Sting & Blade (Hashim)

[[NPC]admin]

"And don't come back until I order you to!"

"Hng ..."

From outside the tent of general skull satamon anyone could see how a zweihander-wielding devimon was being ejected out of the tent by the tip of the undead general's staff, which was deadlier than one would think.

By the tone of the bony general's voice anyone could guess that he was extremely pissed off: He laughed before when the stingmon mentioned a new strategy but he really was furious because that insect outsmarted and made a fool out of him, and to make things worse, now that devimon he gave the easy mission of deleting a darcmon not only lost two demidevimons who were assigned to assist him but also ran away from the enemy and dared to mention that outside there was somebody more evil than him. The nerve of that devimon! Everybody knew well that no one was as evil as skull satamon, and the devimon even invented lies like that evil digimon being from another dimension.

"How foolish was of your part to ignore my message, general"

The devimon stand up and shrugged off the dust his leather suit collected after kissing the ground, courtesy of skull satamon's powerful staff impact attack, and cursed his general for not believing him when he mentioned the dimensional evil. He might be a competent general, but his ego was so huge that he would kill anyone who considered himself superior to him. The things he had to endure for the demon corps ...

[hashim]

Hashim was on his way to the devil general's tent at the moment when the whole ... unusual incident transpired. In the midst of his first encounter with the demon lord he forgot to ask him about a copy of the map he would need in order to survey the situation closer. The stingmon would have send someone to get it, were the demon general more ... reasonable, his habits of killing messengers and whatnot for stupid reasons were well known, so he figured he might as well go himself to get it, troops are to be lost in battle, and not over such ... petty matters. "Life is currency of war, spend it well." - the motto of the book Hashim read recently. Much sense, that one had.

His plans of getting said map drastically changed, however, because of the black yelling projectile that suddenly was launched by an unknown force out of the tent, skyrocketing into the air, and then plunging into an uncontrollable nosedive, ending in collision with the ground and leaving a nice trail behind as he literally plowed the scourged dry earth with his face. Hashim figured it would be in his best interest to delay his second visit, especially considering he got himself a new white cloak. Stupid demons and their preconception about warfare - it was frikken hot in here!

Then something yanked on the ground soon after the demon landed, Hashim's attention redirecting towards the source of the metallic sound for a second. A sword, rather large one at that, only a bit shorter than the stingmon himself. It was probably the demon's sword - such a huge blade would suit him well. But the bug general wondered what did the devimon do to earn such a kick in the butt from the demon lord. The curses that the digimon muttered did not give much answers, only asked more questions. Hashim picked the weapon up, looking at it briefly. A very good weapon, it was. Shouldn't have been maltreated in such a way.

- I do not remember ignoring your message. - the stingmon stepped up from the shades, as the devimon was shrugging off the dust. He was well aware that the devimon was talking about his general, but it was a way of starting a conversation. Hashim was curious about the message, that was pretty obvious.

- Yours? - he then asked a rhetoric question, passing the blade to the devimon. No questions about welfare, however, most devils took offense if you asked them if they were alright, even if they were suffering in pain. They needed not pity. Pity is for the weak. And they posed themselves as strong. Even if against angels they were little more than pitiful...

[[NPC]admin]

"I'm not in the mood to deal with smart guys"

The devimon replied. Unlike skull satamons, devimons had a more cunning and intellectual mind and even those who fashioned themselves as warriors like the one present here knew when somebody was messing with them. He simply picked the sword that whoever talked with him grabbed from the dirty ground and only then bothered to see who was talking with him.

"You must be the new guy here"

Like the rest of the demon corps, he knew that they were going to get new reinforcements but due he was busy pursuing an angel that escaped from the sieged site, he wasn't there the first time the stingmon visited the camp. He could've stabbed him in the abdomen were he not smart enough to think before acting and as nobody else was attacking the white cloak-clad insect, it was logical to think he was an ally.

"If you value you life, don't bother trying to talk with our general. When he is furious he kills anyone who enters in his tent"

And he wasn't joking, that impact he received in his chest had some serious lethal power behind and less powerful digimon would've died no sooner skull satamon touched them with his staff. Fear invaded the heart of anyone who were chosen to bring bad news to the general, that almost always guaranteed a quick death and only tough as nails digimon like this devimon dared to get near him when the need to deliver bad news arise.

[hashim]

- I figured that much, His Wickedness owes me a new cloak already. - Hashim shrugged upon hearing a warning. He was still pissed at the demon lord for destroying his previous one only because he didn't like the color. Sure, Hashim got a new one easily, but still, what a waste of good material! The stingmon bet that at times the demon lord howled at the moon, because it was white and he was unable to destroy it. Tch, what a typical example of thick-skullness. Thickskullsatamon? Sounded right.

- I was going to ask him to provide me with a map so I could get some planning done, since our armies are supposed to be cooperating together, but ... I think I'd rather wait until he is done with throwing childish tantrums first. - he added. Seriously, this moodiness, and uncontrollable outbursts of anger did not give the demon lord too much credit. He acted like a child who started biting when things didn't go his way. A brat in an Ultimate's body. Hashim saw many like that, served under one actually.

- What did you say to make him furious? Well, more furious anyway? Judging by the trajectory of your flight you pissed him off good. - the stingmon asked casually, making a jest to walk away from the general's tent in a certain direction. He found it normal to have a chat with a soldier, even if it was a soldier of another army. There was much to be found out from such talks, and besides, the demon mentioned some message. If it was that important the devimon risked his life to approach their fiery general with it, surely stingmon wouldn't mind hearing it out. And perhaps considering it more profusely...

[[NPC]admin]

"He is wicked, and that's precisely why he is our general. I hate him, but at the same time I respect his wicked ways"

The stingmon should know well that strange contradictory sensation that you feel when you work with a horrible jerk that you can't deny is awesome in certain way. Some great tacticians of old were impossible to work with due their personality, but no one could doubt that when it was about war they were the best. Same happened with skull satamon, he might be somebody hard to work with but demons respected power and evilness, and he had both. Love-hate relationship too much?

Hashim's mention about the boss's tantrum actually got him a grin from the devimon, that bug sure had attitude and confidence, and as it was proven with skull satamon, that was a must to survive in the demon corps. In fact, his mood was good enough to bother with answering the stingmon's questions, it wasn't going to hurt anyone if he told him what he knew.

"He got angry when I told him about the darcmon and tylomon that defeated me, and he literally was burning with rage when I mentioned something interesting that angel said, something about a digimon from another world. I sensed great evil that surpassed Skully's when she talked about that monster and I only earned myself a skull hammer smash for telling him about what I found. Should've kept my mouth shut up, if he hates something more than failure, that is finding that somebody is eviler than him"

[hashim]

- Well, in our army soldiers respect not the way of life one leads, but one's ability to command and win battles. That's precisely why I am their general. - Hashim retorted at the explanation why the demon army respected their commander. Such attitudes actually pissed the bug off. For some reason digimon who had the potential of becoming greatest armies of all times chose their leaders not by actual ability, but by the amount of babies and kittens he or she ate. it was precisely because of this why Hashim requested to remain with this army as their leader. They may have been not as strong as demons or whatever, but they valued his ability to keep their hides intact. he had their respect.

However, when the devimon started talking about what pissed Skully so greatly, Hashim became, much, much more interested in hearing him out. Especially after he mentioned a certain duo that defeated him. he remembered very well those two digimon, who turned the tide of battle in the dragon valley practically by themselves. And triceromon's words that if they cannot be recruited - they must be killed. Now, with the latter it might get difficult.

- A darcmon and a tylomon, you say? Hmm... - he sighed out thoughtfully. - Not too long ago I was a mere shamanmon in servitude of a paildramon. That one lead an army only because he instilled fear with his brutish strength and attitude, but his ineptitude to comprehend tactical maneuvers other than "Charge!" made me tear all of my hairs from my beautiful head. During the battle with the locals in the dragon valley, a similar duo appeared. A darcmon and a tylomon. Tylomon rained missiles upon us from a distance, and darcmon killed our leader. I'll have to thank her for that should I get the opportunity to meet her - that idiot's death allowed me to move forward... Ha-ha, but jokes aside, if they are here - it means they might try pulling something off here as well. Situation is similar. A city under siege, and we're the bad guys... - his mind was preoccupied with this new information, but he did not ignore what the devimon said about cosmic evil he felt.

- As for that evil from another world... Are you sure she wasn't just messing with you? I mean, I wasn't there to see it, but she could be just pulling your leg... - he proposed. His ignorance on the topic was excusable, since devimon mentioned only few details. Still, this discussion was getting more interesting by the moment...

[[NPC]admin]

"Be grateful we have our own laws, if we demons decided to play smart the entire digital would would be gone already"

The demon corps were more than powerful enough to annihilate the entire digital world if they desired, but they rarely worked together and when they did it was under the leadership of people like skull satamon who killed his own men he didn't like them. It was something to be grateful that demons were so weird and maybe whatever controlled the digital world created them like that to maintain the balance of the world.

When the stingmon mentioned the dynamic duo and their exploits in another region, devimon raised one of his evil eyebrows as for what he said, those guys single handed stopped an entire army and killed an ultimate-level digimon. Now he knew he made the right choice when he decided to escape from those two.

"History tends to repeat itself. I'm going to tell skully to strengthen our defenses in case those two appear again once he stops being so irrational, I don't want to risk my life again for this day, that impact still hurts"

Idiot leader seemed to be something common even outside the demon corps, how low the paildramon race has fallen if all they had were idiots. Nevermind, that's how things worked and there was no reason to cry for the spilled milk. He continued listening to what the stingmon had to say and felt the need to rectify something the stingmon misunderstood

"She wasn't messing with me; I really felt a powerful evil force when she started acting weird, that source of evil ... it made even a devil like me tremble with fear, I bet skully wound wet his pants were he to sense the presence of that monster that easily is many times eviler than him"

Ha, the devil afraid of darkness, that was something laughable ... expect that no, that was a terrible bad omen. Devils were evil, but at least their evilness had goals like destroying a city or corrupting angels. That darkness freak? what the devimon felt from that presence was pure evil with no meaning behind it. Destruction, paranoia, despair, all the evils of the world could be sensed within that being and surely that "thing" would induce primal fear in the rotten hearts of the demon corps if it bothered with doing that.

[hashim]

- So now we'll have to deal with two upstarts who keep raiding armies for no apparent reason, plus a powerful evil force you speak of. We're I superstitious man, I would have called the timing too good. - he mused. Indeed, failures with capturing a tiny town, angel host, these two, and now cosmic evil - all in the same place. How very convenient. Maybe there was a larger plan at work here, and Hashim did not know what exactly.

- Though ... you won't have to be telling your demon lord to strengthen the defenses. Spare yourself from another flight. After our meeting with him and discussing the battle plan, the skullsatamon was gratuitous enough to redirect command of his troops to me, as well as any other war-related matters. He seems to like fighting in front instead of thinking on strategy and maneuver. Which is fine by me, people should do what they're best suited for. The duo caught us unprepared, in the middle of the battle last time. We shall see how well they'll fare against a prepared foe... - Stingmon said, his hands crossed behind him. Indeed, giving the responsibility of looking after two armies to him may have been skully's smartest move yet. That way, Hashim could ensure they are not caught by surprise.

Then Hashim remembered one peculiar thing about this devimon. While being just like all of the other devimon in behavioral and thought patterns, what was wrong about him was that he ... carried a sword. A weird sword too. No fancy flame-like symbols, spikes of evil and whatnot could be found on demon-made weaponry. It was a very simple zweihander, no decorations, and whatever insignias were there looked like they were scratched out on purpose. Why was that he wondered...

- That sword of yours... - Hashim decided to change the subject, now that he knew about the incoming heroes, it was his job to deal with them, no need to mull it over over and over again. - I heard devimon rarely use weapons, favoring claws instead, but you don't carry your blade just for show, do you? Might I ask where did you learn to use it? - Hashim inquired. He was a bit curious, because without insignias, marks, spikes and whatever, the sword seemed to be looking a bit too much like ... a simple cross...

[[NPC]admin]

"In my long life I've learned that there's no such thing as coincidences, something big is going to happen and my evil little heart tells me I am going to die here. Not that I care, death is part of life even for demons, but until then better to make good use of my remaining life."

Live hard, die hard, that's the way of the demons and this one felt that his own death was close. His close encounter with the darcmon, the presence of an evil impossible of understand and the angel host doing the impossible to beat them, he didn't need to be a genius to understand fate itself was working against him.

However, the flame of life still shone brightly in the stingmon. Unlike the devimon, he seeks not glorious carnage but successful results and his style was going to let him live for longer. He even managed to convince skully to give him full control of the army and in addition he was interested in learning one or two things about the devimon given his curiosity for his sword.

"Good luck leading the demon corps, you will need it. And if you are wondering why the sword, it was a gift from our previous leader piedmon. Dude looked like a clown but he sure knew how to use swords, he even used that complex and hard to use style of throwing swords ... makes me wonder if that angel learned from one of them that style..... And I'm going out of topic, I saw how he used those swords in combat, I liked it and learned how to use one as well. A long sword fits a demon with long arms like me and its perfect to deal with digimon that uses bladed weapons, it hurts more than you think to block their attacks with your bare hands, but I bet you know that already, that spike of yours serves just as well as a sword in combat"

Lord Piedmon was a demon between demons, an example to follow. Too bad he died choking himself with a chicken bone from some fried akatorimon he ate, a clown's death for a real clown, a real joke of fate. But it was thanks to him that devimon found interest in swords and now excelled at using one, a good weapon to use defensively and offensively.

[hashim]

- Phaw, heart is a muscle that pumps blood through the body. So I doubt it has any ability to say something on this matter. - Hashim said with a bit of contempt in his voice. A materialist to the backbone, he believed not in such figures of speech as "listening to the heart", "fate", "destiny" and other weak excuse people have created to do, or not do anything. The stingmon frowned upon such notions, and he was truly amazed many devils decided to simply ... go with the flow?

- I don't believe in such things as fate, there are only convenient set of circumstances. Weak people find it a perfect excuse for their failures. "I am not to blame, it was fate". Bleh. Strong people make their own destinies, weak ones follow the flow. So unless you do something stupid or get into a fight you can't win, you're ought to survive. And if my plan works, that would certain... - he started saying but stopped. Plans of high command were plans of high command after all, he could not disclose them to anyone yet. So he decided to change the subject back to swords again, the devimon heard enough of the other stuff already.

- As for that spike... It is more of a dagger than a sword... - with these words he unsheathed the automatic spike from inside his glove. A thin, slick, yet surprisingly sturdy blade. Not very suited for cutting, however. Looking at it for a moment, Hashim hid it back again. - A do have a real sword, though I know nothing about using it. Like I said, I was a shamanmon, and spent my time with maps, tactics and warfare books and whatnot, aiming to become a general. Now that I am one, I need to catch on combat abilities I neglected... - Hashim mentioned. He knew what he was going for, but never had a habit of asking bluntly someone to do something for him, instead, liked to subtly push the person into doing or saying what he wants. Now, it would be the case.

- By the way... What punishment the demon lord chose to inflict upon you for running away from an angel? Or is he still thinking on it? - Hashim asked. He knew the punitive system was very elaborate in the demon camp, every failure was harshly punished for. Depending on what the devimon would reply, he'd say what he can do about it...