211 Inhumane

"That'll take too long," Doevm said.

"But it's the only choice we have," Elero said. "Unless you have a plan."

"A plan," Doevm repeated to himself as he stepped off his Amphiboard, put a hand to his chin, and began pacing. "Trak's group is most likely in that direction but the only way to confirm is to-" The rest of his words were lost to the others as they turned into quiet mumbles. He smiled.

Elero turned to Frey: "What's he doing? He looks like he's ready to murder someone."

Frey shrugged: "I've only seen him do this thing a couple of times. It's just a temporary state."

"And what kind of state is that?" Elero waved a hand in front of Doevm's face, who swatted it away as if it were an annoying fly.

"Enjoyment," Frey said. He sat down on his Amphiboard. "He's not normal. Everyone who has had any kind of conversation with him knows that. He knows that. This part of him…is the most inhumane. It's almost like he lives to be challenged, to be put on the very edge only to hold on by the skin of his teeth."

"Elero, is everything still in the spatial ring?" Doevm said in between his mutterings. Elero put on Thomas's spatial ring and nodded. "Can you bring out all the uncut pieces of dry lumber and put them on the driest spot of soil?" Elero did as she was told. "That's good. I'll be right back. Stay here." He paddled off without another word, even when Elero tried to argue with him.

"But the plan hasn't changed much, has it?" Elero called after him but he didn't even so much as turn his head. She let out a sigh: "Frey, you talk about him like he's some kind of monster."

"Monster?" Frey laughed. "Not even close. You can conceive the strength of monsters. Monsters always stick to the shadows, waiting for you to turn your back. They don't dare to touch the light. Doevm can be in both the shadows and the light but you never know which side he's on. If you're his enemy, he will go after you regardless if your back is turned."

By now, Doevm had returned with as many pieces of Bullfrog as he could carry. He set them down next to the bundles of lumber and took out Burnsticks from his spatial ring.

"Well then," Elero said. "Sorry to rain on your parade Doevm but I have a plan, or part of one anyway. Without Thomas we lack both an effective way to use the venom bombs and a distraction. We can all throw spears but none of us are as accurate or fast as Thomas."

"Perfect," Doevm activated the Burnsticks and threw them into the pile of wood, igniting it all. "The last piece has fallen into place."

"Wait," Elero scrunched up her eyebrows. "That was all you needed; that one part of the plan? What about the rest? How will you and Frey get in? How will you get out? How will you find Trak's group in the first place?"

"Well, we know that they are in the northwest region," Doevm began. "But that will take too long to search, so we need a method of finding Trak's group. This method has to have a good sense of the swamp, something is faster than even us."

Doevm tossed the Bullfrog meat into the fire and a mouthwatering scent flooded through the area. Bright flames reflected in Doevm's eyes. 'Trak's group really cornered me. They really thought that this would be enough. They even took Thomas, one of my cards. I can only blame myself for that. I'm the one that prevented Thomas from realizing the divide between nobles and commoners in the first place, when I erased his memory over a decade ago. Frey lost trust in me, although I don't blame him for that when he can't even trust himself or his family. So much karma is dragging me down. Luckily, I am me.'

"Doevm," Elero said as she took one step back from the blaze. "Why did you do this? Isn't the guardian of the swamp nearby? What if it smells this and draws closer?" She drew her longsword as life essence gathered around her eyes. "I can already see creatures heading tow…what!?" A figure landed next to them, splitting right through a tree, the corpse of a Bobcat. A howl echoed through the swamp.

Meanwhile, moments ago in another part of the swamp…

"For the last time," Mr. Quinn said to the four youths in front of him. "I don't give a. single. fuck. what you think the prices should be. I didn't decide them. I don't care who you. You are literally arguing over the price of a towel."

At this, the noble frowned, and Mr. Quinn braced himself for another little part of his soul dying: "But the contributions I give this academy are-"

Mr. Quinn turned to see that Fang had lept off the front of the boat and broke into a full sprint through the swamp. "Fang!" Mr. Quinn yelled as he hopped into his boat, grabbed his paddle, and chased after him. "Heel boy. Heel!"

"You can't-" the noble's voice faded into the distance.

"Fang slow the hell down!" Copper life essence swirled around Mr. Quinn's arms and he sailed through the air. Trees blurred by and Mr. Quinn kept yelling for Fang, who never stopped. It was only until they passed by a bloody lake that he yelled, "Sit!" and Fang sat. The wolf looked back at him, his tail wagging. "For once you listen to me," Mr. Quinn sighed as he stepped out of his boat and onto a mess of destroyed vegetation. Now that he took note of the surroundings, there was a bright fire burning just in front of him, and the smell of fresh Bullfrog meat made saliva drip from Fang's mouth. Three youths stood before him, two of them with their weapons drawn, eyes wide.

Mr. Quinn chuckled: "Oh, it's you three. That's clever to use Fang to lure me in. Can I assume you want to make a deal?"

"Yes," Elero stepped forward after sheathing her longsword.

"I as well," Doevm said, looking at Fang. "But not with you. Is it true that Fang is not a part of this competition?" Mr. Quinn nodded. "And he is free to harm and help teams as he pleases?" Mr. Quinn nodded, eyes narrowing. "And what do you think about how Trak's group is bending the rules?"

"Bending the rules? That's fine by me," Mr. Quinn shrugged. "but what they're doing isn't just bending the rules. It's Trak that's…Oops there goes my big mouth again."

Doevm nodded and walked over to the Ice Cerberus. A red aura appeared over his body. "Now Fang, care to make a deal?" Fang jumped back. Life essence surged around Mr. Quinn, who drew his weapon.

"What the fuck?" Elero pointed her longsword at Doevm. "When did this happen?"

"You're possessed?" Mr. Quinn cursed. "Just stay still, I'll contact the generals and get this all sorted out."

"I'm in control," Doevm responded and held his hands in the air. "Just like you, I have a mutually beneficial contract worked out."

Mr. Quinn put a hand on Fang's head and the wolf stopped growling: "Easy boy." He turned to Doevm. "So what's your demon? You should have registered it beforehand, even if you have control."

"I didn't have it before," Doevm said, making sure to step away from Elero, who still held out her longsword. "I found a demonic weapon. It is now going to appear. Don't chop my head off, ok?"

"Secrets are fine," Elero hissed. "But not this. You should have told me." She turned to Frey. "Did you know about this?" Frey went silent. "I can't believe you two." She shook her head and sheathed her sword. "But I'll deal with this later. Get on with whatever you're doing. I'll just…I don't know. I'll do something to get you back later, preferably with violence."

"That's fine," Doevm took out his black and redish spear and set it on the ground. "Mr. Quinn. While we might be able to use demonic power from our respective demons, yours is autonomous, a plain old demon, and mine is a demonic weapon. Between the two of us, Fang should be much, much more feared than me. You know what it looks like when one is in control, and what it looks like when one isn't, right? Do I look out of control to you?"

"No," Mr. Quinn shrugged. "So just that spear huh?" He took out a piece of paper and did a quick sketch that he stuffed into his pocket.

"Out of curiosity," Doevm said. "Do you know that a man by the name of Gregen is also possessed? He had the same red aura as you see covering me. I don't know which type of demon he has though."

"Gregen?" Mr. Quinn took out a piece of paper filled with names and read through it. "There is no one with that name in initiation."

"But that's impossible," Frey said. "He almost killed Thomas. He has a great sword that was covered in the stuff."

Mr. Quinn shrugged. "I don't know everyone's weapons, just the names that are written here." He flicked the paper. "There are over a hundred people here. More than likely there are a lot of great sword users. Do you expect us to pause the competition, gather everyone up in a line, and then run expensive tests to see whether any of them are possessed based off the word of three people, two of which are commoners?"

Doevm shook his head. "We can deal with that later. For now, I would like to talk to Fang through my demon, do you mind?"

"How about you just tell me." Mr. Quinn stepped in front of Fang but the demon lept over him and pinned Doevm to the ground with one of its claws. A bit of red aura stretched off of Fang and connected with Doevm. "Fang!" Mr. Quinn yelled, but his words never reached Fang, nor Doevm.

"What do you want?" Fang's voice rang in Doevm's head.

Doevm pointed to the Bullfrog meat, slowly turning brown in the roaring fire. "I'll give you every last scrap of Bullfrog meat. You just need to lead me to where Trak's group is so I can save my friend." Fang narrowed his eyes.

"And," Doevm blurted out as if he was cornered. "This will benefit Mr. Quinn as well. He doesn't like them and we don't like them. The enemy of my enemy." Doevm felt Fang searching through his mind, prodding, and poking at the gates of his memories. "I'll let you have the bones as well."

"Deal." Fang retracted himself from Doevm's mind, hopped off of Doevm, and sat in front of the fire.

Mr. Quinn slapped Fang on the back hard, then hugged his head. "Follow orders damn it." Fang licked his master's face before lunging for the meat but Mr. Quinn held onto the collar. "Wait until it's cooked." He turned to Elero. "You wanted something from me, right? Let me first see the payment." Elero pulled out dozens of venomous salamander corpses.

"By the goddess," Mr. Quinn said. He had to take a step back to avoid getting crushed by the mound of corpses. "That will get you just about anything I have."

"I need beast baits," Elero said after a long pause. "I need a lot of them. I would also like some Watersnake venom antidotes and healing potions. The quantities are…" After listing the quantities, Mr. Quinn took all but a few of the corpses, which Elero pushed into her spatial ring.

"Pleasure doing business with you." Mr. Quinn said as he handed over all the items requested. He looked over to Fang, whose body expanded until it was bigger than even the Bullfrogs. Red aura pulsed around him. "Are you finished?" Fang grabbed the meat and tore it straight off the bone. Mr. Quinn sighed: "Fang will need an item to track down Thomas."

Elero held out Thomas's spatial ring. Fang bent low, sniffed it twice, and barked. Fang shifted his collar and two more heads appeared besides the middle one. Three furry heads grabbed the three youths by the backs of their shirts and lifted them onto the Cerberus's back.

"Hang on," Mr. Quinn said as he hopped onto his boat.

Doevm and Elero grabbed onto patches of fur. Frey however, scrunched his eyebrows. "Wait hang onto wh-" Fang darted through the swamp at a full sprint. Cold wind rushed by the three's ears. Fang dashed around trees, under branches, through mud with Mr. Quinn paddling as hard as he could to follow. "This is awesome," Frey tried to say. Instead, bugs flew into his open mouth.

They passed by other groups, who all gawked at the bizarre sight. Some called out to Mr. Quinn but he never paid them any attention. After a dozen or so minutes of the three holding on for dear life, their knuckles turning white from holding on and the cold, Fang came to a stop. The three were flung off. Doevm and Elero landed on their feet while Frey flew into a tree.

"Fang you need to learn at least some semblance of restraint," Mr. Quinn hissed as a pile of bones appeared in front of Fang, which all three heads nibbled on. Mr. Quinn put his head in his hands. "Seriously, this can't go on. We're training when we get back." Fang whined but Mr. Quinn stared at him. "But to the rest of you, this is as far as we can take you. General Brandon Von Trike watches over this part of the swamp and I don't want to see or talk to him. Be careful." He grabbed Fang and hauled him off. "I said heel and you didn't heel."

Fang let out a whine. "Dangerous," the demon said through their linked mind.

"I know Doevm is dangerous." Mr. Quinn scratched Fang under his chin, all three chins.

"No, not the boy. The girl, she doesn't smell human."