Days were getting colder, and we were in the thick of summer. Winter was going to be hell.
I pulled on a heavy log at least 30 feet long and half as big around as I was tall in places. Frost clung to my hands as I gripped the massive piece of wood, jamming my hands in the mud under it and raising it above my knee in a deadlift. I grunted and struggled to get my legs good and under as I squatted and lifted, bringing the log up to my waist.
I was tempted to drop the heavy stones attached to my arms through chains.
No, I wouldn't be deterred. The regeneration potion was slowly healing my damaged muscles as I worked, and my grace-given ability ensured I could keep growing stronger. My muscles screamed in pain as they fought against a weight they weren't ready for. Heat poured off me as sweat rained from my forehead, stinging my eyes. Each beat of my heart rattled my bones as I used my slightly recovered grace to force painkillers and steroids into my system.
Grace, even the diminished amount I had, could replicate the chemicals I have experienced.
The log lifted to my chest, and my whole body shook in protest as I struggled to raise it above my head. Somehow, I lifted it above my face, and I dry heaved. My arms were ready to give out, but I had to do it. Then it happened: Bark tore away where I gripped as I brought the log over my head. It was time to walk my hands down it.
One hand after the other I raised the log higher as I approached the middle. Then the weight became heavier behind me than in front and the log teetered. I quickly widened my hands to balance it over my head.
I had done it. I didn't know how much the log weighed, but I lifted something huge with my hands.
"That's great, sir, but you're holding up the rest of us." I struggled to step out of line as two men tossed a log twice as large as mine high over their heads.
Jobs made people stupidly powerful.
My vision went dark as two delicate hands covered my eyes. "Guess who," Jinxara said.
She had gained a foot, her horns were long black spikes curved above her skull, and she was quieter.
"Lirael, is that you?" I said and reached behind me.
Jinxara shrieked as chains lifted her off her feet. "Boss, it's me."
I smirked and tossed the log I held atop a pile of them to keep riders from going where we didn't want them. Then, I lifted a pitch cauldron and poured it over the logs so they would burn when we wanted them to.
When the logs were good and covered I turned back to Jinxara. "Why didn't you say so?" I looked her up and down. She had blood smearing her cheeks from her feedings. Ranking up from imp to hellspawn wasn't quick. She needed meat to help facilitate the transformation. "So are we made."
In the designated areas, men dug small holes, placed a sharpened spike inside, and covered the hole with a sheet of cloth and then grass. Most people only took crafting or the occasional hunting jobs so they couldn't level from combat. Setting traps or digging holes was universal anyone could do it.
Jinxara caught herself on the ground as I released the boulders strapped to my body.
"I've scouted three groups numbering 120 riders in total. They aren't like most hellspawn I've seen." Jinxara said.
"Yes of course. Demon warriors are on the low end when it comes to Hellspawn. You're an oni that favors speed over physical power, a branch off of a branch off."
She was already much faster than me, but she couldn't escape her own shadow yet.
"All right, then, what do these riders favor?" Jinxara asked.
"I imagine they favor riding and archery. From what Charlotte said, the empire was the largest connected land nation. Their mounted archers were the key to that. So I imagine the demon lord used demons with similar talents to maintain peace in his territory."
"If they are so powerful, how can we hope to defeat them?"
"We're not going to play fair," I said.
Killing them with chains would be too time-consuming and wouldn't give the right message.
Jean, Jinxara, and Lirael worked hard carving ritual lines throughout the old mining town. A pot filled with poison was fed into the ritual, and it was already flowing through a set number of paths.
I heard a horn blow followed by the trampling of horse hooves. A woman screamed.
A strong set of hands lifted me off the ground and carried me bridal style. Jinxara glared at me as she jumped, sailing through the air and landing silently on a rooftop. I grumbled as she dropped me and got low. We moved to the peak of the roof and watched riders pass through the current of poison gas and fall off their horses.
Spear-tipped chains struck from the shadows, piercing flesh and leaving deep weeping holes in the bodies of the demons. Demonic horses continued their charge even as their riders and their numbers fell.
From two other directions, other riders charged into the open village. Some broke apart riding between old stores and others.
Siegfried threw himself into combat, wielding a demonic ax with both hands. He swung it and cleaved the head off a horse. Arrows bounced off the man's armor as he met the charge with his armored body.
Jean waved her hand from another roof, and a spray of liquid flame splashed a group of riders, burning them in a fire that clung to their skin and wet their clothes.
Riders hit the traps as they circled around, and their horses screamed. Spikes ripped into their shoes, and their legs snapped. Riders fell, and my chains ran them through. The light armor they wore was no protection.
More bodies piled up, but the main force didn't commit. Instead, they circled the town, a few dying, and the survivors marked the places where the poison gas flowed.
"We're dealing with someone smart," I said.
"You don't have to look in awe. Demons are smart."
I shook my head, and she looked ready to argue. "I expected the enemy to be overly confident and complacent. With such a large force, I hoped they would invade in mass. Wave tactics would have been good too. I'm looking at 20 horses they left behind. We could saddle up and leave."
"Do you even know how to ride?"
"Of course, who do you think you're talking to? I was an arch demon."
"Exactly, the higher-ups aren't prone to doing menial things like riding from what I've seen."
"Fine, I rode when I was alive."
"Were you a knight or a groomsman?"
"My neighbor let me ride his horse once."
…
Wyatt wasn't known for his complicated strategies or complex tactics. His job was simply to patrol the lands and report anything he couldn't handle. The only hiccup was that he wasn't facing something he couldn't handle but still lost. In the demon lord's army, that was grounds for a swift execution, and he wasn't interested in that. So he had a simple plan: he would lie like the demon he was and hope his CO bought it. With any luck, his job would be assigned to someone else who would suffer worse losses, and the CO would quickly forget about him.
His CO was a demon wizard of the same rank as himself, but he specialized only in command and demonic magic.
They stood at attention, waiting for their CO's verdict. The wizard focused on August, the captain who led the vanguard. "You've lost many men."
Of 40 riders, only eight remained, including the captain. While the rest of them took some losses, August's boldness cost him.
The wizard raised a bony hand, and August screamed as red lightning blasted him into the chest. Wyatt nearly fell out of position but kept himself standing by sheer reflex. He thought he saw August's bones flash through his skin momentarily before the demon crumbled into dust. The demonic power carefully collected by August through the campaign flowed into the wizard's greedy clutches.
"Rejoice, his men will be divided among yourselves. Now tell me, why did you fail to conquer an undefended village?"
Seven men divided were a poor prize. They were not allowed to raise their command greater than 40. At best, Call, his fellow surviving captain, could replenish his numbers.
"The enemy turned the battleground into a field of death, and they numbered 2000 strong. They are connected to a force on the other side of the mines." Wyatt said.
It was a good excuse that mine tunnels could run deep and far. The lack of impressive numbers could be explained by claiming they escaped into them. A large force could be explained by getting their supplies through the mines. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. He might have seen the beginnings of a forward operating base from the remaining human lands.
"That is a problem indeed. Why attack at all if they had such overwhelming numbers?"
"The enemy wasn't mounted. I planned to bite into them and then retreat and fool them into giving chase like we have done with many armies."
"Yes, that is a plausible tactic, and it has worked before. The natives must have felt comfortable in their position. More riders won't make a difference if they are hunkered in and fortifying their position. We will send Abyss trolls and Mind flayers to give your cohort more options and see that this foothold in our territory dies in the cradle."
He saluted the demon and retreated.
Wyatt would be careful with the new units added to his command. They might see things that didn't match his report, and he would need to ensure they were all on the same page or fell in battle."
…
I tossed a shovel full of mud over my shoulder onto the growing pile. Lifting logs, using stone weights, and abusing regeneration potions made the task of digging a grave easy. The sounds of a girl crying were bringing down the party.
Someone died, and it wasn't my fault. No one could have predicted the outcome.
As it turned out, demonic horses were impossible for normal people to ride. One of the men had a rider job, and that man's skull was crushed like a melon. It had been fast. One moment, the demonic horse seemed tame, and the next, it bucked the guy off and kicked him with perfect accuracy.
My black halo was enough for the demon horses to see me as a demon, so Jinxara and I both gained mounts. Lirael could ride with me without any issues, so we could ride with four people at most.
We had enough horses for everyone to ride, but they were demonic, so no one could ride them. This was a weakness in my plan that I didn't suspect. Back in hell, demon beasts were plentiful and attacked everyone equally. Once trained, they were loyal to their riders so long as a rider never showed weakness.
I remember the guy smirked at the girl crying just before the beast killed him. He was one of the men who snickered and tossed logs like they were nothing when I struggled with one.
I climbed out of the hole, and after checking with my shovel, I saw it was over six feet deep.
One of the demon horses broke out of its stall and was eating the corpse. Another was creeping closer to the girl, who covered her face while sobbing at what was happening.
The demon horse reared up, catching the girl on the shoulders with the back of its knees. My chain stabbed the creature under the jaw and out through the skull.
"Well, my friend, it looks like you just earned yourself a Darwin award," I said and skewered the one eating a corpse. The chef had a butcher job as well. He could butcher these horses, and we could mix some herbs with the meat before feeding it to the other horses.
I remembered a game in which weapons could be combined repeatedly until an ultimate weapon was created. I killed all the goblins in the world and made their crude ax into a weapon of mass destruction.
So, if I kill and feed the bad demon horses to the survivors, maybe I will come up with something interesting.
It looked like we were going to have to build a wagon and pull it with the demon horses, which should give them no opportunity to kill anyone. If Jinxara or I drove it, then it had a chance. There were 40 people in all, so we were going to be packed in the wagon like sardines. I would run the idea by the others. With enough chains and wood, we could do it.
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