The large beast charged again, causing more chunks of the building walls to fly off. The holes on the two buildings were probably about half a meter deep now, yet the structures were holding up surprisingly well. Seeing how a fight was now inevitable, I cast the regular speed and strength boosting buff spells on myself, and prepared to do the same to Hanung.

"Hey! Can you at least carry me out of this alley?"

"Not until I find Casath!"

…Seriously, how attached to her brother is this birdbrain?

The bull rammed into the buildings again, and this time the structures shook slightly after taking the impact. I could now hear some screaming sounds, and there appeared to be a few moving shadows on the ground. It looked as if the people taking refuge in the two buildings beside me were now concerned about how much longer the structures could remain standing and started bolting outside to look for other places to hide. Strangely enough, despite all these people running around and making a ruckus right next to the bull, the thing never turned its attention away from me.

"This thing's going to keep charging until it gets to me!"

"So what?"

"The buildings might collapse, and Casath could be inside either of them!"

"Alright, fine, I'll carry you out!"

Perhaps out of fear that her half brother would potentially have large stones falling on his head if these buildings were to indeed collapse, not that he would manage to get badly hurt in the first place due to this thick skin, Hanung finally swooped back down from the rooftops to grab hold of me, while I applied the magic I prepared just now to boost her strength. I don't consider 60 kilograms as being that heavy for an adult human male, but Hanung seemed to be struggling to gain altitude. We were going up barely a meter each second.

"I can't… lift you… higher…"

She quickly gave up and hurled me off as soon as we reached the rooftops. The bull charged once more, and the building I was standing on seemed like it was now ready to also give up, as it quickly leaned in the direction of the big hole in the wall, causing me to lose balance. One more charge would guarantee its collapse, so I had to quickly think of something.

There were about a dozen people running frantically on the street on either side of the bull, so luring it away would likely cause it to trample someone. At the same time, standing still or jumping to the roof of the other building in this alleyway wasn't an option either, since both were leaning and would almost certainly collapse after getting charged at again. There's also the fact that there were an unknown number of people hiding inside that could get injured should the buildings collapse.

I couldn't use more powerful magic to blast the bull since there were people standing relatively close to it, so I ended up deciding on perhaps the most idiotic idea possible since there was no time to go into deeper thought: I ran towards the edge of the rooftop I was standing on and leaped off of it, landing right on top of the bull!

With an unwanted object now on its head, the bull promptly tried to shake me off. Its fur was abnormally short, so the only thing I could hold onto was one of its horns, which was so large that my arm and leg spans could only wrap onto a little over half of it. Even with the somewhat firm grip I had thanks to the strength boosting spell I buffed myself with, I felt like I could easily get hurled into the air at any moment.

The bull shook its head left and right and spun around in place in its effort to get rid of me. Seeing how the bull seemed to only be focused on shaking me off, the people who previously ran around on the street near the creature calmed down and simply spectated while keeping their distance. A few people began cheering for me, as though they were watching a show.

My legs soon got tired, and my lower body kept bouncing up and down as only my hands were now wrapped around the bull's horn. Seeing me getting bounced like that, the people cheered on so loudly that those hiding inside other buildings opened the doors to glance at what was going on as well. Weren't you people overly concerned about safety just a while ago?

Since the horn was too big for my arms to wrap completely around, my grip gradually loosened and my arms slipped right off after about 20 seconds on this wild rodeo ride. With one more shake, the bull successfully hurled me off, sending me flying about ten meters down the wide main street. The landing was painful, but the strength boosting magic I used earlier made it tolerable, at least.

Now that the bull was no longer distracted with shaking me off, the nearby spectators resumed their panicking run and quickly headed towards the nearby alleyways, leaving me lying alone in the middle of the street. The bull ignored the townsfolk and turned to face me, getting ready to charge at its target that was now in plain view. I tried to get up as quickly as possible, but with a 10 meter distance between us, the bull would definitely trample me before I could get out of the way.

The creature bellowed again and charged at full speed towards me.

Two seconds until impact.

I had only gotten onto my knees at this point. Even the simplest spell I could cast at the ground to propel me away from this spot would take three seconds. All I could do was put as much strength as possible into my body!

One second.

I was a fraction of a second away from standing fully upright. There was no time to do anything else, so I leaned my body forward with the hope that I could just leap far away enough from the bull.

Half a second.

I pushed my legs as hard as possible, causing myself to fly forward.

Thud!

I wasn't able to look when I made the leap, but a loud impact sound rang. I didn't feel any pain on my body apart from the minor force from hitting the ground again, so maybe I was able to leap forward far enough for the bull to miss and hit something else. Before I could look at where the sound came from, I felt a tug on my arm, pulling me upwards.

"Get up! Quickly!"

I don't know where he was shoved to before, but Casath finally appeared and helped me get up. From the looks of it, just a split second before I was destined to turn into minced meat, Casath rammed the bull from the side to make it veer slightly off course. Come to think about it, it was quite amazing how he could pull such a feat off, considering how he was barely one fifth the height and one thirtieth the weight of that bull.

"Thanks, Casath."

"You should take off your clothes."

"Eh? Why?"

"I heard bulls hate the color red."

"Isn't that just a myth?"

I'm very sure what Casath said is an urban legend, but if there was any degree of truth to it, then it would explain why I kept getting targeted by the bull despite the abundance of people making loud noises near it. The town's buildings were made from stone or wood, so everything looked brownish or grayish. As for the townsfolk, most wore either blue, brown, or white colored clothing that looked like what farmers wore, or casual clothing that lacked vivid colors. The only one that stood out in town was me, who was wearing a red and white colored robe. I considered stripping off my robe, but I was not willing to commit to public indecency since I wasn't wearing a shirt underneath, and my underpants and hair were also red, too, so that wouldn't have helped.

Having realized that it missed its target, the bull stopped charging and turned around to spot me. During the few seconds it wasted to do that, I buffed Casath with the all-too-familiar strength and speed boosting spells.

"Please buy me some time."

As soon as I told Casath that, the bull began charging towards me again, while I ran a few meters away from Casath. I kept hoping that the bull would be too focused on me that it wouldn't notice Casath charging at it from the side. I also hoped that Casath wouldn't attempt to ram the bull too soon or too late, otherwise it wouldn't be knocked off course and I'd get turned into minced meat.

The bull quickly closed its distance towards me, while Casath took a step or two backwards to ready up. I leaned my body and prepared to jump to the side in case Casath missed, but I had faith that he would successfully ram the bull, considering how he was able to do it earlier without prior preparation.

Thud!

The bull failed to notice Casath on its side and took the full brunt of his ram once more. With boosted speed and strength this time, Casath's ram was strong enough that the bull lost its balance and toppled over, then slid for a few meters on the ground right beside me due to its previously high charging speed. The creature uttered the most terrifying moo I had ever heard in my life as it swung its legs back and forth, while the spectating crowd applauded at what they just witnessed.

In any case, there wasn't much time to waste.

I had a window of a few seconds to counterattack at this stationary target before it could get back on its feet and I had to run away. I chanted and channeled the mana needed for my spell while walking backwards to increase my distance from the creature in case something went wrong. A large circle began to form above the bull as I pointed my staff towards it.

"Flame Pillar!"

A large column of flame shot out from that magic circle down towards the bull's side. The bull trembled a bit as the column drove itself down more and more, and puffs of smoke rose up as the beast's hide got scorched.

Unfortunately, my attack was not as effective as I expected. While the bull's fur did get scorched completely where the column of fire hit, there were only small burn marks on the hide itself. The bull also had a few minor bruises caused by the pillar's force of impact, but they were not as serious as what Casath did to it. On the bright side, the fact that it sustained minor injuries meant that magic did work on this bull to some degree. I'll probably need to channel more mana to increase the power of my next attempt, though.

"Here it comes again!"

A couple seconds later, the bull charged down the street once more, while I moved myself to be a few meters away from Casath. Just like before, Casath took a couple steps back and prepared himself for ramming into the bull, and I leaned to one side just in case something went wrong.

The bull closed its distance towards me again, and Casath leaned his body forward for another imminent ram. The bull, however, had learned from the last two times it got pushed off course, and the creature turned its head to the side, then lowered it slightly once it reached the point where Casath was just one second away. When Casath kicked his feet off the ground to propel himself forward, the bull quickly jolted its head upwards, launching the reptilian into the air. Casath arced across the wide street as high as five meters before crashing onto the ground, sliding for a bit before being stopped by hitting a stone building wall.

Originally, I thought that I could defeat this bull by having Casath charge at the bull again and again until it tired itself out, but the fact that this creature was prepared to hurl him with each ram meant that he would most likely be the one who gets worn out first.

Well, it looks like there's just one thing I can do now.

"Fireball!"

I wasn't shooting at the bull, since that weak spell wouldn't do any harm to it. Rather, I repeatedly shot this spell at the ground slightly behind me in order to propel me forward a little bit more with the force of explosion as I ran for my life down the main street.

That's right, I wanted to get as far away from the bull as possible by the time it charged at me again. I had a significant head start because the boosted strength I gave to Casath actually made the bull lose its balance and tumble down the street when it flung him earlier, giving me a window of about ten seconds to widen the distance between me and the bull before the thing could get up again.

Thanks to the speed buff and the extra push from the fireballs, as well as the mortal terror caused by the bull's loud bellows from an unknown distance behind me, I managed to reach the end of the main street, which was also the edge of town, in a little under one minute. Since this was where the ranches were located, I was worried that the bull charging in could stir up another stampede. Luckily, the few fields and pens in front of me were empty. Either the cattle that stampeded yesterday never made their way back, or the ranchers locked them up somewhere else.

I jumped the fence of one of the ranches and kept running across its lustrous green field, eventually reaching the bank of the West river at the end of the field after about a dozen seconds. With nowhere else to run, I stopped and turned around. The bull was still chasing me, and its menacing figure in the distance kept growing larger and larger. It was now just a moment away from crashing through the fence I jumped over earlier.

I didn't really want to use this kind of magic, but there was one spell that was most likely going to get me out of this situation. Considering how I was running just slightly slower than the bull, I probably had roughly ten seconds to prepare.

I may have only used the spell once before, but it was still relatively fresh in my memory. I carefully recited its chant and converted about half my mana pool in order to use it at maximum power. Hopefully this would be effective enough to affect the bull.

The tip of my staff was now glowing with an ominous crimson color, and I pointed it forward, waiting for the bull to get close enough for me to shoot accurately.

One hundred meters.

Eighty.

Sixty.

The bull was now about three seconds away from reaching me.

With one loud shout to end the spell's chant, I activated this one spell that I had gambled on.

"Curse you!"

The crimson light beamed towards the bull, hitting it directly in the face, then disappeared in a flash. The large beast continued its charge towards me, while I moved as quickly as possible towards my left. The creature bellowed once more, and I leaped to the side when it was only a second away from reaching me.

A loud splash rang out once I hit the grass, and water briefly rained down on me.

I never thought that I would ever find this spell useful, but it apparently worked and saved my life just now. Yes, this spell is none other than that simple curse from that damned booklet, which prevented the target from turning right.

The bull, unable to veer to the right as I moved away at the last moment, continued charging straight and plunged into the river that was slightly deeper than its height. Probably because of its massive weight, or perhaps out of exhaustion from all the running it had done so far, the creature struggled to stay afloat, and was likely never going to be able to get back on shore given how steep the riverbank was. In fact, it toppled over while in the river because it couldn't turn its body properly.

Nonetheless, I channeled all of my remaining mana to finish off the bull.

"Heat wave!"

The river's water soon boiled, and the bull's cries of pain echoed through the sky as it got slowly cooked.