Chapter 19: Ghost From Another Time
"Where did you learn to be a Minotaur?"
"What the hell? Who goes there?" the shadow from before reappeared inside the flickering room at the worst possible moment imaginable.
The situation on was terribly dire.
April was still avoiding and battling these creatures on her side of the room.
Junk was getting ganged up and immobilized by the two other ones.
"I assume I am disturbing you. You look very busy."
"What do you want from me? Why are you talking to me?" Junk was getting irritated, to say the least. He was getting much angrier as he desperately continued to fight the spider monsters.
Who is he talking to? I can't hear or see anyone, April thought as she was still battling the dangerous spiders.
"I am going to repeat to you the same question I already asked you before and then, I'll leave you alone: Where did you learn to be a Minotaur exactly?" the shadow with the strange voice asked him.
"What do you mean, where did I learn to be a Minotaur? I wear this stupid armor. That's all. I am a human and I transform into a demon-Minotaur-knight-hero thing I guess. I don't know what to tell you. Nobody ever taught me anything ever," he replied.
"I am asking you because a real Minotaur wouldn't get his ass handed to him by two simply spiders like this. It just wouldn't happen. And by the way, never say that the armor is stupid because I AM the armor you're wearing."
"What? You're this stupid armor and can talk to me?"
"I told you that to call me stupid again!"
"Right… It's just so hard to believe. You also just said you used to be the guardian of this dungeon? What is that supposed to mean? Was this originally your home or something?" the beast asked the shadow that kept tormenting him.
"This place used to be my maze before the Araknar's arrival. And yes, I used to be a living armor before someone needed to wear me."
"What happened here?" he said as he continued fighting.
"A Minotaur isn't a Minotaur without something or someone to protect. And as far as you are concerned, you seem to be treating this dark witch as this person you are guarding, if we can call her that. From what I'm feeling right now, I can't guarantee she won't be dead by the time you come back to her," the distorted voice that was seemingly connected to the shadow in the room announced to him. Revealing that she could be in grave danger as he was still battling these two spider monsters.
"The Witch Queen is in danger?" Junk said as his eyes suddenly opened up wider than ever before. He lost control. He moved faster than ever before during this underground battle. He pushed both creatures off his back. Smirked as realized he had this strength and power inside of him all along. Knowing that the only one who could still keep him alive through the use of the mana milk was in danger motivated him to keep fighting even more. After pushing the monsters away from him, he ran up to one and stomped on his freaking head. Destroying it. The other spider was still up for a battle. That one tried beating Junk in terms of speed, which he had a lot of chance of doing so since Junk was a pretty slowly individual, but not now. The Minotaur was much too determined to make it out of this room as soon as possible, so he could offer his support to his Queen. When the second spider monster jumped up in the air, attempting to attack him, Junk thought he knew what to do. He thought he knew how to react, which in his mind was to raise his hoof in the air and to attempt to kick the creature right in the face.
"Come at me, you son of a bitch," Junk said to the monster.
"Careful! Don't let them bite you! They carry a deadly poison."
"Um. Okay," then, at the very last second, Junk swiftly changed strategies and opted for something a tad bit more defensive and safe. Instead of slowly raising his hoof in the air and trying to kick and then stomp the second spider monster, he ultimately decided to fish for him as he jumped into his direction with his right hand. He caught him! He caught him at the perfect moment. The shadow was right. The spider tried biting him in the hope to poison him. This would have happened if he didn't know about it and if hadn't been warned by it. Holding the spider monster in his hand, witnessing it moving around a lot and screeching, Junk decided to end things for this one and snap his neck. The creature then stopped moving nearly right way. There was no life left in it anymore. Not too long after, Junk turned his back where the shadow used to be in the room. "Thank you," but it had vanished again.
Realizing that the shadow as gone, the Minotaur threw the spider monster away and ran to April, who was still actively fighting for her life.
However, she was surely taking a lot of pleasure in battling them.
She could be heard grunting quite a bit as she beautifully jumped in the air to avoid their poisonous attacks.
Then, she struck back whenever she could, using her bow, shooting dozens and dozens of arrows at them in the hope to defeat them all.
Her big, freely bouncing breasts couldn't stop moving as she avoided their dangerous attacks. Her sexy and bare armpits were also seen quite a bit as she leapt in the air with her arms stretched out the way they were.
"Um. A bit of help would be nice here."
"April. But you appear to be enjoying yourself quite a bit, defeating them all, no?"
"I'm not! I mean… I am… These are tough."
"I don't think these creatures are any menace to your life right now. I'll go see if The Witch Queen is okay, and then we are going to come back for you. I won't be too long," he said as he turned his hooves around and left the room the same direction September used earlier.
"No. Junk, come back."
But it was too late. He was already out of ear sight.
***
The survival's instinct kicked in inside of him more than ever. The fear of knowing that his Witch Queen could possibly be in danger was one of the worst things he could imagine. If September were to die, this would automatically mean imminent death for Junk. With no mana milk, this meant no potential chance of survival for the Minotaur, and he hadn't spent such a long portion of his life in jail for him to dead abruptly like this. Also, he would lie if he didn't admit that he was already starting to have feelings for her.
Junk ran and ran in the cavernous corridors of this dungeon without any light to keep him safe. He wasn't going blind. Not seeing anything at all. He was risking his life to make sure The Witch was okay. Being a tall and hulking beast, attempting to navigate in these dark corridors, he naturally, accidentally came into collision with a few of the walls. Not turning at the right time because he didn't know where or when to turn because of the intense obscurity here. The prison he used to be in was dark, but not this dark. He wasn't prepared for this underground location. But he kept going. Never gave up. Not matter how bad his sharp horns accidentally came into collision with a bunch of the walls surrounding him, he was always able to pull them out of the rocky walls and keep going.
***
When he finally made it to another room where he find something. Anything. His hooves entered in contact with a couple of things on the ground. He didn't know what they were at first, but the more he touched them, not stomping on them, but touching them with his hooves, the more it was becoming more and more obvious. These things on the ground of this new room were the same things that attacked him and April earlier in the other room. The spider monsters. They were a couple of them all around him on the ground. He kicked a few. No movement. All of them were dead. Someone had defeated them and ended their lives. Another type of monster? Something worse? Junk wasn't exactly certain, but he kept looking in the darkness. Not looking with his eyes truthfully because that would have meant that he could see. Which he could still not. But he continued searching in the darkness. Searching for a trace of his Queen. He wasn't too certain about the idea of calling her name or not, in fear to attract possibly nearby enemies. He didn't sense anything, but this place had recently revealed itself to be full of surprises, to say the least. He still had to be extremely careful here.
Should I be calling her name? What if there are more of them nearby? Should I be calling her name? He thought to himself. You know what? Perhaps that one shadow thing which spoke to me earlier is more right than I thought it was. What if I need to take my place in this world a bit more firmly and act like a Minotaur for once? Fuck it! I won't wait forever to let everyone know that I am here, he kept thinking. Focusing. Feeling better about affirming his presence here, and stop worrying so much about the possibility of all these other creatures and monsters here. Stop worrying about the darkness so much as well. He felt like he had to do something.
"Witch Queen. Witch Queen! Are you in here?" he shouted.
There was nothing at first. No response. No, nothing at all.
"Witch Queen! Tell me where to find you!"
Then, through the ultimate silence, through the darkness, something behind the beast was suddenly ignited. He heard buzzing as something was lit on. He slowly turned his head around. Just to look. Two sources of light had appeared into the room. Two bright orange lights. The jack-o-lantern breastplates! They were back! Which meant that she was also back. At first, the Minotaur didn't see her. Only her bright and vibrant breastplates. Almost as if the jack-o-lanterns were moving in the air through the darkness, levitating by themselves. Without any form of body. Without any breasts to protect. This was the feeling the Minotaur had when he moved.
"What?" it all happened so fast that he wasn't sure.
"I'm here," the beautiful, sexy, commanding, and deep voice of the With Queen was finally heard again. The voice was coming from behind him. He was reassured with he first heard her.
"Witch Queen! Are you alright?" he asked her, concerned.
"Naturally. Why such an odd question?" she asked him.
"I thought you were in danger. All these creatures. I wasn't there to protect you, and I feared that you were in trouble."
"I wasn't. I can guarantee you that right now," she said.
"These spiders," he said as he kicked one of them with his right hoof, "who killed them?" he asked her, deeply curious.
"I did," she simply and calmly replied to him.
"Sometimes I feel like you handle yourself just fine with enemies. Do you really need a bodyguard?"
"I need your help with the breeding process a lot. I enjoy thinking of you as my bodyguard as well, but as you can see, I can handle myself pretty nicely," she said as she stepped closer to him. Lightning the corpses of the spider creatures at the same time. Allowing Junk to look at them for the first time. They had been massacred. He didn't expect her to do such a mess.
"You did this?"
"What's the problem?"
"Nothing."
Damn. I underestimated her. She is really dangerous. I better not piss her off. Ever. Otherwise… Junk thought.
"You didn't think it would have been a better idea to collect them instead? For your army?" he asked her.
"No. I didn't want them."
"But why?"
"Where is April?" she interrupted him.
"Still in the other room. Don't worry. She is fine. I killed all of them before leaving her alone."
"Liar."
"What?"
"You left her alone with a few of them, right?"
"Um… Well… That's… How do you know?"
"It's so nice to see you play with others again. Although, you two don't seem to be getting a long too well," a menacing, masculine voice interrupted them.
Araknar was still around.