The NU Demon

"Oh for fucks sake." James laments as he brings the communicator back up to his face. "What is it this time?" He asks as I continue to laugh my ass off.

They are going to get their shit kicked in now! And while I may be stuck in the middle of them and probably get blasted too, at least I'll have a front row seat. I watch as the murky white dome starts to fade away. The clear night sky looms above, the stars shining clear and bright with all the light pollution from the city gone. A shooting star catches my attention as it flies across the sky, slowly getting brighter as….. It slams into the apparently now reactivated shield surrounding the city. Like most of the previous attempts it isn't felt or heard inside the shield, but it certainly lights the city up for a moment.

Well shit, assholes got their shield working again. No idea why they didn't use that instead of the crystal powered one. Maybe they wanted to keep the crystals warm or something. A second and third explosion illuminate the city as more ordinance slams into the shield from the outside. Still, they broke it once, it's only a matter of time before they break it again.

A moment after the third flash a human voice finally responds over the communicator. "Uh, this is crystal two. Some imps caused a disturbance by jumping on the crystal when it started to glow. Mistress Laura is working on restoring resonance now……." Only to be cut off by a very angry and loud Sbrugeth.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS! DOES YOUR INCOMPETENCE KNOW NO BOUNDS? USELESS HUMAN!"

The prick is so loud the communicator struggles to properly broadcast his voice. James literally winces as he holds the devices farther out from himself in an attempt to lessen the volume.

"One of your imps interrupted the ritual. I warned you to keep your minions in check properly specifically to avoid this. Now get off the line Sbrugeth, I have to coordinate my engineers to….."

"I WILL COORDINATE YOUR HEAD WITH YOUR ASS HUMAN! YOU DARE TO BLAME YOUR FAILINGS ON ME IN THE PRESENCE OF LORD BAYLOROTH WHILE DENYING HIM HIS SHOW!? I WILL REND Y…" The raving demon screeches across the communication device before James just shuts it off.

Now I'm laughing even harder, so hard I'm struggling to breathe with my mouth covered. Because this shit is funny. Infighting and failures due to incompetence within the cultist ranks, then they have a go at each other over it? Premium entertainment, reality TV could only dream of writing something this juicy. James however does not share my amusement, shooting me a glare.

"Someone use another channel and tell the other sites to start again as soon as they are ready." James says with a huff before turning to me, his glare continuing. "Keep laughing it up. Once the idiocy of the others is accounted for properly you will see the true power of a cabal."

I just snort and roll my eyes. oooooooh how dangerous, a bunch of creatures with the intelligence of room temperature cheese and the coordination level of toddlers. I'd be sooooooo intimidated if I wasn't already caught in a net by the possibly only competent person here. Well OK, given the rest Jame's history, using and competent in the same sentence might be a stretch.

James turned back to continue observing the ritual prep or whatever they were up to. I continued laughing to myself for a bit. My gagged chuckling stopped when the light level around me abruptly changed. A presence that felt larger than a mountain was right behind me. I gulped, and slowly turned my head. Casting me in his shadow with his full height, Sbrugeth was looking down on me with fury filled eyes. He squawked something incoherent in demonic, then moved in a flash. His left hand came down on me, his massive hand wrapping around my entire torso as the force of the grab knocked the wind out of me. Before I could process what was happening, the feeling of pressure so intense it felt like lava overtook me with a crack and a snap.

Then the whole world was spinning, or flying past, I couldn't tell which. Pain erupted all over my body, but the worst was in my torso as it felt like my organs had been turned into liquid fire and left to burn me from the inside out. A sudden jerk and the world went black…..

I was awoken by being slammed into the floor, causing me to spew an unhealthy spray of blood. Everything hurt, my body felt like it was on fire, every bone screamed in protest, organs felt all wrong. I tried to inhale but all the sharp movement did was cause my suffering to reach new heights. I opened my eyes but couldn't make out anything, my vision blurry and tinted red. I think I felt blood running down my face, but it was hard to tell with the sensations of agony coursing through my veins. I could hear lots of voices and noises around me, but it was all fuzzy.

Suddenly a warm wave washed through me. I could feel it, my injuries didn't disappear, but a lot of the pain washed away with it. Enough that I could move again, but not without wincing. I inhaled again, and this time painfully coughed up more blood. I shifted to try and push myself up, but it was slow going. Every shift and push resulted in more than enough pain to make me wince, but not enough to stop me.

"....you really bring me a new toy, and immediately break it when you throw it at my feet? Honestly Sbrugeth, I expected better from you." A voice says above the noise, somehow I'm able to understand it. I recognize it imminently, it's the one that made the loud super announcement just after James gagged me.

He speaks up again after more noise I can't understand. "Yes, yes, totally their fault a newborn is weak. Not like you're the one who put her in this state." he says sarcastically.

More incoherent rambling reaches my ears, but then everything goes quiet.

"You know, Anvasta was always pushing for me to move to 'performance and merit based promotion' instead of letting you all work it out amongst yourselves. I haven't seen many good arguments to make the effort required for the switch though. But somehow not even a full solar year after acquiring your position, you have managed to become the strongest argument for NOT remaining on the current system. Kind of impressive actually."

More noises, then silence again for a solid five seconds. I finally manage to get on my knees and try to look around. But everything is still blurry, all I make out is a constant ocean of movement around me.

"Ah! She finally got up! Where is that healer!? I want to see what this one can actually do!"

More noises around me, this time significantly louder. Suddenly something touches my shoulder, and a new wave of agony washes over me. This one is different, whatever spell they used to null my pain was still active, but it isn't powerful enough to keep up with the new spell. I feel a pit open in my stomach as the horrendous feeling of bones grinding against one another as they shift back into position all throughout my body. Flesh starts to mend, a burning sensations all over my body, like where I was stabbed in my wing as the skin starts to knit back together.

I drop back down to the floor and let out a course scream, one that quickly becomes normal and suffering filled as my crushed lungs are forcibly restored. It feels like an hour of suffering, but it's probably only a few minutes. At the end I'm left on the floor, aches shooting through my body as I fight to keep tears out of my eyes.

A normal person would have had their mind broken by that much pain. And while I definitely don't want to go through that again, I'm somehow still sane, and actually a little pissed off. Definitely some fuckery with me being a demon.

"There we go! Isn't infernal healing wonderful? All the restoration of a mortal healing spell, and none of the pain reduction! Now, what do you say?" The Announcer asks with an air of expectation. His voice is clearer now, he sounds chipper in a sick way, and slightly exaggerated. He's also in front of and above me, like waaaay above me.

"Fuck you!" I hiss out while pushing myself to my hands and knees and looking up. Then realizing the duct tape has been removed from my mouth.

Immediately I recognize I'm in some sort of concrete pit. A very big and round concrete pit, with several makeshift ladders, that look more likely to slice you open then help you climb out, crudely hammered into the sides at various points. The floor and sides of the place are covered in blood, lots of different blood in various dried and fresh streaks, splatters, pools, and smears. Strewn around are various mostly damaged, and broken weapons of various types. Some are clearly demonic in nature, others human based, most are melee, but there are a few guns strewn about. Though I don't know if I'd trust them to not miss fire or jam.

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Surrounding the pit is a plethora of demons, and even some cultists sprinkled in. I also notice the roof, very high up, got be at least thirty feet, and solid concrete just like the pit. I'm definitely inside the bunker, no doubt dragged in to be the demon's play toy.

The only other thing that I can see is the mound of makeshift crap piled together towering above the crowd. Atop the mound is an ornate throne of black, red, and gold. And sitting atop the mound is a man dressed like a ringmaster for a circus, but his attire is much more sinister. Laid across his lap is an ornate golden cane, a red jacket over a gold shirt and sinister red pants. His shoes are black with gold trimming, and a void black top hat atop short blonde hair completes the look. I can feel his gaze on me, he isn't human, he's just playing at it.

"Ugh! Children, so ungrateful these days! Oh well, just going to have to teach you some manners. Ten imps into the pit!" The man on the throne jovially yells with a swish of his cane for seeming dramatic effect.

The crowd around the edges bursts into chaotic activity for a few seconds before a dozen or so imps are ejected out and thrown down into the pit with me. All of them start screeching and try to jump and fly back out. The first few are allowed to escape, but once its down to the remaining ten, the rest are slapped back into the pit with various degrees of force every time they try to escape. It doesn't take them long to figure out they aren't escaping and turn their attention to me.

The Throne jackass doesn't say anything else, but the crowd gets excited as the imps seemingly prepare themselves for a fight. Some are actually cheering for me, others for the imps, most seem to just want us to butcher each other as much as possible.

Oh god damn it! I thought this shit couldn't get any worse, and this is what I get for that. I ready myself for the fight, because I'm not stupid. The only way I'm getting out of here is with them dead. I can sense part of the crowd, a lot are weaker or even only slightly stronger than me power wise. But I also sense plenty of ones that are way stronger, to the point I know I'll get slapped if I try to jump out.

The imps thankfully only seem semi coordinated. They surround me pretty quickly in a loose circle, but all seem reluctant to attack. I manage to shakily stand up, and the imps respond by yelling in distress and backing away to increase the diameter of their encirclement.

I ignore the imps for a moment, and take stock of myself and the area around me. My crystals….. are fucking gone! I can feel it in a strange way. I know they are gone because I can feel the healing crystal still being active. Which is a good sign for the other's survival. I just can't feel where the crystal is because it's too far away. But my mana and shield crystals, gone, Nada, zilch. Assholes broke them!

Mana: 9,783/28,536

My mana is at least decent, but I can feel hurt on my regeneration without the mana crystal. Still, my offensive capabilities are shit. If they throw anything bigger than an imp at me in this confined space I might be in trouble.

One of the imps on my right cackles some kind of war cry before darting forward. I curse under my breath and turn to face it. The cowardly little shit gets cold feet half way through its charge upon seeing me ready for it, digging its claws in and rapidly backtracking to the perimeter of their little encirclement. Another one takes an aggressive hop forward, only to shrink down and hop back when a flick my gaze to it.

Right, imps are weak and cowardly. They'd have no problem stabbing me to death if I was already bleeding out. But since I'm up and moving now they are as sure. As long as I don't let them attack all at once I should be fine. I look around the room to try and find a decent weapon. I discount the guns due to there being a risk of a jam or misfire, leaving me only with a dozen or so melee weapons that look intact and usable. I say usable because I am NOT picking up anything that looks even remotely demonic. Better safe than sorry.

I notice a spiked mace glistening in a pool of blood next to one of the imps. Good enough I decide, warily taking a few steps forward while keeping an eye on the imps. They react predictably, by freaking out and jumping around a bunch. I confidently stride over to the mace, which causes the imp near it to squawk in fear and jump away from me with a flap of its stubby wings.

But as I bend over to pick it up, the stupid little shit decides it sees an opportunity. With a war cry it springs forward at me. In a panic I snatch up the mace and swing upward. The speed difference between us is enough though that I actually whiff my first strike and finish the up swing before it gets in range. I'm left with an imp still lunging at me, my new weapon raised, and enough time to swing downwards on it as it comes in on me.

So I brought the mace down on it and introduced it to the floor with a nice crunch. It sprayed black ichor across my front, and i feel every little warm drop that splashes across my skin. I look down and realize that I am completely naked, no shirt, jeans, socks, shoes, nothing. Fucking wonderful, all the more reason to kill these fuckers.

I yank the shiny spiked ball off the imps corpse and give it a quick but proper inspection. It is literally a stick with a sphere soldered on the end covered in one inch long spikes. But the base of the stick where I'm grabbing it seems to have some shity fake leather super glued on for better grip. All in all a shity weapon, but effective enough as an imp tenderizer.

The crowd above roars in delight at the first blood. And the other imps immediately break into panic and start doing various things. Three of them rush me, five of them jump up to fly out, and the final two just start screaming and jumping around.

I counter charge the closest charging imp and promptly introduce it to my mace in a fashion similar to a MLB striker taking a swing at a ball. It dies on contact, and it's corpse goes flying off to the side almost hitting another imp. The second charging Imp gets up behind me and jumps at me before I can turn around. I shoot my left wing out and swing around, hitting the little shit mid air and also sending it flying. But not really hurting it. The third imp jumps at me from my right, and a quick uppercut with the mace sends it back to whatever hell it's twisted soul spawned out of.

I turn my attention back to the second imp to find that the five imps that tried to escape have been ruthlessly knocked back into the pit. One dies on impact with the floor, another tumbles into one of the panic jumping imps, and the rest bounce off the floor and start shrieking in an unholy choir of pain and panic. I realize I've put myself against the wall of the pit in my charge at the first imp. And all the imps are now in front of me in some form.

I charge and let out a full powered damage screach spell. The second imp that was in the process of charging me again dies instantly due to its close proximity. Another two of the ones who hit the floor die when the spell hits them. The remaining five keel over and go silent. They aren't dead, but they look close enough. I walk over and finish each one with a quick whack on the head.

After the last one is dead I remember I feel like shit and the aches return.

"Bravo! You have a bit of clout to back that attitude of yours." The throne demon says as I remove my new mace from the final imp. Well, only new is the sense that I just re appropriated it. Judging from the blood around, the old owner won't need it anymore anyway.

I turn and glare up at it but don't otherwise respond.

"Hmmm, not really meant for fighting though. Little weak on the resilience and muscles. But look at those mana channels. Definitely a caster, but you seem to be running a little low on mana." It says with a wicked grin.

"Well, I'm sure that's because you had all sorts of fun on the way in here right? Punching through security and even giving that boy's pets a run. What was his name, John, Jones, James, Jonk? Something like that. Anyway I can see why he's taken a fancy of you. All those oddities and with the competence to back it up. Or was it just luck? Let's find out! Two hounds into the pit!" It screams excitedly with another flourish of its cane.

Immediately the crowd breaks into excited activity, and a moment later three Corjo demons are thrown down into the pit with accompanying yelps. They don't land softly, and I hear a nasty snap as one lands on something wrong. The faux dog demons start to scramble up. Only for one of the healthy ones to get struck by some sort of black spear through the head so hard it gets pinned to the floor and the concrete craters. It doesn't even get to make a sound, no movement, nothing. It just dies and black blood starts to pool underneath the head.

I watch as the back spear seems to disintegrate and fade into thin air all at once, leaving nothing but the corpse, concrete, and blood behind. I look up to follow the direction of where I think the spear came from, only to find the throne weirdo twirling his cane.

"I said two you idiots! I know you want to see blood fly about but really! At Least try to act more competent than the mortals!" He exclaims with a huff.

A snarl draws my attention back down, and I find a corjo that looks like a husky trying to move around to my far side. It and the other have immediately moved to try and get on either side of me. The problem is the other corjo, which looks like a golden retriever, is very obviously limping and refusing to use its front left paw.

I'm not stupid, realizing immediately I need to get rid of the wounded one first and quickly if I want to have any chance of lasting. I wait till the healthy one is completely on the other side of me then turn and bolt at the injured one. I hear the other one's claws scrape across the floor as it tries to chase after me, but I reach its friend well before it can catch up to me.

I come upon the wounded one full speed and try for a running swing on its head. Even with the injured paw it has enough mobility to dodge my swing and stumble backwards. But its rear paws land in a pool of blood and it slips when it tries to counter lunge at me after my swing. I exploit the opening, slamming my mace into the side of its head. I actually hit it so hard it gets knocked back, and is clearly stunned. So I yank my weapon back and bring it down from the top. Its head gives way and is violently sandwiched between the floor and and the mace head, and the demon goes limp.

I yank back and spin around just in time to find the second corjo has caught up. Its stance shifts and it crouches low and its legs tense up, clearly about to jump at me. I step to the right side just in time to avoid it as it launches forward and sails through the air, snapping at where my neck would have been. I bring the mace up and manage to tag its back legs at the last second, sending it spiraling through the air. I chase it down as it lands, and it flips around and opens to its mouth to snap at me, but I slam the mace down on it hard enough that it misses. Then I keep swinging, it keeps yelping and screaming with every hit. Eventually it stops moving.