OK so first story! Little nervous but I'll do my best! This story and this chapter begins around the time of the Lullaby arc. I have no beta reader or whatever and I am hoping this goes well.
Fairy Tail is property of Hiro Mashima and not me. I claim no rights to the characters in this story but my own.
-Chapter 1: I am...-
In a beautiful meadow rich in multiple colors of flowers swaying in a gentle breeze stood three trees closely together. Their branches providing shade for a lone individual resting at their roots with his head resting on a backpack. It was a young man wearing black pants under a red cloth with silver lining held by a belt on his waist and brown leather boots. On his torso he wore a black sleeveless shirt with leather straps that looped under his arms around to his back. His long black hair, that one would swear had a navy blue coloration to it, splayed out on the backpack save for a ponytail at the top of his head in the back. On his tanned skin he bore bar-like tattoos that crossed over and connected with others all the way down the musculature of his arms, under his shirt, and could be seen connecting to a bar that circled his neck. On his right hand was a woven bracelet made of a white string and a stone connecting both ends.
"Huuuuh..." A loud Yawn was made beneath the branches as the man lifted himself up and began to stretch his arms out with a 'pop' coming from him suddenly. "Ugh, again with the shoulder. I should stop sleeping on my side." He caressed said shoulder as he opened his eyes to reveal bright brown eyes, almost orange in color. "At least I picked a nice spot to rest. Alright now where am I again?" He asked himself.
He reached into his backpack and pulled out and old looking rolled up paper before unrolling it and moving it into the light. His finger traced a few spots until it stopped over the location of a town. "OK there is Oshibana... now where am I...wait a second." His brow furled as he traced his finger to another spot and his expression suddenly changed into one of glee. "There's a train that goes right to it! Whew, maybe I can take a load off after walking ten days straight." The man rolled the paper back up, placed it in his backpack, and flipped it behind him where it slipped into clasps on the leather straps that went under his arms and met in the back.
"If I run maybe I can catch the train at Kunugi station." He said as he started sprinting away leaving wisps of dust from when his feet hit the ground. "Looks like today's going to be a good day!" He said with a smile.
-Meanwhile-
VvrrrrrrrrOOOOOMMMMM!
The sound a motor, roaring on the edge of malfunctioning was heard reverberating throughout the rocky walls of a canyon path until a huge screech could be heard as a four wheeled vehicle, a magic-mobile, flew off the edge of the path and slammed down onto the ground, shaking a bit before speeding straight across the wide plains before it. On top was a man wearing black pants, boots, and a black shirt under a white coat with blue edges, seemingly holding on for dear life. The driver was a woman wearing black boots, a blue skirt and armor on her torso and left arm, her right was currently hooked up to the S.E. plug and making it bulge due to the near overbearing flow of magic.
Inside was a young woman with blond hair, an orange top and a bright blue skirt trying to keep herself stable as the vehicle hit the bumps on the ground. Next to her was a man with a black and orange vest, white pants, and a scale-pattern scarf around his neck with pink hair waving with the wind coming in from the window. For all intents and purposes he looked like he was on the verge of throwing up. In between the two of the was a blue cat with a bag on his back.
"Whoa! Erza slow it down!" The man on the roof yelled, "This thing takes a lot of magic energy and that applies even to you! Keep going like this and you'll wipe yourself out!"
"This isn't the time for taking it slow Gray! We need to keep moving!" Erza yelled back, barely audible over the engine.
"If Erigor really has his hands on death magic there's no telling what he'll do!"
"Ug, this sucks so much...stupid car...guh!" Came the sickened voice of the pink haired man.
"Natsu hold it together, and please don't throw up on me!" The young woman said to him.
"Don't worry Lucy, this happens a lot. He probably won't throw up for another three minutes." The cat said with a smile.
"That's not reassuring!" Lucy screamed back.
Erza ignored the commotion in the vehicle as he diverted all her attention to maintaining her speed. Her thought restless as she dreaded to think what could happen with Erigor possessing Lullaby.
'Damn it...what are they up to? What is their goal?' She thought before releasing another burst of magic into the plug connected to her.
-Some time later-
The young man had continued his run straight into a forest, hoping to see the train tracks to lead him to the station. "I wonder what this train will be like, it's been so long since I rode on one I've almost forgotten." He said smiling to himself. Suddenly he heard a sound, it quickly came to him that it was the sound of the train moving on the tracks. As he looked through the forest branches he could make out the train moving a far way off in the distance.
"Hey I can catch it here!" He exclaimed. "Just going to need a little bit of energy." As he ran he reached up and grabbed a low hanging branch and pulled as he ran. The branch snapped of with little resistance to his grip as he made his way towards the speeding train. As he jumped over a bush he brought the branch up and crunched down on it with his teeth, which easily broke the piece off. He only chewed slightly before swallowing and repeating the process two more times before he scarfed the rest down.
"There we go!" He said as his steps quickened in pace. Before long he broke out through the tree line and saw the train just past him. He turned and began running after it as fast as he could. "Just a bit faster." He breathed as his eyes slightly glowed. The dim light was shared by the bar markings on his body and traveled down under his clothes. On his feet the marks spread out into more bars as his foot falls became even faster than before.
With his feet leaving a dust trail behind him he was soon catching up to the train. It wasn't even a minute until his hand was almost at the railing of the back cabin. The train seemed to accelerate though as if to insult to his efforts.
"Not today train!" he yelled as he brought his feet together and pushed off into a jump. He over shot though as his jump flew him up over the rail and into the cabin's door back first. He slid down to land upside down with his feet in the air but a smile on his face none the less. "He, he, hope no one noticed that."
-In the cabins further up the train-
"You idiot!"
The angry shout reached all ears in the room as it's speaker brought down his scythe, cutting up a passenger seat as he did so. It's former occupant was now on the floor covering his ears as many other men watched. The man with the scythe stood tall with grey hair hanging over the left side of his face, a blue scarf on his neck and baggy pants on his legs. On his chest and under his eyes were blue tattoos that squiggled together in their design.
"Just so I get this straight Kageyama," The man with the scythe said, "You let one of those damned Flies to see the Lullaby flute, and he got AWAY?!" He swung his scythe back up over his shoulder as he stared down the man before him.
Kageyama moved himself up onto his knees and looked up to his leader."Erigor listen, it's not as bad as you think, they know nothing about our plans sir! Even if he did there is no way either he or his guild could ever stop us right?!" He begged. His only response was for Erigor to frown and in a swift motion bring his scythe down into the wood in front of Kageyama, making the man stumble back.
"I will take ANY chances with this! Thankfully for you we have a plan for this kind of situation." Erigor said before lifting his scythe back up to his shoulder.
"Right, the plan at Oshibana station!" Kageyama exclaimed, almost in relief.
Erigor turned and drew from his pocket a long wooden object with several holes in it and a skull carved into one end with three holes for eyes.
"For our plan to work, and to successfully use Lullaby, no stupid flies will be allowed to interfere." He turned to the other men and struck the floor with the base of his scythe. "It will be all of your jobs to make sure that if they try, the only thing that happens is them getting swatted into a wall and reduced to a smear on it! Now get ready, we'll be there in about an hour."
"Yes sir!" The group answered all together, now motivated by their leader. The plan was going to happen. That was their goal, and there wasn't going to be anything or anyone to stop them.
-Back Cabin-
Click.
The cabin door closed with a barely audible sound as the man turned and looked around. There was nothing but old empty boxes that he guessed had luggage in them. He walked over to a chair in between a box and the door to the cabin's seats and peeked through the window. Thankfully the cabin was empty with no one in sight. He breathed a sigh of relief as he sat down in the chair and set his pack in his lap.
"Well, I'm sure no one will mind me being here. After all I'm not bothering anyone so it shouldn't be any big deal." He said with a smile. He leaned back gently only to spring forwards again and reach his right hand to his left shoulder.
"Gah, stupid sore muscles." Afterwords he leaned back again and let himself ease into a nap.
-One hour and twenty minutes later, elsewhere-
The magic-mobile Erza was driving skidded around the street corner sharply as pedestrians rushed to get out of her way. When it straightened from the turn she floored the accelerator as hard as she could.
"Erza seriously, slow down!" Gray shouted from on top of the vehicle.
"Not yet we're almost there!" She yelled back. The S.E. plug was still draining magic power by large amounts, threatening to burst.
"If you keep going like this you'll use up all your magic before there's any fighting!" Gray said trying to reason with her.
"If that's going to be the case then I'll just have to stick with hand-to-hand combat, and besides, I have you and Natsu as back-up!"
"That might not work out so well.." Lucy said as she watched Natsu lay on the floor of the vehicle. "He's been like this the whole trip I don't think he's-wait Natsu watch it!" Lucy reached up to grab Natsu's legs as he leaned out the window, swaying from the nausea. "Natsu you're going to fall out!"
"That's what I'm trying to do...glurg..."
"Hey wait a second." Happy said. He brought his paw up to his chin in a contemplative pose while clearly trying to think of something. "I think I was supposed to tell Lucy something but what was it? Hmm...weird..oh! Maybe it was something about her being weird?"
"Why are you calling ME weird!?"
"Gray look!" Erza suddenly shouted out. Gray looked forward to see the smoke rising from a tall building in the distance.
"What the hell's going on?" She asked aloud. She continued the pace until the building was a mere block away and skidded the magic-mobile to a halt. Erza detached the plug and replaced her arm's armor. "Come on we find out what's happening."
"Right behind ya." Gray said hopping of the vehicle. He made a quick turn to open the door to let Natsu spill out.
"Oh thank heaven.." Natsu let out along with a sigh of relief as he spread his hands out to slightly caress the earth.
"Solid, urb, ground."
"That's just sad. Come on ash breath get up." Gray lifted Natsu up in time to let Lucy step out and Happy hop out next to her. "Here watch him, he shouldn't hurl anymore." Gray said as he set Natsu in Lucy's arms.
"Wait why do I need to carry him?" Lucy asked, trying to keep Natsu's mouth away from her general direction.
"I needs my hands for fighting, besides, you're the newbie. Consider this a part of initiation." Gray said with a smirk as he left to catch up with Erza.
By the time Lucy had gotten there Gray had made his way to the front of the crowd that had gathered in front of the train station. Everyone was mumbling about the inconvenience, or expressing their worry over the situation. In front of the crowd where several security guards stood. One of them had a megaphone with him trying to calm the crowd.
"Please ladies and gentlemen stand back! The station has been closed due to a malfunction that has caused the train to derail. Please step back!"
"Are you serious?"
"Derailed? Wouldn't that have made a loud sound or something? There's just smoke."
"I heard that the station's been taken over by a bunch of thugs! What do they want?"
These were the responses the security guard was met with. He was about to try again when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Excuse me, whats going on?" Erza asked in urgency.
"Why would I have to tell you lady?" Was his response which was swiftly met with a fierce head butt knocking him unconscious with a large red mark on his forehead.
Erza was quick to move to the next guard and asked her question. The poor man couldn't get out more than a few syllables before he received a head butt as well.
As Lucy watched this she found herself leaning towards her earlier predictions of Erza being as crazy as the rest of her new guild. "How is she going to get answers if she keeps knocking them out like that?
"Erza does her own thing in these sorts of situations." Gray said, not knowing that his stripping habit had kicked in.
"Gray! Clothes!" Lucy pointed out.
"Everyone," Erza yelled "Eisenwald is inside let's go!" Plop. Apparently she got the information she wanted from a guard.
"On it." Gray said finishing putting on his clothes.
"I'm still carrying this aren't I?" Lucy asked, her head nodding at Natsu who was still hanging of her shoulder.
"Sorry." He groaned as the team started going into the building.
-Twelve minutes earlier-
Blackness surrounded him. There was absolutely nothing to be seen. The only thing the young man knew was that he was on all fours shaking in pain that was spreading out from his stomach. He kept hearing the same word over and over again.
Hungry.
It wasn't so much a thought, but an urge. A need.
Hungry!
He lifted his hands and slammed them into the ground. He could feel a liquid spreading out and around his hands. It was hot, and wasn't flowing around him. It felt like it was sticking to him, slowly oozing on his flesh.
Hungry!
He could feel his teeth almost digging into his cheeks, he opened his mouth to relieve the pressure but when he did a taste flooded onto his tongue. The feeling, the impulse, the instinct came again stronger than ever.
HUNGRY!
He pulled his head back, opened his mouth as wide as he could, and brought his jaws down...
"Whuh-!" The young man snapped his head forward, dropping his bag in the process as he looked around to get his bearings. He was still in the train cabin he has fallen asleep in. Still sitting, and it was daytime out side. "Geez that dream again." He said as he stood up and placed a hand on his stomach. Upon standing fully his stomach gave an audible gurgle that sent a shiver up his spine. "Every time I run on empty, and they say eating before you sleep gives you bad dreams. All right calm down I got this." He said, patting his abdomen and lifting his pack. "I just need to get a map of the city to find a place to eat. Probably one in the station for tourists."
He peaked in through the window to see no one sitting in the cabin ahead of him and turned to the exit. Upon opening it a sudden scent came into his nose.
Sniff. Sniff. "Smoke?" He questioned. He hopped from the train to the platform and looked down the train and saw the locomotive was the source and that it had a large hole in it. He immediately ran along the train looking inside the windows as he did and noticed a distinct lack of passengers. 'What happened to the people?' He wondered. He reached the trains conductor's compartment and saw the hole made in the train. He leaned in close to press his fingers on the area, as well as to take in a few whiffs of air.
'Not an accident.' He thought, 'This was made by magic. Someone did this.' He turned his head to look towards the station lobby and saw that the doors were broken as well. He ran up the stairs into the building to find it empty, ticket vendors and all. 'Guess I'll have to get a map later.' He thought, his stomach grumbling after. "Sometimes I swear it has a mind of it's own with timing like that."
He continued through the lobby looking for anything when he saw something in the corner of his eye. He turned to see several military men scattered on the floor with their weapons broken around them. He ran up to the nearest one and knelt down to see if he was alright.
"Hey, what happened here?" He asked, slightly shaking the soldier to wake him. "Are you OK?"
The soldier's eyes fluttered for a moment before opening up fully to consciousness. He looked around briefly before turning to the man who woke him.
"What happened here?" The young man asked again. The soldier set himself upright with a groan and more than a few winces.
"A dark guild..took over the train...wrecked it and busted in here. We tried to stop the but, they were too strong. We should've had more men." As the soldier tried to stand the man who woke him reached out and lightly touched his shoulders to stop him.
"Easy sir, you're hurt pretty bad and you shouldn't move."
"Who are you?" The soldier asked.
"I'm-" The man started to say but stopped as he heard footsteps clacking against the stone floor. He looked up and saw three, no, five people coming towards him. A man, two women, another man slung over one of their shoulders and...a flying cat? "Huh, never seen that before, hey over here!"
Erza, Gray, Happy, and Lucy all came up to see the beaten soldiers and saw the man kneeling next to one and at first thought that he might have been the one who attacked them but soon dispersed the thought when they saw him trying to get their attention while the soldier didn't look like he was currently in the company of an enemy. Upon getting close enough
Erza asked the first question.
"What happened here? Did Eisenwald do this?!" She asked.
"I'm not sure if that's their name but yeah, a bunch of guys did this. Every single one of 'em a wizard." The soldier said.
"Did one of them have a large scythe and blue tattoos?"
"Yeah. Didn't really do much but he seemed important."
"Then he is here. You!" Erza pointed to the man kneeling next to the soldier. "Get these men out of here, we'll handle Eisenwald." She turned swiftly and started down the hall with Gray coming after. Lucy was trying to keep up herself but with Natsu leaning on her she was a little slow. But at least it gave her time to say something.
"Sorry about that, we're really nice people! There's just a bunch of bad guys around. Stay safe!"
"Bad guys?!" The young man said with some awe. He made a few double takes between the soldier and the people who just came by before starting to lift the soldier. "Come on let's get you out of here."
"Wait." The soldier stopped him from picking him up. He reached out to get some balance against the wall and slowly stood up on his own and gradually catching his feet. "You want to fight don't you?" He asked.
"W-what?" The young man replied with shock.
"You want to fight those guys don't you?"
The young man slightly shook his head in response.
"Why? What's this got to do with you?" The soldier looked at the man intensely as he finally stood on his own.
"I don't like the idea of people being hurt. It's just how I was raised. I don't usually go looking for trouble but, I'll still fight when the situation calls for it."
"You think you can beat these guys?" The soldier asked as he turned fully to face him. "Are you strong?"
"I know I am." The young man said with a smile while lifting his right hand up to hold his wrist with his left.
The soldier kept looking at him for a while before turning to the hallway and then back to him. "I can stand on my own now, I'll get my comrades outta here. Go kick their butts for us kid."
"You got it!" Was his response as he turned to run up the stairs. Behind him the soldier began gathering his allies.
He ran up the stairs and down the hallway as he did he heard two things. First was his stomach again. 'NOT NOW!' He thought to himself, the second was voices coming from the room ahead.
"Welcome to the party Fairy Tail pests!"
"Natsu wake up! We could use you right now!"
He kept running and was almost there.
"What are you planning to do?!"
That was when he entered the room. On his side in front of him were the people from before, on the other was a large gathering of people, all with sneers and looks of smugness on their faces. One of them was a man with a large scythe on his shoulder with a similar expression. Though it quickly changed into a scornful frown.
"The damn bugs keep crawling out of the woodwork. But it don't matter heh heh," he quickly jumped up but didn't come back down. "What do all train stations have in common?" He asked.
"What?! He flew!" Lucy said with shock.
"He uses wind magic!" Happy explained.
Erigor then floated back down on top of an intercom pole and continued his spiteful gaze. The young man looked right back at him with a stern look of his own.
"Wait! You plan to broadcast Lullaby?!" Erza shouted demanding an answer.
"Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Yep! I'm sure you noticed the thousands of onlookers who came to see what happened at the station right? They'll be the first ones down. Hell if I turn the volume all the way up I could get the whole city with the death melody!"
'Lullaby? DEATH MELODY!?' The young man thought to himself. 'This guy's going to try to kill all of those people?! For
what!?' His inner thoughts continued to build his ire as Erigor continued.
"This will be a cleansing. What happens today will be punishment for all the fools who have completely failed to appreciate the rights that they take for granted, and who willfully remain ignorant of those who have had those rights stripped of them. They turned their backs on an injustice and they will be punished!"
"What will that do?!" Lucy shouted. "If you kill people you won't be making things better, if anything you'll make things the worst they could possibly be for yourselves! That's why you were kicked out of the wizard's league in the first place!"
"And we don't care anymore!" Erigor yelled as he swept his scythe through the air in anger causing a gust of wind. "At this point our rights are nulled so we'll go for the next best thing: power! When we have that we can do whatever we want for the future and erase the past!"
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"
The members of fairy tail turned, except Natsu on the floor, towards the new voice behind them. They all saw the man walking up next to Lucy and staring down Erigor. "So instead of owning up your mistakes and wrongdoings, you whine and cry about unfairness and take it out on others in a tantrum?! You're nothing but spoiled children complaining about how things aren't how they want them to be!"
Erigor's eyes widened with rage wiping the smile from his face.
"What are you doing here?!" Erza shouted.
"Who're you?!" Lucy asked at the same time.
The man turned towards the guild members. "Me oh I'm-"
"It doesn't matter what you say or think, it's going to be our time soon!" A voice rang out from across the room. "Of course, you stupid fairy flies aren't going to be around to see it!" Kageyama slammed his hand to the ground where a seal appeared and produced shadows that rushed from his position towards the other side of the room towards Lucy and the young man. From the ground in front of them multiple shadow hands sprung from the ground and turned into fists rushing down on the two.
"I knew I've heard that voice before!"
Bright orange and red flames flew forwards from the ground as Natsu stood with his hand outstretched and his flames billowing from it.
"You again?" Kageyama sneered.
"You're back to normal!" Lucy said in joy.
"Yep, and hey looks like we've got a party here!" Natsu turned his head right then left to see his opponents but also saw someone else he didn't know. "Hey who's this guy?" He asked pointing his thumb at the stranger.
"Oh I am-"
"Ha! You think you'll stop us? How pathetic, all of you listen!" Erigor said to his men as he started floating up, "Make them regret ever having met the Dark Guild of Eisenwald!" Afterwords his body seemed to blur out of sight.
"He's gone!" Lucy and Happy shouted.
"Damn bastard." The young man thought aloud, angered for being interrupted during his introductions.
"Natsu, Gray. Both of you go after him and stop him."
"What?" Was the response she received from her guild mates.
"With the two of you working together not even Erigor the Reaper could stand a chance."
"You gotta be kidding." Natsu muttered.
"GET GOING!"
"Yes ma'am!" Was the last thing they said before running to the right through a doorway.
"I don't think so!" One of the Eisenwald guild members yelled as he threw his hands out to make strange wrappings fly from his fingers onto the handrails on the upper level of the room and pull him up onto them. "The great Rayule will stop them!"
Kageyama placed his hands on the ground to form a hole from his shadow beneath him. "The pink haired punk is mine!" He said before sinking into the floor out of sight.
"We'll catch up with them when we're done here OK?" Erza said to Lucy, who looked far from enthusiastic about such actions.
"Just us against their entire guild?"
"Actually there's three of us." Lucy turned to the man who had entered the room. "Allow me to help." He asked politely.
"No." Erza protested. "We won't endanger civilians. You should leave."
"But I can-"
"Ha! They think they can win!" Laughed a member of Eisenwald.
"Sorry ladies, but we're going to have to make you a lot less cute. Your buddy over there's got a thrashing coming for him too!"
"You wouldn't hurt us helpless girls would you?" Lucy asked striking a pose that pronounced herself in a more eye-catching manner. Which unbeknownst to her made the young man standing next to her turn bright red and wide-eyed.
'Never in my life have I seen a girl make that face before.' He thought.
"Enough! Lets go!" Erza shouted with her arm out. She opened her hand to form a bright red magic seal that began to brightly glow. The glow rose into the air and dissipated to reveal a spinning longsword.
"Whoa!"
"She made a sword appear out of thin air!" Both Lucy and the young man looked on in awe as Erza brought up her sword and issued a warning.
"Should you ever insult the guild of Fairy Tail again, I swear there will be consequences."
"You think we're scared of you?! We've got our own magic swordsmen!" With that the guild of Eisenwald charged, many with a weapon now and some with their magic spells prepared to fire.
Erza did not care for what they thought would be a show of force as she stepped forward and with a single swing carved through the blades of several men and blowing them back with the sheer strength of her swing. Three members brought up their hands and presented magic seals before streams of light burst from each. Erza quickly kicked a sword handle up and stomped down to stick it into the ground. Using it as a step, she jumped up high above the men and held her sword horizontally in front of herself. Two more spell seals appeared on either side of her as her sword seemed to turn into light that stretched out then take form again into a spear.
She used her new reach to take down the three that fired at her all at once sending them flying to the side. She reversed her swing and caught several more men with it's length before she opened her hands and closed them again and pulled on the spears ends. The spear split apart and reformed into two short swords now, both held in a backhanded grip. She brought her left sword up to defend against four men swinging at her at once with their swords. As soon as contact was made, the men found that they couldn't make the red haired woman budge and inch. In their attempts to push her back Erza used the opportunity to swing her other sword and cleave completely through their swords and follow up with a kick that sent them flying back into their allies and a few who were getting back up.
"How the hell is this chick requiping so fast?" Asked a whiskered Eisenwald member in the back who had yet to fight.
"Impressive!" Said the young man.
"What's requip?" Lucy asked.
"Requip is Erza's magic." Happy explained. "Requip stores weapons in a personal dimension until they get summoned by the user kinda like your celestial spirits. But that's not all, just wait till Erza gets warmed up!"
"Cool! I think it's time I kicked some butt too." Lucy said as she reached into a small pouch on her belt and pulled out a small key. "Open gate of the crab: Cancer!"
In a bright flash of light a magic seal formed from where Lucy had placed her key, the light took shape and scattered apart to reveal a strange looking man. He had a blue stylish shirt and black pants, and in both of his hands he held a pair of scissors. The strange part was he had six crab legs sticking out of his back and a hair style that looked like crab eyes.
"What do you need, baby?" He asked.
"Go beat those guys Cancer!" Lucy shouted in enthusiastic response. Though her opponents were less that thrilled.
"Are you kidding me?!"
"That's the stupidest haircut I've ever seen!"
"You look like a moron!"
The Eisenwald members shouted their insults as they charged but they found themselves regretting it as Cancer had sped at them with his scissors snipping at high speeds. In a blur of blue and black Cancer stood behind the group that rushed at him with his arms crossed before back flipping over the group, snipping his scissors again and landing next to Lucy.
"Job well done, baby."
At the end of his words the men screamed in horror as their hair fell from their heads, leaving their scalps bare and glimmering.
"No! WE'RE-"
"Bald." Lucy finished for them as they fell to the ground out of sheer embarrassment.
"Impressive." Said Erza, now wielding an ax against several enemies at once.
"Oh it was nothing!" Lucy said before turning around with a smile. "Yes! Points scored!"
"That's what you were going for?!" Happy asked.
"But honestly," Erza began "The way he calls you baby, I would find it very insulting."
"Aww no points scored." Lucy said downtrodden, and Cancer emulating her disappointment.
Plop. The young man's back landed on the floor as he reached into a separate compartment within it to pull something out.
"OK, guess it's my turn." He said as he readied the objects he held in his hands and stepped forward.
"No! You need to get out of here!" Erza yelled to him.
"What? But I'm trying to help!" He responded.
"I know you have good intentions but," Erza stopped to make a swing at several enemies trying to attack her while she was talking "You can't do anything here! We're an official guild and we'll handle this. You'll end up getting hurt, so if you want to help then-"
CRASH!
"I! THINK! NOT!"
The entirety of the room turned with surprise as the young man was now hunched over. He leaned back and pulled from the floor his foot that he had stomped through the stone in frustration. Taking advantage of the suddenly shocked spectators, the young man raised his voice to be heard.
"I am sorry, but I can not and will not leave here! There are four reasons why. First!" The man brought his right arm up to hold his wrist with his left hand and lifted a finger on it. "It is my personal creed to never turn away from someone who needs help. This town is being threatened with certain death and I will NOT stand by and let fate decide the outcome. Second!" A second finger raised. "I despise people like them. Self-entitled bullies who think they can treat everyone like dirt and get away with it. Third!" A third finger. "I apologize if I sound chauvinistic but a man does not leave a lady to fend for herself. He helps how he can, whenever he can."
"So he's chivalrous?" Lucy pondered.
"Fourth!" The fourth finger rose up. "I am strong. I know I am, and I was raised to believe that my strength has a purpose; to lend it to those who need it most. I'd say that now is a prime opportunity to show as such." He brought his hands down to open his right hand and revealed what he was holding: two shining gemstones. One a ruby, the other an emerald.
"Jewels?" Happy wondered aloud.
"Let's go." With that he tossed the gems up and as they came down he lurched forwards and caught the ruby, then the emerald, in his mouth and bit down.
CRUNCH!
The Eisenwald members winced at first thinking the sound came from his teeth shattering. But as they looked at him they noticed that he was still chewing, and crunching sounds were coming from his mouth.
"Did, did he just eat those stones?!" One member asked.
The man leaned his head back and made a clear 'gulp' sound to signify he had just swallowed the now crumbled gems. He brought his head down and closed his eyes.
"One more thing..." he said as his body started to change.
His body's musculature started growing before the bar-like tattoos on his body changed to spread over his skin, the more they covered him the more his muscles then shrunk back down, but gaining more definition. In a few short seconds his arms now had a more powerful muscular structure than before and the bar markings had spread into a pattern over his body to frame it. Lastly a bar formed over his eyes horizontally across his eyelids.
He brought his left arm up above his head and stretched it until a 'pop' sound was heard. He then swiftly brought his arm downwards to stop in front of him. No sooner than he had done so, a loud boom was heard and a gust of wind sped out from him towards the Eisenwald members. Lastly he opened his eyes to reveal that they had turned completely bright, gleaming orange.
"Allow me to formally introduce myself." His posture then shifted to look as if he was about to start running.
"My name is Edgar, Edgar Diamont."
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Ta-da! First chapter! What do you guys think? Feel free to leave a review and give me some feedback. Also I'll say it now,
Edgar is not a Dragonslayer. Far from it actually.