Zombie Minotaur

Now that the ritual was successfully completed, we needed to focus on getting out of here.

"Listen here, girl. We need to work our way back through each floor of this labyrinth in order to get back to the entrance."

"That shouldn't be too hard. Getting all the way down here was super easy." She proudly said.

That was something I still didn't understand.

"How exactly did you manage to get all the way down here in the first place?" I asked.

"What do you mean? I just took the stairs."

There's no way it could be that simple...

"You're telling me, you took the stairs from the top level, floor by floor, to the bottom level and didn't encounter a single trap or undead the entire way?"

"Well yeah, I honestly thought this place was empty until I encountered you."

That can't be right. Each floor has a group of undead assigned to patrol it, as well as a boss assigned to manage each one. Something really strange is going on here. It could be possible that this girl is lying and she single handedly cleared out each floor. She did claim she's "pretty good at magic", but I just don’t see it. She just seems too naive.

"What kind of magi--,"

I was about to start questioning her about her magic abilities, but a loud rumbling noise interrupted me. The room began shaking. Suddenly a wall began to crumble.

*CRASH*

Oh no!... I completely forgot about him. As the final boss of this dungeon, Lucian prepared a fail safe in case anything happened to me. When Lucian was first gathering his undead army many decades ago, he resurrected a creature that was completely uncontrollable. Its sheer physical strength and savagery was so great, that it had to be imprisoned deep within the labyrinth. He had to create a magic forcefield to prevent it from breaking out of its confinement.

Unfortunately for me, the forcefield was intentionally linked to my life force. If anything were to happen to me, it would be broken and the beast would be released. This was a final insurance policy set up to prevent anyone from getting to Lucian himself.

Dust was kicked up from the rubble of the destroyed wall. It created a cloud in the dim room. From that cloud you could make out the outline of a massive figure with glowing red eyes. The smoke eventually settled and revealed the fearsome beast known as Zombie Minotaur! The Zombie Minotaur was like any minotaur, part bull and part man, but as the name implies, this one is also a zombie. Meaning it was undead like me.

What makes zombie minotaur so fearsome is its pure supernatural strength and its walnut sized brain. It's strong enough to toss boulders one handed, but so stupid that it doesn't know not to destroy everything around it. Also due to the fact that it's undead, it doesn't really feel any pain. Lucian had no choice but to imprison it, so it wouldn’t destroy the entire labyrinth.

"Who's that?" Asked Erika not seeming to notice the danger we were in.

"Now's not the time, girl! Just run, quickly!"

We both turned and sprinted to a corridor. Luckily, it was narrow enough to temporarily slow the monster down. Unfortunately for us though, the floor's exit was on the opposite side of the chamber. That meant we had to somehow get past that beast.

"Why don't we try talking to him? Maybe he's a reasonable guy." Erika said, trying to catch her breath.

"I can assure you, we can't reason with that thing."

"Then what can we do Mr. Skeleton? We can't stay here forever!"

Zombie minotaur was punching at the corridor to try and widen it.

"It's simple, I'll just cast a basic fireball spell at his face. While he's distracted by the flames, we'll dash past him and make our escape." I said with complete confidence.

"Will that really work?"

"Of course, I have zero doubt it will. I am a master sorcerer who is nearly a century old. I've been through way worse. This staff I'm holding isn't just for show!"

She looked at me a bit doubtingly.

"But isn't that staff just a stick? I thought, cuz you're old and stuff, you need it to help you walk."

I took a bit of offense to that… yes my staff did just look like a plain stick, but that's because I lost my old staff when I died. It may be nothing special, but at least it gets the job done.

A staff's purpose is to help a sorcerer channel their magic to make it easier to cast spells. We don't necessarily need a staff to cast magic, but it tends to be more efficient and less strenuous on our bodies.

Now that I think about it, this girl, who is a sorceress (supposedly), doesn't have a staff or wand. It's unusual for any mage not to have one. I'd have to question her about that later, for now I needed to focus on the task at hand.

"Just wait, you'll see my power! Make sure you're ready to make a break for it."

I walked down the corridor towards Zombie Minotaur. I stopped just in front of where he was. He let out an angry roar,

"Moooooooaaarrr!"

I defiantly held the staff in my right arm and aimed it at his face...

“Huh?... Nothing?”

It didn’t seem like I could use magic, but why?

"Mr. Skeleton is everything alright?" Erika shouted to me.

Suddenly it dawned on me.

The ritual must have drained the girl of all her mana. Mana is the energy stored in a mages body that allows us to cast magic. What I'm guessing happened, was during the seal transfer all her mana was completely depleted. Since, I'm her thrall now, she is my host. This means for me to cast spells, I have to use her mana.

Suddenly, I was caught off guard. Zombie Minotaur's hand reached out and ripped off my right arm still holding the staff. He tossed my severed limb behind him.

Luckily, I'm a skeleton, so I didn't feel anything. The issue was how exactly are we supposed to get out of here now without magic? I retreated back towards Erika.

"Oh my goodness! Mr. Skeleton, your arm!"

Erika's eyes were wide with shock.

"It's fine. As long as we can retrieve it, I can reattach it later."

She looked at me with a worried expression.

"That's good I guess, but did you forget how to use magic or something?"

“Of course not, the problem is the seal transfer drained all your mana, so we can't rely on magic at the moment."

"What are we going to do then?"

I paused for a moment to think.

Hmm? We have to somehow slip past him… I opened up the bag to see if there was anything I could use. One thing stood out to me, a half full jar of salt. Then it occurred to me.

"Ok I have a plan, but you have to listen carefully and do everything I say."

Erika nodded in agreement, as I continued,

"I happen to have a glass jar of salt.If I throw it at his head, it should break and cloud his vision for a moment. When that happens we run past him and split up. I'll distract him, while you get my arm. Then we'll meet up at the exit."

"O-okay," she said with a slight hesitation in her voice.

Hopefully she understood the urgency of this situation because both our lives depended on it.

"Take this just in case something happens to me."

I handed her the iron dagger hanging from my belt. I don't know how much good it would do for her, but it's at least something.

We walked back towards the beast. He was still trying to break through the corridor. I could see his eyes red with rage. I prepared myself by taking the jar in my remaining left arm and aimed at its head. I stepped forward and tossed it.

*Smash*

It shattered, depositing a plume of salt over his eyes. It let out another roar,

"Mooooooooooooooaaaaaaaarrrrr!"

"Run now!" I yelled.

We ran between its huge legs and split up. It turned around and started after me. I led him to the trap Erika had been caught in. He was too big for the cage, but it was heavy, so it should be enough to at least slow it down.

It walked towards me, its heavy hoof came down onto the plate… nothing happened! It seemed the chain holding the cage was jammed on the pulley.

"Mr. Skeleton, keep him chasing you. I think I can budge that chain with the dagger you gave me!" Erika shouted across the room.

I had told her to go to the exit after getting my arm, but she didn't listen. Now wasn’t not going to argue now though. I ran another loop around the chamber. Zombie minotaur chased after me. Erika stuck the dagger into a rusty link of the chain and began prying at it. I led back to the trap, when Erika got a rust link on the chain to break.

*BAM*

The iron cage came slamming down onto Zombie Minotaur's head knocking it to the ground. We took this opportunity to escape toward a staircase.

"Here's your arm and staff back, Mr. Skeleton."

Erika had a relieved look on her face.

"Thank you." I said coldly, as I reattached my arm.

Well that was one floor out of the way. Unfortunately, we had four more to go.