Finally building enough courage to move, the unseen adventurer began to slowly walk from the empty altar. A blanket of fear wrapped around his body tightly, making his movements more difficult to perform as the thunderous stomps of the beast vibrated through the floor.
The breaths of the minotaur were frightening in itself; hot wind expelled from its flared nostrils as it looked over the empty altar.
"—" Bastian paused, freezing in place as he felt the monster's presence.
It was directly behind him, separated only by the marble altar that was but the height of the minotaur's knee. Though he didn't dare turn around to look at it, he could feel it gazing in his direction, looming over as a large shadow cast itself over.
'Don't move. Don't move. Don't move,' he reminded his own body.
The immediate presence of the gargantuan beast was like that of a sharpened axe; as though the edge of a tool of slaughter was pointed at his back, with no way of avoiding its killing swing.
Even with the enchantment of the cowl rending him unseen, he felt naked and defenseless within the scope of the creature's reach. There wasn't enough reading about such an entity that could prepare him for an up-close encounter with something so daunting.
–He had to turn around. It had to be done; even if he knew he was hidden from the minotaur's gaze, if it was impossible to be seen, the primal instincts etched into the deepest depths of his mind couldn't trust that.
Slowly, he turned his gaze, looking up at what stood behind him: the black-armored hybrid of man and bull, terror and brutality, towered with its oversized hammer resting against the ground. Amidst the bitter cold that gripped the harrowing room, the steam that expelled from the flared nostrils of the beast presented an unsettling warmth.
Perhaps most frightening of all though, was that the unfeeling eyes of the monster looked in his direction.
'...Does it…see me?' He realized.
Though it seemed as if its eyes stared straight past him, yet still perceived something lurking around.
The horned colossus leaned forward, lowering its black-clad body as its head was brought within a breath's reach of the invisible human.
"—"
Sitting perfectly still, he felt his heart violently thumping within his chest as his lungs ached to draw another breath. It was painful; as though the lungs inside his body might explode from his inability to exhale the oxygen stuck within him. He wanted to snatch the cowl off of his head, yet its veil was the only thing keeping him from the eyes of the beast.
Yet, the minotaur crouched down onto all fours, bringing its head in front of the human; the size of the beast's skull almost matched the young adventurer's body, with its horns resembling twisted lances.
It sniffed the air with its large nostrils, a heart-sinking action as the breathless dungeon crawler found himself panicked by the action. Even if he was hidden from sight, it wasn't as though his own scent was masked, that much was clear as upon an inquisitive sniff, the horned colossus' face scrunched in response to what it found.
The shift in expression upon the black-clad beast's face was that of fury as its teeth bore and its beady eyes shone with bloodlust, parting its jaws as a bone-chilling call boomed from its throat.
"ROOOAAAGH—!"
Like a maddened storm, wind of heat and cold pressed against the invisible adventurer with the putrid smell of the beast's breath, pushing with such fervor it pushed his hood from his head. As the cowl slipped from his head, he returned to the realm of visibility before the horned giant's gaze.
"Haaah…!" Bastian immediately drew in a breath, but had little time to sit still as he immediately leapt up to his feet.
As he became visible once more, the minotaur reacted instantly, lunging forward on all fours like a wild animal as it snapped its jaws towards the young man. Bastian swiftly rolled to the side, narrowly allowing his foot to escape being taken into the jaws of the minotaur.
"...Shit!" Bastian exhaled through his teeth upon landing on his feet.
There wasn't any time to catch his bearings, as the relentless beast was already bursting towards him, flinging itself forth on its hands and feet, this time attempting to grab hold of him with its right hand. It came in like a wall of black steel, forcing him to duck down as it barely missed.
The frost-touched minotaur spun itself around, rising to its feet as it now wielded its colossal hammer above the lonesome human.
'--Not good,' Bastian thought.
Like a meteor descending from unknown heights, the hammer of overwhelming size crashed down. The experienced dungeon crawler forced himself to move with heightened speed, in that split-second allowing instinct to take over–
"Levin!"
It came naturally in that moment through the bound magic etched onto his arms, awakening with a glow as everything seemed to slow down for just that singular flicker between seconds; the mountainous hammer descended slowly as the brush of frost against his skin held him in a hesitant caressment.
The surge of electrifying power awakened every fiber of muscle within his body, flowing a burst of energy through him as he flung himself to the right. As he threw himself to the side, the hammer collapsed upon the chamber's floor with a massive impact.
It sounded as though an explosion had screamed through the frost ridden lair, as steel clashed against steel, and the biting ice found itself shattered, flung in every direction from the hammer's descent.
"Ngh…" Bastian groaned, holding one of his arms up as a shield to the frosted winds and particles of sharp ice that flew outward.
All of that force alone belonged to the minotaur's gruesome weapon; the boulder of onyx steel that it hoisted up once more like a brutal club.
Bastian caught his breath, feeling as though there were countless tiny cuts of ice in his throat as he inhaled. As he attempted to stand so that he may run in the opposing direction of the horned giant, he found himself immediately collapsing back down.
"Agh–?!"
As he winced in confusion, he realized what the pain that held his body was; his arms and legs cramped and his core felt as though a burning stone swirled in his gut.
This was the pain of the magecraft he was gifted; an untrained miracle forced into use.
'My body can't handle it yet–shit, this is bad…Can I move–no, I have to move!' He told himself.
It felt as though his body had ran a marathon, with his muscles sore and his bones aching, though he forced himself to his feet, managing to stumble back in time just as the minotaur stomped down and slammed its hammer down.
By mere inches, the cube of pitch-black steel missed his flesh, thundering down with such force that it rippled through the ground, causing the adventurer to bounce upward slightly. The vibrations coursed through his body, ringing his skeleton as he felt his brain shudder within his skull.
'If I get hit by that, I'm gone—problem is, for as big as it is, that thing is fast, too!' He thought.