Shen, along with Team Natsu, and Erica, make their way to the Fountain of Dragons.

Chapter 9 Start

Shen walked in front of the group, leading the way from a map in his mind. He did have a horrible sense of direction but the map was detailed enough and basically would warn him immediately if a mistake was made. He was focusing solely on where he was going, not listening to much of the talk behind him.

"Erica, why did you want to come? Just to be with Shen?" Gray asked "It's dangerous if any of the D.E.C attack us on the way."

"I know, but I was afraid Shen would disappear again."

Shen stopped , causing the others to stop "Why would I disappear again?" He asked "I've found a place with people that can be trusted for the time being and I'm sure they will assist me in taking them down." Shen turned now "You are putting yourself in needless danger, and causing the others and myself to protect you, stopping us from taking them out as soon as possible." Shen sighed "Never mind, let's keep moving." Erica and her mother had met him at the gate and convinced Shen to allow her to come along, he only agreed because they wouldn't give up until he said yes, and he was in a hurry to find the place. He hadn't explained the purpose of this trip yet since they had left barely an hour ago.

"Shen, when are you going to tell us where you are headed to train?" Lucy asked.

Shen once again stopped "In time, now if it isn't to much trouble I don't want anyone to talk to me. I need to focus on the path we need to take. One thing goes wrong and we will never find it." Shen once again started walking, keeping his eyes closed as he did.


Nightfall had arrived and they decided to set up camp in a flat plain. Natsu had used his magic to light a campfire which everyone was around except Shen who was pacing back and forth around the camp. After 20 minutes or so of doing it he came over to Erza.

"I don't like this." He told her.

"Don't like what?" She asked

"The D.E.C is very wide spread, and in a flat plain like this, our camp is quite noticeable, and even if it's not members of the D.E.C it could be bandits or thieves."

"Calm down Shen, we will have people on watch and we have a wide view as well."

He seemed overly nervous as he turned towards the plain stretching out to the north and his hand moved to his yellow crystal earring "I don't like this place...nothing good will come from camping here." He said in a low growl "I can feel it..." He said looking around before finally sitting down.

"So Shen, are you going to explain now?" Natsu asked, seeming rather calm.

"I guess so." He said clearing his throat "We are heading to The Fountain of Dragons. I have no idea what my training will consist of, but I'm sure it won't be anything I can't handle."

"How do you know this place exists if you have no idea what you need to do?" Gray asked.

"Igneel contacted me last night. I have a map in my mind, which is why I have to focus while walking."

"Wait! Igneel contacted you?!" Natsu shouted.

"He more or less entered my dream or forced my mind to enter a space where we could come face to face and talk, but either way he can only contact me since I am not a pure human. Anyway he gave me an image of the area, the way to open the entrance and the way to get there, but it's quite an annoying path. You need to follow the path exactly or we will never reach the area. Once we enter a certain area we will be safe from the D.E.C but for now we are still vulnerable."

"H-how do you know all this?" Wendy asked.

"It came with the location. I have gained information along with this training area, but I don't know everything about it."

"So we are going in a little blind?" Erica asked.

Shen laid down on his back "Yup. No idea what we are going to find but we will find something, and we all have to prepared for that."

"Well then we should all get some rest." Erza said "I'll take first watch." she said, leaving no room for debate. Everyone get comfortable to try and sleep.

"Erza" Shen said "Wake me for second watch."

"Are you sure? You're the one that needs sleep the most."

"I'm sure Erza. Not sure I will be able to sleep in an area like this anyway." He said as he walked away. He walked up to a tree before jumping into it and lying back against the trunk "I need to calm down...nothing is here and this feeling is just unease." Shen closed his eyes and he must have fallen asleep at some point because he awoke to Erza's voice from below.

"Shen, your watch." He jumped down "Why were you sleeping in a tree?" She asked.

"It felt right I guess. Get some rest." He told her walking to the edge of their camp where the plain stretched furthest. He sat there motionless, looking for anything that seemed off, but he couldn't see anything as far as his heightened senses could tell, yet his nervousness and unease grew. Finally after an hour he stood up and walked a little further into the plains, all his senses ready for anything to happen. He walked a few yards and still nothing happened.

He sighed "I'm an idiot. I'm a Dracian, and yet I'm scared of nothing." He was about to turn back when he saw something. It looked like a sapling, yet there was only this one in the whole plain. He walked closer to it, but as he got closer the ground started to shake and he jumped back, not knowing what to expect. He moved a fair distance back before seeing that the ground he was standing on was rising, until it formed a golem of grass, mud and stone, towering over Shen at 20ft.

"Maybe this is the source of my unease, not that this is that big a problem for me." He said as he formed a ball of Dragonfire in his hand "Nothing can stand up to the heat of Dragonfire." He said as he whipped it at the golem's head. The golem was quick, despite it's size and it grabbed the fireball in one muddy hand. Shen waited a moment before realizing that the fireball did and would not do anything.

"So mud isn't effected by it...or at least that much mud." Shen muttered. The golem attacked now, sending a stream of mud from it's hand. Shen flipped backwards avoiding the stream of mud, except for a bit that hit his right hand. As he landed back on his feet he shook his hand trying to get it off, but it didn't release his arm, so instead he decided to burn it off, but as he expected the mud prevented him from even using fire.

"It must be enchanted somehow to prevent magic from being used." Shen said as the golem took a step towards him, shaking the ground as it did "Well I don't my hand to use this." Shen said to himself as his wings formed onto his back. He took to the air, taking note of the golem's appearance. It's right side was mud and dirt while the left side was mostly stone. The sapling that he had seen before was on it's head.

"No weak point as far as I can tell. Well I guess I will just attack it constantly then." Shen turned his left hand into a claw and fire covered it, combining his transformation and fire magic. He flew at it and slashed at the stone half of it's body, cutting deep into the stone.

"So it's not indestructible." Shen said as he flew back a little. Suddenly the golem's left hand lashed out, smacking Shen out of the air, as if he was no more then a pesky fly, and into the ground. Shen slowly pushed himself up.

"That fucking hurt." He stood and tried to take to the air again, but his a shock of pain went through his wings and he cursed as he forced them to disappear "Won't be flying anymore today..." He jumped back and unleashed a large stream of fire at the golem, hoping it would melt the stones on half of it's body, unfortunately he was not so lucky and the golem was unharmed by the flames "How the fuck am I supposed to beat this thing if it can stand up to my flames?" Shen asked himself, trying to figure something out before the golem tired stomping on him and Shen responded by stopping the foot with his hands, with almost no effort "I'm pretty stupid I guess. I'm a Dracian, I don't only have fire and the gift of flight to use against my enemies!" He said as he quickly pushed the foot upwards, causing the golem to lose balance as it crashed into the ground. Shen reacted quickly, jumping onto the fallen golem's stone side and his claw appeared on his left hand, since the mud prevented his other hand from changing. He stabbed the claw into the stone, breaking through it, and he repeated this process as he moved higher on the golem. As he reached near the head he stopped.

"Is this done then?" he looked over the holes he had left before the golem started getting up "How the hell? This thing doesn't react to the damage I caused...how do I..." his voice trailed off as his eyes drifted to the sapling on the top of the golem's head "Maybe..." He closed the distance between himself and the sapling, grabbing it with his left hand, and he ripped it from the golems head, roots and all. The golem made a loud unexplainable sound as it broke apart, as it fused back into the ground and the mud around Shen's right hand dissolved, allowing him to use magic through it again.

"Now that I took it down, why was it here?" Shen asked himself as he walked back to the campsite "I doubt that it was just sitting there waiting for a traveler to wander by." He got back to the campsite and took his seat at the edge of the campsite again as he got lost in his thoughts. After a few hours the sun rose, blinding him for a moment and breaking him from his trance for a moment.

"Shen, you're still awake?" Erza asked him from behind.

"I am. Even though I should have woken someone else by now, but I have too much on my mind at the moment." Shen said, not standing and turning to her.

"About where we are heading?"

"No, about how I was attacked last night." Before Erza could ask what he meant, he started to explain.

"In the middle of the plain a golem attacked you?" She asked to reconfirm what she was told.

"Yes. I took it down, with minor injury. Anyway, we should get moving again." He said.

"All right. I'll wake the others." Erza said.


They had started off again, and Shen had already told the others what had happened the night before. Shen once again had his eyes closed, reading the map implanted into his mind as he closed off the conversations taking place between the members behind him. He had told all of them to watch out for enemies as he focused and only to talk to him if it was absolutely necessary. Shen finally stopped after a while and took a look at the surroundings, the sun just setting. They had entered a mountainous region a while back, and Shen only known from the map that only he had access to.

"We can take a break for now, but we need to travel a little further until we are out of the mountains so we can arrive at our destination by noon tomorrow. Also, be ready in case anything like the golem that attacked me appears again."

"If anything like that appears again, I'll take it down myself!" Natsu shouted.

"Unless it can stand up to flames like the last one did." Gray said, mocking Natsu.

Shen went to his knees placing one hand to his forehead, seemingly in pain.

"Are you okay?" Erica asked coming to his side.

"I'm fine...my head just hurts a bit. Mostly from having to read the map." Shen said as he got his feet and then sat on a nearby rock, a little dazed.

"I could try and ease the pain, if you want me to." Wendy offered.

Shen shook his head "I'll be fine, just have to rest a little." After about 20 minutes Shen stood again "We have to go a little further." Shen repeated "I want to be there as soon as possible."

"It's almost dark out Shen." Lucy said "It's already pretty dark. Does it really matter how fast we get there?"

Shen sighed "If my heightened sense I could handle it, but I guess we can stop for the-" Shen's body tensed up "That smell. Dammit, prepare for a fight!" All the mages were on their feet within a second and 5 people landed on the rocks above them.

"Well, it seems tracking you is the easy part of our job." One of them said.

"The D.E.C... you are quite easy to sense now that I have grown to know the smell of your weapons." Shen said, not really looking at them.

"We knew we would be detected by you when we got close."

Erza stepped back so she was close to Shen "Once the battle starts, you have to retreat and continue on. Wendy and Natsu will track your scent after we deal with them." she whispered.

"Are you sure you can handle them?" he whispered back.

"Their weapons won't effect us as much as they will you, and if they have magic we will match them with our own."

"All right. Protect Erica."

"We will."

"So half-breed, are you going to fight against your death again?" one of them asked.

Shen ignored the name and shot a stream of fire at one of the members, barely missing "Does that answer you?"

"Clearly. We were ordered to kill you. Everyone, attack!" The five members of the D.E.C jumped down and the Fairy Tail mages engaged.

"Shen, now!" Erza shouted.

"Right. Thanks." Shen said taking off through the mountain, hearing shouts behind him as he ran as fast as he could. The mountain started to lead him downwards getting steeper the further he went, almost tripping him, but he kept his balance, hoping the others could hold them off and defeat them. He finally reached the bottom of the mountain to be greeted by a forest and he closed his eyes, checking the map.

"The middle of the forest. That's where I need to go."

"So that's where you are heading?" A voice called out and Shen turned, meeting eyes with one of the 5 D.E.C members.

"You followed me. How did you find me this far out?"

"You think the members of the Dracian Extermination Clan don't know about The Fountain of Dragons?"

"You know about it...how?"

"Well it is true that none of us have been able to enter it in our history, for the few that have found it, the D.E.C knew of it's existence, but until now none of the members knew of it's location. Now we do, thanks to you."

"Too bad, you won't be able to relay this information." Shen said as his teeth changed into fangs.

"As expected. You are going to try and take me out quickly. Too bad for you I can handle you easily."
"Where's your weapon then?" Shen asked, eyes changing as well.

"My magic will be more then enough."

"You are quite confident." Shen said shooting a wave of fire at him. He dodged and one of the trees of the forest was hit, but was not set aflame.

"Fireproof trees." The D.E.C member told him "Nothing can destroy this forest, you are not the same through. Acidic Burst!" A magic circle appeared under Shen and a geyser of pale green liquid came up, covering Shen. He ran through the liquid, his body smoking slightly.

"Acid..."

"Correct. I use Acid Magic. Not even your body can stand up to it."

"Heh, you make it sound like you are going to beat me. Humans can't stand up to flames."

"Yet if they don't hit they do nothing."

"The same goes for your acid." Shen said as he pushed off the ground and tackled him to the ground "Flames are not needed for someone like you though." Shen's hands once again changed to claws "Now you can die!" Shen stabbed through the man's chest but instantly pulled back and jumped back as the man burst into acid.

"How did you like my Acid Clone?" the member said from behind him.

"It didn't damage me, but I would have rather it have been you so I could have taken you out."

"I'm not an easy human to take out. You will have to do much better to take me down."

"Easily done." Shen responded as his wings sprouted from his back and a tail from the base of his spine "Good enough?"

"We'll have to find out. Acid Rain!" A cloud of gas arose from the ground the man was standing and it formed a cloud over Shen, before starting to let out drops of acid like rain. Shen took a defensive position, using his wings to cover as much of his body as he could.

"Seems like my wings are immune to your acid."

"Yes. But they are not immune to this!" He said as he drew a dagger from his pocket and threw it at Shen's wing, cutting right through it.
"Fuck!" Shen moved his wings instinctively, causing the acid rain to hit his body.

"I never said I had no weapons with your weakness."

The acid kept pouring in Shen for a few moments before something changed. As the acid hit him, it did not burn his skin, but instead evaporated.

"How is my acid evaporating?!"

"You have caused my anger to rise, my my blood is now literally boiling in my veins. Anything around me will now burn." As Shen said that he took a step forward, burning the ground underfoot. The man took a step back.

"What's wrong?" Shen asked with a smirk on his face "I thought my body was no match for your acid."

"No normal being would be. But Dracians are freaks and should be destroyed from this world."

"You say that, yet if no one tried to kill me, I would have no reason to fight back." Shen appeared and grabbed the man by the throat, burning him with his heated blood "And I wouldn't have to kill so many people either." He held the man up until he went limp and then he dropped him, his throat, red with blood, throat melted. Shen caused his transformation to undo and then fall to the ground, leaning back against a tree.

"I didn't escape unharmed...I took a few injuries." Shen stood up "but I'm going to keep moving. The others can catch up whenever they can." He stood up and walked into the forest, getting ever closer to his destination.

Chapter 9 End