CHAPTER 8

Morning came without anything bothering us during the night. I had managed to burn through some of the boundless energy that was in my body, so I had slept for a few hours for once. Argos made a nice fur blanket when he laid over Imperia and I’s legs. With a yawn, I stood up and stretched.

Imperia stood up next to me as well. A good night’s rest always gave her some ability to move the next day. “How are you feeling today?”

She made a sound as if thinking about it. “Better. I’ll let you know if I feel like I’m about to collapse again.”

“Oh? You’re being so conscientious.”

“Even I know when to be grateful,” she replied with a sigh. I could tell she really didn’t like that.

“No worries. I’ll carry you if it comes to it.”

“My appreciation,” she said bowing her head to me.

“Echo. Any good news?” I mouthed as Imperia started to move around carefully.

“I believe I have spotted a road, but it could just be a natural formation. I can’t be sure until we get closer.”

“Got it. At least its something,” I replied. Though in my heart I was excited. Civilization might be just around the corner. Echo laid out a path for me and I held out my hand to Imperia. “Time to go. I’m going to carry you after all. Just so we can make some time.”

She took my hand and begrudgingly got on my back. I took off at a light jog with Argos on my heel. Not having to dodge branches as we ran made the morning much more enjoyable. To me it even felt like I was jogging back in the simulator on the mothership. There were plenty of programs that had areas like this.

It was around noon when Argos slid to a stop and I did the same. He growled at the grass around us and I wondered what had prompted his reaction. I couldn’t see, hear, or smell anything and Echo’s drone was too far out to be any help. I didn’t have to wait long as two dozen purple skinned humanoids jumped up from the tall grass.

“Kesh,” Imperia said looking around.

“You know them?” I asked setting her next to me. Looking closer, they reminded me of the goblins from Earth’s old games. They only had loincloths on and rudimentary weapons such as sticks and stones. Although, one had a rusted sword that looked to be a hundred years old. The weapon still told me there was a civilization on this planet.

“Yeah. They are the weakest demon that filled my army. Barbaric and ruthless. They want nothing more than to eat, sleep, and fuck.”

“I’m not sure a lady like you should be using that sort of language,” I said carefully drawing my sword. My rifle wouldn’t be useful with us already surrounded. “Is it possible they might have changed?”

“Kesh! I am the Demon Queen Imperia. You will cease your actions at once!” Imperia shouted.

The Kesh looked at each other then laughed. So, they could understand her. “Kesh. If you can understand me then its best if you walk away now.”

“Wes speaks demon language, but wes want to fuck you. So, it no matter.”

“I’ll ram my sword up your ass and let it fuck you. How about that?” I growled pointing the weapon at the offensive creature.

“We more. You few. We win.”

“Stay next to me,” I whispered to Imperia.

“What? You think I can run in my condition?” She said crossing her arms over her chest.

“Good point.”

Three Kesh-goblins rushed us. They had massive erections for such small creatures and obviously couldn’t hold back any longer. I waited until they were nearly on top of us, then brought my sword around trusting the blade that Echo had made. I wouldn’t have even registered cutting anything if it wasn’t for the blood that sprayed over me from the three new corpses on the ground.

“Gah! Gets thems!” the leader Kesh shouted, and the rest rushed us.

Argos didn’t sit out the attack this time. I think he knew he was stronger than all of them together. He dove into the grass and each time he emerged; a Kesh would be bitten in half. I didn’t fall behind, my sword slicing through the Kesh in rapid movements. Imperia stayed behind me while we moved to keep from being surrounded in close quarters. My sword easily cutting them to pieces.

“Hags! Hags! Run!” the leader said once about half of their number was dead. I swung my blade to remove the blood and sheathed it before pulling my rifle out. No one called me a hag now that I was a female and Imperia looked barely over sixteen. I aimed after the leader easily able to pinpoint him after he sank into the tall grass.

I rapidly pulled the trigger as I moved my aim at the remaining Kesh. Explosions of blood signaled that I’d hit my target. With the eleventh one, I stopped from pulling the trigger.

“Argos. Think you can fetch it for us?” I asked the wolf. “Alive?” I tried to signal what I meant to the beast, but I wasn’t sure he got it. He did take off after the last remaining Kesh when I was done so I prayed for the best.

A few minutes later, Argos returned with the struggling Kesh. Sadly, it looked like the nasty creature would be expiring sooner rather than later. He was missing a leg and arm, with several gashes across his chest. “Kills me! Nasty womens!”

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“Alright. Only if you tell me where the nearest town is. Otherwise, I’ll make sure your remaining time in this world is long and painful.”

The Kesh pointed to the east. “That ways! Two days!”

“Thank you. Argos.” The wolf bite without hesitation and crushed the neck of the creature. I braced myself as I searched the dead for anything useful, but thankfully, my Biuna side didn’t kick in. I guessed that the Kesh or at least these Kesh didn’t have anything that was useful to assimilate.

Wiping my hands on the ground once I was done, I moved over to where Imperia was sitting. “Nothing of value. Mainly bones, fruits, and berries.”

“That’s the Kesh for you. Why didn’t you use your tail?”

I glanced at the appendage. To be honest, I wasn’t used to having it and didn’t think about it unless I actually saw it. It’s senses of touch was weaker than the other parts of my body as well, and I didn’t often feel it touching the grass or anything.

“Well… Reasons. Still, I’m surprised they are exactly the same as you remember them. I mean ten thousand years was more than enough time for creatures to evolve.”

“Evolve? You mean into a Lo-Kesh?” Imperia asked. “I mean they get a bit smarter and bigger, but not much.”

I just shook my head with a smirk. I would need to get a book on this world’s creatures to really be able to communicate with her about things like this. For now, I’ll just assume she means something similar to hobgoblins like in Earth’s fantasy. I bent over so she could get on my back and we started making our way toward the east. I just hoped the creature didn’t think I wanted a Kesh town.

~~~

“What do you think?” I asked Echo.

In the distance was a town that had wooden walls around it. I had no idea if it was small or large by this world’s standards, but the buildings easily hit the four-floor mark with several of them getting up to the eight and nineth floor. But if I considered that there were actually monsters on this planet then it made since that the people would try to stay inside a defensive fence of some sort.

Fields surrounded the town for quite a distance. We’d arrived just after sundown, so there wasn’t anyone working them at the moment. I did see a few humanoid shapes walking the walls, but I couldn’t make out anything more detailed.

“They appear be similar to humans. The individuals possess longer ears and slender bodies. A similarity to the elves mentioned in Earth fiction.”

“Alright. I just hope that means we can reason with them.”

I glanced at the new drone that Echo had made based on some of the flying beasts that we’d seen. It was similar to an eagle from Earth, but its talons were closer to swords. Thankfully, both the creature and Echo’s drone could retract them allowing him to land on my shoulder. It would make entering the town a bit easier, as I wouldn’t have to worry about someone trying to hunt him down if he flew over the heads of the townspeople once they learned of him.

Moving towards one of the gates in the wall, we found close to a dozen people standing guard on the ground, while even more worked the walls and watched from the towers. I had to suppress a groan when I saw they wielded swords and bows. I knew it was a faint hope, but I was hoping to see at least some form of gun.

There were two people that had staffs. A glow came from the tops of the objects, so I figured they were mages or wizards. Now that I was paying attention to them, I spotted several objects on their person that glowed softly. “Is it safe for them to advertise they have magical items on them?” I asked more to myself than Imperia who was close to passing out.

With a yawn she looked in the direction of the gate. “I don’t see anything?” She rubbed her eyes with another yawn. “Well other than the magian light.”

I looked again to be sure the light wasn’t playing tricks on me, but even after rubbing my eyes and blinking the glow was still there. “You sure you’re not playing me?” I asked, squinting my eyes. “I see it around that man’s brooch and the woman’s hair tie.”

“Likely protection magic. Simple but effective.”

I rubbed my forehead then glanced at Argos. “Is this a benefit of eating your eye?” Sadly, I didn’t get an answer.

“Oh! Now that you mention it Direcregs can see magic. There was an extensive study on it back in my day. I guess they didn’t lose that ability.”

“Then why can’t I see the magic from the tablets?” I’d never noticed a glow from the tablets that created a ward for our camp.

Imperia screwed up her face as she thought about it. “I have an idea, but we can’t test it right now.”

“At least you have a theory.”

By this time, we had been noticed by the tired guards. Swords were drawn and bows were aimed at us, while one of the Magians created a light over us similar to a spotlight. I stopped not wanting them to react poorly and forcing us to flee. Beasts, and monsters were one thing, but I didn’t want to kill humanoids if I could avoid it.

“Joed geouss vuoes!” one of the men shouted pointing his sword at us.

“What did he say?” I asked not understanding a word.

“Umm. Give me a second, I’m a little rusty,” Imperia said shaking her head with her eyes closed.

The other Magian stepped forward and raised her hand. Another glow settled over us. “Can you understand me, Demon-kin?”

“OH! Yes. Thank you,” I replied cheerfully. Magic sure was handy. The fact that they didn’t immediately attack us even though we were Demon-kin was a bonus.

“This is the town of Thaathnas. What are you doing at this late hour?”

“As you can see, we are travelers. We got ambushed by some Kesh earlier but we managed to defeat them. We didn’t want to risk camping again with the town so close,” I explained truthfully. I had no reason to hide it either way. The fact that Imperia was the Queen of demons could be swept under the rug for now.

“There have been a few incidents with the Kesh the last couple weeks. Rumor that a new Lord has been born,” One of the guards volunteered.

“We hope to stay here for a few days, maybe we could assist. We are a decently powerful group,” I ventured hoping to appeal to them. At that moment, Argos wandered over from the nearby field. He had a Kesh arm in his mouth. It appeared to be very fresh. “Argos! Where did you get that!? You’re going to get sick eating things that you find on the ground.” I scolded the dog. “Sorry about that.”

Turning back to the guards, they all had looks of terror on their faces. I raised an eyebrow not sure what the problem was. “Is… is that… DireCreg yours?!” the Magian asked with a stutter.

“Yes. We bonded in the forest.” If you counted eating his eye bonding. The guards looked from me to the giant wolf and seemed to focus on the fact we were both missing an eye.

“A pact! I never heard of it succeeding on a higher Deamon like a Direcreg.”

“Well. I have my talents,” I said with a shrug deciding to roll with it. Right now I just wanted to get into the town.

The Magians backed away and started to discuss amongst themselves for a long moment. Finally, they returned. “Normally, we would make you wait until morning, but with the Kesh presence recently we would be dooming you to your deaths if we turned you away. We do request that you head over to the Freelancer League for tonight, unless you have another form of identification.”

“We will be happy to oblige, as we do not have any form of identification on us,” I replied with a nod.

“Good. Derrick, I’ll hold the fort while you and… you two take them over.” It would appear the woman Magian was in charge here. It made me interested in the society of this planet. Whether it was good or not, women tended be on the short end of the stick in most societies at this level. They usually had to watch the house and raise the children. Well, there was magic so that might change things a bit.

I might be trapped here for the rest of my life, but I was never one to get depressed. As my colleagues used to say I was a master of rolling with the punches. Whether it came to falling to pick up a woman, to barely escaping a battlefield alive. I was a pro.

I adjusted my grip on Imperia. To be honest, she had a nice butt, and I didn’t mind carrying her the entire time. I may have enjoyed more than a few squeezes as we traveled the last few days. Life could be worse.