Emily didn’t know what it was about the fire demon’s words and how he talked. Every time he spoke, she felt a burst of courage. Right now, she felt like the three thousand bat creatures of darkness heading toward her were nothing. She felt the fire demon’s power. She felt its very fearlessness course through her blood.
She even felt its rage. For there could be no fire without rage. It was like a drug. It pumped through her veins sending her to Cloud Nine. It got so fierce that Emily was convinced there was no way she was losing this fight. Not when the fire demon was on her team.
She looked ahead. Thirty seconds until first contact.
I suppose you have a plan? Emily questioned. Or are you all bark and no bite?
The fire demon’s seething radiated through her mind. It felt like touching a hot iron; it burned through her, causing her to whistle in panic.
That’s the fire of my rage, the fire demon announced proudly. We’ll use it to destroy the horde.
Emily would have smiled, but she was still shocked by how much power the fire demon wielded over her.
Burn them all! the fire demon screeched as she made contact.
Emily first felt a very powerful desire to throw up. Then she felt more of an acid-reflux reaction that she sometimes got when she’d just finished eating too much pizza. Only this time it was more intense. Then she felt the fire demon slide right into the reins of power, shoving her own consciousness to the back seat.
With dismay, she watched as the fire demon took total control of her Owl form. Before she could complain or do anything about his enthusiasm, a blast of liquid fire erupted out of her beak and swept across the sky in a terrifyingly wide arc.
The result was instantaneous. The bats instantly burned. Their screeches turned to screams of terror. It was so bad that their cries pierced through Emily’s anger and struck her heart. She watched as the fire demon kept the flow of fire, whipping to the left and right to get the ones that were trying to escape his arc. Every bat that approached was incinerated immediately.
Within one minute, Emily watched hundreds of bats turn to ash. The darkness of the night was chased away as the fire demon let loose all hell. Soon, the early birds were cleared and the main assault team of bats approached them.
It was like a dark mass. A horde of terrible things. Even the wind seemed to be in their favor, stirring around them and threatening to turn into a major hurricane.
Hang on, Emily! the fire demon called as they were seconds away from cutting into the midst of the horde.
Emily saw immediately that this was a terrible plan. There were thousands of them tightly packed into the swarm. If they went right into the center, they would never come out. It didn’t matter that they could spew fire. The moment they went into the horde, the bats would tear them apart. Even though they incinerated a hundred, two hundred would retaliate in their wake. It was plain stupid to go straight in, and Emily knew it.
She wasn’t sure the fire demon knew it. All he wanted to do was set everything on fire. He was even a terrible flyer. He didn’t understand aerodynamics; not like Selena. He was the typical rambunctious boy-child. All he wanted to do was smash and crash and bash. And his approach was going to get them all killed. Where the hell was Selena?!
Maybe we should rethink our head-on approach? Emily suggested, completely dismayed by the fire demon’s suicidal plan.
Rethink? the fire demon asked, surprised. Then he let loose another of his maniacal laughs. Baby, you don’t know the half of what I’m capable of! The fire demon didn’t slow his approach, and the bat-like creatures seemed very happy to collide face-first with them.
Emily tried not to panic. She had allowed this entity to take control of her body. Surely, she could take back control. It was her body, after all, wasn’t it? Just how was she going to go about doing this?
No way are you stealing my thunder, Emily, the fire demon muttered into her deepest thoughts. She had forgotten momentarily that the fire demon could hear her thoughts much like Selena could.
Today is a good day to die, right? Wasn’t that your thought? Then he laughed again.
He was mocking her. Yes, Emily had thought those exact words right before the bats came along. Then, before Emily had the mind to scream, the fire demon plowed onward.
Burn! was the last word the fire demon screamed in her mind as they cut into the horde. That’s when things got really intense.
The fire demon slammed the brakes on the speed of The Owl. Then he spread out their wings to full length, exposing every square meter of the massive wingspan of The Owl. It wasn’t the brightest aerodynamic decision to have made, because the moment they did that, they shed fifty percent of their speed.
Not only was the fire demon sending them into the heart of the death-swarm, he was planning on getting them stuck right in the middle, without enough speed for a fast exit.
The Owl’s wings were hard enough to bash hundreds of bats to the sides as it slowed.
Then the fire demon exploded.
That’s the only way Emily could have explained it. Just when the entire horde was about to dive in for the kill, the fire demon straight-up exploded. Fire erupted from The Owl’s sternum. It was a fierce and raging fire that wrapped around The Owl and spread out.
The fire had a force to it. It had purpose. It had intent. It was similar to how Emily had control over the wind. The fire was under the control of the fire demon’s destructive intent. Right before her eyes, the flames spread out in all directions and so fast that not a single bat-like creature escaped.
It was almost
