Chapter 169

The sound of heavy footsteps could be heard coming from the entrance of the tunnel. The group looked to see if there was anywhere they could run but behind them were the lenticels and in front of them was whatever was coming through that tunnel. Then the figure's face started to come into view. With its bull-like horns and the human body, it was something that Gary had faced before. It was a Minotaur. Although this Minotaur was different from the last one he faced. In its hand, it held a jet-black sword and all over the Miniatures body were random patches of purple fur. Its eyes looked lost and the white had been filled with purple. "It's infected with the shadow plague!" Badger shouted. "Dam, we can't go against that thing!" Gary said, he knew that the minotaur was strong and this one was infected meaning it was even stronger. "We have no choice but to go back." "But the tentacles!" Badger said. "Just go back, trust me we can't beat that thing." The group started to head back into the tentacles and now where completely surrounded by them. They were doing their best to slash and cut the tentacles but it was proving useless. The Minotaur had its eyes set on the humans and started to move slowly towards them. Then suddenly, when the Minotaur was in the range of the tentacles, its target started to change. One of the tentacles wrapped around the Minotaur's leg and slammed it into the ground causing the Minotaur to drop its sword. The tentacles repeated this, constantly slamming the Minotaur into the ground. Ray who had been hanging onto the edge of the bridge suddenly felt like fewer tentacles were attacking him. Ray was waiting for the opportunity to pull himself up but he was too busy fending off the tentacles with one hand. Finally, the tentacles had found a new target and that gave enough time for Ray to pull himself up and just as he did, he suddenly saw the Minotaur being flung off from the bridge and down below into the endless black pit. Meanwhile, the others took this opportunity to run across to the other side of the bridge as quickly as possible, there were fewer tentacles now and they didn't need to defeat the beast but just get past it. They had safely reached the other side but when they turned around to see where Ray was, they could see that Ray was stuck on the other side of the bridge, with the tentacles blocking his way. Ray then took a deep breath before executing his plan. He looked at the tentacles and looked at his current mana pool. The Beast was too powerful for Ray to defeat but he didn't need to do that. Just like the others, all he needed to do was get to the other side of the bridge. Ray then stepped closer to the tentacles until he was just out of their range. He then placed both of his hands on the floor and activated his skill, Ice bind. A trail of ice left his hands and froze the first set of tentacles, Ray then immediately took off running and placed both of his hands out from the side of his body. As he ran through the forest of tentacles, he constantly cast the skill ice ball, shooting out balls of ice at the remaining tentacles.

"Wow, how can he do something like that?" Sloth said looking in amazement. There were now only a few steps left before Ray exited the forest of tentacles but just then, his Ice bind skill had worn off and the original tentacles he had frozen were moving once again. Ray then used all his strength to leap to the other side were the others were, however, a tentacle managed to just wrap around his foot and instead of slamming him to the ground like the tentacles usually did. The beast decided to just fling Ray off the side of the bridge into the black pit. "BOSS!" Jack shouted as he saw Ray's body disappear into the endless black hole. "Dam it!" Jack said as he looked over the edge. Jack looked down at the black pit and prepared himself as if he was ready to jump down there himself. Gary could see what Jack was thinking. "Don't be a fool Jack, Ray will survive this trust me, he's not normal like me and you." "What do we do now?" Badger asked. "We have to look for the boss of course." Jack instantly Replied. "I agree but first, that ugly thing needs payback," Gary said looking at the tentacles. "Don't be crazy!" Sloth said, "If Ray couldn't beat it, what makes you think you can?" Garry didn't reply but he couldn't keep his eyes off the sword that the Minotaur had dropped. It was so black in color that something was attracting him to it. Not only that but suddenly the white lines had appeared all over the tentacles. Gary was confident in surviving the beasts attack now. Gary then rushed back towards the tentacles, too fast for the others to stop him. Gary had only one thing in his site and that was the Dark sword the minotaur had dropped. When Gary had made it into the range of the tentacles, Gary immediately started slashing with both of his swords at the white lines he saw in his vision. He was cutting the tentacles so cleanly that he only needed one strike. Badger and Sloth looked at Gary in amazement, they were truly watching the skills of a master swordsman at work. However, there was still the problem of the tentacles regenerating, even if Gary was able to slice them off, they would grow back in nearly an instant. Then when the Sword was finally within reach, Gary threw one of his swords away off the bridge and immediately grabbed the Black sword with his right hand. A tentacle was coming straight for Gray behind him and in an instant, Gary turned around and sliced the tentacle with his new black sword. This time, the tentacle didn't grow back. "I knew you were special!" *** Special thanks to chances, Alexander_Bingham, PhantomNite629 and DarkShadow_DS for the gifts I promise to return the favor for all these gifts at the end of the month with a drawing of one of the main characters.