Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 301: The Ez'Mahal

The next day a somber procession marched through Port Atwood. Thousands of men and women gripping weapons proceeded in an orderly fashion, everyone donning a backpack. They were all heading toward the undead incursion, to stem the spread of death. Some couldn't help fear from creeping onto their faces, whereas many glowed with anticipation. The civilians of Port Atwood silently looked on at the procession, knowing that the final battle for Earth was about to begin.Meanwhile, a far less conspicuous group silently gathered within the inner walls, less than fifty warriors. But each one emitted power far beyond that of the general soldiers of the town. It was the strike squad that stood in front of Zac, and he surveyed them with Ogras by his side. He knew that he was supposed to say something at a juncture like this, but he didn't know what.

"Let's go. This is just the first battle of many, so remember to stay alive," Zac simply said as he turned toward the private teleporter.

It activated with a flash and soon the small group of people had entered. The next moment Zac and his people found themselves in a run-down warehouse. The shelves were empty, and dust was gathering in the corners. It was clear that this teleporter was not commonly used, but two armed men hurried over as soon as they arrived.

"Lord Atwood?" one of them asked, receiving a nod from Zac.

The man quickly pulled out a stack of papers from a back, handing it over. It was a missive providing the latest intelligence of the Incursion.

"We are currently one hundred kilometers away from the edge of the sphere of influence of the Ez'Mahal Confederation. They have been known to sometimes roam even this far out in

Ogras kept asking about specifics in the defenses of the Incursion, and anything other information that was lacking in the intelligence report. There were no particularly strong forces in the area, meaning that the Incursion hadn't really been tested so far. That was likely due to a stroke of brilliance by the generals of the incursions though.

A large number of strike squads containing humans from the Ez'Mahal Empire infiltrated all the promising forces in the area right before the tutorial ended, and assassinated a lot of cultivators the moment they returned. That caused the collapse of most of the towns in the vicinity, making for easy pickings to restock on slaves.

The core of the incursion was a newly erected town called Grand Escape. It was an allusion to the fact that the Ez'Mahal nobles did not consider the invasion a life and death struggle, but rather a retreat where they could play around and gain some benefits before going home. However, that would all change soon.

There was a defensive array that seemed decently strong, and apart from that, there was an identification array similar to the one in Westfort. A tag was needed to pass through the gates without causing an alarm. Everyone from the Ez'Mahal Empire possessed one, and it seemed that the main function of the array was to stop slaves from escaping rather than protect from infiltrators.

Ogras took the tag from the captive, and after throwing a glance at Zac slit the man's throat, making him bleed out in seconds.

"We can't use this," Ogras said as he observed the tag. "It seems to have been connected to his life force. If we walked through the gates wearing this we would no doubt be caught."

"So we can only brute force it?" Zac asked, not sparing the dead man another glance.

"No, I doubt that they went so far as to have a system that checks every single person's individual aura," Ogras mused. "I think that we can use these tokens if we keep the original owners alive. If that fails as well, then we can only go straight in."

"Okay, we'll find another squad," Zac said. "Billy, don't smash the next one."

The group set out again, and soon they were only 30 minutes away from the Grand Escape. Traffic was a lot higher here, with both cars and cultivators riding some horse-like beats passing the streets every other minute. The group had already gone into the woods to avoid being spotted, and they captured five groups passing by in quick succession.

They were stripped of their clothes and weapons before Ogras and a few demons took them away. Zac threw a confused glance at him when he returned with a dense aura of blood around him.

"They will live for an hour, perhaps two. Though they would probably wish it would be over much quicker though," the demon said with a nefarious smile, and Zac didn't care enough to ask anything further.

Soon they were all dressed in gear from the captured squads, though they were forced to make some improvised modifications for Billy and the Demons. Hopefully, no one would look too carefully at the people inside the stolen vehicles.

"If we get through the gates that's for the best," Zac said as he looked at the squad. "If not we'll head straight for the castle. Kill everyone in the way, but conserve energy. Emily, give me the Endurance boost please."

It wasn't that he was worried about getting hurt, but the aura would also boost Emily. Letting her gain a part of his own monstrous Endurance would help her stay safe in the upcoming battle. Emily nodded and the next moment a green axe appeared in her hand, and she threw it into Zac. He felt a surge of power, and a quick check of his status screen showed that it worked just like the fire axe, except this one gave Endurance and Vitality.

"Wow," Emily gasped as she looked with wide eyes at Zac, her own aura having suddenly increased by a large margin. "You're like a tank."

Zac shrugged with a smile, knowing she was surprised by the size of the boost she got. She had likely believed that Strength was his highest attribute after seeing how much she got from the flame axe.

"Girl, how much Endurance does he have?" Ogras said while poking Emily from the side.

"Not telling," Emily grinned.

"Okay, that's enough," Zac said with a helpless shake of his head. "They're going to notice a bunch of people has gone missing soon enough, let's head out."