Atop the tower, Freddy swung a large ballista bolt around, pushing off a number of men who were trying to climb up, cracking skulls and shattering bones in the process.
The ballista bolt was pretty much just a large spear of pure metal. But Freddy was using it more like a big metal stick to whack the men whenever they popped up.
From the very moment he had stepped into the dungeon, he hadn't really spent any essence. He was fully topped up at exactly 199%. As it was, he was relying purely on his physical endurance to beat the second wave. Even that was more than enough.
Lucas cowered in the corner, curled up in a fetal position under the parapet with his hands covering his head.
He yelped as Freddy threw another tied-up man beside him. This was the fifth prisoner Freddy had taken.
Whoever had strangled the last member of the first wave had done so in a way that was quite difficult to spot. If it weren't for Freddy's exceptionally keen perception, he would have never noticed the relatively thin red line on the man's filthy neck.
Needless to say at that point, there was another person with them in the Fortress Dungeon. And given their actions, they weren't there to help out.
Freddy kept one eye open and listened closely to everything that was happening. There was a moment of respite as the charging men hesitated to keep climbing into the meat grinder, and Freddy used this opportunity to tie up the sixth prisoner, making absolutely sure that the third wave wouldn't be allowed to start.
Slowly but surely, the second wave was coming to an end. There were but a handful of men remaining, and they were no longer charging. They surrounded the tower Freddy had climbed upon and discussed how to attack. This was perfectly fine with Freddy. For all he cared, he hoped they never attacked at all, adding another layer of assurance that the third wave wouldn't arrive.
With the men pausing their attack, Freddy walked in a circle around the edge of the tower and carefully eyed every inch of the dungeon for signs of the hidden enemy.
He sensed nothing at all.
He was tempted to release Bloodshed and have it go check who was there, but he couldn't afford that risk.
Summoning Bloodshed through Blood Sacrifice was one thing. Even if it got destroyed, that was completely inconsequential.
But releasing Bloodshed from the shell was dangerous.
Spirits were not born equal in power. At all. The weakest spirits were only at the level of mid-tier two-stars, while the strongest could endanger even a peak three-star.
While Bloodshed was a very dangerous type of sentient ether construct, the unfortunate fact was that Freddy had taken it into his soul only briefly after it evolved into a spirit. Its combat power was above that of a regular peak two-star but definitely well below a competent three-star.
Given that Freddy didn't know who was in the dungeon with him, he was reluctant to send Bloodshed after them. While it was incredibly unlikely that this person was a three-star, there was always a chance that they could endanger or even destroy Bloodshed.
There was also a possibility that there was more than one person there with him.
Given the number of men he'd killed in the first two waves, he also had the choice of using Blood Sacrifice, but that would be almost pointless. The enemies he had slain were all mortals. Their blood essence was pathetically weak, and a Bloodshed summoned with so little power would only be able to fight at the level of a peak one-star. That would be nowhere near enough to reveal the hidden enemy.
This left Freddy in an awkward situation. All he could really do was wait for the dungeon run to be over.
But he felt that things wouldn't go so smoothly.
For a while, he simply walked in circles, keeping his guard up as he eyed every corner of the fortress for signs of movement.
Eventually, he felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't put a finger on it.
"The invaders!" he suddenly yelled as he listened in. They were completely quiet.
Freddy inched forward and peeked down the staircase. There was nobody inside the tower.
Suddenly, he heard a shout.
He whirled, only to spot a tentacle of darkness tightly wrapped around Lucas's throat. "Help... me...!" the boy barely eked out.
Without hesitation, Freddy leaped forward and grabbed the tentacle. It didn't take much strength to tear it apart and set Lucas free, but unfortunately, the attack had fulfilled its purpose. By the time he turned around, it was already too late.
There were a number of other tentacles, and they were in the middle of dragging the prisoners off the edge of the tower. He was far too slow to stop them.
"Son of a motherfucker!" Freddy shouted as he gritted his teeth.
Rumbling sounded in the distance, but Freddy ignored it as he looked all around the tower, only to find no signs of anyone present. There was definitely more than one person there, and given the dark-affinity abilities, they could only be members of the Umbra Clan.
Someone had put a bounty on my head, he realized. And Umbra had accepted the job.
The javelin flew like an arrow, and before the running man even realized what was happening, it struck him right in the side of his temple, crushing straight through his helmet and piercing through his skull. The force of the blow was enough to send the man tumbling like a ragdoll off the side of the battlements and down to the battlefield below.
"Yes!" he shouted with a satisfied grin. One down.
Freddy could only see three towers from inside the gate where he and Lucas were hiding. He heard the other two towers collapse outside his field of view.
The army had already surrounded the entire fortress, with several soldiers already climbing up on the battlements. That meant there was only one place the rest of the invaders could be hiding. There was no way they didn't know where he was. And they had already blown up one tower. The logical next thing to do would be to...
Freddy suddenly whirled and turned to face one of the walls next to the shadow barrier. A double-star Flowing Strike flew out. With near-perfect timing, his fist landed on the wall.
A deafening explosion sounded, shattering the stone and creating a large hole.
On the other side of a wall, a man who had been in the middle of planting an explosive tried to defend himself, but the flying shards struck him at point-blank, shattering several of his bones and sending him tumbling back.
Freddy stepped through the hole and turned towards the back of the gate. There, he spotted the rest of the enemies.
One more man and two women in full synthetic gear stood with explosives in their hands. Before they could react, Freddy threw a javelin, hitting one of the women right below her clavicle. She flew back, still alive, but not for long with such an injury.
The other two cursed and pulled out two shortswords, with the man rushing towards Freddy and the woman running around the other side of the wall, likely aiming for Lucas.
"Oh no you don't!" Freddy jumped back inside and pulled Lucas back, just in time to stop a shadowy tentacle from grabbing him by the neck and taking him hostage.
The two assassins pulled back, but Freddy couldn't just remain inside the gate. They could still try to blow him up. But charging outside was similarly dangerous.
"Lucas! Keep your shield up!" he shouted as he picked the boy up and charged outside.
"The defenders are there!" a general screamed from the battlements. "Archers, take aim!"
Freddy blocked the incoming arrows with his back as he looked for the assassins. They had been in the middle of planting more explosives, but with Freddy charging out, they rushed to hide from his javelins.
He was met with an absolutely absurd stalemate.
While archers kept pelting him from the battlements, Freddy ran in circles around the central tower, trying to get a good look at the assassins to kill them. But in response, the assassins kept running around in the other direction to hide from Freddy.
"Come on, you cowards!" he yelled angrily. "Stop playing Ring Around the Rosie and just fucking fight me!"
But this couldn't last much longer. The soldiers were already descending from the walls, and soon enough, they would all be surrounded. But this was good. Freddy had full confidence in his ability to face the army.
These stealth-focused assassins, on the other hand, stood no chance of survival if they were caught in this situation.
Just as Freddy was starting to feel confident, he slipped up. One of the assassins had hidden on the balcony, and as Freddy passed, the man leaped down and stabbed him in the back. The attack only barely pushed through the trenchcoat, his armor, and his tough skin, but that seemed to be enough. Through the very tip of the shortsword, Freddy felt an incomparably nasty energy invade his body.
It took the form of a leech-like parasite that crawled into the nearest blood vessel and snuck inside. Freddy whirled and punched out at the assassin, but the man pulled back, even leaving his sword behind.
"I got him!" the man shouted confidently.
"You got who, you—" Freddy's words caught in his throat as he realized what the man meant. The parasite quickly made its way through his circulatory system and, before long, made it right into his heart. As soon as it reached its target, it rapidly expanded. If it weren't for his ridiculous toughness, that would have completely torn his heart apart.
But even this was a critical hit. It tore a part of his heart, causing internal bleeding, and the violent sensation left him stunned—paralyzed, even.
At this moment, the soldiers were already all around them.
In the brief moment of weakness, a tentacle wrapped around Lucas and tore him out of Freddy's grip. The boy screamed, but the woman put a shortsword to his neck to shut him up. "Quickly, finish him!" the woman said.
The man rushed towards Freddy, aiming a sword right at his neck.
The sword stabbed into Freddy's throat, cutting one of his jugular veins and severing his windpipe. The man clearly thought this was it for Freddy.
He obviously didn't expect Freddy to grab him by the throat and snap his neck like a twig. The crunching sound echoed through the already noisy bailey, and Freddy whirled around, already in the middle of conjuring a Blood Javelin. He threw it at the woman, aiming straight for her head.
The projectile hit.
But not before her sword cut right through Lucas's throat.