For a second, Solomon paused. "That was very out of character, I don't think I was always so aggressive" He murmured.

"First, I need to get my bearings. Once I have everything set straight and understand my own position in this war I can decide whether or not I really should go hunt some scorpions. For now, all I know is that when I kill a creature from the same race as me, I can absorb its abilities."

With his head straight, Solomon stood up and looked north once again. He was mainly relying on the position of the sun to travel and luckily, it was behind him, otherwise, he would have to walk into the sun for a whole day.

The sky was a startlingly clear blue and not a cloud or bird could be seen within. The golden sand beneath shimmered with the heat of the sun.

Solomon reckoned that yesterday he had been able to run at about 150km/h through the dunes. He was moving so fast that a trail of dust and sand was thrown up into the clear sky in his wake.

So, when he set off running, he was startled to find himself nearly crashing into a sand dune. "Shit! How fast was I going then? I must have gotten at least 20% faster" He swore while trying his best to avoid the oncoming obstacles.

After adjusting to his newfound speed, Solomon returned to skimming across the top of the sand at blistering speeds. He was determined to find a settlement today so he wouldn't have to waste his time in the desert for too long.

Because of his immense speed, Solomon didn't have to worry about any of the monsters that swam beneath the waves of sand, such as the scorpion he fought earlier. The only reason he had been caught by that monster in the first place was that he ended up stopping to sleep.

Although running at such fast speeds should have made him tired, he felt that he could keep running all day. His heart beat with more vigour than usual and his muscles were bursting with energy.

Moving at such high speeds, with the wind whipping through his long black hair, it reminded him of when he was falling with the barge. Such an invigorating and freeing feeling made him smile with glee.

The result of this was that, when he finally arrived at a settlement, he felt a strange sense of disappointment. Although he had reached his destination, he felt sad that he wouldn't be able to run anymore.

Solomon's feelings of disappointment disappeared the second he got a proper look at the sprawling city in front of him. Endless houses sprawled around an enormous Stone cylinder that stood squatly in the centre of the city.

The sight of all these buildings took his breath away. This was Solomon's first time seeing anything that wasn't a makeshift house or shack.

In between these sprawling buildings, lay streets and alleys crawling with people wrapped in cloth robes. They didn't dare to show an inch of skin to the scorching sun above.

The City was surrounded by a towering wall of yellow sandstone and looked as though it had weathered many battles. The people here may be safe from the Shrike, but the desert was still crawling with monsters. Solomon himself could attest to that.

Atop the walls, enormous ballista's and catapults waited. Primed and ready to destroy anything that encroached upon them.

Solomon frowned. "Getting in might be trickier than I thought." He bemoaned.

He decided that the best course of action would be to watch how others got past these walls.

Luckily, he didn't have to wait long. After a short half an hour of fidgeting, Solomon was able to breathe out a sigh of relief. In the distance, a flickering mirage appeared that soon became solid.

Above the dunes, A convoy appeared. It wasn't a convoy that could be recognised by someone from Earth.

The Convoy was composed of carriages being pulled by enormous animals. The first and most eyecatching thing you would notice was the gigantic lizards pulling the carriages along the desert at eye-catching speeds.

The carriages themselves were different from the norm. Rather than wheels, they were raised off the ground and planted on wide skis that allowed them to glide across the sand. They were also open to the elements and only had supports carrying tarps to keep off the sun.

Only the foremost carriages carried people. The majority of them were laden with corpses of hideous monsters. Each of large enough to cause Solomon to shudder.

He could tell from the numerous wounds on these monsters that it hadn't been an easy fight. No! it must have been one of attrition.

This thought was proven true, when the last carriage came into view, piled high with at least ten mangled bodies that were decisively humanoid. Solomon could tell from the sombre expressions of those in the front carriage that this was a fairly common occurrence.

Turning his attention back to the leading carriage, he watched intently as this group of people neared the wall.

So that he wouldn't get caught, he had buried himself in the side of a sand dune, only leaving his head poking out. And, it was from this somewhat humiliating vantage point that he saw everything unfold.

Those in the lead held up coloured flags in seemingly random order and then a massive platform was lowered down to them. After the platform was lowered, they squeezed three carriages onto it and it was pulled up onto the wall.

"So there is no gate at all!" Solomon couldn't help but exclaim. It seemed these people had taken the saying. 'A chain is only as strong as its weakest link' to the extreme. They had removed the weakest link altogether.

This, while clever and impressive did throw a spanner in the works for him. He already looked very suspicious as he wasn't covered in any of the clothes these people usually were. And now he had to walk up to these massive walls and sneak in. 'It won't be easy' he couldn't help but admit.

"Guess I'll have to come up with a plan" He admitted.

...

The sun fell beneath the horizon and night fell onto the desert city. On cue, the bustling noise of people moving about within the city was silenced. It was replaced by the sounds of metal boost stomping on stone.

Shortly after this noise appeared, a flame lit up along the towering walls of the city. This single flame seemed to set off a chain reaction, and soon countless flames flicked along the top of the walls. The night was both dark and cold.

Within the darkness of the nights, noises were amplified to the maximum and the soldiers atop the walls huddled closer to the fires for support.

Solomon himself was one of those scary noises. Finally, after a day of sitting buried under a mountain of sand, he wormed his way out into the open.

He had racked his brain for a clever plan but in the end, he drew a blank. What he came up with couldn't really be called a plan. He liked to think that this plans strength came from its simplicity.

His thought process was simple. Since he was already pretty good at climbing, he would wait till dark and climb up the wall all sneaky like. What? Did you expect something more clever? Well, Solomon is only a demon so cut him some slack.

The moon that lit up the desert felt like a spotlight as it illuminated Solomon in the dark. He Kept close to the ground and sprinted as quietly as possible up to the wall.

This next part would be the painful part. He thought of it somewhat like ripping off a bandaid. Since it was going to raise hell when he started stabbing into stone, he had better do it quickly.

It was with this mindset that he stabbed his tail with a resounding crash into the wall and flung himself halfway up the wall. At this moment, he couldn't help but be grateful for the day he spent climbing about on the ceiling of the cavern. Compared to that this wall felt much easier.

With practised movements, he repeatedly flung himself up the wall and caught himself with his knives before he fell.

The soldiers above him would have to be vegetables to not hear what was going on, but, before they could spot him, Solomon was airborne above the wall with one final push.

Now that he floated above the city, he tried to look out for landmarks and places he should visit. Then, he fell towards the waiting soldiers beneath him.

With a roll, he hit the ground and sprung up amidst a group of frightened men clad in metal. He didn't know if they were shivering because the night was cold or because they feared him.

One of the men, the youngest one, spoke in a shaking voice "Who goes there?"

"Ah wow! I can understand what you are saying. That's neat. Hi I'm Solomon and... ok so don't panic or anything but I am a demon."

The men looked at him in confusion and the young man spoke up again, "But you don't look like a Shrike,"

"Oh, well I guess not. In your culture a demon would be associated with what you fear most, being a Shrike right?" Solomon said with a smile. Although, this smile ended up getting twisted within the shadows cast by the moon and came off as sinister.

The men could only nod in agreement and hold their breath. They didn't really have any idea what this crazy person was on about.

"Look! What is important is that I am an ally. So don't worry I won't hurt you." Solomon tried to recapture their attention.

The men continued to nod like idiots while reaching for their weapons. Without Solomon noticing, one of them had snuck off and it was at this moment he took action. That man struck flint over an oil-covered bundle of leaves. The spark from the flint hit the oil and a green flame burst into being.

'This is clearly a signal flame!' Solomon cried out to himself. Shouts rose up along the wall and the sound of metal boots pounding against stones echoed across the top of the wall.

Solomon grit his teeth and looked around. He was surrounded by men in armour and didn't exactly want to kill any of them. Before any more soldiers could arrive, he made a snap decision.

He apologised prematurely before taking action "Sorry guys but this might hurt," He said before raising up his tail and sweeping out the sounding soldiers' feet from under them.

They fell to the ground with the clatter of metal and rolled on their backs like turtles. Heavy armour was useful when blocking attacks but it sure did way an awful lot. It was in situations like these that the weakness of such armour showed itself.

Before any of them could get up, Solomon took off in a sprint. His feet became a blur beneath him as he ran along the top of the wall. Every time he would blaze past a group of soldiers running towards the signal flare, they would let out a yell, or shout in anger before turning to chase after him.

He was looking for a way down into the city and at last, he found one. An enormous stone ramp that snaked up the side of the wall lay a kilometre ahead. It was perfect! And, it was crawling with soldiers.

Even Solomon couldn't take on that many people at once, without killing someone anyway. He was strong but not infallible. If he ended up killing one of them, his already bad karma would get much worse.

As Solomon complained internally, a spear flew past his head, accompanied by a shape gust of wind that stung his cheek.

"Shit the ballista!" Solomon swore. The SOldiers may not be able to kill him but one of those would do the job.

'I need to get off this wall quick and get behind cover. Once I'm in the city, they won't be able to shoot.' With this in mind, he turned around to run back the way he came. What greeted him was a horde of angry soldiers he had just run past.

Now that he was trapped between a rock and a hard place, Solomon moaned. On either side of him, soldiers swarmed towards him like ants.

He looked down at the houses within the city and gulped. Since he had climbed up the other side of the wall, he knew how high up he was.

While he was trying to make up his mind, another ballista shot was fired and buried itself in a pillar behind him. This ended up making his mind up for him.

After a quick glance around, he found the house with the softest looking roof and aimed for it. All that remained was a quick run-up, and then.

He jumped.