The Pit Fiend is the pinnacle of the non-unique devils, they are in every aspect be it physical might or magical prowess. They stand twice the height of a man with an extra set of their overly long arms. When a Pit Fiend enters the battlefield only a Balor, Great Wyrm or other such power can withstand it. Their only frailty is that the tortures they have undergone in The Pit have driven them mad beyond compare. – Common Monsters

Adrian

I can’t help but smile as I walk out of Thrane's house, should I tell him that the table is for a game and not business? I kind of want to chuckle at him having business around it again. I think the deal went well, though I can’t help but feel he took advantage of me somewhere in this deal, even if it looks like I have so much less work to do.

Our walk back to the hotel was however interrupted by some of the people who had been following us around all day finally deciding to be an encounter. A man in his forties with a dozen Althaen soldiers following behind him.

He while pointing to the three girls walking with me says, “you three were purchased years ago by the Faer family. You will stop your rebellious ways and come with me.”

I can’t help but smile as I feel the trio all latch onto me as each of them give a different rejection to this man.

“What are you smiling about, you’re going to die for being a thief.”

“Thief? How can you steal something that cannot be owned?”

The man and his guards look at me in confusion before I continue, “slavery is illegal. You can’t own people.”

This brings a laugh from the Althaen before they decide to resort to violence to get what they want. I smile as it is now legal for me to kill all of them in 'self-defense'; that is how it works right?

The trio let go of me before drawing their weapons, Lysan having some difficulty in the stance needed for fighting with a blade. The soldiers reach me before the others due to our formation.

I maintain a smile as I begin to try something, partial transformation. My left arm rapidly manifests the scales of my dragon body, sparks fly as I deflect the swing of the first soldiers sword and get inside his reach. My right hand's nails lengthen and thicken as they become the black claws of my other form and pierce through the chain mail of the soldier.

I miss his heart but the hand sized hole in his left lung should be lethal enough. I hear K manage a riposte while Talia merely parries.

I feel a bruise forming under the scales of my left forearm as I begin to accelerate time. I push the soon to be corpse into the soldier who is in melee with Talia, while I rush the next soldier who was not prepared for my temporally enhanced speed.

He did not manage to get a proper guard up in time but did manage to keep me from ripping out the throat but not from tearing a chunk out of his right shoulder. I push my time to run faster as I now rush at the soldier between the noble and me.

I think this is the most I have pushed time as everyone else seems to be going at less than a third of their normal speed. Rather than a quick kill of the soldier who has yet to react, I sever his arm at the shoulder. The clatter of swords falling on the ground ring I my ears as the noble releases a spell that surrounds my feet with chains.

The chains themselves hold me upright though I lose my balance as they cease my movement. I am only a dozen feet from the caster. He begins talking but it is too slow for me to understand it. I pull my last pistol and loaded magazine from Void Cache and begin to fire on this noble as I reject various ideas on how to get out of these glowing chains.

The first few bullets are stopped by a shell of some energy before it begins to crack under the rapid bombardment of 9mm slugs. The last slug shatters the shell and continues on it’s path into the noble’s head.

His body falls to the ground, the chains begin to deteriorate and the soldiers stop fighting and sheath their blades looking at me. What should I do? Kill them? I want to but there might be a better thing to do.

“Take the dead back to your house and tell your Lord to stop going after them.”

The soldiers who are still alive frown but nod before replying, “yes Lord”. I hope this antagonizes this house Faer into attacking, so I can turn the other factions here against them.

Only after the soldiers have left do the police arrive in mass telling us that we are under arrest. I make sure to suppress the ability for bullets to be fired as I motion for the trio not to resist.

Time to play the game and reveal what the Althaen are to the populous, or if it is an Althaen court we end up at call for trial by combat. I end up finding the unease of the officer who handcuffs me amusing; both of us can tell these cuffs only hold because I allow it to.

The ride to the police station or specifically the jail cells there is uneventful.

Once there it is not even ten minutes until one of the people I saw during meeting with General Fuller this morning, Jasmine I think her name was. Her slightly wrinkled face and dyed black hair make it clear she is an older woman.

“So why did you murder those men?”

“Murder, never. It was self-defense.”

“That is not the story being told, you are being called a thief who murders when caught. They are also threatening to stop holding back the monsters that are still running around the other side of the city unless you are turned over to them and their property restored.”

“Do you know what the property is?”

“No.”

I point to the trio as they share the same cell as me, “they hold value to the Althaen for some reason and since they are not men, they try to enslave them every time we encounter them. Those men decided to kill me and enslave them because they want to. Am I wrong in defending myself?”

“Unfortunately, that doesn’t matter. Currently we need the Althaen to deal with the monsters as the armed forces are occupied elsewhere.”

K interrupts, “I can smell your deceit. Do not try to play my mate for a fool, I will not let you manipulate him for your own advantage.”

“So says the woman committing statutory rape.”

Shit, that is a thing isn't it. Does that hold since neither of us are human anymore? How much old are my girlfriends? Also whose laws do cross cultural groups get judged by?

“Do we still need to keep playing nice?” K asks turning to me as she breaks the chain on her hand cuffs. Jasmine takes a step back and there is some worry on her face.

“For now,” I answer before turning back to Jasmine. “So, what were you going to try to trick me into?”

“You take her word as truth? Where is your trust of the government?” Jasmine questions.

“Please answer my question first. Besides you're in the show me state.” I say with a mocking smile. I hope I don’t push this too far but I’m pretty sure I’m considered important right now.

“To deal with the threat the Althaen are currently holding at bay; the translation from the dwarven magic is infernalist deathspeakers.”

Well shit that sounds nasty, multiple deathspeakers and fiendish magic together. How are they holding that back? Is the other group stalling for time?

“Have you had to fight against a hoard of zombies yet?”

“No” she answers with some confusion on her face. They must be preparing one then. After a short pause, she starts talking after a sigh.

“If we can’t deal with that threat and a few others there is no choice but to give into the Althaen and turn you over.”

“What do you think everyone?” I ask as I turn around to the trio.

“Thrane should have the papers done by tomorrow morning and you’ll have weight in their court to have a trial” says Talia.

“We should kill the deathspeakers, they will be a great danger if they are left with the population of this city” says K.

“I’m happy with whatever you want to do” says Lysan.

The real question is how to get as many people upset at the Althaen as possible. I can’t kill all of them on my own. Can I get our media to spread just what they really are? A trial in a US court would be better for that but would take a lot longer.

Get the media to cover the Althaen trial, if possible, could display more of their corruption. Especially if they cheat in the combat like last time. . .

“If I get the Althaen to reveal the monsters that they are on video would you air it nationwide in return for dealing with the monsters in the city?”

“You can’t be considering this, they will kill you unless we protect you.”

“If they could they would have last time they put me on trial. I don’t like your deal and it seems you need me more than I need you; that means what I want has more weight.”

“I can do that but you are playing a dangerous game” she says before turning to leave.

“I do need a camera. Could you bring me one?”

“You chose to play your game, find it yourself.”

Fuck, where am I going to get a camera in here? Steal one? I didn’t see any in the clothing stores today, at least not any I remember. Did I store any in void cache when I was not paying attention?

Casting my mind through the pocket in the void that is my void cache, searching through it for a camera or anything that can record. Laptops and desktops are to conspicuous, something smaller but the only other things I have are phones that happen to lack power. I have adapters but there is not an outlet in the cell. In hindsight I really should have charged them back at the hotel, car or house.

I look around through the bars trying to find a guard but find none, not even another prisoner. The other cell and the hallway itself lacks an outlet. Great so I am going to have to either break out or duplicate AC power. I don’t want to have to deal with a bunch of soldiers and police having a fit over my actions.

“I’m going to be messing with magic.”

“Any chance you could teach me some more magic?” K asks.

“You do remember that I only know theory, right?”

She nods but seems to be excited. I can only cave to the look on her face.

“Alright, what do you want to know?”

“I got the mana to positive energy life force conversion working with the cure spells, what is the next thing I should learn?”

“Going further down that path would be turning Animate Dead into a positive energy version that duplicates the effects of Raise Dead. Alternatively, a more combat focused would be altering Vampiric Touch to be more versatile. Which one do you want me to explain?”

“The combat one” she says with the glee of a little girl in a candy store. The other two girls also paying rapt attention.

“Vampiric Touch works by creating a tether between two life forces much as blood bridge does though without a medium. You should be able to insert the conversion of lifeforce into mana on your end of the connection creating a target health to your mana conversion.

After this you can tie another spell to the end after severing the connection to yourself creating a spell that is fueled by the health of an unwilling enemy. Attaching such spells to a weapon should be the most effective way of delivery, using a bladed weapon to draw out blood would be a good medium to reduce the startup mana cost.”

I can see the wheels turning in K’s head as Lysan and Talia seem disappointed that they don’t have the prerequisite abilities to patch together blood magic for unwilling targets. At least a way that should work.

“I’ll find something for the two of you next time but I need to make preparations for tomorrow” I tell them followed by a quick kiss to my two elves as K mutters to herself thinking aloud on how to do just what I said.