A Demon's Core

The most striking difference in this new imp’s appearance is the colour of his skin. Rather than the typical reddish-pink. His skin is dark grey over most of his body and fading darker to black on his hands and feet. He is taller than the other imps, though not even close to Violet’s height. Not even as tall as her original body, but still bigger than the others. With broader shoulders and far more toned and muscular than any other imp I have seen.

His eyes are completely black, as are the horns protruding from the top of his forehead. His horns are longer as well. The other imp’s horns are small and cute, barely as long as their thumbs, if even that. They might make a headbutt more painful, but I can not see them being all that damaging. But this one’s horns are at least three times as long as the other’s, jutting out and up, coming to a sharp point at the tip. I am sure he could use them as a weapon if he felt so inclined.

And that is exactly what he does. After spotting Violet, he lowers his head and charges at her. Violet is surprised by the hostility, but is not caught off guard. She dodges to the side and the grey imp rushes past. When he stops, he spins around to growl at her. The others are ready to jump in to help, but Violet hold up a hand towards them.

“I can handle this.” She says. She is glaring at the grey imp, but I can see a hint of a smile on her lips.

He rushes forwards and slashes at her with his claws. She jumps back to avoid it then returns with a swipe of her own claws. He ducks under it and kicks her feet out from under her. She falls on her back and he pounces on her but she kicks up with her feet to fling him away, leaving bloody gashes on his abdomen where her talons dug in. Rose slips away to her bedroom while the others watch on in awe.

Violet rolls backwards on to her feet, staying crouched low to the ground. She grins at the grey imp and he snarls. He charges at her again and she springs upward, fist clenched, delivering a viscous uppercut to his jaw. The impact lifts him off the ground and sends him falling backwards, leaving him dazed.

She is on top of him before he can recover. One knee on his chest, the other pinning down one of his arms. She holds down his other arm and places a hand on his throat.

“Ready to give up yet?” She asks, smirking down at him.

He hisses and thrashes but can not dislodge her. He glares then vanishes from beneath her. Shocked at his sudden disappearance, she looks around in confusion. A moment later he falls down from above, landing on her back and biting into her shoulder. She screeches and reaches up to grab his horns and throws him forward over her shoulder. As he crashes to the floor, her shield clatters on the ground beside her. She spares a quick glance towards the other imps and Rose nods.

She dives for the shield and rolls to a stop, coming up to her feet with shield in hand. She turns to face the grey imp as he charges once more. Just before he gets into striking range he disappears again, but Violet is not caught of guard this time and spins around. Using the momentum of her spin to add force to her hit, she bashes her shield into him as he tries to slash at her back.

A crack can be heard when he collides with the shield. The other imps all jump back as he comes crashing to the floor in front of them. Standing up, he looks down at his left arm, wincing as he slowly lifts it and flexes his fingers. But he does not give up, lunging at Violet. Disappearing and reappearing behind her again, but Violet is ready to block him with her shield. Though she does not hit him as hard this time.

He attempts the same tactic a few more times, with the same result each time. Though Violet appears to be holding back compared to that first shield bash. She is even trying to avoid hitting his injured arm again, though there is only so much she can do under his relentless assault.

Despite his ferocity and apparent teleportation ability, this fight seems rather one sided as he throws himself at the larger, faster and stronger imp. I would like to put a stop to it, for his safety, but Violet said she wants handle it, and she is not the one who is attacking repeatedly. His ability is impressive and fascinating, but it loses effectiveness due to his predictability. He needs to be more creative in the way he uses it if he wants to win.

The next time he rushes forwards, he jumps into the air and kicks at Violet's shield with both feet. The force of the kick is enough to push her off balance. When he teleports behind her, he is crouched low to the ground. He launches upwards and slashes at her back, tearing through her shirt and drawing blood.

Violet screeches and as she turns around she slaps him in the face with her tail. Her face scrunched into an angry scowl. The tail slap did not seem to hurt him but he paused for a moment in confusion at being hit with her tail. She is probably the only imp with a tail actually long enough to hit someone like that so it is understandable that he might be surprised.

Violet does not let that opportunity go and punishes him for his distraction by charging at him with her shield. He raises both his arms in front of him to block her charge but he does not have the strength to halt her. He shrieks in pain when the shield hits his left arm before being knocked off his feet and landing on his back. She follows up with a savage kick to his side. Placing a foot on his chest and digging her claws in, easily puncturing his skin, she glares down at him and growls.

He turns his head to the side, but does not make any attempt to push her off. After a few seconds she steps back, allowing him to stand up. He slowly gets to his feet, being careful not to put any pressure on his left arm. He kneels before Violet and lowers his head.

I can not help but notice the similarity in the way events played out here to when Spiky arrived. Both attacked the largest creature they could see in the room and showed submission upon being defeated. Spiky has not caused any major issues since then.

The similar behavior is interesting. As far as I can tell, both imps and hellhounds are pack animals. With each pack having a leader. Perhaps they were attacking the one they perceived to be the leaders of their packs in hopes of claiming the position for themselves. Though Violet is not actually the leader here. Even if it is not always immediately obvious, every imp I have summoned so far has come to accept Rose as their leader without any fuss. Even Noctis listens to Rose and with Noctis being the leader of the hellhounds, they all obey her too.

None of the other imps have ever tried to challenge Rose on her leadership, not even Violet. But this grey imp is obviously different from the rest. Maybe he comes from a pack that values and prioritizes physical strength and combat prowess. That could explain why he would assume Violet to be the leader. I hope that with this defeat she will have earned his loyalty and he will not cause any more problems.

I was impressed by the fight though. I am glad Rose thought to fetch Violet’s shield. I am not sure how the fight would have gone without it. His savagery and ferocity were frightful. The other imps are still hesitant to approach. His teleportation is astonishing as well, though he could have achieved more with it if he had used it more creatively. His last attack was impressive and a step in the right direction. If he could learn to utilize it more effectively in combat, he could become a true terror on the battlefield.

Is that why this strange imp appeared? Because I was worrying about combat strength when I summoned him. I did also get a younger hellhound when I was thinking about pups. I might have far more control over summoning than I realized. I will need to be far more careful and focused when summoning in the future to avoid more surprises. But I could also use this to my advantage if I can target specific traits.

With my primary objective of helping imps, I do not want to be discriminatory in which ones I summon. But if I do have any specific needs in the future, it will be useful to be able summon creatures to fill those needs.

The grey imp’s eyes go wide when Rose starts healing Violet. Watching closely as the wounds stop bleeding and begin to heal. He holds his arm out to her as she approaches him. With the sound of the crack during the fight and the way he is favoring it now, I would not be surprised if something is broken. It is understandable that he would want that healed first. But even though Rose’s healing ability has been improving as she has gotten more practice and improved her mana control, she is still a long way from being able to fully heal a broken bone all at once.

When Rose offers him some clothes we encounter a new problem. He opens his mouth and makes noises that I do not recognize. Rose and Violet are similarly confused. As they try to talk to him and he continues to make strange noises back at them, it becomes a little more clear. They are not just random noises, there is a pattern to it. Which suggests he is speaking a different language. One that neither I nor my imps are familiar with. This will complicate things.

They manage to make him understand what the clothes are for by showing him the pants and shirt separately and gesturing to their own cloths. He slips the pants on without issue but needs a little assistance with the shirt. By the time they manage to help him put it on, he has only poked a few holes in it with his claws and horns.

I believe his difficulty with the clothes comes from more than just the language barrier though. No other imp has had trouble with clothes. Anyone who is familiar with clothes should not need them to be explicitly explained in order to understand them. Wherever he is from, I suspect clothes are not a common sight in his pack, or at least not shirts.

I wonder if I can communicate with him. Noctis understands me without issue and she does not even use words to communicate at all.

Hello. Can you understand me?

His eyes go wide and he looks around the room frantically until he spots my core sitting on the chair. He approaches it slowly, as if in a trance. Once at the chair, he pokes at the decoy first, but loses interest in it almost immediately. With his eyes glued to my core, he sways side to side a little, then steadily circles the chair, never taking his eyes from my core, mesmerized by its shifting colours. Most imps do this at least once at some point so no one tries to stop him. Until he reaches out to touch the core.

Violet slaps his hand away and firmly tells him ‘no’ while giving him an icy glare. Even with the language barrier the message is clear and he does not try to fight it.

You have not said if you can understand me yet, but it is important that I know so please indicate to me now if you can understand what I am saying.

He does not respond and just continues to stare at the core. I will take that as a no.

Do you think you will be able to teach him how to speak our language? I ask both Rose and Violet.

“We can try. I’m not really sure where to start but I think it should be possible.” Rose says.

Thank you. I am sorry to push that burden onto you. I will help as I can, but I think it will be easier for him to learn from people he can actually see and interact with.

“I think you’re probably right about that. We’ll do our best.” She assures me.

“Yeah, we’ll have him talking in no time.” Violet adds.

Have either of you ever seen an imp like this before? Violet shakes her head.

“I have heard stories of green skinned imps that live in forests, though I have never seen them myself. But I've never seen or heard of imps like him before.” Rose says.

What do you think of his teleportation ability?

“That was so amazing! I wish I could do that.” Violet exclaims.

“I’m not sure what to make of it. As I’ve said, I have never heard of any imps able to use magic, at least not before me. If his whole pack had similar abilities then that’s truly remarkable.” Rose states.

Is there anything else you can tell me about those forest imps?

“Not much. Just that they live on another continent across the ocean. I don’t even know if the stories are true.”

It sounds like there may be a variety of different subspecies of imps. I am curious about these forest imps. If they are real, I am sure I could probably summon one. But I do not think I should. There are no forests around here that I know of so it may not enjoy this environment. Plus, if they live in forests then they are probably not dealing with the same kind of problems that I am trying to save the red imps from. I do not see any benefit, either to me or to the forest imps, of summoning them here. It is still interesting to learn about them though.

This grey imp is going to need a name. I do not think the flower theme I have with my other imps really suits him. He does have a unique colouring, but I do not want to name anyone else after a colour. It feels lazy. But nothing night related either I think. I already went that route with Noctis.

Coal. That is something black and it has a nice ring to it. Until such a time when he can tell us otherwise, if he feels inclined to do so, he shall be known as Coal.

Rose and Violet show Coal around once they manage to drag his attention away from my core. When he sees the hellhounds in Room 3 he growls. The three smaller hellhounds respond in kind, growling and snarling. Noctis is calm and I get a sense of recognition from her.

You have seen imps like this before?

I get a stream of feeling in return. Nuisance, frustration, dangerous, tastes okay.

Please do not eat him.

Noctis barks a command and the other hellhounds go silent. Coal continues to growl until Violet smacks the back of his head. He looks up at her in confusion. She once again firmly tells him ‘no’. This elicits amusement from Noctis.

If even Noctis thinks these grey imps are dangerous then they must really be something impressive.

Coal does not end up choosing a bedroom. I do not know if it is because he does not understand or if he just does not care. It might be harder for him to settle in than it was for the other imps. I hope Rose and Violet can help him through it.

This whole ordeal has given me some interesting ideas. I am eager to test them. One in particular.