All of the other fledglings were looking at me measuring their options. I could see in their eyes their uncertainty of fighting me alone or in a group, except one.
"I can assure you all, it does not matter how many of you challenge me at once. I will destroy you all. I am going to destroy you all." The demon said sadistically. One of them started brushing his hands off to flex them.
"Are you sure about that? I disagree." The fledgling said confidently. He was a little too sure of himself for his own good.
"I can hear him from my mind, Skytel does not want you too injured but I am not as forgiving. You are going to pay dearly for that misstep. I am going to put you in the dirt. There is no one here who could stop me killing you once I get my hands on you." The demon said annoyed. I could hear in our head how much he wanted to make this one suffer.
"You must be the annoying one we heard about. What was your name? Harry or Holland or something?" The demon said trying to remember. It was crystal clear to me but I was too out of it to coherently share thoughts.
"The name is Hollow. Remember that because it is the name of the new number one." He confidently said. The heat coming from his anger was staggering. Our head was so clouded with rage and heat by this point.
"I am going to kill you." The demon growled before getting on all fours and propelling himself forward into Hollow. The man did a very good job dodging our attacks but it just was not enough. Lion came dashing over before the wounds got too serious.
Them attacking together made the fight interesting. Even with all the power the demon had, if he could not land any blows, it was useless. The pair managed to land quite a few shots but they were more oriented for speed and not power as they had little effect. It was more of an annoyance.
Every time there was an opening the fledgling, Hollow, capitalized on it. Strangely enough, it was only Lion creating the openings, almost like it was choreographed. Their teamwork truly was stellar.
As I looked up to the stands, I saw Elena who was smiling down at me. From where I was standing it looked like a mix between excitement and 'I told you so'. We smiled back slightly annoyed.
"He is quite the interesting one, isn't he?" Hoison said to another prince. While he had control, our senses were greatly heightened. I could clearly hear every individual voice in the arena and see each motion everyone made.
"He is. But with how he keeps referring to himself as 'we' I feel we may have to intervene or some will die." Hideki said back.
"Let us wait and see. We do not want to ruin the battle for everyone." Hoison said leaning back in his chair. I was met with a hard kick to the side of the face after that as I had stopped paying attention to the battle at hand.
It sent us sliding a few meters back before he wiped the blood from our mouth. The attack seemed to amuse the demon as he chuckled while getting ready. Instead of fighting for power, we switched to a speed style.
Lion jumped forward with a spinning kick but the Demon stepped back just a touch to keep her spinning. She landed as she threw another kick at our head but the demon was expecting it. We parried it with ease as the demon whipped our arm back and then directly into Lion's leg. I could hear the cracking of bone from the impact.
She crawled away but just as she did Hollow jumped forward with a flying knee. With almost no effort expended, the demon pushed our hands down to block the knee. The fledgling put his hand on top of ours to knee with his other leg.
"You are quite the cheeky one, aren't you?" The demon said with a slight grin before the knee landed. Hollow thought he landed as well as the demon pulled us into the air centimeters away from the attack.
"Oh, he has pinpoint accuracy." Hideki said watching as we evaded the knee. At the height of our jump, the demon spun us around and pulled our feet over our head. We kicked him center in the top of his head. He had a dazed look as he toppled backward.
Lion had created some distance between us by this point but there was nowhere to run as the arena was closed off. She was breathing quickly from the fear of us.
When we turned to her the demon said, "Do not think you are going anywhere. We have special plans for you. You were warned not to interfere in the hell they have to pay but you did not heed his warnings. Now you will pay the same as them."
The others watched on as we continued on the pair. They did not know what to do as we were easily dispatching the strongest of the group.
Hollow stood back up after regaining his bearings but the difference in ability to him was clear. We were far better than all the others even combined. But he knew he had to try.
"Everyone, attack!" Hollow screamed as a last resort. The rest of the recruits snapped back to their senses and came in together. Together, they were strong. We managed to fend them off for a short while but they started landing attacks before long.
We fell after one tripped me and they used the opportunity to maul us. We were taking serious damage on the ground with all ten of them crowding around us. The heat started overtaking our mind. I could feel the demon's anger rising quickly.
A few more attacks landed before it was almost too hot for me to stay conscious. With a quick flap of our wings, we stood up with a roar.
The rest of the recruits froze hearing the sound. Even the princes were surprised. They all leaned forward as I roared with rage.
"Oh, what is this? An even newer transformation? I wonder what he has in store for us this time." Hoison said interested. Everything that came next happened in the blink of an eye.
The demon flapped our wings a few times, shockingly hard, creating a serious pressure of air around us. The other recruits were frozen in shock not knowing what to do. Even they could see our temperament was different.
We jumped on the first, which happened to be Hollow, and kicked him in the side of the head before clawing his chest. There was a deep gash but before he could even react, we punched him in the chest and sent him crashing into the wall.
The floor was made of heavy, giant, hard grey tiles, roughly 150-200 kilograms. The demon grabbed the indent between two and flipped one up out of the ground. Without a moment's hesitation, we punched through it breaking it into small pieces.
As we kicked them around at all the recruits, they tried to block them but they were coming much too fast for most. A handful did manage to block them, though, so we used the opportunity to attack them as they were the most dangerous.
Just as one put his hands up to block his face, we got down to crawling height, flipped forward onto our hands, and pushed our foot into his chin. As he rose into the air, the demon grabbed the knives from around his waist before kicking him away.
We threw the knives toward the next contestant at mind-blowing speeds but he managed to catch one and use it to change the direction of the next. His eyes followed us as we came darting forward but his body was not fast enough to react.
The sound of his rib cracking from the punch was deafening. He rolled away from the punch as he lied there squeezing his side in pain.
"Do you all understand the difference between the weak and the strong? The weak have no rights or choices at all! Their only fate is to relentlessly be crushed by the strong!" I roared to the crowd and the others.
There were only a few left that could even pose a threat, however small it may be. We slowly walked towards the next of the group until we were face to face. He dropped to his knees when we stopped to plead for mercy.
"Please, do not kill me. I am sorry. Please do not do it. I am begging you." He cried. Hearing his pleas just frustrated both of us.
"I do not have a choice in this either. None of you were going to show me mercy as I will not for you. Stand with some dignity as a vampire." I said with a frightening calm. The rage was still boiling in my mind but he was a master at hiding our emotion.
"Please! Just spare me!" He continued to beg putting his head on the ground behind his hands. Seeing him in this pathetic state was angering.
"Do not ever give others a chance to murder you! Stop that pathetic groveling. Should a weakling who cannot take initiative be spared?! Can he beat me? Do not make me laugh!" The demon angrily growled. The instant he started to pick his head up, the demon kicked him in the nose. It was a merciless attack.
'We have no choice. We have a message we need to send.' The demon thought to me. Even knowing what the end goal was, I was still disgusted with the cheap shot.
'They need to know mutiny will not be tolerated and that we are the strongest. Let us make sure they never come up with another of these tournaments again.' He said emotionlessly.
We quickly worked through the rest before getting back to Lion and Hollow. She had crawled away more to check on Hollow while we were finishing the others. The male had regained consciousness but was still much too injured to put up a fight. A hard knee into his face knocked him unconscious again.
"Now onto the important one." The demon said as he picked Lion up by the neck. She gasped for air as she clawed at our hand with little effect. An elbow in the stomach made her stop clawing. One claw to one side of her face started the tears. A claw on the other side stopped them. She realized I was not going to stop until I was satisfied and there was nothing that would stop me that she could do.
"I think we have seen enough. Hideki, get down there." Hoison said pointing down at us. The next thing I knew, we were flying toward the wall. As usual, I could not even hear the princes footsteps. Not even the demon could.
"Oh? What is this? Have you come to save your precious little traitors? Are you not the ones who wanted this? This tournament was your idea. Why stop me?" The demon asked annoyed. I knew they would not let us injure them too much but the demon had lost all coherent logic. He was blinded by rage.
"This was a tournament, not a massacre. All you needed to do was win and knock them out but you took it a step further. Now you will be punished for it." Hideki said tending to Lion. The rest of the recruits were being cleared out of the arena by that point but the demon did not plan on letting that happen.
We dashed toward one of the medics to take the vampire but as we threw a punch, Hideki blocked it. My fist was shaking in his hand which meant he was having at least some trouble holding us.
"You are stronger than before, and faster. I guess we will see just how much you have improved in this short time." Hideki said before kicking me away. His attacks were strong but not as effective as last time.
"That stung a bit." The demon said rubbing his arms where the kick landed. We ran in sweeping from side to side before dropping and sweeping our legs around catching the prince off guard. He fell before we kicked his arms sending him sliding away.
"Oh, you are stronger. This should at least be a little interesting then." Hideki said standing up brushing the dirt off his armor.