Defiance of the Fall: A LitRPG Adventure Read online

  Zachary Atwood | 1–100 | ROLL

  It resembled a prompt from a video game, and the familiarity actually calmed him down for a second until he reread what it said and realized the implications. At that point his panic threatening to evolve into hysteria.

  It looked like the window was a prompt for rolls between him and this herald, but instead of loot, they were rolling for their survival. And the roll ranges were clearly skewed in his opponent’s favor, giving Zac abysmal odds for actually surviving.

  “Hello? This isn’t funny anymore. Let me out!” he screamed, hoping against hope that this was all some insane experiment. But the reality of the situation was starting to set in.

  Zac stared numbly at the screen in front of him for a few seconds as if to comprehend what he was seeing.

  “This is crazy. Wanting me to gamble with these odds? Why the hell would I roll?” Zac muttered. But the second he said “roll,” the screen changed, and the numbers next to his name started to rapidly change.

  [Protocol SL-34572 accepted by participant. Rolling…]

  “No, no, no, wait, wait. Stop. Let’s figure out a different solution!” he shouted, waving his arms in a panicked attempt to stop the proceedings. But no matter what he did, the numbers kept spinning. It was as though they were rapidly counting down his remainder of time on Earth.

  Terror was slowly turning into rage in Zac’s mind over the messed-up situation he was in. Rage over the complete and utter lack of answers. Rage over the obviously paltry assessment of him by the voice, seeing the obvious disparity in treatment between him and this Ur’Khaz guy. Rage over the scammy way the voice had started the roll, as though it looked for a loophole to proceed.

  With a red tint that suffused his otherwise blue eyes, Zac roared and smashed the hovering screen in an effort to vent his fraying emotions. The screen, however, did not acquiesce to his feelings and shatter in a million pieces, but only flickered slightly.

  Unheeding of any attempts at a physical catharsis, the numbers once again flashed intermittently, and the spinning started to slow down until it stopped at a final number. Almost as an afterthought, it also added an infuriating line instead of the roll button.

  Ur’Khaz | 1–100,000 | ROLL

  Zachary Atwood | 98 | Rerolls unavailable

  Something about the reroll message sucked the energy out of him. It really wasn’t a bad roll. If this were in a game, I’d definitely have won the loot, he thought with a morbid sense of humor. But by this point, he was quite aware that this was no game.

  He still held out some hope that he was still lying unconscious in the woods from massive heatstroke. But if that were true, he most likely was a goner as well. So, either he was about to be killed by the sun, or by a video-game god. Neither was an ending he had expected or hoped for.

  Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, his face settled on a sickly grin as he blankly stared ahead.

  Of course, all hope wasn’t lost, as the other individual hadn’t rolled yet. But it didn’t really feel like it mattered when the game was rigged. He once again took a glance at the screen, and his eyes lingered for a second on the roll range of the other entity.

  The smile slowly shrank away from his face. A sigh escaped his mouth like a deflating balloon, and he closed his eyes and slumped down to a sitting position. All of Zac’s strength and energy were wrung out by the situation and a roller coaster of emotions. Only a bleak sense of despair remained as he realized that this was it.

  Dead alone in the woods, never being able to say goodbye to his family and loved ones.

  Zac had no epiphanies or huge regrets at this point, the likely end of his life. Except that he wished he had been closer and better to his family. His mind drifted to memories of his past as a solace and escape from the insanity he was experiencing.

  Hazy recollections of his mother hugging him, her long brown locks cascading around him in her embrace. His dad giving him a quiet smile as he opened the door of their apartment to head to work, his eyes sad and tired but full of love. Spending most of his youth plastered in front of the computer, largely ignoring his smaller sibling. College years drowned in alcohol and partying. First day at his job, and the humbling realization of how ill-prepared for adult life he was even after seventeen years of school and university.

  [Protocol SL-34572 accepted by Herald. Rolling…]

  The monotone voice again droned, like an executioner giving final rites.

  [Congratulations!]

  Zac didn’t bother with the voice anymore as memories flashed past in his mind one by one. Friends, family, and events both happy and sad. Not the most exciting of lives, but it was his…

  Wait, what, congratulations? His eyes snapped open and refocused on the monitor.

  Ur’Khaz | 91 | Rerolls Unavailable

  Zachary Atwood | 98 | Rerolls Unavailable

  Stunned, he stared blankly at the screen until the voice interrupted his lack of thought.

  [Protocol results in the continued existence of Zachary Atwood. Ur’Khaz vanquished. Resuming standard protocols.]

  A nauseating explosion of light, color, and sound took over, disorienting him and turning his insides to mush. His body suddenly felt like it was on fire, tearing and scorching him all over. The last things he saw before passing out was the small clearing he disappeared from and a huge red pillar reaching toward the sky.

  2

  A New World

  Zac slowly woke up, groggy and disoriented, finding himself face-first on the ground. His body was still aching from whatever had happened to him before. Spitting out a few blades of grass and dusting himself off, he scrambled up and surveyed the surroundings. The glade looked the same as before with its few rocks and flowers, all surrounded by stout leafy trees and dense shrubbery.

  His first reaction was that luckily he had just passed out from the heat or exhaustion and woke up. There were some things that gave Zac the foreboding feeling that what had happened was more than just a heat-induced nightmare. First and foremost was the fact that he was currently staring up at two suns, only one of them being the familiar yellow.

  He thought he was seeing double for a second, but shaking himself awake had no effect on what he saw. The sun was accompanied by a little brother. He felt something was a bit off with the original one as well. It seemed larger and more intense than he remembered. The other sun was a far smaller star that shone in a piercing aquamarine. It hovered close to the other celestial body and seemed to orbit it like a satellite.

  The other unsettling sight was a huge vortex of light and energy reached up towards the sky in the distance, like a grisly red claw reaching up from the ground. It pulsated in an eerie red glow that could only be described as demonic. It looked like it was quite some distance away, but it was hard to tell. This pillar was the last thing Zac had seen before passing out, and it greeted him as he woke up as well.

  A bestial roar snapped him out of his thoughts, refocusing him on the situation at hand.

  “Hannah…” he muttered, a glint of determination filled his eyes as he threw all these inexplicable events to the back of his mind. If this was all real, and that seemed to be the case after after looking around, he needed to get back to the camp immediately.

  The emotionless voice in the darkness had said something about making the wildlife more dangerous to “improve the challenge.” The roar he’d just heard could be a freaking tiger or bear for all he knew, which meant the others were in danger.

  For a second, he was even afraid that the others would jump into the car in a panic and leave him stranded here with whatever was roaring. Even though he didn’t know what was going on, burning anxiety was already consuming him and urging him to action. He took off in a sprint toward the direction of the camp, heedless of the unfamiliar sounds all around him or the prickly greenery aiming to slow him down.

  The surroundings blurred around him as he thundered on through the forest like a runaway train. It was as though he had gotten ten shots
of adrenaline, his legs pushing him forward at a breakneck pace.

  But something was off. He felt that he was running even faster than an Olympian athlete, and in complicated forest terrain at that. The previously somewhat weighty axe in his hand also seemed weightless, tearing through any branch trying to impede his way with pinpoint accuracy.

  Zac had never felt as strong or fast as he did right now. The voice had said it upgraded wildlife. Did his speed and power mean he was considered a part of that? He didn’t know whether to be happy with his improved physique, or to be pissed off the mysterious voice considered him an animal.

  Finally, a few minutes after his mad dash started, he recognized a large boulder that a tree had somehow split and grown through. The camp was just a few hundred meters away.

  Readjusting his grip on the hatchet, he changed his course to run straight toward the camp when another of the otherworldly roars echoed through the forest. This time, far closer than the others he’d tuned out on his way here.

  Panic gave him even greater speed, and he barreled into the camp with a look of frenzy and fear on his face. Familiar sights greeted him; the gray Range Rover, the camper, and the few folding chairs strewn about.

  What immediately garnered his attention wasn’t this, though, rather the monster rifling through one of the coolers. It was the size of a Great Dane, but this was where the similarities ended since it was an unholy mix of flesh and bone. The beast looked like it had been skinned, then let out in the woods again—an amalgamation of red and white. It sported a thick trunk of a torso with rippling muscles extending down to six stubby legs, each one ending with a paw that reminded Zac more of a bird of prey than a woodland creature.

  Two of the pairs aligned at the front of the torso with the last at the back. Each paw was adorned with four ghastly claws with three in the front and one in the back, with the front set of claws seeming slightly larger than the other two pairs. Its head appeared overly large for its body, with a broad base but a long snout, enabling an impossibly large maw. The mouth reminded him of a crocodile’s, if a crocodile possessed three rows of teeth. The eyes were small and beady, shining the same color as the pillar he’d seen earlier.

  The power of the beast’s maw was readily apparent, as it was currently biting through a can of beans like it was nothing, swallowing the metal and contents alike. The strange sight made Zac stop right in his tracks, unable to compute these turns of events. Suddenly, he wished that it had been a tiger roaring in the distance earlier, since that seemed preferable to the monstrosity in front of him.

  The beast perked up before Zac could do anything, spotting him standing mutely across the camp. After an enraged roar, it bolted straight toward him with a speed belying its stocky appearance. Zac barely had time to react as the beast was upon him.

  Taking an unstable step back, he swung the hatchet horizontally with all the power he could muster. With his shaky stance, there was no real authority behind the blow, but it managed to strike the beast’s neck, leaving an ugly gash and pushing the demon aside.

  Zac was once again reminded of how he somehow had become a superhuman, as even a crappy swing like that had contained enough power to throw off a large beast. However, the front paws of the monster were latched on to him, and with the combined momentum of Zac’s strike and its own, the claws drew a deep gash on his midriff and left leg. Large wounds were ripped open, and blood immediately started pouring out.

  A pain like Zac had never experienced before exploded in his mind, clouding his vision and threatening to incapacitate him completely. Any thoughts of combating the monster head-on with his new strength flew out the window, and instead, an intense desire to escape emerged.

  He shook his head in an effort to clear his mind. It didn’t work.

  What the hell do I do? Do I run? His eyes searched frantically for a way to get out of this situation. Primal survival instincts he didn’t know he possessed kicked in. The beast had fallen over from the surprising power of the swing but was already clambering back up to its feet.

  “Guys! Are you here? Help!” he shouted toward the camper, hoping for backup. But only silence met his pleas. Did the others flee into the forest to get away from this monster?

  Out of ideas, Zac hobbled a few steps toward the forest, his left leg now burning and not properly listening to his commands.

  But before any plans could form, the beast was barreling towards him, maw in an open snarl, seemingly unheeding of the small stream of blood trickling down its torso to its stumpy legs.

  This time, Zac was slightly more prepared, putting weight on his right leg to jump out of the way. He heard a snarl and felt a gust of wind sweeping by him before he unceremoniously landed in a pile three meters away.

  Quickly scrambling to his feet, he saw the monster had skidded past his original position in an effort to stop, continuing on for twenty meters.

  Zac realized the monster had high speed but low maneuverability, and started to frantically figure out a way to use this to his advantage. With a determination he didn’t know he had, Zac abandoned all thoughts of fleeing and returned toward where he came from when running through the forest.

  “This had better work…” he mumbled while moving as fast as his pain-racked body could allow.

  3

  Battle Tactics

  Zac took a quick glance behind him and noticed the demonling following. That’s what he decided to start calling it in his head. It wasn’t dissuaded at all from continuing its pursuit, though it looked slightly disoriented from the previous charge. Or perhaps the still bleeding gash on the neck was starting to have some effect. Its speed was somewhat slowed, though it was still quickly catching up to him.

  No longer being able to afford to care about adages such as not putting weight on a hurt leg, Zac ignored the pain and started charging toward the split boulder he’d passed earlier. His wounds split open even further, and his left leg was now completely dyed red. The pain was excruciating as he ran, but the fear of death kept him pushing forward.

  He was pretty sure this was his only shot, as the short run managed to up his pain to a terrifying level, and he was starting to get woozy from the blood loss. And who knew what poisons or pathogens a demon dog had on its claws. Zac could only pray that his new superpowers included super white blood cells.

  Finally arriving at his goal, he heaved a few raspy breaths and turned around to face the monster, which was now roughly forty meters away from him. Seeing that its prey had stopped moving, it hesitated slightly and stopped. The demonling growled slightly and then hissed in a register that sounded much too low for something its size.

  Zac was afraid it would wait for his wounds to worsen his condition even further, or even gather reinforcements. If that happened, his small chance of survival would be completely extinguished. He needed to end this fight quickly in any case, as the pulsating wounds on his legs reminded him that time was limited, with or without backup.

  “COME GET IT, PIECE-OF-SHIT DOG!” he hollered, inwardly cursing his limited cursing abilities. He then picked up a small rock and flung it at the demonling with all the force he could muster. It drew a great arc as it zoomed through the air and missed spectacularly by a few meters. Luckily, it seemed the demon dog needed almost no encouragement for mayhem and slaughter, and with a great roar, it started barreling straight towards him again.

  “Come on, come on…” Zac whispered, once again readjusting his grip on the hatchet. This was it, do or die time. When the monster was just three meters away from him, he once again dove to the side. This time, the monster was somewhat ready for him and managed to swipe at his calf. It wasn’t as deep as his last gashes but still burned like hell.

  The momentum of the demonling pushed it forward, straight into the cleft of the split boulder. The space was barely wide enough for it to fit in, and it got stuck when its second set of legs reached the edge of the rock. Gravel and rock chippings flew about from the collision, accompanied by an enraged, but p
ained, snarl.

  Zac knew he couldn’t hesitate, and quickly scrambled to his feet. The pain was staggering, but the coursing adrenaline in his System kept him going. This was the small window he created for himself, and if this didn’t work, he had no other recourse.

  Mentally praying to the long-lost gods of lumberjacking, he took a two-handed grip on the hatchet and swung with all his might at the lower end of the monster’s spine. Hopefully, the anatomy of hell spawns was somewhat similar to normal animals and a cut on the spine would cut important nerves and maybe even nick an artery.

  The axe struck true and severed the spine, even digging a bit further. A great spurt of blood and a pained yelp accompanied it. It thrashed wildly from the strike, and one of its four legs managed to hit Zac squarely in the stomach. He was thrown backwards and lost his grip on the handle of the axe.

  All the air fled his lungs as he hit the ground hard. He didn’t dare take account of his steadily worsening wounds though, and immediately got back to his feet. The world spun for a second as he scrambled up, but he forced himself to stay awake.

  The sight meeting him seemed even more positive than he had dared hope. Both its hind legs uselessly slumped down. The wound Zac had managed to inflict must have actually cut a couple of veins, as blood unceasingly poured out of its back wound in far larger quantities compared to the shallow wound on its neck, pooling in the dirt.

  There was still some fight left in the monster, however, and it was still trying to extricate itself from the rock with some minor success. It also desperately and incessantly roared, perhaps hoping for some of its brethren to arrive.

  Not wanting to wait for that to happen, Zac gingerly stepped forward, gripped the axe, and with a speedy tug ripped it out of the lower back of the monster. He also stepped back a bit in the event of further thrashing. This time, however, only a weak snarl accompanied the action. Blood started gushing out even faster through the open wound, and it looked doubtful that the monster would survive even if left unattended.