“How do I know you’re really Lee?” asked Jye from the spot they were sitting, idly trailing their finger through the dirt on the ground.
While it wasn’t a bad question, it still pissed me off. I really shouldn’t have expected anything different, especially considering that I was the one who’d warned everyone about the mimic running about the shrine area. However, that didn’t mean I low-key expected the others to discern between me and a fake upon first glance. I guess I’d been fooled at a distance too.
“Tam is with me,” I said, gesturing to the cat who’d now paused and was licking at a paw.
“You could be summoning her like an illusion or something.”
“Okay, ask me a question.”
They ran their hand over an imaginary beard.
“How many siblings do I have?”
I froze. Oh, fuck. How many did they have? It’d been like four days since we’d discussed this in the cabin and a lot had happened between now and then. I wracked my brain, trying to recall the number. They were all younger than Jye, that I remembered. Basically each of them were a year apart. Shit.
“Come on, it’s not that hard to re–”
“Five!” I said, the memory suddenly becoming clear, the look in Jye’s eyes at the time unfocused and concerned. “You have five siblings. Three brothers and two sisters.”
The giant nodded solemnly and stood. “All right, off to find Wren then?”
Letting out a sigh, I shook my head.
“We already know where she is. We just can’t get her out.”
Jye tilted their head, much akin to a dog hearing someone saying “vet.”
I explained to them that Tam and I’d tracked the young girl down first but that she’d been locked behind a solid wall on all sides. She was inaccessible. That was probably why she could only see darkness. Wren had been locked in an area that we couldn’t reach. I couldn’t use [Ground Smash] because the girl explained that her room was really small and she couldn’t back up out of range. Her health was similar to mine, and based on what had occurred even just once in the cabin, the shrapnel the attack created could have fatal consequences if luck wasn’t on our side. I also couldn’t conjure any way to use Jye or Gigi’s abilities to get through.
As always, thinking far beyond her age would have you guess, Wren had come to the same conclusion.
“Come get me soon, okay?” she’d said.
I’d promised her we would.
We were forced to leave her in the dark room all by herself.
It took everything inside me to do that. The idea of it made my stomach churn. Because I knew Chrissie had probably gone through something similar.
“So, she’s safe?” asked Jye, wiping at the dust on their pants.
After my warning to the others about the mimic, we’d agreed to keep our shouts to a minimum, to avoid giving them any further information to trick us. The team had since been radio silent. Jye had only known about everyone’s status up until then.
“Safer than us. And the copycat can’t imitate her either. But we’re down a party member for the fight.”
Somewhat less concerned now, Jye folded their large arms over their chest. “What’s the plan, boss?”
I considered our options. Without Wren we could take much less risks since I could do only so much healing. “You practised with the bow yet?”
“Got in a few shots while you and Wren were napping before,” Jye admitted. Their shifty expression led me to believe that hadn’t been enough of a chance to become familiar with it. Okay, so rule that out. I hadn’t had time to get used to my glaive either, but swinging around a broomstick seemed ill-advised with the size our opponent sounded. At least Jye still had a bunch of knives left.
After a moment I shrugged. “Can’t go wrong with the classics. Gigi tanks. The beast sounds much bigger and a more visible target than the baller from before, so you should be able to get some range projectile shots in. Since Wren’s out for the count, I can play support, buffing everyone and doing emergency healing. Assisting where I can. Axel’ll go in for frontal attacks. And, Tam, can we count on you to assist in the frontline too?”
She glanced up from her grooming and gave me a look.
“That a yes?”
Tam performed the equivalent of a human shrug, her small cat haunches rising and falling.
Why wasn’t I surprised?
“Can you at least take us to the others?”
After a languorous stretch, she set off. I jutted my head at Jye to follow and we were on our way. As we jogged after the feline, I borrowed [Whetstone] from Wren. The ability tasted like I’d been sucking on coins, a metallic coating over the back of my tongue. After swallowing it back, keeping an eye on my stamina and mana, I buffed Jye.
They flinched and swung their gaze, accusal heavy in their eyes, over to me. I smiled apologetically, thinking they’d long since gotten used to the glitch sounds of notifications. Clearly not. Wondering if perhaps the [REDACTED] audio was different than the system windows, in the corner of my peripheral, I saw 10 of my mana and 2 of my stamina drop away from the usage.
Yikes. That was half my mana. If I did it once more for Axel I’d be flat out. And my mana regen was slow. I’d been timing it with my watch and found that every hour or so, it pipped up around 4 points. I only had my stats to blame for that.
Literally tailing Tam, the sounds of the fight Axel and Gigi were engaged with grew louder and louder, the ground under our feet vibrating from the combat and the knocking into walls. They’d been dealing with it for the past half an hour or so. I had no doubt our help was sorely needed.
A crash exploded from up ahead, and Tam skated to a stop, almost as if to say, “This is as far as I go.”
I stared at her, knowing my ability to cajole her into helping us had been spent on our last battle. Working her up over her wife wouldn’t work again. While she was hotheaded, she wasn’t stupid. Tam had to have known what I’d done after the fact.
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Instead, I simply said, “If you see an opportunity to go for the kill, do it. Otherwise, stay out of the party’s way.”
In her green gaze I saw the acknowledgement before she dipped away.
We turned the last corner to see down the hall exactly what was making the racket. It took a moment to understand what was happening and what precisely we were seeing. Several [Shield Walls] were dotted around in the air, surrounding the mammoth of a creature. It stood two and a half men tall, its furry body rippling with corded muscle. While we could only currently see its back, the two points of the beast’s horns were still visible poking up from the crown of its head.
It really was a Minotaur.
Fuck.
Axel was jumping between [Shield Wall]s to dodge its swinging attacks, a greataxe held in its clawed fists, and striking when he could. Judging from the thin cuts on the Minotaur’s hide, he wasn’t doing much damage. From under a [Shield Wall] closer towards us, Gigi was watching anxiously. A few wounds were scattered over xir body, blood weeping freely down xir limbs.
Closing the distance quietly, we watched as Axel narrowly escaped one of the Minotaur’s sweeping attacks. Had Axel remained where he’d been, his legs would’ve been cut from his body. In raw frustration, it swung wildly after him, cleaving a [Shield Wall] in two. The ability dissipated in a flutter of orbs.
My chest tightened in concern. He definitely couldn’t hold out on his own for much longer. I could see how the fight had sapped him of energy already. It was like his battle with the glaive-user all over again. Why did he always throw himself into these fights like this? Maybe he was confident Wren could heal him back up.
“Gigi, report.”
Finally noticing us, our newest member shook xir head.
“We are not doing enough damage. It is a slow beast, both in mind and body. But it is strong. I believe Axel has only cut at a tenth of its life.”
I blinked. Maybe a classic approach wouldn’t work.
“You have any shields to tank?” I asked.
Gigi frowned. “I am afraid even with one, getting hit with an attack straight on from our opponent would cripple me. My [Shield Walls] barely last one direct assault.”
Yeah, okay, classic was completely out the window.
Right now the monster was focused on Axel, and I doubted it had the mental faculties to strategize beyond what was directly in front of it. So long as the blond was slicing at it, we could practically do anything else. However, we just couldn’t attack without reason. If this was a battle of thousand cuts, we needed to limit the risk dealt to ourselves during the slog we’d have to go through to finally end the Minotaur.
I swung around to Jye.
“You said you had nothing to live for once, didn’t you?”
“Sure, he remembers my offhand nihilistic comments, but struggles with how many siblings I have.”
I raised an eyebrow and then the redhead let out a huff.
“What suicidal attempt do you need from me?”
Once I’d explained the plan to them and Gigi, Jye made a face. “You’re a little scary, you know?”
“Whatever works.”
Gigi nodded enthusiastically. “I can do this.”
“On go,” I said.
“Whatever you’re doing, can you guys hurry the fuck up?” Axel shouted, clearing an attack from the greataxe by a millimetre, the blade slicing through the strands of blond hair that hadn’t made the dodge. They wafted away on the wind created by the Minotaur’s weapon as it continued forward. The [Combatant] took the opportunity for a free swing, his sword eating into the furred flesh of the creature’s ribcage. The blade slid along its thick skin, only just barely cutting, leaving a beading line of blood in its wake. Still, the monster howled in pain and rage, its black eyes bulging from its semi-human face.
I announced, “Go.”
In tandem, Jye and I made a mad dash for the [Shield Wall]s currently in place. Some of the Minotaur’s attacks had already destroyed a few whilst we’d been talking, and Gigi had mentioned that xe’d regenned enough to form a few more. I’d tried not to show my jealousy on my face. Much like my mana, my stamina only seemed to come back up at around 4 an hour. It sounded like Gigi’s entire bar would refill in the same amount of time. I guess that was a perk of being LVL 10.
With our running start, we split to opposite sides of the stone wall maze hallway, Jye going left and me going right. Taking a deep breath, I sprung from the floor at the same time as Jye. Summoning [Shield Wall] beneath me to make a platform, as I’d never have been able to jump high enough to get the closest one from Gigi, I felt my footing slide on the low friction system blue floor, slipping slightly. Across from me, Jye practically torpedoed up, their thick leg muscles apparently not just for show. The giant alighted onto their [Shield Wall], continuing their momentum, gaze locked onto their target.
Startled by our appearance, the Minotaur’s attention flicked between Jye and I. Not good. Not good at fucking all.
Vaulting to one [Shield Wall] directly in front of it, Axel shouted, “Hey, fuckface, eyes on me!”
The Minotaur bellowed, incensed by Axel’s cocky defiance, as I was sure it didn’t understand his words. I regained my balance, and I echoed Jye’s movements as the creature’s two-handed axe swung upwards to prepare for what would be a devastating attack if it landed. It began swinging its weapon down, the blade hurtling through the air.
Axel remained in place.
Despite the sweat sheening on him, the blood trickling from attacks he hadn’t dodged fully, the tiredness pulling down at him, his gaze met mine, a teasing smile there that said, Took your time.
How did he know? How did he always know what I was planning?
The greataxe descended, plummeting toward him, and just as it was about to land, three [Shield Wall]s formed between Axel and the weapon. The burst of the hiss of abilities was almost reassuring. I took a deep breath and hoped this worked.
The attack completely obliterated the first one, glimmers of blue and white exploding. The sharpened head of the blade carried into the second shield, splitting it neatly in two. Another shower of blue orbs skittered away as the [Shield Wall] failed.
The Minoatur’s greataxe chewed into the third shield, the material creaking and groaning, cracks forming. But it withstood the attack.
The weapon was firmly lodged into the half-damaged [Shield Wall].
It was stuck.
Axel flipped the bird at the creature from behind his coverage, sticking out a tongue for good measure. An outraged howl burst from the Minotaur’s chest, as it began to struggle to pull its blade from its unintentional sheath.
I let out my held breath and gathered my thoughts. Time to fucking go. This was my plan after all. Jye was already jumping down and, as I joined them in the act, I considered activating [Thick Hide], just in case, but decided against it. I’d need all the mana I could for this.
Hopefully, I’d aimed properly.
Falling, I flung out my arms, and Jye and I grabbed onto our separate targets.
The Minotaur’s arms.
The air in my lungs oofed out of me on impact, and as gravity dragged at me, I clambered for purchase, fingers gripping onto whatever fur and muscle I could grab a hold of, the trunk of its arm thicker than my body.
On contact, I borrowed Jye’s Load and applied as many as my mana bar would allow. I think it was around 3 times. That would be enough, wouldn’t it? I couldn’t tell if the Minotaur had a dominant arm, but if it did, please let it be Jye’s.
The effect was instantaneous.
Its arms shotputted to its sides, Jye and I plunging with them, the floor like a super magnet attracting them.
Unable to control the trajectory of its suction down, the Minotaur’s head slammed into the hilt of its own greataxe, one of its horns snapping against the metal, the now free antler spinning away to the distance. Releasing a yowl of surprise, the beast tried to resist the pull, its muscles bulging as it strained, but to no avail.
The Minotaur had sunk to its knees, its arms now weights shackling it to the stone floor.
Even like that it still was taller than Jye.
Getting my wind back, I released the creature’s arm and took a few steps away to take stock of the situation. My heart hammered in my chest, blood pumping through my ears.
“Well. That went better than I thought.”