When did you change?
Chapter 3: Infinite Flames
As they neared the enemy fleet, Natsu and the flying dragon squad readied themselves for the fight.
"Alright guys, they'll start firing on us at any minute so I'll cast some enhancement spells on you!" Wendy yelled over to Gajeel and Natsu as they got closer and closer to the battlecruisers flying high above Magnolia.
"Alright then Wendy, you cast your enhancements and get ready for a plan I'm about to let you guys in on," Natsu told them.
"Natsu planning out his attack? Who are you and what have you done with my best friend?!" Happy teased.
Natsu laughed lightly. "This battle is important, we can't just be attacking anything in sight and leaving ourselves open, can we?"
"Yeah, but it's more fun to just destroy everything!" Gajeel said jokingly.
"Heh. I'd love to agree with you on that one, but this time we gotta show them how skilled we really are!" Natsu said, getting serious. "And I know the perfect way to do it! You guys remember how Juvia and Gray did that unison raid? We're gonna do one of our own! You guys ready?"
Gajeel looked a bit confused. " Wait a minute, how are we going to go about this?" he asked.
Natsu rolled his eyes and looked at the iron dragon slayer. "I'd thought we were on par with each other on this kind of stuff but I guess I was wrong."
"Hey, I can't read minds, how am I supposed to know what's going on in that brain of yours? Assuming you even have one, that is!" Gajeel shot back, laughing.
It quickly escalated into another one of their heated arguments until Carla was able to break it up.
"We aren't here to argue so stop wasting time, we don't have all day here!"
The two grudgingly stopped fighting and Natsu began explaining how they would execute the unison raid. "Alright, to do this we're gonna need to all attack the enemy with our respective dragon roars. What I mean here is, I do Fire Dragon Roar, Gajeel does Iron Dragon Roar, and Wendy does Wind Dragon Roar, all at the same time. Got that?"
"I understand completely," Wendy says.
"Doesn't sound too complicated to me." Gajeel agreed.
Wendy quickly cast the enhancement spells that she'd mentioned earlier on herself, along with Natsu and Gajeel.
"Alright!" Natsu gathered his magic energy. "FIRE DRAGON - "
"WIND DRAGON - "
"IRON DRAGON -"
"ROAR!" They all said in at the same time and sent a blast aimed at the greater of the battlecruisers.
Screams and panic erupted as seven of the cruisers were annihilated by the attack. Even one of the two cruisers flanking Mage King August's main battleship was destroyed, prompting the crew flying his ship to start evasive maneuvers.
"Hold steady! Panic will only show these fools weakness and my men do not show weakness in battle." August ordered his men.
"Sir!" The crewman tasked with issuing orders to the fleet ran toward him. "Shall I signal the other ships to begin firing?"
"Give the order to open fire, although I doubt it'll do much good against these dragon slayers," August replied to the man, stroking his long beard as he contemplated the flying dragon squad's next course of action.
As the battlecruisers began to open fire on Natsu and the others, fire from Fairy Tail's wizards skilled in ranged magic countered from the ground, though it did painfully little to affect the heavy suppressive fire that was being emitted from the battleship cannons.
"FIRE DRAGON ROAR!" Natsu sent out a column of fire at one of the ships that were firing, blasting it right in two.
"Focus fire on that one right there," August ordered, pointing to where Natsu is flying.
The ships began focusing their blasts on Natsu and although most of them missed, a few come eerily close to hitting him.
"Be careful Natsu!" Wendy warned him.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to let them stop me after I just got here!"
"So what do we do now? That fire they're dishing out is gonna make it a pain trying to get close to those ships. This is just like when we took on those first 50 ships in the initial attack except these 25 are much more powerful versions of those first battlecruisers. They seem to have a better armament as well." Lily informed them.
"Doesn't matter, they blow up just the same!" Just as Gajeel said this, they heard the sound of something immense coming from the east.
August looked to the direction of where the sound was coming from, only to see a shot from the Jupiter cannon headed right for his ship. Calmly, he held up his staff and raised a magic shield around his capital ship.
"Hah! They never learn their lesson, do they?" Natsu remarked, expecting the shield to disperse the Jupiter cannon blast in the same way that the shield Azir had raised on his capital ship did in the initial battle.
Instead, the shield August raised absorbed the blast as soon as it hit.
"Don't expect me to fall for that trick the same way Azir did," August said, somehow aware that the dragon slayers were hoping he'd make the mistake. He then pointed his staff at the eastern forests from where the blast had come from. "Absorption shield magic! Retaliation blast!" The shield turned a blueish green color as magic energy gathered at the spot where the Jupiter cannon shot had initially hit. A low sound reminiscent of a screech began, getting louder and louder as the raw magic energy gathered. It went on for about fifteen seconds and then stopped abruptly. One second. Everything was silent for one second, then a blast fired out of the shield right into the eastern forests.
"NO!" Natsu roared as he realized that the shot was directed right at where Alzack, Bisca, and Asuka were manning the Jupiter cannon. The spot where the blast hit is left a smoldering crater and no one seemed to be there.
Suddenly, a telepathic message came in. "We're alright! We managed to get away before the blast hit. Same can't be said about the Jupiter cannon though, I won't be able to render any more artillery support from down here." Bisca frantically informed Natsu and the others.
Relieved at his comrade's safety, Natsu replied. "Good to hear you're alive. Get outta there before they decide they wanna finish their work."
Natsu turned towards the capital ship, looking right at where August is standing. He wondered what he could do to get August off his capital ship and down to the ground where they could fight him, or possibly even defeat August while still in the air.
Wait a minute, if that shield on his capital ship is supposed to absorb and redirect blasts of magic back from where they came, then that means…
Natsu began gathering magic energy into his mouth.`
"FIRE DRAGON -"
"What are you doing!? Didn't you see how that Jupiter cannon shot got absorbed and fired back?" Gajeel said, looking at the Salamander.
"ROAR!" Natsu sent another column of fire at the capital ship. It gets absorbed by the shield instantaneously, but despite this, Natsu continued breathing flames at the shield until he had almost no magic energy left to do so. Dizziness quickly racks him, accompanied by a feeling of exhaust in his body as his magic reserves are almost depleted.
Meanwhile, the shield absorbs so much fire magic that it turns a flaming red and orange color.
"What a fool, is this the one they call the fire dragonslayer? Doesn't he even realize the return blast will be even more powerful? Let's just see if he can dodge this with his energy used up!" August pointed his staff at Natsu. "Retaliation blast!" The shield once again emitted a screeching sound as fire magic gathered, aimed right at Natsu.
"Guys, you might wanna get away from here..." Natsu warned Gajeel and Wendy.
"But you'll be -" Carla started.
"I said go!" Natsu yelled at her. "This is gonna get ugly."
The others got a good distance away from where he was flying.
"Uhh, I hope you have a plan, Natsu." Happy nervously said.
"Don't you worry, buddy, just keep me flying up here and we'll be alright."
The screeching from the shield stops for one second just as it did before.
Natsu readied himself. No such thing as a shield that never depletes, Natsu thought to himself.
This one just needs a bit more pressure.
A column of fire bigger than any Natsu had ever seen is blasted right at him.
Gajeel and Wendy watch, their eyes peeled, as the fiery blast heads right for their comrade.
"I hope that fire brain knows what he's doing," Gajeel says to himself.
Just as the flaming blast is about to hit him, Natsu smirked. You'll regret making this mistake for the rest of your life, August.
It hits. Silence. All the while, August is smiling at his adversary, thinking that he'd won.
Then, the sound of sucking as Natsu takes in and absorbs the blast. It takes him a full five minutes to absorb all of the flaming energy into his body but he does it nevertheless.
August's smile drops.
"Dragonslayer secret art! INFINITE FLAMES!" An inferno hot enough to rival the temperature of the sun itself is sent spiraling toward August's ship.
The shield does nothing to stop the attack as the capital ship along with the remaining cruisers around it are consumed by the fire that hits them.
Once again, silence.
Alvarez Palace
At seemingly the same moment that August's ship is hit by the blast, Zeref laughs his sinister laugh. "Did I not tell you that my brother would bring you to your knees, August!? I am not a fool, I can tell when a failure is in my midst and you, August, are a failure. Enjoy death."
It does not come. It does not come and August is ashamed that he must face the ones that brought him, the Mage King, down so easily.
The silence is broken when a familiar voice makes telepathic contact with the dragon slayers. "Warren here, what was that you guys? I saw 3 blasts and then the cruiser battleships went out of sight, what happened?" Warren asked them as Mavis, Makarov, Toma, and the rest of Fairy Tail listened in, curious as to what happened as well.
"Nothing," Natsu replied, his voice solemn for some reason. "Except for that August is down, he won't be bothering us from the air anymore." At hearing this, all of Fairy Tail's members across Magnolia start cheering and rejoicing, hugging each other and expressing their happiness at knowing that they had defeated the last of the Spriggan 12.
"Good job out there, Natsu!" Makarov congratulated him.
"A job well done, everyone!" Mavis tells them. "Regroup here at the base, we need to discuss our next strategy...after celebrations of course."
"There's some wreckage from the cruisers that fell to the ground, I'm gonna go look for survivors along with the others," Natsu replied, headed toward where he saw the cruisers go down.
August's eyes shoot open. He realized that though the blast nearly killed him, death hadn't yet taken him. Looking at his staff, he saw that it had been shattered into two pieces of wood, the crystal lying in smoldering pieces on the ground. One of his legs was completely broken. He sat up, noticing that a few of the crew from his ship survived the blast. He counted fifty men, some standing, most sitting on the ground.
"Where are the rest?" August hears a strong voice behind him ask. He looked over to where he heard the voice to see the fire dragon slayer who destroyed his entire fleet standing in front of one of the crewmen, flanked by the other two dragon slayers that were with him and three small cats.
"Where are the rest of the crew?" The dragon slayer repeats his question, louder.
The crewmen he's asking is nothing less than terrified. "Th-they didn't..." he stammers.
August answers for him. "They're all dead, Salamander."
Natsu looked at August.
"Did you actually expect anyone to survive an attack like that? My own crew barely survived and only because my shield kept the blast at bay for a split second before it went down." August tried to get up, using the larger half of his broken staff to support him. He doesn't succeed, however, and begins to fall to the ground again before a pair of strong arms steady him. He looked up to see that the arms belonged to the dragon slayer.
Maybe he'll finish me off, end my misery right here, August hoped to himself.
Natsu noticed the look of shame in August's eyes right away. "Just because you lost a fight, doesn't mean you're a complete failure, you know," Natsu told him. "I've lost plenty of fights, do you see me moping around?" He grinned.
Who is this man? August asks himself. He jokes with the enemy and makes efforts to...to raise their spirits...?
"What is it that you want from me, Salamander?"
Natsu quickly sobered. "I only meant to destroy your ship with my attack, it shouldn't have killed anyone."
Is he an idiot? "Yes well, I'm sure you can see the results of that fantastic plan of yours all around you," August remarked sarcastically.
"You guys are some idiots, you know that?" Natsu told him. "I don't like killing, no matter who it is. You could have avoided all of this if you had just fought me on the ground."
Is he...grieving the deaths of those crew members? How can one person care so much about life itself that he grieves at the deaths of his enemies?
Natsu set August back on the ground. "There's really no other reason why I should stay here," he said, glaring into the distance. He started toward Wendy and Gajeel.
No, I refuse to return to that monster.
"Wait," August called before Natsu got too far. The Salamander turned around, a questioning look on his face. "I have information. Just take me to where your friends are, I'll give it to you gladly. I'd suggest you don't miss this opportunity."
"And how do we know that you don't just want us to take you to our guild so that it'll be that much easier for you to take what's ours?" Natsu said to him, his expression suspicious.
"If I wanted to continue this campaign of terror the emperor has sent me on, I could have already done it. In fact, I could've died doing it. I no longer have any reason to stay loyal to Spriggan and nor do I desire to do so anymore."
Wendy walks over to Natsu. "I don't think he's a threat anymore. I don't detect that much magic energy from him as I did when the fight started; it's a miracle he even survived your attack," she whispered. "I think we should hear him out. Even if he tries something, he's been weakened so it'll be easier for us to neutralize him."
He considered this and looked over at August. "Alright, we'll listen. But don't try anything, or you'll regret it."
"I won't," August assured.
Natsu glared at him for a few seconds more. "Great!" And at that, Natsu's expression went from ready to fight, to happy as ever.
"You help him up, we'll have to walk all the way to the guild since we won't be able to fly," Natsu said, looking over at Gajeel
"Alright, I'll get- WAIT! Why do I have to be the one to walk him all the way to the guild!?" And just like that, Gajeel and Natsu started arguing once again. It goes on for a few minutes until Wendy and Carla finally break them up. They decided that both of them will help August walk back to the guild.
It takes a few minutes, as the guild is all the way in the middle of Magnolia whereas they were close to being outside of the city.
As they neared the guild hall, they hear all the yelling, laughter, and cheer going on as the entire guild celebrated the day's victory. Wendy runs ahead to open the door to the guild so that Natsu and Gajeel can walk August in. As soon as they walk in, the entire guild goes quiet as they stare at the two dragon slayers walk the most powerful of the Spriggan 12 into the guild hall.
"Mage King August." Makarov eyes August, recognizing him from his trip to Alvarez. He looks over at Natsu. "Why did you bring him here?"
Before Natsu has a chance to reply, August answered. "I told them I have information on Emperor Spriggan that I'm willing to give you. I wasn't lying."
Makarov regarded him suspiciously.
In response, August smiles. "We have much to discuss."
