Chapter 45: The Minotaurs’ Charge

Chapter 45: The Minotaurs’ Charge

A group of five headed toward the ruins—Fjorn, the Mayor and his son, and three hunters with unlocked mana.

Emilia sat down and began drawing talismans. Before even an hour had passed, the group returned.

The path ahead was guarded by a group of cursed minotaurs.

Minotaurs possessed the body of a man and the head of a bull; they were typically towering and exceptionally muscular. They were a rarity in antiquity, and now, outside of armies emerging from the depths of the earth, one could hardly be seen.

Minotaurs often settled in extremely difficult-to-reach places and endeavored to transform the surrounding terrain into a natural labyrinth. They lived and hunted within such mazes. This time, however, these were cursed minotaurs surging up from the deep.

A brief consultation followed, and soon the whole group headed toward the entrance of the ruins. Along the way, Fjorn often paused, examining the surroundings. Sometimes he would crouch down and trace strange lines on odd-looking black stones, perhaps fragments from the ruins.

Suddenly, the sound of many horns blared.

"Those are the minotaurs. They finally sensed us. Men, tighten the formation."

Immediately, the physically strongest hunters, the mayor, and his son stepped forward and formed a dense line. They stood with their spears leveled forward. The minotaurs soon entered Emilia's field of vision. They were fifty massive beasts, armed with colossal obsidian axes.

Their bodies were protected by thick hides, almost impenetrable to ordinary weapons. However, the heavy crossbows and trained archers used specially reinforced ammunition.

Emilia now understood why minotaurs preferred living in labyrinths and avoiding direct assaults. Their immense physical strength and heavy axes were lethally effective in close combat. Only heavy ranged weaponry, such as magic and crossbows, could stop them.

Maddened by Gaia's curse, the minotaurs had no fear of arrows and fearlessly charged into the archers' range. They sprinted forward as arrows rained down upon them. One by one, seven minotaurs fell, and moments later, the crossbowmen, who needed to be absolutely certain of their shots, began firing. Each had chosen a target, and six more minotaurs met their end.

However, a strange magic inherent to the minotaurs gave them a chance to completely ignore one attack every minute. This saved quite a few of them, and soon the archers set aside their bows and prepared to meet the minotaurs' charge.

Emilia quickly activated three Talismans of Strength upon three crossbowmen, who immediately began working with doubled effort on the heavy reloading mechanisms.

Meanwhile, Fjorn began launching fireballs at the advancing minotaurs.

Moments later, the fastest monsters reached within a few meters of the defenders, let out a war-cry, and lunged forward with their enormous obsidian axes. Driven insane by the curse, they hurtled directly onto the spears, ready to trade their lives for a chance to cleave their opponents with their axes.

The hunters had crouched low, their spear butts dug into the earth. They had expected such a reckless assault and instantly abandoned their spears after pinning a minotaur.

The mayor and his eldest son continually circled among the defenders, landing heavy blows with their huge swords. A few of the best archers, skilled at exploiting the smallest gaps between the combatants, kept firing their bows.

Despite everything, as the remaining minotaurs crashed into the fray, the front-line hunters began to lose their lives. Emilia watched in horror as one hunter was literally split in two by a massive axe, the spraying blood splattering her face. No… no, this can’t be happening…

At that moment, the crossbowmen had reloaded their weapons and joined the fight with precise, measured shots. The defenders slowly gave ground before the minotaurs' onslaught but maintained their tight battle formation throughout.

And this was precisely where the great advantage of the intelligent races lay. Pressed close together, they could aid one another. Often, two or three swords or spears met a single minotaur axe. One attacked; another protected him with his shield. On Earth, similar formations were sung about from the most ancient times, from when a handful of Spartans stood against the endless Persian army, right up to the Vikings with their wall of round battle shields.

Was it not the Roman legionaries who conquered all of Europe, parts of Asia, and Africa with this simple yet immensely effective tactic? Were the words, "Return with your shield, or upon it," not preserved to this day, echoing through the millennia from the brave Spartans?

Here, in this world of skills and magic, where battles with monsters were ceaseless, this shield wall was even more vital. The ancient magic of Gaia and the Titans was stopped again and again by the newer magic of the Great System and the skills it granted to people.

These shield bearers intuitively knew the best stance to absorb the blow of even a giant minotaur, and their retaliatory strike, in that thin fraction of a second after a successful block, seemed to instinctively find their opponents' weak spots.

One by one, the minotaurs lost their lives. Their magic saved them one moment, but the next, Gaia's curse drove them to yet another attack, another opportunity to lose their lives.

But this tactic had its costs. Five hunters lost their lives in the battle, and many more were wounded. Emilia, however, saw no despair in the eyes of these people, only grim determination. There was no middle ground: either they would survive, or their enemies would die.

The battle began swiftly and ended even quicker. Emilia had no time to lose; she immediately started assisting Dora, one of the hunter leaders with extensive experience as a herbalist, applying salves to the wounds of the injured.

The mayor moved among the wounded, distributing magical elixirs for the most severe cases.

Meanwhile, Fjorn, accompanied by two hunters and the mayor's son, approached the entrance to the ruins. They stopped there, and Fjorn began working with his magic. He was examining the different defensive lines of a protective formation, searching for its weak points.

Half an hour later, he pulled out a thick notebook with pages yellowed by time and began making numerous calculations with lightning speed. One, two, three… a total of nine foundational points of the formation were identified by Master Fjorn, and finally, he put his notebook aside and sat down to meditate.

The mayor and the hunters began chopping wood from nearby trees and started constructing rough fortifications. Perhaps the group would have to spend the night out in the open.

Three hours later, Fjorn opened his eyes and called for Emilia. Slowly, he began drawing various lines in the dirt, writing multiple different requirements for their placement next to each one.

"Emilia, I want you to learn these basic lines. You and I will need to neutralize the formation."

Then he began instructing her, and she drew the lines again and again. Fjorn constantly corrected her, vigilantly monitoring her every movement. He often had to stop her and explain new techniques for drawing these lines because Emilia was accustomed to working with an ordinary stylus, which made drawing on tree bark very easy. Now, however, she had to work directly with her mana, and this required far more magical pressure than she was used to. She frequently lost control, even over these seemingly simple lines. Fjorn grew impatiently frustrated but strove to maintain his composure.

Three whole days passed this way. Fjorn never stopped drawing lines, and Emilia assisted him. Unlike talismans, formations could be built in steps. This meant that if one step failed, the entire formation would not collapse.

Emilia learned to place the simplest lines, which saved Fjorn a significant amount of effort. He, however, was responsible for laying the complex glyphs and often had to pause to calm his mana.

If Emilia had not worked so extensively with wood, and had been a regular apprentice used only to the soft paper of talismans, she never would have managed this task. Not even three days, perhaps not even three months, would have been enough for her to master these simple-looking lines. But she had worked for an entire year with her stylus, which was quite similar to what was required here.

Furthermore, Fjorn was exceptionally good at breaking down the work so that every diagram was maximally simplified. It was like a master artist sketching a person's face as a collection of geometric figures and carefully guiding a novice to follow those lines to achieve the desired picture. This was certainly not the most optimal method, nor was the result the best, but this approach delivered results.

The hunters also continued their work without rest. They constructed a small wooden fortification, even dug a ditch around its base, and laid many traps in the surroundings.

Finally, Fjorn’s formation was ready. He asked the mayor and most of the hunters to attack the ruins' defensive formation.

A barrage of stones, arrows, sword strikes, axes, and halberds began to rain down upon the defensive formation. Its lines started flickering in Emilia's magical senses, and the mana within them began to swirl.

Fjorn vigorously managed the penetration formation, attacking the "eyes" of the defensive structure one by one.

Emilia did not know the principles of what was happening and could only observe the movement of mana along the various energy lines. What made an attack successful or not—she could not judge. Nevertheless, she tried to commit everything that transpired to memory, so that she could slowly analyze it later and absorb the knowledge from the strange battle.

The mayor also had his secrets. He produced a strange Persian lamp, which he filled with aromatic oils. These were special oils, sourced from the deserts of Scheherazade and saturated with the dark energies of the forbidden city. They could corrode any magic and were incredibly expensive. In that moment, the mayor was literally burning money.

At the critical moment, Emilia activated her Dispelling Ignorance skill as she watched two of the formation's eyes fail, having lost their energy.

A moment later, Fjorn also collapsed, utterly exhausted from the effort, and the mayor quickly extinguished his lamp.