Dan felt his entire body creak with pain, which was worse when he miraculously got back on his feet. Every cell in his body seemed to be screaming for help in a morbid symphony. Breathing heavily, Dan looked straight ahead, his right eye covered in bruises and blood, and his left eye blurry. 

The minotaur appeared as a blackish shape to him. He removed his cape, which was now reduced to shreds. With his right hand, Dan supported the left side of his ribs, and his left hand rested on his hip.  

"Come on, think, Dan. This creature doesn't seem very intelligent. I have to buy some time, at least until I can use my fantasia. Dodge, that's all I can do for now," thought Dan. 

The minotaur roared repeatedly, his patience sorely tested. He began hammering at the wall to free his horns. 

 Dan smiled weakly. He moved a few meters to the left, grimacing.  

"Come on over here! I'm here!" he shouted in the direction of the minotaur. 

Dan immediately regretted shouting so loudly, as the knot deep in his chest tightened a little more. The minotaur, visibly angry, lunged towards Dan.  

"Not now, let him get a little closer," whispered Dan. 

Dan crouched down at the last moment before stretching out his foot. A trip, a childish trick that worked on the minotaur, who once again crashed into the facade, this time on the opposite side.  

"It worked, now smash that dirty wall, you idiot," muttered Dan. 

Dan's plan worked perfectly. The minotaur, enraged, hammered the wall even harder than before. What had been a simple breach turned into a chasm. A green light emanated from the chasm. 

Dan was now certain that this was not a dead end; a room opened onto this opening. He felt slightly reassured, but he was still not out of danger.  

Suddenly, the atmosphere grew heavy, and the minotaur emanated an icy energy. Dan would have felt chills down his spine if the pain throughout his entire body hadn't distracted him. 

"Don't tell me this beast has fantastic powers!" Dan exclaimed in exasperation.  

He barely had time to blink before the minotaur's forearm was already at his chest. The minotaur's speed had increased tenfold, as had its physical strength. The impact was excruciating, and Dan felt his entire rib cage vibrate and shake in his gut. A pool of blood spurted from his mouth, and he was thrown into the air again. 

This time, the minotaur caught him in mid-air before he hit the nearby wall and delivered a powerful kick to the back of Dan, who was now unconscious.  

Dan spun around, rolling over before coming to rest near the pit the minotaur had dug. Dan slumped against the wall, his face covered in blood, his eyes and mouth open, but completely unconscious.  

After a few seconds, green, italic letters suddenly appeared in a slight flash of light, displaying a small sentence that the unconscious Dan could not have read.  

Spiritual Connection Established 

The fairy, who until then had done her best to hide in Dan's hair, escaped with a few flaps of her wings.  She flew around Dan apprehensively. The fairy reached out her hand toward Dan before blowing with all her might. 

A green powder was scattered all around young Dan. Wherever one of these particles landed, the wounds inflicted by the minotaur gradually disappeared. Dan regained his color. The fairy, wriggling, turned into fairy dust in turn.  This fairy dust permeated Dan's still-motionless body.  

A few moments later, Dan's lifeless body rose. Like a puppet, his body seemed to lift itself. The young boy staggered awkwardly, now advancing toward the still-raging minotaur. Dan swayed from right to left, as if under the influence, possessed.  

The minotaur growled even louder before lunging at Dan. The young boy staggered to the right, and whether by luck or not, he narrowly dodged the monster. The minotaur launched into a series of blows, each more furious than the last, without being able to touch Dan once. The latter seemed to be gaining mobility and was no longer staggering. His footwork was fast and effective, and his agility had also increased.   

Dan avoided a final kick from the minotaur by leaning down, his head back, his legs almost at a right angle. For a moment, the black strands of hair that framed his face fell away, revealing the state of his pupils. Dan's eyes had turned a sparkling pink.

Dan quickly straightened up, his movements becoming increasingly incisive. He hammered the minotaur with punches at lightning speed. His fantastic mist was not activated, and yet Dan's blows resonated through the monster's body like a cathedral bell. The minotaur took the blows as best he could before retaliating. 

Dan took the minotaur's right jab to the face without flinching and returned the favor. They traded blows, each salvo more violent than the last.  

Dan's face, already covered in blood, was now a scarlet swamp. The minotaur was beginning to run out of breath. He had no significant injuries, yet it was Dan who was gaining the upper hand.  

The beast staggered backward. The minotaur now sought to escape from Dan. The young boy set off in pursuit, concentrating his quadriceps as best he could for an even more powerful lunge. Dan's bare feet made contact with the minotaur's back, emitting a sordid sound, a terrible crack. Just like that, the monster's spine broke in two. Its intervertebral discs imploded, and the beast doubled over. 

The minotaur collapsed in a roll several meters long, neighing and screaming at the top of its lungs, begging to be finished off. Its tongue hanging out and its mouth drooling, its pupils struggled to stay in place, and its breathing was no longer natural, only a forced and painful breath escaping from its large muzzle.  

Dan slowly got to his feet, the pink glow in his eyes gradually fading. He grabbed the minotaur by the horn, flipping him onto his back before sitting on his chest. What followed was a series of punches that echoed throughout the rest of the pit. Dan's fists were now covered in scarlet liquid, while the minotaur's mouth, if it could still be called that, resembled nothing more than a mass of boiled flesh. 

Dan's eyes returned to their original color, his hand suddenly stopping in mid-motion, and he lost consciousness again, or at least his lifeless body collapsed. He slid off the minotaur's carcass before finishing his fall on the floor of the pit.