An Intriguing Conversation With a Demon

Zain quickly started looking for the door, but Damascus found it first and looked and him and smirked before speaking. "Are we all ready to go?" as he pushed it open.

The door opened and before them was a dimly lit room and in the middle of the room was a deep crimson demon standing at about eight foot tall and was wearing full plate armor with golden trim. The demon was sporting a broadsword that was a little longer than normal to compensate for the size of the demon. It was also wearing a full round shield that was about four and a half foot in diameter with a golden trim and a giant bulb in the center.

Zain was taken aback looking at this as his parents walked into the room as well. Once the whole group was in the room Sophia was on guard as she looked at this new demon. His father finally spoke up. "This is not a warrior anymore. We are looking at a demon general."

"As you just said I am indeed a demon general." The Demon spoke in a deep raspy voice. "I am not a titled general, but I am one of the forty-nine non-titled generals or at least a replica made by this dungeon."

'Is this a self-aware demon?' Zain thought to himself as the demon was talking.

"I was once one of the greatest warriors from the demon nation on the battle fields. That was many years ago though, now I am stuck in these strategizing meetings and I'm just itching for a fight. Can you do this old warrior a favor and grace me with a battle?"

Zain was stunned thinking he was talking to Damascus or even Sophia at this, but the demon was looking in between them right where he was as if he was a leader of some type. "Me?" Zain finally managed to blurt out.

The demon laughed and narrowed his eyes at Zain "I was referring to all of you."

Zain looked first at Sophia who nodded, his gaze turned to his parents who nodded as well. As Zain looked at Damascus, he got the thumbs up from Damascus.

Zain turned to the demon who was looking at him anticipating the response. "Well, they agreed to it and I'm down to find out what this dungeon holds at the bottom. So, I'm down."

Brimming with confidence this was said as the demon drew his sword with the corners of his mouth starting to curl up into a smile of pure excitement.

Zain drew his rapier as that had been his blade of choice for the longest time.

Sophia produced the glaive she had grown accustomed to since purchasing it from Zain.

Damascus produced his sword and placed it on his shoulder preparing for combat.

Zain's father drew his spear knowing the crossbow wasn't about to pierce the armor worn by the demon.

Zain's mother whipped back her cloak from around her leg and produced three vials of some purple-colored liquid in each hand.

The demon general looked at Zain almost with distain with his expression growing more and more cold over time before asking, "Why do you use an inferior weapon against me? I can tell you have two more that are more powerful and one that's even legendary in nature."

Zain looked at him and thought about it for a moment before replying. "I'm using this because it's comfortable for me and everyone else. It also allows me to switch between vanguard and ranged attacks if I must."

The demon general looked quite impressed with his reasoning and no longer looked perplexed as to why Zain had chosen to draw the rapier over everything else. The slight smile he had earlier now shown full teeth with excitement for the upcoming battle before he asked his last question.

"Why is it that your ranged weapon looks as if you had to fully make it yourself?"

The curiosity of this demon took Zain by surprise as they weren't known for their inquisitiveness. However, this demon also wanted to know the ins and outs of his enemies as he was a warrior to the bone.

"Well, if you must know, I did make it myself along with the ammunition."

Zain had a coy smile playing at his mouth at this point, anticipating that the demon would try to get more information out of him.

The silence seemed deafening to everyone as the demon seemed like it was about to continue to ask questions so what he said next shocked everyone.

"I do hope you could make it to the capital of the demons one day, I would love to see some more of your work besides the glaive the knight with you is carrying."

Zain nodded and smirked before he spoke again. "I also have something that seems would suit your style so I will see if I can't find you if I ever arrive in the demon capital."

"Very well. As far as I know though not many humans can articulate a craftsman ship that the demons won't destroy."

Zain straightened up spoke well enough to be understood but articulated enough to be taken as a businessman.

"Well, it just so happens that my second smithing mentor and my first mentor's mentor were Dwarves so I don't anticipate that you will be too disappointed."

Damascus perked up hearing that and just shouted towards Zain, "And where did you get that information from?"

"There aren't many Dwarves in this part of the world so when my second mentor mentioning my work looking a lot like his first human disciples, I kind of put two and two together and he confirmed my suspicions."

"Well, that's enough of the chit-chat." The demon spoke well mannered after feeling that Zain had caught on and was talking about things he was no longer interested in.

"How about we get this fight started then?" Damascus asked fiddling with his fingers on his broad sword.