Defiance of the Fall

The wounds from the ambush were somewhat healed by now , but a few wounds would likely reopen if he exerted too much force . But there still a couple of hours before he should see any action , and hopefully he would be in even better condition by then .

He set out again , and after some trial and error found a way out of the mountain . It wasn’t the same path as the one he had entered through . He didn’t want to dig through meters of fallen rocks , and besides it might be marked by the monkeys .

Instead , he found a tunnel that should end somewhere on the inner side of the peak , close to the entrance of the valley . It didn’t actually have a cave entrance , but a few holes in the rock let sunlight through . The wall was quite thin here , and with a few minutes of effort , he would be out .

The outside was completely quiet , so Zac decided to wait some more before emerging . As he waited he started chipping at the wall with a dagger , not completely breaking through but making a quick exit easier . Finally done he sat down and continued to recuperate . When the timer showed roughly two hours until the fruits ripened , a cacophony of roars broke the silence .

Zac heartbeat fretfully hammered in his chest as he opened his eyes and stood up . It was now or never .

Chapter 60 - Entering the Fray

Zac Immediately got ready , even though his wounds hadn’t completely healed . But between his high vitality and the numbing effects of the azure water , he was in an almost perfect fighting condition . With no more time to lose , he finally pushed down the rock wall that blocked the entrance while hefting an axe in his hand . It made quite a crash , but it was nothing compared to the roars of thousands of monkeys , with demon screams peppered in .

As soon as he got out he was stunned by the mayhem .

Zac had emerged from a secluded spot on top of an outcropping , giving him decent vantage over the peak and down toward the valley . Everywhere he looked he saw throngs of monkeys duking it out with legions of demons .

The air sparked with energy as fireballs and lightning bolts filled the sky , the ground rippled from a multitude of spears and other projectiles shooting out . Even nature itself had entered the fray as trees slowly reached down to grab unsuspecting monkeys , before ripping them apart .

The other beast types were here as well , as a thick wall of barghest stopped the monkeys from getting into melee range of the demons . They mindlessly charged toward the monkey groupings , completely heedless of their survival .

Groups of gwyllgi roamed the battlefield with far more finesse compared to the hulking demonlings . They roved in packs and struck weak spots or lone stragglers almost with surgical precision and then quickly got out of harm’s way .

There also was a smattering of imps placed together with the mage demons , but to Zac , it seemed that most of them still were in their underground dwellings , as their numbers were quite sparse . Perhaps Zac recently killing their boss had caused some sort of chaos to their ranks , making it hard for the demons to control them .

The monkeys wouldn’t be outdone though , and the air was filled with flying debris , from the stalactites from the monkey captains to anything that the normal monkeys could get their hands on . Zac even saw corpses being used as projectiles , flung at the magical barriers erected by the demon mages . The barghest that came close to the monkeys were largely helpless after their first impact and were pelted and bitten to death by the angry monkeys .

The magical shields held for the most part , but every now and then they got overtaxed and shattered . The monkey captains were quick on the uptake and focused their energies on those areas . The focused fire turned the unlucky few behind the broken shield a crushed meat paste beneath a mountain of boulders .

However , most of the projectiles didn’t reach the demons but rather slammed into the demon beasts who fulfilled their purpose of being meat shields .

Overall the demon’s clearly held the advantage , as they steadily pushed forward . For every demon the monkey horde killed , at least five monkeys died . It still was early in the battle though , and from experience , Zac felt that the demons would run out of juice sooner or later . Those spells cost cosmic energy , while the monkeys likely could keep hurling debris for a good while . As long as the monkeys could withstand their furious onslaught long enough they might have a chance to turn the situation around .

Besides , the terrain was not ideal for organized warfare that the demons were trying for . He saw that the orderly lines were starting to splinter , and the legions forced to split up as they advanced .

Zac didn’t know why it had come to a full-scale war , but he didn’t complain . This kind of chaos was the best news for him . He wondered if the monkey’s disadvantage was because of him . He had thinned out their horde quite a bit after all .