Note- Hey- finally getting longer chapters to write! Woot!
9
"Why's he still attacking the volcano demon? It's already unconscious, and he could eat most of it anyway," Helen said curiously, staring at Natsu. He had just landed another punch on the demon. As he swung back his fist, Helen looked away towards her feet, which swung back and forth, banging against the log she was sitting on.
She cast her gaze around at the beautiful valley overshadowed by the large volcano. The lush grass swayed slightly in a soft breeze, making a shh shh sound, and the blue sky was covered by a few puffy white clouds that drifted across. It was almost like it was a painting. She'd like to live here if there were no monsters around.
Her attention was jerked back to the present as Lucy said, "Natsu's bored. It's either overdoing it now or going overboard on the way back. I can't actually remember the last time he went all out. It was not very long after Alvarez…"
Helen, wondering what Alvarez was, opened her mouth to ask. But she was cut short by a roar that echoed thrugh the valley. Twisting to see what the roar was from, Helen's eyes widened. Lucy had paled and snatched Helen's hand, dragging her behind as she raced towards Natsu, who hadn't noticed the roar. He was too engrossed in whacking the volcano demon to notice.
Reaching Natsu, Lucy bent over, gasping for air. Helen turned around again to make sure her eyes weren't decieving her. Behind them stood a massive volcano demon- maybe three or four times Natsu's height. The demon roared, the flames surrounding it glowing brightly. Shrinking back, Helen looked towards Natsu. And her jaw dropped.
The dragon slayer was sleeping. Lucy, who had also just noticed this, kicked him gently. Natsu grumbled and rolled over, completely oblivious. Lucy hissed something at Natsu, but he was not going to be waking up for a while- that was clear. Lucy sighed.
"I'll fix this, Helen. Just wait here." She raced towards the demon, grabbing her golden keys. One moment, she was sprinting forward….. and the next she was flat on her back. "Ooooffffff" Lucy gasped as the air was sucked out of her. Her eyelids fluttered closed, and she fell unconscious. Helen, who was reduced to staring at this point, kicked a pebble at the ground.
"Are you joking?" she screamed at the demon, the sky, the grass, and at nothing in particular. "What is this?"
As she had already noticed, Helen would have to deal with the volcano demon on her own… even though she was practically useless. She tried to suppress the urge to run away screaming, instead picking up the long black whip Lucy had had clipped onto her belt. Only one weapon…. some fairly pointless magic… and a really grand problem. What next? Her question was answered as a responding cry sounded to the large demon's roar.
"That settles it… you are nothing but trouble!" Helen screamed at the demon.
She didn't know where the fury was coming from, what spurred her on as she reached for her magic and transformed. All she knew was that at some point in time she'd done this before. The whip in her hand buzzed, and Helen looked down to see it flashing white with gold streaks. Lucy had told her it was blue with gold… so why was it white?
She ran, finding to her surprise that her speed had doubled. Flicking the whip, she caught the demon's foot with the whip and pulled. The demon snarled and tried to pull its foot away, but it was firmly entangled in the whip. Helen raced faster and faster, using the whip to wrap the whole demon in white and gold. She felt deep down, opening a part of her magic she hadn't noticed before. A rope of white fire raced up the whip and around the demon, burning the red fires away and leaving the demon a husk.
Helen raced forward to the next demon, and, giving a cry of anger, she let out her magic onto the demon. It stumbled back as it was encased in a ring of golden light. The light sucked something away, and the demon dissolved into nothingness. Suddenly, Helen became aware of just how tired she felt. As her marks became black and her hair deep black again, she crumpled to the ground, gasping for air.