Final Chapter The Dream of the Legendary Beast

1

A new challenger was standing in front of the minotaur.

It was a young knight with black eyes and black hair.

In his right hand, he was holding the sword the minotaur had given away twenty-eight years ago.

In his left hand, he held a shield of fine quality.

The minotaur remembered the presence of the dagger sheathed into the inside of his shield and the bracelet on his left arm.

It also felt exceptional blessings coming from the ring and the charm around his neck.

This knight also had uncommon temperament and skill.

The minotaur’s body trembled with the anticipation of a worthy challenge.

At first, the minotaur thought that man had returned. But after it drew closer, it realized that was not the case.

 

This is not him.

But he looks a lot like him.

He has items that should be in the possession of that man.

Which might mean that man sent him.

He is representing that man.

So be it.

All right.

Show me your strength.

 

The knight faced the minotaur and spoke. The minotaur did not understand the language of humans, but it listened closely. The knight readied his sword and shield when he finished talking and then calmly raised his fighting spirit.

The minotaur took a quick breath, mentally prepared itself, gripped its greatsword with both hands, then rushed forward and swung at the enemy’s head. The knight lifted the shield in his left hand overhead and blocked the minotaur’s attack without moving one step.

The violent collision wrought a sound so loud, it seemed like the air of the entire boss room shook.

The knight defended against the minotaur’s powerful blow perfectly.

That was not all. The minotaur was almost lifted off its feet by the recoil generated from the shield.

Its muscles creaked, and a number of tendons snapped.

The minotaur was astonished. That was not the feeling of an attack being blocked by a shield. It felt as if it had crossed swords with an equally powerful opponent.

The minotaur grew frustrated.

 

He just stopped my attack with his left hand alone, and without even taking a step back. With a shield held in the air.

That’s impossible!

 

Giving itself over to its emerging rage, the minotaur drew its greatsword back to the right and struck horizontally with the force of a gale. It expected the enemy to step back, as there was no way he should have been able to take that attack directly.

But the knight did not budge. He casually moved his shield, adjusted the positioning of his feet, and blocked the attack effortlessly.

Once again, with just one hand.

This defense was impossible. That was a powerful horizontal blow utilizing the minotaur’s giant body and abnormal strength. No matter how strong this knight was, he should have been blasted off his feet.

But the knight deflected the powerful attack completely, only sliding back half a step.

Instead, the minotaur felt like it was going to be blasted backward from the recoil produced by the shield, despite being the one that had delivered the blow.

The minotaur put strength into its legs and endured the recoil. Its sturdy right shoulder, left elbow, and back had all been injured and were crying out in pain.

 

One more time!

 

The minotaur drew the greatsword back to the right once more and unleashed the same powerful attack from the same angle and the same height.

The knight calmly blocked it. He was only pushed back a half step, just like last time. He did not look injured in the least from the minotaur’s successive attacks.

He was watching the minotaur’s actions with a calm and clear gaze full of fighting spirit.

The minotaur received recoil from the shield once again and took damage. It would not be able to fight until its right shoulder, left elbow, and back were all healed.

It activated a healing skill and took a step away.

2

The minotaur was bewildered.

It had fought a variety of shield users throughout its life. A tower shield set on the ground might have been able to block its attacks, but there was no one who could block a full-strength attack from the minotaur with a kite shield held in the air. That should have been impossible.

Furthermore, people who fought with kite or round shields used them to weaken their opponent by messing with their timing and by scattering and diverting the direction of their opponent’s attacks.

But this knight was using his kite shield to block full-strength attacks from the minotaur. Directly in the center of his shield.

Nothing about that made any sense.

 

Actually, wait.

I’ve seen this shield technique somewhere before.

I was impressed by their skill.

It was there!

In that strange place with those nasty enemies.

It was that whelp I fought with during the final fight.

That whelp used its shield like this.

 

The minotaur looked at the knight one more time. It did not use its eyes but instead used its body to try to feel the presence of the opponent in front of it.

It then became aware of the opponent’s identity.

 

This man!

This man is the whelp!

Where did you go?

You weren’t there when I searched for you.

 

The minotaur’s heart was full of joy.

It activated a certain skill.

Humans called this skill Indomitable Spirit. It was a skill possessed by the highest class of ogre-type monsters, which were called ogre gods. It increased the hardness of the user’s body, resistance to magic, and also restored health continuously at a set rate, all in exchange for the consumption of energy. The minotaur had obtained it by defeating the boss of the eighty-fifth floor. It then ranked up the skill, and it had proven useful when fighting the metal dragon.

The minotaur then quickly grabbed a red potion from its Bag and drank it.

The knight saw that as an opportunity to attack and slashed his sword.

 

He’s fast!

 

His feet and his sword were astonishingly quick. The minotaur remembered that the kobold warrior’s movement and attack speed had surpassed its own.

The minotaur decided that it could not dodge by jumping back, so it jumped up. It could not fly, but it could jump high without any preparatory movement.

The jump was also performed for the purpose of an attack. It was planning to take control of the battle by jumping into the air and using Burning Breath from a distance that the knight’s sword could not reach.

But the knight was too fast. He pointed the tip of his sword at the minotaur.

 

Shoot!

 

The minotaur called off its attack, got into a defensive stance, and prepared for impact. The knight performed a short incantation, and then a comet hit the minotaur directly.

The knight was able to release extremely powerful magic attacks without the need for a preparatory incantation and without showing any signs of gathering magic power.

The comet dug into the minotaur’s back and greatly damaged it internally. The movement of its right shoulder had been impaired.

The knight raised his sword overhead and waited for the minotaur as it fell. Before it hit the ground, the minotaur blew Burning Breath on the knight. The knight raised his shield and blocked it. Burning Breath was absorbed into the shield and disappeared.

But the minotaur got what it wanted. The minotaur’s goal was to get him to lift his shield and obstruct his field of vision for even a small moment.

The minotaur kicked the knight’s shield and used the recoil to jump backward.

As it did so, the minotaur reached into its Bag with its left hand, pulled out some immortal flesh, and ate it.

The knight recovered instantly from the recoil of being kicked by the minotaur and then pursued with incredible speed. He swung his sword down from above, aiming for the head of the slouched minotaur.

His attack had extreme force behind it from the use of some skill.

The minotaur still could not move its right shoulder.

It caught the sword with its bare left hand. The knight then forced the sword in between the minotaur’s index finger and middle finger and drove it into its elbow.

The mysterious effect of the immortal flesh then manifested, and just as if time itself were being reversed, the minotaur’s sliced-up arm returned to normal and its back, right shoulder, and internal organs were all restored.

The minotaur lunged forward with the greatsword in its right hand. The knight diverted it diagonally upward with his shield and then performed an angled upward slash with lightning speed.

The minotaur quickly drew a circle with its sword and repelled the knight’s attack. The knight’s sword then changed trajectory in midair and raced for the minotaur’s neck.

The minotaur may have been in a temporary state of immortality, but it could not allow its head to be cut off. It lifted its sword from below and drove away the opponent’s sword.

The knight skillfully used the momentum from his sword being deflected to trace a circle with his sword and swing for the minotaur’s neck from the right.

The attack was very natural and very quick. The sword cut halfway into the minotaur’s neck.

Fortunately for the minotaur, the immortal effect had not yet expired. The injury healed immediately.

The minotaur swung its sword down from the left toward the enemy’s neck. The knight just barely missed it with his shield, and the sword penetrated through a gap in the armor. It cut a fourth of the way into his neck.

Given the fragile bodies of humans, that injury was close to lethal. However, the knight quickly knocked aside the minotaur’s sword and slashed its right side. The blood that was starting to spout from the knight’s neck then stopped, and the injury healed in an instant.

The minotaur’s right side also healed immediately, and then the effect of the immortal flesh ran out.

3

They both took a step back and gathered themselves.

 

That’s right.

This guy has that sword.

The sword that I gave that man.

It was a sword that heals injuries when you slice an enemy.

I see!

He used this sword in that strange place when he had the form of the whelp.

It looked like a completely different sword, but just like his form, it only appeared that way.

Also, the sword technique he just used.

I’ve definitely seen it somewhere before.

It’s…

It’s…

It’s the same as that man’s sword technique.

That’s not all.

His fighting spirit.

His presence.

So he is that man after all.

Actually, no.

He is not that man.

Judging by his features, he is a different person.

 

The minotaur may have gained intelligence, but it was a monster from a labyrinth. It was born without parents and would never have a child, so it did not understand anything about family and blood relations.

As a result, the minotaur processed what it saw with its own sense of logic.

 

That means he is not that man, but he is that man.

That man was the last version of this one.

This one is the next version of that man.

He was also the whelp.

So beating him will mean beating three people.

 

Their exchange of offense and defense began yet again.

The knight attacked from the side. The minotaur blocked it with its sword.

The knight attacked again from a slightly different height. The minotaur blocked that one, too.

The knight repeated his attack twelve times at a terrifying speed. The minotaur could not block every blow, and it was cut three times in the side.

The knight then attacked from the front. Once again, it did not end with one attack—he unleashed twelve consecutive attacks at incredible speed. The minotaur was slashed twice on the shoulder and chest.

When the minotaur thought he was going to attack again, the knight’s body vanished.

 

Over there!

 

The minotaur trusted its intuition and struck at air. Its efforts paid off, and its blow found purchase. Surprisingly, however, the surface the minotaur struck felt like an ordinary shield, and the minotaur sensed that the knight was sent flying.

The knight then charged into the minotaur’s space and swung his sword down diagonally from the right. He was still invisible, and the minotaur could not feel his presence, either, but it did sense the sword.

The knight’s strength and speed were less than they had been before. The minotaur repelled the knight’s attack without difficulty.

The knight took a step back, and his body reappeared. It might have been the case that the blessings of the shield and sword grew weaker when he was invisible.

The minotaur unleashed three consecutive vertical slashes. The knight blocked them by lifting his shield overhead.

The minotaur faked like it was going to attack a fourth time, then instead pressed its greatsword against the shield, shoved the knight away, and jumped backward. It reached its left hand into its Bag and tried to grab a red potion.

The knight charged and zigzagged his sword back and forth, from right to left and left to right. The minotaur quit reaching for a potion, gripped its greatsword with both hands, and swung down to stop the knight’s attacks.

The minotaur’s greatsword struck the rock floor at the knight’s feet. Rocks were blasted up into the air, many of them traveling in the knight’s direction.

The knight dodged or blocked most of the rocks with amazing reflexes and vision, but due to the sheer number of them, some still got through and hit his legs and stomach. His armor was extremely tough, however, so it did not look like he was injured at all.

The minotaur swung its sword to dig into the cracked floor, sending ten large pieces of rock at the knight. The knight protected his vital points skillfully with his shield, then jumped back lightly and dodged the incoming rocks.

The minotaur was impressed.

 

He moves impossibly well, as always.

How can he move so quickly in such restrictive clothing?

That consecutive chain of attacks was amazing.

It was impossible for me to dodge every blow.

I have no choice but to attack him knowing that I am going to get hit.

But his entire body except for his face is covered by those tough clothes.

He is a difficult enemy to attack.

 

The minotaur grew excited as its mind raced.

How long had it been since its last fight where it could not see how to win?

How long had it been since it had been subjected to such fighting spirit?

The minotaur bought itself some time by firing rocks and tried to reach for a red potion.

Then a comet fell. The minotaur moved hurriedly and managed to escape from the center of the comet, but its left shoulder was greatly injured.

Its left shoulder and left chest had been cut deeply, and its left hand could not move.

 

That’s right!

He is not a normal swordsman.

He is actually more dangerous from a distance.

This human.

He is trying to stop me from drinking the red liquid.

That’s the second time he’s stopped me.

Yes.

There is no doubt.

He has the ability to quickly recognize an opponent’s strengths and weaknesses.

He must have seen that not letting me use my invisible bag would have a big impact on the fight.

I can never let my guard down with this one.

 

The minotaur could not use its greatsword with both hands now that its left hand was impaired.

If the minotaur distanced itself from the knight, a comet would fall. If it got close, the knight would unleash a flurry of consecutive attacks that could not all be defended against. If it attacked, the knight would block with his blessed shield.

The knight’s oppressive fighting style was gradually cornering the minotaur. But it was this exact kind of situation that always brought the best out of it.

That was why, out of hatred and awe, adventurers called the minotaur the King of the Labyrinth.

4

The minotaur charged at the knight, creating a gust of wind as it did so.

It lifted its greatsword high with just its right hand and then swung it down. The knight blocked it with his shield. The sword was repelled upward from the powerful recoil.

The minotaur swung the sword down with its right hand again. It executed twenty-three consecutive attacks.

In that time, Indomitable Spirit restored the minotaur’s injured left shoulder.

 

I knew it.

He is incapable of attacking when he receives a strong blow on his shield.

That means I can seal off his offense with continuous strong attacks.

 

On the twenty-fourth strike, the minotaur added its left hand to the grip and made like it was going to strike the shield, then changed course and tried to slice through the knight’s feet. The blow looked like it had enough force to cut through the armor.

It was a sudden change-up that the knight should not have been able to keep up with after dealing with the powerful twenty-third blow. But he dealt with it skillfully.

He quickly lowered his shield and struck the minotaur’s sword to change its trajectory. The sword hit nothing but the floor.

The knight would not overlook this opportunity. He drew his sword in a horizontal arc. The minotaur had anticipated that an attack would come and activated a skill to raise its defense dramatically for a brief period.

The tip of the knight’s sword traced a perfect circle, easily cutting through the minotaur’s chest from left to right.

The minotaur swung its greatsword up from below. The knight blocked it with his shield. The minotaur’s blow lifted the shield and the knight together into the air.

Blood gushed from the horizontal line cut into the minotaur’s chest.

The knight turned around nimbly in midair and landed on his feet.

The knight’s movements were more monster than human.

The minotaur charged, ignoring the blood it was losing. Its entire body was immersed in the joy of battle, in the thrill of squaring off against a strong opponent. Pain and tactics no longer mattered.

It just swung its greatsword down on the knight with both hands over and over again.

As it did so, it made a surprising discovery.

 

The movement of his sword.

That unwavering swordsmanship that makes it appear as if time has slowed down.

That belonged to that man!

He uses his sword the exact same way as the man who used the thin sword.

This guy was once the thin sword user, too!

 

The minotaur at that time wanted to get stronger from the bottom of its heart, and it felt that there was a limit on how much it could do with brute force. It yearned for polish. It craved technique.

But the minotaur had no one to teach it. It did not know what it could do to improve its skill. After much thought, it landed on the method of recalling that thin sword user’s swordsmanship and replicating it.

That marked the beginning of a truly hellish training period.

The monsters became a resource for the minotaur’s training. Its skills were also sharpened by the humans who attacked it in succession.

Then, before the minotaur knew it, it had become able to draw that beautiful circle.

This knight’s swordsmanship was identical to that thin sword user’s.

This knight inherited that thin sword user’s technique and life.

That meant that this was a rematch with that thin sword user, and this time it would be a grand battle fought on even footing.

The minotaur’s heart leaped with joy. It attacked again and again and again.

The force of its blows had not waned in the slightest. It delivered swing after overhead swing.

The knight blocked every single blow with Ende’s Shield. But not once did the minotaur relent.

No matter how tough the shield was, if the minotaur continued to attack with power that exceeded its defense, it would surely crack eventually. That was what the minotaur believed as it continued to slash single-mindedly at the knight.

It had been in this kind of fight before, or so the minotaur believed.

Even if it took one thousand or ten thousand blows, the minotaur would keep slashing until the barrier had been broken.

The knight continued to block every attack.

Deep in the darkness, without anyone’s knowledge, the greatest fight in the history of the continent was unfolding.

5

The knight tried a number of different attacks.

He side-strafed in quick, repetitious patterns while searching for opportunities to strike. His aim was to throw off the minotaur’s spacing.

He blocked the greatsword with his own blade, then slipped past the minotaur’s side and lunged. The minotaur diverted the attack, then jumped back and unleashed a magic attack.

Over the course of this endless battle, the minotaur noticed a number of things.

This knight could absorb the magic attacks of opponents and use the stolen energy to press the assault. Also, attacks that inflicted status ailments had no effect against him. For that reason, the minotaur quit using Howling, Burning Breath, Crushing Breath, and other magic attacks.

The knight then stopped using magic attacks, too.

They continued to trade blows.

 

This is bad.

My sword is going to break soon.

This guy probably won’t give me time to use my bag.

But I can’t fight without a sword.

I need to retrieve a new sword, no matter the risk.

 

The minotaur acted like it was going to raise its greatsword overhead, and then it jumped back. The knight pursued without delay.

The minotaur threw the greatsword. The knight deflected it with his shield.

The minotaur then puffed out its chest, boosted its physical strength, and reached its right hand toward its left shoulder.

The knight’s sword cut into the minotaur’s chest.

The minotaur pulled a longsword out of its Bag and immediately swung it down for the knight’s head. The knight blocked it with his shield.

The shield was splattered with blood from the minotaur’s chest.

The minotaur knew that the wager had paid off. The wound was superficial.

It also learned one more thing.

The tip of the knight’s sword had cut easily into the minotaur’s hardened chest before, but this time it managed only a light scratch. The knight was tired, too, and his moves were losing their power.

After that, the minotaur and the knight exchanged blows for so long that time ceased to have any meaning.

Then the moment the minotaur was waiting for finally arrived.

It swung its longsword down and broke the shield as the knight held it overhead. The minotaur was overjoyed. The knight then tossed aside the shield and charged, swinging his sword with both hands.

This was the first time in the fight the knight had performed a two-handed strike, so the minotaur was a little late to react. Despite that, it still managed to use its longsword to block the knight’s attack.

Then it happened. A shrill sound echoed as the minotaur’s longsword was smashed to pieces.

The minotaur immediately reached for its Bag with its right hand, but the knight cut the hand off with his sword.

The knight should have been exhausted. Where had he been hiding this much strength?

The minotaur, as indestructible as it had become, had used up its stamina. It stood completely still for a moment, staring at the knight with glazed eyes.

The knight’s sword swept at the minotaur’s neck.

The minotaur jerked its body backward. Its neck should have been out of reach of the knight’s sword.

But the knight’s attack extended outside his range. The minotaur’s head would be severed if it did not react.

Not caring that it was going to lose its balance, the minotaur twisted its body and dodged the sword. The knight then unleashed a flurry of slashes at the unbalanced minotaur.

The minotaur immediately twisted its head to the left. Its right horn was cut off from the base, and it went flying through the air.

The minotaur then recovered its balance with astounding reflexes, picked up what remained of the longsword with its left hand, and raised it overhead.

But before it could swing it down, the knight’s sword pierced the minotaur’s heart.

6

Fresh blood painted the knight’s sword, hands, and chest red.

 

I’m dying.

I’m going to die.

Ahhh… That was thoroughly enjoyable.

Would that the fight could have gone on forever, but it had to end eventually.

 

A blissful feeling of satisfaction washed over the minotaur.

The two of them had fought for longer than a full day and night. They had exhausted the limit of their skills, and they gave and received many blows.

After a while, the question of which one of them was going to survive began to feel trivial to the minotaur.

Then, in the final moment, just as the minotaur’s life was about to expire, it cried out from the depths of its soul.

 

This isn’t over!

I’m still alive!

 

The minotaur twisted its body violently. The knight’s sword slipped from his hands, and he stopped moving.

 

Now!

 

The minotaur mustered the last of its strength and swung down the remains of the longsword in its left hand onto the crown of the knight’s head. It thought it felt the knight’s skull shatter, but it could not see anything through the red obstructing its vision. The minotaur then collapsed.

In the small amount of time it took for the minotaur to fall to the ground, the figures of the enemies it had encountered throughout its life flashed through its mind.

The sorcerer, the thin sword user, the shield user, the knight, and a multitude of monsters.

They were all magnificent enemies.

They had made for very fun battles.

And in the end, it was able to have a satisfying, all-out fight to the death with the strongest enemy it had ever encountered.

It had no greater desire than that.

The minotaur’s body collapsed on the stone floor.

The knight then collapsed on top of the minotaur.

Within its fading consciousness, the minotaur felt its body enveloped by a strange warmth.

 

It’s them.

The one who gave me this second life is here. The one who allowed me to fight again.

They were probably by my side this entire time.

They watched me intently to see how I fought and how I would use this life they gave me.

 

The minotaur felt as if the existence that watched over it asked if the minotaur’s wish had been fulfilled.

It could answer only in the affirmative.

But then its thoughts took a sudden turn.

 

No.

No, wait.

What if there is a new version of this human?

And also a new version of me?

Yes, that’s right.

One more time.

One more time.

I want to fight one more time…against the new version of this human.

I want to fight until I’m satisfied one more time.

Give me more!

Give me more, more combat!

More bloodshed!

Give me the chance to keep fighting!

 

The minotaur pleaded strongly.

Then came a voice in its head—one that it had heard before.

The minotaur did not understand language, so it did not know what the voice was saying.

The minotaur’s consciousness faded into a tender darkness.