Ch13 - Black Death

There is darkness in every soul.

Purpura was up in a tree.
Below was a well traveled road.
A group of rag-tags traveled below.
They were armed to the teeth, with a variety of weapons.
There was also a good plethora of demons sprinkled in the mix.
He was fairly sure this wasn't all the bandits.
But they were headed towards the town.
Purpura waited patiently, until the group had passed his hiding spot.
He then jumped down behind the group grabbing the two men acting as rear guard.
He effortlessly pulled them into the bush.
He forced blood balls into each of their mouths.
Enough to prevent talking/shouting, but not to kill them.
They were to be the bait.
He bound their arms, and legs.
Then dragged them along, moving quickly.
He got ahead of the bandits, before stringing both men up in a tree.
They dangled by their feet, hanging upside down.
Purpura moved a little away, climbing a tree with minimal effort.
He watched the bandit group move closer.
The group noticed the men hanging.
They went over to help.
The two men offered muted protests.
Purpura stood tall, as the entirety of the group attempted to help get the men down.
Purpura jumped down, throwing a plethora of blood spikes.
The spikes went thru a dozen men.
Some dropped, others were merely grazed.
He charged a demon who'd been grazed, as the group quickly recognized the trap.
Those with ranged weapons prepared shots.
Others began to move in for the kill.
Purpura jumped and grabbed the demon neck pulling the demon off balance.
Using the demon as a shield for the first couple ranged shots.
He then pushed the demon forward, keeping the shield.
The demon tried to resist, but Purpura had taken his balance.
Purpura then stopped, and focused.
The two men hanging suddenly struggled violently.
Many turned their attention to the men, but it was to late.
As they hung blood began dripping out of their mouths.
A cruel thing to burn away the lining of their stomachs, they had made such good bait.
Purpura placed his hand on the back of the demon's neck.
The demon then shouted in pain, before suddenly collapsing in a heap.
Purpura looked to the group, there were at least two dozen men still standing.
He hadn't fought a group in a while.
He wondered if he was out of practice.
More ranged shots fired away.
He deftly dodged some shots, before pulling blood from the demon for a shield.
"Blood demon, be on your guard."
Purpura felt himself smirk, it was rare that anyone recognized him for what he was.
Perhaps these particular bandits had been employed by the royal family to hunt blood demons before.
That would mean they had trained for blood demons.
But being trained for blood demons, and facing an blood demon assassin...
Very different things.

Purpura moved slowly, there were to many heartbeats to properly determine where everyone was.
He quickly formed a long slice and shot it out horizontally.
He listened to many anguished groans, some grunts from those properly armored.
He pulled more blood expanding the shield as more shots were fired.
He then climbed a nearby tree, leaving the shield in place.
Where he had been unable to see the attackers, they were unable to see passed the shield.
They continued various shots into the shield.
One large fighter, with an even bigger sword was moving in.
Their plan had been to pin him there, and let the stronger attacker strike.
A good plan, but Purpura hated being unable to see or sense his adversaries.
He moved gently thru the trees.
The large man swung against the shield.
Purpura had the shield dissipate into the ground, and swallow the man's feet.
All the bandits quickly looked about trying to determine Purpura's whereabouts.
The man began to scream, as the blood seeped into the small cracks in his armor and burned him.
He tried to pull away from the blood, and tried to stab it with his sword.
Nothing helped the poor man.
Purpura quickly jumped down behind a man and grabbed him snapping his neck.
A nearby man turned and spotted him.
Purpura threw the now corpse at the other man, as a distraction, before tackling with a blood dagger.
He sliced the man's face then stabbed his stomach and sliced it open.
Various shots were fired in his direction.
He raised a new smaller shield, before climbing a nearby tree again.
They shot at the trees as Purpura moved thru them.
He threw down another set of blood spikes, though more properly aimed at the ranged attackers.
Many dropped, some simply collapsed in pain but were still alive.
Purpura moved quickly, and lunged from another tree tackling a man, slicing him up in the process.
Purpura kept crouched, before jumping left.
A man swung down with an ax, chopping the previous victim in half.
Purpura looked to the victim, now horribly mangled, and the attacker.
The attacker roughly yanked his ax from the corpse mangling it further.
The attacker then looked to Purpura, Purpura was ready to strike.
A couple of men cheered on the attacker,
'Get him, boss!'
'You got this!'
'No body can beat you, boss!'
Purpura smirked, wither this was the bandit leader, or simply a company leader, his defeat would be a definite blow to the group.
The 'boss' gave another quickly swing, and Purpura deftly jumped in a dodge.
He rolled and got back up.
The man gave a roar, before appearing to go into a berserker rage.
Purpura felt mildly impressed, only two things could challenge a blood demon.
Shadow demons, and berserkers.
However, one could train against the later.
The man charged, and Purpura quickly jumped coming directly infront of another man.
He looked to the man, and stared for a long moment.
Before quickly grabbing the man and tossing him into the boss's next attack.
The boss chopped thru the man with little effort.
The crowd backed up to give the battle space.
But Purpura made that impossible, as he continually jumped from man to man.
Either killing them himself, or letting the 'boss' take them out.
Berserkers were notorious for killing anyone to accomplish their main kill.
A fact Purpura loved exploiting.
After realizing what was happening, many men ran off to avoid being slaughtered.
Finally there were perhaps six people left, that was counting Purpura and this 'boss'.

Purpura was crouched, facing the boss.
The four men were keeping distance, but still watching.
Purpura formed a sword, and the man swung.
Purpura held the sword keeping the ax back.
Before pushing the man back, who again shouted in a rage.
The man was foaming at the mouth, a sign of a true beserker.
The main reason a beserker could hold their own against a blood demon...
Was that their blood could not be manipulated, while in a rage.
They would also simply become more enraged if bleeding.
However that did not mean they could not be beat, they simply had to be fought normally.
The two engaged in an odd ax, sword battle.
Neither seeming to be able to gain the upper hand.
Finally Purpura's eyes flashed red, and he managed to knock the boss down.
Purpura's eyes returned to purple, when suddenly he felt his body jolt frozen.
His eyes could still move, and he focused on a new comer.
A male dressed in a robe, a blood caster.
Least that was what Purpura called them.
They were trained in spells that could freeze blood.
Spells that incapacitated blood demons.
They were a necessity when hunting blood demons.
The caster walked over, as the boss got up and spit the blood in his mouth.
"Took you long enough." the boss said.
"My apologies, I had gotten here earlier, but he wasn't using his blood.
So, I couldn't lock onto him."
Purpura mentally cursed, that was exactly the reason he used other's blood.
Letting himself use the blood rage for the upper hand, had let the caster lock onto him.
"Bind him, we'll deliver him to the royal family.
I'm sure he'll fetch a nice price, not only for his bounty, but for being a blood demon."
The four men who'd stayed moved in closer.
"Aw, poor Purpura.
Let yourself get caught by a bunch of bandits?
I thought you were better than that."
Walking up was a man dressed in all black.
He had a metallic mouth cover that distorted his voice.
The new male's hair was nearly black, but in truth an extremely dark shade of purple.
At the male's sides were twin daggers.
"Who are you?" the boss demanded.
"Me? Oh, I'm no one.
Just a passerby.
I simply heard the ruckus and came to investigate."
"You are not dressed like a normal passerby." the boss stated, gripping his ax.
The male looked at his wardrobe.
"You are completely right.
I am dressed more like an assassin.
Well, I might as well act the part I'm dressed for."
The male suddenly disappeared, before reappearing behind the boss.
He had one dagger dug deep into the boss's back.
Shadows suddenly ripped the boss in two.
The remains of the boss dropped, and the male gave the caster a glare.
"Release the blood demon." he demanded.
The caster stepped back, "What are you?"
"Why, so you can cast a spell on me?
Not happening.
These spells release when you're dead, right?" the man said stepping forward
"No need!" the man snapped his fingers, and Purpura felt his body relax.

Black spoke, "There you go, Purpura.

All freed. We can let the nice caster go?"
Purpura growled, and quickly sliced the caster in half with blood.
"Not very nice, he let you go."
Purpura glared at the male, before looking about.
The last people had run off.
Purpura turned away, he had a main camp to investigate.
His arm was grabbed by the male.
"Oh, no you don't.
I already took care of the main camp."
Purpura forced the male to release him, and simply stared at him in a glare.
"At least thank me, for saving you."
Purpura growled, and walked away.