He walked calmly outside of the building, despite being completely surrounded he showed no sign of being scared. He was on the other hand cautious, extremely cautious. He stopped a few meters away from Pallas which was standing in his way “Clear my path!” his was deep, clear and pressuring.

But the human general didn’t show any sign of doing as the demon told him, instead he pulled out both of his swords and was ready to attack. Both Vadesh and the minotaur captain moved around, trying to get him from the sides in case he decided to attack Pallas. “A filthy demon dares order me around?” with a raging voice Pallas shouted at him.

In that moment both Vadesh and the minotaur came rushing at him from both sides. Vadesh reached him first, trying to stab him in the back with his daggers, but failed as he didn’t think the demon would use his tail in order to block his attack and counter at the same time. When the minotaur came with his axe swinging for the demon’s chest he simply jumped in the air. Placing one hand on the axes blade and using it to push himself forward at Pallas which was charging from the front. Trying to kick him in the chest, but his attack was blocked by the generals swords. Even so Pallas was still pushed back from the force of the kick.

All of the surrounding soldiers started to let out a warcry and charge at him. They swings were wide and strong, but slow and easy for the demon to avoid. He moved between their attacks like a rat between elephants. When they saw him between them the soldiers stopped swinging and instead tried to crush him with their massive bodies. The demon saw it coming and jumped up and landed on one of the soldiers head, his tail quickly coiled around his neck, suffocating the ogre. He continued to avoid their attacks while killing them one by one, slowly.

Pallas was focused in looking for an opening to strike him down, but Vadesh was observing him closely and noticed what he was actually doing. He got a cold sweat and rushed over to Pallas “We need to stop the soldiers, he is using them to learn how to fight.” he swallowed hard before he continued “Look at him, he avoids their attacks so effortlessly and has enough time to counter as well, but doesn’t.”

Pallas looked at his friend shocked by what he had heard, he turned to look at the demon only to see that his friend was right. “Captain, pull your men back, now!” he shouted to the minotaur captain which was on the other side of the fight. The minotaur instantly ordered his men to fall back, thinking that he might have a plan.

“Hope you know what you are doing human.” the minotaur snorted at Pallas while sitting behind the demon.

“We need to kill him fast, he is using us to learn to fight.” Vadesh told the minotaur briefly before rushing towards the demon with both of his daggers ready to strike.

Pallas followed his friend from behind and as soon as his attack was blocked by the demon’s tail he rushed in from the back, cutting it off. The demon turned around in surprise, his face was grim as he extended his left hand to catch one of Pallas’s swords. In that moment from the other side the minotaur swinged his axe for his chest. He couldn’t avoid it like before so instead he shifted his weight, lifting his legs from the ground and catching the axes blade with his hands. Letting himself be pushed back by the force instead of getting cut by it. He was thrown hard against the stone wall of the auction house as a result of that.

“This bloody bastard is smart.” the minotaur was fuming with anger, he threw his axe with both hands in the direction where the demon had landed and also charged in with his horns lowered. He was like a bull that has red in his eyes, no matter how many times Pallas or Vadesh shouted at him to stop he just went in.

“To damnation with it. Let’s go Vadesh, we need to land a hit at least.” he shouted before following after the minotaur, using him as a distraction for them to deliver a blow.

The demon saw the axe coming his way, he didn’t move to dodge it or block it. Instead he caught it with his right hand, but because of that he didn’t have enough time to avoid the minotaur that was charging at him. He got impaled in the stomach and caught between the horns of the minotaur at the wall. He was about to use the axe and cut his head off but in that instant Vadesh came up from his right and he had to use the axe in order to block his attack. He quickly let go of the axe, making Vadesh lose balance slightly and catching him by his hand. Just as he was about to pierce him in the chest with his left hand and Pallas was quick enough to cut the hand that was restraining his friend.

The demon in his anger punched the minotaur hard in the head until he lost conscious after which he pulled him by his horns. He kicked him away into the crowd of soldiers that were left looking in awe at the fight that was happening before them.

“That was dangerous, but we managed to cut one of his arms.” Pallas said as he was catching his breath. He looked over at his friend which had a worried look on his face, his eyes were fixed on the demon. When he turned his head towards the demon, he noticed that both the tail and the hand that they managed to cut off were back where they belonged. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” he was both annoyed and left speechless.

“Okay, seems like I really need to use my swords properly.” his posture straightened, he scratched the blades of his swords one against the other which made a loud and irritating screech. Red and blue sparkles were coming out of where the two blades touched until one was set ablaze while the other had turned to ice. “Now, let me show you how I deal with your kind, demon!” Pallas tightened his grip around the swords and was ready to attack.

“Demon, demon, demon.” the demon started to shout, louder and louder with an annoyed voice “I have no idea what this thing you are calling me is, but I assure you I am not such a thing.” he looked at Pallas with a piercing gaze, his eyes were as if throwing spears at him “And I can tell you one thing, if you’ve met one of my kind, this world you no longer exist.” his words fell as if rocks on those around. The soldiers backed down a little, wondering just what was the origin of this creature.

Pallas wasn’t impressed at all by his words, he knew all too well that a demon would lie and deceive whenever it would suit them. “Enough words wretch, I shall put you down no matter what.”

While the demon was focused on Pallas, Vadesh sneaked around towards the back and when they were done talking he attacked him from the back. Both of the blades of his long daggers finding their mark, piercing through the skin of the demon and into his rib cage from both sides. Vadesh was quick to remove his daggers and gain some distance as the demon’s tail was ready to pierce his stomach. Now the demon’s attention had turned to Vadesh.

Pallas came rushing in, his blades swinging in a furies manner, despite not managing to hit the demon, he making him back off from his friend. Which was given time and space to perform another assault this time without success as the demon had already learned his tricks and avoided his daggers with ease. He even caught one of his hands. Pallas quickly came to aid him, he did a low swing with the frozen blade towards the demon’s stomach. The demon quickly reacted, catching the blade between his knee and elbow, the impact of his joints on the blade were strong enough to shatter it to pieces. While Pallas was left in a daze after his sword broke, the demon kicked him in the stomach, making him roll on the ground a distance away from where he was.

“You.” the demon turned his head at Vadesh “Are annoying.”

Vadesh tried to free himself from the demon’s grip, but without any success, finally he tried to free himself by cutting the demon’s hand with his dagger. As soon as the dagger approached his hand, his tail pierced through Vadesh’s forearm, but didn’t come out on the other side. Instead it twisted and crawled itself underneath his skin. Horrid screams of pain quickly filled the place as the demon’s tail ravished the insides of Vadesh’s arm and just before he pulled it out be made sure to crack all of his arm bones. “Now stand out of my way!” the demon told him with a very sever and deep voice.

Although witnessing what happened Pallas had no intention to let him walk out at all. He was filled with anger after seeing what the demon did to his friend. He clenched his sword tightly and before charging in at him again he grabbed the large axe from one of the ogres. Almost pulling the ogre down. In an instant he had reached the demon, which was still looking down on the wounded Vadesh which was knelt before him.

With one swing the cut clean the demon’s tail, which started squirming on the ground like a snake. That made him turned around with a pissed face, but the general had no intention of backing down. He inhaled a lot of air and suddenly unleashed a barrage of blows towards the demon, swinging his axe and sword like a mad man. Even the demon had a hard time dodging, getting stabbed by the sword at least twice. Just as the demon was about to get serious and Pallas managed to cut his right arm off from the shoulder and also stab him in the chest with his sword. Hot air was coming out of Pallas’s mouth as he finally exhaled since he kept his breath all along in order to swing his weapons faster.

“Useless.” the demon said to him with an irritated tone, grabbing the hand with which he was holding the sword that was still dug inside of his chest. “Now, get out of my way!” his voice raised as he twisted Pallas’s hand. The sound of bones breaking was loud enough for even the ogres to hear, followed by the screams of pain. Despite Pallas falling down to his knees from the pain, the demon wasn’t done yet.

From behind the demon a towering person showed up, he was at least one time taller than him. It was Vadesh that got up, one dagger in his left hand and the other in his mouth. He plunged one of them in the right side of the demon’s neck down into his chest, did the same with the other one of the left side. “Now die you monster!.” Vadesh talked with a half voice as he gather his strength. He wrapped his good arm around hi neck, with a quick and strong pull he twisted his neck to the back. The demon was still standing, but Vadesh walked passed him with a slow pace towards Pallas, placing one hand on his shoulder “Are you fine?” his voice almost shacking.

“So annoying.” the demon talked, his tailed had already been reattached, his head was spinning back to its normal position and finally he walked over to where his arm was, reattaching it as well as if it was nothing. “Why must you get in my way!?” he shouted, running towards Pallas and Vadesh, stepping on Vadesh’s back, making him lay flat on the ground while kicking Pallas and sending him a little away rolling on the ground. Seeing that Vadesh was no longer moving he started to walk over to Pallas.

Two steps, he took and Vadesh grabbed his leg. The demon’s face was distorted from the anger, his eyes were almost on fire. He stepped on his hand, squashing it against the ground, screams of pain filled the street and soon only groans. But the demon didn’t stop as blood was splashing from where the man’s arm was he knelt before him. Without saying a word he grabbed his wounded arm and started to squeeze it, his screams yet again caught life and slowly died out.

The soldiers couldn’t wait around anymore, since there was nobody left to give them orders they decided to throw their axes at the demon since they couldn’t fight him close combat. But that only worked in his favor as he caught all of them and each axe he used to cut off Vadesh’s limbs. He swinged those axes hard, cutting his forearms then moving to his legs. And just as he was going silent the demon would find another way to make him feel pain again. He continued to chop him to pieces and finally cut off his head as the final piece.

Finally after satisfying himself with butchering the man, the demon got up. He was all covered in blood and his expression was void of any emotion. He pointed towards Pallas which could barely get up from the ground “Never stand in my way!” he said it as if he ordered him. After that he started to walk in the direction of the wall, from his back large black wings started to grow, he flapped them a few times before taking flight and vanish into the night sky.

He just managed to lift himself up, once he noticed his friends body chopped to pieces his knees felt weak and fell once more. The soldiers around started to help those wounded, but none would come close to the general which was sitting with his face towards the ground. Tears was running down on his anger filled face as he was hitting the ground with his fist.

The mood outside was quite a sad one as most of the troops were wounded and then there was the general grieving for death of his friend. From inside of the auction house the six mercenaries walked out, one by one. Their leader let out a whistle as he saw the state of the soldiers and also recognizing Pallas immediately as well as how wounded he was.

All eyes were turned towards them as if they were the enemy. But the ogres soon recognized him and his men since they was a regularly hired by the auction master. But Pallas still held to his hate and just in time as his men arrived he managed to lift himself up from the ground. The sergeant rushed to his side in order to hold him on his feet.

“Have them fools executed right now!” the general started to shout at his men the moment they arrived, while dragging his body in their direction. The soldiers immediately surrounded the six mercenaries, pointing their spears at them.

“I suggest you stop this, before more of you get hurt.” the leader of the mercenaries said with a carefree tone while checking those surrounding them. “As you can see, we are not soldiers, we are mercenaries.” his voice got serious as his eyes narrowed onto the general “You have no authority over us, unless we break the laws of this kingdom.”

“Shut the fuck up. I am the law in this place. And you are responsible for letting a very dangerous demon go. I doubt even the guild master will have anything to say to something like this.” Pallas started to shout louder, despite him being only a few meters away from them.

“I agree, the guild master wouldn’t even care what you say. We were not paid to do such a thing nor were we sent with orders from the guild to assist.” the mercenary retorted back to the general with a defying tone.

“Enough with this none sense! I doubt anyone would even hire such boneless cowards like you anyway, so I’ll just get rid the world of you fools right now.” He turned his head towards the sergeant “Have them beheaded!” he didn’t seem to calm down even the slightest.

“Fools? Cowards? Beheading?” the mercenary couldn’t help but mock his remarks “I think you are getting over your head here.” he took a few steps forwards “You have no idea who we are or what group we belong to, yet you seem to think everyone is your fool to order around.” his voice all serious almost threatening.

“Huh! You kind you scare me with this kind of things?” Pallas started to laugh like a madman “I don’t give a fuck who’s your leader, even if you belong to the Beasts of Grendel, I doubt Archeon will give a damn about a bunch of losers like you.” the smile on his face was yet to fade but his eyes were still burning with hate and anger.

The mercenary started to smile as well, he was the only one out of the six to talk so far as the rest were still chilling in the back. They were almost did care about the situation around them. “You sure haven’t changed at all. I’m even surprised you don’t recognize me, but no matter.” the mercenary spoke naturally “You are the fool here.” just as he said that and a sword came flying towards his head. The sword was caught by the huge guy sitting in the bag, just a few centimeters away from his forehead. All of the other mercenaries instantly got into fighting stances, ready to attack as soon as they were ordered.

The mercenary leader started to laugh “Always rushing, without even listening to others.” he took the sword from the big guy and also ordered the rest to stand down “You see, we actually are from the Beasts of Grendel.” in that moment all of the soldiers that surrounded them staggered and started to look at one another. “In fact, I’m Archeon.” he said while swinging the sword around.

Pallas was at a loss of words, he couldn’t believe what he had just heard. He lowered his head down, thinking. “Hmph, so even the great Archeon is scared of some lowly demon? That sure will be great news for everyone to hear, dont you think?” now he was the one starting to make threats “And what better source for this information then General Pallas the Wolf himself?” he could hold back his smile anymore.

“Lowly demon you say? Considering the state you and this men are, I wouldn’t say he was lowly at all.” he made a short pause “Or were all the tales about you fighting and slaying countless demons in the War of Dusk just that, tales?” he gave a taste of his own medicine back. “And us scared of him. I’m sorry, but I had no reason to fight him and once we let him pass he didn’t bother with us at all. I even bet he told you to let him pass?” his words couldn’t be more true.

“Why the hell would I let a demon walk away? He killed so many soldiers for no reason at all and even murdered my friend in cold blood!” he pointed at the torn apart body of Vadesh.

“Tch, tch, tch. Exactly that’s your problem. There are over forty people alive in the auction house, we took the time to ask a few of them how they managed to survive.” he looked with a serious face at Pallas “Each one had said they either let their weapons down and let him pass or they didn’t stand in his way. Now tell me, who’s the fool now? The demon isn’t the one who killed your friend but you!” he hit him right where it hurt.

For a while the place was surrounded in silence and only the groans of those wounded could be heard. “Its in your nature a human to kill and hate those that are different from you. That demon had no interest in killing anyone.” everyone’s attention was directed to Archeon now, even the ogres were curious about that. “He came here for something that the auction house master seems to have taken from him.”

The minotaur captain that had just regained his conscious a little while back stepped up “What do you mean? He caused all of this to get his stuff back?” he talked with a grumpy voice.

“Yes. He came for the star that was sold earlier toady.” he made a pause and walked over towards the minotaur commander, which was standing right next to Pallas. “Now if you’ll excuse us, we shall be leaving. Since we didn’t even get paid for our last job, we shall not waste anymore time around.”

“Very well, you may go.” the minotaur captain nodded his head and stepped aside, letting him leave.

“WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING!?” Pallas started shouting all of a sudden “SOLDIERS KILL THEM IN THIS INSTANT!” he ordered his men to attack Archeon and his men.

“I think you are going outside of your way general.” the minotaur captain stepped in “This is my territory. And I told you that you have no authority in this place.” he made a sign with his hand for all ogre and minotaurs to get ready to fight.

Seeing the scene, Pallas started to back down. He was in no shape to fight both Archeon and the black market soldiers. He stood there silently and watched him leave. “Sergeant gather Vadesh’s corpse up and pack it up. We are taking him with us back to the capital.” he talked as if almost whispering. ‘I will make sure both you and that demon will pay for all of this. And you will pay with your lives!’ he seemed to already be making his plans for revenge.

“Uhm, Archeon? Shouldn’t you have given that demon better indication as to where to meet us? Cause I doubt he is familiar with this place.” the big guy started to talk, his voice was very deep and loud.

His words really made Archeon think, but all of a sudden behind the big guy, the demon showed up. He made everyone except Archeon. which was facing towards that direction, have a jump scare. “Where is the star?” he asked right away.