Come on, Tyler! Stop running around and just kill it already!”

Sitting up in a tree next to a clearing, I can’t help but yell as I watch one of my Fiends running around like a chicken as he is chased around by a monster.

I mean, yeah, the thing is a giant tiger looking thing that is easily big enough to make a grizzly bear look like a plushy, but come on… Actually, it might be a mutated tiger… Wouldn’t be weird if one from a zoo somewhere mutated and escaped…

“Just hit the damn thing already!”

“Let’s go Tyler, you can do it!”

“I know that it looks big, but I know you can take it! Don’t be a pussy!”

Around me, the others are also cheering him on as we all watch from on high. Nathaniel is sitting on a nearby roof with Frank, Jonus, Victor, and Jackson, acting as the peanut gallery.

With five big guys sitting on that old snow-covered roof, jeering and throwing snowballs, I am honestly worried that the thing might collapse under them. Not that that would hurt any of them though…

Then, scattered around the clearing, standing or sitting on tree branches, is Vincent, Alex, Keith, and Xander, because they are a bunch of loners that like to be alone and don’t like hugs... Bunch of edge lords…

“Ah, he really should just fight back, worse that could happen is he gets bit. Right, Demon Queen?” I get asks as I am hugged from the side, a pair of breasts getting pushed against the top of my head. Only they are currently covered by steel plate and Kevlar, so instead of getting something soft and pleasant, I am instead getting bonked on the head and pushed around…

“Sam, I keep telling you not to call me that. Just call me Lain, please…”

I turn and look up and past the armor covered chest to see the face of a beautiful woman. Her eyes are different colors, with her left being her original blue, and her right now being a golden-yellow, with her face still having the faded scars from when she originally lost her eye. She could have had both eyes be the same color, but she had asked that I make the new one be different, among a list of other changes as well…

Out of everyone that I changed; she is the only one that really took up my offer to customize herself.

“Don’t wanna. You’re my Queen now and I love you.” She says with a cheeky smile. Though I have a hard time seeing the smile, as she is currently glomped over me with her breasts -again, armored…- on my head. And with her being seven and a half feet tall, my five-foot-tall self has to look straight up just to see her face.

Reaching my hands up and pushing her chest off my head, I dislodge myself from her hug with an annoyed huff.

“Seriously, please stop calling me that, if you want, you can call me Queen. Just drop the Demon part. I’ve already given up on getting the Gremlins to stop calling me Queen…”

Saying that, I look her over as she is smiling at me mischievously. This crazy woman, a twenty-three-year-old Marine, had taken my offer to change her appearance and ran with it. The different colored eyes, bigger breasts, thinner waist, bigger butt and thighs, and then she even went and asked for her hair to be black and white on opposite sides with her horns growing from her temples being black and white as well. Her horns in question are just like her hair and are opposites, with the white horn pointing downwards from her black hair, and the black horn pointing upwards from her white hair.

Initially, I had tried to talk her out of it, but she was adamant that this is what she wanted. So, now she will be like this for the rest of her life. However many hundreds or thousands of years that may be.

Oh well, it was her decision. And besides, she seems happy with the new look.

“Mmm, but I want to call you that. You could always just order me not to.”

“You know that I won’t do that.” I tell her with a frown.

This just gets her looking even more happy, her smile spreading to show off her sharpened teeth and elongated canines.

“Hehe, I do know that~ How about if you give me a kiss? Then I will call you by your name instead~?”

I put my hand to my chin and pretend to think for a moment. “Hmm… Tempting, but no. I can give you a hug instead though?”

She gives me a pout, but I can tell through our connection that she is faking. She is just having some fun at my expense. “Mrh… I thought you were supposed to love us. Come on, just one kiss?”

“Nope, just because I love you all, it doesn’t mean that I suddenly want to cheat on my girlfriend with you. The offer for the hug still stands though. I love being able to really squeeze someone without having to worry about killing them.” I tell her with a big smile. Then, yelling across the clearing towards the loners, I complain, “It sure would be nice if more people liked HUGS!”

I just get dismissive looks in return...

Sam scoots over and wraps me up in a hug before yelling for everyone to hear, “Its ok. They’re just a bunch of lonely bastards that think it is cool to look sad! They’re allergic to feelings!”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Xander just gives her a middle finger and doesn’t say anything while the peanut gallery laughs.

Down in the clearing, Tyler is still getting chased around as he dodges bites and swipes from clawed paws bigger than a man’s chest.

Shifting forward in Sam’s hug, I yell, “Tyler, just kill the damn thing already! Trust me, you got this, just punch it!”

“That’s easy for you to say! Couldn’t you have let me use my- ah holy shit! Just give me my rifle back! Please!”

“Nope! Learn to fight like a Demon, then you can have your toys back!”

His rifle in question is currently hung up on a branch with the rest of them. Killing monsters with bullets is one thing, but I didn’t turn him into a Fiend so that he could stay back and fight from a distance.

“Just punch the damn thing!”

“Come on, Tyler!”

“It’s just a big cat, nothing to be scared of, let’s go!”

He turns to scream something at the peanut gallery, distracting him from the fight. So, letting out a huff of irritation, I raise a hand and make a shadow emerge from the ground near his feet and grab him by the ankle, tripping him and causing him to fall on his ass.

The tiger is quick to take this chance and try to pounce on him, clearly aiming to bite his head off.

Panicking from falling, and having a massive tiger lunging at him, Tyler covers himself with his arms to guard his face, instead of just punching the darn thing.

“Haaaaa…” Pulling one finger from my outstretched hand like I am pulling a string, I move my shadows and string-up the tiger mere feet in front of him, its jaw forced shut and muzzled as it thrashes under my bindings.

Freeing myself from Sam’s hug, I alight from the tree and land in the clearing with hardly a sound.

By the time I arrive beside Tyler, he is looking up at the trapped tiger from where he sits on the ground.

“Thanks for- “

“No. Stand up, now. You’re a soldier, aren’t you? Get up!”

He is quick to follow and stands up like he just got snapped at by a Drill Sergeant. Though I didn’t use my authority to ‘order’ him to do it.

“I’m sorr-“

“No, shut up and listen. I know that you are still scared of them. Getting your arm bitten off by a fucking monster isn’t something that you just get over. I understand that. I get it. Trust me. If it weren’t for the fact that I don’t sleep, I would probably be having nightmares of dogs tearing me apart every night. I understand. But you are a Fiend now! You have power! I have made you stronger and I have given you your arm back!”

I point to the shackled beast, my finger mere inches away from touching its big wet nose. I can even feel as the hot air from its breaths runs over my skin. The precipitation wetting my sweaters sleeve and leaving droplets on the back of my hand.

“You. Are. Stronger. Than. This! Do you understand me, Tyler? You are allowed to be afraid, but when you need to kill the monster that is right in front of you with nothing but your hands, you NEED to kill it! No running, no dodging, KILL IT! Do you understand!?”

“Yes Ma’am!”

“Good! Now Kill this damn tiger! Beat it to death and tear it apart! And if you aren’t covered in its blood by the time you are done, I will DAMN SURE give you something to be afraid of! NOW KILL IT!”

By the time I am done screaming, my Field has already covered everything in the surrounding area. Birds that are still here despite the cold fly away in a fright, and even the chained and muzzled beast tries to run away from me as my presence slams down on everything and anything around us, bringing the cold winter wind to a grinding halt and shaking the trees as their branches are forced down from the sheer weight of my presence.

Tyler is breathing heavily as he clenches his jaw and his fists, his eyes burrowing into the tiger with fear clearly present in his gaze. Pounding his fist against his thigh, he psyches himself up and screams.

I step aside as he takes a step forward, his fist raised.

“RAhhhhhhhhhh!”

His fist collides with the beast’s face, smashing it into the ground and throwing up plumes of snow and mud as its head is violently slammed down.

“Ahhh! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!”

One punch follows another as he forces its head further into the mud. His blows quickly becoming a flurry as his fear is turned into rage. Something cracks under his fist; a spray of blood and brain matter getting let loose under his fists. I remain standing beside him even as blood and viscera start to spray in every direction, my shadows simply moving to catch any filth that might land on me.

His blows continue to rain down on the thing even long after it has turned into a corpse, but I don’t stop him, simply letting him take it all out on the now broken bag of flesh as he screams and cries.

…

He eventually stops, collapsing to his knees in bloodstained snow and mud before the now unrecognizable corpse. Tears run down his blood coated face as he breathes heavily, his bloodied fists, stuck with shards of broken bone, fat, and matted fur, still clenched and held before him.

I place a hand on his shoulder, still having to reach up despite him being on his knees, and say, “Good job, Tyler.”

“I… I can still feel it. The moment when I lost my arm. The jaws snapping down on my flesh and breaking my bones. Its face… I thought that I was better now, now that I got my arm back… but-“

“Mhm, fear like that isn’t something that you can just get rid of. I understand. But that is why we are doing this. To help you learn to overcome that fear and fight it like a Demon.”

Manifesting several shadows, I have them lift the broken corpse of the giant tiger and toss it to the side of the clearing. Pulling out my handgun that I hardly ever get to use, I fire it several times straight up into the air.

“Now, get up and do it again. I won’t help you this time, nor will I save you. The next one that shows up, you need to kill. No running or dodging around. Fight it. Understand?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Don’t call me ma’am. I’m younger than you. Call me Lain.”

“Yes, Lain…”

“Good, now get ready. The next one is on its way.”

Turning and walking away, I jump back up into the tree. Plopping myself onto Sam’s lap and letting her pet my head, I watch as more monsters come into the clearing.

There is three of them this time around, drawn in by the gunfire, so I kill the two smallest ones with my shadows instantly, removing their heads before they can even fully enter the clearing. The third and largest of them sees the other two die instantly and tries to turn and flee, but I simply move my shadows to block its path and whip it towards Tyler.

When the newest monster sees him, it quickly decides to go on the attack, pushed forward into a frenzy by shadowed whips cracking at its ass to motivate it.

“Come on Tyler! No fear! You can’t be afraid of something that is dead, so kill it!”

“You can do it Tyler!”

“Let’s GO!”

“Punch it in the spleen!”

“Ahhhhhhh!!!”

Sitting from on high, I watch as Tyler buries his fist straight into the nose of the charging lizard thing, snapping its head back with the force of his punch. He is shaking, and I can feel his fear through our connection, but he is fighting.

“That’s right! Kick the shit out of it!”

Watching as Tyler brutalizes the big lizard, I turn to address the cheering crowd. “Who’s going next? We’re not heading back until everyone has had a chance to let loose and try out their strength.”

Nathaniel raises his hand. “I’ll go next.” He says with a shrug.

“Good, and if we kill everything in this area, we’ll head to another spot and keep hunting. Let’s go Tyler! That’s right, break its jaw! If it can’t bite you, then it’s not a threat! Good job!”