“Demonic tongue?” Eric asked, “What are you talking about?”

“You can’t tell me you don’t know what tongue you speak. Do you really expect anyone to believe that?”

“Since when is English a demonic tongue?”

Even though his situation was far from ideal, Eric remembered something. Or maybe he remembered it precisely because he was in a life-or-death situation.

“Oh, fuck … I see what you mean …”

“So, are you a demon or not?” Pig-faced asked again.

“No, I’m… I’m not a demon. But I did meet a female who gave me a certain potion. As soon as I drank it, I understood everything she said.”

“Was she a devil?”

“I … I don’t know. I know nothing of devils or demons.”

Pig-faced gave him a deep frown: “You know, usually I wouldn’t even think about talking to you like this, but there are so many things wrong with you that it’s really … impressive.”

“Oh?”

“Like, it’s impressive that you’re bleeding.”

“How is that impressive? Isn’t that what happens when you shoot an arrow into someone’s chest? What did you think is going to happen?”

“It’s also impressive how you can talk with arrows in your chest. Normal people lose their consciousness.”

“Well … it will happen soon … unless you heal me somehow.”

“Oh, I would love to heal and examine you thoroughly, but we don’t have such luxury in a dungeon.”

“So … this is it for me?”

“Yes, that’s it for you,” Pig-faced responded in a harsh, cold voice.

“So why don’t you finish me off then? Are you going to make me suffer?”

“I don’t know, I just … I’ve never seen anything like you. You don’t have a soul, yet you’re not undead. You’re also similar to an elf … yet you’re clearly not one. What are you?”

“My people are called humans. We’re from a different world.”

“So … you were summoned here?”

“Yes. I didn’t come here of my own will.”

“Sucks to be you then.”

“It clearly does.”

Pig-faced squatted in front of Eric: “Tell me of this female you’ve mentioned. What is she like?”

“Why do you care?”

“I’m curious. This knife you’re carrying,” he pointed at the knife strapped to Eric’s waist, “I recognize it, so I’m curious about its previous owner. I bet she gave it to you as a gift. Besides, it’s not like you have anything better to do. Might as well make your last moments more pleasant.”

“Are you guys going after her?”

“No, we don’t care about her. But it looks like she cares about us.”

Eric rolled his eyes: “Well … might as well tell it how it is since I’m about to die anyway. We just happened to run into your camp. We didn’t come there on purpose.”

“Are you absolutely sure about that?”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“We were looking for prey, for something to eat. She was trying to teach me how to hunt. We wouldn’t go there if we knew there were adventurers around.”

“And it just so happened that you’ve picked up the bodies of our two friends.”

“… she is a blood mage. We are trying … we were trying to gather enough blood to make a portal out of here.”

“I see. So you wanted to speed it up by gathering some blood from us adventurers.”

“No! We had no idea you were …”

A strong cough interrupted Eric, making him cough up some blood from his lungs.

“Oh, what a shame,” Pig-faced didn’t change his expression one bit, “Looks like our conversation is coming to an end soon.”

“Yeah … a real shame.”

“But do you really expect me to believe it? That the two of you simply ran into our friends on accident?”

“That’s how it is. You decide if you’ll trust me or not.”

“You’re very gullible and stupid, aren’t you?”

“… perhaps I am …”

“There’s no way that devil didn’t know we were there. She can sense us easily. Especially someone like me.”

“I distracted her with conversation.”

“There’s no way a simple conversation could distract a devil like that. She was the one distracting you.”

“Does that really matter at this point?”

“Not to you, but it does matter to us. We’re all experienced adventurers here, yet we never saw a devil on the loose. They’re supposed to stay in their chambers and guard the treasure, not stalk through the halls.”

“That … could be my fault. My people live short lives … so I may have encouraged her to take a more proactive approach to securing blood. She was content to gather blood slowly over hundreds of years, but I only had two or three decades before turning old. Oh, I mean blood for …”

“To create a portal, I understand.”

“… yes …”

“Hmm …” pig-faced looked in the distance, thinking about something, “Us adventurers are good for powering magic … with our blood, of course. But she has far better options. Why isn’t she exploring those? If what you say is true, that means she broke her contract with Dungeon Master. She doesn’t need to hold back if that’s the case.”

“I don’t know what’s going on in her head. I tried to figure it out, but her mind is a complete mystery to me. The only thing I know for sure is that she’s a violent bitch.”

That made pig-faced laugh: “Haha … what did you expect a devil to be like? Loving and caring?”

“I learned that definitions are often … vague, at best. I was hoping for something better. But it’s not like I had any choice.”

“Oh, it shows. There’s no way someone like you would travel these halls willingly. Did she send you as a scout or something? Why isn’t she with you right now?”

“I …” Eric continued coughing, “I had enough of her shit.”

“So you thought that dying is a better option.”

“I … I couldn’t handle what happened to your friends … we had a fight over it …”

“Are you telling me you had a fight with a devil? And survived?”

“Not a physical fight … a verbal one. We argued, so I left.”

“I don’t believe you. There’s no way a devil would let someone walk away … unless …”

As his eyes widened in realization, pig-faced jumped back up in alarm, staring down the corridor. Putting his hand on the gecko’s shoulder, he spoke in a foreign tongue. The gecko nodded and started running, going in the same direction the armored warrior had gone before.

“You may be gullible and stupid, but that’s exactly the kind of tool the devils love,” Pig-faced commented.

It wasn’t long before the gecko came running back, screaming all the way. Pig-faced turned around and motioned to someone behind him to go back.

“It’s such a shame,” he told Eric, “But we must go.”

“Is something coming?”

“Yes. And we’d gain nothing from fighting it here.”

“Why don’t you finish me off then? I don’t want to be eaten.”

Pig-faced considered those words for a moment: “No. I don’t want to anger it even more.”

“Anger …” Eric’s expression changed once he realized what was coming, “oh … oohhh …”

“Yes, that’s right. We must go.”

And with that, pig-faced ran away, with gecko right on his tail.

Just a few moments later, Eric heard a familiar, feminine voice.

“Tsk … that pig knows what he’s doing. I’ll get his holy ass one day. I didn’t have pork in such a long time.”

Looking up, he saw a familiar female looking down at him.

“Look at you,” she spoke with disdain in her eyes, “You’re pathetic. Can’t even handle two arrows.”

“I’m not a devil.”

“That you’re certainly not. What were you even thinking?”

“It wasn’t the smartest thing I did … ok?”

“You’re prideful like a devil, yet weak like a child. There was no way it could’ve ended any other way.”

“Yeah … I understand that now …”

“But now it’s too late.”

“Are you going to nag me in my last moments?”

“You nagged me ever since we met. So it only serves you right.”

“All right, I admit, I was a fool. I lived like a fool, and I died like a fool. Are you happy?”

“Seeing you like this doesn’t make me happy, idiot.”

Eric closed his eyes for a moment, letting out a sigh that made him cough up even more blood, “Look, there are several sassy things I want to say right now, but can we at least part like normal people, in peace? I don’t want to argue on my deathbed.”

“Ok. In turn, I’ll give you a proper burial instead of eating you.”

That made him smile: “I appreciate that, but we both know you’re only doing it because I wouldn’t taste nice.”

She smiled in return: “That’s right. You’re outright disgusting. A stew with you would taste like dirty bathwater.”

She lifted her arm above her head, surprising Eric when he realized she was holding her trusty club in her hand: “But that doesn’t mean I’ll let you suffer in pain. Sweet dreams.”

SMACK!!!