As the minotaur swung his gigantic battle axe, Kevin and Liam were forced to step back to avoid its attack, and the axe also deflected the spells cast by Alya, Irene, and Lily.
Now left with an opening, the minotaur charged toward the defenseless spellcasters; however, Alya already had her ice-blue sword prepared.
Facing the full brunt of the axe strike with her sword, Alya immediately flew back into the cave wall, and the ice on her sword shattered.
Alya had placed her full trust in us by sacrificing her body to give us an opening and hopefully kill him. She had begun to trust humans...
Taking full advantage of the opening, 3 fireballs appeared above Irene's head, and a rainstorm, cast by Lily, appeared right above the minotaur, blocking the cave roof.
It wasn't just normal rain, though; the rain was green and hurt.
Acid Rain.
Even as the minotaur moved, the green cloud followed it wherever it went, releasing a relentless barrage of green raindrops.
Slowed by the constant bombardment of acid rain and cornered by the fireballs barrelling towards it, the minotaur had no place to move despite being in the large cave.
The wounded Liam and Kevin sprung towards the defenseless minatour with me trailing behind them.
Rather than hitting the minotaur directly, as soon as the fireballs entered the area of the minotaur, they were hit by the acid rain.
As the acid rain touched the fireball, an elemental reaction was caused, and the fireball exploded, causing a bout of smoke to appear, completely covering the figure of the minotaur.
Using my eyes, I could see through the smoke that the minotaur was fatally hurt from being so close to the explosion. Blood oozed from all over its body, and its previous brown body was black and burned.
Using the dash, I instantly moved forward 10 meters right into the smoke covering the minotaur's body; however, there was one problem.
The acid rain was still going...
With the smoke covering my figure, there was no need to hide anything, so I injected my mana into my daggers, leading the tip of my daggers to turn night-black.
As I swung the daggers forward, two night-black slashes were sent forward toward the minotaur, only to disappear a second later.
As the slashes continued to move forward and touch the acid rain, a series of small elemental reactions took place, clearing the path in front of me.
As the smoke dispersed due to the impact of the multiple explosions caused by my night-black slashes, I wasted no time and ran as fast as I could toward the minotaur.
Nearing the burned figure of the struggling minotaur, I injected more mana into my daggers, making them completely covered by the night-black aura.
Feeling the dash cooldown reset, I once again preemptively activated it before lunging right at the minotaur's legs.
My daggers sunk deep into the minotaur's legs, causing it to struggle and attempt to move around, but I kept my daggers in place, allowing the corruption to spread from my daggers and into the minotaur.
Using all my strength to keep my grip on my daggers and push them deeper into the minotaur's skin, I glanced around and saw Liam making a mad dash through the smoke toward the minotaur and me.
It seemed like he had some immunity to the acid rain. He didn't even bother to dodge the raindrops, so he let them hit his body without any reaction.
3 fireballs and tons of icicle spears were also barreling toward the minotaur, but it didn't matter as they would explode after interacting with the acid rain.
At this point, I was more afraid of being exploded than the minotaur killing me...
Still clinging desperately to the minotaur's legs with my daggers, I felt a gaze on my back, so I turned around and saw Liam looking at me, seemingly starstruck.
To be fair, I was clinging to the minotaur like a newborn sticking to its mother, so it would definitely seem weird to an outsider.
A moment later, Liam regained his composure as he continued running toward the minotaur, hoping to get the last hit.
After a couple more seconds of me desperately attempting to cling to the minotaur's legs while it tried to shake me off, I finally let my daggers go, causing me to fly back.
The deep holes made by my daggers were already filled with the night-black aura, and it was already spreading at a rapid rate.
As I flew back into the smoke, the relentless acid rain threatened to bombard me once again, so I instantly used the dash that I had triggered earlier.
Just like that, I was back out of the smoke; all be it, my training suit provided to me by the academy was on life support due to the minotaur's attempts to shake me off.
All the others were so focused on killing the minotaur that they didn't notice me walking away from it, so I slumped down against the cave wall.
Strength was not my strong suit, so clinging to a beast like the minotaur for that long had taken a lot out of me.
I couldn't even extend either of my arms, and they were somehow trembling when all I was holding were my puny daggers.
Even though I hadn't expected it to be that long to corrupt it, it would make sense for the stronger a creature is, the harder it is to corrupt it.
Watching the flurry of magic spells head into the smoke and cause multiple explosions due to the elemental reactions felt like watching a fireworks show.
The smoke was filled with countless colors, and every so often, you'd feel an explosion that shook the cave.
After a couple more moments, my daggers lit up a night-black, with the size of the aura even bigger. The aura didn't just cover the physical dagger anymore; it covered the area around it as well, and somehow, the aura had gotten even darker.
After the night-black aura diminished from my daggers, I tilted my head upwards and saw that the smoke alongside the acid rain had finally disappeared.
In the middle of where the smoke used to be, Liam stood, his sword plunged into the minotaur's lifeless body.
While Kevin walked towards Liam with an angry expression, feeling defeated, Irene and Lily dashed towards Alya's unconscious body and immediately checked her vitals.
*RUMBLE*
Looking upwards, I saw cracks and hundreds of unstable spots on the cave's roof. Our battle had really damaged it, and it was about to collapse.
Not bothering to warn others, I immediately began sprinting back out of the tunnel, and the defeated Kevin followed without any warning, too.
With the cave rumbling and my sudden sprinting, Kevin must have also realized the cave was going to collapse.
Behind us, Liam followed with Irene and Lily carrying Alya's body, leaving the corpse of the monster behind.
If the cave collapsed, the minotaur's body would be lost, making everyone completely oblivious to the corruption I had spread to it.
After a minute of sprinting, I noticed that some other students had joined us, and with my eyes, I was able to spot Jin and Han running with us in the big crowd.
After another minute, all of us reached the exit of the cave, where the teacher was waiting for us with a happy expression.
Without giving any of us time to rest, despite seeing our shriveled appearances, the professor immediately announced.
"Congratulations to Liam, Lily, and Kevin for defeating the boss monster and coming in first!"
Though Alya was currently out cold, she would definitely be angry after hearing that we didn't come in first.
As Irene and Lily brought Alya to the teacher, I headed back to the dorm for a desperate change of clothes and a cold shower.
Though I had managed to wane off most of the acid raindrops, some of them had managed to hit me while I was clinging to the minotaur, so I had burn marks all across my body.
Well, that wasn't what concerned me; after all, I was the boss of a company that produced the best magical healing circles.
I needed a pair of decent clothes for my plans later, but somehow, they were all burned or torn to shreds!
...
...
...
At the nurse's office, Liam and the other girls crowded around Alya's body, as she had just woken up.
Not worrying about her wounds or even the people around her, Alya immediately asked.
"Did we come in first...?"
Barely suppressing her laughter, Irene responded.
"No... but shouldn't you be more worried about something else?"
With her expression crumbling, Alya responded.
"oh...? Did anything happen while I was asleep?"
While Liam laughed and Lily facepalmed, Irene awkwardly said.
"I was talking about yourself. I mean, you have bruises all over."
"Oh, that? Don't worry; my guards and I recently found quite the company. Despite being unknown, they somehow manage to produce the best healing circles."
"Oh, what's it ca-"
Not willing to part with any more information about the company, Alya ignored Lily's question and changed the topic.
"So... is everyone else ok? What happened to the minotaur?"
Besides Alya, the other spellcasters, Irene and Lily, had just stood from afar attacking the minotaur with spells, so they were unharmed besides a few scratches that came from the cave collapse.
With a sigh, Lily stepped forward and glanced at Liam, who had bandages all over his body.
"As you can see, we're alright. Liam is in quite the state... As for the other two, I didn't even see them."
Ignoring Lily's pitying gaze, Liam responded.
"After I took care of the minotaur, the cave started to collapse, so we all had to run out without looting or even seeing its corpse."
Liam was actually more worried about the loss of the corpse than his wounds, as he could have sold its horn for a lot, solving all his financial problems.
Upon seeing Liam's expression, Lily said.
"Oh, not you too...! Why don't you worry about yourself before other things?"
Embarrassed, both Liam and Alya turned away, causing Irene to break out in laughter.
At that moment, the door opened, revealing the figure of the current student council president, Astrid.
Confused, Astrid glanced around the laughing students before saying.
"... didn't you guys just fight an E-rank boss monster...?"
To Astrid, these kids were monsters, laughing happily after beating a creature that even second-year students struggled with.
Not waiting for a response, Astrid shook her head before walking up to Alya, who awkwardly asked.
" *ahem* President, do you need something...?"
"You're part of the student council now; therefore, my responsibility, so of course, I would need to check up on you if you're hurt."
Alya, who had never trusted humans before, felt mortified while staring at the student council president and others, who seemed to be so worried about her.
Not all humans are bad... Alya felt ashamed for just realizing that now.
With a slight blush on her cheeks, Alya responded.
"ah, I'm alright... please, no need to worry."
With a shrug, Astrid responded before turning to walk out of the room.
"If you say so. Let me know if you need anything."
However, blocking the exit to the room was Lily, who asked.
" *ahem* President, about the last position on the student council, I have a recommendation for who it should b-"
Cutting her off mid-sentence, Astrid said.
"It's already be filled."