Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 157: Wounded

he stone spear slammed into Zac’s hastily erected shield, and while it held true this time many cracks spread over the barrier, which was a testament to the power contained in the attack.

It seemed that Zac couldn’t rely too heavily on his gear in the future, as its efficacy was limited. He himself had broken through Rydel’s protective talisman with his final attack, and this was the second time he was almost killed from his own shield failing him

“We were treated as fodder, yet in the end it’s the Yrd who will reap the benefits,” the new attacker said with a deep and gravelly voice.

Zac was somberly looking at his new assailer, guessing it was the leader of the rock-men. Its appearance spelled very bad news. Zac was in no condition to fight another intense battle like the last one, even if the rockman wasn’t as strong as the Corpse Lord. Zac had overtaxed both his mind and his Cosmic Energy in his previous fight, and he was barely able to contain the festering wound in his side.

Still, there was nothing to do. He was unsure whether he would even be able to flee if he tried, as the rockman leader seemed to have some type of movement skill as well. But he wouldn’t give up until his last breath, and Zac wordlessly brought up his axe once again.

But before Zac had time to figure out a battle plan a beam of darkness went straight for the rockman, and Ogras appeared right next to him almost simultaneously. The demon touched his shoulder, and the last thing Zac saw before the shadows swallowed the two was the rockman slashing Ogras’ shadow spears to smithereens.

The two reappeared somewhere in the forest and Zac quickly scanned the vicinity for any enemy forces, and only relaxed when he noted they were alone. He was about to ask why they didn’t stay and fight, but before Zac could open his mouth the demon keeled over.

Zac finally took a good look at his companion and was shocked at what he saw. The demon was in even worse state than he was. Grisly wounds and burns covered multiple parts of his body, and everything from down from his left elbow was simply missing, leaving just a bloody stump.

Horrified Zac hurried toward Ogras and tried to help him up.

“Are you ok?” Zac asked with concern. “What the hell happened to you?”

“Stop staring, carry me back to the wall,” Ogras wheezed back, and Zac could comply as he picked him up and started running, the pain in his side almost making him pass out.

The wound in Zac’s gut burned like someone was groping around in there with a hot poker, but he could only bear with it for now. He already tried eating one of his best healing pills, but it virtually did nothing for him.

He would need to consult the physician when he was back. He couldn’t ask the demon about it either as it looked like Ogras was barely conscious at the moment.

Zac was having trouble staying awake as well, but he stubbornly pushed forward one step at the time. His vision was closing in on him, but he refused to topple over. Finally the forest gave way to the prepared battlefield, and the sight of the ruined wall entered his eyes.

Zac summoned strength from god knows where and resumed his run toward safety. Each step was a challenge, and he almost fell into a few of the crude pits, but eventually he reached the wall, only to see the demon soldiers nervously waiting.

Fearful and despondent eyes looked at the pathetic figures of Zac and Ogras made, clearly feeling that all hope was lost. The two didn’t look like heroes making a triumphant return, but rather like the vanquished returning in defeat.

“What’s with those faces? Lord Zac prevailed over the Corpse Lord Noble, and the undead are going feral as we speak, attacking friend and foe alike,” Ogras roused and shouted with a powerful voice, and took out a lizardman head out of his pouch.

“The leader of those fucking cultists didn’t prove a match against a true demonic warrior either,” the demon continued and threw away the head, its arc drawing mesmerized looks.

“Their leaders are dead, their lines are in disarray. We won! It’s time to reap some contribution points.”

“Take your positions!” Zac followed up with a roar, and the demons and other squads others formed proper lines along the broken wall with newfound vigor.

Joanna and two other Valkyries came rushing toward Zac, who slumped down on the ground behind the newly formed lines.

“Are you really ok?” she worriedly asked, but was soon pushed out of the way by Alea who went down on her knees next to him and checked his wound.

“Your wound is filled with highly concentrated miasma, you need to get rid of it or it will spread,” she said with a low voice, careful not to let anyone else hear.

“I tried eating a healing pill, didn’t work,” Zac tiredly muttered as he took out a few normal Nexus Crystals.

“I know you have some sort of nature Dao, use that as well for now,” she said with a sigh.

Zac opened his eyes and properly looked at the poison mistress. She was in bad shape as well, with many bloodied spots on her dress. He looked around and saw Mr. Trang stand close-by with one of the huge sniper rifles on his back. He had a somber expression Zac had never seen before, and he warily gazed at Alea next to him.

Alea followed Zacʼs gaze and sighed.

“We attacked the cultists, things got out of hand. Ogras saved us and stayed behind to fight. It seems he won. We’ll explain it later, recover for now,” Alea quickly recapped.

Zac knew there were things that were missing from that explanation, judging from how Alea and Sap looked, not mentioning Ogras himself. But for now he could only focus on recovery.

Actually he hadn’t dared ask Ogras what happened with the Church while they fled back toward the wall, afraid of the answer. But it seemed Ogras had actually fought to the point he lost a limb in order to not only distract, but destroy, the cultists.

Zac described the appearance of the leader of the rockmen detail in case he would try something again, then closed his eyes and resumed absorbing the Nexus Crystals. He wished he could follow the advice of Alea and also use the Dao of Trees, but his head felt like he had a concussion, and he was afraid he’d pass out if he actually tried to use a Dao at the moment.

Zac instead fully focused on recovering his Cosmic Energy, but only after ten minutes a multitude of roars interrupted him. He quickly glanced over and saw it was a sea of undead who were rushing toward their army.

“I killed most of the strong ones, but wake me up if you start getting problems handling it,” Zac said to Alea who was still standing by his side.

“Don’t look down on us demons. While we might not be monsters like you, we’re no weaklings. Just rest up and let us and the little spear-kittens you are training solve this. Oh, and the insect people seem particularly motivated,” Alea said with a slight smile.

Zac couldn’t help looking over at the small Zhix contingent, and saw they were visibly irate.

“Unholy things. Abominations,” Ibtep said and angry clacking spread amongst his kind.

Zac shook his head and kept focusing on his recovery. His headache had subsided somewhat by now, but he still didn’t dare use his Dao, and his wound kept hurting like hell.

Soon the army clashed with the Zombie horde, and Zac kept surveying the battle from a part of the wall that was still halfway standing. It seemed that neither the cultists or the rock people were present, and Zac could only pray it was due to them having their hands full with their own undead hordes.

For now his army was doing fine, and the unrelenting waves of undead served mostly as fodder. There were some Aberrations and Corpse Golems left but they either were dealt with by groups of Demon Soldiers who whittled them down, or sometimes a lightning bolt from the ballistae ended them.

Even the contingents of Valkyries and Zhix could fight in hand to hand combat, though their combat tactics were quite different. The former slaves used large shields as roadblocks as they methodically stabbed the zombies with their spears, felling them one after another.

The Zhix were far more aggressive, bisecting the Zombies one by one, and simply shrugging off the occasional swipe from them. Still, there was some sort of unspoken coordination between the insectoid warriors, as any time one of them risked to be seriously injured a spear or a knife suddenly arrived from someone else to neutralize the threat. There was some sort of order to the apparent chaos, but Zac couldn’t figure it out.

Almost an hour passed, and there was still no sign of the stronger forces, and Zac was starting to get worried that they were up to something. A sudden movement to his left made him look over, and he saw a pale-faced Ogras get to his feet, a thick clump of shadows covering the stump on his left arm.

“What are you doing? Sit down and rest,” Zac said with raised brows. “They are doing fine.”

“I just lost an arm, no big deal. I’ll regrow it later. I am mostly restored apart from that, and I don’t need the hand to use my skills,” the demon answered with a shrug.

Zac knew the demon was lying, but Zac wouldn’t stop him. He knew the personality of the demon. Ogras was selfish, careful and calculating, but he’d actually fought to the point he lost an appendage and almost died for Port Atwood. Zac knew it wasn’t as easy to regrow the limbs as the demon let on. It was certainly possible, but the pills were quite rare and expensive.

Besides, even after having regrown the limb it took time and effort to redraw the pathways and retrain the limb. Losing an arm was no small matter for a warrior, and it would take years to get back on track.

“Don’t overextend yourself. The last leader is out there somewhere, he’s unharmed and there’s no way these Zombies can kill him,” Zac said with a tired voice.

Ogras only nodded before shadows gathered around him, and he disappeared.

The battle raged on and it was as though the undead were unending. The Valkyries had been forced to back away, as they were starting to make mistakes due to being completely wrung out. However, Zac knew that each one of them had gained a significant amount of Cosmic Energy from the intense bout. He had killed a couple of zombies before, and he knew they gave a few hundred Nexus Coins each.

The Zhix warriors lasted a while longer, though they eventually had to reluctantly back away as well, leaving only the battle-hardened demons to defend the long stretch of ruined wall. They couldn’t clump together, as that would allow the zombie horde to pass them by and go after the numerous civilians who still were in the town.

A lot of demon craftsmen and other non-combat classes were also helping out, constantly building temporary fortifications along the destroyed wall in order to shorten the distance the defenders had to cover. They used everything from chopped down trees to random boulders.

It didn’t look pretty, but it worked well enough as long as it was tall and sturdy. They were up against braindead zombies, and almost anything sufficed.

Zac looked over his army, seeing that almost no one was unharmed after the unrelenting battle. Zac was quite happy that the Zombies in the multi-verse weren’t quite like those in the movies. A bite from a zombie didn’t turn you into one.

The wound would likely get infected, as the zombies were crawling with all kinds of bacteria, but that was about it. One had to actually die first to turn into a zombie, where miasma entering the corpse caused the transformation. That’s why there also was no cure, since even if one cured the zombification, the cured patient would still only be a corpse.

There was some scuffling next to him and Zac looked over to see a bandaged Janos stand there, silent as usual.

“I heard a bit about your feats with the Zealots, great job,” Zac said.

“Hm,” Janos only answered with a slight nod.

Zac didn’t mind, as he was too tired to keep up a conversation in any case. He kept rotating between silently meditating with his eyes closed, and occasionally overseeing the battlefield. However, as he once again was about to close his eyes a terrifying sense of danger erupted in his mind, and his eyes opened up wide.

He looked around but only saw the taciturn illusionist still standing next to him. However, in his hand was a slender sword Zac had never seen before, and it was moving straight at him.

Zac could only helplessly watch the as the blade plunged into his chest.