Chapter 57: Dressing up

Chapter 57: Dressing up

Zac suddenly remembered hearing a snapping sound when he used the shield against the imp Herald. He had no idea how to fix the inscriptions and could only reluctantly put the armor into his bag. He didnt want to risk damaging it further until he could fix it, as it had been a great life-saving tool so far.

He then brought out the headless body from his pouch. After a great deal of hesitation he stripped the bloody dress from the body, leaving the corpse only in its undergarments. He then put the dress on himself with a sour face before putting back the body into the pouch.

It wasnt ideal, but the dress had the same inscription as his armor, and it could be the difference between life and death. The dress he put on was strapped was a neutral beige and reached down to his knees. The design was luckily armless and somewhat nondescript, making it almost look like an overly long tank top. He put his belt over the dress then turned his eyes to the pouches.

A creepy grin was slowly surfacing once again, as he grabbed the closest one of the three he looted and took a peek inside.

If this was an old school cartoon then Zacs eyes would have turned into dollar-signs by now. The bag was almost filled to the brim with sack after sack of raw Nexus Crystals. If he had to guess hed have to say there was at least an equivalent of 10 000 crystals in the pouch. The shapes and sizes were completely random as well, ranging from the size of a finger to almost a whole hand. Most of the crystals were encased in some stone and needed one last processing before being pure.

The second bag was unfortunately empty except a few solitary sacks, likely a spare in case the first one was filled up. The third one was the personal pouch belonging to the noble lady herself. It held various personal effects such as daily necessities, clothes, and jewelry. It also had a nasty-looking claw weapon with fractal inscriptions. Zac brought it out and tried to put it on his hand, but it seemed to have been custom made for the demoness, or at least made for ladies, as his hand didnt fit.

Most noticeably in the pouch there was a sizeable mound of raw crystals. There even were a few sacks as well. It looked like that the lady foreman was skimming off the top after all, as crystals worth a couple of hundred standard-sized ones could be found in the pouch.

Satisfied with his haul he took out some food and water from his pouch to have his dinner. As he did he started to plan his next step. He had planned on stalking the tunnels for a while longer, but unfortunately, he was already exposed. He didnt doubt that the fleeing demon soon would warn all his superiors about Zac. The demon had seen the whole fight where Zac showed many of his cards as well.

After half a month of living with the demons, he was finally exposed. It was better than he expected to be honest, as he wasnt really the stealthy type. It seemed he could only begrudgingly give up on finding any more mining foremen, and instead refocus on the monkey king. It was time to head back the way he came from, and search for an alternative exit.

But suddenly Zac got an acute sense of danger, and instinctively dove to the side. A soundless black arrow flew past him where his head had just been and a throng earth spikes followed right after. Zac scrambled to his feet and found himself face to face with over twenty demons swarming into his cave from all exits.

This clearly was an ambush that they prepared for some time, as they entered from both exits simultaneously. Feeling like a caged animal, Zac growled and immediately ran toward one of the groups, trying to avoid a pincer attack.

Zac was completely drenched in blood by now, both his own and the demons, and filled with small wounds from head to toe. Almost ten arrows were sticking out of his body at various spots, making him look like a demonic porcupine. He was panting and it looked like it was a chore to keep his axe raised, but he was still standing. Fighting twenty demons at once was a bit more than he could confidently handle, even in an enclosed space like this.

None of the demons were keen on being the first to attack, as over 15 demons already had made the ultimate sacrifice and they didnt want to be next in line. They seemed to be content to simply watch as Zac slowly bled out.

They all kept a healthy distance from him, making him unable to reach them even with [Chop], and he currently didnt dare use his ranged attack due to the huge consumption of energy.

Zac knew he couldnt keep stalling and threw a dagger at one of the mages, who quickly summoned a barrier. The translucent wall shook when the dagger hit it, but it held true and the dagger dropped to the ground. Zac didnt want to throw his axe as his other one still was lodged in the mage some distance away.

Needing to break the status quo, he moved his hand down to his belt, and with underhand throw hurled a large crystal sack at another demon. The demon slightly froze from seeing a small mountain of wealth flying in his direction, and even instinctually reached out his hand to catch it.

But how could a heavy sack thrown by Zac be so easy to catch? It hit the demon who crashed into the wall behind with a wet thud. He slumped down on the ground and didnt move. The other five demons all charged at him as if by command, throwing desperate attacks at him.

With only 5 demons left Zac finally threw his axe at a mage keeping his distance. He hastily erected an earth wall, but the axe had the momentum of a meteor and passed the rising wall and blasted a hole through the mage before he could also activate his stone skin.

He took out one of his large swords out of his pouch and with a sweep slapped away two incoming spears. He then charged straight at the closest warrior. The warrior tried to keep Zac at bay with his spear, but Zac simply swung his sword at it with enough force that it broke the fingers of the warrior, and continued into melee range.

With a growl, he stabbed the great sword into the demons gut, and with a ferocious upwards tug ripped him in two, drenching the surroundings in a storm of blood. A second spear stabbed into his side, but it only added yet another shallow wound to the tally. The three remaining demons seemed to understand that they didnt have the power to contend with him, and simultaneously started absorbing inordinate amounts of cosmic energy.

Zac didnt want to see what a triple suicide explosion looked like, and desperately ran toward the closest target and decapitated him. He continued toward the next immediately, but as he approached a resounding explosion threw him ten meters away and straight into a wall.

Zac puked out a mouthful of blood, and his wounds only got worse. Just as he shakily got up to his knees his vision filled with a bloated demon falling down in front of him. It was the last living demoness, chock-full of cosmic energy. The demoness stared into Zacs eyes as she shed one solitary tear before she blew up with a tremendous explosion.