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Pierce could feel the wind howling in his ears as he ran. Daemos weren’t meant to run from danger, but he had no choice. A rebellion of humans had taken him off guard while he was resting.
And he really did not want to have to kill them all. They had families, lives beyond being harvested for souls. Another weakness.
He ducked under a purple branch, almost not seeing it in Daemos’ eternal darkness. The roots that had removed themselves from the ground nearly tripped him, if he hadn’t been quick enough to regain his footing. The spirits deep within the forest either hissed at him or ran from the commotion.
Such beautiful creatures. He felt bad about disrupting them.
A human with long raven hair and menacing hazel eyes came out of the brush, catching Pierce off guard. He
barely
had time to bring his sword up before hers came down. The clang rang out through the air as Pierce fell backward, barely staying on his feet.
Well, fuck. That allowed the other humans to catch up to him. Axes, swords, bows, daggers, torches, even the odd pickaxe. Hateful, menacing eyes glared at him. It was about fifty humans versus one Daemos.
Yes, Pierce knew how to count. Not read or write, but he could count.
His eyes narrowed as he looked over them all. Not good odds at all for him. And Pierce knew he was valuable as Rhal’s general. It’d hurt the army badly to lose a general. And he knew those humans knew.
So, he ran again. The human he shoved fell to the ground with an ‘oof!’ Thorns and branches dug into Pierce’s skin and he could feel blood starting to slowly trickle down his arms. The humans followed him, making a racket that echoed through the woods.
Pierce couldn’t run forever, he knew that. He was outnumbered by far. This wasn’t a battlefield where he had a shield and backup on all sides.
They’d kill him, no doubt about that. Would they make it as painless as possible? Pierce had always done that. Would karma at least allow that death for him, despite all he’d done?
But… Pierce didn’t want to die. Okay, that was a lie. He was content with them killing him, admittingly. Because he deserved it and he had failed so much. But he could convince himself otherwise. That he
had
to fight and win. Or at least fight to the death.
The humans came back through the trees and plants, surrounding him. Pierce could feel cuts starting to burn on his legs and he wondered if he’d run into any poisonous plants.
“There he is!” a human cheered, thrusting their torch into the air. Pierce’s eyes narrowed as he tightened his grip on his sword.
If it came down to killing, he could at least get some of the weaker links. One human had a limp and favored his right leg. Another had a lazy eye. Another had an arm that had obviously been set wrong. All obvious weaknesses. But, the question was, would he be alive long enough to target those?
A dagger came Pierce’s way, and he barely had time to deflect it with his sword. An arrow whizzed past his ear, and he heard a human cry out as it struck them instead. Pierce barely rolled out of the way of a sword, cursing to himself under his breath.
Yeah. He was fucked.
As Pierce blocked another sword, he felt a dagger carve into his back. He gave out a yell as he felt the blood seep into his clothes. The attacks kept coming, and Pierce was a cornered animal. Very quickly, Pierce found himself against a tree, hair hanging around his face, left arm bleeding, and his right leg hurt to stand on.
There was only one hope Pierce may have. And… well… at least if it backfired on him, there would be more souls to collect.
When the next sword charged at him, Pierce ducked again, before trying to summon magic. He barely knew how to anymore. He’d been warned it was too dangerous, and he’d seen it back in his childish years.
Come on…. Fire magic, please. Don’t summon the fucking ice magic…
Success. A small fireball came into Pierce’s open hand. And, for a moment, Pierce hoped it would
stay
that way long enough to work.
But it didn’t. As soon as the humans spotted it, it began to grow and
burn
. Pierce yelped in pain as he felt it shoot up his arm. The fire grew and grew and screams and smoke filled the air. And then it exploded, and Pierce fell down, unconscious.
“.... waking up!”
“Oh, Pierce, you’re……”
“Get up!”
“
Your highness
, do not hit the bu…..”
Pierce’s eyes slowly opened, before he groaned. Then he was aware of a stinging pain in his left arm. Like what Asch had hit.
“Oh! Pierce, you’re alive!” Noi said, relief evident in his tone. He was by the cot Pierce had found himself lying on, kneeling by it as his hands had a soft glow to them.
“Good. I didn’t drag his-”
“
Leif
.” Rhys’ exasperated tone did not go unnoticed as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
“-back here,” Leif continued from where he was hanging upside down on one of the many torch holders. Wait. Torch. Fire.
Pierce looked down at himself. Sure enough, his left arm was wrapped up, as well as most of his left side. And his hair had been cut to
just
below his shoulders.
“What…?” Pierce asked. His throat felt dry and raspy, and he could still feel the smoke settled into his nose.
“You…. Well, the forest caught on fire and Rhys suggested we go check and out and we got there and there
were
a lot of souls and you were all burnt and we took you back here,” Noi rambled on, one hand moving to move about as if he were acting out what had happened.
“Noi!” Asch snapped. His black eyes were narrowed and his arms were tightly crossed over his chest. “Silence.”
“Sorry,” Noi mumbled, dropping his head.
Well, that would explain why Pierce’s arm felt near-useless. He just hoped it would heal quickly. He really wouldn’t like to lose that limb.
“Pierce. What you did was reckless and idiotic,” Asch’s harsh tone began. Rhys moved to cut him off, but Asch put up his hand and Rhys returned to standing by Noi. “You
know
that you can’t use your magic.” Pierce’s eyes dropped to watch Noi’s hands as he worked his (albeit weak) healing magic.
Asch kept on and on, but, due to years of experience with the two princes, Pierce managed to tune him out. Leif teleported over at some point and used his own healing magic on the burnt arm. At least that kept the pain away.
But Pierce knew more was always to come.