Chapter 73: Defeating the Monster Again

Chapter 73: Defeating the Monster AgainThe silence that followed the explosion was deceptive. Inigo stood atop the M777 howitzer, his heart hammering in his chest, smoke still curling from the cannon’s barrel. Around him, the cave was scorched black. The crater where the demon had stood glowed with residual heat. Wheeler stood nearby, quiet for the first time, its twin barrels lowered as if it too believed it was over. Lyra managed a shaky breath. "Did we win?" "No, we didn’t just yet," Inigo replied, he could say for sure as he knew when enemies would be killed. It will be flashed from his system. Then the earth rumbled. A tremor, deeper than before, pulsed through the stone floor. Elira stirred from where she lay against the wall, her bruised eyes widening. Serina gripped her staff weakly. Wheeler’s sensors twitched, red lights flashing again. "No..." Serina whispered. "It can’t be..." The crater erupted. A molten claw burst from the rubble, followed by a snarling roar so deep it shook the very bones in their bodies. Obsidian muscle and glowing runes reknit themselves. Fire leaked like blood from fractured armor. The beast rose again—reformed, enraged, and worse than before. It towered taller now, its horns longer, its form more twisted by the magic that tethered it to the dungeon’s corrupted heart. "You’ve got to be kidding me," Inigo breathed. "That killed anything else ten times over." Serina’s voice shook. "I told you—it’s bound to the dungeon. The core keeps resurrecting it. Until we sever that link..." Inigo gritted his teeth. He pulled open the Freedom OS interface in his mind, sweat beading on his temple. "Fine. If the last shot was a warning..." He navigated the shop menu, filtering through weapons, his fingers moving with grim precision. [RPG-7 Ordnance – High Explosive Anti-Tank Shell] Cost: 300 Tokens Purchase Confirmed. [M777 155mm Towed Howitzer – Reload: 1x HE Round] Cost: 700 Tokens Purchase Confirmed. A thrum of light behind him marked the arrival of both—a rocket shell glowing faintly orange and a fresh artillery round clunking into the pre-loaded tray beside the howitzer. He grabbed the RPG-7 from his back, slammed the shell into the launcher with a click, and hissed under his breath. "Wheeler, cover me." The drone whirred to life, turrets spinning up again. Smoke pods deployed, bathing the cavern in thick cover as the demon shrieked and slammed its blade into the ground. The blast sent shockwaves through the mist. Inigo ran. He moved like a shadow, weaving through broken pillars and scorched stone. The RPG felt like a steel spear in his grip. The smoke cleared just enough to see the demon’s burning eye. He fired. FWOOOOOSH! The rocket streaked through the air—spinning—then slammed into the creature’s exposed abdomen with a flash of heat and steel. The demon screamed. One of its legs buckled, and it sank to a knee. Armor cracked open. Runes sputtered. Its grip on its molten blade loosened. Inigo didn’t stop. He turned, sprinted for the M777. Behind him, the demon began to rise again. "Hell no you don’t." He jumped onto the cannon’s platform and jammed the HE shell into the breech. He spun the barrel, aligning it with terrifying precision—directly into the glowing rupture left by the RPG. "Say goodbye," he growled. He yanked the cord. BOOOOOOOOOOOM! The cavern lit up as if a star had detonated. A shockwave blasted outward, flattening everything within thirty meters. The heat from the point-blank explosion ignited stone, and molten slag rained across the walls. The air turned white-hot and deafening, drowning even the demon’s final scream. Then silence. Real silence. No growl. No regeneration. No magic. When the smoke cleared, there was no body. Just a crater—twice as large as before—scorched black and glassy at the edges. The air smelled of ozone and sulfur. The fused runes that had once lit the walls with infernal glow were now cold. The sword had melted into two broken lumps of metal. A prompt appeared before Inigo’s eyes: [Dungeon Cleared – Core Severed – Boss Defeated] [Tokens Received – 10,000 tokens] Inigo dropped to his knees, his lungs heaving. His hands trembled as he slowly stood and turned back to his team. Lyra had pushed herself up against the wall, wide-eyed. "Is... is it finally dead?" He nodded once. "It’s dead." Searᴄh the NôᴠelFirё.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Serina let out a sob—not of grief, but of sheer exhaustion and relief. Elira, though bruised and battered, managed to smile faintly. "That’s... the craziest thing I’ve ever seen." "Yeah." Inigo patted Wheeler, which had powered down again beside the crater. "But it worked." The walk back was slow. They moved as one, supporting each other, navigating the now-quiet tunnels of the dungeon. There were no more enemies. No traps. The halls felt abandoned now, the way they were before the core was corrupted. At the dungeon’s entrance, a team of guild scouts was waiting—eyes wide in disbelief as Inigo and his party emerged from the depths, smoke-covered, wounded, but alive. "Inigo?" one of them asked. He gave a tired nod. "You cleared it? The minotaur?" "I did," Inigo confirmed. "It wasn’t easy thought." At the guildhall later that night, Guildmaster Thorne leaned forward across his desk, staring at the crater report. "You fought a demonic minotaur fused to the dungeon core... and this man right here was the one responsible for its demise?" Inigo, now cleaned and bandaged, sat with a tired smirk. "Yes I did, but it wasn’t a single effort. My party members helped me defeat that thing." Thorne exhaled and chuckled. "You’re either the luckiest bastard I’ve ever seen... or the craziest. Either way, the dungeon’s clear, and that thing won’t be coming back. We will process your rewards later. Anyways, drink on me." From behind him, Lyra grinned. "I’ll take it." Elira groaned. "I’ll take sleep." Serina leaned against the wall, still pale but smiling. "Let’s just be thankful we’re all still alive." Inigo nodded, the weight of the last fight still lingering in his bones. It was one hell of an encounter.