"Welcome, how many are we seating?" A feminine voice chirped out. The grey-haired waitress picked up an assortment of menus before leading the group of adventurers to a round table on the west side of the tavern.

"My name is Syr and I will be your waitress for this evening. If there is anything I can do for you, don't be afraid to ask. I shall return to you shortly to take an order, thank you."

Syr skipped away from the table, notepad in hand as she went to another table in her section. She smiled at the couple, always enjoying watching other people be in love, as she jotted down their order.

"Mama, one special and one fish salad please!" Syr said as she placed the piece of paper on the counter. The hostess, Mia Grande, grabbed the paper, gave it a quick glance and cracked her knuckles.

"Take them drinks would ya, Anya's dealing with another table and I don't like keeping customers waiting. The happier they are, the looser their wallets."

With that, Mia turned away and started prepping the order. The Hostess wasn't too busy but it was enough for only two waitresses, one chef and a pot washer to keep busy.

Syr carefully placed her hand under the wooden tray, careful not to drop the drinks this time. She was getting better at this, slowly but surely. She had even been trusted to pour a few drinks when it was busy.

'It's almost the end of the week,' Freya thought in her mind, her customer service smile becoming a proper one as her real thoughts interfered with her work. Syr struggled to contain her glee as she thought of the young adventurer who had occupied her thoughts lately.

'I wonder what kind of adventurer that boy has had since we last met. How has his soul changed?'

I jump behind a giant spike, narrowly avoiding a massive fist aimed at my skull. However, I get no time to breathe as the stone spike is shattered as another Minotaur breaks it down, intent on taking my life.

I push backwards, throwing up my arms to block the flying fragments of rock hurtling towards me. I grimace as I hear another crack, my arm braces gaining another crack. At this rate, my armour is going to shatter and I haven't taken out a single one yet.

On the plus side, the sheer number of them is helping somewhat. The room I'm in is massive but with the stone spikes jutting out of the floor, it makes it hard for forty Minotaurs to navigate it while I can easily zip in between the obstacles, using them as cover.

My pain resistance skill is in full effect once again as my left leg continues to burn and cry out in pain. Other than that, I couldn't complain about my condition. I was in a lot worse state when I faced my first Minotaur.

I keep running, skidding under a flying fist before leaping upwards to avoid a low kick. I land on one of the spikes, having to push off it immediately as it's quickly turned to rubble by another punch.

I swivel through the air, arms reaching out trying to grab me. I flip upside down and grab onto a pair of horns and with my momentum, I yank down, pulling the Minotaur with me. I don't have time to finish it off as I have to keep on the move, avoiding punches and kicks flying from all directions.

I have to come up with a way to start taking these monsters out. I'm confident enough that I could 1v1 a Minotaur, maybe even a 1v2. But every time I get one of them into a vulnerable position, five more fly at me, roaring in the hope of being the one to get me. If even one of them grabs me or I lose my momentum, I'm toast.

'I have to funnel them, like fighting in a tunnel.'

Almost as if it was scripted, I'm forced to vault over a charging bull and my eyes land on something.

I waste no time in pushing off the charging Minotaur's back, flying over the rest of the herd. I perform a forward roll as I land, preventing me from landing on my left leg, and start running towards the set of stairs that the dwarf and amazon escaped out of.

I quickly reach the stone steps, ignoring the flowing blood running down it. I'm taking them three at a time as I hear the thunderous footsteps begin to chase me once more. I reach the halfway mark, where the dead rabbit-man lay, and make my stand. I'm forced to step over the corpse of my fellow adventurer to get onto level footing.

The stairs are thin enough that only two Minotaurs can make it up at a time, and that's when they are working together. It seems I've become some sort of prize as the first two monsters that reach the bottom step begin pushing each other out of the way.

'That's perfect,' I thought as they are fighting each other. If they worked together then it would make this almost impossible. After a lot of shoving and roaring in anger, the first Minotaur reaches me. It is also the stupidest as just before it gets to me, it shoves the one it was jostling with back down the stairs, forming a small blockade.

'Finally, a one on one.'

The Minotaur swings for me but it lands on the dead body of the beast man, crushing it under the monster's enormous weight. Losing its balance, I take advantage and dodge under the swing, grabbing the arm with both my hands. I twist as hard as I can, making the monster spin around and completely lose its balance.

Its large body slams into the steps so hard that it bounces off the stone. As its head is off the floor and perfectly at my height, I grab both horns with my hands and twist in the opposite direction it was spinning.

With a splintering sharp crack, the Minotaur becomes lifeless. Its cow head staring at the ceiling as its body lay stomach down on the steps. The rampage on the steps stops, almost as if the Minotaurs were taking in the site of one of them dying. I stare them down, flexing my fingers as I crack my neck.

"One down," I mumble as I smile.

"URRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The shout that had disoriented from before only fuels me now as the monsters don't take their comrade's death well. They start storming up the stairs, two at a time. However, I now have a hurdle for them to cross.

The lifeless Minotaur's body is almost perfectly placed to slow them down. Every time two manage to step over the body, it takes another five seconds for the next pair to cross. That's just enough time.

For 5 minutes straight I do nothing but stand my ground on these steps. I initially stand at the top of the step, then just before the two monsters reach me, I walk back slowly over the platform that's nestled in the middle of the steps. This forces the monsters to keep chasing me. My first objective is to take this from a 1v2 to a 1v1, so I always aim to push the one closest to the edge off.

The fall to the ground is not enough to kill a Minotaur, but it is enough to daze and maybe slightly injure them. But the main part is to get one of them alone. I could take 2 of them on at once but in the few seconds I have before the next pair join the fight, it's best I only fight one. So after pushing, punching, kicking, tricking or any other way to get one of them gone, I quickly take care of the other one.

My preferred method is to force them to throw an attack first then use it to either slam my Galva-Knuckles in their chest with all my force or snap their neck like I did with the first one. If I don't kill them within 5 seconds, I force them to follow their duo off the side of the platform, already preparing to take on the next two.

The first few times we're tricky, one point the pair behind having caught up before I took care of the one I was fighting, forcing me to push all three off, not killing any of them. But after a while, I quickly got into a rhythm, having learnt the monster's attack pattern. And within 5 minutes, I've taken the number from 39 to 30.

Just as I kill the 10th one, I'm given a moment of rest. The monsters have stopped progressing. I can see the annoyed and angered expression on all of them, most likely they have all been pushed off and have had to walk back up the stairs, some maybe even twice. I feel a sense of pride in that. But I don't take my rest lightly as I need to know why they have stopped.

Then they begin to do something that frightens me. They split up.

I know ten are dead, so that leaves 30. And in that 30, only 6 stay on the stairs. The other 24 split into two packs of 12 and they all look up at me, their blood-red eyes radiating sadistic bloodlust. I feel saliva begin to build at the back of my throat.

'What's going on?' I worry, not understanding the level of intelligence these monsters possess. Then they begin and I realise what they are doing. While the stairs aren't wide enough for all of them to climb up, the walls that lead to my platform, my safe space, are.

Simultaneously, 24 pairs of Minotaur hands tear into the stone wall below me and begin to climb. Bits of rubble drop to the floor as they start pulling themselves up in their desperate hunger to kill me.

The final six don't give me time to escape or come up with a second plan as they advance towards me. I'm taken off guard as I'm still shaken by the sight of what I'm witnessing, only managing to throw my guard up in time to soften the impact of a giant fist.

I go sliding back, my arm guards cracking even more. At this rate, the only armour I'll have left are the ones covering my boots. The Minotaur that hits me roars in delight as its compatriot rushes from behind and charges at me. As soon as I come to a stop, I prepare for another attack.

This time instead of going under, I jump to my right and push off the wall just as the Bull monster flies at me. I deliver a swift swivel kick to its skull, knocking it off the edge. I don't bother to check if it has died or taken any of its friends with it as I'm too focused on the other 5 in front of me.

However, I've wasted too much time and I hear it. The fastest climber straddles up onto the platform behind me. I stare up in horror as I'm now surrounded. If to make it worse, the ones climbing up right next to me are high enough to start grabbing at my legs, forcing me to jump away.

My back is forced up against the wall and then a fist comes swinging straight at my face. I drop to the floor, bits of stone falling on me as the place where my head had been now stood a small crater embedded in the wall.

I peer through the legs of the ones blocking my path to the stairs and see other Minotaurs getting onto the platform on the far end. Others were now lining up behind the one that had climbed up behind me. And in front of me, another one starts pulling itself up.

I'm completely surrounded. I clamber up, trying to take a leaf from their book and start scrambling up the wall, hoping to get to the top platform but before I even make it an inch of the ground, one of the Minotaurs grabs me.

For a second nothing happens, as if the world has come to a stand-still. Then I'm moving at an alarming speed. I have no time to throw up a defence as my body is slammed into the wall. Once, twice, three times. Then my body goes light as I'm sent hurtling backwards towards the ground.

I slam through a stone spike in the ceiling, crashing through it as I continue my trajectory down, the wind whistling in my ear. I take out another two spikes on the floor before finally coming to a stop as my body slams into the third one, stopping my momentum.

My head's dizzy, my body is numb. For a second I forget where am but as I regain a bit of focus I see them. A horde of Minotaurs all staring at me from above, lined up like infantry. I don't know whether they are roaring or laughing at me.

I feel blood leaking from my nose, ears, mouth and from somewhere on my head. I feel my hair become matter with blood as my broken rib count goes from a two, to about five. My pain resistance skill is good, great even. I can barely tell if it is even working as the only thing I'm experiencing is pain.

I see the Minotaurs begin to approach me, ready to finish off their little game. I was foolish to think I could take on forty of them, all on my own, just because I'd killed one before. That was more luck than skill. If I hadn't come across that narrow tunnel, I'd have been dead.

My body is on fire. My lungs are burning my insides as I can feel my blood leaving my body at a fatal rate. My mind is racing, half of it trying to come up with a way to survive while the other half was coming to accept my demise.

I try to focus on my pain-resistance skill, willing it to do more but I can barely feel it. That burning from my falna is shrouded by the fire of pain. My stealth skills would be no help. They can see me; they know I'm here and there isn't a place to hide.

Even as I try to move, another blow to my chances of survival shatters alongside my armour as it finally falls to pieces on the ground after tanking so much damage. I feel tears welling up, knowing I'd failed Reg by not taking care of them properly as they had served me valiantly to the very end. I couldn't have asked any more of them.

'I want... to see him... all of them.'

The faces of the ones I'd grown close to within my short life flash through my mind, the line of minotaur's merging into one terrifying figure of death. The dimly lit room only darkened their skin, enhancing their red eyes as they all focused on me.

I once again feel my body burn. I hate it, that feeling of pain. Brant said if I was to remain a brawler, I'd need to get used to pain but surely not this much. I'd dealt with so much pain over the past day and because of that, I could tell. This burning, this was different. And it came from my back.

My eyes snapped open. I rummaged through my mind, trying to figure out what it was. My body hadn't given up yet so how could I stop the fight. My falna doesn't have much. Both my skills are ineffective now and I know magic doesn't do this unless activated, so that only leaves one thing.

"Warrior..." I mutter through blood-soaked teeth as I cough up blood. I hear the voice of Penia in my mind.

"-all stats will increase when the user faces insurmountable odds."

Well, I'd be lying if I said that wave of death marching towards me wasn't insurmountable. I feel my back burn brighter as if it was willing me to continue.

I start to move, pushing past the agonising pain. I cry out in agony but I don't stop. The Falna, a blessing from the Gods, has recognised me as a Warrior. What kind of Warrior just lays down and accepts defeat?

I begin to stand back up, feeling my broken ribs move in my chest. I push through it still. What kind of Warrior lets pain stop him from winning?

I reach up to my face and feel my crooked nose, snapping back into place. I wipe away the blood and tears from my eyes and see my arms. No armour, only a thin layer of black cloth covering my skin. But I realise something. I do have armour, my armour.

'What kind of Warrior allows pathetic things to get in the way of his dreams?'

I'm now standing up, my legs shaking as I regain balance. I narrow my eyes at the horde of death. Some of them had stopped, seemingly surprised by my determination to keep living. Screw them, Screw everyone! I won't let anyone assume stuff and dictate my life, saying that I should do this or I should do that! I'm here to live my own life and I'm not going to let anyone, dead or alive, prevent me from reaching my goals.

The Minotaurs are only 10 metres away now, some getting ready to begin fighting again. I take slow, deep breaths. Then I close my eyes and begin to focus.

The nearest Minotaur starts picking up the pace, I hear it get closer. I remember what Ryuu had taught me, about where to find it. And then...

"- bestow upon me the strength to beat my foes,"

The monster jumps at me, ready to land the final blow. I feel the magic burn through my veins as I throw open my eyes, side-step the monster and with a clenched fist, the sound of metal sliding over one another, I slam my Galva-Knuckle into the monster's exposed chest.

Ash litters the ground as a magic stone the size of my fist drops to the ground with a thud. I retract my arm, blue lightning glistening over my skin. My legs have stopped shaking and my mind is now clear but I don't stop there.

"-gift me the power to withstand their attacks."

Two Minotaurs fly at me, both throwing punches. I throw up my arms in defence, the veins of lightning flaring at the impact. The monster's fists make contact but are stopped an inch away from my arm. A small glisten of light shows the armour... my armour protecting me from the attack.

I waste no time and with a roundhouse kick, my legs, also covered in my armour and blue veins, smash into the bull monster on the left, crippling it. The other one is sent barrelling away from the impact. The first one coughs up a pint of blood as it falls to the ground, moaning in pain. I slam my boot down as hard as I can. Its body falls to the floor, lifeless before it quickly poofs into ash.

The combination of my warrior skill, my increased strength and my armour. The other Minotaurs have stopped once more, shocked at more of them dying. Incensed at their comrade's deaths, they roar in anger.

I now have the power to two-hit the strongest monster that can spawn on the middle floors, but I still have one more line to chant, and I've finally figured it out.

"-Absorb their strength and make it my own," I whisper.

All my life, I've known pain.

The pain of being abandoned, of being left behind.

The pain of being a burden on the ones I love.

The pain of wanting to handle responsibility.

The countless times I've had to fight for my life in and outside the dungeon.

The pain of feeling so alone, it feels like the world could swallow me up and no one would even notice.

But I know that's not true. There are people who will miss me, people who care about me. And they all have experienced pain as well, sometimes because of my selfish or stupid actions.

I got my first chant from Zeus, the one who picked my brother over me and left me behind.

I got my second chant from Hera, the one who abandoned me and didn't come back.

My third chant, my final chant, is mine and mine alone. Having dealt with pain all my life, I have known how to live with it. Now though, I need to use it. To not hide from it or ignore it but to harness it and make it something useful, so it can't hurt the ones I care about. I want to protect them, all of them. To make sure they don't feel any more pain, I will take it all.

I will absorb all of their pain and make it my own. And right now, I've experienced nothing but pain for the past 24 hours.

My blue lightning begins to glow. All the pain that racks my body is now flowing into the pattern that encircles my body, making it stronger. The pain is still there, not letting up, but now I can use it. Now, whenever I'm hurt, I can use it.

The pattern that encircles my arms, legs, chest, back and the one streak of blue that wraps around my forehead have now turned from a lightning blue to glowing a heavenly mix of white and gold.

I look at my opponents. Twenty-eight remain, one of them heavily injured. They let out a choir of a ferocious battle cry while I narrow my eyes and prepare to end this.

/

This time I initiate the attack, charging at the nearest one at the centre. My speed is incomparable to what it was before as the monster doesn't even have a chance to attack or throw up a defence, I slam my fist into its stomach. The result is instant as its body explodes.

Blood covers me, adding to the smeared coating from before. This is the second time I've been covered in Minotaur blood today and it won't be the last.

I start carving my way through the horde. One at a time, I dart up to one and slam either my fist or boot into them, it doesn't which one or where I hit. If it isn't in a critical area like the head or chest, wherever I make contact, the body part explodes into a cloud of meat and blood.

It had taken me 5 minutes to cautiously take out 10 of them. I had equalled that in half a minute. The monsters that had been such an imposing threat only a few minutes earlier were now dropping dead like I was fighting a pack of goblins.

Their attacks seemed slow and it was easy to avoid them. They stood no chance in keeping up with me and to the ones that did manage to throw up a block, my Knuckles just smashed through the limbs and bones before connecting with my intended target.

I smashed through the stone spikes like they were nothing, even pulling one out of the ground and launching it at a bundle of them, taking three out in one throw.

I could sense it now; they were starting to panic. It had happened in an instant. The position of prey and predator, the hunted and the hunter, the one who will come out alive and the one who will die. It had now switched.

Even after encircling me, I just continued my onslaught. Each one that tried to attack me, I dodged and killed in a single impact. To the lucky few who managed to hit me, my invisible light armour protected me, allowing me to swiftly counter.

My mind wasn't keeping up, it was like I was in a daze. My body was purely relying on instinct as the pain that flooded my body was threatening to send me to sleep and now that I was using magic constantly, I was sensing a mind down not far away. I had to end it.

After another 3 minutes of continuous fighting, I found a rest bite. I had staggered away, no, it was the Minotaurs that had retreated, all 5 of them. Two had arms dangling limp, their bones exposed. One had no arms after I had erased them when my fist came into contact with the pathetic block. The other two were shaking, it was fear.

Maybe if this was me before I entered the middle floors, I'd have thought of ending the fight here. I'd whittled the numbers down enough to easily escape and from the show I'd put on, it was unlikely they would follow, as they were fearing for their lives.

But no, I wasn't the same naïve adventurer then. I was annoyed that I hadn't learnt on the day I levelled up what the dungeon was. It was kill or be killed, there was no room for mercy here.

I took a step forward, walking towards my final victims, prepared to finally end this. They cowered in fear before turning to run away. However, I was blocking the only exit.

I had been scared the entire time I was down here, fearing that at any moment I could die. It was because I wasn't thinking properly. I wasn't thinking like an adventurer.

The Minotaurs were running, having reached the stairs. They clambered over the dead bodies of the other Minotaurs and the dead rabbit-man, the one who had been left behind by the dwarf and the amazon.

The thought of them pissed me off. They weren't adventurers, they were cowards. Even the Minotaurs were working together to escape me unlike those who wanted to leave their fellow adventurers behind as bait.

The likes of Odysseus never left his men behind, even when they were a detriment. Some would call that heroic. If showing kindness was deemed worthy enough of being heroic, then these adventurers needed to stop being cowards and get stronger.

I began walking up the stairs, blood dripping off me. I wonder what it would look like if a party walked in now. Seeing a 5-year-old slowly hunting down 5 Minotaurs, smeared in blood as a litter of Minotaur corpses spread throughout the room, only outnumbered by the pile of ashes.

'Knowing what some adventurers are like, they would turn and run away.' I think. But then I remember others. The golden-haired man who died protecting his party. The dwarf who saved my life in exchange for his own.

There were people out there who knew what it meant to be an adventurer. The Astrea Familia were like that as well and from what I've heard, so were Brant and Reg when they were adventurers.

That's the kind of adventurer I want to be. But there was time to think about this. Now, I need to finish off the fight.

The Minotaurs are pounding on the makeshift stone barrier covering the exit upwards. The one without any arms turns around and roars at me. In response, I leap at it with tremendous speed as my magic lights up. I deliver a quick and decisive blow in its chest.

"four more," I mutter.

The two with broken arms then turn around and do the same thing before charging at me. They get low down and start running at me since their horns are their only weapons left.

With one hand for each, I brace for impact and catch them. The power of two Minotaurs sends me sliding back but I hold my ground, my white lightning glowing brighter as I start slowing them down.

Finally coming to a stop, I begin closing my fist. The Minotaur on my right hand manages to escape in time but the one on my left isn't as fast. My hands only cover about a third of the bull's head so when my fingers tighten, I cave into the top part of its skull. My fingers fall through meat and blood as the monster falls down dead as soon as I rip out a piece of its brain.

"three more."

I begin walking back, bending down as I pass the dead human's body to pick up his sword. I swivel it around in my left hand a bit, getting to grips with its weight. I realise if I want to use it well, both hands would be necessary due to my size. So I hold the sword with both hands and push off.

I slice through the other Minotaur that charged me, lodging the sword in its chest. I don't stop running though as I hear the monster let out a final roar before turning to ash.

"two more."

I continue on and just as the final two monsters finally break through the dwarf's magic, I slam my fists into the back of one...

"one more."

And then with a quick jump and a roundhouse, my leg connects with the final monster's neck, decapitating it.

Both Minotaurs fall to the floor before turning into ash. I just stand there, breathing heavily. I quickly disperse my magic as I'm on the brink of a mind down. I unclench my fists, releasing my Galva-Knuckles.

As my magic fades, my strength leaves my body as I crumple to my knees. I force myself to stay awake, to not allow the pain to override my mind. I finally won. I overcame the insurmountable odds and became a Warrior but that doesn't mean I can just lie down.

The dimly lit abyss that lay ahead of me, the corridor that extended into floor 16 showed that I still had a long way to go. And without the dwarf to navigate, I had no way to know where to go. So now, there was a decision to be made.

'Continue on and risk getting lost or...'

I turn around and look at the other exit to the room, the one where I had entered. The one that, just a small walk away, was the bottom of a giant hole that might lead to the 13th floor. In my mind, there is only one right answer.

I start walking down the stairs, finding a dark corner of the room and curl up in the dark. If I want to do what I'm going to do, no matter which way I go, I need some rest. The room is in tatters, meaning now monsters can spawn here.

"5 minutes" I mutter before slumping down.

My neck is craned all the way up. Above is a black hole that could lead to anywhere. Why was I risking everything on a stupid theory, there was little to no proper evidence that says this goes to where I think it goes. So why was I standing below this giant hole?

"Adventurers go on adventurers," I mumble to myself. I can't help but laugh a little at the stupidity but it's better than getting lost in the maze of the dungeon, at least this only has one direction. Up.

Wow, what a chapter and fight. Fun fact, this fight didn't even happen before, only coming up with the idea minutes before I published the last chapter and thank god I did.

Perseus has finally used his magic, he has climbed another step up the giant mountain to his goals. And well, you guys asked for something that gives our young lad some actual power, so here you go. Hope you like it.

Now he's only got to climb from floor 16 to floor 13 whil severely injured, on the brink of collapse and basically knocking on deaths door and he doesn't even know if it actually leads to where he needs to go. No biggy, I'm sure he'll manage.

Anyway, reviews:

Jose Blas - A mini Guts, I like that. As for your questions, Bete and Ardee aren't that far awa, both playing roles when the dark ages come.

Roland Tepes - Yes the dungeon is ruthless and yes, we need character growth but still, fuck them for leaving our boy. As for how Percy will percive things, he is stil 5, he has 10 years until canon to figure things and form his own opinion, nothing is set in stone.

korakovroman9 - It is time to show Percy's magic, hope you liked it.

Sora Stream - I can't stop Bell being stronger than Percy, he is the main character in this world. Time skips will happen but I'm enjoying writing at my own pace. If I did too many time skips, we wouldn't have chapters like this or when he met the Astrea Familia. And thank you for enjoying my story, always great to hear, I enjoy writing fight scenes like this one.

Brendan1479 - I wonder if we'll see them again as well.

That's everything for now. As always, I'll see ya next time, Peace!