Amalgam

Asterius

Sophia Pov

I stood in front of the tall hulking Minotaur as it introduced itself.

"Well, it was good meeting you. Though I have to ask why are you here all alone? You should have at least one person with you when walking around the dungeon."

I ask Asterius.

"I want to be stronger. This was the best way to do so."

I raise my eyebrow in confusion.

"If you wanted to get stronger shouldn't you try training with the other Xenos? I believe everyone would like to get stronger."

"They are weaker than I am and get hurt easily including Lyd."

Asterius says as I couldn't help but widen my eyes.

'He was able to best Lyd. He is strong. One of the strongest Xenos in the group and that's what makes him the leader beside me. So if Asterius is that strong then he has no choice but to come down here to get stronger.' I thought to myself placing my finger to my chin I then notice that my glove was gone since it had melted off while I was in the cavern. As I kept thinking I then heard Asterius speak.

"Some of the Xenos call you Death saying that you are considered the strongest"

That's a bit sad that the Xenos think of me as death itself but makes sense.

"If you don't mind I would like to fight you myself."

Lifting his axe pointing it at me telling me he wants to fight. Not saying anything I lift my halberd signaling him to go first. He then quickly charged at me with his axe putting all his into the swing as I was going to just block it but...

"!!!"

I didn't expect the hit to be so hard that a crater was going to form under me. He then quickly starts swinging his axe at me so quickly that all could do was block his flurry of attacks. Though I'm just going a bit easy on him Asterius was definitely strong he had speed and power but not only that he's smart and trying to find any openings. But...

Asterius swings to the left of me and I duck under the attack and use the but of my halberd and hit him under the chin. He recoiled from the attack as I punch him in the stomach pushing him back a few meters when I looked at his face I noticed that he was smiling. He was enjoying this.

"Raaaaaaaaaaah!!!"

He yells as I could feel the area around me start to shake. He charges at me with his horns as I was going to dodge but he was faster than expected and then.

'Boom!'

I was pinned to the wall as it felt like my body was hit by the floor boss on the 68th floor. It actually hurt and couldn't help but cough from the sudden impact. It didn't help that he was driving me into the wall. Using my left hand again I grabbed him by his horn and pushed him away with a lot of force making him fly into a wall. He recovers as I crack my neck. I haven't been taking this seriously but if my body was a little less durable then I definitely would have a broken rib cage.

"You are as strong as they say but I wish you come at me with full strength."

I turn to him and responded.

"You could tell I was holding back?"

I asked as he nodded.

"You kept avoiding using your right hand and used your left and the amount of force didn't feel like you were going all. You only hit me a few times but you were mostly on the defensive."

He said as I put on my usual smile.

"Well you know what they say defense is the best offense. I was only using my left since my glove melted off. If I touched you with this hand I could drain the life out of you."