Chapter 13

Interlude 2 The minotaur felt a burning irritation. The cause was clear. What happened to that human? What happened to that human who broke my neck and triumphed over me in battle? Why has that human not come back? He has no worthy enemies other than me. I have no worthy enemies other than him. He has to come back. Where is he? The long wait was only the first source of the minotaur’s irritation. It thought back on the human’s fighting style. In truth, it did not need to. Ever since its first loss, the fighting style of that human had been constantly replaying in its mind, even as it fought other challengers. And in the many alternative scenarios the minotaur imagined, it never once defeated him. That human bested the minotaur with his sword skill; with his muscle; with his barehanded technique; with his foresight, strategy, and his ability to bait his opponent; with his extensive knowledge of combat. The human used all of that to defeat the minotaur over and over again. As I am now, even if we fight again, I will lose. Every time that thought passed through its mind, it shook its head violently and punched a rock or the wall around it, refusing to accept the notion. However, the sharper its sense for battle became, the more unavoidable its loss felt. A long time had passed since it fought that human. Because the minotaur had no way to keep track of time, it had no idea how many years or even decades it had been. It did, however, understand that it had been waiting entirely too long. At first, it had looked forward to the wait. It would defeat all the strong humans who ventured into its boss room, and while anticipating its rematch, it honed its skills and studied human fighting techniques. It was happy to expand its knowledge. But eventually, the minotaur began to feel that too much time had passed. The human probably had used all this time to become even stronger. He was likely fighting countless battles in the world of light where humans lived and had grown stronger than the minotaur could ever imagine. The minotaur knew it would no longer grow from its fights against the human challengers who ventured into its room. No good. No good. This place is no good. In order to fight him, in order to have a good battle, in order to kill him… I need to find new battles somewhere other than here. But where that place was, the minotaur did not know.