Swept

Rachel stared at the serpent type demon that was not a serpent type demon. She had no apprehension in looking at it head on and she studied it intently.

She could tell it was of a demon race. She had not doubt in this but she could not tell what race. And this was odd and a bit disconcerting for her.

She searched the memories of the Milana and her eyes widened. Draco-demon!? Her eyes roamed over the length of its body and understood it was not a serpent but some form of mutated dragon.

It's body was long and it's scales had no shine. They were dull and jagged and in colors of black, grey, and a muted orange.

She realized what it was rather quickly. When something had endangered the realm it maintained a position forefront in the of the Milana consciousness. It was always one of the first memories offered to a Milana when the searched through the consciousness.

This creature knew she was Milana not because it had met Rachel before but because it had met a Milana of the past.

It was a Demon Thrall. A creature that even terrified demon lords. It was born when a demon sacrificed a sufficient amount of lives due to illness or enthrallment.

A demon Thrall could be born from any species of demon when the individual solely sought power and domination.

It smiled at Rachel. Its crystalline eyes twinkling despite the lack of light.

"You are so young Milana." It smiled and revealed its mouth full of sharp teeth menacingly. "You found me so much faster than last time. I am excited, annoyed, and disappointed. But I promise you I will never return again. I…"

"… Just thought I was weak enough for you to handle? Thought I was too young to be able to fight you. You told both Milana Amber and Milana Sans that you would never return again." Rachel tilted her head quizzically. "Why should you be believed this time? "

The entire time they spoke the demon Thrall was repositioning its body. It made the most minute changes in small movements. Movements that seemed to small for its size.

Rachel saw it all. She sensed the mounting danger with its every move.

To know it was lying was unimportant because she knew that when it first made its promise for the third time.

She wanted to know its weaknesses. She wanted to know its agenda. She wanted to know why it kept returning and if others had similar ideas.

Power surreptitiously welled up within her. She sensed that Struns was ready. Her face remained emotionless as she continued moving forward at a steady yet casual pace.

The demon thrall watched her. Eyes glistening, a smile playing on its lips and fangs dripping with viscous venom. It knew it could not enthrall her but it was not sure if it could beat her. It was not even sure if it could escape if she decided to attack.

Now he was hoping he could intimidate her. But as she continued moving towards it emotionlessly, without hesitation, doubt was growing deep within it.

"Come friend. And we are friends. This is the third time you have lied to my face, although the face was different each time." She nodded as if agreeing to an obviously true statement after she spoke.

A small smile lightly creased her lips and she was suddenly in furious motion. Before the demon Thrall could react two sorcery spells hit three of the bulging "hills", the fourth was hit by soul magics, and a mental attack struck the demon thrall between its beautiful sea green eyes.

All at once two of the demon thrall's bulges exploded while a third imploded. Those that exploded oozed Stanger viscous purple fluid while the other sank into itself and squirmed as if a multitude of things wanted to escape. The demon thrall gritted its teeth, driving its fangs into its lips.

Before it could regroup Struns attacked the fourth bulge. He appeared above the swelling, forcefully drove his dagger in and rode it down its side leaving a gaping maw of a gash in his wake.

The demon thrall was still slow to react but once it did it moved far quicker than its size should have allowed. Rachel teleported Struns to her just as a spiked scale stabbed deep into the soil where he had just stood.

Spiked scales flew from every direction as the demon thrall moved swiftly behind them. Its head moved to Rachel while his tail sought Struns.

"Milana you are a bit more powerful than your predecessors and much quicker than I thought. Still you underestimate me."

Rachel once again fought not to roll her eyes. Talking to distract her was a bit annoying.

She wore a set of light clothing that hugged her body. As she moved and dodged parts of this clothing shot out to fight and defend. Scales were broken before reaching Rachel's range of attack and quite suddenly the demon thrall's eye burst, a strand of orange light dissipating on contact.

The demon thrall winced in pain but did mot say anything. It knew that most of its thralls had been destroyed. When it enthralled a creature said creature needed to incubate within the demon thrall for at least three days. Two incubations had just started, one still needed a day and the other needed a few hours.

All of those incubating had been destroyed but it had other thralls in this realm and two others.

It moved back and into a defensive posture.

"What is wrong? Did you miscalculate?" As Rachel moved forward her sorcery melded with healing and flowed below, deep into the ground, toward the demon thrall. Her body became shrouded in a dense rainbow cloak, the hood raised high over here head, covering her face.

She looked through the cloak of light and saw the demon thrall's weaknesses and she was not happy. She only saw two and they were both a great distance away from her. One was inches from the tip of its tail deep within a stack of dense scales. The second was in the center of the central point of its massive body. She suspected the second was either its heart or soul well.

Still she moved forward. Strands of light flared before her and some outward in a wide Spiral of color. The strands spread out and struck the demon thrall like a multi strand whip. As the strands struck the thrall different magics and spells flowed through its body.

She used sorcery, mental and soul magics. She was not sure but she felt she was stronger than the thrall so her mental and soul magics would be stronger than it.

Rachel told Struns the two weak points on the giant thrall. He foolishly chose the one close to the tail. Getting to the tail was not a problem. A bodyguard-assassin would have multiple ways to move quickly or teleport. He was foolish because the area was probably the second most defended place on the thrall's body. And sense the first was probably the area of the other weakness what was the difference? But he wanted to help as much as he could. He knew Rachel was going to do all of the heavy lifting.

He had already struck the scales near the tail with two of his best techniques. He had more but as soon as he struck the tip the tail moved toward him at lightning speed and now when he closed in the thrall's defenses activated and it attacked as well.

Blood dripped from Struns eyes and ears, streamed from a wound on his back and his head was buzzing. He felt Rachel enter his mind and a soothing sensation flowed throughout his body.

As he healed he observed the thrall surreptitiously. He would not look directly at it and still it seemed to know his position. He faded into shadow just as four scales hit his previous position. He appeared, in shadow, in the trees over the thrall's tail.

He stubbornly looked at the tail. He chose this. He had to make this work. Rachel was distracting the thrall and moving toward the second target. He needed to work fast and help her as much as he could. He needed to prove his capability as an Antrunie.

Blood began seeping from pores in his skin as thick dark silver thin metal hairs began growing from them. He fell from his position above the thrall. His body struck the thrall, the metal hairs covering his body pricking unprotected flesh. A blue blade covered in blue flames dug deep into the thrall's flesh, bypassing scales as if they were paper to dig deep into flesh and muscle.

The thrall's body shuddered and Struns' mind went blank. His body instinctively followed his last thoughts. His hand moved and a spell streaked forth. The thrall's tail sliced open easily.

Just as a large faceted stone came into view Struns' mind cleared enough for him to understand what needed to be done. The blue blade flicked several times and the stone fell out.

The thrall stopped and all was quiet. Rachel was in the middle of casting when she realized the thrall was not moving, She pulled her magic back into her soul well and moved from the thrall.

It was deathly still and the world seemed frozen for a long moment. The thrall remained motionless but it also remained upright. It's head was high above the ground and it seemed like a statue.

'Struns?'

'It's dead.'

'Are you sure? The damn thing hasn't fallen. Its head is still Miles above the ground.'

'I pulled out a gem from the tail. I can't crush it but it no longer has any attachment to it.'

'You haven't crushed it? Okay. Bring it to me.' She thought for a moment. 'Wait. Let me try something first.'