Defiance of the Fall

Every day new monsters would appear in the woods , likely summoned through the Incursion . More astonishingly , the demons killed each other far more than Zac killed them . He had lost count of the times that he had found a demon hunkered over a corpse of the same race , feasting on its carcass . There seemed to be simply no familiar affection between the demons . That Zac was responsible for a small part of the deaths seemingly went by completely unnoticed .

Finally he arrived at the area where he had spotted the Herald earlier . He immediately became more alert of his surroundings , not wanting to create a stir with his target so close . He soon found the target , and it wasn’t hard to notice .

The Herald was huge .

Vul , Level 45]

That was all the information that the Eye of Discernment] gave him . Either his mastery over the skill was too low to show more information , or the skill was simply too basic .

It at least showed that its level was over twenty levels higher than his . He did not know whether Vul was its name or its race . His skill hade only showed the race when fighting the random beasts in the forest , but here it also showed a level . The system somehow made a distinction between this herald and the other demons .

He was leaning towards the theory that Vul was a name , because the monster clearly looked a lot like a barghest . If a Barghest had been supercharged . Instead of three pairs of legs it had four , with the additional being positioned closer to the hind legs .

Does that mean that it’s a spider rather than an insect…’ Zac mused with a dark sense of humor while looking over the beast .

Vul was also far larger than its Barghest brethren . If a normal barghest could reach up to Zac’s chest with its head then this monster was a full head taller than him . It was even larger than a bear , and from its oversized muscles looked that the bear would rather be prey than a competitor .

Just like the normal demon dogs it had an oversized head with an abyssal maw , with three rows of sinister fangs lining it . With its size the monster could easily fit both Zac’s head and torso in its mouth for a quick bite . The paws which looked like talon had the same three long claws attached , but on Vul they were as long as small kitchen knives .

It seemed to be the alpha of the barghest pack , although it didn’t seem very interested in anything except lazing about and eating .

Zac had observed the monster from a distance a few times the last week , and had also realized that it not only was larger , but it was also a bit smarter . Certainly , it was still a meathead , but he had noticed some burgeoning intelligence from its actions . It luckily didn’t seem overly alert , as Zac had used the Eye of Discernment] on it without any reaction .

Perhaps only magically inclined beings such as the imps could actually notice being screened by the skill .

He knew his customary method of killing a demon dog would not work with this monster , it simply was too large a risk . He had gotten swiped almost countless times the last month , each time having a new wound to show for it . A similar swipe from this monstrosity could instantly end him if unlucky , and he was not ready to take that chance .

He slowly eased back into the vegetation after ascertaining the Herald’s position . Taking down a beast like this would take some strategy .

Zac slowly made his way a few hundred meters away where his final piece of the puzzle lay hidden . Luckily Vul mostly stayed in the same area except for when it went on patrols in random directions .

He finally reached his destination , a particularly lush bush that had a thick leafy crown that was roughly the same height as Zac himself . After glancing around he gingerly made his way into the bush .

Inside there were four trunks of trees , each roughly three meters long and almost as thick as his thigh . One end of the tree was sharpened into a point . They looked as if they were made to form a palisade , but the real purpose was monster hunting .

The spear he had used the first time he hunted broke on the first demon , so he had learned his lesson .

During his weeks of fighting he had found a type of tree which had a dark trunk but white-grey veins . He hadn’t recognized it and had tried to cut down a branch with a swing of his hatchet , and to his surprise he found that the tree was extremely dense and hard .

Cutting down the trees to make the four supersized spears had tired him out even with his superior physique .

He gingerly dug roughly half a meter deep holes with some distance from each other , then placed the wooden stakes into them at a slanted angle . He had placed them so that the spear tips were hidden within the bush at roughly 150 to 180 centimeter height . Finally he covered the holes and placed down secondary smaller stumps beneath the stakes , so that they wouldn’t tip over from their own weight before they could be used .