Defiance of the Fall

Zac was steadily accruing wounds from his fight with the demon , as he wasn’t able to dodge his lightning-quick stabs . The best he could do was to avoid the sword hitting fatal spots by adjusting his body . Even worse , the general was one of the demons who used the black lightning attacks .

He used it far more freely compared to the first demon he had met . Every strike contained the biting sting of the arcs , and the lightning was actually slowly accumulating inside Zac’s body . His arm suddenly jerked from the shock , completely exposing his chest . The demon was prepared , and with a lunge stabbed his sword straight in Zac’s chest .

Lightning poured freely into his body , and Zac coughed up a mouthful of blood from the damage . He normally might have passed out from the pain but the lightning kept him awake . To make matters worse lava spikes erupted from the ground between Zac’s legs from a stomp of the Herald .

Surprisingly , the spikes shot toward the general , with the largest one aiming straight towards his exposed heart . It looked like the Herald had been waiting for an opportunity for a double knock-out . However , the general simply snorted and from nowhere all the spikes were cut into pieces . Hovering next to him was the sword that the demon had kept on his back throughout the battle .

It crackled with black lightning and seemed to have no problem with defying the laws of gravity . It hovered a few rounds around the general before it returned into the scabbard on his back on its own .

Abruptly the spike on the back of Zac’s axe head slammed into the temple of the Herald , instantly killing it . Zac had taken advantage of the brief pause in the Herald after its attack and used it to mount a surprise attack . Zac had consistently focused all his energy on attacking the general thus far , and the Herald had grown lax . He hadn’t actually planned on killing the Herald before the general , but he saw an opportunity and took it .

A huge surge of cosmic energy entered Zac’s body , and he felt himself gain another level . There was no time to go over it though , as the general renewed his attacks on him . Zac once again found himself at an impasse , steadily losing ground . The chest wound was creating trouble for him to breathe and move freely as well , and the fight turned even more one-sided . He wanted to somehow create an opportunity to flee , as he had accomplished all he needed for now . But the General would barely let him breathe , let alone leave the scene .

A tremendous amount of roaring erupted in the surroundings as well . The monkeys lost their minds upon seeing their leader fall and started madly swing at everything around them . In their madness they completely gave up on defense and started dropping with even faster speed compared to before . One after another the monkeys died , becoming food for the expanding fires . The flames hadn’t died out due to the death of the Herald , instead truly becoming a force of their own as they spread over the dried leaves and husks .

Zac desperately tried to swing faster and with more power to turn the tides , but the general felt like an impenetrable wall of deft blades . As he kept fighting and swapping back and forth between Chop] and the Dao , something suddenly clicked in his mind , and he once again summoned out the fractal blade .

This time it was different as it held a darker hue and emanated the aura of a lofty mountain . Even the fractals on the edge had grown denser , weaving another line of inscriptions along the edge . He finally managed to integrate his Dao with his skill , and the result wasn’t as simple as one plus one equals two . Something new was born out of the fusion .

With renewed vigor Zac roared and furiously swung his axe at the general , aiming to end it all with one strike . It was a huge overhead swing aimed at the demon’s head , and it carried the aura of a falling meteor .

The demon immediately sensed something was wrong but didn’t have time to dodge . Looking serious for the first time , the demon roared as the sword on his back flashed into his free hand , and he held up both his swords in the air in order to block the strike .

Just another sword wasn’t enough and the force slammed him down to his knees , the impact blowing any debris or bodies in the surroundings far away . The general tried to deflect the force , but the Chop of Heaviness was intractable as it pushed his blades down . A golden sheen flashed into existence around the demon , but it only held for a second before it cracked . The force in the strike contained everything Zac had learned and gained so far , and a flimsy armor inscription wouldn’t stop it .

An amulet around the neck of the demon started shining with a blinding light , and a silver shield winked into existence next . It looked like the shield of a celestial , as it shone with brilliant fractals as it met the oncoming axe .