Defiance of the Fall

But he was shocked as no golden sheen enveloped him , and he could only desperately lift his arm to block the strike . The blade cut into his lower arm , only stopping after carving into bone . The pain was blinding but only served to enraged Zac . With a furious Chop] the blade wielder was bisected , and then the two demons on the ground followed him into death .

He turned toward the last bodyguard only to see him desperately fleeing , heedlessly throwing away his weapon . Zac started running after him , throwing a few daggers his way . But the bodyguard was surprisingly nimble , managing to dodge most of them while running . One hit him in his back , but he only staggered slightly but kept moving .

Suddenly he started shouting at the top of his lungs , horrifying Zac . He threw one more dagger at him , but the demon turned a corner and disappeared from his vision . He could still hear the screams though , as they echoed through the tunnel system .

Zac hesitated a second , but then ran back toward the killed demons . With a furious speed he grabbed the pouches on the lady’s belt , then threw her headless body into one of them . He then ran away in the opposite direction from where the screaming bodyguard was fleeing toward .

After a minute he stopped and quickly bandaged his wounded arm . It was bleeding freely and was currently creating a trail to his location . After making sure the blood didn’t get through the bandages and rags he started running again . After he had run for an hour and completely left the area with mining activities or imps he finally slowed down and found a good resting spot .

The fight wasn’t very taxing , but he was worried about the results . First he dragged his chest piece off his torso and inspected it . The armor itself looked whole , but the inscribed fractal on the front had multiple cracks on it . That should explain why the shield didn’t materialize earlier and he got maimed instead . But a smile crept on his face as he glanced down at his belt . He knew he would be able to afford to buy a new one with his ill-gotten gains .

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 .