Such a waste he did not have more competent soldiers. The demon was standing there with the sword in his chest, but not even blood or any other liquid was coming out, almost as if he wasn’t even alive. His tail wrapped around the swords hilt, pulling it and throwing it at the commander. Just as he deflected the sword in front of him was the demon, his arm already stretched, wrapping his slender fingers around his neck. The commander tried to free himself by trying to cut his hand, but the sword couldn’t even touch him as his arm was bent behind his back by the demons tail. Screams of pain quickly filled that place. The demon didn’t kill him yet, he twisted his arm a little more before his tail coiled around the mans neck like a snake, making him hand by his side.
He moved in front of the soldiers but didn’t say anything, instead he started torturing the commander right in front of their eyes. Bending and twisting his limbs as if he was made of clay, the moment he would stop screaming he’d cut one of his limbs or proceed to another limbs. Eventually dismembering him completely at the end of which he ripped his head off and threw at the soldiers feet.
“Lets run away!” one of the soldier said as he dropped his weapon and turned around, four more doing the same, but the rest just charged at him. The result was the same as before, not even one of them stood a chance of even touching him and were slaughtered like helpless animals. With his path cleared the demon looked around him once more, piles of butchered bodies and blood filled those streets, he let out a sigh “To think I’ve sunk so low” he said with a low voice as he started to walk over their bodies. What could make him say such words? Was he bothered by the fact he killed people or was it something else entirely? None the less, he continued to search for the place where the star was.
A few minutes after the demon left, the reinforcements have arrived at the scene and witnessed the horrors that were left behind. Each one of them was shocked by what they saw, two of the soldiers started to vomit as the rest were given the chills. “How is this possible? Just what kind of creature did all of this?” the lieutenant talked to himself as he knelt and looked at the disfigured and dismembered bodies. “Clean up this place men, take all the bodies away from here.” he quickly got up and shouted orders at those around him “You, I want you to go to the barracks and tell all men to start searching this city inside out. There is a dangerous creature running wild and we need to find it!” he ordered the closes soldier that was to him. The man saluted him and started running back to the barracks.
As he watched him run, he saw two men coming, both of them wearing heavy armor. One of them wasn’t wearing his helmet and had a large symbol drawn on his chest plate, a black griffon, he had a severe face without any scars, he was quite tall with broad shoulders “Who are you and what business do you have here?” he asked the man right away, mostly because he suspected him to be a mercenary since those were usually the first to come where there was trouble.
“I’m general Pallas. What’s the situation?” the man without a helmet responded back to him. Although he looked around and saw all the bodies, there were still things he didn’t know. You could see him getting angry while look at the way the soldiers were killed, his hands resting on the hilts of both of his swords as if itching to kill someone.
The lieutenant saluted him before responding back “Sir, there seemed to be some sort of creature running lose around town. We don’t know what it could be as we only just arrived and this is the first thing we saw. I’ve seen order back to the barracks to form search parties and start scouting the place.” he talked as if he was scared of him for some reason.
It was easy to notice that what the lieutenant told him and that ticked him off since his left hand started to tap on the hilts top in a stressful way. “Very well, continue to clean up here, I’ll look around and see if anyone noticed something. If anything comes up I want you to inform me as soon as possible.” with just that he left, walking the same way he came, leaving them to do their work.
As the soldiers cleaned the street, the general went back the way he came, ending up in the main square. There he saw some of the people being frightened, but where still hanging around looking in the direction from which he came. “Sergeant, get some soldiers here and start questioning the civilians.” he ordered the man next to him which quickly went back to the lieutenant.
Meantime he walked around the square, the place was filled with people many of them having curios looks on their faces as too what was happening there but none dared to go and see. Among them there were a few that seemed more frightened than they should be over some screams and shouts. There he noticed a man with a cane in his hand, dressed more properly than the rest around him, he was sitting on the side of the street panicked, always looking in the direction of the street where the slaughter happened with the corner of his eye. ‘He must be a merchant or someone important and by the way he is looking scared at that ally he surely was there or saw who went down that road’ the general through to himself before approaching the man “You with the cane, where you on that street before the soldiers arrived?” he stopped right in from of him, asking him all of a sudden.
The man almost jumped from that, he was too easily scared “I-I… yes I was there, standing behind my stall and selling carpets.”he was at a loss of words at first but after glancing at he general a little he soon noticed his armor as well as the emblem on his chest so he realized he must be a soldier.
“Tell me in detail what exactly happened there.” the general pressured him by getting closer and placing one hand on his shoulder while with the other leading him to the side of the square to one of the benches. The merchant was shaking from head to toe “Don’t worry, no harm will come to you as long as I’m around.” the general assured him before letting him sit down “Now, tell me what happened there!” he almost ordered the man.
The merchant cupped his hands while still shaking slightly, he didn’t even dare lift his head up, he only stared at the ground “W-We are in big trouble… Pray for the gods to help us...” his voice was shaking and breathing heavy “There was a black creature walking down that street, at first it did nothing but walk. True everyone was scared but suddenly a passer-by attacked it and that’s when things got out of control, that creature proved to be a demon and that person was killed in a blink of an eye.”
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This news shocked Pallas, he grabbed the man with both arms by his shoulders “A demon!? Are you certain it was a demon!?” he started shaking him violently while looking at him with a grim face.
“It would be impossible for me not to notice, he had a long tail, body mostly covered in fur, strength beyond any that I’ve seen and on his head...” he made a pause as he swallowed his saliva “Two pairs of horns.” the merchant adverted his eyes away after finishing talking and tried to break free from the generals grip.
“That’s impossible!” Pallas shouted all of a sudden that it made the merchant run away ‘A demon here of all places. How? Just how in the world can a demon get here? The only portal they can come through into this world is heavily guarded, unless…?’ he was caught up in his thoughts trying to figure out what’s happening the sergeant came back running.
“Sir, good news. It seems that there are a few soldiers that survived the encounter with the mysterious creature. They are all at barracks.” after finishing his report he finally caught his breath.
“Very well, lets see what they can tell us about what we are dealing with.” his composure started to relax after finally hearing some good news. “Hopefully they aren’t complete idiots, none the less have some soldiers ask around just so we are sure about everything.” he talked to the sergeant as they were walking towards the barracks “Also I want you to inform our men to come to the barracks as well, I want them all ready to move out.” the sergeant just saluted him and was on his way to get the men that were waiting around outside of the city, in a small camp made on the western side.
When the general reached the barracks, there seemed to be a commotion around as the soldiers that manage to run away from the incident had barricaded themselves inside a room without any intention of coming out. Some of the soldiers around tried to talk them into unlocking the door after that failed they tried breaking it. In that moment those inside the room used anything they could find to block the door, beds, shelves and chair where all pilled up in front of the door.
“What’s all this noise? Why are you trying to break the door?” Pallas looked at the ten soldiers with a sever face, they all were gathered around one of the dorm rooms. As he got closer he could hear those inside screaming or yelling all sorts of things and that they would never come out of there.
“Those idiots barricaded themselves inside after coming back.” one of the soldiers told the general why there were trying to bring down the door “They kept shouting stuff about some demon killing everyone.” he started to make fun of them “They must have clearly pissed some witch or maybe even ate the wrong mushrooms.” all those around started laughing at it.
Pallas’s body had all stiffened up when he heard they said something about a demon. He walked in front of the door and with a heavy kick sent the door along with everything that was behind it into the wall opposite to it. He walked inside of the room with loud steps and a grim face, when those inside saw him they all started screaming and shaking. Pallas grabbed the closest one by the hair and pulled him out of the room “What are you standing there? Get the other five outside already!” he shouted at the ten men that were standing in front of the door looking at him with dumbfounded faces.
Once outside, the six soldiers were lined up, their faces were deplorable as they had been crying for a while, their noses running as if they had a severe cold. In front of them Pallas was looking at the state they were in, he spit on the ground when thinking they should be guarding this city.
“What kind of creature did you face there? And how come you six are still alive?” Pallas asked them with voice that was deep and loud, as walked around them as if scanning them from head to toes.
One of the soldiers almost jumped up when he heard the general talk from behind him. Each one of them said with muttering voices “A demon, a fiend.” there seemed to be hesitation as they spoke “W-We…” a long pause, none seemed to want to answer “Ran away.” one of them said it with a such a low voice that you could say he whispered.
“You fools did what? RAN AWAY!?” the generals voice raised so much that you could hear it from the other side of the town, he was ranging at those men harder than anyone would have ever had “You morons think this is some kind of roleplay or what? You abandoned your comrades and let them die, while you saved your skins.” he made a pause to take a breath and turned around towards the rest of the soldiers that were watching him scold those six “Listen up here you idiots, when you are assigned too a squad or platoon, you do whatever the leader of that group says. If he says to fight till you die, you fight. If he tells you to stand watch, you stand watch.” his voice was echoing in that courtyard “And finally, if the leader asks you to retreat, you all retreat.” his voice dimmed as he said the last part. Now he turned back to the six that were now looking at the ground. “For those that lost their lives trying to hold that creature in place. Be useful and at least tell describe its looks and how it fought.” his voice risen back up.
They described him at the best of their ability. His looks, his weapons and even his fighting style, everything they could remember about him. “And finally, he was stabbed by the commander in the middle of his chest, but that didn’t do anything, he didn’t even bleed.” one of them said and the rest quickly confirmed by nodding their head.
Pallas was scratching his chin while listening to him. He was focused analyzing the information they were giving him with what he knows about the demon as well as comparing him with others he had met before. But when he heard them say he was stabbed right in the chest by a regular weapon as well as not even bleeding or being even lightly wounded by it made him widen his eyes in surprise ‘That’s impossible, this idiots must be to scared to remember exactly what happened and are surely making stuff up’ he could believe such a thing without seeing it.
As they finished talking, the sergeant along with most of the soldiers had arrived at the barracks. Now the place was crawling with people, but those six were in the middle of everything. They were sitting there life buffoons. “Sergeant, take a few soldiers with you and deal with this fools. I will not tolerate deserters no matter what.” Pallas called out his sergeant before heading inside of the barracks.
All those present watched as the six soldiers got dragged by the generals units outside of there. They couldn’t help but think what would happen to them. “Hey, what are they gonna to do them? I mean they helped out how they could.” one of the younger soldiers addressed his senior. The old man looked at them with a hopeless look and shake his head “Nothing good from what I know about the general. Most likely they will get hanged, but if they are lucky...” he made a pause. “They will be set free? Right?” the greenhorn started talking right away, you could see that he was filled with hope and was way to positive about thing “No kid, they will get decapitated.” he placed a hand on his shoulder before leaving.
Just as they left and the weather got suddenly cloudy, rain slowly started to drop until it was pouring out. Nobody was outside anymore with the exception of the soldiers that were looking for the so called demon. They went from house to house to check and letting everyone know that a demon was seen in the city as well as how he looked. Hours passed by and the day quickly passed by welcoming dusk.
Pallas was sitting at a table in a dark room lit only by a candle that was sitting in front of him. He was resting his head against his left hand while with the other he spinned a knife on the table. His face was staring at the flame of the candle but his mind wasn’t present, he was thinking about the situation and trying his hardest to figure out what he was dealing it. You couldn’t hear anything in that room, beside the rain tapping on the windows no other sound was made, not even him breathing or the knife spinning.
Until suddenly the door open with a slam and the knife that was spinning flew towards the door stopping in the doors frame just a palm away from the sergeants head, he didn’t even flinch as he walked over to the table. He was soaking wet, water was dripping from him as if he had swimmed in a river. “We got news about the demon. Someone from a local tavern said that they are keeping him distracted. He is in the black market area.” he almost said it with a disappointed face.
The general almost jumped from his chair and rushed outside “Get all men to mobilize, we are heading at that tavern right now.” as they went through the rain towards the gates of the barracks “You make sure the men get there, I’ll go up ahead and make sure things don’t get out of control or he manages to run.” he ordered the sergeant before starting to run in the direction of the black market. The sergeant only node his head as he watched the general go before turning back to get the soldiers up and ready to move out.
Rain was running down on the generals face as he made his way through the rain, his posture was slightly bent to the front. You could see his expression filled with anger but not only that his eyes was burning as if with expectation as if he was glad and finally a large smile grew on his face revealing his white teeth and sharp fangs. He almost looked like a vampire despite being a human ‘Just wait for me little demon, I swore that I’ll kill all of you for what you did. Not one shall get away from him’ he started to talk to himself all of a sudden ‘I will make sure I will chop you to pieces properly just like your kind did to us back then’. His smile finally vanished as he reached the gates to the black market, he pulled out both of his swords before going through.