POV: Fire Imp, Dra

A jet of flame flowed out of my nose as I looked over the smaller imps in frustration. So many imps centered around me were never part of the plan. I wasn’t even supposed to be here only after these useless idiots ate every old wisp that called this layer home but somehow they instead got eaten by them. Most of the old wisps were eaten and new wisps here got sent back to the clan to create new imps but more imps died than were being made due to that damn shadow.

I felt a chill and started to look around at the nearby dunes. Probably another imp getting eaten or-

I finally saw it. Before, when I tried to burn it I couldn’t get a good look at it but I saw it floating above one of the large dunes that no imps had returned from. A ball of blackness that could easily blend in this lightless layer. It has grown fat on the weakest of the clan now the size of my chest despite me burning it not too long ago. I felt tempted to charge it and burn it again but it will probably slip away.

“Fe, do you see that over there?” I asked the largest mature imp that was present. “What? The dune?” Fe asked stupidly but the thing was probably as strong as Fe if Fe couldn’t see it. “Spread the order, all mature imps don’t go hunting, and keep the hunting parties to a minimum. We have mostly succeeded in clearing this layer and don’t want to feed that thing any more than we need to.” I tell Fe as I bark more orders to move the army toward the dune, if we can’t eat it then we will make it waste energy running.

The thing entered the dune and I felt the chill fade. How many imps did that thing eat to get to the strength of a mature imp? The Lord will wake up at this rate and still find this layer shrouded in darkness. ‘Another summoning should be happening soon but at this rate, it won’t be us that will be summoned. Well even if that shadow gets summoned it probably means we’ll know where it will return and we could set up a trap for it.’

POV: Demon

The fire imp sends the massive group of imps toward me having somehow seen me. I’m almost tempted to stay here and eat several imps before the fire imp could stop me but it will take too long. The small imps were not nearly as abused as before and the large imps had been growing in number so I’d probably manage to eat one small imp before the fire imp was on top of me. I went into the sand and dragged some bones behind me just in case the fire imp got too close and circled the group until I was behind the imps. I felt their steps grow farther away from me as I thought to do next. ‘The small imps don’t pose a threat but I don’t know how hard it would be to eat a large imp. Most of them bear some burn scars from the fire imp but they never leave its side anymore. If I wanted to eat a large imp without getting burned then I need to scatter them all, but how?’ I struggled thinking but my hunger pushed me to find a solution.

The only thing that could resist the fire imp’s flames were imp bones and even the large ones seemed to run away whenever I pulled an imp down before. If I could trap the fire imp in a hole made of bone, the rest would scatter. I flowed through several bones trying to chain them together but the more I tried to move together the harder it became to keep it all hidden under the sand. This will require too much effort and I’ll have to move it where they will go.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

After a while, I just gave up on the plan. The imps have rarely left their large group leaving me less to eat and the few times that I got close to the group I felt the heavy steps of the fire imp towards me. The lights that I once ate barely helped my growing hunger and I’ve wasted more strength eating than actually gaining back now the imps being so rare. I’ve been reduced to eating scraps of meat off of bones that I’ve left behind and barely have the will to move to new hunting grounds.

As my mind slows I create the largest pile of bones I’ve made so far under a massive dune allowing me to stretch through out of it. Most of the time pile of bones was too limiting and only used to hide myself but this pile stretches out far. I was inspired by the castle Redwood, where the moonlight barely pierced so that the humans could rest. I will make a castle of bone where even if the fire imp did find me it couldn’t hurt me. As my mind continued to slow the last thing I noticed was that the once-dyed red sand slowly faded to return to its normal color.

I don’t know how long I was like that but at some point, I have an entire hunting party of imps on the outskirts of the pile of bones. They are hunting down balls of light that are fleeing that have flown toward me. These lights were dimmer than normal and after watching them run around for a while all the lights faded. The small imps were confused and looked around while others started to dig at the sand. I barely had the energy to think let alone try to capture an imp so I watched them as a few returned to the large group that was fairly far away.

I felt hunger pangs as an imp dug close enough to the pile of bones that some bones became exposed. Before it could yell about its discovery I quickly grabbed its head and pulled it under. The bones wrapped around its limbs as I flowed into its mouth and started to eat. The imp barely managed to make noise as I moved the bones to push sand to cover the hole the imp dug. The few imps that did hear anything started to investigate the area so I had to make sure to hide any traces of the imp. Normally when I ate the sand was dyed red from my tearing the body apart but this time I covered the thing's mouth and ate it from the inside out. The imp released such delicious pain as I ate all the meat leaving its skin and bones. I found the skin to be very much like bones but far looser and less reliable.

As I digested the imp relishing in the flow of strength that I felt, I saw a large imp stomp over followed by smaller imps. It was yelling at the rest but stopped just before where the pile of bones was buried. This will probably be the one chance I’ll get to eat a large imp. It’s probably best to lure it to the center of the pile but how to lure it there? A very impish thought floated to the top of my mind. I brought the skin of the imp to the top of the dune with a few bones inside of it to hold the form of an imp as I tried my best to recreate the shape of an imp.

I make the skin hold to broken rib bones and bang them together while facing the head away from the large imp. The large imp yells at the skin, but I continue to bang the bones together so eventually the large imp stomps toward me and claws its back once it reaches the skin. In the moment that it tears the skin I latch onto the large imp's hand while stabbing a rib bone into the center of its body. The bone curves up and to the side stabbing into meat that was filled with blood and a sack that had air in it. The large imp screams even louder as its other hand grabs the head of the skin and crushes the skull inside of the skin. The hand also gets latched on as I stab the second rib bone into its back near the spine of the large imp. The imp yells again and bites into the skin tearing it apart but thankfully to the bones, I have a way into the chest of the large imp. I moved the pile of bones under the dunes to push sand away from the large imp, and I struggled to eat it from the inside as it thrashed. I took pieces of meat from its spine and drained its blood robbing some strength but it was far harder than a small imp. The small imps around the dune ran toward the large group but I barely had the chance to care as I struggled to drag this large imp farther down into the pile of bones. By the time it reached the pile's center, the imp couldn’t move because of all the damage I did from eating its insides.

I completely ate everything of the large imp until its bones were left and I felt myself slow down as I was overflowed with images of pain and humiliation from the large imp. I saw it complete life in a fiery land as it was abused and it abused others. In the end, I was left with a new desire, violence.