Zac saw no choice but to activate his armor , and the golden sheen protected him from getting killed . He wouldn’t give up even with his lifesaving device used up though , and wildly kept swinging at the Herald , unheeding of any cosmic energy expenditure . After a few exchanges the monkey king managed to get a stab in with one of its hands , pushing a centimeter into Zac’s arm . The finger burned even hotter compared to the spike , and Zac couldn’t refrain from screaming out in pain again .
However Zac’s every strike was overwhelming . He used every trick Axe Mastery] had taught him and weaved a net of destruction with his axe . Marks started to appear on the monkey's hands , and it looked like it wouldn’t be able to block his strikes forever . It was lucky as well as the edge of the axe was starting to shine with a red sheen from all the collisions as well . Not much longer and Zac feared that the inscriptions on it would be ruined , which meant that it wouldn’t auto-repair any longer .
He also had pushed the Herald back toward the tree , and they were currently fighting under the white leaves .
The monkey became more agitated as they approached the trunk , and furiously fought to force Zac away from the tree . There clearly was something special about it , and the Herald didn’t want to risk it getting damaged . The Monkey suddenly emitted a penetrating screech , its whole body lighting up .
It spat out a white-hot ball of magma straight at Zac’s chest , forcing him to jump out of the way , and away from the tree . As he dodged he also saw that the lava spit wasn’t the only thing that changed from that scream .
Like a scene out of a horror movie suddenly an endless number of bodies rose out of the ground , pushing the dried trees and bushes to the side . It wasn’t zombies , but a vast number of stone monkeys , all looking larger and stronger compared to normal ones . With a quick glance he could make out at least 40 monkey captains among the reinforcement .
The monkeys had been lying dormant under the ground , and the roar called them to action to create a trap . He didn’t know why it waited so long to unleash them , but he knew that he had run out of time . In just seconds he would be overrun with stone spears and boulders . He would have problems contending with just the monkey horde , but if he had to watch out for the spells from the Herald as well he’d surely die .
A desperate idea grew in his mind , and he didn’t have time to go through pros and cons before trying it out . He was currently two meters away from the tree trunk , and with an exaggerated roar he swung his axe in a horizontal swipe . As he did the familiar blade of Chop] rapidly grew out , soon longer than he could stably maintain for any longer duration .
Cindermane screeched and hastily jumped to intercept the huge edge from cutting down the tree . Zac’s premonition was correct , the tree truly held a great importance to the monkey .
The Herald couldn’t properly grab the translucent edge with its awkward positioning , and the edge cut into its whole body horizontally across the chest . A deep grisly gash was carved onto its body , but its great Endurance prevented it from getting cut in two . It still was badly hurt and bled profusely as it fell down on the ground .
Just as he was about to finish it off with another swing a boulder slammed into him from the side . He fell over away from the Herald and he barely managed to get to his feet before another hit him again , forcing him even further away from the dying lava monkey .
Unreconciled he once again charged a great edge and swung it at the prone monkey king . But it still had some energy left and pushed itself out of the way .
He knew his window of opportunity had passed . Boulders and stalactites were approaching from all directions , and the only way to kill the Herald was a suicide dive . As he only needed to kill it for a quest he had no reason to die just to bring it down to hell with him .
Zac didn’t hesitate and turned around to run . He could only hope the huge wound he inflicted upon it was lethal and that it would bleed to death . The lava monkey wouldn’t have it though and used its last powers to shoot a few molten spikes his direction as well . Zac could only strike away what he could and endure the rest .
Just after a few seconds he had already gotten hit by another two boulders and was stabbed by three more stalactites . Then the army of monkeys was upon him .
Chapter 48 - Simian Haranguing
Finishing off the Herald was suddenly the last thing on Zac’s mind , and he was horrified as he saw an avalanche of monkeys approach him from all directions . He activated Chop] and frenziedly waved it in front of him , decimating any monkeys that would impede his escape .
The assault was slowing him down though , and finally the enemies were upon him , punching and kicking with wild abandon . Every time a punch or kick hit where the lava spears pieced him earlier it hurt enough for him to almost pass out .
Zac couldn’t care about his cosmic energy expenditure anymore , and with a roar pushed as much cosmic energy as he could into the fractal on his hand . An enormous blade over 5 meters tall blazed into existence , and Zac swung the axe in a mighty horizontal arc .
The edge managed to stay active for less than a second , but the brief window carved out a large pocket in the swarm of monkeys . The swing killed at least 20 monkeys , and he even gained a level . He couldn’t bother about that at the moment though , as the short respite in attacks allowed him to rush out of the field and into the foliage .
Blood was running freely from Zac’s mouth as he was shakily running through the forest , away from the magical tree and Herald . The monkeys wouldn’t relent though and swarmed all around him , jumping between the trees or running on all fours on the ground . Had it not been for his wounded leg he might have been able to maintain some distance after a mad dash . But now he was stuck in a quick jog , but even that was taxing .
He constantly was pelted with kicks and punches , and the occasional mouth trying to bite into him with their sharp canines . A rock whizzed by his head , and instead hit a monkey square in its chest . It appeared the monkey captains had problems with keeping the pace and throwing the projectiles simultaneously at least .
More good news was that the Herald was either dead or too wounded to join the pursuit , as there were no molten spears attacking him anymore . But that was about all the positives that Zac could list while he was mindlessly running .
He already was lost and could only run in a straight direction . Since he was in a valley between the peaks no matter what direction he ran he would sooner or later arrive at the mountains .
He desperately swung his axe back and forth to maim and kill his attackers . He didn’t dare to use Chop] anymore as he was already running low on cosmic energy and there still were at least 100 monkeys following him .
He instead infused the attacks with his understanding of the Dao of Heaviness to add some impact to his strikes . It was the first time he was using it so freely and for a prolonged time , and he was starting to feel a headache coming on .
Soon he couldn’t even use his Dao in order to empower his strikes as he was afraid of increasing the pounding in his head .
He kept going , and with every few steps he killed a monkey , but they seemed endless . Zac’s whole body was hurting , but he couldn’t stop . Another boulder came hurtling toward him , this one with proper aim . He was already mid-swing against a monkey and couldn’t reposition in time , so he could only lift his left arm to block it .
The small boulder slammed into Zac and a sickening pop could be heard . Zac was pushed back and his arm hung limply by his side . Something was protruding oddly at his shoulder and a blazing pain radiated through the arm . After a quick glance he realized that his shoulder was dislocated .