Ch.97One person, then another

~ ~ ~ Special Forces Perspective ~ ~ ~

Phyllis grabbed Mina’s hand and ran through the dark dungeon corridor.

She didn’t worry about potential traps.

The path they were running on had been scouted by Hector’s group yesterday, and if there had been any traps, they would have either dealt with them or warned about them.

“MOOOOOO-!!”

Behind them, a Minotaur with eyes burning red with rage was chasing them with thundering footsteps.

Unfortunately, their original plan—to escape while the main force distracted the Minotaur—had failed.

The only option left for the two was to find and destroy the Throne of Madness as quickly as possible, but…

‘The Minotaur runs faster than I expected…!’

Glancing back, Phyllis felt anxious realizing that the distance between them and the Minotaur wasn’t decreasing at all.

If they were in a forest, or even in a bright outdoor area, they might have been able to run faster.

But while Phyllis had night vision abilities, Mina was running through darkness, unable to see anything, trusting only Phyllis who was pulling her hand.

Just being able to run this fast on the uneven cave floor was already a blessing.

Moreover, the two couldn’t focus solely on escaping.

“Mina! Y-junction fifteen meters ahead!”

“Go left there! Then take the side path and continue straight!”

The route to the Throne of Madness that they had learned beforehand from Rick of Hector’s party.

Although the map was incorrectly drawn, that only applied to the curvature of the passages; the arrangement and order of the intersections remained unchanged.

But that didn’t mean they could run mindlessly without thinking.

“Five degrees left curve every ten steps, seven-degree downward slope, past the junction, fifteen-centimeter drop…”

With one hand being led by Phyllis and the other holding a covered lantern, Mina had no opportunity to record the path they had taken.

She was desperately memorizing information about directions, curves, and slopes to understand the terrain, but that couldn’t continue forever.

Even if they reached the Throne of Madness with the Minotaur in tow, they wouldn’t have time to destroy it.

‘Ugh, a Black Slime here!’

Phyllis’s night vision detected a black, viscous monster squirming on the ceiling ahead.

If they tried to push through, Phyllis might be fine, but Mina, who was following behind, would certainly be pounced on by the slime.

There were only four more intersections until the room where the Throne of Madness had been found.

She couldn’t let Mina slow down here.

“Mina! There’s a Black Slime ahead! I’ll shoot it down, so open your lantern cover and keep running!”

“Whaaat!? By myself!?”

“No time to explain, hurry!”

As Phyllis shouted this and released Mina’s hand, Mina—confused but compliant—opened her lantern cover and ran past Phyllis, who had stopped in place.

‘Bang!’

Standing still, Phyllis fired her rifle at the ceiling 15 meters ahead.

With remarkable skill, she pierced the nucleus inside the Black Slime, causing it to dissipate like smoke in mid-air before it could even fall to the dungeon floor.

“Next…!!”

‘Click’

As she broke the barrel to reload, Phyllis turned around to find the Minotaur’s massive body bearing down on her.

She thought she had stopped for just a moment, but the distance between her and the Minotaur was already less than 10 meters.

‘Tch!?’

Without time to stabilize her stance, Phyllis aimed her loaded rifle at the Minotaur’s chest.

Her comrades would be chasing hard on the other side of this massive body, so she couldn’t use the highly penetrative Lightning Bolt.

“Fire- {Scorching}”

At this distance, the blast would harm her too.

But the mission had already failed the moment the Minotaur started chasing them.

Plan B—where the swift Seti would overtake the Minotaur and block its pursuit—had somehow failed as well.

Phyllis decided that stopping the Minotaur here and allowing her comrades to catch up to the monster was the best outcome she could achieve.

“-Ball {Grenade}!!”

BOOM-

The deadly fireball exploded in the narrow dungeon corridor.

Its fierce explosion and blast were enough to send the charging Minotaur’s massive body flying backward.

There was no way Phyllis’s weight—a mere fraction of the Minotaur’s—could withstand such power.

‘I leave the rest to you, Mina…’

As she felt the flames and shockwave violently throwing her fragile body, Phyllis sent an unspoken prayer and blessing to guide Mina’s steps.

~ ~ ~ Protagonist’s Perspective ~ ~ ~

Phyllis and Mina fled, the Minotaur chased after them, and the remaining six of us pursued the Minotaur.

The Minotaur’s charging speed was faster than we had anticipated, and its momentum was so fierce that no one except Seti dared to overtake it and block its path.

“Yaaah!”

With lightning speed, Seti overtook the Minotaur, slashing at its thigh as she passed, then attempted a 180-degree turn to deliver a thrusting strike that would completely halt its pursuit.

But no matter how impressive Seti’s momentum was, the weight difference between her and the Minotaur was at least tenfold.

Without even earth-attribute enhancement magic, it was impossible to withstand such kinetic energy.

‘Thud’

“Kyaah!!”

The Minotaur, ignoring the spear piercing its chest, swung and sent Seti flying.

She was fortunate not to be cut in half, having pulled her arms back to take the blow from the Minotaur’s arm rather than its axe blade, despite being suspended in mid-air.

“MOOOOOO-!!”

Was it a roar of small victory, or an expression of anger at being hindered in its pursuit?

The Minotaur pulled out the spear embedded in its chest, tossed it aside, and resumed chasing Mina and Phyllis without even considering a follow-up attack on Seti.

Seti’s valiant effort had only stopped the Minotaur’s steps for about three seconds.

“Seti! Are you okay!?”

“I-I’m fine… Don’t worry about me… go after the Minotaur…”

“I’ll treat Seti! The rest of you keep going!”

“OK, Jessica!”

Leaving the injured Seti in Jessica’s care, the four men resumed pursuing the Minotaur.

But due to the uneven dungeon floor and insufficient lighting, the distance between us and the Minotaur showed no signs of decreasing.

‘If the two in the lead get blocked by another monster…’

Just as that worry crossed my mind:

“Fire Ball {Scorching Grenade}!!”

“What?”

‘BOOM-!!’

A familiar shout and a bright red flame exploded violently, sending the charging Minotaur’s massive body flying backward and tumbling to the ground.

The roar and vibration shook everything around, and the heat and blast extended past the Minotaur to where we stood.

“Whoa!?”

The suddenly heated air was almost suffocating, but we couldn’t miss this golden opportunity created by Phyllis.

“Now’s our chance, everyone overtake it!”

“Yes, sir!”

The first to pass the fallen Minotaur was Peter, the vanguard of Hector’s party.

I followed shortly after, passing by the Minotaur’s side.

Though quite different from our initial plan, the three of us—myself, Peter, and Rick—should be enough to hold back the Minotaur from pursuing the special forces.

“OK, we’ve got this! Now we just need to hold our ground here, prepared to die!”

“Things looked dicey for a while, but they’re starting to turn in our favor now.”

Peter’s cutlass creating a magic shield.

Combined with my earth-attribute enhanced revolver and Rick’s double-barrel shotgun, we should be able to sufficiently block the Minotaur’s advance.

Perhaps that sense of security led to a moment of carelessness.

Rick, who had fallen slightly behind due to his heavy equipment, was just about to pass by the Minotaur’s side to join us when:

‘Grab’

We had anticipated that Phyllis’s fireball wouldn’t be enough to defeat the Minotaur.

But seeing the Minotaur—which hadn’t stopped for guns, magic, or Seti’s charging attack—lying on the ground motionless for the first time gave us enough hope that,

“Ugh!?”

“Rick!!”

As Rick stepped toward that hope, his foot was caught by the Minotaur’s powerful hand, and,

“MOOOOOOO-!!”

“WAAAGH!?”

‘SMASH-!!’

With a roar, the Minotaur slammed Rick against the dungeon wall, splattering his blood everywhere. Only then did we realize what had just happened before our eyes.

“RICK-!!!”

Peter’s scream, bordering on a shriek, echoed through the dim dungeon.