Chapter 20 - Lies and the Secret Truth of the Second Tribulation

Discourse #5:

I suppose now is as good as any time to bring up the topic of the sexual anatomy of dragons. Male dragons do not have the sexual, anatomical part of what makes a human male differ from the female. Bluntly put, we do not have a dick. Put euphemistically, we do not have a phallus. Put even more euphemistically, we do not have a pecker.

Instead, we had these openings near our bottom that were similar to females for our reproductive needs, our shitting needs, and our pissing needs. It felt weird at first when I was first born, but now I am much more comfortable with this three-in-one part.

Still, I was much more comfortable with my human-form, though it is not my true dragon form. Perhaps that was why the eldest liked his human form so much, not that I have seen his dragon form.

With this small discussion ended, I shall move on to the fight with the minotaur.

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“Finally, a potential fight,” Ryia said in a happy tone as she looked at the fearsome minotaur. He was glaring at us with his fist-sized, red eyes and his tail, which was about eight feet long, was swishing back and forth in anticipation of his next meal. “I had been bored for so many days and us women need to pent our frustration.”

“Just stay back and we will do all the work, stranger,” Milli coldly said toward me. It seemed like she was still wary and did not trust me at all. I believe her suspicions of my nighttime prowling, since I barely needed more sleep than an hour, also did not help relieve her wariness toward me.

“Yes, I agree. Just stay back and we will soon make short work of this monster,” Elisa said, a huge joyous, grin already forming on her face.

I suppose being female adventurers in such a patriarchal, human world had given these women nerves of steel. The three women looked at each other and nodded, not even one word passing between them about how to face the minotaur. It seemed like they were experienced with working together and did not even need words to coordinate with each other. Perhaps that was why they left me out of the fight, since they were more comfortable with just fighting by themselves.

Like an embodiment of a small earthquake, the minotaur came running at the three women, his two-sided axe brandished before him. The black, cutting edge of the axe head looked wicked, sharp enough to cut through a god.

Reality was not kind, however. So as sharp as that axe looked, it was just a normal axe and would not be able to cut through a dragon's scale. Humans, though,were an entirely different matter. Against the skin of a human, the axe would cut through it in a heartbeat, especially with the minotaur's brute strength.

The thought of women should not do battle for men while they do nothing came into mind, but I did not care much for that. I would not have even minded if a ten year old child was fighting to protect me.

Do you think me cruel for saying such a thing? Then you are delusional, for this is a cruel world where monsters eat monsters, where humans eat humans, where humans eat monsters, and vice versa.

Would I harbor any feelings of regret or attachment when those three women die? No, I would not. I was not that unfeeling, however. I would at least offer a little prayer and a regretful minute for my new companions.

Here I am talking to you like those three women will die in the battle with the minotaur. But, the unlikelihood of these three women, who were adventurers of high-grade caliber, dying to the minotaur was so unlikely as to be impossible.

Instead, when the minotaur came charging at them, the three women split up, whereas I just stood there watching with an indifferent look on my face, curiously observing the extent of their skills and strength.

Milli, the dagger-girl, stayed unmoving as the minotaur charged at her. The other two, Ryia and Elisa, moved left and right respectively to surround the minotaur.

The minotaur, however, ignored the two women trying to flank him. After all, he was confident of his tough hide and skin to protect him.

Calmly watching the minotaur come running at her, Milli shot out three knives toward the monster. Two of them were aimed at the minotaur's pair of eyes, while the last one was aimed at the monster's groin.

The two knives, however, found no purchase; the minotaur had deflected them with his huge axe and they dropped to the floor harmlessly. Only the last knife aimed at the minotaur's groin hit successfully, lodging itself onto the black, hide underwear; it looked like the minotaur had a metallic protrusion instead of erect flesh and blood. Quite an amusing sight, really.

And what would have made any males flinch or howl in pain from such a cruel attack, the minotaur was not even fazed and continued charging at Milli. The bull monster swung his axe in a wide arc, so quick and furious that Milli barely had any time to react. For a monster his size, his speed was suprising.

Not being able to swerve either left, right, or retreat backwards because the arc of the swung axe was so wide, Milli had no choice but to dive forward, the weapon just missing her by a hair's breadth. Directly underneath the minotaur's two furry legs, right under his private part covered with a black underwear, Milli took out both her sheathed daggers strapped to her waist in one fluid motion.

Not even wasting a second, she stood up and jammed both those daggers into the black underwear where the bulge was, all the way in until only the hilts of those two black daggers were seen. Finished with her attack, Milli sprinted out from underneath the minotaur, only stopping after regaining a short distance and turning around.

At the same time, Elisa swung her longsword at the minotaur's left leg. A look of surprise flashed across her face as her sword only made a small, red gash on the left thigh, instead of cutting through all the way. The surprise was most likely due to the fact that she thought her supposedly enchanted sword could cut through the thick thigh.

On the right side, Ryia slammed both her maces onto the right thigh, but they only left a bruising pain for the minotaur.

Enraged by the attacks of the three small flies around him, the minotaur wildly whipped his tail, making an effort to hit one of the women. At the same time, his weapon swung around in a whirldwind-like arc.

Pushed back by the onslaught of those furious attacks, the two women had no choice but to regain distance against the minotaur.

“What the hell, Milli! Are your daggers dull or something? That male, bull monster should have at least flinched from those three weapons stuck in his groin.” Elisa shouted.

“I do not think he is a male, Elisa...” Milli responded.

Both Milli and Elisa then turned to Ryia.

“Don't look at me. Its not like I am an expert in telling the differences between the sexes of bull monsters. I thought she was male too.”

Judging from the flow of this conversation, it was probably my turn to be asked next. When I saw all three of them flashing me questioning looks, I only gave a small shrug. Like them, I also had no idea except that it was a comical sight, seeing the three small weapons jammed into the minotaur's groin. Even I felt a little twinge of pain from seeing that.

Already mad, the minotaur became even angrier when he heard the easy-going conversation occurring during the battle. Thick veins bulged out from his, or was it her, muscles as the minotaur held onto the axe with one meaty hand and used the other free hand to take out the lodged weapons stuck in his underwear.

The two daggers and the throwing knife fell harmlessly onto the floor, not even the slightest bit bloodied.

“What the hell is your thing made of, monster...” Elisa said, disbelief dyeing her tone.

The minotaur roared in response and came charging at Elisa. This time, the enormous axe was only held in his right hand. Elisa also met the minotaur's charging speed, but she was faster by far.

Dodging expertly and wasting no motions to avoid the minotaur's free hand which was trying to capture her, Elisa made small red gashes everywhere on the lower body of the minotaur whenever she had the opportunity.

Seeing Elisa being attacked, the two other adventurers went rushing toward the minotaur's back.

In mid sprint, Milli also picked up the two daggers which had fallen to the floor and still arrived at the minotaur before Ryia; she was even more quicker and dexterous than the fluid Elisa who was battling the minotaur.

She continued right on sprinting without even stopping and scaled the minotaur's back until she stood on top of the minotaur's right shoulder. An inhumane feat was performed by her where she scaled thirteen feet of an unstable wall of monster, muscles, and hide.

The minotaur finally took notice of the small woman on top of his shoulder and used his free hand in an attempt to knock her off. But it was too late.

Milli jammed both of her black daggers into the minotaur's fist-sized eyes. This action elicited an enormous bellow of agony from the minotaur, shaking the very air and ground itself. The monster's whole body went wild, furiously trying to shake the woman off of him.

Not having the time to stabilize herself, Milli was thrown off and went flying a far distance away until she hit the stone floor with a smack, rolling for a few seconds before groaning in pain as the collision of her leather armor against stone took all of her breath away. She then laid there unmoving.

She had soften her fall by rolling and used her arms to block any injuries toward her face. Thus, the hard fall had most likely only caused some heavy bruising.

Blinded in both eyes, the minotaur was wildly swinging his tail and his weapon around, hoping for a lucky hit.

Both Elisa and Ryia quickly took advantage of this opportunity granted by Milli. Running as fast as she could, Ryia scaled onto the monster's shoulder in the same method as Milli did. Then she used both her spiked maces to smash the jammed daggers stuck in the minotaur's eyes. The end result was like a hammer driving a nail into two large, eggs. Blood gushed out from the eyes of the minotaur as the two daggers went all the way inside the minotaur, until the hilts of the twin daggers were not even seen.

Before the minotaur could even shriek his death-throes, Eliza, down below in front of the minotaur, threw her longsword with such force that it pierced through the front side of the monster's throat, and out the other.

After a few seconds of reflex twitching, the minotaur fell down onto the ground, making such a loud thud that it resounded all over the center of the labyrinth.

Ryia came falling down with the minotaur, but she landed like a cat with her feet anchored to the shoulders of the monster.

“Now that is what I call a little brawl. I only wished it was more challenging,” Ryia said, giving a bloodthirsty smile to Eliza.

“I would not wish such a fight again, else my whole body will become a giant bruise,” interjected Milli from behind. She had already gotten up from the fall and had come to check out the corpse of the minotaur.

“Shit, don't scare me like that, Milla. Though I should have known you weren't even knocked out from that hard fall. You small, tough, eatable cookie.” Ryia said, giving Milli a small grin.

“Do not tell me it is just me or is no one wondering what is hidden behind this bull monster's black underwear,” Elisa said, furiously trying to take back her sword lodged in the minotaur's throat.

“Yes, and we will have Verath check it out,” Milli said with a cold look aimed toward me. “After all, he did not do anything.”

I did not respond, not even a little bothered by that task assigned to me without even my permission. I suppose it was only natural since I had not done anything to help with the battle.

While Milli was reaching into the eyes of the minotaur to grab her twin black daggers, I removed the minotaur's black underwear with my short sword, cutting it into pieces until the whole thing fell apart.

“So, I guess this thing does not have a dick, after all,” Ryia commented bluntly from beside me. “In fact, this thing does not even have a genital. Instead, there is only this skull underneath the underwear. Probably how the bulge was made.”

“Think its a magic treasure?” Elisa said with an excited look on her face.

“You would not get me to touch that skull even with a ten-feet long pole, dear Elisa.” The bloodthirsty smile on Ryia's face had changed into one of disgust.

“Agreed,” Milli added.

All three women turned to look at me, expectant faces put on.