Chapter 7

Story by Slivertide on SoFurry

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#7 of Tales of Fate

A continuation of the Tales of Fate



First Confrontation


The grounds were dropping away fast, the baron's palace become smaller and smaller. The sun was out and the sky was clear. The only thing that ruined this day was what was chasing the gaisheans and the human. The ship was not a combat vessel, but it did pack some power.

Rick had found a crossbow mount and located the crossbow nearby. He soon had it connected and was aiming down the sights at the demon. Merelda was standing rooted in one spot, deep in concentration, sifting through her own mind for words of power. Gerard was concerned on piloting his vessel. It wasn't every day that something came chasing his craft. Sure he would go up against such creatures, but not many such as the beast that was following them. It looked human in build and that was about it.

Jergal growled as the bolts sailed past him. The human nearly got lucky with one, it put in a gash into the demon's side. Rick had never fired such a weapon before but was indeed getting proficient and quick. The problem was the demon was getting closer. He was almost over the rail when Rick shot a crossbow right into the demon's chest.

The demon landed to the deck with a crash, landing on his feet but barely. The bolt had gone through his shoulder, the back half sticking out, bruising his wing every time the two came in contact. It was the jarring impact that caused his rapid descent. He retrieved his bearings as Gerard came forward with his sword drawn forth. Rick was training the crossbow on him, let off another round. This one cleanly severed Jergal's damaged arm from his body.

The angry demon moved in on the human and stopped listening to the words being muttered under the female's breath. 'A magic user!!' thought the demon. He turned towards her and met a few magic darts. He just growled his way past them; he thought he took another such bolt, wondering why it felt warmer. He took a glance down, noticing the red line forming on his gut. This took his attention immediately back to the demon hunter who then smacked the scar on the demon's face with that blade cutting across the scar. The demon hunter backed up towards the rail, the demon following him closely, dodging each and every blow. He had come across his arm chasing the demon hunter. He growled snatching it up and holding it up to his torn shoulder. The man watched in horror, stopping in morbid awe for a moment, as the muscular fibers and sinews in the arm snaked out and met with those in the joint, there was a horrible slurping sound as the two reconnected.

Gerrard swung his blade at the demon's neck, a hard fast swipe designed to decapitate. Jergal was too smart for that, his regained limb smashing across into Gerrard's cheek, sending the man into a full spin, his momentum carrying him to the deck floor. The demon growled, reached for a piece of railing and torn the thing off it's connections. He took a few steps forward, the metal and wood chunk rising above his head, ready for a downward finishing blow.

There was a bright flash of light and the odor of ozone on the air. The demon got knocked aside, but managed to keep to his feet, the lightning had caught him in the side, penetrating through his chest , passing through a lung, singing it from the inside and out through his collar bone, blasting into the metal workings of his back and thus shocking his entire system. As Gerrard laid there, trying to get his bearings, he watched in morbid fascination as Jergals muscles were visibly twitching all across his body. The demon grabbed hold of part of the superstructure that stood out, sending the current wisely into it. Once he was able to walk, he stumbled his way towards Merelda who suddenly lost her nerve and went running for Rick.

Jergal stalked his prey; Rick had fetched his blade and rushing over to meet Jergal. Jergal growled and sent Rick sprawling back into the Mounting platform. Rick smashed into the thing, lost his wind and collapsed, the stand bending from the force and dropping the crossbow into his lap. Rick had passed out.

The demon smiled wickedly and turned his attention to the female, blood seeping from multiple wounds. He licked his lips as Merelda fell back against a wall. She was crying, shock trying to floor her mind, the man she was falling in love with was possibly dead and she was not sure what condition the baron's son was in. Jergal stepped up close to her, his fingers coming up under chin, tears flowing down her cheeks; she could feel his hot breath upon her lips. His physical attributes setting off desires in her body. She was trying to ignore her sudden arousal. The demon reached forth with the other hand and tore away her robes, leaving her chest bare. She gulped as he ran his clawed fingertips down from her cheek, over her throat and caressing her breast. He brought his lips past her cheek and whispered into her ear.

"It will all be over soon, you beautiful creature." He flicked his tongue across her cheek, hand cupping her fur coated breast, fingers beginning to rub." She felt her thighs moisten a little and begin shaking her head trying to block out her senses. She was succumbing to his persuasions.

It was then that the demon felt the edge of a blade come to back of his neck. It was uncomfortably close. He turned his face to Gerrard and smiled.

"I see that little goody two shoes has come to save the day."

He pulled his hands away from Merelda and turned partly to face the man, the blade not relenting and slicing a thin line into the muscular tissue. He smirked at the man.

"Do you really think you can save the life of this pathetic mage?" he asked of him.

"What did she ever do to you besides try and defend herself?"

The demon chuckled, his hand darting forth grasping the blading, blood seeping forth from his grip and shoved it to the side with incredible strength. He then spoke with a warning growl to the man.

"Why don't you go somewhere else and play mister heroic demon slayer else........."

Merelda cut him off on the last word with a sudden smash to the demon's crotch, smashing the brute's balls up against his groin.

Lights whirled across the demon's vision, waves of pain shooting up from his groin, he staggered back, his hands grabbing for his crotch, unable to feel through the numb pain if his balls were actually in one piece. He kept staggering back losing his sense of balance.

Rick had woken up and found the heavily constructed weapon lying in his arms. He struggled up and hoisted the thing up high. He couldn't find any bolts but he did realize how heavy and cumbersome the weapon was. He charged for the back of the demon. He had seen him violating his dear friend, the lovely furred Merelda. There was a loud crack as he smashed the weapon against the demon's skull. The demon actually turned around to look at the human, forgetting the pain in his crotch, his hand began to lift in Rick's direction but that was as far as it made before Jergal's eyes rolled back into his head and he fell down towards Rick. Rick sidestepped and watched and winced as Jergal crashed into the wooden timbers of the decking.

The demon was laying there sprawled across the ground, moaning unconsciously. Rick went over to Merelda, her face an embarrassed red at how exposed she was to him. Rick offered her a gentle smile and wrapped his jacket around her shoulders, and fastened it up her front. He caressed her cheek softly brushing away the tears.

Merelda suddenly pressed forward into the man and kissed him, a soft moan escaping her throat, as she wrapped her hands around his head keeping him to herself. It felt so right at that moment, like everything was going to be ok. Her heart relaxed a little when Rick returned the embrace, softly kissing her in response. He then pulled back and nodded to the passed out form on the ground and to Gerrard.

"Let's dump this miserable bastard over the side." He looked at his two friends, and gestured to the prone demon. They nodded in agreement and moved into position. The three of them moved to the sides and hoisted up the unconscious form and carried all 7 feet of its frame to the edge and shoved it over, not caring at all what became of the monster. They stood there watching Jergal fall into the distance down below.

The demon opened his eyes wearily, feeling wind rushing by his face; he vaguely wondered where he was flying too. His body turned over and he noticed some green in the distance. His eyes widened just as he crashed. He broke through multiple branches, some as thick as his thighs, he tried to reach out and catch hold of a tree, but the thing broke under the force and fell over, the demon fell past it, his world suddenly going black upon impact with the ear, the tree making a slow fall and landing on him, but supported by a few rocks, the tree effectively pinned the inert body to the ground.

The woman had heard the crashing through the trees. Her half-breed senses were more acute then those of the normal denizen of the dark. She also used her womanly intuition to seek out the source. She had traveled several hundred meters until she came across the scene, a grin spread across her lips. This was indeed a handsome specimen. She set her pouch of herbs on the ground and then knelt to the dark-skinned figure. She lifted up the scarred face, noting the oily blood staining the back of the head. She gently lifted the face up and felt for breath. She chuckled at herself for thinking of the fun she could have done experimenting on a demon corpse.

She then looked to the battered tree lying across this one's back and marveled at how he had survived the fall. Erina looked up into the trees, seeing the hole in the canopy from this one's descent. An amused chuckle left her lips as she moved to the side. She bent low at the knees, the muscles in her lean arms bulging in a very demonic way as she at first strained at the effort. Black blood laced with adrenaline flowed through her viens giving her the unnatural strength of her mother's heritage, A few beads of sweat formed on her brow, adding a glow to her flawless complexion, the tree lifted up. As she lifted the length of timber up, she propped herself up under it and heaved it in front of her, clearing the demon and his 'in her mind' gorgeous wings.

The demon merely groaned in his oblivious state. His prostrated form spread out on the earth. The woman whistled a soft tone, fascinated by tall, dark and handsome men. Maybe this one would make an excellent plaything. She gingerly touched some of the bolts that had punched through his form from the impact. She listened to the grunts and reached over to her pouch. She pulled out a numbing salve and rubbed it around the exit points. It was cooling his skin to the point of numbness, sinking into the flesh. She wrapped her hands around one the iron rods, made sure she had a good grip. She then gave a sudden yank pulling the rod up and out of the demon's torso, glad that fletching wasn't barbed, just the head was. She moved her hands to the other one, applying the same salve there and repeated the process. She tossed the iron bolts aside and rolled the man over. She leaned in close, studying the entrance wounds, wondering how in the world this one had survived whatever length of fall he had obviously been put through.

She pulled out a powder she always kept handy for penetration wounds. She smeared it across her delicate fingers. Looking to the demon's chest to make sure he was still alive. She brought her fingers to the more serious wound. She marveled at the hard but lean form. She whispered to him, knowing he probably isn't home in the mind right now, but speaking anyway, "It will only hurt for a bit handsome."

She suddenly pushed the powdered fingers nail first into the wound, sliding them to the hilt. She then spread ever so slightly, the powdered weed, numbing the wound and already encouraging the cells of the flesh to rejuvenate at an accelerated pace. The herbalist poured some more of the numbweed between her fingers; she proceeded to do the same with the less serious puncture marks. When she felt she had done what was needed to stem the blood loss, she licked her fingers, savoring the dark taste of the black blood of the full blooded demon in front of her. Oh how it tingled her throat like a good hard drink. It was almost as good as sex in her opinion. She strapped her pouch back to her waist. She looked around for a few good sturdy sticks and some vine. She found a few and tied them together, making a stretcher of sorts. She brought it back to Jergal and laid it down in front of him, the extra lengths of wood towards the bottom and towards the top, as handles and drag points. She hoisted the unconscious form onto the stretcher and wrapped a cord around it and his chest a few times securing him in place.

Erina paused and wiped the sweat from her head and looked towards her home. It would be a long trip for her patient; she then shrugged and knelt down grasping the handles. With her back to him she hoisted her end up and started hauling him through the woods, heading for home where she could revive him. Thankfully the trip was not a treacherous one, just tedious. The woman didn't mind though, it was just another task to her.

Jergal opened his eyes, and looked around; his mind was still on the fight. He didn't want the shock of a different setting to show on his face, but it did. He looked down at himself, noticing bandages wrapped around his form. And there was a pounding to his skull. He tried to sit up, propping himself on his elbows. Someone had propped him up on some pillows to ease his awkward back into a comfortable position. He also noticed his wings had been manually concealed. What the hell was going on and where was he is what was passing through his mind. His headache got worse; he tried to reach an arm back to feel the back of his skull. But his arm felt so weak. Must have been the crossbow, he figured. His eyes were getting heavy as he sank back into the bed. His eyes widened, and then he realized he had vision coming back to the one eye. He did get a hand up to his face. He felt the scar there, felt the eyelids having been restored, he didn't have to feel his eye to know he could see through it. An evil smile spread across his lips. Then he caught a glimpse of a slender shadow moving around. He saw the brunette working with some herbs at the table. She turned towards him, sensing him staring, and winked at him, growling softly huskily. He couldn't help but look down her naked form.

She had a set of spikes that emerged from her shoulder blades and curved up over her shoulders, tips overshadowing her breasts. She was not large in bust, nor was she flat chested; the demon wondered why he cared to study her form. Her skin was coated in a rust red coat of fur. It came down from her temples, flowed over her throat, it split over her breasts, a patch of white skin shining through, nearly white as snow, the patch went from her cleavage, avoiding the nipples and went down her stomach which only had a little bit of width to it. The fur met at the base of the V of the crotch. A pair of full lips donned her slightly angular face painted black with her preferred makeup. She put down her tools, a handheld grinding stone and a stone bowl, and approached Jergal, her breasts bouncing a little with her movement. She stepped over to him and brushed her hand across his face, his eyes falling shut at her touch. She whispered huskily into his ear.

"Go back to sleep you handsome creature."

The demon's lips begin to rise in a snarl, but the darkness overcame his mind and he was gone again. She merely giggled, stood up and looked towards the door, looking out beyond it, not necessarily at anything in particular. Her leathery tail that hung down between her legs flicked briefly. She ran a hand through her short trimmed hair and sighed, then growled to herself. She would get this one back on his feet and see what she could do to aid him, maybe try bending him to her will in the process. He was such a handsome demon. She looked down over his form and chuckled seeing that his cock had gone hard in her presence. The woman stepped towards it, she reached down caressing the member. She looked over the well-toned body and grinned figuring why not. She knelt down and placed her lips to the head and sucked upon it for some time. When she was done she walked away back to her work having had a taste of this one.

The demon was having such dreams of glamor. His mind was laying out his plans for him, the things he was going to help do to this world. He will gather as many of the ancient heroes and their villains as he could, or at least what remained of them after all this time. He would bring all that power to the Obsidian altar under the great island city. Then he would blot out the sun with darkness, replacing it with the black star. The world will return to the shadows. What a pleasant day that would be , his mind was thinking.

The airship was suddenly twisted around by a hard wind. How the wind howled as it jolted one of the props into a jam. The gears were being forced out of position by the wind, accompanied by a horrendous screeching sound. Gerrard was struggling to keep the wheel in place, while the ship was determined not to cooperate. Rick was hanging onto a few dangling ropes trying to keep the air sac at the other end from ripping away altogether. Merelda had huddled up in a corner in an effort to regain her nerves after their encounter with the demon just hours before.

The afternoon had been going pretty much uneventful since the encounter with the demon. They had chosen not to stick around after witnessing the demon disappeared into the woodland below. They were making their way to the legion garrison. Merelda had recovered her dignity at her near-rape by the demon. She had known the demon fully intended to use her and probably murder her afterwards. She wished her body had not so nearly given to the creature. She shuddered at the idea of the creature touching her, his hands exploring her form roughly. Being forced to onto her knees and taking in that member, she shuddered at the idea of the horrible seed penetrating her. She had even shuddered for even thinking that far into it. That was when Rick had come over and held her.

The demon still wouldn't abandon her thoughts, but the horrible image in her mind was replaced by the comfort and joy that she realized being with Rick brought her. She smiled up at him when he was there clutching her close. She did not care that Rick was clearly not of her own kind. She had never seen any sign of fur on him. Just that dark hair that barely coated what she'd seen of his hide, she found it to be of attractive of him to only have so much fur. Her mind briefly wandered to the thought of his crotch and how much fur she may find. She blushed and smiled up at Rick again. Rick simply smiled back and held her, nuzzling her hair for a while.

After a little bit of time, the ship had run into some bad weather and Rick had to go up topside to see what he could do to help. The weather had turned bad; the skies were grey, black storm clouds were looming in the near distance.

Rick could almost hear voices in the wind. He figured it was just the wind. That's when shadows decided to start enclosing around the craft. It was like a black fog. He looked to Gerrard who was barely keeping control of the ship's wild flight. There was what sounded like a freight train rushing nearby. This lasted for a good few minutes, during which Gerrard and Rick could not hear what either was saying. There was a sudden flash of red lightning across the deck from one cloud wall to the next.

Rick's eyes went wide seeing the abnormal scene before them. That lightning had climaxed in the middle of the deck. The lightning remained; it was forming a wide flat vertical surface in the air. The air went quiet all around the ship. A skeletal face spread forth within the space of the redlight. It wiggled its way through, a bony arm wiggling its way into existence also.

Samael was thoroughly enjoying the nightmarish environment he had seemingly imposed upon the crew of that craft off in the distance. It truly was all an illusion cast upon the minds of the mortals. The wind was blasting through but that was because of two currents suddenly colliding there. He watched from his Cliffside perch with a wicked grin. The skeletal mage reached his hand through the image in front of him. The gate way was small on his end, but large on the other end, so as to increase the threat on the receiving end. He grinned at the adventures and spread his bony claws, palm up for them. Soon a red light was dancing along the lengths. The necromancer knew more than a few tricks that were not of the necromancy school. This was one of them. The light dancing over his hand suddenly burst into flames .Samael loved playing with his victims. He flicked each of his fingers towards a corner of the craft sending delayed fireballs in those directions.

Rick and Gerrard were horrified as the flames danced along the railing, bouncing along until exploding. Several of them went off at once, the portal closed shut leaving them along again. Gerrard's back was warmed up considerably from the sudden blast that threw him hard into the wheel. He knew things would go bad before he heard the twang of cables snapping free. He looked up at the sound of air hissing. He gulped realizing a cable had ripped through a small section of air sack. He nodded at Rick and told him to hang on.

The ship started losing altitude and also turning to the side sharply. It's pilot followed that turn, then pulled the craft straight. They could see the forest coming up. The rushing wind was putting out most of the fires on the descent. When they were just seconds from meeting the tree line, a stone barrier showed itself in front and underneath them. The vessel went over a tower, forcing a guard to leap over the side to avoid certain death. With a loud crunch and several screeches of metal and wood over stone, the ship came to a halt in the courtyard of the legion fort.

Soldiers were approaching with spears leveled towards the downed vessel, sword at the ready. Some of them knew whose ship this was, but that did not make them any less wary. There was no sign of life from first glance. The guard captain and the weapon master were approaching the side hatch when it suddenly came open. Out came Rick, bruised and a little beat up looking. In his arms was the unconscious mage. The woman was breathing just fine, she had been knocked out upon the craft's impact with the earth. He nodded to the guards who offered him a nod. He smiled at his teacher and the captain, offering a half bow seeing as his hands were full. He stepped out of the way and smiled as the woman was beginning to stir. The guard entered the craft and looked around, not really positive where he should go. Then Gerrard popped his head out of a door nearby.

"Greetings, Lord Gerrard!" The guard bowed to the noble and then stood up again, looking around inquisitively. The noble offered a smile and waved the man's formality away.

The guard saluted his lord and instinctively stood at attention. He asked," what happened, my lord? We saw from afar some sort of fireball suddenly consume your craft."

"We were attacked by a mage, we don't know.........."

The demon hunter was suddenly cut short by a shuddering ripple through the craft, accompanied by a screeching explosion. Once he got his bearings back he pushed the guard aside and ran off in the direction of the engine room. Steam was beginning make its way from the bowels of his ship. The guard rushed after him, followed by Rick and the now awake Merelda, followed up by Ragu. The soldiers in the yard made a perimeter around the craft; those who emerged from the barracks to see what happened were making an effort to get back to their duties. The garrison commander was barking orders at some of her men to double up the watch until they could figure out how safe their fort now was.

Gerrard reached the engine room, just on time to avoid a blast of steam erupting from a pipe. The soldier wasn't quite as lucky. He was walking right past the pipe along the wall when the jet of steam exploded from it due to pressure. He had to step back and quickly remove his chest piece. The metal was scalding hot and had been cooking the flesh beneath it. The man was going to be alright, the left side of his chest was a bright pink. He begged the noble's pardon, and upon receiving it, he made his way back out to the cooler air. The weapon master sufficiently qualified as a member of the armed guard.

Ragu, took a few limping steps closer to the doorway to see what Gerrard was seeing. The air was humid from all the steam in the compartment. Most of the larger gears were still were they needed to be. Several pipes were blasting clouds of steam into the air and one of the boilers was ruptured. He noticed the noble's sigh and wholeheartedly agreed with him, despite his lack of mechanical knowledge. The room sat at an angle, the catwalk was loose was from a few of its mounts. Rick stood in the doorway next to Ragu, Merelda standing behind and between them, watching with an odd sense of curiosity. She had no idea how much damage was done and Ragu could only guess to the extent of the needed repairs. Rick on the other hand, knew enough about engines to realize this could take some time to repair. He reckoned a few blacksmiths along the pilot's mechanical knowledge, could get her running in at least a week or so.

Gerrard had taken his cape and wrapped it around his head, working it as far down his torso as he could. He left slits for his eyes, knowing he could breathe through the fabric. He stepped into the steam cooker that was the engine room. He could feel the humidity and the heat that it carried. He worked his way along the sturdy portion of the catwalk. The moving arms towards the back had stopped for the most part. He ducked past a few concentrated jets of superheated steam and reached the emergency shutoff switch. He slid his gloved hands over the switch. Down it came with a welcome cooling breeze as the nearby vents opened up to the outside air. He stared at the wall, waiting for the remaining boilers to stop firing. Soon all went quiet, except for the occasional burst of hot air from one of the pipes. As soon as the engines settled, the air noticeably became cooler.

Gerrard pulled the damp cloth from around his face; he draped the cape then over his shoulder. Looking around he observed what damage he could now that the air in the room was clearing out. The damage was actually less then it seemed. A few smaller components had been broken loose; one of the boilers was ruptured due to a pressure relief valve being jammed by a damaged girder. The catwalk needed to be bolted back in place in several spots. He let out a relieved sigh and approached the observers, chuckling lightly. He ushered them back into the hall and he shut the hatch.

"Well, thankfully it's not as bad as it seems," the man smiled at the others and led them towards the exit, so he could survey the damage under the air bag.