Defiance of the Fall

He refrained from entering the valley at the moment , as he still wanted to thin the herd of monkeys in the mountains first . A large enough roar from the valley might be able to call for reinforcements from all four peaks after all .

The fight against the pack with the monkey captain was a bit shaky , but it was mostly due to his mistakes . The monkeys on the peaks were slightly stronger compared to the ones he had fought earlier , but not to the point that they could stop his onslaught . He only needed to kill the leader and then it was carnage as usual .

There was one more pack he needed to kill on the mountain peak he had climbed . It didn’t have any captain , but the monkeys in general were slightly bigger even compared to the last pack .

Zac entered the fray after having restored his energy and made short work of the pack . He made the interesting discovery that none of the monkeys dared to enter the valley , even when they were fleeing for their lives . Perhaps the valley was the private residence of the Herald , and they had strict orders not to enter .

Or perhaps something even scarier than Zac lived in the depths of the valley . He supposed he would find out later .

Zac kept his momentum going moving toward the next peak . He didn’t try any fancy tactics anymore , he only tried to knock out the leaders of the following packs by throwing a boulder at them . He didn’t even bother with the throwing knives , as they had trouble penetrating their stone armor . No matter whether the throw succeeded or not he simply charged straight into the throng of stone monkeys , swinging away .

At midday he reached the third peak , having mostly cleared out the two earlier ones apart from a few who managed to escape . This peak was the easternmost , and also the one closest to demon activity . The cave that the demons found so interesting was located not too far away from the foot of the mountain .

Zac was unsure whether he dared to start a battle here , as it might attract the demons below . While the distance was quite great between his location and the cave , he was afraid the sound would carry all the way down . The monkeys got quite loud and agitated during the fights after all . He decided to find a hiding spot with good vantage before deciding anything further . As he was somewhat ahead of schedule , he decided to wait for roughly an hour to gauge any activity in the area .

Weirdly enough there was no monkey pack close to the entrance of the valley . Instead , the monkeys were stationed on the outer side of the mountain peak . This differed from the other two peaks so far , and Zac wanted to figure out why . He soon found his answer , as he was surprised to see a monkey captain hurl a large rock at a demon war party that approached the peak or the valley .

It hit one of them , and with a wail he was flung away from the impact . The demons screamed at the group of monkeys angrily , waving their weapons . But the monkeys were a stoic wall that wouldn’t let them pass . After another minute of posturing , the demons could only turn and leave the mountain .

Zac was confused as he slunk back to the inner side of the mountain . Weren’t the monkeys the pets of the demons , like the other demon beasts? How did they dare deny the demons access to the mountains?

Zac started to get nervous that the monkeys actually weren’t the fourth monster race , but rather some native beast . The System did say it merged Earth with other planets due for integration , and they might be from another one . That would mean that there actually wasn’t a Monkey Herald , but instead two Heralds he couldn’t find .

He felt that shouldn’t be right though . Everything pointed toward them being a part of the demonic invasion . Perhaps the monkeys had a higher standing , and could actually boot the lower demons from their territory .

He knew he wouldn’t get any real answer from just mulling it over , and continued on toward the fourth peak . The weird power dynamic between the monkeys and demons actually helped him out in the end , both removing the threat of demons in the mountains and not having to battle any monkeys that close to the demon activity .

He arrived at the fourth peak and after an intense melee finally finished killing all the packs close to the valley . As it only was evening still he decided to head into the valley after all . Initially he planned to wait until next morning , but due to the inner side of the third peak being free from monkeys he saved a few hours of work .

He took his first steps into the valley , vigilant against any hidden monkeys or other beasts . But after a few minutes of walking it seemed that the forest was deserted . It was odd , as the forest itself felt like a paradise on earth . The air was fresh enough that his cells felt invigorated just from breathing , and the foliage was lush and healthy . The earthy smell of the area calmed Zac’s heart , inviting him to sit down and relax .