Grab The Bull By The Horns

After 10 minutes of chasing around after Nala, the Minotaur was already bleeding all over. Every time it led its guard down to attack the lioness, Kary would punish him with a laceration. When the bull turned around to go after Kary, Nala would go behind his back, all claws out, and teach him a lesson in pain.

As the Minotaur bled more and more, it got weaker and weaker. Kary knew it would collapse soon. She was waiting for that moment to give out the final blow. Just as she slashed out again on the bulls back, he finally put a knee down. When Kary landed from her previous attack, she immediately dashed back for the finishing blow. Only, her instincts kicked in again, prompting her to raise her sword in guard.

As she lifted her sword, the Minotaur's eyes glowed red and got up in an instant, swinging his ax directly towards Kary's body. Luckily she had gotten her sword in defense position in time, blocking the ax from bisecting her. As the ax hit the sword, Kary could feel an immense force transferring to her hands through the sword. As she kept strong, the force turned into a movement, launching her body in a blistering fast flight, straight into a tree.

Kary almost lost consciousness on impact. She got on her hands and knees, coughing blood. She could feel some broken ribs on her left side. Her vision blurry, she looked up towards the Minotaur. What she saw shook her to the core.

When Nala saw her master being thrown away like a ragdoll, she instantly felt rage well up inside her. She jumped carelessly onto the Minotaur, hoping to kill the foul beast for hurting her master. Unfortunately, the Minotaur had been expecting this and swung back around with his ax, hitting Nala in the abdomen. If it wasn't for Nala sharing stats with Kary, she would have been turned into two pieces. As Nala landed from her short flight, she could barely get up.

The Minotaur, on the other hand, was out for blood. It had gone into berserk mode and couldn't think anymore. As his wounds were getting worse with every movement, all it thought about was to take with him the inferior creatures that had hurt him so badly. Starting with that annoying big cat. As it walked towards Nala, Kary started crawling her way, inch by inch, to go help her loyal companion.

The Minotaur made it to Nala, looked at her viciously, raised his ax high and swung down.

*DONG*

*** Seconds earlier ***

As Kary was crawling forward, she saw the Minotaur reaching her companion. As it rose its ax, a feeling of despair filled Kary. She was going to lose one of her not so many friends. She heard Nala in her head " Farewell Master. You have been good to me and I hope I haven't disappointed you "

Tears welled up in Kary's eyes. As the ax started dropping down, sealing Nala's fate, time slowed. For Kary, everything was now black and white. She could see the ax going down, inch by inch, towards her hunting companion and friend. As she cried inside, Kary heard a familiar voice behind her.

" Is that what my chosen has become? Wallowing at the loss of a simple pet? Is that all you can amount to? Was I wrong in choosing you? "

Kary was startled. As she turned around to see who had talked, she felt a rage inside her once she recognized her interlocutor. It was the Great Phoenix Spirit. In a world of black and white, he was shining bright red.

" What can I do, I'm too far away " Kary bellowed out, seething in rage.

" Did you not already defeat ourself? DO IT AGAIN! GET BETTER! THINK OF A WAY! " The Phoenix answered, spreading its wings, heat brushing past Kary.

" HOW! " Kary yelled. " Her fate is practically sealed, she muttered.

The Phoenix then shot out threads of fire, capturing Kary in blazing wraps.

" You aren't WORTHY! " The Phoenix screamed. " BURN! "

" AAAHHHHH " Kary screamed out in pain.

Kary could feel her skin burning, even though she should be resistant to fire. The heat of these flames was simply too much. As she burned, she could still see the ax going down. Misery slipped into her mind. "I'll never be able to save the ones I love " She wallowed, in self-pity.

Deep inside her mind, Kary then heard a voice. A warm and familiar voice. One she could feel such love from.

" Don't give up! " The voice said. " You can do it. You can do anything. I believe in you " The voice chanted into her mind.

" Mom?! " Kary cried out into her mind.

" Stay strong sweetie, you can do this " The voice said again.

Hearing her mother's voice triggered something deep within Kary. An instinct, a will, to survive, but also to save all her loved ones. With her heart bleeding, her emotions all over the place, Kary steeled her mind.

" I REFUSE! " She yelled out to the Phoenix.

Kary then focused on her inner energy, forcing it to rotate faster, pushing it outwards, towards the exterior of her body. As it took speed, her energy expanded quickly, snaping into reality, mixing with the flame threads around her body. As that happened, the Phoenix lost control over his flames. Surprised he didn't react, letting the flames go out of control.

Kary broke free from her bonds, her skin slowly regenerating with all the energy pulsing from it. She then looked at the flaming bird, and defiantly said " I dare anyone to try and stop me. From now on, anyone trying to force my fate out of my hands will be considered my enemy. And I do not pity my enemies. Now, LEAVE! " As Kary said that, she fully unleashed her energy towards the bird, blowing it away. On the Phoenix's face, if one looked closely, they would have seen what was the closest a bird could get to a smile.

With the Phoenix gone, Kary turned back towards the bull. His ax was now dangerously close to Nala. As the time around was still slowed, Kary simply walked over. To anyone around, she would simply have become a blur, from down on the ground, to standing right between Nala and the Minotaur, holding his ax by the handle, as if it was a toy, swung by a child. The Minotaur not even seeing her get there, snapped back to his senses. As the berserk mode receded, fear flowed into him. He knew he couldn't win against the human anymore.

So he tried fleeing. Only Kary wouldn't take it. She simply formed fire into her hand, like it was natural, and swung her arm, as a lasso extended from the flame in her hand, flying straight to the Minotaur's horns. As the lasso tightened, Kary yanked back, pulling the Minotaur off his feet and onto his back. She walked back to him, slowly, and readied her sword. As she got next to it, the Minotaur knew it would die, as such, it tried to plead. It kowtowed in front of Kary, begging for his life. Only Kary was not in the forgiving mood. It had almost killed her and Nala, and for that, it had to pay. As she raised her sword, Kary mightily said " For the attempting to kill me and my loyal companion, you are sentenced to death! " and she brought down her sword.

* SHWACK *

A head rolled. As the adrenaline fazed out, Kary crumpled to her knees. She crouched to Nala and touched her, feeling her pulse. She was still alive. She then pulled her back into her consciousness for her to heal. Once inside her mind, the lioness rolled into a ball and a cocoon of light enveloped her. Kary knew she would be alone for a while and her heart pinched. She crawled back to her prey and checked what it had dropped.

~Fine Bull Horns~x2

~Fine Cow leather~x2

~Fine Bull Hooves~x2

~Exquisite Double-Bladed Ax~

~Berserker's Mind Talent Book~

She went to look at the Ax's stats.

~Exquisite Double-Bladed Ax~

Rarity: Rare

Attack: 5-20

Durability: 30

This ax is sized up to a minotaur's strength, therefore, if one would swing it as strongly, the damage would be considerably higher.

She already knew what she would do with this little jewel. As for the book, the same applied. Kary knew a berserker that would be happy tomorrow. As for tonight, Kary set up camp right where she was, too tired to walk back to the main camp. As she collected wood for a fire tonight, the cows simply watched her, not going anywhere. She also used her sword to cut off meat from the Minotaur, before it despawned into nothingness. With that, she had a meal to replenish herself. She also cut down small trees to build herself a makeshift hut for the night.

All this took time, and by the time she was set up, it was already getting dark. This last night of July was going to be a cold one, so Kary lit up her fire before it was pitch black. As she sat down to enjoy the flames, she thought back to the end of her fight. She had controlled fire to an extent she would never think possible. As she thought about this, she planted sticks near the flames to cook the bull's meat. As she looked at the meat cooking, she decided to try her hand at controlling the flames again.

As much as it had been almost natural for her earlier, she was having trouble right now. She managed to bring some timid flames on the back of the meat, but that was already stretching her concentration. She knew she would need a lot of practice to reach that point again. It bummed her a little.

As she was relaxing, Kary heard cracking sounds in the forest nearby. Getting up and drawing her sword, she focused on the direction the sounds came from. Not long after, she saw a man coming out of the forest, followed by two other persons. It was Anthony, Marc, and Carol.

Kary sat back down, sheathing her sword and relaxing. When the trio recognized her, they walked up to her and sat down.

" Fancy some camping I see " Marc said, half mockingly.

" Shut up Marc, can't you see Nala isn't nearby? Something must have happened. Carol retorted.

" I'm fine guys. So is Nala, she's just resting " Kary calmly said.

" We came looking for you " Anthony continued. " The men saw you leave camp with Nala to hunt, but no one saw you coming back. We got worried " He added.

" These big babies were almost crying while we looked, hoping you weren't dead " Carol mocked.

" HEY! I wasn't. That was Anthony! " Marc hollered.

" Ya ya, crybaby " Carol joked.

" Thanks for worrying guys. I appreciate it. I'm fine, my hunt was just a tad hard, that's all " Kary said, trying to slip that matter under the rug.

" Don't lie to us, Kary " Anthony told her, strangely serious. " You can't die on us yet " he added

Kary looked at them with a smile. She could feel they genuinely felt worried about her. So she owed it to them, to be honest. She started recounting what had happened to her during the day to the three of them, while they simply listened, sometimes dropping some 'oooh's or some 'aahh's. It amused Kary and made her forget the fright she had been through.

After the tale, they all decided to camp out with her, so she could sleep and recuperate from her day.

" It's almost like our first encounter, don't you think? " Kary said with a laugh to her friends.

" Yeah, I remember. So troublesome. You always make us watch over you while you sleep like a baby AHAH " Marc dropped, with a loud laugh.

Kary kicked him behind the knee, making him fall face-first into the ground. After which, all three of them burst laughing. After a minute or two of laughter, they calmed down. Kary told them she would need help herding the cows back to camp in the morning.

" Don't worry Hero, We got it covered, right guys?" Carol said.

" AYE " They both answered at the same time.

" Thanks, guys, for everything " Kary said, closing her eyes.

" No problem " She vaguely heard Anthony say, as she succumbed to her fatigue.