We were being watched. I didn't look behind me or do anything different. At least I didn't sneeze.
The riders were the least of our worries. Our refugees were acting dumber than usual, so there was a new demon to deal with—the question was what kind.
There were as many types of demons as there were stars in the sky and so many variations that it was hard to keep track of them all.
In one day, we would leave. It would have been better if we left the refugees.
A harsh northern wind blew in, shaking the crows off the dead tree, leaving its branches bare. Caws filled the air as the crows flew deeper into the forest. I approached the tree and pulled a knife from my belt. I wrote the name of the guy who died. His body was far from the tree, but it was better to carve his name into a tree that was already dead.
I felt something creeping in at the edge of my vision. It wasn't my spirit sense, which I held tightly and only planned to use if the situation became dangerous. My near-omniscient sight of the area around me, combined with my chains, was a combination not many could beat.
A demon lord could custom-make a demon to counter me.
I turned to see a green-eyed blonde with curled hair down her head. She smirked at me with a predator gaze filled with superiority. She didn't bother walking; instead, hovering just above the grass. She didn't like getting her feet wet from the morning frost. Drops of cold, freshly melted water from the frozen branches above paused in their fall until she passed and missed her hair.
She was only chest-level, floating above the grass, and chose to float higher until she looked down on me.
She flew around me in two passes, smirking the whole time. "What an impressive specimen of a human. The given memories from my creation don't do your kind justice. Even viewing you from a distance, as you lifted that rock like a monkey banging stones together, was nothing compared to seeing you with my own eyes. Her smile grew wider, stretching beyond her cheekbones. "Maybe I'll keep you and saddle you like a beast." She cupped my face before patting it. "How does that sound would you like to be my pet?"
I slapped her, driving her into a nearby tree where she bounced before chains erupted from the shadows and wrapped her from head to toe. My hand hurt. I clenched and unclenched it. Something had obstructed my blow.
She thrashed and struggled. Her eyes shifted into glowing pools of green, and her skin took on a yellow hue. She shrieked and thrashed. A yellow wave of psychic energy blasted out from her body as she fought against my chains.
Her gaze focused on me, and gravity increased as a cursed ring appeared around my neck. I ground my teeth, and my knees threatened to bend as I moved forward.
"I'm confused; isn't this what you wanted? I was sure you came here alone because you wanted to switch sides. I mean, you were serenading me with all that talk."
"There is no switching sides; we are bound to the demon lord. He created us, and we owe him everything." A second ring appeared around my neck, and gravity doubled in strength. One of my knees buckled, and I fell, catching myself before I faceplanted. "A human like you wouldn't understand; your thoughts are too simple."
She pulled at my chains, causing them to pop one by one as she neared me. "Fortunately, I love smooth-brained humans like you." Tentacles wrapped around my head as her mouth widened.
I snapped her chain to the demon lord and connected my own. The mind flayer went catatonic. Her mouth opened wide, revealing a toothless ring leading to a mind-altering abyss.
"Remove your curses on me."
The mind flayer's tentacles lashed out, trying to wring my thick neck, but her mouth didn't draw closer. I tightened the chain.
She recoiled before the spells wrapped around my neck broke.
"What did you do to me?"
I stood up and rolled my shoulders. Higher gravity was an experience I wasn't ready for, perhaps when we had a place to ourselves after crossing the border.
"Welcome to the team. Now tell me everything about the other side."
"You don't command me." I yanked on the chain, and she froze again.
"You don't seem to like it when others take control. I bet you're a very generous lover. I wonder what head from you is like. Your pride ability is interesting. It drops the intelligence of enemies and allies to make you appear smarter than you are." I winced. "Pride abilities cut both ways. Can you control it enough to only target enemies yet, or isolate allies from it?
She floated off the ground, yellow tentacles looping around each other as she stared at me. She was trying to resist, but the chains of hell were too much. "There are seven teams, two mind flayers, and 10 abyss trolls. If I don't report in soon, they'll suspect I've been compromised, and they could send in the abyss trolls. Even if I tried to confuse them, the other mind flayers would immediately thwart my efforts. They are near my power."
When a pride-type demon said near, they meant stronger by at least half again. It wasn't their fault. They were just terrible with math.
"I see. Then give them the all clear and tell them you plan to lead us into an ambush. We've accepted you as a fellow human and fully believe you escaped your pursuers and managed to get here safely through all the traps. Give them any excuse you think they'll buy."
Her eyes glowed with yellow psionic power. "It's done. The captain agreed with the plan. I will lead you on the path. They will be watching for you to turn off and will run us down if you make a break for it."
"Good," I said.
Luck is preparation plus opportunity. I always believed that. A mind flayer fell into my lap, so I snatched the piece over to my side of the board.
"How are we going to survive?"
"We're leaving now," I said.
…
The army was panicking. Demons were being executed, and the trolls were left behind. Wyatt thought they had time. Their outriders spied on a wagon traveling at top speed and then reported back. None of his men had died from chains from the shadow yet, but he wouldn't send his men in first. With the abyss trolls no longer being a consideration, he had no choice but to lead his riders. The mind flayers cost them time by riding in a carriage following them.
"I thought we were going to set up an ambush. Something must be wrong with that mind flayer."
"Get your men moving. It will be all our heads if we don't get into position." Wyatt said.
…
I snapped the reins, and the horses charged forward. The wheels practically glided over the road as the suspension bounced over every rock and pothole they encountered. As the north wind blew, we moved a distance from the town. Winter steel glittered off the demon beasts' bodies, covering them with plate armor.
Outriders followed us at night, and I let them see us before reporting back. It was important. I couldn't kill the small army's eyes and ears. They had to think they had a chance, so I kept to the path. They would have enough time to set up an ambush if they moved fast.
Lights from hellfire blasted through the sky as their wagon approached the choke point—a canyon on either side with archers above and riders in front.
Fortunately, we were five minutes early. A tapping sound alerted me to a switch. Chains emerged under my arms as I moved to the wagon's hood. Jinxara slipped into the driver's seat, armored from head to toe in the glittering plate as arrow-proof as the horses.
Chains erupted with green spear tips striking at necks and heads at rapid fire, killing off riders and leaving their horses to slow down without their riders directing them. The carriage zoomed by them on its way through the canyon.
I leaped off, grappled the canyon rocks with my chains, and shot up the wall. When I finished, I turned to the other cliff and ran for it.
Arrows flew, and I swiped them away with my chains as I connected to the other side. Demons looked on in terror. Their abilities didn't make a difference when attacks from their shadows took their heads off instantly.
I pulled an arrow out of my arm, and someone got a lucky hit. Blood dripped down my arm as I fought to take out every demon. With a swallow of healthy regen, the wound slowly knit back together.
Embers rose as I raised my hand and gathered the demonic power. The second ring of demonic power hummed above my head. I was nearing the peak of T2 demonic power. More demons were needed.
I hadn't chained the demonic beasts before because chaining them was different than demons. With so many riders, I could create my little war band.
A carriage arrived after I dispatched the latest rider. A green and black mind flayer emerged, practically sparking with psionic power. Green energy gathered around me before throwing me off my feet into the side of the canyon.
"Know your place." The black one said as it gathered a beam of black psionic energy. The plants around her decayed before my eyes before she fired it. A chain pulled me out of the way as my body scraped against the side of the canyon wall.
Chains erupted around the mind flayers as they took to the air and blasted my chains before they could close in on them.
I extended my spirit sense by a few meters. A chain beneath my feet connected two shadows under the flares used by the demon riders.
"Pitiful is dodging all you can do?"
I ran forward using chain links beneath my feet as steps.
A beam cut through the air, and I twisted away from it. Chains shattered into green particles but held where I needed to step. Then, I was closing in on them. Chains shot up high, carrying me up. A beam blasted the chain I balanced upon, only for another to replace it. Green particles filled the air as hands of green telekinesis sought me out.
My chain carried me away as the black beams of psionic energy continued to punch through the air. Two white collars appeared around the mind flayers' necks. Chains from their shadows wrapped around them then hooked up to chains shooting up from the ground.
"Traitor." They screamed.
I weakened them so they would have a harder time resisting my capture. A hard slap to each worked just fine. Then, my chains connected, binding them to me.
"We're no longer part of the demon lord's army." One of them said in wonder.
I snapped my fingers. That's right, I need to name you three.
"You aren't going to name us after our skin colors, are you."
How did they know?
"No, of course not." I pointed at the black one, "Garnet." My finger moved to the yellow one, "Citrine," and then I focused on the green one, "Peridot." "I hate that I like the name," Citrine said.
From what I could tell, all three of them were pride demons, which begged the question of how have they not killed each other yet.
"Alright, you three are going to take on your human illusion forms while we're in the company of the other humans. If anyone asks, you're my battle harem. I'm sure someone will get it."
I heard a voice that was a little too deep to be natural. "Interesting; what jobs do you have to control demons so casually? Is it an advanced or specialization of warlockry?"
I turned to see the most try-hard 16-year-old I've ever seen wearing all black and the edgiest katana on this side of the Pacific. Based on his eyebrow piercings and the black jeans he wore, I guessed he had also been summoned.
"Oh, you won't tell me, then I'll beat it out of you. Let's see who is stronger, a hero or a demon summoner."
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