“MOOOOOO!”

The whole hallway shacked under the roar of the beast, he took a heavy step forward, breaking the ground under its hoof. Even from afar, they could well distinguish the contraction of his whole body, the minotaur was going to charge.

Xavier stepped forward and put himself in front of Naomi, he didn’t take any stance, he was just standing casually, observing the next move of the creature.

And it was unleashed, the power of a myth, the power of a beast confined in darkness, the power of the rage that can break the Earth. The minotaur charged with all his might toward the old teenagers

The ground was shaking, and the beast roared a second time.

His speed was shocking.

He rushed the distance separating them in an instant.

And upon the impact, he lifted his great weapon, and swung it downward.

A blow which could have split a whole building in two.

A blast of air pressure rose a cloud of dust, and for a moment nothing was heard. The sound had stopped, the charge had stopped. Quickly, the dust went away, revealing the large creature’s axe getting pressed on the edge by the two hand of the blond young man.

“I underestimated him…”

He was struggling to keep the weapon away from his face, but the minotaur was in an even worst position. You could see the veins on its forehead. Xavier steadily won grounds, and finally managed to repeal completely his heavy opponent.

“I am confident in my strength.”

With those lines, he jumped and performed a rotating kick toward the minotaur stomach, who got blown away, as if he was weighing nothing, and crashed into the wall. In one blow, the giant creature was defeated.

“My goodness, sometimes you are truly barbaric.”

“It feels so good! And he’s the one that started it anyway.”

In the end, their progression was barely slowed down by the minotaur intervention. Truth to be told, Naomi wasn't surprised by Xavier's feat, even though she expected the mythical creature to be stronger than that. Maybe it's just him that is too much of the chart for the adventure.

They continued along the path, and rapidly arrived upon a crossroad. The corridor was now splitting into to direction, one left and one right, both seemingly identical.

“Maybe we should draw a map…”

“Are you being serious?”

“Haha, not really. So, where do you want to go?”

“Hum…”

Neither of them had any reliable way to know where they were supposed to go. Even though she mastered a lot of spells, they were mostly for combat purposes.

As she was trying to make a decision, another blunt sound was heard from their right. Once again, the horned creature appeared.

No, it was another one. The same species but the horns were slightly bigger. Also, this one had no axe with him.

“Oh oh oh, this is getting even better!”

“Isn’t it my turn?”

“You want a go?”

“Absolutely.”

She stepped forward, and the beast roared in reaction, before preparing his charge.

Naomi just lifted her arm forward, and two circles filled with symmetrical symbol materialized out of thin air. They then float and place themselves on both sides over her head. With the flame previously created, the three magical point was forming an arc above her.

There is nearly an infinite number of way to use magic based on flux, but Conjurer -Conjureress in the case of Naomi- tend to use the same method: they conjure magic circle, labelled Wiccas, from which the spells are cast. It reduces greatly the preparation and allow them to cast multiple spells at the same time, or to use the same spell multiple time at once.

Even though she wasn't that far into her quest, she was already able to summon 3 of them, attesting her incredible talent.

With the three lively Wicca by her side, she pointed her finger to the minotaur, who in return burst out and started charging.

“⎾Explosion⏌ !⎾Air Wall⏌!”

The flame disappeared, plunging them into darkness, but a second later, two small bright particles spurted from the two other circle, and rushed frontward.

!!!!!!

It was as if sunlight came back for an instant. The burst of the explosion rushed through her hair, although the blast itself stopped a few step before.

The hubbub produced was tremendous, so much that Xavier had to put his hands on his ears.

The corridor in front of them was now indulged into a thick fog of dust and rumbles.

“That was fun!”

“I agree, it was... relieving.”

“I wonder what is left of it…”

“As spectacular as my pyrotechnical prowess are, I do not believe it has much more potent potential than your previous kick.”

“Let me doubt that.”

The dust slightly dissipated, leaving a giant figure in the middle of an enlarge hallway.

“See, he is fiiiiii…”

“Haha, I’m not sure, but I think there is an important part missing.”

The minotaur was still standing, but, on top of all the dust and injury over his body, his head was entirely missing. The corpse finally fell down a few second later.

“F-F-F-Fallacy! I genuinely thought it wouldn’t kill it…”

“Hahaha, you destroyed the whole corridor, and you were going easy on him?! Hahaha!”

“Sigh, it is pretty ironic for you to say that.”

"Hey! At least I didn't kill mine."

“Power output is hard to master!”

“I know, I know, 'just teasing you.”

Ashamed and now also annoyed, Naomi resumed their progression inside the labyrinth.

It was only a few minutes since they entered, but it was already cleared they were out levelling the zone by far. However, sometimes, strength and power can’t help you, and struggles become more than just a test.