Ch.32Elven Haim (3)

As I fell onto the battlefield, I first dealt with the one who appeared to be the commander. Whether in war or boss raids, the most dangerous one is always the person in command.

Next were the mages. That beam of light that descended from the sky and scorched the forest earlier was powerful enough that even I would have suffered significant damage if I’d been hit by it.

I couldn’t let them cast such magic again, so I lowered my horns and charged toward the mages.

* * * * *

“Kuk-! Focus your firepower on the Minotaur!”

The commander of the Mage Corps issued orders to those who weren’t part of his unit.

At his command, the mages began chanting their most powerful spells, while knights approached to try to stop the Minotaur, but…

The Minotaur didn’t even get a scratch when struck by the knights’ mana-infused swords. One knight who tried to block the Minotaur’s advance by throwing himself forward ended up impaled on its horns, dangling helplessly as the beast continued toward the mages.

The Minotaur’s charge trampled soldiers underfoot, and the knights’ attempts to stop it were ineffective. It just kept advancing, relentlessly forward.

The imperial soldiers and knights, the pride of the empire, were being completely shredded by the advance of what was merely an A-rank monster, and as its horns aimed toward the mages…

“Fire Storm!”

“Lightning Strike!”

“Sleep!”

“Curse!”

A barrage of attack spells and debuff magic followed.

They tried to put it to sleep with Sleep, weaken the monster with Curse, and use attack magic to slow the Minotaur’s advance even a little, but…

The Minotaur’s horns mercilessly crushed such resistance, ignoring the debuff spells and simply charging forward.

As the Minotaur rapidly approached, the regular mages quickly evacuated while only those casting joint magic and their executors remained in position.

When the Minotaur finally reached right in front of them…

“Rainbow Ray”

A magic circle appeared before them, instantly firing a rainbow-colored beam.

Kwaaaaa———!!!!!

Rainbow-colored beams erupted from the magic circle, engulfing the Minotaur that had approached right up to their faces.

Each color of the rainbow seemed to carry a different attribute—the left arm hit by red and orange was burning, while yellow struck the head with lightning.

Green, perhaps wind, slashed at its right arm, while blue, seemingly ice, froze its abdomen.

Indigo, possibly water, poured through its legs and soaked the ground, while purple, likely poison, was staining its left leg purple.

The 8th circle magic Rainbow Ray was supposed to be a spell that assaults enemies with various attributes and annihilates everything it touches, but…

The Minotaur’s body hit by the beam began to grow larger. Its arms and legs lengthened, causing it to grow taller until it exceeded nearly 10 meters in height.

Despite taking a direct hit from the 8th circle magic—a natural disaster in itself—it endured and gradually began approaching the mages.

Muooooooo———!!!!!!

Kwaaaaaaang——!!!!

The Minotaur, having withstood the magic and advanced, raised its arm and brought it down.

A mage on the platform tried to block it with a memorized Shield spell, but… the Minotaur’s strength was beyond imagination.

“Kuuuuuup———!!!”

Crunch——!

A contest between fist and shield. But the destructive power of the fist was so great that the platform beneath the shield couldn’t withstand it, and the mage fell along with the cracking shield.

Kwaaaaaaang——!!!

The platform collapsed instantly, killing many mages who had been performing the joint magic, and the mage who had been directing them suffered the result of having both legs shattered.

His legs were completely destroyed to the extent that perhaps only an Archbishop could regenerate them—utterly shattered limbs.

His legs were grotesquely twisted as if half beast and half human, and the mage showed no response, seemingly unconscious from the shock.

As the Minotaur picked him up, about to devour him…

Hihihihi…

A ghostly wail from somewhere snatched away the mage the Minotaur was about to eat.

Click!

There was only the sound of teeth snapping together, and confused by the absence of blood that should have wet its mouth…

“Hey, I still need that person. It would be troublesome for me if he died now. Would you mind just going back?”

There stood a girl, smaller than even its hooves, looking up at it.

* * * * *

“Really… I was suddenly summoned for something and came here, but what a mess this is.”

I was in a bad mood because the commander called me while I was having a good time with my friends, and seeing this situation made my mood even worse.

Looking around: corpses, corpses, corpses. Cursing the commander who summoned me to a place not fit for a young girl to see, I moved forward.

As if trampled by something massive, soldiers were compressed under hoof-shaped impressions in the ground.

Turning my head slightly, I could see knights who seemed to have been struck and sent flying, their intestines spilling out as they stared at the ground with empty expressions.

The girl frowned as she surveyed the surroundings, then saw something massive attacking the mages. Black fur with patches of red fur. The huge horns protruding from its head looked longer than her height.

And the Minotaur was picking up a human with crippled legs, about to bring him to its mouth.

“Ah— not that one. Could you bring him to me?”

Hihihihi—

At her words, the ghost emitted a wail and instantly approached the Minotaur, retrieving the mage.

Hihihi…

As the ghost showed her the mage, eyes sparkling as if seeking praise, she gave it a bit of her ghostly energy…

Ooooo…

Seemingly satisfied, it disappeared from her sight. With the ghost gone, the Minotaur looked bewildered. It was somewhat cute how it turned its head around searching for the human it was about to eat.

“Hey, I still need that person. It would be troublesome for me if he died now. Would you mind just going back?”

The Minotaur looked down at me, hearing my words. Then, perhaps deciding I was harmless, it reached out its hand to reclaim the mage I had taken with the ghost.

Chwaaaak———!!!

The Minotaur sensed the slash that came without warning by instinct alone and avoided it. The massive slash mark carved into the ground was made by the strongest ghost protecting me.

It would slash almost anyone who came within a 1-meter radius of me… seeing this bull avoid the slash from her strongest ghost, the girl became interested.

“Heeh…”

Judging that this was no ordinary bull, I summoned the souls of Sword Masters.

“Would you kill that one for me? I think it might make a good new friend.”

At those words, three ghosts materialized their lifetime swords and rushed at the Minotaur.

Chwaaaak—!!!

Chwaaaak—!!!

Chwaaaak—!!!

The Minotaur seemed greatly confused by something attacking it that it couldn’t see. It looked at the girl wondering what she had done, but she just stood there hugging her teddy bear without moving.

Though it seemed to want to avoid fatal wounds, its body was soaked in blood, but it managed to protect its vital points.

As I was about to urge them on…

Crackle—!!

The Minotaur’s body gradually turned red, and dark red lightning began to swirl around it.

Crackcrackcrack——!!!!!

Then, discharge.

Kwaaaaaaaaaang———!!!!

As if a massive explosion had occurred, a circle of lightning formed around the Minotaur.

The lightning that crackled threateningly around it exorcised the soul of one Sword Master who couldn’t dodge in time.

“How dare you harm my friend…!!”

Enraged by this sight, the girl began to reveal her hand.

An archer from ancient times said to have shot down a dragon. Though much time had passed and much power was lost, he still had enough strength to kill a drake-level monster in one shot.

Another ghost was Krong, the Pirate King who had dominated the seas by capturing krakens and sea serpents a few years ago. Though his pirate fleet was annihilated, they followed him as ghosts.

And Luong, an 8th circle mage. The savior of the Silphin Kingdom who sacrificed his life 30 years ago in the final battle against the legendary monster, the Lich, to seal it.

These figures who had left their mark in history began attacking the Minotaur at the girl’s command.

The archer’s arrows pierced the Minotaur’s body, inflicting damage. The Sword Masters cut through the lightning to get inside and once again aimed their swords at its heart.

Krong positioned his ghostly fleet of ships that had become phantom vessels alongside him, bombarding the Minotaur’s hide with ballistas that wailed with each shot.

Ummuuuuuuu———

The Minotaur groaned as if in agony, discharging lightning throughout its body.

Its body gradually became soaked in red blood until the black fur disappeared and its entire body appeared red. Its eyes also turned red, and a tail began to grow.

The mage Luong was chanting a spell, preparing to finish it off. As he prepared magic using ghostly energy instead of mana…

The Minotaur disregarded defense and pointed its horns toward the girl.

Seeing its posture as if about to charge, Luong canceled the spell he was chanting and created a shield in front, while the archer prepared his most powerful arrow.

The Sword Masters were maximizing their aura to swing their swords at the Minotaur’s neck to behead it, and the ghost fleet positioned itself behind the shield, ready to sacrifice themselves to protect the girl.

Crackcrackcrack——!!!!

The lightning discharged from its body was so intense that another Sword Master who was approaching to behead it couldn’t withstand the enormous voltage and passed on.

Tremendous current began gathering at the center of its horns, and black lightning began to compress.

Woong— Woong— Woong—

Seeing this vulnerability, the ghost ships waiting above fired their ballistas, but… they didn’t even get close before being swept away by the lightning.

The Sword Master also couldn’t withstand the storm of lightning emanating from its body and returned to the girl’s side to protect her.

The archer with the legend of shooting down a dragon fired an arrow with his maximum power.

Ihihihihi——!!!!

The arrow flying with a ghostly wail contained so much death energy that even the Minotaur began to see it.

Thinking it shouldn’t be hit by that arrow, the Minotaur also fired its compressed lightning.

Kwarrrrrrrung———!!!!

“Kyaaaak—!!!”

The lightning emitted an incredible light as it clashed with the arrow infused with death energy, and as they were evenly matched…

—Confuse

A single word from the ghost mage, Liong, scrambled the Minotaur’s mind. Though only for a very brief moment, the lightning fired by the Minotaur went into empty space, and the arrow pierced one of the Minotaur’s horns without any interference.

Muuuuuuuuuu———!!!!!!!!

The Minotaur, with one horn pierced, clutched its horn and howled.

It seems Minotaurs tend to cherish their horns dearly, so this one was probably howling because of that feeling.

Thinking to make it her friend rather than letting it suffer more, the girl ordered her strongest ghost to behead it for a clean finish.

At that moment, the creature’s body grew larger, and besides the two horns, new horns began growing behind its eyes right before her.

Sensing danger from the Minotaur’s reddening and growing body, she ordered a quick finish.

Flicker…

From somewhere, black flames began to appear.

“Kyaak! You bitch! What are you doing here again looking for scraps!”

From among the black flames that began burning the corpses, a robed figure approached the Minotaur and the girl.

At this figure’s appearance, the girl began to convulse and started fleeing.

“Kuk——! See you next time, bull! If only this bitch weren’t here, you could be my friend too!”

The ghosts disappeared instantly as the girl flew away. The robed figure sighed at the sight.

“Haah— I should send that poor boy to the Lord’s side quickly… How sinful.”

A beautiful voice like rolling beads. The figure, presumed to be a woman, approached the Minotaur.

“Hmm! Quite a strong Minotaur. Seems you’ve eliminated some of the boy’s ghosts too. You would make a good…”

At that moment, the Minotaur’s fist, wrapped in black lightning, slammed down toward her.

Kwaaaaaaaaaang———!!!!!!

The ground where she stood was completely shattered, and she disappeared from sight.

Muuuuu…

Puhuu…

Exhaling breath from its mouth, with two pairs of horns, a long tail, and black lightning wrapped around both arms.

Rage had descended upon this place.