Demonic Marshal

[JIN JEI-RONG. Fort Las Vegas to Searchlight rail line, Mojave Wilderness, United States of America. Tuesday 15th of June, 1880 Gregorian Calendar].

Jin Jei-Rong drew his dao and in the same motion, parried the clumsy wing attack of his enemy.

Failing to land a strike with its clawed wing, the harpy leaned forward to bite Jei-Rong's face.

He stepped back to avoid while slashing across the demon's neck, decapitating the harpy in one smooth slice.

At the same time as this movement, Jei-Rong used his left hand to fire his pistol at a harpy which had approached him from behind. His bullet penetrated straight through the demon's heart.

To his surprise, both harpies continued their attack.

Jei-Rong ducked and rolled to disengage. Causing the harpy behind him to crash into the headless harpy in front of him.

He used the momentary lull in combat to study the battlefield.

The three members of fireteam two who had accompanied him to salvage cores were in a triangular formation. The central soldier used a shotgun to shoot at closer enemies in order to drive them back. While the two wings took aim at further off enemies with their rifles. This sort of formation was a tried and true classic. Before the age of firearms, the middle soldier would use a shield or heavy club for defence, while the wings would be armed with spears or long swords for attack.

No longer concerned with the immediate survival of his subordinates, Jei- Rong returned to his own battle. He was pleased to note that the headless harpy had since fallen still. Though the other demon seemed unaffected even after being shot in the heart.

The harpy flapped its wings then suddenly sprang at Jei-Rong with its eagle-like claws. He knew that those talons had enough strength to easily crush a man's skull. Thus, instead of meeting the attack head on, he avoided to the demon's side and hacked off it's left wing. His dao was forged from the skin of an iron-bark tree demon tree and easily cut through the harpy's bones without much effort.

A gush of blood burst forth from the stump of the severed limb. The harpy took two more steps before slumping to the ground.

Their weakness is blood loss, Jei-Rong thought to himself.

Demons were physically superior to humans. Most possessed natural weapons. Nearly all were stronger than a human of equivalent size and quite a few possessed agility or speed on par with professional athletes. However, their greatest ability was their durability. Even harpies which were considered one of the weaker demons, would be able to keep fighting after multiple gun shot wounds. Worse still, a demon which was not killed, would eventually regenerate back to full health.

Fortunately, every demon had a weakness. For the harpies, inflicting serious damage to their heart would bring them down. This sort of weakness was one of the most common. Alongside massive brain damage, decapitation, silver, fire and electricity. Blood loss was a rare weakness, so Jei-Rong was glad to have stumbled upon it.

"Shotguns only!" Jei-Rong commanded his fireteam. "Their weakness is blood loss."

They immediately did as ordered and soon saw their successes increase. The slugs used by the shotguns were larger than the bullets used by the rifles. This increased stopping power and enlarged the size of wounds. Leading to increased blood loss.

The fact that military shotguns only stored ten slugs as opposed to the thirty bullets held by rifles, was not an issue. As the harpies numbered two dozen at most. Furthermore, the members of the fireteam could cover for each other while reloading.

For his part Jei-Rong kept out of their firing line. As he had never trained with this group, joining them would merely interfere in their teamwork. Instead he chose to pick off any harpies which were outside of their firing range. If these demons could spread via biting, he didn't want to leave any survivors.

"Eat you!" a voice called out from the darkness.

Jei-Rong immediately turned to confront the new enemy. A man dressed in two meter tall steel armour and wielding a massive two handed axe lumbered towards him.

The five pointed star which featured prominently on the man's breastplate, was a clear sign that this demon had once been a United States Marshall. The armour he wore was one of the mechanised types which was powered by a miniaturised steam engine in its back. The armour provided excellent protection. Including iron-bark demon tree bucklers attached to each forearm. Furthermore, a series of ingeniously designed pistons, tubes and valves, created an exoskeleton that multiplied the wearer's strength by a factor of ten.

The large two handed axe swung was towards Jei-Rong's head. He managed to avoid decapitation by quickly sinking into a low stance. Then in a burst of speed and power, Jei-Rong shot his body forth, as if he were a metal spring. Now using both hands, he clashed his dao into the demonic marshal's extended right arm. The attack, unbalanced his enemy's stance ensuring that the demonic marshal was unable to mount a counter.

Once again lowering his stance, Jei-Rong manoeuvred himself just enough to able to strike with full force at the rear of his enemy's right leg. His target was the back of his opponent's knee, where one of the armour's only exposed exoskeleton tubes could be found.

Jei-Rong's dao met with little resistance, as the relatively thin brass tube was cleanly severed. He then used the momentum of the downward blow to roll himself out of the way as the demonic marshal toppled to its left.

As soon as Jei-Rong completed his roll, he reached into a pouch on his waist, drawing forth a thin fifteen-centimetre copper tube. The tube was known as a dragon breath grenade. This grenade had two separate chambers, each of which was packed by alchemical regents including those harvested from demons. On their own, these regents were benign. However, mixing them together, which was done by twisting the tube a full three hundred and sixty degrees, caused an explosive reaction many times more powerful than gunpowder or even dynamite.

With his dao in his right hand and the dragon breath grenade in his left, Jei-Rong once again advanced on the massive demon.

The enemy tried to stand up, but its left leg buckled, forcing it once more into a kneeling stand. The demonic marshal took a swing at Jei-Rong with its axe. This time at a much lower angle. Forcing Jei-Rong to step backwards as opposed to ducking. Then without warning, the demonic general launched itself at Jei-Rong, catching him off guard.

Clang!

Jei-Rong barely managed to deflect the demon's axe with his dao. Even though his block had been successful, Jei-Rong still staggered two steps back. His arms sore from the impact.

The demon marshal crashed heavily to the ground, balancing itself on its two hands and one working leg.

Jei-Rong pressed his advantage and swung his dao at the enemy's neck.

As planned the demon blocked with its right forearm, using the small shield on its forearm to deflect Jei-Rong's blow.

Unfortunately for the demon. The move had been a feint. Jei-Rong's dao was never meant to hit. Rather Jei-Rong needed the demon to block its own line of sight by raising its buckler in front its face. By the time the demon marshal realised it had been duped. Jei-Rong had already ducked behind a tree and out of the demon's line of sight.

The demon marshal began to warily search for Jei-Rong. Holding its position to avoid stepping into an ambush.

Boom!

The dragon breath grenade exploded. Destroying both of the demon's legs and part of its hips.

Jei-Rong's feint attack was not only so he could hide. But more importantly, to give him the opportunity to drop his activated dragon breath grenade at the demon marshal's feet. By hiding, Jei-Rong ensured that the demon was focused on searching for him, and thus unlikely to notice the grenade at its feet.

"Eat you!" the demon marshal roared in frustration. It began to crawl towards Jei-Rong who had abandoned his hiding spot. However, the damage done to its lower torso caused it to bleed out before it could act on its threat.

Jei-Rong remained with the demon marshal until both his fireteam and the team led by Catherine finally arrived. Clearly having succeeded in their task of exterminating the harpies.

"Is that an American marshal?" asked Catherine.

"Yes," said the glasses wearing soldier. "But why did it attack?"

"Strip off its armour and find out," said Catherine.

The suggestion was met with silence as no one wanted to get close to armoured torso. Just in case it was playing possum.

"I'll do it," Cain came forward.

The large young man rolled the heavy torso onto its back.

"I don't know how to open the armour," Cain said sheepishly.

"We can't open the armour's torso without heavy machinery," said the glasses wearing soldier. "The opening mechanism is inside the armour. The armour's hand is fully mechanical, with the operator's hand actually ending at the forearm. The two release buttons are on the inside of both forearms.

However, the helmet isn't actually part of the main body. You can take it off by cutting through a locking mechanism that attaches the helmet to the main armour. It should be behind the neck."

"Now you tell me," Cain sighed as he reflipped the torso back to its front.

"Let me fiddle around," the glasses wearing soldier took over for Cain and soon managed to find the helmet's release mechanism.

"That's Marshal Lance," gasped Cain on seeing the demon marshal's face.

"The marshal from the Mohave lake settlement?" asked Jei-Rong.

"Yes," replied Cain. "But I was told that he was caught unawares. He died without his armour on."

"So, he died, turned into a demon, then put his armour on," summarised Jei-Rong. "That and the fact that he fought with a certain level of skill, probably means he was intelligent. An intelligent demon…."

"We need to report this," stated the tall soldier. "We need to turn around and go back to Fort Las Vegas and then come back with an army!"

"No, we should instead continue to Searchlight," said the female soldier. "It's closer and they have a telephone there we can use."

"What if the town is over-run?" argued the glasses wearing soldier.

"Let's get back to the battle wagon," Jei-Rong ended the discussion with a command. "I need to confer with my co-commander Corporal Mason."

Once back onboard the battle wagon, Jei-Rong met up with Corporal Mason, Special Agent Douglas and Lu Cain. The latter invited due to his previous experience with the new demons. Jei-Rong explained the situation and asked for in-put.

"I say we continue with the original mission," stated Catherine. "We already knew and were prepared for the possibility of intelligent demons. So, nothing's changed."

"I agree," said Morris. "We'll continue as planned. Contact Fort Las Vegas once we reach Searchlight. Then see if we can find where these new demons are coming from."

"You're going to have to convince your soldiers of that plan," said Jei-Rong. "They were really spooked out there. Most want to turn back."

"Lucky we only brought half a battle wagon then," replied Morris.

"This is only half a battle wagon?" Cain exclaimed in surprise.

"More like three quarters," explained Morris. "A normal battle wagon has two locomotive engines. One at the front and one at the back. That way it can move in either direction without need for a turn table, which are only found in the larger settlements and forts. However, a second locomotive engine would have required a fourth fireteam. While we were only given permission for three."

"But the reason we were only given three fireteams was because you asked for the minimum amount," exclaimed Catherine. "You planned this all along. You wanted to make sure we didn't have the option to go back to Fort Las Vegas without first going to Searchlight. Plus, you wanted to make it as if the Major was responsible for the battle wagon being under staffed. That's a bit underhanded."

"Morris wasn't alone in making that decision," clarified Jei-Rong. "I and your supervisor, Special Agent Martha Canary also agreed this was the best course of action. Plus, don't underestimate Major William Carney. I would expect that he figured out our plan and simply agreed with it."

"Calamity Jane agreed?" asked Catherine in a clearly puzzled voice. "Then why didn't she come down here with you?"

"To avoid the appearance of favouritism," explained Jei-Rong. "Her mission was to collect James Hatathli. Abandoning that order to go and assist her birth country would be frowned on by her superiors."

"My heads about to explode with all this… conspiracy," complained Catherine. "Don't tell me that Cain here was on it as well."

"I wasn't," said Cain. "I had no idea. I'm not really much of a thinker."

"Don't sell yourself short," Morris told Cain. "Jei-Rong and I have a lot more life experience than you. It's only natural that we think a bit deeper."

"So, I don't suppose we're going to tell your soldiers the truth?" Catherine asked.

"That would only bring dissension," replied Morris. "At a time like this, we need unity. I'll tell them we need to go to Searchlight to use the railway turntable there. I'll makes sure to reinforce that it was higher ups who limited us to three fireteams. Plus remind them that we all have friends and loved ones in this area that need our protection."

"Clever," agreed Catherine. "So that whole heroes of humanity speech you gave the Major. Was that all made up?"

"No," replied Morris. "I really do believe that the Major is a hero of humanity. I also believe that as long as any person does their best to help their fellow men and women, then they too can be a hero of humanity. Of course, sometimes people will help others simply because they have no other options."