Demon Thrall
Rachel stared at the serpent type demon that was not a serpent type demon. She had no apprehension in looking at it head on and she studied it intently.
She could tell it was of a demon race. She had no doubt in this but she could not tell what race. She searched the memories of the Milana. Her eyes shifting to their ethereal rainbow quality, and images and information quickly shifted through her soul well and filtered out into her accessed portion of the Milana soul sea of consciousness. Suddenly her eyes widened then they narrowed - in suspicion.
Draco-demon!? Her eyes roamed over the length of its body and instinctively understood it was not a serpent but some form of dragon.
It's body was long and it's scales had no shine. They were dull and jagged and of black, grey, and a muted orange.
She did not need to search the memory long to find out what it was.
And the vast memory told her much. This was a Demon Thrall.
A Demon Thrall could be born from any species of demon with every type solely seeking power and domination.
It smiled at Rachel. Its crystalline eyes twinkling despite the lack of light.
"You are so young Milana." It smiled and revealed its mouth - full of sharp teeth - menacingly. "You found me so much fast than last time. I am excited, annoyed, and disappointed, but very excited. I promise you I will never return again. I…"
"… Just thought I was weak enough for you to handle? Thought I was too young to be able to fight you. You told both Milana Amber and Milana Sans that you would never return again." Rachel tilted her head quizzically. "Why should you be believed this time? "
The entire time they spoke the demon Thrall was repositioning its body. It made the most minute changes in tiny movements. Movements that seemed too small for its size.
Rachel saw it all, and because she saw it, Struns and Rebecca saw it as well. She sensed the mounting danger with its every move. They all ready themselves. Their telepathic connection tightening as their bodies tensed inwardly without a single outward change from either of them.
Power surreptitiously welled up within Rachel. She sensed that her Antrunie were ready. Her face remained emotionless as she continued moving forward.
The demon thrall watched her. Eyes glistening, a smile playing on its lips and its fangs dripping with a black viscous substance. It knew it could not enthrall her...
Doubt flowed through him as he wondered if he could defeat her. She was suddenly an exciting anomaly. He spoke slowly as his inner doubt grew.
"Come friend - and we are friends - as you already know, this is the third time we have faced, although the face was different each time." She nodded as if agreeing to an obviously true statement.
A small smile lightly creased her lips and she was suddenly in furious motion. Before the demon Thrall could react two sorcery spells hit three of the "hills" that bulged within it as one, the fourth was hit by soul magics, and a mental attack struck the demon thrall between its beautiful sea green eyes.
All at once two of the demon thrall's bulges exploded while a third imploded. Those that exploded oozed ominous viscous purple fluid while the other sank into itself. The demon thrall gritted its teeth, driving its fangs into his own lips to fight the surging pain and maintain focus.
Before it could regroup Struns attacked the fourth bulge. He appeared above the swelling, forcefully drove his dagger in and rode it down its side leaving a gaping maw of a gash in his wake.
The demon thrall was still slow to react but once it did it moved far quicker than its size should have allowed. Rachel teleported Struns to her just as a spiked scale stabbed deep into the soil where he had just stood.
Spiked scales flew from every direction as the demon thrall moved swiftly behind them. Its head moved to Rachel while his tail sought Struns.
And then Rebecca appeared in the fray. The spirit beings around her flew forward and dark mists draped over the fifth swelling.
This time the thrall had no choice and a vicious, horrendous wail rocked the entirety of the abyss.
One of his eyes swiveled toward Rebecca even as the last mound shriveled and Rebecca and her minons had regrouped to Rachel's side.
"Milana you are a bit more powerful than your predecessors and much quicker than I thought. Still you underestimate me."
Rachel rolled her eyes. Talking to distract her was a bit annoying.
She had a suit of light clothing her. As she moved and dodged parts of this suit shot out to fight and defend. Scales were broken before reaching Rachel's range of attack and quite suddenly the demon thrall's eye burst, a stream of orange light dissipating on contact.
The demon thrall winced in pain but did not say anything. It knew that its thralls had been destroyed. When it enthralled a creature said creature needed to incubate within the demon thrall for at least three days.
Those had been destroyed but it had others in this realm and two realms more.
It moved back and into a defensive posture, this was not a fight he could currently win.
"What is wrong? Did you miscalculate?" As Rachel moved forward her sorcery melded with healing and flowed below, deep in the ground, and toward the demon thrall. Her body became shrouded in a dense rainbow cloak, the hood raised high over her head, and low, covering her face.
She looked through the cloak of light and saw the demon thrall's weaknesses and she was not happy. She only saw two and they were separated by a great distance and far away from her. One was inches from the tip of its tail deep within a section of dense scales. The second was in the center of the central point of its massive body. She suspected the second was either its heart or soul well.
Still she moved forward. Strands of light flared before her and shot outward in a wide Spiral of color. The strands spread out and struck the demon thrall like a multi strand whip. As the strands struck the thrall different magics and spells flowed through its body.
She used sorcery, mental and soul magics. She was not sure but she felt she was stronger than the thrall so, she felt, her mental and soul magics would be stronger than his.
Rachel told her Antrunie the two weak points on the giant thrall. They moved to the one close to the tail as one. Getting to the tail was not a problem. A bodyguard-assassin would have multiple ways to move quickly or teleport, and motion was nothing to a spirit being.
Srruns had already struck the scales near the tail with two of his superior techniques. He had more but as soon as he struck the tip the tail moved toward him at lightning speed and now when he closed in the thrall's defenses automatically activated and it attacked as well.
Blood dripped from Struns eyes and ears and streamed from a wound on his back and his head was buzzing.
Rebecca hissed as her spirit beings moved in.
"Idiot! You didn't even try to wait and form up! Do you truly think you can do this by yourself."
As he healed he observed the thrall surreptitiously.
"Just fight woman! I will do my part."
Rebecca sucked her teeth, but said nothing. Two of her spirit beings moved forward and vast streams of power hit the same scaled section.
The other two threw up shields - to protect Rebecca - as jagged black scales flew toward her.
Struns stubbornly looked at the tail. Rachel was distracting the thrall and moving toward the second target. He and Rebecca needed to work fast and help Rachel as much as they could.
Blood began seeping from pores in his skin as dark, silvery, thin metal hairs began growing from them. He fell from his position above the thrall. His body struck the thrall, the metal hairs covering his body pricking unprotected flesh. A blue blade covered in blue flames dug deep into the thrall's flesh, bypassing scales as if they were paper to dig deep into flesh and muscle.
The thrall's body shuddered and Struns' mind went blank. His body instinctively followed his last thoughts. His hand moved and a spell streaked forth. The thrall's tail was sliced open easily.
Just as a large faceted stone came into view Struns' mind cleared enough for him to understand what needed to be done. The blue blade flicked several times and the stone fell out.
The thrall stopped and all was quiet. Rachel was in the middle of casting when she realized the thrall was not moving, She pulled her magic back into her soul well and moved from the thrall.
It was deathly still and the world seemed frozen for a long moment. The thrall remained motionless but it also remained upright. It's head was high above the ground and it seemed like a statue.
"Struns! You are an idiot!"
"I think I killed it."
"It's not dead. I can still clearly see its soul."
'Struns, bring me what you found. Rebecca collect scales and blood. We will do a binding later - maybe.
'Let's finish this' Rachel looked at the spot she had been attacking. 'He will either be something useful or something dead.'