Nightmare was slowly walking around the death pit looking for Leech. He had already sealed the injury on his arm and wrapped it. He looked as if he had barely taken any damage at all. He cracked his knuckles several times and waved again into the audience. Assuming Leech was hiding behind one of the large rocks, he started crushing them with his fists as he passed them.
Leech knew his only option was to stall, but he decided he should try and do some damage if he had the opportunity as well. It would be a good start to the apology that he knew he owed to Shadow. As Nightmare crushed the rock Leech was hiding behind, Leech jumped out and swung his battleaxe at one of Nightmare’s legs. It connected right above the ankle but it didn’t sink in very deep because Leech didn’t have enough strength to put much force behind the swing. Nightmare reached out to grab Leech but he had already jogged out of his reach and hidden behind another rock. His mission had been accomplished; he had injured Nightmare and bought himself some more time for his voice to return.
Nightmare removed the axe from his leg and threw the axe as far as he could. It came to rest in the ground several hundred yards outside of the death pit. As Leech watched his axe sail through the air, he tried to yell out that he quit but the sentence came out as a garbled mess. Many of the demons in the audience laughed. Venom cupped his hand around his ear informing Leech that he needed to speak up. Leech frowned, but as he turned his gaze back to Nightmare he realized that he needed to find a new hiding spot. His attempt to quit had given away his position. While Nightmare moved with a slight limp, Leech was horrified to discover that his stab at slowing him down had been mostly ineffective.
Leech was out of ideas so he decided to do what he had done against Andras. He ran to the sidewall, stabbed both of his daggers in, and began to climb. By the time Nightmare had made it to the sidewall and reached up to grab his leg, he had barely made it out of reach. His feet dangled no more than a few inches out of Nightmare’s outstretched hand. Leech wanted to climb higher but his strength was almost completely gone. Since he knew he was about to lose his grip, he did the first thing that came to mind. He removed one of his daggers from the wall, took aim, and threw it at Nightmare’s face. Nightmare swatted the blade away but he didn’t catch it before it left a small cut on the bridge of his nose. Leech’s strength completely gave out right after the blade connected and he half-jumped, half-fell off the wall. He rolled and came to a stop when his back hit one of the large rocks protruding from the floor.
Nightmare was there within seconds and he pinned Leech against the rock with his foot. Leech finally was able to yell out, “I quit.” It was hoarse, but everyone heard it and it was clear enough to be understood. One of the summoners went to pull Leech out, but Venom held up his hand and shook his head.
Realizing that Venom may have wanted him dead, Leech did the only thing he could think of now that he was out of options. As Nightmare drew back his fist and took aim, Leech grabbed Nightmare’s foot that was pinning him down and sank his teeth in. Nightmare responded by bringing his other foot to meet Leech’s face. Leech was knocked out cold from the blow. Nightmare reached back to deliver the punch that would end Leech’s life. As he came down with the final strike, his fist met the floor. Leech had disappeared.
The audience looked around to see what had happened. Both summoners looked at Venom and shrugged. Venom looked very angry.
“Who interfered? SHOW YOURSELF!”
Baal appeared next to Venom from a dark blue fire.
“I did. The little guy quit and you didn’t pull him out. If you’re not going to do your job properly, perhaps someone else should be placed in your position, Venom.”
“With all due respect, this doesn’t concern you, Baal. How I run the death pit is between me and Lucian.”
“See, the problem with that is I really don’t want to lose good potential recruits because Lucian doesn’t like them. Call your boss if you have a problem but I won’t discuss this anymore with you.”
Baal picked up Leech and handed him over to one of his servants.
“See that he gets the medical attention he needs. Retrieve his weapons and place them in his room. I want to be alerted to his condition if it changes. He’s a brave, resourceful little fighter.”
Baal turned to the audience.
“Nightmare wins. The final match, Shadow vs. Nightmare, will start tomorrow as scheduled.”
CHAPTER 12
As Shadow walked towards the death pit for the last time with a sword in each hand, the weight of what he was about to do finally hit him. He didn’t feel nervous. He felt angry. The beating Nightmare had given Leech was unnecessary and he knew it was a message for himself. Shadow wasn’t intimidated; he felt he was ready to finally put the Neanderthal in his place.
Nightmare was approaching the death pit slowly with the same mocking manner that he had used right before he fought Leech. As he waved to the audience, Shadow axe-kicked his hand back down to his side. Two demons appeared on either side of Shadow and pulled him back to his starting position.
“I’m in no mood for you to mock me. If you’re not going to take this seriously, though, by all means wave goodbye to your father because he’s about to watch his failure of a son die.”
Shadow pointed with his sword at Lucian’s private balcony and then continued.
“Go ahead. Wave goodbye, jackass. I’ll make sure your death comes quickly.”
Nightmare had clenched both hands into fists and stared angrily at Shadow but he relaxed his stance.
“I would give you the same advice but your father is Satan’s bitch several levels below us. So why don’t you go ahead and say your goodbyes to the floor? If you yell loud enough, maybe he’ll hear you.”
Venom signaled the beginning of the match and Shadow took immediate advantage of one of the wounds Leech had left on Nightmare. He spun and brought both swords down as hard as he could on Nightmare’s injured ankle. When his leg flew into the air from the momentum of the blow, Nightmare tried to steady himself on his other leg but Shadow took careful aim and drop-kicked his other leg right at the knee. Shadow had finally done what no other demon-in-training could have done, he brought down Nightmare.
As he stepped over his opponent, Shadow sheathed one of his swords and brought the other high in the air. He didn’t give any lengthy speech or take time taunting Nightmare. He simply looked down at him and said, “Fuck you.”
With that, he brought down his blade as hard as he could, aiming it directly at Nightmare’s throat. He felt his sword connect with something solid but looked down and saw that Nightmare had vanished. His blade had connected with the ground. He looked up at where Venom and his summoners stood and saw that one of them had removed Nightmare from his moment of death. Nightmare must have quit without Shadow hearing. Even better. Nightmare would be disgraced and humiliated for giving up this fight.
Shadow started walking slowly toward the exit, his anger finally starting to subside now that he had humiliated his archenemy. He only made it a few steps when he felt himself lifted up into the air and hurled at a rock several hundred feet away. As he fell to the floor, he felt a pain throbbing through his back and had trouble breathing. Nightmare hadn’t quit. Venom worked for Lucian and Lucian had rigged this fight. Shadow looked to Cain’s office, hoping he could point out what was going on and ask for some help but Cain wasn’t at his balcony. Shadow did the only thing he could think of; he hid until he was fully recovered. He had a feeling that this fight would stretch on for a lot longer than he was planning.
Cain had seen what Venom had done to keep Lucian’s son alive and he wasn’t going to allow that sort of shit to continue. He grabbed his scythe, disappeared from his office in a torrent of black fire, and appeared right behind Venom. He punched Venom through the back and his fist came out through Venom’s chest. Venom fell on the floor of Hell and oozed a black, blood-like substance. Cain let go of his scythe and it levitated in the air. He pointed at the summoner on his left and then at the on
e on his right. The scythe sailed through the air and decapitated both summoners and then returned to Cain’s outstretched hand. Baal whispered in one of his messenger’s ears and the messenger vanished.
“LUCIAN! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE!”
Lucian appeared in red flames in front of Cain, also wielding his scythe.
“You’re going to pay for that. You just killed one of my middle demons and two of my minor demons. I’ve already sent a messenger to the Dragon and he agrees that I’m to take you into custody. You’re looking at demotion for this one, Cain.”
“Well there are a couple of problems with that, Lucian. First, I don’t believe you. There’s no way you’ve talked to the Dragon already. Second, you’ve tried to take me into custody before and you couldn’t do it then... so what makes you think you could do it now?”
Everyone in the audience was shocked. The other major demons were at a loss as to what they should do. Middle demons and minor demons started to form ranks behind Cain and Lucian but both of them waved their armies off.
“So how does it feel knowing that my nephew kicked your son’s ass? I guess you must have been expecting it since you already had your backup plan in place.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I never asked Venom or his summoners to do anything. How do you know Nightmare wouldn’t have caught your nephew’s blade mid-strike and then kicked his ass?”
“Maybe its how quickly Shadow knocked him over and stabbed at his throat. I’m guessing that’s what convinced me.”
“Why are you hiding behind the little demons-in-training, Cain? If you want a piece of me, take a shot.”
“Gladly.”
Cain and Lucian lunged at each other but Baal brought his scythe down in between them before they could collide.
“Enough. I have the official decision of the Dragon right here.”
Baal’s messenger was bowing at his side and Baal opened a scroll and held it out for everyone to see Satan’s personal insignia.
“The Dragon has decided that I will oversee this match. Cain will lose the newly opened position of middle demon of torture to pay for the loss of Venom. A new instructor will be appointed that the six major demons will vote on after the match and the new middle demon instructor position will report to the Dragon directly so that nothing like this ever happens again.”
“The Dragon also said that Cain and Lucian are to return to their offices. Satan has given me temporary command of his personal army to see that neither of you sticks around to get in the middle of this death pit match any further.”
Cain and Lucian continued to stand there and stare each other down.
“I guess the two of you didn’t hear me. Leave. Now.”
“That’s fine, Baal. Shadow has already kicked his son’s ass once. I’ll go watch him do it again from up in my office.”
Cain disappeared in black fire and appeared back on his private balcony.
“You too, Lucian. Go.”
Lucian muttered several curses under his breath but vanished in red fire and appeared back in his office. Baal turned to the death pit.
“I have no personal involvement in this fight. I’m sick of watching the two of you to be honest. If one of you quits, I will remove you. Otherwise the match ends in death. Continue.”
Baal hit his scythe against the ground and a throne-like chair made of bones appeared from the floor. He seated himself and everyone focused back on the match.
Nightmare had continued to search for Shadow during Lucian and Cain’s confrontation. He hadn’t found him, and Shadow had finally recuperated from being thrown into a rock. When Baal took his seat as the new match overseer, Shadow emerged from his hiding spot and took two quick swings at Nightmare’s back. Nightmare turned and met each blade with a punch. He tried to follow it up by kicking Shadow but Shadow jumped back and the kick missed by several feet.
“No more daddy to fight your battles, Nightmare. Satan just kicked his ass out.”
“Funny, I don’t see your uncle here either. Your cheerleader’s missing too. Where is little Leech? Oh that’s right, I left him crippled and bleeding out what little life he has left.”
Shadow stabbed at Nightmare’s chest but he caught the sword. Shadow followed up the swing by jumping onto the sword that Nightmare was still holding and drop-kicking him in the face. Nightmare stumbled back several steps but didn’t fall. Shadow had prepared himself for this match by stocking up on as many light weight weapons as he could carry because he assumed using any of his demonic powers would be countered by Nightmare. Nightmare had around the same amount of training that he had, so this had to stay hand-to-hand combat where he had the advantage, thanks to the few hits Leech had landed.
Shadow reached into his cloak before Nightmare could completely gain his footing and pulled out several throwing knives which he threw expertly. Before Nightmare knew what was happening and started deflecting the throwing knives, Shadow had already struck him in each of his legs and one of his arms. Once Nightmare regained his balance, he started punching the knives away. He caught the final throwing knife, spun, and threw it back at Shadow. It pierced Shadow completely through his left hand and he screamed out in pain. Both demons ran and hid to assess the damage. Shadow removed the throwing knife from his hand but knew that it would probably be fairly useless for the rest of the fight and dual-wielding his blades was now out of the question unless he absolutely had to. He wrapped his hand, drew one of his swords, and made his way back out to meet Nightmare.
Once Shadow appeared from his hiding spot, Nightmare had sent the three throwing knives sailing through the air at Shadow’s head, chest, and legs. Shadow used his sword to deflect the first two but the final throwing knife caught him in the left leg. He removed it and found the cut to be shallow. After he placed the knife back on his belt for later, he saw Nightmare smiling at him.
“You’re not going to win with one hand. You should go ahead and quit.”
“You should be dead right now. I had you moments from death at the beginning of this match. I’m really not too worried about fighting you one-handed. I think it makes this a fair fight. Besides, my other hand isn’t completely useless.”
Shadow flipped off Nightmare with his injured hand.
“See?”
“Funny but that’s enough talking.”
Nightmare lunged and threw a devastating punch. Shadow took aim with his blade and came down on Nightmare’s fist in between the third and fourth knuckle. Shadow’s sword flew out of his hands and stuck deep into the side of the death pit. Shadow knew it would be pointless to try to retrieve it, but Nightmare was now leaking a dark, black substance from his hand. He knew it was time to strike.
Shadow ran on all fours hoping that the mist would keep him mostly concealed. He made it behind Nightmare before he had a chance to turn. Once he removed the throwing knife from under his cloak, he opened a gash on the back of both of Nightmare’s knees. The strike had its desired effect and Nightmare fell to his knees. Shadow moved around to face him and delivered a spinning back kick to his face. The immovable demon came crashing down once again and Shadow was there within seconds holding the knife to his throat.
“Say goodbye, asshole.”
Before Shadow could slit his throat, Nightmare surprised everyone.
“I quit.”
Baal raised a hand and Nightmare vanished in smoke.
Shadow collapsed on the floor. He felt himself being lifted up and carried out of the death pit. He looked up and saw his uncle. He pointed at several of his minions.
“Weapons.”
They bowed and went to retrieve all of Shadow’s weapons strewn all over the death pit. It took three of them to pull his sword free from the side wall.
“Let the medic know we’re on our way. My nephew needs his hand looked at and he deserves some rest before the temptation trial.”
CHAPTER 13
When Shadow woke, he was in a part of hell that he had seen many times befo
re when he was younger. The office of his uncle’s medic. The medic was the only healer Cain kept in his ranks. Officially, the medic was a minor demon of poisons. A vast knowledge of poisons was where the medic’s knowledge began but he had learned enough about how to injure that Cain had assigned him the title of medic hoping that he would learn to reverse the effects of injuries over time.
Shadow had visited the medic more times than he could count when he was a younger demon. Every time he injured himself in training, the medic would help him heal. As he looked at his left hand, he saw that the crude bandage he had applied in the death pit had been removed and his hand had been expertly wrapped. Whatever the medic had applied, it was working. His hand already felt much better.
He saw his cloak and all of his weapons laid out on the table next to him. He picked up his cloak and was putting it on when the medic entered the room.
“Nope. Put the cloak back down master Shadow. You’re not done here. Your uncle wants you to stay here and rest until the temptation trial.”
“I’ll make you a deal. I’ll sit back down and you can tell me the rankings. Did I pass Nightmare? Am I ranked first now?”
“Cain will discuss that with you. It’s not my place.”
“Come on...”
“Not gonna do it, Shadow. If I told you, Cain would have me healing myself after he kicked my ass.”
“Ok then, I have a question. Would healing be easier if you learned what the angels know about it?”
“God, you really want me to get in trouble today. What did I ever do to you?”
Minor Demons Page 8