Chapter 20 Unyielding Rage and New Encounter

Suzuka lay in the pit she made with her power, looking into the sky covered with dark clouds. Rain was pouring down hard and water was slowly gathering inside the pit. Rain was washing her blood-covered face and hiding her falling tears. 

She put one arm on her forehead and looked at the sky, falling raindrops were the only thing left for her that would calm her down.

 After a few minutes, water inside the pit she made started to engulf her but she didn't care she just lay there and looked at the sky while the rain was washing her tears away.

 After a few more minutes, the water completely submerged her body, and she stood up and exited the pit. She walked to the nearest rock and sat down, talking to herself about her sad life with tears in her eyes.

"All my life was sad... I had no friends, I spend all my time training and reading books... I tried my best to get noticed by a man I love and after all these years, what did he do? He sold me to some random guys just to get a few coins! What's up with that? I wasn't even a citizen to him that he was supposed to protect as a city guard! He just sold me like a stray dog, like I was trash to him, I won't forget this Anton!"

The more she talked the more her tears roll down her cheeks and her faint sobbing could be heard throughout the forest. She closed her teary eyes and clenched her teeth trying to prevent tiers from falling and the sound of crying. 

But yet again, it didn't take long for this world to remind her how cruel he was. She opened her eyes and saw right in front of her Orc that she hurt and 5 others. 

Orcs noticed her right away, sitting on a rock, crying. Orc she hurt pointed a chipped and rusted sword at her while shouting in an angry voice. Orcs started to walk towards her. Facing monsters again, her mind went blank, her crying voice started to change into an angry shout as the monsters get closer and closer.

"Ah!... Aaah!... Aaaaah!"

Giving in to her unyielding rage she stopped thinking, and her heart started to beat faster-pumping adrenaline through her veins, muscle tissue increased in mass making her body bulge up in muscle, her skin got a little bit darker, and all of her teeth grow back as pointy canine teeth. Without realizing it herself she used her mana to activate her abilities received from the werewolf.

Orcs come close, only a few meters distance was between them. At the peak of her build-up rage, Suzuka let out a raging shout and launched herself off the rock towards the monster, sinking the rock into the ground. She grabbed the surprised Orc onto his armor's chest piece and headbutted him, caving in his skull and killing him on the spot.

Other Orc swung his club at her face knocking Suzuka to the ground but it only made her angrier, after spiting 2 broken teeth out she heel-kicked him to the jaw while raising him from the ground, sending him flying off the ground backward with a broken jaw, teeth, and neck.

The other four Orcs try to rush her with numbers but she dodged all of their attacks and got behind one of them. She kicked him in the back of a knee making him fall on his knees and with the following ax kick, she caved in his skull and broke his neck.

Only 3 Orcs left but Suzuka's anger didn't let up, neither Orcs gave up. They still tried to kill her with their last attempt. In an attempt to get her, they surrounded her and one from the back tried to smack her with his big club. Suzuka felt an attack coming, and with a quick turn, she grabbed his club with one arm and sunk her fingernails in it. While holding the club with one arm she clenched her bleeding fist and punched a hole in Orc's stomach.

The other 2 fazed by her brutality tried to run away but it was too late for them. With all of her might, she made a stomping step forward and threw a big club that she took from one of the Orcs, towards the running away monsters. The blunt tip of a club hit right in the middle of his spine, broke it, and came out from his gut.

 The last Orc slipped into the mud and fell down, Suzuka needed only a second to catch up with him, she jumped on him while he was laying on the ground in the mud. Filled with rage and anger she shouted at Orc while bashing his head with her knuckles.

"Say! How do you like this pain?! Huh?! Tell me! Tell me! How does it feel to be the one who gets hurt?! Say something! Ah!"

She struck his head repeatedly until several of her fingers broke, and then finally stopped. Despite her anger, she looked around for more enemies to unleash her rage upon, but there were no survivors, only the dead bodies of Orcs. After realizing she got them all, started to look at her fingers.

"Ah! I brake them... how much more pain do I have to endure!?"

As she was getting angrier her body started to consume more mana and speed up her already enhanced healing ability. She had a 5-star mana pool and after her body transformed, double that. One thing she had was mana to spare. 

Her twisted fingers slowly got back into their original form, and bones and cut flesh healed in a minute. Feeling that her pain was going away Suzuka calm down, as she stood there looking at her healing fingers, heavy rain washed Orc's blood off of her body. 

But she didn't wait long, fearing more monsters to come, she tried to track Clive. After one hour of running after his footprints left in the mud, she realized that Clive faked his path and that she was following some Orc's left footsteps. And that she got lost again.

"Oh no! He fooled me again... it's not his footprints... ah! Poop! That sly snake! It's one more name on my revenge list. Now what... Oh! I know, I need to have a look from higher ground."

Suzuka scanned her surroundings for a tall tree to climb. She quickly spotted a suitable one in the forest and climbed to the top for a better view. The heavy rain and dark gray clouds made visibility poor, and she could only see the tops of other trees. Not seeing any signs of Clive, Suzuka decided to stay in the tree for a while as it made for a good hiding spot. While in the tree, she checked her remaining items: an anti-corruption magic crystal, fire crystal, purification crystal, and Monsterpedia.

"Good thing I put some crystals in my pants pockets... if that jerk run off with everything, I would be in big trouble. Cliff dweller Clive, huh! I'll remember you, Clive... no matter how long it takes... if you survived Clive, I will get back at you for what you did to me. I'm starting to doubt that story about Isaac leaving a party to die... I bet it was Clive. That snake!"

It wasn't pleasant to sit in that tree because the wind was swinging it hard making it difficult to rest.

"Well, looks like I can't stay too long in this tree, I may fall off the branch if the wind gets stronger, can't sleep here."

Suzuka jumped down off the tree and noticed deeper in the forest a few wild apple trees. She was getting a little hungry so she went to check them out and after getting close to the apple tree she saw an entrance to a dungeon. But exploring the dungeon wasn't on her mind at that moment, all she cared about was getting some food and only then going to look it up.

 At first look, the apples looked good but after tasting some Suzuka wasn't very happy with the taste. After taking the first bite she noticed that her newly grown teeth are kind of sharp.

"Oh? Well, I am happy my teeth grow back but it's kind of dangerous to chew, I feel like I'm gonna bite myself. Oh well, just need to be careful with these apples."

Apples were small and sour, only the appearance was good but since everything tastes good when one is hungry, she eats a couple to sedate her hunger. After eating a couple of wild apples, the taste felt better especially when they got washed by rain.

 While Suzuka was chugging apple after apple, she heard a noise coming from the entrance to the dungeon. Slow, heavy, and loud footsteps echoed through the dungeon corridor outside. Without any delays, Suzuka hid behind the apple tree and took a peek from the corner of her eye.

"I better not mess with whoever it's coming out of there. I better hide here, for now, If whoever it is coming attacks me, I run."

Out of a dark corridor stepped a huge beast that looked like an ox and a human hybrid. Beast was over 3 meters tall, with huge muscles, and his head and legs looked like the ox. With one arm he was holding a worn-out double ax and with the other hand, he was holding a big bucket.

Suzuka curled up between apple tree roots and opened Monsterpedia to check if there was a profile of a beast that would look like this. While looking through profiles she checked what the beast was doing but all he did, stood there and looked into the sky covered by dark rain clouds. 

Suzuka found his profile and the name of the beast was Minotaur. Threat level 4 star, not aggressive but easy to enrage, their weapons can be anything they can grip. Mostly encountered in big caves or dungeons.

If you encounter Minotaur in the forest or some other plains, that means this isn't your lucky day and you might die. DON'T PISS OFF THE MONSTER.

"Oh wow, they cracking jokes in this book... not funny ones."

Shows signs of intelligence, the older it gets, the smarter it becomes. Minotaur can speak a common tongue. If encountered, recommended to avoid fighting. If the primary target recommended 10 adventurers and mages at least 3 stars.

 "So, if I mess with him I'm dead... I could use my powers to take him out... but I can't control them well just yet. I nearly knocked myself out with these razor rabbits. The best would be if I get some food and bail when he gets back to his cave. And when I find a safe place I should train my powers."

Minotaur walked to one of the apple trees, cut his ax into the ground then put down his bucket and started to pick apples from a tree, with his strong hands he crush them above the bucket. 10 minutes later he had almost half of a bucket of wild apple juice. Beast stood up, pulled his ax out of the ground then looked at rain clouds and walked inside the dungeon, leaving his bucket behind. Suzuka put away her book and come out of hiding while thinking to herself.

"So, what was he doing here? Making apple juice? Phew! And here I thought he was after me... okay, let's see what he made in that bucket."

Nothing much to see in that bucket only water and crushed apples remain. As she leaned to see what was inside noise of stomped ground echoed behind her. 

Suzuka froze in fear for a second and slowly, without making any sudden moves, turn around to see what happened. 

Around 8 meters behind her Minotaur was standing, gripping his double ax with both hands. Beast's body was covered by shadow only his yellow eyes were glowing in the dark. 

Suzuka fell down on her butt, a cold sweat covering her body when she saw it was the Minotaur, her heart started to pound so hard it looked like its gonna pop out of her chest, and struck by fear she started to hyperventilate. Her mind got clouded by fear and the only thought running through her head was:

"I'm gonna die... I am going to die... no, no... someone... help..."

But Minotaur didn't pay too much attention to her, he just walked past her, took his bucket, and walked back inside his dungeon. 

Seeing Suzuka that scared, the beast didn't think about her as a threat and left her alone. When the beast was gone from her sight she lay down on the ground and let out a sigh of relief. As she was lying on the ground light raindrops fell on her body and washed her sweat away.

"I thought I'm a goner there for a sec... ha ha ha... I'm alive after that?! It's the first time I felt lucky since I got kidnapped. Maybe I can take shelter some were close, that Minotaur could provide me some protection... but I need to see if he really doesn't care about my presence here."

Suzuka sit down on a rock close to the entrance of a dungeon, the rain was getting a little bit stronger but that didn't bother her at all, she just sit there while thinking about what to do and waited for the beast to show up.

"Okay, waiting for him to come at me in this rain is nice and all, but what if he just starts swinging his ax at me? I need a plan... hmm... well, I could run away, but this place has food that is not easy to find. What if I can't find this place after I make a run, it's hard to get something to eat around these woods. Beast probably took good care of these apple trees, they don't look like they were just growing in the wild on their own."

40 minutes have passed since she started to wait for the beast to come out, only a few hours left till it gets dark and rain clouds in the sky didn't help to brighten the day. Dark shadows fall on the ground from the trees, the wind makes menacing sounds all around, and glowing eyes from the shadows pray on the girl's body.

 But she knows that no small enemy comes close to her, because it's a Minotaur lair and if they come close, predators can become prey. In the middle of her planning, the clanking sound of a horseshoe hitting rock stairs echoed out of the entrance of a dungeon. She knew it was a Minotaur coming outside of his dungeon.

"Well, this is it... beast is coming outside, if he attacks me, I run like there's no tomorrow. If he ignores me like before, maybe I try..."

Suddenly, a throwing ax come flying out of the forest thickness that was covered in shadow darkness. Ax flew past Suzuka and buried himself in the a mud few meters behind the girl.

"Oh no... don't tell me... there were more of them after me?"

One after another, 7 Goblins jumped out from thick bushes, and 4 Orcs come out from behind the trees where they were hiding. Goblins were armed with wooden spears and had baskets on their beck, Orcs had swords and axes. 

Orcs took front while Goblins climbed the apple tree and started to pick them, filling their baskets. But they picked the wrong time to steal food from Minotaur, he was already standing at the entrance to the dungeon. 

Suzuka thought to herself while she was sitting there in silence and watching what was about to happen next.

"So, that ax wasn't aimed at me, they were here just to steal some food from Minotaur. Oh boy... he's going to kill them all. And when he's done with them... he's going to kill me!"

This time Minotaur had 2 battle axes and when he saw Orcs in front of him, blocking the way to the trees, he tries to scare them off by hitting his axes into each other, signaling he was going to fight.

 Orcs didn't move, they just stood there with weapons ready and looked at what Beast gonna do. Minotaur got infuriated by Orc's response to his taunt, he slammed his axes to the ground, pounded his chest a few times while roaring then grabbed his ax and charged at Orcs.

"Oh! This is gonna get ugly..." Suzuka thought to herself while watching the beast rushing at them.

The first victim was Orc with a two-handed greatsword, when Minotaur come in charging, Orc tried to block the beast's first swing, but a huge ax just sliced through a greatsword and stopped halfway down the Orc. 

Another three tried to surround him but the first Orc didn't even slow Minotaur down, he threw a dead Orc at another one that was from his left knocking him out cold then he stepped back dodging the ax coming from his right, and kicked Orc that was off his balance from missed attack. The kick was so strong that he punched a hole in his chest killing Orc where he stands.

 Last Orc tried to flee but the beast buried its ax deep in Orc's back, slamming him to the ground. Done with the orc he set his eyes on Goblins, that were in trees, picking apples. But Goblins made their run the moment the last Orc hit the ground.

 Seeing them flee Minotaur roared at them with the intent to scare them. When they went from eyesight beast's rage went down. After cooling off a bit Minotaur looked around his trees for a minute and started to pile up dead bodies. When all Orcs were in one place Minotaur put Orc's bodies on to each other, then grabbed the bottom leg and pulled them deep into the forest.

"Well, that was quick... I just hope he comes back in a better mood, if not... well I'm dead hahaha... wait, that's not funny."

Suzuka waited for approximately 10 minutes until she heard the Minotaur walking back from the depths of the forest. She couldn't see him because the trees were covered in thick foliage, and she could only hear his heavy footsteps as he approached. As the sounds grew closer and closer, the girl became nervous.

"Okay, this is it... here he comes, time to see what he thinks of me."

A beast appeared out of the bushes in front of her, about 50 meters away, with an ax covered in blood clutched in its grip.

"Okay... maybe it was a bad idea after all. But if I run he may attack."