The soldier's boots were leaving singed marks wherever he was walking. Nobody tried to get in his way. In fact, nobody stood anywhere in a ten-foot radius around the smoking soldier, and the distance went triple for in front of him.
Behind him, Daisy was perched uncertainly between Eld and Isabelle's heads. Galbaer had left at some point, needing to do something or another, and he'd politely asked Aliss to come with him. She'd refused, so he'd asked a bit less politely. She'd gone with him after that, and the lack of her presence was in the back of his mind. He had no idea where Yamada had gone, and he couldn't have cared less.
Right now, there was nothing he wanted more than to find a demon, whether it be in Hell or in this city, and to tear its limbs off and shove them down its throat, and then preferably to blast it into smaller pieces, and so forth.
With an awkward cough, Daisy gruffly asked, "Yo. Doom. What are we doing?"
He gave her a brief glance and then turned back around. She sighed loudly. "Dude, seriously. Are we gonna go kill something? Are we getting lunch? Just gimme something."
To be honest, the soldier didn't have plans past 'commit genocide on demonkind'. The drive to annihilate their entire species was a constant one. It wasn't a background objective. It wasn't a task he wanted to get done. It definitely wasn't a hobby. It was, as far as he was concerned, the sole reason for his existence. Once all of Hell had been purged of life, he fully intended to find out how to go to another Hell, and another one, and another one, until every universe's Hell was clean from demon filth. No matter how long it took.
Sliding off of Eld's shoulder, Daisy lightly hopped towards him. Instead of walking, she had a strange, loping gait that looked as though she was perpetually bouncing on her long feet, ready to escape at a moment's notice. "Look. I don't care what we do. I'm plenty happy just to not be a slave anymore, ya got it? But I'd like to do something. What do you want?"
He turned his gaze on her, and she didn't flinch. "Rip and tear."
She swallowed hard but kept her eyes fixed on his faceplate unsteadily despite her shaking knees. "Okay, that's something. We can work with that. What do you want to kill?"
His answer was instant. "Demons."
Daisy made a noncommittal noise. "Huh." They kept walking, Eld and Isabelle happily padding behind them. A minute or two later, Daisy's ears perked up. "Wait a sec, I just remembered something. The guys who I was enslaved to? They worked with this goblin, a fella named... Korvik? Something like that. The point being, he ran a fight ring. All comers welcome."
The soldier looked down at her a bit more seriously, curious in spite of his perpetual wrath. She continued, a malicious grin coming across her face. "Of course, the whole thing was a scam. Taking out weaklings for increasingly large jackpots, and then staking it all on the last fight. But the final contender? The house champion? It's a demon. A big one."
A slow smile crossed the soldier's face, and while he didn't notice it, his boots stopped leaving scorch marks in the road. The fact didn't make anyone relax, but it was an improvement.
Daisy elbowed him carefully, explaining conspiratorially, "Okay, so if you want to end up fighting the big guy, this is what we're gonna need to do. You have money, right?"
The soldier checked his balance briefly, then nodded, and she grinned. "Perfect. So this is what we gotta do..."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Most people in the soldier's position would have been nervous, or perhaps even slightly anxious. The soldier hadn't felt anxiety since... too far back for him to remember. Where most people felt worried, he felt wrath. Where they felt nervous, he felt fury. Where they had butterflies in their stomach, he had a grenade in his enemies' stomach.
Taking that into consideration, he was keeping quiet as Daisy convinced the bouncer outside the extremely suspicious-looking metal door that he was just a normal fighter. "Look, buddy, we just got this armor from a nutjob tinker's death auction. The guy took it out thinkin' it was some sort of super armor and got his butt kicked from here to Davalo. My friend here bought it and wanted to give it a test run, which is why we're here."
The bouncer looked the soldier up and down a few times, squinting doubtfully. The soldier was repressing his rage and excitement as much as he could - apparently, others could sense his murderous intent, and tended to get pretty jumpy when they did.
With a disinterested "Eh.", the bouncer stood aside and rapped the door three times, waited, and then hit it one more time. The door was pulled open, and a fat man wearing a stained shirt and shorts looked the soldier and Daisy over. Shrugging, he said, "Eh." and stood aside, putting his disproportionately large mace on his shoulder. He did so without any apparent effort.
Moving on through, the pair were greeted with the sight of a massive cage, placed at the bottom of a sort of valley lined with bleachers. The bleachers were packed to bursting with shouting, screaming people of every race and species the soldier could think of, and quite a few that he'd never even imagined. Inside the cage, a hefty man with rippling muscles and a disturbingly shiny piece of red briefs had a crocodile-person hybrid in a headlock, laughing maniacally.
Daisy glanced up at the soldier and shouted over the ruckus, "Hey, do you mind if I hop on your shoulders!? I'm not gonna be able to make it through all that!"
He considered it for a moment and then gave her a nod. She readily jumped upward, grabbing onto his head with one hand and placing her feet on his shoulders. Poking her head down into his view, she pointed at a small area near the bottom with a desk, two men seated at it. A large and quite literal pot of gold was placed in the center of the table. "Head down there! We gotta get you registered before anyone from the guildhall lets 'em know what you did!"
Agreeing, the soldier simply forced his way through the crowd, moving downward until he ended up next to the cage. Approaching the two men, he appraised them and disliked what he saw.
The one on the left wore a greasy suit and tie, with even greasier black hair slicked back over his head. The hair was long enough that it reached his narrow shoulders, and his entire frame was gaunt. As for the other man, he was remarkably ordinary-looking, with a simple blue shirt and brown pants. He was intently watching the cage fight, fingers laced, with his hands resting on the table in front of him.
The thin one looked over and saw him, giving a slight start as he did. Muttering something inaudible to his companion, they both stood up and walked over. The normal-looking one kept an even expression, but the thin man had an undeniable look of greed to him. Smiling falsely, he extended a bony hand. "Hello there, friend. That's quite the getup you've got there."
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Daisy cut in with a ready grin. "It sure is. When's the next fight? This guy's ready to go."
The rattle of chain link brought their attention to the cage, where the muscled man was pushing his opponent's face into the metal, laughing raucously as he did. Twisting his arm behind his back, the man raised it upward sharply, and there was a snap as the crocodile-man's arm broke. To his credit, he didn't make a sound, instead curling into a ball and clutching it as the muscled man pumped his arms at the crowd, who went wild from excitement.
The sides of the cage lifted, and the crocodile man rolled out, grunting as he hit the floor awkwardly. Rising to his feet, he steadied himself and stumbled into the crowd, vanishing in moments.
Turning back to the soldier, the thin man said eagerly, "Looks like now's your chance. The entry fee is one hundred, by the way. Every fight after, you can put your winnings back in the pot to get a chance to win more, but be warned: losing a fight will mean you lose it all! Are you ready?"
Without a moment's hesitation, the soldier held a hand out over the pot, and a hundred gold coins rattled into it. Ignoring the wide smile of the thin man and the tense expression of the normal one, the soldier turned around and climbed into the cage. Daisy patted his back as he went in, whispering, "Good luck." The walls lowered immediately, and the muscular man turned around with a quizzical expression. It quickly morphed into irritation, and he looked down at the two moderators. "Ay now, what's all this? He gets ta wear armor?"
Still smiling, the thin man responded, "Combatants are allowed to bring in as much armor as they like, Tudamax. It's your choice if you want to wear a piece of underwear."
Grimacing, the man turned to face the soldier, lowering his body in a wrestler's grip. "Eh, I can take anyone, armor or not. Bring it on, I say!" The crowd cheered at his misplaced confidence, and he grinned easily.
Down at the table, the ordinary-looking man held a bell aloft and rang it, the clear note cutting through the mayhem. The moment he did, Tudamax launched forward, grabbing at the soldier's hand and kicking at his knee.
The kick was stopped dead, and Tudamax's teeth rattled from the impact. Looking up at the soldier wide-eyed, he shouted, "Oh, s-"
Flat-handed, the soldier shot one arm forward and slammed his palm into Tudamax's chest. The muscular man was hurled backward, skipped off the canvas floor, and crashed into the chainlink wall. He didn't get back up.
The crowd was silent.
And then it wasn't, a massive roar of approval rising from the bloodthirsty spectators. The walls of the cage rose, and a few uniformed assistants pulled the unconscious man out. Both of the moderators looked thunderstruck, and Daisy's expression held an incalculable amount of smug satisfaction, making a gesture to up the bet.
A few moments later, the assistants shoved an unwilling man into the cage, and the walls lowered before he could dive back out. Turning, he stared at the soldier in an obvious panic. He was wearing quite a bit more armor, but still nowhere near a full suit. The armor was spiked on the shoulders but hung on his lean frame loosely.
He pulled a knife out from a small sheath, holding it in front of him nervously. The blade wobbled unsteadily, and the soldier sighed mentally. This was supposed to be a fight?
The bell rang, and the man launched himself forward in an unexpectedly fast lunge, the knife snaking forward. The soldier neatly grabbed the man's hand, wrist, and knife one-handed and calmly put his thumb and index finger around the man's neck. He squeezed ever so slightly, and the man choked out, "I surre-urk-surrender!"
The soldier tossed him aside in disgust, and the cage lifted once again. The crowd was going crazy from excitement, and Daisy gleefully upped the bet once again. With a slight cough, the thin moderator stood and called out over the crowd's roar, "What do you fellows say to cutting straight to the chase? I'm sure you all want the main event, don't you?"
The crowd went wild in a fit of screaming and shouting, and the man smiled. Leaning down to Daisy, he asked her something that the soldier couldn't make out, and she nodded eagerly in response. Gesturing towards the assistance, the thin man sat down with a devious grin.
A few minutes later, the cage rose once again, and the soldier smiled. The eight-foot demon stepping into the cage was bare-chested, a thick pair of brown horns sprouting from his grimacing face. A simple rope belt held up his tanned leather pants, and he held a ridged battleax in one hand. Upon seeing the ax, Daisy looked over at the moderators and shouting. The soldier wasn't able to hear what she was saying, but based on her expression she was probably complaining about the potentially dangerous weapon.
Ignoring her, the ordinary man struck the bell, and the fight began.
The demon laughed, pacing forward. Bringing his ax up, he laughed, "Betcha didn't expect that, didja now!?"
Ignoring the comment, the soldier raised his fists, ready to fight. Once again, he didn't want to use any of his guns. At least, not yet.
Rushing forward, the demon brought his ax in an uppercut, and the soldier neatly dodged. Grabbing the outstretched arm by the wrist, he smashed a fist into the demon's elbow and shoved it in a direction it wasn't supposed to go. With the opponent's arm broken, the soldier put one foot on the demon's chest to brace himself and brought one flat hand down at the demon's shoulder, and it crushed the bone. Repeating the motion several times, the soldier finally smashed his way through the limb's joint and literally pulled the arm off. Spinning, he used the severed limb as an impromptu club and based the demon across the face with his own arm.
The entire process had taken maybe a second and a half at the outside, and the demon stumbled backward, a rising groan of pain as he fell over. The crowd fell silent in shock that the sheer speed and power that the soldier had displayed, and then rose to their feet with a roar of gleeful bloodlust. The moderators jumped to their feet, shouting at their assistants to get the demon out of the cage.
The soldier wasn't having any of that. Leaning down at the cage's edges, he glared at his finger. Not for the last time, he wished that
The demon had pushed himself to one hand, and as the soldier watched, he gasped through gritted teeth, "
Sucking in a breath, the demon snarled, "
As the demon sprinted forward, the soldier was mildly surprised to find that the demon was significantly faster than he had been before. Unfortunately for the demon, it was still miserably slow compared to the standards that the soldier operated by. Rising one arm to his side, the soldier allowed the demon's ax to skate across his armor, a shower of sparks following it. Faster than the eye could follow, the soldier grabbed the demon's jaw, forced it open, and punched his spare hand straight through the back of his throat. Flipping his palm so that it faced upward, he turned around and brought the demon in an overhead throw, crouching to ensure maximum impact and smashing the demon's skull into the steel-reinforced floor. To his disappointment, the demon's head literally exploded, sending a shower of brains and blood across the floor.
Standing backward and shaking the worst of the gore from his hand, the soldier stared in frustration at the corpse in front of him, only for the irritation to be turned into confusion. The blood and gore and scattered brains slowly sucked back across the floor, returning to the demon's neck and rebuilding his head. Staggering to his feet, the demon shook his newly recreated head and grimaced at the soldier. "Didn't expect that, did ya? It's an Artifact. Mythic grade. I ain't dying until the sun goes down, and that ain't gonna be for another few hours."
The soldier's head tilted in interest.
Evidently... he was allowed to kill this demon.
Over and over.
For hours.
His day had just taken a turn for the better.