Chapter one: A powerful foe.
By VWBSZWAS.

It was five years after her fathers death and Kit had grown use to a life of solitude. She found it easy to survive in the world despite her age and size, the lower class demons that were stupid enough to attack her were easily slain and the higher class were able to see the mark of her heritage with their second sight and knew better than to attack.
She found it fairly easy to meet her own basic requirements and the few times she needed or wanted something that she couldn‘t supply herself, she found it easy to manipulate the pathetic people in the villages she came across, all she had to do was bat her eyelids and look cute and innocent and people were falling over themselves to help her. While it was degrading for a demon of her status and she could have just as easily used her power to make them help her, she found it amusing to see how easily people could be manipulated and used.
However the past five years had not been easy on Kit, she still had no idea where she was going, and had spent her time wondering around the countryside, killing all the lesser demons she came across, determined to become as powerful as possible, someone to be reckoned with.
But in the back of her mind something still bugged her. Her fathers death, the police officer had told her that he had been killed by the lesser demon he had been fighting on the outskirts of town and she knew that he had told the truth. But how could such a weak demon defeat her father, one of the most powerful demon lords in the area? It just didn’t make sense. She had beaten far greater demons in the past few years and she was just a child. There must be more to it! She thought There must be something I’m missing. But there was no chance of her finding out now, it had happened five years ago and she had left without any knowledge of what had happened. It was just another mystery that would probably never be solved.
She sighed, she was getting tired of this life. There was no more challenge, no more enemies that were worthy of her skill. And she was starting too feel lonely, she couldn’t deny it any longer. She was demon but she was also a child and she craved some sort of companionship, some sort of attention. But all the demons she’d come across so far, even the more powerful of them, were hardly worth bothering with and there was no way she would travel with a mere human.
So she was still alone, travelling out of habit now, with no goal in mind and no real purpose. She frowned at her thoughts, she did have a goal, she was going to become the most powerful demon she could and the only way to do that was to increase her skill by fighting more demons.
Talking about fighting demons, she thought and whirling around, sword drawn, she called into the trees, on the other side of the clearing that she was standing in. ‘Show yourself and fight, or leave me be. I am in no mood for games.’ She half hoped the demon would leave, she was growing weary and was ready to stop for the night, but she knew there was no real chance of that happening and wanted to get the fight over with as quickly as possible.
She stared into the trees impatiently and waited for the demon to show itself. All was silent for a moment and she smiled, a cold, ruthless smile that could drive fear into the hearts of the strongest of men, if it were a lesser demon she was facing they would have attacked already, no this was a middle or maybe even a higher class demon, a challenge, finally. That in mind, she opened up her second sight and peered across the clearing and into the forest. Her second sight allowed her to see the auras of other sentient beings, and on other demons, excluding the lower class, she was able to see the symbol or symbols that marked their clan. But her gaze was met with darkness.
She blinked, confused. She had fought enough demons over the years to know one when she sensed it and to know how they behaved, this was defiantly a demon, but it was acting differently to any other she had come across. She could sense it, smell it amongst the trees, but all it was doing was standing there, completely unlike a normal lower class demon. But if its was anything higher she would be able to see its aura and the forest were remaining stubbornly dark.
Her thoughts stopped when the demon finally stepped from the trees, it looked like any other typical lower class demon, all had a form that was a mockery of an already existing creature. All demons species were named after an animal that they resembled, for instance dog demons had some of the physical traits of a dog such as a tail or dog ears and there personalities might show certain traits of that species. Middle and higher class demons had the ability to take on one or more forms other than the one they were born with, but lower class demons could not, they were stuck looking like a deformed animal, though occasionally they could look vaguely human.
This particular demon was over seven feet tall and it was vaguely humanoid in shape, except that all its features seemed to be stretched and its limbs were far to long. Its skin was a dark green colour, with splashes of red on its face and torso, all in all it was a pretty typical looking demon. But Kit wasn’t fooled, the look in its eyes was far too intelligent and despite its otherwise convincing appearance they way it held itself was all wrong and it was devoid of the hunger that drove all lower class demons.
‘What are you?’ she asked. Genuinely curious, this demon was a mystery, a mystery she wouldn‘t mind solving. The demon growled in answer, but she could tell by the pitch and sound that it had the ability to talk. Though obviously it wanted to fight instead and despite her curiosity, Kit was happy to oblige.
She raised her sword in front of her and waited for the demon to attack, not willing to make the first move against this foe. She glared across the clearing at it, daring it to attack. It met her gaze and the two stared at each other for a few moments, weighing each other up. She saw the demon tense and had just enough time to brace herself before the demon rushed forward.
Claws extended, it dived at her, its claws aimed at her throat. She parried the blow easily, stepping to the side and bringing her sword sweeping upward to slice across the demons chest, her blade parting its flesh like butter. She moved back and waited for the demon to fall, she smiled impressed at the size of the wound she had inflicted, but far from collapsing like she expected, it laughed and she watched in shock as the wound healed almost instantaneously.
She stood there, not believing her eyes and for a precious moment she lost the hard won control she had on her emotions. She had heard stories of demons that could heal that fast, but she had never really believed them, it was true that demons of all types healed considerably faster than humans, but this was amazing. Before she could regain her precious control it attacked again and this time it managed to score a hit on her left arm. She gasped as her arm was sliced open, hardly believing that she had been so careless as to let herself be injured.
Her features hardened as it rushed at her again. This time she was ready and met its blow with one of her own, nearly severing its head from its neck. They both sprung back and she growled with frustration as the wound healed seamlessly. This time she made sure that she was the one who made the first move, swinging her sword toward the demon’s head. But she was losing a lot of blood from her arm and she could already feel herself weakening, as a result her attack lacked the speed and accuracy she had spent so long acquiring and the demon was able to easily avoid her blade.
It stepped to the side and, as Kit’s momentum carried her forward, it drew its claws across her back, ripping through her shirt and coat and slicing deep into her back. She fell to her knees and only just managed to get her sword up in time to block the demons next blow. Pushing the demon back with her sword, she rolled away the demons next blow barely missing her.
The movement grounded dirt into her back and arm making her wounds feel like they were on fire. She gasped in pain as she was forced to roll away again to avoid the demons next blow. I have to get to my feet or it’s going to finish me. She thought in a panic, then scowled I’m better than this, all I have to do is calm down and focus. With that thought she took a deep breath and in the seconds it took for the demon to attack again, she formulated a plan.
When the demons claws came swiping toward her, she grabbed its arm and pulled it forward, using its own momentum to pull it over her head to fall in a tangled heap behind her. She used the time it took for the demon to untangle itself to flip to her feet and ready herself for its next attack.
The demon got to its feet and growled angrily at her, before attacking again. She tried to parry its next blow, but she was too weak and it pushed aside her blade and sent its claws racking across her stomach. The blow sending her flying backward to slam into one of the trees on the other side of the clearing. She whimpered as her already injured back was slammed into the tree trunk, white hot pain burning into her before her head snapped backward, cracking into the tree and turning her world to black.
The impact with the tree would have killed an ordinary human, but kit was only unconscious for a few seconds before coming to. When she opened her eyes she found herself slumped at the base of the tree, the demon standing only a few meters away, glaring at her as it got ready to attack again. She moaned in pain, she could barely move and her whole body ached and burned, but she knew if she didn’t do something soon the demon would finish her. Damn it. She had been far to confident in her skills and strength, but there was no way she was going to let it kill her, this was a mistake that she would never repeat and though she was nearly dead she saw it as a lesson, a chance to increase her skills and despite the agony she was in she realised that she would much be here, on deaths door, than wondering around aimlessly like she had for the last five years.
That thought gave her strength and she concentrated as hard as she could. Blocking out the pain, she gathered all her strength and focused it into her sword. She tucked her feet beneath her and lifted her blade, holding it in front of her as her last defence. Bracing herself against the tree’s trunk, she smiled, her eyes filled with grim determination as she waited for the demon to attack.
The demon attacked, rushing at her with unbelievable speed and though it went against her every instinct she managed to stay still, focusing everything she had into keeping her blade steady. The demon crashed into her, and she used all her strength to push back at it. It laughed at her feeble efforts and wrapped its hands around her blade trying to wrench it from her grasp.
She growled in anger as the demon pulled at her sword, whishing with all her might that she could at least defend herself. She let out a small sound of surprise as she felt a tug on her very being and watched in awe as pink light shone from her sword and the demon was thrown across the clearing and sent crashing into the forest, the smell of burning flesh overwhelming her. She had enough energy left to take one confused look at the pink bubble that surrounded her, before slipping into unconsciousness.
The demon got to its feet, being careful not to use its hands, which were now covered with horrible burns, and walked across the clearing toward the unconscious demon child, a look of shock and surprise on its face. It walked to the very edge of the bubble that still surrounded her and poked at it tentatively with its foot, drawing back with a hiss of pain when it stated to burn.
It frowned at its burns and, after checking that the child was still unconscious, it dropped its disguise, taking on its usual form with a flash of blue light. Where the deformed creature had just stood, there was now a smartly dressed, higher class demon, that looked, for all appearances sake, like a attractive, twenty year old, human, man.
With the change in form the demons burns had healed completely, leaving him unharmed, clean looking, and ridiculously out of place in the blood soaked clearing, with a near dead child less than a meter away.
‘She’s strong.’ He whispered to himself as he brushed nonexistent dust from his jacket. ‘Much stronger than her father, and too smart to fall for my simpler tricks. I Wonder.’ He muttered, reaching into a pocket and pulling out a faintly glowing amulet on a golden chain. Letting it dangle from his fist he slowly brought it against the edge of the bubble that surrounded Kit.
On contact the amulet glowed brighter and the bubble wavered slightly, but didn’t fall. Sighing he tucked it away again and considered the child at his feet. ‘What to do now?’ He wondered allowed. ‘She is powerful yes, but untrained. And she appears to be completely unaware of her magical power, or at least completely unaware of how to use it. It usually takes years of training for even the most powerful demons to able to use this technique.’ He said, talking to himself as he inspected the bubble.
‘How can she have mastered it, and it’s so strong, not even the amulet can break it.’ He sighed again. ‘I shall need more power before I can defeat her, and defeat her I shall. She is too powerful to be allowed to live, luckily for me she has no real skill yet, or she could rival even my power.’ With that he turned his back on the child and walked back into the forest, determined to increase his strength and get rid of this child, this child who held so much raw power, this child who may just be his undoing.
When the sun rose the next morning Kit was still unconscious, but her wounds had stopped bleeding and her breathing was steady, there was no doubt that she would survive, though it would take a while for her to heal, even with her demon fast healing. As the sun travelled across the sky, the bubble started to fade and finally fell, Kit’s aura seeping back into her now that the danger was gone, but still she didn’t wake and she lay there, in a pool of her own blood, left to the mercies of others.