Before Shiro could even say anything, she saw Maria grit her teeth in anger and grab a nearby sword.
“Trash!” She shouted out and snapped the sword in half.
Widening her eyes, Shiro paused for a moment and wondered if she should leave Maria alone.
Despite her delicate appearance, her sudden surge of rage gave her second thoughts about approaching casually.
However, Maria had already spotted Shiro and it was too late.
*Cough!
“I apologise about that unsightly display. How can I help you?” Maria smiled sweetly as Shiro nodded her head after a short pause.
“Right er… It’s fine. So someone told me that I should look for you if I wanted a good bladed weapon.” Shiro replied.
“Ohhhh. Ok come come, sit down!” Maria nodded her head enthusiastically as it reminded Shiro of what Silvia was like when she talked about good healing equipment.
Dragging Shiro over to a chair, Maria started to dig through her equipment.
“Well you’ve come to the right place. Tell me what you want. Greatsword? Long sword? Dagger?” Maria asked while grabbing some examples from her pile of weapons.
“Ah a good sword and a dagger I guess. Sword for a main damage source and dagger for something I can throw. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy.” Shiro replied.
“That I can do. But I don’t make multiple trash weapons like a disposable dagger. No no no, I’ll make you a good one. How does one enchanted with a return enchantment sound? You’ll activate your energy and summon the dagger next to you. As for the sword, I’ll have to see how you fight. Here, give this sword a swing. Each type of sword has their own history and depending on how the user uses it, a new legacy could be born. An example would be a sword that could be used by a hero. If it’s in the hands of someone incompatible, then it might as well be a barn tool. But if used properly, it could become a legend!” Maria grinned.
“Now give this sword a swing and I’ll see what kind of history you could create.” She said while handing Shiro a normal long sword.
Taking aback by her enthusiasm, Shiro blinked her eyes before nodding her head.
Holding the sword in her hands, she closed her eyes and envisioned the image of the Minotaur in front of her.
Remembering his strength and speed, she took a deep breath.
Entering an offensive stance, she ‘lunged’ towards the Minotaur.
Flicking her hand, she slashed against his chest while he swung back with the club.
Shifting her weight, she brought the sword to her side and parried the club and brushed it aside before cleaving up with her blade.
Reopening her eyes, she glanced to the side and saw Maria watching with an intense stare.
“Ok I think I got it. Your fighting style is highly reactive and you like to take the offensive. You avoid or rather, redirect blows when you can. A sword you need isn’t something that can help you block but something that can help you parry. With your technique, a thin sword is good as well since you want attack power instead of defence power. Ooo…. But a thin sword might not be able to parry well for you. This is going to be a hard sword to make. HOWEVER! The potential story this sword can create in your hands is worth it.” Maria said with a serious expression which slowly turned into a grin.
“So I’ll make you one sword and one dagger. Come back in a month.” She waved her hand and started to look through her materials.
“Huh? What about payment?” Shiro asked.
“Oh right. Payment. Usually, this would cost you around 800 to 1000 gold but I’ll charge you 300 instead. It’s not often I get to make a unique sword like the one that you want.” Maria shrugged.
“So can you buy the sword and dagger?” She glanced back.
“Ah yes I can.” Shiro nodded.
“Then come back in a month.”
Seeing this, Shiro was once again taken aback.
“Don’t mind her, she’s always like this. She’s a little too enthusiastic about bladed weapons.” A voice sighed behind her.
Glancing back, she saw that it was the same man who had introduced her to Faidon and Maria.
“Ah thank you very much by the way.” Shiro smiled.
“You’re welcome. But it’s not often that Maria gives a discount to people. She must have seen good potential from you.” The man laughed.
“Mn.”
Talking to the man for a little longer, she bid farewell and started to make her way out of the city.
After she left the city gates, she unfurled her wings and started to fly towards the borders.
Now that she had the power of flight, she was able to use the air tunnels to increase her speed even more.
A journey that should take her quite a few days was reduced to only a day thanks to her power of flight.
Unfortunately, on her way here, she saw the town that was turned into a floating island. The only thing living on the island was monsters and human corpses could be seen everywhere. Some were half eaten while others were incomplete. There were even some corpses beneath the island as Shiro guessed that they must have either jumped off or got thrown off.
Giving the deceased people of the small town a silent prayer, Shiro continued her journey.
###
Landing near the border where the five air tunnels were, Shiro glanced towards the forest that represented her entrance to the Section of Life.
“I do hope that the Minotaur didn’t die just yet.” Shiro muttered to herself since the last time she ran into the Minotaur, she had injured both his eyes and pierced his body with a bunch of arrows.
Shaking her head, she decided to rest up at the border for the night since she had been travelling for the entire day.
Killing some birds for a meal at night, she ate her fill and slept in one of the trees.
Waking up the next morning, Shiro flew above the forest and tried to remember where she had seen the labyrinth last time.
Tracking her position through the mental map that she had constructed, Shiro eventually found her previous spot.
Walking around for a bit, she was disappointed to see that the labyrinth was now gone.
“Hmm… well he should be nearby. It takes a while for a Minotaur to move his labyrinth to a new location since it takes some preparation. Even for a monster like the Minotaur, he understood innately on how to perform the ritual for his labyrinth.
Sighing softly, Shiro started to dash around the forest in an attempt to find where his new labyrinth was.
Searching the entire area to the best of her abilities, Shiro was sad to see that there was no sign of a labyrinth at all.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro flew up into the air and looked at the entire forest from the sky.
Looking around for several signs of a labyrinth, she was surprised that she didn’t even need to try that hard as there was something shimmering in the distance. Understanding that was the sign of the Minotaur trying to construct a labyrinth, Shiro flew towards it as fast as she could.
Upon arrival, Shiro was shocked at the scene.
The Minotaur was on the verge of death with both his eyes still blind while a huge beast like monstrosity stood over him with a snarl.
The beast was a strange amalgamation of different monsters and it was similar to a chimaera but not the same.
His head was somewhat deformed as it was similar to a ram’s skull with skin tightly stretched along the surface. Four amber eyes swivelled around the sunken eye sockets as they all focused on the Minotaur who was struggling to escape. His jaws had bones jerking out of him as it pushed the tightly stretched skin to the point of almost breaking.
There was only a single set of teeth around his mouth but his tongue was a horrifying lump of flesh which looked like it could fork out towards multiple directions. If Shiro had to describe it quickly, she’ll describe it as a disgusting merge of multiple tongues.
On top of his head were two large horns which looped behind his ears before pointing forward. One of the horns was chipped on the tip while the other was still menacingly sharp.
He didn’t have a lot of hair but there were some tuffs that could be seen around his body. Without the hair covering his body, the deformities were displayed in plain sight.
It had ripped wings protruding from his back as the wings looked like a fusion of both bird and bat wings. With ripped holes littering the wing membrane, it was hard to imagine that he could continue to fly.
Looking at the back, one could see his spine in clear detail as it led to his tail. At this point, some of the skin had been ripped apart but no blood could be seen. The only thing that could be seen was the chilling white which represented the bone. With goat like hooves as legs and long sharp fleshless claws, the demonic monstrosity walked towards the Minotaur with ominous intent.
