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85.71% Between Worlds (To be Rebooted) / Chapter 16: The Bull-Headed Man

Chapter 16: The Bull-Headed Man

Rasz was now standing 5 meters from the gaping mouth of the stone cave. The cave was at the other end of the clearing, the opposite end of where he and Mia had seated and eaten under the covers of the leaves of one of the biggest trees in the area a moment ago. Right now, hiding behind that same tree, with her right arm strapped onto the Löwe Shield's straps, was Mia. As instructed by him, Mia had remained hidden and quiet as to not accidentally drew the attention of whatever creature that he was about to lure out of the stone cave at this very moment.

Stroking the five different colored crystals of the Elemental Glove on his right hand, Rasz sent a silent prayer to the Heavens for the crazy thing he was about to do. That even if they were not interested in protecting him, at the very least they should keep Mia safe as she was only a bystander who was forced to be in this situation.

With his body in the position that would make it easier for him to shift between offense and defense quickly, Rasz took out Eisen Blue from its scabbard. He took several deep breaths in and extending his gloved hand, Rasz summoned <Fire> onto his palm. He gathered the burning red flame, forming it into a fireball twice the size of a tennis ball and then fired it into the mouth of the cave.

All was still and quiet for a few seconds, the sounds of the forest suddenly cut off, even the surrounding air seemed rather keen on making itself invisible for a while. Then, coming from the direction of the cave, breaking the still silence, was a loud berserk cry of an angry creature. One can even felt the very air itself had vibrated with that mad cry.

Even Mia whose position was very far from the cave had to cover her ears for fear that her eardrums might explode if she didn't. Even more so, was Rasz who was standing mere meters from the mouth of the cave — he was dealt with the heaviest blow. However, under his quick thinking and years of experience, he had summoned <Wind> and had managed to surround himself immediately with a wall of wind just as the piercing cry reached his position.

Just as the berserk cry ended, came a set of heavy stomping footfalls.

Stomp, stomp, stomp!

Stomp, stomp, STOMP!

Stomp, STOMP, STOMP!

The sound of the stomping footfalls became louder as it came closer to the mouth of the cave with every step forward the Bestial being took.

Whatever it was that was coming out, based on the stomping sound it made alone, wasn't a creature that Rasz should be facing alone. Furthermore, to make things worst, from its cry just now, Mia knew that it wasn't feeling happy at all at suddenly being blasted with a fire (Not that anyone would).

Out of fear for Rasz's safety and her own sheer of curiosity, even though Rasz had told her to remain properly hidden behind the tree trunk, she still went to peek at the clearing from the edges of the tree trunk.

STOMP, STOMP, STOMP!

As the Bestial being neared the entrance of the cave, Mia at first couldn't make out anything, but a silhouette of a very tall thing. Then, as it crossed from the shadowed to the brighter part of the cave's mouth, she began to see what seemed to be the snout of a cow and even its hooves. "But that's impossible, that thing is standing..." thought Mia, puzzled at what the creature might be.

The Bestial being stomped forward some more, displaying itself to the bright light of the clearing. When the full appearance of the being came to Mia's sight, she became alarmed at what she saw and her fear turned to dread as she realized how big it was.

Its height was more than 2 meters tall. With a huge muscular man-like body, the Bestial being could easily weight several hundred pounds. However, the most striking thing about it was the two colorful gemstones that were attached to each of its ears — one large and one small. The presence of such beautiful gemstones was a great contrast to the monstrosity of a creature that was wearing them, that it looked really out of place.

The appearance of the Bestial being combined that with the gemstones worn on its ears confirmed Mia's guess about what kind of creature it was, and if Mia suspicions were right, then that creature was at least 700 pounds in weight. Comparing that heaviness, its size and its muscular body to the young man that wanted to try and steal the gemstones it has, was laughable by any standards.

Nevertheless, Mia didn't have much opportunity to think about it that much as the creature — the bull-headed man — turned its attention towards Rasz standing a few meters from it. Rasz remained unfazed by the blood-shot eyes of the bull-headed man that was staring at him with killing intent.

Rasz still remained rooted on the spot, even as the Bestial being started to hunch its shoulders and lowered its sharp-horned head, directing them towards his position. Then, the bull-headed man started to paw its hooves on the ground in anger, sending dirt flying behind and over the back. It huffed several heavy breaths out of his mouth, and without warning launched itself forward to strike at Rasz.

When Mia saw that Rasz still remained unmoved as the bull-headed man rushed towards him, she thought that he had been paralyzed by fear and wanted to do something to help him. However, before Mia could do anything rash, she saw that as the creature was 10 steps away from Rasz, he had quickly dove sideways in a rolling motion.

The being, noticing that Rasz had rolled sideways decided to stop in its tracks to whirl around towards the same direction. However, before the dust had fully settled from his motion, Rasz had quickly got up from the ground and ran towards the back of the bull-headed man. With the momentum gained from the sprint, Rasz jumped upwards and pierce his Magic Sword into the back of the creature.

The bull-headed man roared in pain. It tried to grab onto Rasz that was hanging from its back, but before the creature's arm could reach him, Rasz had already pull the sword out and jumped off onto the ground. The bull-headed man turned around to face Rasz once again. Its anger had reached a new height after being wounded, from its nose, smoke started to be emitted. Its breathing also grew heavier, that one could actually see the wisps of breath coming out of its mouth.

Hunching its shoulders and lowering its horned head, the bull-headed man once again charged towards Rasz. He then dodged once again to the side at the last few seconds. However, unlike before, the bull-headed man knew that it shouldn't stop within its tracks, so as to not give Rasz any chances to strike at its unprotected back. Rather than stopping, it kept on running ahead reaching a safe distance from Rasz, before turning around to once again charged at Rasz.

Though Rasz kept dodging away, the bull-headed man didn't give up and continued to charge towards Rasz, again and again, and again. Even though it got faster and learning from its previous charging mistakes, it was still far from getting the chance to strike its horn at Rasz even once.

Mia who was watching the events folding in front of her from behind the tree trunk had a small smile on her face. The thought had crossed her mind before, but Rasz's speed and reactions to danger were actually much faster than any men. For the first time, she began to think that Rasz might have a chance against the monstrous Bestial being, after all.

However, just as that victory thought crossed her mind, the bull-headed man did something odd. Just as it ran ahead after charging at Rasz, it didn't turn around, but instead picked up its speed and headed straight into the stone cave and didn't come out even after a while.

Both Mia and Rasz were puzzled by this situation. "It couldn't be that the bull-headed man actually ran away with its tail between its legs, would it?" they both thought.

Suddenly, they heard a banging sound came from inside the cave.

Bam, Bam, Bam!

Different from the piercing cry and the stomping hooves of the bull-headed man, this sound sounded like something heavy was being hit on a stone. As an answer to their question, when the banging sound came nearer to the entrance of the cave, the outer walls of the stone cave shook with each banging sound echoed out of the cave. Dust was raining down from both the outer and inner wall of the cave as the cave was being hit by something heavy.

BAM, BAM, BAM!

The sound came as the bull-headed man once again appeared at the cave's mouth. As it once again came out of the entrance, Mia and Rasz could see that it had now brought a weapon along with it. The weapon was a heavy hammer. The length of its handle was as long as the being's forearm, and merely judging on how the bull-headed man had handled it, the hammerhead should be at least 100 pounds in weight.

The bull-headed man swung the hammer sideways, crashing it on the outer wall of the cave's entrance. For a moment, dust flew in the air where the hammer had struck down and small pieces of rocks can be seen crumbling down. Where the hammer had landed on the wall, was now a small gouge about half a meter long and a foot deep. The bull-headed man then looked at Rasz and sneered at him, it was obvious that it had done it to showcase the heavy hammer's power.

"If Rasz, were to get hit by that thing..." thought Mia, extremely worried about Rasz's safety.

Instead of charging like so many other times, the bull-headed man simply stomped forward briskly towards Rasz direction, with the heavy hammer in his right hand's grip. Again, Rasz remained standing where he was, but from the way he had positioned his body, Rasz was prepared to move when he needed to.

Five feet away from Rasz's position, the bull-headed man began to swing the hammer up. When Rasz saw that, he quickly moved sideways to avoid the downwards motion that will surely follow the swinging action. However, unexpectedly the bull-headed man was a step forward in predicting Rasz actions this time. Just as Rasz began to move sideways, the bull-headed man turned its head towards the direction that he had taken and swiped the hammer diagonally sideways towards him. It had even managed to take a step forward as it swung down, to shorten the gap between itself and Rasz, thus adding to the damage that Rasz will have to take.

Rasz was hit hard by the heavy hammer. The force from the swing sent him flying 5 meters away, where he hit a tree and fell down hard on the ground. Even though he had received a heavy blow, with his fast speed, Rasz had managed to avoid death as he noticed the trajectory of the bull-headed man's swing changed in the last second. He had even managed to envelop himself with <Earth> before he hit the tree. However, being hit by a solid heavy metal like that had wounded Rasz quite heavily. Lying on the ground, Rasz threw up a mouthful of blood.

The bull-headed man seemed satisfied at being able to hit his target at last, that it began to smile creepily. Just as it wanted to walk up towards Rasz to deal the death blow, it suddenly heard a movement coming from somewhere inside the dense forest.

Mia who couldn't simply watch Rasz being killed by the bull-headed man, purposely drawn the attention of the creature by making a noise. Just as she expected, when the bull-headed man noticed her presence, it began to turn its attention towards her. Thus, leaving its heavily injured prey on the ground, for the more exciting hunt on its new prey.


Chapter 17: Conflicting Elements

When Rasz found himself laying on the ground after he was sent flying by the swinging force of the bull-headed man's heavy hammer, facing the gleeful face of his monstrous attacker, he had since then resigned to his fate of being a dead man. Even though he had summoned <Earth> to absorb the impact from hitting the tree and landing on the ground, Rasz had still been exposed to the brunt of the attack from the heavy hammer.

Even now Rasz could still feel the blood roiling in his chest forcing him to throw another mouthful of blood. The pain had also spread all over his torso, a repercussion from the heavy force of the hammer slamming hard on him. If one were to lift up his shirt, they would probably see a really bad bruise had formed on his body, especially on his chest area.

Back then, he had been really glad to know that, at the very least he had kept Mia safe when he had told her to remain hidden behind the tree. All Mia needed to do was wait until the bull-headed man had returned to his stone cave before leaving the area. The Löwe Shield will definitely keep her safe until she left the Beast Forest. The only regretful thing was that he had not managed to fulfill his promise to send her to the Dream Star Shop. That itself might have been a blessing in disguise since surely Mia was better off than having to deal with that mischievous devil.

Just then, Rasz heard a noise coming from the dense forest, in the same direction where he had left Mia moments ago.

"Mia..." He knew that Mia had purposely done that to save him. Rasz's heart began to fill with dread.

Thus, as the bull-headed man stomped off towards the direction of the dense forest, Rasz quickly turned his wounded and shaking body slowly facing down on the ground, and then pushed up hard as he tried to get himself off the ground, but failed.

"Mia..." Rasz called out once again.

In his desperation, Rasz summoned <Lightning> using the Elemental Glove and shot it towards the bull-headed man. A strip of white light can be seen flashing towards the bull-headed man and striking it, but the creature didn't as much as flinch at the attack. Rather, it seemed like it was annoyed.

Just as the bull-headed man wanted to turn back towards the source of the annoyance, a female's voice shouted from the dense forest, drawing its attention, "Hey, you ugly cow! Why don't you come and get me, rather than going after a wounded person?! Or is your weight holding you back for you to come stomping over?" Mia taunted the bull-headed man. She tried hard to make herself sounded contemptuous.

The creature bought through her ploy and completely ignored Rasz half-crawling on the ground. For the bull-headed man, it didn't matter who it went after first, it'll definitely get the both of them in the end. Besides, the young man in the green cloak pretty much had one foot in the grave already being that injured. It can always come back to smash the bones in his body later. The bull-headed man was clearly still feeling revengeful about what had happened before.

Seeing that the creature stomping off once again towards Mia's direction, Rasz summoned <Fire> this time and shot at it, while shouting, "Hey, aren't you gonna finished me off first?!" Rasz still hasn't given up on trying to save Mia, even though he knew that she was being as persistent about his safety as he was of hers.

However, rather than buying Rasz's words like it did Mia's, the bull-headed sneered at him instead as something dawn on its mind. Looking at the Bestial being's expression, Rasz turned pale as he realized he had just signed a death warrant for Mia by being persistent like this.

"MIA!!! Run!!! Just run away right now!" screamed Rasz

The bull-headed then turned its attention away from the despairing Rasz. It once again stomped off towards the dense forest, and towards where it had seen the young woman. All the while, a gleeful expression was plastered on its face as it knew how important Mia was to Rasz.

******

"Mia..." Rasz said full of misery as he punched the ground with his fist.

"I need to get to her, right now!" shouted Rasz in his mind.

He reached into a hidden pocket on his shirt by his chest and took out a single black pill. Without any hesitation, he put it inside his mouth and munched down on it. After Rasz swallowed the pill, nothing happened for the first few seconds, but then suddenly his brows scrunched up as his expression turned into one of extreme pain. He clenched his fists so tightly that his nails ended up cutting through the skin of his palms, thus drawing thin streaks of blood. Then, Rasz started to roll around on the ground, while screaming and shouting in pain.

After a minute went up, Rasz who had previously barely able to turn himself around had managed to stand up straight on his two feet, as if the last scene where he had been hit squarely on his chest with the bull-headed man's heavy hammer had never happened.

Without wasting any time, Rasz picked up his fallen Magic Sword and rushed towards the direction where Mia was surely now fighting for her life against a monstrous bull-headed creature which was at least 7 times her own weight.

******

THUNG, THUNG, THUNG!

The bull-headed man kept on its rampaging madness since the time when it had first scented Mia behind that big tree. It had slung its heavy hammer on its back. Then, using its sharp horns that could pierce through human skin as easily as if it was a paper, it had endlessly struck on the invisible protective wall that had projected out from the Löwe Shield, upon the bull-headed man's mad charging.

As scared as Mia was, she kept on holding out the shield that was strapped on securely on her right arm as steadily as she could, while crouching low on the ground. She had been in that position ever since she first heard the sounds of thumping of hooves on the soil as the bull-headed man came stomping into the forest. She had kept herself hidden behind the same big tree that Rasz had left her, but somehow, the Bestial being still knew where she was even though she had never shown herself to it - even during the time when she had drawn its attention away from Rasz before.

Scenting her presence behind the tree, the bull-headed man had come charging right through the tree trunk, surprising Mia completely as she borne witness to the monstrous strength of the creature right in front of her eyes. The Löwe Shield had kept her safe then, protecting her behind an invisible and unbreakable sturdy wall.

Just then, coming from her left side, she heard the sound of someone running towards their direction, and as Mia poke her head out to look from behind the shield, she saw that it was Rasz. Even though she was puzzled to see that the heavily injured Rasz, had managed to not just get up, but running as well, without showing the slightest signs of ever being hurt, Mia was really glad that he had come for her.

Instead of heading towards Mia right away, Rasz kept on sprinting towards the bull-headed man's direction. As he began to close in on the being's position, the Elemental Glove worn on his right hand, glowed blue and red at the same time signaling the summoning of <Wind> and <Fire>. Rasz enveloped himself in both of the elements. With the help of <Wind> he became as fast and as brutal as the turbulent storm, and while holding out Eisen Blue in front of him with the power of <Fire> focusing itself around the blade, Rasz has made himself a spear of wind and fire.

The spear attack charged straight towards the bull-headed man, who was taken by surprise by the sudden intervention. It had only managed to cross its muscled arms in front of itself when the attack reached it. The powerful attack had forcefully pushed back the bull-headed man a few meters from Mia's spot.

Before the energy of the attack had fully died out, Rasz ran towards Mia and quickly fell into a one-knee position behind the Löwe Shield along with Mia behind the shield's protection. Mia turned to face Rasz and had just begun to speak when she heard the sounds of mad stomping came towards them. Then, she felt the vibrations coursing through her arms as something hard and heavy struck the shield's invisible wall.

As it turned out, even the powerful attack coming from the two most compatible elements didn't as much as put a scratch on the bull-headed man. Other than the strong blade of the Eisen Blue, any of the elemental magic attacks that Rasz's had used so far, didn't even bother the bull-headed man. Rather, it seemed to cause it to become even angrier.

"Elemental magic attack doesn't seem to work on this thing. I need to strike on it directly with the Magic Sword," mumbled Rasz to himself.

When Mia heard Rasz's words, she realized that Rasz had no idea what kind of creature he was truly facing. Without turning around, she said one word to the young man behind her, "Water."

"What?" asked Rasz as he was pulled from his thoughts of planning for his next actions, by Mia's single word.

"Water element will work against this creature," said Mia.

"Water?" Rasz shook his head against Mia's suggestion. "Minotaur is an Earth element creature. Water and Earth elements can be quite unpredictable against each other. So-"

"Sarangay."

"What?!" shouted Rasz as the bull-headed man mad charging became even more vicious. He could barely hear anything that Mia said now.

"THIS THING IS A SARANGAY! Not a Minotaur!" shouted Mia

When Rasz had a puzzled look on his face, Mia continued to say loudly, "Sarangay is not the same as conventional Minotaur! Different breeds — cousins!"

Rasz still had the same puzzled look on his face, but at the same time, he was also urging Mia to continue with her explanations. All the while, the protective invisible wall from the Löwe Shield was still being continuously pounded hard.

"Minotaur is smaller and man-like! Confined in a maze, but Sarangay is free! Minotaur is a bull, Sarangay is a carabao! Really big, really strong! Far vicious and smarter!"

Mia then turned towards the creature about to slam towards their direction once again. She was directing her gaze at the colorful gemstones on its ears. Then, turning back to face Rasz, she shouted, "Those worn gemstones are a clear indication of what it is!"

Rasz became silent for a few seconds to consider what Mia had said, and then shouted back at her, "Even if it is a Sarangay-!"

"IT IS!"

"-It is still a Minotaur! EARTH ELEMENT! Water might not work!"

"Sarangay dominantly Earth element, but with subtle Fire element in its blood! Its nose was emitting smoke, right?! SO, WATER WILL WORK!" clarified Mia in a loud voice.

"Earth and Fire are absolutely out. Wind might work against Earth, but it will backfire if I use it against Fire. Lightning usually doesn't work against Earth and more or less as strong as Fire, so totally useless. Then, there is Water. True it is unpredictable against Earth, but in this case, since the Bestial being is both an Earth and Fire creature, and Water is undefeated against Fire, Water will surely work! Just like Mia had said," these thoughts quickly ran through Rasz's mind.

Rasz simply stared at the young woman in front of him for a moment, a silent question flashed through in his eyes at Mia's knowledge about the bull-headed man — the Sarangay — as she had called it.

However, it was only for a moment, as he knew that any questions will have to come after they managed to defeat the Bestial being.

"Mia, sorry, but I'll need your help with defeating this Mino- this Sarangay," whispered Rasz loudly onto Mia's ears. Since, he now knew that the Sarangay, was a creature with quite a high level of intellect, he didn't want it to be able to hear their plans on defeating it.

Thus, Rasz continued to relay the whole plan to Mia...


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