Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 56: Ill-gotten Gains

Zac spoke to the salamanders with the same voice he used to chat with his old neighbor’s dog. While he felt that fighting thee salamanders wouldn’t be an impossible feat, he didn’t want to move closer to another level unless he needed to. Besides, who knew if they would remember him as an ally if he kept feeding them demons and imps. Having an army of giant lizards to help out against the demon city would be very handy.

One of the salamanders ignored his request for friendship and started lumbering toward Zac, who helplessly backed away with his hands held up in response. Thankfully the leader’s maw opened, and a surprisingly childish squeak emerged from its mouth. The squeak stopped the advancing salamander in its tracks, and it lumbered back toward one of the demon corpses.

Zac surveyed all the corpses for anything of value. He quickly noted that none of them carried a magic pouch, and the only other gear he found interesting was the shield one of the warriors had carried. It lay flung to the side by the corner of the cave. In case he spotted anything of real value or a magic pouch he would probably have initiated a fight, but he now saw no need to.

He briefly wondered what would happen if a monster ate one of the pouches while he moved away from the cave. Would it explode like a magic piñata, spewing its content all over the place? Or would the items simply be lost? Would a tear in space occur, sucking anything in the vicinity into some unknown void?

He waited some distance from the cave for fifteen minutes until the sickening sounds of feasting were gone, and sneaked back to the site of the battle. The salamanders were gone, apart from the dead one lying in a corner. All the bodies of the demons were gone as well.

Everything that the demons had worn seemed to have been ingested together with the bodies, but things they had dropped was left where it lay. Zac went and picked up the shield from the corner and examined it. It was slightly dented and corroded from the battle, but overall in serviceable condition. He threw it into his pouch and left again, not bothering with the damaged swords on the ground.

He was happy to see that the salamanders were actively hunting the demons, as that would provide an explanation of why some demons went missing when Zac started his activities.

With gusto he returned into the tunnels, looking for some stash house or clues where the mined crystals were gathered. But after looking around in vain for some time he changed his strategy. He found another group of miners and made sure he could get to both sides of their tunnel through side-paths.

After making sure he had a good grasp on the surrounding topography he simply sat down in a tunnel close by, waiting to see what happened with the sacks. Luckily he didn’t have to wait long as the group of miners had been going at it for some time judging by the bulging sacks. Zac heard footsteps and hid his face deeper among the vegetation, hiding the rest of his body around the corner.

Five demons arrived at the tunnel, with the one in the middle wearing a fancy dress and having an air of haughtiness. The four others accompanying her were clearly bodyguards judging from their attire and how they encircled her. When she arrived the miners immediately stopped their activities and saluted the lady.

With a few words she brought out a clipboard from a pouch and one by one the miners brought their crystal sacks over to her. She lifted the first one up with her free hand, and after a comment wrote something down on the clipboard. She then put the whole sack into one of the pouches in her belt.

One of the guards brought out an empty sack from a backpack and handed it out with an expressionless face. The miner bowed and went back to his position. This process went on for two more miners without anything of note happening. But when the lady commented on the fourth miner’s sack he couldn’t help but grimace and hesitantly say a few words in demonic.

The bodyguards immediately perked up and started radiating a dangerous aura, but the lady waved them down. She simply pointed to the bag and said a few words with a smiling face. The miner looked horrified and went down on his knees looking like he was begging for his life.

The exchange continued for some time until finally the lady put the sack into another magic pouch, and the miner could only return to his position with a devastated expression. The other miners simply stared down in the ground, not wanting to be implicated by their mouthy associate.

After the lady was done she simply turned and left, with her four bodyguards in tow. The miners sighed and sat down to eat, conversing with subdued voices. Zac didn’t linger on and instead crept behind the party of five.

‘Don’t worry buddy, I’ll mete out justice for you soon.’ Zac gave a silent prayer for the unlucky miner as he was skulked away. He kept a healthy distance from the group, afraid that any sound would alert the group, and the walking treasure trove would slip out of his fingers.

The group soon arrived at another tunnel with a group of miners, and the process repeated itself. Zac kept following the group for an hour and watched them collect sack after sack of crystals. He wasn’t sure whether the group he first spied on was among the first the lady visited, but just going by what he had observed the pouches on her belt contained an astonishing amount of crystals by now, and could only be counted by the thousands.

Zac felt he couldn’t wait any longer and got himself ready. He steadied his breath and placed himself at a side-tunnel that the party should be passing after finishing their collection. It was some distance from the mining group, so Zac had no vision of his target anymore. However, they were moving in a very systematic pattern through the tunnel system so far, and Zac could only assume they would continue.

Sure enough, soon the tell-tale echoes of the steps of the party were approaching. Zac held his breath, not wanting to give any indication of his presence. The first two guards came into view, but Zac didn’t react.

As if sensing something was wrong one of the guards started to turn around, but it was too late. Zac entered the tunnel right behind the two and without hesitation swung a Dao-empowered strike at the lady in the middle. She looked shocked, but a golden sheen immediately enveloped her as an inscription pattern lit up on her dress.

Zac knew that inscription very well by now and forcefully stopped his swing. It hurt his muscles to do so, but it was better than getting the whole force of the strike redirected at himself. Instead, he lightly punched the golden barrier, and a recoil traveled through his arm bringing some discomfort.

Having fulfilled its purpose, the golden layer shattered, leaving the lady once more exposed. Black lightning arcs flittered all over her body, but Zac swiftly decapitated her with a grunt. The black arcs traveled all over his body, making it feel like he was being electrocuted, and he actually blanked out from the pain for a second.

During the brief pause from the shock, a sword stabbed into his side, drawing a small gout of blood. The pain shook him awake, and he immediately pounced on the two guards that had stood behind the lady. They were alarmed, but still warriors. One had produced a spiked mace whereas the other’s hands started glowing with lightning. From his muscles he didn’t seem like a mage though, but rather a pugilist.

They tried to pincer Zac, with the mace-wielder swinging at him from the left and the pugilist attacking him from the right with a clawed hand. Zac ignored the martial artist, and instead swung his axe to meet the mace.

The collision was completely one-sided, as the force from Zac’s swing slapped the mace out of his hand and made the demon lose his balance. Simultaneously the clawed hand slammed into Zac’s back, easily destroying the leather protection, and trying to tear into his flesh. Unfortunately for him, Zac’s skin was all the armor he needed, and the demon only managed to create a small flesh wound. The lightning entered Zac’s body, but by now this level of power had scant effect on him.

He grabbed the mace-wielder’s neck with his free left hand and slammed him down on the martial artist. The sounds of bones breaking could be heard, but Zac was interrupted as he planned to finish the two. A blade was flying right toward his throat, and Zac activated his armor to block it.

But he was shocked as no golden sheen enveloped him, and he could only desperately lift his arm to block the strike. The blade cut into his lower arm, only stopping after carving into bone. The pain was blinding but only served to enraged Zac. With a furious [Chop] the blade wielder was bisected, and then the two demons on the ground followed him into death.

He turned toward the last bodyguard only to see him desperately fleeing, heedlessly throwing away his weapon. Zac started running after him, throwing a few daggers his way. But the bodyguard was surprisingly nimble, managing to dodge most of them while running. One hit him in his back, but he only staggered slightly but kept moving.

Suddenly he started shouting at the top of his lungs, horrifying Zac. He threw one more dagger at him, but the demon turned a corner and disappeared from his vision. He could still hear the screams though, as they echoed through the tunnel system.

Zac hesitated a second, but then ran back toward the killed demons. With a furious speed he grabbed the pouches on the lady’s belt, then threw her headless body into one of them. He then ran away in the opposite direction from where the screaming bodyguard was fleeing toward.

After a minute he stopped and quickly bandaged his wounded arm. It was bleeding freely and was currently creating a trail to his location. After making sure the blood didn’t get through the bandages and rags he started running again. After he had run for an hour and completely left the area with mining activities or imps he finally slowed down and found a good resting spot.

The fight wasn’t very taxing, but he was worried about the results. First he dragged his chest piece off his torso and inspected it. The armor itself looked whole, but the inscribed fractal on the front had multiple cracks on it. That should explain why the shield didn’t materialize earlier and he got maimed instead. But a smile crept on his face as he glanced down at his belt. He knew he would be able to afford to buy a new one with his ill-gotten gains.