Defiance of the Fall

Just as he was about to finish it off with another swing a boulder slammed into him from the side . He fell over away from the Herald and he barely managed to get to his feet before another hit him again , forcing him even further away from the dying lava monkey .

Unreconciled he once again charged a great edge and swung it at the prone monkey king . But it still had some energy left and pushed itself out of the way .

He knew his window of opportunity had passed . Boulders and stalactites were approaching from all directions , and the only way to kill the Herald was a suicide dive . As he only needed to kill it for a quest he had no reason to die just to bring it down to hell with him .

Zac didn’t hesitate and turned around to run . He could only hope the huge wound he inflicted upon it was lethal and that it would bleed to death . The lava monkey wouldn’t have it though and used its last powers to shoot a few molten spikes his direction as well . Zac could only strike away what he could and endure the rest .

Just after a few seconds he had already gotten hit by another two boulders and was stabbed by three more stalactites . Then the army of monkeys was upon him .

Chapter 48 - Simian Haranguing

Finishing off the Herald was suddenly the last thing on Zac’s mind , and he was horrified as he saw an avalanche of monkeys approach him from all directions . He activated Chop] and frenziedly waved it in front of him , decimating any monkeys that would impede his escape .

The assault was slowing him down though , and finally the enemies were upon him , punching and kicking with wild abandon . Every time a punch or kick hit where the lava spears pieced him earlier it hurt enough for him to almost pass out .

Zac couldn’t care about his cosmic energy expenditure anymore , and with a roar pushed as much cosmic energy as he could into the fractal on his hand . An enormous blade over 5 meters tall blazed into existence , and Zac swung the axe in a mighty horizontal arc .

The edge managed to stay active for less than a second , but the brief window carved out a large pocket in the swarm of monkeys . The swing killed at least 20 monkeys , and he even gained a level . He couldn’t bother about that at the moment though , as the short respite in attacks allowed him to rush out of the field and into the foliage .

Blood was running freely from Zac’s mouth as he was shakily running through the forest , away from the magical tree and Herald . The monkeys wouldn’t relent though and swarmed all around him , jumping between the trees or running on all fours on the ground . Had it not been for his wounded leg he might have been able to maintain some distance after a mad dash . But now he was stuck in a quick jog , but even that was taxing .

He constantly was pelted with kicks and punches , and the occasional mouth trying to bite into him with their sharp canines . A rock whizzed by his head , and instead hit a monkey square in its chest . It appeared the monkey captains had problems with keeping the pace and throwing the projectiles simultaneously at least .

More good news was that the Herald was either dead or too wounded to join the pursuit , as there were no molten spears attacking him anymore . But that was about all the positives that Zac could list while he was mindlessly running .

He already was lost and could only run in a straight direction . Since he was in a valley between the peaks no matter what direction he ran he would sooner or later arrive at the mountains .

He desperately swung his axe back and forth to maim and kill his attackers . He didn’t dare to use Chop] anymore as he was already running low on cosmic energy and there still were at least 100 monkeys following him .

He instead infused the attacks with his understanding of the Dao of Heaviness to add some impact to his strikes . It was the first time he was using it so freely and for a prolonged time , and he was starting to feel a headache coming on .

Soon he couldn’t even use his Dao in order to empower his strikes as he was afraid of increasing the pounding in his head .

He kept going , and with every few steps he killed a monkey , but they seemed endless . Zac’s whole body was hurting , but he couldn’t stop . Another boulder came hurtling toward him , this one with proper aim . He was already mid-swing against a monkey and couldn’t reposition in time , so he could only lift his left arm to block it .

The small boulder slammed into Zac and a sickening pop could be heard . Zac was pushed back and his arm hung limply by his side . Something was protruding oddly at his shoulder and a blazing pain radiated through the arm . After a quick glance he realized that his shoulder was dislocated .

Zac grit his teeth and ran straight into the first monkey he saw , slamming his dislocated shoulder straight into the chest of the monkey . A blinding pain almost made him pass out , but it also temporarily dispelled the pulsing headache from overusing his Dao .