They watched as the beast gave a gleeful chomp, standing up on its hind legs like a bear before thumping back on the ground. When it picked its head up, she saw it holding the sword Koa had been wielding at the hospital the night before between its human-like teeth.

Leta wouldn’t ask why a Minotaur would want a weapon it couldn’t wield when she turned back to Koa’s duffel bag.

Emboldened by its obvious distraction, she quickly crawled to the bag and saw that it was partially open from earlier, and Leta reached inside. Her hand met all manner of textures: rough and bumping metal, smooth metal, wood, and plastic. Eventually, she felt the gun handle and heard the monster loose another low, ominous growl.

Her heart sank, and she slowly raised her head to see that the Minotaur was looking dead at her, black eyes wide as its nostrils flared.

It stomped at the ground in challenge, sword still in its mouth before it let loose a bellow of anger as it charged.

Leta didn’t think. She just extracted the handgun from the bag, aimed, and pulled the trigger.

The gun clicked, empty.

“Oh no.” Leta breathed before throwing herself to the side as the monster nearly stampeded over her.

“Freeze!” She shouted at it but got a notification from Gada.

[The Host has attempted persuasion. The target’s mental fortitude is higher than the Host’s. Persuasion has failed.]

“Fuck!” Leta shouted, then shrieked as it charged at her again.

Leta reached a hand outward, mentally grabbed hold of a rock the size of both her fists, and used her abilities to hurl it at the monster.

It didn’t even blink as it ran at her, forcing her to roll again at the last second.

“Why didn’t you use that to pull the bag towards you?” Koa shouted as thunder cracked above them.

“I’m new! Give me a break!” She called back before rolling again. This time, the Minotaur was ready for her, and it turned its head at the last second, intending to jab one of its horns into her stomach.

Leta reached out on instinct and grabbed hold of it in time to pull it aside, keeping her from being impaled but now trapped between the beast’s horns.

She screamed as she used all her strength to keep the monster from bashing its head into her stomach and pulverizing her organs when it suddenly pulled its head back and slapped at her with its front paw.

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Leta hadn’t had enough time to pull her hand up to block the strike as the blow connected against her side. It threw her several meters, and she skittered across the rough pebbles before hitting a giant rock.

[The Host has taken bludgeoning damage from Corrupted-Minotaur. The Host has sustained internal bleeding, a cracked rib, a dislocated shoulder, and a laceration. Movement in the left arm is diminished. Bleed is in effect. Nanites rerouted for repair.]

She coughed as the wind that had been knocked out of her came rushing back, her blood spitting from her mouth as she pulled herself up on her side.

The Minotaur paced, tail lashing from side to side as it sized up its prey, the wild look in its all-black eyes seeming to convey that it thought she was an easy target. Like a mountain goat, it lifted onto its hind legs to be as intimidating as possible, grunting in challenge as if to protect its property.

That all too familiar anger that surfaced when she was under attack bubbled to the surface like pockets of poison from the depths of the abyss, her eyes narrowing at the creature that would dare to try and end her.

It was building, frothing under her skin.

It set her teeth on edge and tightened her muscles as she met its gaze, the fear of a painful death now in the backseat as that raging flame of survival took the wheel.

The beast didn’t even notice the tiny snaps of static electricity dancing around her, so blind was it to anything but destroying what it deemed a threat to its desires.

The monster let out a scream of a victory as its front paws landed on the ground with an earth-shattering thud before it kicked off, head lowered like a bull to a matador as it intended to ram her through.

Leta put one hand out towards the beast, all of her pent-up emotions flooding out of her as a torment of electricity arched out of her outstretched fingers and slammed into her adversary.

It shrieked in pain, the metal sword in its mouth frying the Minotaur’s tongue as it acted as a conduit to her attack. It stumbled, knees buckling as aftershocks bounced through its muscles, and shook its head to try and clear the cobwebs.

[Internal bleeding has been repaired. The healing process of cracked rib and dislocation has begun.]

Leta rose on shaky legs, sparks of electricity hovering around her like angry spirits made even more erratic by the storm.

The Minotaur had barely gotten back on its feet when she opened her hand to thrust another bolt at it.

It screamed as its body locked in pain, hair singing as her electricity hit it on the side of the face, causing one eyeball to burst and bleed.

That fear in the backseat wanted to throw up at the sight, but this was the anger’s show now.

And the anger wasn’t satisfied.

Leta took another step towards it, hurling another bolt.

The sky above seemed to roar with applause as lightning clapped between the clouds, spreading its web like the hand of god above her.

Another step, another bolt.

The Minotaur’s leg gave out as its muscles quivered, her electricity frying nerve endings and tearing tendons.

It shrieked in agony, shaking its massive head from side to side, black eyes wide as it was beheld the tiny but terrifying creature before it. Even as the sword between its teeth amplified her attacks, its simple mind couldn’t fathom letting what it wanted to go.

Leta was so close now that she could see her silhouettes in its eyes, her lightning creating a halo of destruction around her head.

It was petrified, a massive creature the size of a dinosaur reduced to naught but a mouse staring down a tiger.