The monsters surrounded Diassa and the others, cutting off all exits. They seemed to pay a particular attention to Jade. One of the monsters even licked its lips in a perverse delight at the sight of her, which prompted Jade to smack it in the face with the stump of her tail.

Another one of the creatures in response however grabbed Jade's tail and pulled her towards it. Though she tried to fight back, she was no match for the monsters strength and it pummelled her easily.

Diassa tried to help and not only blasted three of the monsters away with his magics, but also again tried to severe the forcefield, only for it to be totally ineffective.

As more and more of the monsters emerged from the buildings and the ruins all around however, the entire team was soon overrun.

The red creatures locked Diassa and Jade in a very special kind of magical chains that glowed green.

The creatures escorted all of the others except Diassa and Jade to a nearby cage filled with many human slaves from various different cultures.

Diassa and Jade were taken to what looked like the main square where hundreds more of these strange creatures had gathered for a celebration of some kind.

"What the hell are they?" Kelina said as she struggled to move in the cage.

"Scorisios" one of the prisoners said.

"Which are?"

"Demon hunters."

"Demon hunters, well why the hell have they captured us." Sisia protested.

"Hey, hey, hey you." Sisia shouted to one of the monsters by the cage.

"I think you made a mistake. You just assumed because we were with that Snake lady and that weird guy that we're Demons."

The monster walked closer to the cage.

"It's an honest mistake, but we don't normally hang out with those two."

Shelly and Kelina both looked disgusted.

"They saved us and you're happy to throw them to these things?" Shelly said.

"It's them or us."

"Why you cowardly, backstabbing."

Mukinsa interrupted.

"No she's right in a situation like this we need to take any opporunity we can."

"Why am I not surprised." Kelina said derisively.

"Honestly Sisia, if you find yourself on the same side as that bitch, you know you've lost the argument." Kelina continued.

"I agree" Mukinsa's brother, one of the few remaining bandits said.

The creature approached the cage slowly and smiled at Sisia.

"I think it can tell we're not Demons."

"None of us are Demons you moron." One of the prisoners said only to be silenced by another prisoner.

Before Kelina, Mukinsa or any of the others could figure out what was going on, the red figure reached its arm into the cage and grabbed Sisia by the back of the head and pulled her forward, smashing her face into the bars and knocking her out.

The monster then opened the cage and dragged her body away. It appeared to do so discretely, constantly looking round for other members of its kind.

"What's it going to do to her." Shelly asked, only for none of the prisoners to answer.

To Shelly's surprised Mukinsa grabbed one of the nearby prisoners and threatened to break her neck unless she answered. (In reality however Mukinsa was only worried about what might happen to her.)

The prisoner still didn't talk. If anything she welcomed death, but fortunately her father did.

"Don't hurt her, I'll tell you. Those things, they are Demon hunters, but they don't just kill them. They eat them. They come from the darkest region of Tairos.

"Out there is pretty horrible." Mukinsa said sharply.

"Trust me. Compared to where those things come from, it looks like paradise. They were created by the last human civilisation said to live in that hell. Forged in the most powerful magics, they were designed to hunt Demons and all unnatural creatures. For years they did protect the kingdom that created them. The Demons weren't used to being preyed on after all. Eventually however this common enemy just ended up uniting all of the monsters of the area and even the predators of the Demons couldn't hold them off. The creatures decided to flee, so they used a spell that would literally make this city teleport to different locations."

"You mean to say this city's landed on a massive piece of the forest." Shelly asked.

"No not quite. It's teleported in here, but it hasn't if that makes sense. It's resting on the forest but only the creatures the Demon predators want to interact with the city can either see it, or enter it. Everyone or everything rather from out there just passes through it like that Black Tyrannosaurus."

"How do you know about that?"

"I live here. Me and my daughter. We live in these woods. We help bring new recruits and food for some of the Demons that can't leave the woods themselves. Every year the predators of the Demons come to these woods looking for Demons and other unnatural creatures to hunt. It's their favourite hunting ground, though again sometimes they bite off more than they can chew. They got our master just a day or so ago and us too."

"You still haven't explained what they want with us if they just eat Demons?" Mukinsa asked.

"That's the thing Demons are a lot more difficult to hunt and keep locked up than humans and the trips from city to city can be long. So a good alternative is to capture several helpless humans, and turn them into low level Demons they can snack on. That's what we're here for.

They still enjoy hunting Demons and unnatural creatures out in the wild of course, like your two friends. Feasting on them is always a grand event, but the rest of us are just a back up, or sometimes an appetizer if you will. Your friend there who tried to worm her way out."

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"They're going to turn her into a Demon." Shelly asked.

"Yes. That guard, he's a greedy, greedy bastard. Every few nights he takes one of us out and turns us into a Heflox Demon. Horrible, disgusting little things, but easy to overpower and I'm told from their point of few, quite a tasty snack."

"I get it" Mukinsa said with a wry smile on her face.

"What" Shelly asked.

"These sly devils. They knew their greedy jailer would take one of them tonight, so they let us, the new, clueless idiots provoke him in the hopes of not being next. That's right isn't it?"

None of the prisoners answered.

"You rotten, cowardly." Kelina said.

"I wouldn't blame them." Mukinsa interrupted. "After all it's what I'd do."

"We all know that." Her brother sneered.

"Why are you even bothering to put it off?" Shelly asked.

"Sooner or later those monsters will come for you."

"Not necessarily." The prisoner said.

"Sometimes they use us as bait to lure a Demon out into the open. If we're lucky the Demon gets us first. If we're very lucky, we can escape."

"What's the difference if a Demon kills you?"

"At least most of the time we die as ourselves and our souls aren't damned by becoming one of those things for them to prey on. Demons are a bit more picky about who they turn."

The Scorisio guard dragged Sisia to the ruins of an old, small temple. Inside the small ruins was a large cauldron which had a green flame.

The Scorisio deliberately woke Sisia up so she could witness the transformation.

"No please, please I don't know what you want but I'm not a Demon, I'm from Dynamos" She said as she tried to pull away from the monsters iron grip that forced her slowly towards the flame.

The monster was too strong and it pushed Sisia into the green flame causing her entire body to light up in green fire. It was agony the likes of which she had never experienced before, whilst the Scorisio in conrtast was completely unaffected by the magics.

In just a few minutes the flames all disappeared from Sisia who had passed out long before from the pain. The Scorisio cruelly dragged her in front of a small puddle just outside the temple and made her see how the green flame had transformed her.

Sisia screamed at first, thinking it was a hideous monster that was about to attack, but the predator held her down and forced her to look longer. She soon realized that she was now looking at herself and screamed, though even that shocked her as her screams didn't sound remotely human.

Her skin had become green, thick and scaly, whilst her hair had completely vanished. Her eyes meanwhile were bulging and completely black. She had no nose, and long sharp teeth that protuded from her mouth and overlapped with one another.

The Scorisio started to bite her fingers and snapped two of them off. They always preferred eating their prey alive. Sisia desperately tried to fight back, but it was no use. Whilst she felt much stronger in this form, her strength was still dwarfed by that of the creature.

Still she desperately reached out for the cauldron, hoping she could use it as a weapon. Not the flames which she knew were not effective, but the pot itself.

She managed to just barely grab it and pulled it towards her, knocking it over. The flames spilled out and soon dissipated, startling the predator for a moment which allowed Sisia to pull free.

The Scorisio weren't used to their prey actually running or fighting back. (As the prisoners knew that even if they did evade the monsters, then there was no way they could escape the city. Also once they had been turned into Demons, then there was no point in trying to flee anyway. )

Sisia ran through the streets of the city, but she was soon cut off at both ends by hordes of Scorisios. With no other choice she jumped over twenty feet through the air to the top of one of the nearby buildings. She did it solely on her new Demonic instinct and was quite shocked at her strength.

Sadly she didn't have time to appreciate it as 4 more of the creatures soon followed forcing Sisia to flee across the roof top buildings.

Sisia ironically now sought out Diassa and Jade. She felt sure that the Wizard could undo whatever it was the monsters had done to her. Sadly right now she didn't even think twice about Kelina or Shelly still trapped in the cage.

Keeping just ahead of the monsters, Sisia spotted a massive festival in the city's square from a nearby roof top. This wasn't just celebrating any Demon hunt however.

This was celebrating the thousand years since the Scorisio had overrun this city and become the scourge of the Demon world.

As a result there was a huge Demon chained in the centre of the square. The creature looked like a gigantic, brown snake with no eyes and a mouth full of huge teeth, almost too big to fit in its mouth!

Long thin tentacles emerged from either side of the monsters body writhing. Around the monster were hundreds of the creatures chanting and performing rituals seemingly to weaken the abomination.

Though one of the Scorisio got too close and the monster was able to wrap one of its tendril like tentacles around him and turned the creature into a hideous, feral, yellow skinned Demon, covered in spikes, which the others were forced to put down.

"Incredible" Diassa said.

"That's a Gyslox Demon. It's one of the most powerful and rarest breed of Demons. I've never seen one in the flesh before, but I've always wanted to."

"Why?" Jade asked. "I wouldn't even want to look at a crude childrens drawing of that thing." Almost as soon as she had finished, the monster started spewing yellow pus from its mouth over several of the Scorisio.

"It looks like we're going to be sacrificed to it unless you have some clever plan." Jade continued.

"I'm afraid I don't think we're being sacrificed to the Gyslox. Of course normally being forced down that yellow, puss filled throat would be the worst option, but in this case, at least it would be quick if he ate us."

As Jade looked around she could see the remains and bits and pieces of various other Demons scattered around on plates at a nearby table. She also saw several of the Scorisio who had been covered in the Demon's puss eat it.

"I think I'm going to be sick, but these guys will probably just eat it, which will make me sick again and then again and again it goes." Jade said.

"It is the Scorisio." Diassa said as he winced in disgust as well. "The legendary predators of the Demons. To some they are heroes, others monsters, others really, really disgusting. Whatever the guess though we're in big trouble. The Gyslox is their big feast and we're just the starter."

Whilst the Scorisio were distracted preparing the Gyslox for its big day, Sisia jumped into the square and tried to pull the green chains holding both Diassa and Jade out of the ground.

"A Demon, a Heflox from the looks of things. Look I know I'm not exactly a friend to all Demon kind, but" Diassa said before Sisia cut him off.

"It's me Sisia, I'm one of the bandits prisoners. They did this to me. They turned me into this freak. You have to help me."

"I will don't worry, but these chains are surpressing my magic. If we all pull however we might be able to break them."

All 3 pulled as hard as they could at the chains, but they were far too strong and it wasn't long before Sisia was noticed by several of the Scorisio who surrounded her.

In desperation Sisia tried to jump back the way she had come across the rooftops, but one of the Scorisio pursuing her jumped down from the roof of the building at the same time and smacked Sisia back to the ground.

Sisia was nevertheless able to wriggle free when the monster tried to bite her neck on the ground. She ran to the table and started to throw the Demon parts on the plates at the Scorisio's, but not only did it not deter them the monsters reacted in absolute fury at their meal being disrupted.

The monsters charged at her, but they were so caught up in their own anger, that she managed to (barely) jump over the charging horde. Unfortunately however Sisia propelled herself a little too hard and landed right next to the Gyslox. She still hadn't completely used to her new Demonic strength. Diassa screamed at her to run, but before she could even move one of the beasts tentacles wrapped itself around Sisia's throat.

Sisia soon began to change into a much larger, more ferocious looking Demon. Her skin grew into thick black plates, whilst her eyes turned bright red. A small crown of horns grew out of the top of her head, whilst a blue energy shone from her chest chest.

She now stood over 7 feet tall and her roar was as loud as the Gyslox itself. This was a totally new type of Demon that had been created by the mixture of the Scorisio and the Gyslox's magics. No such beast had ever existed before as the Gyslox and the Heflox breed had never lived together before. Even the Scorisio's were taken aback at the sight of the monster. They all tried to attack it, but it managed to send twelve of the Demon predators flying across the square. It then grabbed one of them and crushed its head into paste, before ripping the arm off of another and punching its fist through the next Scorisio foolish enough to attack the Demon.

The rest of the Scorisio wisely kept their distance, but unfortunately with no one to continue the ritual to weaken (and eventually kill) the Gyslox its power was returning and it would soon be able to break free

There was seemingly nothing left of Sisia in this brute however as it soon headed for the helpless Diassa and Jade after noticing how helpless they were.