When a Demon started giving a Demon Slayer trouble, that's when you know things are looking bleak.
Gray was panting, on one knee, hand placed over a wound on his arm to stop it from bleeding too much. The demon wasn't free of any injury, but he was infinitely better than Gray's sorry state. Gray's markings from using too much of his Demon Slaying magic had returned, and he didn't know just how much magic he had left.
Everyone else was off with their own opponents from the Dark Guild, and Gray had told them all that he'd be the one to handle the demon member of the Guild, Tollifus. He didn't think he'd have this much trouble, and he didn't know if anyone could come to his aid.
There were the three guilds of the Balam Alliance: Oración Seis, Grimoire Heart, and Tartaros. Each of the Dark Guilds had Dark Guilds working underneath them. As Fairy Tail recently found out, the Balam Alliance, who were thought to be the sovereigns of their swarms of Dark Guilds, were working under a guild themselves: Balam. Tartaros seceded from the alliance after the fall of Grimoire Heart and the Oración Seis, and went off on their own to revive E.N.D. Balam remained hidden after that, only resurfacing after all three guilds of the Alliance had fallen. Easily said, a guild powerful enough to- for the most part -keep the Alliance in tow would give Fairy Tail the fight of their lives.
Forming ice over the wound in his arm to keep it from bleeding, Gray rose to his feet- albeit shakily -and raised his fists. He wasn't very steady, and he knew that if he used just one spell, he wouldn't have enough energy to stand. Gray had to plan this right and make it count. He had to-
As he was thinking over the spell he should use, a large cluster of swords rained down from above on Tollifus, piercing his body and causing the demon to let out a loud roar. Gray breathed the biggest sigh of relief at the sight, and if possible, he felt even more at ease when Erza landed by his side, sword at the ready.
"I thought you said you could handle this one, Gray." She said in a low voice, a steady eye on Tollifus. Erza was covered in injuries from her own battles, but she was still managing to stand.
"Thought I did." He grimaced a bit at his injuries, the pain showing in his voice. "Didn't. Mind helping me out here?"
Erza's face twinged slightly, showing a pang of guilt. "I'm running low on magic power. That last attack was basically all I had left."
Gray's expression fell, and suddenly he was feeling less at ease. "Can't you use your Second Origin to get this guy?"
"That only works for fighting against magic, not curses." Erza muttered.
"Great.."
"Exactly." Adjusting the grip on her sword and raising it, Erza gave Gray a quick glance and tried to reassure him through the slightest twitch of her lips, "I'll see what I can do. Worse comes to worst, I can stall enough for someone else to help out. Rest. Maybe you can join me later." As soon as the words left her mouth, she shot off, engaging Tollifus in a close combat fight with her sword.
Gray watched as Erza threw slashes with her sword at Tollifus, gradually wearing away at the scales on the arms of Tollifus's Etherious form. "I'm still always needing to be saved by you, Erza.." He said to himself, frowning. Though when Erza was distracted in blocking a bow with Tollifus's one arm, he threw his other at her while she was open. Gray used the majority of his remaining power to create a pillar of ice that captured Tollifus's arm to protect Erza, which she acknowledged with a grin before jumping and forcing her sword into the demon's neck.
"Ha…" She said, breathy but triumphantly. Blood seeped out of Tollifus's neck and he started stumbling, seeming to have finally been defeated. When he started to fall, his arm swung wildly and shattered the sword, and he regained his balance, letting out a roar. Erza's eyes widened and she started to take a few steps back; she didn't know if she had enough magic energy left to summon another sword.
"Not good." Erza whispered, raising her arms in a futile attempt to defend herself from Tollifus's leg lurching towards her. She was knocked into the air, and she crashed against the ground nearby Gray. Weakly trying to push herself off the ground with her hands, she slowly lifted her head to stare at Tollifus pounding his chest, one of her eyes closed due to the pain coursing through her body. "I don't even want to know what kind of curse this guy uses…" She muttered.
"It's a Nullification Curse. It's why I could barely land a hit on that guy." Gray said, rising to his feet and balling his fists. "I'll give him something he can't nullify…"
He moved so that his right arm crossed over his left, right palm face-down and his left facing upwards. Ice started to swirl at his feet, encircling him as he charged up for the spell.
Erza, recognizing the stance and the early stages of the spell, instantly let out a gasp, "Gray, don't! It's not worth it!"
He didn't respond. He only bared his grit teeth, solidifying his stance and causing the ice swirling at his feet to erupt. Erza did her best to stand, making her way over to Gray, only to collapse to her knees after making it through the ice.
"You don't have to do this!" She yelled in a desperate plea, grabbing his right arm to try and pull him out of the stance and negate the spell.
"What else can we do?!" Gray turned his head down towards her and shouted back.
Erza furrowed her brow, a determined look on her face, and slid her hand down to intertwine her fingers with his. The ice at their feet faltered for a moment, before Erza moved their arms so that they were right out in front of them, and Gray and Erza were standing back to back, which made it only start to swirl faster and harder.
Gray, looking at their arms in shock, gave Erza an uneasy glance, "Do you really think it'll work?"
"What other choice do we have?" Erza said, an exasperated tone to her voice.
"We're gonna need something that can outpace his Nullification Curse, and I have just the idea…" Gray started, squeezing Erza's hand when he focused on their coalescing magics.
Erza closed her eyes and let out a steady breath, exerting her power in a red aura that gradually moved to envelop Gray as well. The ice at their feet created a gargantuan chain that spiraled around the both of them several times, with blades made of ice and the swords from Erza's collection connected to it. Gray heaved their arms into the air, breaking the swords off the chain and rocketing them towards Tollifus in rapid succession. As the swords closed the distance between them and Tollifus, Erza's eyes shot open, channeling the red aura that surrounded them both into her blades, which glowed once infused with the magic. Gray's ice blades struck Tollifus first, freezing the demon and the area surrounding it upon contact. Erza's swords jettisoned down on Tollifus after, blades parallel to the ground as they cleaved through the ice, and once they hit the earth, the magic inside erupted into a red pillar, swallowing Tollifus in its wake. Tollifus fell back onto the ground once the magic subsided, eyes whited out and motionless.
Gray and Erza were panting heavily as they watched Tollifus go down, and they dropped their arms, but their fingers were still laced together.
"Overboard?" Gray said, voice wavering from being out of energy.
Erza shrugged, staring at Tollifus's unconscious form. "Perhaps just a tad.." She fell to her knees, dragging Gray down with her. Letting go of his hand, Erza let herself hit the ground, too drained to do anything but lay there. Gray patted her back reassuringly and sat down, hanging his head until he heard a faint yell from above. He looked up to see Natsu and Lucy being carried by Happy, and Wendy in her Dragon Force form being carried by Carla. Lucy was waving to them and Natsu had that fanged grin on his face.
As soon as they all landed, Happy floated over to Gray with his paws crossed. "Nice lightshow you put on. Did you defeat the demon with styyyllleee?" He said teasingly. Gray just frowned and groaned.
"Erza-san?" Wendy placed her hands on her knees to get closer to her, "Are you okay?"
Erza lifted her head, smiling a bit. "Oh, Wendy!" She started, but stopped and narrowed her eyes at the Dragon Slayer in exhausted deliria, "Wait a moment, Wendy doesn't have pink hair…"
Wendy laughed nervously, scratching at her cheek, "It's me, Erza-san…"
"You guys all look horrible!" Natsu remarked loudly, staring at Gray, "Weren't you supposed'ta be some sort of Devil Slayer or whatever?"
"You wouldn't have lasted five second up against him, Flame Brain!" Gray spat back with a baleful look on his face.
"Wanna bet?"
"O-kay, let's maybe not," Lucy said, grabbing Natsu and turning him away. "Everyone else is waiting for us. We're lucky we found you guys with the red lights and all that. We should start heading back."
Erza got to her knees and nodded, "I need to check if Mira's alright."
"I'll help." Gray offered his hand, which Erza eagerly took to hoist herself to her feet. Gray took Erza's arm and hooked it around his neck, with his other hand on her waist to keep her upright. He didn't want her to over-exert herself.
Natsu raised an eyebrow and Lucy just grinned, turning around and dragging Natsu behind her as they started walking. Wendy quickly followed suit, Carla and Happy flying beside her. Gray and Erza lagged behind.
It was silent for a bit, but Gray soon spoke up, "Is everything okay with Mira?"
"I'm just worried. She ended up having to finish the fight with the girl I could barely hold my own against." Erza replied.
"You couldn't defeat her?" Gray asked, a bit surprised.
Erza shook her head. "More like I didn't stay long enough to see it through. Mira bought me enough time to escape."
"I would never have thought you'd be one to ditch a fight."
"I had to. I had to make sure you were alright." Erza said quieter than she usually spoke. Her head was turned away and her gaze somewhere else.
Gray blinked a few times in shock, mouth falling agape, "M-me? I told you I could handle it."
That time Erza did turn to look him in the eye. "Did you?"
"Hmph.." Gray frowned guiltily, "Alright, fair enough."
"I have to give Mira my thanks. I would have never made it to you without her."
"She's a good friend."
"Yeah, maybe. She did give me hell for wanting to go check on you, though." Erza muttered.
Gray chuckled, shaking his head, "You know how she is with that stuff."
"Trust me, I do. I think she does it to me the most.."
"I wouldn't put it past her. I think that's some of the old rivalry showing from her." Gray jested.
Erza groaned, grabbing the bridge of her nose, "Don't remind me.."
Gray could only let out a laugh, focusing back on the walk back to the others. A few minutes later, Erza straightened out so she wasn't leaning on Gray so much.
"I think I'm good on my own, now." She said. Gray nodded, letting go of her arm and taking his hand off her waist. Erza was limping on the first few steps, but she leveled herself out eventually. Even so, she held onto Gray's arm. Just in case, of course.
A grin crept onto Gray's lips and he tilted his head towards Erza. "So, Mira gave you hell about me, huh?" He snickered, raising an eyebrow suggestively.
Erza just gave a sarcastic smile in return, "I may be tired, Gray, but I can still take you down."
Gray shrugged, but his smirk never left. "Alright, alright, whatever you say…"
Letting out a deep sigh, Erza just squeezed Gray's arm tighter. "I'm just glad you're alright."
Caught a bit off-guard by the direction the conversation went, Gray's smile mellowed, "I'm glad you're safe, too." He said softly, planting a kiss in Erza's hair.
"Aww!" A voice called from nearby, "You found him!"
Erza turned her head to see Mira on a pair of makeshift crutches and already bandaged up, giggling at the both of them. Looking around a bit more, Erza could see they were already at the outskirts of the guild temporary resting grounds.
"Oh boy.." Gray said nervously, rubbing at the back of his neck.
Erza's face turned red- Gray didn't know if it was from anger or embarrassment -and she tore off from Gray to tackle Mira to the ground.
A bead of sweat dripped off Gray's face and he rushed over to peel Erza off of Mira, "Erza, come on! She's hurt!" Once he pulled Erza off of Mira, he helped Mira get to her feet and he gave her back her crutches. Erza tried to rush her again, and Gray stood between them to stop her. Mira, standing behind Gray, just shot Erza a mischievous grin.
"Geez, Erza," Mira started, a jocular tone to her voice, "You're sure treating me harshly even though I was the one to take the fall so you could run off to your man!"
Smoke was basically coming out of Erza's ears at that point, and Mira's smile was close to vanishing. Gray peered over his shoulder at her.
"You might wanna run."
"Yeah, got that…" Mira said with a nervous giggle, turning around and trying her best to hop away.
"MIRA!"
"Erza, no!"