(Daemon POV)
“This is it.” We were outside a rather small building with a singular window that was on the second floor. “My good friend Rallie is a blacksmith, she shouldn’t mind you too much if I’m here,” Thrall said as we all walked inside.
One thing I noticed immediately upon entry was the overwhelming amount of things in the store. “I’ll be with you in a second, feel free to browse in the meantime.” A voice came from a room behind a counter.
There were countless sets of armor, some metal, some leather. There were fancy swords and bows hung up like trophies and plenty of other works. I kept looking though, as I didn’t need a sword or armor fit for a human. It was only after a few minutes of searching that I found something that caught my eye. A war hammer with a massive handle. The handle was as long as an average human, and even the head of the hammer was massive. Nearly as large as a person’s torso, and it was very heavy. I still tried to lift it though, and to everyone’s surprise, I managed to. Even the blacksmith that just came out from the room behind the counter had her gaze fixed on the hammer.
It was only after our gazes met, that she seemed to realize my race. “A demon!?” She said rather surprised.
“Don’t worry about him, he’s with us. Did you miss me?” Thrall said with a stupid look on his face.
“Heh? You have a demon in your party!?” Her shock was well known to all, and she backed up a small step.
I dropped my maw open and uttered a few words. “Tasty, woman.” Everyone looked at me in shock and surprise and she looked all the more terrified, as I liked my lips with a rather exaggerated motion everyone just starred without moving.
Then I burst out in a heavy laughter. “Daemon! You shouldn’t scare people like that! What if she called the guards or attacked!” Thrall said, everyone, seeming relieved besides Rallie.
“Calm yourself, Rallie. I won’t eat you, I’m just tired of everyone looking at me so much. I just wanted to have some fun.” She breathed a sigh of relief and gran followed up on my behalf.
“We were looking for a set of armor that could fit him while not being too restrictive on movement or expensive. Do you think you got anything that would work?” His words made her think long and hard for the next minute.
“Well, I should have something that fits him, let me look.” She quickly went back into the room behind her and we heard many crashes of metal as if she was searching through a metal pile of scrap.
“Do you think I went too far?” I asked Gran, as he seemed the most surprised by my actions.
“Being honest, I really thought you were going to try something, but I had some faith since you didn’t try anything at the inn. Or even respond in the slightest to any of the women there, so In all honesty, I was unsure if you would or not.” Well, at least I didn’t try anything, because I wouldn’t want to get into trouble this early on in my new life here, at least, trouble that I could actively avoid.
Rallie came back and was pulling a large set of what looked like metal plates attached to padded cloth. “The size might be wrong, but it should fit with few adjustments.”
I walked over to the counter and helped her lift the armor onto the counter. “I’m sorry about earlier. I shouldn’t have done something so immature.” I just didn’t want to start on a bad foot with every person I met, but her face was well worth it.
“You nearly gave me a heart attack, I was so scared.” I knew I went too far, but I didn’t really ‘do’ anything, so it should be fine. “Also, that war hammer, how can you wield it so freely? Did you use an enhancement spell?” My eye twitched slightly, but overall I stayed still.
“That is just this raw strength, no magic was used,” Elendor said, his words shocked her greatly.
“But I thought demons didn’t have that kind of power outside of magical enhancements?” My eye twitched again, and she noticed it.
“Well, in all honesty, he doesn’t have a strong affinity with magic,” Gran said softly, I presumed that magic was very common, or at least, most people know about it.
“Whaaat?” She nearly screamed but kept her voice at an appropriate level.
“Let’s not talk about that,” I said plainly, and the room fell silent quickly.
I started to try on the pieces of armor, and to my surprise, it was slightly loose. “Well, would you look at that. He fits after all.” Elendor said, his face seemed rather impressed, but he made no other remark.
“Rallie, can you fix the sizing?” Gran asked her, and she thought about it for a moment.
“I should be able to, but..” She tapered off.
“But what?” I said, my voice was rather flat but still deep.
“But, I would need at least an hour to tighten it properly.” Great, an hour of having a woman all over my body doing whatever she needed to do.
“That shouldn’t be a problem, how much will this all be?” She thought for a moment about Thrall’s words and gave an answer that made everyone but me flinch.
“Six silver coins.” I didn’t know if that was a lot or a little, but I knew from Gran, that we had more than enough to pay that off a dozen times over.
“Why so cheap, what is it made of?” Vor’alus said, seeming rather concerned.
“Relax, there’s nothing wrong with it, it’s made of sillsteel, but the one who ordered and paid for it never took it, and said to just give it to whoever wanted it. They even paid a generous eight gold pieces!” Her excitement was clear, and I was able to tell that eight gold was well over the price of the armor.
“Eight gold!?” Thrall said, his eyes nearly popped from his head, but they managed to remain in his skull.
“Well, if that’s the case, we can do six silver coins. Daemon looks like you are going to have to stay here as she works.” I already knew this, but gran said it anyway.
“I figured. Well, let’s get this war hammer while we’re at it.” Gran seemed shocked but asked her for the price regardless.
“And how much would that be?” She thought for a moment and gave back a seemingly reasonable answer.
“One gold twenty silver coins.” Gran quickly let out a sigh of relief and handed her the coins from his beige-colored sack of coins.
“Well, we have all the equipment that we need, for now, so we are going to go stock up on some food and other general supplies that we will need for our adventure, we will come back by the end of the hour,” Gran said and they all left, afterward Rallie locked the door and flipped a sign on the outside of it.
I figured the sign was the equivalent to an open or closed sign on most store doors. “There, now we don’t have to deal with the awkward situation that would arise if someone were to walk in on us.” I smiled at her words, but could only thank her mentally for the save. “Why don’t we get started.” And with that, she went through the action of constantly sewing and adjusting the cloth parts of the armor.
She started with the main body, then moved onto the arms. The body alone took nearly fifteen minutes, as I counted every second to take my mind off of the present. The arms didn’t take too long, as they were a good fit already, only taking three minutes each. When it came time to do the legs, she struggled. My legs were thick and muscular, I knew that, but the amount of space that was in the pants leggings was rather absurd. Whoever asked for this armor must have had legs twice as large as mine. It went without saying that the legs took nearly a half an hour. The only part that she didn’t change was the crotch region, and I was glad, as I didn’t want to deal with anything like that just yet.
When all was said and done my armor did fit comfortably and felt quite cozy for padded cloth. There were small plates all across my body now, with large plates covering my chest, shoulders, knees, thighs, crotch, back and the sides of my ribcage. With smaller plates covering in between the larger plates, with a large amount of space without any plate armor, so it would be easy to move in. And I tried to move in it, after all, mobility seemed like one of my specialties. She unlocked the door and flipped the sign back over, and she cleared a small patch in the room so I could stretch and see if there were any issues with flexibility. I could still stretch out my legs to the point I did before in the forest, and it seemed that I could generally move in every way I could think.
“The armor works great, thank you.” My voice had an undertone of gratitude, and it seemed as though she didn’t mind me being a demon as much as most people I’ve met have.
The door opened, and almost as if on queue, Gran and the rest of them entered. “Daemon, it looks like you’ve finished. Good. We just finished with our shopping as well.” Thrall was the one who talked first but quickly noticed something. “Wait, you don’t have any boots.” Even I was surprised, as I didn't care until he pointed it out.
“How much for some sillsteel boots?” Gran asked Rallie, but she just shook her head.
“Don’t worry about that, I have the pair from this set, I just didn’t grab them. Let me get them for you.” And she returned to the room behind the counter once again.
“Well, Daemon, does the armor work for you? Can you move freely?” Gran asked with interest, so I answered him respectively.
“Yes, it seems like I retain the majority of my movement, and the armor does seem very durable from what I’ve seen so far.” He smiled and let out a breath that indicated his gratitude.
Rallie came back after not too long, and she brought some large metal boots that ended at a short point. “Here you go, they should fit.” She placed them on the floor and I attempted to put them on.
It was to my surprise when they fit snuggly, not too tight or loose, somehow they fit perfectly. “They fit well, thank you,” I said with a small amount of gratitude once again.
“Are you ready to head out? We should go before noon, as more adventurers will be out there by then.” Gran said, and I nodded.
“Let’s go. We can always come back and upgrade our equipment when we have more time and money.” Thrall said, and with those words, and a quick wave of goodbyes from us to Rallie, we left the shop and went on down the main road southward.
“How long until we reach this forest?” I asked Vor’alus since he had been there already.
“A few minutes at best, we aren’t too far from it. But while we walk, we might as well come up with a plan.” He seemed to have one in mind but left it up to the rest of us to think of one.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
I couldn’t think properly with all the people staring daggers at me, and the only thing I could come up with wasn’t worth a mention. “Well, I figured we could hunt down the packs of stone-fang wolves, and then we would go after the iron-bears.” Elendor offered his thoughts, which sounded like a decent course of action, all things considered.
“What I thought of was something simpler. We set an ambush, and have Daemon lure a pack of wolves to it since he is the fastest of us all by far. We could do that or just lure them out with food and attack them when they have their backs turned.” Both plans were quite easy in concept, but to execute them was another question.
“I’m fine with these plans, but don’t you think it would be a little reckless to have Daemon running around the forest attracting a pack of wolves?” Gran seemed to look out for me, even if it wasn’t needed or much of anything.
“I don’t mind, but I might kill the wolves by myself if nobody is there with me,” I said with a grin, as I have kind of developed a small lust for fighting.
“Very well, you drive a hard bargain, we’ll take the wolves head-on. But you better protect us.” Vor’alus said, changing his plans mentally.
“Only if you stay out of my way. Otherwise, you might get caught up in my attacks.” I couldn’t pull a punch or a kick, at least not with my new strength I couldn’t.
“Fine, we’ll help from a short distance,” Elendor said while lightly pulling and releasing his bowstring.
We continued in silence for the next minute before reaching the forest. We made our way through quietly, well, as quietly as a two and a half meter tall demon and four others could through a forest with plenty of twigs and leaves on the ground. We made little noise, but my nose picked up something. Iron? No. That’s blood, I’m sure of it. I signaled with my hands to stop for a moment and pointed to our left and we all spotted a pack of stone-fang wolves eating what looked like a wild boar. There were eight wolves, each three meters long, one meter wide and almost two meters tall. I motioned for Elendor to ready an arrow and got ready to rush them as soon as he loosed it. With little time to spare, his arrow whistled through the air, stopping after it ripped through the flesh of one of the wolf’s back legs.
I rushed forward, my feet leaving small indents on the soft earth below me. “Don’t stop firing, just shoot as many as you can,” I said to remove Elendor’s hesitation of firing at both me and the wolves.
The wolves seemed to notice me all too soon, as they all started to rush me, seemingly disinterested in their meal. But it was all in vain, as my hammer was brought down upon one like a judge’s when he accused the defiant guilty. My strike was so powerful, the wolf’s head that it was slammed into was turned into a spray of red mist and a spine-tingling crunching sound, with a high-pitched yelp thrown in half-way. Only one wolf down, the other three, one injured, jumper on me, each pinning me to the ground with the sudden force. But my strength was truly unrivaled by any beast of such a low caliber, and I quickly kicked two off of me and hugged the other one tight enough that I started to hear some movements in its bones. I didn’t stop just there, as I used all of my strength to crush its ribcage, and with another horrifying crunch, it fell to the ground lifeless.
“Oh river of trees, please grant us your protection and harbor those that wish you harm, Great Tree-Vine Capture!” Gran spoke out an incantation by the look of things, and a dozen greed vines shot from the trees and lifted the two remaining wolves a few feet off the ground.
“Thanks, Gran,” Elendor said as he loosed another arrow that landed directly in the eye of the wolf on the left.
The wolf dropped from the vines, landing on the arrow which seemed to only drive it in further, making clear that the wolf was dead. “I got the last one, at least let me have some fun while I can. All those eyes in town really annoys me.” I said gritting my teeth, I was going to let out some anger on this wolf, and most likely kill it with a storm of punches. “Gran, let it go from the vines,” I said, and he hesitantly followed my request.
“It’s all yours, don’t do anything stupid.” I chuckled at his words and tackled the disoriented wolf, pinning it to the ground.
“Don’t worry, this little thing couldn’t hurt me in its dreams.” I held it down pretty well, as it tried it’s hardest to escape from my grasp but to no avail.
When I held it down, it’s fur was blowing in the breeze that was made when I rushed forward towards it, and I saw a mark on its chest. “Hey Gran, there’s a mark on this one!” I looked over to him, and they all walked over quickly
The mark in question looked like an omega sign from the Greek alphabet, only upside down and it had a small circle with two small vertical lines on its left and right in the center of the loop. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” Gran said, and everyone else just gave signs that indicated they didn’t know either.
“Can you all hold it down, I want to try something.” And each of them held each of its legs down firmly.
I had no idea if anything I was about to do would work, but it was worth a try. I ran my finger around the mark, touching every line, and after that I pressed my hand against it, covering the mark completely with my hand’s large size. I forced my hand against its mark harder and harder until I felt like I would start to crush its bones, and that seemed to have done something, as It stopped trying to resist and stopped moving altogether. It looked me in the eyes as I did it and something bizarre happened, telepathy, or at least I think it was, as I could hear what I presumed to be Its voice in my mind.
“Please stop! I beg of you!” It had a rather whistle-sounding voice that ended it’s words with a slightly higher pitch each time.
“Hey guys, it just spoke to me in my mind, what do you make of this?” I asked the group, and everyone seemed shocked. I seem to have a tendency of doing that, don’t I?
“Very strange indeed. Perhaps it is a magical creature?” Gran said, confused but slightly confident in his analysis.
“I am a magical creature! Please! Stop this! I will do anything!” I almost forgot that I was nearly crushing its ribcage, and so I let up and removed my hand from its chest.
“It said it was one, what do you suggest we do?” I should have just killed it instead, as this would be rather taxing on our time.
“Well, I do suppose we could sell it?” Thrall said while stroking his chin with his thick leather glove.
“No, no, I’d rather not try that again. Last we tried to do that, well, Daemon happened.” Elendor said with an awkward laugh.
“That is true, though, to just kill it would be a waste. Vor’alus, do you know how much it’s parts will fetch compared to it being alive?” Gran said to Vor’alus who was already deep in thought.
“By my guess, it’s parts would fetch around twelve gold or so and its live capture would fetch close to twenty-five, give or take a piece or two.” Damn, I guess it makes sense that a magical creature would fetch more alive than dead, but still.
“What if we were to tame it? Would it be of more use as a watchdog?” They all looked stupidly at me at first but Gran did eventually answer.
“Well, I suppose if you could properly tame it, then yes, I do suppose it could be potentially more valuable.” Well, even if it were to try to fight back or run away, I could chase it down or overpower it in nothing flat, and even then, we could just sell it’s parts if it does.
“Fine, what say you wolf? Death, enslavement, or being my pet? Your choice.” It seemed to whimper at first but did respond telepathically it’s decision.
“I submit! I will be your pet or whatnot! Just don’t crush me like that again!” A devilish smile ripped it’s way across my face as I motioned for them to remove their grasps on the beast’s legs.
It quickly took a stand and looked at me, nearly eye-level. “Beast, have you a name or are you that pathetic?” I think my demon genetics are changing how I speak now, as I never truly spoke this harshly to anyone before.
“It’s Fang’rar, master.” Its words had a high pitch whistle, and it annoyed my mind to a certain point, but I ignored it for now.
“The beast is called Fang’rar. Well, let’s welcome them with open arms.” I said while turning around to the group.
“A named beast? Truly strange.” Gran said, his hand placed on his chin in thought.
“Beasts normally are given names by the locals when they have encounters with them repeatedly. But a sentient creature to name themself is not unheard of. They just tend to be of a more, dignified race, like a dragon or spirit.” Vor’alus added, which made me think slightly higher of the wolf, but not much.
“So it named itself, not a big deal. Besides, let’s finish the mission we are on.” My words broke the group's indecisiveness, and Gran came up with a final statement before we headed off.
“Very well, we can register it at the guild another time. For now, we will complete our quest. Sounds good to everyone?” Everyone nodded, even Fang’rar, which I noticed out of the corner of my eye.
We continued through the forest, Fang’rar was in front of me so I could keep tabs on him. We had Vor’alus scout ahead to search for the next set of wolves or an iron-bear. It took a little over three minutes to find, but he eventually led us to the next pack of stone-fang wolves. It was a large pack, twelve by my count, and they were ripping apart the remains of three boars that looked like the one from the last pack. We all took a stop, and I whispered to the group as to not alert the wolves that were a little over thirty meters away.
“Elendor, prepare to fire as many arrows as you can. Gran, prepare movement restriction spells like last time. Vor’alus, I want you to start the battle by killing one, then I will rush it and take the front of the damage. And Thrall, I want you to protect all of you if a wolf slips by me. And Fang’rar will charge in with me. Is everyone good with that?” Everyone nodded, Fang’rar hesitating at first, likely because he would be beating up the equivalent of his extended family, but that’s too bad for him.
Vor’alus started the fight by throwing four daggers in quick succession at one wolf’s back, each penetrating deep and drawing a splatter of blood and a painful howl. The wolf fell limply to the ground as I came charging at full speed at another wolf that just looked in the direction of Vor’alus, and slammed directly into them. The impact nearly exploded its head, but only managed to flatten it in a gory expulsion of crimson in a streak around my still dashing body. To everyone else, and the wolves, I looked like a blur that rammed directly into a wolf and then carried on as a red smear that continued its bloodlust.
I quickly slowed myself by sliding on my feet until I came to a half stop with dust being thrown up to my waist. I redirected my movement and continued on my juggernaut rampage and straight for another wolf. With a swift upper-cut which was quickly followed by a long and powerful kick to the side of its head which sent it speeding off into a tree only to be ripped in two upon contact. A lovely red mist ejected from its body when it touched the tree and I kept rushing to another wolf to obliterate. Elendor had loosed four arrows in less than ten seconds, each arrow hitting a different wolf’s eye.
The four wolves that were hit let out a horrifying shriek and Fang’rar came rushing in a little after. I was surprised that he would attack head-on but didn’t care enough to focus on him. He ran up to one and bit it’s neck so hard a jet of crimson flowed from either side of his closing maw. The wolf didn’t last long and its eyes lost their life after a few seconds of Fang’rar’s bite. The hound threw the body to the ground and clawed the one next to it while it was distracted. Gran also played his part as we all heard him chant his spell once more, only it changed slightly.
“Oh river of trees, great and wise to all who enjoy your bounties, please grant us your protection and harbor those that wish to raid your beauties for themselves, Mass Tree-Vine Capture!” I knew there was something added, but didn’t pay too much attention as six wolves were yanked into the air.
There was only the one wolf I was charging at and the one that Fang’rar was clawing left on the ground so I ran forward and stomped the wolf's head. Or so I thought I did, but instead, it managed to dodge and take a nasty chomp into my leg, it’s fangs sinking quite far into my flesh, leaving a small puddle of black ichor to ooze out once more. My body pulsed, a wave of power surged through my arms and I crushed the thing’s skulls with my bare hands into a poor splatter of crimson and grey fur. It’s four fangs were still stuck in my leg, so I tried to yank them out. They were stuck pretty far, but I ripped them out one-by-one.
My leg would heal, but not fast enough to finish the fight the same way it started. Elendor fired another burst of four arrows, each driving deep into the wolf’s eyes, his aim stayed true the entire time, and four wolves fell to the ground, their eyes leaving a trail of red droplets as they met the ground with a crunch and lifeless bodies. Only three wolves remained, and Fang’rar was nearly done scratching the wolf he had been attacking into cold cuts. Thrall rushed forward and sliced the head off of one of the still tangled wolves. Vor’alus took the opportunity to follow up on the action and threw a black dagger directly into the eye of the last entangled one, bringing the battle to an end.
I held the fangs and gripped them just hard enough to feel them in my hand without crushing them into a fine powder, then put them into a small pouch that Gran carried on his side. “My leg will take a minute to heal up, let’s take a break until then.” My words got everyone's gratitude, and Fang’rar lay down next to me and the rest of the group as we all took a seat of the fallen tree that the wolf exploded into.
I didn’t know how I didn’t notice it before, but the tree fell rather quietly, almost soundless when the wolf was sent slamming into it. “Gran, what do you suppose we do when we find an iron-bear?” I could just smash it with the war hammer on my back or just pummel it to death with my bare hands, but that wouldn’t be the best course of action for every fight.
“Well, we should find a way to keep it restrained long enough for a strong piercing attack to finish it off, but my Tree-Vine Capture isn’t strong enough. The only thing that could be would have to be you Daemon. Do you think you could pin it down with Fang’rar’s help?” I glanced at Fang’rar, who had a face that had splatters of blood-soaked into his previously fluffy and soft fur.
“I suppose I could manage, we will just have to find out when it happens.” Fang’rar let out a saddened and low-pitched whistle, letting everyone know of his displeasure, but I didn’t care if he felt joy or pain from the fighting, he was mine now.
My leg was just about done haling when Vor’alus suddenly jumped up and spoke ina solemn tone to the rest of us in alarm.
“Guys, four iron-bears are heading here right now! Run or fight, your call Daemon.” His voice made them sound close, so I did the only reasonable thing, I chose to fight.
“Get behind Fang’rar, and If I say the word, hop on him and get out of here, I can lure them away and regroup with you afterward.” And only a dozen seconds after they managed to get behind Fang’rar, the iron-bears were in sight and were much more menacing than I had thought them to be