My sincere apologies for the delay in updating.
No matter how many times I tried to write the battle scene, it just wasn't good enough.
However, since I wasn't able to write that section, I did write most of the last chapter.
It will be updated in the next week.
Thank you and please review! I would love to hear your thoughts!
Chapter 14 - Sacrifice
Their friends moved away, going to one side of the clearing each. Shio stayed in the middle with Faelan, and scratched behind his ears, saying their goodbyes mentally as she tuned out to the real world around them, focusing on their bond.
It was time…
The wind moved softly across her skin, making her long hair brush against her shoulders. She could hear and smell everything. She could hear her friends nervous breaths, the wind through the trees and she could smell their individual scents like they were right in front of her nose, even being able to identify which shampoo Lucy and Erza were using. Her senses were so heightened that for a moment her brain almost had trouble comprehending all the information.
Faelan moved to stand behind her, and she inhaled deeply. Turning her head just enough so that she could look at him over her shoulder, she gave him a single nod and tried to steel herself as she let go of her breath. Her fists clenched tightly at her sides, and she waited for whatever was coming next. Her companion moved to put his weight on his back legs, and towered over her as he placed his front paws on her shoulders. Shio almost crumbled under the weight, but held fast.
Through their bond, she felt a very strange sensation, something she had never experienced before. Then when Faelan clamped his huge jaws down on the junction from her neck and shoulder, it was almost like utter pleasure and pain simultaneously. A sound between a yelp and moan escaped her. The darker side of her mind was rapidly expanding, and the sensation increased tenfold. Her eyes were shut and she grimaced as the feeling continued for what seemed like an eternity.
Finally, it waned slowly and she no longer felt Faelan's huge weight on her shoulders. A strong wave of lightheadedness hit her like a train, and she felt like throwing up. The nausea worsened as her mind was taken over gradually, and she coughed forcefully. She covered her mouth and looked down to see it was soaked with her blood and she struggled to keep breathing from the shock as it disappeared into her skin, soaking it up like a sponge.
Vaguely, she heard some familiar voices call her name but wasn't able to focus on them. Somewhere in her mind, her own voice told her that it was her friends and they were worried and she needed to get through this for them. It was an odd feeling, but she mentally tried to claw her way through to the front of her own mind again.
She was walking through a thick jungle and the plants were all taller than her, to the point that she could barely make out the sunlight from above her. As usual in her mind, the sky was completely red, from what little of it she could. She was struggling to make her way past the plants that seemed to grab and grasp at her as she went past. Hissing in pain, she felt nicks and cuts from the various vegetation, most with sharp thorns and leaves decorating them. All she could smell was her own blood to the point that she could taste.
A root seemed to rise out of the ground at just the right time to trip her, and she landed flat on her face. Dirt covered her face and her body and she laid there for a moment, frustrated with her predicament. With a large huff, she pushed herself back up and dusted herself down slightly. These were Levy's clothes, which were in tatters already from being worn for so long, but they were definitely unsalvageable now.
Once she raised her head, there was a large black door in front her. It seemed to be almost levitating and she stepped around to look behind it and found the jungle continued, but the door had to lead somewhere...surely...
Though her hand shook with nervousness, she turned the knob and opened it. As she did, it was as if the whole world turned suddenly and she fell again, face first onto a hard floor. Muttering curses to herself, she rolled onto her back and saw that the room was made completely from concrete. On the ceiling was the door that she had came through, and she scrunched her nose up in confusion.
"Where the hell am I?" she spoke out loud to no one, but a voice answered back.
"You are in my territory, Akashio…" the voice was low and filled with untold malice, and she felt it begin to radiate in the empty space around her.
Leaping to her feet, she looked around to see nothing but concrete walls. "Who are you?" she called out into the darkness.
"I am you…"
"What the fuck does that mean?"
It laughed.
"I am the part of you that you have been repressing for all this time. I am Akashio, and I am Faelan."
Pinching the bridge of her nose, she breathed deeply, processing this information. "So you are the part of me who wants to kill and/or fuck everything in sight?"
"We are one and the same, Akashio. That's all there is to it."
She sighed again. "Fine then. Why have you brought me here?"
"You wish to gain control, do you not?" it had a strangely excited lilt in it's voice, and it worried her.
"It's not a matter of what I wish. I must gain control. That's all there is to it." she repeated it's words from before and it laughed it's cold laugh again.
"That is not solely your decision. Surely you understand this."
"Then what do I need to do to gain control?" she was beginning to lose her patience with the voices cryptic nonsense.
"You must defeat me." it spoke as if the answer was obvious, like she must have been blind not to have seen it.
"In a test of willpower? In a fight? Or what?"
"It is one and the same."
"Can you give me a straight fucking answer?" her temper was wearing thinner by the minute.
"I am. You merely are not comprehending them correctly."
"Right...Then let's do this. I have people waiting for me and I don't like being late." a particular face popped into her mind briefly, as she took up a fighting stance, unsure of what to expect.
A shape appeared before her, just like when she had made her original transformation to Kisan-Aralyn, and yet it was different. The first time, it was a shade of Faelan, but this time it seemed to be a shade of the fully transformed version of herself that she saw attacking and killing her in her dreams. Her stomach dropped and she felt adrenalin rush through her, as she made her partial transformation.
She doubted that she would be anywhere near as fast or strong as the shade, but she had to at least try. Her friends were outside worrying about her, and she had no idea what her physical body was doing while she was stuck inside her own mind. She might be attacking them for all that she knew, so this needed to be over with as quickly as possible so she could return to them.
"Are you ready?" the voice was still filled with malice, and unspoken evils.
"Are you?" she snapped back curtly, and readied herself for a tough fight.
Before she could react, the shade was directly in front of her, and swiping large claws at her. It was too late her to dodge, so she ducked and jammed it's arm above the elbow and pushed with all her strength, hoping to keep the lethal claws away from her. She could swear that it laughed as it stumbled backward from her counter, but it wasn't interested in letting her catch a break.
Rushing at her again, it took all she had to dodge, deflect or parry its attacks. She had no chance to even think of a counterattack as she was completely on the defensive. Once she began to tire, it seemed that the shade simply gained more strength and she knew that she couldn't give up. Her friends faces flashed in her mind's eye and it gave her a boost. Her speed increased and she began to keep up with the shade.
It seemed shocked and she used it to her advantage and got a swipe of her claws across its side, slicing down to its rib cage. She growled and kicked the shade away from her, trying to avoid it attacking her while she was vulnerable. Using its tactic against it, she charged, not letting up her assault and threw everything she had and thought that she had landed her Dark Slash on the shade, but it was unaffected. The arc of magical power should have sliced it clean in half.
"Shit." she cursed to herself, and her earlier confidence waned faintly.
"Nice try, Akashio. I am afraid such attacks will not serve you in here. Only I am able to use our true strength." the shade seemed amused at her feeble attempts, but that wouldn't mean she was going to give up.
"Then if you are the only one with power here, what is the point of this fight?" she yelled in reply, unsure what this trial was supposed to do.
"That is for you to figure out."
The shade's power soared and she willed herself to keep her guard up. She was hit by its relentless attacks over and over again, and it was all she could do to stop the shade from ripping her to shreds. Exhausted already, she desperately tried to defend herself and couldn't fully block a swipe to her leg, cutting clean through her thigh and she hissed in pain.
She stumbled and tried to keep upright. She knew that some of the muscle had been sliced through, and growled, angry at the fact that she got hit. Voices in her head kept telling her that she should just stay down, just give up, that none of this was worth it.
"This is bullshit!" she screamed aloud in anger and the voice replied.
"Giving up?"
"Tch, if you are me, then you would know that I'm not going to give up so easily. I've had my fair share of near death experiences and this doesn't even come close to them." she was trying her best to bait it into losing its temper.
"You are clearly underestimating me, woman." Shio's tactic seemed to be working and she defended herself as best she could whilst trying to think of more ways to piss it off.
Instead of comments, she simply decided to go with breaking out in laughter. Though she was completely on the ropes, she felt the attacks become more unpredictable with more raw strength behind them. Her plan was working, and she kept up her act as best as she could.
"Enough!" the voice was clearly annoyed, and she was just going to wait for the right opportunity to make her counter attack.
The shade swung a right hook at her head, but due to it's anger left itself open. She shifted her weight, ducking underneath the punch and shifted her weight back again, using it to send her fist flying into the shade's ribs. Hearing a painful crack, she grinned darkly, and knew that it was her turn now. Sending a barrage it's way in payback, she used everything in her arsenal to get as many blows in as she could while she had the chance.
Though she doubted it was going to do much damage, she knew that she had to do something, anything to try and spin the fight in her favour. After she had exhausted all the movements she had, her tired mind gave her only one idea.
When the shade recovered, she allowed it to approach her and grab her by the throat. The shade was shocked when she didn't fight back.
"What are you doing?!"
"If I did, you die. Therefore, you cannot kill me. Unless you wish to die." She grinned darkly at her counterpart.
The shade stared quietly, its pitch black form seeming surprised by her logic. It's grip stayed strong and she began to lose consciousness from lack of oxygen.
Everything went black…
When she came to, she felt that she was laying down. She felt incredibly dizzy, and nauseous, and she was desperately trying not to vomit. Her attempts failed and she rolled half assedly onto her side and her stomach cramped painfully as she hurled. There was a metallic taste in her mouth, and she finally opened her eyes and looked at st the ground beneath her. It was mostly water mixed with dark red blood. Her eyes were wide as she wondered what was going on inside her body.
She heard her name called from somewhere around her but couldn't figure out where it was coming from. It took her a moment for her eyes to focus but she managed to make out someone with bright red hair, and a blonde next to them. Someone from behind her helped her sit up carefully. Her breathing was still laboured and heavy, but now she was starting to calm down. Her nausea had gone now, although her light headedness remained.
The person behind her had cool skin and she realised somewhere in her mind that it was Gray. That he was still here. She turned her head to try and look for him, and he moved so that she could see him. He smiled at her as she checked him over for wounds and did the same to her other friends promptly after.
"We're alright, Shio." Erza's strong voice made her relax and she smiled at her red-headed friend once her eyes had focused upon her.
"How are you feeling?" Lucy asked straight after and knelt down next to her.
"I feel...odd. I'm not quite sure how to explain it." Shio had no idea how to describe the sensation in her body.
"Would you like a fish?" Happy fluttered around and was polite enough to offer.
"I don't think she needs fish right now, Happy." Natsu said with a laugh.
"As long as you are okay." Gray's calm tones washed over her and if she wasn't so exhausted, her stomach would be doing flips.
"What did I do?" She asked, desperately hoping she hadn't attacked her friends or done anything weird.
"You just stood there and Faelan disappeared into you. It was totally weird to watch." Lucy shuddered slightly at the memory and Shio smirked faintly.
"Your eyes have turned completely red as well," Natsu commented off-handedly after leaning toward her to look closer. She shrugged, not having an answer for why they were fully red now.
She looked over to Mystogan who was standing back a little from the group, giving her friends some space to be near her. He was staring up into the canopy, but she could tell that everything was fine from the shadows on his mask. Usually she could spot him frowning or smiling from that alone. From his relatively blank expression, she gathered that nothing too crazy had occurred while she was blacked out.
The masked man looked over to her and narrowed his eyes almost imperceptibly and she could feel that something wasn't quite right. Everyone else's shoulders dropped and it seemed like the air was thicker than before.
"Shio. Suppress your magical power. It's heavy," Gray commented from beside her, with a strained voice and her mind clicked and realised what was happening.
Concentrating for a brief moment, she brought herself back into check, and tried to hide her smile. She saw Gray raise an eyebrow in her peripheral vision and couldn't hide it any more.
"We've been here before," she chuckled softly and he watched her for a moment, before he glanced to his right and recalled the memory she was referring to. He shared a soft smile with her before she attempted to stand. Gray helped her and kept a hand on her waist to steady her. "Thank you." she said quietly to him and he nodded once in reply.
If Shio wasn't feeling incredibly strange, she probably would have been blushing madly as Gray walked with his arm still around her until they reached the living room inside the small cabin. The others followed with them slowly, and Natsu opened the door to make it easier for them to go in.
Faelan's presence within her hadn't gone unnoticed. In fact, it was almost like how she felt normally. Their shared thoughts were still the same, except she didn't need to concentrate on talking to him through their link. Their conscious and subconscious thoughts were one now, and she could feel that he was relieved that their transformation had been successful. She could also feel how exhausted he was too, just from their mental strain, and was ready to fall asleep any second. Shio felt the same.
After they were seated on the lounge, Gray let go of her, and tried to conceal how awkward he felt. Luckily, he didn't really need to as Shio had already fallen asleep, exhausted from her inner journey…
Today was the day.
They were leaving to track down what would hopefully be their final lead on Black Kraken. Somehow Mystogan had gotten information about a large gathering of dark guild members in an abandoned city not too far from their location. Shio took a guess that he got word from the Rune Knights. Considering how near it was to the other smaller squads, it was worth checking out. Even if it wasn't Black Kraken, they would still be doing the Rune Knights a favour by dealing with a dark guild.
With Team Natsu here, as well as Mystogan - who made a habit of dealing with dark guilds on his own - and Shio, they were practically unstoppable. They tidied up the small cabin, and packed all of their bags, knowing that they weren't coming back here. If they completed this mission, and destroyed Black Kraken, they would return to Magnolia. If it wasn't Black Kraken, they would continue to hunt them down until they completed their task.
Their information pointed them towards a large construction site that was originally designed to be a new residential area in the average sized city called Epheros. They had plenty of shops and businesses, but not enough people living there to help them make ends meet. Unfortunately, the plan had backfired and the businesses funding the idea had gone broke, and the town was mostly abandoned now. It still had a few people living there, mostly getting their necessities from the land, since they lived further out on their own farms.
As they made their way towards Epheros, Shio was completely lost in thought. She hadn't separated with Faelan since she fully transformed, and they were chattering away in their shared mind. The rest of the team had left her alone for the most part, sensing her discomfort, and occasional bursts of anger. Gray had walked beside her for the last few hours, and kept an eye on her. Shio had been too immersed in her own head to notice his concerned glances every few minutes, nor had she noticed Mystogan's occasional updates on how far away they were.
Finally, they were about to enter the ghost town, and Gray grabbed Shio's shoulder before she walked straight into a signpost.
"Shio!" he turned her towards their group, who had stopped walking and were standing in a circle to discuss their plan.
"Sorry." she muttered quietly, just loud enough to hear and joined her friends.
"My informant said that they had reports of 20 or more mages in the town. However, they have been using the construction site as a base of operations while they create their fake potions, and there might be many more that haven't been seen. Make sure you keep your guard up." Mystogan had waited for Shio to look like she was paying attention before he spoke, and hoped that she was okay.
"I brought these along, in case we get separated and need to signal for help." Erza grabbed some small red balls from her backpack and handed one to everyone. "If you are in trouble, squeeze the ball until it shatters and it will send up a column of light that everyone will see. Then someone will come and help you."
Shio stared at the ball in her hand and was momentarily amazed by the idea. Since she had joined Fairy Tail, she had learned about all sorts of crazy and helpful magical devices, and had some bad experiences with a few as well. Enchanted paper was certainly not her favourite for obvious reasons.
"I suggest that we split up into teams. Natsu, Lucy and Happy can be one team. Erza and Gray can work together, and Shio and I will be the last team." Mystogan suggested and everyone except Natsu nodded in agreement. "That may change depending on the layout of our battlefield though. We will have to see."
"But I wanted to be partnered with Shio. I wanted to see her fight now that she's all fired up." Natsu said with a pout, and yelped with Lucy hit him upside the head for his idiocy.
"Mystogan and Shio have been fighting together for over a year. It's silly to split them up." Erza offered as an explanation and Natsu finally shrugged in nonchalance.
"Shio. Can you tell how many there are from here?" Mystogan asked her, but it was unlikely from such a distance. Natsu's nose was better, but Shio's was more efficient in the smaller details.
"Not from here. I can scout ahead, if you like." Shio offered with a dark tone, her longing for battle beginning to take hold of her.
"If you wouldn't mind."
She nodded once, and left her pack with the group before disappearing. Luckily the city was still fairly well intact, since it had only been recently abandoned, and this allowed her to have plenty of cover as she snuck through the streets. There was a few guards patrolling and she peeked through a window to try and get a look at their guild mark. Unfortunately, they were fairly well covered, and she wasn't able to identify if they even had a mark at all.
The subtle scent that she had memorised was in the air though, and that was her only hope at this stage. She crept further into the town, going through what used to be shops and people's backyards before the construction site came into view. It was fairly dingy, but the lack of massive buildings and fences did give them an advantage when it came to visibility. No one would be able to sneak up on them, or at least not very easily.
For at least 20 minutes, she sat and committed as many smells and images of people to her mind, Faelan offering quiet thoughts when he needed to. She could sense magical power from all of them, so at least she knew that they were definitely a wizard guild, but she couldn't leave until she knew their guild mark. If she couldn't find it, and they ran in and starting taking on a good guild who was just using Epheros as their base, that would look bad for Fairy Tail. She had to be certain.
Although it wasn't ideal, she waited quietly, in what must have been an old cafe. It had some conveniently placed windows which allowed her to sit on the floor and still look through the curtains at the construction site. She lingered until finally one man walking past stopped to chat to another member and stretched his arms up high while they talked. He had a tattoo just on the waistband of his pants, and just as he yawned, his shirt lifted up a little more and she saw the mark she wanted to see.
It was Black Kraken.
Without making a sound, she made a fist and punched the air above her head in sheer relief. If it wasn't Black Kraken, she wasn't sure how long she would be able to keep her sanity. They had really struck gold here, and she made a point to get Mystogan to pass on the name of his informant for her use when she went out hunting dark guilds on her own.
Carefully, she made her way back to the group, who had taken to sitting inside an empty unit. When she walked through the door, she noticed a large grandfather clock off to the side, and she almost jumped out of her skin when it moved and turned to look at her.
"He's one of my spirits, Shio." Lucy said with a quiet laugh at her friend's confusion. "His name is Horologium. He's going to stay here and look after our stuff while we kick some butt." the blonde grinned determinedly and Shio couldn't help but smile.
"I presume you have good news." Mystogan could tell from her lack of a scowl that they were in the right place.
"It's them." Shio smirked darkly, her red eyes shining brightly.
They were sitting in a small circle on the floor, and Erza shuffled over so she could sit down between her and Natsu.
"So, they are definitely expecting an attack. That's for sure. There is guards patrolling every few hundred metres, but they have the advantage on the construction site. I could see at least 26 of them, and there is one complete building and a few half-finished ones, so there is no way that we will be able to approach undetected. They will see us right away. I couldn't tell how many were inside either." Shio was in business mode, and Faelan was silent in her head as she spoke to her group.
"Actually, I know someone who can help with getting us in undetected." Lucy pulled out one of her golden keys and held it up for the group to see. "Virgo can dig underground and create a passage for us to pop up right in the middle of them." Lucy grinned and Erza patted her on the shoulder in appreciation for her resourcefulness.
"Then may I suggest that Natsu, and I jump up first? Close combat is our speciality, and we can work on those right in front of us. Gray, Erza and Lucy, you can join us after with your mid to long range abilities. Mystogan, may I suggest you take the rear guard to ensure that they don't escape. Happy can help you scout for any runners." Shio's voice was uncharacteristically serious, and Faelan said that her friends wouldn't recognise her in his moment, and she mentally brushed him off.
"I believe that would be the best course of action." Mystogan agreed simply after he considered her plan for a few seconds.
Natsu grinned happily and whacked Shio's back in what was supposed to be a friendly, affectionate gesture, but he almost knocked the wind from her.
"I do get to see you fight then! I'm all fired up now!"
The group laughed at the Dragon Slayer before they discussed a few more variations and tactics, should things get crazy. They made sure that they all had their magic balls, in case of emergency, and that they all knew the escape plan, should they need to use it.
Lucy summoned Virgo and Shio blinked quietly as she watched the Celestial Mage work. She was surprised at how efficient Lucy was, and she knew that it would take a significant amount of control and magical power to keep both Virgo and Horologium summoned at once. From what she knew, Lucy had once summoned all of her spirits simultaneously, and she was certainly impressed with her abilities.
The Celestial spirit appeared and immediately suggested that Lucy punish her, and turned around, leaning over a little. Shio snorted in repressed laughter and put her nose to her shoulder so that no one would see her laughing. Everyone else was used to Virgo acting like this, but Shio was yet to see the slightly strange way Virgo showed her loyalty.
"Please dig a hole from here until you reach the middle of the construction site on the other end of the town." Lucy asked politely.
"Right away, Princess." Virgo bowed low with her hand over her heart after receiving her orders.
She disappeared into the ground almost straight away, going right through the floorboards beneath them. The rest of the group seemed to know intuitively that Virgo would be a few minutes, and they sat back down in their circle. Shio joined them for lack of knowing what else to do, and just tried to keep her thoughts linear. They were jumping all over the place, with voices of fear, impatience, tenacity, and burning fury screaming in her mind.
As best she could, she blocked out the voices of her friends and meditated quietly, with Faelan offering words of encouragement and helped to keep her calm while they waited. When Virgo reappeared out of the hole she had made earlier, Lucy helped her out, and rolled her eyes when Virgo suggested punishment for taking so long. Shio, however was too distracted to notice until Mystogan came to sit next to her.
"Are you alright?" he placed a hand on her leg to get her attention, and brought it back right away when she flinched.
"Um, yeah. Just keeping my head in the right space for this." She tried to smile, but failed terribly and she knew that he would understand.
He looked out the window, following her gaze and nodded slowly. Mystogan had seen her best and worst moments over the last year, and she was so glad to know that he had decided to help her in ridding the world of Black Kraken. She wondered idly whether he had known that once she was strong enough, she probably would have run off on her own to take them on, whether her friends let her or not. They would have ended up tagging along anyway, and that had become reality. She was glad to have them with her. Their support was probably what got her through her transformation. If they weren't waiting for her, she didn't know how she would have ended up.
"We're ready." Erza said loud enough for her and Mystogan to hear, and her voice was patient, giving them a moment to gather themselves for the coming battle.
By the time Shio had gotten up, dusted herself off and took a steadying breath, Virgo was gone and her friends were waiting for her quietly. They were standing around the hole, silently waiting to support her through what was going to be a tough and arduous day.
"Thanks for this. And everything else, guys. I couldn't have done it all without you." Shio finally decided to try and begin to express her gratitude, although she doubted she could ever truly show the depths of it.
"The fight isn't over yet. Thank us after we get through it." Erza made an armoured fist and placed her hand out flat in the middle of their group. "For Fairy Tail."
Everyone smiled and copied here, their hands making a pile in the middle. Even Mystogan joined them, and with a determined voice they shouted 'Fairy Tail' together as they threw their hands up high. The masked man nodded to them and went out the door first, with Happy floating next to him, going to take up their positions. Shio and Natsu stepped forward and readied themselves.
"This is going to be fun!" Natsu disappeared first, and Shio followed him.
"I'm off then." Shio hopped in.
The hole they crawled through was small, but just large enough for them to make their way through fairly quickly. She could hear her friends following behind her and could smell the freshness of the earth around them. Underground, no other smells aside her friends were recognisable, and when they got closer to their target, she still couldn't pick anything up.
"I can see the light. You ready Shio?" Natsu asked her in a loud whisper, turning over his shoulder so she could hear him.
"As ready as we'll ever be." her voice held a guttural edge to it that she hadn't intended on having, but she knew that it was Faelan's voice coming through.
"3."
Her heart seemed to stop.
"2."
She held her breath subconsciously.
"1."
She gritted her teeth.
Natsu shot upwards, and she could feel the heat from the flames erupting from his body, and gave him a moment before she leapt up next to him. If she went up at the same time, she would have been turned to ash within a few short seconds. They stood back to back, and made short work of the several guards patrolling the area.
Shio could smell Mystogan and Happy who were hanging back roughly three hundred metres to ensure that if anyone made a run for it, they would stay hidden long enough to stop their progress. Lucy, Gray and Erza were waiting underground still, and Shio would give them the signal when they were ready for the ranged attacks. The Fire Dragon Slayer blasted two more men with a wave of flames and Shio called out to her other friends.
They immediately took off in different directions, splitting up for the most part and started the decisive battle with Black Kraken. Virgo was only able to take them so far in the site as she was concerned the tunnel would collapse, and they would have to fight their way through to the only complete building on the entire block. There was only four others, but they were half done and had minimal shelter.
Each of them had a couple of guys doing random tasks, and it seemed like they were actually trying to finish off the rest of the buildings. Until they were disturbed, that is. Shio heard the clang of Erza's swords and heard Lucy summoning her spirits, while Gray took care of his side with his Ice Make Magic. Natsu was in front of her, fighting his way through towards the building that was roughly one hundred metres in front of them. She was behind him, following up on his attacks and making sure that every single one of their enemies wouldn't be getting up for a good, long while.
After they had fought their way through, they regrouped at the entrance.
"That was easier than I expected." Natsu commented off-handedly, but his arrogant smirk fell at the look on Shio's face.
"It's going to get much harder from now on. I can smell at least another 20 inside and they feel much stronger. You?" she looked to Natsu who concentrated for a moment and nodded in confirmation.
A massive metal double-door was blocking their way, and Shio gathered that their loud and dramatic entrance would mean that it was going to be locked. They hadn't exactly been quiet so far, and it would be hard not to notice flames, swords, and ice flying around outside. Shio examined it a little closer and pushed it gently to see if it would budge.
Predictably, it didn't and she tilted her head from side to side, letting her neck crack before she readied her attack. Faelan's voice instructed her on what to do in her head and she tried out their new technique. When they were separate, he could do it, but nowhere near as strong as they could combined.
She gathered as much magical power in her right fist and took up a strong stance. Her friends watched quietly, wondering what she was going to do. Slowly, she pushed her fist out in a punch, trying to keep her aim accurate. Once she had finished pulling her power to a small point on her fist, she took a deep breath and slammed it into the right door. The metal crunched under her explosive power, and the huge thud almost deafened her. The metal had caved inward sufficiently, leaving a huge dent in the door.
Moving to the left door, she repeated the process and caved the other door in as well. This made a large gap in the middle, and she concentrated on her upper body strength and grabbed the edges of the each door with clawed hands. Her musculature tripled in her shoulders and back as she pulled the doors apart to create a large enough hole for them to slip through.
When she was happy with the size, she turned just enough to look over her shoulder at her friends, and smirked faintly at their wide eyes.
"Shall we?" she suggested with an air of nonchalance and her friends finally snapped out of their shock and followed her through the hole.
The rest of their enemies had made a phalanx formation to stop them from reaching the stairs to the second level, and Shio analysed immediately that was where she needed to go. Gray and Erza rushed forward with Natsu, Lucy in the back providing support and whatever spirits would work best in their situation. Loke joined the fray after she had decided on his close combat abilities being the most suitable and Shio knew that they were trying to give her an opening to slip through.
Unfortunately, their numbers made them tough to overcome all at once. When one got knocked down, another would replace them and so on. Their endurance was admirable, and this was obviously why they were the last line of defence. They were the tanks, the guys designed to take the biggest hits and continue fighting. They were the one protecting the leader, and they had to be strong.
After Erza had made a large strike with her Lightning Empress armour, four of the heavy hitters were momentarily disabled and Shio knew that was her moment. Channelling her strength to her legs, she pushed off as hard as she could and blasted through them to reach the stairs to the second level. Lucy's whip appeared to her right and she grabbed onto someone who tried to stop her approach and Shio made a mental note to thank her later.
Taking the stairs five at a time, she reached the top in record time and charged headfirst through the closed door. They flew off their hinges into the room that held shelves filled with glass bottles, and one man, sitting calmly at a desk opposite her. Her mind drifted back to Gray's description of the man that had attacked him.
"Middle-aged, with orange hair and scars down the side of his face. I can't remember much after that, but I remember seeing their guild mark. It looked like a kraken."
His hair wasn't exactly orange, but it was a bright shade of red. There was two, deep scars that went from just under his right eye to his jawline. His eyes were dark, and piercing and she glared at him with the fires of hell, growling low in her chest at the sight of him. He stood up and from the way his clothes hung on his frame loosely, she gathered that he was a skinny guy. The longer she looked, the more lanky he appeared. It was obvious that he hadn't physically overpowered Gray.
"You certainly know how to make an entrance." his voice was higher pitched than she expected, but it held a certain malice to it that made her skin crawl and Faelan was yelling profanities in her mind at him.
"We've been quite subtle so far, I assure you." Shio's had a stranglehold on her anger, and was trying not to rush at him and tear him limb from limb straight away.
She knew that he had somehow managed to take out Gray, and Gray had much more battle experience and was stronger than her. Maybe not physically, with her ability to enhance whatever she needed to instantaneously, but his overall magical power was stronger and his creative thinking with his Ice Make Magic made him a seriously dangerous opponent. But somehow, this wiry, scarred man had taken him down. His magical abilities must be something to reckon with for him to be capable of such a feat, and Shio watched him carefully, trying to figure out exactly what her game plan should be.
He didn't allow her any more time to think, and he leapt straight over the desk and charged at her. Shio was much faster than him, but she stood her ground and waited to see what he was going to do. When he reached her, she swung at his head and sent a flurry of attacks at him. She kept her speed to around half, just so she wasn't showing all of her cards too early. In a few different fights, her speed was all that had kept her alive, and she had become accustomed to hiding it unless she needed to use it.
Shio could hear the sounds of combat continuing downstairs, as she exchanged blows with the mystery man. Although she had thrown plenty of attacks, somehow he had evaded most of them, and just seemed to be biding his time. She wasn't getting anywhere and began to get frustrated when something went horribly wrong.
She blacked out.
After an undeterminable period of time, she heard Faelan's voice yelling out to her desperately in their shared consciousness.
"SHIO! You need to wake up!"
When she came to, she was standing upright and was halfway through swinging her fist at him. Although her momentum slowed for a second in confusion, her muscle memory did the rest of the work and allowed her to jump back out of close combat range to take a breath and figure out what the hell just happened.
"What the fuck did you do to me?" She screamed at him in outrage.
"More like why didn't that work?" he replied casually, and shrugged.
"He put his hand on your head and you just passed out. I was able to take over, but it took me too long to get used to controlling your body alone. You took a few hits." Faelan explained and she glared at his hand's wondering what his ability was that made her pass out with just a touch.
She took up a defensive stance and readied herself to use more speed. After she charged at him, it was only another moment before Faelan was waking her again. When she came to, in her anger she lost her control and just threw everything she had at him. It seemed that she had initially underestimated his speed to begin with, as he was easily matching her and wasn't even breaking a sweat.
Natsu came roaring toward him and crash-tackled him out of her way and Shio yelled after him to get away. It was too late as she watched them land heavily on the floor and for the man to place two fingers on the top of Natsu's pink-haired head and for him to go limp. He pushed her friend off him and left him there as he approached her again. Her other friends joined her in the room and she didn't want anyone else charging in like Natsu had.
"Don't let him put his hands on your head. He makes you pass out!" Shio shouted at them in warning and they fell into a defensive stance like her own. "Lucy, can you get past in a moment and wake Natsu? He tackled him before I could warn him." Shio asked her blonde friend who nodded once and edged off to the side to wait for her chance.
"Are you alright Shio?" Gray's calm voice was slightly laboured from breathlessness but she was relieved to hear it anyway.
"I'm fine. Since Faelan and I are sharing my body, we are able to switch out for each other. The only problem is I'm not sure if he can lock us both out at once. If not, then we have the advantage. If he can only disable one of us at a time, then we can win." she explained in a whisper to try and avoid him hearing their plan. If he knew that there was technically two of them in her body, he might find a way to shut them both down.
"We must approach him carefully then." Erza requipped to an armour that she hadn't seen before.
"I'm going." Erza and Gray nodded to her, ready to back her up at anytime.
Shio dashed towards him, and used her arcing ability to slice the air toward her. She was careful not to make it large enough to hit Natsu on her right, but it was enough to send the leader stumbling backwards as he struggled to avoid the attack. As he tried to regain his balance, she landed a right hook on his jaw and sent him flying. Lucy ran toward Natsu and began trying to wake him up.
Erza took this as her chance and began her attack. Shio leapt back to Gray who watched Erza taking on the leader carefully. He was ready to back up his friend, and let Shio rest for a moment. Instead of resting though, she seemed to be readying herself for something much bigger.
"Gray. I'm going to fully transform. Help Erza when you need to and protect Natsu and Lucy." Shio asked him in the form of a command, and if she wasn't so busy trying to focus her magical power, she probably would have apologised for her forceful tone. He didn't seem to worry and grunted his agreement.
Taking a calming breath, Shio tilted her head back and let Faelan's form melt into her own. She felt her body begin to change and distort and tried her best to ignore the pain and discomfort that came with the transformation. Her partial ones didn't bother her at all, but since her physical form was so different in the full transformation, she had to just tolerate it until the change was complete.
The process took at least a full minute, which in the middle of a fight was a long time. When she came back to reality, Natsu was just waking up and Erza was out cold. One of Lucy's spirits was tending to the redhead, while Gray and Lucy kept the leader's attention away from them. When Lucy went down, Shio snapped into action.
She yelled for Gray to move, in a voice that she didn't recognise, but luckily he listened and turned to run. A massive swipe of her claws almost struck the ice mage as she was using her 80 percent speed now, getting far too impatient with his ability making his friends drop like flies. Natsu yelled something from the side and waited for his moment to torch the guy, and Gray readied his Ice Make Sword to jump in when he could.
Erza was waking up on the side, and Shio leapt backwards to avoid those damn hands that were surprisingly fast, even by her standards. Natsu sent a wave of flames his way, and managed to hold his own quite well until he almost got knocked out again and Gray took over. Shio took a few breaths on the side and waited to take over. When Gray went down, she lost her temper and took a leaf out of the Fire Dragon Slayer's book.
Instead of rushing at him with claws and fists, she put her head and shoulders down and channeled strength to her legs to run. She tore toward him and sent the point of her shoulder into his solar plexus and enjoyed how she heard the air leave his lungs. But she didn't stop there. Once she had stunned him, she didn't slow down, but kept running and put him through the concrete wall.
For a second, they fell through the air and Shio righted herself to land on her feet by pushing off him, sending him toward the ground even faster. He landed heavily on his back and her almost silently on the dirt a few feet in front of him. Flashes of light suggested that Mystogan was fighting in the distance, and Shio watched as Lucy's spirit Taurus hauled his massive axe over his shoulder and ran in his direction to back him up.
Before the leader could get up, she bounded over to his left and tried to grab a hold of his throat as he tried to sit up. He may have been bluffing, or just too fast but she felt herself black out and her grip weaken. Faelan's voice roused her once more as Natsu and Erza were engaging their enemy. Lucy was standing in front of her, waiting for her to come to. Gray appeared on her right a moment later, conscious again and she looked him over briefly and saw all the bruises and grazes on his shirtless form. A growl escaped her and she put a heavily clawed hand on Lucy's shoulder to let her know she was okay. The blonde nodded to her and checked Gray over quickly as Shio stalked toward her prey once more.
"Lucy!"
Shio called at the same time that Natsu went down once more, and Erza purposely tried to push their opponent away from Natsu's unconscious body to allow Lucy to pull him away from the fray and wake him up. Somehow, Erza fell a moment later and Gray jumped to action, taking her away as Shio took over once more.
It seemed like hours that she pushed her stamina and endurance well past it's limits to keep herself going against this guy. She had no idea how he was able to continue fighting for so long against so many of them. She assumed that his ability somehow allowed him to sap the strength from his opponents, causing them to black out briefly, and filling his stores, letting him continue the fight for as long as he could continue taking strength from them.
Sensing Mystogan's presence behind the leader, she tried to keep him distracted long enough for Mystogan to prepare an attack. She could see him moving his staves from the corner of her eye, and felt his magical power rise. Once she knew he was ready, taking this same tactic with him many times before, she leapt next to him and let his magic do its work.
His Skyscraper technique was incredible to watch, and the light almost blinded her, but she watched anyway as their enemy was caught in his illusion. She knew that she only had a few moments to update him on the scenario.
"I think his ability allows him to take your strength and knock you unconscious. You cannot let him touch you. He has been able to fight us for so long by taking our energy and using it for his own." Shio informed her quiet companion and watched as he set up his next attack.
"Sacred Song!" she heard him mutter as the massive blast made her to lean forward so she didn't get knocked over from the force.
When the light died down, he was still on his feet, but barely.
Now was her chance.
A roar came from low in her gut and she finally used her full speed, not wanting to miss this chance. Pulling her fingers tightly together, she prepared her hand like the point of a spear and sent it flying towards his chest. A dull thud, a crack, and a wet sound hit her ears and she vaguely recognised the sound that meant she had hit her mark. His feet lifted off the ground briefly, before she retracted her hand from his body. He fell backwards with no attempt to catch himself.
Her arm was coated in blood to her elbow, and the metallic smell was overpowering to the point that she could taste it. Silently, she stood over him and watched as he took his last breath and the light in his eyes faded. Resisting the urge to kick his lifeless body in angst, she took a breath to steady her racing heart.
It was over.
Finally.
She heard the footsteps of her friends gather closer, and flung her hand to one side, trying to get rid of the majority of the blood of it, and it flicked onto the ground. Happy fluttered overhead, now that the danger was over and Lucy had an arm around Erza, helping her walk as she came to. Gray and Natsu approached as well as Mystogan who had placed his staves back now and was as calm as ever.
"It's done." his quiet voice was just loud enough to hear and Shio let out the breath that she must have been holding since she left to travel with Mystogan for the purpose of destroying Black Kraken.
Her full transformation reversed a lot quicker than it took to change into it and she stumbled, too exhausted to hold herself up any longer. Someone caught her, and she knew that it was Gray, feeling his cool skin against her own. Her head lolled to one side and rested against his shoulder and he put one of her arms over his shoulder to help hold her up.
Mystogan disappeared for a moment, and she knew that he was signalling the Rune Knights to come and pick up their criminals. She still had no idea how he did it after all this time, but was too wrecked to worry about it now. Lucy said that Loke had been keeping an eye on the other members and Shio nodded to Gray to let her be for a moment. He let her go, albeit reluctantly, and stayed near in case she needed him. She managed to stand on her own well enough and closed her eyes and Faelan appeared next to her. Before she walked toward the body of the Black Kraken leader, she scratched behind his ear with a shadow of a smile on her face.
Gray watched with wide eyes as she picked up the dead man by the front of his belt and carried him back inside, and dumped him with the rest of the unconscious members of the dark guild. She seemed to have no hesitation with it, and he didn't exactly feel like questioning her on whether she had done this sort of thing before. He supposed that the guy definitely deserved it after ordering her village to be put to the slaughter. There was no way that she wasn't allowed her revenge, and he hoped that she had got some more peace over the death of her family and friends with this.
"I'll wait here. You should all go back and rest." Mystogan suggested quietly, and Shio was definitely not going to argue.
"I'll stay with him as well. We'll look for any other information about these guys operations too." Loke offered and ran his fingers through his hair.
Before anyone could dissuade her, Shio already started making her way back to the small house where Horologium would be waiting for them with their stuff...