Dusty the Demon Hunter - A Blast from the Past - Six Tasks - Part 8

Six Tasks - A Dusty The Demon Hunter tale.

Dusty's 6th story.

After the second story had divulged itself to me, I thought it might be a good idea to theme the stories with numbers. Obviously, it was too late for 'Double Trouble' and perhaps that would have been a little obvious anyway, but Trouble Times Three worked well.

Santa and Doppelganger became the 4th and 5th stories and then Six Tasks arrived in my head - Seven arrived with a nice reference to Viking mythology and I enjoyed writing that. I have an idea for eight and possibly nine, but they're still mulling themselves over in my headspace somewhere.

Neither six nor seven have been shared for free anywhere else, so this and the next are true exclusives for Steemit.com

I enjoyed writing this, the sixth of Dusty's adventures. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7

Pictures from Google Free to use Image Search, gifs from Giphy.com

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Then the Devil’s attention was caught by something behind Dusty and Hunter and his face darkened in anger.

Dusty was puzzled at his expression and hesitated to turn around but eventually she did.

It was her turn to be so shocked that she took a step back.

Hunter held her hand tight as she regained her composure and then tried to run forward.

Hunter kept a tight hold of her hand to stop her. She turned to him in fury, but he stood his ground and refused to let her go.

“Hunter!” Dusty almost screamed at him.

“Think, Dusty, is it really her? Really?”

He gritted his teeth as Dusty’s nails scraped his skin while she tried to pry his fingers from her other hand.

“Dusty, think!”

The urgency in his voice made her stop and take stock of what she was doing.

She relaxed and shook her head.

Then she closed her eyes and bowed her head in shame.

“Hunter, I’m sorry, you’re right. It couldn’t possibly be my mother.” Dusty whispered the words so softly that Hunter was certain that he was the only one who could have heard them.

Dusty’s head raised again and she looked directly at the figure of her mother.

She let go of Hunter’s hand and after a moment’s thought, he also let go.

She brought her hand down to her side slowly and deliberately.

The woman smiled a beautiful beaming smile at Dusty and Dusty smiled back.

Hunter could see the love shining in Dusty’s eyes and was worried but he knew that he could do no more.

Whatever Dusty did from now, was of her own free will and neither he nor anyone else could or should influence that.

Dusty’s mother walked towards her daughter but Dusty remained at Hunter’s side.

She waited until her mother’s hand moved upwards, until she was almost close enough to touch her cheek and then, as fast as a lightning bolt, Dusty whipped her sword from its sheath and lopped off her mother’s right hand.

Immediately it sizzled as though it was so much bacon in a hot frying pan.

It wriggled and twitched on the ground and the figure that had resembled Dusty’s mother screeched in fury and agony.

It held the stump of its arm out in front of itself and howled in anger.

The stump was glowing bright electric blue, with tiny crackles of lightning playing across the flesh.

The figure rapidly changed from a beautiful, slim and elegant young woman into a bloated two-legged parody of a man with the legs of what could have been a giant goat or perhaps a llama.

The flesh of the demon was scorched red and raw in places and appeared to be suffering with mange.

The fur was patchy and discoloured on the inside of the legs in what appeared to be a severe case of incontinence.

Dusty wrinkled her nose in disgust.

She looked down at her feet to see the dismembered hand and lower arm moving towards her foot and she kicked it away from her, towards the goat-legged demon.

She couldn’t see her father’s face because his head was still tilted back in his fury.

When he did eventually level his glare in her direction, she did very well not to flinch but she stood her ground and Hunter heard a murmur of approval from behind them.

The Devil was pleased with her, even if her father wasn’t.

His face was as bloated and misshapen as his body was.

She saw the claws on his left hand as it gripped his right arm as though perhaps to staunch any blood flow, although he wasn’t bleeding.

The sword had cauterised the flesh as it seared through it.

‘Very efficient,’ Dusty thought and she allowed herself a slight smile, just the barest movement of her lips.

The demon before her saw the smile and was livid.

“You laugh at me, spawn?”

“Laugh? No, I’m not laughing. Does it really look like I’m laughing?”

This time, she heard the giggle from behind her.

The Devil was in quite a childish mood, she thought but it gave her a little more confidence.

“I’ve a good mind to refuse your apprenticeship for that. My arm will take ages to grow back.”

“Don’t take away the apprenticeship,” Dusty said.

Hunter was astonished and he looked at her in amazement. Then he relaxed.

He didn’t know what she was about to do, but he knew Dusty and her father didn’t.

Hunter decided to watch the show and enjoy it, just as the Devil was doing.

“That’s better, child,” the demon said. “I understand your anger at being confronted by what appeared to be your mother.”

“No, that’s not it,” Dusty said and turned around to the Devil to silently ask him a question.

The Devil answered her in kind and she turned to face her father again.

“No, what made me so angry was that you actually thought that you could fool me with that terrible disguise.”

The demon blinked and his eyelids slid sideways across his eyes.

“Terrible disguise? But it was the exact image of your mother.”

“Not really,” Dusty said.

Hunter caught the emotion in her voice and took hold of her hand again.

She squeezed his hand but let it go immediately.

“The last image I had of my mother was of her lying broken on the ground, bent backwards and very dead. You looked nothing like that, you may have fooled me for a moment but it didn’t last. It was a dirty trick and I resent you all the more for it. Now, Theodorous,” Dusty used his name and the demon that was her father gasped in shock and let go of his stump of an arm.

Theodorous glared over Dusty’s shoulder at the Devil but he quickly realised exactly who Satan was directing his animosity towards and became contrite as the Devil glowered back and rumbled his annoyance at the display of insubordination.

It would appear that the Devil had taken a shine to Dusty and he was taking sides.