The Minotaur stood towering on its two legs, its body below the head resembling that of a muscular human, but on a scale that dwarfed both Gaya and Michael. Its long, barbed tail swayed menacingly behind it. Its eyes, locked onto Gaya and Michael, seemed to bore into their very souls, while smoke billowed out of its nostrils, adding to its fearsome presence.
Gaya, upon locking eyes with the Minotaur, felt an acute pain in her chest, as though the mere sight of the beast was overwhelming her senses. At that moment, the system chimed in Michael's head with a crucial warning.
[The Host must ensure Gaya's safety. The Minotaur can suck the soul out of weaker beings merely by staring at them.]
Realizing the immediate danger, Michael quickly turned toward Gaya.
"Activate your cloak and run." He said and tossed her a spyder.
"I'll be able to locate you after I lose this thing," Understanding the severity of the situation, Gaya did not argue with him. Instead, she knew if she stayed with him, she would only be a hurdle for him. Thus, she decided to help him without getting in his way.
"You better not get your ass killed, you hear me?" Her voice was laced with concern, despite the harshness of her words.
Without wasting another moment, Gaya activated her cloak, rendering herself invisible, and darted away from the scene, leaving Michael to face the Minotaur.
As the Minotaur took its first thunderous step toward Michael, the ground shook under its immense weight. Michael quickly activated his Eyes of Darkness, hoping to gauge the creature's power. The sight that met his eyes was daunting – a pulsating red aura enveloped the Minotaur, signaling that it possessed strength that was overwhelmingly superior to his own.
"Shit," Michael muttered under his breath, realizing the enormity of the challenge before him. He braced himself, preparing to make a strategic retreat.
The Minotaur then opened its massive mouth and let out a deafening roar. The power of its roar was so intense that the walls around Michael began to crack and crumble, sending shards of stone flying through the air.
Just as the Minotaur prepared to strike, Michael cast the Lightning Dash spell, propelling himself out of the beast's path at an incredible speed, leaving a trail of black lightning bolts in his wake. His quick reflexes saved him from a direct hit, but the Minotaur was not so easily outmaneuvered.
With a powerful stomp, the Minotaur slammed its foot onto the ground, creating a shockwave that rippled through the maze. Despite his speed, Michael couldn't entirely evade the force of the impact. The ground beneath him trembled violently, and he was thrown against a nearby wall with brutal force. The collision knocked the breath out of him, and he coughed up blood, feeling the acute pain from the impact.
09:51
Before Michael could even attempt to get back on his feet, the Minotaur, with calculated brutality, kicked a stone from the ground. The stone, propelled by the beast's immense strength, flew through the air with such velocity that it would have been invisible to the naked eye of a normal person.
Despite being a god and possessing enhanced reflexes, Michael couldn't react in time to dodge the projectile. The stone struck him squarely in the head, the impact sending a sharp pain radiating through his skull.
"Damn it," Michael growled, his hand instinctively going to the site of the impact. He felt the warm trickle of blood where the stone had hit, the pain a stark reminder of the Minotaur's formidable power.
As the beast charged at him again, Michael took a deep breath and leaped into the air, using the momentum to propel himself into the path the Minotaur had shattered earlier. His maneuver was not just an evasion but a strategic move, using the Minotaur's own destructive force to carve a direct route through the maze.
From a distance, Gaya witnessed Michael's bold strategy and couldn't help but question herself.
"Seems like he's using the beast to create a way straight to the heart of this maze. But how did he know which way is to the center of the maze?"
Unknown to Gaya, Michael had used environmental scanning and X-ray vision to detect life signs within the maze in the direction he was heading. This strategic use of his abilities allowed him to make an educated guess that whoever or whatever was emitting those life signs must be located at the center of the maze or at least near something of significant interest.
************************
In the heart of the labyrinth, Marli and Raphael stood, a formidable duo against the backdrop of ancient stone and mystic energies. Surrounding them were Lysandra, Elrion, and the handful of adventurers who had survived the blast, now bound by invisible chains of celestial energy, rendering them powerless.
Standing beside her, Raphael surveyed the surroundings with a critical eye, ensuring that no detail was overlooked in their preparation for Michael and Gaya's arrival. His demeanor was calm, yet there was an undeniable undercurrent of readiness for the confrontation that was to unfold.
On the other hand, Marli was a picture of calculated malice. In her hands, she held a dark, ominous box that seemed to pulsate with a malevolent energy. This was no ordinary artifact; it was something that crafted with the sole purpose of trapping a god below level 4 for a short amount of time.
As the silence of the maze hung heavily around them, Marli broke the stillness, speaking to the shadows as if they were her confidants. "This Pandora's box will be the key to trapping the God of Darkness. Just imagine the acclaim that will be mine when I present him at the pantheon's feet. They will have no choice but to recognize my superiority, to acknowledge that I have done what none of them could."
Her voice carried a mix of arrogance and ambition, a declaration of her intent not just to capture a god but to ascend to unprecedented heights of power within the celestial hierarchy. "This will be my crowning achievement," Marli continued, her gaze fixed on the dark box as if envisioning the moment of her triumph. "Not only will I have captured the infamous God of Darkness, but I will also have proven myself as the most cunning and powerful among the gods."
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