Defiance of the Fall

Finally he decided to put 1 point in strength and 2 in Endurance and kept going . A while later he reached the area where he fought the Herald . The aftermath of from the battle was evident , with crushed trees and rocks all over . He still hadn’t run into any humanoids , and the forest was largely like it was before .

Zac slowly crept toward the spot where the Herald had fallen , alert of his surroundings . He was surprised to find that the carcass had been removed from the spot , as had the poles he had planted .

He could only guess that they had been moved back to the base . He wasn’t sure as he hadn’t seen it , but he assumed that the base were either right at the incursion , or in the mountains . If it was closer to the other sides he felt that he should have run into more of the humanoids by now .

Unless there only were a scant few of the humanoid demons , of course . But Zac’s intuition told him that he wouldn’t be that lucky . The System had screwed him over pretty consistently , and he saw no reason that it would stop anytime soon .

He stopped for a while to decide what to do now . He hadn’t really accomplished anything so far , except for killing some demons . He didn’t need to ponder for long however , as he suddenly heard subdued voices in the distance .

Zac properly hid himself inside a few bushes as the voices drew closer . He was disappointed to find out that he couldn’t understand the words . So much for a universal translation system .

It was a surprisingly smooth and melodic language , specked with vowels flowing like a river . He had assumed that the language of demons would be harsh and perhaps even guttural .

Wait , is that racism?’ a stray thought entered his mind , making him lose focus before setting his sight on the approaching party .

The party looked somewhat similar to the one he had killed earlier , except that this party was comprised of four individuals rather than three .

There were 3 males and one female . The two males looked like a mix of rangers and warriors , dressed in leather armors and wielding a sword each . The female walked in front and seemed to be the lookout , as she was carefully scouting the surroundings and had a bow slung on her back .

The final man was unarmed but seemed to be a leader , or at least of higher status . The quality of his gear seemed to be a notch above the others , such as a chest plate made of the same black metal as his axe handle . It was engraved in the same manner as the handle as well , but more intricate .

Zac had a feeling that these engravings had some sort of effect , like magically imbuing the gear with sharpness or defense . He had found no ways to use the engravings so far though , and hoped he might get an idea from the unarmed man .

Another reason Zac surmised the well-equipped man was of higher status than the other was that he could sense a formless pressure emanating from him . It felt like he was looking at a dangerous beast rather than an unarmed man .

While Zac was well hidden he decided to slowly recede further into the brushes . This party seemed both deadlier and more alert compared to the last one .

His actions were in vain however , as the female suddenly grabbed her bow and an arrow in a fluid motion and without hesitation fired it straight in the direction of Zac .

Zac tried to get out of the way , but there was no time as the arrow slammed straight into his side .

Chapter 27 - One Against Many

Zac almost lost his breakfast as the arrowhead slammed straight into his gut . It punched through the wired leather armor and continued into his body . Luckily most of the force had been spent going through the armor , and with Zac’s high endurance it only proceeded two centimeters before stopping .

This kind of wound wouldn’t really faze Zac anymore after constantly getting hurt from his fights . However , he still hesitated for a second after ripping the arrow out . Fight or flee? He hadn’t prepared to challenge the party like this .

However , he soon discarded any thought of fleeing . He didn’t like the prospect of having another arrow slam into him , this time in the back of his head while running for his life . The ranger seemed to have some detection skill , as she could spot and shoot him while he was hidden in bushes a few hundred meters away . He needed to kill the archer at least before fleeing .

He threw the arrow away and pulled out one of his smaller knives from its sheath . Zac wasted no time and threw it straight at the archer , and it flew with at least the same velocity as the arrow that had hit him .

The female demon seemed to have been prepared , and with an almost impossible nimbleness jumped out of the way and proceeded up into a tree like a forest elf . She moved like a specter and in just a few seconds she was gone from his vision among the leaves