Worldbuilding: Fauna
Sandwyrm
A large carnivorous worm-like creature that burrows through the sand of deserts. It can grow up to 1 meter in diameter and 20 meters in length. It often waits for prey to come nearby and then abushes it by swallowing it whole from below the sand.
Crawlers
Large spider-like creatures the size of a grizzly bear with eight legs, sharp pinchers, and a deadly mandible. Crawlers travel in swarms and consume any animal or person unable to outrun them.
Desert Crawlers
The desert subspecies of the crawler is much less ravenous than regular crawlers; There is not enough food or water in deserts to sustain large swarms of them. Instead, they are rather solitary creatures. Without their swarming instincts, desert crawlers are much less aggressive to intelligent life and can even be tamed.
Trolls
Big, dumb and very strong bipedal creatures capable of using logs as clubs. They are just barely intelligent enough to be given armor and follow rudimentary commands, although their discipline is nonexistent. They aren’t quite smart enough to tell who is the enemy and who is not on a battlefield, especially if they are panicked. Using them in an army always carries the risk of them turning on a general’s own troops.
Alpha Trolls
Bigger, dumber and stronger than their cousins, alpha trolls are nothing more than animals. They are large and tall bipedal carnivores with huge long arms and big tooth-filled mouths. When one of them stumbles upon a settlement they usually consume the inhabitants.
Scorpyons
Large scorpion-like creatures the size of a horse that can be found in arid regions. They hunt in groups of two to four but have rarely been seen in groups as large as six individuals. Their venom is a highly potent neurotoxin that can paralyze animals as large as dragons with a single sting.
Yeti
A large bipedal primate with thick white fur that lives in cold snowy forests and mountains. They are highly solitary creatures that prefer to avoid contact with people and other animals as much as possible. However, if angered, a yeti can be a fearsome opponent.
Blood worm
Blood worms are large carnivorous worms that live in swamps, bogs, and mycelial forests. They wait in muddy areas until an unfortunate animal crosses their path. Then the blood worm’s mouth unfurls out of its body, shooting towards its prey, biting it, and injecting paralyzing venom. They can grow to be several meters long.
Acid worm
A relative of the blood worm, but with completely different internal biological processes. The acid worm waits in acid springs for unlucky victims. Then, it attacks its prey similar to the blood worm. However, the acid worm is not venomous. Instead, it drags its prey into its acidic home, where the unfortunate person or animal suffers a most painful death before being devoured. Their unusual variation of blood worm biology could possibly be the result of REDACTED.
Spider hog
Spider hogs have eight insect-like legs and the upper body of a warthog with large, dangerous tusks. Their preferred prey are other small creatures or occasionally a lone larger animal. Spider hogs live and hunt in groups of 8 to 15 members with behavior similar to a pack of wolves. Their abnormal biology is possibly the result of REDACTED.
Pincherpede
Pincherpedes are long and flat centipedes, up to a meter long, with two powerful pinchers at the front of their body. They primarily feed on decomposing biomass, but will occasionally attack small animals. They usually live in areas with high biodiversity.
Cardinal crab
Cardinal crabs are horse sized crustaceans that live in rocky coastal waters. They occasionally venture out of the water to search for food. They will eat just about anything they can get their powerful claws on. They are a major nuisance to coastal settlements.
Chapter 11: The Wraith And The Demon
July 2nd, 2053
Duremar Plains, 6:00 AM
Daniel woke up to the sound of marines shouting. He quickly got out of his sleeping bag, grabbed his ARX-35 assault rifle and got to his feet.
“What's going on?” He called out.
“It's Martin, sir! He just got up and walked out of the camp,” Lexi replied.
“The wraith must have switched targets!” Added Private Lucas Benson.
Realizing that a member of his team was in danger, Daniel sprung into action. “Liv! Get the recon drones in the air. I want eyes in the sky looking for the wraith. Let me know the moment Martin gets close to it.”
“On it!” She replied.
Then, Daniel, Emily, Ethan, Jennifer, and two droids went off to follow Martin back to the wraith on foot. They kept their numbers low on purpose, to maintain stealth. If the wraith saw or heard them coming, Eldryn assured them that it would flee.
Daniel hated that the wraith was targeting one of the people under his command instead of himself. He wouldn’t have been okay with this plan if he knew it would be someone else in danger rather than himself. Regardless, they couldn’t lead the wraith back to Fort Roanoke and put even more people in danger. This was the best way to deal with it and the only way to deal with it, according to Eldryn.
They slowly and quietly followed Martin from a distance of about 30 meters. If they kept too close to him, it would tip off the wraith that they were following its prey. Luckily, the recon drones would spot the wraith as soon as it got close to Martin. Once they found it, they could restrain Martin and pursue it themselves with the help of the drones, droids, and their tac visors.
They were about 2 kilometers into the forest when Liv said over the radio, “I’ve got something approaching Martin on thermals. It's about 200 meters away and approaching fast.”
“Keep a drone on it. I don’t want to lose it,” Daniel replied. “Alright, let's do this. Ethan, go get Martin. Keep him safe and away from the wraith.”
“Yes sir!” Ethan replied.
“Everyone else, let's go kill this son of a bitch,” Daniel said.
The marines and droids quickly ran past Martin and spread out to surround the wraith. Ethan stayed behind and kept Martin from getting closer to the wraith, although he couldn’t wake him up. Daniel, watching the thermal sensor footage from the drone in the corner of his tac visor, saw that it was getting closer. It was only 20 meters away now.
“Anybody got a visual?” He asked.
“Negative”
“Nope”
“I got nothing”
According to Eldryn and the recon drone’s sensors, the wraith wasn’t particularly large, but it was almost right on top of them–only 10 meters away now. They should be able to see it.
Daniel readied his rifle and pointed it in the direction the wraith was approaching from. But when he raised it up to take aim, his hands were empty.
“What the… oh shit!” Daniel exclaimed.
He looked around him and saw his marines and the droids were gone. He was alone in the forest. The wraith didn’t attack Martin; it was attacking him! This was all just a dream, or as Eldryn and Elmot called it, a ‘psionic attack’.
Before he could think of what to do next, he heard a growling sound coming from behind. Daniel turned around to see the wraith suddenly standing there, just like in his previous two dreams. Purple particles were swirling intensely around its eyes.
He tried to back away from it, but his legs were moving in slow motion. The wraith casually walked up to him like it was inspecting its next meal. He stood helplessly as the wraith bit down on his left leg with its wide mouth filled with razor sharp teeth.
Pain shot up his leg and he cried out in pain. This was the first time the creature physically attacked him in a dream. Did that mean the wound was real on his physical body as well? Did his other marines lose track of him in the real world? Was the wraith about to kill him while his mind was trapped in this dream?
There had to be something he could do. He could try to wake himself up, but if the pain from the bite didn't do it, there probably wasn’t much else he could do. Besides, this technically wasn’t a dream, it was a ‘psionic attack’ based on the power of the mind. That gave Daniel an idea. Maybe he could buy time for the others to rescue him if he could find a way to fight back against the wraith in the dream.
Doing his best to ignore the pain as the wraith bit down his left leg, he mustered all his mental strength and willpower. He began to pull his right leg back; slowly at first, but he was breaking free of whatever was slowing him down. With his mind full of determination and resolve Daniel swung his leg forward as fast as he could towards the wraith. The kick sent it flying back several meters.
Before the wraith could recover, he felt a vague sensation of being grabbed and pulled away. He watched as the purple particles around the wraith’s eyes began to fade away. It began to rapidly shrink into the distance and the world around him went dark.
Suddenly, Daniel opened his eyes. He was lying on the ground in the middle of the forest while Martin was wrapping a bandage around his left leg.
“He’s awake!” Martin called out to the other marines. Benny and Liv came over to check on him.
“How do you feel, buddy?” Benny asked.
His leg hurt like hell and he had a massive headache. “I’ve been better,” Daniel replied as he sat up on the ground. “What happened? Did you kill it?”
“See for yourself,” Benny said as he stepped aside to reveal the corpse of the wraith. It looked exactly as it appeared in Daniel’s dreams except that there was no trace of the magic particles around its eyes and it was clearly dead.
“Good riddance,” Daniel said.
They all left the forest and returned to the camp. Daniel had to lean on a droid for support. The bite itself was mostly superficial; thankfully the wraith wasn’t large or strong enough to inflict that much damage. But it was still too painful for him to put weight on his leg. With treatment back at Fort Roanoke, he should be back on his feet in a week or two.
When they got back to the camp, Elmot saw Daniel’s leg and asked, “Would you like me to heal your wound?”
Daniel looked at him with a confused look before he realized Elmot was referring to magic. “You can do that?” He asked Elmot.
“I am not a healer, but basic healing magic is taught to all mages.”
“Then, by all means,” Daniel said while gesturing to his leg, intrigued about magic’s medicinal applications. “Unless you have any objections, Martin?”
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“I’m as curious as you are,” Martin said, gesturing for Elmot to proceed.
Daniel sat down and Elmot unwrapped the bandage. He held his hands a few centimeters above the wound and then green particles began to swirl around them. They flowed from Elmot’s hands to the bite. Elmot had barely begun when the green particles faded out and were replaced with light blue particles.
Daniel watched as the wraith bite slowly began to heal. He felt a dull pain as he watched the damaged tissue regenerate. It was incredible. It went on for about 30 seconds before Elmot stopped.
“Are you alright?” Martin asked both Daniel and Elmot.
“I’m fine,” Daniel replied quickly. He turned his head over to Elmot who looked a bit light headed.
“I’ll be alright,” he said as he sat down beside Daniel. “I’ve never been very good at healing. It always drains much of my mana.”
With Martin’s help, Daniel stood up and tested out his leg. It still hurt, but now he could at least put some weight on it and walk on his own.
They quickly packed up camp and got back on the road to Fort Roanoke. With any luck, they’d be able to get back by the end of the day. Daniel hoped that Lieutenant General Reed had a plan for all the mithril they were hauling. When they left, there wasn’t much of a plan on what to do with it once they had it.
July 2nd, 2053
Duremar Plains, Rontak’s Reach, 2:00 PM
Princess Maribelle, Commander Palok, and 45 of their knights just landed at the Rontak’s Reach wyvern base. The remaining squad of knights stayed at Miretan in case the Americans ever returned for more mithril.
As Maribelle dismounted Rago, the wyvern base commander approached her and said, “Princess Maribelle, General Rallek wishes to speak with you in the war room at your earliest convenience.”
“Very well,” said Maribelle. While the rest of the knights tended to their wyverns, Princess Maribelle and Commander Palok made their way through the city to the keep and up to the war room. When they entered, General Rallek was there waiting for them, and he was not alone; Lord Kushmon was there as well, having finally returned from the capital.
“General, what news do you have?” Maribelle asked.
“The unfortunate kind, I’m afraid, about Commander Ralva.”
Maribelle’s heart sank as she heard those words. She’s known Ralva all her life. Ralva practically co-founded the Order of the Dragon with her. If anything had happened to her friend…
“She did not return from her scouting mission last night,” General Rallek explained. “I sent a wyvern knight to the village where they left their wyverns and switched to horses, but they weren’t there. According to the villagers, the horses returned alone this morning. I’m sorry, Princess, but it looks like your knights were either captured or killed by the enemy.”
Maribelle hoped that the Americans killed Ralva rather than captured her. She knew what happened to prisoners of war. Once the Americans found out Ralva’s position and rank, she would undoubtedly be ruthlessly tortured for information.
Just because she only resorted to such barbaric methods when absolutely necessary didn’t mean that the Americans felt the same way about it. She couldn’t imagine the horrors people with such terrible weapons had in store for their prisoners.
Before she could react to that information however, she heard a distant rumbling sound coming from outside. It quickly got louder and a member of the city guard burst into the war room.
Without even bothering to address the Princess and nobles properly, he said, “Come quickly! We don’t know what it is, but it’s flying over the city!
Lord Kushmon looked angered by the lack of respect, but Princess Maribelle cared much less about that sort of thing. She promptly followed the guard out of the room to the keep’s battlements, followed by Commander Palok, Lord Kushmon, and General Rallek.
The rumbling sound had gone away while they made their way outside, but soon it started to return. It began as a low hum, but quickly grew to a loud thundering sound. Princess Maribelle looked out to the sky from on top of the keep and saw the source of the noise.
It was a small gray object that looked like an arrowhead. It was moving at an impossible speed and its wings weren’t flapping at all. She couldn’t get a good look at it, though, because just as quickly as it came into view, it flew past them and disappeared into the distance.
“The Americans…” She muttered.
“How can you be sure it's them?” Asked General Rallek.
As if on queue, another guard ran up to the battlements, catching their attention. He caught his breath for a moment before saying, “Princess! It's the American slaves! They’ve thrown down their tools and started celebrating. They say their people are coming for them!”
“Does that answer your question, General?” Said the Princess
Soon the American flying object reappeared and began to circle the city high in the sky. Princess Maribelle gave the General new instructions, “Send a squadron of wyverns after that thing. Shoot it down and bring me whatever’s left of it.”
“At once, Princess,” said General Rallek as he turned and left for the wyvern base.
Maribelle, Palok and Lord Kushmon watched from the keep while a squad of five wyvern knights took to the sky and began to fly after the American metal arrowhead. Before the wyverns could even get close to it, it pointed itself straight up and shot upwards into the sky. All three of them held their mouths agape at what they just saw.
No creature could fly like that. It already defied all logic and laws of flight by not flapping its wings, but this was sheer lunacy! There was no possible way the Americans were not using magic to accomplish this impossible feat. It was so high that they could barely see it, but it was still there, circling the city far higher than any wyvern, or even Rago, could fly.
Princess Maribelle collected her thoughts and said, “The Americans have to be stopped.”
“That's what I’m here for, Your Majesty,” said Lord Kushmon. “I have returned to Duremar to surrender myself to them. I’ll give them false information and misdirect them as long as I can. Hopefully long enough for the Emperor to organize the guerilla campaign against them.”
Princess Maribelle wasn’t confident that Lord Kushmon’s plan would work, but she had no alternative. If the Americans could travel as far as Miretan by land in a few days and could fly at such ridiculous speeds, there was no telling how quickly their army could cross the Rontak Empire.
She reluctantly approved Lord Kushmon’s plan. Any attempt to slow them down had to be pursued. She also instructed him to find out if Commander Ralva was alive and, if possible, negotiate her release. Lord Kushmon departed the base by horseback at once and headed for the American fort.
July 2nd, 2053
Duremar Plains, Fort Roanoke, 8:00 PM
The 4th Deep Recon team was almost back home. Daniel looked out the Rhino’s periscopes at Fort Roanoke, which was only a few kilometers away now. On the east side of the outer defense perimeter, he saw some kind of camp. There were fires and tents surrounding the few properly printed buildings. It looked like the pictures he’d seen of African refugee camps from the war.
Soon they finally passed through the outer gate with the much needed mithril. Just as he was thinking about how the demon wouldn’t be a major threat for much longer, he saw two F-41A Lightning IIIs take off and fly west towards the sunset. Apparently, they got the airfield up and running. He wondered where they were going.
They passed through the inner gate and drove to Vehicle Depot One, on the southeast side of the base. Daniel just stepped out of his Rhino when a droid walked over to him and said in its distinct mechanical voice, “First Lieutenant Ramirez, Lieutenant General Reed would like to see you and Elmot in the command center immediately.”
As instructed, Daniel and Elmot made their way through the base, past several buildings, to the rectangular command building. David excitedly took his metal and ore samples to the science lab to begin preliminary analysis of them. Meanwhile, the other marines coordinated with logistics crews to begin unloading the mithril.
The command center had rows of computer stations along the walls of the room and several rows of work stations across the main floor. At the front of the room were several large screens mounted on the wall. At the back of the room was an elevated platform with a good view of the entire room. At the back of the platform was Lieutenant General Reed’s office.
Fort Roanoke Command Center
[https://static.wixstatic.com/media/51f621_fc9195c9f01c4f6ea96f042ebd7323b6~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_600,h_365,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/Command%20Center.jpg]
They went in, and Daniel led Elmot up the stairs to the platform, where Lieutenant General Reed was waiting for them. He was standing at the center of the platform with his hands clasped behind his back, watching the main view screen at the front of the room. With him were Colonel Mason, Colonel Briggs, and a few other officers.
“Ah, Lieutenant Ramirez, Elmot,” Lieutenant General Reed said with a nod to each of them. Then he said with a confident smile, “Our drones finally managed to find the demonic entity. You made it back just in time to watch the fireworks.”
Elmot knew the Americans wouldn’t be able to hurt the demon with their powerful but magicless weapons. “Demons have been crushed, drowned, burned, and anything else you can think of without causing them any harm,” he said. “I’m sure your weapons are very powerful, but without magic, they won’t even scratch a demon.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Lieutenant General Reed retorted. “Either way, we’d like to confirm it for ourselves. Besides, we have to do something.”
Daniel watched the wall mounted screens as they showed footage from various recon drones. He could see the demon. Its glossy black skin made it difficult to see in the diminishing sunlight, but not for the thermal cameras. Its highly unique thermal signature was in a state of constant flux; like it couldn’t decide whether it wanted to be extremely hot or extremely cold.
It was moving east along the banks of the Induran river. If it kept going, it would eventually reach Fort Roanoke. Lieutenant General Reed was right; they had to at least try and stop it. It would be days at a minimum before they could fashion any sort of ammunition or weapons from the mithril they brought back.
The F-41As soon came within weapons range of the demon and Lieutenant General Reed said, “Doom One, Doom Two, you are free to engage. Light that bastard up!”
“Copy that, command. Firing missiles,” said Doom One.
Both fighters launched a single air to ground missile at the demon. Daniel watched the missiles fly into their target in a huge fireball as the F-41As flew overhead. People around the room cheered and applauded the explosion, relishing the victory. When the smoke cleared, however, they all saw the demon calmly walking past the edge of the crater as if nothing happened.
One of the command staff said to the pilots, “Target remains. It's still alive boys, hit it again!”
“Understood, coming back around for another pass,” said Doom One, as the F-41As banked and turned back towards the demon. This time they fired three missiles each, but the result was the same. The demon barely seemed to notice the inferno around it, and it certainly wasn’t injured.
“I need options, people,” Lieutenant General Reed declared to the room.
“They can try the 25mm Gatling gun.”
“Lets refit them with bigger missiles!”
As the officers began suggesting various courses of action, Elmot turned to Daniel and asked, “What about the mithril swords from Miretan?”
“We’re not trained to fight with swords,” Daniel explained. “In our world, melee weapons like swords are obsolete in warfare.”
“Oh, I see. Well, I suppose if those flying steel arrows can create such massive explosions then I can certainly see how swords wouldn’t be of much use.”
Elmot paused to think for a moment, then he said, “What about your mechanical golems? The droi-ds. Can they use the mithril swords?”
Daniel considered it. The droids were programmed with several forms of martial arts, but not sword fighting techniques. However, their artificial intelligence was capable of learning and adapting to whatever situation it was in and using whatever tools or weapons it had access to.
“That's not a half bad idea, Elmot. Lieutenant General Reed,” Daniel said, getting his superior’s attention. “We might have a plan to kill the demon.”
He explained Elmot’s plan to arm droids with mithril swords. Initially it was met with skepticism. Using swords was very low tech, but according to Elmot, they would definitely be able to kill the demon. With no viable alternatives from the other officers, Lieutenant General Reed put the plan into action.
Colonel Mason took charge of distributing the swords to the droids. They moved the logistic trucks filled with mithril to Vehicle Depot 2, closer to the drone bay and majority of Rhinos. The swords themselves were similar to the standard Rontak gladius-like swords, but their mithril blades slightly glowed light blue.
Mithril Sword
[https://static.wixstatic.com/media/51f621_472644337d38409eb18af28c300d4169~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_600,h_598,al_c,lg_1,q_80,enc_auto/Mithril%20Sword.jpg]
I do not own the original image, full credit goes to the original source.
It took an hour to unload all the swords and hand them out to the droids. In total, they had 264 droids equipped with mithril swords. Most of them would remain at the base while a fully autonomous task force went out to fight the demon.
Ten LCD-34s (Light Combat Drones) took off from the drone bay, each carrying two droids. Simultaneously, five Rhinos transporting twelve droids each drove out of Vehicle Depot Two, in the north part of the base. In total, they carried eighty droids armed with mithril swords. They went west, directly towards the demon.
Daniel and Elmot remained in the command center with Lieutenant General Reed as advisors. Daniel had the most experience with the unexpected dangers of this world, considering the forest ghoul and wraith encounters. And Elmot was an expert on magic as far as the Americans were concerned. Their input would be invaluable if anything unexpected happened.
An hour after its departure, the droid task force finally reached its target. Daniel watched the footage from the recon drones on the main view screen. The Rhinos slowed to a stop 200 meters away from the demon. Eight droids armed with mithril swords climbed out of the rear hatch of each of the Rhinos, joined by the four droids mounted in the exterior canopies. They split up into ten groups of six and began to move into position around the demon.
As the droids advanced, the LCD-34s flew past the demon. They flew low to the ground and deployed their droids behind it. Twenty droids fell to the ground, landing with a thud, cutting off its escape. In a few minutes, the demon was surrounded on all sides by groups of droids.
The LCD-34s remained in the air above and shined their spot lights down on the ground, lighting up the area. The bright spot lights cutting through the darkness, not to mention the menacing demon, built up a considerable amount of suspense in the already tense atmosphere of the command center. Everyone anxiously waited to see if the mithril swords would actually be able to do what their missiles could not.
One of the screens switched to show footage from the droids. The demon looked just as it did before. Its glossy black skin had a faint aura of shadowy mist. The two bladed tail tips brightly glowed orange as the demon’s tail swayed back and forth.
The demon was still prowling ahead along the banks of the Induran river. If it was aware of the droids, it didn’t show it. The droids suddenly drew their swords in perfect unison with each other. That got the demon’s attention. It perked its shadowy head up and its solid orange eyes seemed to look around, taking notice for the first time that it was not alone.
The demon locked its head towards the nearest group of droids. Then, it readied its hind legs and sprinted towards them. The targeted group of droids spread themselves out while the rest of the droids slowly approached the demon from all sides.
When the demon closed half the distance between it and the droids, it opened its mouth and fired a glowing orange projectile, landing a direct hit on one of them. For a few seconds the droid didn’t react, but then sparks started to fly out and its joints began to spasm uncontrollably. It fell to the ground and stopped moving a few seconds later. The screen dedicated to showing the operational status of the droids confirmed that it was disabled.
The demon reached the five remaining droids in the first group. They swung their swords with speed and precision, but the demon had incredible agility and dodged each blade. The droids were not as lucky. With its glowing orange claws, the demon sliced through the shoulder of one of the droids, severing its arm completely. Another droid lunged at the demon, but had its head and sword hand sliced off by the Demon’s tail blades. Everything the demon cut through briefly glowed orange and emitted wisps of black mist.
The demon’s success ran out however. One of the droids slashed with its sword and made a nasty cut through its right hind leg. Black mist fizzed out of the glowing orange wound along with drops of black blood. The demon quickly repaid the droid by using its tail to stab it through the chest and head.
Everyone in the command center held their breath as they watched the screens to see if the wound would close up, but it never did. The demon became visibly encumbered by the cut. Its wounded leg had a severe limp that limited how far and how fast it could move. Everyone i the command center cheered as the mithril proved to be able to hurt the demon.
Two droids continued fighting the demon while the rest of them surrounded it in a tight circle. It was trapped with no way out. The demon finished off the two remaining droids of the first group. It destroyed all six of them in under two minutes.
Meanwhile, the rest of the droids were busy processing the data from the fight. They analyzed the demon’s fighting style, strengths, and weaknesses. They processed how the other droids used their swords and learned how to use them more effectively.
They began to advance on the demon. They held their arms at a right angle with their slightly glowing mithril swords pointed straight up towards the starry night sky as they marched. For the first time, the demon seemed fearful. It timidly stepped back and turned in circles, looking for a way to escape the shrinking wall of droids.
It made a desperate attempt to break out of the circle by shooting its orange projectiles at a concentrated area of the droids. Three of the droids were hit and disabled. Then, the demon ran as fast as it could towards the opening, which wasn’t actually all that fast given its limp. It dodged a vertical slash from a mithril sword to its right, but moved right into the path of another blade on its left.
The demon was impaled through the left side of its abdomen by a mithril sword. The droid pulled out the light blue blade as the demon staggered and collapsed on the ground. The main viewscreen switched to footage from a droid that was standing over the demon, looking down at it.
Then, the droid smoothly slid its slightly glowing blade into the demon’s skull and everyone in the command center celebrated the victory. The demon that slaughtered the entire 5th Deep Recon was dead. Lieutenant General Reed congratulated Daniel and Elmot for their role in slaying the demon.
Daniel continued watching the view screens as the demon’s glowing eyes, claws and tail blades slowly dimmed. Black mist and blood spewed out of every wound on the demon. Slowly but surely its body began to deflate and shrink until it was completely gone..
Elmot explained that this is what happens when demons are killed. The demon’s physical body cannot exist without its now dead, noncorporeal part. As a result, demonic corpses always dissipate in the form of black mist.
All that was left of the demon was a pool of black blood along with its tail blades and claws, which were now a glossy black color, similar to the demon’s skin. The droids collected them, along with a few vials of the demon’s blood, and then returned to Fort Roanoke.
Mithril had proven itself capable of inflicting deadly harm to demonic entities. US operations in this world would no longer be impeded by the threat of invincible demonic creatures. They could finally return their attention to rescuing the abducted civilians.
Author’s note: I’m not quite ready to reveal everything just yet, that's why some parts of the worldbuilding section were redacted. Just don’t worry about it. I’m sure it's nothing important. ;)
You’ll notice that fire rats, wraiths, forest ghouls, mana balls, wyverns, dragons and land dragons weren’t part of the worldbuilding section. I’m classifying them as magi fauna, which will have its own separate worldbuilding section.