“I hate this!”

Veri exclaimed with a deeply annoyed tone. I could only agree. We have been traveling for days in this godforsaken plains, chasing after our target. General Marin had send us and many others out to spy on the many so called heroes of mankind and find their weaknesses and if possible to assassinate them. In itself it was a good idea, with which I agreed and volunteered to help together with Veri. However as luck would have it we were assigned to spy on the Warprincess Bara, which was unfortunate. Not because she was a monster in human skin, but rather that she operated the farthest away from our country reaching her area of operation took us more than a month. Even more unfortunate was the fact that news were spread that the heroes are to meet in the town of Ironwall, to discuss how to handle the situation. This left us with the choice of waiting in Ironwall for her or traveling south towards her to observe her whilst she was traveling, in order to learn more about her. Ultimately we decided to travel south to find and observe her. Our reasoning was that only observing her after she arrived in Ironwall could be to late and unsafe. And with this we had set out. We traveled as fast as possible I hopes that we reach her before she heard of the news of the meeting. Despite our best efforts we didn’t manage to reach her before the news did. And so we had to find a hero, who had taken one of the countless paths towards Ironwall. At first this seemed like an impossible task and we thought that we had wasted all our time and effort traveling here.

But the lucky demon smiled upon us, whilst we were collecting all the information's on Bara we could, we found out which route she had taken. But the lucky demon was as cruel as ever, according to the rumors Bara had taking a straight path towards Ironwall and none of the usual routes. With that knowledge we could create a possible route she would have taken and with that knowledge we traveled to several towns she could have passed. At the third town we had finally found her and thus could start our mission for real.

Unfortunately she and her companions were traveling straight toward Ironwall and didn’t bother doing something that would help us in gauging their strength. They didn’t take any subjugation requests or encountered any thief's foolish enough to attack them. In the end we couldn’t gather any intel about them besides what we had learned through tales and rumors.

With only one last option left we decided to attack them directly in a fitting location in order to not make it to obvious we were spying on them specifically. We got defeated like we expected and ran before we could seriously get hurt. However we got some interesting intel out of the fight. Their teamwork is flawless. Individually they seem to be open for a lot of attacks, but together they are nearly untouchable. The only wounds we managed were through scatterbomb spells and barrage attacks aimed at everywhere. They don’t have any magically capacities. They are just incredibly good fighter. In other words physically they easily transcend humans and the likes, to the point were defeating a Wyvern seems easily manageable for them. As a downside having no magic means they aren’t capable of using healing, strengthening, detecting or offensive magic. A fatal flaw that could easily mean their end. It suffices to say they are aware of this and have certainly prepared counter measures and tricks to deal with this flaw as good as possible.

This weakness is ideal for us. They can bleed and they can die. They are just extremely strong and fast and durable humans and whatever Bara is. They are not unnatural so we don’t have to worry for some weird shenanigans. To kill them we just need to hit them fast and hard enough, preferably when they have let their guard down. We luckily happen to be in possession of an item made for the job. The only thing left is to find the right moment to attack.

“What are your thoughts on what species Bara is?”

“I’ve been thinking about this too, darling. It seems obvious on the first glance. She has pointy ears and is tall and slender, so she should be an Elv or a Highelv. But she doesn’t seem to have a connection to the nature or magic and doesn’t behave like an Elv either. But the most striking fact is her hair color. It is not something you can have through elven genes. She has to be some kind of halfbreed, but what is mystery. Her other half has to be dominant enough to completely rid her of all her magic, but there is next to no species, who has this attribute and the few that could be it fail because of obvious reasons, like Dwarves and Oni.” (Veri)

“Half Elv half Dwarv if that existed who would kill it first Dwarves or Elves?”

“That shield would never been born, because the parents would kill each other the moments they would see each other. Don’t be silly Skal!” (Veri)

“Ah nothing is as permanent as the hate between Elves and Dwarves. Have the historians any clue as to why they would be at each others throats? (Skal)

“No. I think, it was just something embarrassingly small, but these arrogant idiots managed to make an eternal conflict out of it.” (Veri)

“You insulted my beard no we will have an eternal conflict until we seize to be!!!” (Skal)

We laughed for a good bit, whilst and continuing with our travel. We have yet to find the right moment to attack. Unfortunately we won’t find the perfect moment for a long time. Before we managed to find the perfect spot, we had to realize what they meant by straight route. They had decided to travel through the plains, instead of the sane and common route around. With that they had to put their assassination plans on old. The plains where simply to empty. Foiling our plans of assassination completely until they would eventually leave the plains. We even have to travel roughly day behind them in order to not be spotted by them. The only thing we could hope for, was that the flock of Wyvern would appear, but its way to late and I don’t believe they would arrive just in time to kill three heroes. That would be way to convenient for it to be happening.

“Should we rest? Or should we travel further to get closer to them?” (Skal)

“We should travel further. I felling that we are to far behind them. If this is true we might lose them until we reach Ironwall.” (Veri)

“I hope your gut feeling is wrong. I don’t want to have crossed the plains for nothing.” (Skal)

With this we had decided to continue traveling. We did so even after the sun had settled behind the horizon and only stopped when the last of the four kings had risen from the horizon.

“Seeing the stars from here sure is beautiful. Look you can even see the great bear from here!” (Skal)

I pointed to a set of stars, which create the formation of the great bear. The humans call it the Dragonslayer. They have a believe that says, that children born in a night when the formation can be seen are destined to become great individuals. We demons don’t usually believe such nonsense, like star formations predicting your lives. Regardless I think its an interesting topic, what other cultures call and think about star formations. Veri doesn't share this hobby with me, but she doesn’t mind me talking about it.

“Lets rest under these trees on top of the hill.” (Veri)

Veri pointed towards two tree on top of the small hill. An ideal spot to set up a tent with less work than normal. Once we reached the trees we dismounted our horses ready to rest until the morning. I locked around and down and…

“Veri. … Pinch me!” (Skal)

“Why?” (Veri)

Veri went to me looking confused. The moment she saw what I saw she to stopped wide eyed.

“No way!” (Veri)

Just down the hill there was an Inn. In the middle of the plains, in the middle of nowhere. A wooden Inn. Big red letters proclaimed that this was the Red Oni Inn. It didn’t even look abandoned or poorly kept. Faint light glowed from the gaps of its closed windows and door.

Before I could say anything Veri closed her eyes and exhaled deeply. She was scanning the building using the ambient magic. The time she needed to scan I used to prepare my weapons and items I might need, if it turned dangerous. After a short moment she opened her eyes with a smile.

“I sensed nothing!” (Veri)

“Really!” (Skal)

“Yes. I am quite positive that it is the same as theirs.” (Veri)

Sensing nothing via sensing magic means that is nothing there. Skilled mages or items however allow one to conceal their magical presence, making them invisible only to sensing magic. In this case it didn’t hide the user unfortunately. First visually there was someone there, lights are on in the Inn and it looks like it is in use. Secondly a skilled mage like Veri can still sense a signature indicating that something is in the vicinity. Bara and her companions used such an item, in order to be harder to track and target by mages from distances or out of line of sight. Veri, who could sense such signatures also could attribute it to different persons and items. In this case the signature she sensed was the same as the one emitted by Bara.

Having this intel we immediately prepared ourselves for their assassination. This was the best moment to carry on out. The targets are asleep, quite possible having lowered their guard. We have free line of sight, a secure escape route and enough time to prepare. Whats even better the only causalities besides the target would be a possible owner of the Inn. Lastly even if they are found nobody will find out who was it.

We took our time preparing ourselves. Putting our heavier armor on, choosing weapons suited for an open field and prepared the horses for an escape, if something went wrong. Honestly we prepared ourselves for more than we might need. If all goes to plan they should die instantly. In the unlikely case that one of them survives we should be capable of killing them, based on the state they should be in.

Having finished our preparations. I handed Veri our tool of assassination over. It’s a simple pendant with a big red crystal in its middle. A magic storing crystal of high quality, filled to the brim with magic. Veri immediately went to work, holding the pendant in one hand she closed her eyes again. This time she slowly started to cast a spell, carefully constructing the spell sigil and adjusting it to precise and maximum fire power. Creating a spell sigil before supplying it with magic makes it as undetectable as sensing magic. The downside being a relatively long casting time, compared to the usual method of creating the sigil and powering it at the same time. For an assassination however this was ideal, the spell was undetectable until it was supplied with power and if it was charged full in an instant, using stored magic of a pendant for example, it was unavoidable even if the target was a top tier mage.

“Greater Exeplosions!” (Veri)

The sigil lit up in magic.

BOOM

The Inn detonated in a big fireball. After the shockwave had passed the two demons they could see the dimensions of the destruction the spell had caused. The Inn was completely destroyed. Only the wooden edges of the inn could be seen, although barley. The rest was destroyed by the explosion. Only a tree high fire remained, where the Inn once was. Illuminating and heating up the calm night. The fire slowly withers away having nothing to fed up. Both demons remain there just to be sure that no one survived.

A silhouette emerged from the flames. Tall and humanoid, with two long horns clad in red. Unharmed and unfazed by what had transpired.

“What the…?”

Before the Demon could finish her sentence the Oni appeared before her in a gust of wind, sending her flying with an uppercut. Skal turned around ready to attack, but he is send flying with a kick in his rips. Then Veri fell dwon from the sky with a loud thud and the sound of bones breaking, shortly followed by Skal hitting the ground in the same manner.

__________________________________________________________________________________

The two demons are liing on the ground slowly bleeding out. They are both unconscious. The woman is bleeding strongly from her broken jaws and teeth and the man from various bruises on his body. They are probably bleeding internally too after what I have done to them.

Now what shall I do now. I can just let the two die and rebuild the Inn for the third time. Now that I am thinking about it, its getting boring to rebuild one house three times. So what now? I could go out of the plains and explore, maybe find a better spot for an Inn. Sounds interesting. And while I’m at it I could just demand reparation from the Demons. That way I can join up with Bara! Lets do it.

But what to do with these two. I need proof that my Inn was destroyed by Demons.

“You lucky bastards. Your going to survive. Heal!”

With that I healed them. Their bleeding stopped and I could hear their bones going around in their bodies and back to the places where they should be. No what can I use for the proof. I won’t be caring two Demons around just because I want a reparation. Wha… Their Horns! Unmistakably demonic and rare to come by I assume and hopefully a good proof. I think for an Oni its a disgrace to loose their horns, but what about Demons. Maybe I can find out with this. Lets do it.

I grabbed the woman by her horn and lifted her up. She had beautiful big coiled goathorns. I have to be careful. I don’t want to damage the Horns more than necessary. I grabbed it as close to her skull as possible in order to break of as much horn as possible. Witch a loud crunch the first Horn was broken off and the second quickly followed. Surprisingly bloodless. The man had simple upwards pointed demonhorns. I just broke them off without much care. They just look normal and generic. I should ask Bara about the horns of demons, maybe there is some meaning behind them.

I store the horns in my storage, by placing them into my sleeve and then opening my storage. No then in which direction did Bara head off.

Finishing this chapter took longer than I anticipated.

I am planning on doing a chapter consisting just out of worldbuilding (what exist so far without spoiler).