Ch.33Elven Haim (4)

Muooooooooo——!!!!!

The red Minotaur with two pairs of horns let out a howl. The Fear contained in that roar devastated the surrounding land, causing even Expert-level knights to faint.

Those who had barely been clinging to life lost their lives from this roar, and even those far away collapsed unconscious.

The appearance of this monster, which could overturn the land with a mere roar and shatter the ground with a single punch, was enough to destroy the fighting spirit of those watching from a distance.

“I save you and you attack me. How rude.”

But not everyone reacted that way. The voice of a woman who was thought to have died from the Minotaur’s punch came from the collapsed ground.

Whoosh———!!!!

And from that collapsed ground, a black-haired woman sprang out and delivered an uppercut to the Minotaur’s chin.

Boom——!!

Her strength was so immense that she sent the Minotaur, which stood over 12 meters tall, flying with a single blow.

Though startled by her strike that rivaled an ogre’s strength, the Minotaur seemed angrier about being sent flying, and its fur began turning increasingly red.

The Minotaur, with fur so deeply red it looked as if it had been drenched in blood, had horns that were also gradually turning red.

“Hmm… I suppose being a beast, you don’t recognize your savior. You need some education.”

With those words, she reached into black flames that appeared in the air. From the flames, she pulled out an enormous mace.

The weapon took up nearly half her body, making one wonder if it could even be called a mace, but she wielded the massive weapon like a one-handed tool and aimed it at the Minotaur.

“Come on, try me.”

At those words, the Minotaur charged at her in an instant, leaving red afterimages in its wake.

Its massive fist was like a battering ram, and the creature wielding it was a monster with a build comparable to the cyclops, classified as descendants of ancient giants.

Fighting against it was a frail woman barely over 160cm tall. The outcome seemed obvious to anyone watching, but something unexpected happened.

Wham——!!!!

Dodging the Minotaur’s punch, she ran up along its arm and delivered another uppercut to its chin.

The Minotaur’s head was forced upward by her tremendous strength, and black flames erupted from the impact point, dealing additional damage.

Muuuuu———!!

The Minotaur wasn’t hurt so much as indignant about being pushed back by such a weak human.

It swung its arm again, trying to send the human flying.

Whoooosh——!!!

A fierce wind arose, blowing away all the sand on the ground and creating a dust cloud.

As the sand dust thickened and visibility decreased, the Minotaur felt something strange on its arm and struck it with its other arm.

Crash——!!!

When it struck down with a hand larger than a person’s height, a sound like an exploding fireball erupted, and the resulting wind blew away the thick dust cloud.

The Minotaur raised its hand to check its forearm, but no one was there. It had only managed to injure its own arm with its strength.

Thanks to its Indomitable trait, the arm wasn’t broken, but it had struck so hard that it wouldn’t be able to properly use one arm for a while.

Feeling even more enraged by the pain in its arm, the Minotaur looked around for something to vent its anger on.

When it spotted the woman who had struck its chin now sitting on its shoulder, it reacted violently.

Muwaaaaaa————!!!!

And once again. Crash!!!

This time, it struck down at its shoulder with a lightning-wrapped fist to attack the woman, but again she disappeared, and it only succeeded in attacking its own shoulder.

Hissing with uncontrollable rage, it began to devastate the surroundings, even discharging lightning from its body to destroy everything, when—

Kwaaaang——!!!!!

The woman appeared from black flames in the air and brought her mace down on the Minotaur’s head.

The mace, swung from midair, had enough force to drive the Minotaur’s ever-growing head into the ground.

Standing on the head of the 14-meter-tall Minotaur after slamming it into the ground, she began to repeatedly strike it with her mace.

Kwang——!! Kwang——!!! Kwaaaang——!!

With each swing, shockwaves made the ground tremble, and the Minotaur’s body gradually sank deeper into the ground.

Finally, when the Minotaur’s face was completely buried in the ground and it stopped moving—

Crackle——!!

“Kyaaaak-!!!!”

Just as she thought it was over, the Minotaur’s tail, wrapped in lightning, struck her. With a single surprise attack, her ribs were broken, and she was thrown against a tree, unable to move due to the electric shock.

The Minotaur pulled its buried head out of the ground and got to its feet. One of its horns, which had been pierced by the girl’s ghost arrows, was now cracking, with powder falling from it.

Muuuuu——

Who knew a cow’s face could look so terrifying?

That was her final thought as the Minotaur charged toward her.

The Minotaur, which had grown to 16 meters tall, charged at her with a rumbling sound.

She tried to block its view with black flames to drive it away, but the Minotaur ignored them and swung its fist.

Kwaaaang——!

Crumble—

With a thunderous sound, an ancient tree that looked to be several hundred years old couldn’t withstand the Minotaur’s punch and collapsed.

The Minotaur grabbed the fallen tree above its head and swung it at where she was. It continued until the tree was completely shattered.

After swinging the tree, Khan stepped back, lowered his posture, and pointed his horns forward.

As if intending to end it with one blow, the Minotaur charged at the woman who had been battered by the fallen tree.

“Khan!”

At that moment, a fairy spread her arms in front of the woman, trying to stop the Minotaur.

* * * * *

“Ugh, it’s starting again.”

A fairy hiding in a tree stomped her feet in the air as she observed the battle from afar. Khan was gradually turning red, and his body was slowly growing larger.

At this rate, she feared he would end up in the same near-death state as a month ago, and she kept pondering what to do.

She deliberated over and over, but couldn’t find an answer. While hesitating, she saw Khan punching the human woman who had saved him.

It seemed his horn’s damage had completely severed his reason, as his body had turned completely red.

Seeing this, she realized she couldn’t hesitate any longer and flew toward him.

As she flew, his howling nearly made her faint, but having traveled with him for nearly three months, she had become somewhat accustomed to it and could endure.

What she saw as she flew was the shocking sight of a human woman driving Khan back. Despite being smaller than Khan’s hoof, the woman was boldly pushing him back.

She knocked his chin, used illusion magic to deceive his senses and make him damage his own arm with his strength.

Like a matador, she controlled him according to her will despite his lost reason, and she drove his head into the ground with a strike.

Then she began repeatedly striking his head with her mace, creating shockwaves. Bang-, bang-, bang- the sound of her mace echoed.

The fairy could barely hold her position against the pressure waves, when Khan’s tail struck the woman who had let her guard down.

His tail, as thick as the woman’s body, wrapped in lightning, struck and electrocuted her. Seeing the woman immobilized after hitting a tree, the fairy thought this was her chance and flew as fast as she could.

Khan toppled an ancient tree and swung it wildly at where he thought the woman was. Then, preparing to finish her off, he lowered his posture and pointed his two pairs of horns forward.

With sounds of thud—— crash—— thud——, he advanced, shattering the ground.

“Khan!”

Mary spread her arms in front of his target, trying to stop him.

* * * * *

Destroy. Demolish. Pulverize everything.

The words floating in my head made my body move. I used my entire body to attack the enemy blocking my path.

But the enemy was stronger than I expected, and I kept getting pushed back. The enemy knocked me down and kept swinging a weapon to crack my head.

Thinking I was completely unconscious, the enemy stopped moving, so I swung my tail and felt it connect strongly.

With a scream, she flew away, and to give her no chance to recover, I approached to swing my fist, but she spewed black flames in a last desperate attempt.

Ignoring that, I advanced and swung my fist where the woman had been. The ancient tree shattered, and I grabbed the broken tree to use as a weapon until it became too short to swing.

I discarded the tree and prepared to use the Minotaur’s strongest technique: horn charging.

As I charged with all my might toward the fallen woman to end it in one blow—

“Khan!”

Mary blocked my path. As soon as I saw her, the voice consuming my mind disappeared, and I drove my legs into the ground to stop advancing and avoid harming her.

With a rumbling sound, the ground overturned, and the recoil sent soil and sand flying toward Mary. She crouched to block it, and when I finally stopped and raised my body,

I saw Mary in front of me, with the enemy glaring at me from behind her.

“Khan… let’s stop… I understand you’re angry about being hit and your horn cracking. But… you swung your fist at someone who saved you, and seeing you swing your weapon at nothing shows you’re not in your right mind… so, okay? Let’s stop.”

Despite her words, the Rage trait persisted in me, and against my will, I tried to swing my arm at her. A battle began within me as I tried to control my emotions to stop myself.

Grrrr…

Finally, as reason suppressed instinct, the rage growled and disappeared, freeing me from the Rage trait’s grip.

My body, which had grown to 16 meters, shrank, my horns returned to a single pair, my tail disappeared, and I returned to my dark red form.

Puff—

Once I had calmed down somewhat, I snorted and panted, and Mary approached to stroke my nose.

The woman, who had been hiding with illusion magic, revealed herself, seemingly relieved by our appearance.

She had moved a bit farther from the devastated area, and thinking the fight was over, she spoke to us comfortably while pointing her finger toward the sky.

“Oh my, are you done fighting? Then I can put this away.”

At her words, we looked up to where she was pointing, and there was a demon holding a sword surrounded by black flames, poised to strike down at any moment.

If I had charged ahead… I might have been cut by that demon’s sword and suffered great damage from those flames.

Mary seemed to think the same, as she stared blankly upward before nodding. The woman smiled brightly and removed the black demon.

Having been quite injured by my tail, she clutched her side as she stood up. Then she covered the wounded area with black flames, which seemed capable of healing. Soon the black flames disappeared as the healing finished.

Saying she hoped we wouldn’t fight like this next time, she vanished, engulfed in black flames.

After watching her disappear, we entered the entrance to the devastated Elven Forest.

* * * * *

“A Minotaur?”

A middle-aged man with a dignified mustache, sitting in an ornate chair drinking coffee, looked at the girl sitting across from him.

The girl, who appeared to be about 10 years old, was swinging her legs and hugging a doll tightly. She nodded at the middle-aged man while drinking her cocoa.

“Yes. A Minotaur. It was about… 10 meters tall? It was quite strong. If we had continued fighting, I’m not sure who would have won. If you hadn’t told me to go check, your soldiers in that area would have been annihilated.”

“Hmm…”

At the girl’s words, the middle-aged commander made a sound as if he’d heard something unbelievable.

For him, who knew all too well that this girl, despite her pitiful appearance, was actually a monster commanding hundreds of ghosts, with ten of them being Master-level monsters themselves, this was an incredible story. If such a girl considered the possibility of her own defeat, that Minotaur must truly be a formidable enemy.

Just as he was worrying about the sudden appearance of a Minotaur after sealing the elves’ specialty, spirit magic—

“Oh, and she came too. That disaster of a slut.”

At those words, the commander dropped his coffee cup. Fortunately, one of the girl’s ghosts caught it and handed it back to him, but…

He was so shocked that he didn’t even take the coffee cup and began questioning the girl.

“What!? Why!? Why has that crazy woman come all the way here! I heard she disappeared after suffering a fatal wound from our empire’s pursuit a week ago! Wasn’t she dead!?”

“How would I know? That crazy woman and I don’t get along, so I didn’t participate in her subjugation. But when I saw her just now, she seemed fine.”

“Hah—, the sudden appearance of that cow is problem enough, and now that crazy woman is here too. Hah…”

After a moment of contemplation, he finally decided that if he tried to deal with these threats with his own power, it would cause great damage to his homeland, so he took extraordinary measures.

“Call the Special Forces.”