'Fuse them without the hide!'
Out of the hundred and twenty Vi killed, eighty were salvaged. Coupled with the hundred and forty he and the Guardsmen had slain in the deeper woods, there were now a total of two hundred and twenty bat corpses, their leathery wings limp on the massive heap.
Two hundred of them were used, fused with the hundred levitating soldiers without their thick black skins and as the process began, bright blue flames engulfed each pair, swirling upward like tongues of mystic fire. The glow of the flames was reflected in the eyes of the town folks, who had gathered silently, their faces lit with both fear and wonder, their eyes wide with anticipation of what would emerge.
One by one, the hundred levitating figures descended to the ground, their bodies slowly lowering as the flames began to die out. When the last wisp vanished, what stood in their place caused the townspeople to gasp aloud, one hundred new beings stood where ordinary men and women once floated.
