[6 months later]

Dean was sitting by a campfire, cooking some type of rabbit. It was cold, and the snow was falling at a fast pace. Dean wrapped his fur clothing around himself and laid down next to the fire. After spending 6 months by himself, Dean had changed. He wasn’t himself anymore. By putting him in a life or death situation, something had clicked inside of him. His survival instincts kicked in, practically deleting the flight function. He unintentionally made himself a killing machine. He also became more sensible and practical, caring only for his survival.

After these past six months, Dean had tried to fight the minotaur multiple times, all failing. Even though he kept losing, Dean only got stronger. His movements became instinct and his magic became second nature. Even though he fought and he fought, Dean never got any stronger physically. It just refined his skills and made them easy to use. He always looked at his status only to see that, it never improved.

Dean sighed and looked up at the sky only to be interrupted by the sounds of snow crunching. Dean stood up and snuffed out his fire, burying it under the snow. He grabbed a makeshift bow he had made and proceeded to climb the nearest tree. He readied his bow and listened as the footsteps got closer. He then heard something that didn’t sound like footsteps. Dean cupped his ears and listened carefully. Dean’s eyes widened and what he heard, voices.

“I told you I saw a light here,” said a young girl. Dean saw 5 people approach where his fire was. 2 girls and 3 guys.

“Are you sure you saw a light here?” asked the tall woman. She had long black hair and looked like she worked out.

“I’m telling you, it was right here!” the teenage girl cried. She was wearing a school uniform and had shoulder-length hair that was black with a hint of green.

“Maybe you just saw something?” said a muscular man. He looked like he was in the military; had the haircut and everything

“Yeah, you could have just seen something, after all, we've been through, I’d understand if you saw something.” said a thin man. He looked like he was more a businessman than a warrior with short brown hair and round glasses.

“I’M TELLING YOU, IT WAS RIGHT HERE!!!” the girl screamed

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, you need to calm down.” said a young man, “You might attract those skeletons.” He had snow-white hair that fell just past his eyes. He looked like he worked out but not enough to bulk up.

“You know what,” the girl said, “Maybe it’s buried under the snow.” She then proceeded to walk to the campfire. She knelt and reached into the snow when a shadowy rope shot out of the ground and wrapped around the girl. She screamed and the other fell into a panic. The skill that was just used as an improvisation of Dean’s skill Black Arrow. It was something Nancy had proposed. After spending a lot of time in his thoughts, Dean figured out the fundamentals of his skill. Black Arrow didn’t just kill the life force, it killed what the user desired. In this case, the girl’s ability to move.

“I told you it was something bad,” said the thin man.

Dean hopped down from the tree, keeping his bow trained on the girl. “Who are you,” he asked.

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The tall woman looked at Dean, “That’s what we wanna know!”

Dean shot an arrow at the girl and barely cut her cheek, “Answer me.” Dean’s eyes were piercing through the group’s souls’.

“We don’t know how we got here,” the thin man said, “But we know we won’t harm you.”

Dean thought for a second on what to do. He knew from the fact that they were wearing everyday clothes and had one weapon on them each, they were in the same situation as him. He snapped his fingers and the black roped let go of the girl. He sat down and dug for the sticks from the fire. He found them and sat back down. Dean zapped them with Black Arrow to get rid of the water and snow, and he started a new fire. The group stared at Dean as he sat down as if nothing happened.

“What are you doing?” Dean asked, “I haven’t talked to another person in quite a while so sit down.”

“What do you mean ‘sit down’?” the girl yelled, “You almost killed me.”

“That was never my intention, I knew as soon as you arrived who you were.”

“Then why did you shoot an arrow at me?!?”

“I guess we’ll never know,” Dean laughed as he took a rabbit out of his back and began to cook it.

After a while, the group eventually sat down. “Want some rabbit?” Dean asked. The group just stared at him.

“Oh, that’s right. I forgot to introduce myself. The name’s Dean, Dean Ashford.” He stuck out his hand in a handshake. The tall woman reached over and shook his hand, “The name’s Rei.”

“Well nice to meet you,” Dean turned to the others, “What about you guys?”

“I’m John,” said the muscular man.

“My name’s Riz,” said the young man.

“My name is Robin,” said the thin man.

Everyone looked at the girl and she grunted, “My name is Stella.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you guys,” Dean said, “I haven't talked to another person in about six months.”

“You mean after six months you haven't left?” Rei asked.

“Well it wasn't by choice, there’s a minotaur guarding the gate.”

“A what now?” Stella said.

“You know, those big bull looking things.” Everyone was shocked.

“What about the other people?” Rei asked.

“I was the decoy, they all made it.”

“Damn, talk about unlucky,” John said.

“I challenge the guy every couple of days but never make it past him.”

“How are you able to fight that thing?” Stella asked.

“Magic.” Everyone looked at Rei when she said that, “It’s something that was the norm in my world.”

“Your world?” Dean asked.

“If you can’t tell, my eyes are not normal.” Dean looked a little closer and saw that Rei was right. Her eyes were normal from a glance, but when you looked closer, you could see she had two iris’ and two pupils. On top of that, they were golden in color. The others in the group seem to know this but never heard of magic.

“What’s magic?” Robin said.

“It’s the manifestation of the energy inside your body called mana.” Rei explained, “And he has it.” The group then looked at Dean, who was eating his food.

“Yeah, it’s what I used on you, Stella.”

“Well, why haven’t you won against the minotaur?” Robin asked.

“Because I don’t have a group,” Dean said, “Speaking of which, why don’t you guys fight it with me.”

“Why would I want to fight a monster let alone in the middle of the night,” Stella said.

“Oh, you guys don’t have to fight him, just distract him.” Dean looked at Rei, “Since you knew about magic, I’m assuming you have it?” Rei nodded her head.

“Well good,” Dean said, “ Let’s cook some burgers.”