The sun glinted upon the steel cuirass and pauldron, reflecting mirror-like from helm to plackart, all had been lovingly polished so the sun's glare would sear into the eyes of the knight's foes. This of course was exactly the intent of the Master at Arms when he made this suit; a suit of the finest Italian steel. It was also why the knight would allow only one of his squires to handle what he considered to be a most precious asset.
He stood with his sabatoned shod boot on the chest of the fallen thing and pulled on the broad blade that had been buried within its chest, just above the nipple. Rammed in with such force, it had pinned the demon to the ground; smashing through bone, sinew, organs and blood vessels, severing whatever amounted to life that the creature had; its paltry existence torn away in seconds, yet ending the suffering that this creature had bestowed on others for many years.
Casius wiped his blade clean of most of the dark ichor, upon the leathery wing that enfolded the demon's body, and then strode to his warhorse Mathius, "Well," Casius spoke, "let's get my blade properly cleaned of that monster's muck. I cannot stand to have it on there for a moment longer than needs be, for fear of it causing corruption." The horse whinnied in response, side stepping into its master. "Thank you boy, your praise is all that I require indeed."
He sheathed the long blade in its scabbard upon the saddle and turned back to the demon. He wanted to ensure that it was definitely dead and not attempting a ruse. He had been caught out once before, by an ancient demon's wiles and swore it would not happen again.
Grabbing it by the wing, he hauled it into the strong sunlight. "That will get to it, if nothing else eh Mathius?" The leathery wing was bat like and connected to the body of the creature at hip level. The hips were wide and womanly, the breasts large, firm and with swollen nipples and on any other body, would probably be considered as arousing; but not on this fell thing. It had no genitalia that he could discern and the face was difficult to sex too. A combination of male, female and animal features made up what could only be described as a poor parody of a human face. The legs looked feminine from the hip to the knee but beneath the knee took on a reptilian, scaled appearance and terminated into talon-like feet, fetid and sharp; clenched tightly now in death. As the strong sunlight glanced upon the carcass, it immediately broke down into charred ash and the wind carried it away like a new broom set to its task.
Casius now turned his attention to the girl who had been tied to the tree. He assumed that she was dead, her body unmoving, held in place by the crudely tied ropes. In truth she had probably been dead a while as these demons oft liked to play with their human prey, but that play would not last long before they got bored and killed their prisoner. He looked upon the woman, her long blonde hair fell across her chest in tangles; it had once been patiently styled by skilled hand-maidens; but now, on her limp hanging head it told only of her rough treatment at the hands of the creature.
He assumed that the demon had done his/her/its evil deed with her and that he was just too late to save her. For that he cursed himself for a fool; taking too long to despatch a creature that was far short of his match, rather than attending its victim. Those minutes might have saved her. Perhaps he was becoming too cautious he thought, or maybe patiently wise? Either way, he had not been in time. He was about to curse as he lifted the young girl's head but stopped when she murmured, "No, please noooo. Stop!"
