Defiance of the Fall

Zac sat on a rock with a bottle of water in hand. He had just finished bandaging up his arm from the swipe of the demon and was now taking a quick breather. The fight had gone far better than his expectation, but he wouldnt let himself get complacent.

Not wanting to fill his stomach with too much water and later cramping up he took a few small sips then put the bottle back. Checking that everything was in order he once again set out into the jungle, continuing his path of gradually moving inland. He did not bother remaking a spear for now, at least until he found some far stronger wood. Abby had talked about trees taking properties of metal, and he desperately hoped he could find a tree like that.

It was not long before he ran into another demon dog. This one was slowly moving around, almost looking like a scout or like it was patrolling. He quickly decided on the place of the battle after a quick look around the surroundings. From there it proceeded much like the last fight. A rock was thrown to taunt the beast and it almost knocked itself out cold on a boulder. This time Zac instead swung down his hatchet on the spine between the two sets of frontal legs. He strove to incapacitate two sets of legs and only leave the front-most legs in working order.

This was as close to the head as he dared attack at the moment though, as he had seen how fast the demonling had swung its head to snap his spear in two. He was somewhat certain that the demon was like a crocodile in that regard; if something entered the maw, it would not leave.

The attack proved far more effective than he could have imagined. The blade fell down right between two vertebras and continued almost unimpeded into the torso of the beast. Zac saw his opportunity and twisted while he tugged out the axe towards the side. He hoped to wreak as much havoc as possible in the demons insides, destroying both lungs and heart. The axe was quickly completely ripped out of the chest, and a great gout of blood followed it and sprayed all over Zac.

The forceful tug swept Zac off his feet and he fell backward into the grass. He quickly got up to his feet axe at the ready, but soon realized it was unnecessary. The demon was lying on the ground listlessly. Blood was pouring out of the wound like a waterfall. After a shudder it stopped moving, and Zac felt the now familiar warmth once again enter him.

Zac realized he must have hit the heart of the beast. There seemed to be no other possible explanation to the copious amounts of blood that had streamed out of the wound. Seeing as how he wasnt even out of breath from the fight, he immediately left and continued to look for more prey.

Zacs day continued like this, and by evening he had killed roughly 20 demonlings with varied amount of success. He still had not leveled up to level 18, but he could somehow sense that he was close. After every kill during the day some of the cosmic energy had entered his body. And if his body could be considered a container, it felt as though the container was starting to get full. Zac guessed that the moment he felt full from the cosmic energy was the moment he leveled up.

Zac stood and overlooked the aftermath of his last victory. He had gained a few new wounds, but nothing threatening. This latest fight had been the most dangerous one so far, simply because he had fought two demonlings at the same time. The second one had burst through the vegetation while he was already fighting the first one.

Luckily the beasts were truly clumsy, and with dodging around the natural environment he managed to mostly keep out of harms way until he could bleed them out. Zac hypothesized that the natural environment of these beasts likely had no greenery, and very little obstructions. The monsters simply seemed completely unaccustomed to fighting in this type of terrain.

Zac was about to leave when he suddenly heard a twig snap behind him. Taking no chances he lunged to his right. He just heard the sound of wind while falling, but suddenly his left shoulder explode in pain. Ignoring the pain for now he got to his feet and finally got a good look at his assailer.

It was a demon, but a different type from the ones he had fought so far. If the demon dogs so far had been depending on brawn, this one clearly leaned toward agility. Measuring up to his navel, the beast somewhat looked like an oversized greyhound dog. If the dog had turned into a zombie. Just like the other demon it looked almost like it had been skinned. There were some differences with a greyhound though, such as the head with the oversized maw. The three rows of sharp teeth were clearly showing as the monster silently growled toward him. It had no fur, and instead had a thin red skin with the wiry muscles clearly showing beneath. This beast also only had the customary 4 legs, compared with the 6 legs of the other demons.

Its paws were also larger than a normal dogs, and Zac could clearly see large sinister claws sticking out of them. The sinewy tail seemed overly long even for a monster of this size, slowly swaying behind it.

Finally he noticed that one of the front paws was bloodied, dying the grass red. That explained the burning pain on his shoulder. He had no time to come up with any fancy strategies at the moment and could only fall back on his go-to method for dealing with demons. He slowly repositioned himself so that he once again would have his back to a tree. He had immediately discarded the idea to run away. With its lithe build and long legs it obviously was built for speed, and he had no delusions of being able to shake it off. Hopefully the high speed would help come in handy for him when it slammed into the tree behind.

Suddenly the hound shot toward him. Zac knew it would be fast but it looked like the like it flew across the ground. The 30-meter distance between them was erased in seconds, and Zac barely had the time to jump out of the way to let the hound slam into the tree.

Just as the monster was about to slam into the tree trunk it swung its long tail. This somehow changed the direction of its momentum. Instead of slamming into the tree it actually used the trunk as purchase with its legs to push itself forward toward Zacs falling figure. Even before he had hit the ground from jumping away, the beast was upon him.

Zac swung the hatchet while midair, but the beast was to close for the blade to hit its head. He managed to punch the jawline with the haft of the axe though, stopping the maw from chomping down on his head.

Zac landed with his back on the ground, and the hound fell on him. All air was knocked out of his lungs, and he could taste the iron of blood in his mouth. He was face to face with the beast, its acrid breath filling his nose.

Zac desperately held the head at bay with his left arm, swinging the hatchet with his other. Dismayed Zac saw that he couldnt generate enough strength to create more than flesh wounds from this awkward position. The beast struggled to reach him with its maws, meanwhile clawing on Zacs chest. Each swipe ripped straight through his shirt and left a bloody gash on his torso.

This stalemate could not last, he would be cut to ribbons if he didnt do something. He swung the beast to the side and slammed it into the ground on his left, giving a brief moment of respite. He didnt dare hesitate and immediately swung his axe in a broad arc. His body screamed in protest but he could only grit his teeth.

The axe howled and swung down toward the demon hound.

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