Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 83: Wolves

“It actually handed out a town protection quest” Ogras exclaimed gleefully, as most demons around him looked like they had eaten stimulants.

“What’s going on?” Zac asked as he looked over at the grey pillars. Nothing had emerged from them yet, but he knew it wouldn’t be long now.

“It’s a bonus quest. Everything you kill will award contribution points apart from the usual Nexus Coins and Cosmic Energy. You can trade these points for all kinds of goodies at a temporary Nexus Node that should pop up somewhere close. Those who rack up the most points usually are awarded some bonus prize as well.” Ogras answered hurriedly as he took out his spear from his sack. It looked like he wanted to simply jump down from the wall and run to the pillars, not able to wait for the enemies come to them.

Zac started to get excited as well, but was very annoyed that he still wasn’t completely healed. He was a lot better by now, but not to the point that he dared use crystals or his amulet to quickly regain his energy. He wouldn’t be able to unheedingly use his [Chop] skill to quickly gain contribution points in other words, and his two Dao’s weren’t helpful in fighting large groups of monsters. He still hadn’t gained the Seed of Sharpness, which he guessed would be convenient when fighting against packs.

He didn’t have time to ruminate over his condition any longer as grey silhouettes started to pour out of the portals and immediately flooded toward the wall.

“No offense my friend, but I’m aiming for the top spot. It’s a shame we can’t have a completely fair competition with your condition” Ogras lamented with mirth and greed in his eyes. It looked like he was already considering the prize for most contribution points his.

Zac decided to ignore him as the horde was closing in on the battlements, and he could finally see their visage. It was an enormous wolf pack that charged as one. Each had a mottled grey fur and the rough size of a gwyllgi, reaching almost up to Zac’s chest.

He could also spot larger versions at various areas in the sea of wolves, and he guessed that they were the equivalents of the monkey captains. A piercing howl arose from the pillars as Zac surveyed the horde, and Zac spotted a far larger wolf skulking around in the back. All in all it looked like there were a few thousand wolves, almost all of them the normal-sized ones.

Zac didn’t feel that this looked too threatening, and he cast a questioning glance at Ogras.

“This is just the first wave of the first horde. It will get more… exciting… soon enough” he said as if he understood Zac’s unspoken question.

The wolves streamed toward the walls and Zac saw that the erected poles didn’t have much effect on the nimble monsters, as they simply dodged them without any effort. A few unlucky wolves were accidentally pushed into the pitfalls by the wolves behind and skewered there, but generally the horde was unimpeded.

However, the erected wall was where their charge ended, and the monsters simply had no method to scale it. They clawed some scratches at the foundation, but at that speed it would take days for them to tear down the wall.

In the demonsʼ eyes, this meant that the wolves turned into target practice, where each hit awarded some money. Arrows started flying out in rapid succession, and the wolves dropped one by one.

Some were even more efficient, such as the mages who managed to skewer multiple wolves with each earth spear attacks or create multiple fried carcasses with a large fireball. But the most efficient was clearly Ogras. Any shadow on the ground created by the wall or a wolf was a weapon for him, and shadowy needles kept poking up from the ground, hitting the throat or heart of the wolves. Wolves kept keeling over wherever Ogras turned his outstretched hand, and he was creating patches of utter death down on the ground.

Zac tried to keep up by throwing rocks he had prepared in a few pouches. Each rock he threw slammed into a wolf, the force almost always enough for an instant kill. Still, he couldn’t keep up with some of the stronger demons, let alone the sneaky spears of Ogras, and knew his contribution ranking wouldn’t be too great if things kept going this way.

He paused after killing a few and checked his status screen. It looked like each of the normal mottled wolves awarded around 100 Nexus Coins, which seemed very generous for helpless targets. The feeling of seeing an endless stream of money slipping out of his fingers was extremely uncomfortable, and he knew he needed to switch up his tactics.

Alea looked annoyed as well as she stood next to Zac.

“They keep dying before my poison kills them, I only get a small part of the money. You’re supposed to be the Lord, do something and I’ll give you a reward” she whined as she looked entreatingly at Zac.

Zac ignored her with a roll of his eyes but he agreed that something needed to be done. After a few seconds of hesitation he took out one of his axes and simply jumped out from the safety of the wall.

As he fell he imbued himself with the Dao of Heaviness and he fell down like a meteor. A huge shockwave spread out as Zac punched into the ground ten meters away from the wall. Any wolf in the vicinity was killed or at least badly maimed from the impact. Zac stood up from the crater and he summoned [Chop].

His plan was simple. Even though his pathways weren’t completely healed they were in far better condition compared to a month ago. Together with his improved attributes his recovery might even be higher before he ruined his body with the Cosmic Water. He planned on going on a rampage as long as his energy allowed, reaping as many wolves as possible before swapping back to killing without using any energy. With his stats he wasn’t afraid that some of these weak wolves would threaten him, even if they came in droves.

He started to weave a net of carnage around him as he moved full speed ahead. His energy would only last for a short duration at full power, but that should hopefully be enough to thin out most of this wave and perhaps a few more. He headed straight toward where he had seen the huge wolf, hoping that killing the boss would offset his slow start.

No demon dared to shoot their attacks in his vicinity, with the exception of Ogras, who kept summoning spears at some wolves around him. Zac glared angrily in the demon’s direction, but Ogras simply looked back innocently and waved.

Zac wasn’t the only one who jumped down from the wall, as some of the stronger melee fighters followed suit. They generally stayed close to the wall though to keep their backs free, not daring to wade into the thick of it like Zac.

Zac was soon drenched as every wave of his axe created a fountain of blood and a few bisected corpses strewn around. He realized he had actually missed this feeling, and relished letting loose after over a month of being stuck in the mines mindlessly chipping away at the walls.

He steadily progressed toward the portals, and soon not even Ogras could kill steal his wolves due to the distance. Each swing created a swathe of death in front of him, but it was quickly filled with new wolves. He truly felt like the description of the Hatchetman class, Their army is an endless forest and I’m the lumberjack, was an apt description at this moment, as he methodically cut everything down like lumber as he waded forward.

The wolves desperately tried to bite him, but the few that managed to get close couldn’t even puncture his skin. A few tried to rip open his robe, but the clothing was even more durable than Zac himself, and not even a scratch could be seen on the green overcoat. Even so, the animals pushed forward toward their death, heedless of anything else. Zac started to suspect that the System had done something with these animals, as they were completely frenzied. Wolves should be smarter than this, especially evolved ones like these guys were.

After a few minutes of swinging away he was at close proximity to the portals. It should have been even faster, but he took some detours to kill the even larger wolves that were peppered around the horde. They only gave 2-300 Nexus Coins each, but Zac thought they might be more valuable in terms of contribution points as the System might consider them mini-bosses.

Wolves had stopped pouring out of the multiple portals a minute ago, and the area was getting a bit thin as most wolves headed straight for the wall. There were some exceptions though, most notably the hill with the leader. It looked almost identical as the smaller versions, apart from the fact that its eyes had a silver glisten compared to the duller brown of the others.

Zac approached the hill and started to kill the larger alpha wolves that surrounded their leader, but a movement in his periphery made him infuse his axe with his Dao of Heaviness and launch it at the wolf leader in a surprise attack.

The wolf’s reactions were quick, but not quick enough, as the axe ripped a hole in its throat, instantly killing it. Immediately after two large spears of shadows rose up from the ground and impaled the corpse. However, Ogras was too late as the energy entered Zac’s body as the spears rose up, confirming his kill credit.

Zac grinned at the demon who emerged from the shadows with a tsk as he took out another axe from his bag. This one was different from the ones he had used lately and looked like a misshapen monstrosity.

Its handle was roughly a meter long and the edge itself was almost two meters, formed in a rudimentary facsimile of his axe when he used [Chop]. It was something Zac had ordered a blacksmith of the demon town create for him, meant to be used to retain some kill speed while he restored his energy.

It was ugly and completely unbalanced, but it got the job done. Unfortunately no one of those remaining had the skills to add the self-repairinscription on a weapon, and instead this one had an inscription that slightly increased its durability. Still, someone would need to fix it up every now and then after Zac’s onslaught.

“I’m starting to see why you guys were so excited,” Zac remarked at Ogras as he started to swing at the remaining alpha dogs, heading to pick up the boss carcass and his axe.

“Don’t get complacent. This is just the warm-up. If some mangy dogs was all that The Ruthless Heavens threw at you when creating a monster horde then it would be a reward, not a quest. It’s going to get much worse than this.” Ogras retorted, obviously a bit irritated that his kill steal hadn’t worked out. As if to confirm this the remaining wolves in his surroundings died by being impaled by multiple shadow blades rather than the usual one per monster.

As if they responded to the demon’s words, the portals pulsed and started to spew out another wave of wolves, but these ones looked quite different.