Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 153: Gambit

Zac silently stared at the undead entity and was mentally getting himself ready for a desperate fight. However, the corpse lord suddenly blazed into action, and suddenly his bone weapon was in front of him. Almost at the same moment, Zac heard a loud bang from the wall. It was a sound Zac vividly remembered, as he almost died the last time he heard it.

The Corpse Lord wasn’t as frantic as Zac was back at the auction house, and didn’t even break a sweat as he blocked the bullet with his weapon, giving Zac a clear indication of his power. Zac even had thoughts of fleeing, as he wasn’t sure he’d be able to kill this entity.

The Corpse Lord made the choice for Zac as plans and stratagems were flashing through his head. The undead sneered and receded back into the woods, followed by a few hulking corpse golems who stood behind their lord like bodyguards. It appeared the Undead leader was biding his time, or perhaps the sniper scared him off.

“Shit, it’s a noble I think,” Ogras muttered with a frown as he watched the undead disappear amongst the foliage. “Those things are extremely hard to deal with.”

Zac could only nod in acknowledgment. The man, if they could be called that, only silently stood in the distance, yet Zac’s senses detected danger. The two quickly finished gathering anything of value before they rushed back to the wall to rest.

“Who has your gun?” Zac suddenly asked, looking over at Ogras who grinned a bit.

“The old bastard. It appears he was in a human army long ago and has some knowledge of guns,” the demon responded.

Zac knew the demon was talking about Sap Trang, and was quite impressed with both the timing and aim of the old fisherman. It was a shame that the attack wasn’t successful, but it was worth a try.

The fight had taken quite a large portion of Zac’s energy, but it was likely the same for the rockmen. They had blocked most of the bolts, and the Valkyries and the demons had kept shooting for the better part of the hour until they finally ran out of ammunition.

“Good job,” Zac to his squadron as he returned to the wall with Ogras in tow.

This time they simply left the corpses on the battlefield, as it felt too dangerous to venture out and collect them at the moment.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t be of more help,” Joanna only answered with a somber expression.

“You did plenty,” Zac said, seeing the Zhix leader walk up to him.

“The Zhix are willing to join you in the next wave,” Ibtep said as he approached.

“Thank you. However, it is better you conserve your strength until the undead arrive. They have an almost endless number of warriors, and at that moment it will be all hands on deck,” Zac answered.

Zac gave a few more order before he sat down and closed his eyes, each hand of his holding a Nexus Crystal. Only an hour elapsed before they once again were accosted by the rock-men. There was still no sign of the other two forces, and it felt more and more true that they were actually using these rockmen as pawns.

Even though he wasn’t completely restored Zac got up on his feet with a groan and got ready to intercept as many of the boulders as possible. This time a few more of the elite demons with ranged capability also descended the wall in order to get close enough to attack as well.

However, even with increased numbers, their efficiency was quite limited. Individual warriors or mages didn’t have the capability to breach the strong barriers the rockmen erected, so they were forced to use the breaches created by the ballista bolts.

Zac knew that it would be mainly up to him and Ogras to fight these things. There also was Alea and Janos, but both Ogras and Zac felt it better if those two stayed hidden for now.

The two generals had the type of skills that could turn a battle around, and they weren’t pushed to the point they needed to use them yet. Both Zac and Ogras could slowly kill their way through the rockman army without exposing their hidden aces, though it was quite tiring.

The only upside was that he was getting huge benefits from the fighting. The reward for each kill was substantial, with every rockman giving thousands of nexus coins. Even though it took some time to kill each of them the speed with which he gathered Cosmos Energy was unparalleled. If this continued he’d likely gain a level within the day.

At the same time Zac knew this couldn’t go on. There were only two of them, and they were starting to tire after only two waves. If they allowed the rock men to keep harassing their front lines like this he and Ogras would wear themselves out in no time. And these golem-like beings were the weakest of the bunch. Some drastic measures needed to be taken.

“If that Corpse Lord dies, what will the other undead do?” Zac suddenly asked the demon who was meditating next to him.

The demon opened his eyes and shot a suspicious glance at Zac.

“They would be like rabid dogs who got out of their leash,” Ogras said. “Why? What are you planning?”

“We can’t let this go on. There’s no way the two of us can fight off the whole rockman incursion, and after that face the two elite forces,” Zac sighed.

“You’re just going to jump into the thick of it? Are you insane? You will be in a sea of undead. Even if you find him it’s not for certain he will even fight you,” Ogras said.

“I have to believe they are after my head for their quests. I think he will fight me, rather than risking some subordinate getting the kill credit;” Zac retorted with a shrug as he took out his one and only remaining E-Grade Crystal.

“You know, risking your life like that isn’t the only option,” Ogras said and threw a pointed glance at the distance, toward the teleportation array. “If you’re dead you can’t save your sister.”

“You know how desperate the situation is for our planet. Only a fifth of humanity remains, and the incursions haven’t even begun their attacks in earnest. This might be my best chance to gain power and secure a foothold for myself and my family. If we keep fleeing we will sooner or later be hunted down, as our enemies will only grow stronger,” Zac said and closed his eyes.

“You’re thinking in some all-or-nothing scenario. There’s nothing stopping you from becoming a powerhouse even if you lose your lordship and town,” Ogras wheezed out.

“I know, but I must still try. But prepare our contingency. If I fuck this up we might need to flee in a hurry. And create some diversion if possible.”

“Sigh… Fine, you god damn lunatic. We’ll see if we can shake up the Zealots while you go to the undead. If the big priest joins the battle against you, then you can just lie down and wait for death and reanimation,” Ogras said with a roll of his eyes.

“You have a plan?” Zac asked curious.

“Well, it’s time for my brave generals to earn their pay,” Ogras only answered with a small grin.

Restoring his energy reserves went quite quick with the E-Grade crystal, and only after 30 minutes he was mostly restored. That meant he was essentially in full fighting condition, as he’d conserved his usage of his Dao during the two waves, opting to mainly use simpler attacks.

“I’m ready,” Zac said as he stood up.

“Wait, take this,” Ogras said as he threw over a necklace. “It’s a minor trinket that will mask your life aura. It will allow you to get closer to the zombies without them sensing you. Might help you get a move on the big boss before they can react.”

“Thanks,” Zac only said and immediately put it around his neck.

“Remember, Corpse Lord Nobles are crazy durable, they are like walking tanks. Don’t waste your time using weaker attacks, and go for their brains. They can keep going without limbs or even a heart, but they still need their brains. And wait with attacking for another 15 minutes. We need to get ready on our side.”

“I understand, I will do my best. Good luck to you,” Zac said as he looked at his watch and then jumped down the wall toward the inner area of Port Atwood.

Just as he landed he heard a mumbled ‘good luck’ from above, and he immediately kept running toward the south. Zac planned on taking a slight detour, coming at the undead incursion from the opposite side. It would waste a few minutes, but it would hopefully help even further with his ambush.

When he’d traveled enough he quickly climbed over the wall and like a hare skittled into the woods. He immediately started running full speed, still not making a sound. This was his home turf, and together with his Dao of Trees he almost merged with the area, instinctually knowing where to put his feet and which areas to avoid.

He unerringly moved toward the undead incursion in a parabolic trajectory, but some sounds interrupted his charge. He quickly stopped and deviated a bit toward the sound. He suddenly saw a person moving through the woods, carrying a struggling body.

At first Zac thought it was a demon, as it had reddish and scaled skin, but he quickly realized it was some sort of lizard man, though it didn’t have a tail. Since it was neither undead or a golem Zac knew it must be a cultist.

Zac also recognized the man he was carrying. It was Adran, who should have been safely back at the camp. His feet and legs were bound, and he had a large black eye. Clearly the administrator hadnʼt given up as he kept struggling, making the lizardman stumble and swear.

Zac had no time to figure out how the hell the cult member had managed to infiltrate the town and kidnap one of their leaders from right under his nose, but he quickly went to action. He activated [Loamwalker] and appeared right next to the lizardman who didn’t even have time to exclaim before his decapitated head fell to the side.

“Are you ok?” Zac asked as he untied the knots on the rope holding the demon.

“Thank the heavens you found me. That bastard appeared from nowhere. He clocked me right in my eye and bound me, then I was suddenly in the forest,” Adran wheezed. “I think it was some random teleportation since the guy seemed a bit disoriented at first.”

Zac frowned and looked at the fallen cultists.

“Honestly I found you by chance, we didn’t even know you were kidnapped. The town is over that way,” Zac said as he pointed toward the wall. “There is no enemies between here and there, hurry back and warn everyone we might have intruders in the town proper. Try to gather everyone so they can’t sneak off with someone.”

“I will. Thank you again, Lord Zac,” the administrator said with a bow and hurried back toward Port Atwood.

Zac only continued onward, his unease with the situation only increasing. He needed to be quick. Zack believed a large reason why the forces were so hesitant to attack was that his cards were still largely hidden. But if the church captured one of his citizens they would soon learn that they only had a scant 150 proper fighters and two powerhouses.

That knowledge might give the legion of cultists enough courage to simply charge his town. He needed to create chaos within the undead ranks before something like that happened.

He kept pushing forward for a few minutes until an unbelievable stench entered his nostrils. Zac frowned and slowed down, but unhesitantly kept moving forward.

As he advanced Zac noted that the forest was ending, the trees seemingly simply gone from where they once stood. Port Atwood still hadn’t gotten around clearing out the forest this far out, so the System must have done it for the incursions.

He silently crept to the edge of the woods, praying that the necklace ogras gave him would be efficient enough, and peered out over the incursion.

As soon as he looked over the field he understood where the stench came from. The area around the incursion was completely filled with rotting undead. Patches of skin were slouching off from their faces, and some missed limbs.

Zac frowned when he noted that almost all of them were actually Asians wearing normal, though ripped, clothes like suits or t-shirts. He had a suspicion before, but this seemed to confirm it. These invaders were likely actually from incursions on his own world, not from some other random force in the multi-verse.

He didn’t know if it had any implication or could lead to trouble down the line, but that was an issue that he would have to save for the future. He already had way too much on his plate at the moment to worry about such things.

Zac silently scouted the army, trying to find the figure he saw earlier. There was a sea of zombies in front of him, but the large Corpse Lord should be easily identifiable from his grisly weapon, and the fact that he wasn’t rotting away.

But before he could locate the leaders his eyes were drawn toward a few huge monoliths that were arduously carried by a few titanic corpse golems.