The maze kept going, and hundreds of monsters came and went over a period of about half a day. The maze slowly changed over time, gaining more decorations and breaks in the monotony of black rock that made it up. At this point, Jonathan realized that the constant onslaught of darkness within this dungeon was just as deadly as the monsters. On Earth, people had used rooms that were painted pure white as a torture method. Eventually, without enough stimuli, a person would go mad.
Eventually, they reached the center of the maze, where a massive room waited for them. In the center was a rough hewn throne, with a massive, furred creature sitting on it. The monster held a strange orb in one hand, probably the reward for the maze. When they entered, it set the orb on the top of the throne, out of reach. It looked like a fusion between a minotaur and a lizard, and its body was corrupted with veins of darkness. A massive obsidian ax rested on its knees, and when they entered, it rose. Its muscles bulged as it lifted the ax, and it roared at them. The monster was twenty feet tall, and was built like a tank. As it thundered across the ground towards them, Jonathan gulped. This monster was of a different caliber to the others that he had faced.
He rolled under the first strike, feeling the vibrations in his bones as the ax came down. Such was the monster’s strength that it actually left a mark on the previously inviolable floor. Edgar started to rise into the air, moving out of the range of the minotaur. The monster ignored him, recognizing Jonathan as the bigger threat.
“You dare to invade my domain?” The monster growled as it barreled towards him. “You mortals and your hubris. I have waited here for eons for my final reward. You will not stop me!”
With those words, a raging fire of energy began to build around the monster, as if it was going into some sort of berserker state. Recognizing a challenge when he saw one, Jonathan channeled his Divinity, using Smite. His body swelled with power, and he met the charge with one of his own. As the blade streaked by, moving like a black lightning bolt, he sunk one fist into the furry belly of the monster. It doubled over, coughing up blood. However, there was no major damage.
The monster laughed, and reversed its grip on its ax, sending the butt hurtling into Jonathan’s head. He was knocked off his feet and into the air. With a cruel look on its face, the minotaur slapped him out of the air and into the wall. Jonathan groaned, but with his second threshold in Resilience, he was surprisingly fine, save for a few bruises and fractures. Nothing that would take too long to heal.
“You pack a punch for an ant,” the minotaur said. “However, you cannot hope to kill me.”
Rather than answer, Jonathan raced towards the monster, feeling a welcome buff from Edgar take effect. The man was preparing something in the air above the minotaur. Something that would hopefully turn the tides of the battle. As he ran, Jonathan began to channel his stamina into his legs, and the Void into his arms. He pushed off as the minotaur swung, and streaked past the attack. He paused for a moment below the monster, and then surged upwards, slamming his fist into the creature’s chin. The Void exploded as his fist made contact, and the minotaur stumbled, its chin broken.
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He hammered out a second blow, right as Edgar loosed his attack. As the minotaur’s head snapped to the side, a piercing spear of wind shot down from Edgar, containing thousands of points of mana and elemental energy. The spear looked like a cyclone made manifest, and it drilled into the base of the minotaur’s skull. The monster screamed in pain as its vertebrae shattered, but rather than fall, its berserker skill seemed to grow in strength. Before Jonathan could move, the creature roared in his face, stunning him with the sheer volume. A punch every bit as mighty as his own pancaked him, breaking bones. He shot into the wall like a meteor, and lay there for a moment, groaning.
The ground pressed up against his shattered bones, and if not for his honed will, he would have lain there until the minotaur killed him. Instead, he pushed himself to his feet, trying to ignore the grinding sensation within his bones. He would not fall here, not after how far he had come.
Edgar flitted around the minotaur like a gnat, his attacks stinging the monster, but doing little else. The minotaur was swiping at the air with its ax, but Edgar was too far out of reach. Luckily for the mage, the minotaur lacked any ranged abilities. Sure, it could throw its ax, but that would be too inefficient.
As Jonathan rose, the monster laid its eyes on him once more, its real target. Edgar was having a hard time against the creature, on account of its prodigious durability. Wind was not the best element for penetrating defenses, not by a long shot. It was fine for getting through armor, invading the cracks in it, but when the monster’s natural durability was the factor, it was almost impossible to land any telling hits.
Jonathan grunted as he ran, feeling his bones begin to knit back together. They would be exceedingly weak for the next ten minutes or so, as they repaired. Within that time, he would have to be careful not to let the minotaur hit him again. Smite was still active at least, bolstering his speed and strength.
As he ran, he fired off a barrage of Void Cannons, eating through about five thousand points of mana. The combined bolts of elemental energy and mana shot off like cannonballs, lancing into the minotaur’s skin. The attacks detonated, blasting away chunks of the flesh.
The minotaur roared in anger, and stomped the ground, blasting a series of cracks through the earth. A row of stone spikes erupted from the floor of the cavern, racing towards him. Jonathan jumped over them, blasting the brittle obsidian spikes into shards as he landed. Whatever that attack had been, it had been a special ability, rather than simple brute force. Even the minotaur could not break the likely peak Tier 2 obsidian that made up the dungeon, at least that easily.