It found me. I didn't know if I somehow let my guard down or if the senses of the demon were just that great. But it stood in front of the cave.
The demon appeared like a giant red dragon with seven heads and then horns. Its dark yellow eyes peered into the cave. But to my luck, it was way to large to enter it.
Once I saw it, I instinctively knew that this was the first of the three beasts that would come after the trumpets.
But what I couldn't understand was how it had stayed out there for so long.
An angel was supposed to come down and strike it down within the first few hours of it walking around. Yet it had been here for days on end.
This made me only more hesitant to fight it than before. Either the beast was hiding its strength and maybe had already killed the angel. Or the angel still had to come.
In the later case, even if I were to come out victorious. The angel would still descent from the heavens. And the chances were high that in lack of the beast, the angel would come after me.
But the rations were already running low. I had to go out and look for food for the people in the cave otherwise they would starve within a few days from now.
I stood in front of the entrance, yet just far enough so that the tail of the beast could not reach me.
The dwarf came up to me and also stared at the demon who was continuously insulting me and challenging me to fight it.
I looked down at the dwarf with a nervus smile. "I bet that now it is screaming so loud that even you can hear it."
He just kept staring at the beast. "You two are having a conversation?" He eventually asked.
"No. but since we are roughly equal in strength, we can only slightly touch the surface of each other's consciousness. We can't control or take over each other, just communicate. But every time I block it out, the demon just tries again. so now I just try to ignore it."
The demon slammed one of its heads in the stone surrounding the entrance. All while mocking me about keeping mortal pets.
I sighed and turned around wile dragging the dwarf with me using some air and earth magic.
"Hey! What are you doing? You can't just randomly drag me of like that!"
I shot an uninterested glance at the struggling dwarf who was seemingly pulled away be an invisible force.
"Quit whining. You of all people should know how it is dangerous to stand this close to a demon like that."
"Yes, but I could have just walked away on my own. There is no reason for you to drag me off like a sack of rocks."
"In that case. Consider it payback from how you treated me as some sort of pet back in the stone City."
The dwarf kept complaining even after I eventually let him go. But it was better than to listen to the taunting of the demon outside.
A day later I decided that I could no longer wait. Even if I couldn't win, I could still drive it away so that the humans could at least try to find some food for themselves. And if I did win and an angel would indeed be coming down after I killed the beast. Then I would just have to hope that it would understand that I was doing this for a bunch of humans. And that it would not have to kill me instead of that demon.
The beast realised what I was planning to do and happily made way for me to exit the cave. In its mind it would not be a true victory if it blocked the exit and would thus be at an advantage. It just wanted a true battle of strength.
In contrary I believed that anything worth fighting for was forth fighting dirty for. If I had been in the same position as that demon. Then I would never have given my opponent the chance to fight at an equal level.
Flew out of the cave as fast as I could and slammed myself against one of the necks of the beast. Here I stabbed it with the blade on my tail while my claws tore open its flesh.
The demon immediately tried to shake me off. But I had already bitten trough the throat of the beast. I was not sure if this demon functioned the same as a hydra. But just to be sure I scorched the wound. This way it would not be able to heal. Or at least not during our fight.
I flew away from the wound, but the demon grabbed me with its tail. And for a moment I was sure that I actually felt one of my ribs break under the sheer pressure it emitted.
Right before it managed to squeeze the final bit of air out of my lungs, I managed to engulf myself in flames and thus escape.
Tough my freedom was not for long. The beast seemed to inhale deeply. But actually, it was using an air type magic attack. this distorted my flame turned body and forced me to take on a solid form again if I did not want to be instantly disassembled.
Enraged I let fire rain down from the sky. Burning a large portion of the wings of the beast so that it would not be able to follow me into the air should the need arrive.
The beast cried out and let what seemed like a thunderstorm escape its mouth.
The wind and lightning slammed me against the mountain and a sea of rocks tumbled upon me.
But since raw physical attacks did not do much to me anymore, I could easily climb out of the rubble.
Once I was out into the open again, I noticed my wounds.
It were burn marks. Somehow the lightning of the beast managed to actually burn me.