Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 57: Dressing up

Zac suddenly remembered hearing a snapping sound when he used the shield against the imp Herald. He had no idea how to fix the inscriptions and could only reluctantly put the armor into his bag. He didn’t want to risk damaging it further until he could fix it, as it had been a great life-saving tool so far.

He then brought out the headless body from his pouch. After a great deal of hesitation he stripped the bloody dress from the body, leaving the corpse only in its undergarments. He then put the dress on himself with a sour face before putting back the body into the pouch.

It wasn’t ideal, but the dress had the same inscription as his armor, and it could be the difference between life and death. The dress he put on was strapped was a neutral beige and reached down to his knees. The design was luckily armless and somewhat nondescript, making it almost look like an overly long tank top. He put his belt over the dress then turned his eyes to the pouches.

A creepy grin was slowly surfacing once again, as he grabbed the closest one of the three he looted and took a peek inside.

If this was an old school cartoon then Zac’s eyes would have turned into dollar-signs by now. The bag was almost filled to the brim with sack after sack of raw Nexus Crystals. If he had to guess he’d have to say there was at least an equivalent of 10 000 crystals in the pouch. The shapes and sizes were completely random as well, ranging from the size of a finger to almost a whole hand. Most of the crystals were encased in some stone and needed one last processing before being pure.

The second bag was unfortunately empty except a few solitary sacks, likely a spare in case the first one was filled up. The third one was the personal pouch belonging to the noble lady herself. It held various personal effects such as daily necessities, clothes, and jewelry. It also had a nasty-looking claw weapon with fractal inscriptions. Zac brought it out and tried to put it on his hand, but it seemed to have been custom made for the demoness, or at least made for ladies, as his hand didn’t fit.

Most noticeably in the pouch there was a sizeable mound of raw crystals. There even were a few sacks as well. It looked like that the lady foreman was skimming off the top after all, as crystals worth a couple of hundred standard-sized ones could be found in the pouch.

Satisfied with his haul he took out some food and water from his pouch to have his dinner. As he did he started to plan his next step. He had planned on stalking the tunnels for a while longer, but unfortunately, he was already exposed. He didn’t doubt that the fleeing demon soon would warn all his superiors about Zac. The demon had seen the whole fight where Zac showed many of his cards as well.

After half a month of living with the demons, he was finally exposed. It was better than he expected to be honest, as he wasn’t really the stealthy type. It seemed he could only begrudgingly give up on finding any more mining foremen, and instead refocus on the monkey king. It was time to head back the way he came from, and search for an alternative exit.

But suddenly Zac got an acute sense of danger, and instinctively dove to the side. A soundless black arrow flew past him where his head had just been and a throng earth spikes followed right after. Zac scrambled to his feet and found himself face to face with over twenty demons swarming into his cave from all exits.

This clearly was an ambush that they prepared for some time, as they entered from both exits simultaneously. Feeling like a caged animal, Zac growled and immediately ran toward one of the groups, trying to avoid a pincer attack.

As if practiced beforehand, the group started to back away from him, with all the mages erecting barriers to keep him at bay. There were the translucent magical barriers accompanied by earth walls and earthen spikes. There was even a tree mage who manipulated the subterranean vines to ensnare his feet.

Meanwhile, Zac got pelted by the other group of demons with an array of ranged attacks. He could only give up his charge in order to avoid most of it. As he dodged he turned around toward the attackers who harassed him from behind and swung his axe in a mighty horizontal arc.

A translucent blade grew to four meters long in an instant and then shot toward the surprised group. Only a few in the back managed to dodge in time, and the others could only hastily erect defenses.

With Zac’s power the defenses of the average demon were simply insufficient, as it tore through them one by one. The blade wasn’t perfectly stable though, and after slicing through 6 demons it flickered out of existence.

Two daggers came whooshing straight behind the huge blade, one slamming into an eye and the other into the gut of another demon. Satisfied, Zac turned back and started pressing forward through the defenses of the group.

He summoned his large edge but kept it at maximum stable capacity for now. As the attacks from behind had paused from his strike he could once again focus fully on the group he had initially charged at.

He slammed the axe down on one of the translucent barriers and it cracked like fragile glass. Two spears stabbed into him as he advanced, one lodging itself in his side and the other got stuck on the bone of his pelvis.

It was two warriors who used their long weapons trying to keep him at distance. Zac ripped one of the spears out of the hands of the demon, making him stumble forward, and slammed the butt of the spear at the other warrior. The spear broke in two and made the demon fly into the wall with a thud.

Immediately after he actually threw his axe straight in the chest of one of the mages. He didn’t know which kind he was, but he died instantly from the strike. He brought out his identical axe from his pouch and continued to press forward.

A few arrows slammed into his back, but only elicited a grunt in response as he pressed forward. He once again got the prickling sensation of danger and sidestepped without hesitation. An arrow flew straight past him and once again missed his head. Unfortunately, the archer that shot the super-powered black arrows still was alive.

He kept pushing forward, and with a great leap he was within the group of demons. He ate a spear strike and two stalactite attacks by the earth mages due to his reckless charge but now he was within striking distance of the demons. Zac started madly swing his axe, with [Chop] charged to its limit.

He kept taking various hits but for every strike he received, he returned one in kind. And with Zac’s far superior stats he whittled down the group to only 3 combatants from 9 in under 10 seconds. The survivors from the other group joined their brethren in the fight, and Zac found himself encircled by the 6 last surviving demons.

Zac was completely drenched in blood by now, both his own and the demon’s, and filled with small wounds from head to toe. Almost ten arrows were sticking out of his body at various spots, making him look like a demonic porcupine. He was panting and it looked like it was a chore to keep his axe raised, but he was still standing. Fighting twenty demons at once was a bit more than he could confidently handle, even in an enclosed space like this.

None of the demons were keen on being the first to attack, as over 15 demons already had made the ultimate sacrifice and they didn’t want to be next in line. They seemed to be content to simply watch as Zac slowly bled out.

They all kept a healthy distance from him, making him unable to reach them even with [Chop], and he currently didn’t dare use his ranged attack due to the huge consumption of energy.

Zac knew he couldn’t keep stalling and threw a dagger at one of the mages, who quickly summoned a barrier. The translucent wall shook when the dagger hit it, but it held true and the dagger dropped to the ground. Zac didn’t want to throw his axe as his other one still was lodged in the mage some distance away.

Needing to break the status quo, he moved his hand down to his belt, and with underhand throw hurled a large crystal sack at another demon. The demon slightly froze from seeing a small mountain of wealth flying in his direction, and even instinctually reached out his hand to catch it.

But how could a heavy sack thrown by Zac be so easy to catch? It hit the demon who crashed into the wall behind with a wet thud. He slumped down on the ground and didn’t move. The other five demons all charged at him as if by command, throwing desperate attacks at him.

With only 5 demons left Zac finally threw his axe at a mage keeping his distance. He hastily erected an earth wall, but the axe had the momentum of a meteor and passed the rising wall and blasted a hole through the mage before he could also activate his stone skin.

He took out one of his large swords out of his pouch and with a sweep slapped away two incoming spears. He then charged straight at the closest warrior. The warrior tried to keep Zac at bay with his spear, but Zac simply swung his sword at it with enough force that it broke the fingers of the warrior, and continued into melee range.

With a growl, he stabbed the great sword into the demon’s gut, and with a ferocious upwards tug ripped him in two, drenching the surroundings in a storm of blood. A second spear stabbed into his side, but it only added yet another shallow wound to the tally. The three remaining demons seemed to understand that they didn’t have the power to contend with him, and simultaneously started absorbing inordinate amounts of cosmic energy.

Zac didn’t want to see what a triple suicide explosion looked like, and desperately ran toward the closest target and decapitated him. He continued toward the next immediately, but as he approached a resounding explosion threw him ten meters away and straight into a wall.

Zac puked out a mouthful of blood, and his wounds only got worse. Just as he shakily got up to his knees his vision filled with a bloated demon falling down in front of him. It was the last living demoness, chock-full of cosmic energy. The demoness stared into Zac’s eyes as she shed one solitary tear before she blew up with a tremendous explosion.