Jack
I saw my whole live pass me by as the claw attached itself deep inside the wall. If Orus hadn't pulled me back on time that claw would have been in my skull and I'd be dead. I shuddered thinking about it.
I looked up with panic in my eyes, I couldn't stop shaking from the fear, and saw the monster slowly retrieving it's claw, but not before touching all around the slash. I dodged as best as I could, avoiding the claw without making a sound, but the game couldn't last long. I didn't have much space to move and at the smallest sound I would broadcast my position.
I was moving to my left, carefully but fast, to avoid the deadly sharp claws when I made a mistake and my head hit the wall. It was barely a scratch and it didn't make almost any sound, but it was enough.
The claw went for me, straight for my heart. Orus swore and glared at me, but stepped up to protect me, grabbing the claw before it could hit me. I could see Orus beginning to sweat, all his strength on his arms, stopping whatever was trying to kill us from harming us, but the moster was too strong.
A second Orus was right besides me, straining all his muscles to fight that thing off and the next he was gone, the pull of the creature too strong to resist anymore.
When I saw Orus being dragged away I got up and ran there to help. I didn't know what I'd do, but I did know I couldn't just stay still, not again.
Oscar was besides me, walking slowly to where the creature was, right near the entrance of the cell and .... into the torchlight.
The creature was like nothing I had ever seen before. It was a mass of flesh with no skin shaped like a human. It also had multiple protrusions made of the same pink flesh that made up the hands and that ended up in sharp claws that I had no doubt could shredd my flesh in a second. It's eyes and mouth were made up of a black void in the middle of it's flesh and it was hugging Orus, smiling at us with it's black mouth.
It was the stuff of nightmares. I shivered but kept walking, moving closer to them. I couldn't just abandon Orus after all.
On my right Oscar was taking out his dagger, ready to attack, when the creature looked at us with his.... eyes? and the gaping hole that I guessed was his mouth opened in a parody of a smile.
Looking us in the eyes and never looking away he plunged his hand deep into Orus's chest. Orus struggled but couldn't do anything, and eventually he went as still as a corpse while we watched, unable to do anything because we were too afraid that the creature would decide to harm him even further, not that he could do much more harm. Orus was already still and his eyes were looking at the ceiling without really looking.
He couldn't be dead, right? Looking at him laying there, perfectly still I remembered when he had smiled at me and taken my hand back when we were kids, making me an official part of his family. I remembered how he always smiled at me and tried to include me, even when I was a dick and played pranks on him, but he kept holding onto me, never letting go.
At the beginning I had thought it was annoying, we weren't even family and yet he treated me like one, but with time I'd come to consider him my brother, and I couldn't just watch as I saw him die.
Tears were streaming down my face, falling into the floor with a plink, plink sound while I charged, no plan at all.
Oscar was as still as a statue behind me, his eyes trailing the blood on Orus's chest, which was now a gaping hole with blood all over, pouring out of his body and pooling on the floor at an alarming rate. If I had my magic I could've healed him and he'd be alright, but now all I could do was hope that his healing ability could overcome the wound, though if I was telling the truth I knew he wasn't going to make it.
That was why I ran to the monster, eyes red and tears streaming down my face while I clenched my teeth, ready to murder him. I wanted revenge.
I threw a punch at the creature while it just laughed, or tried to, and looked at me, his eyes trailing my every movement. As soon as my hand collided with it I noticed that it didn't just look like flesh, it was made of flesh. My hand got covered in the creature before I pulled away and staggered, falling to the ground. All the while the creature just looked at me with something very close to amusement in its black pockets that were his eyes, mocking me.
I got up in a flash and was by his side again, ready to murder him in a second, but the beast was faster. Without looking at me he punched me in my stomach.
Pain erupted all over my belly and I looked down, at the gaping bloody hole that used to be my stomach. I smelled the blood as it left me, my strength abandoning me as well. I fell to the floor, exhausted and hurt. The pain in my stomach didn't go away, it just kept increasing, making me wince in pain as I thrashed in the ground, aware that I was just loosing more blood but anable to do anything else.
The whole world started becoming blurry and the pain went away little by little as my whole body numbned and I was left unable to move, my eyes staring at the unmoving Orus and at Oscar, who was moving towards the monsters with murder in his eyes.
' It would've been fun to see them fight' Was my last thought as the world went white.
Ruan
I was late.
I had been turning around in my bed, trying to find some kind of excuse to forgive Ashmoder, but I found none.
I was so pissed that it completely slipped past me that I should be inside the dungeons, protecting those humans to get back at Ashmoder.
Crap! If they were dead so was my revenge. That and the princess would definitely tattle on me if I didn't keep her pets alive. Even if I did there was a chance she'd still tattle, but it was rather low now that she knew what the punishment for disobeying the deal was.
I got dressed as fast as I could, throwing on the first clothes I saw lying around, and teleported myself to the dungeon, right where I felt the human's aura.
Holy crap, I was dead.
In front of me two of the humans were almost dead on the floor, their breaths barely visible while they fought to keep the last drops of their blood inside of them, which judging by the amount of red on the floor and all over their clothes wasn't much.
The other human, the one that had tried to murder me and the one that I was sure had some kind of mental disorder was avoiding an attack from a Disu, his movements agile as he dodged and spun at the same time, coming at him again.
' Not bad' I thought. I had noticed it when he had managed to discover me and attack me back on the first trial, but the dude was really good at fighting. Nowhere near my level, but good enough to take down some low level demons, unfortunately for him the Disu wasn't one of them.
" Step back" I told the human as I stepped forward, right into the Disu's path.
The demon took one look at me and decided I wasn't worth the risk. Smart bastard. It ran away from me, his claws and arms covered with red blood.
" I'm sorry but you'll have to die" I said as I gathered all my power in my hands, feeling his live line.
I felt up his body. I could feel his flesh, vessels, brain, and blood. I chose the blood.
I smiled as I increased the temperature in his body. The Disu started thrashing around in pain as his vessels boiled and his blood evaporated.
Then, as a finishing touch I increased the pressure in his blood vessel so much that he exploded, sending blood and chunks of flesh everywhere. That was fun. It had been a while since Ashmoder last assigned me on a mission and I had been dying to do that. It was kinda fun.
After making sure the Disu was dead and truly dead, which I did by burning all his remaines, which wasn't a good idea, I walked up to where the two humans were laying, half dead.
I covered my nose with an air bubble as I walked, unable to whitstand the smell of burnt flesh, it was almost as horrible as the dungeon's natural smell, like the smell of a battlefield, which I was used to, but I didn't want to smell it if I didn't have to. The last human, on the other hand, was standing perfectly still next to his almost dead friends, not shedding a single tear, but still looking unnerved for some reason. That dude was weird and had some kind of problem. I was sure of that.
The human looked at me with intent eyes as I laid next to his agonizing companions and used all my power to heal them. I felt up their bodies and started fixing the broken tissue, making blood appear once their vessels were fixed and giving strength to their dying hearts.
Their breathing became less laboured and their heartbeats stabilized as I healed them. They had been lucky. If I had just been a minute late the blond one would be dead for sure. I wasn't so sure about the other one. That one was healing on his own, I was just speeding up the process and helping him.
Once I finished I walked away and admired my work. They'd live.
" Who is behind you?" The scary and unhinged human whispered into my ear.
I jumped up a little bit in shock. Holy crap, I hadn't seen the human coming. He was good.
I just smiled and gave him my most seductive look. He wouldn't be bad if he weren't a human, I wouldn't mind doing him, but I was smarter than that. My goal was to get Ashmoder to be my boyfriend and that wouldn't happen if I kept fooling around, not that it was ever going to happen at the rhythm things were going. That and I knew the way the princess looked at them and didn't want to end up dead.
" I'll find out some day" Was all the human said when he saw I wasn't going to answer him.
The other two humans regained their senses little by little and it didn't take them long to get up and look around, confused.
" What happened?" The blond one asked.
" That's not important" Scary cut him off.
Blond and fast healing, I was officially calling them that, no need to humanize humans by giving them names, looked at me with something between admiration and fear. I liked those looks, though not better that if they were looking down on me.
" Come on" I said, signaling for them to get closer " I'll take you back to Earth"
" We can't do that!" Fast healing reacted, glaring at me and backing away.
Both scary and blond crossed their arms, clearly agreeing with the first human.
" The girl you're looking for will be there"
Fast healing and blond looked at me with hatred, as if I had just lied to them, but scary opened his eyes slightly and nodded, understating the situation immediately. Smart guy, that one. If he ever went up against me he could be a problem.
" We'll go" Scary said.
The other two humans glared at him, but he just smiled like Ashmoder, which sent shivers down my spine, and put his finger over his lips. The two humans groaned but came closer.
" Grab my hands" I ordered.
They obeyed me and grabbed my hands. The moment I felt them all touching me I started imagining the forest canopy and how the breach would look right up ahead. A few sparks ignited around us and for a second we were there, but then something pulled us back and we were back in the dungeon.
" Agghh!!!" I screamed and groaned, hitting the wall so hard with my fist that it came crashing down.
Cracks started forming all over the wall, the pillars threatening to give up just like those on the west wing yesterday, but I held it in just in time and punched another wall, making it come down instead.
I was furious. Ashmoder had made me fix the wing I had broken yesterday and now he had even foiled my escape plan, that on top of cheating on me. I felt like I could murder anyone, preferably Ashmoder.
" What's wrong?" Fast healing asked in a cautious tone.
" Change of plans" I said, rubbing my temples. " I'll help you pass this trial and the last one and once you're official servants I'll teleport you out with the princess"
" The princess?" Blond asked.
Crap, they didn't know about that.
" Your girl" I corrected myself.
One by one they began nodding, acknowledging my plan.
" But why exactly can't you do it now?" Scary asked.
" Because of reasons" I smiled as big as I could. No way in hell was I telling them my love interest had found out about my plan and foiled it by making teleporting impossible inside the dungeon.
" Okay " Blond said, way too fast.
" Do you know where the chalices are?" Fast healing asked.
Did I know where they were? Did I know?
The answer was obviously no. I hadn't planned to find the chalices, my plan was to escape, not play Ashmoder's game.
" Of course" I said instead, taking a passage to the lower levels as the humans followed me.
I may not have had any idea as to where they were hidden, but if I knew Ashmoder at all, which I did, I had a pretty good idea of where they could be hidden.
The humans followed me like little dogs as we transversed the lower levels, not a single criminal crossing in our path, which was normal. Every demon knew about me, the great commander. As a matter of fact I had caught most of the demons inside this prison.
" We're here" I said as I took yet another turn and a circular room opened before us.
The room was filled with criminals to the brim, all of them looking at us as if we were prey, until they saw me that was. The moment they spotted me they immediately started panicking and ran away as fast as they could, using the other corridors to get away from me.
" Why did they run?" Fast healing asked.
" Because of me" I answered with a big smile on my face.
Fast healing nodded and then grabbed my hand, making me look back at him.
" Thanks for saving us" He said, bowing down.
I smiled. I liked that dude. He knew how to treat his betters with respect.
" Thanks" Blond also bowed.
I was amazing.
" I was fine without you. You just messed up my plan" Scary said as he walked past me and into the dias in the middle of the room.
Of course scary wouldn't bow down to me, much less say thank you. If it weren't for the deal I would just kill him myself or let him die, whatever happened first, though I had to admit that the later was very unlikely.
I followed him and reached the dias, which was completely empty.
" Where are the chalices!!?" Blond asked, panic patent in his voice.
I chuckled, feeling good and then used my power to activate the hidden mechanism.
The dias lowered and the chalices were revealed. Ten chalices were sitting perfectly in the middle of the room.
Oh, so someone had managed to get one. They had to be seriously talented to do so considering the amount of demons in the room, either that or it was their attempt that had called the demons over.
" Pick one" I said.
Each of them chose a chalice and we sat on the floor, waiting. I was bored.
" What now?" Fast healing asked.
" Now we wait for the others to die or get here" I said as I sprawled all over the floor.
" How long is it going to take?"
Oh, so scary was impatient. Good to know.
I shrugged. I wasn't a time genius.
A few hours later
" Wait here for a second" I told the humans as I got up.
I was bored, tired and wanted to look at Ashmoder in the eyes to know if he was the one that cast magic all over the dungeon so that teleporting was only allowed from the outside to the inside and not the opposite way. I was going to end this challenge myself.
Finding the remaining contestants wasn't hard. All I had to do was follow the smell, auras and noise. I really didn't know how they had survived until now in here, but if they had I was going to give them the privilege of dying by my hand. I smiled as I closed in on the closest prey.
Once I returned I had already manged to kill five demons, but the trial wasn't over yet, which was annoying considering how hard I had tried to find every single prey.
" Where were you?" Blond asked as soon as I came back in, his eyes focusing on the blood all over my clothes. I had to admit I hadn't taken great care of them.
" Making the wait shorter. By the way did anyone else come here?" I asked, curious. If they had then the maths would maybe make sense.
" Yes. Six demons did" Fast healing said.
I went to where the chalices were and found that, in fact, only one was remaining.
" Did the prisoners scare you?" I asked in a moking tone as soon as I saw that blond was shaking.
" I'm just cold" Blond said while glaring at me.
I chuckled. Suuuure.
" They didn't come close" Scary said. Wise choice. The prisoners had some brain cells after all.
" Let's end this now, shall we?" I asked no one in particular.
I grabbed the remaining chalice and the world tilted. A second later we were in the middle of the throne room, Ashmoder sitting on his golden throne looking down at us while the moonlight hit his hair and brought forward their diferent colors, but the princess was nowhere to be seen. She was very likely sleeping.
While Ashmoder was too busy checking who had made it out I snuck out and burned the chalice in my hand, leaving no trace of the crime.
The twelve remaining contestants, including the humans, gave their chalices to the king and then were dismissed.
When they turned the corner and saw me they walked up to me quickly.
" What's the next trial about?" Scary asked as soon as he came up to me.
How many times did I have to say I didn't know? I'd have to do some snooping this night if I wanted to find out.
" I'll tell you tomorrow" Was all I said as I took them to their rooms, where they could rest until the next trial. " But what I can tell you is that it'll begin at noon" I had overheard Ashmoder talking to Els yesterday and he had told her that he'd try to begin the trails late so that the princess wouldn't have to wake up early.
As I finished speaking I closed the wall behind them and walked up to Ashmoder's study. I was going to find out what the trial was about, help the humans survive and then make them escape with the princess. I was going to get back at Ashmoder no matter what. He had to pay.