Chapter 42: Death
Dust slowly settled around the shattered remains of the ⟨Watch Tower⟩.
The Lizard Commander rose from the crater it had created.
Its vertical slit eyes swept across the Fortress before finally locking onto Edgar.
"..."
ROOOARR!!
With a scream that shook the entire Fortress, the commander gathered its strength and opened its mouth.
A projectile quickly formed and shot toward Edgar at an unimaginable speed.
’Fast!’
Edgar quickly threw himself to the side, barely avoiding the projectile.
The attack took a chunk out of the Fortress Wall, but most of the weapons remained functional.
The Nightmare Commander didn’t give Edgar the time to think.
It launched two more projectiles, trying to take Edgar along with the ⟨Watch Tower⟩ mounted on top.
Edgar somersaulted multiple times before getting back on his feet.
Had he not taken the Nightmare Shard that increased his speed and senses, he would be dead by now.
The Nightmare Lizard looked visibly frustrated by his agility.
With a deep roar, it decided to change its target, turning its enormous body toward the stone wall.
While doing so, the monster crushed Edgar’s house with its hind leg out of spite.
Though Edgar wasn’t disappointed or panicked by it, instead a smile bloomed on his face.
’Got you!!’
Edgar ran along the broken patrol path as though his life depended on it.
Reaching the ⟨Wall Cage⟩, Edgar turned the hollow pillar toward the Nightmare Commander, who was preparing to launch another projectile to break the stone slab.
As soon as the pillar aligned, Edgar pulled the lever.
CLANK!!
Six chains with kunai-like heads shot toward the monster at a terrifying speed.
Sensing the danger, the monster tried to avoid them, but Edgar had never used the ⟨Wall Cage⟩ in battle before, so the information the Lizard had about it was minimal.
It successfully dodged three of the chains, but the other three struck its hind leg, back, and tail.
The one that hit its back shattered instantly upon impact, but the other two dug deep into its body.
ROOOARR!!
The pain made the monster scream, and the projectile also missed its mark.
BOOOMMM!!
A deep groove appeared in the Fortress Wall where it had struck.
Edgar pulled the lever, and the spring compressed inside the pillar. The force pulled the monster toward the wall.
The Nightmare Lizard tried to pull itself free from the chains and almost succeeded.
But Edgar quickly pulled the lever for the other ⟨Wall Cage⟩, sending six more chains.
Four of them dug into different parts of the Nightmare Commander’s body.
In no time, the Lizard was hanging upside down against the Fortress Wall.
Edgar quickly ordered the Ballista to attack the underside of the monster, which wasn’t covered by those black scales.
As the Ballista slowly rotated its muzzle, the Lizard began to panic.
The Nightmare Commander struggled violently. Its massive body twisted with terrifying force.
ROOOOAAARRR!!
The chains groaned as they stretched to their limits under the enormous force.
CLANG!
CLANG!
Stone cracked beneath the pillars as the entire ⟨Wall Cage⟩ shook.
Edgar’s smile faded slightly. ’...It’s stronger than I expected.’
The Commander grabbed one of the embedded chains with its claw.
With one violent pull, it snapped the chain apart.
Edgar’s heart skipped a beat.
’Already?!’
Without wasting a second, he slammed several White Nightmare Stones into the damaged ⟨Wall Cage⟩.
Milky-white liquid flowed over the broken mechanism, and the snapped chain rapidly reformed before shooting out once more.
CLANK!!
It pierced through the Commander’s shoulder.
ROOOAARRR!!
The Lizard screamed in fury.
It tried to open its mouth again, and a crimson glow rapidly condensed inside its throat.
’Not happening.’
Edgar immediately activated a Flamethrower.
FWOOOOOSHHH!!
A torrent of white flames engulfed the monster’s head.
As the monster closed its vertical eyes, the aim of the projectile shifted.
BOOOOOOM!!!
The projectile shot harmlessly into the sky before exploding high above the Fortress.
But it was as if the searing flames burning its face snapped something inside the Nightmare.
With a brutal roar, it pulled backward and threw itself away.
The force tore open its shoulder, broke its hind leg, and ripped open its tail.
But the monster had freed itself from the chains.
However, Edgar had different plans.
Without a single hesitation, he repaired the chains and fired them back at the Nightmare.
Twelve chains dug into its body once again, much deeper than before.
As Edgar watched the monster cry in pain, he calmly walked to the other side of the wall and created two more ⟨Wall Cage⟩s.
He pulled the levers, and twelve more chains embedded themselves into the monster.
When the levers were pulled again, the monster’s body was dragged from two different directions, leaving it hanging in the air like a lifeless puppet.
Edgar walked down the staircase and approached the barely alive Nightmare.
He picked up a long-handled hammer and dragged it toward its head.
Looking deeply into the hatred-filled eyes of the monster, Edgar raised the hammer and struck its head with all his strength.
The first hit did little damage, so he raised the hammer again and slammed it into its head once more.
He did the same thing again and again and again.
Edgar only stopped when the Nightmare’s head was no longer recognizable. Its blood and brain matter drenched his body.
"Huff...."
He let out a tired sigh and brushed back his hair with the monster’s blood.
He walked over and pulled the lever, and the Nightmare’s dead body fell to the ground.
A Yellow-grade Nightmare Stone appeared above its corpse, along with two other items.
As the corpse landed nearby, the ⟨Tower of Souls⟩ reacted.
Dark, black tentacle-like appendages crept out of the archway and dragged the monster inside.
’Well, that was anticlimactic.’
Edgar thought, ignoring the system prompt as he looked down at the battlefield.
The majority of the monsters fled once the Commander died, but many still attacked the Fortress.
However, they were far more disorganized now and seizing the Fortress was impossible.
Edgar didn’t bother with them and let the automatic functions of the ⟨Watch Towers⟩ handle the rest.
Though his gaze remained fixed on the darkness of the Eternal Night.
’I wonder... how many more intelligent monsters are there?’