16 The Bull-Headed Man

Rasz was now standing 5 meters from the gaping mouth of the stone cave. The cave was at the other end of the clearing, the opposite end of where he and Mia had seated and eaten under the covers of the leaves of one of the biggest trees in the area a moment ago. Right now, hiding behind that same tree, with her right arm strapped onto the Löwe Shield's straps, was Mia. As instructed by him, Mia had remained hidden and quiet as to not accidentally drew the attention of whatever creature that he was about to lure out of the stone cave at this very moment.

Stroking the five different colored crystals of the Elemental Glove on his right hand, Rasz sent a silent prayer to the Heavens for the crazy thing he was about to do. That even if they were not interested in protecting him, at the very least they should keep Mia safe as she was only a bystander who was forced to be in this situation.

With his body in the position that would make it easier for him to shift between offense and defense quickly, Rasz took out Eisen Blue from its scabbard. He took several deep breaths in and extending his gloved hand, Rasz summoned <Fire> onto his palm. He gathered the burning red flame, forming it into a fireball twice the size of a tennis ball and then fired it into the mouth of the cave.

All was still and quiet for a few seconds, the sounds of the forest suddenly cut off, even the surrounding air seemed rather keen on making itself invisible for a while. Then, coming from the direction of the cave, breaking the still silence, was a loud berserk cry of an angry creature. One can even felt the very air itself had vibrated with that mad cry.

Even Mia whose position was very far from the cave had to cover her ears for fear that her eardrums might explode if she didn't. Even more so, was Rasz who was standing mere meters from the mouth of the cave — he was dealt with the heaviest blow. However, under his quick thinking and years of experience, he had summoned <Wind> and had managed to surround himself immediately with a wall of wind just as the piercing cry reached his position.

Just as the berserk cry ended, came a set of heavy stomping footfalls.

Stomp, stomp, stomp!

Stomp, stomp, STOMP!

Stomp, STOMP, STOMP!

The sound of the stomping footfalls became louder as it came closer to the mouth of the cave with every step forward the Bestial being took.

Whatever it was that was coming out, based on the stomping sound it made alone, wasn't a creature that Rasz should be facing alone. Furthermore, to make things worst, from its cry just now, Mia knew that it wasn't feeling happy at all at suddenly being blasted with a fire (Not that anyone would).

Out of fear for Rasz's safety and her own sheer of curiosity, even though Rasz had told her to remain properly hidden behind the tree trunk, she still went to peek at the clearing from the edges of the tree trunk.

STOMP, STOMP, STOMP!

As the Bestial being neared the entrance of the cave, Mia at first couldn't make out anything, but a silhouette of a very tall thing. Then, as it crossed from the shadowed to the brighter part of the cave's mouth, she began to see what seemed to be the snout of a cow and even its hooves. "But that's impossible, that thing is standing..." thought Mia, puzzled at what the creature might be.

The Bestial being stomped forward some more, displaying itself to the bright light of the clearing. When the full appearance of the being came to Mia's sight, she became alarmed at what she saw and her fear turned to dread as she realized how big it was.

Its height was more than 2 meters tall. With a huge muscular man-like body, the Bestial being could easily weight several hundred pounds. However, the most striking thing about it was the two colorful gemstones that were attached to each of its ears — one large and one small. The presence of such beautiful gemstones was a great contrast to the monstrosity of a creature that was wearing them, that it looked really out of place.

The appearance of the Bestial being combined that with the gemstones worn on its ears confirmed Mia's guess about what kind of creature it was, and if Mia suspicions were right, then that creature was at least 700 pounds in weight. Comparing that heaviness, its size and its muscular body to the young man that wanted to try and steal the gemstones it has, was laughable by any standards.

Nevertheless, Mia didn't have much opportunity to think about it that much as the creature — the bull-headed man — turned its attention towards Rasz standing a few meters from it. Rasz remained unfazed by the blood-shot eyes of the bull-headed man that was staring at him with killing intent.

Rasz still remained rooted on the spot, even as the Bestial being started to hunch its shoulders and lowered its sharp-horned head, directing them towards his position. Then, the bull-headed man started to paw its hooves on the ground in anger, sending dirt flying behind and over the back. It huffed several heavy breaths out of his mouth, and without warning launched itself forward to strike at Rasz.

When Mia saw that Rasz still remained unmoved as the bull-headed man rushed towards him, she thought that he had been paralyzed by fear and wanted to do something to help him. However, before Mia could do anything rash, she saw that as the creature was 10 steps away from Rasz, he had quickly dove sideways in a rolling motion.

The being, noticing that Rasz had rolled sideways decided to stop in its tracks to whirl around towards the same direction. However, before the dust had fully settled from his motion, Rasz had quickly got up from the ground and ran towards the back of the bull-headed man. With the momentum gained from the sprint, Rasz jumped upwards and pierce his Magic Sword into the back of the creature.

The bull-headed man roared in pain. It tried to grab onto Rasz that was hanging from its back, but before the creature's arm could reach him, Rasz had already pull the sword out and jumped off onto the ground. The bull-headed man turned around to face Rasz once again. Its anger had reached a new height after being wounded, from its nose, smoke started to be emitted. Its breathing also grew heavier, that one could actually see the wisps of breath coming out of its mouth.

Hunching its shoulders and lowering its horned head, the bull-headed man once again charged towards Rasz. He then dodged once again to the side at the last few seconds. However, unlike before, the bull-headed man knew that it shouldn't stop within its tracks, so as to not give Rasz any chances to strike at its unprotected back. Rather than stopping, it kept on running ahead reaching a safe distance from Rasz, before turning around to once again charged at Rasz.

Though Rasz kept dodging away, the bull-headed man didn't give up and continued to charge towards Rasz, again and again, and again. Even though it got faster and learning from its previous charging mistakes, it was still far from getting the chance to strike its horn at Rasz even once.

Mia who was watching the events folding in front of her from behind the tree trunk had a small smile on her face. The thought had crossed her mind before, but Rasz's speed and reactions to danger were actually much faster than any men. For the first time, she began to think that Rasz might have a chance against the monstrous Bestial being, after all.

However, just as that victory thought crossed her mind, the bull-headed man did something odd. Just as it ran ahead after charging at Rasz, it didn't turn around, but instead picked up its speed and headed straight into the stone cave and didn't come out even after a while.

Both Mia and Rasz were puzzled by this situation. "It couldn't be that the bull-headed man actually ran away with its tail between its legs, would it?" they both thought.

Suddenly, they heard a banging sound came from inside the cave.

Bam, Bam, Bam!

Different from the piercing cry and the stomping hooves of the bull-headed man, this sound sounded like something heavy was being hit on a stone. As an answer to their question, when the banging sound came nearer to the entrance of the cave, the outer walls of the stone cave shook with each banging sound echoed out of the cave. Dust was raining down from both the outer and inner wall of the cave as the cave was being hit by something heavy.

BAM, BAM, BAM!

The sound came as the bull-headed man once again appeared at the cave's mouth. As it once again came out of the entrance, Mia and Rasz could see that it had now brought a weapon along with it. The weapon was a heavy hammer. The length of its handle was as long as the being's forearm, and merely judging on how the bull-headed man had handled it, the hammerhead should be at least 100 pounds in weight.

The bull-headed man swung the hammer sideways, crashing it on the outer wall of the cave's entrance. For a moment, dust flew in the air where the hammer had struck down and small pieces of rocks can be seen crumbling down. Where the hammer had landed on the wall, was now a small gouge about half a meter long and a foot deep. The bull-headed man then looked at Rasz and sneered at him, it was obvious that it had done it to showcase the heavy hammer's power.

"If Rasz, were to get hit by that thing..." thought Mia, extremely worried about Rasz's safety.

Instead of charging like so many other times, the bull-headed man simply stomped forward briskly towards Rasz direction, with the heavy hammer in his right hand's grip. Again, Rasz remained standing where he was, but from the way he had positioned his body, Rasz was prepared to move when he needed to.

Five feet away from Rasz's position, the bull-headed man began to swing the hammer up. When Rasz saw that, he quickly moved sideways to avoid the downwards motion that will surely follow the swinging action. However, unexpectedly the bull-headed man was a step forward in predicting Rasz actions this time. Just as Rasz began to move sideways, the bull-headed man turned its head towards the direction that he had taken and swiped the hammer diagonally sideways towards him. It had even managed to take a step forward as it swung down, to shorten the gap between itself and Rasz, thus adding to the damage that Rasz will have to take.

Rasz was hit hard by the heavy hammer. The force from the swing sent him flying 5 meters away, where he hit a tree and fell down hard on the ground. Even though he had received a heavy blow, with his fast speed, Rasz had managed to avoid death as he noticed the trajectory of the bull-headed man's swing changed in the last second. He had even managed to envelop himself with <Earth> before he hit the tree. However, being hit by a solid heavy metal like that had wounded Rasz quite heavily. Lying on the ground, Rasz threw up a mouthful of blood.

The bull-headed man seemed satisfied at being able to hit his target at last, that it began to smile creepily. Just as it wanted to walk up towards Rasz to deal the death blow, it suddenly heard a movement coming from somewhere inside the dense forest.

Mia who couldn't simply watch Rasz being killed by the bull-headed man, purposely drawn the attention of the creature by making a noise. Just as she expected, when the bull-headed man noticed her presence, it began to turn its attention towards her. Thus, leaving its heavily injured prey on the ground, for the more exciting hunt on its new prey.