Blood stained the flagstones in dark, spreading pools.

The air was thick with the metallic scent of blood and the dry, dusty odor of rock.

Torches burned with cold blue flames along the walls, casting long, flickering shadows across the floor.

Brandon and Rheanne stood back-to-back in the center of the chaos.

The Minotaurs roared and charged from all sides.

Four of them came at Brandon at once with their axes and spears raised.

He exploded forward.

Using a burst of enhanced speed, he dashed low between the first two, slashing upward with his sword in a powerful rising cut.

*sleesh* The blade carved through the chest of one Minotaur and caught the second across the throat.

Dark blood sprayed in wide arcs as both creatures staggered.

Without stopping, he spun on his heel and delivered a devastating spinning kick to the third Minotaur’s knee.

The enhanced strength shattered the joint with a sickening crack, dropping the creature to the ground.

Before it could recover, Brandon drove the sword down through its skull, pinning it to the floor.

The fourth Minotaur swung its axe in a wide horizontal arc.

Brandon ducked beneath it at the last second, letting the blade whistle over his head.

He came up inside the Minotaur’s guard and slammed his shoulder into its chest, using the momentum to flip the massive creature over his back.

As it crashed to the ground, he twisted and brought the sword down in a brutal overhead strike, cleaving through its neck and ending it. *spleesh*

On the other side, three Minotaurs charged Rheanne simultaneously.

She stepped forward gracefully, parrying the first axe strike with a ringing CLANG, then spun and slashed across the second Minotaur’s torso, opening a deep gash that caused the blood to erupt outward.

The third one tried to flank her but she quickly slashed it.

"Gurgh-" The Minotaur was torn apart mid-lunge, its body disintegrating into chunks of flesh and bone that scattered across the floor.

She didn’t stop moving.

Another group of four Minotaurs rushed her.

Rheanne danced between them elegantly.

She parried one spear, deflected an axe with a twist of her blade, then countered with a swift thrust that pierced a Minotaur’s heart.

She spun again and her blade flashed in a wide horizontal slash that decapitated two more in a single motion.

Blood sprayed across her white dress, but she remained untouched by their weapons.

Suddenly three Minotaurs tried to overwhelm Rheanne, but Brandon charged in, using his strength to shoulder-check one aside and slash another across the back, creating an opening for her to finish the third with a precise thrust.

Brandon’s eyes narrowed ’No wonder, you are staying at the back now...’

He glanced at the Minotaur king and the crown on its head glowed faintly as even more minotaurs appeared there.

’It can summon more of them, it seems.’

The Minotaurs kept coming relentlessly but the two of them refused to break.

Soon... blood soaked the floor.

Corpses piled up around them.

"Haa... Haa..."

Brandon’s breathing grew heavier as his single arm burned with exhaustion.

The stump of his left arm throbbed with every movement as fresh blood seeped out despite the partial healing. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Rheanne’s face was pale and her steps became unsteady from blood loss, but her blade never wavered.

Another wave of Minotaurs charged.

Brandon met them head-on.

He ducked under an axe, spun low, and slashed across the legs of two Minotaurs, dropping them to their knees. He finished them with quick, downward thrusts.

Rheanne moved beside him, parrying a spear, then countering with a thrust that pierced a Minotaur’s throat.

She twisted the blade and pulled it free, making the blood spray across her clothes.

They fought back-to-back now, protecting each other’s blind spots and covering for each other’s weaknesses.

"Shit-" When Brandon’s footing slipped on blood-slick stone, Rheanne’s blade flashed out and severed the arm of the Minotaur about to strike him.

When a Minotaur tried to flank Rheanne, Brandon launched himself forward and tackled it to the ground, driving his sword through its chest.

The fight was exhausting.

But they refused to fall.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity of blood bath, the last Minotaur collapsed with a gurgling roar as its body crumpled to the floor in a heap.

Silence returned.

Only the sound of their heavy breathing remained.

"Haa... Haa... Haa..."

Brandon stood in the middle of the carnage, his chest heaving up and down as blood dripped from his stump and from dozens of new cuts.

Rheanne leaned against him slightly as blood still seeped from her wounds, but she had managed to slow the worst of it with ether.

Her white dress was torn and soaked crimson, clinging to her skin.

Her long white hair was matted with sweat and blood, but her sky-blue eyes still burned with unyielding determination.

She looked up at him and a small, weary smile touched her bloodied lips "We make a good team, don’t you think?"

Brandon let out a short, breathless chuckle "Oh, sure we do."

His gaze shifted past her and looked at the towering figure that still stood at the far end of the chamber.

The Minotaur King.

It had watched the entire battle without intervening with its massive axe resting on its shoulder.

Brandon’s eyes narrowed "I guess you are out of your juice too."

Without warning, he grabbed Rheanne’s hand with his right one and threw her upward in the air.

"Huh?"

Rheanne was dumbfounded for a split second as her eyes widened in surprise.

’Is he using me as a decoy?’

She twisted mid-air, spinning like a white whirlwind, and brought her silver blade down in a powerful overhead slash toward the Minotaur King.

The king raised its gigantic axe to block.

CLANG!

At that exact moment while the king’s attention and guard were focused upward, Brandon exploded forward.

SWOOSH-

He appeared in front of the Minotaur King in a single burst "You’re left open now."

He drove the blade forward with every ounce of remaining strength, piercing straight into the king’s abdomen.

*SLEESH*

The sword sank deep and the Minotaur King roared, shaking the entire chamber, vibrating through the stone pillars and cracking the floor beneath them.

"GUUUUAAARRRRGGHHHHHH!"

It staggered backward in pain but Brandon didn’t let go.

He twisted the blade viciously, widening the wound, then yanked it free in a spray of dark blood.

The king swung its axe wildly in retaliation, but Brandon ducked under the swing and rolled away, coming up in a crouch beside Rheanne, who had landed gracefully after her aerial strike.

Rheanne was breathing hard with one hand pressed to her bleeding abdomen, "You’re reckless," she said with a faint smile on her bloodied lips.

"You’re welcome," Brandon replied, wiping blood from his face with the back of his right hand.

The Minotaur King roared again and charged straight at them.

Brandon and Rheanne moved together.

The king swung its axe in a wide, crushing horizontal arc.

Brandon dropped into a slide, passing beneath the blade, then came up and slashed upward across the king’s thigh, opening another deep gash.

Rheanne leaped over the same swing, twisting mid-air, and brought her blade down in a powerful overhead strike that carved into the king’s shoulder.

"ARRGHH!" The creature bellowed in pain and rage.

It tried to stomp down on Brandon, but he rolled away at the last second.

Rheanne landed on the king’s back, driving her sword into its spine. *SHINK*

The king thrashed wildly, trying to throw her off.

Brandon seized the opening.

He jumped onto the king’s arm, ran up the massive limb, and drove his sword straight into the creature’s chest, aiming for the heart.

SHUNK!

The blade sank deep.

Then he jumped up in the air and clenched his fist, pouring the last of his ether into his punch.

*THOOOM* He punched its massive face, breaking its neck to the side.

It collapsed backward, crashing to the ground with a thunderous boom that shook the entire chamber.

Brandon stood over the fallen king with his sword still embedded in its chest.

Rheanne slid off the king’s back, landing unsteadily beside him.

She leaned against his side for support with her one hand pressed to her abdomen.

For a long moment, neither spoke.

Then Rheanne let out a soft, pained laugh.

"We... actually did it."

Brandon looked at her in exhaustion "Yeah... We did."

He pulled his sword free from the king’s chest with a wet sound, then offered his right arm to support her.

Rheanne took it gratefully, leaning into him as they stood together amidst the carnage.

The glowing archway at the far end of the chamber pulsed brighter now.

Brandon glanced at it, then at Rheanne.

"Guess that’s the exit."

She turned to look at him "Imagine, that door leads to another chamber like this."

Brandon: -_-

’Don’t jinx it like that, idiot.’

’Surely it’s the exit, right?’

’...right?’