The demon smiled, apparently more evilly, it was certainly showing more teeth. “I don’t work for the council. My master is a bit more powerful than those pathetic windbags. He’s ordered me to kill anyone entering without his approval. You entered. You weren’t approved. You gotta die.”
“Are you sure? No escape clause or anything?” Rupert quizzed the demon. It was really looking annoyed.
“Given that you are just a kid, I could probably get away with letting you go. However, since you saw the door, you are obviously some snot-nosed wizard brat. If I let you’ll go, you’ll only grow up to be a wizard and enslave more demons. Thus if I kill you now, I’ll save some demon a lot of misery. Thus you might say it’s personal.” The demon smiled.
“I really don’t think...” Rupert began, but was unable to finish. The demon had reached forward and swatted him with his claws. “Aaaggghhh.” Rupert cried. He went spinning across the room to the corner from the force of the blow. His chest stung severely. He looked down to see red, bloody tracks running across his chest where the demon had clawed him. He crouched on the floor where he’d been flung.
He looked to the door he’d entered. It seemed to be invisible again, this time from this side. He looked back to the demon. The demon was smiling extremely wickedly at him this time. There could be no mistake. The demon was about to play hardball. Rupert didn’t think the demon intended to let him live.
Well then, he too could play hardball. “You shouldn’t have done that,” he told the demon sternly.
“Why?” The demon taunted. “Going to run crying to mommy and daddy. They can’t help you now kid. You’re meat.”
Rupert stood up, lightly touching his still stinging chest wound. “You wouldn’t like my daddy, demon.” Rupert glared evilly back at the demon. Unfortunately, his human glare wasn’t as intimidating as the demon’s. The little demon just laughed. Rupert just shrugged. He let himself go.
The wound in his chest stopped stinging. His boots and pants suddenly constricted him, as did the cuffs of his sleeves. They didn’t for long though, it took only a moment before his clothes tore. The demon stopped laughing.
Rupert now looked down at the little demon, he was easily two feet taller than the other demon. Rupert just fanned his wings slowly, now he smiled in earnest. “Bwah-hah-hah-hah” Rupert chuckled evilly. The little demon gulped. Rupert glared into the demon’s eyes.
“You might consider giving a person the benefit of the doubt in the future, munchkin.” Rupert said. He swiped the little demon across the chest in the same way he’d been swiped. Unfortunately, for the little demon, Rupert’s claws were a lot sharper and longer, and Rupert was a lot stronger. The little demon went plop into the far wall, goo oozing from its chest cavity as it tried to suck in air to speak.
“Heh, heh.” The demon gasped. “Just playing with you, sir. Hadn’t realized exactly who you were, m’lord. No, no, certainly if I’d known, wouldn’t have been so harsh. Even so I wouldn’t have killed you. Certainly not. Just wanted to scare you a little.” The demon tried to grin ingratiatingly. Rupert just stared at him.
“The question,” Rupert stated, “is do I rend you limb from limb, physically. Or do I rend you cell by cell, magically.” Rupert certainly couldn’t do the latter, and he really didn’t want to do the former; however the demon had really made him mad. He deserved to suffer a little fear. If Rupert had been a human, he’d be dead by now, he was sure.
“Limb by limb if you please.” The demon begged. “I’ll be forever regenerating the cell by cell thing. Please.” The demon almost seemed to whine. “Please lord, if I have to regenerate cell by cell, my master will really be angry with me. He doesn’t like his people slacking off, taking his time to regenerate from their own stupidity as he’d say. Just rend me limb from limb, I promise I won’t bother you anymore. Please?” Rupert just continued to glare. He was taken by surprise. The little fellow acted as if it were standard procedure in this circumstance. He was actually begging for one method over the other. “Please? Limb by limb?” The demon begged.
