《Hero Scout》Chapter 4 - Daario Colombo
Advertisement
"Give me your skin."
Daario Colombo cracked his knuckles covered in white gloves. His wholly human left hand made the familiar popping sound. Meanwhile, his devilish right emitted a dark crackling, akin to the sounds of crushing bone. Dark as night, it ended in long black claws that burst through the fine material of his glove. The Devil's hand matched the nightmarish right-hand side of his body, his single ink-black eye, and single ebony horn especially obvious signs of his half-blood nature.
"Give me your skin. I don't like to repeat myself," he said, eyeing the demon guards. They were gaunt, crimson skinned, with a mane of green flame for hair, and similar flame spurting from their swords. Their armour was thick bronze, carved into the shape of large skulls. Real skulls adorned spikes on their shoulders, and the left one laughed as it said, "Your skull is mine, little devil man!"
The demon guard charged and Daario sighed.
He waited in his suit, with a dark chain in his hand. The demon raised its blade, brought it plummeting down on course to split Daario in two - and only then did he dodge. In a swift movement, he wrapped the chain around the demon's throat and pulled. Crack. The demon's head went limp, and yet turning it continued to grin and swing.
Daario walked at a leisurely pace, eyes focused on the second demon as he felt the rush of air and heat behind him. He had measured the reach, he could feel the distance and had calculated each and every step to be just outside the demon guard's range. Daario would not allow the demon to so much as singe his precious suit.
"Narshrig, you've had your chance!" Roared the second, charging into the fray. Somehow the demon fell for the same trick, Daario stepping aside at the last moment, snapped the demon's neck then turned and kicked. The second demon fell right into the First's swing, demon fire biting into its shoulder.
Advertisement
Running up and onto the demon's back with his hands in his pockets, careful not to have his shining black shoes dirtied, Daario surveyed the hell he had appeared in. While leisurely moving side to side to avoid the demons' blades and direct them into one another, Daario searched the horizon. A great obsidian citadel rose into the sky filled with fire, surrounded by a lake of burning sulphur and ten thousand demons hunting the latest damned souls to arrive.
Ashen people would plummet from the sky, and the demons would brawl with each other to claim them. Daario shook his head, noting the winner was often just bigger. No real talent here, no capable employees even amongst demonkind.
As only the first ring of hell, Daario estimated he'd be out in three weeks if he wanted to. It would take some efficient grinding to do so reliably, no doubt a few higher demons from the below levels would come up here on occasion too.
By the time the two foolish demon guards had slashed each other a dozen times over, Daario's plan was ready to be put into action.
Wielding the claws of his devil hand, Daario ripped out the pair's hearts and got to working on their corpses. First, he needed a weapon that wasn't aflame. Sharpening their horns with his clawed hand should create the skinning knife he wanted.
"So messy, you should have just given me what I wanted," he said as one of the demon's tried to rise.
"Please, let me go. I'll serve you, I'll- uek," having located the second heart, Daario pulled it free with interest. Purple and crystalline, it continued to pump in his hand. Eyes flittering to the other, the demon who had pretended to play dead tried to pull itself away.
Advertisement
"Stop moving, and I'll let you live," he said, voice cold as ice.
The demon froze with fear and didn't move a single fiery muscle.
"When I'm done turning this skin into something I can write on, I'll need to carve a writing tool. Then with a bit of blood, I'll need you to sign something for me. My new employee," Daario smiled toothily to himself, the once-proud demon not liking that one bit.
He'd like it less when Daario used his special power to write the contract.
Advertisement
- In Serial27 Chapters
The Featherlight Transmission
In the ancient desert metropolis of Wellspring City, magic is dead, and technology reigns supreme. Baulric Featherlight, one of thousands of street mages for hire, is summoned by the City Watch to assist with a particularly grisly murder - the deed was done by a rogue mage, and the fanatical Dynamic Brotherhood will have every arcanist in the city pay for it. The killer continues carving a line of death throughout all twenty sectors of the city, and anti-magic sentiment begins to rise. Will Featherlight's singular skills be enough to hunt down this elusive killer? Or will fear and old hatreds finally tear Wellspring City apart? (Cover art by the inestimable UncertaintyCrossing. You can find more of his enchanting works here.) hi! im the guy that wrote this story. i hope you like reading it. im bad at elevator pitches ^ and honestly, it's a little misleading. it's really just a detective noir with a few extras. if you like detective stories, this is a good one. it's got robots and magic and stuff too. have fun! (obligatory extra note: im an internet busker who subsists on the generosity of readers like you. if you haven't done your good deed for the day and you think my work is worth paying for, why not tip some spare change into my hat? i'd be awful appreciative ♥) [premium game of the year DLC edition edit: if you've read the whole thing for free and want to buy a copy for yourself, this dang ol' story is available for purchase on amazon now. it's not super special, but showing your support by buying it would make writing new ones a lot easier. thanks a million billion for reading either way ♥]
8 110 - In Serial9 Chapters
The Days of Path Dust
In a dark age of the distant future, a curious young monk defies a power-hungry minister by exploring forbidden realms in an effort to solve the mystery of his sister's disappearance.
8 211 - In Serial48 Chapters
Heart of Fire
Five stones, two estranged siblings, one ex-fiance, and not one spark to protect herself. Syra is the firstborn heir to the Montari Dragon Clan. She is also a flameless runt--a fact her younger siblings, Cassius and Petra, often repeat. But, she is also a Lightblood. Blessed with high affinity to the land's mana flow, her magical prowess is her one redeeming quality. But when the Ignis dragon, Marrak, attacks the neighboring human kingdom and kills her father, it is her trademark skill that provides hope: shapeshifting. Nine years after she infiltrated the human city, Marrak resurfaces. With her cover blown, she's sent into foreign lands to hunt down five powerful crystals and stop him from rebuilding the weapon that would leave him invincible, and both human and dragon lands destroyed. But war is brewing in the human kingdom. Social unrest is shaking every city and the web of rebellion is on the hunt for Lightbloods, making her a glowing target. Enemy ears are everywhere and secrets run deep, even in the people closest to her. And as a wyrmling who can't breathe fire, she is left with bickering twins and a bitter prince in a world where monsters don't always wear scales. **Contains depictions of: PTSD, substance abuse, child abuse**
8 68 - In Serial36 Chapters
Queer Tales From A Street Nominally Associated With Your Reality
The street is not from your world, and yet it's attached, clinging like a shadowy limpet to the edge of your London, your city skyline stabbing into it from above. Or well that's what we tell ourselves, no one who lives here really knows. We are after all just regular folk displaced from our original realities. Just a bunch of folks with queer tales from a street nominally associated with your reality. What to expect: - A series of interlinked short stories gradually unpacking the lives, complications and mysteries associated with those who live in the street - A weird pseudo-British setting where physics works inconsistently, and houses move position regularly - Stories filled with LGBTQ+ characters, and in particular ones on the trans/nonbinary spectrum - Potentially iffy grammar, I'm new to publishing my work online, so whilst I am checking things before posting it’s a near certainty that some things will slip through - A schedule of one chapter every two weeks.
8 166 - In Serial31 Chapters
Fated To The Alphas
23 year old Lucy Brown has always felt like there was more to life, little does she know that a switch of environment would change her life forever. 27 year olds Jaylen, Jonathan and Jack are triplet alphas that have always been their for each other, since birth all they have done is work on what the true concept of sharing is. Having to share the title as Alpha of Winter-force pack, will they be willing to continue with the spirt of sharing or will their pack suffer?
8 117 - In Serial12 Chapters
『 magic shop 』 park jimin
[COMPLETED]❝I wish I could open one door... ❞❝To your heart...❞❝I wish I could go in and buy away your sadness.. ❞❝I wish... ❞When I hate being myself, when I just want to disappear forever. You open one door and there you were in my heart. /BTS's Park Jimin short story.Completed: 28/05/18@Eirinrinss
8 131

