"Long ago, I was a member of the Outcasts. We were a feared group across all of the domains, for we were often paid to kill powerful familiars."
'Paid? What are familiars paid?'
"Familiars accept payment in magical energy, master. We are not so different from humans. While your currency is used to make yourselves happier, so does ours. Magical energy helps empower us, which is our greatest desire."
"Night Demons were a very rare creature, us being mythic. At our height there were only twelve of us. Nine of us were part of the Outcasts, while the others were parts of various kingdoms. This led many to spend decades hunting us down for a single job."
'What exactly does this have to do with my question?'
"To understand the Domains of Death, you must understand its inhabitants."
'You telling me your life story will take too long, and I won't understand much of it. Why not just explain the Domain itself?'
"Please sit down then, master."
Ojero was slightly annoyed at the Night Demon dodging the question, but figured nothing too bad could happen. As he just exited the arena portal, he went and sat down on a bench in the hallway that was often used for students waiting for class to start.
The second he leaned back against the wall, his vision went black.
It stayed like this for a while, until his vision returned. However, he was no longer in the school. He seemed to be taller, but he felt like he was beneath everything. All around him was black, but above him was an open room. It seemed to be in some kind of office. However, what was strange was that the entire place seemed to be made with wood and dirt.
The walls were smoothed dirt, and even the window had vines growing on it. He saw there was a table and chair made of some kind of dark oak. A desk was in front of it, constructed entirely out of leaves. There seemed to be no door into the room, making Ojero wonder if they climbed through the window.
'Where the hell am I?'
When he tried to move, he found he couldn't. His body just wouldn't respond, but he could feel everything was still there. What made it worse is he felt that everything in his body had changed.
'I can feel more than two arms? Wait, why can I feel four? And why am I so tall?'
His thoughts were interrupted as part of the wall started to rumble and fold away. A humanoid type creature then entered the room. It was made of wood, and was at least eleven feet tall (3.3528 Meters).
The creature's limbs were very long. Its legs ended in stumps instead of feed, and its hands ended in three long coiling vines. It had dark green vines coiling around its body, and its head was very tall and wide.
It walked into the room, its heavy feet shaking the room with every step. It walked over to the chair, and instead of sitting down on it, it was like he attached himself. Vines and wooden twigs sprouted from his back and rear as it reached down to the chair, connecting itself.
Only when he was fully connected, did he sit down. Ojero expected the chair to crack or break under the monster's weight, but he was shocked to find nothing of the sort happened.
The magical creature started to do something on the desk, running his fingers up and down it like they were quills with ink. Although Ojero couldn't see what was on the desk, he was very captivated by the tree-monsters movements.
He was so immersed in its actions that he almost didn't notice one of his limbs moving on its own. Although he couldn't turn his head, he could see it enter his vision.
It was a long arm made of bones, ending in five sharp claws.
Ojero knew those arms, he had seen them on the Night Demon.
'Am I watching one of his memories? Is that even possible?'
Ojero couldn't question what was going on for long, because the office started to get darker. Shadows started to creep around the corners and cover the room in its black embrace.
Then, to Ojero's immense shock, he started to rise through the floor. He couldn't look down to see what carried him up, but he was more focused on the monster anyway.
It seemed to be shocked, and when the creature looked at him, he saw both fear and recognition in his eyes.
It opened its mouth to speak, and although it came out in grunts and crunches, Ojero could somehow understand it.
"I know why you are here, shadow creature, but I assure you this; you shall not leave this place."
It stood up, the chair detaching itself as he did. Suddenly its hands rocketed towards the ground, long coiling vines extending off of it. They started slithering towards the Night Demons clawed feet at a rapid pace.
Ojero could feel amusement from the Night Demon, and... anticipation? The strange thing was, Ojero didn't only feel the Night Demons' anticipation but felt it his own alongside it, as if moments like this gave him a thrill.
With the vines coming towards it, the Night Demon raised one of its four arms, and shadows raised from the ground. When the vines hit the wall, they were stopped in their tracks. The wall then fell down on them, transforming into thin razors. Upon contact they easily cut through the vines, killing them.
The tree-beast had pain visible on his face as he grunted. From his back, five long branches stretched out. They were pointed on their ends, and they started to jab towards the Night Demon.
Although the branches were fast, the Night Demon was faster. His met branch with claw, and a dance in the dark ensued.
The tree beast would stab towards the Night Demons stomach, who would deflect with one arm and slash towards the creature with the other.
During this, at random intervals a shadow would stretch out and grab one of the branches, leaving the beast open. It would force the tree to move another branch to block, making a different opening.
It was clear the Night Demon knew quite a bit about the tree with the way he fought, always staying just outside the beasts range, and taking advantage of the areas its branches couldn't reach.
During one strike, when the tree-beast had two of its branches extended, the Night Demon leaned in instead of just blocking, deflecting the branches to the left as one of its other bony arms struck forward at lightning speed, cutting deeply into the creature's chest.
Green blood started to flow from the wound as the creature grunted from the pain. It quickly jabbed all five of its branches forward to make some space for itself. However, when it did that, a shadow wrapped around one of its legs, pulling it back.
This made the branches arc slightly to the right, giving the Night Demon another opening.
It jumped forward, and this time one of its claws cut into the tree's shoulder while the other struck its neck.
The beast obviously did not expect this, as his wooden eyes widened in shock. He tried to pull back away from the Night Demon, but the small barbed razors on each claw wouldn't let him.
Seeing how it was a fatal wound, the monster knew it would die today.
Accepting this fact, it instead tried to take this unholy creature with it. It twisted its five branches to strike at the Night Demon once more, but he found he couldn't move them.
All of them were caught in shadows. At first he was confused, but it turned into distinct horror as the shadows crushed and snapped each branch slowly and methodically.
That's when it realized it was all a game. He had been played. The Night Demon could have killed him without any battle at all, it simply wanted to mess around and give him any sliver of hope to grab on to.
Ojero watched this, and as time went on he found himself becoming more and more excited with each move.
Especially when he cut into the beast's neck. He could feel the life in the monster be entirely in his hands as he confirmed he would take that life today.
He watched hope leave its eyes, that crushing despair taking its place.
'Is this what it means to feel alive? To feel powerful? To feel... like something greater than everyone else?'
Surprisingly, he heard the Night Demons hoarse voice speak.
"You die here today by a Night Demon. Due to this, your soul is forfeit to the Domain of Death."
What was despair turned into utter terror as the tree-beast started struggling hard once more, as it started to make grunts and groans that sounded like screams.
He could feel the Night Demon smile, as one of its other two arms reached over, and cut the head neatly at its neck.
The wood and vines provided little resistance.
When the monster fell for the last time, the Night Demon pointed a single claw at its body, and it sank into the shadows on the floor.
Ojero felt so strong, it was as if it was himself who killed the creature, not the Night Demon. It was the best he ever felt.
The Night Demon sat there in silence for a few seconds, not moving, before turning to the desk and walking over.
On it there were lines, circles, arrows, and other various markings all over its dirt-like surface.
Ojero knew what it was, he had seen his father study similar designs. It was a war map, detailing an army's movements and positions.
The Night Demon pointed its claw at it, and like the tree-beast, it was absorbed into the shadows on the floor.
After it disappeared, the Night Demon walked back to where he appeared. Ojero now saw it was just a dark corner, nothing special about it.
Just as he wondered how they got in, he started to sink back into the shadowy floor.
***
The Book of the Known Undead
Chapter 4: Basic Skeleton Striker
Basic skeleton strikers are very similar to skeletons in appearance, the only different being in the four inch claws on each finger. The difference between the two is the strikers speed, being much more agile than its normal counterpart. Basic strikers are very simple assassins, usually used in combat to take down low ranking officers. They are hidden among other skeletons in a horde, but where usual skeletons attack everything, basic strikers wait till they are near an officer or person of interest before making their move.
Basic skeleton strikers take very little energy to summon and maintain.
Element: Undead (Necromancy)
Class: Light Assassin