Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 200: Star Ox

After taking a look at the swollen face of Average for a few seconds Zac let go of his opponentʼs leg and slowly got to his feet.

“So the ox is mine, right? No interference?” Zac said after spitting out a mouthful of blood and cracking his neck.

It felt like every part of his body was swollen and pulsating, but he had work to do. He simply took out a healing pill and swallowed it to manage the pain.

“I’ve been called many things in my life. Handsome, generous, dashing. But never a liar,” Average said as he got to his feet as well. “Besides, we have hundreds of Star Oxen back in one of our Mystic Realms, what do I care about this one?”

“Then why the hell did you make this such a pain in the ass for me?” Zac angrily said.

“Dad told me to find and kill this one, and if I did it he’d consider letting me change my name,” the youth admitted, looking a bit embarrassed.

“Your name is actually Average? I thought it was some method you used to block your real name,” Zac said, not being able to stop a snort.

Average glared at Zac for a bit before he deflated.

“It’s my crazy dad. He said he wanted to see if a bad name would spur a child to improve faster. ‘Greatness through embarrassment’ he called it. More importantly, do you truly not know who I am?” he said, a bit curious.

“No idea. I’ll go kill that bull now, just stay out of the way,” Zac said.

“See if I care when it stabs you in the ass,” the teenager muttered, but followed Zac’s word and sat down after eating a pill.

Zac only shook his head and headed toward where the beast slunk away. While he knew he wasn’t the best discerner of people, he felt that Average wasn’t lying. He wouldn’t likely interfere in the fight. Of course, Zac would still keep an eye open just in case.

It didn’t take long for Zac to find it, as it was currently dismantling the wall on the opposite side of the town. Large pieces of rocks were flying as it pierced the wall over and over, the rocks seeming like butter to the large horn.

Its senses were quite sharp, and it somehow noticed Zac’s approach from behind almost immediately. As though it felt pushed against a corner the ox bellowed and stomped the ground threateningly, its feet causing small earthquakes in the ground. Zac warily looked the beast over, not in a rush to make a move.

He had a feeling there was something special about the animal. He’d already killed an E-Ranked beast before, and that was when he was far weaker compared to now. Of course, that had been a desperate battle, but still, he didn’t think this would be a walk in the park.

But just looking at the beast didn’t tell him anything, apart from reinforcing the notion that something likely was up with the horn that crackled with wild energies. He summoned a large edge with [Chop], and the next moment disappeared.

Immediately after he appeared beneath its torso, the edge soaring up toward its stomach. Zac had already imbued his strike with the Dao of Sharpness. It was this very combination that had cleaved the Fiend Wolf in two, and it was a good measure to test the bison.

The edge slammed into the thick hide, but Zac was disappointed to find that apart from a few long strands of fur being cut, there seemed to be no effect from the swing. It didn’t even manage to penetrate the skin.

It wasn’t that the beast had an impenetrable skin, but rather it felt like there was a strong energy blocking the edge to cut through. Zac couldn’t be sure, but he guessed that the Dao of Hardness should have properties that worked a bit like this.

The beast angrily roared, and it appeared it felt truly afraid as torrential amounts of Cosmic Energy whirled about. It was planning something big, and Zac wasn’t sure what he should do, so for now he kept swinging. He tried to hit various body parts with his edge, this time after swapping over to the Dao of Heaviness.

The kick of Average seemed to have had an effect, so he instead went with blunt force damage. He focused on the joints of the beast, trying to immobilize it, but he simply wasn’t able to breach its defenses with [Chop].

Suddenly a sense of danger enveloped him, and he quickly backed away from the beast with his movement skill, only to see the bison simply plop down on the ground, causing the ground to shake. It felt like a weird decision for the beast, but admittedly it managed to force Zac away.

However, the next moment Zac’s brows rose as the horn started to shine with blinding light as it was leveled toward him. Acute danger flooded Zac’s mind as he quickly scampered out of the way, pushing his movement skill to the limit.

The next moment a blazing pillar of light ripped through the position where he just was, like a prismatic laser that destroyed anything in its path. The attack was instantaneous, and if it wasn’t for his high Luck he would have been turned into motes of light by now. Zac couldn’t even see where the beam ended, as everything it hit was completely disintegrated as far as he could see.

Zac’s brows rose in alarm, finally realizing why the cosmic energy had surged so much earlier. He really didn’t want to let it fire another of those devastating attacks, as he held no delusions that heʼd walk away from one of those beams. This time he was able to get out of the way in time, but there was no telling if it could move the beam as well.

But just as Zac was about to charge toward the bison once more it was surrounded by large motes of multicolored lights, floating about all around it. Zac frowned and took out a stone from his pouch, immediately throwing it at one of them.

An intense explosion erupted from the light, containing enough force to throw Zac on his back even in the distance. His cracked ribs, courtesy of Average, made themselves reminded, as he slammed down on the ground.

The mote of light exploding wasn’t the end of it. It also caused a cascading effect amongst the neighboring stars, causing a concussive explosion blanketing a whole area. Even if he managed to avoid the first blast somehow in melee range, the other ones would have surely hit him.

Zac quickly crawled up on his feet again and spat out some gravel from his mouth as he surveyed the scene. The bison was a real cheat. It had essentially set itself up like a cannon, repositioning itself as Zac tried to move around it. Furthermore, to avoid being assaulted it summoned moving mines all around it, each containing enough force to hurt him.

Even worse it looked like the animal was able to control the motes, meaning he couldn’t simply dodge them, as they would follow him anyway. As soon as the area calmed down some of the remaining motes quickly drifted over, along with a few new ones appearing in short order. It took less than 5 seconds before the minefield had once again been reinforced.

The only good news was that it still hadn’t fired off a second shot from its horn, meaning it likely took a while to charge up to its full effect.

Zac didn’t relish the thought of pulling out his aces at the moment, as Average was still around. Zac honestly didn’t believe that the teenager would do something at this junction, but he didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks.

But something needed to be done, as the horn was gaining brightness at a steady pace. He looked down on his forearm and steadied his breath. The Cosmic Energy in the area surged as Zac activated his newly acquired skill, [Hatchetman’s Rage].

Boundless power coursed through his veins, and he had to suppress an urge to simply charge at the beast waving his axe like a madman. He felt like an agent of destruction but he forcefully steadied his mind and started to pour torrential amounts of it into his forearm, starting the charge of his own ace.

However, that wasn’t all, since he also summoned five enormous blades with [Chop], each almost ten meters long. As soon as the charge was almost done Zac let loose a roar and released one fractal blade after another at the minefield the beast had created.

The world turned white from hundreds of explosions going off in quick succession. This time Zac was ready and dug his heels in and summoned [Nature’s Barrier] to withstand the shockwaves.

He was almost blinded by the cascading explosions, with lights swimming in his vision. A loud ringing rang in his ears as well, and it felt like he was under the effect of a flashbang grenade. However, he had accomplished his task, so he pushed forward his hand with a growl.

Reality cracked and the hand emerged, empowered by the Dao of Trees. A few things were different about it this time. First of all, it emitted a much stronger aura than before, and Zac attributed it to the increase in stats from [Hatchetman’s Rage].

But more interestingly the wooden arm contained red shining veins that coursed through the whole thing. It looked a bit sinister, but Zac didn’t have time to analyze it as he commanded the hand forward toward the sitting bison.

A few motes were spawned in the path of the hand and exploded on impact. Luckily, the hand was imbued with the Dao of Trees, and only some scorch marks remained after the hit. It might have been a different story if tens of the motes detonated on it, but Zac had already cleared most of them out.

However, Zac didn’t feel relieved as his danger sense kept building as the horn of the bison was nearing the same level of blinding brightness as when it fired its last shot. This time it was quickly swiveling its head back and forth in the direction of Zac, likely aiming to destroy a wider area.

Time was running out and Zac did the only thing he could think of. The huge wooden hand closed the last distance and gripped the huge horn. Searing heat was transferred from the wooden hand to Zac’s, but the feeling was nothing new to him.

Zac aimed to push its head to the side to avoid the incoming laser, but he had underestimated the power of his skill. An extremely loud snap echoed through the area, followed by a high-pitched screech as the horn was broken off.

Zac was shocked, but wouldn’t let the opportunity pass as there still was some time left on his skill before it ran out of steam. He pivoted the hand and with all the remaining force he could muster he drove the huge horn straight into the body of the bison.

A huge fountain of blood shot straight up in the sky as the animal essentially was impaled into its ground from its own body part. It let out a last desolate bellow before it stopped moving forever, its death infusing Zac with a huge amount of cosmic energy, bringing him clean to level 61.

The remaining floating mines in the vicinity soon disappeared, turning into a dense amount of cosmic energy that spread through the town. It allowed Zac clear passage as he slowly walked over to the corpse, the adrenaline from the fight quickly turning to tiredness all over.

The axe in his hand started to gleefully vibrate as he got next to the bison, and Zac dutifully placed its edge at the still bleeding wound of the animal. A good deal of blood entered the axe, and Zac almost thought that he could hear a happy purr from inside it.

Not long after the effects of [Hatchetman’s Rage] ended, and he was overcome with a wave of tiredness. Between his two fights and using both his aces he just wanted to curl up and sleep, but he wouldn’t lose his battle-readiness until he felt he was in a safe place.

“Wow, that was pretty crazy,” a voice came from behind, making Zac straighten his back and turn around, hoping that his weakness couldn’t be discerned.

It was unsurprisingly Average, who likely had spectated the battle from somewhere closeby. The fact that he had stayed away from the battle from start to end somewhat proved to Zac that the youth might be a bit spoiled, but he was true to his word. There was a moment of opportunity to steal the kill after the animal was impaled, but Average didnʼt take it.

He also couldn’t sense any danger, so Zac didn’t mind him approaching.

“I didn’t expect it to have such strong attacks, so I might have gone a bit overboard,” Zac said as ripped out the huge horn from the bison and put it in a pouch.

“Star Ox are pretty well known for their star beam. Ahh, Iʼm so unlucky! If you didnʼt get lucky and caught my leg, I would have been the one to rip the horn off and stab the animal,” Average said with a sigh as he prodded the corpse of the Star Ox.

“Luck had nothing to do with it,” Zac said with a shrug as he stored away the beast carcass as well. “In 100 sparring duels you would probably defeat me in most of them, but in a real battle, I would always be the one to walk away. You lack life-and-death experience.”

Average frowned and looked like he was about to argue with him, but was interrupted before he could start anything.

“Haha, well spoken, brat!” a rough and extremely loud voice suddenly echoed through the town, making Zac warily look in all directions.

The fact that someone else was in the town without either of the two of them noticing wasn’t a great sign, giving Zac a sinking feeling.

That feeling only amplified when he noticed the abject horror on Average’s face.