DoomPet

Chapter 28

Daisy snapped out of her daze and glanced over at the Slayer and marauder who were questioning Samuel for directions.

The robot guided them through hallway after hallway of demonic hordes. The Slayer led the way with the marauder and Daisy behind him and Samuel bringing up the rear, shouting directions. Suddenly the Slayer was stopped by the marauder's hand grabbing his shoulder.

"There's a buff totem up ahead." His voice sounded different, more scratchy and demonic.

The Slayer turned to face him and was greeted with an awesome yet horrific sight.

The marauder's head and body was wrapped in bright red flames that seemed to blossom from within him; his eyes were glowing cherry red and flames were escaping from his mouth, licking up the sides of his face. He gave the Slayer an odd look, noticing how the man stared at him in awe, "What? You've never seen the effects of a buff totem before?"

The Slayer quickly scribbled out a note, 'I haven't seen them on you before.' He continued staring at the demon, 'Does it hurt?'

The marauder glanced over his shoulder at Daisy who just walked into the effect zone of the totem and burst into flames, "No, it feels... different, but it doesn't hurt."

Daisy bounded over to the Slayer eagerly showing him her flames then bounded over to Samuel.

"Don't you dare try and catch me on fire Daisy!" Samuel swatted her away in a rather undignified way until she scurried back to the Slayer. He then muttered something about how they had already been down in hell a full day.

The Slayer knelt down and reached out slowly, hovering his hand over her head. Once he deemed the flames to be strangely absent of heat, he petted her head still in awe of how the flames didn't burn his armored hand.

The marauder tapped him on his shoulder with a flaming claw, "Um... can we go fight something?"

The Slayer looked up at him to see the flames coming out of his skull had become hotter and were burning even brighter than before; some of them were even turning blue with the heat coming off of him. For some reason he couldn't explain the blue flames coming off the demon gave the Slayer some odd sick feeling. It made him scared for a split second and he hated that he didn't know why.

He snapped out of it quickly.

'Sure, it's just right up ahead. Is something wrong?' The Slayer stood up and reached out for the marauder to give him a hug.

He backed away from the Slayer, "No we better not touch. I just feel like I have to fight." Sweat that was dripping down the sides of the demon's face began shining like rubies as they reflected the flames around them.

Samuel chimed into the conversation, holding up a tablet that displayed their vitals, "Is the marauder still alive? His vital signs are all over the place. I think his heart should have exploded about thirty seconds ago. Is this really what a buff totem does to a demon's innards?"

The marauder rolled his eyes, "Yeah it's a bit of a mess."

Samuel looked up at the demon then back down at the tablet, murmuring to himself, "So many spiky graphs..."

The Slayer didn't take the time to write a note; he nodded to the marauder, leading them down a passageway. They came upon two huge walls blocking their path forwards. Suddenly, they both slowly lifted up, spikes lining their undersides. As the Slayer went to step forwards, they slammed back down into the floor.

"It's a puzzle sort of thing. Run through when the spikes are up and don't get mashed into paste." Samuel spoke to them.

The Slayer scanned the deadly trap, scooped Daisy in one hand and held the marauder's hand in his second, and yanked them through the trap while the walls ominously hung above their heads.