Defiance of the Fall

ore corporeal.
It soundlessly screeched at the two of them before it once again receded into Ogras’ shadow.

“Pretty creepy,” Zac muttered.

’

“Tell me about it,” Ogras said with a shake of his head.

“But what does that have to do with this battle?” Zac asked.

“Its presence has increased both the power and volume of my shadows, but my control has lessened.
It normally doesn’t interfere, but it looks like it doesn’t like fire.
The moment we entered the battle and all the flame-attuned energies started swirling about it hid deep within my shadows, making me unable to send out any attacks,” Ogras helplessly explained.

Zac shook his head, inwardly swearing at Brazla, both the real one and the Tool Spirit.
Forcing people to pay for treasures by setting up inheritances was clearly a great way to create death traps for one’s descendants.
Zac suddenly felt lucky he only got a predecessor who was just a bit eccentric and disinterested in passing on his true inheritance.

“Any other surprises waiting for me?” Zac sighed.
“We don’t have a lot of people to spare, you know.”

“I have no idea, I didn ’t even know the parasite had this weakness.
That asshole didn’t really leave an instruction manual.
He just gave me a couple of rewards and told me to come back in a decade if I survived the fusion.
Going to come back alright, if just to kill that ghost,” Ogras swore.

Ogras’ powers having turned unstable was a wrench in the plans, but he was still the strongest fighter on the squad even without his shadows.
Besides Zac himself, of course.
And so far the only weakness they had encountered was that of fire, and there were no other clear fire-attuned enemies apart from the incursion in the underworld.

This time it took two days to get everything in order.
The addition of Tylia sped up the recovery of those who were hurt, helping the soldiers get back to fighting strength in record time.
The dragonlings were one of the forces that killed or pushed out all other races from their lands, so taking control of the volcano didn ’t require any work at all.
They simply erected a teleporter and sent a dozen scouts to scour the area for anything of value.

One good thing that came out of Zac being forced to go all out was that he felt he was getting extremely close to finally gaining his level.
So he immediately opened the teleporter to their next target the moment that everyone was healed up and ready to go.
The soldiers had taken the deaths in stride, as they all knew that assaulting multiple forces in short order was an extremely risky venture.

But the gains were quite impressive as well.
Joanna had informed him that the Valkyries had all received a quest after they closed the third Incursion.
It was an Incursion closing quest sort of like the one he gained for the demonic Incursion, but it gave out variable rewards depending on how many they managed to close in the coming month.
So they were the ones most eager to get going, even though they mourned the death of Jennifer.

The fourth target was another humanoid race, but this time things didn ’t go according to plan either.
As Zac sat in the front seat and played with the mental puzzle he suddenly got a bad premonition.
He immediately took out his axe, which alerted the others in the car.

”Something is wrong, ” Zac only had time to say before a huge number of projectiles flew straight at their cars.

’

Zac immediately activated [Nature ’s Barrier], and infused it with the Seed of Sanctuary.
The skill had no problem covering the entirety of the convoy since the seed had been upgraded to the middle stage from the Dao Impartment.
But the ambush cost him over half his cosmic energy as he was forced to reform countless leaves to keep his people safe until they could get in position.

Ogras disappeared from his position in the back seat, and immediately after he appeared in the sky above the cars, two huge black wings covering his back.
He was clearly anxious to regain his honor from the last battle, even to the point that he used his ultimate transformation.
He thrummed with unrestrained power as a sea of shadows swallowed a large sector of the forest that hid the invaders.

Wails of pain echoed among the trees as innumerable shadow lances destroyed anything within reach.
One of the leaders of the ambush even fell from a beam of concentrated shadows before Zac even had time to reach the hastily formed defensive lines.

The strength of the response to their ambush had flustered the invaders, and a few even started to run away when they saw Zac barrel toward them, his towering aura spreading out in all directions.
Only a small core of elites maintained the ranks, and they formed a small elite unit to counter his advance.
But they were an established force of the multi-verse, and they had their own hidden aces.

A huge golden bell appeared in the sky above the leaders of the ambush, while the leader of the ambush held a perfect miniature copy of it.
His eyes met Zac ’s, and the next moment he swung the bell with a somber expression.
His face turned completely pallid, and it even looked like he aged a bit from the action.

A towering aura was suddenly released from the bell, and it was as though it was sentient.
Zac felt an extremely powerful presence focusing on him, and he only had time to summon another layer of leaves before the bell rung.
It ’s chime contained a mysterious force, and the moment it hit Zac he immediately fell over, his vision turning black.

When he woke up again he saw the backs of the Valkyries standing in front of him, desperately maintaining a barrier as he heard Billy ’s bellow ahead.
He quickly got to his feet again with some embarrassment and rushed forward after activating [Mental Fortress].
That bell unleashed a terrifying mental attack, and he had forgotten to protect against that type of assault after being pelted by normal spells and arrows.

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A glance around the battlefield proved that they had still managed to keep the advantage even with his own incapacitation, in large part thanks to Ogras huge expenditure of Cosmic Energy.
Zac noted that the demon ’s aura was starting to get unstable, and immediately flashed forward with [Loamwalker] to relieve the pressure.

The moment he truly entered the fray was also the beginning of the end of the battle.
The invading army had already lost all of their momentum from the massive losses Ogras and Billy had caused, and the addition of Zac at full fighting strength completely broke their spirits.

The Incursion truly had put everything in this ambush, as they fielded four generals and the Incursion leader himself in the fight.
He had tried to flee at the last minute, but Zac ran him down and cut him in two.
The moment he tried to kill them all with a sneak attack was the moment he sealed his fate.

Zac stood over the bisected body of the E-Grade leader, his eyes closed as a huge amount of cosmic energy washed over him.

He had finally reached the peak of the F-Grade.