Kaboom!

Howls echoed through the trees after the distant explosion reached their ears.

"Don't worry, whatever that was, was far off," said Crow, looking up from his conversation with Airow.

"But what was it? It sounded like a large explosion, of some kind," said Airow, looking in the direction of the sounds.

Something was rustling through the underbrush around them, moving quickly.

"Now you can worry!" cried Crow, grabbing his crossbow as eight werewolves rushed out of the trees.

Something shot by overhead, with a loud buzzing sound. Whatever it was, was heading towards the town.

Before Crow or Airow could get either of their ranged weapons up to attack the wolves, a huge gust of wind picked up the werewolves, crashing them together into a jumbled ball, then slamming them down to the ground, hard.

As they attempted to untangle themselves, they were engulfed in flames. Their howls of pain were quickly snuffed out as they were burnt to a crisp.

"What just happened?" asked Grey, holding her sword at the ready, about to dismount from her horse.

Two men stepped out of the brush, onto the road, chuckling to each other.

"That worked way better then I thought it would!" said one, who had crazy brown hair that seemed to blow in a wind that none of them could feel.

"I told you that if we teamed up, it would be super easy!" said the other, with flaming red hair.

"Who are you?" asked Guit, putting his sword away.

"I'm Wes, and this is Blaze," said the brown-haired man. "We're leaders of the guild in the next town.

"Let me guess, you're a wind mage, and he's a fire mage?" asked Guit.

"Yeah," said Blaze with a huge grin as he looked over the blackened ashes that had been the werewolves.

"Wait, what guild?" asked Crow.

"We're still in the planning phases, so it's not a real guild yet," said Wes.

"Yeah, we keep fighting over the rules," said Blaze.

"No," said Wes, turning to him, "some of the members don't agree with the rules."

"There's a difference?" said Blaze, rolling his eyes.

"Can we please get to the city? I want to get dry before night fall," said Argen.

They continued along the road, for another fifteen minutes, before the trees cleared to show where a town used to be. Instead, they saw that the entire town had been engulfed in flames.

With a shout, Blaze and Wes rushed forward to start putting out the fire. Because of the rain, several buildings hadn't burnt up yet. Grey and Airow were amazed that a fire could even get started in all the rain they had gotten.

As they stood out of the way, watching the fire die down, they saw a peculiar sight. Near the center of town, a flying figure, with large dragonfly-type wings, was torching the merchant stalls.

Leaving the carriage and horses behind, Airow, Grey, Guit, and Argen rushed forward to try and fight the monster. Cherry tagged along, dodging the embers from the still burning buildings, with Crow and Shiv.

The creature could be seen easier once they reached the marketplace. She paused just long enough to spit another fireball at a waving canvas tent, for them to see her clearly. The wings were definitely dragonfly in nature, connected to her scaled back, where spines ran the length of her body. Her arms and legs dangled down, from her reptilian body, as she dodged back and forth, spitting fireballs.

Only her face still attested to the child she had been, with large blank eyes, and soft black curls framing her small face. Glinting green in the weak light after the storm, she dodged towards them.

Argen threw up his arms as she grabbed him, tossing him in the air and catching him, holding him in front of her like a shield as Crow shot several bolts towards her. Argen grunted in pain as they hit him instead of her.

Blaze shot a stream of fire at her, but she merely opened her child-like mouth and ate it, chewing a moment, before shooting several fire balls back at him. He jumped to the side, rolling to miss being hit.

Argen slumped, unconscious in her arms, as Guit screamed in rage, and charged at her. She dived towards him, letting Argen dangle from one arm, grabbing Guit up, who shrieked in pain.

Diving down again, intense waves of heat rolled off of her, knocking Cherry, Crow, Shiv and Wes out.

Blaze grabbed them and started dragging them away from the jumping flames of the burning structures around them.

Airow and Grey crouched in the heat, watching the dragonfly girl pause and look around, still with that blank look on her face.

"She's possessed!" cried Airow, "If we can purge her of the demon controlling her, she may stop attacking!"

"How can I help?" asked Grey.

"Pray!" he said, standing up and beginning the long chant that would purge her of the demon that was controlling her.

Grey fell to her knees, praying, but the dragonfly girl saw her, and threw Guit and Argen at her. She fell back against the rock road, hitting her head.

As she slumped, unconscious, Airow finished his chant and cast the spell to rid her of the demon possession. Gritting his teeth as the demon fought back against him, he finally managed to overcome its will, blasting it out of her. Screaming in rage, as the last rays of the sun burnt the demon up, the girls face suddenly grew incredibly tired, and she fell from the sky.

Airow, despite his intense exhaustion, ran forward and caught her, before she could hit the ground. He fell to his knees, drained from using such a powerful spell at such a distance, after the strain of the day. Setting her gently on the ground, he managed to slump to the side, breathing hard.

Footsteps drew his tired gaze, as a man, clothed all in black, slowly clapped as he drew close.

"Congratulations on not killing my creation. I'm impressed. But don't worry, I'm not the elder demon. That's my brother."