Chapter 15: Desperation
The axe swung down and with a thud sunk into the side of the hound. The hound tried to get up, but Zac still had his left hand clamped on its throat, keeping it down. A few more swings in quick succession and the beast was dead as well. He felt the warm cosmic force enter him again. This time it felt like he gained almost twice the amount compared to the demonlings. This was also the final amount he needed to gain a level, bringing him to level 18.
Zac was a bit shaky after the encounter, but a days worth of bloodshed and risking his life had steeled his nerves somewhat. He immediately left the site of the battle, not bothering with the three carcasses lying there. He needed to find somewhere to bandage himself.
While walking he allocated the two points into dexterity and vitality. Zac felt that by now his strength was enough to seriously hurt the monsters he had encountered with a few swings, and speed would likely help him more than more strength. He still put a point into vitality as he kept getting hurt more and more.
Finally he found a secluded spot and quickly drank a few mouthfuls of water and patched himself up. Zac was bruised and battered, and completely unwilling to fight any more today. He had also run out of gauze after patching up his chest. The demon hound had carved a maze of scratches on his chest. The wounds were not deep, but together they had bled quite a bit. Luckily his high vitality seemed particularly effective against these type of smaller wounds. He sensed that the bleeding had already almost stopped, and scabs had started to form over the wounds. It seemed that he would be all fixed up in a day or two.
From the fight he also realized that the amulet from the gathering array was quite sturdy. The hound had clawed both the little wheel and the string multiple times, and not a scratch could be seen on it. It seemed that a stronger force than some dog claws would be needed to damage it. For a brief moment he imagined decking himself in hundreds of amulets, making him near-invulnerable.
Of course that wasnt realistic. But it showed that there were probably many sturdy materials in the multi-verse that could be made into extremely strong defensive gear. He put the stray thoughts out of his head and started his return trek.
On his way back he walked in an even more surreptitious manner, stealthily making his way back toward the base. He was forced to kill one more demonling which had accidentally found him while bounding through the forest. He had seen a few more demons but chose to ignore them. It was getting late and the suns were slowly setting. This made his vision limited and the forest was gaining a sinister feel to it. Zac decided that even if he wanted the extra cosmic energy, he should get back to camp. If another of the demon hounds ambushed him while fighting the demonlings he might be hard pressed to fight them off.
He simply was too tired and wounded, and vision was getting worse. He had accomplished what he set out to do today, and he couldnt get greedy.
As he passed one of the sites of his previous battles, he suddenly noticed movement by the corpse of the demon. Zac immediately stopped moving and hid behind a tree to scout out the scene.
At first he thought he saw a child standing by the carcass, but soon discarded that thought. The thing was roughly as large as a six or seven year old child, but it was clearly a new type of demon. The thing looked like an imp from old fairy tales. It was completely naked except a loincloth. It had a purplish skin full of scars and what looked almost be tumors, giving It a sickly look. It almost seemed like it was suffering from radiation poisoning. On its back was a set of bat wings with a span of roughly a meter per wing.
Zac was unsure if the wings were actually serviceable as the imp had a stocky build with a fat stomach. It had no hair and seemingly no ears. He couldnt make out any facial features as it was currently looking down and poking the corpse of the demonling. It seemed like it was examining the wounds and trying to figure out what had happened.
That was not good news for Zac. It was one thing if the island was full of deadly but dumb beasts. He could deal with that as long as he went out killing every day killing some at the time. But if there were smarter enemies who could team up he might start meet more and more organized resistance on the island. They might even send out search parties to look for him. The island was quite large, but a concerted effort would sooner or later flush him out of hiding.
He wanted to stay under the radar for a while longer. If the corpses were left alone hopefully the local wildlife would eat it. Then it would look like the beasts were killed in a fight with other beasts, rather from a few swings of an axe. His plans of slowly grinding levels and gaining battle experience would be over if this thing flew back and reported to its superiors.
There was only one solution, he had to kill it.
Luckily it did not look overly powerful with its small stature and scrawny arms. One good swing with the hatchet and it would be decapitated.
Zac did not want to take any chances however, and decided on a surprise attack. He slowly circled around and closed in on the imp from behind. He kept a careful watch for its reactions but it seemed absorbed in examining the corpse.
A snap was heard from beneath Zacs foot when he was only 5 meters away from the imp. The failing light had caused him to not notice a fallen twig lying in his path. He froze for a millisecond but then immediately charged at the imp with all speed he could muster.
The imps preservation skills were impressive. As soon as it heard the sound behind it, it jumped over the carcass of the beast while letting out a high pitched screech. It managed to turn around midair with its wings and Zac saw its face. It had four pitch black eyes. One set was placed like a humans, and the other set were placed slightly more apart up on its forehead. It had no nose except two holes, and its mouth was a small circle full of sharp teeth. From the few flaps of its wings it seemed like it was unable to fly, but able to elongate its jump considerably.
Zac desperately tried to catch up, afraid it would be able to get away. The imp did some obscure gestures with its hands while floating away, as Zac was closing in on it and the carcass of the beast. Suddenly a purplish-black flame erupted on the imps hand, and it somehow threw it straight towards Zacs head.
Zac barely had time to position his head out of the way, but a part of the sinister flame managed to land on his shoulder. Any plan of killing the imp flew out of the window, as Zacs mind turned white in a blinding explosion of pain. The black flame was far more dangerous than normal fire, and it seemed it that somehow managed to burn his soul. The pain on his singed flesh was nothing compared to that pain.
Zac was completely dazed by the pain and fell over the demonling carcass instead of jumping over it. The imp landed a few meters away, still screeching at him. After a few second of observation it once again started to summon a flame with its mysterious hand gestures.
With a shake of his head Zac managed to clear his sight. Unknowingly to him his eyes were completely red and tears were streaming down. As soon as he got back up on his feet he had to immediately jump out of the way from another of those black insidious flame balls. It missed him and fell upon the corpse of the demon instead. The fire caused the corpse to visibly shrink, as though all moisture was burned instead of the flesh.
He once again charged toward the imp but it simply kept jumping backwards. Its wings helped it gain momentum, and it was even slightly faster than Zac. It even had time to occasionally turn around to make sure it didnt run into anything.
The imp was essentially kiting him, throwing out a fireball every few seconds. The closer Zac got to it the harder it was to dodge. After a minute he had been hit another 3 times by the when he got close. The first time it barely grazed his arm so it was not too bad. If you could call the pain of getting stabbed a hundred times not too bad. The second hit him in the gut, which almost made him double over and puke his guts out from the agony. The final one hit his leg.
That hit had made him unable to keep chasing the imp. He could barely put any weight on the leg, it felt like it had been paralyzed. The pain was so bad he almost swung his hatchet to chop it off. He knew that he would not be able to dodge anymore when it threw its next fireball.
In a last desperate attempt to survive, he hurled his hatchet with all strength he could muster straight at the chest of the flying demon.
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