Gray spotted Juvia easily once he made it downstairs- her cobalt hair stood out among the other people dining in the room. She was by the breakfast table, piling her plate with fancy looking pastries, a cup of earl grey tea in her hand. She waved over once she caught sight of him standing in the doorway, hair still messy from the night before. He made his way over to her, lifting a plate from the stack at the end of the buffet.

"Morning," he offered, setting toast, fried eggs and bacon onto the piece of ceramic.

"Good morning, Gray-sama." She was smiling, which he deemed unusual after what had happened the night before. He put it down to politeness- she didn't want to pry. He poured himself a cup of coffee from the jug on the counter, motioning to a table near the back of the room with his head. The two ate in silence, and it was only when Gray had finished his toast did he make an attempt at conversation.

"Uh. I'm sorry about last night. For yelling at you. I just… yeah. Sorry." He stared at his empty plate, not wanting to make eye contact with the girl.

"It's okay. Juvia knows Gray-sama is not good at talking about his feelings. But Juvia understands, don't worry." She smiled reassuringly, finishing her tea. "We should get going soon. Is Gray-sama ready?"

"Yeah. Let's go."

He led the way out of the restaurant and into the lobby, where they discussed their plan. It was simple, really. The old man had pointed out where the monster's nest was- four hundred metres maybe from the house. It would take them twenty minutes to get there from the hotel, and then maybe two hours to fight and kill all the monsters. Confident in their plan, the two left to hotel, trudging up the hill to the client's house. Instead of going in, they walked around the side, through the regal looking garden and out the back.

They entered what was supposed to be a lush forest. Except for the fact that it… wasn't. There were a few lines of trees at the edge of the forest, but everything past that was burnt to a crisp and dead as far as the eye could see. The trees stood still, and there wasn't a noise from any part of the forest. Gray strained his eyes too look in the distance, where the destruction seemed to continue on, just as bad.

"I don't like this. We should find the nest as soon as possible." Juvia nodded in agreement, and the mages headed deeper into the forest. Gray was right- there was a sense of foreboding in the air, and both wizards could feel the intense magic energy coming off from the forest itself. Dead leaves crunched under their feet, creating the soundtrack to their mission. They reached a clearing in the trees; it looked as though the monsters had been here, and recently. The surrounding trees were warm to the touch, and some of the foliage on the ground was still smoking. Embers from a recent fire were scattered over the forest floor, and the air felt thick.

"The monsters have been here, Gray-sama. They can't be far from here," Juvia spoke up, mirroring Gray's thoughts.

"Exactly what I thought. If they moved from here, they can't have moved far, since the fire hasn't completely gone out." Gray went to walk forward, but Juvia threw her arm out, stopping him in his tracks.

"What the hell, Juvia?! That really-"

"Ssh. I can hear something."

The two stood silently for a moment. Juvia was right; there was something coming their way. The bluenette turned her head to the left, to see a shadowy figure approaching. Neither of the pair could make out exactly who or what it was, so they stayed in their frozen positions, waiting for it to come closer. As it neared, Juvia could tell it wasn't human. It walked slumped over; it's hands scraping along the crisp leaves covering the ground.

"It's a Vulcan? The monster is a Vulcan. Well, we can deal with these, right?"

"Wait, Gray-sama. It might be something else. Juvia doesn't think Vulcans have the ability to breathe It stopped ten feet away from them, a confused expression plastered on it's face. fire."

They watched the monster longer as it came closer. It smiled, realizing they were people, jumping up and down on the spot. Both mages moved, creating defensive positions, ready to attack if necessary. The Vulcan took a step backwards, putting it's weight onto it's front foot. It then reared back, throwing it's head back and spewing fire into the sky.

"Juvia has been proven wrong," the water mage cried, firing a Water Lock at the monster to cut off the fire. "Juvia will cut off the oxygen slowly. It will be quicker than using all out attacks."

"I didn't think any type of Vulcan could use fire attacks. This is new to me. And why do you think he fired the attack into the sky rather than at us?"

"Juvia reckons it was a signal. It was informing the others that we're here. Get ready to attack, Gray-sama!"

They faced opposite directions, standing beside each other. Juvia was correct this time- soon after, hordes of Vulcans appeared from all directions. Attacks were fired from both mages; ice lining one side of the forest, and water soaking the other. Any attacks that Juvia didn't manage to dispel went through her water body, and Gray had his 'Ice Make: Wall' to help him out. Within minutes of the creatures appearing, their dead forms were covering the forest floor, and Juvia and Gray stood in the middle of the circle of bodies, relatively unscathed.

"That was too easy…" Gray said, putting one hand in his pocket. He hadn't even taken his shirt off, which was really proof of the level of difficulty.

"Juvia agrees. She thinks we haven't beaten their king yet."

"We'll have to find their nest, like what was our original plan. He'll be in there." Gray started walking in the direction the main body of the Vulcan force came from, Juvia following closely behind him.

They left the clearing, travelling further into the forest. There were more burnt trees here than on their way to the clearing, which confirmed Gray's suspicions. They were definitely heading in the right direction. After a few minutes of walking in silence, Juvia spoke up.

"Do you think that's it?" She pointed at a tree at little to the left of the main path they were walking along. It was noticeably larger than some of the others, and didn't to seem to be as burnt. There seemed to be an opening at the bottom that led into the ground, which Juvia immediately went over to investigate. Gray looked on, a worried expression painted clearly upon his features.

"Hey, Juvia, be careful. You don't want to fall down." Juvia whipped around at this comment, eyes big, and a grin stretching across her face.

"Ah, is Gray-sama worried about Juvia?" Her voice had a singsong tone to it, and she looked happier than she had the whole trip so far.

"Ugh. Of course I'm worried about you. I don't want you getting hurt, like I wouldn't want any of the guild members getting hurt."

"That's good enough for Juvia!" Her smile dropped suddenly, replaced with a sombre look. "We do need to go down there though. Juvia is certain the main Vulcan will be somewhere in under the tree."

With a nod of approval of Gray, she slid down the gap between the tree and the ground, and into a tunnel under it. She crouched for a few steps, not wanting to crawl along the ground. But when she looked up, she saw that there was enough room to stand, and she stood up slowly. Gray slid down into the tunnel seconds later, landing with a sigh at the bottom of the ramp.

"It's like a labyrinth. I can't tell which way to go," he complained, dusting the loose soil off his jeans

"What about straight ahead. We can always turn back if it's the wrong way," Juvia suggested, and Gray complied, taking off to the tunnel straight ahead of them. It was dark, and muddy, but the two mages managed to fell their way along the length of the tunnel until they reached a large room at the end.

It was artificially lit with torches of fire hung on the walls in equal increments. They cast a warm orange glow around the whole room, allowing Gray and Juvia to properly survey their surroundings. Their target was seated in the middle of the room; the Vulcan King. He was at least twice the size of a regular Vulcan, and that alone made him a formidable opponent. Combined with his fire powers, which the Fairy Tail mages honestly didn't know much about, they were worried about fighting him.

"We're not here to talk!" Gray called out, eliciting a glare from the king. "We've taken out all your 'subjects', and we're here to kill you too!"

"Gray-sama, don't you think that's too much? Surely we can merely rough him up a little…'

"The job said take him down, Juvia. We have to do as described, or we won't get our reward."

The Vulcan King clambered to his feet, using all the walls to help himself up. Juvia was the first to react, sending a Water Slicer to his ankles to immobilize him. He cried out in pain, but still managed to send an attack back at Juvia. She allowed the attack to go straight through her Water Body, and was completely unharmed. It was Gray's turn next. He had stripped off his shirt by this point, and Juvia had to mentally tell herself not to get distracted. This was an important fight, after all.

"Ice Make: Geyser!" He yelled, launching the attack at the Vulcan. It hit, making contact and freezing the creature's arm solid. The ice encasing the king's fist was melted easily, and he swung at Gray. The ice mage ducked just in time, allowing his partner to make another clean attack from behind.

"Water Cannon!" This attack was much more successful than Juvia's previous attempt, and made the Vulcan King curl up in pain while Gray and Juvia regrouped near the tunnel they entered from.

"Any ideas?" Gray inquired. Juvia didn't answer for a moment, deep in thought. Her eyes scanned the room, taking in the amount of space, the entrances and exits, and the torches placed on the walls. Gray cleared his throat, and Juvia snapped to attention. She sucked in her breath before explaining.

"Yes, actually. If Juvia can extinguish all the torches, he won't be able to see. Then Gray-sama can use one of his stronger attacks on him, bringing both literally and metaphorically to his knees."

"I like the idea, but if we put out the lights, then we won't be able to see either, right?" Gray pointed out kindly, but Juvia shook her head.

"We can get accustomed to the dark, so after thirty seconds it won't be a problem and we will be able to fight as normal. The Vulcan race however, has notoriously bad vision, so he won't be able to attack us. Well…. hopefully."

"Brilliant," Gray smiled, "Go for it. How are we gonna put the torches out, though?"

"Like this." Juvia held her hands up in front of her, and started to channel all her energy into one spot. This attracted the attention of the Vulcan, who looked up in curiosity. "Wings of Love! This attack is for you, Gray-sama!"

He glared at her, but her attack was successful, allowing all the torches to be extinguished in one move. It also soaked the Vulcan in the process, which made Gray's job much easier.

"Ice Make: Cold Excalibur!" He sliced the Vulcan's head off in one swift movement, allowing it's body to crash to the ground. However, as he did this, there was a scream. And that scream belonged to Juvia. He jumped down from the body of the dead creature to see Juvia, lying on the ground, covered in her own blood.

"I'm sorry, Gray-sama…"