Confronting the hulking monstrosity, Sonny felt like his heart would burst out from his chest. Racing through his mind was thoughts like — Are you stupid? Why are you trying to do by standing in front of this monster? Run, you damn idiot!The panic was overwhelming, but he couldn't help it. The whole situation was ridiculous to begin with.
After all, what was a monster doing outside the Tower?
No... this mess started because those damn hunters couldn't do their jobs properly. If he was going to die here, he hoped at least one of those idiots would lose their climbing license!
'Why am I thinking about someone else right now? Well, maybe these are just my parting thoughts.'
With a bitter smile at his own foolishness, Sonny drew a deep breath, forcing the chaos in his mind and the frantic pounding in his chest to settle. He swept his gaze over the scene, analyzing the situation with newfound clarity. The abandoned construction site was littered with heavy machinery; if nothing else, the environment was on his side.
As for the Furiataur, it was badly wounded, barely clinging to life.
Looking at it that way, things didn't seem so hopeless. For once, the future might actually be leaning in his favor.
If everything went according to plan, then he might escape from this place with his life intact.
Sonny tightened his grip on the crowbar in his hands, the best weapon he could scavenge in this chaos. His palms were slick with sweat, and his arms trembled, but he forced himself to steady his breathing.
One shot. That was all he needed. Or rather, all he had.
The Furiataur let out a guttural snarl as its massive body swaying unsteadily. Thick, dark blood dripped from the deep gashes along its shoulders and torso and one of its horns was unnaturally bent with a stab wound on its right eyes. Even in its severely wounded state, it was still incredibly dangerous and could break a man into two pieces. One wrong move, and Sonny knew he'd end up as just another corpse in this forgotten site.
'Focus. Don't screw this up.'
He glanced around again. A rusted crane loomed nearby, its hook dangling just above the creature. If he could lure the Furiataur beneath it...
Sonny swallowed hard. It was a gamble — but then again, so was everything else today.
He took a step forward, slamming the crowbar against a metal barrel with a loud clang.
"Hey! Over here, you ugly bastard!"
The monster's single good eye snapped toward him, and with a furious roar, it charged.
Sonny's legs moved before his mind could catch up, sprinting across the uneven ground as the earth-shaking thuds of the Furiataur's charge closed in behind him. Dust and gravel kicked up with every step, and the rancid stench of blood and beast breath clawed at his nose.
'Closer… just a little closer…'
He darted past a toppled concrete mixer, heart hammering as he made a beeline for the crane. The rusted hook swayed slightly in the breeze, too high to do any damage now, but if he could trigger the release then he would win.
A deafening roar exploded behind him. The Furiataur was faster than it looked, its heavy hooves pulverizing chunks of debris as it barreled forward, blinded by pain and rage.
Sonny's lungs burned. He reached the base of the crane and skidded to a stop, pivoting sharply to the right. The creature, too committed to its charge, couldn't turn in time.
'Now!'
Sonny slammed his crowbar against the old release lever by the crane's control panel. For a breathless moment, nothing happened. Then, with a groan of old metal, the hook and its heavy chain came crashing down.
The hook struck first, slamming into the Furiataur's skull with a sickening crunch. The beast let out a strangled bellow, stumbling forward as the weight of the chain coiled around its neck and shoulders.
Sonny didn't stop to celebrate. He climbed up the half-naked structure then bolted toward a stack of steel beams and shoved hard, toppling them over. They fell like dominoes, slamming on top the creature's head at once!
Klang-klang-kraash!
Dust filled the air.
The Furiataur thrashed weakly, its strength finally giving out as it collapsed in a heap beneath the wreckage.
Sonny stood there, panting, crowbar still clenched in his shaking hands. For a long second, the world was silent except for his ragged breathing.
Then, slowly, a bitter laugh bubbled out of him. It sounded wild and cracked, but he couldn't stop.
"I actually did it… I'm still alive…"
His legs gave out, and he sank to his knees, the adrenaline draining away all at once. But even as his body trembled, his eyes stayed locked on the pile of metal and broken flesh, just in case.
Because in this world, you never turned your back on a monster until you were damn sure it was dead.
Well, he'd never actually fought a monster before, but given the circumstances, this seemed like the logical thing to do.
Looking down, there was no sign of movement beneath the wreckage of steel beams. More importantly, the Furiataur lay still. Under normal circumstances, a monster like that wouldn't have died just from a few heavy beams crashing down. But given how badly it was already wounded, it simply didn't have the strength to withstand the crushing weight. In the end, it succumbed to its gruesome injuries.
Noticing the terrifying foe was not moving, Sonny grinned like an idiot. Not only had he bested the creature, but he was also the first Dreamless to ever kill a Monster from the Tower!
And on his own to boot!
It was an extraordinary feat, especially considering how powerless normal humans were against monsters, even ordinary weapons didn't work on them. Of course, the creature had already been gravely wounded and would've died soon enough, with or without his help. But honestly, that didn't matter.
A kill was still a kill, no matter the circumstances.
Would a soldier ambushed or jumped by the enemy cry out, "This is unfair!" in the middle of a war?
Of course not.
The main point was to defeat the enemy regardless of the means even if you had to rip out their throat with your teeth. At the end of the day, only those who were victorious would live to see tomorrow while the losers didn't.
Sonny wiped the sweat from his brow, his body still trembling from the aftermath. His crowbar, slick with sweat and grime, felt heavier now, like it had absorbed the weight of what he'd just done.
The reality of it crept in slowly, crawling over his skin like cold mist.
He'd killed a monster.
Not just any monster — a Tower Beast. Something that should've been beyond someone like him. Beyond anyone without an Awakening.
And he was... alive, breathing and victorious.
The thought made his pulse spike again, but this time it wasn't fear. It was something much sharper and hotter.
Excitement.
'Is this… how Hunters feel when they clear a Floor?'
Sonny's grin widened. But before he could get lost in that heady rush, a sharp jolt of pain shot through his side. He winced and glanced down, bruises or maybe a cracked rib. As expected, he hadn't come out untouched when that ceiling collapsed on him.
It didn't matter though.
Right now, he needed to move.
Because if there was one thing he'd learned from watching Tower raids online, it was this: where there was one monster, there were always more. And considering how sloppy the Hunters had been today, Sonny wasn't about to bet on his luck holding out a second time.
Climbing down the half-naked structure, he casted one last look at the monstrosity buried within twisted steel.
"Stay dead, you bastard!"
Muttering under his breath, Sonny turned away and started limping toward the edge of the abandoned construction site, with one hand clutching his bruised side and the other, the crowbar. But before he could take a second step, the ground shuddered beneath his feet.
He froze.
His pulse spiked, and a cold chill ran down his spine.
Slowly, reluctantly, he turned his head and narrowed his eyes at the wreckage.
'No… it can't be…'
To his absolute horror, movement began to stir. At first, it was utterly subtle. But now, there was rapidly increasing activity happening beneath the wreakage of steel beams. Before he could finish a line of thought, the wreakage exploded outwards, accompanyed by a deafening roar that sliced the air.
Sonny frantically rolled to the side, narrowly dodging a steel beam crashing down where he'd just stood. Instinct took over, and he leapt backward, trying to put distance between himself and the chaos. The blast of the shockwave hit him a heartbeat later — dulled by his movement, but not enough to matter.
Because the real danger was still coming.
The sharp, slicing whistle of something tearing through the air echoed ominously.
Sonny's eyes snapped upward and his breath caught.
Multiple steel rails were hurtling straight for him like spears.
'Shit...!!'
Horrified, he tried to roll away again, that, however, was completely pointless. The rails smashed down in perfect unison, slamming into the ground around him. It was like being trapped in the center of an explosion or rather, being beaten by five to six people. Gravel and debris lashed out from every side, striking him in a storm of stone and dust.
There was no defense or way to dodge.
Bludgeoned from all directions, Sonny could only curl in on himself as over a hundred rocks stabbed at him. He thrashed helplessly, flailing like a shrimp thrown onto dry land.
"Gh...gheah...! Ahh...aahhh...!"
Even so, Sonny managed to grab one of the steel rails sticking into the ground nearby in order to stand up. His vision blurred as pain flooded every nerve in his body, his legs shaking from the leftover damage and blood tickled down his temple.
But the monstrosity wasn't done yet.
Through the haze, Sonny heard it — the heavy, wet sound of something massive dragging itself free from the twisted wreckage. The Furiataur's breath came in hoarse, wheezing snarls, each one vibrating through the ground like the growl of a dying engine.
Sonny forced his battered body to move, even as every muscle screamed in protest. His limbs felt distant, disconnected, but he grit his teeth and dug his fingers into the gravel, dragging himself backward.
'Move… damn it, move!'
His crowbar was gone. It lay somewhere amidst the chaos, knocked from his grip in the blast. His only weapon now was his will to survive, and right now, even that was questionable.
The Furiataur emerged fully from the pile, its body mangled beyond recognition. One arm hung uselessly, or more specifically, it appeared as a tangle of torn muscle and shattered bone. Along with that, its left leg was twisted at an unnatural angle with a bone popping out from its bleeding flesh. Its remaining eye, bloodshot and filled with madness, locked onto Sonny with pure, murderous intent.
It bellowed, spraying flecks of blood from its ruined maw, and stomped forward with a staggering gait. Even crippled, it was still a force of raw destruction. And it wanted Sonny dead.
Sonny's heart pounded so hard it felt like it might burst.
'No! No! No! This can't be happening. It should be dead! Even after that... how is it alive?!'
But reality didn't care about what should be.
Yet somehow, Sonny turned out to be one hell of a lucky bastard.
Because at some point, the Furiataur stopped moving. Or rather, it couldn't move anymore.