A/N: Here's chapter seven! (Ironic how I just said it might take a while to post more chapters, but let's not delve into that) Please enjoy! :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Erza growled, pressing the staff part of a spear against Byard's throat as she pinned him to the ground. She leaned in over him, "I'll ask you one more time…how do you break through the wind barrier?"
"I…I don't know…" Byard choked, "It…it's not possible…you're screwed!"
"You're all useless…" She hissed as she reared back and hit him in the head, his body motionless after that. She stood up and held her spear out, putting it back in her requip space.
"Erza!" A voice called, as she saw Gray run into the room.
"Gray?" She asked as she turned around. She rubbed her eyes with her fists then blinked again, "What…what are you doing here? Where's Natsu?"
"We split up…but look…" Gray said, pointing backward, "I couldn't find Erigor, but I found one of his little creeps. When I was about to beat him, he told me the whole thing! Erigor is planning to use Lullaby to kill all the Guild Masters in Clover!"
"What…." Her eyes widened, then she growled and picked up Byard's limp body by the collar, screaming in his face, "Why didn't you tell me that!?"
Gray walked up to Erza's side, "And on my way here, I noticed a big wall of wind outside. Looks like it would turn ya to mush if you tried to get out…"
"Yes, it certainly is impenetrable. As of now." She looked at her left arm, still soaked in blood and gashes from when she tried to push through.
"Do these guys know anything about it?" Gray asked, nudging Byard with his foot.
"Not that I know of…" She mused, rubbing one of her temples and closing her eyes.
There was a silence between both of them as Erza kept thinking, brooding, while Gray kept nudging people and seeing if Erza bothered to leave them alive.
Suddenly her eyes snapped open, "That's it."
"What's up?" Gray asked.
"We need to find Kageyama. When I was in the bar before, I remember listening to their conversations. While they talked mostly about their plans with Lullaby and trying to get me in their bedrooms, they also mentioned a power Kageyama has at his disposal. He can break magical barriers. He mentioned that when they asked him how they would obtain Lullaby. There's a good possibility if we find him and if he's still alive, he could get us out of here in time to save the Masters in Clover."
Gray's eyes lit up, "So he'll be able to put the wind barrier down!"
"There's a good chance he will, though I'm not positive."
Gray half-wilted, "There's a good chance Natsu's fighting him right now…we should probably hurry before he burns the guy alive…"
She nodded and ignored her body screaming for a rest as she ran forward with Gray.
"Karacka…" Byard choked out, "How long are you going keep hiding…?"
Karacka warped out of the wall, "Sorry…"
"You heard, right?" Byard said, "They're after Kageyama, you have to go!"
"You kidding me? I'm no good at combat!"
"No…you've got an even easier job…it's so simple even you couldn't mess it up…" A dark grin formed on Byard's face.
The Emerald Knight was getting tired of aimlessly looking around, "We've been searching for this Karacka fellow for a long time…"
"Aye." Happy said, walking alongside him.
"Perhaps we should report back to Erza, tell her that we couldn't find him…"
Happy looked terrified, "Whoa…Ant…you're so brave, just…disregarding an order from Erza like that! I mean, this is Erza we're talking about. Man, I don't want to see what you look like when she's through with you!"
A sweat drop trickled down the side of his head, "Well, let us continue our search then."
Natsu destroyed the wall completely, "Come on out Erigor!" He looked around for a few seconds, "Hmm, not in here…" He yelled and blew up the next room, trying to find his foe.
Kageyama watched from his shadow, utterly confused as to why Natsu was leveling the entire station just to find one person. What made the destruction funnier was that Erigor wasn't even in the station anymore.
Kageyama snickered, his shadow descended lower and lower until he lashed out and kicked Natsu from behind. As his foe stumbled forward and crashed into the wall, Kageyama roared with laughter.
"It's you again!" Natsu roared, tearing himself off the wall.
"I've pretty much figured out your magic." Kageyama smirked, "You use fire, to add to your already destructive strength. It's quite amusing, actually."
Natsu growled, "I want to punch you, but I can't, I gotta find Erigor…tell me where he is!"
"Well, I'd love to satisfy your little condition." Kageyama snickered, "That is, if you beat me."
Natsu dodged Kageyama's incoming shadow, "I get to beat you up and get your info? Two birds with one stone! I'm fired up now!"
"You're fast…" Kageyama said, watching Natsu dodge all of his shadow attacks, "But you won't be able to dodge my Shadow Orochi!" He said as dozens of shadowy snake heads reared their faces at Natsu.
Natsu frowned and ran at them, his fists lighting up as he punched through as many as he could see, with relative ease.
"What…?" Kageyama was stupefied, this was his best attack, and he was watching it be dismantled right in front of him, "No…he destroyed them all!" He cried out, Natsu even had spare firepower to punch Kageyama once he was done with his snakes. Kageyama flew towards the wall and smashed into it.
Natsu didn't stop there, he punched Kageyama through the wall, reigniting his fist with each punch as he sent him sailing back.
"This guy's a monster!" Kageyama gasped, terrified.
"Fire Dragon's Roar!" Natsu blasted him with fire at point-blank range. When the smoke cleared, Kageyama laid on the ground, defeated.
Natsu laughed, "I win!" He smiled, "Now tell me where Erigor is."
Kageyama snickered madly, despite being covered in blood and bruises, "You idiot….Erigor isn't even at the station anymore…"
"What?"
"Natsu!" He heard Erza's voice and turned to see Gray and Erza running towards him, "Don't kill him yet, we need him alive!"
"I don't say this a lot, so don't get used to it, but good job, flame-brain." Gray smiled.
"What are you guys talking about?" Natsu asked, "A guy like this is easy…"
"We don't have time to explain, we've been looking for him."
"Let me handle this." Erza said deeply, grabbing Kageyama by the collar and slamming him against the wall. "Listen you Eisenwald tool, you will tell us how to escape the wind barrier this instant." She materialized a blade, "Or I'll cut your throat out myself."
"Holy crap…guys, I already beat him, this is taking it way too far!" Natsu shouted.
"Shut up, Natsu!" Gray snapped.
Kageyama didn't look like he was going to reveal anything anytime soon, until suddenly he coughed up blood and collapsed on the ground. At first it looked like Erza got impatient and stabbed him, but the culprit was Karacka, still half in the wall, with a knife which was dripping blood from the tip.
Erza's eyes widened as she stepped back, "You…just killed your guild mate…"
"Shit…he was our only way out of here!" Gray said.
"You…" Natsu glared at Karacka.
"Damn it, hey, wake up, we need your help!" Gray tried to shake Kageyama awake.
"He was in your guild! He's supposed to be your friend!" Natsu roared at Karacka. "You dirty little…" He flew towards Karacka and torched him with a fiery punch, blowing up the wall around him as well.
"Damn it…even if he was conscious, he wouldn't have the magic power in this condition to break down the wall…" Erza panicked.
"But how are we going to get through the wind barrier?" Gray asked.
"Is this the kind of guild you're in, huh?" Natsu said, as he kept thrashing Karacka around.
The Emerald Knight and Happy returned to the group, both of them looking incredibly confused, "Oh my…many events have taken place while we were gone…"
"Aye…" Happy said.
Erigor was walking along the railway to reach his destination, a vast canyon surrounding it, "The town of Clover is close, I can feel it!" He said, "Luckily I've regained most of the power I lost when I cast the win barrier! Perhaps I'll fly!" He levitated and began flying towards his goal much faster.
"Just you wait, you old fools." He said, "I'll kill you all using Lullaby! The Reaper demands an offering! Of those who stole our rights to work away!"
The Emerald Knight swallowed hard as the five of them faced the wind barrier, "So…I'm assuming we're trapped now…"
"It appears that way…" Erza mused, still frantic as she tried to think of a way to free their Master. She would have admitted she never felt more useless, but she knew that wasn't true at all.
"And their true target is the Guild Masters?" The Emerald Knight looked at Gray.
Gray nodded, "But we won't be able to help them if we're stuck in here…"
Natsu ran into the wind barrier and got shredded up, falling back, "See?" Gray said, "Completely blocks your movement."
Natsu got up and lit both his fists on fire, "I'll just try again!" Natsu crashed into the barrier, falling back on the ground.
"I don't think that's going to work…Natsu…" The Emerald Knight said, he looked at Gray, "Can your magic freeze it?"
"If I could, I would've done it already…" Gray said.
Natsu crashed into the wall yet again, and the Emerald Knight pulled him back, "Hey! Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
Natsu pulled out of the Emerald Knight's grasp, crossing his arms and pouting, "I don't see anyone coming up with a brilliant idea…"
"I may be able to do something." The Emerald Knight said.
Erza turned to him, "What's your idea?"
He drew his lance, "This may not even work." He said.
"Well, just spit it out." Gray said.
"There was an attack my superiors taught me as a last-ditch effort to use against wizards. It cancels out the magic in an area for a handful of seconds. I suppose it is to be used to finish off an opposing wizard with swordplay while they're defenseless."
"So that means…" Gray started slowly, "That you can put the barrier down?"
"For a handful of seconds, yes. But it, like Sword of Retribution, take up a lot of magic energy. I wouldn't be fighting anyone for a while after I perform this maneuver."
"Wow Ant, I guess you can be useful at times!" Happy cheered.
The Emerald Knight's eye twitched, "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that…"
"We wouldn't be able to use our magic then either…" Erza mused, "But it isn't like we'll be needing it right now. I think you should use it, and we'll all escape as quickly as possible."
"Yeah, let's do it." Natsu hoisted Kageyama up on his back.
"What are you doing, Natsu?" Gray asked.
"I'd feel bad leaving him behind."
The Emerald Knight took a deep breath and held his lance out, whipping it back as it glowed in a green light, "Lance Fader!" He sent out a massive wave of green light, once it made contact with the barrier, it disappeared, "Go, go now!"
Erza nodded, every magic user felt a strange aura of exhaustion, but their adrenaline pushed them forward anyway until they were outside of the ring of wind.
The Emerald Knight sheathed his lance, "Your magic should return to you in mere seconds. As for me…I'll only be able to fight with my basic knight's training now."
"Eh, it's fine, we could still all take Erigor on without breaking a sweat." Gray said, then he looked around, "Hey, where's Natsu?"
"Happy's gone too…" The Emerald Knight said.
"It…it's over…" Kageyama said as he laid on the ground, "There's no way you'll be able to catch up with Erigor now…we've won…"
Erigor's grin grew, "I can see the town now! This is wonderful!"
He heard a voice from far away, "This is…Happy's…..max…speed!" Natsu flew in with Happy and kicked Erigor in the face with his flaming feet, Erigor crashed into the train tracks.
"I…I can't…fly anymore…" Happy panted.
Natsu caught him as they both landed, "Thanks, little buddy, now we caught up to him!"
"You fool!" Erigor got up slowly, "How did you catch up to me?"
Natsu's fists burned with flames, "I'm here to take you down, you wind-sack!"
The ride to catch up with Natsu was quiet at first. Gray and the Emerald Knight sat inside the car with Kageyama, while Erza sat in the driver's seat.
"Why…why did you save me? Why?" Kageyama asked.
The Emerald Knight crossed his arms, "That was up to Natsu. He didn't want to see you die. I think you should just be thankful for the fact that he had the intuition to even do anything with you, because if it was up to the rest of us, you would still be at the train station."
"But I'm your enemy! It still doesn't make any sense!" He argued, then he calmed down and said, "Oh, I get it, I'm your hostage…to use as a bargaining chip with Erigor. Well, it won't work…he doesn't care about any of us…"
The Emerald Knight sighed, "We're not using you as a hostage, but feel free to believe in whatever delusion you want…"
"If you want to die so badly, I can make it happen." Gray looked at Kageyama with a frown, "Life and death isn't the only way to settle things. You should think of the future a little."
The car suddenly rocked quite a bit, almost as if they were going off the road, then it was steadied, "Erza!" Gray looked at her, "You doing okay?"
Erza's eyes snapped open and she gripped the wheel tighter, turning the car back onto the road quickly and pressing down more on the pedal. As she felt her magic drain even more, she tried her hardest to keep her eyes open, "Apologies." Natsu…we'll be there as soon as we can, I promise. I will not let our Master fall!
"Come on!" Natsu held a taunting hand out, as both men stood opposite of each other on the train tracks, "I'll do you a little favor and burn up that flute of yours!"
Erigor was confounded, "Kageyama…my wind barrier…" He said to himself, "My entire guild…how did this fly get past all of them…?" He then flew up high, "You stupid flies are such a pain!" He fired high speed wind blasts.
Natsu growled as he was hit, flying back.
"Leave me presence at once!" Erigor assaulted him with more and more, knocking him back further. He eventually hit Natsu off the railway, sending him falling to his death.
"No!" Natsu screamed as he fell. He couldn't even rely on Happy because Happy used up all his magic energy getting Natsu this far.
"So long, Fairy Tail fly!" Erigor laughed.
A large hand made of purple fire latched itself onto the tracks, and Natsu climbed his way back up, he snickered, "Learned that trick from Macao."
"What was the supposed to be…?" Erigor sputtered, "Fire sticking to the bridge?"
"Now it's my turn!" Natsu lunged at Erigor with a flaming fist.
Erigor bit back the blood as he was punched with full force, "He's fast…" Erigor muttered.
"Fire Dragon's Talons!" Natsu landed two successive flaming kicks at Erigor, knocking him back a significant amount.
"Don't get too cocky." Erigor lectured, taking flight again, "Storm bringer!" He shot a raging whirlwind at Natsu, shredding him up and knocking him to the ground, "And now it's time to finish you off!" He took his scythe out and reared back, swinging it at Natsu. Blood sprayed everywhere as he made his mark, but it was Erigor who was surprised, "You caught it…with your arm?"
Natsu snickered, blood leaking from his arm, his cheeks puffed up, "Fire Dragon's Roar!"
"Magic from your mouth?" Erigor asked as he barely dodged the flaming breath attack.
"Hey, stop flying around up there!" Natsu snapped, "Get down here and fight me like a man!"
Erigor had never been more confused in his life. This young man seemed to act completely on impulse, doing absolutely nothing as planned. Was this how all Fairy Tail wizards fought?
"I may have underestimated your power." Erigor said, "So now I think it's time I get serious."
Natsu snickered, "I'm all fired up."
"Storm mail!" Erigor held his arms out, and all the wind in the area blew around him now, cloaking him in a whirlwind and protecting his body.
"Whoa…" Natsu was impressed.
"Now let us begin!" Erigor smirked.
"Your little matchstick friend is probably dead by now…" Kageyama said.
"Oh?" The Emerald Knight cocked an eyebrow, he was honestly starting to follow Gray's school of thought with killing this fool by now.
Kageyama snickered, "There's no fire magic in the world that can stand up to Erigor's Storm Mail attack. Your friend won't stand a chance!"
"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Natsu lashed a punch out at Erigor, but Erigor simply caught the punch with his hand, the fierce winds whipped out the fire, "Huh?" Natsu asked, he kept using the same attack over and over again, but it wasn't working, and Natsu's arms were slowly getting shred to bits.
"I knew it!" Erigor grinned, "Without your fire, you're powerless! I can't even feel a thing!"
"Huh, what the heck?" Natsu looked at his wounded arms, "How come my fire keeps going out?"
"My Storm Mail blows out your little fire." Erigor explained, "Don't you get it? Flames can't do anything against me!" He held his arms out, "Fire can never beat wind!"
A/N: Thoughts? Opinions? Let me know with a review. Thanks so much for reading, hope you liked it!
