The silhouette of an enormous Minotaur draws closer on the horizon. Its skin and fur are jet black, and its horns glisten with their obsidian-like gloss, reflecting the crimson light from the demonic creature's eyes back at me.

My gaze is fixated on the glowing purple key around its neck. It's most likely linked to one of the conditions to unlocking whatever is behind this stone.

I lunge forward with my fists ready, and every step trailing energy behind me as I pick up speed. As we draw closer to each other, I finally manage to get a good reading on the monster's strength as well.

"55 units, looks like this one may not be that easy..."

Although it's nowhere near the goliath of a worm I ran from in the abyss a few days back, it's no mere wolf or raging bull.

This time around, I'm in their domain, without a weapon, and at a lower level as well.

Fighting a monster this size and power could actually be quite the challenge, but it's one I'm ready for.

The wind in my face picks up as we both accelerate, and once finally within range, I jump to my right side, narrowly avoiding its sword and hearing the roar of battle commence.

I don't bother attacking, nor do I try after it turns to run at me again.

For the first half a dozen exchanges, I'd like to gauge its speed and movement patterns. Just from the run over, I can tell our base speed stats are similar, and from the near miss of that sword swing, our agility seems to be nearly on par as well, though I have a slight edge.

I land a single punch to its hind leg after dodging, and it feels like I'm hitting a brick wall layered with meat. The muscles and flesh ripple, but the monster hardly moves or reacts.

The next exchange ends with a demonic energy slash leaving my right hand filled with double that of the bulls I fought earlier. 10 units of refined energy hit the Demonic Minotaur at point-blank range in the same place behind its left leg.

A deep gash opens up, but it doesn't even hit bone, and it's not nearly enough to slow its movements. This only angers it more.

While watching the beast turn around, getting ready for our next exchange, I channel my manipulation skill to absorb raw energy from the atmosphere above, but only manage a few units before I have to cut my concentration and dodge its next strike.

This happens three more times before I'm back up to my full stores, but the slash on the back of my opponent's leg seems to have closed up while I've taken the time to restore my energy. A scar is left behind but is quickly covered by a few wisps of purple and black energy and the previously injured flesh looks as good as new.

I smirk and run forward.

"Looks like you have some tricks of your own too..."

As time goes on, the grunts get louder, and the movements get sloppier. I manage to land 4 hits of 10 demonic energy strikes per full core, using up almost 10 units to power my movements while dodging and building up enough speed to place attacks.

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Every time I take the time to restore all 50 units of my own raw energy from the atmosphere, the wounds on the beast somehow heal on their own.

However, every time it heals a wound, the energy in its body depletes further and further down. This is what gives me the spirit to continue my seemingly meaningless attacks. It may look like the battle is going nowhere from the outside view, but I know it's only a matter of time.

Two more full cycles of my 50-unit core get drained and used, and the Minotaur continues to get angrier and angrier, swinging its blade at me. The crimson eyes glow so bright with rage that the beast doesn't even realize its energy stores have nearly run to zero, and the slash marks stop healing.

Its movements slow, and my barrage of attacks eventually bring it to its knees.

I use four final 10-unit slashes on the same area at close range to slice its head clean off. It doesn't budge easily, but eventually, I free the heavy chain necklace from its chest. The purple glowing key lands in my grasp before it can hit the muddy ground.

*THUD*

The corpse of the Minotaur falls behind me and slowly starts to dissolve.

Letting out a satisfied sigh, I start to catch my breath and slowly recharge my core while twirling the key around through my fingers.

It glows bright purple and gives off an intense pressure around it. My gaze switches from the key, to the dissolving corpse, and to the stone tablet off in the distance.

The sound of something splashing into water sounds out as my eyes turn back to where the fallen Minotaur was before. In its place, a black stone remains. I step over to pick it up and examine it.

Unlike all the other demonic stones I've collected before, this one has a light purple glow to it. Wisps of energy circle around it and it gives off a pressure just like the key in my other hand.

I grip both the stone and key tight, then start walking over to the tablet again.

Once standing in front of it, my heart starts beating louder, but I don't hesitate to stick the glowing key in the bottom hole and twist.

As I do, the tablet pulses purple just like before. Then, in an instant, turns dull along with the key.

The same rumbling is felt beneath my feet just a few seconds later.

"Just as I thought."

I place the glowing stone from my last battle at the base of the tablet.

"I'll be back here with another one soon."

I smirk and begin running toward a stampede of bulls.

In a matter of minutes, every last one of them is defeated, and their small black gems are scattered across the wetlands floor.

This wave had a few bulls that were pushing 45 units, a bit more than I expected, but not more than I can handle.

Once finished collecting all of these stones and restoring my demonic energy, the presence of another creature similar to the last boss enters my senses. The ground starts to vibrate and I feel its footsteps approaching quickly.

As I turn my head to see what direction it's coming from, the sight of it charging toward me at less than 100 meters away gives me a bit of a shock. I put my hands up, ready to do a similar long-lasting battle as the previous boss, but before I can even think of which direction to dodge in, it's already closed the gap.

"Too fast..."

A glossy double-sided axe swings my way through the air, and the only thing that fills my vision are the glowing red eyes and another purple key dangling from the creature's neck as I use all my strength and demonic energy stores to jump out of the way to dodge.

I can feel the razor-sharp edge of the blade tear the back of my red robe as I roll to the floor out of the way, but am hit with a heavy fist in the stomach that's easily 5 times larger than my own.

It came out of nowhere, the speed and power of this next boss are levels above the last one.

I cough up blood while analyzing the monster before me to contain over 65 demonic energy units.

Then, I get struck in the back before my vision goes dark.

[You Have Died]

---

My main body receives this chain of memories while burning a group of monsters in a far-off dungeon to a crisp.

I stop mid-fight and let out a chuckle before creating a new body double to send back to Ember to report the news. After this, I air-step downward to see if any more items have dropped while talking to myself under my breath.

"Looks like my training today isn't over just yet... There seems to be a few more things I need to learn."