The Iron Dragon

Chapter 12. The second wave

It all happened quite quickly and for all of us it was nothing new how demons came out of a rift, nevertheless every time it was a sight that made you feel the need to simply turn around and leave, which of course we didn't intend to do. The rays of light hitting the earth at various points became brighter and just a few seconds later you could already hear what would soon crawl out of there. A deep and monstrous growl suggested that the coming beings were not exactly something you wanted to embrace. In the places where there had just been green light on the ground, claws and other body parts, if you could call it that, shot out of the ground and moved as if they had to make an effort to crawl out of the holes. The sight reminded me of the undead at the wounded coast near Kirkwall.

In the caves of this area, I had often had to witness this process when the living dead had tried to make their way out of the earth. Not a sight that one particularly liked to remember. As expected, the first dark figures came crawling out of the holes, making sounds that would probably have sent a cold shiver down the spines of some. It was already apparent that we were dealing with the two demon races we had fought before, but this time they were traveling with further reinforcements.

I hated the sound that this species made as soon as even a small part of them stuck out of the ground. It was a shrill, high-pitched, loud and simple disgusting sound, which immediately triggered the urge to cover one's ears. It sounded like a terrible scream that went through your entire body and simply got stuck there. This creature was called a demon of terror and this name, I thought, fit very well, because terror was what it triggered in so many when they saw or heard it. Thanks to my better hearing, it was even more unpleasant for me than for the others, because I heard these sounds so much louder.

A demon of terror, it was necessary to know, had three different levels. A lower terror, then the terror itself and a higher terror. In appearance, these three classes hardly differed in their abilities, however, one could definitely distinguish them. In appearance, these creatures reminded me of tree branches that were connected to each other. Their skin resembled the bark of an old tree and all in all they looked quite interesting, at least compared to the other demons. If only it were not for the sounds they made. Both low and high forms of this kind could open portals at their feet, in which they could disappear, only to shoot out of the ground again directly in front of you. The shockwave they created was quite powerful and in most cases caused one to easily lose their footing, which was probably the ulterior motive for this attack. The radius of this attack was quite large, so caution was definitely called for.

The second stage of this opponent was not much different from the first stage in abilities either, the only thing that made them different from each other was that they were a bit harder to kill than the others. The third level, however, had a little more going for it. While they could also open portals, they also had the ability to induce strong fear in a person. Although this power had a different effect on stronger people and only made them feel bad for quite some time, on others who had no experience with demons and who had little ability to defend themselves, it caused highly unpleasant conditions. The affected persons usually started to run away in panic and without any sense or simply collapsed screaming, which of course left one absolutely unprotected for their attacks. This kind of curse could only be broken if the demon was distracted by someone else, preferably by an attack. By themselves, these creatures were easy to kill with normal attacks and especially with spirit damage.