Defiance of the Fall

Zac didn’t dare to move even though he knew that his camp just looked like an empty area with some extra dense bushes . His illusion array was effective on the eyes , but he had no idea whether there were skills that could sense the array . He had tried it with his Eye of Discernment] without finding anything , but it was also the cheapest skill that the Nexus Node offered .

Suddenly he saw a gwyllgi was slowly coming extremely close , moving some ways from the group . If it kept moving the direction it did , it would enter the bushes he had moved to the edge of his camp , and soon after enter his array .

Zac’s fears came true as it trotted forward and entered his camp through the dense bushes . Zac was ready and with lightning speed he grabbed the hound’s neck as soon as it was through the array , and with a twist broke it . With his strength he could probably rip its head right off , but he didn’t want any blood to spill .

He slowly dragged the corpse into the camp and flung it to the side . Luckily the array also had sound dampening , so no one should have heard anything . He resumed his vigil against the rest of the group , and it seemed no one among them had noticed the missing beast . The gwyllgi often moved some distance from the parties acting as scouts , so it would likely take some while before they noticed their missing beast . Unfortunately , they had stopped just 50 meters away from the camp .

They still seemed to be arguing about something in hushed tones . One of the demons seemed nervous and kept pointing toward where Zac had tested his skill . The others seemed unconvinced and dismissive .

One of the demons rolled his eyes at the nervous one and started to actually walk toward Zac’s camp . The nervous demon entreated him , but was just met with a dismissive wave of his hand . He started fiddling with his pants and stopped at a tree just half a meter away from the edge of the illusion array .

The demon was actually relieving himself . He looked around the area while he did so . His eyes stopped a second on the camp . It should look like a normal clearing to him , but the demon slightly furrowed his brows . Soon they smoothed out and he casually looked away again and continued with his business .

But Zac’s heart started beating rapidly after scrutinizing the demon’s face .

He knew .

Chapter 41 - Apex Predator

Zac didn’t dare hesitate and furiously chopped his axe down through the array while the demon still had his pants down doing his business .

As Zac suspected the demon was ready for the strike , and without hesitation , he lifted his sword to meet the oncoming attack . Unfortunately for him Zac’s strength was in another league , and with the addition of the Dao of Heaviness the force of the swing simply broke the poor demon’s arms and continued unimpeded into his head .

It looked like that the array didn’t hold up to scrutiny when observed at such proximity , or maybe the demon simply used some ocular skill more powerful than his Eye of Discernment] . The demon had noticed something was wrong but didn’t want to alert anyone to this fact until he was back at safety in his group . But some discreet facial tics had foiled his plans .

After the swing Zac quickly grabbed two of his knives from his pouch and hurled them at the war party just as they were shocked by an axe appearing out of thin air and killing their comrade .

One of the knives punched a hole through the imp , instantly killing it , but the other missed the demon he was aiming for . He’d trained his throwing skills diligently since his embarrassing throw that completely missed the target in his first battle against a barghest . Together with his increased stats in Strength and Dexterity , his aim was quite good by now , but he still couldn’t always hit his targets when throwing in rapid succession .

He threw another dagger but the demon dodged it , as it was ready for the attacks now . The barghest were stupid however , and a knife instantly slammed into its torso , maiming it badly . He had a decent stock of knives by now since killing the scout demons surrounding the valley with the incursion , and could keep throwing them for a while .

He didn’t have any time to kill the other barghest , as he saw one of the demons starting to conjure a fireball . Aghast , he didn’t dare to hesitate , and hurled a dagger at the mage . He couldn’t have him burn the camp down , or even start a forest fire . Every demon on the island would know a battle was happening here .

A magic shield stopped the dagger in its tracks , so Zac had no choice but to charge out of his array toward the demons . There still were 5 demons and a couple of demon beasts against him . Fortunately he killed the imp immediately , otherwise he’d have to worry about those fireballs . They were still extremely deadly , even with his improved constitution .