Chapter 47: I’ll be in charge

The Minotaur was not prepared for the attack. The lightning-covered spear lodged deep into its chest and came out the back. Blood gushed out, and it staggered a few feet back.

Leon did not slow down his charge. Shadow hurled him into the air and then proceeded to wrap around Leon like a bodysuit and transform his katana into a massive sword.

"Have a taste of this, Shadow Slash!" he roared as he slashed down with all his might, gritting his teeth as he wanted to end this right now.

The Minotaur raised its axe at the last moment to take the attack.

BAM!

It sounded like a bomb had gone off. Leon was pushed back in the air. He coughed up a bit of blood, but the Minotaur was thrown back. It slammed into the ground and rolled to a stop. It started getting up slowly while Leon stood and waited for it.

"Shadow, let’s go all out," Leon said.

"Alright," Shadow replied.

Shadow spread onto the floor, covering everywhere that Leon and the Minotaur were walking. Then tendrils of shadow burst out of the ground and latched onto the Minotaur, stopping all its movements as much as possible.

The Minotaur pulled and roared as he tried to break free from the tendrils.

Leon rushed forward. The spear was still lodged in the chest of the Minotaur, and he needed it, so he called out to Shadow, who then used one tendril to pull out the spear and hurl it at Leon. Leon dropped his katana, and it sank into one shadow while he caught the spear at the same time.

He spun in the air and slashed down with the spear. It crackled with pure lightning. The Minotaur saw it coming and could not do anything to stop the attack. The spear landed right on its face.

Kaboom!

The walls shook as it staggered backwards but did not fall. A massive gash appeared on the face of the Minotaur, and one of his horns had been cut clean off.

The pain that the Minotaur felt was unbearable. It let out a thundering roar that shook the walls and then unleashed a stream of flames right at Leon. Leon did not falter even in the face of the flames. He pushed ahead as the flames grew bigger and bigger. Shadow covered him, and they pushed through the flames.

The moment that he got past the flames, he hurled the spear at the Minotaur again, but this time, it saw it coming and reacted to it. It swung its axe and blocked the attack, but after that, it did not see Leon again.

"Behind you."

Leon was in the air behind him. He stretched his hand, and the katana shot out of the shadow and right into his hands before transforming into a massive shadow blade.

Leon swung for the neck with all that he had. The Minotaur tried to react fast, but Shadow wrapped around it and stopped it from being able to react. The sword went clean through its neck, and the head of the Minotaur fell to the ground with a loud thud.

Everyone there stared in complete shock as they saw the monster that they had all run from go down.

Leon wasted no time before storing the body inside his shadow. He turned around and saw everyone staring at him. A particular person even seemed enraged, and that was Ray.

"Shit," Leon cursed. Word would surely get out about what he had done, and this would most definitely be a problem.

"I’ll handle it later. What matters now is getting out of here."

"Does anyone know why a gate would move inside a gate? We need to find the way out," Leon said.

No one responded until a young lady who looked about his age and acted very timid raised her hand and stepped out.

"I have seen a few of them and heard of some more from others. Higher-ranked gates tend to be unpredictable, and sometimes parties are stuck inside for days trying to find their way out.

But most likely, the gate would be the location with the second most concentrated mana, the first being the core of the gate."

She explained in a way that allowed Leon to understand what she was saying quickly.

"So we have to find a way to detect mana concentration, I’m guessing."

"Yes," she responded.

"Does anyone have such a skill?" Leon asked.

"Our party mate had one," an older man with a full beard said. He pointed at one of the bodies that was cleaved in half. "But there she is now. Tch, cursed this stupid place."

Leon saw tears well up in his eyes. The man was in pain at the moment, and so was everyone else.

"I have a skill, but the range is not capable of going far," Riker said.

"Hmm, I think I might be able to help in that regard. Riker, you’ll be with me. But before we head on, Lucia and every other healer, please provide healing and buffs to everyone as much as you can. So don’t hold anything back. We are going to bulldoze our way through to the gates, and no more lives will be lost."

Everyone agreed to that, but one voice suddenly spoke against it.

"And who put you in charge?" Ray asked, looking pissed off.

"We don’t have time for this. We have to get out," Leon said.

Ray lifted his blade and pointed it at Leon.

"And somehow you are the one that is good enough to get us out of here?" Ray asked.

"Ray, please, let’s not do this..."

"Shut up, Winston." Ray shut up his own party mate and focused back on Leon.

"I am the A-ranked Hunter here, which makes me the strongest. A nobody from nowhere like you, who got lucky with the Minotaur, cannot tell me what to do. I’ll be in charge, and I’ll carry us out of this gate with everyone intact."