Defiance of the Fall: A LitRPG Adventure

by TheFirstDefier

  It was a recurring problem with the noncombat class demons in Azh’Rodum. Only a handful possessed great proficiency or promise in their field, with the rest generally being assistants or simply untalented. Most of the more talented ones enjoyed almost the same level of reputation in the demon clan as the warriors and had decided to head back, as their punishment would be bearable. That left a large number of people fumbling around, kind of like Zac. Ogras had obviously oversold the competence of his people the first time they met.

  A huge rocky maw approaching woke him from his thoughts, and he sidestepped a few meters with his movement skill. His normal axes were much too small to do any real damage to these massive things, so he swapped it out for his huge elongated axe. He didn’t want to use too much energy this wave, as he’d spent more than usual the last one.

  Fighting the monster waves was a marathon rather than a sprint, and conservation was key. He jumped up a few meters and, with a grunt, decapitated the huge monster. Rock-chippings flew all about as the head fell down, and Zac felt that the cut barely was enough. The axe took noticeable damage as well from cutting into the hard monster, even though it had strengthening inscriptions.

  Suddenly, his Luck stat warned him of something approaching from behind, and he immediately pushed to the side. It surprisingly was the head of the fallen beast. Or rather, it was a few smaller versions of the large rocky wolf that somehow were born out of the decapitated head. Zac was surprised but quickly killed them with a few swings.

  He looked over to the main part of the body and saw that it was starting to squirm. Soon over ten wolves were born through its various parts, the transformation creating jarring sounds of rock scratching against rock. These wolves were apparently like some type of matryoshka dolls, containing more monsters inside. Even worse, he saw the smaller version he’d just bisected once more turn into even smaller wolves, these ones the size of medium-sized dogs.

  After some deliberation, he chose to ignore these new smaller beasts and instead ran toward the next huge wolf. With a large jump, he approached the next wolf from above, and at the last second, he infused his large axe with the Dao of Heaviness. The swing contained the momentum and weight of a falling meteor, and not only was the beast cut in two, but cracks ran all along its body.

  A large surge of Cosmic Energy entering his body told Zac that the swing had destroyed a lot more than just a few beasts like his last swing did. It seemed he needed to do large-scale damage to the rocks if he wanted to destroy the smaller versions along with the main body. Since most of the beasts in this one were dead, he proceeded to the next one. The large ones were the real trouble, as they might be able to threaten his walls. After they split into multiple smaller targets, their threat lessened greatly, and the demon army could handle that.

  Zac went from beast to beast and, with large swing, destroyed one towering beast after another. Every time he infused the swings with the Dao, almost half the monsters inside died due to cracks forming all over from the impact. After roughly a dozen wolves, his large axe was starting to distort from the force, and he could only helplessly tuck it away, instead bringing out a large mallet. It was reminiscent of the large hammer a demon had used on top of the mountain, and Zac found it pretty interesting when he’d raided the demons’ armory.

  He still preferred using axes, but sometimes other weapons were simply more convenient. Blunt force was clearly the best tool against these beasts, and that wasn’t something axes excelled at. Unfortunately, Zac had problems using his Dao of Heaviness with the large mallet, but with his enormous Strength, he only needed his body against these wolves.

  One by one, the large wolves were decimated by Zac’s approach, and he actually managed to destroy eighty of them before they reached the wall. Left behind in his wake were broken rocks and smaller wolves, who resumed the approach.

  The demons on the wall had a lot of trouble destroying these large beasts, as it took them an inordinate amount of effort to destroy another ten of them. Helplessly, they could only focus on the smaller ones, as they began a methodical dismantling. The number of wolves was staggering by now, as most of the wolves survived after Zac switched to the mallet.

  The last surviving whole wolves heedlessly ran into the wall, creating huge impacts that could be felt to the bone. Worst was the area where the boss rammed the wall, as large cracks ran all the way to the foundation. The earth mages on top of the wall quickly stopped their attacks and instead focused on mending the cracks before they spread any further. A few unlucky demons were even flung off the wall to the ground by the shock wave.

  After the initial impact, the normal wolves couldn’t do too much damage. They scratched and bit the walls, and with every attack, deep gouges were created. Still, it would take some time before they got through the thick walls, so Zac wasn’t too worried about that. The boss was another matter.

  With surprising nimbleness, it backed away a bit and stood up on its hind legs. The monster was huge, reaching a fair bit over ten meters in height when it stood like this. It looked like bad news to Zac, forcing him to action, even though he usually tried to ignore the boss as long as possible. He even swapped out the mallet for his usual axe, and charged up a [Chop] as he approached. With one quick motion, he cut off one of the hind legs, but it was too late. The monster was already falling down toward the wall, and with a tremendous crash, it slammed into it. Rocks from both the boss and the wall flew everywhere, and the shock wave forced even Zac back some distance.

  Luckily, the wall was sturdy enough that a single body-slam wasn’t enough to destroy it. A section of the top wall was crushed, however. Even worse, the boss created a sort of ramp up toward the other side, and it looked like most of the wolves were ready. They stopped their assault at the wall and charged toward the now unmoving boss.

  The fact that Zac had gained almost no Cosmic Energy when he lopped off the leg told him that the boss was still alive and simply kept still in order to let its minions over the wall. This put Zac in a predicament, as he didn’t know whether to kill the boss or try to stop the invasion on its back. If he destroyed the boss, the security breach would be fixed, but the next wave would spawn prematurely. Conversely, if he left it alive, some demons risked dying from the onslaught.

  After some hesitation, he started chopping off parts of the large boss, making the walkway along its back a bit thinner. He quickly stopped after the walkway was only three meters wide at most parts, though, as he was afraid the System would count it as a kill if he continued on.

  After that, he placed himself on the back of the wolf to meet the oncoming onslaught. Hundreds of stone wolves were converging on his location, and Zac destroyed them one by one as they approached. He once again took out a second small axe to dual-wield against the incoming sea of wolves. He was like a grinder where wolves entered and small chunks of rocks exited. Every now and then, some of the smaller wolves slipped through the cracks and ran past Zac up toward the wall. A second line of defense consisting of a few melee warriors had already formed behind Zac, though, and they were quickly dealt with.

  The other demons weren’t idle either, and they bombarded the wolves below. Zac’s actions created a chokepoint, and the wolves trying to get up their leader’s back were packed tightly along the wall. Any attack was having great efficiency, as it was essentially impossible to miss by now. A group of warriors also scaled the wall down to ambush the wolves from behind as they all tried to move toward Zac.

  The number of wolves was steadily decreasing, and the battlefield was starting to fill with rocky debris. It was worst around Zac, as most of the action was centered around there. It was actually starting to create a problem, as every death added onto their boss, and the wolf ramp was growing wider and sturdier as the battle went on.

  It was getting increasingly hard for Zac to kill everything that tried to get up without expending any Cosmic Energy, as he simply had trouble reaching both sides of the widening ramp. Every now and then, he stomped the
ground with a Dao-empowered foot, creating a small landslide of rocks and gravel. It helped to somewhat allay the problem, but it was only delaying the inevitable.

  “Stash the rocks into Cosmos Sacks!” Zac shouted behind him, and a few demons moved forward to comply. He had actually attained the [Book of Babel] some time ago by using contribution points.

  The skill wasn’t available in his Nexus Node, so he was quite excited to see the skill in the temporary contribution shop. The shop was actually another crystal that spawned close to his camp, along with a huge monitor that listed the rankings of contribution. It only showed the top ten, though.

  The skill cost a week’s worth of Zac’s contribution points, but he felt it was worth it. Communication was getting more important as the waves got harder and some teamwork was needed. Besides, he would need the skill soon anyway when he set out from the island. He had no idea who he’d meet when he left since the world had gotten randomized, and it would be quite frustrating if he finally met humans but couldn’t communicate with them.

  The wave was finally starting to thin out, but the battle on top of the boss had continuously caused damage and cracks to the hulking beast they stood on. Finally, some threshold was passed, as Zac saw the portals start pulsating in the distance. Since there was no reason to be careful anymore, Zac ordered the demons to back up to the wall again.

  Next he charged up a huge fractal blade on each of his axes, and even empowered them with the Dao of Heaviness, turning the blades darker and giving them a palpable pressure. With a roar, he swung down on the boss below, and the power from his swings completely decimated the beast and everything along with it.

  The landing that had accumulated over time from the kills was completely destroyed as the strikes made debris fly in all directions, and even the closest wolves were thrown away. He immediately removed the Dao empowerment from the blades but kept them up for a few seconds as he completely destroyed any remainders of the siege. It would be impossible for the noncombat classes to pick up all these small pieces of gravel, so he had to spread them out as much as possible.

  Tens of the stone wolves were caught up in Zac’s wide swings, and along with the efforts of the demons, less than 10% remained. Finally content, Zac let the fractal edges dissipate as he turned toward the next wave that was already approaching. These wolves had a washed-out cyan coloring, and the ground actually froze to ice where their feet touched as they ran. Zac sighed as he picked up one of the larger rocks from the ground and moved toward the incoming wave.

  The day was far from over.

  89

  The Final Four

  As the days passed, the fights got increasingly desperate. Zac had improved quite a bit over the last weeks, enabling him to pick up some of the slack. But the same thing couldn’t be said about the demons. He was surprised to hear that most of the demons who entered the incursion were actually level 75 already, stuck in the first bottleneck. Their current power was around a level 50, or a level 30 elite. This made Zac realize that levels were only a half-decent indicator for actual power.

  The continuous battling was a crucible that let a few warriors push through their limits and improve their skills. There had even been a few warriors who gained a Dao Seed in their desperation. A nondescript demoness gained the Seed of Tinder, and her fireballs suddenly created waves of death as the flames quickly spread into their surroundings. But it wasn’t enough.

  Ogras was truly impressive, both in the number of his kills and his leadership. Over the weeks, his role as the leader of the demons went from something born out of fear into willing submission. Unfortunately, Ogras didn’t have the inhuman Endurance and Vitality of Zac, and as the fights got more intense, the shorter amount of time he was able to keep going.

  Initially, the two split the fighting fifty-fifty, giving both sufficient rest, but now Zac fought in 75% of the waves. In some waves, he simply acted as a backup to the tired Ogras, but the other waves, he was forced to almost single-handedly carry.

  Just in the last day, Zac had been forced to activate the shield on eight of the waves, rapidly draining his crystal reserves. One of the waves he actually decimated with the offensive component after letting everyone rest for a full fifty-nine minutes.

  In a perfect world, he would have done that in every single wave for half a day, but it, unfortunately, was impossible. The offensive attack took twelve hours to recharge and cost 2,500 crystals to use. Even though he had a crystal mine to his name, the actual number of crystals he had on him wasn’t too large, so he had to use the attack sparingly.

  Zac was running quite low on crystals, even though Ogras had reluctantly fished out a surprising number of them a week ago. They were his private hoard he’d kept as long as possible. Zac regretted that he’d traded so many of them for Nexus Coins prematurely. He was afraid the whole wave would come in one go instead of the incremental way the wolves had, and splurged on the array and a few offensive options to be able to meet a storm of beasts.

  Only afterward did he know that he was wrong, and Ogras was as surprised as he was. It was easy for him to sometimes see the demons as some omniscient beings, but Ogras was only a youth from a D-ranked world just like him. There were an endless number of things he didn’t know the specifics of either.

  Zac had even gone to buy back some of what he sold to Calrin, prepared to eat a loss. He was dismayed to learn that Calrin’s reasons for hiking up the prices of herbs weren’t actually purely a business tactic. There apparently were restrictions put in place the moment the waves started and the protective shields of the shop were erected. The System stopped the trade of certain items, and crystals were one such thing.

  Crystals were used in powering most powerful arrays and war machines, and Calrin said he believed the reason for the embargo was that the System didn’t want people to finish hard quests with money alone. It made sense, as the beast horde quest would become a joke if Zac had unlimited funds. He could just sit on top of the wall and watch as powerful arrays ripped the wolves to shreds. He had seen the terrible power of the arrays the one time he’d activated the offensive functions. The blasts had left nothing alive of that wave.

  He already had an advantage from possessing the mine and the knowledge of the demons. Without either, the quest would be far harder, but still manageable. Unfortunately, the restrictions on trade meant that Zac couldn’t just keep the array active for the last four hordes. His remaining crystals simply wouldn’t be enough.

  “Just four more waves,” a voice said next to him as Zac stood on the wall. It was Ogras, who looked uncommonly rested. Both he and Zac had taken it somewhat easy the last day, even though the waves were getting quite extreme, which was partly why he had been forced to use the shield so much. The two could only assume the finale would be pretty bad from the escalation of difficulty.

  Zac grunted in affirmation as he threw rocks at the stragglers of the wave below. These wolves were extremely thin and excelled in speed, so Zac only managed to hit them every ten throws or so. He could have gone down, but these wolves were actually quite dangerous. Their claws were razor sharp, and together with their speed, one of them had actually managed to cut a wound on Zac’s throat before he managed to react. He had quickly climbed up the walls again after the scare.

  If the wolves were a bit faster, the wave would have been really calamitous. With their amazing speed and light frame, they actually managed to run up most of the wall before being impeded by gravity. A few actually made it all the way, but they were quickly ganged up on before they could orient themselves and do any damage.

  The rest had slowly been dealt with using quantity over quality. The monsters were too deft to target, so the demons simply focus-fired in certain congested areas, pelting it with spells and arrows. A whole area with a radius of fifty meters quickly became a zone of death, and even these quick wolves couldn’t escape.

  Still, the elusive wolves took time to kill, and some still were running about below the wall even a
s the summoning of the next wave approached, every so often trying to scale the fortifications. The portals in the distance pulsated, which signaled the next wave’s arrival.

  Soon the 717th wave was approaching. These wolves looked quite normal apart from the fact that they were completely white, making them look albino. But instead of the red eyes that usually accompanied that condition, even their eyes were without any color, making them look blind. The only exception to the monochromatic color scheme was a perfect black circle in their foreheads.

  They trotted toward the wall at a uniform speed, not heedlessly charging like most of the waves did. When they were a few hundred meters away, they suddenly stopped and let out a synchronized howl toward the defenders.

  The sound pierced Zac’s ears, and he immediately became woozy. He forcefully refocused his mind and looked at the surroundings and saw most of the demons hunkered over. Many bled from their eyes or ears as well, a testament to the penetrating power of the howl.

  “Mental attack,” Ogras hoarsely said, his eyes a bit red from the impact. He glanced at Zac, who seemed completely unperturbed by the assault. “Jeez, just how high is your Intelligence? Such a synchronized attack didn’t even affect you.”

  Zac ignored the comment as usual. Ogras tried to dig out some information about Zac’s class and attributes every so often through innocuous comments. Zac didn’t trust himself to weave a believable net of lies and then keep track of it, and could only stoically ignore the remarks. He instead focused on the psychic wolves in the distance, and suddenly, his eyes turned into pinpoints.

  “DOWN!” Zac roared at the top of his lungs, and most demons immediately threw themselves at the ground. Over the past weeks, most had learned to trust Zac’s nose for danger and wouldn’t hesitate to follow his commands. However, a few were still dazed by the mental attack, and they paid dearly for it.