Boom!
A man dressed from the neck down in heavy futuristic-style red and black armour looks up from a pot of boiling soup when he hears an explosion in the distance.
Kaboom!
Another explosion, together with a cloud of dark smoke goes off as two men in
heavy white and black armour approach.
"Sir, demons are attacking Count Tobas Najura's mansion to the north!"
Clang!
The man, who has a face riddled with scars and a stubble beard, stands up after putting down the ladle he was using to stir the soup.
"Call the others."
He speaks in a deep, gruff voice as he gives the two men their orders.
"Yes, sir!"
The man who was previously speaking to the leader gently nudges the other man in armour and, in response, the second man raises his hand to his lips, puts his fingers in his mouth, and lets out an extremely loud whistle.
"Go get your horses."
"Yes, sir!"
Both of the men reply in sync and, a few seconds later, run back off into the woods.
"Time for some fun."
The man reaches to his left and picks up a longsword, it is covered in dried blood stains but otherwise appears well-maintained.
Shiff
He places the longsword in a protruding area on his back, and as he puts it in, the parts sticking out tighten around the sword, locking it in place.
Ba-dum Ba-dum Ba-dum
Hearing the sound of horses approaching, he faces away from the direction the sounds are coming from, picks up a black and red helmet matching the rest of his armour, and puts it on.
Clip clop
Behind him, the horse noises slow down to a stop, replaced by men chattering.
"Sir, I have gathered the troops!"
Without turning around and still adjusting the helmet on his head, he raises his right arm, fist balled.
"Quiet!"
Instantly, everybody in the crowd goes silent.
"To the east, demons have invaded a Count's mansion! Do you know what this means for us, men!?"
Halfway through his sentence, he manages to get his helmet on correctly. It quickly binds with the rest of his armour, showing no gap between the helmet and neckpiece. Still with his fist balled, he turns around and looks into the crowd.
"It means we have work to do!"
His helmet glows up as if it is turning on, and its features now become more visible. It is black except for red in some parts and glowing red eyes, it also has a sinister white smile which is made up of sharp, malevolent teeth.
"Time to earn our next meal!"
He lowers his hand and points to the east with his pointer finger.
Clip clop clip clop
As the man shouts, all of the people on horses begin to rush in the direction of the smoke, together with the two men from before.
Neigh!
"Let's go, Dullahan."
He hops up on a large black horse and moves his longsword so that it won't interfere with the horse's running.
Ba-dum Ba-dum
As he does, the horse begins to run, almost instantly catching up and passing the other horses, but not going too far from them.
Ba-dum
"By the looks of it, we'll be there in around 5 minutes."
The man speaks to himself as he cracks his knuckles and looks back at his sword.
"That's plenty of time."
He reaches for his longsword and pulls it out.
"Now, I wonder what my new guests have in store for me?"
The demon lets out a booming screech and waits a few seconds.
Thump, thump.
Moments later, a horde of demons appear, some coming from the mansion, bloodied and with missing limbs, and around 200 coming from the forested area surrounding the mansion. Most notably, coming from the direction of the front entrance of the mansion is a demon standing at least 3 meters tall with 1 long horn on the center of its forehead, while all the other demons, excluding the leader, have none.
"Everyone, we've got some pests coming from the west."
All the demons, except for the big one, stand there blankly as if they didn't understand what he said. The large demon scratches his head and then cracks his neck.
"So we kill?"
"Right, I'm working with idiots. Yes, everyone, just listen to my orders and kill them!"
Moments pass as silence fills the air.
"Where?"
"Oh my fucking god, that way, you braindead meatbags!"
The demon points his finger toward the west, and all the demons begin blindly sprinting in that direction.
"Hey, you, stay back here."
The large demon stops in its tracks and looks at the general, it lifts its pointer finger and points it at its face.
"Me?"
"Yes, you, come here."
The demon walks up to the general and squats down, now at eye level.
"Alright, here's the plan, we're going to wait for those idiots to tire them out, and then we're going to surprise them."
"Mmm."
"In idiot language, that would be "You attack when I say attack", okay?"
"Yes."
"Okay, good, now go sit over there and play with sticks or whatever you do."
He points towards a tree nearby and walks to the northwest, around the hill.
"Kieek!"
As the demon general reaches the side of the hill, he sees a field strewn with demon corpses. At the front of the battle is a man dressed in, what appears to be, black and red armour. Though not much black can be seen through the crimson blood covering his entire body from head to toe. Impaled on his longsword are two demons' heads with another in his hand.
"Aaagh!"
Behind the onslaught that is that man, the battle seems almost even, with each side trading blows. At one end there are piles of demon corpses, and at another side, dead people are being eaten by demons.
"Perfect, other than that... annoying pest, this should be easy."
Crack!
Suddenly, a loud crack surprises the demon general, he quickly looks in the direction that he heard it from... The cracking sound came from where the big
demon was.
"Did they flank us!?"
He quickly rushes back down the hill in the direction of his ally, prepared for battle.
"How many of them? Ten? Fifteen?"
He finally reaches the source of the noise and is dumbfounded by what is before his eyes.
"Seriously?"
In front of him is the large demon in the same place he had left him... Waving around a tree as if it were a medium-sized stick.
"When I told you to play with sticks I didn't mean for you actually to play with sticks! And that's an entire goddamn tree!"
"Huh? This stick."
"Whatever! Just stay there, scream if anyone comes near."
Woosh!
The oversized demon swings the tree, accidentally almost hitting the general with the roots.
"And put that tree down!"
"Okay..."
As the general angrily rushes back to where he was, the other demon sets down the tree, it stands up for a few seconds before falling over when he turns around.
Slice!
The bloodied man cuts off a demon's head, then kicks its body backwards, both landing on the ground at the same time.
"Another one, that brings my count to eighty-seven."
Seeing as there are no demons in his vicinity, he takes a quick look around the battlefield. The once green field is now a truly gruesome sight, covered in blood, guts, and bodies. While the number of demons is now significantly lower, some knights have also fallen in battle.
"Let's see, who's next?"
He checks his left and right for any clusters of demons but doesn't see any.
"What's that?"
For a second, he thinks he sees something moving in the bushes on the top of the hill, but takes a closer look and doesn't see anything.
"There you are."
Across the field, he spots a group of around twenty demons feasting on the corpse of a knight.
"Time to die."
The man in armour rushes towards the horde of demons, sword in one hand, demon's head in the other. As he reaches the first demon, he smashes it in the side of its head with the other demon's head, exploding them both like water balloons.
Crack!
"Eighty-eight. I wonder if I'll get past one hundred with you."
He jumps into the air, flying above the heads of the demons below. As he spots three demons climbing over one another to reach him, he smashes down on top of them with his longsword. As he lands, he creates a shockwave, knocking back any demons close enough but not hit by his landing.
Boom!
"AHAHAHA!"
He erupts in laughter as his helmet's smile gets even wider, but as he does, the remaining demons move in on him, forming a circle around him.
"Yes! Come to your deaths! Today I'll dine on your blood!"
His excitement only seems to grow as his longsword begins to emit a black aura.
"Die, die, die!"
Shunk, boom!
At an inhuman speed, he stabs a demon attempting to get up and punches another behind him with insane strength. He continues cleaving through the demons one by one, only leaving behind blood and bodies.
Slice, bang, shunk, boom!
When he finally finishes his brutal massacre, he is left kneeling in a pool of blood, laughing like a psychopath.
"HAHAHA..."
He spots something in the distance, which distracts him. This time, however, he continues to see the figure, getting closer.
"Hehe, another sacrifice."
Thud, thud
He quickly stands up and, once again, sprints toward the figure at an inhuman speed. As he gets closer the figure gets bigger, and bigger, and bigger...
"W-We've got a big one on our hands, hehe."
Standing in front of him is the same giant demon, holding the tree as if it were a baseball bat.
"You small, weak, die."
"Hahaha! I'm not sure that's what will happen, though?"
Woosh!
The large demon swings the tree down on the much smaller man below him.
Demon Hunters
Demon hunters are, as is said by the name, a group of people who hunt demons, most commonly part of a larger military squadron, or could even be a dedicated military branch, if required. Such is shown in the Aria Empire, having a military branch for demon hunting. Members of the Aria Empire Demon Hunters (AEDH) are dressed in white and black painted armour with the AEDH insignia placed on the shoulders. Due to constant invasions, the Aria Empire is the leading force in demon hunting and is always looking for new recruits. Although not always entirely accurate, there is an intricate information-gathering system in place for demon hunters to identify and eliminate a demonic threat as fast as possible.