Hello there guys! Thank you to all my reader and reviewers for their support. I just feel surprised that people found this story awesome and I am glad you did. Thanks to my awesome Beta again for his great work! By the way the next chapter might take a while as I am having a huge work load in my job… anyways on with the story!

Normal Speech: "Naruto"

Important or Emphasized Speech: "Naruto"

Thoughts: 'Then I will break that curse. If there is such thing as peace, I will find it. I won't give up!'

Spells canting and Jutsu Names: "Katon Jutsu, Ice Make Shield!"

Demons and Dragons Speech: "Now then... Who do you want to kill...?"

Demons and Dragons Thinking: 'The question is what to do with him…'

Chapter 9: Confrontations

Tuesday, 24th August X784, Magnolia Hospital

Lucy Heartfilia stood at the foot of Team Shadow Gear's beds. She'd struck up a fast friendship with them after its only female member, petite blue-haired Levy McGarden, had revealed a similar love of books and knowledge.

Levy was her first girl friend of the same age.

Lucy felt a special connection to her. She even remembered how they first met…

{Flashback Begins}

"Lu-chan, I heard something interesting about you. You're writing a novel, aren't you?" said Levy as she sat by Lucy's side.

"Uwah… So it got out and I think I know who might have opened their large mouth," said Lucy as a blue wing cat sneezed on his pink hair companion angering him and starting a fight in the guild again.

"My name is Levy, Levy McGarden and I'm 17 years old: just like you, Lu-chan! Also this is Jet and Droy. We are in the same team called Shadow Gear."

"Yo!" greeted Jet as his friend Droy drooled over Lucy saying, "Oh she's so cute."

"I am horrible at writing but I love to read! Could I read your novel sometime, if you don't mind?" inquired the petite bluenette mage.

Lucy not used to attention as a writer shyly said, "N-no… It's not something I can show people yet."

"What are you talking about? Isn't the purpose of a novel to read by the public? Also what's the point in writing one if you aren't going to show anyone?" stated the speed mage.

Droy added his two cents saying, "As they say; being a novelist is like exposing your bare butt in public."

Lucy blushed at his words as she moved her hands to cover her derriere.

Levy enthusiastically said, "Show me! Please show me! Not your butt, I mean."

"I-it's not done yet…" said the Celestial Spirit Mage.

"Then, when you do finish writing it, please let me be the first to read it?" said Levy hopefully.

"O-okay…" was the only thing she could say before the bluenette screamed, "Yay! It's a promise then!"

{Flashback End}

..The Celestial Spirit mage smiled weakly, waxing nostalgic over the memory of her first meeting with Team Shadow Gear. They'd managed to extract a promise from her to read her novel before anyone else, and had cheered so hard that she'd gotten caught up in their sentiments in spite of herself.

Now… now, some of her new friends had gotten hurt.

Tears began to gather in Lucy's eyes at this indignity visited upon her new family. "I can never forgive them, you guys… teach Phantom Lord a lesson that they'll never forget!"

Leaving the hospital once visiting hours were over, she made her way back to the guild hall in short order. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on perspective) for her, the guild was empty. Mirajane was the only one there; the rest of the guild had left to fight Phantom Lord.

Seeing Mirajane's depression made Lucy feel sad, especially since Levy and her teammates were still in the hospital. So she decided to go shopping for groceries as a way to keep herself busy and to not feel so useless. Plus, she wanted to take care of her injured friends, anyway.

By the time she'd finished shopping, it'd suddenly started to rain.

She sighed wearily, about to run for shelter from the storm before she noticed someone walking towards her. The Celestial Spirit mage wondered who exactly would be out in the weather at a time like this.

"Steadily and silently; Juvia is the rain woman, after all…"

Lucy frowned somewhat, her hackles rising in the fact of this strange woman. The young woman calling herself Juvia was a slender, young woman about her age. She had blue hair curled up into tight rolls hanging at the base of her neck under a dark-brown fur hat with a gold butterfly pin, dark-blue eyes, pale skin, and a rather curvaceous figure concealed beneath a knee-length double-breasted coat that had fur-lined cuffs and a furry collar. For some reason, she had a teru teru bōzu attached to her coat.

As Lucy passed her, Juvia asked, "Who are you?"

Caught off guard, Lucy riposted, "Who are you?"

Seemingly ignoring her question, Juvia opened up a pink umbrella. "Steadily and silently," the blue-haired Water Mage repeated. "It was a pleasure. Fare thee well."

Given that most of her friends in the guild could be surprisingly slow-minded, Lucy snapped a little. "Eh?! What was that all about?!" she demanded.

Then a weird male voice could be heard all around her, repeating the word non over and over again. A weird being seemed to grow out of the very ground behind Lucy, quickly revealing himself to be the source of the repetition. He was a slim man of about average height, with a pencil-thin mustache of green hair and similarly-colored hair set in upward spikes from the back of his head. His right eye was hidden behind a monocle attached to a slim chain.

His fashion sense was as bizarre as his face, given that he was wearing a brownish suit with a ragged collar bearing three prominent protrusions jutting outwards on each side. His tie and shoes were plain and unremarkable, but the short opera cape linked to both of his elbows left him cutting a bizarre figure with quite the eccentric sense of personal design.

"Bonjour, with non in a 3-3-7 rhythm," he said aloud, giving Lucy a short bow. Then turning to Juvia, he added, "Juvia-sama, you mustn't abandon your job now."

"Another weirdo?!" the blonde Celestial Spirit mage shrieked at the sight of the strange green-haired man.

"Monsieur Sol," Juvia nodded.

"My monocle," the bizarre man intoned, suddenly appearing at Juvia's side, "…it whispers to me, and it tells me that this mademoiselle is our beloved cible."

"Oh my, so it was this girl?" the blue-haired Water Mage asked.

Lucy was caught by surprise before noticing that they meant that she was their target.

"Pardon my lack of manners," the orange-suited man bowed to her again. "My name is Sol, one of the Element Four. But people call me Sol of the Land, and you may call me Monsieur Sol!"

"So you're from Phantom Lord?" the blonde girl demanded, her fingers hovering over the key ring hanging from her waist.

"Correct!" Sol exclaimed, his body actually wriggling in place like a wind-swept piece of blighted grass. "Both of us have come to collect you for the great Phantom Lord!"

Pointing to his partner, he added, "…and she is the Rain Woman of the Element-Four! Allow me to introduce Juvia of the Sea!"

Lucy scowled. "You're the ones that attacked Levy-chan!" but before she could grab one of her Celestial Spirit keys, her body was surrounded by a large watery ball courtesy of Juvia.

"Non, non, non!" Sol shouted indignantly, stamping a foot like he was actually about to throw a tantrum. "With these three non, I will correct your mistake! Destroying your guild and attacking Levy-sama was all the work of Gajeel-sama!"

Then he trailed off, suddenly introspective. "Well, it's true that all of us in the guild were for the idea, however…" he admitted, fiddling with his moustache.

Lucy thrashed about in her fluidic cage. "What is this?!" she shouted, bubbles of carbon dioxide escaping from her mouth. "Let me go!"

"Juvia's Water Lock cannot be broken."

Spots danced across Lucy's vision. Her lungs burned in a futile quest for air. As darkness overwhelmed her, she knew nothing else.

The Water Lock dispersed itself with a loud splash, as Lucy's unconscious body fell to the ground. "Juvia will not harm you, Lucy Heartfilia. Target acquired."

Sol reached down to sling the unconscious Celestial Spirit Mage over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. The ground seemed to swallow the three of them, leaving Lucy's Celestial Spirit Keys behind as the only trace.

Meanwhile, Phantom Lord was throwing a huge party at their Oak Town headquarters. The beer flowed freely, raucous laughter rang out, and food was being consumed as quickly as it could be set out. The occasional brawl broke out, but quickly petered out in the face of the general atmosphere.

"Dahahaha!" one of Phantom Lord's unremarkable members cackled, a half-eaten drumstick in hand. "Did you see what Gajeel did to those Fairy shits?!"

"Those Fairies got their asses burned really badly!" another one jeered to hooting laughter, red-faced in his near-inebriation while swinging a half-empty tureen about wildly.

A nondescript fat man pulled a long cigar out of his mouth long enough to say, "That's not all I heard. Apparently, Gajeel attacked three of their members only last night!"

"By the way," the first guy added, "…do any of you know who we're not supposed to hurt or touch? Master told you guys earlier while I was sleeping."

"Oh, that person," a thuggish man from another table joined in. "I don't know, actually… Master just told us to stay away, or something like that…"

The first man shrugged, pouring himself a beer and sitting down. "Ahh, whatever!" he sneered, raising his tureen. "Here's to those pathetic Fairies!"

His neighbor cheered with him as well as he added, "I'll bet that they're trembling in their boots right now, with their tails between their legs!"

Suddenly, a massive explosion leveled the front door and sent several people flying across the length of the banquet hall. When the smoke and dust cleared, a distinctive mop of spiky bright-pink hair and an all-too familiar and dreadful mark was the first thing that anyone could see.

Natsu Dragneel stood at the head of an army of angry faces from their most hated enemy; Fairy Tail. A second of eerie silence fell upon the room, as dumbfounded Phantom Lord mages stared at their attackers for a split-second before Natsu charged into the fray with a roar. His friends were quick to follow, and the battle was on.

Fairy Tail's forces might have been outnumbered two-to-one, but their anger was the stuff of legend and more than made up for their lack of numbers.

Five mages attacked Natsu at the same time and a quick Karyū no Yokugeki generated a lashing explosion that sent the peons flying. "Anyone will do!" he roared, feeling cocky as usual. "Bring it on!" Several more mages charged at him, but a quick Karyū no Tekken set them on fire and hurled them back into their comrades.

Erza was on a roll. Her superhuman strength and her swordsmanship skills decimated everyone who threw themselves at her. She didn't exactly give mercy, but she was plowing through their ranks like a scythe through wheat. Single sword strikes would generate vacuum blades that tore up everything in sight, sending mages flying everywhere. Some even crashed into their comrades and bowled them over like tenpins.

Meanwhile, Naruto was moving through the battlefield like a war god. Nobody in Phantom Lord could see anything more than a flash of yellow before they were hit with overwhelming concussive force. He'd restricted himself to taijutsu because everything else in his arsenal was designed for death and destruction; not exactly well-received in Fiore. The few mages who actually got close enough to try hitting him were promptly frozen in place with his killing intent and even fell unconscious spontaneously.

Phantom Lord's rank-and-file were terrified. Fairy Tail's assault couldn't have come at a worse time, and both the infamous Titania and the fleet-footed Demon King were leading the assault. Nobody could touch these two, never mind being able to actually launch their attacks. The two of them were knocking out their opponents in record-time single blows fueled by superhuman strength and were still holding themselves back.

Even as Erza continued to cut down her opponents mercilessly, she was coordinating her attacks with Naruto. Changing her weapons and fighting styles on the fly, the two of them were cutting down mages left and right with vicious improvised combo attacks.

Gray was freezing enemies left and right in their tracks with Ice Make: Spray while blasting those behind him with Ice Make: Lance, generating a forest of icy spears that pierced feet, calves, and even thighs that left various enemy mages screaming in pain.

Loke was using his Ring Magic, throwing tornadoes and twisters at those who dared attack his guild. Between the sweeping dust plumes that sand-blasted everything within reach, and the debris that pummeled everything else, he was causing a great deal of damage.

Between Macao Conbolt's Purple Flare: Purple Net and Wakaba Mine's Smoke Magic: Smoke Crush, a doubly-effective combination attack saw solidified violet flame wrapping up a dozen enemy mages in a single deployment. Right before fists made of corporeal smoke lashed out and pummeled the Phantom Lord rank-and-file into unconsciousness.

The guild's resident gunslinger, Alzack Connell, knocked out a lot of them with his Guns Magic, firing bursts of ball lightning and electrocuting everyone he hit. He sighed, flipping open the loading chamber of his weapon in order to reload it. He would've been blindsided by an opportunistic Phantom Lord mage armed with some kind of club if not for Fairy Tail's resident sniper, his partner Bisca Mulan and her own gun-type Kansō magic.

Even Natsu's pet flying cat Happy was fighting, smacking Phantom Lord mages around with a large fish in each of his stubby little paws.

In a Darwinistic display of idiocy, a number of Phantom Lord's mages attacked Makarov, having underestimated him because of his old age. He suddenly grew in size, to a point where his head nearly scraped the room's ceiling before crushing everyone who attacked him. One of his victims exclaimed, "He's a monster!"

"You laid your hands on this monster's children!" Makarov bellowed, his voice shaking dust loose from the ceiling. "Don't think any human laws will protect you!"

Naruto, who was scanning the entire battlefield while still fighting, suddenly noticed that none of the Elemental Four were there. He was puzzled. Why would Phantom Lord not want to deploy its aces in an assault like this?

But he did notice the presence of the same mage who'd attacked Team Shadow Gear, and suddenly his questions were driven out of his mind by way of having to crush some random thug's nose.

Makarov cleared a path for himself with only his magical power; a testament to his sheer power. Not forgetting his children, he shouted into the fray, "Erza, you and Naruto are responsible for the fight here. I'll go face Jose and finish this." Having said his piece, he made his way up to where he could sense his fellow Wizard Saint.

He didn't stay behind long enough to hear the two of them yell their affirmatives back to him. He was so angry that his magic lashed out like whips, smashing apart everything in his way. Each step seemed to cause a new earthquake, terrifying Phantom Lord's members out of their wits while encouraging Fairy Tail's army to fight even harder in the face of their master's wrath. His magic energy was spiking to unbelievable heights as he stomped his way towards Phantom Lord's master, Jose Porla.

As soon as the third Master of Fairy Tail left the battlefield, a shadow fell upon Phantom Lord's logo and crushed it, releasing a large cloud of dust and debris. Naruto knew the figure's identity immediately, recognizing his distinct energy signature as being identical to the metal pillars that had destroyed their guildhall.

Appearing behind Erza with Shunshin no jutsu, he said, "Hey, Benihime-chan, that Gajeel guy just showed up. I'll take him on, you manage the battle."

She frowned somewhat, waiting for the dust cloud to clear. Her eyes widened as she recognized the figure emerging from the fading dust cloud. "Iron Dragon Slayer, Kurogane Gajeel… that could only be him."

Gajeel Redfox cut quite the imposing figure. Gajeel is a tall and muscular young man with long, spiky black hair, which he kept slicked back, revealing his forehead. He had red eyes with slitted dark pupils and no visible eyebrows.

As proof of being a Dragon Slayer he has a much longer and shaper canine teeth than normal. Most of his exposed body is covered in sets of simple, round studs. The most visible studs are on his face, with three of them above each of his eyes, acting as "eyebrows" of a sort, three on each side of his nose, and two on his chin, just below his mouth. His ears are adorned by two sets of five earrings each. He also sports four studs on each of his forearms, with his right one being covered in scars. He bore the mark of the Phantom Lord stamp on his right shoulder.

He announced himself by slamming Nab Lasaro and Warren Rocko of Fairy Tail down to the ground with his Tetsu no Metsuryū Mahō and incidentally knocked out whichever of his teammates who just happened to get in his way. His lips curled into a sneering grin. "Hey there, scum!" he jeered. "Come get me! The Iron Dragon Slayer, Gajeel-sama, at your service!"

Naruto, who'd relied on sheer physical ability to punch out his opponents up until then, was quick to realize that he'd have to infuse his fists with chakra before he could hurt the iron mage significantly. But Elfman took the lead, charging recklessly as he shouted, "I might be trash, but I'm a man!"

He jumped up high, a fist curled back and ready to swing in with a punch as his right arm changed to a scaly lizard-like arm. Between the speed of his partial transformation, and his reckless charge, all Gajeel had to do to defend himself was to convert his left arm into an iron slab. "Huh. So you're Elfman," the Iron Dragon Slayer observed.

Elfman only just dodged Gajeel's right jab, with a quick Tetsuryūkon, by tilting his head to the right. A left hook produced similar results, so the Iron Dragon Slayer kicked out with a Tetsuryūkon-enhanced leg sweep. But Elfman grabbed the iron-hardened leg quite easily, actually amusing Gajeel enough for him to declare, "Not bad."

"A man must be strong." Elfman grinned.

"Then how about this?" Gajeel demanded, just as pillars of iron shot out of his ankles and lashed out indiscriminately at both his enemies and allies.

The masculinity-obsessed mage was furious. "Damn you!" he snarled, glancing out at the devastation. "You'd even attack your own comrades?!"

"Where d'ya think you're lookin'?" Gajeel sneered, a Tetsuryūkon-enhanced arm punching Elfman in the face. Now bleeding from a grazed head and a split lip, his reckless charge was interrupted as Natsu used his head as a spring board to charge at Gajeel, fists ablaze.

The reckless Fire Dragon Slayer surprised Gajeel enough that he let the fiery punch actually land on him, and the vicious blow to his jaw sent him flying across the room and crashing into the bar. Without looking back, Natsu said, "Elfman, leave me this guy to me!"

"Why you little…!" the Beast Arm of Fairy Tail sputtered indignantly. "Not only do you use me like a floor mat, but now you want to take my manly one-on-one fight as well?!"

Gajeel threw himself back into the fight with a Tetsuryūkon that Natsu caught but was pushed back several feet. As he struggled to keep himself from being overtaken by the iron club, the pink-haired Fire Dragon Slayer growled, "This guy busted up the guild and hurt Levy, Jet and Droy!"

Suddenly, his magic power blazed anew and covered his entire being in a reddish-orange flame aura. A deep roar of effort emerged from deep in his lungs as he grabbed the long club, just before he threw the iron pillar skyward. Gajeel retracted the Tetsuryūkon as he hit a ceiling rafter, pushing himself back down towards Natsu.

Already prepared, the hothead blocked Gajeel's punch with his left hand and slammed his right fire-fist into Gajeel's jaw, sending him flying across the room and into a wall. The resulting explosion left his body covered by rubble.

Grimacing, Elfman shouted, "Natsu! I'll let you have that manly battle! But in return…"

"Of course! I'll knock him good!"

"That didn't affect me at all!" the Iron Dragon Slayer sneered as he crawled out from his impromptu cairn. "Is that all you've got, Salamander?"

"Doesn't look like that to me." Natsu scoffed. "This is just a friendly hello from one dragon to another."

Just as the two of them were about to clash again, a massive tremor shook the entire hall amidst a massive blast of magical lightning.

Fairy Tail's warriors knew exactly who was causing such damage; their master Makarov.

Cheers rang out as their fighting spirit had been bolstered.

Erza however, was not as reassured as they were. "Be careful, my…" but her next words were never heard, as the cacophony of the clashing magic rang out.

To be continued…