Chapter 88: A day in the Wolf Horde

Chapter 88: A day in the Wolf Horde

Zac intercepted the group of wolves some distance in front of the walls, not wanting to give them a chance to ruin his fortifications. These hulking things really looked like they could cause a dent it the wall. Zac really wished that the walls were inscribed with protective inscriptions like the whole Shipyard, since then he wouldnt have to worry about this. Unfortunately, there was no one with the skillset to inscribe the wall among the demons.

It was a recurring problem with the non-combat class demons in AzhRodum. 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 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 competences 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 didnt want to use too much energy this wave, as he 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 were a few smaller versions of the large rocky wolf that somehow was 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 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 was 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 swings destroyed one towering beast after another. Every time he infused the swings with the Dao almost half the monsters inside died as well 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 used on top of the mountain, and Zac found it pretty interesting when he 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 wasnt 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.

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 Cosmic Pouches! 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 wasnt 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 10 though.

The skill cost a weeks worth of Zacs 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 hed meet when he left since the world had gotten randomized, and it would be quite frustrating if he finally met humans but couldnt 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 non-combat 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 Zacs wide swings, and along with the efforts of the demons less than ten percent 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.