Chapter 48: Simian Haranguing
Finishing off the Herald was suddenly the last thing on Zac’s mind, and he was horrified as he saw an avalanche of monkeys approach him from all directions. He activated [Chop] andfrenziedly waved it in front of him, decimating any monkeys that would impede his escape.
The assault was slowing him down though, and finally the enemies were upon him, punching and kicking with wild abandon. Every time a punch or kick hit where the lava spears pieced him earlier it hurt enough for him to almost pass out.
Zac couldn’t care about his cosmic energy expenditure anymore, and with a roar pushed as much cosmic energy as he could into the fractal on his hand. An enormous blade over 5 meters tall blazed into existence, and Zac swung the axe in a mighty horizontal arc.
The edge managed to stay active for less than a second, but the brief window carved out a large pocket in the swarm of monkeys. The swing killed at least 20 monkeys, and he even gained a level. He couldn’t bother about that at the moment though, as the short respite in attacks allowed him to rush out of the field and into the foliage.
Blood was running freely from Zac’s mouth as he was shakily running through the forest, away from the magical tree and Herald. The monkeys wouldn’t relent though and swarmed all around him, jumping between the trees or running on all fours on the ground. Had it not been for his wounded leg he might have been able to maintain some distance after a mad dash. But now he was stuck in a quick jog, but even that was taxing.
He constantly was pelted with kicks and punches, and the occasional mouth trying to bite into him with their sharp canines. A rock whizzed by his head, and instead hit a monkey square in its chest. It appeared the monkey captains had problems with keeping the pace and throwing the projectiles simultaneously at least.
More good news was that the Herald was either dead or too wounded to join the pursuit, as there were no molten spears attacking him anymore. But that was about all the positives that Zac could list while he was mindlessly running.
He already was lost and could only run in a straight direction. Since he was in a valley between the peaks no matter what direction he ran he would sooner or later arrive at the mountains.
He desperately swung his axe back and forth to maim and kill his attackers. He didn’t dare to use [Chop] anymore as he was already running low on cosmic energy and there still were at least 100 monkeys following him.
He instead infused the attacks with his understanding of the Dao of Heaviness to add some impact to his strikes. It was the first time he was using it so freely and for a prolonged time, and he was starting to feel a headache coming on.
Soon he couldn’t even use his Dao in order to empower his strikes as he was afraid of increasing the pounding in his head.
He kept going, and with every few steps he killed a monkey, but they seemed endless. Zac’s whole body was hurting, but he couldn’t stop. Another boulder came hurtling toward him, this one with proper aim. He was already mid-swing against a monkey and couldn’t reposition in time, so he could only lift his left arm to block it.
The small boulder slammed into Zac and a sickening pop could be heard. Zac was pushed back and his arm hung limply by his side. Something was protruding oddly at his shoulder and a blazing pain radiated through the arm. After a quick glance he realized that his shoulder was dislocated.
Zac grit his teeth and ran straight into the first monkey he saw, slamming his dislocated shoulder straight into the chest of the monkey. A blinding pain almost made him pass out, but it also temporarily dispelled the pulsing headache from overusing his Dao.
While it still hurt Zac could move his arm again. He had used the monkey as a wall to slam the ball of his arm back into its socket. As a thanks Zac gave it a quick chop which decapitated it, and then kicked its headless body into two oncoming stone monkeys.
This couldn’t continue for long, as Zac had less than 10% of his cosmic energy reserves remaining while the monkeys showed no desire to relent. Thankfully the lush forest soon gave way to rocky outcroppings and cliffs, showing that he was approaching one of the peaks.
Due to the haphazard escape he wasn’t sure which one of the peaks it was, but a quick glance outward showed the familiar forest of the island. That meant he wasn’t running north at least, as he’d only be seeing ocean then. He was thankful, as he was afraid he would have been forced to jump down the steep cliff, praying to survive the 100-meter drop into the ocean.
Zac kept running, and he planned to escape into the forest down on the ground. The first time he fought the monkeys they had stopped at the foot of the mountain, and he could only hope they’d do the same again.
But almost immediately as he ran he knew that plan wouldn’t work. As he passed a small crest a larger view of the island came into view, and he could see the incursion and the demon town. The position immediately made him realize he was on the easternmost peak. If he ran right down this peak he’d be in prime demon territory. Straight out of the frying pan and into the fire.
He stopped for a second confused as what to do which allowed a few monkey captains to drag out new projectiles out of the ground and hurl them at Zac.
He slammed one of them away but the other hit him with a deep thud, eliciting a bloody cough. Even with his 90 plus Endurance, it felt like he couldn’t take many more of those throws. He couldn’t remember how many he’d tanked by now, and it felt like his body was on the brink of collapse.
He sluggishly swung his axe and killed a monkey who was foolish enough to get close and looked around for options.
In his vision he saw a cave entrance slightly hidden behind some shrubbery and boulders. After a brief hesitation he changed course for the cavity. If he continued on along the mountain path he’d arrive at where he had spotted the demon party earlier, and the risk of running into the monkey packs was great. He couldn’t return either, as he wouldn’t last running to another peak.
He didn’t really want to enter the cave, but he knew that it was his only hope. Right now he couldn’t see any other method to shake off the monkey horde. They seemed truly consumed by rage, which made sense as he had killed well over a hundred of the assailants by now.
Either the cave was a small dwelling for an animal, or a part of a larger network of tunnels. If it was the former he’d make a last stand, and at least the enemies would only be able to come from one direction. If it was the latter he might actually survive by fleeing into the tunnels.
There were roughly 10 monkeys in the way, and Zac grimly summoned [Chop] for one last charge. His arms and legs felt like they were coated in lead, but he determinedly swung his axe while he advanced.
The monkeys could offer no resistance against Zac’s reignited spirit, and he soon was at the mouth of the cave. A rock slammed into his back just as he entered, making him realize he couldn’t just stand at the entrance and fight it out. He would be sniped to death. After a quick glance inside it seemed that the cave actually was just the entrance of a bigger cave system.
The monkeys seemed to have no problem following him into the tunnels, as they charged towards the entrance without hesitation. Zac suddenly was afraid that he would be in even worse straits if he let them enter. They were stone monkeys, who knew what advantages they’d have inside a cave.
Out of options he could only do something stupid and desperate. He put away his axe and brought out his great sword. With a furious slam he hit the roof of the cave entrance, causing huge cracks in the roof and making rock chippings fly in all directions. He didn’t stop and slammed twice more with all the strength he could muster, and finally an ominous rumbling could be heard.
The roof of the cave started to collapse, and Zac desperately ran further into the cave. Falling rock and debris pelted him, and he was forced to leave his sword behind in the chaos. After a minute the rumblings stopped, and the cave was completely blocked for at least 20 meters of debris. It would take even the strong monkeys a good while to excavate the entrance, if they even wanted to.
His hope was that the monkeys would give up and go back to the valley, but he wouldn’t dare put his life on the line for it to be true. So he hesitantly ventured further into the cave to create some distance. His body was hurting all over but he wouldn’t let himself sit down, afraid that he wouldn’t be able to get back up in a short while if he did.
The caverns seemed to be a confusing maze of interconnected tunnels and chambers, and Zac saw no change after 30 minutes of slow walking. The caves weren’t completely pitch black at least, as there actually was growing moss on many of the walls which gave off some luminescence. He didn’t understand why they would create light, but he assumed that the moss was mutated by cosmic energy.
The tunnels were actually full of cosmic energy, almost at the level of the valley. The high concentration on the mountain peaks seemed to only be a result of some of the interior energy leaking out. It would be strange if something didn’t change with the subterranean flora if they were consistently bathed in cosmic energy of this magnitude.
Finally satisfied with the distance from the entrance he had created, he stopped in a quiet chamber which at least wasn’t completely dark due to the glowing moss. He sighed and thumped down on the ground with a grimace. It was pitch black apart from the blue scattered lights from the moss but he didn’t care. He did have a flashlight he had brought from the camper if he needed proper light, but he didn’t know how much charge the batteries still had. He instead brought out a Nexus Crystal from the pouch and started absorbing.
It didn’t help in healing his battered body, but it did help in recovering his depleted energy. Together with his amulet, he was absorbing energy at a great rate, and after only four hours he once again was full of cosmic energy.
That didn’t mean that he was in prime condition though. His head still hurt from overusing his Dao, and his body screamed in protest as soon as he moved slightly. He could only stay put for a bit longer in order for his Vitality to do its thing. He had nothing in his bag that could help against his wounds that were mainly blunt-force trauma as far as he knew. He did put some ointment on the burns from the herald though, even if he wasn’t sure whether aloe was effective against burns from magic monkey fire.
Finally done with everything he rested his back against the wall and sighed despondently. Today did not go according to plan.