AN: I just realised that I forgot about Lily and Carla in chapter 9! So let's pretend that I didn't and that they are away for a few days visiting the other Exceeds. Okay? Okay!
Also, please make sure to read chapter 9, it is an actual chapter now instead of an author's note…
Now, on with the story!
Normal P.O.V.
The situation for Evergreen, Freed, and Laxus did not look good. The three of them could not land any attacks because of a strange blue shield which reflected magical attacks and stopped physical ones from doing damage. Bickslow and Gray had headed off to help Gajeel after seeing that they were of no help, and Erza had disappeared somewhere with her own opponent.
Evergreen had taken the most damage, having reacted too slowly to the first incoming explosive Lacrima. As a result, her wings had been shredded, and she could not regenerate them for another twenty minutes. The other two had managed to dodge most of the incoming attacks but were still fairly roughed up.
As the ice wall shot up between the three mages and the machine, the Shikigami Mage(1) facing Evergreen jolted back, mid attack, from the sudden appearance. The distraction, however, did not cause his attack to veer away from Evergreen. With her wings damaged, Evergreen knew she wouldn't be fast enough to dodge completely. But maybe… Evergreen thought.
"Fairy Bomb: Gremlin!" Evergreen cried out, using a small scale explosion to propel herself backwards and away from the paper. Evergreen coughed as she rolled and then stood up shakily, rallying herself into battle stance again.
"Oh poppet, it's a pity that I'm about to kill you. I'd love more time to play with your luscious body." A perverted grin split the mages face as he stepped closer to her. Laxus growled in anger, how dare he talk to Ever like that!
Laxus' break in concentration cost him, as a jet of fire seared across his back. He zapped into his lightning form, which temporarily blinded his opponent and struck him hard from behind, sending the mage flying. The trajectory sent him hurtling into Evergreens attacker, knocking them both to the ground but leaving them unscathed.
"You okay Ever?" Laxus asked.
"I've been better," Evergreen replied with a wince as their attackers stood to their feet again. A wave of flame sent the two scattering from one another. Whilst Evergreen managed to avoid the worst of the spell by tumbling to the side, Laxus was forced to flash away as the flames licked across his chest. As Laxus phased back, he cast a sideways glance at Freed who was darting around his combatant, drawing runes as he did.
"You useless scum, if you're not going to use your sword to fight me, you could at least make a single working rune." The mage shouted, trying to bait Freed into a direct assault.
"You're a fool to underestimate a Fairy Tail mage," Freed replied, his usual stoic face in place.
"Then show me a rune," The mage yelled as he thrust his hands forward aiming a volley of keen edged leaves towards Freed.
"Just one?" Freed replied an eyebrow raised in mock confusion, as the purple rune wall flared to life stopping the leaves in their tracks, leaving the mage in shock.
"You won't stop us!" The mage spat on the rune wall. "The Device will destroy you all!"
"Do not underestimate Fairy Tail." Freed repeated in a calm voice, with hardened eyes before flying towards Evergreen.
The fire Mage facing Laxus seemed to realise that something was up when Freed arrived at Evergreen's side. His eyes scanned around for the mage that Freed had been fighting, only to find him captured.
"You won't capture me, you light guild scum!" The fire mage shrieked as his hands began to glow before fire erupted from his body. A volley of fire balls, rained down around the three Fairy Tail mages, obliterating trees and sending showers of dirt into the air. Freed managed to lift Evergreen up, swinging out wide, where the fire was less concentrated.
The mage seemed to have lost control of his powers. Fire spewed all around him, and the Fairy Tail mages were doing all they could to keep from being severely burned. Laxus glanced towards Freed and Evergreen, who were struggling to dodge the flames raining down around them. A growl rumbled through Laxus' chest.
"Hey, Flame-looser!"Laxus yelled to catch the mages attention.
"What did you call me, you piece of trash?" The flames grew hotter, turning from red to blue, as the mage released a battle cry into the air. Laxus used the mages anger as a distraction. He shot towards the Fire Mage in his lightning form, landing a fierce hit to the mages chest.
A cough bubbled up from the Mages throat as he tumbled backwards, blood oozing from between his lips. The other two mages looked on in horror, realizing that their shield was no longer active. The fire guttered out leaving a decimated landscape around them, the wall seemingly the only thing intact within 50 meters.
A fearsome grin lit up Evergreens face as Freed placed her back down. The Shikigami mage flinched back, his bravado leaving him now that he was no longer protected.
"Looks like we're on even terms now," she said, taking a step towards the man who had wanted to use her body. "Fairy Machine gun: Leprechaun!" The explosive needles threw him backwards and into a tree, where he crumpled to the ground.
Laxus grinned towards his two friends as they lugged the two now unconscious mages into Freed's rune barrier with the third man. A few moments later a strange crunching sound came from the other side of the wall. The three mages tensed upon hearing it.
"Gajeel!" The cry echoed from over the wall. Laxus' eyes widened as he looked to his friends before he disappeared in a flash, his lighting form arcing over the wall. Freed and Evergreen were not far behind, as Freed flew them both up and over the wall.
Gajeel P.O.V.
Everywhere hurt, yet at the same time nothing hurt. I could feel my heart rapidly thumping, the echoes filling my ears making it sound as if a thousand drums were beating all at once. The scent of blood filled my nostrils, but whether it was mine or somebody else's I had no clue. None of it seemed real; it was like I was watching a gore movie on Lacrima-vision. A really terrible gore movie where I was the star. These random thoughts of gore movies didn't seem to be helping my predicament.
I watched as my body tried to escape the metal that had fallen on me. One leg was tucked up to my chest and was probably broken the other was out straight as I lay slightly on my side. I sucked in a shallow breath, as I struggled to keep my iron scales activated. They were the only thing keeping the piece of metal lodged in my back from being pushed further into me. My lungs were feeling the strain and I knew that I would die if the metal went any deeper.
I could feel the blood oozing from a ridiculous number of wounds. I would probably bleed out before the others got to me. The burning intensified in my lungs, if I didn't bleed out soon I would be crushed to death.
A slight whimper escaped my mouth. I would never see Levy again. Never get the chance to tell her that maybe; just maybe I had feelings for her. I'd never see Lily again either. My brave cat, who was off visiting the other Exceeds. I wished for a moment that he hadn't been, then maybe I wouldn't be in this mess. Then again, I'm glad that he's not. He's safe with the other Exceed, not pinned down and dying like me.
The pain in my chest heightened, but I couldn't tell whether it was emotional or physical. It seemed to hurt just the same either way. There was a lot of creaking all around me, as though somebody was digging through the metal around me. I heard someone swear, it could have been Laxus, he could probably smell that I was bleeding out.
There seemed to be a lot more light than there should be around me. Wasn't everything supposed to go dark when you died?
"Gajeel, can you hear me?" Someone asked and a hand grabbed onto mine. I wanted to say yes, but all I did was make a wheezing sound as my hand gripped theirs back.
"We need to get him to Wendy." Somebody else said.
"No, we won't be able to free him in time. Laxus can you bring Wendy here?" The first voice asked.
"I'll be back soon, it shouldn't take too long to find her." Laxus said, their voices were becoming clearer now. I supposed that meant I didn't have much time left. There was a flash of light, and everything seemed a lot darker afterwards.
"Gajeel, do you trust me?" It was that first voice again. Gray. My eyes instinctively sought out his, I didn't know what I was looking for though, probably some kind of intangible thing. Did I trust him? Of course I trusted him. I trusted every one of those wacked out people I called guild mates.
A vague semi twist of my neck seemed to satisfy Gray, as he leant back and released my hand. A sudden fear of being all alone swept through me. There seemed to be a lot of talking around me, but it had all gone distant and echoed disjointedly. I wondered briefly what Gray was going to do. He was certainly no healer.
Everything went cold. Ice crystals formed on the metal structure around me. Panic pulsed through me, as Ice began to encase me. Gray called my name and I locked my eyes onto his as though my life was depending in it, which in a way, it was. The temperature dropped further and the metal around me groaned as it shrank due to the change.
Gray grit his teeth and I could see sweat beading on his forehead due to the amount of magic he was probably using. It froze almost instantly. There was a shout of something, but whether it was actual words or just gibberish, I had no clue. I was almost completely encased in ice now, only my face was free.
Pain blossomed within me and the weight on my back decreased. My mouth opened to howl with pain, but no sound came out. There was a strange crunching sound and all the weight left on my back disappeared. More pain sliced through my system. It was too cold. I had to get out. The cold was killing me. It was more painful than the metal. I tried thrashing around, but I couldn't free myself from the ice. I was too weak.
A warm hand touched my face, and the warmth quickly spread through me, then the darkness pulled me under.
Normal P.O.V.
Wendy rushed forward as soon as she felt Laxus' lighting teleport set her down upon the ground. She felt a little disconcerted but the lightning, but she didn't have time to dwell on it. Her hands instantly reached out to Gajeel, a green glow pulsing gently on her fingertips.
Gajeel lay on his stomach; Gray had stretched out his broken leg, so that it could be set properly when Wendy healed him. The ice which was formerly encasing him, now only covered up the wound on his back to staunch the blood. As the green glow of Wendy's healing magic flowed over his wound, the ice began to melt. Once Gajeel's lungs and all the bone and muscles had been properly repaired the ice hand melted fully, leaving only a thin sheen of water over the unhealed skin. Wendy sat back panting slightly from all the magic she had performed.
"I'll bandage this over for now, along with his leg. I'm sorry, I just don't have the magic right now." Wendy said, her eyes drooping, as she reached for the bag or medical supplies she had had Laxus carry.
"It's okay Wendy," Freed assured the young girl. "I'll bandage Gajeel, you need to rest, you've used up quite a lot of magic today."
"Bu-" Wendy went to protest, but stopped when she felt a hand on her head.
"You need to rest Wendy." Gray said, looking as tired as she was. Wendy nodded her head and Gray led her a small distance away to where his shirt and jacket lay crumpled on the ground. He spread the jacket out at the base of a tree, and motioned for Wendy to lie down. Gray then rolled up his shirt and gave it to her to use as a pillow.
"Thank you," Wendy murmured, her eyes sliding shut. Gray sat down beside her, leaning against the trunk of the tree and closed his eyes, falling asleep easily.
AN: Originally, Gajeel was going to die, but it just didn't sit well with me killing him off. So instead of him dying, you will get a side chapter for this story. It will be uploaded as a separate story sometime next month.
Thanks again to my wonderful boyfriend for helping me improve my fight scenes. (If you had seen the rough drafts you would have cringed with horror.)
Also, thank you to everyone who voted on my lipogram poll! Alzack x Lucy won! I'm not sure when the story will be completed but it will hopefully be sometime in the next couple of months, but definitely before the end of the year.
(1) Shikigami Magic is a kind of paper magic, also used by Ivan Dryer. This mage however is less experienced and less powerful.