Chapter 34: Exam (14)

The Minotaur thrashed violently against its iron bonds, the rusted chains groaning under the terrifying strain of its raw physical power and colossal weight. Links began to snap like dry twigs one by one, ringing out like gunshot cracks in the vaulted chamber. Tristan knew he had only seconds before the Fallen-class beast tore itself completely free.

He dropped lightly onto a high stone ledge directly above the trapped monster, his boots skidding across the thick coat of dust and stone splinters.

The Minotaur, sensing the predator above, roared and lashed out with its partially freed left arm. Still trailing fifteen feet of heavy, broken iron chain, the beast whipped the metal links upward like a deadly flail. The iron smashed violently into the ledge inches from Tristan’s boots, obliterating a chunk of the stone masonry and showering his legs with razor-sharp debris.

Tristan didn’t even flinch. His Tempered perception tracked the strike before it even left the monster’s shoulder.

"You’re a mindless brute," Tristan muttered aloud, his voice raspy, cutting through the metallic echo of the thrashing beast. "In Flamecrest Legacy, people typically partied up as a six-man raid and had high-level armor debuffs to fight bosses like this. But you see, I’m somewhat special myself."

Tristan drew his simple steel dagger with his right hand. Focusing his expanded core, he pushed the stored concept from his queue directly into the weapon.

"[Cast: Pierce]."

The steel blade flared with a faint, translucent silver light. The edge lost any physical imperfection, radiating a subtle, conceptual aura that promised to ignore physical resistance entirely.

Below him, the Minotaur continued its frenzy. With a violent, frame-shaking heave that tore muscle and hide, it shattered the main chain binding its torso. Reclaiming its massive greataxe with its freed right hand, the beast executed a brutal, upward sweeping strike aimed straight at Tristan’s perch. The wedge of rusted iron cleaved through the stone ledge, spraying dust and stone splinters into the air.

Tristan didn’t leap backward to safety. He kept moving forward.

Channeling his refined Tempered essence into his feet, Tristan landed lightly on the flat of the monster’s ascending axe head, using the creature’s own kinetic upward momentum as a springboard. He vaulted cleanly over its horned head, mid-air driving his boot into the deep, bleeding wound had left earlier on its shoulder. ℴ

The kick pushed the Minotaur off balance, forcing the heavy beast to stagger backward, right into the exact center of the chamber’s weak floor.

Tristan flipped through the air and landed smoothly on the opposite balcony. His breakthrough gave him far superior physical ability. The Minotaur whirled around with a guttural bellow, swinging its axe in a wide, desperate arc that whistled harmlessly through empty air.

’You’re not getting out of this’, Tristan thought, his expression completely cold, devoid of panic.

He extended his left hand toward the stone floor directly beneath the Minotaur’s hooves. Through his heightened vision, he pinpointed the shimmering silver, interlocking threads of structural integrity holding the ancient floor together over the flooded drainage chambers below.

"[Reave: Stability]."

The limestone beneath the beast instantly lost its cohesion. The solid floor dissolved into fine, gray powder, crumbling into a massive, yawning void. With a deafening roar of falling masonry and collapsing iron, the entire central span gave way, sending the screaming Minotaur plunging twelve feet downward into the pitch-black lower vault.

Tristan didn’t hesitate. He didn’t wait for the dust to settle or for the monster to regain its footing.

With his newly enhanced Tempered core, he no longer suffered the crippling backlashes of his ability, his expanding soul reservoir comfortably contained the kinetic friction that used to threaten to split his pathways open.

He stepped off the crumbling ledge, diving headfirst into the dark pit after the falling monster.

As he plunged through the air, Tristan activated the remaining stored concepts in his queue simultaneously. He released the stolen [Momentum] straight into his own falling vector, exponentially multiplying his downward velocity, while applying [Stability] to lock his physical frame into an unyielding, missile-like dive.

The double cast forced a sharp wince from his tight jaw, but he refused to slow down. He accelerated through the darkness like a falling meteor, his silver-glowing dagger aimed straight down.

The Minotaur, half-buried in stone rubble at the bottom of the lower chamber, looked up just in time to see Tristan descending through the cloud of dust.

"Plunge."

Driven by the acceleration of gravity, amplified kinetic momentum, and the absolute conceptual authority of [Pierce], the simple steel dagger passed through the monster’s thick, armored skull as if it were soft, warm wax. The blade buried itself to the hilt directly between the beast’s violet eyes.

The impact was so severe that the Minotaur’s head slammed backward into the bedrock with a sickening, bone-crunching thud.

The beast’s massive limbs twitched once, twice, and then went completely limp. The dark violet light in its eyes flickered violently before dying out forever.

’That wasn’t too bad now was it?’

Tristan landed crouched on the monster’s chest, taking a long, ragged breath as the heavy silence of the lower vault washed over him. His body was battered, his lungs burned, and his core was humming with the aftershocks of the breakthrough.

"Ok maybe it wasn’t that easy." Tristan said out loud.

But he was alive. No, he was better than alive. He was present, and this was only the beginning. Now that he had a taste of pure sweet victory Tristan would continue to chase it trying to reach even higher. After all this is how he got addicted to Flamecrest in the first place.

As he pulled his dagger free with a wet metallic slide, the Minotaur’s massive corpse began to dissolve into fading streams of violet mist. Floating in the stagnant air where its heart had been was a large, flawless gem radiating an overwhelming, concentrated aura of dark energy.

Tristan reached out and caught the Fallen-grade essence stone in his hand. A cold, thoroughly satisfied smirk finally broke across his soot-stained face.