The Weapon Genius: Anything I Hold Can Kill

The stone beneath their feet fractured with each charge.

The Minotaur moved like a landslide — a juggernaut of flesh and horn and weight, cleaver dragging arcs of sparks with every swing. It wasn't rage that drove him. It was instinct, honed through repetition. Survival encoded into muscle memory.

And he was adapting.

His skin was beginning to shift — a sheen of deeper black crawling across his arms, thickening into almost armor-like hide. His back hunched further, muscles knotting tighter. His horns widened with the change, curving sharper, longer.

Yujin growled as she ducked a sideways swipe, claws raking across the creature's arm — but they barely grazed him.

"His body's changing!" she shouted. "Harder to pierce!"

Jisoo skidded past Jin, landing low and planting a foot hard against the ground.

"Good," she snapped, breath short. "I've got something new I've been meaning to try."

She twisted sharply, and in that motion, the Talaria flared.

A burst of light flickered under her feet — a golden ripple of energy tracing into the stone, followed by a sharp, resonant chime.

Then she vanished.

Not like a blur.

Not like a flash.

Gone.

A sound crack split the air a full second later as she reappeared above the Minotaur's shoulder, spinning like a drill in freefall. Her leg was a blur of force — her entire body wrapped in spiraling kinetic energy.

"Momentum Build—Hermes Fang!"

Her heel smashed into the side of the Minotaur's head. The beast staggered, one foot digging a trench into the stone as he reeled backward, caught off-guard.

But Jisoo didn't stop.

The moment she landed, she vanished again — light exploding outward.

She came in from behind, this time from lower, using a low sweeping kick infused with spiraling force.

Each motion built more speed.

Each reappearance cracked the air harder than the last.

She gritted her teeth, trying to stay centered.

"Don't lose it," she hissed. "Just ride the momentum. Ride it—"

She flickered left—then up—then spun midair, using a torch sconce as a pivot point.

The third strike hit square in the Minotaur's back.

The creature dropped to a knee.

But his arm snapped back instantly, cleaver arcing toward her in blind retaliation.

Jisoo vanished before it struck, reappearing with a stumble several feet away.

Her landing was rough—skid, stagger, drop to a knee. She coughed once.

Yujin darted in beside her, claws sparking as she raked down the creature's flank again, this time using reinforced talons with heavier plating.

"He's not just tough," she muttered. "He's growing stronger the longer we drag this out."

"Noticed that," Jisoo muttered, spitting out dust.

"He's getting faster too."

Jin hadn't stopped moving either.

He darted around the edges of the fight, Muramasa drawing red arcs through the air as he circled.

He didn't strike immediately. He watched.

The Minotaur's eyes weren't wild — they were locked, focused. Calculated.

He turned his cleaver slightly, switching grip. His next charge wasn't brute force — it was a feint.

Jin read it, barely avoiding a backstep that would've ended with him bisected.

"He's learning," Jin said quietly. "He's fighting smarter."

"No kidding," Jisoo called back. "You got something for that?"

"Working on it."

Behind him, Yujin grunted — her body shifting again, shoulders twisting as a sleek, fur-covered layer ran over her arms. Her fingers grew, claws reshaping. Her spine curved.

Then her head snapped up, nostrils flaring.

She could smell something on the wind.

Something wrong.

"Jin!" she shouted. "Move!"

The floor beneath him glowed.

And cracked.

He jumped just as a blast of force erupted from beneath, the Minotaur slamming the cleaver down with such pressure it split the tiles like ice.

"Trick floors now?" Jin muttered, landing in a roll.

"System's probably rewriting the space for him," Yujin growled.

She moved again, shifting fully into a blend between eagle and panther — speed, eyes, and pressure-resistant limbs. Her flight wasn't perfect in this enclosed space, but her dive strikes let her blitz the Minotaur's blind spots.

Jisoo moved with her now — the Talaria stabilizing more with each burst.

They weren't dominating.

But they weren't being overrun either.

Then came the growl.

The Minotaur's arms bulged. His chest split slightly down the center — not like a wound, but like a hulk expanding into final form. His horns glowed faint red now, and his cleaver pulsed once — briefly turning translucent before condensing again.

He wasn't just mutating.

He was ascending.

"Enough," he rumbled, voice deeper now, edged with reverb.

Jin's instincts rang like bells.

He stepped forward, sheathing Muramasa halfway — aura flickering red and gold.

"Pull back!" he shouted. "I'll go first."

Jisoo and Yujin didn't argue. They rolled aside, giving Jin the path.

The Minotaur didn't wait. He lowered his head — not in submission.

In warning.

Then he charged.

Jin's body steadied. His breath came slow.

The blade hummed in its sheath.

"Formless Style — Heavenscar Break."

One breath.

One draw.

The strike lashed forward like a divine lash — infused with pure sword aura. Not just slicing the air — splitting it.

The Minotaur didn't try to dodge.

He met the blow head-on.

Steel clashed with hide.

Aura clashed with weight.

The force exploded.

Jin was flung back from the recoil, boots skidding until he hit a wall.

But the Minotaur—?

A clean slash now split across his chest.

Blood — dark and slow-moving — slid down.

The monster staggered.

Growled.

Then laughed.

"Well damn," he said, wiping his chin with the back of his hand. "That actually hurt."

He rolled his shoulders.

Then he straightened.

More of his form changed — new horns. Darker limbs. More speed.

"Let's see if you can do it again."

Jin stood again, exhaling as Muramasa's edge trembled from the impact.

Yujin glanced at him. "We're not gonna wear him down, are we?"

"No," Jin said, tightening his grip.

"We're gonna break him."

The Minotaur's roar cracked through the air again, but this time it was different. Less calculated. Less controlled.

More animal.

His body had begun to change.

The first shift was in the shoulders—already massive, but now stretching, bones creaking beneath muscle that seemed to bulk and pulse unnaturally. His neck thickened, his jaw widened, and the tips of his horns twisted ever-so-slightly upward, like they were growing in real time. Even the cleaver in his hand seemed to gain weight—cracks glowing along its surface as if feeding off his fury.

"He's evolving again!" Yujin shouted from above, her wings flapping once to give her distance.

Jisoo skidded across the crumbling floor, her boots skimming fractured stone. "How is that fair?!"

Jin didn't answer. His eyes tracked every twitch of the monster's growing frame. The Minotaur's breaths had deepened. His hands—now closer to hooves than human fingers—tightened around the cleaver's handle with a grinding noise like stone on stone.

And then he charged.

This wasn't like before. This wasn't a man charging.

This was a force of nature.

Jin stepped to the side at the last possible second, the Minotaur barreling past, cleaver dragging sparks and ash through the air. Jisoo dashed behind it in a burst of speed, the Talaria igniting under her soles again. She gritted her teeth as she controlled her momentum this time, curving in a wide arc rather than letting the shoes pull her uncontrollably forward.

"Learning on the fly, huh?" she muttered to herself, then turned her body sharply.

She spun mid-air—twisting into a drill motion—and shot forward with precision, a glowing spiral of air forming around her.

"Helix Dash!" she shouted, and slammed into the Minotaur's shoulder from behind.

The impact forced the monster to stumble—but not fall.

"Damn," Jisoo hissed, kicking off the Minotaur's back to rebound.

But she wasn't alone.

From the other side, Yujin landed hard. Her claws were different now—longer, denser. Her muscles flexed beneath a shifting coat of thick, sandy fur, and two small horns had formed above her brow.

"Minotaur form," she muttered, lips curled into a snarl. "Let's see how you like your own game."

She launched forward with brutal precision. Her hooved feet cracked the floor with every sprinting step. Her shoulder met the beast's chest with full weight. The Minotaur caught her, barely, and tried to shove her back—but the shock in his eyes was clear.

He was looking at himself.

Or something terrifyingly close.

Jin saw the hesitation.

Saw the panic bloom in that massive, mutated face.

And then everything broke.

The Minotaur bellowed—not a cry of war, but of terror. He thrashed backward, stumbling, dragging his cleaver wildly through the air without precision. His horns scraped the ceiling as he spun and slammed into the nearest wall—headfirst.

Crack.

Stone split.

He slammed again.

And again.

Blood mixed with dust and bone.

"He's unraveling," Jin said under his breath.

"Why?" Jisoo asked, breathing hard. "What's happening to him?"

Yujin shifted back into a more humanoid form, wings sprouting again from her back as she hovered above. "He saw me. And he didn't like it."

The Minotaur dropped to all fours, chest heaving. His cleaver clattered to the side.

And then—chains.

They came without warning.

From the center of the chamber, dark, spectral chains burst from the floor—each one glowing faint red at its tips. They moved like snakes, coiling around the Minotaur's limbs, binding him with terrifying force.

He howled, not in pain, but in desperation.

"No!" he screamed. "I obeyed! Let me be!"

Jin took a step forward, stunned. "What is this?"

More chains erupted—slamming into the Minotaur's back, shoulders, horns—dragging him inch by inch toward the very center of the room. The glow beneath the floor intensified, revealing a sealed mark—etched with a symbol none of them recognized.

Yujin hovered lower, murmuring, "That's… not part of the trial, is it?"

Jisoo shook her head slowly. "I don't think this was supposed to happen."

The Minotaur roared one last time—his voice breaking halfway through.

Then he was pulled beneath the floor.

The chamber went silent.

But not for long.

The ground beneath them trembled—sharper than before. The walls pulsed faintly. The light dimmed.

And the system's voice returned, colder than before.

[Phase Two Complete.]

[Warning: System Event Triggered.]

[Initiating Phase Three.]

Jin's sword was already in hand. "Here we go."

The ground cracked again.

In the silence that followed, the system spoke one final line:

[The Warden has arrived.]