DoomPet

Chapter 90

Devo sat crossed legged. He scratched his chin, thinking of a proper battle tactic. Eventually he gave up and just striked at random.

Haine reached out, knocking his pieces off the board and winning the round, "I won!" He announced proudly, giving Devo a frightening grin. He absolutely adored all the board games hell had. Now that he actually had someone to play them with he could flex the skills he had acquired after so many years of playing with himself. They were sitting inside Haine's lair, a little cave with tapestries and fabric on the walls and covering the rough stone. He had a few crates of food and some hunks of meat drying as they hung down from chains in the ceiling. His bed was tucked into one corner, mostly a nest of even more fabric and blankets. His axe hung on the wall, held up by two hooks. It was simple and all his own.

Haine had been one of the most interesting Demons that Devo had ever met. His skin was the same pale gray-ish white of Crüe's, but his horns, eyes, and claws were tinged a golden color, and his armor was white with gold trimmings. The kid was just barely an adult by sentinel standards, he was less than a hundred years old, (but by human standards he looked to be in his early twenties). He had been raised almost his entire life in hell, he didn't even remember the sentinel world at all. He was sold from his cradle as an infant, placed into the clutches of the hell priests.

At the end of their experiment they received a quiet, reserved little marauder. He would fight and spar and could survive on his own quite well, but he wasn't the powerhouse of a fighter like his father or uncle was. His muscles were small and didn't quite fill out the armor like they should. Maybe in a few years on a better diet he'd be more similar to them.

Bell had walked up from the little encampment they made for her horde in the valley right next to Haine's lair. It was mainly tents and a few lairs dug into the soft ash that laid in the valley. It wasn't bad for them just having shown up overnight. She gently shoved Devo aside with her meaty hoof, "Let me try now." She brought her heavy head down and smiled at Haine. She reached out, stopping his hand from resetting the pieces, "Has Devo told you why we've come here to find you?"

Haine hesitated as he wasn't sure he could trust this roving band of demons. Sure, he had never seen another marauder before, and Devo had been nice to him, but ever since they showed up last night he felt uncomfortable. "He mentioned things about the Slayer... and my father." Father... father... it was such a weird word to finally say after so long. He never expected to find his father, and they couldn't be certain without more testing that he actually was, but still. He wondered if his father would have actually cared about him. Of course he'd never know as the man had been killed in Taras Nabad.

"Yes," Bell nodded her head, her split horn catching in the dim cold sun of the swamp. "The Slayer is en route to a facility in the middle of the human's oceans. I have confidence that he wouldn't be able to take down two marauders at the same time." She shoved all the pieces off the game board and pulled out a map, "You like strategies and tactics, don't you?"

He looked down over the map. It contained the detailed layout of the entire facility. Every last jump pad and supply crate was marked down and cataloged. It was fascinating and he nodded.

"I have a good friend who's the hell lord of this facility. She knows the Slayer is coming and she can fight like a beast, but she doesn't know how to prepare for his arrival." Bell let out a low growl, "Me and Devo were going to sit down and pour over this map for hours trying to help bolster her defenses, but you seem to have a gift from the deepest pit of hell." She handed him a case of drawing and marking utensils to take the first stab at it, but he picked his board game pieces off the floor and began arranging them.

The defenses were decent, but it assumed that the Slayer was coming in from one side. Demons would be clogged in one room while huge areas full of ammo and armor laid undefended. The whole thing had good bones, strong metal doors for traps, a hefty electrical supply, he could see thousands of ways to catch the man off guard. He looked up at her, "Get me a bigger map and we might be able to take the Slayer down."