A'rgoth was livid, he was angry and he was furious. Now what would make a demon from the bowels of hell this exasperated? Being send on a fool’s errand makes for one good reason. He was a duke of hell, for Lucifer's sake, this foolery was beneath him, being send after a little girl of all things. But working for the big boss Astarius involved going after clients and reminding them of the legally binding aspects of their contracts. After all bureaucracy was invented in hell.
His client was a moon-shadow elf, nasty business and bad for business. Demon hunters, the lot of them, they had killed many of his interns and assistants, resulting in even more paperwork. He did look forward to killing a few of them in the process of acquiring their client, but it was an arduous task and it was annoying to say the least, painful, dangerous and pointless to say the most.
He had entered the mortal realm a couple days ago and had been travelling towards the Umbarat Forest, where the self-righteous bastards lived. Making a living of killing other beings, demons to be precise, damn fascists, A'rgoth thought. He had crossed swords with them on occasion and he had scars to remind him of these encounters.
The Umbarat Forest was made up of the most annoying plants he had ever faced, their thorns getting caught in his jacket, which was made of the finest baby dragon leather mind you, so thorns tearing holes in in it was very much not helpful.
The sun was sitting high in the sky, creating patterns on the forest floor, he didn't like the sun that much being a demon and spending most of his days in the comforting warmth of hell, the heat was not the problem, it was pretty nice actually but the light was a whole different story. Back home the light of the fires was cosy and the screams of the tortured made for a perfect background noise to relax. The sun on the other hand, the light was aggressive and skin cancer is a valid concern even for demons.
Speaking of comforting noises, A'rgoth decided that the chatter of birds was not one them, how could anyone focus with this ruckus going on? Peace full atmosphere my ass he thought as he felt a headache coming on.
Just as he finished that thought his boot, also dragon leather of course, got caught in even more thorned vines, letting go of a string of curse words, that would have made Lucifer himself blush, he drew his short sword. His sword was a broad blade in the style of a roman gladius, with the edges roughed up. He proceeded to self-righteous cut the vines that had entangled him, the edges of his sword not making it easier. Rough edges are great if you want to cultivate a shitload of bacteria to then be deposited in any living creature you come across, but light gardening didn't work great.
Cutting another branch, he finally gets a glimpse of what he had been searching for.
The village he encountered was a small assembly of huts between the trees surrounding a clearing. The huts were made of wood, but not dead wood like the humans would use but rather living branches, persuaded to grow to the elves liking. A´rgoth approached slowly and stealthy, just because he was a higher demon and trained by one of hell's generals herself didn´t mean that the moon-shadow elves were harmless or an easy foe to defeat. It was the polar opposite to be exact. But A´rgoth prided himself on his sense for strategy and his military experience, although it didn’t take a genius to know, that moon-shadow elves were best attacked at noon.
Creeping through the bushes towards the guards, that were protecting the opening of the clearing and preventing his access to the huts that were circled around it, all surrounding a pillar with a hole near the top, A´rgoth remembered that, that was the altar for their prayers directed at the moon. He had interrupted such a prayer session once with a strike team of demons to avenge one of the higher demons that had been killed. He couldn't remember which one it was, it was to many over the decades. But he remembered the fun he had had. He had taken the time to arrange the bodies onto a pentagram drawn in blood, not to pray to Lucifer or anything silly like that, but to strike fear into those that would find them in the morning. Yes, that had been a glorious night. But since he was alone, he would have to strike quick and deadly.
He had reached the first of two guards, the sun made their eyes weak and in A’rgoth opinion useless for them but in his own best interests, it was almost comical how easy it was to sneak up on them. He snuck behind the first guard and simply snapped his neck, alarmed by the sound the second guard turned around his eyes widening in surprise. A´rgoth dropped the body of the first guard and proceeded towards the second, drawing his dagger as he moved. The cry of alarm was smothered by blood as his throat was already cut, A´rgoth watched him fall to the ground his body hitting the forest floor, the blood pooling around him.
He didn´t linger for too long, there were five huts in total, elves lived in small communities that were tight knit and close, for all their closeness within their villages they were bloody awful to the elves outside of their own village, always at war. It was a miracle they got any demon hunting done with all the skirmishes within their own species.
A´rgoth approached the first hut, killing its inhabitants in their sleep, a cowardly approach but effective non the less. He dealt with the others in a similar fashion, the elves he killed were mostly on the younger side, not families but rather a small collection of warriors. It was very typical for elves to spend their youth in such villages and later settle down and start a family, it didn't matter to A'rgoth who he killed, he was almost disappointed that not one of them woke up, no fight, no fun.
He kept the biggest hut for last, he planned to use the inhabitants of the last hut for getting the information he needed.
As he entered, he felt the air move around him, he ducked on instinct. It was for the better because otherwise his head would have distanced itself from his shoulders, he was quite attached to his head after all, losing it would be bothersome.
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He shoved the attacker back to face him head on, his attacker stumbled back, apparently confused, that his attack didn't have the desired result.
The elf that attacked him was young, although appearances did deceive when it came to elves. The elf appeared to be male, with the typical white hair of the moon-shadow elves falling just beyond his ears. He wore nothing but a pair of pants leaving his torso bare, A'rgoth could see the apparent young-ling had already accumulated a fine collection of scars. It made A'rgoth happy, he loved fighting an experienced foe. He pulled his own sword, to match the lightly curved blade that the elf held in the general direction of A'rgoth, the elf had trouble adjusting to the sudden light in his hut, so he kept a careful distance from the demon that had just invaded his home.
“I thought I heard something outside. What do you want demon?”
“Information, I need to find some pesky brat named Lunara something or other, the boss has business with her”
“I won't talk, we may hate our neighbours but I hate demons more. Now fight me”
“I don't want to kill you, in fact I am really looking forward to torturing you, always so stubborn and so difficult to break; makes for better torture though, I get to entertain you to my full talents.”
The elf attacked swift and deadly but not swift enough to actually result in a deadly strike, because A'rgoth was faster, ducking down into a move that was far from being honourable but rather close to practical, his own sword connecting with the elves skin and severing his Achilles tendon in one quick and effective strike. He was almost disappointed, he had expected so much more from the youngster, but many scars apparently meant “bad at fighting” rather than experience.
The elf fell down, his body incapable to stand, A’rgoth bent down to tie his hands with some rope he had found in one of the other huts he had visited, their inhabitants no longer in need of their worldly possessions. The elf who had fallen with a cry, now was trying very hard not to cry.
“Will you stop whining and crying? I didn't even start yet!”
“...”
A'rgoth dragged the elf outside onto the clearing, towards the pillar marking the centre. He pushed the elf against the pillar, using the hole at the top to tie him up in a standing position.
He could see that the still bright light of the slowly descending sun made the elf uncomfortable, he tied him up, so that he was facing the sun.
“Now, let us begin. Where might I find a moon-shadow elf named Lunara, she is supposed to have some kind of special relationship to some kind of moonstone. Like a really important high priestess type of person.”
The elf, having regained some of his composure, didn't reply, staring stubbornly into A'rgoth's face, only the tears still streaming down face betrayed his pain. A'rgoth didn't mind silence, this little bird would sing soon enough.
He started simple, first retracing every single scar with his dagger, leaving new cuts on top of the old ones, the elf only reacting by breathing heavier than before. Maybe he isn't that pathetic after all, A'rgoth thought.
He moved on to one of his favourites, after picking up some small twigs from the ground, he proceeded to step close to his prisoner. A'rgoth was taller than him, stepping so close that he could feel the pain induced laboured breath on his own throat, he reached up and closed his own hand around the hand of his victim, taking his other hand and pushing the first twig, more of a straw really, between the fingernail and the skin beneath it. The elf tried to bite him, but didn't succeed because A'rgoth moved back with ease, smiling at the attempt of rebellion and defence.
“That was rude, I am trying to entertain you. Be nice and let me at least get to the good bit”, he scolded his prisoner.
He used some more rope to secure the elf more tightly to the stone pillar, the last thing he needed right now was to be bitten by an elf of all things. Normally he didn't mind biting, even enjoyed it to a certain degree, but he didn't have time for that right now.
He resumed his earlier position, making the elf uncomfortable merely by his close presence. He repeated the straw under nail method, nine more times. The elf was still holding up quite bravely, only uttering pained grunts rather than screams.
“What did you do to the others?”, the elf asked him. A'rgoth, still close to his prisoner, whispered into his ear, “What do you think? You are the last one, the last one is always kept alive for torture, I am surprised that you even have to ask.”
“You know, if you talk, I might be persuaded to let you live and leave you here, if you survive you could go on a journey of revenge to kill me, that would be fun, don't you think?
The elf replied by stubbornly starring into the distance, not even trying to meet A’rgoth’s eyes anymore.
“Let us continue, the next one is a bit messy, so I usually try to avoid it, but seeing as you are already bleeding it won't make much of a difference.”
He started at the torso, slowly skinning the first stripe of skin, this had the intended effect and made the elf scream, “Finally” A'rgoth thought and took another stripe.
“Stop, please I will tell you what I know. “he panted, the tears finally dried up,
“The elf you are looking for lives in the capital, you know the big city at the centre of the forest.”
“A wise decision my friend, now I will leave you here, if someone finds you in time you might even survive. The tendon might need a little surgical work though. So, I don't expect you in the next couple of months, to make it easier for you to find me I will tell you, my name. “
He cut through the restraints, to give the elf a change.
As the elf started to fall down, he held him up by his hair, “My name is A'rgoth Ixodius Arcadi, remember me and survive.”
“I will kill you, demon scum! “, rasped the elf.
“That's the spirit, you are doing marvellous”, A'rgoth said with a smile, a genuine even, so rare for demons, he wanted to goad the elf further but his prisoner had lost consciousness at this point.
A'rgoth loved the thrill of having an enemy, it made his life more interesting and saved him from boredom.
He had even used his clean dagger in an attempt to keep infection at a minimum, well the tendon he severed with his sword, so the elf would do good by finding a competent healer otherwise he might be looking at amputation. O well can't do everything perfect; mistakes are human (or more accurately demon).
He really hoped the elf he had left on the ground, the twilight making the blood around him appear black, would make it, he really longed for a passionate foe, it had been too long since he had had some good old-fashioned fun.
He walked past the dead guards back into the forest, taking up the fight against villainous botany once more.
Another beautiful chapter by Emberspark...