“Hmm a Draco… I’ve never seen one before in my 88 years.” a deep voice uttered out. In the large hallway that seemed never-ending.
“Indeed it is exceedingly rare Xanereanth. I think I’ve seen one before but I can’t recall who it was. The slave died before it was named.” the humanoid figure with claws in a white lab coat stated.
“Where am I?” I asked the man in the lab coat. Looking around, I could see the gigantic grey castle like interior of a hallway looming over in every direction.
The creature named Xaneranth spoke to me in a crude tone of voice. He had a human-like upper half but the body of an armored horse for his lower half.
“You are at the secondary castle of the Demon Lord. also known as Slave City. And you my friend, should you complete your training. Will be my lead Battleslave.” His voice was a deeply distorted robotic mans and felt completely unsettling to hear. It may have also been the fact that he called me a slave and that was on the front of my mind.
“Why am I a slave?” I asked trying to get out of the situation.
“You were born in the wrong place. It is surprising you know how to speak after just being conceived. Most Battleslaves will die before ever learning, just knowing the basic orders is enough.”
“I was just born? Why am I in my same body though?”
“Same body? I don’t know what you mean. All demons are born at their final size and live until at least 300. Unless you are a lesser demon of course.”
“How was I birthed at my size? How could a woman fit me out?”
“You are too curious. Do you know the saying the Curious cat gets killed by the master in a fit of rage? Well anyways, demons are born from human women. They are taken, impregnated, and chained until they give birth. In your case, it is instant death the second your fertilization is done as you are 6,2 and no human woman could handle that.” Xaneranth waited a moment then continued.
“I am done with the explanation. Rimthar, take him to the training grounds and give him to me in a week.” At that, tan white man in a white lab coat nodded and grabbed my hand.
A slave huh? I’m a demon and a slave to demons. What did I do to deserve this?
Before I could even begin to walk I was dragged across the hall for what seemed to be two minutes. I was a demon with small horns on either side of my temple, large dragon-like wings on my back, and a long slim-thick scaly armored snake-like tail that had a diamond spearhead at the end. Most of my features were pitch black, my tail and wings had hints of dark purple becoming more common towards the tips. My body was almost the same as it was before coming here. Albeit the draconian addons,
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We arrived at a metal double doorway the size of an elephant and he pushed it open with his left hand. We walked outside and heard the screaming of pain and the smell of blood. There were many fenced off pits full of different species of demons. We walked along the scaffolding above the pits until we arrived at tennis sized cages with roofs.
“Grab a weapon,” he stated. There was a bucket of dented rusty swords, sabers, and knives. I grabbed hold of a simple sword that seemed to be in the best condition.
“Learn fast, and do well not to die. You should make up your worth and last a month.” as he said that he opened the top of one of the cages with a few other winged demons in it and threw me in.
I hit the ground hard for not knowing how to use my wings to slow my decent. I stretched out my wings and arms, and got up off the ground. Most of the demons here were completely different from the looks of a human. These demons were grotesque while the ones I first saw were humanoid. Now that I think about it, almost all the caged demons are non-humanoids.
All of the demons watched my every move. Their weapons were all nearly broken and some of them were just using the handle and whatever was left of their blade. The demons were all injured and the smell of blood thickened in the cage.
The inside of the cage consisted of walls on every side with a small door in front that everyone seemed to be avoiding.
Just as I noticed the door it swung open and partly armored men came in yelling orders to get out. We ran out and ended up under the stone scaffold bridges but still completely covered so no flying demon could escape.
After a few minutes, the guards marched us to a big spherical opening with a grassy floor and a gateway on the other side. I overheard the guards speaking while preparing to open the gates.
“Yesterday was protective training, and today is offensive. Tomorrow will be duel training and then we will repeat. This monster is pretty strong today but there is no target to protect so I reckon only five will die today.” The guards were speaking to each other and walking to the other side of the sphere. The second guard shrugged and took a while before he responded.
“It ain’t that strong compared to yesterday's fight. Plus this cage was only holding 16 lesser demons. I’d say three die.”
“Put 2 silver on it,” The first guard replied
“Done.”
The gate opened when the guards got to the other tunnel like entrance and a hyena the size of a full-grown man lept out.
“The bargresh is released, stand back!” The guard who put down two silver on five dying said. To that, all of the guards stepped out of the semi-spherical dome area and bars fell to block the retreat of the slaves.
What the hell is happening. The bargresh impaled someone with its leap and chowed down on the meal it had made itself. One of the slaves ran up and stabbed it in the side with a half-broken dagger and twisted it which caused the bargresh to make a small Yelp. Before the demon could pull the crude knife out, the bargresh ran a circle around the blade and found itself behind the man that had stabbed it. It’s eyes seemed to glisten as it bit down on the demon’s shoulder. A cry of pain etched its way out of the pitiful demon’s throat before the bargresh tossed him aside causing him to slam into the wall and let go of his life.
Another slave with a large sword swung down on its spine but failed to penetrate due to built-up rust dulling the blade. Now was the best time to act or The bargresh would come to kill me next. I pushed one of the other slaves into a more favorable position for it to attack just to stall for more time and ran around to the other side. The massive hyena just finished tearing down into the large sword demon and turned to face the man I pushed. The demon quickly brought up his shortsword to defend the Bargresh’s first attack and caught its fangs on either side of the sword. The sword started to crack and bend in with the Hyena’s jaw but I charged it from the side and stabbed it through the ear.
The monstrous hyena cocked its head to the side and let out a gurgling whimper as it capsized onto its left side. A message popped up in front of me and displayed what was to be: me.
Name: Gray
Race: Draconic Demon
Level 2
Skills: Flight I, Demonic Energy II(Level increases with suffering endured or caused by the demon), Darkness Control I.
Special Skills: Polyglot(Can speak any language), Devour(Can eat anything and gain energy equivilant to what is eaten).
Status Effects: Enslaved(90% of exp goes to the slave master), Cursed By God(Can’t speak the human language).
My first battle was won. My level only increased by one but I was able to see my abilities and show improvement. The guard betting on three cheered to himself and they led us back to our cage. We were not given food and continued to starve.
This continued for the next week.