Chapter 7: Play With Your Food

Hiryu was standing, ready and waiting, when Eigis sauntered back an hour later. The orange eared demon noticed his determined expression and his ears quirked in interest.

“Ready for some more?”

The warrior gave a curt nod.

The demon stepped closer. One hand shot out, talons slashing his other cheek. A smack opened up the cuts wider. Bending close, he sucked up another mouthful of blood before setting to in earnest.

This time he seemed less interested in eating and more about playing. He spent the next hour or so smacking Hiryu silly and beating him with his talons retracted and using only the palms of his hands. The blows were intended more to cause pain than actual serious injury. By the end of it, bruises were blooming like reddish flowers all over Hiryu’s face and body, particularly his bare chest, back, and shoulders, and on his legs where Eigis kicked him.

After a quick bite, Eigis cranked the chains up higher and closer together so they were side by side, Hiryu’s arms hanging above his head. Unlocking Hiryu’s feet and casually dodging an attempt to kick him, the demon took the young man by his wrists and turned him around and around, twisting the links of chains together. When the braided chains reached his wrists, he let go and stepped back to watch the result.

Hiryu groaned and closed his eyes as the room whipped around in a blur, the speed aided by helpful swipes of the demon’s talons. He spun the warrior several times before dragging him to a stop.

Even though Hiryu had kept his eyes closed, the room, the magic brazier, torch, and the orange eared demon all spun and tipped crazily around him. His chest was stinging with scratches, his mouth filled with the rusty taste of his own blood. The muscles on his shoulders and arms were screaming with the strain of being kept above his head. It was impossible to keep balanced, and he fell to his knees as the demon chuckled.

As soon as he was able to, he started to get up, blushing, only to have Eigis push him in the chest with both hands. Caught off balance, he stumbled back, was jerked by the chains, and stumbled forward. Right into Eigis’s second shove.

The demon grinned at the young man’s frown, who clearly didn’t enjoy this game, battered around like a mouse. He continued smacking him around, dodging kicks with ease.

Gradually the swings got longer and longer, allowing the demon to show off his strength and speed, flinging Hiryu forward, racing around to catch him and fling him back, or kicking him in another direction entirely. Even stretched up on his tiptoes, he could still send the young man flying across the room.

Every so often he nipped a bite at Hiryu’s chest, or his back, or his legs. Hiryu, the muscles in his arms and upper back screaming with pain at the tension of the chains, his body bleeding and stinging from bites, dizzy at being spun so quickly, was helpless to stop him.

The demon especially enjoyed smacking him as if he were a punching bag, and got a particular thrill at kicking him across the room, or simply pressing his foot against his face. Demons, in case the reader is not aware, have toe nails similar to the talons on their hands, only shorter.

More than once the demon grabbed Hiryu by his legs, talons digging into his calves, and ran a full circle around the room, running so fast he skimmed along the walls, before suddenly letting go, laughing as Hiryu whirled around crazily, his chains all wound together, before he got jerked to a stop before he could smack into a wall. It was both humiliating and painful.

But after a few hours, the demon got bored, and stopped. Hiryu sagged with relief, sinking down as Eigis relaxed the chains so he could sit on the floor.