Like a shadow, Hastora retreated in silence.
Silence was paramount.
The slightest sound, and it would all be over.
The Vuldari's hearing was legendary—they could detect footsteps from ten meters away.
Gedebuk!
The wooden door tore from its hinges, crashing onto the concrete floor with a deafening thud.
The Vuldari turned in unison.
"Fuck!" Hastora spun around and sprinted towards the stairs.
There was only one way: up.
GRAAAHHH!!
A deafening roar echoed behind him.
A horde of Vuldari gave chase, their heavy footfalls shaking the entire corridor.
"Damn it!" he yelled.
His lungs burned.
Each breath was a ragged gasp. His chest thundered like war drums.
They were closing in.
One meter.
No time to think.
No room for doubt.
Kill… or be killed.
Stupid choices weren't in his vocabulary.
He stopped, turned, and unleashed a shadow net.
Dark energy formed into threads, a giant spiderweb-like trap.
The Vuldari were ensnared, their massive bodies thrashing, yet unable to break free.
But they weren't ordinary creatures.
They were not just beasts—they were intelligent. And strong.
With earth-shattering roars and brutal strength, they began to tear through the net.
Hastora knew he couldn't stay idle. He attacked.
SPLUTCH!
One swift sword strike across the back of a Vuldari's neck.
Blood sprayed, erupting wildly into the air like a crimson fountain.
He leapt back immediately, scanning their numbers.
"One, three… eight… ten… fifteen?"
His face hardened.
"Damn it!"
Enemy reinforcements arrived faster than he anticipated.
Frustration gnawed at his mind.
"Damn it! I shouldn't have entered this cursed place!"
His mana was critically low.
His mana was nearly drained—Flamma Internus? Out of the question. Gravity Vortex? Impossible.
To advance meant death.
He scanned his surroundings… and saw it—the fragile ceiling!
A shadow orb was hurled at the ceiling.
KRAAAASSHH!!
The ceiling collapsed, showering the Vuldari with debris.
Without hesitation, Hastora darted to the third floor and hid in a dark room.
"Huff… huff… This is troublesome."
He leaned against the wall, his breathing heavy.
His stamina was depleted. His mana was dwindling.
His mind was a chaotic mess.
"What should I do…?"
Facing fifteen Vuldari directly? Impossible.
He had to think like a manipulator; cunning and calculating.
Confronting them head-on wasn't an option. Fighting them with his current strength was suicide.
The Vuldari were intelligent and powerful.
A fair fight? Nonsense.
This was about survival. And he would trap them one by one… until the very last.
Hastora closed his eyes, massaging his temples.
Calm began to settle over him.
The chaotic aura of this dimension had clouded his thoughts.
After regaining his composure, he stood, taking a deep breath.
He began to formulate a plan.
Currently, he was in a room on the third floor.
Setting traps on the stairs was a viable option.
But what kind of traps should he set?
Mines or bombs?
Both seemed impossible.
He considered other methods.
An idea sparked in his mind.
"Perhaps… traps like in a dungeon?"
He just needed to turn this tower into a dungeon.
Setting traps everywhere, then using his knowledge of their locations as bait.
It was a complex but effective strategy.
The complexity lay in setting the traps.
He could be discovered by other Vuldari patrolling the corridors.
If that happened, he would die.
But if he successfully set all the traps undetected, it would be checkmate for the Vuldari.
This was incredibly risky; he needed to think it through.
After eight minutes of deliberation, he made his decision.
This was his only chance of survival.
There was no other way.
He would turn this third floor into a death trap.
Hastora created ten shadow spears and moved towards the exit.
He checked left and right, ensuring the corridor was clear before leaving the room.
With silent steps, he walked to the corridor on his left.
Once there, he created a bouncy shadow orb.
Hastora planted the orb on the floor, then embedded five shadow spears into it.
He repeated this process in other locations.
After setting all the traps, he walked towards the stairs and tapped the walls with a shadow hatchet.
The Vuldari on the floor below immediately responded to the sound.
They swarmed towards the source.
Hastora hid on the corridor ceiling like a spider, waiting for the Vuldari to arrive.
Darkness cloaked the tower like a shroud—his perfect ally.
The Vuldari wouldn't be able to see him on the ceiling.
GRAAAHHH!!
Five—no, twenty Vuldari had arrived on the third floor.
They were clever; they didn't search for the source of the sound together.
They strategized, splitting into four groups of five.
That was a smart move.
He acknowledged that.
If they had moved together on the third floor, they would have all died by triggering just three traps.
After strategizing, the Vuldari dispersed to search for the sound source in groups.
Hastora crawled across the ceiling like a predator, silently trailing the first group.
The Vuldari in group one walked towards a corridor filled with traps.
Hastora quickly descended and pelted them with shadow staffs.
GRAAAHHH!!
They pursued Hastora with full speed.
Their powerful steps vibrated the other corridors.
They chased him into the trap-filled corridor.
Hastora stopped, a slight smile playing on his lips.
"This is where it ends."
Ten shadow spears pierced their bodies after they triggered a trap.
They tore through flesh and lodged deep in bone.
There were no survivors.
All… dead.
After confirming there were no survivors,
Hastora approached and decapitated them with his sword.
Their heads were tied to the corridor ceiling with shadow ropes.
Once finished, he skillfully dashed to other corridors to check on the remaining Vuldari groups.
He checked all the corridors on the third floor.
Not a single Vuldari remained.
The other three groups met similarly gruesome ends, with 5-10 shadow spears impaling them.
As before, Hastora decapitated the Vuldari corpses on the third floor and hung them from the ceiling using shadow ropes.
"Damn... exhausting," he muttered, wiping the sweat clinging to his jaw.
Setting the traps throughout the third floor had taken a long time.
His stamina was severely depleted.
His mana was also drastically reduced from creating so many shadow spears.
"I need to—"
GRAAAHHH!!
The roar of more Vuldari echoed from above.
His blood froze. His eyes went wide.
"That sound… from above?"
He stepped back towards a window.
THRUM! THRUM! THRUM!
The floor and ceiling vibrated.
What was happening?
This was too sudden.
Hastora swallowed hard, panic rising.
Something was off.
Until now, none of the Vuldari from the upper floors had descended to the third.
Now, their footsteps sounded like they were heading down.
What had caused the Vuldari upstairs to act this way?
Hastora thought and thought, trying to figure out what was happening.
If they came down… it would be the end.
There was no escape.
He was completely trapped.
Now he remembered.
Blood!
The Vuldari's sense of smell was incredibly acute and powerful.
They could easily smell someone's blood from a distance.
They could also easily detect the blood of their own kind.
The blood of the Vuldari on the third floor had attracted the attention of those upstairs.
Now what?
THRUM! THRUM! THRUM!
Unbeknownst to him, the Vuldari from upstairs were before him while he was lost in thought.
"One, five, ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty, thirty-eight!"
This number was many times greater than before.
They easily spotted Hastora's position.
It was because of a lightning strike outside that illuminated Hastora near the window.
They advanced towards Hastora together.
His body trembled uncontrollably.
"W—Will I end here?"
To be continued in the next chapter…
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A/N:
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Over and out, Zalario