Author's Note 1: Who will fight who? What other underhanded tricks will the Thunder Legion resort to? Read on to find out!
Also, I've decided to call my series of Fairy Tail stories; The Fairy Mythos series.
Chapter 3: Fight your Friends to Save your Friends
It had been around ten minutes since the Battle of Fairy Tail had officially begun. Kageyama was running through the town, hoping to find the Thunder Legion and defeat them. As he passed by a crowd and looked around, his attention was caught by the sounds of a battle around the other corner.
"What the?" The shadow wizard quickly turned and saw Warren & Max duking it out with each other.
"Just give up, Max!" Warren yelled as he jumped out of the way of some sand. "You know I can see your attacks coming a mile away!"
"Just 'cause you can read my attacks doesn't mean you're fast enough to dodge!" The sand wizard proclaimed before quickly waving his hands, blowing Warren away with two sand attacks.
"What're those Fairy Tail punks doing now?" A woman in the crowd asked, getting Kageyama's attention.
"I saw two more fighting two blocks down." A teenage boy stated.
"Is this some new festival event?"
Hearing this only made Kageyama more confused. However, as Warren and Max continued their brawl, the shadow wizard noticed Warren hitting some invisible barrier and purple runes manifesting for a brief second.
"Something's not right." The black-haired man said before kneeling on one leg and placing his hand on the ground. "Shadow Scan!"
Tendrils emerged from Kageyama's shadow and moved ahead. The tendrils crawled along the floor before suddenly traveling upwards. As they did this, the same purple runes appeared.
"An enchantment." Kageyama stated before a smirk appeared on his face. "Looks like this is my lucky day."
In another part of town, Laki and Bisca were in the middle of their own showdown.
"Sorry about this! Wood-Make: The Dam of Shy Love!" The lilac-haired girl shouted before conjuring a massive wall of weapon-shaped wood towards Bisca, who proceeded to leap out of the way, jumping onto a nearby roof.
"I don't want to do this either!" The gunwoman stated with a scowl. "But this is the only way I can save Alzack!"
The green-haired woman held her hands out in front of herself and chanted, "Requip: Big Bazooka!" And in a flash of green light, she summoned a massive blue bazooka and aimed it at Laki.
"Oh, shitbubbles." The bespectacled woman whispered.
"Blast Bullet!" And in a massive explosion, the Wood-Make Wizard was knocked out, and Bisca was allowed to leave the barrier unharmed but with a guilty conscious.
Back at the Fairy Tail Guild Hall, the older wizards were still trapped as they watched the ever-changing Status Report. The current battles were;
Max VS Warren
Bisca Wins. Laki KO'd.
Mirajane VS 4 Others.
Levy VS Jet VS Droy
Remaining Wizards: 82
"This is bad." Macao stated. "It hasn't even been a half-hour yet, and we're almost down twenty wizards."
"Freed must've been setting up enchantments months in advance." Wakaba stated as he smoked his pipe.
'Damn it. Everyone's being forced to fight each other. And I can't do anything to stop it!' Lyle said mentally as he clenched his hands together. Soon though, their attention was drawn to the Status Report again.
In another part of town, Erza was running through the city streets, just as desperate to find Laxus as everyone else.
'Where could he have hidden himself?' The redhead asked as she turned another corner. However, her running was halted as she bumped into a rune barrier. "What?"
She quickly read the conditions of the enchantment and looked around her. 'Where's my opponent then?' Erza then proceeded to hear the sounds of dress shoes tapping against tile and turned her head in the direction she heard them. And walking across one of the rooftops was none other than Reginald, still expressing no emotion on his face.
"Reginald! Stop this madness right now!" The requip wizard yelled. "I refuse to believe that you of all people would willingly go along with this plan!"
Reginald said nothing as he held his hands out and his pendant started to glow. Two green and black twin metallic bowguns manifested in each of his hands. With the sunlight reflecting off his glasses, the dirty blond aimed his weapons at his redheaded opponent.
"Forgive me, Erza. But just know that I take no joy in this. Arch Shot: Arrow Rain!"
And as soon as the hail of mystic arrows began to rain, Erza immediately requiped into her Heaven's Wheel armor and used a variety of floating swords to block the shots. After the barrage had ended, the redhead launched her own barrage of flying swords that impacted with the roof that Reginald was standing on. However, the dust cleared and revealed at the bespectacled man was no longer there. Another barrage fired at her from behind, and thankfully Erza was able to move her blades to block them telekinetically.
But this turned out to be part of Reginald's plan as the blond wizard was able to sneak behind Erza and quickly placed his hand on her shoulder. "Slide."
The two were consumed in a brilliant flash of green light, and when the light faded, Erza was shocked to see the environment around them. Gone were the cobblestone streets of Magnolia as the two now stood in a place of multi-colored light moving in every conceivable direction. The two also seemed to be standing on a surface, but were unable to see said surface.
"What is this place?" Erza asked.
"This is the Aether, an endless sea of energy that lies in between all dimensions." Reginald explained. "And it is where we will stay until the Battle of Fairy Tail has come to an end."
As this occurred, Laxus watched the Status Report, not even phased by Erza and Reginald's names being removed. 'You keep your end of the bargain, and I'll keep mine, Reggie.'
A chuckled came to the blond as he continued to read the Report. 'Erza's out the game, so the only ones I have to worry about are that Juvia chick and Mirajane.'
His eyes then turned and saw that despite almost forty minutes passing since their battle had begun, all of Team Shadow Gear were still in the game. 'Of course, Levy and her cheerleaders can't bring themselves to hurt each other. How touching. Looks like I'm gonna have to spice things up a bit.'
Suddenly, the lighting wizard noticed that Warren and Max's names were starting to blur from the report. "Wait, what?"
And indeed, Kageyama had several shadowy tendrils embedded in the barrier and three black magic circles forming a triangle at the center. "Shatterpoint identified."
Shadow magic then surrounded Kageyama's right hand and with all his might, he jabbed it into the center of the three magic circles. "Break!"
And just like that, cracks immediately started forming in the barrier. Soon enough, the cracks completely shattered, freeing Max and Warren from their forced battle.
"What the?!" Max exclaimed.
"The barrier's down." Warren said in shock.
"Whoever made this is good…" Kageyama said, getting the attention of the two. "...but not good enough."
"Who're you?" The sand wizard asked.
"The name's Kageyama." The black-haired wizard introduced himself. "And you can consider me an ally."
Meanwhile, the wizards trapped in the Fairy Tail Guild Hall also took notice of Max and Warren's match shattering and disappearing from the report. And before they could question this, a thought projection of Laxus appeared in the building.
"Alright, how the hell did you guys do that?" Laxus asked in anger.
"What're you talking about?" Wakaba asked.
"Don't play dumb! Max and Warren couldn't have broken the barrier on their own! And I know for a fact that no one in the guild knows any seal breaking magic! So what kind of trick did you geezers pull off?"
Lyle thought about this for a moment before he started to chuckle, confusing everyone.
"And just what is so freakin' funny, Hudson?"
"It's just as you said, Laxus. Fairy Tail doesn't have any seal breaking wizards. However, the Harvest Festival tends to attract people from all over Fiore. Especially freelance wizards looking to join a guild. And let's just say they saw the guild they wanted to join was currently in the midst of a coup d'etat. They'd probably want to step in and help."
And as he saw Laxus' surprised expression, a smirk made way onto Lyle's face. "You didn't even think about that, did you?"
The Lightning Wizard look angered for a second before chuckling as well. "You're right, for once. I didn't count on a Fairy Tail fanboy stepping in. Looks like I'll have to change the game up a bit."
"What're you talking about?" Makarov asked.
With a smirk on his face, the thought projection dissipated. The real Laxus then proceeded to walk into the basement of his hideout and approached the being that was currently dwelling within it. Said being was a massive hulk of stone and dirt. In the center of its chest was a large lacrima with a stone symbol on it. And with magical lightning flowing around his hand, Laxus placed it on the lacrima, letting his magical energy fill up the large crystal.
In a manner of seconds, the lacrima was fully charged, and a solid slanted yellow eye appeared on the rocky creature's head.
"I am Laxus Dreyar, your new master. Do you understand?"
The stone-skinned creature looked down at the lightning wizard, giving him the once over before nodding.
"Good. I'm going to need your children to attack any wizard they see." Laxus ordered. The rocky creature groaned before seven tendrils burst from its back and embedded themselves into the floor.
Back in the town, Juvia was running through the streets, her rage towards the Thunder Legion still as strong as ever. 'When I find that Evergreen harlot, I'll drown her myself!'
However, as she turned a corner and accidentally bumped into someone else. The water wizard looked down and saw Hoshi groaning. "Oh my goodness, are you okay?!"
"Ya, I'm all right." Hoshi stated before standing back up.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to…" Juvia started to say.
"I said I'm fine." The burgundy-haired woman stated before seeing the Fairy Tail emblem on her necklace. "You a Fairy Tail wizard?"
Juvia nodded before saying, "I need to go."
"I know. That Evergreen bitch turned your friends to stone." Hoshi stated, surprising Juvia.
"How did you…"
"I was in the crowd when the Thunder Legion made their move." The hat-wearing woman stated. "I can't believe they would turn on their guildmates."
"Truly disgusting." The water wizard said under her breath. "I'm Juvia, by the way."
"Hoshi." The hat-wearing woman replied. However, their conversation was interrupted as the ground near them began to shake and rumble. Suddenly, over ten humanoid beings made of rocks with a single yellow eye burst from the ground.
"Are those what I think they are?" Hoshi asked as she quickly stood back to back with Juvia.
"Golems." The rain woman stated as the creatures looked over the two women.
"Wizard…" The creatures chanted as they circled the two.
"Hoshi, stay behind me." Juvia said as she started to draw water from the air. "I'll take care of these monstrosities."
"I appreciate the gesture, Juvia." Hoshi said before holding her right hand out, causing a pink magic circle to appear in front of her. "But I can fight too. Requip: Boom!"
In a flash of light, a dark gray staff with a red orb at the top appeared in her hands. She twirled the staff before aiming it at three of the Golems. A stream of pure destructive energy fired from the staff and blew off the tops of the three rocky creatures.
Seeing this made Juvia smile as she readied her own spell. "Water Slicer!"
Two highly-pressurized crescent blades of water cut through the rest of the Golems, with their torso separating from their legs. But before the two could celebrate, the three Golems that Hoshi blasted regrew their tops while the sliced up Golems regrew their missing limbs, effectively doubling their numbers.
"Oh, that is so not fair." Hoshi grumbled as the battle continued.
Back in the Aether…
"Send me back!" Erza ordered, pointing a blade at Reginald. The bespectacled man, in turn, was sitting down on the 'surface,' reading a book he had hidden in his vest.
"You ordered me to do that six times. And six times I've said no. Trust me; this is for the best."
Enraged, Erza growled and grabbed Reginald by his collar, glaring into his eyes. "You betray your friends, attack me, send us to the Aether, refuse to send me back, and you expect me to trust you?!"
"I suppose that is rather dumb of me." Reginald stated.
"Why even keep us here?" Erza asked. The blond man hesitated to say anything before looking back at the redhead.
"To keep you safe." He said, which only served to confuse Erza.
"Keep me safe?" The redhead asked, getting go of Reginald.
"I made a deal with Laxus. If I keep you out of the game, you'll have a spot in the new Fairy Tail."
"The new Fairy Tail?"
"The Battle of Fairy Tail's true purpose to weed out the weakest members of the guild. Only the top twenty will be allowed to stay." Reginald explained.
"Master Lyle would never allow that to happen!" Erza proclaimed.
"Well, if all goes according to plan, Uncle Lyle won't be the guild master for much longer."
"What're you…"
"Think about it, Erza. A guild master sees his wizards as his own children. Seeing them fight each other will tear at his heart. Not to mention his own son and five other hostages will be killed in less than three hours if the Thunder Legion isn't defeated. And anyone who could beat the Thunder Legion is either a statue, trapped, or too busy fighting. Eventually, my uncle will have no choice but to surrender his title to Laxus."
"This is ridiculous!" The redhead yelled out in anger. "I can defeat Laxus myself and end this madness!"
"You can't!" Reginald yelled out.
"Why?! Because you're trying to 'protect me'?!"
"Because he is stronger than you!" Reginald shouted, surprising Erza. "And I'm not talking about some arbitrary 'he's higher than you in the rankings' bullshit! I mean he is stronger than you can imagine! Why else would I go along this absurd plan?!"
And it was at that moment Erza realized the truth of Reginald's allegiance to the Thunder Legion. "You're terrified of him."
"Of course I am." Reginald stated, holding his face in his hands. "For months, I have been trying to convince Laxus that this was a terrible idea. That this coup will only end with the Thunder Legion exiled from the guild if we're lucky. But damn the founders, that idiot's more stubborn than a mule and the rest of the Legion are blindly loyal to him. So, I threatened I go Makarov and tell him everything. And that's when he showed me something that made me realize that there was no chance of beating him."
"What did he show you?" Erza asked.
"Erza, he knows Fairy Law." The blond archer stated, shocking the redhead. "I saw him use it to turn a dark guild into nothing but ash."
Just like that, Erza realized the horrifying implications of Laxus knowing the Fairy Law spell. As one of three Ultimate Spells of the Fairy Tail Guild, Fairy Law had the power to completely destroy anyone the caster saw as their enemy. And considering Laxus' constant proclamations that he would kick out all the weaklings in Fairy Tail when he became the guild master and his threats to shatter Gray, Elfman and the others, it was a safe bet that he saw all of Fairy Tail (aside from the Thunder Legion) as his enemies. Even Erza's Adamantine Armor couldn't withstand the destructive power of Fairy Law.
And as the two wizards thought about the horrific implications, there was silence in the Aether.
Back in Magnolia…
"So you think you can take down all of Freed's enchantments?" Max asked Kageyama. After the shadow wizard had destroyed the barrier trapping them, he explained his story and his magic to Max and Warren.
"It might take me a while for to break all of them, but ya, I take these down with no problem." The shadow wizard replied.
"Um, guys?" Warren said, pointing behind the two wizards. The two turned and saw several Golems coming out of the ground and glaring at them.
"Wizard…." The creatures groaned.
"This can't be good." Kageyama stated as the three prepared their magics. And they weren't the only ones. All over Magnolia, Golems were popping up and attack any wizard they could find.
"Get out of my way!" Alyssa yelled, plowing through ten of them in a burst of super speed, only for them to quickly regenerate. "Damn it!"
"Requip: Machine Gun!" Bisca shouted before mowing down a few of them from a rooftop. Like before, the Golems regenerated from their bullet wounds. Unlike before however, the stone monsters glared at the green-haired woman and suddenly grew mouths filled with yellow magic. And with a series of inhuman wails, the Golems unleashed a barrage of lightning magic that Bisca was barely able to dodge.
In another part of town, Alexander was in the midst of head shotting and slicing apart Golems with his Celestial Arms, only to be annoyed as they recovered. Robin and Natalie were slicing and blowing up Golems with their own magic. Droy was using shield plants to protect Jet and Levy from the Golems' lightning attack. Lucy was slicing apart a few of the rocky creatures while Happy dropped lacrima bombs on them from above.
And as all of this was going on, the members still trapped in the guild hall saw the Status Report display the various battles with the Golems and that over half of the guild had been KO'd. Naturally, they more than a bit horrified.
"What the f*(k?!" Ur shouted.
"How do you like my party favors?" Laxus taunted via a thought projection.
"You unleashed Golems in the city?! What the hell is wrong with you?!" Macao shouted at the projection.
"Oh, come on. A couple of wild monsters shouldn't stand a chance against fully-trained wizards." The lightning wizard taunted.
"ENOUGH!" Lyle yelled out, surprising everyone. "What could you possibly hope to gain out of this, Laxus?! What is so damn important that you would force your fellow guildmates to go through all this crap?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Laxus stated. "I want you to surrender the guild to me."
Hearing this just made the older members even more frustrated, which only amused Laxus even more.
"I should've known!" Makarov stated. "This was your goal all along, wasn't it?!"
"You only got two hours until the statues crumble." The projection stated. "If you geezers really want to put an end to this, Lyle's gonna have to announce his early retirement to the whole town over the guild's loudspeaker."
As he said this, everyone failed to notice the twitching fingers of one of the statues.
"I want you to tell everyone that you're relinquishing Fairy Tail over to me!"
"Never….going….to happen." A familiar voice stated, getting everyone's attention. They turned to the stage, and to the shock of everyone, the still stone Zeke was slowly moving, taking an agonizingly long step. "I'd...rather die...than see you...as guild master. You cocky...condescending...SON OF A BITCH!"
And in flash of green light, Zeke was once more flesh and blood, falling onto his hands and knees as he took in a large breath of air.
"Zeke!" Lyle shouted, running past the stunned Laxus projection to aid his son. Makarov and others followed, surrounding Zeke.
"Are you okay?" Wakaba asked.
"How did you do that?" Ur asked.
"I don't know." Zeke stated, slowly getting back up. "I just felt some energy flowing around my skin and…" The archer then looked at the projection and glared at it. "You. I guess it was only a matter of time before you'd turn traitor."
The shocked expression remained on Laxus' face for few more seconds before he switched back to his signature smirk.
"I don't know how you shook off Evergreen's magic, but it doesn't matter. A weakling like you doesn't stand a chance against the Thunder Legion alone."
"Well, you're right about that." Zeke said, confusing the trapped wizards.
"So you actually admit it."
"But that's the thing; I'm not alone!" The archer stated. "As we speak, the majority of Fairy Tail are out there giving it their all! Sure, you might've forced them to fight each other…"
And as he gave off his speech, Zeke ran through the thought projection and headed out of the exit.
"Zeke, wait!" Lyle yelled in concern.
"...But that's not going to last!" The archer said with a cocky smirk. And as soon he saw that smirk, Laxus started thinking about a certain phenonium from earlier.
'Does he know the seal-breaking wizard?' The leader of the Thunder Legion thought to himself before his own smirk to smirk to return. 'Fine, smartass. You have your allies, and I have mine.'
Back with Zeke, the brunette archer used his acrobatic skills to reach the top of the building. While he had spent the last hour as a stone statue, he was still aware of everything that was happening around him. His guess was that Laxus wanted him to conscious before blasting him to smithereens.
But there was time to curse at the lightning wizard later. As for now, Zeke had a coup to stop. And the first step to that was closing his eyes and mentally shouting, 'WAAAARRRREEEENNNN!"
'Ow, my brain!' The telepathic wizard groaned. 'Wait a minute. Zeke, is that you?'
'You better believe it's me.'
'You're not a statue anymore? Does that mean…'
'No, Natsu and the others are still stone.' The archer explained as he looked around the city from his vantage point. 'And looks like things aren't any better outside the guild. Everyone's either trapped in Freed's enchantments or knee deep in golems.'
'Pretty much! Max and I are trying to fend some of them off with your shadow wizard friend Kageyama.'
'Where are you guys?'
'The intersection of 13th and Bravo. Why?'
'Stay there! I have a plan!' Zeke mentally stated before jumping across the rooftops towards the aforementioned coordinates. In a matter of minutes, he spotted Max, Warren and Kageyama surrounded by golems. He quickly conjured up his bow and readied a spell.
"Arch Shot: Rapid Succession!" The suit-clad brunette chanted before firing a barrage of energy arrows in a circular formation, temporarily incapacitating the stone creatures. The three wizards looked up to see Zeke on a rooftop before the archer proclaimed, "Get up here!"
"Don't have to tell me twice." Max stated as he readied a spell of his own. "Sand Pillar!"
With a burst of sand magic, the three wizards joined Zeke on the rooftop. And as soon as they did, the golems started to reconstitute themselves.
"These things are a serious pain in the ass." Kageyama stated as he rubbed his sore neck.
"But they make a good distraction, which is exactly why Laxus is using them." Zeke stated as the stone creatures started to claw at the building the four were standing on.
"You said you had a plan, right?" Warren asked the archer, who nodded in response.
"Can you mind link me with everyone?"
"It's a tall order, but I can handle it." Warren stated closing his eyes as Zeke put a hand on his shoulder. He then brought his pointer and middle fingers to his forehead with violet magic circles in between. The telepathic wizard quietly began to branch out and find the minds of their comrades. "Mental Link established!"
"Good work, Warren." Zeke said before closing his eyes. 'Hey! Can everyone hear me?'
'Uhhh...Mira must've hit me harder than I thought.' Cana groaned. 'I'm hearing voices in my head.'
'Zeke?!' Lucy exclaimed.
'I thought you were a statue!' Happy asked.
'Zeke, you're safe!' Juvia happily exclaimed, making the archer smile.
'If you're not stone anymore, does that mean that Elfman and the others are free?' Mirajane asked.
'I'm afraid not.' Zeke answered. 'Somehow, I was able to bypass Evergreen's magic. But that's not what's important right now. What is important is taking down all of Freed's enchantments so we don't have to fight each other anymore.'
'No f&*king shit!' Natalie mentally exclaimed while she and Robin were taking apart golems, all while being trapped in one of Freed's enchantments.
'What's the plan, Crackshot?' Alexander asked as he and Hu cut through a swarm of golems.
"Kageyama, you can take down Freed's enchantments, right?" Zeke asked, getting a nod from the black-haired wizard.
"There's just one problem; I can't use any of my offensive spells while I'm seal breaking." Kageyama explained. "I'll be an easy target for the golems."
"I can cover ya." Max volunteered. The shadow wizard nodded and placed his hand on Max's shoulder.
'Alright. Anyone who's still trapped in the enchantments, send your coordinates to Kageyama.' Zeke ordered as Max and Kageyama vanished into the shadows. 'Alyssa, you still kickin'?'
'You bet!' The orange-haired wizard answered as she tossed a golem into another golem.
'Head to Porlyusica's place. She might have something that can reserve Evergreen's spell.'
'I'm on it!' Alyssa stated, plowing through some more golems in a burst of super speed.
'And while she's doing that, we need to find Erza. We're gonna need her to take on Laxus.' Zeke stated.
'That's gonna be a problem.' Warren chimed in. 'I haven't been able to sense Erza for a while. It's like she vanished or something.'
'Goddamnit.' Zeke thought to himself. 'Erza's the only one left who can stand a chance against Laxus.'
'Why don't we just send Kageyama to free Master Lyle and others?' Levy asked.
'I thought about that.' Zeke said before looking in the direction of the Fairy Tail Guild Hall. Golems continued to walk the streets, seeming to ignore the guild. 'But if we draw attention to the guild, the golems are gonna swarm it, and possible smash Natsu and others in the process.'
'Well, what else are supposed to do?' Jet asked as he drop-kicked a golem. 'None of us are even close to Laxus' power!'
'You might want to check again, Sir Jet.' A new voice stated, surprising everyone.
'No way!' Levy shouted.
'Is that who I think it is?' Max asked as he and Kageyama materialized in front of the trapped Bisca and Nab (who had accidentally run into each other and into one of Freed's enchantments).
Hearing this voice brought a cocky smirk to Zeke's face. 'Still as dramatic as ever.'
'Who are you talking about?' Juvia asked as she water locked a trio of golems. 'Who is he?'
'He's arguably the strongest member of Fairy Tail.' Zeke explained. 'Mystogan, think you can take of Laxus?'
"Sir Zeke…" The cloaked man said as he walked through town, earning the attention of a golem horde. The stone creatures fired lightning blasts at him, only for the Sword Wizard to leap out of the way. As he came down, he pulled his black blade from his cloak and landed, quickly spinning a decapitating six of them at once. "...It would be my genuine pleasure."
'Alright, we got our ace in the hole!' Zeke cheered before readdressing his guildmates. 'Okay, anyone who's not trapped in the enchantments has two jobs; keep the golems away from the civilians and take down any Thunder Legion traitors if you find them! Let's remind these assholes what happens when you mess with Fairy Tail!'
'Right!' Everyone in the mental link replied.
"Juvia, you okay?" Hoshi asked before blasting another golem. "You seemed distracted."
"Let's just say the odds have turned in our favor." Juvia replied with a smile before casting Water Lock on another group of golems.
"So, it's either crowd control or kicking ass." Alexander said as he approached another group of stone creatures. As he smirked, he pulled out the red key Lucy had given him from his coat pocket. The new key had an end shaped like buck teeth and a symbol of six whiskers on the flat end. "I freakin' love this guild! Open, Gate of the Rat - Shu!"
The spirit that came through the gate was a very tiny specimen, no taller than twelve inches. This spirit was a humanoid woman with purple hair in a ponytail, yellow eyes, buckteeth, three whiskers on each cheek, and monk-styled red and yellow robes. She stood on top of Alexander's shoulders before turning and enthusiastically saluting.
"Hiya, Captain!" The tiny spirit happily greeted. "What can I do for ya?"
"Shu, consider this your trial by fire." Alexander said before pointing to the approaching creatures.
"Yeesh! Those are some ugly monsters!" The rat spirit stated before pulling off one of her whiskers. She charged it full of pink magical energy and tossed it into the ground under five of them. A pink portal opened beneath them, swallowing up the golems. In seconds, they reappeared and smashed into the others.
"Oh, this is gonna be fun!" The one-eyed celestial wizard proclaimed before charging headfirst into the rocky creatures.
Meanwhile, Alyssa was racing towards the edge of Magnolia, specifically the canyon near the end of the city. The orange-haired woman continued to weave through any golems that stood in her way; her mind focused on her assigned task.
'Just a few minutes to Porlyusica's place and back.' Alyssa thought to herself. However, instead of racing past the city limits of Magnolia, the amazonian woman smacked right into an invisible wall. "What the hell?!"
The Speed Queen pushed against the invisible wall and soon saw purple runes forming in the air. 'Zeke, we got a problem!'
'What is it?' The archer asked via the mental link.
'Freed didn't just place enchantments in the city. He set up a massive barrier all around Magnolia.' The orange-haired woman reported. 'Looks like going to Porlyusica's isn't an opinion for the moment.'
"Alyssa!" The orange-haired woman turned and saw Mirajane approaching her.
"Mira!" Alyssa said, surprised to see her friend was unharmed. "Are you okay?"
The white-haired woman nodded before looking up at the barrier. "Looks like Freed thought of everything."
"Of course." The two turned and saw Freed materialize out of a series of runes. "After all, the purpose of this battle to restructure Fairy Tail."
"You traitor!" Alyssa exclaimed, blasting off towards the green-haired wizard, only to smack into another invisible wall. The two women then noticed an enchantment forming around them.
"Another barrier?" Mirajane asked.
"What's the matter, Freed? Too scared to fight fairly?!" The orange-haired woman said before uselessly punching the barrier. The rune wizard kept a neutral expression on his face before turning away from them.
"In one hour, the statues will crumble. And only the wizard who proves herself the strongest will be allowed to leave the barrier." Freed stated before vanishing in another stream of runes. As Alyssa angrily pushed and punched the barrier, Mira held her head down, covering her eyes in shadow.
Meanwhile, Lucy was continuing to slice apart golems with her celestial arm Meteore. 'There's no end to these things!'
"Hey…"
"New girl!"
"Wanna party?"
Lucy turned and saw three of Biskslow's dolls floating near him and barely managed to evade the attacks by leaping through the window of a nearby clothing store.
"Hehehe." The blonde looked up and saw Biskslow walk into the store with all five of his dolls floating near him. "So you're the newbie everyone's been talking about."
"Newbie! Newbie!" The dolls repeated.
"And you're one of the Thunder Legion." Lucy said to both him and to the others in the mental link as she grabbed Taurus' key.
Back with Juvia and Hoshi, the two women were still fighting back to back, attempting to hold off the golems. However, their attention was soon drawn somewhere else.
"Well, well, well." The two looked up towards the roof of a nearby store and saw Evergreen standing, waving her fan in front of her face. "Look what we have here. Two wallflowers that fail in comparison to me."
"Evergreen." Juvia growled while Hoshi glared at the woman. The burgundy-haired woman then stepped forward.
"Juvia, keep the golems busy." Hoshi ordered, confusing the rain. "I'll deal with this bitch."
"Oh, my. How vulgar." Evergreen taunted. "Forgive me if I don't know your name. There's so much riff raff in Fairy Tail that it's to keep track."
"Requip: Fire!" The staff wizard chanted, switching out her Boom Staff for a red staff with an orange orb at the end. "My name is Hoshi Katagiri! You turned my little brother into stone!"
And after twirling the staff, she pointed up at Evergreen and gave off a look of anger that seemed familiar to the self-proclaimed fairy. "And trust me, you're going to pay for that in spades!"
Back with Zeke, the archer was reassuring everyone that Alyssa and Mirajane being trapped behind a barrier was only a minor setback. They still had Mystogan on their side, so he was still pretty confident that they could turn this around.
"So this is why the battle isn't playing out as expected." Zeke and Warren turned and saw Freed materialize on the other side of the roof.
"Aw, crap!" The telepathic wizard shouted.
"Well, consider me impressed, Freed." The archer stated. "You actually had the balls to come out of hiding and fight."
"I see you're still as arrogant as ever." The green-haired man retorted as he reached for his rapier.
'Warren, get to somewhere safe.' Zeke mentally ordered. 'Keep the link up no matter what.'
'Are you sure you can handle him?' The black-haired wizard asked.
'Of course I can.' The brunette stated as he conjured up his new bow. 'After all, he's just Laxus' flunky.'
Warren nodded before running to leap onto another rooftop. Seeing this, Freed attempted to thrust and stab the telepathic wizard, only for Zeke to step in the block the strike with the bladed edge of his bow.
"You're gonna have to get through me first, traitor." Zeke stated, the two wizards glaring at each other as sparks flew off their clashing weapons.
To be continued…
Author's Note 2: The Thunder Legion has struck! And like always, it's time for me to explain some new things introduced in this chapter.
1). The Golems; I've been hinting to these creatures since Chapter 3 of A New Day. These monsters are meant to be an almost unstoppable horde controlled by a master and a Mother Golem. Like Zombies, they might not be that threatening on their own, but a horde of them can pose a threat. The smaller golems can continue to recover as long as the Mother Golem remains active, meaning that their enemies will have to face a virtually endless army that will continue to attack until their foes run out of magical energy, leaving them defenseless against these rocky abominations.
2). Shu the Rat Spirit; I realized that Lucy had way more spirits that Alexander, so I figured I should even them up a bit.
3). Hoshi's Staff Magic; Yes, Hoshi uses a form of Requip magic like Erza and Bisca, but instead of swords, armor or guns, she summons up magical staffs. And trust me, I've only scratched the surface of what this magic is capable of.
As for Zeke freeing himself from Evergreen's spell, that's going to be explained within the next few chapters.
Next Time: Advent of Satan! Please be sure to read, review and favorite! See ya later!
