Hydapset dashed across the stony wastes, the stench of rot and and ever present chill permeating his very bones.
The sacred order was almost upon him and they weren't coming for a nice cup of tea.
One would think that they would have learned ask first and shoot later from the Ojewas incident, but then again, what could he expect from a cult of zealots. Even being driven to near extinction wasn't enough of a wake up call for these looneys.
The Hand of Femke. This world's primary defense against demonkind. Or that was what it used to be. Nowadays it was but a shell of it's former self, it's glory days far behind it. The sacred order of today was nothing more than cult, too dependant on the Rampart of Finality, the artificial ancient spirit, created as a safeguard against extraplanar invasions. And even that was failing. After all, if he could get past it's defenses, a demon certainly wouldn't find it difficult.
He didn't know how they'd found him, to be honest. The bronze ring as he'd found out, could hide his magic signature, making him invisible to the detection. At least magical detection techniques. He could still be seen and heard and sensed by all the cardinal senses. It was no one ring, but as artifacts went, it was decent.
At first he had thought they found him using good old fashioned detective work. But, seeing them bickering like, well, teenagers, he thought again. They couldn't find an elephant in a 6 tatami room. The question however did remain, how had they found him?
He jumped over a dead tree, now fallen, half buried in the dirt, only to find himself without footing, as the ground itself gave way, dust flying, revealing a ravine, hidden in part by the tree and camouflaged by the sheer monochrome of its surroundings.
He grabbed for the tree, and caught a branch. He looked below and came face to face with what could very well have been his demise. Pushing at the cliff face, and climbed back up.
He stood carefully now at the edge and thought for a moment. He could wait here in hiding and let his pursuers pass him. But then again they weren't fools, just zealots. He had already left footsteps on the trail. It would be obvious. He looked in at the porous cliff face. Perhaps he could....yes. He thought. That's it.
He looked down at the ravine and steeled his resolve. And then he jumped.
"Sfera Acur Vet" he said, a spell matrix forming in his hand. His speed slowed as he glid over to a ledge by the cliff face. He checked inside the cave leading off the ledge and into the cliff face. He pulled at his ring-pendant and twisted the cap off a potion. Now it was time to wait.
Minutes passed, as footsteps rang out above the ravine.
"Where did he....whoaaea....ravine! There's a ravine." Said a boy.
"The footsteps end here. He must have hidden himself down there. Come, let's get down." Said a girl.
"Maybe we shouldn't ... it could be a trap.." suggested another boy.
"Shut up, Jayadrath. It's just a minor demon. I doubt he can even tell a square from a circle. If you're too scared to do your duty, you can just stay here. We'll take care of it. Just know that we'll report your cowardice to Master once we get back." Said the boy.
"I'm sure your parent's would have been real proud to see you like this. The child of traitors, cowering at the thought of fighting what killed them." Said the girl.
"N-no. Please. I'll come. I'm not a coward." Jayadrath protested.
"Hah. Sure you will." Said the boy.
"Don't get in our way. Or else.." the girl threatened.
They tied a rope to the tree and rappeled down to the nearest ledge, peering over.
"It's a long way down." Said the boy.
"Yeah. Lets make haste then. Jayadrath get down here now." She screamed.
"Yes. Hold on. I'm not good with heights." He cried. His world was spinning as he looked at the steep cliffs and the dark chasm. He held tight onto the rope as he inched down the rope.
Hydapset sat quietly in the shadows, watching, waiting.
But the pendant was almost out of power. When it ran out, his magic signature would once again become detectable. He couldn't afford to wait any longer.
He threw the vial out onto the ledge, the sound attracting the attention of his pursuers.
"What is that..." said the boy, spotting Hydapset in the shadows.
Fear replaced confidence, as he turned to alert the girl, when.
Boom!
The vial exploded into flames, consuming the duo, turning them to ash faster than they could even scream out in pain. 4000 degree flash flames are no joke.
Jayadrath screamed, the fire licking at his feet, burning his foot off. He scrambled back over the edge as the dying screams of his teammates rang out behind him.
But he wasn't there to see it. The moment he was on stable ground he ran. Or tried to. He doubled over, clutching his legs, the flesh burned to a crisp. He reached for his leg, touching the charred remains as it turned to ash in his hands. He screamed in shock but his voice choked and died in his chest, impotent hisses leaving his throat, pain dulled by the adrenaline coursing through his veins.
He had to get back. He had to tell them. He couldn't die here.
Tears streamed down his face. He accepted the truth then. He was going to die here. He was a coward. There was no saving him. He trembled in the winds like an autumn leaf, hanging onto life by a thread, unconscious taking over.
As the fire began to die to out, Hydapset walked out the cave and kicked off the charred remains of the demon hunters into the ravine.
"Adeim Jig!" he cast and jumped up high, straight out of the ravine.
Patting off the dust and ash from his clothes, he considered chasing after the one that ran off. No. Not when he was this close to safety. The Yuhpi federation was just a little ways off. The sacred order would never find him in there.
He walke around the tree. He would have to find a way around the ravine.
Hydapset bent back, his hands on his hip, his body revealing satisfying cracking sounds. Sitting in that cramped cave, hunched over, did a number on his back. If it weren't for the freezing cold ice partical crystals he'd gitten from the dead magus, or the exhaust in the cave behind him, supplying him qith fresh air, he'd have died twice over in there.
He turned the corner, past the tree and saw the third boy, Jayadrath, collapsed but feet away, his hands clutching his now missing foot, stained with its ash.
By the Gaurdians! This was a truly blessed day. Not only had he escaped his death, maybe he'd even be able to find out how they'd followed him. If the boy survived, that is.
Jayadrath awoke sluggishly. His eyes itched, the crust around his eyes poked in at them, pinching at his eyes.
He closed them back up and tried to bring clean them out. Tried. His hands hurt, sore. But more than that, they didn't move. Not an inch. His eyes flashed open, pain pricking at him. He turned his head back, looking at his hands. Ropes. Tying him to something. He spotted brown. Bark. Tree bark. He was tied to a ... tree?
It was only then that he looked at his surroundings. The pale grey mud, those skeletal remains in the corner of his eye, the large thrumming rocks. This was the stony waste.
Then it all began coming together. The fire, the demon, the ravine. His leg.
He whirled around, looking at his leg. A stump. Blackened. Charred. Burnt clean off.
He wept. And screamed. Phantom pains itching at him. Crawling under his skin.
And he saw him. The demon. Sitting on a rock before him, trimming his fingernails.
He looked up at Jayadrath, his brows perking, "Hmm... you're awake. Good." The demon walked over to Jayadrath.
"Now, I have some questions," he said, pushing his knife into Jayadrath's shoulder.
Jayadrath clenched his teeth from the pain. A guttural moan rung hollow in his throat.
The demon continued, "and if you answer truthfully, I'll let you die painlessly. On the other hand, if you don't, well..."
He grabbed Jayadrath's ear, spreading it and slowly, painfully ripping it clean with his knife.
"Aaaahh.....p-please .... don't... aaaahh....I'll speak. I'll do anything, pleahehese..." Jayadrath begged, weeping.
"That you will." The demon pulled off his now dismembered ear, and wagged it like a dog treat in his face.
The demon pulled back and threw his ear down the ravine.
"How did you find me?" He asked.
"Your hair." Jayadrath answered, panting.
"My hair?"
"You lost some in the bar. We used it to cast a tracking spell." Jayadrath explained.
"Uh huh? Tell me about the meditation tachniques you use. And the tracking spell too." The demon ordered, pulling out a palm sized notepad from his bag, as Jayadrath poured out all he knew about everything.
"So. This meditation technique, sacred flame, any downsides? Backlash? Deviations? Extraneous costs?" He asked.
"No. Just the odd bout of mania in old age but that... it is unknown if it is related to the technique." Jayadrath dutifully answered. He hoped the demon would spare him.
"And they wouldn't tell anyone if it was true." Commented Hydapset, closing his notepad.
"Thanks for that." He added, pulling out his knife, "how would you like to die?"
"Please...I told you eveything. Please. Pleahejese." Jayadrath wept, snot and blood running down his nose.
"Man, you're pathetic. Is this what the sacred order has fallen to?" Hydapset mocked.
"Please." Jayadrath protested.
"Fine. I won't kill you." Said Hydapset.
Jayadrath looked at the demon with hope in his eyes. The color slowly returned to his face as relief flooded him.
Hydapset walked over the the other side, behind the tree, sheathing his knife.
"Thank you. Thank you so much! I promise. I promise I'll never hunt again. I'll ...I'll even retire. Leave the order. You won't regret this..." he puttered out, his mouth a broken tap.
Then the tree shifted.
Jayadrath stopped. Then it shifted again.
"...what... what are you doing?" He asked.
There was no answer. Just grunts.
The tree, and Jayadrath along with it, was dragged over to and then across the ravine.
Jaydrath looked back at the demon. His eyes pleading.
His gaze was met with a steel will. Jayadrath would die today. Not at Hydapset's hand, but rather by the fall. He knew. He knew it. And he struggled. He squirmed and screamed and shouted. There was no more begging. No more pleading. No more tears. Just raw struggle. But that didn't stop the inevitable.
Then it fell. Straight down the ravine. Tumbling, chafing, breaking at its edges, every jerk and hit bringing Jayadrath closer to his end.
And only moments later, it stopped. Abruptly. The momentum pushed Jayadrath's body into the trunk and a crack rang out, both his shoulders shattered, his hip cracked and his good foot bent a very wrong way, nearly twisting off his leg. He screamed out in pain. The adrenaline could no longer dull it. He lay there, upon the log, the sky looking down upon him, mocking his fate. The demon stared down at him, shaking his head, before disappearing behind the ledge, leaving Jayadrath to his fate, a slow horrifying and immensely lonely death. He laughed involuntarily, shock from the pain following suit, and Jayadrath fainted, perhaps for the last time in his life.
Hydapset looked down at the boy, whimpering, laughing and then gone.
But that didn't matter much now. He was this close to safety. The Yuhpi federation was just a little ways off. Once he crossed into their border, the sacred order would never find him again.