The newest member

Chapter 11

We got lost numerous times. Natsu insisted that he could smell the other demon and so led, being in front and making the decisions; but when it came to large numbers of passages, he got confused and went the wrong way. I knew which way but kept quiet. Natsu was certain of himself and I didn't want him to become uncertain in decisions. He's like a big brother to me.

"This way" he shouted, leading us down the right hand path, away from the demon. Carla turned to frown at me and I smiled weakly before following. "I'm sure it's this way, it has to be."

The path ended in a rock wall.

"Oh come on" Natsu shouted, punching it. "This is the third time this has happened. I know I'm right, I know I am, I've never been wrong before, it has to be this way." He punched the wall again, this time enveloping his fist in fire. Then he punched it again, and again and again until there was a crack in the rock which spread from a slight crater his fist had formed to a few centimetres out.

"Erm... Natsu, I think you can stop punching the wall now" I said meekly, then when he didn't stop "Natsu we don't want the entire volcano coming down on our heads so please stop."

He sighed, gave it one last punch and turned around. "So where is it?"

I was about to answer when the wall he'd punched collapsed. We stared. Behind it was a vast chamber, the bottom of which was full of lava and the top of which clearly showed the sky, as much of it as we could see anyway. There was still too much ash. It was what was in the lava that made us stare. A head as big as the guild itself, spewing extra lava everywhere and swilling round like a pig in mud. It was scaly but the colour wasn't quite identifiable because of the glow of the lava, orange flickering off the walls of the chamber. Huge teeth gnashed in the head's jaw just below a pair of beady black eyes and curly, sharp horns.

"Holy crap" Natsu cried. "I thought the other one was big."

"Shhh" I hissed, glancing down at it again. Somehow, it hadn't heard Natsu and that I was grateful for.

"Oh my" Carla exclaimed beside me. "I'm afraid that this may be a fight that we just can't win."

"Aye" Happy agreed, not taking his eyes off the demon and dropping to the floor, his feathery wings vanishing.

"It's a fight that just the two of us can't win but maybe all six of us can if we work together." I muttered.

"No chance" Carla dropped to the floor along side Happy. "We couldn't defeat that smaller one all six of us together. What chance have we got of defeating something bigger and more powerful that the one that we couldn't defeat ourselves?"

"Well" Natsu balled his hand into a fist and set it on fire. "We can't go back to the guild with the knowledge that we've failed on a job like this. We'll just have to defeat them both won't we."

I nodded and gulped silently "we may be able to do this, but not without the others."

"Who says?" Natsu grinned. "I say give it all you've got." He nodded at Happy and flung himself into the chamber. Happy grabbed him an flew towards the demon at top speed. Its eyes swivelled to look at them and then, almost lazily, it stood up. At full height, it could look directly into the passage we were standing in.

I turned to glance worriedly at Carla who stared forwards with horror. "You okay?"

She nodded, sweat beaded on her forehead and then grabbed me as I flung myself into the chamber after Natsu. He was punching it from every direction which seemed to have smallest affect. The demon wasn't making any noise but was steering itself away from the attacks as much as possible. That surely was a good sign. As soon as Carla got me as close as she could, I took a deep breath.

"Sky Dragon Slayer Roar" I shouted, the air funnelling towards the demon who rocked backwards angrily and then turned on me. It raised one of its claw like hands if you can call it that and swiped. Carla gasped and swerved to the left just before it hit. Then it swiped again and sent Carla spinning backwards out of control. It only took me a second to realise that I was falling before it came and hit me into the wall. I never felt the pain of the rock, I was out cold before I hit it.