The pale light radiating from the sliver of a moon was blocked out by a lone cloud drifting overhead. The rolling hills were bathed in darkness and shadow. The scattering of trees creaked from the soft wind.
In the Ciel army, a soldier yawned while standing watch. Little could be seen beyond the small ring of light flickering from his torch. All was still until shrill, bloodcurdling screams shattered the silence.
Three soldiers stumbled out of the darkness as they ran for their life. Their faces and armor were covered in blood. On their heels was a horrible monster born of tentacles and spikes. The Demonkin let out a ferocious roar as it chased the three soldiers.
The night watchman was startled awake as he put a whistle to his lips. Thousands of sleeping soldiers leapt to their feet as the Demonkin chased the three wounded soldiers towards the military encampment. A compliment had to be given to the training of the Ciel Empire. Within seconds of the whistle being blown, more than a hundred soldiers had rushed to the edge of the palisades that surrounded the encampment.
The three terrified soldiers scrambled through the gaps in the wooden stakes and into the ranks of the Ciel soldiers. The Demonkin was close behind as it crashed through the sharpened logs as if they were toothpicks.
An officer wearing a blue coat with oversized shoulder pads stood behind the soldiers and shouted at the men. “Hold firm! Remember your training and lock the beast down.”
Rows of soldiers stepped forward to surround the Demonkin. Each soldier wielded a strangely shaped spear that had a large hook under the primary blade.
With new targets in sight, the Demonkin attacked the soldiers attempting to surround it. Sharp bone spikes pierced through armor as it was made of paper. The creature was a mass of tentacles that attacked in every direction with ease. It carved a path of blood through any soldier brave enough to approach it. Dozens died but for every soldier the Demonkin cut down, two more were there to take his place.
Soldiers stabbed at the Demonkin to little avail. Even the strongest of men barely left scratches on the creature’s tough hide. However, after the soldiers stabbed at the Demonkin, they pulled back their strangely shaped spears and hooked one of the flailing tentacles. A single lone soldier was not enough to pin down the spiked appendage but dozens of soldiers working together were. Once one tentacle was restrained, the other soldiers had an easier time approaching. Blood soaked the ground as more than a hundred soldiers were sacrificed but, soon enough, the Demonkin was completely pinned to the ground by the skilled Ciel soldiers.
Unable to fight anymore, the Demonkin could only watch as the brightly colored commander approached. A nearby soldier handed him a large halberd that looked more like an oversized executioner’s axe than a proper weapon. The commander struggled to even lift the weapon as he raised it over his head. The Demonkin struggled, throwing off a few of the soldiers, but was unable to free itself as the heavy executioner’s blade came down on its neck. The heavy weapon only managed to cut a finger’s width into the monster. Green flames leaked from the injury on the Demonkin’s neck. The officer narrowed his eyes but did not hesitate as he brought the blade down again. It took nearly a minute of repeated blows, but eventually, the Demonkin’s head was hewn from its body and rolled to the floor. The glowing green of its eyes stared up at the commander as they slowly began to fade.
One of the three soldiers that had been fleeing the horrible creature approached the commander in relief. “Thank you, commander, you saved our life!”
The commander clasped the soldier on the shoulder with a smile. “Not a problem, it was just a…"
The commander was never able to finish his sentence as a blade sunk into his chest. The previously terrified soldier leaned close to the commander with a smile on his face. He plunged the dagger deeper into the man’s heart. His eyes now glowed a bright green. “The Empress sends her regards.”
The commander clutched his chest as he collapsed to the ground. The surrounding soldiers acted quickly to cut down the undead soldier but it was already too late. Their commander was dead.
Simultaneously, on the other side of the encampment, another captain was in charge of commanding a section of the night watch. He patrolled the edge of the encampment dutifully, making sure none of the watchmen fell asleep at their post and keeping them alert.
In the dark of the night, the captain never noticed the large shadow that passed overhead. There was no sound or warning before a pair of talons clamped down on his shoulders. In the blink of an eye, the captain was whisked by a large feathered Demonkin. His shrieks rapidly faded into the distance as he was lifted up into the sky. A few moments later, they became louder again as the captain plummeted back down to the earth. His body splattered onto the ground with the sickening sound of breaking bones.
Men screamed in shock and terror as the corpse landed near a squad of sleeping soldiers. Within moments, they were up in arms but the feathered Demonkin had already flown back into the shadows of the night sky in search of its next unsuspecting prey.
After these two incidents, the entire army was put on high alert. Soldiers stood in heavy armor as they stared out into the darkness. Just beyond their vision, undead men screamed in shrill shrieks of terror and undead Demonkin roared viscously. These undead never approached the military camp and just circled the outskirts. They stuck to the shadows and out of sight as their voices echoed through the night.
Soldiers of the Ciel army shook in fear. Hardened men turned to blubbering children. They stared into the darkness and jumped at every shadow. However, after an hour of nothing happening, the soldiers started to regain their bravery despite the continued cries in the night.
It was at this time that a small group of beggared men approached the camp. Nearly ten men approached the camp with their arms above their heads. They had no armor or weapons. “Don’t attack! We are friendlies!” one of the disheveled men shouted, “We were captured during the assault but managed to escape.”
“Shoot down the undead spies,” a commander said coldly.
One of the soldiers nodded and pointed to a group of archers. The ten escapees did not get a chance to say another word before they were riddled with dozens of arrows. The man leading the group of escapees grasped at an arrow protruding from his chest. Red blood soaked his clothes.
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“Wh…y,” The man gasped before falling still forever.
The Ciel soldiers turned to look at the commander that had given the order with accusatory stares. The man’s face went pale as he looked out at the dead and dying, loyal soldiers of the Ciel Empire.
Not even fifteen minutes after the incident, another group of impoverished men approached the encampment. They claimed to have escaped just as the men before. The commander hesitated this time before he spoke.
“Bring them in at blade point and test if they bleed. Be ready in case any are undead.”
The surrounding soldiers nodded in approval. They pushed open the palisade to allow the escapees into the encampment. Spears were held at the ready, just in case one or all of them turned out to be undead.
The escapees were checked before they passed the palisade. The first four each had their hands cut and each bled red. The soldiers let out a sigh of relief and started to relax and welcome the men back. That all changed when the fifth man stepped forward. He suddenly broke rank and sprinted past the barricade and into the line of soldiers closest to the commander. His eyes burned green as he bit down on a small blue crystal.
Golden fire exploded in every direction, instantly killing a dozen men and wounding many more. Screams of pain echoed across the encampment as this scene was repeated in several locations.
Amidst the chaos, a lone feathered Demonkin was able to swoop down several times. It caught unprepared commanders with the expertise of a true predator before dropping them down to their death for all the army to witness.
The feathered Demonkin’s reign of terror only came to an end when it tried to grab one commander close to the center of camp, only to be caught in a domain. The feathered menace was forced to the ground where several soldiers delighted in hacking it to pieces.
After some time, nothing else happened. The remaining commanders and generals were able to get their men under control and bring order back to the army. Half the soldiers remained on high alert. The other half were told to rest but the constant screaming and roars that circled the encampment prevented anyone from being able to relax. It sounded as if hundreds were dying out in the shadows of the night every minute.
A little over an hour passed and once again, many soldiers began to calm down. They started to regain their confidence that the horrors in the dark could not reach them while surrounded by their comrades.
Unbeknown to the soldiers, hundreds of tiny insects had descended across the encampments. Fireflies, gnats, horseflies, and a myriad of other flying insects had spread out in every direction. They landed on tents, wagons, and palisades. Nobody noticed as their little eyes turned green. Their bodies burst into embers of green flame as they crawled across everything flammable they could find. The little bodies of the insects could not hold a vast quantity of green flames and soon they fell over dead but in the few minutes they had, the insects caused more damage than a hundred rampaging Demonkin.
The small ember of the insects was not even capable of more than singeing a soldier but was more than enough to catch tents and bedrolls aflame. A wave of panic once again washed over the soldiers as they hurried to put out the fires that consumed their camp.
A small moth landed on a wagon for transporting food. It burst into flame but before it could spread, another domain encompassed the wagon and extinguished the fire. The strategic resources of the army were well protected and none of the insects were able to do any significant damage to the army’s supplies.
As soon as the soldiers broke rank to put out the surrounding fires, more Demonic roars rang out from the shadows of the night. This time, however, they did not stay in the shadows. Three dozen Demonkin burst through a burning barrier. They moved in formation as rampaged through the disorderly ranks of the Ciel troops. Armored men and women were torn to shreds as if thrown into a gigantic meat grinder. None of them were prepared to stop the stampede of Demonkin as it raged through thousands.
The common soldiers were the lucky ones. The charging Demonkin ignored them for the most part, only attacking those directly in their path. The commanding officers, however, were not so fortunate. The Demonkin sought out anyone wearing an officer’s uniform with unrelenting fury. They only gave up their target once he was ground into a paste.
The horde of Demonkin cared nothing for their own safety or wellbeing as they charged into the heart of the enemy army. Countless soldiers landed solid blows that eventually broke through the tough hide of the Demonkin. Many of the stampeding monsters incurred injuries that might have stopped or at least slowed a normal Demonkin. Unfortunately for these soldiers, the undead were not concerned, no matter how bad the injury.
The stampede and raging fires that consumed the camp were only brought to a halt when three domains pressed down on the encampment. The Ciel Empire was forced to show all its cards as the domain warriors attempted to put an end to the chaos. This did not, however, bring an end to the nightmare of the soldiers as poisonous snakes and spiders slipped into the encampment.
I sat at the edge of the plateau, sipping a cup of tea as I looked down at the distant Ciel army. Fires dotted the landscape and deserters fled the army in terror of what else I might have planned. It was a good night.