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Description
"The hellish screeching can send shivers down anyone's spine. But it is when you don't hear anything that the demons of the caves are at their most deadly".
-Cerulean miner's saying.

A cave demon with a fresh kill- a grazing cave radial.

The cave demons are cousins to the voracians (seen here www.deviantart.com/tarturus/ar… and herewww.deviantart.com/tarturus/ar… ). While, however, voracians are a familiar dangerous creature to the average Cerulean inhabitant, cave demons are generally only well known to those who venture into their cavernous domain.

Cave demons are the largest of all the flying hexapods, measuring around 2.4-2.6 m in length, with females being slightly larger than males. Aeropedes can grow a bit longer but are quite elongated and overall less massive. Like the voracians and all the other aeroraptors, cave demons are endothermic flying hunters with a sophisticated unidirectional air-sac based respiratory system that gives them great stamina. They tend to prefer nesting and hunting in more dimly lit regions of the caves and as such their eyes are rather small and their vision not so great, though they are not blind. Their most keen sense is their hearing.

Cave demons make a loud shrill screeching sound that is considered rather horrible to listen to by your average human. However, they generally make these sounds when communicating with other cave demons. Generally it will be males screeching to other males and showing off for the females. The females are somewhat more quiet but they will screech as well. However, when hunting cave demons of both sexes tend to stay quiet. No need to advertise their presence to their prey.

The cave demons are apex predators of the cave ecosystems (indeed, flying hexapods as apex predators seems to be a recurring theme in Cerulea's terrestrial habitats). They hunt all manner of prey, including cave slugs, browsing and grazing radials, and even other predatory creatures. Even things as tough as hard skins and spine grabbers can be attacked by cave demons though in these cases you will generally have more than one cave demon ganging up on the potential prey in question. As is standard for aeroraptors, cave demons use their clawed feet to pin down prey and the four jaw parts to deliver a killing bite (across the neck for hexapod and shield head prey, on top of the "head" for radial prey). The chitin plates covering a cave demon's skin offer a degree of protection against the stings of stinging radials that are included among their prey.

Cave demons have some degree of social behaviour and nest together in groups. Their cousins the voracians do the same but will hunt alone. In contrast, it is not uncommon for cave demons to hunt together, though generally with just two or three individuals. That being sent they do not have any particularly advanced strategies for cooperative hunting, being more a case of just simple ganging up on prey. And while they do share meat, there will be cases where a fight might break out if one cave demon seems to be taking a bit too much before its companions get a chance at a similar amount.

Description
"The hellish screeching can send shivers down anyone's spine. But it is when you don't hear anything that the demons of the caves are at their most deadly".
-Cerulean miner's saying.

A cave demon with a fresh kill- a grazing cave radial.

The cave demons are cousins to the voracians (seen here www.deviantart.com/tarturus/ar… and herewww.deviantart.com/tarturus/ar… ). While, however, voracians are a familiar dangerous creature to the average Cerulean inhabitant, cave demons are generally only well known to those who venture into their cavernous domain.

Cave demons are the largest of all the flying hexapods, measuring around 2.4-2.6 m in length, with females being slightly larger than males. Aeropedes can grow a bit longer but are quite elongated and overall less massive. Like the voracians and all the other aeroraptors, cave demons are endothermic flying hunters with a sophisticated unidirectional air-sac based respiratory system that gives them great stamina. They tend to prefer nesting and hunting in more dimly lit regions of the caves and as such their eyes are rather small and their vision not so great, though they are not blind. Their most keen sense is their hearing.

Cave demons make a loud shrill screeching sound that is considered rather horrible to listen to by your average human. However, they generally make these sounds when communicating with other cave demons. Generally it will be males screeching to other males and showing off for the females. The females are somewhat more quiet but they will screech as well. However, when hunting cave demons of both sexes tend to stay quiet. No need to advertise their presence to their prey.

The cave demons are apex predators of the cave ecosystems (indeed, flying hexapods as apex predators seems to be a recurring theme in Cerulea's terrestrial habitats). They hunt all manner of prey, including cave slugs, browsing and grazing radials, and even other predatory creatures. Even things as tough as hard skins and spine grabbers can be attacked by cave demons though in these cases you will generally have more than one cave demon ganging up on the potential prey in question. As is standard for aeroraptors, cave demons use their clawed feet to pin down prey and the four jaw parts to deliver a killing bite (across the neck for hexapod and shield head prey, on top of the "head" for radial prey). The chitin plates covering a cave demon's skin offer a degree of protection against the stings of stinging radials that are included among their prey.

Cave demons have some degree of social behaviour and nest together in groups. Their cousins the voracians do the same but will hunt alone. In contrast, it is not uncommon for cave demons to hunt together, though generally with just two or three individuals. That being sent they do not have any particularly advanced strategies for cooperative hunting, being more a case of just simple ganging up on prey. And while they do share meat, there will be cases where a fight might break out if one cave demon seems to be taking a bit too much before its companions get a chance at a similar amount.