it has the most meat.

Seph arrived behind the horse and landed two palm strikes in fast succession on its hindquarters. A big lump of what Seph assumed was dead slimes fell down, but the horse kicked him with its hind legs, sending him flying backwards.

Gabalawi used the opportunity that it was not on all four and wrestled its head to the ground, and landed two fists to its face, completely smashing it.

This sequence reduced its size by 10%. The horse rose to its feet, with a mangled neck and no face, and attempted to run away.

Gabalawi grabbed its tail fast to prevent it from doing that, when the damnest thing happened.

The horse discarded its tail somehow with part of its hindquarters and ran away.

Gabalawi looked with disbelief at the chunk of metallic meat in his hand, when it split into ten metal slimes that seemed to be disoriented.

He stomped all of them until there was nothing left.

“They are made of these slimy things?” Gabalawi spoke out loud to himself.

“Yes, they are called metallic slimes. I guessed this already, but we were in the middle of fighting this warhorse, so I couldn’t tell you fast enough.” Seph said from behind him.

“What do we do now? One ran away, and the other had Esme on his back.” Gabalawi asked quizzically.

“We should go after the one that ran away from us. I am confident that Esme can handle hers. She seems like someone who knows how to pick her fights since she avoided the Minotaur when she was by herself.”

“I agree, let’s go, I hope it doesn’t get faraway, I am already tired from this fight.” Gabalawi said with a weary look on his face.

“What about me? I feel so useless in this fight, I hate it.” Dahlia spoke suddenly. They looked at her and found her standing there with an angry face, with her hands crossed under her ample bosom.

“Oh Dahlia, I am very sorry we are just too caught up in the fight, I suggest you go after Esme, if you find her in trouble distract the monster enough so that you can get back to us.” Seph answered her in a soft tone trying to soothe her anger.

“Humph, okay, you both better not be thinking I am an easy opponent you hear?” she said warningly while glaring at them.

“I’d rather have you as a friend, Dahlia.” Seph said while chuckling nervously.

That caught her off guard, and she spun around and started running towards her friend.

“Hunted, we are no more. Let the hunt begin. The hunter now becomes prey.” Seph threatened, and they both went down the hallway the warhorse ran towards.