Dora knew today would not to be easy. It was the luck of the draw on who she would fight, but she had been training for this—she was ready. Her hands clenched into fists. Nothing was going to get in her way.
“Welcome to the semi-finals of the Judgement Day Games! Let’s hear some applause our first contestant! Yes, my hellish minions, it’s the feisty fighter you all love—Deeeeemonic Dora!”
The crowds roared as she stepped off the podium and into the centre of the stage. The bright spotlight shone over her and followed her movements. Her eyes flicked up to see herself on the big screen while she faced the floor. In a practised moment of dramatics, she looked up when the music stopped and activated her spell at the same time.
Massive black wings whooshed out of her back and flapped loudly behind her on the stage, almost covering it. Sharp horns shot out of the top of her head as she faced the crowds with a grim smile. Demons and people were waving and jumping in the crowds below, going crazy for her new look. They were calling out her name and cheering for her. She flapped her huge wings, shooting a sideways glance towards the other competitors. They were wide-eyed and struggling to keep their stupid costumes in place. Gusts of wind from her wings blasted at them, sending tiaras and Las Vegas-style headdresses off their heads and into the crowds below.
Dora turned to face her audience as fireworks shot into the blood-red sky behind her.
Now they’ll remember me.
A million voices called out her name, chanting for her. “Demonic Dora, Demonic Dora …” But one voice was out of sync.
She frowned and concentrated on trying to hear it through the screaming audience.
“Dora-minx!” A singular voice cried.
She narrowed her eyes as she studied the mass of people in the audience. She knew that name, but she couldn’t remember how she knew it. Was it a memory or a dream? She searched the crowds for a face to match the voice until she noticed a blond-haired guy jumping up and down.
She focused on him and studied him from the stage. He was young and attractive. On his shoulder sat a shitty brown thing, which might have been a dog.
“Dora-minx, are you okay?” he shouted.
Who the hell is this guy?
She vaguely remembered the blond guy, but a fog clouded her mind. The time in her cell had not been kind to her memories. She couldn’t remember if he was someone she had once known or not. He acted as if he knew her, but that didn’t mean anything. It didn’t matter, anyway. She had no time for friends. She shook her head and focused back on the games. He was probably just some fan boy who had her poster on his wall—he looked the type.
The audience hushed as the host of the show stepped forward wearing a sparkling white suit. He grinned at the anxious demons, making them wait for a frustratingly long time before he pulled her competitor’s name out of the hat.
“Demonic Dora will be facing …” The host trailed off, keeping the demons in suspense. Some cried out, others threw fireballs at him, which he expertly dodged. After a few more minutes, he flashed his teeth. “Killer Kahn!” he eventually cried.
She turned to face her rival. Kahn was an oafish-looking demon with sneaky eyes. He towered over her in height and in bulk. His costume was pink and fluffy, but his eyes behind the mask were sharp and black. He stepped onto the stage with a smirk on his face as Dora moved aside for his showcase introduction.
When the spotlight fell on him, he looked up while casting a scorpion tail behind him in an attempt to rip off Dora’s entrance idea, but he fucked it up and ended up with a white fluffy bunny tail instead.
The crowds roared with laughter and chanted for ‘Demonic Dora’. She smiled to the audience and flapped her wings.
Let the battle begin!
“Dude, I don’t think she recognised you,” Pooey said. “Shouldn’t we be trying to get to Heaven?”
“They’re putting her through the qualifiers,” Kieron replied. “You know what that means. She will not be starting as a high-level demon. She might die in the qualifiers before the exams! Screw Heaven. It won’t do her any good if she’s obliterated here.”
“How come it changed? She was listed in the high-level demon finals last week, and now she’s just a qualifying demon. What gives?” Pooey scratched his head.
“It’s my fucking parents. I’ll bet they exposed her and removed her status. My mother thinks she’s a threat, so she’s trying to have Dora removed from the top tier of the competition by killing her before she gets there.” Kieron shook his head as he pushed through the crowds of demons and headed towards the qualifying arena.
“On a bright side, the guy she’s fighting has the magical skills of a cabbage,” Pooey added.
“Two demons enter, but only one will leave!” A voice boomed over the speakers.
Kieron looked up and groaned. “No! The fight’s beginning. We need to get in there and save her.” He shoved past people to get to the arena Dora was fighting in.
“She’s fighting a useless lump. Don’t worry,” Pooey said.
“That guy’s a sneaky bastard. He crippled me for four months last year,” Kieron replied, glancing up at the open doors of the arena in the distance. There was no way he was going to make it. There were too many demons in the way.
“How’d he manage that?” Pooey asked.
“He er, sat on me.”
“And the winner is …” A voice blared over the speakers.
Please be Dora, please be Dora …
“Deeeeeeeeeeemonic Dora!”
The crowds roared, and Kieron raced through them, knocking them over to get to the stage exit.
He gasped when he saw her coming out of the arena, held up by two guards. He growled at the state of her. She hung limply in the guards arms, and there were shallow cuts all over her body. Her hair was a ragged mess, but he was relieved to see she wasn’t mortally wounded.
He raced to the edge of the barrier, aching to grab her in his arms and haul her away from this place. He was almost close enough to touch her. “Dora, are you okay?” he cried.
She glanced up at him. “You again,” she murmured. She looked exhausted, and every essence of him wanted to save her right now and take her home.
He leapt at the barrier to try to get to her, but three burly guards held him back. “Let me through,” he shouted. “I’m a high-level demon. Let me pass, right now!”
“Sorry sport, your game time with her is in the morning,” a guard said.
“No, I mean—”
“What?” Dora scowled at him and propped herself up one of the guards. She looked Kieron straight in the eye. “So you’re who I’m fighting tomorrow.” Her eyes turned cold as a deadly scowl crossed her face.
He froze in terror for a moment. “No, I—am I? That’s not what—”
Red smoke billowed around her, and her eyes glittered with insanity. “Don’t be so eager to die. The sun will rise soon enough.”
A shiver of fear shot up his spine as the guards dragged her away.
“I didn’t mean that,” he shouted after her.
“I did.” She called behind her as the guards led her into a private room, and the door slammed shut behind them.
“Dude, you’re a dead man,” Pooey said.
“Shut up.” Kieron snapped, even though Pooey was right. Dora wasn’t herself. She was … well, she was just like his mother. “Shit!”
“Let’s just stick to the plan,” Pooey said.
“We can’t.”
“Why not.”
“I already tried to get into Heaven.” Kieron admitted. “They slammed the door in my face. I don’t know what to do.”
Pooey frowned. “You better think of something. We only have a few hours.”
”I will.” Kieron stared at the closed door of the room they had taken Dora into. “There has to be a way.”
Kieron stepped out onto the golden sands of the arena. The noise was deafening as the crowds roared. His eyes scanned across the faces of the demons in the stands. H
e saw a multitude of twisted expressions, and they were all baying for blood.
He searched for his parent’s faces amid the masses and scowled when he found them in the front row, beneath the judge’s podium. Both wore proud expressions while sitting in golden box seats cheering for him.
“Go get her, son!” his father shouted.
He ground his teeth and narrowed his eyes. He would never forgive them for this.
The crowds roared as the gate at the other end of the arena opened. Dora stepped out onto the sands.
Kieron gasped when he saw her. Tendrils of her dark hair had escaped the tribal beads around her braids and were blowing behind her in dark wisps. She had green and gold stripes painted across her face, and blood-stained leather armour clung to her curves.
Hot winds gusted across the arena, creating beads of sweat on his skin. He watched her walk towards him with panther like grace. The fierce glint in her eyes, and her battle stance made her appear like an amazon warrior—beautiful and deadly.
He tried to call out to her. “Dora, I—”
“Contenders prepare!” A hollow voice echoed around the arena.
He glanced up at the judge’s balcony. There were three dark-robed figures seated on twisted golden thrones, each hidden under the shadow of their hoods with only their clawed hands visible. He wasn’t even sure which one had spoken. No one knew who the judges were. They were a mystery to all who inhabited Hell.
Kieron tried to calm his taut nerves by exhaling. He shifted his eyes back at Dora.
There has to be a way to reach her.
Even though he refused to fight her, his natural instincts kicked in when he watched her tighten her grip on her staff. Her muscles tensed in preparation, and her eyes never left him. It was as if she didn’t see the baying crowds, just her target—him.
He drummed his fingers on his staff.
I’m not fighting her. I don’t care what they do.
That was his plan—refusing to fight. If he didn’t fight, she couldn’t get hurt, right?
“Let the battle commence!” The hollow voice echoed.
The crowds in the stands roared in approval. Dora sprinted across the arena with her staff raised in attack stance.
Kieron stood resolute, refusing to attack.
“At least defend yourself, you daft pillock!” Pooey’s voice came from the stands behind him.
Dora slammed her staff into the sands. “Earthshatter!” she cried.
He watched in horror as the ground beneath her staff cracked in his direction, creating gaping chasms that dropped into burning lava. The cracks raced towards him, and the earth trembled and shook under his feet. He leapt across the gaps, trying to find solid ground as it fell away into the ether.
He balanced precariously on a jagged chunk of earth and held up his staff. “Sandfill!” he shouted.
The sand filled the chasms with each grain multiplying from another until the gaping cracks disappeared, and the arena floor was solid again.
“Dora, we need to talk about this,” he shouted at her.
She held up her hand. For a brief moment, he thought she’d heard him, but he quickly changed his mind when spikes of ice shot from her fingers, aimed directly at him. There were thousands of icy shards, each one glinting with sharp, deadly-looking tips.
Kieron ducked and rolled, avoiding most of the blast, but several shards cut through his clothes and sliced across his skin.
I’ve gotta stop her, somehow.
He curled up in agony as a stray spike of ice sliced across his waist before embedding in the wall of the stand behind him. His blood flowed through his shirt, dripping onto the sands of the arena.
He pulled off his shirt and stared down at the gash in his side. It was a deep cut. He wadded his shirt against it to slow the bleeding. By the time he glanced up towards Dora, she was already casting again with her staff. He realised he didn’t have time heal. He needed to use all his power to protect himself. “Cryosphere!” he cried.
A bubble of impenetrable glass surrounded him, protecting him from the blasts of fire she shot at him. The fire bounced around the sphere, but he was safe inside it.
The crowds booed. Defensive spells were never the popular choice.
Dora’s dark eyes had become slits as she studied his protective coating. He pushed himself off the ground, using all his strength to keep up the shields against her constant attacks.
“Steroidstrong!” Dora cast upon herself before she launched herself onto his sphere with a roar. She landed on top of it on her hands and knees and peered down at him through the glass.
What the fuck is she doing?
She drove her fist into the glass with inhuman strength again, and again. He felt every punch slam into his head as she slammed her fist into the glass barrier. The barrier had come from his mind, so it was where her punches landed. He used every essence of his power to keep her out, but the shield cracked under the pressure.
She stared down at him with pure evil in her eyes as her fist smashed through the shield. Shards of glass sprayed him as the barrier fell apart around him. She dropped onto him, pinning him to the ground with a snarl.
One glance into her cold eyes made him realise he had lost. He knew he was mortally wounded with jagged glass impaling his legs and chest. He was drained of all of his demon power, but still fought through the pain even though he knew he couldn’t win.
“Nooo!” Pooey cried from the stands.
“Kill, kill, kill!” The crowds roared.
“Now you die.” Dora snarled at him.
The world blurred into a golden haze for a moment. Kieron widened his eyes with surprise when he noticed a new power appear inside him. It was something he’d never realised was there before. Now his demon powers were drained, something else had been set free. He could feel a strong and warm glow inside him—a new power.
He closed his eyes for a moment to feel this new source of energy. It was as if a dormant part of him had awoken, and it was powerful. With a roar of agony, he rolled over, taking Dora with him and pinning her to the bloody sands of the arena. His flesh tore as the sharp glass crushed into his skin, but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but this growing power inside of him.
Dora struggled beneath him. He knew he shouldn’t be able to pin her down so easily, but he could. He ripped the gem bag out of his pocket and scooped her soul-chips into his palm.
“I hate you!” she cried.
“I love you!” he shouted back before punching the soul-chips into her chest, crushing them into her heart.
Blinding white light flashed around them, and both their bodies glowed. The arena faded into the background. All Kieron could see was Dora.
Her skin glowed serene gold, but her eyes sparkled with dark fury. He forced himself to fight the pain and keep hold of her. His body ached with every movement, and exhaustion clouded his mind. There was a searing pain between his shoulder blades. His back throbbed as if someone had ripped out his spine. He fought for consciousness as a feeling of something powerful shot through him and ripped him apart inside. A thought crossed his hazy mind, and he realised he’d been a conduit for something not of this dimension—a conductor for something … something good.
He leaned over Dora and kissed her. He didn’t know what any of it meant, and he didn’t know if he would survive, but her soft lips were the last thing he wanted to feel before he lost consciousness—and they were.
What are you doing? Kill him! You’re supposed to.
Dora stopped kissing the high-level demon and pushed him off her, onto his back. She knelt over him and pulled her knife from the scabbard at her hip, aiming it into Kieron’s chest. She froze in position.
Kieron? I know him. How do I know him?
The memory in her mind was a whisper. She frowned and tried to clear her thoughts. They had been so clear, so straightforward earlier.
Around her, she heard the crowds calling out for a kill. Her competitor lay beneath her unconscious. A
ll she had to do was stab him, and she would win. But something wasn’t right. There was a nagging feeling that something was terribly wrong. It wasn’t in her nature to do what she was told. She growled at the crowds as they roared.
“Kill, kill, kill…”
I don’t want to make those assholes happy.
She pondered her options before snarling and throwing the knife away. She didn’t do what other people told her to do. She never had. Not when her parents had told her to be good, and not when the demons had told her to be bad. She was free. She never did what she was told to do.
She battled against a feeling that she was throwing away her chance of winning as her memories came back to her in a flood.
Wait a minute. What the fuck am I doing?
The memories of the guy lying beneath her filled her mind. She gasped. “Kieron!” she cried at his inert form. She grabbed his shoulders and shook him. “Kieron, wake up. Please wake up.” She shook his shoulders and stared down at his face. There were nasty gashes across it, and his eyes remained closed.
She reached across the sands and grabbed her staff with her hand. “Heal!” She pointed it at Kieron, but nothing happened. She remembered everything. She knew she had done this. She had become evil, and he’d died saving her.
“HEAL!” Dora squeezed her eyes shut in concentration as she tightly gripped the staff, but nothing happened. She opened her eyes and looked around the arena in desperation.
Someone help me .
The crowds were standing in silent awe, staring down at her and Kieron. She glanced back at him and her jaw dropped open in surprise.
His skin glowed with a bright light. His hair appeared tinted with strands of gold. Massive white-feathered wings stretched out on the sands beneath him.
Kieron’s a fucking angel!
“I knew there was something weird about him.” She heard Pooey shout.
“YOU SLUT!” Lord Lascher screamed from the other end of the arena. Dora glanced back, just in time to see Lady Lascher punch Lord Lasher in the face and knock him out.
Demonic Dora Page 18
