“Toro, toro,” Carlos said quietly as he rhythmically swished his sword back and forth. The Bull naturally didn’t pay any attention to Carlos’s behavior, and it just continued preparing for its next attack.

“Your puntilla, toreador,” I said, handing my utility knife to Carlos. My hands would be busy enough with the pistols. Carlos would be able to make better use of the small knife.

“Muchas gracias. Do you remember your footwork?”

Carlos must have been referring to my old boxing days, I thought. Soon after my diagnosis, I got really into boxing to work through some of my anger.

“Not at all,” I said with a smile, “but I’m sure it will come back. It’s just like falling off a bike.”

The horns began to play, and I aimed my Esotech pistol at the center of the Bull. It lowered its head, and a bright orb of destructive energy formed in the space between its horns. Based on the direction it was pointing, the blast would destroy the Student Store and, most likely, the gym behind it.

I pulled the trigger, and a wide lance of white light roared out of my gun’s barrel. The beam of light struck the Bull center-mass, and it was thrown off balance. It roared in pain as the beam of white light dug into its body. A small portion of the beam deflected off the Bull’s skin, and a large building far in the distance was instantly transformed into burning slag.

The Bull rose up onto two legs, and the sphere of destructive energy forming between its horns disappeared completely. As I suspected, hitting the Bull with enough damage forced it to cancel its attack.

The recoil of the shot was much stronger than I expected. The force threw me backward, causing me to land hard on my back, and the Esotech pistol went flying toward Lenoir Hall. My body crashed into the brick-lined road beneath, but I felt no pain. I silently thanked my new MDC body as I sat up and got a good look at the Bull of Heaven.

On the other side of the Pit, the Bull emerged from the dense cloud of smoke caused by the shot from my Esotech pistol. A large burn had formed on its flank, but the wound didn’t seem fatal.

Carlos drew his laser pistol and started rapidly firing at the Bull. Only about half of his shots were accurate, but this was more than enough to anger the creature. It didn’t seem to know that I had been the one to fire the initial beam, so it began to charge toward Carlos at full speed.

As I scrambled around, looking for where my Esotech pistol had landed, the Bull of Heaven reached Carlos. At the speed of a car, the hundred-ton beast charged toward Carlos and got within arm’s reach of him.

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Almost casually, Carlos pirouetted to the side and dodged the Bull’s attack. As the creature passed him, he stabbed deep into its flank with a swift thrust.

I recalled that Carlos had joked a few times that his ancestors were conquistadors, and I was starting to believe him. Having conquerors among your ancestors must have been nice, I thought. All of my ancestors were criminals, drunks, or lunatics. Oftentimes they were all three.

The Bull of Heaven overshot and didn’t manage to stop until it was thirty feet into the quad. It turned back toward Carlos with an angry look in its eyes.

“Olé,” Carlos said with a smirk.

Off to one side, I picked up my Esotech pistol from the storm drain into which it fell. I began trying to reload the gun, but the spent cartridge had become wedged in the chamber. To remove the cartridge, I had to smack the gun until the casing came free.

The Bull of Heaven charged again. Just like before, Carlos dodged to the side and launched a quick thrust with his sword. This time, however, the Bull stopped itself just as it reached Carlos. The blade drew blood once again, but the Bull was suddenly at a dangerous range.

With swinging horns, the Bull attempted to gore Carlos once again. The swordsman dodged the horn attack, but a quick sideways kick from the Bull struck him in the chest. Light flashed around Carlos as his shield took the hit and shattered immediately.

Now on the back foot, Carlos began walking backward and slashing messily into the Bull’s flesh. Every attack Carlos made was a hit, but his sword barely left scratches on the thick skin of the Threshold Guardian.

The Bull of Heaven, on the other hand, was much less accurate. It threw its head in every direction with reckless abandon. Eventually, the Bull got lucky, and its horns got through Carlos’s guard. A single horn dug deep into Carlos’s chest, and, with a single movement of its powerful neck, the Bull threw Carlos high into the air.

Carlos fell back to Earth and cracked several bricks as he landed. Blood stained his shirt, and he seemed disoriented. Though Carlos wasn’t seriously wounded, his flight through the air left him temporarily incapacitated.

While Carlos fought that Bull, I had managed to remove the spent casing from my Esotech pistol and loaded a new Elder Sign bullet into the chamber. I looked up from my gun just in time to see Carlos crash to the ground in front of the angry Bull.

I ran toward the Bull, launching a fusillade of red lances as I charged. Though the five shots that made contact weren’t enough to do much damage, they were enough to get the Bull’s attention. The Bull of Heaven turned toward me and began trying to gore me with its horns.

My skill in evasion was not nearly as good as Carlos’s, and the Bull had managed to tear through my shield in seconds. It wasn’t enough to just evade the horns. I had to evade the kicking hooves as well.

I considered firing my Esotech pistol, but I knew that I would end up more damage by the beam if I were to fire it at such close range. The Bull earned several more marks from my laser pistol as it attacked me, but I soon suffered a serious wound.

A horn speared deep into my shoulder, eliciting a scream of pain from me. I dropped my laser pistol as I grabbed the horn in order to prevent the Bull from twisting and making the wound worse. Instead of throwing me into the air, the Bull simply began charging forward, taking me with it.

I looked back and saw the stone wall of Lenoir Hall as the Bull of Heaven rammed me into it at high speed.