Slave Girl 2: Chapter 126 (Patreon)

With the great beast’s attention centered on Rosa any ounce of cowardice I had inside of me is eradicated by my core need to protect the ones I love. I stride forward with my father’s dagger gripped tightly in one hand. In stride I dip down to scoop up one of the chunks of stone that littered the ground around the platform. Seeing my courage inspires it in my crew and I was about halfway there when I had allies to both my right and left.

“This thing does not leave this clearing.” I say again, bold and brave. “The gods have decided to test our brotherhood. Let us show them what mortal men are capable of!”

With grim determination in their faces the men call out their support. To my surprise it was Lucas who calls loudest. “To battle!”

“RAAAHHH!”

As a unit we charge the menacing brute and soon the clearing rings out with battle cries and the clang of weapons off of metal. From the creature’s right it is battered by Quique staff and slashed by Oeneus’ flashing knives. From its left comes Julian’s heavy ax while Lucas blocks and parries with his homemade shield and wooden training gladius. And from further out arrows from Gyasi and Cassie’s bows dart through the night air to ricochet off of its copper skin. Meanwhile I am directly in front of it hammering it with the stone in my left hand and stabbing with the dagger in my right. Without even an acknowledgment of the warriors surrounding it on all sides it advances toward Rosa. I try to push it back but it had a strength that could not be competed with so I renew my focus on stone and blade.

Had it been bronze or iron it surely would have been a charge to nowhere but thanks to the creature being cast of copper our furious flurry of blows show their mark upon its hide. Dents, scratches, surface slices, and even fine cracks exposing its hollow interior begin to appear across it metal body as the group of us lay into it with all we had.

Soft as copper was however it was not as vulnerable as flesh. Slashes that would have gutted a living opponent leave but scrape and great blows that could have severed limbs ring loud but leave just a scored crater in its still moving arm. The strikes could warp or bend but they did not wound. The metal minotaur felt no pain and our best shots could barely even slow it down. Worse yet, as the remaining blood on its body was slowly drawn into its nostrils its shape began to reform itself before our stunned eyes!

“We cannot kill this thing!” I hear Lucas’ bark among the din.

“We’ll break it to pieces if need be!” I call back, then cry out. “ROSA!”

“I’m…trying. Rrrrrrr!” A sharp wildcat snarl enters the cacophony.

It takes another untroubled step despite our combined fury.

An arrow splints against its neck and behind me I hear Cassie swear. “Fuck! That’s my last one. My Lady, we must move.”

“I must…concentrate.”

“Rosa!”

“Wait!” Rosa gasps. “I am such a silly thing.”

I do now know what Rosa had done but all at once the blood still clinging to its body is sucked in unhindered! As Aristocles’ blood enters the nostrils we watch is horror as all of our efforts upon its form is erased in the course of a few seconds!

“ROSA!”

“I’ve got this Master.” She calls. “Let’s see how the big guy deals with a hundred foot fall.”

Just then, above its long tapered horns, one of the portals from Rosa’s bracelets appears. Through the magical disk it rained leaves and twigs as the other side rose beyond the canopy until I saw nothing but black until a distant flash of lightning lights up the undersides of the clouds above. She was about to send the thing high into the air then let it fall. Brilliant!

Or, it would have been brilliant. As the magic of the bracelet sinks to swallow the minotaur the plane of the portal flashes blue and a piercing whine splits the air as one magic meets another. The portal disappears in a brilliant flash leaving us all momentarily reeling and blind.

“HAH!” Rosa gasps from behind me.

“Rosa?”

“I’m okay. I’m okay.” She says. “That’s not going to work.”

“What is happening!?” Mutters Julian.

“The darkest hour.” Lucas whispers. “The hour of magic and monsters!”

“Fight damn it! Fight!” I shout as I renew my attack through spotted vision. “Rosa…stop that blood!”

“Yes Master.”

Aristocles’ blood had almost been completely consumed, there was just a bit left streaked down the thing’s muzzle and neck, but what there is Rosa slows once more.

“Move Rosa, move!” Cassie says, nearing panic and her voice far closer than I liked. “We must move!”

“I must concentrate. Rrrr. Do not jostle me.”

“RRRRR!” Laying my shoulder into its gut I heave forward with all of my strength, to very little effect.

“This is hopeless.” Says Oeneus with another double slash of his blades.

“We fight!” I slam the rock to dent its chest, a dent almost identical to one I’d already laid into it earlier. “Rosa will defeat it.”

“Miss Rosa!” Grunts Quique.

“The ring!” She exclaims. “The body is only being manipulated. The magic is in the ring!”

I look up to the thick ring piercing the septum and hanging from the bull-man’s nostrils. With nary a thought I slash down across it with my pugio. A loud clang rings out as I strike it true. Unfortunately the ring was crafted of far sterner metal than the copper body. And then, for the first time since this battle had begun, the minotaur lowers its head to take notice of its enemies!

On pure trained instinct I dodge left just before the same killing blow that had ended Aristocles could do the same to me. I hit it twice across the arm as it crashes into the earth but it does nothing to slow it down. It spins to strike with the back of it’s huge hand. Julian had his ax raised high when the blow catches him squarely in his exposed ribs. There is a sickening crack of bones as he is thrown aside like a child’s toy. His lands flat on his back, his weapon clattering to the ground ten feet away, and rolls to cover his shattered ribs while letting out a tortured moan.

I weave around another punch but again it doesn’t waste the momentum. My blows are ignored once more as it follows through to make impact with the side of Quique’s head. The Hispanian is knocked cold on the spot. At least I prayed he was only knocked out. His dearest friend lets out a cry of fear and rage as he drives both knives into the thing’s back. For his efforts he feels the full brunt of its great head driven into his chest. He staggers back a step…then collapses. On the ground he writhes and frantically gulps for breath.

Dropping his wooden sword and taking up one of Oeneus’ knives Lucas shouts to his sister. “Cassie! Flee for home! Warn them!”

“I am not going anywhere!”

Lucas deflects a punch from the beast and curses through clenched teeth. With its focus on Lucas I take the moment to hammer my stone as hard as I could against its snout. The stone shatters to pieces but nose buckles under it and a crack is opened up down the center.

“GFF!” The wind is forced from me as it flattens me with a brutal backhand to my shoulder.

“NO!” Booms an echoing voice that seemed to come from the trees. I might have thought so had I not recognized it. “NOOOOO!”

Thrown to the side it was only now that I could see my Lady in all of her furious glory! Her eyes shone pure green, the verdant light coursing up her demon horns brightly to their very tips and even emanating from the scar on the back of her hand. All around her the forest nymphs had gathered to form a great cloud of swirling, glowing motes of light. Amongst them blew a whirlwind of loose green leaves and pink flower petals. Her hair and dress floated as if on some steady upward wind. And at her side, bristled and growling and ready to attack, Danae’s slitted eyes gleamed with the same light as her master’s.

“YOU WILL NOT HARM HIM!” Rosa eyes narrow and shine brighter! Her fanged mouth open in a savage snarl she pulls her shaking hands in toward her.

The great minotaur reels. For the first time it felt a blow that truly hurt it. From its nose blood begins to pour.

Everything else forgotten the monster refocuses on the smallest of us and its only real threat.

On my feet again I hurl myself into the side of the beast, my dagger a blur of steel. Between Rosa and the beast Cassie stands stalwart with nothing but her bare hands to fight with. Rushing to her side comes Lucas, shield raised to defend his sister. While opposite me Gyasi hammers it with fist sized rocks clutched in each hand.

One by one we fall. Gyasi is swatted like a fly. Brave Cassie and her loyal brother swept aside in one swooshing swipe. While I am lifted high into the air and thrown with fearsome force into one of the broad tree trunks.

Vision bleary, gasping for breath, my flesh refusing to obey my scrambled mind’s orders I struggle helplessly as the minotaur lowers its horns and charges my Lady!

Slave, lover, friend, mother, Lady, beloved. NO! The distance was too far. The horns were closing too fast. I can only watch as my world is taken from me.

Until…emerging from out of the inky black comes the pale face of death. A creature nearly as legendary in these parts as the Minotaur itself. Into the fray enters a raging, roaring, frothing, wild-eyed, ax-wielding berserker from the North!

Chapter 127