Knights & Demons

A noticeable sun shined bright in the radiant blue sky. The ground covered in grass and lustrous trees stood tall. All this seemed very similar to D-Squad however, in reality, this was another planet only similar to Earth's ecosystem. It wasn't long before D-Squad reach their supplies. Their designated location was in the middle of a forest. A wide patch of land around 900sqm which its trees had been cut down by the bots would be their temporary forward outpost. Larger parts of the base were airlifted to the destination and the construction bots would assemble them.

"Alright squad, you know the drill. Secure the perimeter and radio in if you find anything suspicious. We take our positions in four directions. North, East, South and West. The bots should be done with their work by the end of the day." Chain issues his orders to his squad, as per what they were told to do in the briefing.

"Yes, sergeant," Kretschmer replies and heads North.

"Ugh." Amelia hesitantly responds and heads East.

"..." Sophia continues to be silent and heads South.

This leaves Chain to head West.

D-squad spreads out not too far from their outpost and idly guard their positions. As time went by, there was nothing to report and no signs of 'alien life'. The only thing waiting out there for them was only the silence. Wanting to start up a conversation, Chain contacts his squad on the open radio channel so any one of them could join. Thinking it to be a good idea at first, he puts it to the test.

"So how is everyone enjoying this new planet?" Chain starts with a simple question, hoping he could get to know everyone much better.

"I was hoping to find some aliens but I guess not," Kretschmer replies with a saddened tone.

"Aliens, you're kidding me. You actually believed what mum said." Amelia recalls the statement from the briefing."

"Mum?" Chain asks in confusion.

"You seriously don't know sarge. Hah! This is hilarious. I think you are the only person that doesn't know. My last name is Cowan. Ring any bells?"

"Cowan..." Chain mumbles on the name as he has heard the name from somewhere before. He soon realises it's someone VERY important. "Senator Cowan. THE senator Conwan is your mother?!?"

"Ding, ding, ding. You've won a million dollars! I can't believe you've only just realised this."

"Kretschmer, did you know this?"

"Yep!"

"Sophia?"

"..."

Upon realising this, Chain found out he was the only person in the squad who didn't know of the crucial information.

"If you are senator Edith Cowan's daughter, why are you serving in the military? Isn't it dangerous for the daughter of a senator to be risking her life, let alone risk being a hostage if sound one finds out you are in a vulnerable position without any protection?"

"Hahaha, you sound just like my mother." Amelia laughs at Chain's concern for her safety. " It took a while to convince mum (She threatened to run away from home) to let me join the military cuz it was sooooo boring at home. Still, who would have expected her to use a dirty trick to get me to join this military unit so she could monitor over me. I bet she's watching us right now from space." Amelia then stuck her tongue out and looked into the sky.

"So were technically your bodyguards so to speak."

"Correctamundo!"

"So now I have to be a bodyguard for the senator Cowan's daughter. Great, just great. Can't this day get any worse?" Chain thought to himself as his responsibilities just kept pilling up and up.

"Oh yeah Sophie, you haven't said a single wor---"

"BOOM!"

An explosion can be heard throughout the forest near where D-squad were.

"Shit! Did you guys hear that?" Chain swears as he heard the sudden explosion."

"Sure did Sargeant, but there shouldn't be any squads nearby us. It seemed like the explosion came near where you are now sir." Kretschmer replies.

In his quick thinking, his instincts as squad leader kick in. "Alright, Kretschmer, radio to command we've got something. Private Cowen and Private Sophia, head towards my direction to meet up with me.

"Yes sir!" The whole squad replies to Chain's orders.

-----Emeryn Sacrobel POV-----

"Protect his majesty!" The young knight commander screams out to rally her knights. The Order of Hervela, named after its founder Herleva the Earnest was tasked with escorting their king, king Jonnaeus of Ustiria. The king met with the Duke of Flaynest at his castle to discuss some recent issues arising in the kingdom. After a long conversation between the two, King Jonnaeus left-back for the capital. While on their way back, they were suddenly ambushed by demons with one casting a large explosion spell.

It was the highest of honour for Emeryn to serve in The Order of Hervela, let alone being the Order's commander. She had come from a long line of successful knights and being brought up in this military family, she had to fulfil the family's high expectations. She wasn't going to dishonour her family if she failed to protect the king in the most prestigious Order in the whole of Ustiria. Her conviction was strong as she would rather defend his majesty to the death than live on and let her king die. For this was a knights purpose.

She kept slashing and stabbing driving off the demons. Her black-clad armour, built by the great dwarven kingdom as a gift for her acceptance into the Order was covered in the splattered blood of her comrades and the demons. She was surprised to find demons since it was too inland in the kingdom of Ustiria. It was an endless hoard. More and more of the demons approach the royal carriage. The kingdom's mages were swiftly taken care of first. The line of defence was slowly starting to break. Screams of her fellow companions were heard as they did the best they could to thrive of the demons.

Nonetheless, their morale started to drop. The dirt road was filled with bodies of demons and knights. The king could only look out of his carriage's window helpless as he saw his most devout citizens sacrificing their lives from him. Only a few of the Order's knights including their commander Emeryn formed a semi-circle around the royal carriage. The demons surrounded them and made antagonizing war cries as they were close to fully killing them all. One demon grabs an injured knight by the head and holds her in the air. She groans for help while the knights helplessly looked.

"Emeryn *cough* *cough* Help me..." The knight with barely any life left in her calls out to Emeryn.

"Let go of Lania you demon scum!" Emeryn shouts back.

The demons laugh and immediately slice off the captured knight's head with one fell swoop from its weapon. The body drops to the ground and the head rolls to the guarding knights. The eyes of the fallen comrade's head looked at Emeryn and its expression spoke to her as if it was trying to say "Why didn't you help me! We served you but you let us down!" This taunt successfully crippled Emeryn's resolve. She had known Lania for as long as she could remember. They were both childhood friends and enrolled into the royal knight's academy together. From then on, they vowed to each other they wouldn't leave each other sides until the very end. Seeing her childhood friend humiliatingly be executed right in front of her, her emotions get the best of her. Tears run down her face, unable to contain her grief. She had broken her childhood promise.

Noticing her mental fortitude has been broken, the demons take the opportunity to strike. Emeryn prayed to the goddess Nenoria for assistance that she will send down her holy guardians to help them in their aid. At that moment, her prayers were answered.

"Bang!"

One of the demon's heads exploded. The rest of the demons become wary of an unexpected third party.

"Bam, bam, bam, bam" More of these loud noises continued followed by a demon dropping dead each time the weird sound was made. Relieved yet confused by the situation of what's happening to demons, Emeryn notices a dark weirdly looking humanoid figure run out of the forest holding a black long road rapidly casting something similar to an explosion spell eliminating the demons as if they were nothing. The knights continued to watch baffled at how their saviour was taking on the demons head-on. Even the bravest of knights wouldn't dare approach a demon so recklessly.

The presence of their alleged 'saviour' fought in ways that scared the knights. At the royal knight academy, knights were told to fight with chivalry and honour. Yet, this being's fighting style contradicted what they were taught.

It fought just like a demon.

Emeryn caught a glimpse of their saviour's eyes. They were burning with red. No distinct face or mouth could be recognised. Strength and speed beyond human. She had originally thought it could have been an adventurer or a knight from another kingdom that came to help in their dire situation. The demons began to leave the knights and swarmed this strange monster. Emeryn wanted to help but the other knights told her she would only get herself killed. They were indeed correct. Noticing it was surrounded, the black figure dropped its mysterious black magic rod and picked up one of the slain demon's large two-handed bladed sword. The sword was simply too large and heavy to wield yet the black humanoid managed with ease. It swung the sword in all directions, cutting down the demons like butter. Proving her theory of the mysterious saviour, this was no saviour at all nor an angel sent down by the goddess Nenoria. It was another stronger and ferocious demon stealing the weaker demon's prey. What these surviving knights witnessed were that demons feared only one thing and one thing only. They feared a stronger demon. The demons noticed it was no use to fight anymore with this deadly demon in front of them, they started to flee, leaving the knights too.

As they were all gone, the lone demon stood amongst the demon corpses. The scene was a depiction of hell. The black red-eyed demon was covered in blood from head to toe. It remained there for a moment staring back at the knight.

"Stay back demon!" Emeryn shouts at the demon to back off.

The demon left the pile of corpses and started to slowly walk towards them menacingly with the sword dragging against the ground.

"Stay back I say, stay back!"

For the first time in her life, Emeryn had experienced what true fear was. She never had much experience on the field and only did petty knight chores. To make up for her lack of experience, she honed her sword skills and even attempted magic. Yet, it all was for nothing as she knew her time had come to die by the strongest demon she had ever seen. A demon with the strength of a thousand knights. The knights tremble in fear. Their hands violently shake and their legs are about to give out. All of a sudden it stopped walking closer. It spoke a language none of the eyes knew. They assumed it was the language of the demons. To their surprise, it dropped face-first onto the floor. The confused knights stare at the demon as it lay on the ground.

"What shall we do with it?" One of the knights asks. They turn and look at their commander. Still trying to cope with what she just witnessed, she snaps out of it.

"Ugh, um we... We keep it alive. The messenger we sent earlier should be arriving back soon with a garrison of troops. Until then, let us just hope this demon doesn't wake up until we get back to the capital."