Chapter XV – The Mind of Ruins

I was currently running through some ancient ruined city, trying to find a way out of the place.

"Seriously. Where in Hades am I? I bet I wouldn't even be able to find the area I'm at on my google maps if my phone were working at all." I said, shaking my phone as I slid, trying to get the darn thing to work. The only thing that did happen was it just staring at me with its blank screen. "This is getting me nowhere." I said, sighing in frustration. "Of course it isn't. You're only really in your head." Athena's voice responded, coming from everywhere and nowhere as it had the first time it had come in my first dream. "Yeah. And I want to get out of here. It's not exactly the most exciting place to be right now." I shot back.

"I believe I can be of help here." Athena suggested. "Yeah. That would be nice." I said. "You must move quickly, then. Your friends are getting quite worried about you. They've been trying to wake you up for some time now." The goddess said. "Alright. Where do I need to go from here?" I asked, looking around. "Go towards the temple at the end of town. It should be easy enough to see." Athena said. "Okay." I responded, going on a full-on sprint for the other side of the ruins. That was when Grimm started coming.

"You have got to be kidding me." I said, throwing the Bowmerang as I completed a sliding stop once I turned around. The weapon sliced through the Beowolves like a hot knife through butter. And then even more came, along with the Leowolves from my first dream. "And now these guys are back as well. This could take a while.

"What are you doing? You need to move!" Athena said, appearing in front of me as I caught the Bowmerang. "I've got to clear these guys out." I answered. "And they'll only keep coming back. Besides, they're not your biggest problem." Athena said, pointing out the large shadow coming up from behind the monsters. It was really big. And it had horns that lead to extremely sharp points.

"Don't tell me that's the Minotaur." I said, backing away as I changed the Bowmerang to its Edge Form and drew my sword. "It is. Now run if you want to get out of here." the wisdom goddess said. I didn't need to be told twice. I ran like there was no tomorrow. The Minotaur was at the top of my list of things I didn't want to fight, spiders coming in second, especially giant ones.

I could hear the monsters behind me as I ran, getting closer no matter how hard I sprinted. After a really long time spent running, I finally reached the temple. "Okay. What I do now, Athena?" I asked as I stopped in front of the ruined structure. "Touch the statue within and you'll be set free." the goddess answered. "Alright." I said, hurrying inside, only to stop as soon as I recognized the statue. "No way this could be in here." I said, gasping in surprise. As I reached out to touch it, a massive shadow came over me. Looking up, I jumped back and out of the way as the Minotaur landed. "I did not see that coming, I said as I readied my weapons.

The giant bull-man-thing roared as it lowered its head and started scraping the ground with a hoof. With what was an odd combination of its earlier roar and a moo, it charged. I sidestepped the charge, using my fire powers to get myself further away from him. I quickly changed the Bowmerang to its Bow Form and shot a few arrows at the Minotaur, some fire and some regular. The regular ones seemed to have very little effect while the fire ones exploded on him, making him even angrier than my standard arrows did.

I immediately switched back to dual-wielding as I dodge rolled out of the way of his next charge. How am I even supposed to damage this guy? His skin is like iron or something." I said. And as soon as I said that, I remembered that among the few things that can actually harm him, his own horns are the best at doing that. The only problem was getting a horn in the first place.

I ran to a pillar that was still standing tall with a raging bull charging at me right on my tail. As I reached the pillar, I jumped onto it and back flipped off of it with a much needed burst of fire to propel myself further back. Time seemed to slow down as I saw the Minotaur run right underneath me, unable to stop its charge.

He crashed right through the column, bringing it down on himself in pieces. While he was momentarily stunned, I rushed up to him and cut off both horns. Putting away my weapons, I grabbed up both of them and quickly backed away as I struggled to keep my grip on the smooth surface of my makeshift weapons. It was a good thing I moved back in time because the Minotaur got back up, roaring in fury as he glared at me with eyes that were blood red and burning with revenge in mind.

"That's right. Come and get some." I said, trying to sound brave about the crazy thing I was about to do. As the Minotaur charged again, I ran straight at him, turning this into a game of chicken. As we got close, I started sliding, getting the horns I was holding into the best positions to hit the monster's head.

As we met at the center of our charge, I struck, closing my eyes and hoping for the best. Once I stopped sliding, I turned to face to the Minotaur. Or what was left of him, at any rate. I ran to the front of him to see that his face was frozen in what could be called a silent scream as he was evaporating. "And now it's time to go. You've spent more than enough time in here." Athena said.

"Yeah. I know." I said, going to the Athena Parthenos. As soon as I touched the base of the statue, a portal opened up on the shield. "And now it's time to go." I said, sending myself into the portal with the use of my fire powers.