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Chapter 29: Little Rookie vs. Destiny (Minotaur)
With Ottar gone, Tsuna left Finn's group behind and rushed down the corridor.
That voice...!? As he closed the distance, the unmistakable clash of steel and feral roars echoed through the stone walls.
"Ais!!"
He spotted Ais standing perfectly still at the edge of a massive room. As he stepped up beside her, his breath hitched.
"This is...!?"
Standing in the center of the blood-stained room was a Minotaur—a towering, bipedal beast with a bull's head, swinging a massive greatsword. And clashing against it, entirely alone, was Bell.
"I was going to save him... but he challenged it himself..." Ais whispered, explaining why she hadn't drawn her blade. But she wasn't looking at Tsuna. Her eyes were completely glued to the battle.
Ais had trained Bell herself. She knew his growth rate was terrifying. But never in her wildest dreams did she believe he could defeat a Minotaur alone. Yet, right before her eyes, Bell was fighting the beast on equal footing. It was a complete impossibility, a defiance of the world's logic. She couldn't look away.
His movements... they're leagues beyond what they were during our training. Watching Bell dodge and deflect the sweeping strikes, Tsuna noticed the fundamental shift in the boy's aura.
His fear of battle is gone... I see. You finally found it, didn't you, Bell? Your pride. Tsuna realized Bell had conquered his terror and found the core of his resolve. Smiling faintly, Tsuna decided to simply stand back and witness his friend's trial.
Seconds later, Finn and the rest of the Vanguard arrived.
"W-Wait!! What the hell are you doing!? Aren't you his ally!? Why aren't you helping him!?" Tiona screamed.
"She's right!! That's what we came here for!!" Tione yelled.
"It's fine. Bell will win."
Tsuna didn't move an inch. He possessed absolute confidence in Bell's victory.
"Hah!? Are you brain-dead!? There's no way that weakling can beat a Minotaur!!" Bete roared.
"No... it seems you're wrong," Finn murmured.
Bete blinked, refocusing his eyes on the fight.
"W-What...?" Tione gasped.
"No way..." Tiona whispered.
Bell wasn't just surviving. He was matching the Minotaur blow for blow. The sheer impossibility of the scene left the Amazons dumbstruck.
"True... I can't guarantee his victory, but I can't say it's impossible either... But this isn't normal. A Level 1 crossing blades with a Minotaur..." Riveria muttered in awe.
Everyone was paralyzed by the spectacle. But what they were watching was not an illusion. In the crucible of the Dungeon, a miracle was taking shape.
'Bell. What is your pride?'
'Pride is the one thing you refuse to surrender. No matter what happens.'
(I finally understand!! My pride!!)
Bell remembered Tsuna's words from their training. And he remembered the days before he came to Orario.
He had no parents. He was raised by his grandfather, a bizarre old man with no blood relation to him who constantly spouted nonsense about building a harem and picking up cute girls. Yet, that same old man possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of heroic epics, always regaling Bell with tales of valor and giving him hand-drawn picture books on his birthday. When Bell was almost killed by a Goblin as a child, it was his grandfather who rushed in to save him, standing bravely against the monster to protect his grandson.
His grandfather had passed away before Bell set off for Orario. But to Bell, despite all the books he read, his greatest hero had always been his grandfather.
'Orario has everything. If you want to go, then go.'
'You can even become a hero. If you have the resolve, go.'
I want to be a hero!! That is my pride!!
Balanced on the razor's edge of life and death, Bell's conviction crystallized. He wanted to be a hero who could slay the beast. A hero strong enough to inspire his own weak heart. No matter what the future held, Bell desired to be a hero from the very bottom of his soul.
"Ooooooooooooh!!"
"Vmooooooooo!!"
Bell accelerated, his daggers turning into a storm of silver. The Minotaur matched his fury, swinging its greatsword with bone-crushing velocity.
Normally, a dagger clashing against a greatsword would shatter instantly. But the Hestia Knife was a living weapon, forged by the Goddess of Blacksmiths herself. It wouldn't suffer so much as a scratch. Furthermore, thanks to Ais's brutal training, Bell knew how to parry and redirect the kinetic force of a heavier weapon rather than just taking it head-on. These two factors kept him in the fight.
This isn't working!!
Bell was deflecting the greatsword with the Hestia Knife and counter-attacking with the Schweizer Degen. But the baselard couldn't pierce the Minotaur's thick hide. It was doing damage, but nowhere near enough for a killing blow. If this war of attrition continued, he would run out of stamina and die.
I have to create an opening and get inside its guard!!
The baselard was useless. But the Hestia Knife—sharp enough to carve through solid steel—could undoubtedly sever the beast's flesh. The problem was its short reach. He needed a split-second window to close the distance.
Think!! Think!! Think!! Bell's mind raced at the speed of light.
—!?
His eyes snapped wide.
The Minotaur unleashed a devastating horizontal sweep. Normally, Bell would parry this with the Hestia Knife. Instead, he kicked off the floor, launching himself high into the air to evade the blade entirely.
"You idiot!!" Bete yelled reflexively.
Even if Bell dodged the sweep, he had no foothold in mid-air. He was completely defenseless in mid-air. He was a sitting duck for the follow-up strike. One misstep in the Dungeon equaled death. Finn and the others instantly assumed Bell's run had come to an end.
So he figured it out. Tsuna, however, remained perfectly calm.
The Minotaur instantly tracked Bell's ascent, reversing its momentum to unleash a brutal upward strike aimed right at the airborne boy. The Minotaur's Left Upward Cut cleaved toward him.
"Firebolt!!"
Aiming his left hand behind him, Bell fired a volley of no-chant magic. The explosive recoil blasted him forward mid-air, allowing him to sail cleanly over the ascending greatsword.
"A short chant!"
"I see. He fired magic backward to propel himself in mid-air." Riveria and Finn murmured, finally realizing the genius of the maneuver.
Looks like you understood what I was trying to tell you, Tsuna smiled. Yesterday, he had told Bell he wasn't using his magic to its full potential. Tsuna meant that magic shouldn't just be an offensive tool—it could be used for extreme mobility.
Using the recoil, Bell successfully landed directly behind the Minotaur. But the beast was a seasoned killer. Anticipating a rear attack, it immediately whipped around.
"Bumoooooooo!?"
The moment it turned, Bell hurled the Schweizer Degen with terrifying precision, sinking the blade straight into the Minotaur's left eye. Blood erupted from the socket. The monster dropped its guard, clutching its ruined eye with its left hand as it shrieked in agony.
A strike to the back wouldn't have been fatal. Knowing this, Bell had sacrificed his secondary weapon to permanently cripple the beast's vision and create a fatal opening.
Now!!
While the Minotaur scrambled to pull the blade from its eye, Bell dove inside its guard.
"Ooooooooooooh!!"
"Goooooooooooo!!"
Bell brought the Hestia Knife down in a savage Karatake, targeting the beast's sword arm. The black blade sheared straight through bone and muscle. The Minotaur's right arm flew through the air, its greatsword clattering to the stone floor.
"Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!"
"Voooooooooo!!"
Without missing a beat, Bell sheathed the Hestia Knife, grabbed the fallen greatsword with both hands, and unleashed a massive Right Sweep, tearing a deep gash across the Minotaur's stomach.
(Too shallow!!)
The strike landed, but it wasn't fatal.
"Vmooooooooo!!"
"Guh!?"
Enraged, the Minotaur raised its remaining massive fist and brought it down like a meteor. Bell hoisted the greatsword horizontally to block. Even with one arm gone and heavily wounded, the beast's raw power was incomprehensible. Bell's knees buckled under the immense pressure.
CRACK!
Unable to withstand the titanic force, the greatsword shattered in half. Though he couldn't stop it completely, the brief resistance slowed the blow just enough, allowing Bell to dive out of the way before the fist could crush his skull.
As he rolled back, Bell kicked the broken upper half of the greatsword high into the air. Confused, the Minotaur's single remaining eye tracked the spinning metal.
Using the distraction, Bell sprang forward, launching a flying kick straight into the flat side of the falling blade, rocketing the hunk of steel directly into the Minotaur's face. The beast batted the metal away with its left hand, embedding the broken sword into the labyrinth wall.
"Firebolt!!"
"Vmoo!?"
Firing another blast behind him, Bell accelerated to bullet-like speeds, sliding beneath the beast's guard and slashing the Hestia Knife cleanly through its right calf. Its mobility shattered, the Minotaur crashed down onto its left knee.
"Aaaaaaaaaahh!!"
"Goooooooooooo!!"
Sprinting behind the kneeling beast, Bell drove the Hestia Knife to the hilt directly into its spine. Gripping the handle, he violently wrenched the blade downward, tearing the wound wide open before ripping the knife free. He slammed his left palm flat against the gaping, bleeding hole.
"Firebolt!!"
"Gu... Ooooooooooooh!!"
The fire magic detonated perfectly inside the Minotaur's torso. Its stomach violently expanded as the shockwave ripped through its internal organs. The Hestia Knife lacked the reach for a lethal stab, so Bell bypassed its armor entirely, turning his magic into an unblockable, internal bomb.
The Minotaur thrashed in unimaginable agony as flames spewed from its jaws.
With everything I have... my Dying Will!!
'Dying Will is the resolve to sink your teeth into the enemy, even if your body breaks.'
Tsuna's words echoed in his heart.
"Firebolt!!"
"Gubooooaaaaargh!?"
Bell pumped a second blast into the beast's spine. The Minotaur's chest swelled to horrific proportions, a torrential inferno erupting from its mouth.
"Firebooooooooooooolt!!"
"Oooooooooooooooo!?"
The third blast detonated. The Minotaur unleashed a final, blood-curdling death cry as its internal structure completely gave out. Its upper body was violently blown to pieces. The ensuing backdraft of superheated air engulfed Bell entirely.
When the flames finally cleared, Bell stood amidst the falling ash, his upper clothes completely incinerated.
I... won...
The moment his brain registered the victory, Mind Zero took hold. Completely drained of all mental and physical energy, Bell collapsed forward into the ash.
Moving faster than the eye could track, Tsuna slid in and caught the unconscious boy with his left arm.
"You did well. Bell."
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