The axe howled and swung down toward the demon hound .
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 day’s 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 wasn’t 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 couldn’t 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 couldn’t 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 Zac’s 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 imp’s 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 human’s , 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 imp’s hand , and it somehow threw it straight towards Zac’s 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 Zac’s 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 didn’t run into anything .