Pantherlily stood still, unsure of his surroundings. A minute ago he and Gajeel had been ready for battle but now the street had turned black and Lily was alone.

"I remember this little trick from the grand magic games," he thought to himself remembering the battle between Laxus and raven tail.

Ivan had the power to create illusions to fool the world around him, a technique he had used in the games to make it look like Laxus was losing the match while in truth Ivan and his team were using the opportunity to question him in secret. It seemed like Ivan was trying the same old trick and while Lily may have been able to see through it he knew this was still a problem.

This is problematic," he said, "I can't be sure if everyone is still here and even if they are it's not like I can just swing my sword around". The exceed new better than to try Natsu's approach of running in head first and attacking as many people as possible, by attacking blindly he could hit Gajeel by mistake. For now, all he could do was stay put and try to think of a way to break the illusion but no matter how hard he tried none came to mind.

Gajeel stared frustratedly at his cat, Lily was still standing next to him and still surrounded by the four wizards but he couldn't hear or see Gajeel.

"Get him out of that daydream now!" shouted Gajeel

"One dragon slayer vs 4 elite wizards seems a bit more balanced" replied Ivan with an evil grin.

Gajeel stood still trying to break down the situation. He knew that Lily was unable to assist him but before he could finish his strategizing a long red line shot towards the Exceed.

Turning his arm to iron Gajeel grabbed the line before it reached Lily. Now he had a hold of it he could tell it was flare's red hair.

"Girl your hairs fucking creepy" he mocked remembering her unique talents.

"Don't touch me" came her reply which the dragon slayer found strange, Flare normally had a sinister tone to her voice but now she sounded softer almost sweater.

With the length of hair wrapped around his right arm, Gajeel turned his left arm into an iron sword using it to cut off the section of Flares hair before she was able to use her fire skill.

"Bout time you got that gross stuff cut off" mocked Gajeel again.

Bringing his mind off of the red-haired wizards change in personality Gajeel was quick to realize what the gameplay was.

"They trapped Lily in an illusion so now he can't help me but more important than that he can't defend himself."

Remembering how the first attack had been aimed towards the cat and not him it was clear this had been done to weaken his chances.

"I've got to protect Lily and fight these guys at the same damn time."

No sooner had Gajeel analyzed what was happening when Nullpudding with Kurohebi launched the second strike.

At a high speed, Nullpudding struck Gajeel forcing the dragon slayer to coat his entire body in iron before being hit in several directions by Kurohebi and his sand magic.

"Hehe if your gonna copy someone's magic you could off copied someone better than that weak arse Max." He may have been joking but in truth, the constant sand was making it harder to see or move and now Nullpudding was coming at him with full strength.

Gajeel took hit after hit with his iron body just managing to take the strain but then in a split second, the hits stopped. In the corner of his eye, he saw Nullpudding had changed targets and was inches away from lily but with the sand still blasting him he couldn't get to his friend.

"Iron dragon's club!" yelled Gajeel and extend his attack right at Nullpudding but with the raven tail members speed his attack missed hitting Lily instead.

The attack had knocked Lily to the ground but at least it had been a lighter blow than the one he would've received from Nullpudding and now the exceed was certain he wasn't alone and had a general idea where the others were.

While Lily got back to his feet and turned to face the direction the hit had come from Gajeel took advantage of the brief let up in Kurohebi's sand attack "IRON DRAGON ROAR!".

The time for playing around was over Gajeels attack sent the two elite wizards flying to the next street leaving just Flare and Ivan Dreyar who had yet to make an effort in the fight.

"Go on my dear prove to me you're actually worth something". Said Ivan to a still quiet Flare.

Flare looked down to the ground her eyes sadder than Gajeel had ever seen them "I am something" she whispered quietly to herself.

Ivan was getting frustrated "FLARE" he shouted but the red-haired wizard continued to stare at the ground clearly in emotional pain.

"Fine" her master was quick and blunt and temporally forgetting about Gajeel fired an army of his shikigami dolls at Flare.

The dolls after landing several painful hits to Flare's body began to circle her and it didn't take Gajeel long to realize what he was doing.

"That bastards going for the shikigami dark bomb" something Gajeel had managed to gain a peak of during his time undercover.

He rushed towards Ivan in the hope of saving both Lily and Flare but before he could get to the dark wizard Ivan collapsed to the ground.

Gajeel saw traces of lightning darting around the area and an annoyed frown crept on to his face as he looked up to see Laxus Dreyar standing in the shadows.