I am more sorry to those of you I kept waiting writing this chapter but I work full time now and I cannot continue without the help of my coauthor Karen White who is now purewriting. Hope you like this action filled chapter.
The claw man lunged at Haru, claws extended to their full length and catching the sunlight ominously. Haru dodged left, the clawed man hurtling past him and face planting into the floor. The familiar buzz of charging magic reached Haru's ears from behind him and he ducked just in time to evade an attack from the man wielding explosion magic. A well placed back-kick had that enemy crashing into another table.
"Who exactly are you?" Haru demanded.
Vines erupted under his feet, withering like snakes and attempting to anchor him to the ground. Haru swung his weapon at the vines, hacking away at them, but the more he sliced, the more vines came to take the place of the ones he cut.
"We are members of Crescent Genesis. The four of us are some of their elite. The Eclipse Order." the plant lady said monotonely, "But that shouldn't matter to you now as you will die here today and make lovely fertilizer to my plants."
The vines continued creeping around Haru and it was getting harder to move. Any vines he cut just grew back as quickly as he cut them. This was a predicament for sure, but Haru couldn't give up and risk staining Erza's name. It was his job as her student to uphold her reputation. Haru kept swinging, but he could tell that this was a fruitless endeavor. The vines were over powering him.
"Die out Fairy Tail mage." the plant lady hissed bitterly as the vines completely over took him in a thorny, green cocoon.
Though he was completely encased, Haru still fought, but the vine prison limited his movements and even after re-quipping a dagger he couldn't get a good enough swing to do any helpful damage. He fought none the less, but he couldn't help but notice how it was getting harder to breath.
These vines...! They must be...sucking out the air!... Haru thought slowly.
Haru continued to struggle, but any thoughts of strategy were lost as the concentration of air in this prison decreased. The edges of his vision were taking on black rims and it was getting harder and harder to fill his lungs with each passing second. But then, the entire left side of the vine cocoon gave out and with little grace, Haru tumbled out gasping for breath, though not before pulling his legs free of his former tomb first.
"Need a hand Haru?" a thankfully familiar voice asked, tone half mocking and half serious.
Looking up with clearer vision, Haru saw April standing over him, arm glittering with a metallic light in the form of a wickedly barbed sword blade. A brief, somewhat embarrassed smile formed on his face as he took his friend's hand and stood.
"Thanks April. Let's show these losers what we can really do."
With new strength, Haru and April charged the four enemies. Nomen shouted angrily at the others, but Haru didn't pay him much mind and instead focused his attention on the Plant Mage. Her blank stare met his and sent chills up his spine for a brief moment. As for April, Haru saw her engaging with the clawed mage and the Explosion Mage in his peripheral vision. It briefly crossed his mind that Nomen was no where to be seen before a burning pain shot up through his back.
Haru yelped and spun around on his heel, swinging his sword in a strong horizontal arc. It had indeed been Nomen standing behind him, but as the blade approached him, Nomen extended a toxic green palm in the direction the blade approached from. When the metal made contact with his skin, Nomen's hand passed clean through, severing the top third of the blade from the rest. Surprise crossed Haru's face for a moment before he remembered his back was facing towards a second enemy.
His awareness had returned to that second enemy in time to strike her in the gut with a hard back-fist. She cried sharply as she stumbled backwards. Already planning out his next moves, Haru spun back around striking the Plant Mage's side with a rigid roundhouse kick before twisting back towards Nomen in time to catch his wrist before the Acid mage touched him again.
However, Haru had underestimated his enemy's strength and quickly lost his grip. Instinctively, Haru shifted what remained of his sword in front of him. Just as before, Nomen's hand came clean through the metal, but stopped halfway up his forearm, thankfully leaving him unable to reach Haru.
A dark grin played on Nomen's face. "You're weapons are useless Fairy brat." he chided.
"True." Haru admitted, "But I can find ways around that. Like this."
Haru summoned every ounce of strength in his muscles and twisted his sword with Nomen's hand trapped in it as he quickly stepped passed the mage, kicked out Nomen's feet from under him and flung him over his shoulder while he was off balanced, using his sword as leverage. Haru smirked down at his enemy, but his victory was short lived. A vine lashed around his torso, pinning his arms to his sides and digging into the exposed parts of his skin with their hooked barbs and agitating the burn wound and the claw wound on his side and back. Haru's grip on his sword handle was lost as he was torn upwards and the weight of Nomen's body outmatched the strength of Haru's grasp.
"Ninja Body: Wheel Armor!"
Four daggers materialized around Haru with his new armor, cutting his free in the process. Haru dropped past the barbed vines that made rough grabs at him and made a solid landing on the rubble covered floor. Pushing off, Haru bolted at the Plant mage before she could react and skillfully threw two of his daggers. The polished blades flew over her shoulders, catching a decent amount of her garment and embedded themselves deeply in the pillar behind her. A cry of surprise escaped her lips before a punch to the gut, courtesy of Haru, put her out of the fight.
"What!?" Nomen exclaimed in shock, "Silva! How could you be so weak!? You let a-a brat like him defeat you? Disgraceful!"
Turning towards the enemy mage, Haru saw that was remained of his sword had been reduced to a puddle of silvery goo that possessed a strange green shine around Nomen's feet.
Bob smirked at her. "What's the matter? Too tough for you?"
He took another swing at her with his other hand. She rose her other arm, turning it into titanium this time. The dark mage's claws hit, but didn't dig in to the tougher metal. The other guy, Vacca, launched at her, fists sparking dangerously. April planted her foot hard into Bob's stomach and launched him into his ally. They collided and landed in a heap on the rubble covered floor.
"Nope. I think I'm doing just fine." she quipped.
Both enemies stood up again and bolted towards her. Metal crawled over her skin, coating her in a malleable armor. Vacca reached her first and hit her hard with an explosive blast. It packed a bigger punch than she was expecting and actually made her skid back a bit. She swung a fist at him and connected, but he hit back just as quickly and just as hard. Bob jumped in too, slashing at her armor persistently. April had chosen to make her armor titanium, but she was doubting how long she could keep this up. Both her enemies were determined to beat her and she couldn't count on Haru to back her up.
Haru was having a bit of trouble. Nomen was about as tough as he expected him to be, but the enemy mage was melting through his weapons. Though he wasn't looking too good. Haru had successfully inflicted some nasty wounds on him but Nomen kept coming. Haru guessed he was being propelled by pure rage.
Nomen sent acid attack after acid attack Haru's way, but Haru was nimble enough on his feet to dodge consistently. He'd have to thank Erza for the dancing lessons later.
"You can't dodge forever!" Nomen bellowed, another wave of acid burning across the floor.
Haru jumped over it, landing on the broken remains of a chair. The mage wobbled for a moment, but kept his balance. Which was a good thing since there was a massive puddle of bubbling acid below him. All around him actually.
Oh no. Haru thought, That sneaky punk boxed me in!
The acid was slowly creeping towards the small wooden island Haru stood on, like a predator stalking its prey. Haru started looking for a possible escape route.
"End of the line Fairy brat!" Nomen declared.
Just at that moment, Haru's eyes shot up to the heavy oak beams in the ceiling. Almost directly above him was the hole that Nomen and his crew had made in the ceiling and sticking about a foot into it was the splintered end of a beam. Haru wasn't 100% sure it would hold his weight, but at this point his choices were acid and more acid. Magic shot through his hand as a kyoketsu-shoge appeared in his grip. A strong snap of his wrist sent the blade up into the rafters with the rope trailing behind it like a comet's tail. The blade swung around the beam several times before it lodged itself deeply in the wood. Haru grasped the rope and swung his full weight on it as Nomen's attack sailed past him so close that he could feel the toxic heat against his skin. Above him the beam creaked in protest before a thunderous crack echoed through the large room. The rope suddenly went slack in Haru's hands and he crashed into the floor, unable to make a more graceful landing. Thankfully, he had long passed over the acid moat that had previously cornered him.
Some of the acid had gotten on his knees. It wasn't enough to cause any lasting damage, he didn't think, but it did hurt a bit. However, he didn't have time to linger on the topic as Nomen resumed attacking.
April's fist collided hard with Vacca's jaw. The bone made a sickening crack and the explosion mage fell backwards, out cold. Her right fist throbbed painfully inside its metal casing. She hissed in pain as another stab of pain wrenched through her arm.
"Damn," she cursed under her breath, "I think it's broken."
Behind her, she felt Bob stall. Sluggishly, she turned to face him. Her armor had retracted to cover only her arms. It was all she could manage and even that was a struggle. She could feel the metal trying to fluctuate to something weaker, but she forced it to remain titanium.
These two were blockheads, but they knew how to fight. If it had been one-on-one, April might not have been as magically and physically spent as she was, but in a two-on-one, it was a miracle that she managed to beat one of them while the other was working on her too. But now the playing field was leveled.
Bob slashed at her. She rose her arm and the claws skidded harmlessly off the metal. April noted that his moves were getting sluggish too. This fight was going to be over soon, one way or another and she was determined to be the victor.
