Champion Of Demons (Remake)

Chapter 3: Oooh, a free house AND a corpse riddled cellar? Must be my birthday!

Azoth was surrounded by buildings made of stone and wood, with people walking besides him in their medieval clothing, bustling with conversation. While he was filled with complete dread. He'd wandered through the forest he'd woken up in for two days, and he hadn't been given any food or water. Nor money, just the weapons he had holstered on his person. His dark eyes swooped around the streets he wandered on, searching for anything he could do to get some water. The only reason he could still stand was his usage of magic to satiate his body. But, he'd learned very quickly one of the limits of mana. It cannot create matter in any way, shape or form. So, he used his spells to give his body the effects of eating and drinking. And it was the worst feeling ever.
He shook his head, forcing himself to ignore the hunger pangs in his stomach. He glanced to the sides, and his face lit up underneath the black cloak he wore. He moved as quickly as his anorexic body could handle towards his salvation. It was a wooden sign, and on it were several posters with requests for work. Azoth mentally decreed this the Job Board. His eyes flashed from left to right, looking for a job that directly offered him food. In the corner of his eye, he found one. He tore the paper off the board, and read the job.

Please help me clean my home. A stench has appeared, and I cannot find the source nor remove the smell.

I will give whomever accepts this quest a meal upon completion

Azoth was initially taken back by the use of whom, but his stomach did the thinking for him, and he followed the directions listed on the bottom towards food.

"....ugh...." Azoth knew he had found the place the second the door opened and the worst smell he'd ever experienced wafted into his nostrils. He didn't have enough food in his stomach to even react, so he just took the smell head on, and walked into the home. When he walked in, a tall blonde man greeted him.
"Hello, could I get some bread and a bit of water before I do the job please?" Azoth asked as politely as his stomach would allow. The man blinked his river blue eyes, then shook his head nervously. "I-I no write to you." The broken language shocked Azoth a second, then he noticed the paleness of the man's skin, and the ears poking out behind his long locks. "Oh, you're an elf. Sorry, I didn't really notice." Azoth heard someone's footsteps approaching through his stomach's growling. Someone gently pushed the elf out of the way, a surprisingly short woman. No, wait, she's an elf too.
"Oh! Thank you for accepting my request! And of course, Jace will get them in a second." She said, then she turned to Jacque and an unknown barrage of vowels and consonants assaulted Azoth's ears. Jace nodded, and he went into the little house to fetch some food for Azoth. He was back almost immediately, and the human shoved all the consumables Jace had brought into his mouth without hesitation.
     "Thank you..." He muttered, and then went to work in doing his job. He touched the wooden door frame beside him, and began to whisper a couple of commands. When he cast the spell, the smell evaporated instantly. The two elves looked at him, eyes wide and mouths agape. "Just a spell, don't worry." He said with a small smile. "I mean, household magic is the only thing I'm good at, so you shouldn't be too surprised." He really didn't like the thought of lying to the people who just fed him, but he also really didn't want to explain everything.
      "Anyway, I'll just go get the source of the problem, and then I'll eat like an actually person again...." Azoth's mouth would have watered in that moment, but there wasn't anything to salivate with inside his body. He quickly walked into the house, and immediately felt the hairs on his neck stand up to attention.
     He turned towards a cellar, built into the house, and opened the door. Rotting flesh and dried blood met his sight, and he would've thrown up if his stomachs wasn't greedily clinging to the bread he'd just eaten.
     He closed the door and stepped back just as a sword was swung right at where his arm had been. Everyone really wanted to kill him in this world, didn't they? He turned to look at Jace, holding onto a short sword that gave off a strong copper odor. And he saw the other elven woman standing behind him, right in front of the doorway.
     "Well," The short woman said with a small smile, "Looks like the human found the rest of it's kind, haven't they, Jace?" The same barrage of sharp vowels and rolling consonants poured out of Jace's mouth. Azoth knew they weren't going to translate for him, so he just decided to be pissed off anyway. He quickly armed himself with his dagger, and raised it in front of him. He would've drawn his sword, but he was sure Jace would've turned him into another of the sword's dried stains if he did.
"Human, believe me when I say that I wish it wouldn't come to this," She said, her smile contradicting everything she said. "But, I must carry out this plan without any faults. So, you must die now." At the word die Jace suddenly lunged at Azoth, stained sword raised to cut the human down. Two slashes came at the Mage one after the other. The dark haired human then gripped the bulky elf's wrist and brought him into his knife. The sword came arcing at his temple, as expected, and it broke his defensive mana with a crack, and sent him stumbling to the side. His vision was blotted with dancing spots, but he still focused on the grinning elves. Then, he smiled, and whispered a word into the air.

     "Cast."

      The elves were instantly on guard, as they had both lived long enough to fear that single word. But, no fireballs came hurtling toward them. No freezing blasts turned them into statues. No gales to tear the flesh off their bones. All they got was a smiling, starving man in the dark home. Jace acted first, unappreciative to the start Azoth had given them. He charged at the leaner man, sword led skyward for a fatal strike -
      And Azoth quickly stepped out of the man's path, and place a finger directly where his spine was. A flash of purple light filled the room for a moment, and afterwards Jace was left seizing up on the wooden floor. "Light Orb," came out of the victors mouth, and balls of light filled the room, showing that Jace's pale skin now had purple veins arcing underneath it. It also showed his dark eyes staring through the elven woman.
      She stepped back once, eyes widening while her smile faded into a shocked expression. Then it shifted into one filled with fear, and she turned away from him to run towards the open door. She would never run again.
      Azoth threw his dagger into her back, right where her spine was, and she tumbled straight onto the ground, yelling in pain. The human stepped over to her, and turned her head so she looked at him.
     "So, about my meal...."
     "Yes! You can have all our food and money! The money is in the room upstairs and to the left! Just please don't kill me!" She bargained with him, eyes flittering around the room, looking for something to escape with. Suddenly, she opened her mouth to scream at the still open door. But, no sound left her. She looked down at herself in horror.
      "H...how?"
      "Oh man, I can finally explain this to someone!" Azoth said to himself, an inappropriate smile on his face. "Y'see, it's an illusion. A very high level one at that. It can completely muffle any noise, as long as there's mana infused into the air, like with a smell negating spell."
      "You were planning this from the beginning?! I knew it, no human would ever-"
      "Calm down with the racism, alright?" He said, silencing her once more. "I wasn't planning on paralyzing the both of you. Think of it as... preparing for the worst. Besides, you both attacked me first. So, you shouldn't be too quick to pull the race card."
      "What do you want from us?" She asked quietly, and Azoth could see she had given up. "How many people have you killed?"
      ".....why do you care?" She spat back at him. Azoth saw that this was just a shot to irritate him, so he decided to twist it in his favor.
     "You're right. I don't care. So, I'm just going to call the local knights over here, get you two arrested and interrogated, and steal all your shit. Not in that order." He said, then moved right next to her ear. "Sleep." Her head thumped against the wooden floor as she fell asleep.
     "Man, that's so fun to do to people."
*****
     "Alright, Thank you for your assistance, citizen," said the fully armored knight, in front of the Elves' home with said elves being dragged off by two other knights. "As a reward, you may take this house from these knife-eared criminals."
     "Thank you, sir, and I will. Also, where may I find a job around here?" Azoth would need cash, as the elves didn't have that much food left, and he couldn't magic up any.
      "Well, since you defeated these two, you may want to join one of the guild in this town. You should first talk with the guild for the slums you live in, first. They won't take kindly for one of our kind living here. And they'd probably have you assassinated if you met them after you'd joined another, while living in their territory."
      "Huh. Good to know." Azoth then got all the directions that he needed from the knight, and waved off his assailants as they were carted off to experience medieval jail firsthand. He turned around and inspected his new house. Then it hit him.
       "I got a free house for not dying. Damn, it really is simpler times." The reason could also be that no one would want to live in a place with still-rotting corpses in the basement, but hey, he wasn't complaining. Until he realized he'd have to remove the bodies himself, or sleep while knowing several corpses were underneath his bed.
       ".... I hate my lack of foresight." He muttered as he walked in, focusing on the positives. He didn't know what they were, but he was focusing on them.

[Aye, it's ya boi, recently went back to school and was drowning in school and homework. Thanks for reading, make sure to hit them positive buttons, and I'll see you next year for the next update!(I'm working on a better schedule, so be ready for that.) See you next time!]