Broly evaded the punch with a jump, but as soon as he was in the air, the minotaur opened his mouth gathering ki in front of it, before shooting it out. The beam was too fast to dodge. Broly could only cross his arms to block the attack. With the impact Broly was sent flying towards the ceiling above the entrance they came from.
He was already embedded deep into the ceiling, but the minotaur still shot out his beam, determined to end Broly right then and there. But before he could do so, it was greeted with 3 different ki blasts. Of course, they couldn't just let him do as he pleases. Taro and Aize rushed at the Minotaur exchanging dozens of blows, as Alea charged up her Crushing Sphere. Her speed in making this sphere substantially increased. The city lords lesson really paid off, as she could now charge her attack up more efficiently with an additional increase of strength.
She threw her Crushing Sphere as soon as it reached its optimum state.
Although her speed has increased tremendously, the boys were already beaten up at the time she sent it out. The minotaur was just too strong and huge. It used its height difference to completely pummel them before they could even come close to its body.
The Minotaur saw the sphere and instinctively sensed the danger from it, so he put all his effort in defending against it. He welcomed the sphere with his two arms, as it was slowly pushed towards the collapsed entrance. Just a few meters away a figure came rushing out off the debris with a ki sphere in his hand.
"Have a taste of this! Eraser Cannon!" Broly threw his sphere at the back of the minotaur. Sandwiched between the spheres, it tried to struggle itself out of the way, but just before it succeeded Taro and Aize send a ki beam from each side, completely surrounding the Minotaur. With a last howl, the Minotaur was reduced to ashes as the ki erupted. The shockwave was no joke underground. It sent the 4 young Saiyans crashing into the cave walls. The dust slowly settled as a voice sounded out.
"This time it is dead for sure, right?" Taro asked with a small chuckle.
"You bastard, after I crawl out of this hole, I will beat you up!" Broly swore at him.
After 2 hours, they recovered most of their wounds and were mostly able to move around. They had healing capsules made of the fruit of might, but unlike the fruit itself it didn't had the same instant regeneration. It only accelerated one's natural healing capabilities.
As Broly stepped back into the hall, he saw the devasted cave resulted by their battle. The hall they were in, was expanded by quite a bit, and the river flowed towards the center of the pit on the ground.
Broly saw the others step out of their respected holes. Even after recovering for 2 hours they still drew deep breaths. They were still exhausted to the extreme after the fierce fight they just had.
The Minotaur they just fought had an incredible high tenacity. Without Broly they would have likely died against that Minotaur. Although they thought themselves as quite experienced in missions. This made them realize that right now even a random mission could end their life if they weren't alert enough or overconfident in their abilities.
Now after the cave entrance collapsed, they had to find another way out. Since there were only two ways, one was the used to be entrance and the other was swimming upwards the river. Without other choices they began to swim the river upstream. After an hour, they reached a small pond created by a 20-meter high waterfall. There was a small area to the side of the pond with a hole on a wall and what seemed to be the exit a few meters next to it.
"Hey guys come here! Look what I have found!" Taro shouted after he entered the hole in the wall. The flew towards him and as soon as they entered, a bright red light shone at them. It was a gigantic blood crystal. A 3 meters tall crystal. Besides that, there were scratches on the walls and other marks that pointed to the possibilities that the minotaur used to live here. The place was giving off a heavy stench of blood as well.
Theis underlined that thought, considering the previous living conditions with the bat's corpses. It was clearly the living place of the Minotaur, they wondered why it slept way down the river. Was it frightened away?
"Let's take it with us and let's go to the village. Stay another night there." Alea said as she closed her nose with two fingers.
"Agreed." "Sure."
Aize carried the crystal on his back, as they moved out of the underground pond with the exit not far from the Minotaur's layer. After they left, a black creature unnoticeably came out of the water and flew into the waterfall.
Only an hour later the group emerged at the side of a mountain. After orientating themselves with their map, they flew towards the village, to spend another night there.
Arriving at the chief's place, they first took a bath, before dropping into their beds. The others immediately fell asleep. Broly, however, used the time to meditate for a moment. He was inching closer to his full control. Even now, the amount of his S-cells tremendously increased over the past month.
In the morning of the next day, they said their goodbyes to the chief before flying back towards Elpis in only 4 hours. After their battle against the Minotaur they all received a Zenkai Boost, giving them a leap in their strength.
Arriving in Elpis, they headed straight towards the reception who received completed missions. It was not in the city lord's palace but at a public mission center, where would usually hand over their missions as well. The crowd stared at the young group and the gigantic red crystal they carried with them.
They began discussing the group in a hushed voice.
"Isn't that the champion? It is the first time seeing him out."
"Yeah, you are right! But more importantly what is with this absurd blood crystal. I never heard of blood crystals, bigger than half a meter!"
The receptionist accepted the complete mission but only took a tiny part of the blood crystal. They were advised to bring it to the leader of the mission center, as he would handle the more extraordinary finds.