Unwilling Eldritch Horror of Fortune

“You want to hear my opinion?” I asked. I honestly didn’t think he would bother asking for anyone else’s input given his knowledge and experience; this was definitely a first.

Jae-Hyun sighed, “As much as everyone thinks that I know everything, I am still just one person. I can make mistakes, as you saw in the last Trial. I trust your opinion on these things, Walter, so yes, I want to hear your opinion.”

“Alright,” I said, “I guess I can provide some play-by-play commentary. Uh, analytical play-by-play commentary, of course.”

He nodded, “It’s coming, let’s move back and give them room to work.”

The Regressor and I moved back a little more. I couldn’t see things too well from where I stood, so I used my feelers to latch myself onto the side of the wall to get a better vantage point. Plus, I could launch myself off the way real quick in case I need to get involved in the fight. Jae-Hyun saw what I was doing and he joined me by stabbing the wall with his spear, using that as a ledge to sit on. He looked relaxed as he silently peered down at the huge approaching monster.

The minotaur was… well, it wasn’t as impressive as I thought it would be. All those movies and game depictions of the mythological monster made it out to be a massive creature of unstoppable destruction, but the specimen charging in front of Yoona and her party was shoddy at best. It was like the runt of all minotaurs.

First of all, while it was certainly tall, it wasn’t nearly as large girth-wise. In fact, it was downright lanky, with its muscles wasted away from malnutrition and an obviously poor diet. Some of its fur was patchy and disheveled, its horns looked a little flaky honestly, and it was foaming at the mouth. Even its teeth and eyes were a horrible jaundiced yellow.

“That’s… that thing is a minotaur?” I asked skeptically, “I thought it would be a lot more imposing. Doesn’t it look kind of, I don’t know, sickly?”

The Regressor chuckled, “I know what you mean, that particular specimen doesn’t exactly strike a threatening pose. We wouldn’t stand a chance against a healthy one as we are, but against that?”

I looked at the monster’s quite underwhelming charge. It was easily stopped by Vadeem matching its strength, and my friend didn’t even need to transform to do so. Even Vadeem himself was a little surprised by how easy it was to stop his foe.

“Why’s it so weak?” I asked, “It looks like it’d fall down even if we didn’t fight it.”

“What did you expect? There’s nothing around here for it to eat, so it’s been starving ever since the gods left. Worse still, it can’t even leave the labyrinth with the enchantments in place. But weak or not, its core is still that of a real minotaur, so just consider ourselves lucky for being able to get a high-quality object with minimal effort.”

“I kind of feel bad for it then,” I replied with a wince as I saw it being bombarded with a torrent of arrows. It was howling in rage and pain as the three girls riddled him with their shots, and the minotaur soon looked like it ran through a field of cacti with how many arrows were sticking out of it. It was howling in pain, but even its cries were hoarse and raspy.

“It’s just going to be a one-sided slaughter,” I said, “Noel doesn’t even have to do anything.”

In fact, she hadn’t been doing much of anything so far. She slashed at the minotaur’s heels every now and then, when she saw an opportunity, but she was a passive observer for the most part. It wasn’t so much that she didn’t want to help out, but she seemed like she couldn’t be bothered when the end result was already clear to see.

“That’s the problem with Noel,” Jae-Hyun said, “she gets distracted and bored when she’s not challenged. She thinks the fight is already over, so she won’t give it her all.”

“The fight’s not practically over?” I asked.

He chuckled again, “Diminished and half-starved as it is, that thing is still a minotaur. Just wait and see.”

I looked dubiously at the fight to see what Jae-Hyun was talking about. It still seemed like a one-sided affair to me. Vadeem was smashing its shins with his hammer, and I wouldn’t be surprised if its legs gave out completely soon, while the three archers prevented it from dislodging the man from his assault. Noel had managed to slip through to the back of the creature and was chopping away at its calves.

“Just wait for it,” the Regressor stated calmly, “things will get interesting once it's wounded past a certain point. Should be any second now. Noel’s in the worst position she’s strong enough to take the impact; it’ll be a learning moment for her.”

Impact? Before I could ask, I saw what Jae-Hyun meant. Once it was hurt to a certain point, something seemed to have triggered the wounded beast and it exploded in a rage. Its entire form seemed to shift; the creature’s once-matted fur instantly turned full, and the minotaur’s withered frame filled in substantially. Just the air around it shifted and I automatically knew that this was a creature to be feared.

“Don’t warn them, let them figure it out themselves,” he added as he looked at the unfolding scene, “It’s a good opportunity to see how they handle unknown situations, or when their initial plans don’t work.”

The minotaur howled in rage and instinctively kicked its hind legs backward, hitting Noel right in the abdomen. The woman managed to move back a bit so that some of the force was lessened, but she still took tremendous damage from the hit.

“Noel!” Yoona shouted as she shot another mana-infused arrow at the minotaur, “Are you ok?”

Noel winced and tried to say something but only a wheeze came out, she concentrated and spoke again, “Yup, think I broke something though. I can still fight, just give me room to drink a potion.”

“You got careless!” Vadeem grunted as he turned titan-sized and tackled the monster, “Use our skills, it’s gotten a lot stronger.”

Yoona composed herself before giving out more instructions, “Vadeem, hold it off until Noel recovers! Ana, Eva, aim for its eyes, make sure that it can’t shake off Vadeem!”

Muscle A: Got it.

Muscle E: Ok.

The Regressor sighed, “Told you, Walter. Now let’s see how they fare against an enemy that’s more to their level while on the back foot.”

I nodded, “Well, it’s their first time fighting something that gets a lot stronger when it’s injured. Even I would have been complacent in that situation, so you can’t fault them too much.”

Noel tried to retreat as far as she was able to, but she didn’t make it far. Once she was out of immediate danger, she pulled out a vial of green liquid from her inventory and drank it. She struggled to move, it was evident that the blow did more damage than she cared to admit. However, the spot she chose to retreat to was the worst one possible, and she backed herself into one of the labyrinth's many dead ends.

“And she didn’t bother to check where she was retreating to before,” I said as I saw her face as she realized that she couldn’t move back further, “You’re right, Noel doesn’t plan ahead in situations like this.”

Meanwhile, the other four were doing their hardest to keep the minotaur distracted, but it could smell the blood in the air and was trying its best to ignore the other combatants and focus on the wounded member of the party. And it was strong.

“Shit!” Vadeem swore, “It’s too damn strong, I can’t keep it from moving!”

The thing was dragging Vadeem with it as it moved closer and closer to the injured woman. The big man was doing his best to try to prevent the minotaur from moving, even trying to pick the massive creature up, but its hooves were dug deep into the ground and nothing he was doing seemed to work. The creature just took step after slow step, dragging the titan with it. It would only be a matter of time before it reached the injured girl.

“Why doesn’t Noel just go into flame form?” I asked as I saw the girl in question just sitting there waiting, “A lot of this could be avoided if she did that, I’m not sure if the minotaur could keep up with her if she just flies away, assuming it can even harm her in the first place.”

The Regressor slowly shook his head, “She can’t. Like I said, all skills have their limits and weaknesses, and this is her’s. Noel can’t transform unless she’s completely unharmed.”

Now that I thought about it, I had always seen her use it before the start of a battle, and never during one. That’s a pretty steep downside if our enemies could plan for it.

Jae-Hyun spoke again, “She’s way too careless in these situations, she knows full well what would happen if she gets hurt, and now she’s paying for it. She just assumes that she can quickly heal up with a potion, but even the best ones take time to work, especially if her injury is severe.”

“Damn,” I muttered as I analyzed the scene, “And they’re not using the environment correctly either.”

Jae-Hyun raised an eyebrow, “Explain.”

“If Vadeem wants to keep the minotaur away from Noel, then he needs to secure himself to the floor. It’s strong enough to move his weight, but if he can tie himself to something larger then it can’t do that. If I were him I’d hook that huge hammer into the floor and use that as an anchor to prevent the monster from moving. He's not using that huge hammer of his for anything other than fighting.”

The Regressor nodded slowly, “True, anything else of note?”

“Yeah… The three girls are starting to panic as well,” I said as I continued to watch them let loose endless volleys, “It’s clear that their arrows are doing minimal damage, so they should use their time better. The minotaur’s still bogged down by Vadeem, so one of the twins can easily slip past it and help Noel on the other side.”

“But like you said,” Jae-Hyun continued, “They’re overloaded with information and aren’t calm enough to think of that. They default to shooting even when it’s obvious that it won’t work.”

“That’s going to be a hard skill to master though,” I replied, “But I guess it’s something else to note down to improve on. Should we help them out?”

“Not yet,” he said, “I think Yoona can still salvage this situation.”

I continued to watch, now ready to intervene if necessary. Vadeem was still trying in vain trying to stop the minotaur, while the twins were still letting loose an endless stream of arrows. Eventually, the first person to snap out of the shock was Yoona.

“I’ll freeze the ground around the minotaur!” she shouted, “Jump when I tell you to, Vadeem.”

“Got it!” he shouted back, “Don’t miss!”

Well, Yoona’s strategy would probably work if she made it so that the ground around the creature was slippery, but it was a lot less efficient than my suggestions. But still, a strategy was a strategy, and I saw the girl grimace in concentration as she imbued her arrow with ice. I just wish I could see what was going on, but my damn lack of any mana affinity made that impossible.

“Jump!” Yoona shouted as she unleashed her charged shot.

Vadeem did as he was told and the high schooler’s arrow narrowly avoided hitting the big man. The shot struck the ground right beneath the struggling minotaur, freezing the surface almost immediately. The monster began to lose its footing, and Vadeem took advantage of that moment to yank the creature away from Noel.

Without a solid footing, the minotaur was powerless to stop Vadeem, and the titan launched it against the wall, briefly disorienting it.

“Hold it down for a bit,” Yoona said again, “I’ll try to freeze its feet to the ground, it should give Noel enough time to recover. She can finish it off!”

“Understood,” Vadeem grunted and threw himself at the monster, doing his best to pin it against the wall, “Hurry up though, the thing might be stronger than I am!”

“Got it! Ana, Eva, go help out Noel!”

The twins nodded and ran towards the injured girl. Vadeem and Yoona were able to keep the minotaur occupied long enough for Noel to recover and soon the redhead flew back, body covered in that familiar dark flames, and the tables quickly turned in their favor.

“Good,” the Regressor said, “Not perfect, but they were able to get the situation under control better than anticipated. Let’s end this little test and get that core.”

 

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