Author's Note:

I'm writing this at the start cause I don't know, because I can. So, this was one of the more interesting chapters. I do want to keep the Bosco arc short and sweet. As Natsu said he will be going from Bosco to Stella then Iceberg then to Pergrande. I don't have anything planned for Stella and Iceberg yet but I'll think of something. Enjoy the chapter and please leave a review if there are any inconsistencies or mistakes that you spot. Criticism is always appreciated both positive and negative.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Fairy Tail if I did the story would not rely on "The Power of Friendship"

Fairy Tail is owned by Hiro Mashima

Talking- "That's my sandwich"

Thinking- "She stole my sandwich"

Spells, Magical items, Terms affiliated with Magic and Speech of Higher Beings (Dragons and other mythical creatures) – 'How dare she steal my sandwich'

Carved In Legend

Chapter 2:

Darchlight Woods

Three Days Later

It's been 3 days since Natsu left the village. He followed his rigorous training routine but increased the punishment to 15 pushups and sit-ups. Another thing he did was set up a time limit to finish his physical training. One the first day he gave himself a 3-hour time limit. He finished it in 2 hours 26 minutes. The next day he gave himself a 2-hour limit. He fulfilled it just barely in a 1 hour 57 minutes. That's about how far he could go but this time limit allowed him to a lot more time for magic training. He also added another thing to his schedule. He allotted 2 hours for development of new moves.

Currently he was able to develop 2 new moves, though albeit accidently. He was trying to condense a huge ball inferno into a sphere. It worked. He then decided that he would launch it into his opponent causing a massive explosion but while trying to launch it he tripped on small rock and fell and thus launching the sphere up into the air. And one thing Mother Nature taught him was that whatever goes up has to come down, unfortunately he had found this the hard way when he tried to fly like Igneel, his dragon parent and jumped off a cliff. Needless to say, he had quite a few bruises and had to listen to Igneel's obnoxious laughter. But back to the present he expected it to land on top of his head but to his surprise it didn't but rather burst into smaller pleases raining down on the surrounding areas with small explosion. Trying to find a reason to why this happened he created another sphere of condensed flames and held it for about 10 second. After 10 seconds the sphere had burst with a massive explosion. He then realized that his flames where to powerful to be condensed in to sphere and would collapse but this worked as an advantage when airborne as it had no contact with any other surface and would split into mini spheres and rain down.

He tried it again and it had the same result. This time he made a mode condensed sphere and launched it upwards and the sphere bust into countless more powerful explosion. Natsu grinned at the sight. Now he had a new move in his arsenal. He decided to call it 'Fire Dragon's Meteor Shower'.

One curious Natsu then tried to repeat his accidental 'success' and fired his sphere forward, instead of throwing it upward. After travelling a few meters, it exploded. The explosion was huge and everything within 100m of the blast was caught in a blazing inferno. Natsu decided he would call it 'Fire Dragon's Blasting Sphere'. That was all the success he got in the department of spell development.

Natsu had also started moving toward Bosco's capital, Sivilla. He was about half way there. But the main problem lay here. In order to get to the capital on the route he was currently following he would need to cross the Darchlight Woods. It was a vast network of interconnected forests that formed the goliath of massive forests. It spanned for about 189 miles from what a villager from the village bordering the forest told him. But distance was not the problem. The monsters that came out after dusk were the problem. No one knew what they were but knew they were powerful and dangerous and most people did not want to risk their life in order to find out. Most people including powerful mages that dared to cross the forest at night were never found again. The villagers made an appeal to the 'Magic Council' but the request was never accepted, merely ignored. Going around the woods would take too long so going through was the only way

Natsu decided it was wise to travel early morning at daybreak and quickly run through the forest. The villagers told him that transportation could not get through the dense and interwoven trees and he'd need a lantern to see through the canopy. They didn't know that he was human lantern.

It was currently noon and he'd have to wait for daybreak tomorrow but for now he would get the necessary supplies for the trip.

Next Morning, At the Crack of Dawn,

He had all supplies needed to travel through the forest. food, water, and a few daggers. He had bought the daggers from a local blacksmith. He understood the advantage of having concealed weapon and had bought a few daggers and pocketed them. This was mainly safety insurance if he was unable to complete the journey. He was ready

On the borders of Darchlight Woods

Natsu took a deep breath. He needed to cover 189 miles in 10 hours on FOOT. His top speed would easily allow him to cover 1 mile in 2 or 3 minutes and thanks to his rigorous training routine he would be able to maintain it for at least 1 hour, 2 hours tops. He should be able to cover it. He started sprinting. His speed started to increase gradually until he ran as fast as he could. Some would say that it couldn't be humanly possible to run that fast and they would be right, Natsu was running at blazing fast speeds. His trail had started to catch fire as started to use his magic to boost his speed to incredible levels. All one could see would be a red flash. A Blur.

It was about 4 hours since Natsu started running. He had ran beyond his top speed by a huge margin. He was able to maintain it for 3 hours before he had to slow down. Natsu himself was quite shocked at how fast he was running and on how he was maintaining it but after seeing a blue glow around his body while running he understood that he was running so fast that the 'Ethernano' in the air was being collected in front of him and his body was utilizing that to sustain his speed by absorbing it into his 'Magic Container' and converting it into magical energy. He'd have to look into this later and how it could be used in combat. But now he was exhausted. No system can be self-sustaining, this 'Ethernano Collection Technique' did allow him to keep going on than what it would normally allow him but his muscles had started to give up on him and his body was tired.

He was half way there, so Natsu decided it would be best to take a break. He sat under a tree, taking support from it. He grabbed some food that he grabbed from the village bordering the woods and munched it down. After taking a big gulp of water down his throat he decided that a few minutes of nap time would not hurt his schedule. As he closed his eyes and fell into blissful unconsciousness. Oh boy was he wrong when he said a few minutes of sleep.

At Dusk,

Natsu woke up groggily rubbing his eyes. He looked around. He paused for a bit. His brain was still booting on. After a few a second's realization dawned (no pun intended) upon him. He realized that it was dusk. He was so screwed. He was off schedule by a huge margin.

He had three options. One was to stay where he was, set up camp and move at dawn. The other was to continue slowly and carefully in order to not get caught off guard and fight his way through. The last one was to sprint the hell out before the monsters realized he was even here. After one mental debate he decided he would sprint the fuck out of here. Of reasons were simple and valid. For the first option setting camp would be hard in the dense woods and even if he did, he might fall asleep and be killed while sleeping. For the second option if he went too slow, he would be easily noticeable and would be prone to pack hunters, if they set up traps for him. If he'd sprint extremely fast then not only would he be able to outrun potential attackers and avoid incoming blast or attacks from monsters due to his momentum as he'd be harder to hit while in motion. You know what they say 'The Best Damage Is No Damage At All' so deciding to follow the line decided he'd sprint for it.

He took a deep breath. He began running. Slowly picking up pace. He then quickly shot up like a bullet. Everything in and around him burned to a crisp. He was like a fireball rolling at very high speeds. A group of trees were blocking Natsu's path. Poor things the never saw it coming.

'Fire Dragon's Blasting Sphere'

the condensed ball of flames exploded in a huge explosion as soon as they came in contact with the trees. Natsu, like a total Badass ran through the explosion and came out unscathed. He sighed. "this was going to be a long haul"

After a few minutes on running, he saw a monster. It looked like an insect. It was lime green in colour. It was bipedal. It had blades for arms. They had a darker hue of green. The monster had leaves on its back. Its face was grey in colour. It had no mouth. It was right smack dab in Natsu's way. Well unfortunately for it.

'Fire Dragon's Iron Fist'

It was incinerated bore it could even scream. Natsu blazed past. He incinerated anything that came between him and his goal. His goal was to get out of this forest and nothing was going to stop him from doing that. Trees, monster, animal and anything that came in between would be burnt ashes.

2 Hours later,

Natsu was still running. He had killed about 200 monsters give or take a few. If these were the type of monster then getting out of this forest would be a breeze. Literally. He was running faster than wind. Unfortunately, he was so wrong. So, so wrong.

He saw another insect monster. He held out his fist and was readying a 'Fire Dragon's Iron Fist' but as he was running toward the monster something crashed into him. More specifically a tree. And by gods did it hurt. It hurt like a BITCH. He'd been running really fast but when the tree fell on him, he had come to a sudden stop.

He then glanced towards the direction from where the tree fell. He saw those insect monster with their blade-like hand standing there. Those bastards had cut the tree on purpose. He looked around him. He was surrounded by more on those insect monsters. They had lured him into a trap.

Natsu grit his teeth. They'd pay for what they did. He burned the tree on his back to a crisp. He got back on his feet and he started forming a sphere of concentrated flames. He compressed more flames. This had been the most he had been able to compress, mainly out of rage.

'Fire Dragon's Meteor Shower'

As the condensed sphere of flames shot up it split into smaller sphere which landed and exploded on contact killing all the bug-like monsters. They were all incinerated into flames. All of them were wiped out by a single attack but they had reinforcements as more bug monsters surrounded Natsu. Natsu growled in annoyance as he readied another sphere of fire. But that is when tragedy struck.

'W̵̠̝̼̪̬̄̌̃͑͗̚͘͠ḧ̴̡̗͈́ő̵͔̜͓̹̗̬̝̝̥́͜ ̴̛̼̹͔͕͙͍̙̪̞̲͋̽́̅́̓̆̽͝d̸̲̙͔͔͉̃a̷̰̼̳͕̪͗̀r̶̟̮̰̩̲̺̠̤̱̅̈͜ẹ̵̡͕͕̬̔̄̐̐̓̏̑̃̐̐ ̵̤͉͙̱̩̪̫̺̩̉͛́̾̎̿̐d̴̛̹̿̔ḯ̵̢͚̟͕̺̫̩̖͎̏̔̃͝s̶͓̈͑̏̀̇̒̈͜͠t̷̛̝̞͒̒̈́̅͗̆u̴̺̪̣̤͙͇͒͒͝r̷̡͔͕͙͈̝̪̦͇̳̂͌̈̊b̶̢͔̲̰͖͕͈̻̺̠́̉͐͝ ̸̮̓m̶̭̞͊̎̌͗̾́̃̚ỹ̶̨̢̪̺̥͓̫͍̤͉̉͂͘͘ ̶̦̘̼̘̝͙̣̗̪͋ş̴̱͎͎̞͂l̷̊̊͑͛̒̚͜͝ǔ̵̡̍͋͋͗m̴̛̠͎̼͓̻͇͓̼͗̅̃͊̿́̆͝ḅ̷̭̲͍̞͍̓͛̎̐̋͆̉͠e̸̻̞̜̲̟̋r̵̗̯̩̻͖̱̲̃̌́? ̵̧̦͑̓͌̔͊̎̀̎̓'

There lay a majestic creature that spoke with that powerful yet distorted voice. After hearing the powerful voice, the bug monsters ran away. The Beast had scales covering its whole body, they were turquoise in colour. They suited the mighty beast well. The aforementioned beast had 9 heads. Each radiated off an aura of different elements. Its teeth were sharp. All 18 of its red eyes glared at Natsu. It was a 9-headed Hydra. Hydraswere rare creatures. They almost never were found, the last one found was a 4-headed one that was relatively weak but was found over 45 years ago. A 10-headed Hydra was said to be on par with a dragon, a 9-headed one was only slightly weaker. His 'Dragon Slaying Magic' would still be quite effective against a Hydra was it was a sub-species of dragons.

Before Natsu could utter a word one of the Hydra'shead shot out blue tinted lightning at Natsu. So Natsu returned the favour.

'Fire Dragon's Blasting Sphere'

The sphere collided with the lightning resulting in a huge blast sending shockwaves throughout the forest. But before Natsu could even react a huge torrent of azure coloured flames covered him.

TheHydrajust looked at the area where Natsu was standing. To its surprise Natsu ate all its fire. Natsu's flames were now tinted blue.

"Thanks for the meal. I was quite hungry. These flames are quite tasty" said a now grinning Natsu.

Natsu then ignited his fist and shot toward the Hydra.

'Fire Dragon's Iron Fist'

He punched the Hydrain the stomach but the scales were only slightly damaged from the attack. To Natsu's surprise they healed back up instantly. The Hydranoticed Natsu's dazed state and took advantage and fired a torrent of Dark Energy at Natsu. As soon as Natsu snapped out of his daze he noticed the beam of dark energy fired at him and formed a 'x' shape with his arms, covered in flames and braced for impact. The beam hit Natsu but he was able to block the attack with minimum damage. Looks like reasoning was thrown out the window, it was time to fight. Natsu sucked in air.

'Fire Dragon's Roar'

The roar hit the Hydra and did a lot more damage but the Hydra's regeneration kicked in and healed of damage that had been dealt. Natsu scoffed. This was going to be one annoying battle. He would probably attack the monster consecutively, quickly before it started to regenerate. As Natsu was thinking one of the Hydra's head fired off a torrential beam of water. It was quite fast. Natsu, by the use of his speed and instinct, dodged the blast just barely. Natsu quick on his feet formed two concentrated spheres of flames

'Fire Dragon's Blasting Sphere'

The Hydra was able to block one sphere blast with a beam of dark energy but was hit by the other. Its regeneration kicked on again and undid all damage. This time the Hydra was quick to recover from the attack and fired off a blast of lightning. Natsu dodged it by sidestepping. Both were glaring at each other. Both were trying to find openings and were waiting to strike. A few seconds passed, a gentle breeze blew past, opposite to the direction. this breeze was exactly what Natsu needed.

'Fire Dragon's Roar'

The breeze amplified the roar but the Hydra was ready for the attack and counterattacked with a blast of water. When the two blast met head on, it resulted in release of a huge amount of steam. The steam covered the whole area. Due to the steam the Hydra had lost track of Natsu. Before it could react, it heard a shout.

'Fire Dragon's Iron Fist'

The Hydra was hit with a flaming fist which had damaged its scales. But before the regeneration could kick in Natsu hit it again.

'Fire Dragon's Flaming Talons'

The hit had increased the wounds but Natsu could not afford to stop here.,

'Fire Dragon's Burning Claw'

Natsu repeated struck the wound with several slashes from his flaming claws. The wound was big enough for his next move. Natsu readied a concentrated sphere of flames.

'Fire Dragon's Blasting Sphere'

The sphere of flames penetrated through the wound causing a huge explosion inside the body of the beast. The Hydra roared in pain but before Natsu could continue his relentless assault the Hydra hit him with its tail and knocked him into some trees, crushing them. It took a few seconds for both to recover from the blows received.

The Hydra then fired off a beam of Dark energy at Natsu. Natsu countered with his own.

'Fire Dragon's Roar'

But this time the Hydra was smart and fired a blast of wind towards Natsu. Natsu then blocked it with his flaming hands. The Wind put out his Fire. Before Natsu could even react, he was hit with a bolt of Lightning. He roared in pain. He understood what the Hydra had done. It fired the beam of darkness as a distraction, then used its other head to fire a blast of wind in order to lower his guard and finally hit him with his Lightning. It had done lot of damage but he could not give up. He jumped up with a flaming sphere in one hand.

'Fire Dragon's Blasting Sphere'

It hit one of the Hydra's head and exploded. Before the Hydra could heal itself Natsu would delete him out of existence.

'Fire Dragon's Blazing Claw'

Natsu repeated struck the Hydra's neck and with a final strike cut its head clean. The head fell on the floor with a 'thud'. Natsu looked at the Hydra. The head had s regrown. It had regenerated its head back, its FUCKING HEAD back to its original state. "HOLY HELL, WHAT KIND OF MONSTER WAS HE DEALING WITH" thought Natsu.

The Hydra then took the opportunity of the dazed Natsu to attack. It fired a beam of concentrated Dark magic combined with Lightning magic. Natsu noticed the blast but had no time to react or dodge and was hit by it. The blast had sent Natsu flying into trees thereby increasing the overall damage dealt.

Natsu was lying in the middle of the ruined trees. His body had sustained a lot of damage from that combined blast. But he was not knocked unconscious but thinking on how to defeat the monster. He had only half his magical reserves left and he had to make them count. By laying down after the attack the Hydra would lower its guard making it more susceptible to surprise, he had realized that attacking its head or its body would have no use as it would heal back up. He then understood where to aim. He would aim for its Heart. It was a last-ditch attempt and if it was able to recover from that then he was screwed.

As Natsu had anticipated the Hydra had lowered its guard. It was the perfect time to strike. He got up and activated his 'Flame Lightning Drive', new name but who cares. The Hydra was surprised that Natsu was still alive and was not prepared for the oncoming barrage of attacks.

'Lightning Fire Dragon's Roar'

The blast hit the Hydra head on. It stumbled backward but before it could even stabilize Natsu was ready to unleash a wave of attacks.

'Lightning Fire Dragon's Fist'

It was hit with knocked off balance and fell but used its tail to whack Natsu away. It got up quickly. It noticed the sudden increase in Natsu's power and got desperate. It readied its most powerful weapon; a culmination of all its elements, including ones that he had not yet used in the battle like iron.

Natsu noticed the Hydra readying its attack and understood that it got desperate for victory. He could not dodge the attack safely as his wounds were stinging and dragging his speed down. He decided to counter with his own strongest spell.

'Dragon Slaying Secret Arts: Crimson Lightning Lotus Blade'

Both parties fired off their respective attacks. The blast met head on. At first the Hydra's blast pushed Natsu's but soon lost its lead as the Flame-Lightning blast pushed back steadily but was again pushing back Natsu's blast. Eventually both blasts came into a stalemate and exploded in a gigantic inferno that ravaged everything around them.

Natsu decided that it was time to end this fight. Though he was still reeling from the effects of using such a strong spell, he still some magical energy left. It was the perfect opportunity to strike as the Hydra had still not recovered from the blast.

Before the Hydra could react Natsu appeared and attacked its chest.

'Lightning Fire Dragon's Fist'

'Lightning Fire Dragon's Fist'

'Lightning Fire Dragon's Fist'

Natsu struck the Hydra's chest with 3 consecutive fist attacks flattening its protective scales.

'Lightning Fire Dragon's Claw Strike'

Natsu ripped open the scales with multiple claw strikes. There he saw the creatures Heart. It was quite big. The wound would start regenerating, so he needed to blast the Hydra open inside out. He readied a sphere of Flames combined with Lightning. It was time to end it.

'Lightning Fire Dragon's Blasting Sphere'

The sphere penetrated through the would and struck the mighty creature's Heart. The sphere exploded on contact with the Heart, destroying it in flames.

Natsu jumped back as the creatures gave a dying roar and fell down. It was dead. He had won. He had won against a FUCKING HYDRA. FUCK YA.

The Hydra closed its eyes forever. Natsu looked at the beast's body, its 9 heads lay motionless. He looked towards the head that had fired flames at him. He removed its eyes from its head. This would be disgusting but he needed to do this. He closed his eyes and gulped down the Hydra's eyes. It tasted disgusting and gave him the urge to vomit but he swallowed it.

He felt his magic reserves increase tremendously from eating its eyes, about 75% more than what he originally had. He then activated his flames. They were blue in colour. He grinned. He switched back to his normal flames. He would call it 'Azure Flame Drive'. He then looked to the Hydra's body. He then thought about what more he could salvage from its body. Then he glanced towards it scales. It scales were tough and the only reason he was able to penetrate them was due to his 'Dragon Slaying Magic', any normal mage would be toast against that monster. He then removed one of the daggers he had bought from the store and started removing its scales.

Half an Hour Later,

Natsu had successfully removed most of the scales from the Hydra's body. He had put them in his bag. He had failed to notice that it had already become dawn. He noticed the sunrise and realized that it was already morning. He had spent the whole night in the forest but it was worthwhile. He had gotten a huge power boost, a cool new mode and some sweet scales.

He started to walk away to his original destination, Sivilla. He was already off schedule from his little detour but it was still very worth it. What awaited him at Sivilla. He pondered on what he would do on arrival but as always threw concern out the window, after all it was still a new adventure.