Chapter 270: Great Fortress (Part 2)
The enormous fortress doors finished opening, stone groaning across the courtyard as the sound rolled outward. Rows of elite soldiers marched forward one formation at a time. Heavy shield infantry. Halberd companies. Crossbow units. Mage battalions. Engineers pushing portable ballistas into position.
Everything moved in perfect synchronization. No shouting. No panic. Just discipline.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Each synchronized step shook the courtyard beneath Kai’s boots.
Kai studied the formation. "...They’re not guarding the fortress."
Raze glanced over. "They’re guarding him."
Behind the assembled formation, the towering armored giant remained perfectly still, warhammer resting against one shoulder, massive tower shield planted firmly into the stone. Watching. Waiting.
Then it slowly raised the hammer, and every soldier changed formation at once, shield walls rotating, halberds advancing, crossbows repositioning. The entire battlefield transformed in seconds.
Elden smiled faintly. "...One commander. Thousands of soldiers."
Kai nodded slowly. "...Then we don’t waste time fighting the army."
He pointed at the giant. "We break the commander."
The Marshal slammed its warhammer into the ground.
BOOOOOOOM!!
The fortress answered immediately. Hidden walls slid open. Arrow slits appeared along surfaces that had looked solid a moment earlier. Stone barricades rose from the ground. Ancient siege towers rotated into new firing angles. Massive chains dragged bridges into different positions.
The battlefield itself started changing shape.
Kai laughed. "...The whole fortress is alive."
Raze grinned. "Good. I was worried it’d be boring."
Dozens of mana cannons fired at once, blue beams streaking across the courtyard. Kai Air Stepped between them, Tempest Fang launching skyward and tearing one tower apart with a burst of lightning. Another beam came for him, and he swapped to Thread Caster, silver lines yanking him sideways a half-second before impact, the beam destroying three stone buildings instead of him.
Raze simply walked forward through the barrage. Mana blasts detonated against his Blood Armor without slowing him down, every impact feeding his Blood Tyrant stacks higher, his crimson aura thickening with every hit he absorbed.
"COME ON!" he shouted, and another volley answered immediately, the whole courtyard trembling under it.
Kai shook his head, watching. "They’re still encouraging him."
Elden barely attacked at all through the opening exchange. Instead he observed, eyes tracking walls, bridges, support pillars, runes, mana currents, cataloguing the whole fortress before committing to anything.
Then he tapped the ground. "...There."
Arcane circles bloomed beneath the courtyard, gravity doubling directly beneath the eastern tower. The structure began leaning, support beams cracking under the sudden weight increase, and a massive section of wall collapsed straight onto a column of advancing Iron Legion soldiers.
CRAAAAASH!!
Kai whistled. "...You didn’t destroy the soldiers."
"I destroyed what was protecting them," Elden said calmly.
The fortress kept adapting, rotating walls trying to separate the three of them. Elden countered immediately with mirror runes, gravity anchors, stone pillars of his own, slowing every moving wall the dungeon threw at them.
Eventually the dungeon simply lost the ability to reshape the battlefield at all.
Kai laughed. "...You just stole control of the whole dungeon."
Elden adjusted his glasses. "...Preparation usually wins."
The Iron Legion charged in full then, hundreds of shields locking together into one advancing wall, halberds lowering in unison, crossbows releasing another synchronized volley.
Raze’s smile only grew wider.
[Blood Tyrant.]
[Stack 32.]
Battle Roar erupted outward from him, the pressure alone throwing loose debris into the air. Then he vanished, the ground exploding beneath his feet as he crashed straight into the shield wall.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!
The first rank flew backward in a scattered heap. The second rank stepped forward to replace it immediately. Then the third.
Raze only laughed louder. "GOOD!"
His greatsword swung wide, and a Blood Wave tore across the battlefield, an enormous crimson slash splitting stone barricades and scattering shield soldiers in every direction.
Another opening formed in the chaos.
Kai didn’t hesitate, vanishing through it instantly.
He moved through the collapsing formation with the Ashen Seal ignited around him, Tempest Fang, Bloodthorn, and Rootbreaker orbiting independently as he cut through anything that tried to intercept him. Every captain that stepped into his path fell within seconds.
One commander raised a shield to block him. Null Fang formed in his grip, and one slash split it cleanly in half. Another elite tried to hold the line, and Pulse Fist sent it crashing through three of its own soldiers.
Kai never stopped moving, never committed to one style long enough to be predicted.
The closer he got to the center, the more elite guards materialized to intercept him. The Marshal watched calmly through all of it, waiting, studying, almost testing him.
Kai smiled at the sight of it. "...You’re definitely the boss."
The Marshal finally stepped forward itself, every movement shaking the entire keep.
[Dungeon Boss Detected.]
[Fortress Marshal.]
[Level: 66.]
It raised its shield, and every surviving soldier immediately rallied around it in a tight defensive ring.
Kai understood instantly. "...Its strength comes from command."
"Break the commander," Elden said. "Break the army."
The battle erupted in full. Kai kept constant pressure on the Marshal directly. Raze tore through reinforcements before they could regroup around it. Elden trapped entire formations inside gravity fields, pinning them in place while Kai and Raze worked.
Every time the Marshal tried to reorganize its forces, another section of its army disappeared under the combined pressure. Its aura started weakening. The command network binding the whole army together began fracturing.
The Marshal roared, finally abandoning defense entirely. Tower shield raised high, warhammer glowing with stored power, it charged straight at Raze.
He met it head-on.
The collision shook the entire fortress.
BOOOOOOOOM!!
Neither of them budged.
Kai Air Stepped upward while they were locked in place, Tempest Fang shattering the Marshal’s shield outright. Rootbreaker crushed one shoulder joint. Bloodthorn pinned the opposite arm in place.
The Marshal staggered.
Elden raised his staff. "...Now."
Gravity multiplied instantly beneath the boss, its footing vanishing entirely. Kai switched to Null Fang mid-fall, black light flashing across the blade.
One clean slash.
Silence.
A crack spread across the Marshal’s entire body, and then it exploded outward into thousands of stone fragments. The remaining Iron Legion soldiers froze in place all at once, then crumbled into lifeless rubble one after another.
The Great Fortress fell completely silent.
Blue light spread through the keep a moment later.
[Dungeon Cleared.]
[Boss Defeated.]
[Distortion Applied.]
[Reward Quality: Optimized.]
Rewards materialized across the throne room floor: Ancient Fortress Alloy, dense and heavy. Fortified Mana Steel, still humming faintly. Commander Crests, several of them. High-grade Enhancement Crystals. Guardian Armor Blueprints, carefully preserved despite the age of everything around them.
Kai knelt beside the pile.
Raze whistled. "...Not bad."
Elden studied one of the blueprints closely. "...These aren’t relics."
"They’re manufacturing designs," he said, looking over.
Kai raised an eyebrow. "...Meaning?"
"Any skilled blacksmith could reproduce simplified versions of this armor."
Raze laughed. "So we’re selling them?"
"Exactly," Kai said, gathering the rest by hand. "We don’t need everything here. But plenty of hunters back home do."
The Commander Crests could strengthen lower-ranked equipment across the board. The enhancement crystals would help newly awakened hunters improve their very first weapons. The armor blueprints would let local craftsmen produce better defensive gear at prices ordinary hunters could actually afford.
Kai smiled. "...The Hunter Market is going to love these."
The fortress started collapsing around them a moment later, walls cracking, watchtowers toppling, an ancient bell somewhere overhead ringing one final time before falling silent.
Kai pointed toward the exit. "Move!"
The three of them sprinted across collapsing bridges, Raze simply jumping through falling debris without breaking stride, Kai Air Stepping between crumbling walls, Elden calmly redirecting entire falling stone blocks away from their path with quick gravity adjustments.
They leaped through the gate just as the Great Fortress imploded behind them entirely.
CRAAAAASH!!
Outside, the dungeon gate trembled violently, cracks spreading across its surface before it shattered into thousands of scattering blue particles.
Several Association workers waiting nearby hurried over immediately, one of them staring at the pile of materials Kai had carried out. "...Those are incredible."
Kai handed several crates over without hesitation. "Put them on the Hunter Market."
The worker blinked. "...All of them?"
"Price them fairly," Kai said. "We’re trying to make the city stronger, not corner the market."
The Association staff exchanged excited looks before quickly carrying everything away toward the market district.
Raze watched them go. "...You know, a few months ago we’d have fought over those materials ourselves."
Kai smiled, already turning back toward the city. "...Now the city needs them more than we do."
Elden nodded quietly, falling into step beside them. "And every stronger hunter out there is one more person standing when Disaster finally arrives."