Chapter 49: Slaying the minotaur of the legends!

Selena stayed firmly on the spot she had taken in the right corner of the ring and eyed the cartons warily. The council head raised his hand signaling the start of the battle and Selena let out a deep breath in a bid to calm herself down and concentrated on the task at hand while the head guard bowed deeply at the council head and released the bolt holding the cartons intact.
She found herself repeating on a loop, whatever may come, don’t use your powers…..
God forbid, if she were indeed to use her powers in front of the general public, nothing would ever remain the same ever again. It would be to her advantage if she can manage to hide her rather magnificent powers.

Just as the Head Guard removed the bolt, a growl was heard all over the training grounds as the minotaur stepped into the ring followed closely by his rather large herd of bulls.
The crowd froze in terror as they along with their first princess was coming across the minotaur of the legends for the very first time.

Selena bowed deeply to the minotaur showing her respect to her opponent who was none other than the mythical creature of the legends who she had never ever seen before in real life and had only heard about in fables.

The minotaur’s eyes gleamed dangerously as he took in its new prey. The bulls started approaching the first princess and within seconds, she found herself surrounded in whole corners by the bulls. She was a sore prey who couldn’t even a move step to defend herself. The bulls had seen to that and had literally offered her up to their master in a silver platter.

She gulped heavily as the minotaur started approaching her too without a second of hesitation, already locking her as the target, while simultaneously waving his gigantic axe up in the air.

Within a split of a second, she jumped up the air, removing herself from the trap set up by the bulls and the minotaur jumped in surprise as he saw her land right on his back.
He let out a growl befitting of the beast he was as he suddenly found himself having an uninvited burden on his back who was attempting to ride him shamelessly. Selena groaned as the minotaur started thrashing and turning in full force in a bid to get her off his back and Selena found herself desperate clinging on to his back in defiance, barely hanging on with her dear life hanging in the balance. The minotaur was getting more and more agitated by the second, with his bulls along with him, frustrated at not being to shake her off from his back.

Up in the podium, the Queen too was in the edge of her seat out of concern for her daughter. She barely suppressed the urge to bite down on her finger nails out of anxiety and she had a fake bravado face on, which she didn’t quite feel inside.

Selena, then without a second of hesitation, knowing very well that this was the only opportunity she was going to get, stuck her elbow in to the minotaur’s red eyes, the only weakness he had and the minotaur yelled out in agony and Selena fell on to the ground with a thud.

The minotaur losing his focus started attacking everything and everyone in its vicinity. She watched in horrified silence as the minotaur started approaching the citizens who had gathered around the training grounds to watch the events.
It had gone mad with fury, his eyes bleeding from Selena’s attack.

Selena watched terrorized from her spot as she realized that the minotaur was headed straight towards a group of harmless civilians. It was her fault that the minotaur was enraged and she should take responsibility for her actions.
She tried to move towards them, but found herself surrounded by the bulls all glaring down at her, clearly pissed by the way she had handled their master.

She frowned at the herd of bulls surrounding and breathing down on her. If she were to use her powers now, the council will never allow her to ascend the throne of Valyria but if today she weren’t to use her powers, countless innocent citizens would lose their life. What was the use of being their queen if she can’t even protect them? If today she were to hide her powers and let the citizen’s take the brunt of the minotaur’s attack, then even if she succeeded to ascend the throne of Valyria, she would have become the Queen for all the wrong reasons, then.

Not being able to handle it anymore, she waved her hand, calling on her powers and concentrating on them. Every single one of the bulls suddenly found themselves suddenly sinking themselves into the mud helplessly. Selena could feel the council’s incredulous eyes on her back, but she chose to ignore them as now only one thing was there in her mind, to save her citizens.

The crowd then watched in amazement as Selena jumped through the air and landed right before the citizens and waved her hand in the air while staring down at the minotaur. The Minotaur then found himself being raised in the air helplessly and no matter how much ever he kicked and thrashed in the air, his feet still couldn’t touch the ground.

Selena then clapped her hands together and willed the air around her to obey her command and a small hurricane covered up the gigantic minotaur, tossing and turning him upside down and the crowd let out a cheer, astonished by the first princess’s sudden display of powers and grateful that she had saved them from harm’s way.

After a few seconds, she snapped her fingers and the minotaur fell on to the ground, exhausted and dizzy. He barely couldn’t even get back up on to his two feet.

The grounds were soon filled the crowd’s triumphant cheers but Selena’s eyes were fixed guiltily at the council head’s face. By the way, his eyes had narrowed down dangerously at her, it was quite obvious that now the cat was outside the bag and her secret was out.

In the obsession of getting to the crowd of citizens and saving them, she forgot that the ground was surrounded with highly trained vampires who had assured to step in, in case something was ever to go wrong. This had been clearly the council’s trap and Selena in a fit of emotion had walked right into it. Nothing was ever going to remain the same ever again. It was quite obvious from the stunned look on the council members faces that they now viewed her as a threat instead of an asset.