Your Worst Nightmare
Posted by Meg
This entry is from Suf from Toronto; a story about two brothers who brave the night to fight corelings.
It had become sport between the brothers; Troff and Kreg piled the fire demon corpses in a neat pyramid as they counted their killings.
’14 here newbie,’ said Troff with a grin.
’18 here newbier than a newbie’, Kreg retorted with a chin high.
‘Holy Creator, that is a new record, Kreg, I killed a fat one we will eat this one,’ Troff held up a fire demon by a leg with one hand.
Troff and Kreg couldn’t remember when a night had gone by and they hadn’t killed the demons for fun. Ever since they ran away from Candayn, they had been hunting demons with warded weapons for fun; surviving had become an unminded part of their night. Demons sometimes even ran away from them when they weren’t competing and were working together. It was only an hour in from sunset when they had set up a fire to eat their salvage demon meat. At first it was a last resort to them, and now it had become a fourth meal. Both brothers had recognized the effect the demon flesh embedded in them; they were stronger faster and better than every man they came across in the hamlets.
‘Brother, we need to find a Hamlet soon. We are running low on ink and I think I need a new weapon; this one is getting boring,’ said Troff as he wiped his scimitar on the grass.
The demon crackled and sizzled as it rotated on top of the fire. While cranking the rotisserie at a very smooth pace, Kreg rummaged through a giant bag for knives; he would use to part the meat. He had grabbed the specially warded steal cleaver when he saw the movement in the bush far from the portable circle.
‘Yes I saw that too, don’t mind it I think it’s a smaller woody being its annoying self,’ said Troff.
‘They never learn do they? This one is going to learn a lesson it’s going to teach it’s kin.’
Kreg stopped the rotisserie and moved it away from the fire. He picked out his favourite weapon, his double sided polearm, and walked with a pumped chest towards the demon. Just as he stepped out of the circle, the demon came out of the bushes.
‘Ah, what have we here,’ Kreg said out of surprise.
The demon glowed of Indigo color even in the night; it stalked on all fours rustling its steps as its crystal like armor flexed with its movements. It was bigger than a fire demon by a bit and walked like a spoiled house cat. Its horns protruded a crown around its head pointing back to the darkness behind. It seemed to not care of Kreg’s growing acceleration towards it.
‘Hey Troff have you seen one of these before?’
‘No never, be careful we don’t know what it can do.’
‘Ah, piece of Krasian cake, Brother,’ as the distance between him and the demon became only around 10 feet. Troff gave the ground a scratching with his weapon as he slowed to meet the demon eye to eye. The noise attracted its attention, and their eyes met.
The Demon wasn’t a Demon at all, it was just a little girl curled up crying as blood leaked from her head, through her hair.
‘Troff, come help me, girl are you alright?’
‘GET AWAY, YOU ARE ONLY HERE TO HURT ME!’
‘NO, I’m here to help, did the Demons do this?’
‘NO, NO NO NO! MEN DID THIS HUMANS LEAVING ME OUT, OUT IN THIS NIGHT.’
‘We are not the same, my brother and I will take care of you,’ said Troff now kneeling in front of her. He reached out and lost three fingers from his pinky as he was yanked backwards by Kreg.
‘What the Core were you doing, trying to get yourself killed?’ the demon chewed with a cynical grin as it looked straight back at him, re-morphing into the girl as she held out her hand missing three finger. She gave a little giggle and melted into the ground.
Troff sat back as he shook his head back to reality, and watched Kreg try to pry his sword out of the ground.
‘Whatever that was , it was messing with my head, I saw little girl and tried to help,’ he held his hand in the air and looked at the already cauterized wound sizzle.
‘It took your flesh and went back to the core; bastard is probably showing off to the others right now.’
Nightmare Demon Size: around the size of a mountain lion.
Where it spawns from the core: Anywhere vulnerable prey are, usually an isolated victim.
Ability: To overpower your will and induce hallucination upon eye contact.
Weakness: the mind ward, water will scare it, but stabbing and beheading it works best with a warded sword/axe. Also avoid eye contact. It’s very uncommon, very rarely seen by anyone, and the prey usually don’t survive. It travels alone and comes in different colored dull crystal armor. The only ward that works against it is the one Arlen used on his forehead against the mind demon.
This Demon is almost sister to the Mind Demon and is also considered ‘royalty’ among the other demons. Its behaviour is like a spoiled cat and like a spoiled cat it also hates water. It’s teeth horns and claws are razor sharp and when they cut they burn with demon magic.
Hope you guys like it 🙂
Thank you to Suf for sharing his story with us. I love that the Nightmare Demon is compared to a spoiled house cat!
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