My thoughts were scrambled. My breathing was uneven. My hand were shaking. My body wouldn't move properly. The blood was everywhere. It even flowed near my feet, even though I was about 5 meters away from the two pieces of Mark's corpse.

After splitting Mark in half, the minotaur's battleaxe had made a crack into the wall of the maze and seemed to be stuck. However, there wasn't much time until the minotaur would manage to pull it out. I had to decide if I wanted to fight or run.

As I was trying to process the situation, I heard a scream come from behind. I looked turned my head to see Liran with his curved blade running at the minotaur at high speeds. I couldn't stop him, so I decided to join the fight.

I tightened the grip around my kusarigama as I dashed at the minotaur, and focused on tapping into a state I had felt only one time before. Soon after, the blood-red parts of my kusarigama began glowing, and I could feel each of my senses become much more potent.

Just as I and Liran were about to reach the minotaur, the minotaur managed to pull his battleaxe free, and swung it horizontally, threatening both of us. With an anxious gaze, I watched Liran who was the first to face the swing. I wasn't sure if I would see a comrade succeed or die a horrible death in the next few moments, but no matter what, I wasn't going to look away.

When I saw Liran jump over the swing and go straight for the throat of the minotaur, I felt relief like we had already won. I rushed in too while evading the swing and focused on following up any attack that Liran made.

Liran's attack, however, was disappointing to say the least. He threw himself at the minotaur and aimed to slice the throat of the minotaur, but the minotaur only needed a slight movement to the left to throw off Liran's attack, and Liran just ended up behind the minotaur. Managing to only inflict some minor damage by turning in midair and shoving his blade into the back of the minotaur, creating a shallow wound.

Even though Liran's attack had failed, I still followed it up. After having made it close, I jumped up towards the minotaur's head. It noticed me and immediately started to turn and launched its massive hand into my direction. If it caught me, I would probably be squeezed to death by those hands, which were the size of my torso.

Still, I had no fear. It was exactly what I had prepared for. I threw the chain part of my kusarigama, and after it wrapped around the minotaur's finger, I pulled on it. That way, I evaded the minotaur's attempt to try grabbing me, and got closer to it. And when I was close enough, his battleaxe became useless.

The chain naturally loosened around the minotaur's finger after I got closer to it, and I was able to pull it back. After which I landed on the shoulder of the minotaur and rushed at it's head. In a last ditch effort, the minotaur let go of its weapon in order to use its other hand. Nevertheless, it wasn't going to catch me. I evaded all of its attempt while getting closer and closer and closer to it's head.

Then, just as I was about to jump and shove the blade of my kusarigama through the thing's eye, it began shaking like the wild beast it was. Apparently it had realized catching me was impossible and simply resorted to shaking me off, which was opened it up to multiple attacks, but when timed right, it would be a successful defense method.

And unfortunately for me, it was timed right.

I cursed inside my mind as I tried to keep my balance, but was unable to, and fell backwards. Different options flashed through my mind. I had to pick one. And after I did, I was able to survive by pushing myself away with my legs and flipping in the air to land on my feet a safe distance away.

Immediately, I directed my focus onto the minotaur again, who was looking around, searching for me.

Once he noticed me, I shook my legs a little, and was ready to dash forward again, but stopped, as I noticed Liran behind the minotaur, seemingly being unnoticed by it.

"Slice its achilles!" I yelled.

Upon hearing my yell, Liran's eyes opened wider and were directed at the legs of the minotaur. Then, he loaded up and swing and approached the legs. Unfortunately, the minotaur turned to look where my eyes were directed and noticed Liran.

"Watch out!" I yelled once again, but this time Liran didn't hear me.

He likely couldn't hear anything anymore. Just before he had managed to complete the swing, the minotaur had swiped its hand at Liran and hit him without Liran even managing to soften the blow and was launched at the hard, stone wall of the passageway, so he ended up taking two lethal hits instead of just one. There was a possibility Liran was alive, but his condition surely wasn't something you could survive a ruin in.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It seemed his nerves weren't meant for something like this. He had been so distracted with my commands that he didn't even notice the minotaur's attack. It was a miracle that he had made it this far.

The rational part of my mind screamed at me to capitalize on the opportunity, but I didn't really even see the point anymore. My companions were dead, and I was likely going to die too.

For a few seconds, I pondered whether I ought to kill or die. Then, I decided on the former.

I wasn't going to let this monster get away with killing my companions. Part of me blamed myself for their deaths, but ultimately it had been this thing that had killed them. It was unforgivable.

I focused even more deeply and let go of the handle of my kusarigama and took a hold of the chain part with both my hands.

Then, I started making the kusarigama spin. I wasn't very good at controlling the spinning of the kusarigama, so I hadn't done it while Liran and Mark were alive in the fear of hurting them, but now that didn't matter. All that mattered was me taking this monsters' life.

The red part of my kusarigama glowed even brighter than before, and it spun so fast I couldn't track it at all.

I then dashed at the minotaur that had already turned its attention back to me. It tried to grab a hold of me, but I simply spun my kusarigama in a way that cuts its fingers off when they came into distance. The minotaur didn't seem to notice my weapon until its fingers were flying in the air.

After having its fingers cut off, the minotaur looked at me in confusion and swung at my with its battleaxe. This time, I didn't try to face the attack head on, opting to jump over the swing.

However, my purpose wasn't just to avoid the swing. My jump was way too powerful for doing just that. I jumped up so that my head was higher than the minotaur's and spun 360 degrees in order to gather power while spinning my kusarigama that even scratched the roof of the huge passageway a little. Then, after turning back fully to face the minotaur I extended my hand, and sent the blade part of my kusarigama flying at the head of the minotaur.

The minotaur had put all of its attention into its terrifyingly powerful and fast battleaxe swing, and was too late to notice my lighting fast kusarigama coming straight at it. It tried bringing its freehand up to block, but the blade of my kusarigama had already sunk into its brain by the time its hand was at chest level.

The minotaur collapsed backwards.

After I landed on my feet safely, I went to retrieve my kusarigama. I walked up to the corpse of the minotaur and after pulling the blade of my kusarigama out of the minotaur's head, I stabbed it back in and pulled it out a couple of times before slashing its throat and leaving it to bleed out.

Then I left the corpse alone and went to check on Liran.

I crouched down next to his body that had a pool of blood under it that kept getting bigger and bigger. I flipped Liran over onto his back and outstretched my hand, looking for a pulse. I put my fingers up against the spot next to his throat, and was surprised to feel a faint pulse.

"Hey, Liran, can you hear me? Hey?" I asked as I placed my hand under his bloody head.

I felt relieved once Liran's mouth opened a little, expecting him to say something. However, he didn't open it to speak. He opened it to cough. His coughs were weak and obviously very painful. After a few coughs, blood dripped from his mouth, as his head had turned to the side.

My breathing became uneven as I held the dying Liran. Why had I even felt relieved when I felt a pulse? He was obviously dying. There was nothing I could do. My strength was only useful for killing. I wasn't one to help others.

Even though I knew the reality of the situation, I kept holding Liran and hoping he would make a miraculous recovery all of a sudden.

"Come on, Liran. Say something. Say that you're fine," I begged my dying friend, but he didn't seem to hear me.

I tested his pulse again in the hopes that it would have gotten better, but this time it wasn't even there.

My hand that was holding Liran's head was squeezed into a fist, grabbing Liran's hair forcefully as I yelled, "Hey, come on! Don't do this! Don't go!"

After realizing I could be hurting him, I let go and lowered my head, looking at my knees that had been dirtied by the pool of blood.

My face tightened into a bitter expression as I held in tears that were close to getting out and muttered, "Don't... don't leave me alone."