Turning around, Jake acted like he was wiping off a sprinkling of fur from his armrest. There was nothing there because Fluffy does not shed his soft… strokable fur. Suppressing a half shiver at the thought, he went back to brushing his hand over his armrest and rocking.

It was a good way to ignore what was above him. And the pillar of fire across the lake. And the abominations—the demon called spawn, whatever that means—still entering the edges of his domain.

Jake had a lot he should be worrying about if he wanted to survive. Creating a plan and talking to the wet rabbit crawling out of the lake might be the best use of his time. Still, the demon seemed to at least understand what was going on, if not the specifics of why.

A memory of a ball of infinite blackness rising up the pillar of black-red raging flame was very prominent in Jake's mind. If this was a cage and the pillar of fire he came out of was part of the cage, that would make him a fellow prisoner. Right?

At the very least, he should not be on the side of the asshole that put Jake here, which made him inclined to… well, not trust. Or even like. But the demon should be the enemy of Jake's enemy, so working together with the immensely powerful demon should not be out of the question. It would be a better idea than opposing the monster.

Jake had hazy memories of the demon talking to him while he was… broken. It had mentioned Creation, though, like it was there. Had to be a lie. Right?

As he remembered the demon talking to him, a twinge prickled at a specific spot on his spine at the contemptuous power it displayed. It was like a phantom pain.

Though… he does not feel as powerful as before. He feels little stronger than Fluffy now… And he is a demon. Probably. The stories of demons on earth should be based off something, right? Which would be these guys. They are too alike for there not to be a connection. I don't know much about demons, but I know a human making a deal with one never ends well for the human. And I made a deal… Fuck…

He could feel the demon crouched above him. Because of the spiritual connection that now ran between the two of them…

Trying to steady himself, he spoke, "What did I agree to?" He had his suspicion. The bond he could feel with the demon was pretty telling. But with something tied to his soul, Jake would like it all spelled out.

"A good question," The demon responded, sounding board, "And something you will have to figure out eventually since you didn't ask in the ceremony… But… NEXT!" Jake could feel the amusement and scorn dripping from the voice.

"What?" Jake sputtered out in confusion and shock, his ears mildly ringing from the nasal screech of the last word.

"Next. Another. Ask again. Go on. Let me spell it out for you, ask another question. I don't feel like answering that one."

"Why not," Jake asked in a neutral tone, trying to suppress his irritation.

"If you had questions about the bond, you should have asked when it was offered. Duh! So, NEXT!" Said the demon in amusement.

Fist clenching in a flash of rage at the demon, Jake took a minute or two before responding with his teeth still clenched. "What is a good question then?"

"Hahahahahahaaa~" Laughed the demon, "Kid, that's the type of question a child asks some ancient being, and they answer because they like the child or find it amusing. Neither of those applies to me. NEXT!"

Waiting a few seconds after the demon finished while he clenched and unclenched his fist, Jake finally accepted that was all the demon was going to say.

Letting his mind seep into the surface level of the land to calm himself—nothing really bothered the land for long—Jake tried to think of a good question. The demon seemed to be willing to answer, answer the right question at least. And it was talking, so that was something.

What did Jake need? He wanted out of this prison. Even if he had to return to his land eventually, he wanted to be able to come and go as he pleased. But that was an end goal.

If he did not put his total effort into every step between now and then, he would likely never live to see the outside world. The demon had made him look like a child when they fought.

If that was the standard he could expect to come from The Gate—whatever that is—he would sooner or later die.

Jake seemed to be pretty good at regenerating his body when injured, but he needed something to regenerate. The demon could have easily splattered him into paste with his bitchslap if he had put any effort into it at all. Wouldn't that make it a normal slap then? Or is it the fact that it's the back of the hand the reason it's a bitchslap. If only there was someone to teach me the ways of a bitchslap… Alas, I am trapped here and left to wonder…

"How do I survive the demons' attack," Jake asked, deciding on his next question on impulse.

"That is an exceedingly relevant question for you. You should ask that question to someone that knows and is willing to answer." The demon mocked Jake while his mouth and fists were clenched in irritation.

He was going to punch the thing right in its stupid mouth. Hopefully, a few teeth will be knocked out. Maybe a bruise will be formed for a while. The idea tickled Jake so much that he began to turn and throw a punch.

"Of course," said the demon like Jake's fist wasn't a few inches from the side of his head, "there are a few things that I have to say on the matter…"

Narrowing his eyes at the creature in suspicion as the demon trailed off, waiting for him to pull back his fist. Settling down in his seat but still ready to throw out a punch if the situation demanded, Jake waited for the demon to speak.

Clearing his throat, the demon began in a calm voice, "The pillar of fire is the entrance to another dimension called Tartarus, it's a prison dimension with multiple ways in and one way out—and it had to lead here…" the demon whispered as if it was to itself, but was a foot above Jake with his enhanced ears, so they both knew he was meant to hear." For reasons that do not concern you—and would more likely than not confuse the little bit of gray matter you call a mind—a lot of shit happened that led to us all being here, and I am not going to go in-depth into the topic so don't even ask. Suffice to say, the endless and Eternal Legions of the Abyss are trapped there and will be coming through The Gate to here. In your… wonderful. Home… Once the flood starts, it should be constant with occasional spikes once this dimension stabilizes enough to contain higher-tier beings. For now…" the demon drew out, tapping its finger on its chin while looking around as if in deep thought, "nothing more than imps at the foundation establishment and Essence Gathering Realms should come through."

Jake wanted to parse out the relevant information from the insults but thought it better to keep the demon talking while it felt inclined to do so. "What about the abominations."

"Abominations?" The demon parroted back while looking at Jake like he was an imbecile, “Ohhh… you mean the spawn? Yeah, those aren't demons. Or creatures, really. In terms of stupid, they are elementals. Collections of energy that have little to no initiative or autonomy of their own beyond whatever impulses energy they are comprised of drives them to do. They do not have souls, so most things are repulsed by them. And pretty much everything destroys them on sight. However, higher beings can control them, and they can be quite useful if used right."

The demon stared off into the sky as silence settled. Right as Jake was about to ask another question, the demon spoke again. "Ohh, yeah, one more thing," and waited until Jake turned to face it, "Duck. Haha!" The demon laughed as it vanished with a shit-eating grin.

Frowning, Jake's attention was starting to be pulled away from the demon as something was prickling the back of his mind, even as he was about to ask his question. Jake tried to force the feeling away entirely at the demon's words and face as he searched around him and was distracted as something swooped in from the side.

Throwing up his arm and leaning to the side in a last-second reflex, Jake felt an impact, then a burning pain starting to spread up his arm.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jake saw a red streak flash by. Turning his arm and looking down, Jake was not surprised to find a bleeding wound. The fucker planned it.

If Jake was paying attention, he would have noticed. If he could hear a small fly ten feet away, he could hear a creature with around six feet of wing span flapping. One of those made a lot more noise.

Even if Jake was distracted by something, a warning like the buzzing of an insect would have gradually increased until he could no longer stand the annoyance and checked what his instincts were telling him.

The demon—who was surprisingly small compared to what Jake remembered now that he thought about it—spent the last few minutes telling Jake important information. It might not have been exactly related to surviving the soon-to-be-arriving demon hoard; however, it was still essential enough Jake needed to pay attention to it. Then the demon said something so out of left field that his mind stuttered for a moment, distracting him just enough that he intentionally tore his mind away from the growing sense of danger.

Now Jake had a slash running along his forearm, thanks to the asshole's distraction.

Looking around, Jake saw that he was far from alone. Both in the sense that he was not the only one injured, as he heard roars of pain and annoyance that correlated with the couple imps he could pick out farther in the garden. And in the sense that a duo of demons was hurtling down toward him and would be here within seconds, not counting the bastard that scratched him.

A quick glance past the diving duo told him where the demons came from. As the pillar of fire broke against the roof of the cage, the forms of bodies could be seen tumbling out of the flame.

It was apparent they quickly regained enough whits to hover and fly in circles. Jake did not know how long they had been coming out of the pillar for fire, but there were thousands. Or hundreds. The writhing mass of climbing and swooping bodies was hard to count from this distance.

Jumping to the side, Jake dodged a fireball that exploded on his throne, sending patches of fire splattering a few feet around on the ground.

The wood on his throne did not seem to find the black fire the least bit harmful, though, as it remained unburnt silently withstanding the temperature. The stone and ground around the chair were not having as good of a time as the melted.

Looping around his throne, Jake kept one eye on the sky to dodge any attacks that came his way.

High above, the sky was streaked with fire from the imps' fireballs. They were not, however, headed towards the garden. The demons appeared just as inclined to attack their fellows, the spawn, and a few of the higher peaks a group of imps drifted close to and seemed to despise for some reason. Poor rocks. Not sure they are soilid enough to withstand that.

The few attacks headed towards his garden were more often than not the result of an imp missing its intended target, and the attacks petered out long before they came close to the garden.

Asshole-1—the imp that scratched him—along with Asshole-2 and Asshole-3—the imps above Jake throwing the fireballs he needed to dodge, were an exception to the rule of their attacks not hitting his garden.

Asshole-1 was swooping around for another pass to claw Jake, while Asshole-3 was winding up to throw another fireball at him. As Asshole-3 threw, Jake dove forward, grabbing a fist-sized rock.

Coming up with his feet planted, Jake threw his rock at the diving demon, nailing it in the face and causing it to start to tumble across the ground.

The hair on the back of his neck was itching like crazy, and Jake followed his instincts this time.

Diving to the side again, Jake came up with another rock, ignoring the bloom of black fire three feet away.

He had already decided where he was going to throw. It was easy. Whenever these little punks charged up and sent out a fireball, they would start a cackling grating laugh that would not end until the fire went out.

He had seen them throw another fireball in the middle of their laugh, but the laughter would not end until the fire was completely out.

With his hearing, it was the easiest thing to pick out where the cackling Asshole-2 was. He could do it without his enhanced hearing the things were so loud, but his new ears just made it easier.

Rock shooting out, Jake was confident where it would land, only giving a bit of his attention to the throw as he bent down. Jake gave a snort of approval once he saw but mostly heard the imp's chest deforming.

Standing back up, slightly rotating his body, and passing his new rock to his throwing hand, Jake calmly chucked another fist-sized rock that smashed into the imp's face and destabilized the ball of fire it was gathering between its hands.

Walking down the shore of the lake, Jake scooped a few more rocks bouncing the one in his right hand as he made his way to the first imp.

Standing over the creature, Jake inspected it.

He would describe it as a red, four-foot tall bald monkey with horns on the top of its head and clawed hands and feet. And a beer belly.

Smashing his heel down on the creature's skull, Jake stood in wonder.

Jake's rock left an indent in the creature's face. He knew that.

When it lost control of its dive because its face had a crater in its center, it tumbled across the rocky ground. Jake would have sworn it hit one or two of the boulders scattering the beach.

The imp should have been a broken, dying heap. Arms and legs bent the wrong way. Its ribs malformed and sticking out of its skin.

At the least, the skin should be broken and leaking blood onto the ground from bones poking through.

There were a couple of spots of blood on the ground. But besides its newly caved-in skull, there was no wound on the creature at all.

Even that wound was rapidly closing before a bust of black flame came out of the creature causing Jake to step back in caution. He had only completed half of his step, and the black fire disappeared as fast as it appeared.

Once the fire was gone, the demon lying on the ground was looking at Jake, its eyes black pools of death. But where only madness and a need to destroy were burning before, now there was a rational mind behind the eyes judging him.

The demon nodded to him before its body shifted to a cloud of black smoke and shot off farther into the cage.

Jake blinked for a second at where the demon just was, then turned and quickly threw two more rocks at Asshole-2 and Asshole-3, who were taking flight again.

The Assholes fell to the ground with the new wounds. They also burst into flames a few seconds later, the smoke rapidly disappearing from Jake's sight shortly afterward.

Staring off into the distance after the streaks of demon smoke, Jake considered what had just happened. It was, well… he was not sure he had ever seen anything like it before, even with his upside down life.

Shaking his head, Jake turned towards his garden and began looking at it. Jake could come up with as many theories as he wanted, but he would never know until someone told him. The end result was all that mattered.

The demons were gone, and Jake had a few less that he had to worry about. Only a few hundred or thousand to go…

Jake needs a plan.

Looking at his garden, Jake began to inspect it as he searched for options.

He wanted to ignore his garden by looking out at the lake—and stroking Fluffy—for as long as possible.

There were a lot of things that Jake does not understand. He could learn if he spent the time. It wasn't like Jake was incapable. But he felt no drive or need to understand something like physics.

He did find it mildly interesting when he took the class in high school, but that was a while ago. But he was pretty sure he remembered enough that what he was seeing and the knowledge the land was feeding him was impossible.

The only thing that changed between now and him being on Earth was he knew that far more than he could imagine was possible. This was taking things a little far, though.

It wasn't that all but a few plants had fundamentally changed. They were now covered in ice, fire, metal, light, darkness, lightning, acid, and more that he did not feel like investigating. He had caused it with aspected Qi, so he knew the why, even if he did not understand how.

Independent movement and growth of his fishing line to the point that it made a thicket that covered one whole side of his garden? It was already growing and moving on its own to some degree, if only far slower, so he could make that leap.

The green rocks floating in the air spaced at the points where the joints of a latticework of steel holding up a dome over the garden would be? Ok, that was weird. But Jake was more curious about how the green stones remained in the air and where they came from. But that could wait.

What really bothered Jake. What had been bothering Jake since right after he agreed to whatever deal the demon had forced on him was hard to ignore or miss. Not that it won't try…

His land was bigger.

And it was still growing.

This was not like when he was first up on the mountain and looked out over the prison at the new mountain range. That was like jigsaw pieces of land were slapped together to make a new picture.

The implications of a being able to directly do such a thing or creating a system capable of doing such a thing were staggering. And frankly terrifying.

Jake had spent many days trying to not think about such things.

That was not what was happening.

His land was growing. Like a plant. Or a ball of dough.

Before, when he had first dug the trench around his garden, it was about a mile. Now each side of the canal was more than a mile.

Digging the trench was pretty much burned into his mind. He would have remembered digging a mile on each side of his land to survive the encroaching fire.

Jake got there was a being capable of cracking Earth in half. He did not understand how dirt was multiplying like bacteria. One was a stretch of the imagination, and the other played with the laws he thought he knew about the world.

And he was pretty sure that he didn't want to know how something like dirt multiplying was possible either.

Even if he had someone to explain it to him, Jake thought it would be the equivalent of a two-year-old trying to understand the mechanics of how a car worked.

People understood enough about a car to know how to fill it up with gas and not crash, but that was about it. Jake would bet his life that most people could not answer how an internal combustion motor worked. Or what all the dipsticks are for.

Turning to Fluffy, who was just hopping up—I did throw him pretty far out into the lake—Jake's eyes caught on his throne, and he began to walk over to it with a small smile.

"You got any ideas of how to deal with this?" Jake asked. The one thing Jake knew about successful leadership, and he was in charge, was that delegation was critical.

He had no idea what the specific abilities of the spirit beasts inside his garden were. The rabbit did. They had fought together for… the whole time Jake was unconscious. Which must have been a while if his land had grown more than double its previous size.

The rabbit's ears were flicking in thought as Jake walked up to his throne. Grabbing his fishing pole by the handle, he twisted the shaft snapping it off from its base and then hefted it in his hand as he got a feel for it.

It was different than before. The last time he used the rod, it was a mechanical device that he manipulated with Qi. Now it was basically a modern rod, but living. And he was pretty sure the line could be absorbed and expelled from the reel.

He got the feeling that the entire inside of the rod was filled with extra line that could be used.

Noticing Fluffy was speaking while he inspected the rod, Jake tuned in, “—and the bears and badgers should be able to set up bunkers where they could throw rocks. If the demons get close enough to the ground, the rabbits should be able to reach them. The cats and wolves aren't great at getting off the ground, so they should attack anything that gets knocked to the ground. The boars might be able to throw spears—

"Sounds great," Jake said, only half paying attention to what Fluffy was saying. His mind was alight with the possibilities. At the potential.

Of the fortress Jake was going to build.

"Have everything that can move dirt start making bunkers and reinforcing them. I'm going to get the plants to move dirt and make tunnels connecting all the bunkers. We will also need fallback defensive chambers and other chambers deeper down for supplies—food and water, those kinds of things—and living areas for those resting and noncombatants… Yes!" Hissed Jake, his eyes glowing with excitement. When he bothered to look down, the rabbit stared at him like he had gone insane. "Let's go! We have a lot of work to do and no time!" Shouted Jake spurring Fluffy to scamper off into his garden.

He could see it now.

A fortress. A complex series of connected tunnels leading deep into the ground, topped with towers scattered throughout the garden and wall with keeps lining the perimeter.

Jake could not believe he had not seen it before. It was so obvious. He could make a fucking fortress!

What kid didn't dream of having his own fortress or secret bunker and defending it from invaders. He already had a moat and magical floating green rocks overhead, adding flair.

Once he gets the underground network done to survive the immediate air attack, he can start working on the walls and towers.

It shouldn't take all that long. With all of the creatures that can use Qi, Jake would expect a week or two, maybe a month, before he was the ruler of his own castle.

Jake shot over to his throne and sat down in excitement, holding his fishing rod in one hand. For whatever reason, Jake found it the easiest to commune and guide the Qi of his land from his wood-covered stone rocking throne.

He did not dive deep into his land. He could see the swarm of imps circling above, shifting closer before pulling away as they fought.

Jake was wary of more imps attacking him, but he doubted they would get to him soon. The only reason the three demons that attacked Jake got so close was that everyone was resting from their slog of battles, and who actually looked straight up? Occasionally, Jake will do it, but it is not the most common thing to do.

Already, individual imps were breaking free of the flock and making their way to his garden. They were met by a bird or two and quickly killed, disappearing into smoke, now that everyone was looking for and alerted to the danger.

Every time the birds went out of the garden to fight, though, brief as it was, they attracted the attention of more imps, and the fight would have to grow a little longer, further increasing the number drawn.

Jake thought about telling the birds to wait until the demons were at the garden before attacking them, but decided against it. For one, he was reasonably sure that it wasn't the closeness attracting the imps but the use of Qi. A use of Qi that would be there regardless of how far out the demons were.

Which brought Jake to the real reason he didn't try to stop them. If they were going to attract more imps regardless of what they did, he might as well protect his garden from being damaged for as long as possible.

Keeping one eye on his surroundings, Jake let part of his mind inspect his land more thoroughly than he had since before he guided the trees to dig the canal.

He could feel Fluffy darting around, talking to different groups of animals, explaining what he wanted. After a minute or two with each group, they lumbered off.

The eight bears broke up, with six going off in pairs and the largest two going off alone. The two individuals took up the positions closest to the swirling mass of demons. They started swiping at the ground, moving sheets of dirt and rock.

Jake figured those two bears were the strongest and wanted to be the first wall the demons broke against, but it really didn't matter that much with the numbers they were facing. Everything would be set upon about the same in the end.

Within moments the bears were in the center of a basin eight feet across with walls curling up above ground level by five feet, with the bottom of the bowl four or more feet into the ground.

The pigs, along with the badgers, had also broken themselves into groups going to the different bears. The badgers started working the ground with the moles and rats that soon arrived while the pigs reinforced the roof.

Skimming his mind over the land, Jake picked out the best ways for his tunnels to go. Most of the plants in his garden do not have deep root networks.

He could make them grow deeper, but even then, the roots he would need to do that with are not all that big, to begin with. It would take time that they did not have for the different root systems to extend and expand to the point they could dig out a large cavern under the ground.

The only roos that could do what he needed to be down, and were already an excessive length, were the trees. Jake had already made them grow in the past, so he had a head start.

For the bunkers, he would make a single tunnel that led from the bunker to the cavern he was having the trees excavate beneath them.

Around the trees, the ground boiled as if air was escaping from deep in the earth as the trees' roots moved.

The trees were sending out root spears to break up the ground, then where he wanted to cavern to go, a series of roots sunk a shaft down the center and outwards.

With a pulse of Qi, the shaft of roots began to expand, pushing at the dirt. Layer upon layer of roots vibrated and shifted on top of each other, sending the now loose soil higher. The ground around the trees bulged upward like a slow eruption of earth.

With the shaft of roots growing into each other, which was slowly expanding, Jake left the inside hollow to form the cavern and reinforce the walls.

As for the tunnels connecting the bunkers to the cavern, he could only put them about five feet down.

And that was more of a somewhat empty gap in the earth that would be easy for the animals to excavate rather than a proper tunnel.

The animals at the bunkers had plenty of motivation to finish the tunnels. They would throw themselves into the work of digging out the tunnel, or most of them would die when the bunker was inevitably overrun.

It's not like Jake would leave them without any help.

The roots of the plants above would continue to work on expanding and reinforcing the tunnel walls as best they could, not that Jake would be paying attention. He had better things to do.

Like figuring out what the twinge that was annoying him was.

Following the tickle like a string, his mind raced to the base of his mountain.

For a moment, Jake was stumped about what he was looking at. It was not because he could not interpret what he was seeing. He would have an instinctual understanding of anything he saw in his mind that was part of his land.

The problem was separating what he wanted to inspect from the energy radiating through the ground from the roots of the Ancient Oak Tree, which made up the shining heart of the mountain.

Jake had mostly ignored looking at the thing, it gave him a headache because of how bright it was, but he was surprised about how deep the roots of the oak went.

With him avoiding looking at the mountain and being blinded when he did, it was not surprising that he did not notice the… living stone?

That was the best way he could describe it.

The walls of a crater on the foot of the mountain led down to a very familiar indent of a person. The walls shone a pale windy green to his mind and had strands of stone waving in the breeze as they rose up to just past the crater's edge in length and then gathered in the center.

As Jake watched, a roughly spheroid mass the size of a beachball disconnected from its tethers and floated into the air.

What surprised Jake was he could still feel a connection to it after it was disconnected from the ground as he followed it with his mind. The rock only floated away a few feet before Jake felt something come into contact with the rock and tow it higher into the air.

It took Jake a moment to realize what must be towing the rock behind it. Within a second, the rock was moved far enough that he was starting to feel the other green floating boulders as well.

As the birds tugged the rocks into a new position, Jake began to study the floating stones. He noticed a bizarre thing right off the bat. There was still a connection between all the rocks and where they were… grown.

What would happen if the connection was destroyed? Jake didn't want to find out.

Brushing his mind against the Ancient Oak, Jake requested it guard the area where the green stones grew.

It was a request, not a command.

Where the rest of the trees in his garden were living, they were just a spark to the bonfire of life the oak on top of the mountain represented.

To Jake's mind, there was an inner fire that represented sentients within the tree. More than any other creature within the garden, Jake felt a special connection to the oak.

On some deep level Jake could not understand, their powers were connected.

Jake would never order her to do anything.

As his mind brushed against hers, Jake felt amusement and acknowledgment of his request.

Within a second, the rocks around the green bowl cracked as roots wormed through hairline cracks and began encasing it.

Giving a mental thumbs up, Jake focused on what was really catching his attention.

The sky castle taking shape above his garden.

Sky castle was a rather grandiose term for what was happening, but Jake could dream of what could happen in the future.

Really, the shape that was being formed was more like a squid. Not the eight arms part. There were only five, one going to each of the bunkers, but each arm traveled at an angle in a double helix pattern to a central mass of rocks.

While fending off the growing stream of demons, the birds were making the green rocks grow shafts that latched onto each other, locking them in place.

They had formed a spherical spiral collection of floating rocks with only one path that creatures as large as the demons and birds could travel down. To Jake, it actually reminded him of a snail's shell.

Their plan's genius was the masses of creatures running up the double helix arms. Rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels, and rats were making their way up the arms carrying pieces of his vines.

Within the spiral, the small creatures would be left to run wild as the demons attacked.

Jake could tell at a glance that while the birds were faster than the demons. It did not really matter when they had nowhere to run. Eventually, they would be brought down from exhaustion if they stayed in the open. There were no other choices.

They would play defense—even if they are bad at it—or they would die.

Well, they will still die, but this way, there was a chance some of them might live.

They could always hide in the depths of his cavern Jake was carving out, but he doubted their pride could take it. The birds seemed too arrogant and aloof for that.

Making a pass over his land, Jake noticed that he didn't have any water down in the chamber yet.

He couldn't just open a hole to the canal. It would flood the whole chamber. Eyes sparking with an idea, Jake told the trees to dig a tunnel and make walls of roots to act as valves to control the water level in the main chamber.

That should do it righ—

Lashing out with his arm holding the fishing rod, Jake let the line spool out. In a straight line, the fishing line shot out thirty feet and wrapped around an imp.

Jake flicked his rod and line to the side and, with a thought, started pulling up slack with the reel. The demon's speed more than tripled in an instant as his line guided the demon to smash into the ground ten feet from Jake.

Holding out his other hand simultaneously, Jake felt a shaft of wood brush along his palm as it grew to five feet in length and a couple finger's width wide in a second.

Hand clasping around the wood, Jake flicked his wrist, snapping the spear off at its base, and hurled it forward.

The spear shot forward dozens of yards before passing over the shoulder of an imp skimming over the water surface.

Jake was aiming for the thing's chest, so he technically missed. But the tip did slam into the bone that made up the spine of its wing, ripping the wing off.

The demon started tumbling along the surface of the water.

So if you judge Jake's throw by incapacitating a demon, he was successful.

He wasn't really bothered by the near-miss, technical success. Jake had never done anything like it before, and he was proud of how close his throw was.

Besides, he would have plenty of practice in the coming hours.

While most of the demons were still gathered at the top of the dome fighting each other, there was a definite stream of imps making up a not insignificant portion of the hoard, making its way towards his garden.

Rolling his shoulders and popping his left foot, Jake got ready for a fight for his life as his teeth were bared in a snarl of anticipation.

Jake was not sure he had ever felt so excited for anything in his life. Is that bad?