Chapter Seven: Zagla And A King

A ball of solid magic flew into the side of a demon as he started to run as fast as he could away from the people chasing him.

But looking back at them, he realised that they were much faster than him. So, he realised that he would have to kill them or he would die.

The demon began pushing himself to go faster jumping from branch to branch to the ground before jumping back up to the branches in the forest he was being chased in. Before he suddenly changed directions and made it seem like he was running that way instead.

But in reality he just changed direction and hid behind the trunk of a tree before using an invisibility spell to hide himself.

The people chasing him went to go that way as well before one of them stopped.

"He didn't go that way." The man shouted to the others, as the demon hiding held his breath in a panic.

The others stopped as well and looked around to try and find him, but because it was dark it was difficult to see.

"Search the area, call out every half minute." The leader ordered.

The people chasing the demon nodded before moving on the ground and looking around in the immediate area.

The demon looked down from his spot in a tree looking at his chasers searching on the ground. He was very glad he had the ability to see in the dark.

They kept searching for a few seconds before the leader called out. "Confirmed position A."

"Confirmed position B."

"Confirmed position C."

"Confirmed position D."

"Confirmed position E."

After that they kept searching, until one of the people chasing the demon started walking under him.

He looked at them before taking out a dagger from his sheath on his waist. He waited a few seconds before silently jumping down.

The man paused and looked around before his mouth and nose was suddenly blocked by a hand over it.

And then he felt something plunge into his neck and a warm liquid going down it. The man tried to struggle but by that time it was already too late and he had passed onto the next life.

The demon took a breath and wiped his dagger on the man's shirt to clean it.

"Confirmed position A." A voice shouted out, making the demon panic.

"Confirmed position B."

It was silent for a few seconds before the demon put his hand on the dead man's throat and spoke. "Confirmed position C." He shouted out, his voice sounding like the man he had killed.

"Confirmed position D." Another voice said as they ignored the little pause.

"Confirmed position E."

By this time the demon was already visible again, he only needed to be invisible to make sure they wouldn't see him immediately after he stopped.

The demon looked down on the person he had killed. Another demon. It was unfortunate, and he didn't take any pleasure in doing it. But this demon couldn't see the truth behind everything and that was why he died.

The still alive demon thought about what to do next, he could try and get away now that nobody was near him. But that risked the possibility of them finding him after their check.

Or, he could sneakily take them out one by one. It would take longer, but it would be safer for his escape.

He decided that the latter option was safer even if it would take longer.

So, with his decision made the demon decided to put his race's name into use. And strike fear into these idiots, so much fear that they wouldn't even know what they were afraid of until he killed them.

So that's what the demon did: he killed them. It was pretty easy, but by now there was no use in cleaning his dagger as the blood covered his clothes.

But there was just one left, the leader. Unlike the others who were low ranking demons and mostly used magic. This was a higher ranking demon and was a physical fighter using magic to enhance his body.

The demon looked down on his last prey of the night.

He knew he had to be quick about this, so with all his speed he used the branch of the tree as a foothold going down and propelled himself downwards.

He swung his dagger at the other demon's neck before it was stopped by a sword.

The demon he tried to kill turned his head to look at the dagger demon. "I knew something was wrong." The demon said, like he knew something was happening. He didn't and the demon trying to kill him knew it, this guy was a muscle head. "So, I didn't peg you for being a traitor, Zagla." The demon said honestly.

Zagla only shook his head in disagreement as he got into a fighting stance with his dagger. "I'm not a traitor. I'm on the side of the world, on the side of the living. Zerad would send us to our deaths the seconds he gets what he wants."

The demon grit his teeth in anger before shouting at Zagla in outrage. "Don't mention his name so casually! His name is Lord Zerad! Although you shouldn't even be allowed to say his name, you scum!"

Then in a burst of speed the demon charged at Zagla. His sword raised and ready to swipe and kill Zagla.

Zagla of course blocked the obvious attack. He thought Meld would have trained his people better, but then again this demon didn't seem very open minded and probably ignored any advice he was given, thinking it was an insult to his skills. Although he didn't have much skill anyway, it was just that he had better strength and speed than normal.

Normally Zagla would be faster than this demon but he was injured while he was fleeing from the group he had just killed, with the current exception being this demon who he was fighting.

The clash between the two went on for a while. With Zagla only being able to get small quick cuts on the demon. While the demon didn't get any hits in as he over committed to his attacks, making them obvious and made him unable to move in the strike until he completed it.

Zagla was getting annoyed by this back and forth between them. This was going nowhere and if he delayed any longer then reinforcements could come for this demon and he would be dead.

So, Zagla decided to take a risk.

Zagla left his left side open, which was also his injuries side, and pretended to stumble on his feet.

The demon seeing the opening in Zavala's form swung his sword like a bat in hopes of cutting Zagla from waist all the way through.

But this gave Zagla the perfect opportunity to attack the neck of the demon who left it unprotected.

So they both committed to the attacks, with the demon only realising what was happening when Zagla started his attack. Whoever was faster in their attack would be the victor.

For Zagla it seemed as if time was moving in slow motion, he could see his dagger closing in on the demon's neck and he could also see the sword about to cut him in half.

But… It seemed that Zagla was faster as his dagger went right into the middle of the demon's neck, but the demon's sword got stuck in the side of Zagla.

Zagla let out a shouts of pain as he let go of his dagger, leaving it embedded in the neck of the demon. While his hands reflexively went to pull the sword out of himself.

The demon on the other hand let go of his sword in shock, while trying to take breaths to get oxygen into himself. But with his neck crushed there was no way that was happening. In the demon's last moments he glared at Zagla while he stumbled to the ground, his hands going to the dagger to take it out, but he died before he could.

Zagla also stumbled to the ground on his knees. He started taking deep breaths before putting the hem of his shirt into his mouth.

While taking deep breaths his hands went to the sword embedded into his side and he pulled it out, chewing down on his shirt as pain flared from that spot.

After the sword was out his mouth spit out the hem of his shirt as he let out a grunt of pain.

Zagla then ripped off a piece of his sleeve and wrapped it around his midsection to slow down the bleeding.

Zagla knew he had to move. Either some demon would catch him if he delayed any longer or he would bleed out and die. He wasn't fond of either of those options.

He wrenched his dagger from the neck of the demon before putting it back in his sheet. While also taking the demon's sword as a prize of victory.

He then stumbled to his feet and started running towards his destination.

Inside of a throne room a middle aged man was sitting down on the throne at the end of the room. The room was elegant and the pillars that held up the roof were white with gold tints to it. While a red carpet went from the main door of the room to the thrones at the top.

The man, who was a king, was waiting for someone to get here. If he wasn't here soon then that meant something had happened to him. The man didn't know what was happening, all he knew was that he got an urgent message saying they needed to speak immediately.

His personal guards lined the carpet but evenly spaced with their weapons at their sides while standing respectfully as to not anger their king.

Everything was silent, with the guards not moving in fear of making sounds to ruin the perfect silence.

That was until someone suddenly appeared a few meters away from the king bowing down, but clearly injured. Blood flowed from his side while he held a hand there to put pressure on it to slow the bleeding.

The knights went on high alert and some moved to the king immediately while others had their weapons pointed at the mysterious figure or around his neck.

"STOP!" The king shouted. "That is my informant." The king said, making the knights reluctantly back off. "What happened, Zagla?" He asked before seeing the injuries. "Someone get this man a medic."

One of the knights closest to the door nodded before going off to find a healer.

"My injuries are of no importance… right now." Zagla said while taking a deep breath. "A great evil… has descended… something I fear is stronger than the Demon Lords…"

The information struck a bit of fear into the king. He knew Zagla wasn't the type of person, or demon, to exaggerate things. "What has happened, Zagla? What could possibly be worse than the Demon Lords?"

Zagla took a few breaths before speaking again with a grunt of pain as he moved a little. "The Demon Lord of Magic, Zerad… has done something thought to be impossible for any demon to do."

The king waited for what it would be. Could that bastard Zerad have resurrected the Original Seven Demon Lords? If he did then they were all in big trouble.

While the guards waited for this Zagla person to respond a healer came in and rushed to the side of Zagla and immediately started healing him. Zagla saying a small thanks.

"Zerad… has summoned a hero… and brought them to his side."

That single sentence was like thunder to everyone's ears. A hero on the side of demons?! That was unheard of!

The king immediately took action to make sure this news didn't leave that throne room. "Nobody is to speak of this! Anyone that I learn has spread that news to anyone outside of this room will be branded a traitor! And I will personally execute them and whoever they told!" The king shouted out. He knew they wouldn't tell anyone, but he needed to say that to seem strong and brave.

But right now he felt weak and fearful. How could this happen and nobody notice.

"Zagla, explain what happened." The king ordered. And Zagla nodded his head and started his story while the healer, although still shocked, was still healing Zagla.