Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 22: Scouts

Azzun walked through the forest with his two companions, irritably swatting branches and flies away. It was his first time off-world, and the change in climate was jarring. He missed the soothing monochromatic environment of his clan. Now the only reminder of the familiar red was the incursion in the distance.

Of course they knew that being able to invade a newly integrated world was a great opportunity. The House of Arh’Rezak had celebrated for 10 days and sacrificed 10 000 slaves for luck when they had found out that they had actually managed to get a slot. They were only a medium sized clan in their sector, but this opportunity meant a chance to grow to a large clan. Maybe they could even gain enough resources to overthrow the regional Lord.

Everyone knew that that The Ruthless Heavens mainly opened up the passageways to introduce a challenge to the indigenous inhabitants of the planets. The Ruthless Heavens wanted to test if the original inhabitants were worthy to stay alive, and whether any powerhouses would emerge among them. That was why it let invaders through, but imposed limits on how strong they could be. The challenge needed to be hard, but possible to overcome.

Of course, most powers in the multi-verse was more than happy to be treated as a test by the System. The potential gain of both rare treasures and new domains to own far outweighed the potential sacrifice of some of their young and their untalented. It worked as a great training ground for their young elite, providing both an opportunity to lead, battle and gain precious resources.

The elders of the clan were even more ecstatic then they learned that the world had been given a D-rank classification. It was no secret that when the system integrated new worlds the huge influx of energy could create all sorts of rare and invaluable treasures all over the fresh worlds. The higher grade the new world was, the more treasures would appear. A fresh D-class planet wasn’t top tier, but at least it was above average.

It usually wouldn’t be the turn of some middling clan to get access to this type of smorgasbord. Normally some arch-daemon would have nudged the heavens and snatched it from them, but luckily the Great War was reaching a white-hot intensity. All the real powerhouses had their hands full, and couldn’t focus on this matter even though the potential gain was great.

Azzun had grown up hearing stories of how even lowly imps and thralls had managed to turn into arch daemons after entering a fresh world. They had found some treasure or natural oddity that had helped them shed their lowly heritage and emerge as a powerhouse in their galaxy.

Of course, Azzun knew that even if some treasure was discovered, it wasn’t his turn to enjoy it. They would all enter the greedy hands of their general. Even though the general couldn’t be considered a top talent of their clan, he had managed to snag this great opportunity. He guessed it helped to have a Great Daemon as a great grandfather, who spoiled him rotten.

The old daemon had forcefully elected his only great grandson, Ogras Arh’Rezak to lead the incursion. Azzun and the rest had discovered his incompetence even before entering the new world.

Afraid that there would be a strong resistance on this world, and that losses of their forces would reflect badly on him, he had simply unleashed beast hordes to kill everything around the incursion for the first month. He had chosen four evolved beasts to lead their packs, and simply let them run loose without any supervision from a Beast Master or Tamer.

Even many of the elders had disapproved of such cowardice, but the great daemon quashed any dissention.

He only dared to enter when the first limiter was loosened. Everyone had been shocked to discover that both Ur’Khaz and Vul were dead when they finally arrived.

While neither were particularly strong, both were elites who had been chosen among the thousands of beasts to be leaders of the beast packs they sent through to clear the area. They were almost at the limit of what The Ruthless Heavens would allow to pass through the incursion, and it had cost the clan a fortune to send them through. They had been heavily nurtured and given many supplements to increase their physiques. After the restrictions lifted they would be like kings in a newly initiated world.

Ogras immediately further cemented his erratic leadership upon noticing this fact. He had simply called the Heralds trash for dying so easily, and was more focused on the construction of his palace than finding out the reason for their demise.

He had simply sent out a few scout parties, Azzun’s group included, in order to gain information about the surroundings. Getting the order felt almost like a death sentence the unlucky scouts. If something in this forest could kill their alpha-beasts, how would they survive? They were only level 30 to 35 with common classes, the weakest of the army that had arrived.

However, they had no choice but to comply with the order. The hierarchy and rules were extremely strict. Both they and their families would have a miserable ending if that happened. They could only bitterly nod their heads and try to stay alive. He could only hope to garner some type of merit during their invasion, which would allow him and his family to live a bit more comfortably in the clan.

The blast of different colors around him felt stressful and disorienting, and even though they had been briefed on this type of terrain it was hard to adapt. They were in a constant state of un-ease, as they had no idea what might jump out from the bushes at any moment.

As if summoned by his thoughts, Azzun heard a subdued rustle, followed by a wet thud and grunt. He immediately drew his weapon and turned around, only to see one of his companions topple over with a crushed skull.

Their assailant was already mid-swing toward his other companion, and she was killed before he managed to even react.

The attacker was a walking horror, completely red and covered in blood. Its body looked like a maze of crudely sewn together body parts and Azzun first thought was that the attacker was an Abomination or Ghoul from the Undead Hordes. If the world they attacked had an empire of the undead, their invasion would be a nightmare. There were few enemy factions in the multi-verse that were more annoying to battle than the undead.

He quickly discarded the idea when he noticed that the patchwork was actually an extremely rudimentary armor rather than its actual skin, and realized he was battling some manner of barbarian warrior.

He didn’t have time to analyze the situation further, as the man attacked with a swing of his odd weapon. Azzun quickly lifted his war-axe to intercept the swing, but quickly regretted it when their weapons clashed.

Horrified he realized the monstrous power that was contained in the swing, and he quickly circulated his cosmic energy and activated his defensive skill. An earthen layer quickly covered his arms and torso, and stabilized him. Thanks to his quick reactions he didn’t break his arms, but the force still threw him down on the ground, and his defensive skill shattered.

Disoriented and hurting he threw a wide swing towards his enemy, but only hit air. He tried to get back on his feet and meet his attacker. He didn’t get far however, before he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head, and then everything turned black.

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Zac stood panting over the unconscious demon, a sheen of perspiration covering his face. The sweat came from pain rather than exertion, as his charge had opened up some of his wounds. He finally dared to use his skill on the demon, which showed [Azzun, Level 33].

Luckily these demons didn’t seem very strong even if they were higher leveled. He started to go through their bodies, and looted anything that seemed useful. He ended up carrying two sets of gear, and had two backpacks slung over his back.

He ignored the protests of his ribs, and then dragged the two looted corpses into the bushes and hid them there. He was too tired to bury them, and he didn’t want to linger here too long. Hopefully some beast would sniff them out and eat them before their compatriots found them.

Zac was somewhat surprised with how calm he was with his actions. These three were clearly sentient beings, to the point that Zac had mistaken them for humans for a second. Still he had butchered them without any mercy or hesitation. He had been slaughtering nonstop for a month, but those had generally been beasts with the exception of the imps.

He had thought that he still would have some trepidation when dealing with humanoid beings but it seemed that something deep and primal had changed in him during the last month. He was harder and colder compared to before, and he felt that he likely wouldn’t be able to go back to what he was.

Just as the world had changed, so had he.