The alpha monkey maybe could be considered a captain , and the Herald was the general . Just the fact that the packs were getting stronger felt like a good indication that he was on the correct path . It showed the Herald likely was nearby as he hypothesized .
Zac hesitated for a second , before doing his customary sweep of the surroundings .
The monkeys in general seemed stronger compared to the outer packs , so he needed to do some preparation . Close to the pack he found a narrow path up in the mountain , with sheer wall on both sides . It seemed that the rocky formation cracked in two sometime in the distant past , which had created this path . That would hopefully only let a few monkeys charge in at the time . It would slow down his assault but he wanted to play it safe until he could gauge the strength of these juiced up monkeys .
The next part was to lure the monkeys over , and Zac simply picked up a boulder the size of a head . With a grunt he threw it straight into the clump of monkeys , and with its huge momentum it smashed a poor monkey’s head in .
The monkeys angrily roared and flooded toward him . Zac slowly backed away and placed himself some ways into the crack . He planned to kill a few and then back further in to make room for the corpses .
The battle started as intended , with Zac quickly reaping the lives of a dozen monkeys in quick order . But as he retreated further in he noticed a very bad sign . The monkeys had no problems climbing the sheer rock walls .
Zac wanted to slap himself in his scarred face . He should have realized that rock monkeys were good at climbing rocks . He had simply forgotten about the nimbleness of their primate brethren as the stone monkeys always seemed to sit immobile among the rocks rather than climbing them .
Just as he berated himself he heard a loud roar from the back rows of the group of monkeys . Suddenly all monkeys in front of him threw themselves to the ground in perfect harmony , and taking their place was a rock hurtling toward him . It was twice the size of the one he had thrown , and he didn’t have time to react before it slammed into him like a truck .
Zac was flung backward from the momentum and spit out a mouthful of blood . It seemed the monkey captain wanted revenge for his earlier throw .
Before he could get up multiple monkeys hanging on the walls jumped down on him . Rather than trying to pummel him like monkeys used to , it seemed that they tried to pin him down . They gripped his extremities with all their might and tried to keep him from getting up .
Unfortunately for them his strength was 160 by now , and he could lift the monkeys like they were children . He ignored the monkey clinging to his axe arm and furiously swung the axe , killing the monkeys who were gripping his legs .
As he finally was getting up after getting rid of all the monkeys another projectile was flying into his direction . This time it was a sharp stalactite , and Zac couldn’t understand where the monkey captain had gotten it . He managed to deflect it in the last minute with his axe , but the force made him fall back a few steps .
He immediately jumped into the fray , now fighting both monkeys on the ground and those hanging on the wall . He madly flailed the axe around , the only thing keeping him safe was the great reach of Chop] .
He soon got the answer from where the monkey captain found its stalactite . As he was desperately defending against the deluge of rabid monkeys he saw the captain grab onto the rock wall . Its fingers actually carved into the wall , and suddenly he dragged out another stalactite straight out of the wall .
It actually looked like the monkey could use a skill , or at least an early prototype of one . It wasn’t as fancy as the spikes the earthen mage had used , but he was shocked that a dumb animal could do it . It seemed that skills , and perhaps even exploring the Dao , was not something exclusive to humanoids .
He didn’t have time to reflect on it further before another projectile came flying toward him . He saw it coming this time and grabbed a monkey to use as a shield . The monkey absorbed most of the blow , but Zac was still pushed back somewhat .
The monkey captain seemingly was able to keep generating these projectiles , as he once again moved his hand toward the wall . Zac didn’t want to keep this status quo going . He wasn’t really hurt apart from some bruising so far , but if he didn’t do something soon he might run out of energy or get hit by a lucky projectile .
He stopped his retreat into the crack and instead started to furiously push forward . He was a whirlwind of carnage as he pushed through the horde of monkeys . He wanted to finish off the leader first and then whittle down the others .
Monkeys started to climb around and charge Zac from the back , but with his 90 Endurance he could shrug off the strikes for now . The only time he stopped his onslaught was when some monkey managed to grab his legs and risked pulling him down on the ground again .
The leader threw another large rock at Zac , seemingly trying to impede his advance .
Zac saw the projectile approaching this time , and swung down his axe in a fierce vertical strike to cleave it . He had expected the two pieces to slam to the sides of him , but was sorely mistaken . The only result from his strike was that two boulders hit him instead of one , slamming him back once again .
Zac could only redouble his efforts and ignoring his cosmic energy expenditure kept utilizing Chop] to the max .
Finally , as he was 3 meters away from the captain , he couldn’t be bothered getting in close with it , and overcharged the skill , increasing the length of the blade with a full meter extra . With a roar he swiped in an upward arc , and the captain was split in two . He could only maintain such a length for a second , but one second was all he needed for one quick kill .
After that , he simply planted his back against the wall and kept killing until there was no monkey left willing to fight . There were a few monkeys who kept screaming at him from the distance , but Zac hurled another rock at one , instantly crushing its head . Then finally the last remnants of the pack finally fled .
Zac was truly exhausted and hurting from the fight , but he forced himself to get up and move away from the battle . The sounds carried far in the mountains , and he didn’t want to be around if either the Herald or some demons heard the noise .
He kept sneaking up the mountain and soon reached the entrance to the hidden valley far up in the air . He didn’t dare enter yet , but instead opted to hide between some rocks and recuperate from the battle . The melee reminded him that just because he had gotten the Axe Mastery] skill he still was by no means a master fighter . His planning impeded him rather than helped , and he would probably have been better off just charging in as usual .
It felt like he had been fighting for his life on the island for an eternity , but in reality he had only been on the island for roughly 40 days . Before that he’d just been a desk jockey , completely oblivious to any fighting tactics . He had made a few real beginner mistakes in this fight , and could only strive to do better in the future .
Chapter 46 - The Hunt for the Herald
As Zac stood at the edge of the valley he was shocked by the density of cosmic energy . The amount in the air was already quite a bit higher in the mountains compared to down on the ground , but in this secluded vale it was a whole tier higher still .
The density made his suspicion that the Herald hid in the valley much stronger . He was sure that the Monkey King would prefer the increased amount of cosmic energy if even the monkey captains were able to use skills and maybe even cultivate .
The amount of cosmic energy made Zac worried that there might actually be demons here as well . While he had observed their activities for a few days he didn't really see any demons enter the mountains further than the cave , but that didn’t mean that there weren’t cultivator demon’s stationed here .
He refrained from entering the valley at the moment , as he still wanted to thin the herd of monkeys in the mountains first . A large enough roar from the valley might be able to call for reinforcements from all four peaks after all .