Arthur's Point of View

Lestranian Border Settlement

As I merely walked into the settlement, almost every single Demon eyed me upon entry. While I approached, some noticed me, but I'm guessing my calm manner put them at ease or allowed me enough curiosity to enter unchallenged. At least I was able to enter anyway. However, as I got further and further into the settlement, dozens of large cages lined with Humans, Elves, and Zugal all stared at me. Even the Dragons did their best to look at me. Although they were restricted far more than any of the others.

The Demons did begin to surround me the further in I got. "Hold." One of the Ghouls called out as I made it to the middle of the settlement.

"Why are you here?" Another Ghoul asked as I came to a stop.

Two were male and closely resembled my appearance with maybe a small difference in height, while the last Ghoul was clearly female due to her chest size. All three were present and waiting for me to respond, but also seemed on edge. This piqued my interest. While I was very suspicious, most of the Ghouls I had run into by this point were all very arrogant.

"I've come with new orders," I replied, which surprised all the Ghouls. "I was informed to make my way here and pull our forces back."

This time, the female stepped forward and off to my side. "Why do we need to pull our forces back? We were ordered to take this village and its people back to our Lestranian installation."

Putting one hand on my hip, the other pointed towards the border. "Maybe so, but you were too slow. A large force of Dragons is on their way here right now." My attention turned to the side, where the three Dragons were. "I wonder why." Gesturing to one of the Ghouls, I decided to ask a question in turn. "Were these Dragons captured over the border, in Lestrania, or in the Dragonlands?"

All three Ghouls looked at each other. "The children were capture in the Dragonlands, but not too far in. Obviously, the mother gave chase." The original male who spoke first answered.

"And it didn't occur to you that there might be other Dragons in the area?" I questioned them in an annoyed tone. "I don't know about you, but I'm not too keen to fight a horde of Dragons of unknown size, so we need to pull back."

"What about the others? If we leave the Dragons, surely the ones coming to rescue them won't bother us." The female suggested.

I nodded in agreement. "It's certainly possible, but we just might be making ourselves easier targets. Do you really think the Dragons will let this go? They'll likely try to hunt us down." Moving forward and closer, I whispered to them. "In my honest opinion, almost every Demon here is going to die. We don't have long, and retreating now is going to do little good, but I'm mostly here to warn you three."

Luckily, the female Ghoul agreed with me. "He has a point. If we take the cages, it will slow us down. If a large grouping of Dragons is coming, we should leave while we can." The other two nodded as well. "Sound the retreat and have the lesser Demons start moving."

One blew into a weird-ass horn to sound the retreat, and all the Demons screeched while they started to move at a hurried pace out of the village. Even the Demonic Wyvern looking things took to the sky and started flying in circles overhead. Unfortunately, the three Ghouls were still present, and all of them looked at me.

"Should we leave and just head back before our horde?" The female inquired.

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"Probably," I replied while crossing my arms and gestured to the three Dragons in cages. "I will stay behind and free the Dragons when the others arrive. With one of us near, they will be wary about approaching. I'm confident in my speed to get away in time, so I will catch up with you three in a short time."

Nodding, she turned to the other two Ghouls. "I'll do the same. Try to buy us some time and prevent a slaughter of our forces. Should we fail, Flare will likely kill us, and if not him…" Trailing off for a minute, she went silent as she seemed to imagine what horrors might be in store for failure.

Flare was a new name and one I would remember. He clearly was powerful enough to give these Ghouls pause, which meant he was an overseer of sorts. How far up the chain of command he went, I was unsure, but he certainly held some weight if this entire force answered to him. Especially if they were truly worried that Flare might kill them…

Eventually, she continued in a more nervous tone. "You two go on ahead. I'm faster than either of you, and we should be able to escape easily enough."

Fuck. "Having someone else present will be a huge help. My thanks. Keep the flyers lower. No sense in having the Dragons spot you and ignore us." I told them, and they nodded in return. "Head on out, and we'll catch up."

The two Ghouls left, leaving me with the female Demon. "Should we go tell the Dragons the good news?"

Chuckling at that, I nodded. "Yes. I'm sure they'll be elated."

"What about the Humans, Elves, and Zugal? Should we kill them?"

"Leave them, and we may release a few as we're leaving. Use them as a distraction." I explained.

As we walked, my unaware enemy continued to ask me questions. "So, how long have you been with the Horde?" She inquired.

Trying to play it nonchalant, I replied with a shrug. "To be honest, it's been a while now, so I'm not too sure." Then my hood turned toward her. "You?"

"Few years." She replied, and I had no idea what she was talking about. "It was strange having all this happen, but it was for the best."

"Same."

I assumed she was referring to when she converted into a Demon or something along those lines. Not like there was a way I could ask her for clarification. Thankfully, my nonchalant attitude worked wonders, and no one suspected a thing. Made me glad I decided to keep this cloak.

We stopped in front of the largest cage on the outside of the settlement. "Hey, Dragon!" The Ghoul kicked the cage, which got the Dragon to rumble at us. "Got some good news for you!"

As we got closer, I took in a few details of the caged Dragon. She was blue, with shiny scales and a white underbelly along with spines going down her back. Black horns jutted out of her head in the back of her skull and towered over us. Honestly, she was about twice the size of Kandma, and it was extremely intimidating.

"Apparently, some of your kin heard about your hatchlings and you getting snatched, so your friends are coming to save you!" It was almost amusing at how quick the Ghoul went from civil to downright coldblooded. "However, I was thinking that maybe if we kill one of your children, we might just show them how serious we are."

Obviously, the Dragon was muzzled and pissed. "Maybe we don't anger the giant flying sky lizard and say we did." I suggested.

"Maybe we really should kill one of the young Dragons. It would give us some leverage."

"Our forces have barely had a chance to retreat. We should wait here and be ready to stall at any moment. From what I heard, it wasn't going to be long before you guys were charred on Lestranian soil." I explained.

We waited in silence for a bit, and it wasn't too much longer before the Demon forces could no longer be seen. Around ten minutes had passed as we waited. Unfortunately, this was enough time for the Ghoul to start getting bored. Moving back to the cage, she looked in at the Dragon.

Putting her hands on the bar, she spoke. "Since this is taking so long, I'm going to help myself to one of your children. Just because your kin made us wait."

Obviously, the large Dragon started thrashing around in her cage as the Ghoul started to walk off. She even got some fire to shoot out of her nostrils and the holes in her large metal chained muzzle. Of course, the Ghoul merely chuckled while I looked over to where the Demons had retreated, and I stopped my foolish companion.

Putting my arm out in front of her got her to stop and look up at me. "The Dragons aren't here yet, and I'm bored. I'm not going to continue to stand here doing nothing!" She smacked my arm, but it didn't move from the force she applied, and she yelped when I forced her against the large cage. "What're you doing!?"

"I think it's been long enough." I told her and grabbed her by the throat. "While I am more than willing to play out my role to succeed, I do draw the line at killing innocent children." Squeezing, she began to flail about as the Dragon seemed to watch me very carefully. "You should've just left with your friends." Her hood fell and revealed her face was going purple as I saw her eyes looking at me in shock. "This cloak worked like a charm, though.���

With a final squeeze as she started to transform, her neck disappeared in my grip as her head popped off and rolled inside the Dragon's cage. Blood poured out from my hands and her rolling head. It came to a stop near the Dragon's front right claw, and I merely dropped the body before looking at her.

"Sorry about that. Was trying to take care of that as quietly as I could." I explained and gestured to the Ghoul. "Don't worry! I'm not a Demon, and your children aren't in danger!" Holding up my hands slowly, I tried to show her I meant no harm. "Give me a bit, and I'll get you and your kids out of here."

To my surprise, the Dragon eyed me for a moment as I saw her slitted eye almost zoom in on me. It was kind of creepy but awesome at the same time. However, after a moment, she closed her eye and seemed to let out a deep breath of relief. Nodding, I put my hands on my hips in my own relief.

Unfortunately, it quickly went to shit when Aydan teleported next to me suddenly. "Sire!" He shouted, which gained the attention of the Dragon immediately.

Upon opening her eye again and seeing Aydan, the Dragon started going bat shit crazy in her cage. Just like when the Ghoul threatened to kill her children, this Dragon was not happy to see him. Sighing as I looked at him and ignored the thrashing Dragon, I frowned.

"Dragons really don't like you, do they?" I asked him in a loud and exasperated tone.