The sound of panicked footsteps filled the air as the survivors scattered, each sprinting in a different direction, desperate for any means of escape. Sonny, still clutching the unconscious child in his arms, pushed himself harder, his feet pounding against the cracked pavement. His mind raced, but it was a blur of fragmented thoughts — fear, urgency and survival. He could literally hear his heartbeat ringing out in his chest chaotically.
Ahead, he spotted a cluster of survivors darting toward a narrow alley. They were running toward the old storage building that had once served as a distribution center for goods.
It wasn't the safest option, but it was something, and that was enough for now. At least, the building should provide them a little bit of protection.
Sonny swept his gaze back over his shoulder.
The Furiataur wasn't far behind.
The beast's guttural growls echoed through the streets as its massive hooves stampeded on the ground, crushing the remnants of debris beneath it. Its massive frame blurred with speed as it leapt toward the fleeing group, its eyes burning with an insatiable hunger. Blood-soaked, its body gleamed under the dimming light of the day, a horrifying silhouette against the smoke-filled sky.
"Faster!" Sonny hissed through gritted teeth, spurring his legs to move faster, ignoring the strain on his muscles, the dull ache building in his chest.
His body was already protesting — his heart was pounding too hard, and his legs screamed in agony, but he didn't have time to care. The Furiataur was relentless, and its bloodlust was suffocating despite it being a distance away. The monstrous beast wanted them all dead, and it wasn't going to stop until it had wiped them off the face of the earth.
Sonny's gaze shifted to the survivors sprinting ahead. The teenage girl, who had spoken up earlier, was leading the way, but her pace was slowing. She was already struggling, clearly not built for this kind of sprint.
'Dammit, we're not going to make it...'
"Move!" Sonny shouted at her, urging the girl to push herself. He could already see the beast's massive form growing closer, its muscles bulging as it gained on them. The survivors ahead were slowing down from exhaustion.
Logically, it was impossible to outrun a Hell Beast, especially in a straight line. As an Inhabitant of the Tower, it existed on a plane far beyond ordinary humans. Only the Awakened, blessed by the « Black Tower », could stand against such creatures. For everyone else, resistance wasn't even part of the equation.
They were as helpless as ants before a human foot.
By some stroke of luck, there had been a considerable distance between them and the monster when their desperate flight began. But now, that gap was shrinking fast, as the ravenous Furiataur closed in with relentless speed.
With a deep snarl, the Furiataur roared and closed the distance even further. Sonny's stomach churned at the sight of the creature's massive claws raking the air in anticipation of the kill.
With a desperate grunt, Sonny increased his pace, pushing through the haze of fear clouding his thoughts. The storage building was just a few more blocks away. He could make it. They all could, if they just—
"LOOK OUT!"
The warning came too late.
The Furiataur's claws swiped down, sending debris flying into the air. A man in the back of the group was struck with the blunt edge of the creature's massive paw, and flew powerlessly into a nearby wall with a sickening crack. His screams were cut short as he crumpled into a mangled heap of flesh and bone.
"NO!" The woman with the injured arm screamed, turning back to try and help, but Sonny grabbed her arm, pulling her forward.
"Do not turn back! We can't help him now!"
Given the man was stuck while not wearing any form of protection, he was pretty much dead.
Even so, he couldn't but tremble upon replaying the image of the man turning into meat paste. This was the fate of background characters.
'Not good...'
The Furiataur was closing the distance, and it was gaining ground faster than he had anticipated. Its growl was like the rumbling of thunder, its fangs bared in an almost human-like expression of rage.
Sonny's mind screamed for a solution. The alleyway was coming up fast — it was their only option, but it was narrow, and the Furiataur wasn't going to fit in there. However, if they continued at their current pace, they were going to get caught before they reached the alley.
A thought struck him.
Without a second's hesitation, Sonny veered sharply off course, darting for the side of a crumbling building. He didn't have time to think about what came next. The alley would have to wait.
"Get down!" he yanked the woman with the child to the ground as he followed suit. He held his breath as a massive shadow loomed overhead. The Furiataur was nearly upon them.
Sonny dove behind a wrecked car, his heart in his throat. The woman followed, dragging her child into cover beside him.
For a moment, the world stood still. The Furiataur's heavy footfalls thudded against the earth, a tremor that threatened to shake him loose from his hiding spot.
Then it stopped.
None of them moved. They held their breath as much as they could, praying the creature wouldn't find them.
The Furiataur's head twisted, its gaze searching the streets. Its nostrils flared as it drew in the scent, looking for the next prey.
There was no time to think.
Glancing down at the little girl, a reckless plan sparked in Sonny's mind. He quickly handed the unconscious child to her mother, who stared at him in confusion. But by the time she understood, it was already too late.
Sonny was already moving. Slowly, carefully, he began crawling toward a tall stack of crates nearby.
A low growl rumbled from the beast, and Sonny felt his blood turn to ice. It was closing in, fast.
He shot a glance at the woman. "Go! I'll cover you!"
She hesitated, but Sonny didn't give her the chance to argue.
"RUN!"
Snatching up a crowbar lying nearby, Sonny surged to his feet and charged. His steps were shaky without a doubt, but his resolve was firm.
The Furiataur turned and slowly locked its crimson eyes onto him with murderous fury.
Behind him, the woman swallowed her fear and staggered back, dragging her unconscious daughter with her one working arm.
Seeing her retreat, Sonny clenched his jaw and pushed the fear deeper down. There was no turning back now.
He was about to face a Monster of the Black Tower. And not just any creature, this was one ranked above even a Sleeper, a deadly predator few dared to even name. The odds of surviving such an encounter were so low that anyone would have laughed in his face if he'd so much as suggested it. Especially since he was just a Dreamless, an ordinary person, untouched by the Black Tower's blessing.
And Sonny was most definitely Dreamless.
Even so, he had no choice. If he wanted to avoid dying a miserable death, he had to deal with this Furiataur. This wasn't some noble, heroic decision. It was pure self-preservation. If this thing was left to run loose, more people would die. And eventually, he'd be one of them. The sheer absurdity of it all, the way the odds had been stacked against him from the start, had long since lost its malice. He was too tired to care anymore. What was there to fear? He was already as good as dead. The worries of the dead was meaningless.
So why worry?
On the other end, the monstrous creature let out a bellowing roar that split the air like a crack of thunder. Its fangs gnashed together as it charged, each thunderous hoofbeat shaking the ground with enough force to rattle Sonny's bones. The sheer pressure of its approach made the air feel heavier.
Sonny's grip tightened around the crowbar until his knuckles turned white. His legs screamed at him to run, drop the useless scrap of metal and find a deeper hole to hide in. But instead, he planted his feet, forcing his trembling body to stand its ground.
'Closer… just a little closer…'
Deciding the creature had gotten close enough, he darted to another direction, leading the monster away from the group of survivors.
His plan, if it could even be called that, was paper-thin. Noticing the monster's body from a better perspective, he had realized it was severely injuried. Deep, ragged wounds carved across its flank, leaking thick, dark blood that steamed where it touched the ground. Gashes, too precise and too deep to be random, marred its shoulder and torso, as though it had already fought something or someone, far stronger earlier. Its left horn was cracked, bent at the tip, and one of its eyes was swollen shut, crusted with dried blood. Looking closer, it seemed the eye was stabbed.
Given the Assault Squads' advance during the subjugation of the 71st floor of the Tower, it was inevitable that they had passed through and conquered the lesser floors on their way up. Among those battles, they had encountered the Furiataur; a monster infamous even among the denizens of the Tower's middle layers.
During that clash, the Assault Squads had inflicted devastating injuries on the beast. So severe, in fact, that they believed they had finished it off entirely. Either that or the Furiataur had retreated before it could be slain outright.
But in truth, the monster had not perished.
Amid the chaos of the 71st floor's subjugation — when the Tower's structures were destabilized, and countless creatures were either purged or displaced — the Furiataur seized its chance. Wounded and desperate, it must have escaped, slipping past the Black Tower's bindings and into the outer world.
To escape the Tower, one would have no choice but to ascend, retracing the very path they once descended. The Furiataur must have done just that. As it neared the exit, it inevitably crossed paths with the Defense Squad stationed to guard against such breaches.
A fierce battle must have erupted there. Though the beast managed to overpower the defenders and force its way out, it did not emerge unscathed. The clash left it with fresh, mortal wounds layered atop the injuries it had already suffered in the Assault Squad's earlier campaign. Torn sinew, shattered bone, and deep lacerations marked its hulking body.
By the time it reached the outer world, the Furiataur's strength had been greatly diminished. What remained was a dying beast, running on its last string of life.
'Well, that didn't stop it from destroying this part of town in minutes. How scary,' Sonny thought with a wry smile.
At the very least, this gave him the opportunity he needed.
In just a few minutes, Sonny reached his destination; an empty construction site filled with heavy machinery and towering hydraulic cranes. The metal skeletons of half-built structures loomed overhead, groaning as the wind whistled through exposed beams. Concrete dust hung in the air like fog, coating everything in a thin, pale film. Sonny's breath came hard and ragged, but he kept moving, weaving between rusting bulldozers and abandoned cement mixers.
His ears stayed sharp. Behind him, the distant howls echoed. This meant the creature was catching up to him.
Sonny's eyes scanned the site until they landed on what he was looking for: a half-buried fuel tanker parked near a collapsed scaffolding.
He sprinted toward it, crunching on broken rebar and shattered glass. Every second counted. His mind worked fast as he looked around, trying to remember the layout as much as possible.
If he could lure them into the kill zone, if he timed it right —
A low growl rumbled behind him.
Sonny whirled around. Standing there was the crimson fiendish bull, its eyes burning with murderous intent as it locked onto him. Every muscle in its gruesome body twitched with barely contained fury.
Trying to wear the monster down — make it bleed out or exhaust itself — would have been ideal. But it had proven far too stubborn for that.
Why did it want him dead so badly? Was it driven by some deep, instinctual hatred for humans? Or was there something else festering inside that monstrous shell?
Whatever the reason, none of it mattered now.
All that mattered was this: he was standing face to face with the beast, and only one of them would leave this place alive.