Defiance of the Fall

Zac slumped down on the blanket of leaves that were placed on the middle branch and dragged out a bottle of water placed next to the trunk . It had been placed by him there when building the hideout . He greedily drank half the bottle before the pain in his ribs simply stopped him from continuing . Finally he could take it no longer , and drowsily closed his eyes and passed out .

He spent the next few days stuck in the tree . For the most part he had slept , as he had problems staying awake when he was so utterly drained of cosmic energy . His amulet helped , but it seemed it would take a few days for him to recharge .

Even though he had survived , it did not feel like a victory anymore . The glorious feeling from right after the kill was long gone . He was incapacitated from pain and blood loss , and even with his high vitality it would take time to heal . His left arm was broken and possibly a few ribs as well , and the large gashes that crossed his whole back felt inflamed . Every time he moved different parts of his body screamed in protest , and he could only helplessly stay in the tree .

It was first after three days that he felt strong enough to get ready to head down . He could actually move his arm somewhat , but he wouldn’t try putting any force on it yet .

By now he was ravenously hungry , and couldn’t wait to get back to his camp . He hadn’t left any food in the small tree hideout , and had actually resorted to eating leaves and acorns the last two days . He had no idea if it was poisonous , but it felt like he had no options . Since his body had gotten stronger from the system he also had to eat a lot more compared to before . That’s why the food he and his friends had prepared had run out in only one week instead of two .

It was with a tinge of bitterness he prepared to get back . The three day convalescence unfortunately meant that he had failed in his goal , as the deadline of finishing within a month passed yesterday .

He still had two more heralds to kill , and also the general which he still hadn’t seen . He could only hope that he had been paranoid , and that nothing bad had happened now that a month had passed . He was however quite disappointed that he might have missed out on some extremely powerful building awarded for a quick completion of the quest .

Zac guessed that he would find out during the coming days , and it was no point to ruminate over it now .

He slowly got down from the tree after making sure no beasts were in the vicinity and started making his way back towards his camp .

Zac tried to glean if anything had changed on the island since the deadline had passed , but he could find no indication of that happening . The two suns still shone in the sky , and the malevolent pillar of energy from the incursion still glared in the distance . It did seem to have intensified somewhat , but Zac wasn’t sure if it wasn’t just his imagination .

The oak he had stayed in the last days were close to the edge of the island , in the western direction , and it would take a some hours to get back to his camp .

This time he walked carefully as he felt he was in no condition to fight any demons . Especially not if they had gotten empowered even further .

His axe was for all intents and purposes now simply a blunt weapon after the herald had slammed down on it . Killing monsters now would require a higher energy expenditure than before as he couldn’t simply bleed them out with a quick swing .

So it was with great care Zac made his way through the familiar forests until he suddenly heard rustle in the bushes ahead .

He immediately crouched down and hid behind a tree and some bushes while trying to see what lay ahead . After a quick glance he almost instinctively got up and shouted out to get attention , as what he saw was three people slowly making their way through the forest .

Luckily he managed to stop himself in time as he noticed a jarring discrepancy ; the people had horns .

Chapter 22 - Scouts

Azzun walked through the forest with his two companions , irritably swatting branches and flies away . It was his first time off-world , and the change in climate was jarring . He missed the soothing monochromatic environment of his clan . Now the only reminder of the familiar red was the incursion in the distance .

Of course they knew that being able to invade a newly integrated world was a great opportunity . The House of Arh’Rezak had celebrated for 10 days and sacrificed 10 000 slaves for luck when they had found out that they had actually managed to get a slot . They were only a medium sized clan in their sector , but this opportunity meant a chance to grow to a large clan . Maybe they could even gain enough resources to overthrow the regional Lord .