Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 13: On the Hunt

Zac crept through the woods, slowly making his way more inland. He was hefting hatchet in one hand and his improvised spear in the right. He had found a camouflaged shirt in David’s bag which he had donned which would hopefully help him blend in a bit. He had planned to make some makeshift bracers and shin guards from some of the snakeskin this morning. Unfortunately it was still a bit grimy, so he had to leave it for another day at least to properly dry out. He still wore the amulet of the gathering array underneath his shirt, which continuously imbued him with more cosmic energy. He had a black backpack on his back filled with a bottle of water and a small batch of medical supplies.

He had actually gained a level without noticing while he was asleep from the amulet. It was still hard for him to know how much the amulet was gathering for him, or how much experience killing other monsters gave. There was no experience bar or notifications of experience gain anywhere in the system that could give him a frame of reference. Hopefully he would learn more about it from today’s excursions. The two free points he had he had split between strength and vitality. When he allocated the points he had felt the energy rushing into his cells again, albeit far weaker when compared to when he allocated 30 points.

The goal of today was simple. He needed to kill monsters. Almost a week had passed since the world was integrated into the multiverse, and in reality he had accomplished very little so far.

He didn’t dare make a beeline for the incursion just yet. He was afraid that there would be monsters there that he still couldn’t handle, such as the Heralds themselves. Instead, he was walking around the edges of the island while steadily making his way inland. He had been walking for roughly 30 minutes now and still hadn’t seen any monsters. He had seen some animals though. Most were the same as before the change, but some obviously had evolved from cosmic energy. For example he’s seen a squirrel as large as a golden retriever. Luckily it seemed very docile, and it immediately escaped into the tree crowns after noticing him.

Finally he heard the familiar menacing growl from ahead. Zac was afraid he had been spotted, and immediately hunkered down behind a bush. There was no charging demonling heading his way fortunately, so he crept forward again. While hiding behind a tree he finally saw the beast 30 meters in the distance. It was the same sort of demon as he had fought before, a 6 legged monstrosity of oversized muscle and maw. This one seemed a bit leaner than the first he had fought, but he couldn’t be sure. It seemed like it was lazing about in the sun in a small clearing. There was a small animal carcass next to it, so it appeared that it recently had a meal and was now resting.

Zac had made battle plans based on his first experience fighting these monsters, and now it was time to use them. He inched towards a sturdy tree that was at the end of the clearing, leaving only open field between the tree and the demon. He placed down his spear two meters away from the trunk and picked up a small rock. By now his heart was racing, his hands almost shaking from a buildup of adrenaline.

“Calm down, calm down…” he whispered under his breath, nerves taut but with a glint of determination in his eyes. He had no choice, he had to push forward, for both his sake and his family’s.

With a deep steadying breath he walked in front of the tree, making him stand in full view for the demon. The demonling immediately noticed him and stood up into an aggressive posture. Wasting no time Zac immediately chucked the stone with full force, and he managed to hit its torso which elicited a pained yelp.

Clearly the taunt worked well as the demon roared and barreled toward him like a runaway train. Zac held his position until last minute before lunging two meters to the side. The demonling zoomed past him and with a tremendous force head-butted the tree.

This was essentially the same tactic he had used on the first demon. The demons were powerful but seemed quite stupid, so he surmised the same tactic would work again. Now, handy boulders wouldn’t be everywhere, but he was in a forest full of thick tree-trunks. This time he had help from being ready and having improved stats. Zac therefore managed to jump out of the way without either taking damage or falling over this time.

Knowing that time was of the essence Zac wasted no time and immediately was upon the beast. With a fierce overhead swing he severed the spine at the lower back. With his improved Strength it felt like cutting through dry wood, and he easily embedded the whole 15 cm axe head in the beast. With a tug he ripped it out of the body, and with it came a spurt of blood. He had planned on also doing the same at the neck of the beast, but the demonling was immediately woken up from the intense pain. With a pained roar it tried to turn and catch Zac with its huge maw. Luckily its maneuverability was already bad with all working legs. Now it was even slower with the two hind legs listlessly hanging backward.

Zac didn’t want to take any chances, as a nasty swipe of the beast could easily make him bleed out in minutes. With a few seconds to spare until the demonling could turn he slashed a few deep bloody gashes on its side. Both blood and viscera immediately started pooling beneath it. By now the fight was essentially over, and Zac hurriedly backed off and picked up his spear he had placed down before the fight.

He planned to poke a few holes in the monster to bleed it out faster. However, reality is often disappointing. On the first stab he only made a flesh wound before the spear started to bend rather than push in further. On the second stab the demon snapped the spear in two by moving its head with surprising alacrity. The forward momentum of the stab almost made Zac fall right into the eagerly waiting rows of teeth of the beast. Luckily, he barely managed to get out of the way with a push of his left leg which made him fall to the right of the beast. Still the beast managed to get in a swipe on his left arm which left a shallow, but long gash.

Ignoring the burning pain Zac quickly scrambled to his feet and got out of the way. But it seemed that the escape was unnecessary, as the demonling had collapsed after the swipe. The grass beneath it was completely stained red, and a large chunk of intestines was hanging outside its body. It was seemingly completely out of steam, weakly growling between shallow rapid breaths.

Ideally, Zac would have preferred to wait it out and let it slowly bleed to death, but the monster’s roars had been quite loud. He had no interest in sticking around in case there was backup on the way. He had to be calculative at times to avoid unnecessary risks, but sometimes he had to be decisive as well. Gripping the hatchet in a bloody hand he slowly circled out of sight of the monster. Then with a few quick steps forward swung down with force right behind the middle legs, cutting deep into what he presumed was lungs. The demon tried to rouse a retaliation but was completely out of power, resulting only in a feeble wave of a paw.

Zac repeated an identical slash on the other side, which should mean that both its lungs were punctured. Given that the demon’s physique was somewhat similar to a normal mammal’s, of course. The demon barely responded to the second swing apart from shaking with pain or death throes. Zac wasted no time and with one final swing cut right into its neck.

With one final spasm, the monster passed. He knew this without having to check as he suddenly felt the familiar warmth of cosmic energy entering his body.

A quick look around the corpse once again showed no sort of loot spawning or dropping. This made Zac more certain of the fact that there was no such thing as a loot system with the System.

With a last look at the surroundings for anything he might have missed, he once again receded into the cover of the forest. The hunt was not over.