"Attention!" the voice cracked across the line of troops like a whip. Each and every demon present knew immediately to line up shoulder to shoulder standing together as sturdy as possible, that was all except for one.
The thin, yet imposing frame of a demon walked along his newest recruits with a high head and a stiff lip. His skin was a cool blue contrasting with the bright redness of his eyes. Several long tentacle-like appendages rooted at his skull trailed behind him along with a long thin tail. As he made his way, he looked up all of them with a blatant face of disgust and disappointment.
"Is this really what I have been given to work with to serve in the king's very own private reserves!? This sorry lot!?" he flicked his hand gesturing to the whole of the group. "None of you look like you could handle even a single muskrat, let alone a whole other imposing army!" he growled. As his stare panned over the group and targeted a single member.
"You there! What makes you so special? What makes you think you could stand a chance here?"
The general could feel the fear of the trembling demon before him as he awaited a response. Admittedly he always did get a bit of a kick out of seeing their trembling faces for the first time.
"Well!?" he barked.
"Oh, y-I mean, sir I was one of the highest-ranking warriors in my tribe sir!" he stuttered.
"Hmm, I see, isn't that cute?" he lifted himself back up. "Listen here men, you may have been some hot shit back where you came from, but you are nothing here until you prove you're something, understand!?" his voice boomed over the rest of the troops. His tone instilled a healthy dose of fear and compliance amongst the group just as he desired. He returned to his pacing and began again speaking loud and clear.
"My name is Saylos, and I am your general. I have been making armies out of hopeless, slobbering, manging demons such as yourselves for the majority of my natural born life and I'm not about to retire now! In this core you will learn what it truly means to serve the mighty demon king and how to survive as one of the true elites. Most of you will not make it, as a matter of fact I'd say more than half of you will die today."
That final statement seemed to create an uncomfortable buzz amongst the recruits as they tried to cover up their discontent feelings.
"Here you will live and breathe our oldest and most sacred belief, that only the strong survive, and like that you will learn this lesson."
He settled on those words for a solid moment glancing around to see the terror-filled faces of the devils before him. A smirk came to his mouth feeling quite content with the results of his speech.
"Now, without further ado, we shall begin roll call…" just as he finished, another of his older guards granted him the scroll he desired.
"Amon!" he spoke assertively. A perturbed look came to him almost instantly at the blatant lack of reply. Had he not posed enough of a threat to prove worthy of a prompt response? The situation could have stood his tentacles on end as his head snapped up to glance across the demons.
"Amon!" he said in a furious voice. Once again no one spoke a peep. The audacity of this curdled the demon general, right out of the gate there was incompetence, and he had no patience for it. With a scowl he flicked the parchment scanning through it one last time.
"You'd all better hope this is the right scroll, and if it is this Amon best be dead, for his sake!" Saylos snarled. With a gulp the guards seemed to have a common shiver rush through them all.
"Uh, sir that should be the correct list. We've been informed that apparently there is one recruit still in the bunks," a guard responded in a shriveled tone. Suddenly everything seemed to dawn on Saylos, what was once anger turned quickly to what seemed like delight.
"Oh," he started to chuckle. "I see, is that it? Well in that case, come men! We'll make our way back to the bunks. You'll get your first lesson in discipline and what happens to those who do not obey!" he mushed them all out as he himself took the lead. He always did take pleasure in dishing out the punishments it was one of the golden perks when it came to being a general. When the troop made it back to the bunk areas, they were met with an empty room filled with vacant nests and a set amount of less than cozy looking trees for their resting purposes. Where the room was void in visible beings it made up for in sound disturbance. A demon was very vocally snoring up in one of the higher branches of the tree.
Saylos smirked as he came around to see if he could get a better look at who was up there.
"Now men I want you all to pay attention very closely, for this will be the fate of you if you so happen to allow yourself to get out of order!" he announced to the onlooking devils. Once he made sure he had all of their attention he flew up into the tree to meet with his slumbering subordinate. However, when at last he could finally see him admittedly his heart somewhat sank. The being snoozing away in the tree was a massive red behemoth of a devil. He was hanging upside down from the tree with his wings wrapped around himself, Saylos could only imagine what he looked like beneath all that. Still, despite his subverted expectations, the general gulped and did what he had come there to do in the first place.
He flew up to the branch Amon was hanging from feeling somewhat concerned with how well the branch could support both their weights. The worrying thought was pushed back as he worked to do what needed to be done as fast as he could. Yanking back his arm, the blue-skinned devil aimed for Amon's feet and bushy tail that kept him fixed there. He slashed at him with the blade on his wrist not hard enough to sever any appendages but hopefully enough to get a point across. Unfortunately for him, his actions seemed to prove worthless. Amon was still asleep, and his feet and tail didn't even have a cut on them aside from missing some fur now. Saylos was perturbed by the resilience of this demon. In frustration he pulled back again and struck much harder this time. Once again there was barely any response aside from Amon's tail flicked up at him as if he were a pestering fly.
The general's limited tolerance was at its end. With a growl he floated down next to the imposing demon inspecting him one last time.
"That's it I've had it with you, it's time to wake up!" he hollered. The general balled his hand up into a fist and with all the power of his pent-up irritation he let loose striking Amon as if he were a punching bag. In only a split second Saylos had achieved the outcome he wanted but in the least desired way possible. A much larger and strong fist extended from his wings knocking the general back into the tree's trunk and left to slide and fumble back to the ground. In the mayhem Amon woke up in a fluster unfolding his wings. He didn't even seem to register what had happened until he looked down to see the thin lean demon laying at the tree's base.
With a gasp Amon flew down to meet with him, he still appeared a little out of it, but the red devil tried to be accommodating.
"Oh, whoops there buddy, you alright? Sorry that's a bit of a knee-jerk reaction. I didn't mean to get you that good. I think I was having this dream where a little pathetic raggedy dog-like thing tried to come at me, and I let him have it. Unfortunately, looks like I let you have it too," Amon tried to laugh it off and help the general to his feet. Humiliated and peeved, Saylos ripped his arm back from him, refusing his help.
"Get off me!" he grunted desperately trying to get himself back in order. Amon was a tad offended by his huffiness but simply just shrugged his shoulders.
"Fine, fine whatever," Just as he finished, he looked over all the other men seeming relieved he must have woken up on time with everyone else. Seeing them sparked his memory as he spoke again. "Oh, hey you wouldn't happen to know where the meetup is for the first day of training would you? And more importantly where they keep the breakfast in this place, I'm starving."
Saylos's head shot up with fury practically burning through his eyes, "Are you Amon!?"
The brutish devil seemed a little confused by his tone, but his face became pleasant with flattery as his hand came to his chest.
"Oh, why yes, you've heard of me!?"
A malicious grin rose on the general's face, "Yes, yes I have as a matter of fact. I saw your name written in on our roll call list this morning. Do you know why we're all here looking for you right now, Amon?" he asked in a condescending tone. Amon picked up on his disingenuous mannerisms and was starting to understand where this all was going. The beastia played it off coolly though and went along.
"Ah, I'm sorry was I late? Were you all waiting on little ol' me? I must have overslept and on the first day too, my apologies," he gestured to the whole of the group. Saylos was getting testy with Amon's hollow efforts, knowing he was now hamming it up for his own entertainment.
"Yes, and do you know what happens next?" Saylos continued with a fake toothy smile.
"Uh, I probably need to report to the general. Would you by any chance know where he is?" Amon questioned leaning down slightly to the blue demon's level. The grin seemed to evaporate from Saylos's lips then as a look of offence took its place.
"I am your general, my name is Saylos and I specialize in discipline, do you understand?" he corrected harshly. Amon stood there for a moment giving him a good once over doing everything in his power not to snicker.
"Oh, hey sorry about that, I guess it's just a little hard to tell," he excused rubbing the back of his neck carelessly. That comment incited the rest of the troops to chuckle under their breaths despite how much they tried to drown themselves out. The general only seemed ever more bothered by his subordinates and their attitude as his tail flicked and he snorted through his nose. He directed his anger on the newest member.
"Amon, I have not known you for very long but in our short encounter here you have proven that upmost you are disrespectful, disorderly, unworthy, and unqualified for our ranks. Do you have any idea what happens around here to demons like that?" he derided.
Amon's eyes scanned the area before returning to look down at his superior, "Uh, they put them in charge?"
With that the rest of the men cracked up with laughter. Even the elder guards had to muzzle their mouths so as to not let their giggles be heard. Amon beamed cockily, eating up all the positive feedback. Saylos's features blatantly screamed with embarrassment and rage. The appendages at his head went flying up as he grabbed ahold of Amon's wrists with them.
"That's it, this level of ridicule shall not go unpunished. You and everyone else here will learn the faults of your behavior!" he spoke up loud and clear.
"That's fair enough sir, I suppose I deserve it," the beastia responded in a collected manner which only stoked Saylos's anger further.
The seeker devil flung his arm up over his shoulder preparing to lash out. When he did, he stuck the back of his hand as hard as he could against Amon's face.
A whimper of pain followed but it didn't belong to Amon. The general stifled his instinctive cries as he held his throbbing hand. Amon rubbed his cheek a little, but it didn't even leave a mark on him.
"Ooh, damn that looked like it hurt," Amon commented, intentionally putting on an innocent tone. His little commentary proved popular amongst the other demons as their guilty laughter only continued. Amon couldn't keep the smile of pleasure off his lips as he took in his rewards and watched the general huff and puff in fury.
"Silence all of you!" Saylos roared out amongst his group trying to retake whatever control he could. They all quickly shut up upon hearing that and stood at attention, despite the buzz of excitement still coursing through all of them. Saylos's head snapped back to Amon with a disdainful stare.
"You don't belong in this core! And I will see to it personally that you are removed and never allowed back to serve in any of the king's direct militaries ever again!" Saylos fumed.
Amon was about to open his mouth to respond to that claim, but he was swiftly spoken over.
"Hell, I'd say a being like you has no place on this Earth, I should put you out right here and now!" he threatened. Now Amon was interested as he lifted the wings on his head and looked at him curiously and with great interest.
"Oh really? That's cute I'd love to see you try," he said in an uncaring voice. Saylos was so appalled by such a response the words he would have said in retaliation got lodged in his throat. "But really, I don't think we have time for that, after all I think we need to actually start out training now. King Zennon would be very upset to know the next beastia commander isn't getting properly educated because of an unwilling general."
Saylos's eyes widened and stood there as still as stone. It was as if he was struck by lightning, but it hadn't yet registered to him. When he did come out of it, he slowly and distressfully looked at Amon's huge smiling face.
"Y-you're the next beastia general I was told to train?" for the first time he sounded meek. The tentacles he had wrapped around Amon's wrists steadily released from him as Saylos was forced to face the ugly truth.
Amon wasn't subtle about how much he enjoyed watching the general's hope visibility deplete from his body.
"Yep, so it sounds like we'll be spending a lot of time together. Unless you can't do it of course, I'm sure Zennon will understand though, he strikes me as the reasonable and merciful type, wouldn't you agree sir?" Amon continued to dig. There were no words to describe the undeniable and unbridled hatred that was planted in Saylos's spirit that day towards the beastia. He sucked in a breath with his next words proving to be the most painful of all.
"No," he squeaked, feeling all his years of honor and hard work die inside of him. "All should be fine, let's move out men, we'll start our exercises."
Amon couldn't keep the giant beaming grin off his features as he watched the general march his troops away. He followed after him but at his own comfortable pace.
The seasons had changed, and the Earth had become much colder over the months of their training. It was very common for the army to often do their practices in the dead of Winter. For many, this was a point of dismay but to Amon it was just another challenge in the game. Over the months Amon had passed every task thrown at him with what would be flying colors, if not for his utter apathy towards authority. Amon had proved to be nothing but a powerful thorn in the eyes of the demon general, nothing Saylos said stuck and nothing he demanded be done was carried out in the way he saw fit. Worst of all for him, Amon approached every duty with little regard and almost no seriousness. It agitated the general to no end and as they marched their way to their first real battle, Saylos felt no confidence in his own men whatsoever. His only hope that they'd survive the oncoming threat was the power Amon possessed, but even that hinged on how well Amon was willing to listen.
Saylos muted his woes to the external world, no matter how much it ate at him from the inside. He continued to march on ahead of the rest of his less than imposing army. All the others were lined up accordingly and accounted for, all except the important one. The general's eyes panned over the group and the rest of the surrounding area. To one side the frigid ocean roared and to the other a forested area stripped of all its greenery. He wasn't sure where Amon was, surely not doing as he was supposed to, Saylos huffed. Knowing the surroundings were secure he halted his troops and turned to face them.
"Attention men! We're arriving at our destination. This base will be our sanctuary for tonight and by tomorrow I want to see you all rested and ready for battle, if need be, which it probably will. Do you all understand!?" he asked and just as he did, he sensed something coming from above. However, his reaction was less in concern as it was in annoyance. Flying down from the thick clouds, the figure of the champion became visible. He landed in an obnoxiously loud manner, making sure to do so right next to Saylos himself.
Amon, being very pleased with himself, raised his hand in an impish manner, "Ow ow, sir! I have a question!"
Saylos's head begrudgingly swung to face Amon as he sighed deeply, "Yes Amon, what is it?"
"You haven't told us yet what the intended purpose of this battle is for?" he questioned, knowing full well the vexation he caused.
"Amon, you and everyone else knows that's classified information. All you need to do is do as I say, for once!" Saylos hissed. "Not only that, but a better question is where have you been? You should have been marching with the rest of the troop!"
Amon shrugged at him nonchalantly, "Yeah I knew that, but why should I clomp around with everyone else in a herd when flying is so much faster!"
Saylos's eye mildly twitched in irritation, "Did you ever consider not everyone of our men have the privilege of being able to fly. Furthermore it's far more dangerous and less effective on our part if we let the demons that can fly go by themselves. They are an asset to us; we can't risk them being killed!"
The wing's on Amon's head rose as a look of shock came to him, "Aww, you worry about my wellbeing? Saylos, I didn't know you had in ya!" he laughed.
"You know, on second thought. Go ahead, fly alone. It's not like you listen to what I have to say anyway," he rolled his eyes. Saylos returned his attention to the rest of his group, "Alright we'll rest at the base for the night, but I want you all bright eyed in the morning, we'll strike at dawn!"
All the other demons seemed receptive to the plans, even Amon was eager for the action to begin. The night dragged on long and the secluded base was rather uncomfortable, being practically nothing more than a large hole in the dirt. Amon shifted about restlessly throughout the night, he never did much care for sleeping when it was dark out. The night life was much more his speed, but regardless he laid there with his eyes wide open. When the first semblance of light began to peek through the opening's crevasses is when the large demon sprung up. He was up and, on his feet, long before even the general himself.
Amon snuck his way past the sleeping troops, even passing the still snoozing Saylos. An ornery smirk pulled at his lip as he made his way out of the bunker. Why should he wait on them he thought to himself, he was far more than enough to take on whatever was to come. He practically giggled as he slipped out of the opening and was off on his own.
It didn't take him long to reach a cliff overlooking the beach, not far from where their base was. Peering down he could see a sizable group of aquarian's shuffling about. They seemed to be trying to creep their way to the ocean. Where they had come from Amon wasn't sure exactly; there seemed to be a line of them leading all the way back into the forest.
Amon quirked his brow and lifted one of his head wings in wonder. Surely there was but one explanation for all this. Those aquarians must be planning some kind of sneak attack before Amon's own army would ambush them. The beastie allowed a smirk to form at his lips as his eyeline narrowed down at them. If they wanted a surprise, he'd make sure to deliver.
"Quickly make sure everyone is moving out before we are spotted," a fish-like demon requested from another. With a nod, the other aquarian hurried down the line of meager devils. The first demon remained counting off everyone of their own that made it to the ocean's safety. However, something caught him off guard, he didn't know what it was, but something was lurking about. He motioned for everyone to freeze and take cover but before they had the means to do so, from his covering within the cliffs, Amon leapt out cutting off their line to the sea.
All the scaly demon's looked up at him with horror and alarm, being completely stunned by his sheer size alone.
"So, are you the little punks looking for a fight I've been hearing about?" Amon boasted, cracking his knuckles before them all. Without further hindrance the general of the aquarian's commanded his men to take arms as the weaker ones scurried for shelter. Amon smiled to himself, he always loved a good fight, and doing so on his own only made it more entertaining for him.
They ganged up on him, but it was no matter. He sliced through their hoards like butter. It had been so long since he'd gotten into a real fight; the feeling of the rush and thrill was more than he could have asked for.
Not too far off hidden in the burrows of the forest, Saylos stirred in his bunk. He knew despite his pleas and hopes that something had gone wrong. Amon wasn't amongst the rest of the army, which wasn't unusual for him, but the sound of chaos nearby is what turned his stomach. He shot up and quickly commanded the other to do the same. He was the first out of the base and the first to catch sight of what was going on. When he made it to a cliff overlook, he could see below Amon had started the war on his own without them. Saylos could have exploded in rage.
"General Saylos sir, what is it you'd like for us to do!?" one of the men asked, coming to his side.
The sleek demon growled with his head appendages raised, "Well, since Amon seems to want to do things on his own, the rest of you men will capture the weaker fleeing devils. Round up as many of them as you possibly can, now go! Go all of you!" he hollered to them. He watched them off, still boiling in anger as he looked back down to Amon and his war. Saylos could see the aquarians beginning to team up and manipulate the large nearby body of water. Amon being too preoccupied with cutting them down didn't seem too knowledgeable about what was brewing. The general gasped and was forced to swallow back his pride for the good of his cause.
Amon laughed as he slaughtered one opponent after the next. He was coated in their blood and gaining more and more as he went. He could hear more demons approaching from up on the cliff, and he could tell they were his own.
"Hey what took you guys so long? I had to start the party without ya!" he ribbed. His brothers in arms didn't seem like they were all too interested in him, which was fine enough. However, Amon began to get a sinking feeling noticing there were not as many aquarians coming at him anymore. The wings on his head lifted as his eyes began to scan over the area for an explanation. Before he got a chance to see what was behind him, Saylos swooped down next to him, splitting through a drove of enemies. Amon wasn't even all that surprised to see him but what he was surprised to see was the huge wall of water building up behind him.
Amon gasped and tried to push past his general, "Saylos, get back!"
Saylos appeared disturbed and enraged, "See what you've done Amon! Because you just couldn't take orders! Our mission here was to capture the aquarians and only fight them when we had to, but no you just went ahead! Now I have to call back all our men are we're gonna leave empty handed, isn't that just peachy!" he shouted. Amon didn't seem to be paying much attention to him, all he could do was stare at the growing liquid assault. He was plotting to himself and evaluating the course of action. He could hear his higher up scolding him but didn't give it a second thought.
"Fall back all of you! Quick run to higher ground!" Saylos shouted to a troop of scampering devils. "Come on Amon we don't have time for this, move out!"
Amon's head spun around to his commander, "Go ahead, I'll handle this!"
Saylos had a gaping mouth being both stunned and appalled by his suggestion, "Amon, this no time for you to be showing off this is serious! Fall back now, with everyone else!"
Amon targeted where he needed to strike, calculating exactly how he would combat this massive typhoon of a barrage. As if on second nature, he swooped down coming head-to-head with the aquarians.
"I'll be right back Saylos, you go with the men!" Amon hollered back.
"Amon! Amon no! You get back here, that's a damn order! Amon!" Saylos was left with nothing but wasted breath. He growled to himself as he took cover of his own, there was no sense he could beat into that stubborn beastia.
Amon felt the mists of the water on his skin, and he could smell the salt of the sea. He knew alone these aquarians were nothing and even in numbers they were futile to him. He bared his teeth and charged up the flame in his gut to searing degrees. The opposite army sent their watery attack blasting towards him and in return Amon released the fire within himself, coming right for it like a falling comet.
Blistering steam took over the land warming the naturally cold season. The majority of the water had instantly evaporated into a broiling cloud and any leftover sloshed into the mainland. Luckily there wasn't enough left over to cause any lethal damage. Amon could hardly see through all the steam, but when it began to lift, he could tell all of the rival aquarians had been dried up and effectively killed. Amon felt pleased in his actions, he couldn't wait to show Saylos what an extraordinary accomplishment he had achieved.
Just as Amon believed his work to be done out of the corner of his eye something took his interest. Nearby there with dripping glaciers thinned by the heat and through them Amon could see a few shadowed figures trying to slip away. He smirked to himself and raised his head. Saylos had ordered him to round up all the lingering ones he could.
Slowly Amon advanced after them, once again distancing himself from the rest of his troops and carrying on alone.