Logan looked over the door and moved his hand over its surface. As if waiting for the stone to tell its tale, Logan thought and concentrated before letting go and turning to face Marcus.

  “We’ll rest for the day. Even with the few resources used today, I want everything for what waits ahead”, Logan informed as he walked to his friend’s side.

  Marcus nodded, “Fine by me. A rampart isn’t something to snuff at, at this rank. If it were below 12, then sure, but with access to at least third-level spells and skills I don’t want to tussle with a boss.”

  Logan looked to the sky, the nearby walls blocking most sight in all directions as they stood at 20’ tall. “We’ll take a sauntering pace out of here and camp on the exterior.”

  “I agree. No doubt there are underground traps or hidden monsters for the protections against cheating.”

  Exiting the dungeon with ease, the pair began to set up camp for the night. There was an easy trip back to the capital with a single Teleport, however, that would leave one less for the confrontation and anything thereafter. While there were targets on the guild, Logan was so far out that he didn’t feel the need to worry too much. But the idea still gnawed at his brain. In the end, they relented to warping back to Gauntlet to rest in safety.

  Returning the next day, Logan and Marcus took the slow path back to the centre, the intricate door standing tall and looking like it had always been there to begin with.

  “What’s your opinion? Should we use the kaevock or the command word?” Logan asked Marcus as he held the lock tumbler in his hand.

  “There’s a chance of change when using the relic. I’d advise using it only if we had no other options. You said it was quite run-down, right?”

  Logan nodded, “Probably only a handful of uses before it expires. I was of the same mind, to be honest.”

  Marcus did the usual buffing of the team as Logan took on a wide stance in front of the Madamra Rampart. Placing a hand on the door, Logan’s body vibrated, creating an afterimage of himself that went outwards before dissipating. Controlling the spellforce around him, the door shuddered at his command. “Madamra, I challenge what lies within. Your monsters have no hold!”

  The maw of the monstrous head opened, the fangs scraping against rock as the sound of grinding gears and stone could be heard within. The eyes of the door started to glow, and a roar emanated from the maw. With the display the door began to open toward the duo, Logan stepping back to allow it to open fully.

  As the pair fully entered the room a window appeared in front of Logan’s face, hugged with a silvery outline. “You have entered into a boss room, you may not leave until the opponents are defeated. Communications and teleportations to the outside of this room have been blocked.”

  The door shut behind them with a loud slam, a rush of wind rolling around and up into the sky above. The waters of the fountains rippled and crashed within their basins while the minotaur let out of harsh breath through its nostrils.

  Standing at 5’ exactly, the minotaur was not as imposing as a normal minotaur, hence the minitaur moniker. Its head and tail were that of a bull, while the rest of its body resembled a muscular man who stood atop two hooves.

  Dark-brown bone had formed over the monster’s knuckles, a natural defence and offence as the creature lacked any visible form of weapon aside from its body and the massive horns on its head. The only form of civilisation was that of its ragged trousers that were torn just below the knee.

  Logan and Marcus prepared their weapons and got into offensive stances against the boss monster, but were stopped at their first steps as it held out its hand in an almost halting position.

  Logan held out a claw as if to absorb a spell, but none came, instead he saw a less-guarded stance from the minotaur. It was as if it was saying “wait” to the pair. “Marcus, hold up”, Logan instructed as he straightened out his back.

  The minotaur took on a small smile as it clapped its hands together, a low-tone, thick, noise coming from its clasps. It then pointed at Marcus with its index finger and then at itself with its thumb.

  “You want a duel with me?” Marcus asked.

  The minotaur didn’t react, though its face did change slightly as if its own way of looking confused.

  Marcus then took a fist and planted it into his palm to mimic a punch.

  The minotaur clapped, its way of saying “yes” or another form of affirmation, copying the motion and then repeating the pointing gestures.

  “It can’t speak, and it doesn’t understand our words. You seem correct in that he wants a one-on-one battle”, Logan translated.

  “It seems that way. Tis strange, though.”

  “Is it? Other monsters can communicate, not all of them, but the goblins, crowbolds, and even the naegren can speak in their own language.”

  “True, but this one seems… chivalrous, I guess?”

  “It wants a fair fight or a tough one I suppose.”

  Marcus took a few steps forward, only for the minotaur to make another halting expression.

  “What?”

  The minotaur then flared a grey aura around itself and with a wave of its hand to the side had it dissipate into nothing, ending with a point towards Marcus.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “He wants us to have no magic aiding our power… Fine”, Marcus determined, disabling the spells he had used before entering the chamber.

  The minotaur clapped and motioned Marcus to pause again. Placing a hand on the stone floor, the minotaur flexed its arm, causing spellforce to rush into the stonework. Shortly thereafter, the fountains rushed their water more fiercely as one corner stopped completely, raising a plinth that had standing atop it a bony glove.

  “Ah, so you get an additional prize for solo combat”, Logan realised.

  Marcus mimicked the clapping hands, to which the minotaur did the same. The mimicking continued as the minotaur raised both fists close to his face in a fighting stance, while Marcus took on his forward stance with clenched fists except for the index and middle fingers.

  With a cracking of stone, the minotaur kicked off the floor to start the fight. With a forward jab he narrowly missed a dodging Marcus, the Devout brought up his left fist in an upward slam but barely missed the tilting head and its attached horns.

  As the fighters slid on the stone-tiled floor, they circled each other. With opposing fists, they met each other on the outside of their guard, letting loose a burst of air that brushed away leaves and twigs from the battleground.

  Meeting again with the other fists, more wind jolted away from their position, over and over their knuckles met, metal to bone. Raising a longer leg, Marcus tried to knee the minotaur in the chin but was met by an opposing shorter leg.

  Marcus’s speed and fighting style were just a bit above the minotaur who learnt merely by experience, as the legs met he shot down a quick jab with his left fist, connecting with the minotaur's cheek, rippling his skin all to the side as its whole body shifted all its weight on the opposing foot.

  Clenching its left fist, the minotaur almost redirected the propulsion into its arm, retaliation against Marcus with an upward jab. Marcus caught the punch in his palm, a wave of power emanating from the attack as it continued to disturb the arena.

  The minotaur lost all of its stance and provided all of its weight to Marcus as it wrapped its body around the back of Marcus, jumping and aiming a dangerous kick to the head while its fist was still caught.

  Marcus let go of his grasp and met the kick with his elbow, pushing both fighters apart, Marcus slid on the floor and the minotaur flew back a bit before landing in its own slide.

  Twisting his body quickly, Marcus avoided another jab as the minotaur jumped back into the fray with little lag in its movements. Side-stepping and weaving, Marcus continued to dodge attacks. A downward fist into another knee caught Marcus unaware of another straight jab, the minotaur landing a solid blow to the Devout’s nose.

  Blood flew from the allied side for the first time, though not as much as the minotaur had lost. Kicking off the floor with its deflected leg, the minotaur sought to follow up its winning fist but was met by a grappling arm as Marcus grabbed the minotaur and tossed him over his shoulder into the ground.

  The minotaur rolled away as Marcus punched the ground where its head used to be, following strikes missing as the minotaur rolled to its feet, where its defence changed to blocking with its forearms.

  Another fist was blocked, but Marcus put less force into it as he opened his hand, grabbed the minotaur’s arm to separate his guard, and landed another punch on its face, sending it backwards.

  As the minotaur flew backwards, Marcus jumped after, their bodies parallel when Marcus landed another punch into the minotaur’s fist, sending its back crashing and sliding across the floor.

  Marcus landed on the floor and kicked after his foe, while the minotaur landed his hands over its head on the floor to flip back to its feet.

  The minotaur aimed to block another fist with its own, but Marcus succeeded in a feint, stopping away from the opposing jab, instead, Marcus shifted his body around and landed a solid jab into the monster’s cheek again, causing it to stumble on its feet away from the blow.

  Marcus grabbed onto the horns of the bull to pull himself up into a knee strike into its face, the crunching of cartilage and bone could be heard loudly as Marcus let go of the horns.

  The minotaur swayed side to side as it backstepped away from the attack. Blood and teeth fell to the floor as the monster spat, rubbing its face with its wrist to remove some of the ichor.

  Another round commenced as the minotaur aimed to strike Marcus, however, its fatigue was showing as its movements slowed, allowing Marcus to land a devastating blow into its inner elbow that looked like it dislodged something. The minotaur floundered backwards as it held its arm.

  Marcus followed after his foe with another blow that would be the finale, the minotaur brought up its other forearm in a horizontal guard. Marcus instead lowered his strike to go under the arm and aim for the minotaur’s chest.

  The minotaur closed its eyes as it readied itself for the decisive attack, but instead just felt a wave of wind. It opened its eyes a few seconds later, seeing Marcus had stopped his final strike a few inches away from its target.

  The minotaur fell to a knee as it began to breathe heavily, Marcus offering a hand to bring it back to its feet. The minotaur returned a bloody smile as it took it, and rose to its hooves as a yellow light covered it.

  Marcus planted a fist in his palm and made a gesture like he was flexing his biceps to the minotaur before pointing at it. The minotaur smiled again as it clapped its hand, patting Marcus’s shoulder and landing a playful double jab at his clavicle.

  “The victory goes to you then, and you even had the decency to heal your opponent. Does the monster understand that part though?” Logan spoke as he approached the combatants.

  “Who’s to say, but he doesn’t seem ‘evil’ does he? More like this is his job, or his home”, Marcus explained as he looked at Logan.

  The minotaur patted its ears as it let out a sort of mooing sound. It then moved to the centre of the last opened room, placed another hand on the floor, and caused a final structure to rise. This time, it was a statue of a minotaur, larger and unlike the one they had fought.

  Logan nodded, “Good job, Marcus. You revealed the dungeon core.”

  Marcus smiled, “Well, that wasn’t my first intention. But great nonetheless!”

  The minotaur patted its ears again as if to say, “What’s with the weird noises you’re making?” before moving to one of the fountains to take a seat and nurse its face. It then had a surprised look as its wounds had been healed. It bellowed out cheerfully to the pair, easily interpreted as a “thank you.”

  Logan looked at the statue while Marcus moved to pick up his reward from the fountain plinth.

  “I take it, since he revealed this to us, he’s fine with what we do to it?” Logan thought aloud.

  “Logan”, Fol spoke in Logan’s mind, “the conditions for destroying the core have been met. To destroy it, you must strike the statue with some form of axe. There’s a 95% chance of success.”

  Logan smiled, “Good thing I keep spares for my guildies”, he said as he pulled out a weaker axe in his hand.

  Wringing the axe behind his shoulder, Logan landed a heavy slash into the rock, cracking it and planting the axe halfway through the minotaur statue’s chest. The floor started to shake, as did the walls and the decorations. The statue crumbled to the floor as the whole area experienced a strong earthquake.

  In seconds, the whole labyrinth crumbled to the floor, a line mess of debris. The wind rushed over the dungeon as the outside was finally let in with full force, as the dungeon was successfully eradicated.

  Pulling the axe from the rubble, Logan saw it had transformed into a double-headed axe as it had been morphed into an artefact.

  --- *** ---