If you truly desire greatness, you must first know what makes you weak! -Erza Scarlet
When Natsu awoke, his throat had a searing, burning sensation. His throat felt like a, well, a dragon had crawled through it. Groaning, he turned over and opened his eyes.
"Good morning Natsu!" That one, cheery voice said. "You're finally awake!"
He rubbed his eyes before looking at his furry feline of a partner. "Hey Happy. How long have I been out? My throat still hurts like fu-"
"Natsu's awake?" Another person stepped into the scene on the forest floor. Levy stepped in, looking over at them. "How are you feeling?"
"As I was saying, my throat hurts like fu-"
"Natsu?" Lucy's voice came from behind. "You're awake!" She cheered and threw herself around him. "And about time too! Its been two days since you tried that spell. Must've done some serious damage on your throat." She pulled back and poked his neck with a index finger, pulling a growl from Natsu. "Stop that." She went from poking to massaging. "Does that feel better?"
Grudgingly, Natsu, who was not happy about his painfully sore throat being prodded, did nod and admit that overtime the massage on his throat did make it feel better. "Yea, a little."
"Good." She stopped. "Let's go, you do need to practice your roar at least. It'll hurt yes," Lucy said as Natsu started to protest. "But, it'll help you adjust to your throat's expansion."
Grumbling, Natsu stood. "Fine. But can I get a drink first?"
"Here you go." Lucy took the canister from Levy and tossed it over to Natsu. "I'll see you out on the field!"
Natsu popped a thumbs up as he chugged the bottle of water, trying to sooth his aching throat. When he finished he passed the canister over to Levy before jogging back out to the field. "Alright, lets do this." He punched his open palm, flames covering his fist as he grinned wickedly.
"Oi, hot head," a gruff voice interrupted Natsu's routine. "Heads up."
A iron pole crashed into Natsu's back, sending him sprawling. "What the hell was that!?" He shouted as he got up. "Haven't changed have you Gajeel? Always one for the cheap shots, eh?" He lit up his fist, turning towards the Iron Dragon Slayer. "Well, I'm gonna melt that crappy metal of yours!"
"Bring it, Salamander." He raised his fist. "Iron Dragon's Sword!" Gajeel's arm changed shape as he charged the incoming Fire Dragon Slayer.
"Fire Dragon's Roar!" A massive stream of flames flew from Natsu's mouth, going around Gajeel's Sword and hit Gajeel full on.
"Damn it." Gajeel chuckled as he transformed his leg into a pole before swinging it into a kick. It caught Natsu in the stomach, sending the Fire Dragon Slayer tumbling.
"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Natsu dodged in and out of Gajeel's incoming attacks before planting a solid punch in Gajeel's stomach. It lifted him up before Natsu rotated his arm, pointing his elbow in the air, pushing Gajeel back into the ground, which cratered at the impact.
"Iron Dragon's Spear; Demon Logs!" Natsu was sent flying back up into the sky from Gajeel's rapid fire attack. Gajeel got up and launched himself in the air, turning his arm back into the Iron Dragon's Sword.
"Fire Dragon's Roar!" Natsu roared into the oncoming shape of Gajeel's body, forcing up the others guard. "Fire Dragon's Talon!" Natsu hit Gajeel's head as he blocked the roar with the magic enhanced axe kick. Gajeel once again was flying down towards the ground.
Out with a bang. Natsu thought. "Lightening Flame Dragon-" He sucked in his breath. From the corner of his eyes he could see Happy and Lily grabbing Levy and Lucy. "ROAR!" The lightening infused flames spiralled down towards Gajeel, who did everything he could to bring up his guard. Once it made impact, Gajeel was still thrown down with such a force that he laid, winded on the ground, done and done. Natsu landed on the ground a few feet away from him, chuckling. "Good round, Gajeel."
Gajeel sat up slowly, pointing a finger at Natsu. "Oi, that's cheating! Who'd being the cheap fighter now!"
Natsu walked forward, scowling. "Are you calling me a cheater?"
"You beat your ass I am!" Gajeel pressed his forehead against Natsu. "I don't have a dual element dumbass!"
"Not my fault I'm more cool than you are now!"
"You. Are. Not. Cooler!" Gajeel swung a fist at Natsu, catching him in the face.
"I am!" Punch.
"Are not!" Punch.
"Totally am!" Kick.
"You wish, asshole!" Kick.
"Wow." Lucy said as she and Levy sweat dropped. "Are they really capable of bickering after that? Natsu especially."
"Yea, last time he did that against Max, he nearly passed out, he'd used so much magic energy." Levy commented.
Natsu fell down. "Let's do this again later. I'm too tired." He closed his eyes. Snore.
"He's already asleep!" Gajeel shouted angrily. "What the hell!"
"Let him be." Levy came over to him. "Lets get some food, huh?"
"Food?" Gajeel and Natsu both looked at her.
"Fish?" Happy said at the same time.
"He's awake now?!" Gajeel shouted noticing Natsu's sudden consciousness at the mention of food.
"Dinner time!"
Lunch time was now done, the two dragon slayers lay a few feet apart, bellies full. Happy sat by Natsu, two fish skeletons beside him. Lily sat by Gajeel, four kiwi skins next to him. Levy and Lucy happily chattered with a sandwich in hand, in between the two slayers.
Gajeel looked across and saw Natsu asleep. Grinning wickedly, he extended his arm into his Iron Pole over top of Natsu. Levy saw this move from the corner of her eye and as she turned to tell Gajeel not to, he did. His iron arm crashed down on Natsu's body length. Lucy rather just remained, groaned, and rolled her eyes at this.
"OW! What the hell!" Natsu glared at Gajeel. He kicked his own flaming foot at the other slayer. Keep your rusted ass on your side!"
Levy reached over and grabbed Gajeel's arm before it went flying back over again, this time as a sword. Lucy reached over and grabbed Natsu's hair before getting up and walking back out to the field, dragon slayer in tow.
"Oi- ow, what, what's the probleeem. Luuuuuuce." Natsu groaned as the blond dragged him into the opening once again.
"Okay, since your so 'fire up,'" Lucy quoted his infamous line, "then you can get back to work." She released her hold on his hair.
"Work?" Natsu's head tilted like a dog from where he now sat on the ground. "Work on what?"
"Yea Lucy, work on what?" Happy asked, seemingly coming from the air from where he sat next to Natsu.
"Those new spells, what else stupid?" Lucy pressed the palm of her heel into her forehead, closing her eyes. "If your throat still-"
"If my throat still hurts like fu-"
"-still hurts, then try a different one." Lucy glared at him. "Be nice."
Natsu broke out a grin. Standing up he looked down at her. "Great idea, Luce!" He ran to a nearby log where the letter from Conley was stashed. He rummaged through a sack until he finally pulled it out. "Here we go!" He began reading a loud.
"'The next spell I think would be good to try will be a very exhausting spell, at least for now. This one is a rare Fire Dragon Slayer defensive spell. Other slayers have defensive spells that cover their entire bodies. We have one too, it's just more complex. Since fire is not a solid form, it means that you have to take this spell to a much more extreme level. This is called Volcanic Scales.'"
"Volcanic huh? Sounds pretty hot to me." Lucy commented.
"'To perform this spell, you need to swell up all the heat in your body. For the time being focus it into a single point, rather than your whole body. Bring all of your internal flames to a finger and let the flames leak. Build the heat and intensity to the point where the flames actually start to liquify. It will become lava and since heat based attacks can't do anything to us, we can withstand the burn. Let it cover your finger before removing your internal flame from your finger. Immediately the lava will turn into a black rock. Volcanic rock.'"
"...you can make magma?" Levy quietly whispered.
"I'm pretty sure it says lava, Levy." Natsu looked back. "Yup, says lava."
Lucy looked at Natsu, tired beyond anything. "Lava is magma, Natsu."
Natsu just stood up, put the letter back in the bag and walked to the center of the field. "Focus my internal flames into my finger, huh?" Natsu held up his index. "Alright, here we go." He directed all of his fire into his one index finger. He took a deep breath."Volcanic Scales."
Lucy watch from the side as the usual warm, orange-red flame covered his finger, licking the air above. Then, it got more intense as Natsu's face expressed his concentration. One second, they were the normal orange-red flames then the next, they were a white hot flame. Lucy could feel the heat from where she sat, meters away.
"Come on, damn it." Natsu mumbled, supporting his one arm with the other. The white hot flame blazed on and on. He pushed his internal fire out of his body as much as he could. He swore he could feel it on the inside of his skin. That's when he noticed the change.
The flame remained white hot, but at the center, at the tip of Natsu's finger, the color changed. It was a deep, deep orange.
"Natsu!" Lucy shouted, backing away further to keep herself from getting to hot from the heat radiating from his finger.
At the mention of his name, Natsu's focus broke and he put his finger down. Gasping for breath, he just replied; "What? I almost had it."
Lucy just pointed at his lowered hand. "I think you did get it."
Just like that Natsu had recovered his wind and raised his hand up to eye level. On the tip of his finger was black, and looked like it was scaled. "What the-?"
"What's the meaning for raising the temperature?!" A angry voice from the side shouted. "It's already almost summer! It's hot enough to cook the bacon on a rock!"
Lucy looked over her shoulder at Gajeel. "Natsu was practising a different spell."
Levy ran over to the letter. "Ooooh, which one? I doubt it was the roar again, was it Fire Hail or-" She flipped through.
"It was Volcanic Scales."
Levy looked at Natsu, who was still staring at his finger. "...you sure? He's just staring at his hand."
Gajeel huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. "What the hell is this volcanic scales?"
Lucy looked at the gruff man. "It's like your Iron Scales but for a Fire Dragon Slayer."
He blew it off. "That's basic. He should've learned that with his old man in the first year of his breathing fire."
Lucy faced him. "Not entirely. His required his flames to be so intense that he had to produce the liquified form of fire, straight from Natsu's core. It sounds to be quite the magically draining spell to practice."
Natsu still stood there, inspecting his own finger.
Gajeel huffed, yet again, before marching over to the shorter slayer. "You didn't know your best defensive spell before today?" He clapped Natsu on the back of his head. "Yea right. Bunny girl has no idea."
"I didn't." Natsu shrugged. "It was hard to do just this much." He held up his finger, still covered with the volcanic rock.
Gajeel looked at the finger tip. The tip to the first knuckle of Natsu's finger was covered with the black rock. "That's all?" He laughed. "What the hell is that? You need to be able to do THIS. Iron Dragon Scales!" He stood tall, extending his arms as iron scales appeared from his skin covering his body.
Natsu turned around and drove a fiery fist into Gajeel's stomach, sending Gajeel flying. "Screw you, you bag of bolts!"
Levy looked at Gajeel. "Besides, fire itself can't do much to stop stuff physically. What good would fire covering Natsu's body do to enhance his physical defences?" She waved her hand at Gajeel. "The fact that Natsu could actually extract magma from his inner flame, that's very impressive."
"I don't see how, shrimp." Gajeel mumbled as he stood up.
"Magma can easily melt that iron you got there, buddy." Levy's eyes flashed at the nickname. Lucy, Happy, and Lily all put a hand over their mouth as Gajeel noticeably took the warning. He looked the other way and began whistling.
Natsu still continued to focus on his finger. His face began crunching in thought.
"What's up, Natsu?" Lucy asked from the sidelines, curious why he was still staring at his finger.
"I've decided." Natsu, took a breath, closed his eyes and let out the breath. Then, his eyes opened and he focused upon his finger once again, which was once again covered in flames. Not just his finger, his entire hand.
"Natsu!" Lucy shouted. "Didn't you say that was hard just to do your finger?!"
"Gotta get stronger if I want to use this spell!" Natsu's hand was once again covered with the white hot flame.
"Aye!" Happy bounced beside Lucy.
The center of the flame remained white for a while. Then it turned back into the familiar deep orange glow from before, but now it covered his entire hand. "Natsu! You got it!" Lucy hollered.
Natsu put out the flame before dropping his right and and wiping his left across his forehead. "Holy shit." He gasped. "Gonna be a while until I can use this for a entire arm!"
"You did it!" Happy shouted from the side.
Natsu looked at his hand again. Sure enough, his right hand was covered with the Volcanic Scales, black rock, shaped like scales that formed to his hand in any position he wanted. "Wow."
"Hey Salamander."
Natsu looked up to so a Iron Dragon Club flying toward him, to which he responded with a smirk and held up the back of his fist in the path of the attack. Natsu held his ground upon the collision, not moving. Smirking he looked at Gajeel; "Didn't even feel it, shit head!"
Gajeel withdrew his Iron Dragon Club and everyone looked at Natsu's hand. What do you know. Gajeel thought. Not even a scratch on those scales. Not bad.
A.N. Ellos my fine readers. I have gotten a few reviews since my last posting of this story, sorry if I disappoint you with a 2400 word chapter. I just wanted to get an update out since it's been a while. I've finished my school year for the time being, but now theres work to be done. Don't worry, I intend to write a minimum of 500 words a day, so there should be 1 chapter of 3500 words a week, if all goes well that is.
In all honesty, this story is a tricky bugger. I know I will NOT be writing into the GMG, I just wanted to power Natsu up in my mind. So, this will ideally take place over the time left to train, which I need to go back and count up how much has been used.
Other good news, I've got the grounds for two other stories in mind. I've begun setting them in place, but don't expect chapters from them any time soon, I would like to finish this one before uploading those.
Stay tuned!
~Nightlocker