Archdemons: The Cursed Cord

*SHWICK*

The sound of Zealous swiftly drawing his sword and severing the direwolf's throat all in one motion came, though it was all but drowned out completely by the sound of screaming arrows as they whistled downwards on the battlefield.

Zealous pushed the wolf's body to

The ground before dashing towards the army of monsters, all having their eyes turned skyward. Almost in perfect sync, the arrows struck countless monsters as Zealous's blade sunk into its second victim.

The goal of this first attack was to kill as many beasts as fast as possible as to thin them out, that way when the real fight started they'd have less to worry about. Zealous avoided the monsters that would take more than one blow to kill and just went through eliminating beast after beast with only one strike each, blood spraying through the air as corpses began to fill the field, piling up.

The arrows had only managed to kill a small handful of monsters. At first that was. But then the hydra venom that was coated onto the head of each arrow began to sink in and beasts started to drop dead left and right.

At first everything was going accordingly, but then Zealous's body suddenly tensed up and he felt an uncontrollable sense of fear and dread. He knew this feeling well. The pressure of a demon. This fear was only caused by the magical abilities demons had, the ability to exert some kind of field or magical energy that would cause those stuck in it to be petrified in fear. He knew how to handle it though, he'd encountered it before.

He stopped, staying low to the ground. He tried to search for one of the demons within the army, but he had no luck whatsoever. Not wanting to waste anymore time than he already had, he continued to dash through the monsters, cutting and stabbing and severing flesh and sending blood flying as he went.

Then the ground suddenly shifted.

Zealous looked down in shock as the earth erupted open and a demonic figure flew out of the ground, massive claws pinning him to the ground violently.

He felt hot air on his face as the demon breathed over him, its long snakelike tongue dribbling down to his cheek.

"An Aberrant? Why are you here..?" The demon hissed.

It had a brown leathery skin and it's bones protruded from its body at the joints. Instead of armor, it was as though the demon had an exoskeleton of bone, rotten skin clinging to the bone armor. The smell of rotten flesh invaded Zealous's senses. It's face was grotesque, a large mouth with an unhinged jaw and countless thin, long, pointed teeth while the skin of his cheeks was ripped and torn. It's eyes were merely fleshy, hollow pits while bone horns protruded from his head.

Zealous struggled beneath the demon's weight, and then it began to open its jaws and lower its head.

"No matter.." it hissed, "food is fo-"

A sudden shockwave shot through the battlefield as Liarya dashed forward, her foot crashing into the demon's jaw, striking it straight in the center and splitting its lower jawbone in half and sending the demon crashing to the ground on its back. As dust steeled around her, Liarya extended her hand to Zealous and helped him to his feet.

"Good to see you are alive." She said.

"Yeah, thanks." Zealous responded, turning his eyes to the demon "this guy is weird. He came from below me before, so be ready."

"I'm aware."

"You damn pests.." the demon growled, getting to its feet as its jaw healed. "I'm going to rip you limb from limb and consume you slowly.." the demon suddenly grabbed one of the beasts nearest to him and lifted it to his mouth. The beast let out a faint whine before the sound of its bones crunching and its flesh tearing echoed through the area. Blood dribbled down the demon's mouth as it grinned and it's body began to grow.

Zealous held his sword at his side, trying to be ready for anything. When it came to demons, he knew, it was best to expect the unexpected.

"I am the great demon of decay, Leshak, and you will be no more than corpses soon.." the demon hissed before it suddenly sank into the earth as if wrenched down by the hands of the dead.

Zealous stood back to back with Liarya. He couldn't help but wonder why none of the beasts that surrounded them attacked. It was as thought they were scared to come close. But zealous knew they weren't scared of him or Liarya, they were scared of the demon that was somewhere below them.

"Listen," Zealous said, "we need to get to the next phase of our plan. We need to lead the beasts away-"

The earth trembled again and Leshak erupted from the earth, talons slashing and cutting at anything in his path. Zealous leapt away, as did Liarya.

"It is gonna be difficult with this fucker around!" She called.

She was right. This demon proved to be a massive problem for them, if they didn't take care of him now, he'd kill them later for certain.

They had to take care of him now.

•

•

•

Kaslan was breathing heavily. The magic bow he'd used to fire the arrow volley had drained a lot of his energy. He was pale and felt dizzy, he was about to fall over. He leaned back and fell onto the ground on his back, avoiding falling off the cliff precipice.

He took greedy gasps of air. He turned his eyes to the battlefield below. It seemed he only managed to agitate most of the beasts below. His eyes widened. Zealous and Liarya were fighting a demon.

He grit his teeth, his grip tightening on his bow. He had to help, in any way he could. He got up to a kneeling position, pulling back the string of the silver bow. He focused entirely on that string, willing an arrow into existence. As he did an arrow, larger than the average one, began to form, knocked into the bow.

He shifted his aim, following the demon as it moved, but being careful to aim away from Zealous and Liarya. Then he got his shot.

*KOOM*

A shockwave blasted outwards from the bow as the arrow was loosed, the trees and the rocks of the cliff all trembled and shook as a massive arrow screamed down at impossible speed towards the demon below.

He watched with satisfaction as the arrow skewered the demon's skull, knocking it to the ground as the earth erupted.

Then he froze.

*CRACK-K-K*

The sound of Kaslan's neck snapping as talons wrenched his head to the side came then, his body collapsing limply to the ground.

"The stage.." hissed the demon, Azazel, "is set."

•

•

•

Zealous felt a sense of  excitement as his foot crashed down on the demon at full force, the feeling of bones shattering beneath him satisfying and the sound appealing.

Zealous had always enjoyed combat. Especially the feeling of bone breaking.. the sound.. the way the bone just gives way... it was so satisfying.

"Ethan! Liarya!!" Came Jona's voice, "we need to go!!"

"That's right! The trap! Ethan, let's go!" Liarya agreed.

Zealous cursed, glancing down at the demon below him. It wasn't, simply healing. He leapt away from the demon and ran after Liarya and Jonas, cutting and hacking away at monsters as they went.

The plan was that they would run through the battlefield until they reached the cliff. They'd be cornered, but Kaslan would drop the mountain on the whole army. The only things that could survive would be the demons and maybe a few monsters.

As they ran, the monsters began to gain on them. Zealous dashed to and fro, weaving through the monsters to avoid being struck while counter striking them.

Then he heard the sound of heavy footsteps sending quakes through the earth.

*KOOM* *KOOM* *KOOM*

Zealous glanced back, but it was far too late for him to have done anything about it. He watched in horror as a twenty foot tall massive demon thundered at full sprint towards Liarya, a huge hammer crashing into her from the side and shattering her entire frame, spraying blood through the air. She was dead soon as the hammer struck her.

The demon's body was disfigured, it had three arms, two on one side, one longer than the other, while on the other side was one massive arm that hung almost all the way to the ground. That arm was the one that carried the hammer. It's head had metal plates screwed to his face while chains were wound about his leathery body. Massive metal spikes jutted out of his back and his legs had plates of metal nailed to them. It looked like a tortured being from a horror story.

*KOOM* *KOOM*

The demon was rushing towards Zealous now.

"Oh fuck.." he cursed, picking up his pace as much as he could. He could hear and feel the demon gaining in him. It was so much faster than he was!

*FWOOSH*

He could hear the hammer as it swung. He suddenly stopped, ducking low. The hammer, luckily, barely swung over him, skimming his back. Zealous twisted then, turning and skewering his sword into the demon's leg before crashing his fist into the shin as hard as he could.

*CRUNCH*

The demon's shin cracked and the massive being lurched forward, his lower leg bending in half as the demon crumbled to the ground.

Pulling his sword from the demon, Zealous took off, running after Jonas who was much further ahead now. He sprinted as fast as he could, jumping as the demon's hand clawed for him. He didn't think these demons seemed that strong. Why had the gods left then..? And where was the third demon?

His question was answered all too soon. He watched in horror as the demon from before, Leshak, erupted from the earth and clawed for Jonas, who dashed at first, but the second blow hit, the demon's talons sinking into his flesh before he was shoved into the grotesque demon's unhinged jaws.

The sound of crunching bone and flesh came as blood spilled from Leshak's mouth.

Zealous was the only one left.. he had to get to Kaslan! They were the only ones left alive, they had to get out!

As he ran, suddenly his vision was clouded by an inky black figure. He choked as something struck his throat, lifting him into the air before slamming him to the ground.

He couldn't breath and his throat hurt. He clasped at the arm of whoever or whatever had pinned him. His eyes looked up and he froze in terror as he saw the dead white eyes that peered back at him.

He knew those eyes.

He could barely manage to choke out one word, one, singular word.

"A..zazel.."