Author's Note: Hello internet!
I just wanted to drop by and tell you how bad I am at writing fight scenes or anything closely related. I'm trying real hard, though! They say practice makes perfect, right?
I don't own Fairy Tail and stuff like that.
Teamwork
"Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success."
xXxXx
The forest surrounding Magnolia town was a very big and deep one. Some of the wild monsters sometimes left it to disturb the people who lived on the edge of town, which gave many mages jobs such as defeating them or scaring them back into their natural habitat. One team from Fairy Tail was completing a job just like that in the East Forest.
The team, consisting of four nineteen-year-old S-Class mages and two exceeds, didn't have a name, even though its members were together ever since they were old enough to take jobs.
'How much do we have to walk until we find that monster?' whined the pinkette, her long ponytail swaying left and right as she dragged her sandaled feet. She wore a pink tank top with red and purple stripes, blue shorts, and she had her red guild mark on her right hand.
'It's supposed to be huge, so we should be able to find it pretty easily,' answered a smiling blue-haired guy as he stared at a piece of paper, which held their job request. He had a brown shirt with rolled-up sleeves, grey trousers and black boots on.
'Then why have we been walking around for three hours now?' growled another girl, her midnight blue eyes flashing with anger. Her sandy blonde hair was tied up in two spiky pigtails, and she wore a shoulder revealing light purple crop top, that made her purple guild mark on the right side of her waist visible. She also wore a dark blue skirt, black sandals, and fishnets on her right calf and her left thigh.
The last person didn't say anything, just kept a look out for the creature they were supposed to defeat. She had long black hair and black eyes, that made her look like a ghost with her snow white skin complexion. She was wearing a knee-high blue dress coat with a black belt and dark blue high heeled boots.
'It is strange that we haven't found it yet,' said Beatrice, a grey exceed, as she was flying next to the pink-haired girl, wearing a green dress that was the same color as her eyes.
'If Gale says we'll find it, then we'll definitely find it!' cheered Barry, a light brown exceed flying next to the smiling guy, wearing a light blue vest matching his dark blue eyes.
'Barry's right, you know,' said Gale. 'You guys aren't patient enough.'
'No, you're just impossibly positive,' commented the pinkette as her dark hazel eyes met his brown ones.
'And you're impossibly negative, Sakura,' retorted Gale back.
'I'm not!'
'Could you two shut up, this is annoying as it is,' said the girl with the pigtails named Elise.
The bickering two quickly shut their mouths, not wanting to get on Elise's bad side. She was as harsh as her mother, and as strong as her father. It was a bad combination, though no one ever dared to mention this to her or her parents. Especially her mother. It was easy to talk to Elfman, but Evergreen's Stone Eyes spell was a force to be reckoned with.
Suddenly a loud and deep cry echoed throughout the forest.
'It seems we've found it,' said the previously silent girl.
'Um, Thalia? How do you know it's the one we're looking for?' asked Sakura, slightly unnerved by the unknown sound.
'This is the first one we've encountered so far,' responded Thalia with her stoic demeanor. 'Might as well give it a try.'
'See? Thalia's an optimist too,' exclaimed Gale as he put the paper away.
'I don't think you could call it that,' sweatdropped Beatrice.
'Whatever, let's just get this over with,' yelled Elise as she started to run towards the source of the cry.
The others hurried to catch up to her. Everyone wanted to go home as soon as possible, even Gale. The eldest Redfox child was positive and bubbly by nature, which he inherited from his mother, but this job was supposed to be a quick one. After three hours he started to get pissed as well, but he was good at hiding his emotions (which was strange, because he was horrible at keeping secrets, playing hide-and-seek, or hiding anything, really).
Now that they knew where to look, it really wasn't that hard to find a gigantic green monster. It was bipedal and had spikes all over his body, making it difficult to get close to it. It had long claws and a strong-looking jaw, which held many sharp teeth. The way it was easily swatting away trees and animals meant it was brutally powerful.
The four mages looked at each other, silently calculating a plan. After so many years together they understood the other perfectly well even without words, especially if it was about work. Their teamwork was something their guildmates were amazed by.
'Beatrice!'
'Barry!'
The two exceeds picked Sakura and Gale up, and flew up towards the monster's head, meanwhile Elise and Thalia ran to its two legs. The two Dragon Slayers held by their exceed partners inhaled deeply, preparing to unleash their breath attacks.
'Fire Dragon's Roar!'
'Iron Dragon's Roar!'
Their attacks hit the monster's eyes, blinding it completely. It screeched in pain and flailed his arms around, trying to catch its attacker.
'Water Slicer!'
'Wind Cutter!'
Thalia's sharp water attack injured the animal's left leg, while the winds Elise summoned left a deep cut in its right leg.
The monster cried out again, and lept towards Elise, who dodged its claws with opening her fan that was strapped to her back, and using her Air magic to fly away on it. Thalia started to bolt away from the creature as well, as it lifted its leg that she injured, about to squish her. She tried to run faster as she noticed it coming towards her, but Barry swooped down and Gale snatched her up in his arms right before the impact, which left a small crater in its wake.
'Are you okay?' he asked her gently.
'Yes.'
They landed and Gale put her down. Elise and Sakura landed next to them as well, but it went unnoticed by the pair.
'Thanks for worrying about me,' said Thalia, and Gale froze.
'A surprise attack, huh?' he sighed.
'What do you mean?'
'Nothing, it's just... I can't help but feel nervous when you say things like that,' said Gale as he scratched his neck sheepishly.
'Should I not say things like that, then?'
'N-No! That's not what I meant!'
'Aw, look at you two being so cute and lovey-dovey!' cooed Sakura.
'It's so sweet, I think I'm going to vomit,' gushed Elise.
Gale's eyes widened as he quickly turned around. He was about to protest and say that they weren't being "lovey-dovey", but Thalia beat him to it.
'Are you jelous, perhaps?' she asked with a blank face, and the teasing two suddenly froze.
'Yeah, well,' said Sakura after clearing her throat.
'No one would want such an awkward relationship as you guys have,' answered Elise.
'Says you,' coughed Sakura, but Elise still heard it and narrowed her eyes at her.
'Excuse me?'
'You say that as if your relationship with that Kage guy from Saber were any better.'
'W-What relationship?' shrieked Elise as she blushed a deep red, but Sakura looked at her pointedly, as if telling her "You can't lie to me". 'W-Well, at least I have one!'
Barry was giggling at his bickering friends, while his sister only let out an amused smile before deciding to remind them of their mission.
'Guys, we still have a monster to defeat,' said Beatrice. 'It got away while you were arguing.'
'It couldn't have gotten that far away,' said Gale, happy to avoid the topic, 'we injured it pretty badly.'
'Beatrice, let's go look for it from above!' said Sakura and the exceed nodded, lifting her up and flying away.
'I'll go, too,' muttered Elise, her cheeks still a little pink as she hopped onto her fan and flew up.
'This was funny,' giggled Barry.
Gale was about to scold him for embarrassing him, but Thalia joined the brown feline and let out a chuckle. Gale stared at her for a few seconds before he let out a relieved sigh. Thalia Fullbuster was famous for her interesting humor, but not many realized exactly when she was being funny, and that was the reason why it was called interesting.
'You did that on purpose, didn't you?'
'They're right,' she answered, 'teasing people is amusing.'
'Let's go look for it as well,' said Gale, then looked at Barry. 'You go look from above, Thalia and I will look down here.'
'How are you going to do that?' asked Barry confused.
'We'll look for footprints or something!' responded Gale irritated.
'Okay!' agreed Barry as he flew away, leaving them alone.
The truth was that Gale just didn't want to leave Thalia to search on her own. She was the only one who couldn't get into the air, and Gale felt bad about leaving her behind. Needless to say, he also enjoyed the female mage's company, but he wasn't going to admit that out loud.
Two hours passed. Gale and Thalia did find some footprints, but at some point they just disappeared, so the mages kept looking. The others couldn't find their target either. Everyone was getting frustrated (not to mention hungry too).
'How can a thing that big just disappear like that?' growled Sakura.
She has had enough of this, more so than the others. The female Fire Dragon Slayer was just as (if not more) kind and gentle as her mother, but she had a bad temper and no patience for bullshit, that usually got her into a lot of pointless fights and stupid shenanigans. Obviously, she inherited those traits from her hot-headed father.
'This doesn't make sense,' muttered Gale, lost in thought.
'Gee, ya think?' asked Elise sarcastically.
They reached a small clearing, where some animals were resting, but they all got up and ran away as soon as they saw them, except one. It was a purple wild boar, that seemed to tense up as it sensed them. It turned around and raced towards them, but they all jumped out of the way in time. It ran straight into a tree and its tusk got stuck in the trunk. Thalia noticed that it was struggling with its two front legs mostly, its hind legs were covered in dried blood.
When the animal freed itself, it attacked them again. This time Thalia was closer to its head and saw burn marks around its eyes.
'Why is it attacking us?' asked Barry as he flew up to stay out of the boar's reach.
'We didn't do anything to it,' agreed Beatrice as she joined her brother in the air.
'No, I think we did,' said Thalia quietly.
'What do you mean?' asked Gale, as he jumped aside to avoid getting impaled by the wild animal's tusks.
'It's injured,' she said as she pointed at its legs. The creature was huffing in one place, tired of running back and forth, so the others could get a good look at its wounds.
'It is,' mumbled Elise.
'It can't see either, right?' asked Sakura slowly, understanding what her best friend was getting at.
'If it could, its aim would be better,' answered Thalia, staring alertly at the boar, who darted towards her again – or rather a little bit to her left.
'What are you saying?' asked Gale again, having no idea what the girls just discovered.
'We found the monster that we were looking for,' answered Sakura.
'And it's this thing over here,' said Elise, pointing at the boar.
'How?'
'I don't get it either,' whined Barry.
'I think I get it, but I'm not sure how it changed form,' said Beatrice.
'We'll figure that out after we've captured it.'
And so they were about to surround the animal, when it changed its form in front of them. It glowed for a second, then started to grow until it became the green monster again. Thalia took her place by its left leg, and this time Gale took the right leg.
'Put me on its head!' requested Sakura as her grey exceed picked her up.
Elise used her magic to fly on top of a tree, and took out her fan to prepare a strong attack. After letting go of Sakura, Beatrice joined Barry at flying around to distract the monster.
'Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!' yelled Sakura, her fist engulfed in flames as she punched the creature on the head. While it was distracted by the pain assaulting its skull, Gale and Thalia striked.
'Iron Dragon's Sword!'
'Ice-Make: Sword!'
With the iron sword, Gale was able to completely chop off the monster's right leg. Thalia's ice sword finished the job her water attack started earlier, cutting off the other leg of the monster as well. Sakura jumped off as the green nightmare started falling forwards, about to crush half of the forest, but the exceeds caught her.
'Great Sickle Winds!' Elise summoned a powerful air current around herself, then used her fan to gather more wind and redirect it towards the monster. The razor-sharp winds made deep cuts on the monster's rough skin, and the force of the attack made it fall in the opposite direction. A huge dust cloud appeared as its body collided with the ground with an earth-shattering force. The mages gathered around their defeated prey as it started glowing again.
'What is it this time?' groaned Sakura, who was ready to beat the crap out of this thing if it dared to try anything again.
However, after it finished glowing and shrinking, the passed out animal revealed its true form. The team stared at its purple skin and green fur, wondering how they ended up agreeing to this mission.
'A Gorian?' asked Elise quietly, but ended up raising her voice. 'A freaking Vulcan?!'
'I've never seen one that used its magic like this before,' answered Thalia, her tone sounding dead.
'Let's just go get the reward,' said Gale bleakly.
'It was a Gorian?' asked their client, a farmer who lived outside of Magnolia. 'I'm sorry, then.'
'Why?' asked Barry, blinking at the man confused.
'I can't give you that much jewels for defeating an ordinary Forest Vulcan.'
'Eh?'
'Are you freaking kidding me?!' shouted Sakura.
The poor farmer quivered in fear as Gale tried to hold her back, not knowing that Elise and Thalia were thinking along the same lines as the Dragneel girl was.
They eventually received the original reward, because the farmer was too afraid to give any less. This certainly didn't do any good to the reputation of Fairy Tail, but neither of them could care less. They wasted their entire day and were planning on having an early dinner at 8-Island, where they ended up celebrating another completed job, which was the fruit of their incredible teamwork.
The quote is from Henry Ford.
