Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 108: Fighting the Royals

Zac frantically lifted his axe to meet the incoming swing, and with tremendous power the two weapons clashed. Since Zac was airborne he had no real force behind the swing and was ruthlessly slammed into the ground, creating a small crater and ruining any tubing that covered the area.

Zac spat out some blood but quickly scrambled to his feet even though he felt like every bone in his body broke from the impact. Another swing was already upon him, but this time he dodged with his movement skill and moved under large guard. He didn’t hold back and infused a [Chop] with the seed of Sharpness, aiming to tear a large gash all along its belly.

The mantis’ speed wasn’t a joke though, as it almost teleported away from the swing. But the velocity of Zac’s swing wasn’t anything to scoff at either, and with a roar one of the insect’s legs was lopped off, causing a torrent of green blood to pour out from the guard. It screeched in anger and backed away a few steps, using one of its sword arms as a crutch to keep itself stable.

The brief respite let Zac take a glance around. The huge tank-looking thing was still occupied by the combined distraction of Alea and Janos, and Ogras was fighting the fourth herald that truly looked a bit like a spider, apart from its head that reminded him of a Vomitor.

But instead of acid, small pitch-black ants were pouring out of its mouth, looking absolutely horrifying. Tens of lances were erupting out from the shadows between the tubes on the ground to stab the spider-looking guard and its spawn, but the small things seemed almost endless.

The guard was also conjuring netting toward Ogras, but the nimble demon was deftly dodging any attempt to catch him. Zac felt that Ogras could handle himself for now, which left two of the guards for him. Before he could decide which one to attack next he realized that they were trapped inside.

The tunnels with the tubes were all closed, not even providing enough space for at hand to push through. Blood was streaming out of the exit they used earlier, and Zac realized that Herod was crushed to death. The only upside to the situation was that it hopefully meant that they wouldn’t have to handle a horde of small ants as well.

Two elite warriors of his demon army were dead in under an hour, and Zac was reminded of the harsh reality of this new world. Not even powerhouses were safe. A quick glance at the mantis showed that it still was a bit distracted from its missing leg, and its lethality was likely impacted. It clearly was focused on speed and offense, but missing a leg would take away much of the danger.

Zac’s eyes turned to the final guard and saw that its eyes were glowing again. He didn’t know what kind of skill it used to hit him last time, but it hurt quite bad and he was in no mood to take another one of those shockwaves. Besides, if it hit Alea of Janos he wasn’t sure whether they’d be able to keep fighting.

He unhesitantly charged up a [Chop] and infused it with the Dao of Sharpness as well, giving the fractal blade a silver sheen. Without any break he sent the five-meter edge right toward the main eye of the large-headed royal guard. But as the edged ripped through the air it suddenly changed color and turned into the normal pale blue.

At the same time Zac felt a heavy atmosphere descend upon the cave, like another type of mental pressure. It was as though he had lost one of his senses, but not one of the normal five. The fractal blade kept moving toward the large eye through, but the eyes blazed into light for an instant, and the attack was smashed into smithereens.

Zac planned on sending a stream of blades toward the eye, but to his shock noticed that he wasn’t able to infuse the skill with his Dao anymore. The mental pressure was persistent, and it somehow blocked him from empowering his skills. He quickly looked around and saw that the core of the hive-queen was shining in a brighter light compared to before, emitting a huge amount of energy. It appeared the queen was somewhat sentient and helped her guards from the sidelines.

“My Dao is Blocked!” Alea shouted, telling Zac that he wasn’t the only one affected.

He grit his teeth and used [Loamwalker] toward the large-headed mage. He might not be able to use his Dao, but skills were still possible to use. He ran around the huge tank-monster who was wildly wailing its thick arms around, trying to hit whatever was blocking its sight. But Janos and Alea simply kept a safe distance, and mainly kept their eyes on the mantis and the eye-monster.

With his speed, he was upon the large-headed guard in no time and felt that he was almost physically punched by just the eye’s glare. He didn’t understand whether it was some sort of mental pressure or actual air-pressure, but no matter how he struggled he couldn’t move the last meter to reach it. As all the eyes stared at him he was even starting to get pushed away, no matter how much he strained his muscles.

Two huge spears slammed into the side of the large-headed guard, eliciting an enraged screech, even though they barely seemed to penetrate the hard shell. Many eyes quickly swiveled toward Ogras, and Zac temporarily felt the pressure disappear. He didn’t hesitate and with a roar pushed himself right onto the head of the beast, wildly swinging [Verun’s Bite] into the large central eye.

A quick glance toward Ogras showed that he was currently beset by both the mantis and the spider, and the attack on the large-headed one put him in dire straits. The mantis was swinging down one of its swords on him, and he was receding into the shadows to dodge. However, the blade somehow pulled him out from safety, and tore a large gash over his chest, blood freely pouring in all directions.

Zac wanted to help out, but he first needed to finish off this one. He took a deep breath and actually pushed himself into the large eye, frenziedly swinging his axe around. The ant was spasming and pushing all around, waves of energy flying in all directions. Zac didn’t let up though and kept hacking further into the head until a huge surge of cosmic energy told him his work was done.

He was completely covered in brain and eye goop by now but had no time to clean up. He rushed toward Ogras who was in big trouble at the moment. He was desperately dodging the nets from the spider and the sword swings from the mantis. There were also three small pitch-black ants latched onto his body, and he seemed to be trying to get them off.

Zac rushed toward the mantis and was about to commence an attack when a deluge of small spiders started skittling toward him.

“Don’t let them touch you!” Ogras wheezed out, but it was too late.

Two of them instantly latched onto Zac’s legs, and it felt like he suddenly was in a gravity array. The spiders were emanating a gravity field in some way, and their effect seemed to be stacking. He tried to rip them off while dodging the other small spiders who ran toward him, but it was to no avail. It was as though they were fused to his leg, and he was unable to remove them with force.

“They are stuck, I think we need to kill the spider to get them off!” Ogras shouted as another sword swing was descending on him.

The demon grit his teeth and a blue sheen enveloped him from a necklace. The sword smashed into the shield, and Zac almost tumbled away from the shockwave the strike created. Luckily it cleared most of the small spiders from the area, as they were blown away from the force. The blue force field was the type of shield that returned the force back to the attacker, as cracks appeared on the arm of the guard and it stumbled back from the recoil.

“Now!” Ogras shouted as shadows were starting to gather around him.

Zac activated his movement skill and sped toward the mantis. With the two spiders attached to his legs it felt like he was slogging through waist-deep water, but he could only endure and push through. He appeared next to the hurt mantis and started swinging towards the insect’s side with a [Chop].

The first swing was intercepted by the sword-arm of the mantis, but the huge force of Zac actually destroyed it. It was already cracked by the recoil of the shield, and Zac’s power did the rest. Now the mantis only had four legs remaining, and it was forced to choose whether to stand up or attack, as it needed to use its second sword to maintain balance.

It quickly made its choice as it swung its sword toward Zac while it was tipping over. The air was rippling with power from the swing, as it clearly pushed all its remaining energy into it. Shadowspears rose up to meet the falling body and pushed into its torso using the momentum to its advantage. It screeched frenziedly but completed the swing.

Initially Zac was intending to dodge it, but unknowingly another two spiders had attached themselves to him, making him almost keel over. The Dao was also still blocked, and he couldn’t use Seed of Trees to increase his resilience. He could only activate his armor, and a green shield enveloped him. The sword of the mantis slammed into the shield, and Zac was launched like a rocket into the wall.

However, just as he was readying himself for a follow-up he felt another stream of cosmic energy, this one quite a bit smaller compared to the last. It looked like Ogras took the main contribution from the kill. That left just the tank and the spider alive. Unfortunately, Janos and Alea were clearly struggling by this point, even though less than a minute had passed since the start of the fight. Alea was carrying a deathly pale Janos on her back as she dodged the huge monstrosity.

“Janos is out of cosmic energy, hurry!” the demoness shouted as she scrambled away from the ant.

Each slam from its huge arms created tremors in the ground as it tried to crush the two into meat-paste. It looked truly irate from being confused for a minute from illusions and hallucinogenic poison, only to wake up to two of the royal guards dead.

“We need to take out the spider first. If Alea gets a gravity ant on her both of them will die,” Ogras said, and Zac could only grit his teeth and agree.

The spider was clearly focusing on entrapment, spawning both the gravity-minions and shooting out waves and waves of thread that was starting to turn a large part of the cavern into a sticky trap. However, both of the offensive guards were dead, and its own lethality wasn’t too high unless it managed to stack enough spiders onto someone, simply crushing them from the weight.

When there were no more interruptions from the other guards Ogras had no trouble avoiding both the spiders and the sticky webs, and gracefully moved toward the large body of the guard. It screeched in alarm but the huge armored guard actually ignored it, intent on killing the two pests next to it.

Zac didn’t have the nimbleness of the demon and could only do a more simple approach. He launched a large blade that flew toward the head of the spider, ripping any webs or spiders into pieces that were in the way. The attack essentially created a path for him, and he quickly moved through the passage with his movement skill. It took less than ten seconds for the two to finish off the third royal guard.

Zac and Ogras were breathing heavily, but they couldn’t stop yet. Ogras was still bleeding from his wounds as well, but he somehow was reducing the blood loss with the help of shadows that tightly twisted around his torso. Zac’s whole body was hurting from being slammed by various attacks and shockwaves, but he still got on his feet with a sigh and started charging toward the fourth royal guard.

There was still one to go.