The chamber's cold blue fire climbed the walls, one sconce at a time, and the thing in the center turned to face them.
It was a mountain of muscle stitched to bone by chains.
Iron cuffs gnawed both wrists, each as thick as a man's thigh. From each cuff trailed lengths of blackened chain, scabbed with rust and ash; the tails were heavy enough to gouge grooves in the stone when they dragged. The links weren't decorative—they were weapons: some spiked, some weighted with brutal knots of iron. Old shackles bit its ankles too, half-melted into the hide. Scars latticed its chest where chains had kissed flesh too often. Two horns hooked back like polished sickles. Steam curled from its nostrils; heat shimmered off its hide in faint waves.
[Chainbound Minotaur (Epic), Lv. 5]
'As I suspected...an Epic,' Loki thought.
He cut a look toward Haeun. '…Which might be a problem.'
If he were alone, he couldn't have been happier.
A natural epic-tier boss, not an evolved one, at this stage might have been nothing but a natural disaster for the others—but for Loki, it was a windfall. He'd fought Minotaurs more times than he could count in his last life, and this variant was on the simpler end.
Although his stats were nowhere near the minotaur's, he was confident that he could kill it.
If he were alone.
'The gate's sealed and there is no cover. She has no other option but to fight,' he measured. Then spoke without turning his head.
"Haeun, I'll try my best to draw aggro, you stay at the max range your magic allows you to stay, and use your abilities. Only use your movement ability on my command. The rest we'll adjust once you see my kit."
"I understand," she said, already settled into a calm, ready line.
They faced the monster; the monster faced them.
It broke first—chains snapping taut as it thundered forward with a roar.
"Go!" Loki barked, and ran to meet it.
Haeun ran off to the flank, widening the angle.
In four fast steps he mapped the field: load-bearing pillars, chain winches high in the dark, the way the torchlight carved long, usable shadows like thrown spears across the floor.
The Minotaur bellowed, and its chains sang.
Loki counted the boss's breath—one, two—then tagged the floor-shadow thrown by the beast's own bulk.
[Shadow Blink]
Darkness folded; he arrived behind it inside that clean three-second hush of stealth. The bull committed to its line and smashed horn-first into the gate, stone ringing.
The impact made it reel.
He did not waste the window.
[Backstab Triggered]
[Passive 5 Activated — First strike after breaking stealth deals double damage.]
The dagger bit deep, and the Minotaur howled.
"Now," he snapped.
Haeun lifted her hand and began to sew darkness into the beast.
[Void Lance]
Flick—needle of starless black, violet-rimmed, stitched from her fingertip and sank under its hide.
[Corruption +1]
Half-step—another stitch.
[Corruption +2]
Pivot—third stitch.
[Corruption +3]
[Void's Grasp: Slow 6% (boss) applied]
[Target takes +5% Void damage]
"It's slowed," she said, voice level.
"Good."
[Vanish]
Sound thinned as he slipped out of the world as cleanly as shadow at noon. He reappeared at the seam under the right scapula, where chain-scarring had softened the hide, and cut.
[Weakspot Triggered]
[Backstab Triggered]
[Passive 5 Activated — First strike after breaking stealth deals double damage.]
The blade sank deep; the minotaur jolted as if a live wire had been driven under its skin, and the bull came alive in an instant, roaring in fury.
It spun—both chained arms scythed in a brutal horizontal sweep.
Loki dropped to the floor. The chains howled overhead and crashed into a pillar, spitting sparks. The impact wrenched the minotaur off-balance; its head found Haeun, and then it lunged.
"Charge incoming, use it now," Loki called, already moving.
The boss pawed stone, horn lowering—then thundered.
Haeun drew a tiny crescent in the air.
[Void Gate]
She phased out—thin and see-through. The Minotaur thundered through her spot and smashed the wall.
As it bounced back, her shoulder skimmed its side, and bruise-colored veins spread beneath its hide.
[Applied: Corruption +1 (contact)]
She stepped out ten meters off with a soft thread-snap, already loosing another Lance.
Lance. Lance.
[Corruption +4]
[Corruption +5]
Loki was already there as the beast turned back. He stepped in and snapped a palm down, shadow bursting at his feet.
[Umbral Pulse]
Darkness flared, and the concussion hammered hide and chain alike.
[Stun Triggered — 2.0 s]
Haeun's hand closed around invisible threads.
[Judgment: Rupture]
Everything she'd stitched into the Minotaur tightened in her fist—the void inside it knotted, a low crystal twang sang through its body, then snapped outward.
[Consumed: 5 Corruption stacks]
[Boss: Flinch]
[Void Siphon: +10% Max Mana]
The Minotaur shook free of the flinch with a snarl and hammered both shackled fists down.
"Move back!" Loki warned.
He rode the edge of the shockwave, keeping the stagger off his ankles. A chain tail whipped backhand-fast; he slipped inside the arc and carved the tendon track behind the knee.
[Backstab Triggered]
The boss dipped a fraction, stance uneven.
Haeun stitched again.
Wrist, breath, release—lance.Half-step—lance.Pivot—lance.
At three stacks the air around the Minotaur went subtly thicker; dust drifted toward its mass as if gravity had a preference.
[Corruption +1]
[Corruption +2]
[Corruption +3]
[Void's Grasp: Slow 6% reapplied]
Annoyed, the Minotaur ignored Loki and set on Haeun again.
"It's coming," he said. "Move."
"My Gate's down," she called back, already kiting the angle.
"Tch."
The bull, reaching her, swung a chain like a flail; a brutal vertical arc that would have split her.
Loki read the shoulder before the lift.
[Shadow Blink]
He flashed behind its hip in the shadow of its own mass and raked along the cuff seam—iron and flesh both.
Sparks and blood.
He didn't get greedy; the backhand whipped through where he'd been an instant before.
"I'll have Rupture in eight," Haeun reported, calm. "And Gate in nine."
"Got it. I'll keep the aggro."
He hooked attention with a throw.
[Poisoned Dagger]
Green-lit edge bit and drank; a heart later—tick, tick—the venom worried the wound.
[Target has been Poisoned]
The Minotaur snorted and snapped both chains in a crossing sweep at chest height. Loki ducked the first, vaulted the second, landed behind, and froze half a breath, blade hovering.
The [Weakspot] tell didn't flare, so he didn't force it. He took the safe line instead, cutting along a seam of old scar.
The damage wasn't pretty, but it was certain. He could not take risks, not with this HP.
'One hit from that thing and I am dead'
The minotaur slammed its hoof. The floor juddered; a shallow shockwave fanned out in a cone.
Haeun was already drawing the crescent.
[Void Gate]
The ripple passed through her ghosted outline. She stepped back into the world and dropped two quick Lances into the opening Loki had made.
[Corruption +4]
[Corruption +5]
"Rupture is up," she said.
"Do it."
[Judgment: Rupture]
Another neat collapse, another glassy twang. The Minotaur's chest hitched; a flinch ran through its frame. Siphon brushed her veins with a warm, steadying wash.
Chains rattled like rain.
"Watch the hook!" Loki snapped as her gate was still down.
The Minotaur stabbed a chain into the floor and ripped it back in a tripping sweep. Loki vaulted the drag and cut across Haeun's front, turning his shoulder so the arc tracked his armor, not her. Haeun hopped; the chain hissed under her soles. The barbed tail kissed his coat and skittered, but it never crossed her lane.
"I'm using Mana Rush," Haeun said, and drew the void closer.
[Mana Rush]
Her pupils pinned; the air tightening around her like a pressure sleeve.
[Void Lance].[Void Lance]. [Void Lance].
Her hands stayed steady; each flick drew a straight, economical line. The stain deepened under its hide, and she kept the tally under her breath
"Gate in five. Rupture in nine."
"I'll hold the aggro till you're Gate's up," Loki said—and hold the aggro he did.
He became a shadow at the edge of the bull's awareness—always where its eyes weren't, always inside the hinge of a swing. When it tried to line Haeun, he nicked it where it would hurt, where instinct demanded it turn; when it turned, he disappeared.
[Shadow Blink]
He slipped to the next usable shadow and came out swinging—the double-damage opener landing clean—then let the boss's attention slide back to him, easy as iron to a magnet. The rhythm settled, a taut line between them: give, take, breath.
Everything worked.
Until the boss's health hit 40%.
The Minotaur roared and started to change.
It became thicker, hotter—like a furnace door swinging open.