Straw Hat Among Fairies

by OnePieceFan2

While traveling through the New World, The Straw Hats are attacked by the Marines and are forced to escape a devastating cyclone. However, Luffy is injured during the fight and is sucked into the cyclone. When he awakens, he soon finds himself in a strange new world of magic and in the craziest guild in the world, Fairy Tail. Luffy/Harem.

10. Arrivals

Straw Hat Among Fairies

Ch. 10 Arrivals!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this story. One Piece belongs to Eichiro Oda and Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima. The only things I own are original characters and this story. Both mangas and their characters belong to their respective owners listed above.

Author's Notes: Hey, everyone long time no see! It's been a few weeks since the last chapter but I managed to get this done in less than a month! A new personal best considering my track record with the last few chapters.

This chapter may be shorter than the last one but I can definitely assure you this will be just as action packed as the last one with more to come considering this chapter's ending…

Before we get to it, let me just respond to all the reviews I got since the last chapter in the order they were posted.

Nguyentantan2001: I'm glad you feel that way!

R-king93: Thanks!

Ricc850: Thanks! There might be a Gear Fifth for Luffy down the road but that all depends on what Oda can come up with considering all of his Gears have always been based on parts of Devil Fruit abilities. It'll take some real imagination to think of what it might be but there's always a chance it'll happen.

OBSERVER01: I'm glad you found this interesting!

DJ Rodriguez: I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter! As for how Cattleya knows about Haki it's a secret. In addition, it's not about who Luffy sensed but what as you'll soon find out down below. Cattleya doesn't know Luffy has the rarest kind of Haki. If she did, she would've killed everyone in that auction house except for Ikaruga and would've taken Luffy for herself.

Chrome Cheetah: I'm glad you're enjoying the dynamic between these two! Yeah Luffy knows about what Ultear is doing to the crew in the dining hall but doesn't care about it. After all, he's used to such brutality from Zoro and Robin.

MASSEXPLOSION: I'm glad you like it!

Ranger Station Charlie: Thanks. You're not the first person to point that out about the hypnosis so I'll definitely keep that in mind from now on.

AnimeWarrioress 359: I hope the PM I sent you explained everything.

Guest1: Daisy is a member of the same species as Lily so yes, it is one and that's all you're getting from me about it right now. Chelia probably won't recognize him right off the bat as she's 10 months old right but she'll probably a feeling she knows him from somewhere but won't be able to figure it out on her own. I'm also glad you're enjoying what I'm doing so far here!

Zaralann: Thanks and here's more!

Michael Dorsey: I'm glad you're enjoying the story that much! As for your questions, I'll start with the first one and say that it's kind of yes-and-no. Yes for we will see some allies but not all of them as several of them have their own things to do. For the thing about Ultear in the court house probably not at first glance… About Natsu… that's a really good question considering his unique origins and unlike the other Etherious Demons, Zeref probably used his little brothers corpse as a basis… This will take some thinking so I'll keep this in mind for the rest of the story. About the Zeobra thing, its pure coincidence that it matched up with the reviving abilities of Awakened Zoans as I meant for the Zeobra to be a precursor to what kind of abilities to expect from certain enemies down the line.

Mugiwara NO Luffy: I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter and how I've been writing Ultear! I'll definitely continue to stay true to her character as she progresses with Luffy and the rest of the harem!

Nispi: Has it been a year already? Man time sure can fly by when you least expect it so I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Te. Nellis: Thanks and don't worry I'll definitely keep this up!

Guest2: That it does and thanks, it is always good to be back.

Serpentguy: Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter! Now to answer your question... Now about how One Piece lore fits into Fairy Tail Lore, I would have to say for the most part they are mostly separate but share some things due to a long and complicated relationship between their worlds. For example, Devil Fruits and Haki are still separate concepts from magic and wouldn't be affected by anything that only affects Magic such as Face going off. However, your theory would definitely be how most people and mages would view Haki and Devil Fruits in the context of their world. However, people who are more knowledgeable about the nature of magic such as Hades, Mavis, and Zeref would know upon seeing either power in action that they aren't magic but something entirely different in nature. About the hypnosis, you are not the first person to bring this to attention and will certainly not be the last. I can see why you're saying this so I'm going to take several measures to ensure hypnosis of this level and higher don't appear to be so overpowered. About the Rune Pyramids I realized how horribly overpowered, they were just as I was finishing the last chapter. There is an inherent danger to using them as you will see below. After all, you do not fuck with the rules of reality without some kind of backlash. I am glad you enjoyed what I did with the Shadow auctioneer's magic it was so fun to write! Moreover, don't worry this will not be the last we'll see of the Shadow Auctions I can guarantee it!

RevolverVincentRaikov: Yeah Luffy's Haki pretty much bypassed the Rune Pyramids Ultear set up. She probably should've worded it more carefully if she didn't want him to find out.

Jonjames427: Daisy is a member of the same species as Lily from the sixth movie, so yeah… Chelia definitely could develop a relationship like that with Luffy if she even remembers him in the future. In addition, I can see where you're coming from about Kagura possibly being related to Ikaruga as they're swordswomen and the similarity in names but that's about it.

Dp11: Don't worry man. Yeah Ultear is pretty dark and Chelia's cameo was a spur of the moment thing that came to mind when I realized she was born in that year so I just thought to put her in.

JensenDaniels32: Well I at least had Luffy get started on that his chapter. I might wrap this arc up in about one or two chapters give or take…

Agent Frank Underwood: I'm so glad you've been enjoying the story so far and I hope you enjoy this chapter just as much!

Anonymous: I know I took a long time to update but considering the sheer length of this chapter I think you'll understand.

Mytthyw: I'm glad you're loving the story and don't worry I'm not going to make Luffy OOC or anything like that. I am just taking his Canon personality and have it develop over a series of life changing events like the original story. I will keep up the good work.

Pedro52: Thanks hoped you enjoyed the rest.

DarkBlur2005: I would tell but that would be spoilers.

SharkSoul: You have a good eye there. Like everyone else who made the connection I have to say there is definitely a relationship between Daisy and the Lily Carnation from the sixth movie. All I will say about it right now is that Daisy is a member of the same species as Lily. So yeah ponder the implications of that…

Themaximus: I'm going to send a reply to your questions as soon as I'm done typing them up so they should be coming soon.

I also managed to get a new beta in PageofMind whom I am incredibly grateful to for answering my request and checking this chapter for errors. I could not have done this without you buddy!

In addition, I lied last chapter as I accidently wrote this chapter to be even longer than the last one. My bad. Or my good or whatever… I hope everyone enjoys!

This chapter was checked over and corrected by PageofMind.

So without further ado, on with the story!

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Abandoned Warehouse, Hargeon Port…

Laxus stared at the scarf-wearing man standing across from him with various emotions. Shock at how he couldn't sense this man's presence behind him, disappointment at himself for losing his lead for finding his missing guild mate and fury at how this man just cost him that lead by murdering the rune knights who were helping him.

"What's wrong fairy? Cat got your tongue?" The dark green haired man asked sarcastically as he slowly walked towards Laxus, his sword was scraping and cutting up the floor as he as he dragged it along. "Or is it that you're too terrified that you've forgotten how to speak?"

"Who the hell are you?" Laxus asked cautiously, carefully maneuvering his body into a fighting stance since things were already going south. "Because I've seriously don't have time to deal with bastards like you." He growled out that last part, his anger at this man's murder of the Rune Knights showing through.

"Oh you're gonna have to make time if you want to find out who bought that fairy." The man said casually as Laxus' eyes widened.

"How the damn hell do you know that?" Laxus asked as lightning began to course all over his body.

"I was there last night." The man answered as he began circling Laxus like how wolves circled their cornered prey. "I admit it was quite a boring auction last night. I could barely keep my master awake through most of it." He explained as he walked. Laxus never took his eyes off the man and kept moving his body to make sure his back wasn't exposed. "We were about to leave when that obnoxious bandit stormed onto the stage." The man subtly watched as Laxus' eyes slightly twitch, the blonde teen remembering his encounter with the bandit not too long ago. "We were about to leave for the night when he mentioned the brat he caught was from Fairy Tail..." He dragged out those two words to emphasize their importance, his voice sounding like a mixture of annoyance and disgust.

"Then Master Ivan was wide awake and watching the show with greater interest than I've ever seen from him." The man's casual mention of his father caused Laxus' eyes to widen in shock before they narrowed. The man stopped as he saw Laxus' reaction and smiled at the fact he got the teen's attention. "Oh you didn't know about your dear old dad's dirty dealings, did you?" The man asked in mock sympathy trying to goad Laxus to make the first move. "He's been coming to this accursed show for years, sometimes a buyer, sometimes a seller, and sometimes just to watch that assassins' guild master feed her monstrous pet." He explained before his visage grew slightly angry as his eyes narrowed in disgust. "And every single time we go it's always been about only one thing, information regarding Fairy Tail's 'dark secret'..." He spat out as he went on a tangent about having gotten sick of hearing about that nonstop.

"Fairy Tail's 'dark secret'? Ah screw it I don't have time to think about shit like that." Laxus thought in question but decided to throw that into the back burner. "I asked for your name not what you did with my dad at these stupid as hell auctions." Laxus shouted out, surprising the man slightly at how easily the teen was taking in this tidbit about his father.

"How come you aren't-?"

"Surprised?" Laxus finished not giving a damn about proper speaking etiquette. "I already heard about all this shit before from that mummy auctioneer so don't bother spouting out all that crap." Laxus responded as he answered the man's silent question. "Now are you going to keeping spouting crap or do I need to wring the answers out of your burned body?" He threatened as lightning converged in his hands as the air crackled from the power.

The man stared at Laxus with a calculating gaze before he smirked from behind his scarf. "Very well then I believe I wasted enough of your time with my little speech." The man stated as he raised his sword and held it in front of him. "Now before I make you regret ever being born into this twisted world let me tell you my name so you may curse it as you burn in the bowels of hell." He proclaimed, as he instantly appeared before Laxus in a sudden burst of speed that caused the blonde teen to step back in shock. "I am Peilis." Peilis introduced himself before he swung his sword horizontally.

Laxus quickly activated his Lightning Body seconds before the sword struck him, narrowly avoiding being bisected into two halves. As Laxus was soaring behind Peilis, his eyes widened when he saw everything that was behind him was sliced in half as an iron column slide down its cut side. "How much damn power was behind his swing? He would've cut me in half as easily as a hot knife through butter." Laxus thought as he put some distance between him and his opponent. "I can't take chances with his bastard. I need to take him down fast and get answers out of him if I want to rescue my guild mate." He thought as he soared at Peilis with breakneck speed, intending to strike the man down through his exposed back.

As Laxus instantly appeared behind Peilis, he threw a devastating lightning imbued right hook towards the back of Peilis' neck only for him to block the blow with the flat end of his sword. The air crackled from the power of the lightning Laxus was unleashing as he tried to overpower his foe. Peilis' arm was holding strong as the ground under him began to crack from the pressure. "You know the problem with lightning is that if you're not careful with it in a fight, a highly trained fighter can easily predict your movements." Peilis stated not even turning around to face Laxus as he casually held off the blonde teen, letting his blade do its job as he could feel the teen's magic reserves diminish. The sound of the air crackling got weaker as the lightning blasting out became weaker over time. Feeling his power starting to fade Laxus jumped away from the deadlock as his Lightning Body deactivated, feeling more drained than he ought to be.

"Okay why do I feel weaker?" Laxus thought as he looked at his right hand examining it as Peilis turned towards him. Laxus quickly had to move to the right as a vertical flying slash flew right past him, cutting up the ground as it cut clean through the wall and kept on going out of sight. Laxus had to keep on moving from place to place as Peilis unleashed a series of vicious flying slashes with just one arm, the other hand placed behind his back. "Is he mocking me!?" Laxus thought with sudden anger at the relaxed posture his opponent held as he unleashed the devastating barrage. "No he's tempting me to rush him head on." Laxus concluded before as he managed to activate his Lightning Body and managed to escape into the air.

Peilis quickly changed directions as he unleashed barrage of flying slashes directed towards the ceiling. Laxus continued to soar thought the air as he narrowly avoided the barrage, nicked by a few slashes that came too close for comfort. Suddenly disappearing in flash of sparks before any more slashes could hit him, Laxus landed on the ground in a combat roll as he fired off several lightning blasts at Peilis mid roll. Peilis just turned towards the barrage and used his sword to block most of the blasts only to jump away as the last blast struck the ground he stood on resulting in an explosion that sent the scarf wearing man tumbling across the concrete. Seeing an opening, Laxus instantly activated his Lightning Body and appeared in flash of sparks above the downed swordsman.

Peilis tried to get up and block the incoming blow only for Laxus to pin both his arms down with his lightning infused legs simultaneously electrocuting him in the process. He looked up to see Laxus with his fist drawn back.

"Not so tough without that sword to defend yourself now punk." Laxus stated as lightning coated his fist before he threw a devastating punch straight into Peilis' face. A large explosion followed after as the warehouse shook from the force and smoke filled the air. Laxus coughed harshly as the smoke began to clear as he waved it away from his face with his free hand. He looked down to see if he knocked out that scarf wearing bastard but his eyes widened in surprise when he saw his fist hit only the concrete, which was burned black and shattered into several pieces.

"Where the damn hell did that bastard go!? I was right on top of him!" Laxus thought as he looked around as remained on guard for any sneak attacks. What he didn't notice was a shadow move around on the ground trying to position itself behind the blonde teen. Once in position, the tip of a yellow sword poked out of the shadows and aimed towards the teen's back before it shot itself forward at breakneck speeds. Hearing something flying through the air with his Dragon Slayer-enhanced hearing, Laxus jumped to the side as the projectile blade nicked him in his left side sending Laxus crashing onto the floor.

While Laxus was clutching the wound on his side as he tried to stop the bleeding, Peilis' head poked out shadows as a shadowy tendril withdrew the bolt-shaped sword back into it. Laxus watched as Peilis' head retracted back into the shadow and his shadow rushed towards him at terrifying speeds. Laxus quickly got onto his feet as he seared his wound shut before activating his Lightning Body and firing off a barrage of lightning bolts. The shadow weaved around on the ground as it avoided the lightning bolts forcing Laxus to keep moving away from the persistent shadow as he switched to his Thunder Bullets spell. What the lightning bullets lacked in speed they made up for in numbers and range as the large number of energy bullets stopped the shadow in its tracks. Peilis' shadow tried to weave through the barrage only to be forced back by the multiple explosions created by the bullets colliding with the ground. Seeing that his opponent was held back Laxus took advantage of the opening to jump towards the warehouse's rafters. Grabbing onto a metal rafter Laxus swung onto it and watched as Peilis' shadow bursted forward out of the smoke and began to move around erratically as he searched for Laxus.

"He can't find me." Laxus noted mentally as he watched the shadow search for him. "I wonder..." Laxus checked through his pocket and took out a few coins. He then tossed them forward and watched as they fell to the ground. The sound of the coins colliding with the ground echoed throughout the warehouse causing Peilis' shadow to turn in its direction. Laxus watched as Peilis' shadow sprouted several tendrils that quickly shot forward and pierced clean through them. "So he can only detect things through sound whiles he's in his shadow. Or maybe just things with a shadow..." Laxus theorized as he placed his chin on his hand before suddenly grinning as a light bulb went off in his head.

Deciding to put his plan into motion, Laxus jumped from his spot in the rafters as he channeled lightning into his hands. Hearing the air crackle Peilis' shadow turned towards the airborne Laxus as shadowy tendrils began to emerge from his shadow.

"Dart Gun!" Peilis shouted as the shadow tendrils shot towards Laxus' exposed with breakneck speed not notching the smirk the blonde wore at hearing the incoming attack.

"Take this!" Laxus shouted as he thrust his hand forward as the concentrated lightning released a massive burst of bright light that filled the entire warehouse. The burst of concentrated light destroyed the shadow tendrils and all the shadows in the area forcing Peilis out into the open as he tried to protect his eyes from the blinding light. As soon as the blinding light faded, Laxus disappeared in a flash of sparks before reappearing right in front of the blinded Peilis with his right arm pulled back. Hearing the sparks Peilis instinctively crossed his arms in front of his face as Laxus threw a powerful right hook only for Laxus to stop short and suddenly knee the older man in his abdomen.

The unexpected blow knocked the air out of Peilis as he gasped in pain and lowered his arms. Laxus quickly took advantage of the opening as he threw a lightning infused right hook straight into Peilis' temple before following it up with a devastating left hook straight into the man's jaw. Laxus was relentless as he threw lightning infused blow after blow never allowing Peilis a chance to retaliate. He then uppercutted Peilis into the air before finishing it up with a powerful lightning infused axe kick to his Peilis' face smashing him headfirst into the pavement as a large explosion engulfed the two.

As smoke engulfed the area, Laxus jumped back out of it as he landed in a combat stance his body tense and on edge. Unwilling to fall victim to anymore-sneak attacks, Laxus cautiously observed the smoke for any sudden movements from his downed opponent. After a few nerve-wracking minutes of cautious observation and holding himself back from unleashing electric hell onto his seemingly downed opponent the smoke cleared away to show Peilis lying face down in the scorched crater apparently unconscious. Laxus stared at the body for a couple of uneasy moments before he sighed in relief...

...Only for him to suddenly get uppercutted by a shadowy fist. Although stunned by the unexpected attack, Laxus quickly recovered as he disappeared in flash of sparks before more shadow fists could strike him. Reappearing several feet away, Laxus landed on his feet as he heard laughter begin to fill the warehouse. "Kehahahaha." He quickly turned his head towards the crater to see Peilis getting back up, laughing darkly as he got to his feet and dusted himself off. "Kehahahaha... Was that little show supposed to do something to me?" He asked, not a single burn mark was on him nor did he even appear to have taken any damage

"How... How the damn hell are you still standing? I hit you with everything I've got!" Laxus shouted as he prepared for another grueling battle.

"Really? Everything you've got?" Peilis parroted mockingly as he combed his fingers through his hair. "That felt more like I was hit by a gentle breeze."

The air was thick with tension as both combatants stared each other down waiting for the other to make the first move... Moreover, the first mistake...

Faster than a normal human eye could follow, Laxus threw his arm forward as he fired off a large lightning blast from the palm of his hand.

"Shadow Stream!" Peilis shouted as he retaliated just as quick throwing his arm forward as a wave of shadows streamed out from his palm. Both attacks struck each other head on and stalemated each other as both blasts were equally matched. As the beam-o-war raged on, Laxus started to breathe heavily as he tried to maintain his lightning blast against the heavy onslaught. Peilis, on the other hand, appeared to be unfazed by the standoff as he casually maintained the blast while he checked his fingers, showing complete indifference to the struggle.

"That...son of a bitch...isn't taking this seriously!" Laxus thought as he struggled to maintain his attack. Deciding to capitalize on his opponent's inattentiveness, Laxus threw his other arm forward as he added more power to the blast. This increase in power caused the lightning blast to start overpowering the shadow blast and pushing back inch by inch as time went on.

Peilis quickly took notice of this development and ceased his attack allowing the blast to strike him head on. Laxus was surprised to see this only for his eyes to narrow when he saw Peilis holding his bolt shaped sword in front of him, the sword having absorbed the lightning blast.

"Oh great so he's a Requip Mage." Laxus stated as he watched Peilis return his sword back to his storage dimension and coat his right arm in shadowy energy.

"Shadow Punch!" Peilis shouted as he threw a punch forward and fired a large shadow fist towards Laxus. Activating his Lightning Body in an instant, Laxus nimbly jumped over the shadow fist and soared towards Peilis, who responded by placing his right arm forward. "Shadow Bullets!" He shouted as he fired off a barrage of shadow energy bullets. Laxus easily maneuvered through the barrage as he continued forward. Once he got close enough, Laxus fired off a lightning blast towards Peilis who quickly jumped of out its path as he created a long shadow whip in his right hand.

"Shadow Whip!" Peilis shouted as he swung the whip vertically at Laxus who jumped out of the way as the whip smashed the concrete he stood on. Peilis drew back the shadow whip and swung it forward at incredible speed forcing Laxus to move back in order to avoid being hit.

Deciding that he needed to switch strategies, Laxus jumped into the air seconds before the shadow whip could strike him. Once he was high enough, Laxus placed his arm forward as Peilis drew his whip back and prepared to strike the blonde teen down. "Thunder Bullets!" Laxus shouted as he fired off a large barrage of lightning bullets. Peilis watched as the barrage of energy bullets soared towards him at incredible speeds before placing his left hand in front of him.

"Shadow Web." Peilis stated calmly as a large web made of shadows shot out of his hand and spread out in front of him. The shadowy spider web blocked the energy bullet barrage as they exploded upon contact, the spider web holding strong against the electrical onslaught. Due to the multiple explosions going off in front of him, Peilis was unable to hear the air crackle behind him until he noticed a bright light shining him. Faster than he could turn around or summon his lightning absorbing blade, Peilis was suddenly struck in his side by a powerful lightning-infused roundhouse kick. Refusing to cry out in pain from his organs being burned by the sudden electrocution, Peilis was sent flying into the air from the powerful blow with Laxus following him.

Laxus quickly appeared over him with his leg raised high above him as lightning coated it. He quickly brought down his leg down just as Peilis summoned his sword to block the blow. The moment Laxus' foot collided with Peilis' sword in midair, they left a giant shockwave of power in their wake. Despite feeling his magic draining as he kept contact with the Peilis' sword, Laxus managed to overpower Peilis' guard and send the older man flying to the ground. Peilis hit the ground hard forming a small crater as Laxus landed on his feet not too far from the man.

"That sword of yours absorbs lightning magic, doesn't it?" Laxus asked as he saw Peilis get back up to his feet.

"It's pitiful that it took you this long to figure that fact out but I guess you fairies have always been on the slow side when it comes to seeing the obvious truth. Or maybe it's just you Dreyars." Peilis responded as Laxus' eye twitched at his comment. "But back to the question at hand, yes the God's Thunderbolt absorbs lightning magic. That's what it is designed to do obviously." He stated slowly as if he was speaking to a child causing Laxus to grit his teeth in anger. "But that's not all it can do…" He stated as he pointed his sword towards Laxus.

Laxus raised an eyebrow at the action until he noticed his feet were beginning to slide towards Peilis. Laxus' eyes widened when his body was pulled off the ground towards Peilis, who pulled his right arm back as he coated it in shadows.

"Shadow Punch!" Peilis shouted as he threw a powerful right hook into Laxus' abdomen when he was in range causing Laxus to spit up blood as he was sent flying across the warehouse. "It can also draw lightning in like a lightning rod." He stated as he stabbed the sword vertically into the ground before walking towards Laxus.

Laxus quickly got back to his feet after regaining his breath before firing off a series of lightning bolts towards Peilis. Peilis continued to walk calmly forward as the lightning bolts were redirected away from him towards the sword behind him.

"Seriously? Didn't I just tell you that the God's Thunderbolt acts as a lightning rod?" Peilis stated as shadows poured out of his hands. "Shade Arrows." Peilis shot several arrows made of shadows from his hands forward. Laxus quickly dove low to avoid the first wave of arrows before using his momentum to launch into a series of acrobatic flips and jumps to dodge the second wave. When he landed on his feet Peilis suddenly appeared in front of him wielding two butterfly swords, one in each hand. Laxus was forced to move back as Peilis began to slash at him viciously with his dual blades, each slash managed to get in glancing cuts on the teen's body.

"Damn it!" Laxus thought as he barely managed to avoid getting his left ear chopped off only to receive a slight cut to his left shoulder. Laxus was barely able to keep up with rate Peilis was attacking, only managing to prevent him from landing deep cuts on him. Tired of being on the defensive, Laxus fired off a lightning blast from his hand at close range forcing Peilis to back off as the blast soared toward the mounted sword across from them. "Wait he dodged it…" Staring in surprise for several seconds Laxus quickly got an idea before he was forced back onto the defensive as Peilis resumed his assault. Deciding to test his theory, Laxus threw a lightning infused right hook.

Peilis moved his head to the side to dodge the blow before punching Laxus in the face with one of the handle of one of his butterfly swords. Sent flying backwards as blood spurted from his nose, Laxus quickly righted himself as he managed to maneuver himself in midair to avoid being stomped on by Peilis, his foot shattering the ground into multiple pieces in the process. Laxus quickly countered as he pushed off the ground to deliver a mule kick straight towards Peilis who blocked with his right arm. This was a mistake as Laxus quickly channeled lightning through his legs towards his feet resulting in him firing off a lightning blast from his feet directly into Peilis' face. The sudden lightning blast caused him to let go of his butterfly swords as it sent him off his feet while the lightning went straight through him towards his mounted sword several meters away. Shortly stunned from the sudden electrical shock coursing throughout his nervous system, Peilis could only watch as Laxus got back onto his feet and rushed towards him.

Laxus then quickly jumped into the air above his opponent as he brought his fist back before bringing it down on his momentarily immobile foe's chest, lightning bursting from his fist seconds before he made contact. A large explosion ensued as parts of the concrete floor were sent flying into air as smoke filled the area as a large shadow sped out of the impact site. Several meters away the shadow stopped as a hand sprung out of it and grabbed onto the concrete floor. The shadow widened itself as its owner pulled himself out of it revealing it to be Peilis whose face was slightly singed from the sudden lightning strike. Bringing his other arm out the shadow Peilis quickly climbed out of his shadow just as Laxus jumped out of the smoke and rushed towards him.

Bringing his leg back as he got in range Laxus prepared to kick Peilis in his face only for the older man to throw his arm towards Laxus. "Shadow Stream!" Peilis shouted as a jet of shadows streamed towards Laxus forcing the blonde teen to lean backwards as the stream of shadows grazed by his chin and causing him to miss his mark as his foot passed slightly over Peilis' head. Grabbing onto the moving appendage, Peilis used the momentum of Laxus' kick to pull himself out of his shadow and into the air where he quickly fired off a barrage of shadow bullets at the falling teen. Laxus quickly used the momentum of his fall to launch himself into a series of acrobatic flips and jumps to dodge the shadow barrage. Watching the teen dodge his attacks like an acrobat, Peilis landed on his feet as he changed tactics and gathered up shadows in his hand before thrusting it up into the air. "Umbra Rain!" Peilis yelled as a continuous stream of shadows poured out of his hands straight up into the air.

Laxus landed on his feet when he caught sight of the shadow stream rising to nearly the warehouse's roof only to stop short by a few inches. He watched the shadows began to spread to cover the area in a dark dome before it just stopped in place. Feeling something eerie about the shadow dome above him, Laxus took a step back as a shadow-like raindrop fall from the dome cover. Laxus watched as the raindrop fell to the ground only for it to shatter the ground into several pieces upon contact. Eyes widening from the unexpected power of the drop, Laxus looked up only to see dozens upon dozens of raindrops prepare to fall.

Quickly breaking into a sprint, Laxus ran as shadow drops rained down behind him pummeling everything into a fine dust. Having already earlier concluded that Peilis' sword needed to be taken out if he wanted to stand a chance, Laxus ran towards the mounted sword outside of the dome's range as the shadow rain was nipping at his heels. He was almost halfway there when he felt sudden pain spike through his left foot as he began to fall. Time slowed to a crawl as he fell. Laxus looked to his foot only to see a shadow tendril impale from below. Seconds before the shadow rain could hit him, Laxus activated his Lightning Body as he completely converted his body into electricity.

As the rain pummeled everything in the dome Laxus in his lightning form soared through the storm completely unfazed as every drop just went through his lightning form as he was pulled towards the God's Thunderbolt. The moment he was outside of the dome Laxus instantly rematerialized as he used his momentum to launch himself as a flying kick to knock the sword down. The instant the kick made contact with the sword, it was pushed down to the side as the ground it was imbedded in began to crack before suddenly breaking apart as the sword was sent flying through the air. The shadow dome disappeared as Peilis came charging out aiming to reclaim the lightning absorbing sword while it was in the air.

He was intercepted by a lightning powered drop kick to the head sending him flying back as Laxus landed on his feet.

"You didn't think I would let you get gaudy lightning rod back did you?" Laxus asked as the sword landed on its side several meters away from him. "Then again that piece of metal is only good for absorbing lightning when it's in the air. Against someone who can channel lightning through physical objects that blade is useless unless you can use it to block the blow, am I right?" He asked smugly as he waited for the man to break down at how his advantage was gone. Laxus' smug expression disappeared instantly when he saw Peilis smile knowingly as if Laxus had just made a huge error.

"You're correct fairy. The God's Thunderbolt is only good against lightning users that rely on long-range attacks in a fight and like a lightning rod it can only draw in lightning when it's imbedded in the ground." Peilis explained as he began to summon several different blades of various shapes and types around him as his shadow spread out around him.

"Then why are you smiling?" Laxus asked feeling that his opponent had a lot more tricks up his sleeve as he watched the different swords be absorbed into the green haired man's shadow.

"Because…" Peilis started as his shadow began to swirl underneath him. "I never really needed that blade to beat you." He finished before his shadow sprung up and wrapped around him. Laxus watched as Peilis' shadow completely covered the man before it began to form an outline of his body, leaving his hands, face, parts of his arms and legs completely free while shadows covered the rest of his body. "Penumbra Cloak." Peilis stated as his shadows stopped moving.

"…What the hell are you wearing?" Laxus asked, his mind having shut down to process how… stupid the man across from him looked.

"My shadow." Peilis answered simply as the shadow covering him began to move around him.

"…You look like an idiot." Laxus stated simply.

"You say that now but you'll be regretting those words soon enough." Peilis stated as he put his arms forward as shadows began to cover his forearms before several daggers popped out of the shadows to Laxus' surprise. "Let me show you the true power of the Penumbra Cloak. Antumbra Sandstorm!" He said as the daggers lining his right arm began counterclockwise and the daggers lining his left arm began spinning clockwise at a rate where they resembled buzz saws instead of blades. Laxus' eyes widened as the rapid spinning created a massive dark windstorm that rushed straight towards him forcing him to activate his Lightning Body just to dodge the storm by soaring over it. Laxus watched as the destructive windstorm continue forward throughout the warehouse unimpeded as it cut up and destroyed everything in its path from the concrete walls and floor to an iron support.

"Holy shit!" Laxus thought as he watched the windstorm knock down a wall as it went outside. "That attack would've killed me if it hit me head on. I've got to end this fight soon or else-" Laxus couldn't finish that thought as shadow fist collided with his head knocking him out of the air and sent tumbling to the ground. Laxus quickly gathered his senses fast enough to see a short sword flying towards his head. Thinking quickly Laxus bent forward as the blade grazed the back of his head, cutting off a few strands of hair in the process.

Laxus barely managed to land on his feet before Peilis appeared before him with his right leg pulled back. Laxus quickly bent backwards as Peilis' leg soared over him the effects of the attack caused Laxus' eyes to widen immensely. Everything behind Laxus was sliced in half as a large gash lined the walls of the warehouse behind him. Pushing off the ground with his hands Laxus acrobatically leaped away from his opponent. The moment he landed on his feet Laxus tried to fire off a lightning bolt only for Peilis to appear right before him.

"Umbra Shock!" Peilis shouted as he threw an open hand thrust towards Laxus' abdomen, a shadow sphere shot out of his palm towards the teen. The moment the sphere made contact with Laxus' abdomen, it released a powerful shockwave that directly through his body causing him to spit up blood as he was sent flying across the floor. "I said you would regret your words about my Penumbra Cloak didn't I?" Peilis stated as he walked towards Laxus who was on his arms struggling to get up as he coughed up a glob of blood onto the floor.

"You...still...look like...a dumb-ass." Laxus coughed out as he stared defiantly at the shadow cloaked man who narrowed his eyes at the comment.

"Cute." Peilis stated as the daggers lining his right arm began to spin again before he rushed toward Laxus. "Antumbra Drill!" He shouted as he threw a right hook towards Laxus. Laxus quickly jumped out of the way as the blow connected with the ground, the rapid spinning caused the concrete to be broken up and thrown across the area as Peilis' fist drilled into the ground.

Laxus rolled across the ground as he threw his hand forward. "Thunder Bullets!" Laxus shouted as he fired off a series of lightning orbs towards Peilis. Noticing the incoming bullets Peilis turned towards the onslaught as the daggers lining his arms began to spin.

"Antumbra Drill!" He shouted as he punched the ground in front of him. The rapid spinning of the punches pulverized the concrete into several chunks and rocks as they was flung into the air in front of Peilis. The concrete debris collided with incoming lightning orbs nullifying the attack as several explosion went off from the collision. Hearing the crackle of sparks coming from behind him, Peilis withdrew the daggers in his left arm into his shadow before the bladed edge of a long sword lined his inner arm from his shadow. "Penumbra Lariat!" Peilis shouted as he swung his left arm in a 180-degree arc slicing everything directly in his path in half.

Noticing that he hit nothing but air, Peilis stared forward for a seconds before he heard the air crackle in front of him. He looked down to find Laxus bent over backwards in the bridge pose, his body completely coated in lightning. Faster than he could possibly react, Laxus quickly kicked upward as he struck Peilis in the face. Knocking his opponent off his feet into the air, Laxus followed it up with a lightning-infused mule kick to Peilis' abdomen sending lightning straight through him as it messed up his nervous system. He then pushed off the ground to deliver a devastating right hook to Peilis' face sending the dark green-haired man crashing across the concrete floor.

Not letting his opponent a chance to recover Laxus quickly rushed toward the downed man as he prepared to fire off a lightning blast. Seconds before Laxus could reach him Peilis' eyes opened instantly as he lifted his legs towards the incoming teen before having his shadow tie them together as two short sword's blades popped out of the shadows lining his ankles. "Antumbra Whirlwind!" Peilis shouted as the short swords lining his angles began to spin at a rapid rate like a propeller to unleash a powerful dark whirlwind. Laxus was quickly blown back by the powerful gust of wind before he felt sudden pain at his left side. He looked down to see a small cut line the left side of his abdomen. Quickly looking back at his opponent Laxus saw that there were several, small flying slashes mixing into the powerful whirlwind and heading straight towards him.

Suspended in midair due to the powerful gale-force winds hitting him, Laxus covered his face with his arms as he was bombarded by a flurry of flying slashes. "Damn it I got to get out of here!" Laxus stated as he could feel his body start to be cut up. "Maybe if I could make it to the edge..." Laxus muttered as he began to maneuver himself through the swirling vortex towards the edge of the vortex. When he was within range, Laxus pushed his hand forward towards the edge trying to break through. The moment his touched the edge, he was forced to withdraw it as felt a sudden sharp pain upon contact.

Clutching his hand to soothe the pain Laxus looked at it to see that his skin looked like it had been shredded to pieces as blood caked his hand. Looking back at the vortex's edge, he noticed that the walls of the wind funnel were lined with miniature air slashes too small upon first glance. "Son of a bitch trapped in me in a goddamn shredder!" Laxus shouted as he maneuvered himself back to the center of the vortex in order to avoid being sucked into its edge by mistake and being shredded into a bloody mist. "There has got to be a way out of here!" Laxus muttered to himself as he looked around the vortex for a way to escape. His choices were very narrow as he was surrounded on all sides by whirling, minuscule blades of death that would make mincemeat out of him if he were sucked into them leaving only the top and bottom of the vortex as viable options.

"I could escape through the top..." Laxus pondered as he looked up, ignoring the miniature wind blades tearing into his body at random intervals. "No, no, no, no, that won't work. Even if I manage to get out through there this vortex's suction force will just pull me back in and it'll waste too much of my magic using my Lightning Body to escape through there considering what I'll be facing once I'm out." Laxus stated as he could just feel Peilis mocking him by trapping in this infernal vortex. Looking down he could see the short swords that were acting as propellers fueling the vortex as they constantly spun around Peilis'... feet...

Laxus stared down blankly for a minute before he suddenly smacked his head, the sound of his hand hitting his forehead echoed across the warehouse over the sound of the roaring winds. "Okay I can't believe I didn't notice that earlier." Laxus stated to himself as his hand became coated in lightning before he fired off a massive lightning bolt downwards. Despite the massive gale-forces pushing upwards, the lightning bolt continued downward unimpeded as it struck its mark. The moment it struck Laxus sprung into action as he soared downward at breakneck speed, the lightning bolt stunning Peilis long enough for him to be unable to keep the rotation fast enough to fuel the vortex.

Unfortunately, for Laxus it didn't stun his opponent long enough as Peilis quickly recovered as he pointed both hands at Laxus. "Shadow Stream!" Peilis shouted as jet streams of shadows shot out of the palms of his hands forcing Laxus to break off his attack to dodge. Seeing Laxus back off Peilis quickly pushed off the ground as he spread his legs apart. The short swords poking out of the shadows lining his legs began to rotate at an incredible rate, lifting Peilis off the ground as he hovered over the ground. Once off the ground Peilis quickly turned around and flew straight Laxus at breakneck speeds as he spread his arms out like airplane wings.

Laxus dived to ground as Peilis zoomed right over him the small glint of light coming from the man's spread arms spelled trouble. "That son of a bitch can actually fly in that form." Laxus muttered to himself, disbelief riddling his voice. He quickly shook himself of that disbelief as he saw Peilis make a U-turn and head straight towards him. "Okay commentary later, fight now." He muttered to himself as fired off a series of lightning bolts at Peilis who nimbly dodged them as he flew forward. Laxus was forced to bend backwards as Peilis flew over him again narrowly avoiding the bladed edge of a long sword poking out of the shadow lining Peilis' inner arm.

Once Peilis passed him, Laxus quickly activated his Lightning Body as he soared after him. Hearing the air crackle above him, Peilis turned his head to find Laxus right above him with his arm pulled back as lightning coated it. Faster than his opponent could retaliate Laxus threw a devastating lightning-coated right hook straight to the back of Peilis' head. The powerful blow stunned the man long enough for his blade ankles to stop rotating and sending him tumbling to the ground. However, Peilis suddenly recovered as the blades began to rotate again as he pulled up seconds before he could crash into the ground.

Flying above the ground at incredible speeds, Peilis maneuvered to face Laxus as shadows coated his arms. "Shadow Punch!" Peilis shouted as he unleashed a rapid-fire barrage of shadow fists towards the airborne Laxus. Eyes narrowing Laxus converted his body into lightning as he easily maneuvered through the barrage towards Peilis. Seconds before the lightning could strike him Peilis sped up causing Laxus to miss his target and strike the concrete ground instead.

Crouching in a crater from the collision, Laxus quickly stood up and turned to see Peilis hovering in the air several meters away with both arms pointing towards him as daggers lined his arms like before.

"Antumbra Sandstorm!" Peilis shouted as the daggers lining each arm began their opposing rotation at high speeds unleashing a dark windstorm towards Laxus once again. This time, however, Laxus was prepared for the technique as he began to sprint across the warehouse using his lightning to boost his speed with Peilis following him as he kept up the windstorm.

"The basis for that bastard's Antumbra Sandstorm technique is the blades that serve as the propellers to create the wind just like his Antumbra Whirlwind technique..." Laxus thought to himself as he continued to run. The dark windstorm was nipping at his heels as it continued to destroy everything it touches in its path. "The problem with those techniques is it leaves the hands and feet completely exposed to attack. Of course the powerful winds generated by the rotating blades would keep people from physically attacking those appendages but not something intangible like lightning..." He thought sinisterly with a sly grin as lightning began to coat his arms. "Those daggers he's using to substitute for propeller blades will draw the lightning in towards him. I just need to time this right so I can stun the bastard long enough to finish him off with a Raging Bolt." He though as sped up his pace to put some major distance between him and the windstorm behind him before turning to face it.

"Okay I just got to wait for it." Laxus thought as he positioned himself to be able to shoot lightning bolts directly into the storm. Seconds before the deadly windstorm could touch him Laxus fired off two lightning bolts directly into the windstorm before converting his body into lightning to avoid the attack. The lightning bolts soared through the windstorm before striking their mark, badly shocking Peilis. Seeing his attacks hit their mark, Laxus quickly appeared above Peilis before landing a devastating axe kick to the older man sending him crashing to the ground. Seeing his opponent lying on the ground Laxus quickly raised a clenched fist into the air, arcs of lightning shot out of his raised arm into the air above him.

"Resounding through the air..." Laxus began to chant as the lightning formed a large swirling orb of electrical energy fully intending to finish the fight with this final blow. "...the roar of thunder, plunge from the heavens and reap destruction! RAGI-"

"Antumbra Tornado!" Laxus was suddenly cut off mid-chant as he was struck head on by a black tornado, the powerful vortex tore up the teen's body upon contact before knocking him aside as it continued upward into the roof. Peilis smirked smugly from his position on the ground as the daggers lining his right arm stopped their powerful rotation he was content to watch a bloodied Laxus fall. Struggling to remain conscious as he tumbled towards the ground, Laxus managed to speak out the next two words to Peilis' shock.

"RAGING BOLT!" Laxus shouted with all his might as a massive lightning bolt shot out of the floating orb and descended straight down upon a stunned Peilis. Moving faster than he could react, the bolt crashed down upon Peilis and resulted in an explosion that lit up the entire warehouse for a complete minute as Laxus crashed down into the ground.

The moment the light from the explosion faded away Laxus forced himself off his back in defiance of the pain that wracked his body. He managed to get back onto his feet when he started to hear laughter.

"Kehahahaha..."

"No." Laxus muttered to himself as he turned to look back at where his Raging Bolt had struck.

"Kehahahaha..." The laugh echoed across the warehouse as Laxus watched its owner begin to get up.

"No, no no no, no no no, NO! NO!" Laxus repeated loudly to himself as he increased in volume and stared in disbelief at what he was seeing, wondering if the blood loss was causing his mind to hallucinate. But no matter how much he was telling himself what he was seeing was just a cruel figment of his blood deprived imagination, Laxus couldn't deny that Peilis was getting back up from the burned crater he was lying in after being struck by a Raging Bolt. That last attack used up nearly all of Laxus' remaining magic power. Laxus watched as Peilis got back to his feet looking no worse for the wear except for a multitude of new burn marks lining his entire upper body, a singed eyebrow and a completely ruined vest that he quickly discarded. After dusting off his slightly ripped pants and inadvertently showing off his incredibly muscular upper body, Peilis turned towards an incredulous Laxus.

"Judging by your slack jawed expression, fairy, you must've betted everything on that pitiful light show in the hope that it would finish me off. But if it's any consulation to you it hurt like hell." Peilis stated calmly, however, his eyes betrayed the hidden venom in his words as he glared hatefully at the blonde teen for putting him through so much humiliating pain.

"How...how are you still standing after taking a hit like that?! I put nearly everything I had into that Raging Bolt!" Laxus shouted as he unconsciously took a step back, every part of his body was screaming at him to run.

"Really? 'Nearly everything you had?'" Peilis repeated mocking as he took a step forward savoring the look of fear plastered on Laxus' face. "If that's all the power you've got right now, then you're a pitiful excuse for a Mage. Makarov must be so disappointed to have such a pitifully weak grandson like you drag his great name through the mud. He already has enough experience with disappointing blood relatives through his son." Peilis stated commented viciously waiting for Laxus to take the bait. He grinned from behind his scarf as he saw Laxus's fearful look turn into a rage filled one at the mention of his father and grandfather.

"Why don't you come out of that hole you're in and I'll show you how 'pitifully weak' I really am!" Laxus shouted angrily as he shifted into a combat stance ready to tear Peilis a new one despite the fact he was nearly out of magic.

Peilis' grin grew at Laxus' defiant challenge as he put his arms up.

"Well then since you're still up for another round I guess I have no choice to oblige since I have lots of magic power to spare." Peilis replied as he clapped his hands together deciding to continue to humor the hotheaded teen until Master Ivan called for him. "Now let me show you a fun, little trick I came up with for just such an occasion." He stated menacingly as he closed his eyes and began to meditate.

Laxus watched as a dark aura enveloped Peilis his rage being replaced by a chilling sensation that told him something bad was about to happen.

"Like hell I'm allowing you to finish whatever the damn hell you're doing!" Laxus shouted as he rushed towards the prone man. Before he could even get close enough, Peilis suddenly opened his eyes, glowing dark purple, as a purple field burst forward from him. The sudden release of magic knocked Laxus off his feet and sent him tumbling across the ground as the purple field continued forward to encompass the entire warehouse and even beyond its walls. Laxus got up as he rubbed his sore head as he looked himself over before looking around him to see if that dark purple field did anything.

"What the hell was that?" Laxus shouted out completely unsure about what happened.

"Oh you'll see." Peilis responded cryptically as he put his index finger and thumb together. "Shadow Mitosis." Peilis said calmly as he snapped his fingers, the sound of the snapped fingers resonated across the warehouse as if a gong had been stuck to begin an event. The moment Peilis snapped his fingers purple lights began shine all around the warehouse with the biggest source of light could actually be seen coming from outside the warehouse. Laxus had to cover his eyes from the sudden light before looking around to see what the light source was. What Laxus found was that the purple light was just a strange purple glow that seemed to come from all the living things within the warehouse such as random roaches and rats scattered across the building.

As the purple lights faded, something strange caught Laxus' eyes that caused him to turn in its direction. A rat that had been glowing a minute ago was just sniffing the air as its shadow began to act strangely when suddenly parts of it began to break off. The shadow parts began to pull themselves off the ground as they began to form into complete replicas of the rat's shadow they spawned themselves off only they were pitch black in color with pure white orbs for eyes. Laxus watched in slight apprehension as the shadow rats and roaches began to appear out of the ground. He was forced to move when they all turned towards and after contemplating whatever navels shadow creatures would have began a headlong rush towards him.

"You've got to be kidding me." Laxus stated aloud as he kicked a shadow rat into the air watching it dissipate into nothing before stomping on a group of shadow roaches. After squishing the shadow insects for good measure, Laxus turned towards the incoming horde of shadow vermin before channeling a small amount lightning to his right hand. He unleashed the lightning in his hand as a bright flash of light, obliterating the horde of shadow creatures while flipping them off in the process.

"Ok this was way too easy." Laxus muttered to himself as he turned down the light trying to conserve as much magic power as he could before looking around the area, Peilis having disappeared from sight. "Now where did that bastard go-" Laxus could not finish that sentence he turned around to find Peilis directly in front of him. Caught off guard by the older man's sudden appearance, Laxus acted on instinct as he threw a powerful right hook into Peilis face remembering to coat it in lightning to add more power to the blow. Once the blow struck lightning surged forward as it completely consumed Peilis before shooting upwards. As soon as the surge began, it quickly ended as Laxus breathed heavily. He was really pushing it on his magic reserves with his last attack.

Laxus' eyes then widened in shock when he saw Peilis was completely unfazed by his attack, wearing a bored expression on his face as Laxus's fist pushed on a blackened part of his face.

"You know I'm not really sure why I let you get a free hit in..." Peilis started to say as if he didn't have a fist in his face. "Maybe some part of my humanity deep, deep inside my rigid, stone heart, which I must've forgotten to kill off when I was about your age, compelled me to give you a fair shot out of pity for your weakness. Or maybe..." He raised his hand turning it into a fist as it suddenly turned black and smooth like iron. Faster than Laxus could follow, Peilis suddenly sucker punched Laxus in the gut causing the teen to fall onto his knees as he vomited up blood into the ground. "I just wanted to get a quick laugh at the face you'd make when you realized how fucked you were." He finished as he walked past a heaving Laxus before suddenly turning around and kicking the teen with a blackened foot.

Laxus was sent quickly crashing along the ground before quickly coming to a stop as he coughed up more blood. "Fuck that hurt!" Laxus thought as he barely managed to get onto his knees. "Ok it can't possibly get any worse..." He thought before noticed a humanoid shadow casted over him. Laxus quickly jumped out of the way before the unknown being struck the ground, fracturing it into pieces. Laxus looked back to find his attacker was a similar shadow creature to the vermin earlier only in a humanoid shape. His eyes widened when he saw the shadow creature wasn't alone as he could see dozens upon dozens of similar humanoid creatures behind it.

"I admit they're not as many 'shadow clones' as I would like there to be since those Rune Knights moved half of their prisoners back to their base already while you were out cold. However, due to the sheer number of the prisoners that needed to be confined, they couldn't move them all out in time before I knocked all of them out in order to make my entrance." Peilis explained from where he stood as dozens more shadow creatures came into view. "While weaker than the originals by a large percentage, these 'shadow clones' should be more than enough to entertain you boy." Peilis stated as he watched Laxus get to his feet and barely managed to get into a combat stance.

Laxus muttered some heavy curses under his breath as over three hundred shadow humanoids entered the warehouse and rushed towards the exhausted teen, dozens more were following right after them...

---

Meanwhile, out at sea several miles away...

A large galleon that was smoothly sailing five minutes ago was currently parked in the middle of the ocean unable to move any further under its own power. The reason for why such a large ship was unable to move even an inch further could be traced back to the sounds of a losing battle being fought on the ship. Or to put it bluntly, all around the outside of it...

---

On the galleon's deck, current time...

The deck was currently the sight of a chaotic melee as over a hundred and fifty cultists were fighting a small group of invaders who had managed to get onboard from the sea. Cultists were falling left and right as the invading group, consisting of four unique individuals, were going to town against large groups of cultists by themselves.

"What the damn hell are you idiots doing? They're just four of those things and over a hundred of us!" A large cultist shouted as he stood at a surprising full height of 9 feet 2 inches and wielded a large cutlass suitable for a man his size.

"Oy vey you're an annoying fella." A chipper feminine voice said from behind the large cultist causing him to turn around as he put his cutlass in front of him, saving him from being cut down by a giant black pole lined with five saw-toothed white blades, resembling a shark's pearly whites. The sword's owner was six-foot tall young woman with short, messy black hair with stunning blue eyes to go with her pearly white, shark grin. She wore a silver swimsuit top with brown cargo shorts without any kind of footwear whatsoever. What stood out most about her wasn't her style of clothing but her... "non-human" features.

Instead of peach white skin and a set of five little digits on each foot, she had light gray shark fins for feet. On her back there was a light gray shark fin poking out through her top that had a black tip on the fin. Her neck was lined with a set of gills and her teeth were that of a shark's as she showed them off by her large grin.

"What's with that stupid get up anyway?" The shark mermaid asked as she casually kept her massive sword down on the much taller human, who was struggling to push back the blade with both hands on his cutlass. "Were you and your friends heading to some costume party out in the middle of the ocean or something?" She asked sarcastically as she watched the man struggle to keep her sword from digging into him. "I can't really see the point of going to a costume party if all of ya go dressed the same. Where's the fun in that?"

"You stupid fish! We are the chosen few destined to bring our dark lord Zeref back into the world. We are not going to some costumed parties!" The cultist shouted back at the mermaid as he discretely motioned with his fingers to a couple of soldiers who were sneaking up on the unsuspecting mermaid.

The shark mermaid narrowed her sky blue eyes at the cultist's fish comment but they narrowed even further when she saw the non-discrete finger commands to the so-called soldiers that were sneaking up on. She didn't even need to turn around to see that about five cultists were trying to attack her from behind. She mentally snorted at their attempt at stealth since they were upwind of her and her sensitive nose could easily pickup how nervous they were at trying to approach her.

Before she could pull her sword back to cleave the tall cultist in half, a black harpoon impaled him from behind through his heart. The cultist behind her took a step back and gasped in shock at the sudden development giving her enough time to turn around and cleave all of them in half with a single swing of her massive sword. She quickly twirled in her hand as she flicked it to the side to clean it of any blood as she rested it on the ground before turning towards the harpoon's owner.

"Damn it Aloe! That jackass was my kill and you knew it!" The shark mermaid shouted at her fellow mermaid who was hanging off the galleon's center mast. Said mermaid stood at an impressive height of 6'2 and had a head full of long curly orange hair to go with her sea blue eyes. She wore a blue and purple striped tank top that showed off her curvaceous figure along with a worn brown belt on her waist where her human and octopus halves meet. Along her belt were six gun holsters with each one holding a single pistol that could be reached by any of her eight, red octopus tentacles. All of her tentacles showed off a variety of scars earned through numerous harsh battles.

"Well sorry Alba. Since you were taking so long with that weakling I figured I might as well take him out before those five losers took you out from behind." Aloe said with a grin as she climbed down the mast with her tentacles.

Alba just clicked her tongue in annoyance as she watched the octopus mermaid pull her harpoon out of the large cultist's cadaver. "Hey how are Oreo and Mercia doing on the other side of the ship?" She asked thoughtfully as explosions rang through the air, the battle still raging on the ship. Aloe shrugged casually at the question as she swung her harpoon to the side to clean it of the blood on it.

"Eh they're doing fine-" She was interrupted as she moved her head to the side to avoid being hit by a magic shot. Both mermaids turned their heads in the direction the shot was fired from only to find about forty cultists grouped together in front of them.

"You damn fish better go back to the depths from whence you came or we'll-" The cultist was unable to finish his sentence as a gunshot rang through the air as he fell back dead, a gunshot wound was in the center of his head. As the cultists stepped back in shock at what had just happened, Aloe blew the smoke out of her pistol before pulling the rest of her guns out of her holsters with her tentacles.

"You were saying something bitch?" She said in a threatening tone as she pointed all of her guns towards the group while Alba flashed them a bloodthirsty grin as she hefted up her massive sword onto her shoulder.

Before the cultist could respond, the floor exploded upward from underneath them as they were all sent flying into the air by what appeared to be an elongated foot. Aloe looked on in shock at what just happened before shaking her head and opening fire on the airborne cultists, round bullets striking most of them in vital areas. Alba, instead of joining her younger friend in attacking the airborne cultists, just walked to the hole in the deck to inspect it.

"What the hell could've caused the deck to explode?" Alba thought as cultist bodies rained down around her as some fell overboard to the water, swarming with mermaids, below. "Also was that a foot I saw coming from down below earlier?" She wondered as she turned to Aloe who was walking around and shooting cultists lying around that she missed earlier. The moment her head was turned, air swooshed behind her as if something just shot out of the hole behind her.

She quickly turned her head around and shot it upwards to find what she was looking for. What she found was what appeared to be a kid high in the air wearing nothing but a straw hat, the ruined remains of a shirt, shorts and a pair of sandals.

Luffy was grinning like a fool as he looked around him as he hung in the air before gravity took over and pulled him down back to earth. As he fell back to the ship, Luffy quickly stretched his arm towards the center mast and slung himself towards the yard of the topmost sail. Luffy landed on his feet on the yard as he looked around.

"Man this ship is huge!" Luffy shouted as he looked over the entire deck the battle below was still being waged as he could feel the cultist's 'voices' continue to fade. Before he could even look around to find the 'voices' he heard earlier, three gunshots rang through the air as he could feel bullets stretch back his neck and parts of his chest several feet.

Down below him on the deck, Aloe blew out the smoke on her pistols before a furious Alba suddenly struck her upside the head.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Alba yelled furiously, baring her sharp teeth at her trigger-happy comrade.

"What? I just shot the thing that made the hole in the deck." Aloe started to argue back only to stand down when she saw how furious her friend was at her actions.

"You. Just. Shot. A kid. A kid, Aloe! We never harm kids!" Alba screamed furiously as she pointed at cultists that were lying dead around her, not noticing three cultists were sneaking up behind the two. "We aren't monsters like these slaver jackasses." Before she continued on, she heard something fly by their heads and strike all three cultists behind them. Alba and Aloe instantly turned their heads upwards to see Luffy looking down from his position on the main mast's yard as he waved towards them.

"Did that kid… just send all those bullets back?" Alba asked as Aloe pointed her finger towards the boy and followed the trajectory he sent the bullets along towards the cultists that were screaming on the ground.

"I don't know but I'm going to find out." Aloe stated as she walked towards the mast and began to walk up it using her tentacle's suction cups.

"Be sure to apologize for shooting him and/or startling him." Alba shouted towards her ascending friend who waved back showing she got the message.

"So it was mermaids I heard out here…" Luffy muttered as he took his eyes off the mermaid pair below him and continued to survey the ship he was on, its grand size showed that it was at least as big as Don Krieg's ship when he saw it appear back at the Baratie before Mihawk showed up and cut in half. "I wonder if Fishmen live in this world too…" Luffy pondered aloud to himself as he looked over the ship again. His eyes were quickly drawn to the large group of cultists circling two mermaids who were fighting back to back near the front of the ship.

"I wonder if they know a way back to the New World..." Luffy pondered as he watched a third mermaid wielding a sword similar to Arlong's join the fray as she knocked aside a small group of cultists overboard with the blunt side of her massive sword. "Ok! I'll ask them if they know a way to go back to the New World, go rescue Kagura's brother, turn 19 again stronger than before and then go back to my crew!" Luffy declared to himself as he stood up suddenly, fully believing he had a full proof plan to get back to his friends in the New World.

"Hey kid watch yourself!" A female voice called out from below causing Luffy to turn his attention to the octopus mermaid who was just a few feet away from him. "You're at a pretty dangerous height don't you know? Don't want you to fall and crack your head open." Aloe said as she climbed up the mast before positioning herself atop its yard. "Got a name?"

"Yeah it's Monkey D. Luffy." Luffy answered simply to the much taller mermaid.

"Okay so Monkey..." Aloe started only for Luffy to interrupt.

"Oi my name is Luffy." Luffy stated.

"Okay Luffy." Aloe tried to start before deciding to get the apology out of the way first. "Sorry about shooting you earlier I kind of thought you were a threat to my friends." She apologized still not sure how the kid survived being shot.

"Eh it happens." Luffy responded simply having long gotten used to being shot.

"No it doesn't." Aloe replied dryly sweat dropping at how laissez faire he was about her shooting him. "Okay Luffy, since you seem to know more about this than I do can answer some questions?" Aloe started wanting to at least find out more about the current situation. "Are there any mermaids down below on this ship?" She asked deciding to get the important stuff out of the way.

"No but there's a lot of people down there that these masked jerks kidnapped." Luffy answered causing Aloe to stare blankly at him before she decided to smack her forehead in disbelief.

"Great just great..." She muttered to herself as Luffy watched. "We find a cloaked ship out in the middle of the ocean and it turns out to just be a regular slave ship without any captive mermaids. What am I going to tell the others?" She mumbled to herself not noticing Luffy jumped off the yard to the deck below. "Okay okay we'll just finish up what we started here and just let the humans onboard take the ship to go back to their homes. Good plan? Good plan." She said to herself as confident at how things might go. "Okay kid do you know how many-" Aloe started as she turned back to Luffy only to find him nowhere in sight. "Hey where'd he go?"

While Aloe was talking to herself, Luffy landed on his feet on the deck before he stretched his arm towards the railing lining the galleon's forecastle. He then pulled himself upwards onto the railing to witness three mermaids fighting off a large group of cultists; neither group appeared to notice his presence.

"Hey do any of you guys know how to get to the New World?" Luffy shouted out to the group of mermaids fighting on the forecastle causing both groups to turn their collective heads towards them.

"What the hell is a kid doing out here?" A mermaid wielding two Krabi swords asked as she held off four cultists wielding cutlasses with one hand.

"That's the kid I told you about Oreo." Alba responded as she struck a couple of cultists with the blunt side of her sword. "The one that broke a hole in the deck and sent a bunch of these masked freaks into the air earlier." She explained before kicking another cultist off the ship.

"I don't care about who the hell he is." A mermaid with a large X-shaped scar stretched across her forehead stated coldly as she punched a cultist's head into the foremast, the power of her punch shattered the man's mask as well as broke the mast in half. "He shouldn't be up here seeing things like this." She stated as the mast fell off to the side of the ships as the shrouds holding it snapped apart.

"Hello I just asked you guys a question." Luffy said simply ignoring the mermaid's conversation about whether he should be up here or not. Wanting answers from the mermaids now, Luffy unleashed a wave of Haki towards the fighting groups in front of him. The Haki wave hit the group head on sending all the cultists onto the floor foaming the mouths. The mermaids, on the other hand, were stunned speechless at what just happened before them as they all looked at the fallen bodies.

"W-W-what the hell just happened?" Oreo asked as she gripped her swords tightly. Her body was still shivering at the strange power that struck her.

"I... I... don't really know..." The X-scar mermaid answered, just as confused as her two comrades were. Alba was just silent at what had occurred, having never felt a power like that before in her 32-year long life.

"Sorry about that." Luffy said from his seat on the railing behind the group causing all three mermaids to turn their heads simultaneously towards the rubber boy. "I didn't mean to hit you guys too but I needed to get your attention somehow." Luffy stated apologetically as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly with a small grin. All three mermaids stared blankly at the smiling boy in front of them not even reacting when Aloe suddenly landed on the deck in front of them.

"There you are!" Aloe stated angrily, looking like she had the fright of her life. "Do have any idea how long I was looking for you?" She stated as she grabbed with Luffy with two of her tentacles and began to violently shake him. "Here I thought you may have fallen and cracked your head open or worse fallen overboard. Do you have anything to say for yourself kid?"

"Sorry sorry." Luffy said quickly as he was being throttled.

"That's better." Aloe stated as placed Luffy down who was having a hard time trying to keep himself upright. She then turned her head and saw that her friends were still staring blankly at the dizzy boy. "What'd I miss?"

---

Several minutes later...

After getting their heads straight about what just happened, Luffy watched as the four mermaids quickly went to work of disposing the cultist's bodies overboard and tying up the still living cultists in what appeared to be a seaweed-like rope. After they finished all that business, Luffy found himself sitting on a barrel in front of the door to the forecastle with all four mermaids standing in front of him with their eyes locked to his movements.

"Ok now that we got all of that done." Alba stated as she clapped her hands together trying to keep a tension free environment. "So kid before you tell us exactly what you just did, can you tell all of us your name?" She asked pleasantly with a smile trying not to come off as forceful in her questions.

"Well I already told the octopus lady but alright," Luffy explained as shrugged deciding to go with the flow here. "My name is Monkey D. Luffy." He explained again as they all the mermaids raised an eyebrow at the strange name.

"What kind of name is 'Monkey'?" Oreo questioned skeptically as she rested her hand on the green handle of one of her Krabi swords not sure why any parent would name their kid something so stupid as monkey. Luffy turned towards the mermaid and managed to get better look at her then he could before earlier when he was on the yard and watched her fight earlier. Oreo had long, wavy black hair with parts of it tied together in four long braids with two hanging in the front and two hanging in the back. She wore a faded blue, sleeveless jean jacket over a red bikini top with khaki pants that covered past her knees showing off her split black and white striped tail fins. Oreo had three horizontal scars that went across the left side of her face with two of them under her left eye and one above it, showing off her green eyes in the process. "What did your parents hate you or something?" She asked only to receive an elbow to the gut from Aloe for her tactless comment.

"My names Luffy not Monkey." Luffy responded simply.

"Wait I thought that was your last name." Oreo asked confused by the boy's naming scheme. Luffy was about to correct her when the X-scarred mermaid cut in.

"It could be that Monkey is his family name." The scarred mermaid theorized. The scarred mermaid, unlike her friends, had short purple hair cut into a bob style with neck length bangs that seemed to frame her round but scarred face. She wore a blue sleeveless martial arts gi with similar martial arts pants showing off her long, reddish green tail fins which appeared slightly tattered no doubt from years of harsh physical training and combat. Unlike any mermaid Luffy had seen up to this point, she had long, flowing green fins growing from the sides of her wrists that were beautiful to look at but were no doubt dangerous weapons in this merwoman's hands. "It's not that common around here but I've heard that people living in the far east tend to place their family names before their own when they introduce themselves." The scarred mermaid explained.

"Really Mercia?" Oreo asked intrigued by what her friend possibly knew.

"It's what I've heard at least." The scarred mermaid, now named Mercia, replied. "Am I right boy?" Mercia asked coldly towards Luffy, showing off her surprisingly large canines and sharp teeth in the process.

Before Luffy could respond, Alba quickly interrupted. "Can we please get back on track here people?" She asked annoyed by how easily sidetracked her comrades were before turning towards Luffy. "Okay kid how on Earthland knock out all those people?" She asked tired of beating around the bush.

"Oh I did it with a burst of Haki." Luffy answered simply much to the mermaid's collective confusion at the strange term. Seeing their confusion, Luffy realized surprisingly that he actually needed to explain more. "Uh... It's kinda like this thing all living things have but can't figure out how to use during their lives." Luffy tried to explain as best as he could while the mermaids listened. Luffy's half-baked explanation, however, somehow felt familiar to Mercia but she couldn't really place where she heard it before. "Like there are two types of Haki living things normally have and one of those types allows you to do this!" Luffy proclaimed as he hardened his right hand with Haki turning it into a shiny black.

Alba, Aloe and Oreo looked at the display with interest having never seen a power like this before. Mercia, however, stepped back in surprise as her eyes widened in shock at what she was seeing.

"T-The Color of Armament!" Mercia exclaimed in shock as a cold sweat went down her face causing her friends to turn their heads towards the surprised mermaid.

"Huh that's what Rayleigh called it too." Luffy said casually as Alba, Aloe and Oreo turned their heads in surprise towards the boy. Before they could question Luffy about the power, they heard a slight cough coming from the other side of the deck. All the mermaids turned their heads to find a large group of prisoners standing in the doorway leading to the inside of the ship. Both groups stared at each other unsure of what to say to the other. Alba could feel the wary looks the group of former prisoners were sending towards her and her comrades no doubt this was fueled by the fact the deck was covered in blood belonging to the people that imprisoned them.

The tension was broken when Luffy got off his barrel and got in front of the mermaids. Alba watched as the rubber boy waved towards the people he met in the prison cells below, the adults in the group seemed to relax at the boy's presence while some appeared to be worried for the boy's safety.

"Oh it's you guys." Luffy stated simply, uncaring of the tension that was present earlier. "Did you get everyone out of their cells with the keys?" He asked. Alba watched as a woman with pink hair carrying what appeared be her child pushed through the group of men standing at the front and stepped forward.

"Yes young man everyone here is free thanks to you." The woman stated gratefully before she turned her attention to the four mermaids that were watching things proceed before them. "Um young man if you don't mind me asking who these ladies are?" The woman asked respectfully.

"Hey Celia don't bring attention to yourself like that!" One voice muttered out silently from the group of prisoners.

"Yeah we don't know if those things are done killing yet." Another voice muttered not as silently causing all four mermaids to narrow their eyes at the racist comment.

Luffy's eyes narrowed slightly at the cold and insensitive comments the former prisoners were tossing towards the quartet behind him. Their insensitive comments brought up a memory of Jinbei talking about how Merfolk and Fishmen didn't understand Humans and vice versa somehow leading to bastards like Arlong and Hody becoming a reality. He never really understood why people had such problems with other races and didn't see a point in hating others based on trivial things as stupid as species. He was quickly taken out of his thoughts when he saw Celia's free hand turn into a fist and shake as he could see the anger grow in her face.

"That's enough out of all of you!" Celia yelled with restrained anger at the prisoners behind her, surprising the mermaids at how quickly she managed to shut them all up. Her daughter Chelia just looked around from her spot in her mother's arm, not startled in the slightest by her mother's outburst as she was far more interested at looking at the new things around her. Celia took a deep breath to calm herself before turning to the mermaids with a smile on her face. "Now then... May I have your names?" She asked kindly.

---

Elsewhere on the ship...

Ultear was in a bad mood as she walked through the ship's hallways, her clothes were now spotless of any blood that got on her while she was 'punishing' those cultists back in the dining hall.

---

Earlier, with Ultear while Luffy was on the deck...

After thirty minutes of making sure those bastards suffered an endless hell as she cut them all apart and used their blood to completely paint the entire dining hall red, she allowed all of them to die in terror. Afterwards she changed the rules of the Jutsu Shiki to allow her Time Arc to be able to affect other living things except her, or more importantly their blood at least. Now able to affect living things, Ultear used her Time Arc for the important task of cleaning her clothes and body of all the blood that got on her. Done with the task, the Rune Pyramid deactivated the Jutsu Shiki as it returned to its original shape.

However, things started to go wrong when Ultear went to pick it up. The moment Rune Pyramid was in her hands, it began to glow a searing red. Ultear then quickly threw the searing hot object away from herself as she clutched her hand, burning pain seared throughout the appendage. She watched as the Rune Pyramid began to change erratically into various shape before it suddenly expanded into a large glowing sphere resembling a miniature sun in nature. The Rune Pyramid then began to collapse into itself until it just popped out of existence.

"What the fuck?" She thought intelligently to herself after witnessing that event and stared slack jawed at the spot where the Rune Pyramid used to be for a minute before deciding to just leave the dining hall.

---

Current time, with Ultear...

"Stupid piece of shit pyramid breaking down like that and burning my hand." Ultear thought as she walked through the hallways towards the ship's main deck, her right hand was wrapped tightly in bandages and healing gauze. "Wonder how Luffy's doing?" She wondered as walked further down the hall, the sound of waves splashing onto the deck were getting louder as she moved forward. When she reached the exit she didn't expect a large number of prisoners to be gathered on the deck most of them conversing with themselves as they didn't notice her come onto the deck.

"Okay..." Ultear muttered to herself deciding to just sneak back into the ship only for something to dangle right next to her.

"Hey Ultear!" Luffy shouted as his head dangled next to an unsuspecting Ultear causing her to let out an un-lady like shriek as she instinctively socked Luffy in the face. Ultear fell onto her butt as she witnessed Luffy's face cave into itself from her punch before it just popped back out no worse for the wear as he chuckled to himself.

"What the damn hell was that for Luffy?" Ultear asked, pissed that Luffy scared her like that.

"Sorry sorry." Luffy apologized as he chuckled to himself at the face Ultear made when he spooked here. Ultear was about to yell at him some more when she noticed some of the prisoners had stopped their conversations and were now looking at the duo. Not wanting to explain her presence on the ship or why she knew the rubber idiot dangling beside her, Ultear quickly grabbed Luffy's head and rushed into the doorway dragging him along for the ride. Those watching sweat dropped at what just happened before returning to their earlier conversations.

Mercia, however, kept her eyes locked on the doorway Luffy disappeared into from her position on the railings lining the forecastle. She was staring so intently at where he disappeared into that she didn't notice Alba come up from behind her as she leaned onto the railing to her right.

"So... Want to explain why you freaked out earlier?" Alba asked deciding to get to the point. When she saw Mercia didn't pay her any attention as she kept staring at the doorway she sighed to herself at how troublesome this sling to be. "Look I don't know why you're acting this way but I won't know what to do to help if you don't start-"

"That boy isn't normal." Mercia interjected, cutting off Alba from what she was about to say. Alba had to blink twice at what the emerald betta fish mermaid just said but before she could ask what she meant by that Mercia spoke again. "That boy shouldn't know the name of a power like that at his age let alone know its actual name." She continued as Alba listened on.

"What do you mean by that, Mercia?" Alba asked causing Mercia to turn her head towards her to acknowledge her presence before she turned back to the doorway across the deck from them.

"I was only fifteen when I saw that power with my own eyes." Mercia began to explain as Alba listened to every word. "It was during my training in Merman Combat when my sensei showed it to me. She called it 'a power that lies dormant in all the world's creatures... "Presence", "fighting spirit" and "intimidation"... These are no different from the things that most things can sense' is what she would always tell me about these 'colors'."

"So it's a type of magic." Alba stated before she shook her head. "I still don't see why you reacted like you just saw a ghost. We've all seen magic before so why did you react like that-"

"Because it's not Magic." Mercia interrupted. "My sensei told me these 'colors' are something completely separate from magic as it comes from a living thing's own will and it has its own specific requirements to be awakened." She explained causing Alba to ponder her explanation.

A few minutes passed between the two before Mercia sighed as she rubbed her forehead, today's events were giving her a massive headache.

"Where are Oreo and Aloe?" She asked her leader as she looked over the crowd below them.

"Aloe is playing with the group of kids that were down in the ship over there..." Alba explained as she pointed towards the poop deck across from them. Mercia followed her line of sight and saw that Aloe had a large group of kids playing around her while she was talking to that Celia woman, the woman's infant was currently grasping onto one of the octopus woman's many tentacles. "...and Oreo is discussing with the rest of the prisoners how we're going to help them get back to shore."

"What the hell could she be discussing with them about? Just let them take this ship and turn it back to shore." Mercia scoffed, wondering why anyone was even worried about that. Alba just sighed at Mercia's comment.

"That's what I said but apparently the straw hat boy says he's gonna take the ship and go rescue his friend's brother." The shark mermaid explained as Mercia listened. "I asked those prisoners why they don't just take the ship and force him to go back with them but apparently that kid managed to break out of his cell and free them before we even arrived." Alba sighed at just how strange the situation was. "And now they think it's alright to just send an eleven year old boy by himself to go fight who knows how many of these cultists at their home base while they just go sail on home and wish the best! AAAGH! What is wrong with these people!?" Alba yelled as she clutched her head frustrated with the situation.

"Ok then just let him go by himself then." Mercia replied casually as Alba just blanked at her reply.

"What do you mean 'just let him go'? I thought you would agree with me on this!" Alba exclaimed not sure what was going through her friend's mind.

"That kid managed to break out of his cell by himself and create that giant hole in the deck from several floors below, correct?" Mercia asked waiting for a reply from the black-tip shark mermaid. When she received a nod saying yes, the emerald betta fish mermaid continued. "If that kid managed to do all that and take out all the men we were fighting earlier in an instant then I don't see a problem with him going to fight by himself. After all it's possible he may be one of those people..."

"What people?" Alba asked confused by her friend's vague words.

"Remember what I said about the 'colors' earlier?" Mercia asked before she continued. "I don't know the specifics about it but apparently people normally can only use two types of the 'colors'. However, my sensei said there was a legend passed down by Merfolk in the past 800 years about a third 'color' that only a group of 'chosen ones' can wield that could bring the entire world into unending chaos if it ever surfaced." Mercia then turned towards an attentive Alba; her face was far more stoic than it was earlier. "It's called... The Color of the Conquering King."

---

Meanwhile, back at the Warehouse...

Laxus was currently fighting for his life as he fended off a horde of shadow copies of various Rune Knights and the guards he fought earlier in the day. He was forced to bend backwards to avoid a clumsy swing from a shadow copy guard before kicking upward and sending the copy into air. He then went into a handstand as he flipped his body backwards as he kicked two shadow copies in the face and knocked them into the ground as they dissipated into nothing. Laxus had to quickly move back as a shadow copy transformed its arms into swords and began to swing wildly at the teen.

"So these things can use the magic of the people they're based off." Laxus mentally noted remembering that some of the guards used similar magic earlier. "But these things don't appear to be able to use it at the same level or strength as the original." Laxus observed as he jumped back as the copy swung the blade down and watched the blade dig slightly into the concrete. Seeing that the copy was stuck, Laxus quickly rushed it and began to beat it with several powerful blows before finishing it off with an uppercut. "The fact these things disappear after a few hits shows that these things are nothing more than a distraction created by that bastard to tire me out!" Laxus thought as he socked another shadow copy into the ground before backhanding one that was sneaking up on him.

He had to quickly move as a barrage of fireballs fired off by a squad of identical shadow copies soon bombarded him. As he ran, Laxus suddenly turned directions and rushed towards the fireball flinging copies. Laxus easily dodged the blasts as he dropkicked a shadow copy to the ground as he held his arms out to knock over two more. As Laxus continued to fight on against the nearly unending horde, Peilis was sitting on a crate checking his pocket watch away from the battle.

"Well enough time has passed. Time to end his fun." Peilis muttered as he closed his pocket watch and placed it into his pant's sleeve. He then turned towards the mob that had circled the teen, who was continuing to fight on valiantly despite his exhausted state and nearly depleted magic. Peilis then disappeared from sight in a burst of speed before reappearing directly in front of Laxus.

Before Laxus could react, Peilis transformed his arm into a black pole and slammed it straight into the teen's face. The force of the blow sent Laxus flying back as he crashed onto the ground. Before Laxus could even get up, dozens of shadow copies dog piled on top of him to prevent his escape. The copies soon merged into one large shadowy mass as Laxus fought back under their combined mass. The large shadow mass then split itself apart into two large humanoid shadow creatures similar to the ones that composed them except each creature had dozens of pure white eyes all over its body instead of just two on its face. In their hands was a beaten Laxus who appeared to be unconscious in their grasp.

"Tired all ready, boy?" Peilis asked mockingly as the two massive shadow copies held Laxus in front of him. "I've got to say after you're riveting display earlier I thought you would've put up a much better fight than that-" Laxus suddenly sprung back to life as he launched a devastating kick straight into Peilis' left side. The force of the blow released a small shockwave of power that pushed back the shadow copies surrounding them a few feet. "Now there's that idiotic resolve I was expecting from you, and you surely didn't disappoint." Peilis responded as he stood completely unfazed by Laxus' earlier attack, his left side completely in a black and smooth second skin.

"What the damn hell are you made of?" Laxus asked as he panted heavily while his leg throbbed heavily in pain, feeling as if he just kicked a cube of solid iron the size of a one-story house.

"I'm not going to waste my breath to explain my abilities to you." Peilis stated contemptuously as he signaled his shadow creatures to fetch some things for him as they nodded their heads in reply. Laxus watched as four of the shadow copies went off towards the iron support that was damaged earlier by Peilis' Antumbra Sandstorm. The four shadow copies began to tear off a large chunk of the damaged support before they scampered towards Peilis and offered the iron chunk to him. Peilis took the offered iron, to Laxus' surprise bit a chunk out of it, and began to eat it as if it was a slice of bread.

"A bit past its expiration date but does the job quite nicely." Peilis commented after swallowing the first piece and began to eat the rest.

"What the hell are you?" Laxus asked trying to get an idea about what he's dealing with so he doesn't waste any more energy on futile attacks.

"Really? You can't figure it out?" Peilis asked mockingly as he ate the iron in front of the bound teen, not paying attention to the slight sounds of footsteps coming from across the warehouse. "I'll give you one guess..." He stated as he held his arm in front of himself. His arm then transformed into a black iron pole before several smaller ones began to burst out of it in random directions.

"Iron Dragon Slayer." He muttered to himself unsure of what to make of what he was seeing.

"EHHH! Wrong!" Peilis made a buzzing sound signifying a wrong answer as the smaller poles retracted back into the first one before using it to strike Laxus across the head. "As if I was mere Dragon Slayer like you boy." He then grabbed Laxus by his chin and forced the teen to look him in the eye. "I come from a much higher breed of slayer with that a mere Dragon Slayer such as yourself could hope to match. Do you even know what it is?" Peilis asked mockingly as Laxus glared at him, blood was spilling over his face from the new cut on his forehead. "Of course not. While an artificial failure like you tries to hunt dragons I hunt gods." He finished as Laxus raised an eyebrow at his choice of words.

"God Slayer? What some god taught you how to hunt them?" Laxus asked trying to keep Peilis focused on him.

Peilis gave a snort of disgust at Laxus' question, as if they very idea of a god teaching him this magic disgusted him to no end. "...I'd rather not say." Peilis answered after a period of silence, his voice was more subdued with a hint of venom to it than the cold confidence it carried earlier. "It's nothing a Second Generation Dragon Slayer such as yourself would ever understand." He said venomously, watching Laxus' eyes narrow in anger and question at his specific choice of words. "But enough talk. I've had enough of our little game." He stated coldly as his upper body and arms were coated completely in shiny black iron, the coating seemed to increase his muscle mass and size by quite a bit.

"It's been such a long time since I've needed to coat my body with my Iron God's Skin to this point. It's like an old suit I never get the chance to wear." Peilis explained as he began to roll his arm in his shoulders and shadow box in place. "But when I do..." He then threw a right hook straight into one of the massive shadow copies, his fist upon impact sent out a shockwave that completely obliterated the shadow humanoid's body. "Someone dies." He finished as Laxus watched the massive shadow humanoid's remains disintegrate into nothing.

"So you're just going to beat me to death with your fists?" Laxus asked skeptically as the remaining large shadow copy grabbed a hold of his free arm. "Isn't that a little lame for how much I've humiliated you during our fight? I mean you've got these Iron God Slayer powers and beating me up is all you can think of?" He asked sarcastically, trying to egg the God slayer on and keep him distracted.

"Perhaps." Peilis admitted as he cracked his knuckles. "But then again..." Peilis started before suddenly punching Laxus in the face. "I find this a lot more satisfying." He stated as Laxus struggled to keep his head up as he could see nothing but stars and flashing lights after taking that hit.

Before Peilis could throw another punch, several of the shadow copies to his right side were sent flying into the air by an unknown attacker. Peilis could only turn and defend himself as the attacker struck and appeared behind the God Slayer in an instant. Laxus managed to recover fast enough to see the attacker was a beaten up but still very alive Alan holding the handles of his long swords, barely unsheathed. Before Peilis could turn around, Alan muttered a few words...

"Sword Draw: Hummingbird's Song." Alan stated calmly as he sheathed his swords causing Peilis' chest to explode in a shower of blood as an x-shaped cut appears on his chest at that exact moment.

"How...How did you!?" Peilis asked in pure disbelief and fury as he turned towards a smiling Alan while Laxus watched.

"I can hear the 'breath' of your iron, God Slayer..." Alan responded confidently, breathing heavily after forcing his body to move so quickly. "No matter how strong it is, I can still cut it." He stated as he rushed towards the God Slayer and gripped his swords. "Sword Draw: Twin Canaries' Song!" He shouted as he unsheathed his sword in an instant and swung it towards his opponent. However, Peilis vanished from sight the moment Alan started to swing his sword.. Alan's eyes widened in shock at the man's disappearance only to notice a large shadow was cast over him. He soon looked up to find Peilis hovering over him with the stubs of multiple iron pillars beginning to form across his torso.

"Too slow." Peilis stated coldly before multiple iron rods shot out of his chest and collided with Alan's exposed back, pummeling him to the ground while forming a large crater from the impact. Alan coughed up a large glob of blood as he struggled to get off the ground before a large group of shadow copies dog piled on top of him. Peilis landed on his feet and turned towards Laxus as the shadow copies got off a beaten Alan with two of them holding him up by his arms. "Can you give me a moment? I need to deal with this annoyance first and then you'll have my full undivided attention..." He stated threateningly before walking towards a restrained Alan.

"I'm not going to pretend to understand why you had to intervene rune knight..." Peilis said as he walked up to the restrained knight. "If you had just stayed on the ground and played dead for about an hour or two you and Dreyar could have walked away from this alive. Or rather it would have been you dragging his unconscious, bloodied body through the streets but that's beside the point." Peilis waved off casually as two shadow copies brought over the God's Thunderbolt to him. "The point is I have my orders to not kill the Dreyar boy. Unfortunately for you and the cadavers that used to be your men that doesn't apply to anyone who gets in the way of my mission." He said as he turned towards the shadow copies.

Several feet away Laxus was struggling to get out of his captor's grasp.

"Damn it!" Laxus thought as he tried to free himself from the massive shadow copy's grip to no avail. "I have to stop him! If I could utilize that I could beat him but my magic reserves are too low to use it." Laxus slammed his head onto the ground in frustration at his own weakness. Looking up from the ground Laxus saw Peilis grab a familiar blade from the shadow copies. "Wait that blade... That's it!" Laxus though as a light bulb went off in his head, a risky plan was already forming in his brain...

Meanwhile Peilis continued with his speech unaware of Laxus' plot.

"Since you're the first being in a long time to hurt me while I was using my Iron God's Skin I'm going to kill you in a special way befitting your accomplishment." Peilis stated as he took the God's Thunderbolt from the shadow copies. "And what better way for a swordsman to die than by a sword." He finished as he raised lightning absorbing sword into the air. "Now goodbye!" Peilis shouted as he swung his sword downward as Alan braced himself for death, neither one noticed a large lightning bolt soaring towards him.

Peilis could only turn in surprise as the bolt struck the sword in his hand, a bright light flashed throughout the warehouse that blinded everyone present and wiped out a majority of the shadow copies that were closest to him. When the light died down, Peilis could only rub his eyes and blink rapidly as all he could see we're just bright spots. "I don't know why you thought that sneak attack of yours, Dreyar, was going to work..." Peilis said as he turned towards Laxus' direction, his eyesight still not have returned. "...but it was a futile effort thanks to-" he stopped when his eyesight returned and saw that Laxus was not in the massive shadow copy's grasp. "Where is he?" Peilis asked quickly as he looked around the warehouse. "WHERE IS THE DAMN HELL IS HE?" He shouted angrily his voice echoing across the entire warehouse.

"What? Can't keep track of the rookie, God Slayer?" Alan asked sarcastically, a defiant smile was plastered onto his blood soaked face. "I guess all that talk about being a superior breed of slayer was nothing but hot air if a mere Dragon Slayer got the drop on a God Slayer such as yourself." He stated as Peilis turned towards him, his face appeared stoic but his eyes burned with incredible fury.

"Do you think that this is going to stop me from cutting you in half you pathetic excuse for a council dog?" Peilis asked menacingly barely able to keep his burning anger behind a facade of calm confidence. "Let's see if you'll still be making wisecracks in hell!" He stated as he raised the God's Thunderbolt into the air as Alan began to chuckle to himself. "What's so funny dog?" He asked cautiously despite his rage urging him to cleave the Rune Knight. Alan continued to chuckle to himself before looking up at Peilis, he wore a smug grin on his face as he stared defiantly into the Iron God Slayer's orange eyes.

"Where do you think someone who can transform into a lightning bolt can disappear to, you moss-haired idiot?" Alan asked cryptically as his grin grew into a cheek-to-cheek smile. Peilis took a second to process the man's words before his eyes widened in sudden realization as he started to hear cracking sounds fill the air. He quickly looked towards the God's Thunderbolt and saw that the sword was beginning to form cracks as it glowed yellow.

"Clever son of bitch..."Peilis muttered in disbelief as the cracks grew in size and the sword began to surge with electrical energy. He quickly tossed the sword away before it suddenly broke in half. This resulted in a powerful surge of electricity bursting upwards through the warehouse and forced Peilis and Alan to cover their eyes from the intense light. After a few seconds, Peilis peered from behind his arm as the light began to die down and saw a human outline within the lightning beam. Peilis' eyes narrowed as he watched the beam began to grow smaller as all the electricity that composed it was being sucked into Laxus' mouth before it just vanished completely.

"Ok I've got to admit that was a good plan." Laxus stated confidently as he wiped his mouth with his arm feeling completely re-energized. "A crazy, absolutely last ditch effort plan but a good one nonetheless." Laxus admitted as Peilis glared at him.

"How... How on Earthland were you able to eat the lightning stored in the sword? It was your own lightning! No slayer is able to eat the element they create without consequences so how the hell were you able to then, fairy?!" Peilis yelled in disbelief what he just witnessed. He then turned towards his shadow copies who quickly understood the silent order and charged towards the blonde teen.

Laxus just watched as the army of shadow copies charged towards him before pointing his hand towards them and channeled lightning into his hand. The channeled lightning released a bright light that completely vaporized the shadow copies and forced Peilis to cover his eyes from the blinding light. Almost instantly, Laxus appeared before the man and before the God Slayer could move to defend himself, Laxus punched Peilis in the face with a lightning infused right hook. Peilis was sent flying back across the warehouse and crashed through one of its remaining walls to the outside world.

With the biggest threat out of the way, Laxus quickly turned towards the last two shadow copies, the same massive ones that held him back earlier and currently held Alan hostage. Laxus was before the shadow creature holding the Rune Knight in a flash of sparks and before it could react, fired a lightning blast strong enough to complete obliterate its upper body without hitting Alan. As Alan fell to floor free from his captor's clutches, the remaining shadow copy transformed its large arms into swords and rushed to impale Laxus from behind. Laxus just rolled his eyes in boredom as he took a deep breath and turned towards the last shadow copy.

"Lightning Dragon's Roar!" Laxus yelled as he released lightning in a concentrated, destructive blast that completely engulfed the shadow creature, destroying it. Alan's jaw dropped in amazement at the power of the blast as it destroyed everything in its path.

"Whoa..." Alan stated dumbly still amazed by what he saw. "Man I don't know how you managed to recharge but I'm sure glad you did." He said towards Laxus who just glanced at him.

"That bastard's sword converts any lightning it absorbs into power that it can use." Laxus explained. "If it didn't, my insane plan wouldn't have worked and I wouldn't have been able to restore my magical power." He was about to say more when he suddenly felt an incredible amount of killing intent coming towards him. "You need to get out of here! That bastard is heading this way." Laxus said quickly to the Rune Knight as he pointed towards the entrance. Alan was about to retort back at the teen but stopped himself and just let out a defeated breath.

"You better make him pay for what he's done." Alan stated as he got up and began to walk away. "Don't throw your life away either..." He stated as Laxus glanced at him from the corner of his eye in question. "I don't want to come back here and report that I found you here dead or worse. You still got your guild mate to find right?" He finished as he ran towards the entrance. Once he was out of sight, Laxus turned his attention back to the direction he sent Peilis flying with his body on alert.

After a few tense seconds Laxus saw a human outline walking calmly forward in the distance before it suddenly broke into a sprint towards him. Hearing something flying through the air, Laxus quickly ducked to the side as three black iron harpoons flew through the space previously occupied. Hearing more projectiles flying towards him, Laxus quickly moved as he barely avoided being speared by more harpoons as they crashed into the ground behind him. Tired of being on the defensive, Laxus fired off several lightning bolts to knock the harpoons back. Turning his attention back on his approaching enemy, Laxus had to quickly bend over backwards to avoid a spinning black disk that was aimed towards his waist. Laxus watched from his awkward position as the disk flew towards one of the warehouse's iron support, cutting clean through the iron support with no loss of momentum as it continued to fly through the wall in front of it. Sweat dropping at the power of the flying disk, Laxus tried to get up only to find Peilis in front of him with his left arm pulled back.

"Iron God's Sword!" Peilis shouted as his arm transformed into a large black iron sword and swung it downwards. Laxus quickly activated his Lightning Body to turn into a lightning bolt to barely avoid the near lethal blow.

"Ok that was too close." Laxus thought as he soared through the air to get some distance from his opponent. "I got to come up with a plan to-why am I moving backwards?" Laxus thought as he felt himself be pulled back by a powerful force. He looked back to see that Peilis had transformed his sword arm into an iron pole. "Son of a bitch turned himself into a lightning rod!" He thought as he soared backwards towards the God Slayer.

"Iron God's..." Peilis began as his right arm transformed, the limb was now black and much bulkier with a piston coming out of his elbow. "Piston Cannon!" He shouted as he threw a right hook, the piston in his right arm moved forward with the action.

"Shit!" Laxus shouted as he instantly disengaged his Lightning Body causing the teen to fall out of the air before Peilis causing his punch to just graze him. Despite the blow grazing his side, the power behind the punch still sent Laxus skidding across the warehouse sending up chunks of concrete in the process.

Disoriented from being sent flying across the warehouse, Laxus barely managed to get up from the ground onto his feet. The moment he did Laxus spotted Peilis rushing towards him head on, both his arms were coated in his Iron God's Skin.

"All right if that's how he wants to play then fine! Bring it on you overgrown piece of scrap metal!" Laxus shouted determined to no longer be on the defensive as he activated his Lightning Body and blasted towards him. Peilis, seeing the teen rush him head on, transformed his legs into black springs and shot forward at break neck speed with his arm pulled back. Seconds before collision, both men threw a powerful punch upon reaching the other. The moment their punches connected, it created a powerful shockwave that cratered the ground and sent both men flying back.

Laxus was the first to land on his feet and immediately shot towards the still airborne God Slayer. Peilis, however, wasn't out of the game as he quickly right himself in midair and landed on his feet, the ground cratering under his feet. "Iron God's Spear Gun!" He shouted as his arm transformed into a black spearhead and proceeded to fire off several iron spears towards the incoming teen. Laxus maneuvered himself through the barrage, barely managing to avoid being impaled by the barrage as he was beginning to get cuts on his arms and legs.

"I'm getting nowhere with this." Laxus thought as he gave up on trying to move through the barrage and decided to gain some distance from the God Slayer. "He can draw me towards him when I use my Lightning Body by turning himself into a lightning rod, his Iron God's Skin allows him to withstand my physical blows without taking damage," Laxus thought as he soared through the warehouse a constant barrage of iron spears nipping at his heels. "And if what that bastard said earlier is true that means he's been playing around this whole time." Laxus grit his teeth at the thought but grit them even harder at the realization he had. "...There's no way around it. I'm going to have to use that if I have a chance at winning this." He thought solemnly as he disappeared in a flash of sparks seconds before a barrage of spears could skewer him.

Peilis narrowed his eyes when he watched his spears hit nothing but the concrete ground keeping his senses on alert for where Laxus would show up. Hearing someone breathing twenty meters to his right, Peilis quickly turned his head to find Laxus standing motionless with his eyes closed.

"I knew you wouldn't run fairy..." Peilis began as he turned his body to face the teen. "If you ran away from me, it would be the same as dragging the name 'Fairy Tail' through shit. Your pride wouldn't allow that. I know because I saw how you acted when that Auctioneer insulted your pathetic little guild during your fight with that toilet roll earlier." He stated as he transformed both of his arms into black spearheads. "I hope your pride is worth the suffering your about to go through. Iron God's Spear Gun!" He shouted as he fired off a large barrage of spears toward the motionless Laxus.

Hearing the projectiles flying towards him Laxus pulled his head back as he took a deep breath before throwing it forward.

"Lightning Dragon's Roar!" Laxus yelled as he released the concentrated blast forward. The dragon's roar completely engulfed the spear barrage melting them in mid-flight while it continued forward unimpeded. Peilis' eyes widened as the roar struck him head on, pushing him back several feet as he tried to block it with his iron-coated hands before the roar broke through and completely engulfed him in a large explosion.

When Laxus opened his eyes to see if the roar hit its mark, there was a stark change in his appearance after tapping into his Lightning Dragon Slayer Magic. Laxus' eyes were now completely white and his canines had grown much sharper, giving him a feral appearance. The muscles in his upper body appeared to have gotten much bigger causing his shirt to become tight and slightly rip apart. One of the most contrasting changes was the appearance of a large amount of dragon like scales on his arms.

Laxus tore off his now too small shirt when he heard the sound of footsteps coming towards him. He turned his head to find Peilis walking calmly towards him, his entire body was coated in his Iron God's Skin.

"I see you've decided to finally tap into your Dragon Slayer abilities..." Peilis said as he walked, each step he took caused sparks to shoot out of his body showing that the roar did affect him to some extent. "Let's see how long it'll last for you." He stated as pulled his arms up, creating black chakrams in his hands. "Iron God's Chakram!" He shouted as he tossed the disc weapons at the teen. Laxus immediately coated his body in lightning as he blasted forward at breakneck speed, effortlessly maneuvering past the deadly flying disks. Peilis responded by rushing towards the incoming Dragon Slayer but suddenly found himself unable to move as sparks shot out of his body, signaling that he was paralyzed at the moment.

"You're mine!" Laxus yelled a feral smile on his face as he got close to the God Slayer and began to assault him with lightning infused blow after blow. "What's wrong? What happened to all that God Slayer talk?" Laxus asked madly as he punched Peilis with a right hook followed by left hook. "What happened to being my better?" A powerful blow to the gut. "My superior?!" Quickly followed by an uppercut to the chin.

Laxus continued to beat on his opponent mercilessly wearing a deranged smile on his face all the while. In his power-induced madness, he didn't notice Peilis wear the small smile through the beating. The smile only grew when he saw Laxus pull his right arm back as lightning completely covered his hand.

"This is my strength you bastard!" Laxus shouted as he struck Peilis in the face with a powerful right hook, completely encompassing both fighters in a dome of pure electricity. By the time dome disappeared and the smoke began to clear, Laxus was breathing heavily after putting out that much power in that last blow. He tried to move back only to find his right arm and both of his legs were stuck in something hard. He looked down to the find cause and his eyes widened when he saw his feet were encased in black iron. He then looked up to find his right hand encase in black iron on Peilis' cheek, sparks were shooting out of his body in random directions as the smell of burning flesh filled the air.

"You fell into my trap, fairy." Peilis stated mockingly as Laxus tried desperately to pull his hand out of Peilis' cheek to no avail. "I don't know what I was expecting when you tapped into your Dragon Slayer powers but I can definitely say that you are really dragging you grandfather's name through the mud with your pitiful-"

"Shut up!" Laxus interrupted angrily as he socked Peilis with his free hand, actually stunning the God Slayer as cracks appeared on his cheek. Peilis recovered quickly however as he glared at the teen.

"I see you still have some fight in you..." Peilis observed as his arms transformed into iron clubs. "I can't wait to break it!" He shouted as he slammed his pillar into Laxus' head knocking him back. Laxus quickly retaliated by socking Peilis again with his free hand, causing the cracks on the God Slayer's cheek to grow larger.

Both slayers then began to pummel one another, neither one backing down as they traded powerful blow after blow. Laxus fought as ferociously as he possibly could with one arm, tanking every hit from Peilis' clubs while simultaneously trying to free his trapped limbs by pouring more electricity towards them to weaken their bonds. Peilis, on the other hand, took complete advantage of his opponent's disadvantage as he relentlessly pummeled Laxus with his clubs, using his own iron-coated body as a lightning rod to redirect his opponent's lightning into the ground and weaken the teen's attacks in the process. However, this tactic had its own flaws as the constant surge of electricity through his body was starting to break apart the iron it was flowing through. The damage caused by this tactic along with Laxus' relentless assault was causing cracks to appear all over Peilis' body while he fought, turning this fight into a battle of pure attrition. A battle that Laxus was slowly beginning to lose as his attacks were starting to get slower and weaker as time went on.

Seeing that his opponent was starting to get weaker, Peilis stopped his assault as he transformed his clubs back into hands. He quickly caught Laxus' free hand with his left as he pulled his right arm back, transforming it into a larger bulkier version of itself with a piston coming out his elbow. "Checkmate." He stated coldly as he threw a right hook straight into Laxus' abdomen. "Iron God's Piston Cannon!" He shouted when his fist made contact as the piston in his arm moved forward, releasing a powerful shockwave that reverberated through Laxus' body, causing the Dragon slayer to cough up a glob blood from his mouth. Watching the artificial Dragon Slayer fall limp as the scales on his arms faded away, Peilis released the Laxus' limbs from his iron as he watched the teen's body fall to ground. It took a few seconds of heavy breathing for his adrenaline to wear off before Peilis got the idea to actually check and see if the teen had survived his last attack.

Not hearing any breathing coming from the teen, Peilis flipped Laxus onto his back as he placed his fingers on Laxus' wrist. "Shit!" Peilis exclaimed loudly, his eyes widening when he found no pulse in Laxus' wrist. He then placed his head on Laxus' chest to listen for his heartbeat. "Fucking hell. I wasn't supposed to kill him!" He shouted as he got up and pressed both hands over each other over the teen's left pectoral. The God Slayer then began to rhythmically press down on the teen's chest to restart his heart and keep him alive so his master doesn't chew him out for his failure to follow orders. He wasn't Nullpudding dammit!

What Peilis was unaware of was that while his thoughts were on how to avoid punishment from his master, Laxus' pinkie twitched. In the teen's chest, the Dragon Slayer's heart had made a single beat in a minute. This soon went to two beats, three beats, four beats, and even more as seconds passed. Soon his heart had begun beating again thanks to Laxus setting up a safeguard a long time ago to use his lightning magic to restart his heart in case it ever stopped beating under any circumstance. So while Peilis desperately pushed down on the teen's chest to restart his heart, Laxus' brain began to have thoughts again and decided to take advantage of this predicament.

The moment he pressed down again on the teen's chest, Peilis was suddenly electrocuted by a powerful surge of electricity that caused him to scream out in pain. Laxus' eyes suddenly opened, no longer missing their irises and pupils, as he quickly socked Peilis with powerful right hook sending the God Slayer skidding across the ground.

"That was too close for comfort..." Laxus thought as he placed his hands on his chest as his heart was beating at a rapid rate after the stunt he just pulled. "Stopping my heart with my own lightning after getting hit by his Piston Cannon... I don't ever want to pull a risky move like that for as long as I live." He thought as he could feel his heart beating at a normal rate again. His thoughts were cut short when a black spear passed by his head causing him to get back on his feet. Seeing Peilis was back on his feet with several cracks in his iron skin, Laxus quickly tapped back into his Lightning Dragon Slayer Magic as his eyes became pure white and scales covered his arms.

"Iron God's Shuriken Storm!" Peilis shouted as he created dozens of shurikens from his hand and began to fling them rapidly towards Laxus. Seeing the incoming projectiles Laxus responded swing his arm as he fire off a lightning blast that completely obliterated the shuriken before they could even touch him. Peilis charged forth as he ducked under the blast and took a deep breath to prepare his next attack. Laxus did the same as he charged forward and took a deep breath as both fighters got close to each.

"Iron God's Bellow!" Peilis shouted as he released a massive black tornado filled with iron shrapnel from his mouth towards Laxus at close range.

"Lightning Dragon's Roar!" Laxus responded instantly as he released the concentrated blast forward.

The dragon's roar and the black tornado collided against each other head on, as both attacks fought for supremacy before they mixed into a massive black, electrical vortex. Laxus and Peilis were soon sucked into vortex where it soon went critical and exploded, sending both fighters flying back.

Laxus grit his teeth as he skidded across the concrete floor, iron shrapnel digging into nearly every part of his body as his blood flew out. Peilis, on the other hand, was sent crashing along the concrete. Parts of his iron skin were breaking off in chunks as blood covered his body.

"That's it. I've had it with you..." Peilis said in cold fury, being the first to get back on his feet as he turned towards the exhausted Dragon Slayer across from him. "My master's orders were not to kill you but you've really driven me to my wit's end." He said venomously as Laxus struggled to get back on his feet. "Let me show you the power of a God Slayer." Peilis stated threateningly as he cupped his hands in front of himself as molten iron began to shoot out of them.

Laxus had managed to get back on his feet when he suddenly felt a massive amount of magical power building up in front of him. He quickly turned his head towards Peilis and found to his surprise a red molten ball of iron was forming in the space between the Iron God Slayer's hands. "What the hell is he doing?" Laxus wondered as he felt a chill go up his spine, every instinct he had was screaming at him to not allow the Iron God Slayer finish whatever it was he was doing. Laxus could only gawk in shock as the molten orb continued to grow larger and larger. The teen quickly snapped out of it however as he stared firing multiple lightning bolts towards the God Slayer, hitting him directly multiple times.

Peilis took them all in stride, however, not letting the constant attacks distract from finishing his attack as the molten orb continued to grow in size. "Too late fairy." Peilis thought confidently as the molten orb had finally reached its ideal size, being easily twice his size and four times as wide. "Let's see how well you'll survive this." He stated as lifted his arms over his head as the orb followed his motions.

"Iron God's Hephaestus!" Peilis shouted as he threw his arms forward, the massive molten orb followed his movements as it crashed down onto the concrete. The moment it did the molten iron orb became a massive wave of molten iron that bursted forward at breakneck speed. Laxus' eyes widened in shock at the massive wave coming towards him but had used too much magic to turn himself into lightning to dodge forcing him to use another method entirely to save himself. Laxus placed his clenched fists onto the floor before him as the molten wave was upon him.

"Lightning Dragon's Breath." Laxus then imbued his arms with lightning as he pressed down causing the concrete floor in front of him to break apart as his lightning dug a deep chasm in front of him. The molten wave soon crashed into the chasm stopping it from hitting Laxus who then disappeared in a flash of sparks.

Peilis growled at how Laxus managed to deflect his Iron God's Hephaestus by creating a chasm to divert it. When he heard the air crackle behind him, Peilis knew exactly who it was and immediately turned to strike at the teen for the sneak attack. When he hit nothing but air the God Slayer's eyes widened in surprise. Hearing the air crackled behind him, Peilis turned his head slightly to find Laxus completely covered in lightning behind him.

"Checkmate." Laxus stated coldly, echoing the God Slayer's earlier words. Quickly ducking to avoid Peilis' counterattack, Laxus pulled arm back as lightning began shooting out of his fist. "Lightning Dragon's Breakdown Fist!" Laxus yelled as he punched the air, releasing a giant, high-speed lightning blast in the shape of a fist that struck Peilis directly in the chest, electrocuting him and sent him flying into the air.

"Bastard!" Peilis shouted furiously as he sent flying into the air, sparks shooting out from all across his body. "Do you think this can stop me?! A God Slayer?!" He screamed as he threw his arms forward. "Iron God's-" he tried to scream only to find he couldn't as his body stopped responding to his commands as sparks moved across his body. "What the hell! Why can't I move? How the hell did he paralyze me?!" Peilis thought in question as he continued to rise higher into the air. He was unable to finish those thoughts as he hit the warehouse's ceiling, leaving an imprint of his body on it before gravity took control and sent him falling down. As he was falling helplessly to the ground, Peilis felt a large amount of magic power build up and turned his head to find Laxus glaring at him while pulling his arm back.

"Take this you bastard and remember it on your trip to hell!" Laxus yelled as he formed a spear of lightning that a resembled Chinese Ji in his hand.

"This is the power of Fairy Tail! Lightning Dragon's Heavenwald Halberd!" Laxus roared as he hurled the spear directly at Peilis who could do nothing but watch as the spear flew towards him at lightning fast speeds. The spear struck him directly in his chest, a massive surge of lightning flowed throughout his entire body before completely engulfing it in a massive three-pronged dome of pure electrical energy. The dome quickly died down as the charred body of Peilis crashed down into the concrete, large amount smoke coming off his singed body as his Iron God's Skin faded away.

Laxus fell onto his knees once he saw Peilis' body crash onto the floor, his eyes returned to normal as the scales on his arms faded away. Laxus breathed heavily as his body was wracked with incredible pain at how much power he exerted with his last attack on top of all the injuries he sustained throughout the entire fight. Despite all that, he couldn't help but smile at his victory, just glad that it was over.

His reverie was suddenly cut short when he felt a massive pressure push down on him. He quickly looked forward and to his absolute shock saw that Peilis was back on his feet.

"H-How... How are you still standing after that?" Laxus asked as his body trembled under the massive pressure he was feeling. Peilis just began to laugh darkly at the question as he stared at the teen with a crazed look in his eyes that betrayed the cold fury in them. He watched in trepidation as the God Slayer began to walk slowly towards him, his smoking and burned body did nothing to stop from moving forward towards the shocked teen.

"I'll admit fairy that you did a real number on me..." Peilis started with a deranged smile as he rubbed his chest, two burn marks were an equal distance from the third center mark that marred his chest signifying where the Lightning Dragon's Heavenwald Halberd had hit him. "But like before you just fell short." He said before his grin twisted into a dark scowl as Laxus tried to get back on his feet. "Now I'm going to do the same to you." He stated cryptically as green magical energy began to surround him.

"Devil Slayer Magic, Dragon Slayer Magic, and God Slayer Magic..." Peilis began as the green magical energy swirled around him. "All three are Lost Magic of the highest order that allows their wielders to utilize powers that make the pathetic, magic-less weaklings of this world soil themselves in fear and make other mages lower their heads to the dirt in submission and envy." He continued as the magical energy began to swirl even faster than before as the concrete floor around him began to crater in. "Despite their obvious differences in power and hierarchy, all three slayer magic as have one thing in common and that's the ability to transform." He explained as Laxus' eyes widened in shock as he fell back on his knees, he could just feel Peilis build up a monstrous amount of magical power as he felt the massive pressure push down on him.

"Dragon Slayers have Dragon Force, Devil Slayers have Corrupción, and God Slayers..." Peilis explained as his dark green hair began to glow a lighter green. "...have Ascension." He finished with a deranged smile as his eyes flicker into a glowing light green. Laxus could only watch helplessly as Peilis started to yell as his skin began to change into a darker color reminiscent of his iron while his hair and eyes started to flicker between their natural colors and a glowing light green.

"I-I can't win..." Laxus thought in despair as he watched the transformation unfold before him. He could feel his hand unconsciously tremble as he watched the magical energy coalesce around the God Slayer. Before the transformation could finish, however, out of a nowhere a strange piece of paper appeared and slammed itself into Peilis' face.

This random event caused the transformation to cease immediately as silence covered the warehouse. Once he got over the shock, Peilis removed the paper from his face, as he looked it over. Laxus could only watch as Peilis muttered a curse under his breath once he recognized what he was holding.

"...he has to call me back now of all times." The God Slayer muttered darkly under his breath as he pocketed the shikigami and started walking away.

"Oi what the damn hell do you think you're doing?!" Laxus shouted, overcoming his fear now to speak out as he struggled to get on his feet causing Peilis to turn towards the teen with a disinterested look on his face.

"Leaving, obviously." Peilis responded rolling his eyes at the question causing Laxus to growl in anger at the disinterested response.

"Do you think I'm just going to let you leave after the lives you've taken and all the shit you've put me through today?" Laxus yelled angrily only to receive a blank look from Peilis who just rubbed his head in exasperation.

"Look I don't care about you as I was only following my orders to test you, so I'll just tell you that your pathetic guild mate was taken by Zeref cultists." Peilis explained as Laxus' eyes widened in surprise at the information. Before the teen could demand more information, Peilis had disappeared from sight. Laxus' eyes widened as he began looking around for where the God Slayer had disappeared to before he felt something heavy strike the back of his head. Laxus fell forward onto the ground while Peilis watched from behind him, his arms transformed into an iron club. As Laxus' consciousness began to fade, Peilis grabbed the teen's head and forced him to face the God Slayer

"Remember this boy: just because I was following orders today doesn't mean I won't kill you the next time we meet. So you better watch yourself from this day forward, fairy." Peilis explained as he dropped the teen's head onto the ground before walking away. Laxus' vision faded into darkness as he watched the God Slayer disappear into the shadows before the embrace of unconsciousness took him in.

Not long after Laxus lost consciousness, the ground suddenly exploded upwards forming a large hole.

A cloaked figure soon jumped out of the new hole and landed on his feet as he looked around the completely desolate warehouse. The cloaked figure soon caught sight of Laxus lying motionless and, in an instant, appeared next to prone teen. A mismatched pair of yellow and green eyes looked over the teen as the cloaked figure pulled a rock out of his cloak to test something. He then tossed the straight onto Laxus' bare back bouncing off the teen and landed a few feet away. Seeing that the blonde teen wasn't waking up as a purple bruise formed where the rock hit, the cloaked figure smiled a cheerful grin full of shark-like teeth as he pulled his right sleeve back.

"My lucky day..." The cloaked figure thought sinisterly as a green shadowy miasma covered his right hand, the sclera in his heterochromatic eyes turned pitched black in the process. He soon slammed his miasma-covered right hand straight onto Laxus' exposed back chuckling darkly through it all. The cloaked figure watched as Laxus' body went into spasms as the greenish black miasma seeped into his body before stopping as it disappeared into him.

"I can't believe I found Makarov's grandson all the way over here!" The cloaked figure thought as he did an impromptu victory dance. He soon stopped when he heard shouting in the distance. "Well would you look at the time I best be on my way!" The figure thought as broke into a run towards the warehouse's dock. "Next stop, The Tower of Heaven!" The figure thought with a manic grin before he dived into the water minutes before the entire warehouse was soon filled with Rune Knights...

---

Several hours later, out at sea...

The moon shined brightly in the night sky as the ocean winds blew into the galleon's sail aiding the large ship in traveling towards its intended destination. Feeling the cool sea air blow through her hair, Ultear stared at the dark compass in her hand as she operated the helm turning it ever so slightly in order for the ship to stay on course.

Not long after the quartet of mermaids had evacuated the prisoners onto the lifeboats and a rather lengthy farewell from them, Ultear had gotten to work at repairing the damages to the ship during their attack on the ship. She could remember Luffy standing gaping in amazement at how she used her magic to restore the front mast back into place as she reversed its 'time,' making it seem like it was never broken in half in the first place. After she finished, Luffy went to sit at the bowsprit while she went about investigating the ship where discovered a hidden magic engine that could power the ship in case the sails were made inoperable.

"Despite the time spent helping those prisoners evacuate the ship with the help of those mermaids and repairing everything they damaged during their earlier attack, I'm making record time." Ultear muttered to herself as she put the helm on magic autopilot, the ship began to steer itself as it kept on course to its preset destination. "I've got to hand it to those idiotic cultists. For a bunch of mask wearing dumb-asses, they sure are cautious." Ultear stated as she watched the ship drive itself on autopilot, a feature powered via magic engine in case any prisoners stage a revolt and manage to take over the ship. That way, in case that scenario ever happens, the prisoners would still be taken to the island despite their attempt to escape. "Their paranoia is my win then." Ultear mentioned to herself as walked down to the steps leading to the main deck. It didn't take her long to reach the ladder that would lead to the forecastle where she would find Luffy.

"Wonder what he's doing at the bow of the ship?" Ultear thought to herself as she climbed the ladder. The moment she reached the raised deck, she immediately moved towards the ship's bow. "Luffy!" She called out trying to get the rubber boy's attention. "Luffy where are you?" She called out again as she looked around the deck for the rubber boy. She was about to give up and find him later when she caught glimpse of his hat near the ship's bow.

She quickly moved towards the bow and found her target sitting on top of its edge looking out towards the sea. "Luffy!" She called out again this time actually getting Luffy's attention as he turned towards her.

"Oh hey Ultear!" Luffy called out happily from his seat on the ship's bow. "What's up?" He asked not noticing the annoyed look she was sending him.

"'What's up?' I've been calling you for the past few minutes to tell you how long we have before we arrive, and you didn't bother to respond that's 'what's up!'" She replied, annoyed at his lack of attention. She then saw that he wasn't paying attention to her and staring at her with a blank look. "Hey. Hey! Pay attention!" She shouted as she climbed atop the bow and snapped her fingers in front of Luffy's face. Her actions caused him to lose his blank look as he shook his head to clear out any distracting thoughts.

"Sorry sorry." Luffy apologized his voice carrying a lot less energy than it did earlier not that Ultear could notice the difference. "So what did you want to tell me?" He asked causing Ultear to cross her arms in front of her chest.

"If you had just listened instead of spacing out I could've gotten this done earlier but whatever..." Ultear said as she chastised Luffy for his inattentiveness. "We're getting closer to the cultist's islands base. We should be there in an hour or less if the wind is on our side today." She explained as Luffy nodded his head in understanding.

"Oh ok." Luffy replied.

Ultear nodded satisfied that Luffy understood as she began to stand up. "Ok good now if you excuse me I-"

"Hey Ultear." Luffy interrupted as he suddenly grabbed Ultear by her hand keeping from getting up and leaving. Ultear soon turned towards the rubber boy, her eyes narrowed questioningly. Seeing that he got the somewhat easily irate girl's attention, Luffy turned his attention towards the bow's edge and grabbed a hold of it with his free hand. Ultear watched skeptically as Luffy broke off a piece of the bow and presented it towards her expectantly like a child wanting a parent to perform their favorite magic trick.

"Could you do that Time Arp thing again? Like you did with the mast earlier?" He asked expectantly. Ultear raised an eyebrow in question at the rubber boy's request before rolling her eyes in defeat.

"Fine..." She conceded as a three-pronged symbol appeared in her eye, the broken piece was lifted out of Luffy's hand before moving back into place in the bow and refused with it. "...and it's Time Arc, not Time Arp, Luffy." Ultear corrected the rubber boy who was staring in amazement at what she had done.

"Man that's so cool! I never get tired of seeing that!" Luffy cheered as he jumped into the air with stars in his eyes. Ultear shook her head at his reaction, remembering how he reacted the same way after she moved the ship's foremast and its shrouds back into place with Rewind. "It's like you're a doctor for ships! A ship's doctor!" Luffy cheered with a smile before his expression became somber in appearance. "Man your power really could've saved me and my friends a lot of trouble back then..." He said somberly as he slowly sat back down.

Ultear raised an eyebrow at Luffy's sudden change in mood before deciding to let him be alone his thoughts. Before she could get up and go back to the wheel, Luffy spoke once again.

"Hey Ultear?" He asked, his voice lacking all the jubilant energy it held earlier, sounding more somber in tone.

"Yes?" Ultear replied unsure of what was going through her partner's mind now.

"Can your Time Arc affect people?" Luffy asked bluntly surprising Ultear with his serious tone as he turned his body to look her straight in the eye. "Can it heal people's injuries like it can with this ship? Even fatal ones?" He asked expectantly trying to keep his voice calm but a flicker of hope filled his eyes as he stared into Ultear's brown ones.

"N-No. It can't affect people as it only affects inanimate objects. I've tried but it will only affect non-living objects such as stone or just living things that lack a nervous system such as plants." Ultear explained feeling a little weirded out by Luffy's sudden behavior. She watched as the hope in the boy's eyes suddenly died down and be replaced by despair followed by cold acceptance of the fact.

"...oh." Luffy replied in a somber tone, accepting the reality of the situation around him as he turned around to face the sea before him.

Ultear watched the rubber boy just gaze listlessly towards the dark sea in front of them, unsure of what to do in this situation. One part of Ultear's mind, the cold, pragmatic part that has served her well in the past few years since her mother's apparent betrayal, told her to just leave Luffy to his own devices and start planning on how to infiltrate the Tower of Heaven. The other part of her mind, the emotional empathic part, told her to try to help Luffy in order to get him out of his funk. Both parts of her mind argued for quite some time before coming to a consensus that a happy Luffy would be more cooperative and useful than a depressed one in the end. Ultear took a deep breath as she mentally prepared herself to put her plan into motion.

"So Luffy..." Ultear began as she scooted closer towards Luffy until she was fully flush with him. "How about you tell me about yourself to pass the time?" She asked as Luffy turned his head towards her...

---

Half an hour later...

"...and then I kicked that masked jerk through the cell wall!" Luffy said as he gestured with hands to paint the scene as Ultear watched. For the past hour, Luffy had told Ultear about his time in Fairy Tail from the time he found himself awaking in the guild's infirmary to how he found himself on board the cultist's ship. Ultear listened to his tale at first to just humor him and improve his mood but found herself questioning him about certain actions during his tale. Before she knew it she found herself invested in his story and actually laughed at some of the more humorous moments in his story, not that she'll ever admit it to anyone after today.

"...and then I wandered a bit through the ship where I met you and-" He would've continued further only to be interrupted when Ultear put her index finger on his mouth.

"I think that's enough for today," Ultear said as she got up onto her feet, trying to get the blood flowing to them again after sitting on them for a long time. She didn't expect Luffy to talk for so long nor did she expect to become invested in the boy's story. She would never admit it but she actually had fun in the past hour despite not getting the information she wanted such as an explanation about his Devil Fruit or Haki abilities.

As Ultear stretched her legs to wake them up, Luffy spotted a large blur in the distance from the corner of his eye. Turning his attention from Ultear's stretching to the front of the ship, Luffy squinted his eyes to try to see what was in the distance.

"Hey Ultear?"

"What is it Luffy?" The girl responded as she rubbed her legs.

"I think I see a big pole in the distance." Luffy said as he cupped his hands around his eyes to see the mysterious object in the distance, not noticing that that ship began to move faster through the water. Ultear pondered what Luffy meant before realization struck her. Abandoning her stretching routine, Ultear quickly summoned a telescope and peered through it. What she saw through the instrument was the outline of a massive building-like structure atop a solitary island before it slowly began to get clearer the closer the ship got.

"There it is, up ahead..." Ultear stated aloud as she put away the telescope, the island was close enough they could see massive tower on it without any equipment. "The cultist's island base." She explained as Luffy listened, both of them unaware that the ship was picking up speed.

"That's the masked jerk's base?" Luffy asked in awe of the sheer size of the tower in the distance.

"Yes." Ultear answered as she looked upon the tower. "Now we need a plan to-" She was cut off when the ship began to shake violently as an explosion went off the ship's port causing her to almost lose her balance while Luffy was knocked back onto the forecastle. Another explosion soon went off the ship's starboard, causing Ultear to be knocked off balance and fall overboard. She expected to slam head first into the water when she suddenly stopped a few feet above the water. She looked up to see a hand gripping her leg before she was suddenly pulled up at breakneck speed.

Once he made sure she was in the air, Luffy pulled his arm back as he caught Ultear in his arms.

"You alright?" He asked the girl in his arms in a genuinely concerned tone. Before Ultear could respond, she saw lights flash on the island's shore from the corner of her eyes. Her eyes soon widened when she saw orbs of light flying towards them. Before she could even yell at him to take cover, Luffy was already on the move as rushed to the back of the forecastle just as one of the orbs crashed into the bow. Luffy jumped over the railing and stretched arms to the mast as the bow exploded into a large blaze.

"Why are they firing at us?" Ultear thought as Luffy pulled them up to the main mast's yard as more light orbs crashed into the ship, causing fires to spread all over. "Do…do they realize that we've completely gotten rid of the crew and all the prisoners have escaped already? Is that why they're trying to kill us instead of just letting us sail in?" She theorized as Luffy landed on the yard and placed her onto the Crow's nest. As Luffy began to run across the yard dodging light orbs aimed at him at the same time, Ultear came to conclusion.

"We need to abandon the ship." She thought realizing that her chances of infiltrating the tower were shot to hell. "Luffy we need to abandon the ship!" Ultear yelled towards the rubber boy over the roar's explosions happening around them.

"Yeah I know. I don't think this ship is gonna make it to the island like this." Luffy replied as he casually moved his head to avoid a light orb. Luffy watched as the light orb flew into the distance before exploding, giving the rubber boy an idea.

Deciding to put his plan into motion, Luffy ran across the yard as he avoided multiple light orbs flying at before coming to a stop near the Crow's nest where Ultear was climbing out.

"Hold on tight." Luffy said as he grabbed a hold of the girl and, ignoring her protests, flung her onto his back, positioning her where she could hold onto him by his neck and chest.

"What the hell are you doing? This ship is about to go up in flames! We need to get out of here!" She yelled into Luffy's ears, trying to get him to listen as he stretched arms out and grabbed a hold of the yard.

"That's what I'm doing Ultear." Luffy answered simply as he coated his legs up to his feet in Haki and began using Kenbunshoku Haki to predict where the light orbs where going to hit. Ultear was going to ask what the boy meant by that when a light orb whizzed by her head, forcing her move her head behind Luffy's head.

"You better know what you're doing." Ultear whispered into his ear, not wanting to die out at sea because of those cultist idiots.

"Most of the time I don't." Luffy answered honestly, smiling as his Haki showed him a light orb about to crash into his chest. Before Ultear could even yell at him about what he said, Luffy jumped into the air with his feet in front of him as a light orb crashed straight into him. Ultear screamed as she and Luffy were sent flying back thinking they were going to die from a point black explosion. Noticing that they haven't exploded yet, Ultear looked over Luffy's shoulder and her eyes widened when she that the rubber boy had caught the sphere of light with his feet.

"How are you doing this?" Ultear asked completely bewildered by what she was seeing.

"I saw Rayleigh do a similar thing before." Luffy answered honestly, remembering the Dark King's battle with Kizaru back at Sabaody. Before Ultear could even question who that was, she saw steam began to emit from Luffy's arms as he let the light orb go past them.

"Hold on tight! Gomu Gomu no…" Luffy shouted with a smile.

"What do you mean by that-"

"JET ROCKET!" Luffy interrupted her as he propelled himself forward at blinding speeds.

"KYAAAAAHHHH!" Ultear let out a high-pitched scream as the duo flew across the air, easily crossing the distance between them and the island as they crashed into the tower, finding themselves in a massive open space inside the massive building filled with the sounds of an intense, ongoing battle.

"Gomu Gomu no Balloon!" Luffy inhaled a large amount of air to inflate himself, slowing him down enough to stop in midair before gravity took hold of him and brought him falling down. Ultear let out another scream as they fell, while Luffy threw his arm forward to grab ahold of one of the many ledges lining the walls of the tower. He soon rocketed him and Ultear to safety as they landed on the rocky ground.

Despite the sounds of a brutal battle being fought filling the air, Luffy could only laugh at finally arriving at his destination while Ultear hyperventilated at the death-defying stunt Luffy just pulled.

"We finally made it Ultear!" Luffy cheered as he jumped onto his feet throwing his arms into the air as if he didn't nearly die several times in the past five minutes. He soon turned towards his friend. "Come on we have to go find-Ultear?" Luffy started but stopped when he saw that the girl was nowhere to be seen, appearing to have just disappeared into thin air. "Where did she go?" Luffy pondered briefly as he scratched his head.

"Eh I'll find her later." Luffy said casually as he placed his hat onto his head, a massive grin on his face. "Now to go find Kagura's brother!" Luffy shouted as he ran off in a random direction, determined to bring the girl's brother back to her.

---

To be continued…

Dun Dun Duuun!

Oh man that was a long chapter! I'll probably try to wrap this arc up in the next two chapters so keep an eye out for the next one.

Now before I begin the closing statements here are the updates to the Pirate Mage Encyclopedia:

The Pirate Mage Encyclopedia:

Laxus:

Techniques/Spells:

Lightning Dragon Slayer Magic: A form of Dragon Slayer Magic that gives Laxus the power and characteristics of a Lightning Dragon, along with a Dragon Slayer's signature ability to eat external sources of his element to heal himself and regain power, thus making him immune to lightning.

Lightning Dragon's Roar: Laxus' version of the trademark Dragon Slayer' attack; he generates lightning in his mouth and releases it in a concentrated, destructive blast, capable of destroying everything in a wide area in front of him. The special effect of this attack, aside from the high damage it causes, is that, even if the target survives, the lightning paralyzes them to a degree, leaving them numb and preventing them from escaping Laxus' following attack.

Lightning Dragon's Breath: Laxus places his clenched fists onto the ground before imbuing them with lightning and pressing down, causing the ground to break apart as the lightning bursts upward and digs a deep chasm in front of him.

Lightning Dragon's Breakdown Fist: Laxus punches the air, releasing a giant, high-speed lightning blast in the shape of a fist, which, upon contact with the target, generates a massive, sparking explosion. When it connects with the enemy, aside from inflicting damage upon them, the electricity stuns them, leaving them open to Laxus' subsequent attacks.

Lightning Dragon's Heavenwald Halberd: Laxus raises both of his hands in the air at his sides and generates electricity between their open, facing palms. The electricity is rapidly shaped into the form of a massive spear composed of lightning, which Laxus proceeds to hurl at the enemy. When the spear connects with the target, it consumes them in a three-pronged dome of pure electricity, electrocuting the victim nonstop until the dome fades.

Alan Sandhill:

Techniques:

Sword Draw: Hummingbird's Song: Alan places his sheathed sword in front of him and listens to the "breath" of his opponent, he rapidly unsheathes, attacks the opponent at blinding speed, and resheathes his sword when he finishes. This technique was strong enough to cut through Peilis' Iron God Skin with ease, severely injuring but not defeating the Iron Godslayer, which Laxus couldn't even accomplish on his own with his Lighting Dragon Slayer Magic.

Sword Draw: Twin Canaries' Song: Alan places one hand each on his sheathed swords and listens to the "breath" of his opponent, he rapidly unsheathes, attacks the opponent at blinding speed, and re-sheathes his swords when he finishes.

Peilis Kardas:

Shadow Magic: An elemental Caster-Type Magic that allows the user control shadows. Peilis uses this to merge with shadows for fast travel or to spy on others without being noticed. He even uses shadows to attack opponents in myriad of ways. A weakness to this magic is that it can't be used if Peilis is in an area where no shadows can exist such as in areas of pitch darkness or incredibly bright lights, which can force him out of the shadows.

Techniques/Spells:

Shadow Travel: Peilis fuses with his shadow in order to travel quickly across long distances in a short amount of time. He can also use this to move across the battlefield to launch powerful attacks at an opponent from within the shadows and is capable of matching the speed of Laxus' Lightning Body. The weakness to this spell however is that the user can be forced out their shadow if enter an area of pitch darkness or if there is a powerful burst of light that eradicate any shadows in the immediate area.

Dart Gun: While fused with his shadow, Peilis shoots a shadowy tendril forward like a high-speed missile, impaling his opponent and sending them flying from the force of the impact.

Shadow Punch: Peilis gathers shadows in his fist before he throws a powerful shadow-imbued punch. In the event that his opponent dodges the blow Peilis can just shoot out the shadows in the form of a fist to punch the faraway opponent.

Shadow Bullets: Peilis fires off a barrage of shadowy energy bullets from the palms of his hands that explode upon contact.

Shadow Stream: Peilis unleashes a jet of shadow from one or both hands at an opponent to pummel them with a continuous stream of shadows.

Shadow Whip: Peilis creates a whip-like structure made of shadows from his hand, which he uses to whip faraway targets with incredibly speed and power.

Shade Arrows: Peilis fires off a barrage of shadow arrows from his hand towards his opponent.

Spider Web: Peilis thrusts his hand out and creates a large spider web made out of shadows to stop large physical attacks or incredibly fast opponents from reaching him.

Umbra Rain: Peilis thrusts his hand in the air as a thick, continuous stream of shadows pour out to the top. When the shadows reach the height of their ascent, the shadows spread out over a wide area as they come back down as shadowy raindrops that pummel everything they touch with incredible force.

Penumbra Cloak: Peilis imbues his body with shadowy energy as his shadow melds with body, granting him increased power and speed on par with Laxus' Lightning Body. In this form, Peilis is able to pull out stored objects from within the shadows coating his body and utilize them from across his body without gripping them allowing Peilis to pull off a variety for attacks with his hands free to fire off shadow attacks.

Antumbra Sandstorm: Peilis pulls out several daggers from the shadows covering his arms and have them line up in rows. The daggers lining his right arm will begin to spin towards the left and the daggers lining his left arm will begin to spin towards the right. The rapid spinning will create a powerful dark windstorm that can cut up concrete and iron with ease.

Umbra Shock: Peilis fires off a shadow sphere from his hand that releases a powerful shockwave upon contact to the target.

Antumbra Drill: Peilis has the daggers lining either of his arms spin at an incredible rate where they resemble buzz saws instead of blades. He then punches his opponent to shred them apart. This attack can be used to tear up the ground and launch debris into air to defend against projectiles.

Penumbra Lariat: Peilis pulls out a bladed edge of a long sword from his shadow and has it line the inside of his arm, which he then swings to slice everything directly in front of him.

Antumbra Whirlwind: Peilis ties his legs together with his shadow before two short sword's blades pop out of his ankles. Peilis then has the short swords spin at a rapid rate around his ankles like a propeller to unleash a power dark whirlwind he can use to trap his opponents. The flaw to this attack is that the feet are left unprotected against attacks that have no mass to be blown back such as lightning.

Antumbra Tornado: Similar to the Antumbra Sandstorm and Antumbra Drill, Peilis has the daggers lining either of his arms spin at an incredibly rapid rate to unleash a powerful tornado that can cut up anything it hits such as concrete or iron.

Shadow Mitosis: A powerful shadow magic spell that allows the user to gather shadow energy within the user's body only to project it as territory signified by light black aura. Any living thing touched by this black aura will have dark creatures spawn from their shadows in the image of the shadow's origin (the creatures are not the shadows themselves just magic based creatures split off from the shadows). Theses duplicates are pitch-black versions of the beings they spawned from with only iris-less white eyes. These creatures are controlled by the caster and will follow his or her every order to the letter. Theses shadow duplicates all have the same attacks and abilities as their origin but at a weaker level. These shadow duplicates aren't invincible as they can be harmed by normal or magical attacks. However, they can reform themselves based on how much damage they receive; a grievous wound such as losing a limb will take longer to heal than a broken finger. Like regular shadows, these shadow duplicate can be completely eradicated by bright lights preventing them from regenerating. Due to the duplicates being weaker than the original version, the real value of this spell is that it bolster's the caster's numbers. (Idea by PageofMind.)

The Gladiator: A type of Requip that allows the user to summon unique specialized blades from a pocket dimension that they're stored in for use in battle. Peilis uses this magic to summon unique, powerful blades in combat to battle and cripple opponents when he feels their too pathetic to use his God Slayer Magic on them.

Techniques/Spells:

God's Thunderbolt: An incredibly rare and powerful sword that can be utilized to unleash powerful lightning attacks and can act as a powerful lightning rod to absorb nearby lightning, which can serve to restore the blade's power. There is a flaw to the sword's design as it can only draw in nearby lightning when it is imbedded to the ground or when the user is completely still and standing in place, making the sword useless against enemies that can utilize electricity at extremely close range through punches or kicks.

Iron God Slayer Magic: A type of God Slayer Magic that utilizes the element of iron. This allows the user to create black iron objects from their body for multiple purposes and coat their body in a powerful, black iron skin that protects them from physical attacks. As a Godslayer, Peilis can eat iron in order to replenish his stamina and strength.

Techniques/Spells:

Iron God's Bellow: Peilis breathes a massive black tornado filled with iron shrapnel that contains incredible concussive and shredding power.

Iron God's Sword: Peilis transforms one of his arms into a large, black iron sword, which allows him to unleash powerful cutting attacks as he could easily cut through an iron beam support with ease. The sword can be extended to reach far away enemies and its durability allows it to be used as a shield to block attacks.

Iron God's Chakram: Peilis creates small, black chakram that he can throw with pinpoint accuracy.

Iron God's Shuriken Storm: Peilis creates and throws a large barrage of shuriken to tear into an opponent at break neck speeds.

Iron God's Spear Cannon: Peilis transforms one of his arms into a large spearhead from which he fires a multitude of iron spears at his opponent.

Iron God's Skin: Peilis covers part of his body (or the entirety of it) in an iron coating. This black iron coating acts as a second skin to Peilis that dramatically increases his offensive and defensive power.

Iron God's Piston Cannon: Peilis forms two compact black iron pistons on his arms that he wounds back to store kinetic energy. When Peilis punches an opponent while this is active, the piston is released as a follow-up to the punch releasing a massive 'sudden impact' to the unfortunate target.

Iron God's Hephaestus: Peilis cups his hands together as molten iron forms between them as it expands in size and volume. After the molten ball reaches the ideal size, Peilis throws his arms forward as he unleashes a massive wave of molten iron towards his opponents. The attack's name comes from the Greek god of metallurgy, Hephaestus, and is one of the few non-solid attacks Peilis uses.

Ascension: Unknown... More information is required in order to be properly cataloged. From what is currently seen, it appears to be a God Slayer exclusive ability that increases the user's magical power to monstrous levels as if he was preparing to transform...

Well that is it for today. I hope you enjoyed reading today's chapter and I would love to hear you thoughts about it through a review!

Be sure to remember to review, follow and favorite the story as you read.

Without further ado, see all you guys later!

See Ya! :)