Heavy as Kas was, even bigger and heavier than the brute, the hit was enough to push him down, but Kas was comfortable on all fours. His giant arms braced against the stone, and he threw himself forward, straight into the brute’s guts. Darrilius managed to angle himself back enough Kas didn’t skewer him with his horns, but Kas was the bigger demon. The fight quickly shifted from a matter of reflexes and skill, to a savage brawl on the ground.
Kas started on top. The air filled with roars and screams of pain and rage as the two huge monsters tore into each other. Darrilius had short enough claws he could make fists, and he used them, cracking the dinosaur in the jaw, before grabbing his neck and pulling him tight. He was trying to roll on top, and using his more human-like proportions to do it.
But Kas didn’t let him. He opened his mouth wide, wider than someone with a more human-shaped head like Darrilius could. Teeth found the brute’s neck, and just as Darrilius managed to roll Kas over, the dinosaur bit down. The wrestling quickly turned into a desperate attempt from the brute to dislodge himself from Kas, but just like a crocodile, Kas’s bite was firm. And his strength was immense.
Everyone held their breath as the brute beat his fists down on Kas, but Kas held on. More than held on, he got his hands between him and the brute, and pushed with all his might, even as the brute grabbed onto Kas’s horns and tried to hold on. But he couldn’t. Kas was stronger, and he pushed and pushed, each inch between them a struggle, each inch earning roars of pain from Darrilius as his throat tore apart.
Mia wanted to look away, but the aura was everywhere. Violence. Rip and tear. Stab. Break. Don’t stop until the blood flows. The aura poured over the room, and she couldn’t tell who it was coming from no matter how hard she tried. It wasn’t coming just from Darrilius anymore. It was coming from everyone. All the demons, the several dozen small ones perched on high tunnels, others on the ground floor, every one of them released small vibrations in the nether that flowed into Mia, each a small thing but almost overwhelming combined like that.
Kas pushed the brute’s body off him and stood up, a huge chunk of flesh and dark skin dangling from his mouth and bleeding everywhere. Darrilius lay on the floor, one hand clutching where his throat used to be, the other clawing at Kas’s leg. Even a dying, gargling mess, the brute managed to strike Kas’s leg hard enough to draw blood, and the dinosaur had to step away before Darrilius drew any more.
Kas spit the meat out, growled down at the dying, dying, dead brute, before turning toward the rest of the group.
“I claim kill rights,” he said. “I’ll be taking their things. And if any of you want revenge, you know Zel’s rule. Duel me. Now get out of my sight.” With another rumble, he slammed his giant tail down.
Like someone poured ice water on everyone, the aura of violence died. The demons all crept away into their many tunnels of rock and bone, more than a few with lingering eyes, staring at the blood and corpses. Every one of them took a second look at Kas before they disappeared.
They were afraid of him.
“Good job Kas,” Adron said, and he gave Hannah and Mia both a quick pat on their shoulders before he joined his friend.
“You could have helped. They had no right to attack me like that, three on one.”
“True, true.” The vrat nodded, and looked back at Mia and Hannah for a quick wink. “But I had to keep an eye on the girls, keep them safe. Besiiiiides, you were fine, and I knew you were capable.”
With a heavy grunt, Kas got down on all fours, and ripped open the brute’s chest. A gory bloodfest, full of cracking bones and tearing skin. Adron got started on his fellow vrat, which was all sorts of weird to watch, the vrat ripping open the chest of an almost identical demon; was it speciest to think demons of the same kind looked really similar? He wasn’t as fast, or as brutal as Kas though, and Kas moved onto ripping the armor off and heart out of the tiger lady next. His already bloody body now wore a crimson dress.
Growling to no one but himself, Kas put the brute’s huge heart into his mouth, and ate it with all the fanfare of a crocodile. Chomp chomp swallow, no chewing, nothing. His big throat bulged with the giant chunk of meat as it went down his gullet, and Mia touched her much, much tinier throat in response. Good god.
Kas handed Adron the other heart, and got moving deep into the dens. They followed, stepping over the corpses. A few clicks and chirps announced the arrival of imps and grems, ready to snack on the corpses for trace resonance in the bodies. They’d probably keep some of the bones, too, for trophies. Why didn’t Kas?
Mia and Hannah stayed nice and close to Kas’s tail, and peeked left and right at the observing demons. Kas’s demonstration had left an impression, and many disappeared into tunnels and alcoves when they spotted him.
“Where we going?” Mia asked.
Adron munched on the tiger heart, and casually handed her the vrat’s heart. A big hunk of bloody muscle, weighty in her hand. There was no eating this thing easily, not unless she cut it into little bits. Judging from how demons and even betrayers ate hearts, using a fork and knife was not an option.
“Kas claimed kill rights,” Adron said, “so we’re going to see what they have worth taking. Not sure why those idiots picked a fight, though.”
“Darrilius brought trouble wherever he went,” Kas said. “It was only a matter of time before his ego got the best of him.” Kas didn’t normally use long sentences. The only reason he used words at all was for Mia and Hannah’s benefit. Maybe he was the sort of guy who liked talking about his job, or liked talking about ripping demons apart. He was friends with Adron, so maybe they found something to talk about that way, like work buddies. But, far as Mia could tell, Kas just preferred not talking at all.
“Eat,” Hannah said, gesturing to Mia’s meal.
“I uh… I think… I’ll wait, until I’m back in my room.”
“Suit yourself. I’m still fine from that heart a week ago, but I wouldn’t mind a bite.”
Mia smiled. Hannah had a bluntness to her David would have liked.
The tunnel continued on, weaving left and right, sometimes going up sometimes going down, breaking into forks that Kas knew how to navigate. After a minute, he stepped into an alcove big enough for a few demons, and waited for the rest of them.
“I doubt Darrilius had anything,” Adron said. “Bunch of trophies. Typical.” He gestured around at the skulls everywhere. No blankets or anything comfy, just bones, bones, more bones, and skulls, all probably from kills. One giant bone grew out of the wall, one of Hell’s, and from it dangled some pieces of armor, more dented and scratched black plates with leather straps.
Kas shook his head as he sat down in his dog-like pose, hands down on the ground between his knees, arms straight, and his bassy rumble echoed through the cave.
“That moron,” Kas said, and he swiped his tail into the pile of skulls someone had probably spent many hours perfectly stacking. He wasn’t gentle. Bones cracked and shattered, only to shatter twice over when they hit the wall.
Mia and Hannah both stepped back, and both looked to Adron with raised eyebrows. The vrat nodded, and gently stepped between the girls and the big angry shark dinosaur.
“Didn’t expect you to get so upset about killing Darrilius. Or was it Emalei and Fulvio?”
Kas shook his head again, slow and subtle motions, but his muscles flexed and his claws grated on the rock. Judging from the way his jaw flexed, he’d be grinding his teeth together if they weren’t big and pointy and interlocked, like a crocodile’s teeth.
“It’s nothing,” Kas said, pretty much waving a big flag over his head saying it very much wasn’t nothing.
Adron wiped off some of the blood on his hands from his meal, and looked around at the cave some more. Nothing but the bones of the dead, probably all kills Darrilius and his two buddies racked up. Plenty of them were demons, some weren’t.
“Nothing. Mhhmm.” Adron looked back at Mia and Hannah, rolled his eyes, and gestured down at the bones. “Was it because of those demons Darrilius killed? You never told me their names.”
Kas didn’t respond, but didn’t tighten up either. Those other dead demons weren’t the reason.
“It doesn’t matter,” Kas said after a few more seconds of uneasy silence. “Let’s head back.” He stood up on all fours again, and waited until everyone else was out of the room. Only when they were clear did the shark dinosaur spin his body halfway, and swing his tail around hard enough it destroyed every trophy bone in the cave. Bits of white exploded like a shattered porcelain pot, hundreds of pieces that hit the stone ground so smoothly it almost sounded like rain.