[Ishmael]

  I was gassed up. I knew that the Followers of Wrath hated me, but I didn’t know that they took it so personal. If I had hairs, it would have stood up on end when that bull bellowed out my name.

  Nobody else had been so welcoming so far. Too many waltzed out with an air of indignance; their fortresses put to siege by some opportunist upstarts trying to take advantage of the departure of their best troops. They had been around for decades, centuries, left behind to be sentinels of their factions. Getting rid of some scaled piece of shit was meant to be easy. No matter what, they were still max level for the area.

  But, these people were deluded. They were jobbers; here not because of their dominance over the third rung, but because the powers that supported them saw them as unhelpful for the next one. Lacked the proper skills or spells or equipment that would bring them over the line. They were meant to keep the peace amongst those that just got off the train, that didn’t know any better but to fall in line.

  They weren’t designed to fight me because I was not designed to still be here.

  A fast step, a few maximized punches usually was enough to get the job done. The reality of their true purpose here became a far too late epiphany. The next time they’d open their eyes, they’d find themselves in a realm that instantly tore them limb from limb until they denounced their patron and their gifts.

  The rest I fed to my new dogs. They’d be useless to me unless they got to go on a few hunts of their own.

  Their newest hunt surrounded me. Herzblatt had no sense of tactics. Run in, use everything you have, and tear out as many throats as you could before you fell. That mentality was highly contagious amongst his truest believers. They wanted all of the pressure, all of the control. They’d leave not even the scraps for their opponents if they could help it.

  I left them to their own devices. For me, the only thing that mattered was the quartet that stood opposite me. Well, it was only a trio at the moment, the raccoon had scurried off to somewhere, but I don’t believe that it was to flee. These ones had a bit more spirit than the other ones. But, that shouldn’t be surprising, this was my former association. I should feel the most kindred energy from them.

  The minotaur had just promised to turn me into boots. What a beautiful threat. He better not disappoint me.

  “Hurry, we must make the first move!”

  Without further coordination, the remaining trio moved into action. The minotaur charged directly at me, his massive form quickly eclipsed the other two, hiding them from my vision.

  I took a step forward and planted my feet. Let it be a test of strength then. I increased my speed to track the horns. As soon as my fingers wrapped around them, I shifted all of my points into strength.

  The bull hit with the power of a locomotive. I felt my muscles bulge and my feet press against the ground. A massive dust cloud exploded around us like a bomb strike in the desert.

  I could see why he was so confident in his strength. He could move a building of its foundations if he really wanted to.

  But, I was not a building. I was more. He was a linebacker trying to tackle a mountain. Like a car in a crash test against a wall, he came to an immediate stop. The energy would have made him bounce back if I wasn’t gripping his horns. I threw him downwards while my knee flew upwards. A brutal crunch transferred into my knee and I let him fall backwards.

  Blood dribble from his damaged snout and his eyes widened slightly.

  “Were you looking down on me?” I asked with a tilt of my head.

  The bull didn’t answer me. He clenched his battle axe and approached me closely. Now he was appraising me. Now he was taking me seriously. I clicked my tongue. Well, at least he was durable enough to survive the lesson.

  “How did you get strong so fast?” He asked.

  “What? You know me from the Zero Car?”

  “No, I know you from long before that,” the minotaur said with a chuckle. “I know you from the beginning. From before your fight with Armaros, before the Corpse-Watcher, before you met Yoshitsune, and even before you had your very first fight. I’m the one that greeted you to this world.”

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  All the way from the beginning. The fucking red boxes. This was the fucker sending me those smarmy tips. I did say that I would have a private chat with whoever sent me those messages. Who knew that they were a corporeal person? Who knew that I could hit them?

  “Ah, I’m sorry,” I said.

  “A bit late to apologize now.”

  “No, I mean I’m sorry I wasn’t taking this personally enough,” I corrected. “I was treating you like the run of the mill demon when I should have been treating you with far more brutality. I will correct this now.”

  I pulled my arm back and threw a heavy punch while he swung his axe. Our respective weapons collided in the point between us. The black metal clashed against my own scales. I felt a burning sensation as the impact reverberated up my arm before the forces separated us.

  A warm sensation covered my hand. I looked down to see steaming blood oozing from my finger where impact was made. He was significantly stronger with a weapon.

  I suppose we both had to have a moment of hubris.

  “Look at me,” sickly sweet words penetrated my ears.

  Pink mist swirled over the battlefield and filled my nose. A feeling that was akin to…arousal? Something horny pulled my head to the right without thinking. The form of that snake woman was dancing like a stripper with a loan.

  My brain was transported to those dens sequestered away on the outskirts of big towns, in the parts that the cops aren’t that interested in overseeing. It was the places filled with people that had no other choice but to push the limit of what was legal and moral. I played bouncer a few times and the scent of latex and bourbon and bodily fluids had tucked away into a remote corner of my brain. That’s exactly what this mist smelled like.

  Man kills. Man eats. Man fucks. Even someone like me was not immune to those truths. With Yoshitsune ignoring me, I needed to find new outlets in the meantime. She’d understand. It’s hear fault for not answering me. Just one quick one. Five, no ten, no thirty minutes is all that I’d need. I’m sure that the minotaur would understand.

  Oh right, the minotaur.

  “I’m over here, fucker!”

  By the time I had changed my mana stats to resist the alluring spell, I had to quickly change it back to block the overhead swing of the axe. I interlocked my fingers to catch the blade. I felt it dig into the flesh as my feet were pressed into the ground. Deep impressions were pressed into the ground as I halted the blade over my head. Blood dripped from my hands and onto my face but the attack failed to lop off my digits.

  I swiped at his ankles with my razor-covered tail and kicked him away from me.

  I rose my mana again as soon as a whiff of that mist touched my nose. I couldn’t afford to salivate towards that snake bitch. For now, I tried to find the maximum score that I could hold and then build some space.

  First priority, moving that minotaur away from me. I threw a fist, but it now wasn’t in a stalemate with the axe, I was actively losing the duel of power.

  Feeling good about seeming stronger, he took another exaggerated chop down atop me. This time, I had to bitch out of our struggle and sidestep the strike. I swung my hand sideways and slapped the axe blade. The weapon moved even more to the side and smashed into the ground with great force. A plume of magma erupted from the slit in the ground.

  I stood my ground and loaded up a punch that landed directly into the bull’s ribs. Ripples ran across the demons flesh, but he was too large to go flying from a single punch.

  While he tried to recover, I stomped on his ankle. It felt like a slab of granite that I only put a micro fracture into. I had to bend back like a limbo star to avoid the retaliatory strike. I swung again, but he still didn’t budge.

  A skill perhaps? Or did he just weight as much as a tank?

  I slowly worked my way in a circle around him. If I couldn’t move him, I could only do the second best thing. I worked around him until I stood between the bull and the snake.

  I released a spray of [Draconic Breath] that covered the battlefield in acidic mist. The minotaur squinted his eyes and tried to move the mist aside.

  I turned and sprinted away from the bull directly towards the snake woman. I couldn’t have the fight that I wanted as long as she was here. The pink mist disappeared and she looked at me with hateful eyes.

  “You’re in the way,” I said, unloading a deadly punch.

  The snake melted away, to be replaced by a red-haired boy with blue eyes. I was never fooled by the ruse. I knew that the snake wore my son’s skin. But, the body isn’t as simple or as controllable as you sometimes think. My arms flinched reflexively before my mind forcibly took control to follow through.

  It wasn’t as strong as I wanted, but she wasn’t as durable as the minotaur. Her body looked like it had been in an industrial accident with a press. My arm shot through her body directly and I felt her chest against my elbow. The blow had knocked her eyes from her sockets and a spew of blood was forced out of her mouth.

  “Lams!”

  A poof of smoke surrounded me and my arm now was surrounded by wood. Two tiny hands reached out of the earth and snagged the bouncing eyes, sinking back into the dirt with its prize.

  I felt the ground rumble as massive stone walls surrounded me. I was in a narrow corridor that bent sharply to the left. I spread my wings and ascended to the sky, but found a hard invisible wall stop me from going above the height of the walls. I couldn’t see the minotaur or the snake or the fighting that once surrounded us.

  I was trapped in a labyrinthine ability.

  I punched a wall with full force. The stone cracked and I could see the corridor on the other side. Several more punches collapsed the wall and allowed me to step through.

  “When it comes to mazes, it’s best to just go straight through.”