by George Fry
“When did they build that!?”
“I dunno.”
"Well, can't we take a boat?"
"What? And get stuck on it forever? Even I don't have the guts for that."
Upon reaching the foot of the bridge they noticed a large group of soldiers guarding the entrance. While Dale and Amanda were hesitant to force their way past them, Drifter paid them no mind.
He leapt over the human blockade, catching their attention immediately.
“Hey!” One of the soldiers yelled, as they all pointed their rifles at Drifter, who didn’t even bother to face them.
“No citizens are allowed on the bridge!”
“Okay.” Drifter replied, ignoring their orders.
“Stop! We have full authorisation to use force!”
“Okay.”
The soldiers took shots at Drifter, but he just kept walking further away as the bullets bounced off him.
“Hold your fire!” The badge laiden General ordered. “Shooting him is pointless.”
“General!?” One of the men remarked.
“Looks like your brother was right.”
While the guards were distracted, Dale and Amanda took the opportunity to run past them. They were caught, but as some of the soldiers readied their weapons again, the General stopped them.
“Halt! Those must be the companions he told us about.”
“What do we do?”
“We've already done our job, but I am curious to see what’ll happen, now that the man in the white coat has arrived.”
Strolling down the bridge, a deep fog started rolling in. Thankfully this wasn’t the result of a demon, but rather, good old fashioned British weather.
A figure soon came into view. A man leaning on a car, waiting for someone. The man noticed Drifter and his companions and started moving towards them until the two parties met.
“Just when I thought I’d finally gotten rid of you, ginger twat.” Drifter complained.
“Nice to see you too, Drifter.” Richard greeted.
“What are you doing here?”
"I've been following your movements and you've been moving a lot this past week. That's pretty out of character for you. I'm guessing something's about to go down here, right?"
"Hey, you actually did your job." Drifter praised, before immediately walking past him.
“I’ve done some sleuthing this past week.” Richard explained. “About your first kill.”
“Neat.”
“Know anything about the destroyed house on Mound Street, Drifter?”
“Nope.”
“I looked up the records of that house, but couldn’t find anything on whoever lived there.”
“Guess, no one lived there then.”
“No. There’s definitely evidence that it was inhabited, but the owner’s have completely vanished and their records erased.”
“Okay! See ya!”
“Wait! That’s not all I found out! I know your secret!”
Drifter ignored Richard’s cries and kept walking.
“I know why you always seem to be around whenever demons show up!”
Richard’s words fell on deaf ears, as Drifter disappeared into the fog.
“Is this guy for real? Does he really not care?”
“I don’t think so.” Dale answered. “So, what’s this secret?”
“I suppose you should know. The demons plaguing this country, Drifter isn’t hunting them down, they’re hunting Drifter. Wherever he goes, demons follow.”
“Wait!” Amanda yelled. “You mean all these demon attacks are his fault!?”
“Hard to say, but that guy is definitely a demon magnet, but I have no idea why.”
It took a moment, but the penny finally dropped, as Dale yelled.
“The sword! Drifter told me that demons are always after his sword! That must be it! All these years, he’s been moving from place to place, to keep them off his trail!
If he were to settle down anywhere, that place would become a hotspot of demon activity! He’d put himself and everyone around him in danger!”
“If that’s the case, then why doesn’t he just go someplace where there aren’t people around!?” Amanda retorted.
“Could you live the rest of your life like that?”
“Well… I… no…”
“When you think about it, it’s kind of a sad existence.”
“No wonder he’s always so cranky.”
While the others discussed Drifter’s crankiness further, the man himself moved on, until his path was blocked by three mysterious figures, one of whom he quickly recognised.
“Catherine, what the fuck are you doing?”
Chapter 13: Too Human
✽✽✽
“How’d you know it was me with all this fog!?”
“I can sense you, stupid.”
“Dammit! There goes the element of surprise!”
“What are you doing?”
“Just taking my new pets for a walk.” She boasted.
“Ew, you’re into that?”
“Don’t be gross! They’re low class demons! I brought them back from the demon world as souvenirs.”
“Why?”
“To fight you with!”
Drifter sighed, fighting her pets felt like a chore. He instead took this opportunity to entertain himself.
“Dale! Amanda! Get your arses over here!”
“Calling your friends!? Too scared to fight them yourself!?”
“They’re more acquaintances and I’m not fighting your dumb dogs, Cathy.”
“Are you afraid?”
“What?” Drifter laughed.
“Maybe you’ve sensed how much stronger I’ve gotten and are too scared to fight.”
“Have you been ingesting stupid pills?”
“We’re here.” Amanda answered.
“Cool. Take care of the jobbers will ya?”
“Hold on, we need to talk about you and these demons.”
“There’s nothing to talk about. If they want this sword they’ll have to pry it from my cold dead fingers.”
“But, what about all the damage you’re causing, the people you've hurt?”
“That’s nothing compared to what would happen if this sword fell into the wrong hands.”
“Amanda.” Dale interrupted. “You can yell at Drifter later. Let’s just get rid of these guys.”
The opposing demons were tall and humanoid in shape, but their skin covered their entire body like a thin wrapper. They had no recognisable features. Feet with no toes, giant hammer like arms with no hands and round, smooth heads with no face or chin to distinguish between their neck and head. Just grey sack like mannequins with jerky movements.
Dale analysed their body’s. Their large, lumbering, gorilla like arms seemed to keep them balanced, an obvious weak point worth exploiting. He rushed in, attempting to slice the arm clean off, but a split second before his blade made contact, all the muscle inside the arm disappeared, leaving a limp hanging skin sack.
Missing his target, Dale stopped in his tracks, looking up at the monster, grossed out and confused. All the mass inside it’s arm had compiled into its shoulder, creating a large throbbing lump under its skin. Frozen in bewilderment, Dale couldn’t fathom what the creature was trying to do.
Pointing its deflated limb at Dale’s face, the mass of innards shot through the arm back into its dumbbell fists, like a balloon rapidly filling with lead, smashing Dale’s face like a wrecking ball as he flew across the road, crashing into the curb.
“Neat.” Drifter commented.
The second grey creature lunged after Amanda. Having witnessed their unorthodox abilities, she quickly took potshots at the lumbering monster, but her bullets didn’t seem to phase it. The shots aimed at the arms bounced off the thick muscle and the monster avoided headshots by simply deflating its skull.
Amanda jumped away as the demon threw its arms down, imprinting its fists in the concrete.
“It de
flects bullets and flashbangs won’t work against something that doesn’t have any damn eyes… am I really gonna have to jump straight to using explosives already?”
She leapt back and readied her rocket.
“Fuck it. Let’s just go all in and see what happens.”
She took aim and fired. As the rocket drew closer, the creature sent all of its innards into its arms and legs, stretching its empty torso like rubber. The rocket was caught in the fleshy net of skin, and like a slingshot, the creature flung the explosive back to Amanda.
“What!?”
She dove to the floor as the rocket flew over her, crashing into Drifter who took the full brunt of its explosive force without even flinching. He didn’t even try to dodge.
“I thought you said they were just jobbers!?” Amanda ranted.
“They are.” Drifter replied.
“What the hell kind of definition of ‘jobbers’ are you thinking of, boy!?”
“You know, the usual.”
“What in God’s name are you talking about!?”
“Just… find their weakness, okay? This isn’t hard.”
“Easy for you to say, Mr. Invincible Man! How am I supposed to do that!?”
“Stop bitching and figure it out!”
“I’m not-!”
A terrifying presence suddenly loomed over Amanda. The monster crept up undetected, with it’s powerful arms about to hammer down upon her. Amanda felt the hairs on her neck stand up as she instinctively jumped aside, avoiding its arms busting the bridge, creating a force that sent her flying, landing flat on her chest.
“Dammit, that hurt… I ain’t no demon. I can’t go flying around like that…”
She pulled herself up and immediately dodged out of the way of the demon’s follow-up strike. Amanda scrambled to run to the other side of the bridge. The demons were fast, but only in short aggressive bursts, it took some time for them to recover before they could give chase again.
Meanwhile, the second grey sack of flesh found Dale, crumpled at the edge of the bridge, his face bloodied from the impact. The only thing separating him from a thirty foot drop into the ocean was a small wall just underneath a railing.
Dale pulled himself together, but could only muster the strength to stand on his knees and watch as the monster’s blank face hung over him. It raised its arm for the finishing blow, which was exactly what Dale hoped for.
Feigning serious injury, he zoomed under the monster’s fist, evading the hammer.
“Time for a swim!”
Before the creature could recover, Dale punched into its back with all his power, hoping to drop it into the ocean, but the monster didn’t budge an inch.
A sharp pain spread throughout Dale’s hand until it went numb. The bones shattered. It felt like he had just punched solid steel.
“FUCK! What is this thing!?”
Without turning around, the creature pooled half of its weight into its leg, using it to balance itself, as the other half went into its arm. With a quick 180 swing, the demon planned to copy Dale’s tactics by using its arm to throw him into the water.
As Dale watched the grotesquely enlarged limb fly towards him, time slowed down, as his mind raced to find a way to stop this seemingly impenetrable monster. As he watched the hammer of death draw ever closer, that’s when he saw it. The weak point. The flaw in its technique.
He immedately ducked under the hammer and jumped aside. With his broken hand steal healing he needed full concentration to pull off his counterattack. Now that he understood where its openings lay, his mindset completely changed.
Replacing his impulsive and sporadic need to hack and slash at his enemies, was a more focused and deliberate approach. All he had to do was patiently wait for his target to reappear, like a sniper waiting for the perfect shot.
Just wait. Wait for the demon to come to him. Wait for them to make a move. The demon enlarged its fists again, but Dale paid no attention to them. The fists were not his targets. Its fists were raised, but again, he did not move. As soon as they came within in an inch of his face, that's when he struck.
Before anyone knew it, Dale had moved at an exceptional speed and cut his target. The demon’s waist had been slashed open, like a ripped bag. The grey sacks manipulated their innards to strengthen specific points in their body. These innards moved so fast it seemed impossible to counter them.
To the average person, it would be a flawless defense, however to those with speed on their side, the openings in their attacks, no matter how small, were easily exploitable. Strike at the deflated spots when they’re attacking and they’ll be helpless to stop you.
With all the innards inside the fists, the waist was left empty, making it incredibly easy for Dale to rip it open, before it finished its attack and could defend itself. The demon toppled over under its own weight.
In a fit of desperation, it tried punching at Dale with all its might, but that left its remaining arm vulnerable, allowing Dale to simply slice off the unoccupied limb, leaving the innards inside exposed.
The hole was so large, Dale easily tore off the rest of the skin, revealing the squirming organs within. Dragging the innards out of the sack, the demon had been reduced to a pile of wriggling organs and muscle with no skeleton or skin to give it form. One stomp on the exposed brain was all it took to kill it.
Amanda got the hint, she focused too much on power instead of precision. She transformed her gun into a rifle, a weapon with powerful piercing bullets. The second grey sack dumped all its innards into its foot and threw itself forward, hoping to crush Amanda before she tried anything.
Its efforts were in vain. From Amanda’s perspective, its body was shielded by its massive hammer foot, except for the flabby skin, flapping on the side. She shot the wrinkled skin, the bullet easily piercing through it, after which she dodged to the side to avoid being crushed.
With its leg punctured the creature was forced to move on its hammer arms to hide its vulnerable spot. Its limited mobility gave Amanda the perfect chance to fire more bullets into it, hoping to pierce more flesh, but the strength of the grey sack’s innards had not been diminished, bulking up to deflect the bullets.
Just when the monster seemed confident in its rock-hard defense, Amanda changed her weapon again, this time to an anti-tank machine gun. A weapon so large and heavy it needed its own stand to be used effectively. Useless in most combat situations, but against an immobile target, it was practically overkill.
“You don't seem to have an asshole, let me tear you some new ones.”
Amanda fired an ungodly number of bullets into the creature. No matter how tough its skin may be, the relentless hailstorm of armour grating gunfire was far too much for it. Small holes started popping all over its body.
As cathartic as pumping lead into the demon was, Amanda couldn’t keep it up for long. Overusing her gun’s powers was a strain on her own stamina and this was beyond overuse. For her final move, she dropped one of her light bombs into her hand.
The creature was still recovering from the onslaught it endured. There was nowhere left on its body to safely move its innards. Amanda had no problem dropping the light bomb inside one of the holes of its skin and walking away. A burst of white light fired from the hundreds of holes in the demon’s sack, until the creature’s insides were obliterated in a concealed explosion.
Drifter applauded them, genuinely entertained by their battle, far more entertained than if he had blown them to pieces himself.
“Still feeling depressed?” He asked Amanda.
“I couldn’t! If I stayed depressed it would have killed me!”
“Now you’re getting it.”
Dale rejoined group.
“Well, that’s two down and one to go…”
Amanda stood a few feet away, her arms folded trying to keep her cool, hardly containing her anger, like a stroppy teenager.
“What’s gotten you all pissy?” Drifter mocked.
“You’re not taking me seriou
sly!” She yelled.
“Should I?”
“Yes! I’m Locke’s only friend! His right hand demon! Why aren’t you trying to beat answers out of me!? Am I not demon enough for you!?”
“Locke will show up whether I fight you or not. This whole exercise is pointless.”
“Pointless!? Fight me, you coward!”
“No.”
“After everything you did! My home! My grandparents! My life! Now you’re pushing me aside like trash!?”
“And, here we go…”
“I did not spend a whole week, fending for myself in that shitty wasteland, just for you to ignore me!
I was alone. Starved with no water. I thought I was going to die, but I kept pushing on. If I hadn’t, if I had just given up and died, I would have never awakened my dormant demon instincts.
The monsters I ran and hid from. The demonic powers I kept bottled up inside… I pushed my body’s endurance to its limit, until I couldn’t take anymore! My head pounded from lack of sleep, lack of food, or water.
I could feel the predators slowly closing in on me, waiting for me to kick the bucket so they could use my remains for whatever twisted desires they had.
I could feel them glaring. Hear them breathing. Patiently biding their time, until I collapsed. I couldn’t move. I was exhausted. But, I could still hear them. Hovering over me like vultures.
I had no strength! No help! I was about to die, all alone! But I refused! Not like this! And then, just as I was about to slip into unconsciousness, something inside me… broke.
It was like a warrior’s spirit suddenly raged within me. A part of me I neglected my whole life had finally been released and… I killed them. I murdered another living creature with my own hands. I slaughtered them all. Ripped them apart. I feasted on their remains, like a ravenous monster, just to save myself.
After all these years posing as a human, I could finally become what I was always supposed to be… a demon!
That’s why, Drifter, I have to fight you! Not just for revenge, but to prove to myself! That I’m a true demon! I need to put my new powers to the ultimate test and- huh?”
Catherine had gotten so worked up over recounting her journey in the Demon World, she hadn’t noticed, Drifter and the others had already passed right by her, ignoring her tale.