The Black Woods: Part 4: The Demon Killers

The monsters surrounded Diassa and the others, cutting off all exits. They seemed to pay a particular attention to Jade. One of the monsters even licked its lips in a perverse delight at the sight of her, which prompted Jade to smack it in the face with the stump of her tail.

Another one of the creatures in response however grabbed Jade's tail and pulled her towards it. Though she tried to fight back, she was no match for the monsters strength and it pummeled her easily.

Diassa tried to help and not only blasted three of the monsters away with his magics, but also tried to sever the force field a second time, though sadly once again his efforts proved to be totally ineffective.

As more and more of the monsters emerged from the buildings and the ruins all around however, the entire team was soon overrun.

The red creatures locked Diassa and Jade in a very special kind of magical chains that glowed green and then escorted all of their prisoners except for Diassa and Jade to a nearby cage filled with many human slaves from various different cultures.

Diassa and Jade were taken to what looked like the main square meanwhile where hundreds more of these strange creatures had gathered for a celebration of some kind.

"What the hell are they?" Kelina asked as she struggled to move in the cage.

"Scorisios" one of the monsters other prisoners said.

"Which are?" Kelina enquired.

"Demon hunters."

"Demon hunters, well why the hell have they captured us." Sisia protested.

"Hey, hey, hey you." Sisia shouted to one of the monsters by the cage.

"I think you made a mistake. You just assumed because we were with that Snake lady and that weird guy that we're Demons." She continued.

The monster walked closer to the cage.

"It's an honest mistake, but we don't normally hang out with those two."

Shelly and Kelina both looked disgusted.

"They saved us and you're happy to throw them to these things?" Shelly said.

"It's them or us."

"Why you cowardly, backstabbing." Shelly continued, before Mukinsa interrupted.

"No she's right in a situation like this we need to take any opportunity we can." Mukinsa said without an ounce of shame.

"Why am I not surprised." Kelina interjected.

"Honestly Sisia, if you find yourself on the same side as that bitch, you know you've lost the argument." Kelina continued.

"I agree" Silverico said, having not really been paying attention to anything but his sister being insulted.

Whilst they were arguing one of the red creatures approached the cage and reached its arm inside and grabbed Sisia by the back of the head. It pulled her forward, smashing her face into the bars and knocking her out.

The monster then opened the cage and dragged her body away. It appeared to do so discretely, constantly looking round for other members of its kind.

"What's it going to do to her." Shelly asked, only for none of the prisoners to answer.

To Shelly's surprise Mukinsa grabbed one of the nearby prisoners and threatened to break her neck unless she answered. (In reality however Mukinsa was only worried about what might happen to her.)

The prisoner still didn't talk. If anything she welcomed death, but fortunately her father did.

"Don't hurt her, I'll tell you. Those things, they are Demon hunters, but they don't just kill them. They eat them. They come from the darkest region of Tairos."

"Yeah well we've already come from one of the darkest regions. In case you haven't noticed. Those woods are pretty horrible." Mukinsa said sharply.

"Trust me. Compared to where those things come from, it looks like paradise. They were created by the last human civilisation said to live in that hell. Forged in the most powerful magics, they were designed to hunt Demons and all unnatural creatures. For years they did protect the kingdom, but eventually this common enemy just ended up uniting all of the different monsters of the area and even the predators of the Demons couldn't hold them off. The Scorisios as they were known decided to flee, so they used a spell that would literally make the city teleport to different locations."

"You mean to say this city's landed on a massive piece of the forest?" Shelly asked.

"No not quite. It's teleported in here, but it hasn't if that makes sense. It's resting on the forest but only the creatures the Demon predators want to interact with the city can either see it, or enter it. Everyone or everything rather from out there just passes through it like that black Tyrannosaurus."

"How do you know about that?" Shelly asked?

"I used to live here. Me and my daughter. We helped bring new recruits and food for some of the Demons that can't leave the woods themselves. Normally the Scorisio however are unable to enter the black woods. Obviously it would be a great hunting ground for them otherwise. Something broke the woods protection however, I don't know how but they're finally made their way in."

"You still haven't explained what they want with us if they just eat Demons?" Mukinsa asked.

"That's the thing Demons are a lot more difficult to hunt and keep locked up than humans and the trips from city to city can be long. So a good alternative is to capture several helpless humans, and turn them into low level Demons they can snack on. That's what we're here for." The father said.

"They're going to turn her into a Demon." Shelly asked.

"Yes. That guard, he's a greedy, greedy bastard. Every few nights he takes one of us out and turns them into a Heflox Demon. Horrible, disgusting little things, but easy to overpower and I'm told from their point of few, quite a tasty snack."

"I get it" Mukinsa said with a wry smile on her face.

"What" Shelly asked.

"These sly devils." Mukinsa said referring to the Demons other prisoners. "They knew their greedy jailer would take one of them tonight, so they let us, the new, clueless idiots provoke him in the hopes of not being next. That's right isn't it?"

None of the prisoners answered.

"You rotten, cowardly." Kelina fumed.

"I wouldn't blame them." Mukinsa interrupted. "After all it's what I'd do."

"We all know that." Kelina said back.

"Why are you even bothering to put it off? Sooner or later those monsters will come for you?" Shelly asked.

"Not necessarily." The prisoner said.

"Sometimes they use us as bait to lure a Demon out into the open. If we're lucky the Demon gets us first. If we're very lucky, we can escape."

"What's the difference if a Demon kills you?" Shelly asked, completely puzzled.

"At least if it's a Demon most of the time we die as ourselves and our souls aren't damned by becoming one of those things for them to prey on. Demons are a bit more picky about who they turn." The prisoner said with regret.

The Scorisio guard meanwhile dragged Sisia to the ruins of an old, small temple, where there was a large cauldron which had a green flame coming out of the top.

The Scorisio deliberately woke Sisia up so she could witness the transformation.

"No please, please I don't know what you want but I'm not a Demon, I'm from Dynamos" She said as she tried to pull away from the monsters iron grip that forced her slowly towards the flame.

The monster was too strong and in a matter of seconds it pushed Sisia into the green flame causing her entire body to light up in green fire. It was agony the likes of which she had never experienced before, whilst the Scorisio in contrast was completely unaffected by the magics.

In just a few minutes the flames all disappeared from Sisia who had passed out long before from the pain. The Scorisio then cruelly dragged Sisia in front of a small puddle just outside the temple and woke her to see how the green flame had transformed her.

Sisia tried to flee at first, thinking it was a hideous monster that was about to attack, but the predator held her down and forced her to look longer. She soon realized that she was now looking at herself and screamed, though even that shocked her as her screams didn't sound remotely human.

Her skin had become green, thick and scaly, whilst her hair had completely vanished. Her eyes meanwhile were bulging and completely black. She had no nose, and long sharp teeth that protuded from her mouth and overlapped with one another.

The Scorisio started to bite her fingers and snapped two of them off with its teeth. They always preferred eating their prey when alive. Sisia desperately tried to fight back, but it was no use. Whilst she felt much stronger in this form, her strength was still dwarfed by that of the creature.

Still Sisia desperately reached out for the cauldron, hoping she could use it as a weapon. Not the flames which she knew were not effective, but the pot itself.

She managed to just barely grab it and pulled it towards her, knocking it over. The flames spilled out and soon dissipated, startling the predator for a moment which allowed Sisia to pull free.

The Scorisio weren't used to their prey actually running or fighting back. (As the prisoners knew that even if they did evade the monsters, then there was no way they could escape the city. Also once they had been turned into Demons, most of them felt there was no point in trying to flee anyway. )

Sisia ran through the streets of the city, but she was soon cut off at both ends by hordes of Scorisios. With no other choice she jumped over twenty feet through the air to the top of one of the nearby buildings. She did it solely on her new Demonic instinct and was quite shocked at her strength.

Sadly she didn't have time to appreciate her new powers as four more of the creatures soon followed forcing Sisia to flee across the roof top buildings.

Sisia ironically now sought out Diassa and Jade. She felt sure that the Wizard could undo whatever it was the monsters had done to her. Sadly right now she didn't even think twice about Kelina or Shelly still trapped in the cage.

Keeping just ahead of the monsters, Sisia spotted a massive festival in the city's square from a nearby roof top. This wasn't just celebrating any Demon hunt however.

There was a huge Demon chained in the center of the square, bigger than even the Scorisio's usual prey. The creature looked like a gigantic, brown snake with no eyes and a mouth full of huge teeth, almost too big to fit in its mouth!

Long thin tentacles emerged from either side of the monsters body writhing. Around the monster meanwhile were hundreds of Scorisio chanting and performing rituals seemingly to weaken the abomination, though one of the Scorisio got too close and the monster was able to wrap one of its tendril like tentacles around him. The Demon hunter was instantly turned into a hideous, feral, yellow skinned Demon, covered in spikes, with the others instantly disposing of him.

"Incredible" Diassa said.

"That's a Gyslox Demon. It's one of the most powerful and rarest breed. I've never seen one in the flesh before, but I've always wanted to." He continued.

"Why?" Jade asked. "I wouldn't even want to look at a crappy children's drawing of that thing." Almost as soon as she had finished, the monster started spewing yellow pus from its mouth over several of the Scorisio.

"It looks like we're going to be sacrificed to it unless you have some clever plan." Jade continued.

"I'm afraid I don't think we're being sacrificed to the Gyslox. Of course normally being forced down that yellow, puss filled throat would be the worst option, but in this case, at least it would be quick if he ate us."

As Jade looked around she could see the remains and bits and pieces of various other Demons scattered around on plates at a nearby table. She also saw several of the Scorisio who had been covered in the Demon's puss eat it.

"I think I'm going to be sick, but these guys will probably just eat it, which will make me sick again and then again they'll eat it and again it goes." Jade said.

"It is the Scorisio." Diassa said as he winced in disgust as well. "The legendary predators of the Demons. To some they are heroes, others monsters, but I think everyone would agree they are really, really disgusting. Whatever the case though we're in big trouble. The Gyslox appears to be their big feast and we're just the starter."

Whilst the Scorisio were distracted preparing the Gyslox for its big day, Sisia jumped into the square and tried to pull the green chains holding both Diassa and Jade out of the ground.

"A Demon, a Heflox from the looks of things. Look I know I'm not exactly a friend to all Demon kind, but" Diassa said before Sisia cut him off.

"It's me Sisia, I'm one of the bandits prisoners. They did this to me. They turned me into this freak. You have to help me." She said in her new inhuman voice.

"I will, don't worry, but these chains are suppressing my magic. If we all pull however we might be able to break them." Diassa replied.

All three pulled as hard as they could at the chains, but they were far too strong and Sisia was soon noticed by several of the Scorisio who surrounded her.

In desperation Sisia tried to jump back the way she had come across the rooftops, but one of the Scorisio pursuing her jumped down from the roof of the building at the same time and sent Sisia crashing back to the ground.

Still the former bandit prisoner turned Demon was able to wriggle free when the monster tried to bite her neck on the ground. She ran to the table and started to throw the Demon parts on the plates at the Scorisio's, but not only did it not deter them the monsters reacted in absolute fury at their meal being disrupted and charged at her. Ultimately they were so caught up in their own anger, that Sisia managed to (barely) jump over the horde. Unfortunately however Sisia propelled herself a little too hard and landed right next to the Gyslox. She still wasn't completely used to her new Demonic strength. Diassa screamed at her to run, but before she could even move one of the beasts tentacles wrapped itself around Sisia's throat.

Sisia soon began to change into a much larger, more ferocious looking Demon. Her skin grew into thick black plates, whilst her eyes turned bright red. A small crown of horns grew out of the top of her head, whilst a blue energy shone from her chest.

She now stood over 7 feet tall and her roar was as loud as the Gyslox itself. This was a totally new type of Demon that had been created by the mixture of the Scorisio and the Gyslox's magics. No such beast had ever existed before as the Gyslox and the Heflox breed had never lived together. Even the Scorisio's were taken aback at the sight of the monster. They all tried to attack it, but it managed to send twelve of the Demon predators flying across the square. It then effortlessly crushed the head of one of the legendary Demon killers into paste, before ripping the arm off of another and punching its fist through the next Scorisio foolish enough to attack.

The rest of the Scorisio wisely kept their distance, but unfortunately with no one to continue the ritual to weaken (and eventually kill) the Gyslox its power was returning and it would soon be able to break free.

There was seemingly nothing left of Sisia in this brute as it headed for Diassa and Jade after noticing how helpless they were.