It had been a week since my arrival in this hellish prison, and the relentless training left hardly enough time to sleep. We were brought to fights three times a day and forced to either kill the monster as fast as possible. Or kill the monster while protecting a certain person. A lot of the abominations in the cage had died and one killed itself because he could not stand the hunger. We had not been fed even once since birth and most of the demons had become mentally unstable. One more week and they would be lost causes. I had gotten used to my new body, so much so that I could control my tail and wings freely. I hadn’t practiced flying more than once because all my energy was being used to fight, and my starvation caused excruciating pain.

I heard footsteps and clops of a man walking beside a horse on the scaffolding above the cages.

The ghastly centaur Xaneranth looked down the cage and pointed his spear at me.

“The Draco, give him to me.” In response, two demon guards with matching horns peeking through the tops of their helmets opened the roof of the cage and signaled me up. I hesitated for a while as every move I took made me want to throw up. With nothing to throw up, a nauseating feeling stayed prevalent.

“Get up now or I’ll come back next week,” Xaneranth stated and held the roof open higher than the guards could. I mustered up the energy and jumped up, I extended my wings and flapped as hard as I could but to no avail. My giant wings still felt more of a burden than a blessing. As my accent came to a halt, the two guards grabbed either one of my arms and hoisted me onto the scaffolding.

“Good job... Enslave,” as he said the word “Enslave” a molten ring around my neck appeared and burned into my skin. I screamed and scratched at my molten throat yet it only proved to melt my claws.

After three agonizing seconds, the ring disappeared and in its place was a brand circling my neck.

“You are now enslaved directly to me. You can not disobey what I say and cannot leave a certain distance away from me. Come with me.” After his last words, my body was almost forcefully moved towards him until I caught myself and started to follow Xaneranth.

What would my life become in the near future I could not guess, but I knew it would be nonstop fighting and little to no nourishment. I couldn’t take this much longer. Demons could somehow survive without food or water but the suffering was unbearable.

After walking for nearly ten minutes we reached the end of the cages and got to grassland near a forest. There were four demon knights watching over nearly twenty five-foot-tall impish battle slaves. There were two slave-ringed baragresh drawing a carriage behind us. Those damned overgrown hyenas.

As soon as we got there the guards got everyone off the ground and we started to move towards the forest. While walking I looked to see the enslaved status and saw ‘Enslaved: you can not disobey your master or stray too far from them. 90% of exp gained is transferred to your master instead.’

What a scary ability. To completely take control of someone and have them fight for you. We had finally arrived at the forest and I overheard the knights’ conversation.

“This is going to be a big one. The slaves will probably last for two to three weeks if we’re lucky but the trip is going to be three months.”

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“Probably our longest one yet, Sir Steed seems really eager to level up. We are making a few stops to pick up more slaves on the way but I don’t see that being enough for three months.” Sir Steed was assumedly Xaneranth. It was a fitting name for a centaur.

“Sir Steed’s father is likely to die in the upcoming invasions so he is preparing to take over the mantle. We have reserved most of the new dungeons and near the end, we are even going to the blazing plains right next to human territory.” the first knight responded and swept his vision across the slaves.

“Anyways, these first ones we are leaving to the slaves so we don't have to fight. How long do you think the Draco will last? He seems strong.”

“five weeks at most, probably four.”

“I see.”

After a few hours, our silent march came to an end

“You four stay and let the slaves do the work, I need the levels, this was confirmed to be only weaker undead. I’ll take on the boss.”

“Understood,” the four knights said in unison. One of the knights was fully armored and had no ‘demonic’ features so to say. Two of them looked almost Identical with straight brown horns protruding from their light chainmail helmets. The last one was a short female knight with bright red light armor and silver hair.

In front of us was a cave wide enough to fit four people side by side. My wings took up more space so only two of the small blue-skinned demons could fit next to me. We continued down the cold cavern and soon heard groans that were not our own. These groans were nothing compared to our groans of starvation, nevertheless, they could still be heard.

A few walking skeletons came into view. They were somehow moving on their own and brandishing weapons more worn down than us slaves. Battle was the only way to take our minds off our pain so most of the blue imps burst forward on sight. The starvation we were feeling and the pain, never stopped, but the triumph of a kill overrode it. The few demons on the front lines crushed the skeletons and ran onwards.

“Sire are you sure that you should allow your slaves to rush the enemy?” One of the horned Knights in silver with green details asked Xaneranth.

“It’s just a bunch of lesser undead. I’m mainly looking for the boss's experience.” He replied in his deep voice.

“Ah how very wise you are.” The knight took a slight bow before returning to where the others were.

We arrived in a large, dark, and bland looking room. There was a sea of skeletons and zombies between us and a grand double door on the opposite side. I ran up to get to the front where the clash was and swung my sword at the nearest zombie. My rusty sword sliced through its neck and cleanly decapitated it. The zombie was almost instantly replaced and I slashed out again crushing a skeleton with the same blow.

The clashing of swords was all that could be heard as a small war broke out. I slashed out and slaughtered the pitiful creatures until they stopped coming. Nearing the end of the monsters I sped up my pace along with the other battle slaves. We lost three of us but managed to clear the entire room.

With Xaneranth at the head, we slammed down the double door and flooded into the next room. The room was completely empty besides a plain stone throne in the middle. There was a fully armored person on the throne with his sword lain out beside him.

When Xaneranth entered the room two red glowing dots appeared in the throne knight’s visor slit and he slowly stood up. Xaneranth reached his right arm out and within his downward-facing palm, a dark spear materialized. After it fully formed Xaneranth grabbed the spear and charged at the knight alone.

“Dark spear, slaughter my opponent in battle.” He yelled out before clashing with the Undead knight’s sword.

The knight caught the blow head-on and slid back to where the throne was, cracking the stone floor under its feet. With Xaneranth still pushing, the knight slid his sword across the spear and swung at his waist. The Centaurs body armor was enough to stop the blade and Xaneranth took a wide sweep at the knight, Breaking one of its arms off.

The undead knight was unfazed by this and its black sword burst into flames. The knight charged Xaneranth and swung at his unguarded hind legs. Xaneranth did a quick rotation and thrust his spear down into the undead knight’s back.

The knight fell to the ground and Xaneranth’s spear burst into a deep red flame. He stabbed the spear through the knights' helmet to make sure it was really dead.

“Weak,” Xaneranth stated as he walked back to the doorway we had smashed in.

As everyone left, I made sure to stay back till the very end. When everyone was gone I went up to the knight's body and took its sword. This would be better than my nearly broken one. I need to get stronger to escape, I need to eat.