He had not thrown the fellow straight into the fissure. That meant the red-skinned fellow would not lightly abandon or kill the old demon, even when he made mistakes and challenged his authority. It also suggested that the old demon still had value. Ruger was now even more tempted to abduct him and give him to Wizard Zorn. The very thought pleased him, not just because he would be giving Wizard Zorn an interesting gift, but also because he would be sabotaging the red-skinned fellow's experiment.
Ruger smiled and declined the saliva-covered blood crystal.
The old demon looked puzzled. He stared wide-eyed, unable to fathom Ruger's intentions for a moment, then stuffed the blood crystal back into his mouth while still watching him.
Ruger smiled, but remembered what he looked like now and reined it in. He still remembered how his smile had made a little demon tremble back in Bonebreaker City.
Ordinary demons had strong vitality, but that only meant they were hard to kill. Their wounds healed nowhere near as well as those of dragonborn kobolds bathed in aberrant dragon blood. Their recovery was even slower than that of a fully developed Life Fighter. Clearly, the old demon fell into the ordinary demon category when it came to regeneration, especially with injuries such as two broken legs.
Swallowing the last of the blood crystals, the old demon looked down at his legs in frustration. The greatest difficulty with a leg injury was having to stand up and resume traveling immediately. Had it been his shoulder or arm, he could have continued after recovering just a little, but not with his legs.
A tall figure approached.
The old demon's eyes lit up. He immediately staggered to his feet and clambered onto the tall figure's shoulder.
The tall figure never