*Lucas Jaeger*

  It was not morning when Lucas awoke to shouting and the clash of metal- and the light that came through the window of his room was not caused by the rising sun. No, even just barely awake Lucas could tell that the flickering shadows and orange light were caused by fire. The camp was ablaze.

  Coming to his senses, Lucas quickly scrambled to get up- surprised that no one had come to wake him- but then the door banged open and a demon, an imp like D1, stalked into the room. Lucas was stunned for a second, especially when the creature looked at him and hissed- with its mouth closed, the noise was coming from the insects spiracles, making Lucas wonder with some fragment of his mind if that creature could ‘talk’ by modulating the tone by flexing its outer cartilage. However, this was neither the time nor the place for such thoughts as the imp was moving quickly towards him.

  Whereupon it keeled over dead.

  “Well that was even more effective than I thought it would be,” Lucas muttered as he breathed a sigh of relief- well, after he opened the window to aerate the room anyway. “But what the fuck is going on?”

  Creatures that respirated like imps were actually fairly easy to kill chemically- if you did not mind exposing yourself to a bit of unpleasant chemicals. Lucas did mind, but he would mind being gutted more, so he did what he had to. Frankly, he was lucky that his practice had paid off enough for him to actually use his magic in such a way, and he was also lucky no one was around to see him use such magic.

  He had been talking about weapons for use against the creatures yesterday, and the truth was that against imps it would be pathetically easy to develop a delivery system for the chemical he had just used. Organophosphates are the active ingredient in about half of all insecticides and are quite effective, even if they are declining in popularity as substitutes become available. The only issue is that organophosphates are also the main components of some of the most insidious chemical weapons known to mankind. The infamous sarin gas, often considered a weapon of mass destruction by itself, is an organophosphate- part of the infamous ‘g-series’ developed by the Nazis. Too make a long story short, these chemicals fucked up nervous systems in most creatures, especially those with the kind of respiration as insects, hard.

  Thinking such thoughts, Lucas left his room only to blackout and fall on the floor in the hall.

  Lucas did not feel that any time had passed from when he had fallen unconscious, but as he woke up- with an absolutely killer headache- the sky was brighter than it had been. The fact he was seeing sky when he had been indoors, in addition to the light, was proof that he had fallen unconscious for a much longer time than he perceived. He tried to sit up but found himself securely bound- well, shit.

  “It is starting to wake up,” that voice and language did not sound human, but the earing seemed to translate it regardless. “I thought that was supposed to keep them out longer.”

  “It is one of their so called ‘heroes,’ perhaps that is the reason for its resistance.” Another voice answered.

  Based on the language and manner of speaking, these were not humans. Which left either demons or more of those half breeds like Blade. Considering the content of their discussion, Lucas had been drugged and was not supposed to be waking up yet. At the very least they had not killed him, but that could also mean being tortured until he wished he was dead, so not any real reason for hope as of yet.

  Well, might as well bite the bullet and get this over with.

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  “Now that I am awake,” Lucas spoke cautiously. “You might as well tell me who you are, where I am, and why you are taking me. As an aside, since I cannot seem to look down, what the hell is carrying me anyway?”

  Lucas was not just bound, as he became more aware he realized it would be more accurate to describe himself as cocooned. Like a gigantic spider had come along and wra- oh fuck, Blade was some sort of half demon spider wasn’t he? Lucas was thinking that, and was also thinking that as a biologist he had been relatively alright with spiders- but when you knew that a Huntsman Spider could grow to be around thirty to thirty-one centimeters long, even as a biologist Lucas just wanted the thing to die.

  “How is it…? This must be the magic item they told us about,” the first voice spoke. “Interesting that it can speak with us…”

  “You will have your answers soon enough human,” the other voice sounded like it was spitting- though whether that was from disgust towards Lucas or the creatures physiology, Lucas had no clue. “Soon enough.”

  Well that is not ominous at all, Lucas thought sarcastically to himself as he considered using magic to try and kill whomever was around him- the only problem being that he would still be wrapped up in the middle of nowhere. If this was similar to spider silk produced by the non-demonic variety, then actually getting out of this would be basically impossible through physical effort. Spider silk being, while quite flexible, stronger and tougher than steel.

  Of course, it was also made from proteins- so Lucas might be able to synthesize a base and simply dissolve his way out, if he wanted to risk burning off parts of his flesh with the web. And, if he was honest, he might have passed out after creating the organophosphates earlier- drug or no drug- simply from exhaustion. He could do it, but he doubted he could do it twice.

  Which left trying to talk his way out. Lucas could only biterlly think as a high school student when he declared that the most important feature for a scientist was not communication skills, but the ability to do their job. If karma ended up being a real thing whatever oversaw it must be laughing its head off right now.

  Lucas was not on a wagon, there was no roof and the motion felt too organic- adding to that the voices location, and Lucas would guess he was being carried by some gigantic spider demon. Lucas also hated the world that had made him have to think that thought, and he thought the problems his world had were bad…

  “I might indeed know ‘soon enough,’” Lucas replied, trying to maintain his composure as much as possible while fighting off images of how spiders eat their prey. “But it could be convenient for whoever has to explain for you to tell me what you can, it is not like there is much else to do on a plain but talk.”

  “Trying to sound calm?” The second voice replied, and now Lucas was fairly certain the spitting sound was normal for its physiology. “There is no use, we can hear your heartbeat and smell your fear.”

  “Interesting, is it very distracting?” Lucas asked curiously.

  “Your show of bra- what?” The voice seemed a little confused, apparently Lucas had gone off-script. Which meant they had kidnapped people before if they had an idea of how this conversation would go, Lucas would file that tidbit away for later.

  “Is it distracting, my smell and heartbeat?” Lucas explained, “Powerful senses often require a large amount of energy usage and brain structure, humans lack powerful senses so I am curious how it works with a sentient creature who has them.”

  “...Are you an idiot?”

  Well, Lucas was rather hoping he could learn whether or not sound or smell could be used as weapons against them, but he was not about to say that.

  “Merely curious,” Lucas said instead. “Biology is my area of study, after all.”

  Lucas also very much wanted to cut up whatever was carrying him and see what was inside, and on reflection, that did not seem a totally sane desire. But then, on the whole biologists were not a sane bunch. Knowing too much about ducks will do that to a person.

  An idea did occur to him though.

  “I am guessing then that you found me from the smell of subject D1’s- what the others call an imp- blood?” It was either that or that damn cult.

  Just dose it again,” the voice carrying him said. “It is too much of a risk awake.”

  A second later, Lucas felt a sting in his side and the world blurred almost immediately. That was one fast acting drug...

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