Disclaimer: All rights to Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto and its respective publishing house. The same goes for Hiro Mashima for his utterly delightful series, Fairy Tail.
Author's Note: NIL
Revised at 2nd September 2015 to the best of my ability.
Chapter Thirteen – Event Horizon
0.0
This was different, Wendy surmised.
Flying aboard The Christina wasn't like she expected. The magical airship was excruciatingly slow; it paled in comparison unlike flying with Carla. Compared to that, this was just like a regular sailboat out in the ocean with the small exception that a 'man overboard' in this case would be extremely terrifying.
That was why she found herself next to Naruto, whose gleefulness was apparent as he tried to lean over the waist-level bulwark to peer over the edge. If it was anyone else, she would fretted over their recklessness in doing so, but then again, this was Naruto...
"Must you keep doing that?"
The blond tore his eyes away from vast forested backdrop below and towards the surly voice, but Carla herself was distracted by the blue tomcat who was plainly trying to get her attention from way across the starboard side of the airship.
"Well, I've never been on something like this before," he said with a small smile. "But who knows, there's a million to one chance that I'll just happen to spot their base." He snorted. "If I'm that lucky."
Carla stood up from the wooden crate and mirrored his actions, but refrained from stepping too close to the edge. "To be honest, this wasn't entirely what I expected when I heard we were doing this mission. It is rather... anti-climatic."
"Ano, we have been in the air for almost ten minutes." Wendy turned to look at Ichiya and the rest of the Trimens who were busy manning the ship in the cockpit. "Maybe we're going in the wrong direction?"
"It is possible," Carla said slowly. "But we don't have a definitive location of their base, so it is hard to argue where the right direction is."
"Or if they even have a base in the first place." Naruto was noticeably irked about something. "For all we know they could have already found Nirvana," he said, frowning as he did.
"You seem... upset at that prospect."
Naruto looked at Carla oddly; his eyes half-lidded in mock exasperation in an attempt to copy her signature scowl. "Well, that is our mission, you know; stopping them before they get their hands on Nirvana," he grumbled. "Whatever that is..."
The Exceed looked away. "I suppose."
While arguments were fairly common in their team dynamics, it was always either Naruto being a bit too petty or Carla, whose nature found it unreasonable to compromise, which caused one in the first place. These things weren't really arguments in that sense, mainly a way for two completely different personalities to communicate.
Or so, Wendy tried to reason to herself.
Then again, it was only those select moments where they didn't see eye to eye on a particularly important subject, causing things to get a little uncomfortable, where she had to act as a buffer to mend the tense atmosphere. Yet, they were always mindful not to carry out their heated discussion in her presence. It ate at her a little; the act of not being included. It was a bitter pill she found hard to swallow, especially when she knew it was ultimately about her.
Thankfully, this wasn't one of those situations.
As Naruto returned to his vigil over the Worth Woodsea, he made a small, confused noise in the back of his throat. His eyes were narrowed and focused as if noticing something amiss beyond the sunny horizon. He turned to observe the cockpit that separated the enclosed space from the open-air deck and frowned. Their team leader pushed himself off the bulwark before heading over to the starboard side, evidently intent on talking to Erza.
"I'll be right back."
Wendy peered at his back strangely, her attention switching between the forest and his retreating form.
What had he seen?
She contemplated rushing over to his side to listen in, but when he dragged Erza and the towering form of Jura inside the cockpit, she naturally assumed it was another strategy discussion between the leaders.
It didn't mean that her curiosity wasn't piqued. Even the two Lamia Scale mages, Lyon and Sherry—whom generally kept to themselves at the bow of the airship near the large conspicuous unicorn ornament—had shown a healthy interest regarding Naruto's sudden actions.
Wendy made her way toward the rest of the Fairy Tail delegates. Incidentally, it just happened to be closer to the cockpit, where Carla was hesitant to approach considering the overbearing presence of her male suitor.
"Hi," the blonde before her chirped pleasantly, hunkered down beside the prone and groaning form of Natsu. "Wendy, right?"
"Yes," Wendy said, equalling the older girl's smile. "Ah, and you're Lucy-san."
She positioned herself carefully, making sure that she had a direct line of sight at the translucent glass barrier separating the cockpit. It allowed her to focus on the conversation without being too obvious that she was spying on her team leader.
"Hey, you don't have to be so formal with me. It gets old after a while."
Just as Wendy was about to reply, she felt a tug at her wrist. Looking down, she was momentarily taken aback by the blue tomcat's eagerness as his eyes glistened like saucers. "I'm Happy," he introduced, holding a paw up before bringing it back down under his chin shyly. "Could you help uh-murglegurgle—"
Happy was interrupted when Lucy nudged him with two fingers, each poking his cheeks together to prevent him from talking.
"Dumb cat," she groused affectionately. "Can't you see I was talking to her first?"
Happy's reply wasn't anything audible, but he struggled against her hold on his cheeks. Suddenly, he stopped, once again lifting his paw at the newcomer trailing just behind Wendy. His greeting vaguely came out as a muffled 'Hello Kitty'.
Or maybe it was 'Carla'.
That would have made more sense.
Carla ignored his plight despite blushing. Her presence went mostly unnoticed considering that most of the group's attention had been directed to the impromptu meeting. The figureheads of each of the four delegations were huddled close, with Naruto being the most expressive.
He looked frustrated.
"So what do you think they're talking about?" Carla asked, raising her voice over the tomcat's muffled murmurs.
It was the black-haired man who spoke, "It's probably nothing." Gray folded his arms into his chest. "Man, you'd think after everything in the forest, they'd just suddenly pop out and ambush us or something. It would have made everything a lot easier."
That was true.
It had taken some time to wrangle up the rest of the Light Alliance after their little jaunt in the forest. Even with the significant distance the magical transport could cover, the rest had quite a head start over them. In the end, it was reasonably simple to pinpoint their location going by Natsu's aggravated howls that constantly rang out in the forest. His surly temper had only worsened when the Fire Dragon Slayer realised that they had to board the airship. Luckily, his grievances ended when Erza incapacitated him with a swift thump to the back of his head.
It was disquieting, to say the least.
Once aboard, they, with the exception of Erza, had left Natsu unattended the moment they dumped him on deck. No one seemed to pay the pink-haired boy any mind though as they milled around his prone form. Even Happy, Natsu's ever loyal friend, had fixed his short attention span elsewhere.
Realising that the others weren't that invested in sussing out the reason for the impromptu meeting as her, Wendy dragged her attention away from the cockpit lest she was found staring, and glanced at Natsu's downed state.
Lying flat on his back, her fellow Dragon Slayer's face was devoid of colour as his weak groans punctuated the lingering silence.
"Ah, Lucy," Wendy called out, to which the older girl returned with a bright smile. "Is there something wrong with him?"
Lucy's brief lapse in concentration as she turned to Natsu allowed Happy a momentary reprieve to escape from her clutches. "Oh, Natsu?" She pointed at him with her now free hand, her features noticeably dearth. "It's a—" the older girl paused, struggling with her words, "—really exaggerated pre-existing condition."
"Natsu doesn't like ships all that much," Happy pointed out as a matter-of-factly, not wasting the small window of opportunity to sidle up next to Carla once free from Lucy's hold.
"—d trains, boats and carriages. Oh, and cars... Let's not forget—"
Happy remained oblivious to Lucy's quiet murmurs. "He gets sick a lot," the tomcat proclaimed with a raised paw.
Lucy heaved a reluctant sigh.
"And 'a lot' really is an understatement."
Wendy furrowed her brows as she knelt by Natsu's head, taking off the unassuming elastic scrunchie around her wrist and tying up her hair in a loose bun. She touched his temples, as she continued muttering softly to herself.
"Wendy." Lucy reached out to tap her shoulder. "What are you doing?"
"I-It's just that, I might be able to help with his problem."
"You could?" two voices, Gray's and Lucy's, parroted at once.
"I think so," Wendy said, feeling unsettled with the way they were staring at her. "I never had a chance to heal something like this before, but if something were to counteract the imbalance of his sensory system, maybe—"
"Wait," Gray stopped her with a hand. "I didn't really catch what you were trying to say, and I'm pretty sure I never will," he said, looking unflappably calm as he did. "But what you're telling us is that you could cure this idiot right here?"
"Honestly," Carla groused, taking a step forward to address Gray. The feline looked peeved when Gray interrupted Wendy, as she settled into her familiar stance; her eyes half-lidded and a paw tucked to her hip as the other fell loosely at her side. "Must you be so rude?"
"Carla!"
Wendy didn't want to mention that the feline herself was being quite rude. She fretted nervously when Carla refused to yield even as she tried to tug her teammate closer to her.
Carla proved to be quite resilient at this point.
The tense atmosphere was suffocating. A breeze wafted in as the silence dredged on for what felt like an eternity. Gray, who still remained unflappably calm, was the first to break the silence.
"Right," he said, his hands reaching to slide down the zipper to his orange hooded sweatshirt. "Sorry about that."
Despite the audible gasps that escaped the female audience around him, he remained undeterred as the article of clothing was shrugged from his shoulders. His now unoccupied hand trailed at the hem of his white t-shirt, as if ready to yank it over his head, but a startled blonde finally found the ability to intervene.
Lucy shot up, and unlike Wendy and Carla, she proved to be quite desensitized to his vagrant displays of inappropriateness to blush and avert her eyes, like what Wendy was currently doing.
"Watch. Where. You're," she punctuated each word. "Stripping!"
One of her hands was clamped over his offending wrist and the other pulled back in mid-swing, connecting against Gray's chin forcefully. A modest spray of blood spurted from his lips before Gray fell sideways in an undignified heap.
"Don't mind him," Lucy said, hiding the reddish-tinged hand behind her back to explain to dumbfounded pair. "Gray—" she grimaced, "—also has a really exaggerated pre-existing condition."
"I... you—he! How dare—"
To Wendy, it looked like Carla's brain had shut down as her mouth dropped open and shut in indignation. Even Naruto was rarely able to put the feline in such a frenzied tizzy. Fortunately, Wendy was able to smoulder Carla's anger when she tugged the feline into her arms.
"I-Is that so?"
Wendy's reply was vaguely audible. She pointedly kept her gaze away from the others, a maddening blush heating her cheeks.
"Yeah." Lucy masked a poor crack at trying to defuse the awkwardness with a less than convincing giggle. "So!" she added hurriedly. "You mentioned something about healing? I've never heard of Dragon Slayers having an ability like that before." She glanced down at Natsu. "Or at least, he's never told me."
Wendy hazarded a small guess. The idea of what other Dragon Slayers studied had never really crossed her mind before.
"Maybe we were just taught different things. Although," she said, looking sheepish. "I've never been able to use it all that much."
It wasn't to say that she wasn't practising, but there was hardly a need for her healing ability during or after their missions. Her and Carla's duty acting as support kept them from harm's way, and even Naruto—who took the brunt of the assault—had always emerged victorious unscathed. The occasional bruise or two which he accrued over the years had always miraculous healed when she wasn't looking.
When she finally voiced her suspicions about his supposed healing ability, their team leader had remained the usual evasive and patronising self by citing his unnatural constitution as the reason behind it.
"I'm surprised," Gray said from his position, lying on his side. "I had you pegged purely for combat." Seeing her surprised look, he continued, "I saw a bit at the end of that fight back at the guild, and you were holding your own out there."
In that brief instance, Wendy consciously stopped her hand from snaking up to the back of her head, just like she had seen a certain someone do countless of times. Instead, she ducked her head down at the praise.
"Ah, but Naruto's the one who does most of the fighting in our team. I just help out a bit."
"Hmm, I heard that guy's on a whole other level, but you—I mean, stopping Juvia's attack like that? That girl's no slouch when it comes down to a fight. So don't try to sell yourself short."
"Aye! You're a lot more powerful than Lucy." Happy remained oblivious to his callous remark. Then, he tilted his head to the side. "But then again, that's not saying much."
For a minute, Lucy looked like she was about to argue with the air-headed animal, but she sighed, her shoulders hunched as she bowed her head. The older girl was emitting an aura of doom and gloom as her body wavered listlessly.
Wendy looked mortified.
"I-I'm sure Lucy is a very... capable... mage...?"
"No," Lucy said, her voice tinged with bitterness. "He's right, I am kind of useless." She then perked up. "But my Celestial Spirits are really strong, so it balances me out." The heiress turned away, intermittent bursts of cynical laughter leaking over her strained smile. "Yeah, that sounds about right."
The sudden emergence of Hibiki as he stepped out of the cockpit stalled their conversation once again. The suave and collected host was unusually serious as he marched over to the port side of the airship with binoculars firmly in hand. He fiddled with the dials on top before he swept his gaze over the forest.
As the figures of Lyon and Sherry moved over to him, Gray got to his feet. "I'm going to see what's bugging him."
Lucy stood to accompany the Ice-Make mage. However, Wendy remained seated, prompting Lucy to call out to her back:
"Wendy, aren't you coming?"
Wendy looked over her shoulder. "It's all right," she replied, waving Lucy away with a small smile. "I'll just stay here with Natsu-san."
Lucy raised a sceptical brow. "If that's what you want," she said slowly. "But he's pretty out of it. You won't get much out of him." For a moment, Happy looked like he was about to renege on his decision so that he could stay by Carla's side, but Lucy pulled him along by the ear. "Okay, I'll tell you about it later."
As Lucy walked away, Wendy glanced down at the weak grip that had caught hold of her wrist. Her fellow Dragon Slayer had apparently regained consciousness somewhere in the middle of their conversation and was able to glean a bit of her healing ability.
"Ugh, please," he pleaded, his boyish voice raspy and weak. "Help me..."
Wendy could never say no to someone in need, but that alone didn't explain why Carla had remained by her side. Shooting a fleeting look at the feline, Carla nodded half-heartedly as if giving her the go-ahead.
"Natsu-san, I've never actually healed something like this before, but I'm sure it could work," Wendy said, feeling her conviction set in with each passing second. "The effects might only be temporary. Do you still want me to do it?"
Natsu lolled his head from side to side in what seemed to be his approval. It was either that or he could just be following the motions of the ship.
Wendy let out a small breath as she started her preparations.
The unconscious boost of being closer to her element allowed her to manipulate the qualities in the air much easier, taking the shape of a translucent blue sphere. The warm, caressing glow of the magic washed over her features as she held it in between her hands. Slowly, she lowered the sphere down on Natsu's forehead before it faded into his skin.
It took all but a few seconds for the magic to take effect as Natsu blearily opened his eyes, his gaze no longer unfocused. He blinked once, then twice to clear the grogginess, before adjusting it to greet hers. His giddy smile was infectious as his lips parted to show off his pronounced canines, causing Wendy to smile back in reply.
Wendy then felt Natsu grasp her by the arms, lifting her off her feet as well as eliciting a small squeak out of her. Just as she was to be twirled around in the air, the sudden intrusion of Hibiki's panicked voice ringing out in their minds caused him to still. Her features were frozen in disbelief, matched equally by Natsu's.
Similar expressions were mirrored throughout the airship.
:We have a situation. There's an imposter aboard The Christina...:
0.0
"Okay, I'll tell you about it later."
Lucy dragged Happy along by his ear as they made their way towards Hibiki. As she neared the group surrounding the charismatic host, the blonde realised that she had missed a bit of the conversation, and was unable to stop herself from asking the obvious.
"What's going on?"
Sherry, who stood just off to her right beside Lyon, twitched her cheeks in thinly-concealed contempt.
"Nothing you should be too bothered about, Lucy."
There was something to her words which Lucy couldn't quite place, but she didn't want to openly retaliate. Sherry had already made it clear that there was lingering resentment between the two after their fight in Galuna Island.
Fortunately, Hibiki stepped back, shielding his body to oppose their view of each other.
"Here." Hibiki held out his binoculars to her. "Why don't you tell me what you see over there?" With a gentle squeeze and a disarming smile, Hibiki reached around her other shoulder to guide her towards the bulwark.
Lucy made a conscious effort to track the placement of his hand—which had drifted to the small of her back—just in case he started to wander further downwards. She peered through the scope of the binoculars just as the distinctive view of black smoke started to billow above the forest in the distance. It was faint even with the enhanced sight, but it was clear that the area had been disturbed.
"Naruto-san said he heard an explosion," Hibiki explained, scoffing. There was something to it. After all, the smoke was quite far from their current position, so it stands to reason how exactly he had heard something no one else had. "He's recommending that we go ahead and check it out." At this, he frowned. "But Ichiya-aniki is not all that convinced."
Lyon raised a questionable brow. "And you think otherwise?"
"I do," Hibiki said, holding out hand as he waited for Lucy to return the binoculars. "At first, I thought it was just the sun playing trick on my eyes, but if you look carefully near the areas around the smoke, that whole section of the forest looks like it's been burnt down. Naruto-san is right. We've never really had a bearing of where we're supposed to go, and this is the most telling evidence we have so far. The only thing I don't understand is why aniki doesn't want to listen." A weary sigh escaped him. "He's been acting really odd."
"Odd? Like how?" Gray asked.
"Well, for one thing, he's pretty adamant that Naruto-san is wrong, even when the others agree with him. And maybe it's just me, but it's the subtle things about his behaviour lately that stick out." Hibiki clucked his tongue. "Or it could just be because of Erza-san's presence. No one wants to look bad in front of their lover, after all."
Lucy couldn't help but feel her jaw loosen at the casual way Hibiki touched upon the topic.
"W-Wait, what was that about Erza?"
The way he looked at her could only be described as playful condescension. "Can't you tell?" His lips twitched upwards into a knowing smile. "Those two are absolutely smitten with each other," he said, ignoring the incredulous wide-eyed looks the others were shooting him. Even Lyon looked surprised. "It takes a certain kind of woman to tie down aniki like this, and I must say, Erza-san is a very lucky one at that."
Lucy shuddered. "Yeah, just make sure you don't tell her that."
Hibiki laughed, "Why?" He looked through the scope of his binoculars again. "It's meant to be a compli—" He then swallowed a nervous gulp.
It didn't go unnoticed by Sherry.
"Hibiki, is everything all right?" she asked, tapping his shoulder. "You look like you've seen a ghost?"
The tightening of his features and the worried grimace was all it took to silence her. Exchanging wary glances with those around him, the handsome host reached up to press two fingers against his temple.
Lucy had to bite back a sharp gasp as his voice intruded into her mind.
:We have a situation. There's an imposter aboard The Christina...:
Lucy could scarcely believe the domino-effect the statement brought upon the previous calm of the airship, as the sound of shattered glass and pained screams reached her ears. She turned, just in time to see the hulking form of Jura crash through the barrier separating the cockpit and land roughly on the deck, clutching at his midsection as blood poured from the wound he tried to contain.
There was a momentary lull as the rest struggled to react to the sudden turn of events, but when a strong gust of wind gushed from the now destroyed opening not a scant few seconds later, Gray instinctively tackled her down, shielding her with his body as he piled on top of her.
She remained dazed as a gentle woody scent invaded her senses, disorienting her as a quickly mounting headache throbbed in her temples. Stuck in a haze of jumbled thoughts, Lucy moaned as she lifted her hands to rub at her forehead to ease away the piercing pain. Distantly, she heard distressed screams—one, a familiar boyish tone, and the other, that of a young girl.
A muffled groan from the body atop hers showed that Gray had been afflicted with whatever was in that attack too, but the Ice-Make mage was a lot sturdier as he pushed himself off of her, propping his hands up to have a bleary look around. He leaned heavily against it as he struggled not to plop back down on Lucy.
The moment a part of her senses returned, she tried to shake out of her stupor, knowing that she wasn't the one in dire need of help. Incidentally, that was when Naruto's voice, loud and commanding, rang throughout the deck.
"Go! Get off the—"
0.0
"I'll be right back," Naruto said distractedly as he replayed the fresh memory of his fellow clone's experience up until the point of the explosion.
He pushed himself off the bulwark as the sporadic real-time updates were relayed to him throughout the original's skirmish with the unknown assailants. The clone quickly made his way towards the other side of the airship, exchanging a brief nod with Jura in a silent gesture to follow him. He stopped short before Erza and the rest of the Fairy Tail mages, greeting the group with a brief smile.
"We need to talk," he said to Erza.
He glanced down upon hearing a strangled moan. Head firmly rested upon Erza's lap, the prone and groaning form of Natsu proved to be quite a sight.
Erza inclined her head in agreement as she stopped the not-so gentle ministration of her armoured gauntlet, which served a lot more harm than good to the young man in her care.
"Of course." Erza turned back to look at the Celestial Spirit mage. "Lucy, take over."
Lucy looked confused for a second before Erza pointed down at Natsu. "W-What? I—" Just as the redhead was about to frown, she quickly spoke up, "Y-Yeah, okay." Her cheeks were tinged with a pale red flush, but Lucy hunkered down next to her teammate and rigidly stroked his head in a futile attempt to quell his chronic motion sickness and not to anger their team leader.
Once Jura stepped up beside them, the clone led the duo into the cockpit to find the final party of their impromptu meeting.
The interior of the cockpit was spacious. A large, translucent lacrima orb rested at the centre of the room as Ichiya diligently went through the process of keeping the ship on course. The rest of the Trimens were hard at work around similar workstations that covered the walls of the cockpit; there were rapidly blinking buttons, large dials, and strange black and green hue monitors that Naruto wasn't sure what its purposes were.
Airships were rarely owned by private entities or individuals, so it was uncommon to find one that took to the skies without the official bearing of the kingdom's Magic Council that commissioned their use.
Still, from what Naruto had been told, The Christina was a powerful aircraft.
It was a retired magical bomber series (barring the unicorn ornament) frequently used in the Cabria War when conflict was rife between the Kingdom of Desierto, which was famed mostly for its arid and scorching temperatures, and the Kingdom of Bellum, an up-and-coming prosperous sovereignty that proved to have a limitless potential for growth despite being sandwiched by two of the largest kingdoms in Earthland.
Despite its obvious advantages, airship fleets never commanded a large presence in an atypical military force of a kingdom. Due to the ridiculously high maintenance and the highly-proficient manpower required, a generous portion of its military expenditure went towards something that could be done without, especially during peace-time.
In reality, most neutral kingdoms like Fiore had their attention fixed on much more pressing matters. Internal security proved to be a much more hot-button issue than external threats from other kingdoms. Such an excessive show of force, like a whole fleet of airships to counter the rampant menace that both legal and dark guilds posed, would not endear them to its citizens due to the unwanted destruction such saturated bombings would cause.
The fact that the master of Blue Pegasus had an airship showed the clout and stature the cross-dressing man possessed. With the Trimens' added ability to manoeuvre the ship so efficiently, their guild proved why it deserved its status as one of the premier guilds in Fiore. Back when they first met, Naruto had unwittingly marked the Trimens as a gaggle of womanising hosts, but bias aside, he should have known better and stuck by Kakashi-sensei's words to 'look underneath the underneath'.
A subtle cough from the redhead, who had firmly placed herself behind him, made the Trimens acknowledge their presence in the cockpit.
"Yes?" the orange-haired man asked as he pulled his hands away from the lacrima orb. "Is there a need of my assistance or is this more of a casual visit?"
"Yeah, there is a reason why I called you all here," Naruto said, not wasting a breath so that Ichiya couldn't possibly find a time to interrupt. "I—uh, heard an explosion coming from the north-west." It was to his credit that the clone was able to think on his feet and come up with a semi-believable excuse, but from the sceptical looks directed his way, the lie didn't really fool anyone.
"You heard an explosion?" Hibiki drawled, looking up from his position at his workstation. "An explosion no one else could hear but you?"
Hibiki's tone riled him up.
"I'm not lying," Naruto said heatedly. Even as he spoke, irregular memories came to him, of the boss' progress in the fight against the armoured assassins. "It's pretty far away, and I have—" inadvertently, his eyes narrowed at Hibiki, "—really good hearing."
"Naruto-dono, are you absolutely sure about this information?"
The blond nodded at Jura. "I am. It's over there. Just take a look." He pointed towards the translucent barrier at the starboard side of the ship. "See that smoke rising over there, that's where the explosion happened."
They did so, most in equal shades of disbelief and surprise as they edged closer to the plexi-glass barrier. To the naked eye, the smoke was faint, but discernible.
"There would have been other signs," Erza murmured softly. "How could we have missed this?"
"It is possible that they used runes to muffle the detonation," Hibiki said, having abandoned his post to stand by her side. "But Eve should know more about it." Hibiki regarded his fellow, albeit shorter, host. "Didn't they teach this stuff in the Rune Knights?"
"In the right hands, runes can be extremely effective, but with a little bit of training, I can see an average mage doing something to this extent. Though it didn't fully absorb the blast, seeing that Naruto-san could still hear it."
"But could it be a trap?" Ren asked, from his workstation. "Maybe Oración Seis is trying to draw us in and take out the ship and us in one fell swoop."
Naruto wasn't sure who else noticed it, but Ichiya noticeably tensed at Ren's words. He found it odd, but raked it up to the man's nerves at the possibility of being attacked.
"It's not a trap," Naruto said, before the clone realised his mistake and faked a cough. "At least, I think it's not a trap."
"And how would you know?" Erza asked, frowning.
"I trust my... gut?"
Ichiya whirled around to level a disparaging glare at him. "And you expect us to head into a possible ambush and put our lives in jeopardy because you trust your gut?"
"It's rarely wrong," Naruto groused. "Anyway, if it is an ambush and we plan accordingly, we could just turn the tables back on them."
Naruto wasn't sure why he was going so far as to prepare a contingency plan for something he knew wasn't going to happen, but pointing them towards the blackened forest could clue them in to Nirvana's location.
All he needed to do now was to convince them.
"Shouldn't we should go and investigate it? There might be clues to help us find Nirvana or Oración Seis. I mean, we've been flying towards some random direction ever since we set off. How's that going to help our mission?"
"Preposterous," Ichiya said. "That would be akin to suicide mission, and if it isn't an ambush as you say, we'd just be wasting our precious time. Who knows, it might just be an accidental forest fire or a stray bandits' camp. Besides, I have it on good authority that we are on course to discover the location of our enemy's main base." Ichiya tapped his fingers against his stomach. "Call it my gut instincts."
"No, Naruto-san does have a point," Erza said. "We simply cannot ignore this. Even if it is something trivial, we should at least confirm the situation first just to be sure. What do you think, Jura-san?"
The towering mage frowned before nodding his assent. "Every possible avenue should be covered to ascertain their location."
"W-Wait, you can't be considering this!" Ichiya said, glaring at the others before resting it solely on Naruto. Naruto frowned at that. "I can assure you that—"
"Aniki!" Hibiki interrupted as he stepped up to his mentor and clasped him by the shoulder. "Why don't I go outside and document the fire with the view-recorder?" He swept an unreadable gaze at the others in the cockpit. "I believe a better perspective would help with the final decision."
Naruto was relieved at the host's intervention, silently thanking the man for the save. The atmosphere had taken a turn for the worst, and Naruto didn't want to it to devolve into the two of them locked in a heated exchange.
Ichiya seemed more than just opposed to his idea. He didn't know why though.
Erza smiled faintly. "I think it would. Thank you, Hibiki-san."
"Just give me a moment to record the findings. I'm sure it won't take too long," Hibiki reassured to the room in general. As he left, carrying with him what looked to be an ordinary binoculars, Naruto regarded the orange-haired man beside Jura with displeased look.
"So, how should we do this?"
"Hmm..." Jura rubbed his chin in quiet contemplation. "For one thing, I would not advice endangering the ship by moving in too close to the area since the chances of it being an ambush is considerably high. A small party would be sufficient to investigate the cause of the explosion."
"Agreed," Erza said. "I think it would be prudent for Naruto-san to lead the outing, and I suppose I should come along as well." She must have noticed his puzzled expression, as she continued, "For support. Just in case it is an ambush."
"Then, might I suggest Lyon as well?" Jura chimed in. "He is a very dependable mage and his prowess is second to none in our guild." The bald man coughed into a closed fist. "Of course, barring our Guild Mistress and I."
"Great!" the clone said. "I think we've got this covered."
It was at this point when Jura finally voiced out, "Is something wrong, Ichiya-dono? You are unusually quiet."
Ichiya had his back towards them. He mumbled inaudibly under his breath, "Yes, I'm afraid there is. But then again, that's the thing about plans, it never goes how you want it to."
Jura frowned as he leaned in closer. "Could you repeat that? I am afraid I didn't quite—"
The sudden spike of killing intent was brief and unexpected.
Due to the proximity between the two, Jura was caught by surprise. Ichiya's smaller frame allowed the man to easily slip into his guard. By the time the Saint glimpsed the glint of steel in his hand, Ichiya had thrust the razor sharp blade deep into his abdomen, up to its hilt. Ichiya's grip remained steadfast as he tried to twist the knife in the wound.
Fortunately, the whistle of a projectile slicing through the air forced the imposter to back away. The kunai missed its intended target by mere millimetres, embedding itself in the wall behind the assailant.
"Ichiya-aniki! What are you doing?"
Neither Naruto nor the imposter paid heed to Ren's words. As the clone rushed forward to neutralise the threat, his opponent scuttled backwards towards the other end, throwing a test tube teeming with an unknown red substance to the ground.
A familiar voice reverberated in the confines of his mind.
:We have a situation. There's an imposter aboard—:
He ignored and dismissed the mental probe without hesitation. Despite whatever magic Hibiki used to get inside his head, he didn't need to be told twice.
"Stop!" Erza roared.
Had it not been for Erza who pulled him back at the last second, he would have charged recklessly at diminutive figure hidden in the gradually growing red mist. For whatever reason, Ichiya seemed content with the cover he was afforded as the man refused to budge from his position.
Erza backed away, dragging him along as they inched back as far as they could from the smog. The redhead held a gauntlet against the lower half of her face, and even if it was obstructed, Naruto could still see her grimace.
"Do whatever you can to not inhale the perfume," her reply came out slightly muffled. "It's a lot more dangerous than you think." Her grip on the sword she had just requipped tightened to the point that her hand was trembling in barely-concealed rage.
At first, he had merely brushed it off as a smokescreen for an escape, but when he heard Ren's—who had been unable to pull away from his workstation in time—pained screams coming from within the cloud of debilitation, he realised otherwise. He could only assume that Ichiya was immune to his own attack, but bearing in mind that the cockpit was closed off, they really had to act fast before they too fell to the scent.
"There's no mistaking it. This is Ichiya-san's pain perfume," Erza told him. "I've seen fully grown monsters succumb to this attack in mere seconds."
Naruto cursed lowly.
He knew that inhaling a breath of the toxic fumes would be enough to cause him to disperse. He couldn't afford to make a mistake—not now.
"No! Ren?!" Eve's eyes widened as the horror of hearing his friend suffer sent the host into a mild catatonic state. "Ren!" For a moment, it looked like Eve was about to dive into the rapidly-encroaching mist.
"Don't!" Jura barked, warning Eve off his reckless charge.
Jura's deep, heavy pants were coming in at short, uneven intervals. The Saint had been able to stagger back towards the plexi-glass barrier separating the cockpit and the deck. He was using it as purchase to lean most of his body weight on it, all the while, pressing a large hand against the wound to stop the flow of blood.
"D-Do not be foolish! The three of you need to escape while you can! Let me handle this!" Jura stopped when Naruto levelled an uneasy glance at him, prompting him to ask, "W-What are you thinking?"
The clone shook his head reluctantly. "Sorry, but it's the fastest way." Quickly focusing chakra into his arm, he slammed a balled fist against the translucent barrier, shattering it.
Jura was helpless to stop himself as he tripped backwards, tumbling onto the deck in an undignified heap. It was crude and reckless, seeing that the Wizard Saint was gravely wounded, but it really was the fastest way he could think of to save both Jura and Ren.
Still, Erza looked none too pleased with him.
"All right, you two better hold your breath." His hands blurred into seals. "You guys know what to do, right?" Seeing their faces set into grim determination, he nodded. "Great, because we might only get one chance at this.
"Fūton: Daitoppa!"
Holding his breath, he scaled down the intensity behind the widespread gust of wind that burst forth from his hands. It surged outwards and buffeted the room, crashing into the cockpit door with such force that it was slammed open as it swung wildly off its hinges. Similarly, bits and pieces of the fragile components that were once part of the workstations were chipped away, shooting sparks of loose magical energy. However, the large lacrima orb—perhaps the only sturdy construct in the room—remained unaffected by the wind from the squall.
The manifolds of current swept up the dangerous red mist in a flurry of directions. It bounced around the interior of the cockpit, and eventually escaped through the side door and the now broken plexi-glass barrier. The wooden structure supporting the openings creaked and groaned, and like a dam of water trying to force its way through a small breach, the pressure proved to be too great, battering into at the structure until it was torn apart.
Naruto shielded his face with his arms, trying his best not to inhale as the perfume-induced blast of wind whooshed past his ears and out to the surroundings.
His attack was able to diffuse the concentration of noxious particles in the smog, lessening the lethality of Ichiya's perfume, but not totally dissipating into the atmosphere as it swept through the deck.
No longer hidden in the blanketing shadows of the mist, Ichiya stood at the other end, having been blown back into the far end of the room. He was crouched, shielded partly by one of the larger workstations, as the man waited for the gust of wind to die down. In his hand, he held an odd cylinder-like device, his thumb repeatedly mashing onto the gleaming red button in desperation.
Whatever the imposter was trying to do, it didn't look like it was working.
Sensing the opportunity gifted by his attack, the clone pitched forward. He remained cautious not to breathe in any lingering scent as his lips thinned into a small line, unseen as a calloused palm covered the lower half of his face. With the other, he relieved a spare kunai from his weapons pouch.
Ichiya's button mashing got increasingly frantic as Naruto eased in the distance to barely five steps away. His unoccupied hand grasped one of his other test tubes attached to his lop-sided utility belt, but when the sudden whir of the device jolted into life, Ichiya smiled.
A magical seal sprung from underneath his feet as the sinister red glow washed over his features, giving the imposter a more devilish guise. It died down as runes started to form in the air before him. It was just jumbled gibberish of unknown characters at first, but it quickly interlocked, giving an outline of the words:
'Sequence Initiated: Beginning Self-Destruct Protocol'.
It vanished as a countdown appeared in its stead, a fleeting ninety-second timer to evacuate the magical bomber before its imminent explosion.
'Eighty nine...'
The clone remained undaunted despite the certainty of its end. Right now, the only thing he could do was to disable the imposter and make damn well sure that everyone else got off this ship. As a second ticked down, his arm had already snapped out at his target, just as the kunai was centimetres from slicing his opponent's suddenly wispy neck.
'Eighty eight...'
A plume of smoke obstructed his vision, as his weapon met no resistance. Instinctively, he looked down. Whatever remained of the fake Ichiya was now gone, replaced with two almost identical alien-ish creatures that only reached up to just above his knees.
Their perfectly round head, coupled with their eerily, beady black eyes and the two feeler-like strands of hair made the duo look more peculiar than anything cute. Its pale blue skin did them no favours. Where their similarities ended, the minute differences became even more pronounced. It was kind of like looking into a fun-house mirror.
One wore skimpy orange shorts whereas the other wore black.
One had a perpetual frown on its face while the other was stuck in a strange, twisted smile.
One wore its sash diagonally slanted to the left whereas the other had his running to the right.
One held a test tube filled to the brim with noxious gas in its stubby hands while the other was clinging onto the self-destruct device. Both creatures took a good, long look at the test tube before they blinked owlishly.
...And promptly tried to drop it.
'Eighty four...'
The kunai that slipped from his hand had already found its target at one of the creature's pliable belly even before Naruto realised it. The Celestial Spirit was jerked back with such force that it could do nothing but be dragged like a ragdoll as it was pinned to the wall at the far end, hanging a few centimetres off the ground.
"Gemi!" the other one squeaked.
It tried to rush over to its lifeless counterpart as a small dribble of blood trickled down Gemi's lips, but before it could reach another step, Naruto was upon it, sending the thing flying after its twin with a low-footed sweep. It crashed head first into the wall and slid to ground, unmoving. Their forms were enveloped in soft, yellow glow before promptly disappearing.
If not for the small droplets of blood that dotted the wooden panels and the blood smeared kunai embedded in the wall, one could hardly believe that they were just here.
'Eighty...'
Naruto watched helplessly as the red mist start to seep out from the broken test tube, let loose when the creature was yanked back by the projectile. The faintest whiff of the woody fragrance started to invade his senses as the toxic vapours rose up around his person.
"I-I, the boss—" Naruto fumbled with his words. "Help... Help is going to come. Just hang on until then." The clone swallowed thickly, not from the fear of dying but leaving his teammates without his protection. "I'm counting on you." When Erza remained unmoving, he gripped his hands tight, his face grim. "Well, what are you waiting for?!
"Go! Get off the—"
The clone disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
0.0
'Sequence Initiated: Beginning Self-Destruct Protocol.'
There was a phantom throbbing pain in her temples after the squall of perfume-induced wind swept over them, but whereas Erza had trailed in Naruto's wake a fraction of a second after he moved, unlike him, she faltered in her steps.
Her brown eyes widened as the runes proceeded to spell out their imminent end with large, glaring red numerals. It wasn't her intention to abandon Naruto to fight against the Ichiya-imposter alone, but she just couldn't tear her eyes away.
Erza hastily turned to the only one that was not engaged in combat.
"What is the meaning of this?"
Eve didn't so much as glance at her direction as he carried the unconscious Ren with one arm slung around his shoulder, heading towards the exit. "Desierto," he grunted. "Military surplus." His words came out breathless as he continued to hobble towards safety with the dead weight leaning against him.
It was only when he continued that Erza stilled.
"The measures are irreversible."
Unwittingly, she turned her attention back to the fight as a meaty thunk of metal piercing wood gave way to a peculiar cry of 'Gemi!'. Another thump followed as Naruto sent the other crashing into the wall. The alien-like duo promptly vanished in a familiar yellow glow; it was something which she had seen before with Lucy's summons.
One of her legs jutted out as her natural instincts incited her to rush forward and help, but Erza quelled whatever impulses she had and took a step back as the faintest smog of the perfume started to rise up around Naruto.
"I-I, the boss—" his eyes locked onto hers, "Help... Help is going to come. Just hang on until then." He visibly swallowed a gulp. "I'm counting on you."
Naruto's features settled into a grim frown, like a soldier ready to accept his inevitable fate. "Well, what are you waiting for?!" he shouted, his rough voice rising with a hint of desperation.
"Go! Get off the—"
His words of warning were cut off when his entire being dispersed in a thick, white shroud.
Erza blinked when Naruto disappeared despite having a measured guess that it might happen. During their short-lived discussion, she held a growing suspicion that the original Naruto had somehow switched himself with a clone before he boarded the airship.
It was one thing to hear of the blond's abilities, but seeing it first hand was nothing like what Mirajane told her. Initially, she believed that his copies were nothing more than blank husks that took on his guise, so it was unnerving to see how expressive they were; it was almost like the real Naruto. Even a thought-projection paled in comparison to his clones.
Erza tore her eyes away at where Naruto—or more accurately his clone—knelt previously in the midst of the rising red mist and dashed off. She was not intent on sticking around for the effects of Ichiya's pain perfume to consume her senses.
As she hurdled over the shattered remains of the plexi-glass barrier, her body glowed in an intense light that vanished the moment her feet touched the wooden panels of the deck. Now suited in a revealing set of black armour with leathery bat-like wings, Erza cut an imposing figure as she began to take stock of the situation, sweeping her gaze over her dazed and wounded allies.
Jura was currently being tended to by his guild members. The tall man was leaning heavily against Lyon with an arm over his shoulder, and with the other, staunchly pressing against the wound that Sherry was trying to look over.
"I'm fine," the Wizard Saint grunted sourly in response to Sherry's relentless meddling.
The woman would have none of it. Her flawlessly tousled hair was no longer perfect, a show of how frazzled she was. "Stop being so stubborn!" Sherry ripped off a portion of the hem of her dress and shoved it lightly against Jura's uninjured chest. "At least, let me stop the bleeding first!"
"Erza, what... what's going on?" Lucy asked her.
The blonde was caught in a tangled heap under the bare-chested form of Gray. He leapt to his feet as he surveyed the area, distractedly holding out a hand to help Lucy to her feet and regain her bearing. Lucy had her eyes squeezed shut, using her free hand to massage her temples.
"Ugh, I heard Natsu screaming. Is he all right?"
Erza sought her only other guild member not accounted for: Natsu. But when she found his prone form lying next to Wendy's with Carla crowding around them, she knew that it wasn't because his chronic motion sickness. No, it wouldn't have accounted for Wendy's sudden collapse; the younger Dragon Slayer was perfectly fine before the meeting. The only reason she could put together was that they were caught in the cross-fire of the earlier attack by the Ichiya-imposter.
It would have explained it.
Natsu had a very keen sense of smell, and it wouldn't be far-fetched for Wendy to have similar traits. They must have been much worse off than the others if they caught a higher concentration of Ichiya's perfume, even if it had been diluted by the wind Naruto had conjured.
Lucy's features froze in shock. "Natsu! Wendy!" She remained disoriented, but despite swaying on her feet, she prevailed with Happy's restless figure trailing after her.
Gray, on the other hand, stood rooted to the ground. His features were slack-jawed in disbelief as he stared over Erza's shoulders, at the ruined remains of the then immaculate cockpit.
"That's not... good."
"You are a master of the understatement, Gray-san," Hibiki said, engrossed with his Archive magic. His fingers were working furiously into the golden translucent terminal that hovered in the air before him. His eyes would dart between the screen and his surroundings, scowling as he did.
"Does sarcasm really help right now, Hibiki?" Eve asked.
The small host was crouched next to Ren, who despite inhaling the full concentration of Ichiya's perfume, was still conscious, but barely. In his hand, he held an odd little brown pouch which he held to Ren's nose. Debilitating shivers racked through his body.
Feeling the pointed stare Erza directed his way, Eve quickly answered, "Smelling salts. It's something Ichiya-aniki gave to us to counter his magic should something like this happen." His attention trailed towards the prone figures of Natsu and Wendy. "I have enough for the both of them, but could someone please do something about that cockpit first?"
The deadly red mist had already filled close to three-quarters of the large room and was starting to seep out from the minor cracks and holes caused by Naruto's attack.
"Fine," Gray said.
He stamped a firm fist into the palm of his hand. "Ice Make: Shield!"
A thick block of ice materialised and enclosed around the length of the cockpit, effectively sealing it shut. Gray took a moment to inspect his handiwork for any cracks before turning to the others.
"Uh listen, whatever that thing was inside, we got less than a minute to do something about it."
"That thing is a half-baked measure thought up by idiots who would rather die in a glorious explosion than be captured," Hibiki explained, his lips thinning into a line.
"Oi! T-This ship's going to explode?"
"And that's not the terrible part, the terrible part is—" Hibiki continued, ignoring Gray's question as his Archive console faded, "—that I can't even stall for more time." He sighed, leaning up to look over the airship's bulwark. "Landing Christina is out of the question. We have to evacuate using some other way."
Eve looked genuinely amused, motioning at her. "I believe Erza-san has already come to the same conclusion."
Erza shook her head. Now was not the time. She began relaying her orders, barking, "Happy, Carla!" The duo seemed surprised at being addressed. "Get Natsu and Wendy off the ship!"
There was a moment's hesitation where Carla looked like she was about to question Erza, but the feline must have sensed the urgency in Erza's voice. As her wings finally took shape, Carla grabbed her young charge by the back of her dress but stopped short of flying off.
"Naruto's still—Where is he?!"
Erza tensed at the mention of the blond. "He... will regroup with us later."
The feline put two and two together. "That idiot!" Carla scowled harshly before turning to the tomcat next to her. "Male-cat, let's go."
"A-Aye!"
Still confused as to the whole situation, Happy had no choice but to mimic Carla's actions and heft Natsu's larger frame before taking off after her. With Wendy and Natsu safe from harm's way, there were only two more casualties aboard that remained a cause for concern.
"Jura-san," Erza said, brown eyes regarding the taller man with a hint of reservation."Is it possible for you to—"
"You will find, Erza-dono," Jura grunted as he tried to stand on his own two feet. "That I am still quite capable despite my injuries." A strained but relieved smile followed. "As are my teammates." To Jura's immediate right, Lyon, having foregone the duty of being the man's support, had locked into a familiar pose Erza had seen before; it was reminiscent of the only other Ice-Make mage she knew.
"Ice Make: Eagle!"
The stoic young man's creation materialised with a soft chime akin to shattering glass. Instead of the smaller, agile eagles that she had seen him create before, the lone ice construct was larger and sturdier than its dive-bombing counterparts. It hovered in the air besides the airship, with Lyon sending a pointed look at the trio of hosts.
"Quickly, we don't have much time."
His words prompted another flurry of movement as Eve and Hibiki helped their half-conscious teammate aboard the precarious ice construct. Gray, amidst the hectic and strained atmosphere, looked awe-struck at his childhood friend's sudden change of heart.
"Lyon," he breathed. "You're using both hands, huh?"
The white-haired mage's lips twitched in a small smirk. "Isn't that how Ur taught us in the first place? I have—"
Sherry could no longer hide her anxiety. "Honestly, you two!" she hissed, dragging Lyon forcefully by the wrist. He winced. "You can have your little moment when we're off this death trap! Until then... snip it!"
"A-Ah, wait a minute," Lucy said. "W-What about us? That thing's kind of full, and there's still the three of us!"
"Nonsense, Lucy," Erza corrected her. "You have me."
"That's what I was afraid of..."
Ignoring her, Erza fixed a firm grip around the blonde's waist and lifted her off her feet. Lucy was surprisingly light, enough that Erza was able to fit her under an arm. The knight proceeded to hop up to the bulwark on the opposite end of the airship with Gray following suit. With Lyon at the helm of his ice construct, the eagle began pulling away from the airship as it ferried its passengers to safety. It wasn't exactly the fast vessel Erza had hoped it would be, but it was the best she could expect at the moment.
They probably had seconds left before the ship they were on exploded.
"Gray," she called out softly, aware that the other Ice-Make mage didn't have the means to create something like Lyon's dynamic branch of elemental magic. "Are you sure about this?"
"I might have a trick or two," he said. "But it's not like I've used it before for something like this." He looked down at the immense drop covered by the expanse of trees as far as the eye could see. "We'll see now, won't we?"
Seeing the confident grin Gray sent their way, her passenger paled. "T-This really isn't a time for you to test some half-baked—"
"Ice Make: Slide!"
Gray leapt off the railing as his haphazardly produced slide materialised out of thin air, with Erza trailing after him. She monitored his high-flying descent warily.
Gray was struggling to find his balance as his feet found no purchase on the slanted surface, unaided by the fact that he had to factor his construct having no base whatsoever to support it; it was free-falling just as fast as he was. His upper body pitched back and forth to the motions, and his hands were still awkwardly locked into position to create the path of the ice slide. It didn't take him long to get past the difficulty curve as he relaxed into a noticeable stance.
His whoop of joy was drowned out by the sudden explosion that rocked the tranquil peace of the Worth Woodsea.
The concussive shockwave swept over Erza and her passenger, throwing them off balance violently. Erza grunted as she was partially caught in the fringe of the explosion; she could feel the heat searing her back, and no doubt the wings on her armour had taken a beating as she struggled to right herself in the air. Erza did her best to ignore the pain, shielding Lucy with her body as the aftermath peppered her with debris. She was only distinctly aware that something had cut her head as a small trail of blood dripped freely down from her forehead, obscuring her vision.
"Lucy, are you—"
"M'fine... Gray," she said weakly, pointing down at the free-falling Ice-Make user. "Go get Gray..."
There was a distinct whoosh as Erza corrected her course and began an almost vertical descent, barrelling into Gray with her unoccupied side. Their rapid descent slowed dramatically before they were pulled back from the upwind and lifted up as the trio continued to glide in the air.
Lucy was unhurt, though the blast had charred a bit of her clothes, but she was spared from any lasting blemishes. Gray was faring better as he regained his bearing. Assured that her comrades were safe, she took stock of her surroundings.
"Well, shit..." Gray summarised succinctly.
The explosion had cleaved the large aircraft into two as the two ends started to plummet amidst a fiery blaze of reddish-orange. Similarly, pieces of debris—that had not been disintegrated by the blast—filled the previously calm skies, and from afar, those that were caught aflame rained down on the earth. It was frightening to see, but it was only amplified when the figures just beyond the falling wreckage were plunging to their deaths.
She then cursed.
"Gray, take Lucy!"
Aware of their perilous situation, Gray snapped into action as another slide materialised underneath his feet, the spell being held up by a single hand now instead of his usual two-handed approach. He had no more teething concerns when Erza dropped him atop his next platform, a hand still stretched out in front of him as he landed unevenly on both feet. Thankfully, his footing was a lot more assuring than his first attempt. Erza noticed the crude ice-skates he had created by attaching a thin blade of ice at the soles of his shoes.
The treacherous exchange in mid-air that followed was like an insane circus act.
Erza lowered Lucy down, hanging loosely by her hand as the blonde held on for her dear life, her feet dangling dangerously with only the soaring drop standing between her and the ground.
"Throw her!" Gray shouted.
Lucy's eyes widened at that, and for a minute, she looked like she was set to argue, but chose not to in the end.
"I'm sorry, Lucy..." Erza said.
Erza picked up her speed to match Gray's, and with a firm swing, tossed her into his awaiting arm. She watched with bated breath as Lucy collided against Gray's muscular frame, the Ice-Make mage himself doing well to hold his ground by not toppling over.
Lucy wound up safe in his arms, her eyes still tightly shut as she shivered. She wrapped her limbs around his upper body to lock her grip on her taller teammate, her arms clinging around his neck and her legs finding its way around his waist. The duo ended up in a risqué arrangement with Lucy's considerable chest smothering Gray's face. All the while, the Celestial Spirit mage was shouting at the top of her lungs about something the redhead couldn't hear given the sudden distance between them.
In that short space of time where Erza was sure that her teammates would be safe, she had already pulled away, folding her wings back to minimise the drag and dived towards the others still in free-fall. She dodged the occasional stray debris that fell in her path as her eyes sought the first thing that came into her line of sight. Instinctively, Erza stretched her hand out.
"Not me!" the small figure of Eve shouted, his features panicked-stricken and on edge. He continued his merciless plunge, struggling to right himself. "Ren!" he screamed. "Get Ren!"
The host in question had been pushed back further by the explosion, roughly a couple of metres or so below them. Hibiki could be seen trying to close the gap between him and his semi-conscious friend, though it seemed like a pointless endeavour. Not far from them, Lyon had hastily recovered by creating another ice eagle. Perched atop his gliding sculpture, he knelt close to the edge as he strained to lift Sherry—his hand being her only lifeline—aboard.
Lyon's desperation was obvious.
While he was stuck with Sherry, his eyes were frantically looking over at the rest, all scattered and falling around him.
"Erza, p-plea—" Eve tried to speak.
She ignored him as her reach could only seize the blond by the sleeves of his blazer. As Eve was yanked back by the sudden halt in his descent, there was a sickening snap as the socket in his shoulder joint gave way, his pained scream following not soon after. Erza winced, but quickly hardened her resolve. Such injuries could heal, but it was a small price to pay to avoid a far worse fate. She gingerly lifted him up, mindful of the injury as she secured a tighter grip on Eve.
Eve groaned, no doubt through the pained fog that clouded his senses, asking:
"The others?"
Just as she was about to answer, a blur of white and blue shot up from below them; the duo's nimble build and natural disposition for flying making them far more agile in the skies than her.
"Erza!" Happy's presence, together with Carla's, allowed her a momentary reprieve as they came to Hibiki's and Ren's rescue, and she could only assume that the two Dragon Slayers previously in their care were safe elsewhere. The blue cat's determined expression was a sight for sore eyes, and his impossible feat of seamlessly plucking Ren in mid-air despite the odds against him was nothing short of baffling. For once, it seemed that their luck had finally taken a turn for the better, but that was until Carla let loose a strangled yelp.
"You're too heavy," Carla groused at her passenger; a relieved but indignant Hibiki. "I c-can't fly!"
"I'm pretty light for a guy!"
Carla struggled to hover at her current altitude next to Happy and Ren, but even as her wings beat relentlessly, the two continued to drop bit by bit. Upon seeing the concerned and anxious looks sent her way, she reassured them with a firm nod. "W-We'll be fine," she gasped, grimacing. "I'll just have to do t-this another way."
With that, her wings stopped beating.
"A-Ah, Carla!" Happy shouted, and even Erza and Eve could not hold back their cries of alarm.
"Stop squirming or I just might drop you!" Despite everything, Erza could hear Carla chastising Hibiki as the host screamed a fearful protest. "Honestly, you're worse than Wendy!"
The feline proved to be more than capable as she pulled up at the last second of their steep descent, levelling out just a few metres off the ground. Although, their landing wasn't as smooth as she probably intended it to be. Instead, they crashed roughly on the ground, thankfully avoiding the trees in their path, before rolling to a complete stop.
An astounding feat if one was to acknowledge the dire circumstances.
"Jura, hold on!" a coarse voice yelled.
Well below Erza, Lyon had finally been able to drag Sherry up next to him as she huddled in close next to the white-haired man. His ice eagle pitched downwards, almost vertical, in a reckless attempt to catch up to their team leader.
Without a second thought, Erza did the same. There was a biting sensation that swept her face, as she pushed herself further. She tried to spare a thought for Eve's condition, but it brought another fragmented memory to the fore.
I'm counting on you.
Naruto's plea weighed heavy in her mind.
An ice-cold grip found its way around her heart as the foreboding realisation that neither she nor Lyon could reach the Wizard Saint in time. It looked like their attempts were in vain. Jura was too far away, dangerously close to becoming a red splotch on the earth.
For all their efforts, a reluctant smile reached Jura's lips.
'I. Will. Be. Fine.' He mouthed before he allowed his body to turn in mid-air; now facing the oncoming ground. The towering mage had not planned for his death, instead he locked his unoccupied hand into that of a gun, his features gaining a grim expression as he tried to concentrate on the timing of his spell.
"Iron Rock—"
His bellowing shout was drowned out by a thunderous boom that followed as the two halves of the ship finally hit the ground with an almighty crash. Away from the wreckage of the airship, stray fragments of the earth were flung away from the point of impact as a small plume of dust clouded the moderately-sized crater, shrouding Jura's body from their sight.
"Jura!" two cried out.
Lyon's calm and aloof mannerisms were effectively shattered at that moment, but he gained his usual brevity not soon after. Like Erza, he was forced to peter out of their downward spiral lest they meet a similar fate to their team leader.
The redhead's landing was considerably better than Carla's since she had the small luxury of finding a small clearing in the forest. Locking her legs shoulder-length apart, she bore the brunt of stopping the momentum from her flight with her knees, leaving a noticeable groove on the earth before she came to a complete stop.
"C-Could you let me down?" Eve pleaded softly.
She did so, letting the younger host find his bearing after the unyielding and erratic escape. Eve wobbled unevenly a few steps away from her before his knees buckled, struggling not to fall flat on the ground with his remaining good arm. Eve finally allowed himself to relax before he heaved—quite violently too.
"Are you all right?"
"I will be," Eve said, wincing as he slowly got to his feet. He held his injured arm in the other, his pained grimace giving way to a sombre determination. "I think we should hurry and check on the others first."
Erza nodded tersely. In an instant, a yellow glow came over her form before promptly vanishing, as her black wing armour was replaced by the usual Heart Kreuz armour and navy skirt.
"Come on."
0.0
"For what it's worth," Hibiki said slowly as he picked himself off the ground, embracing his saviour in his arm like one would carry a doll. "Thank you for saving my life."
Carla remained indifferent to his gratitude. "Don't look too much into it," she replied breathlessly, taking another deep breath to calm her nerves. "I still don't think much of you." She looked away. "The whole lot of you hosts, in fact."
"Now, that's a bit unfair, don't you think? You hardly even know us."
Just as she was about to respond, a loud cry stopped her.
"Carla!" The tomcat burst through the thick canopy of the forest with Ren in tow, the heavily-tanned man unfortunately being subjected to a gauntlet of thick and pointy branches in the process. As he neared their position, Happy suddenly stalled in mid-flight.
"O-Oh.."
"What's wrong?" Hibiki asked.
Happy looked up, his prior sober attitude misplaced by his usual air-headedness. "My magic's run out." Gravity finally won out in the end as the duo clattered to the earth with a loud oomph. Thankfully, they were only two metres off the ground.
"Honestly," Carla said as Hibiki set her back down on her feet, the handsome host having gone on to check on his injured teammate. "How could you not know beforehand that you're running out of magic?"
She meant it as an insult, but Happy just seemed glad that she was starting to address his presence. She resisted rolling her eyes at the thought. The tomcat showed amazing resilience as he righted himself almost instantly.
"That's because I—"
A deafening rumble, louder than the earlier detonation, rocked the forest for the successive time. Their heads turned due east to the sound, roughly a kilometre away, where the sight of the flaming wreckage that had been The Christina greeted them. The resulting crash released a small shockwave that swept past them, causing the small group to shield themselves with their arms as stray debris were tossed in their direction.
"Master Bob isn't going to be too happy about this," Hibiki said as it finally subsided. He slung an arm around Ren's frame, letting the man lean against him as they stood up. "At least his summer mansion is still intact. I hope..."
"Hold on, there's something over there too." Carla pointed just a bit to the north, away from the wreckage. Her eyes were able to pick out the plume of dust that drifted up towards the sky and the small figures aboard an ice eagle landing not far from the area.
"That must be Lyon and Sherry." Hibiki squinted, using his free hand to cover the top of his brows. "But I don't see Jura anywhere."
"You don't think that," Carla said, though not a stranger to speaking what was on her mind, she hesitated, "H-He's dead?" When it looked like neither Hibiki nor Ren was about to answer her loaded question, she turned to Happy. "Well?" she snapped, her anger finding a suitable outlet on the naïve tomcat.
Happy flinched back, ears downcast. "I-I don't know?"
Carla turned away from him, gripping her paws tight. "Regardless," she said, pointing to the north once again. "Wendy and Natsu should be there. We should check on them first and then regroup with the others."
Hibiki nodded before touching two fingers to his temples. "I'm on it."
"Wait, could you get through to Naruto as well?"
"Yeah, I think so." Hibiki suddenly looked sceptical. "What exactly happened to him?"
"H-How should I know? That good-for-nothing bum! It's one thing to run off in a middle of a mission this important, but to think that idiot would go about it by sneaking behind our backs is a whole other thing! He better have a damn good reason when he comes back or so help me..."
Still, Carla couldn't help the small shred of hope that their questionable team leader would come to their rescue.
0.0
"What a tough bastard," Cobra said.
The bastard in question was clad in a rudimentary armour. Rocks covered his person from head to toe, making him look like a golem. Bits and pieces of the rock armour started to fall off him—much like a second skin—as the bald man tried to weakly crawl out of the crater he had shaped from his death-defying plunge.
"Who would have thought that you'd be able to pull a stunt like this?" the artificial Dragon Slayer commented idly to his female companion.
A noticeable sheen of sweat glistened off her forehead before she quickly dabbed it with the back of her gloved hand. "And what does that mean?" Angel hissed. Her exhaustion was obvious; the strain of forcing her Celestial Spirit's ability beyond its intended time limit was taxing on both her reserves and her body.
Instead of turning towards her, Cobra chose to focus his interest on Jura's plight to crawl away from them with a hint of sadistic glee. "Well, you are the weakest out of the six of us. And yet, you were able to take out a Wizard Saint. Go figure..."
"And when did you all decide that I was the weakest?"
"Just something Racer and I agreed to," he said with a non-committal shrug. "He's second by the way. Not too far from you."
The Celestial Spirit mage eyed him critically. "And I suppose he agreed to that as well?" She waited for his response, but Cobra was oblivious to it. She then sighed. "You should probably kill him quickly while he's still weak. We wouldn't want a Saint remaining on their side."
By now, Jura had stopped moving, finally giving in to his grave injuries.
"Where's the fun in that?" Cobra asked, smiling brightly as he jumped into the crater. "It's kinda like he's an ant or something, and you have the power to decide how he dies. You could be boring and decide to end it quickly by foot—" He stomped down hard on the half-shelled rock that had initially been part of Jura's helmet, cracking the magically-hardened stone slightly. Seeing that it had more or less no effect, he frowned. "—or uh, not..."
Angel rolled her eyes in mock disbelief. "And you say I'm the weakest?"
"Shut up!" Cobra snarled. "Cuberos," he called out to his animal companion who slithered to his side, and gestured with a raised fist. "Strangle him! But you know, do it slowly! Make him suffer!"
"He probably won't seeing that he's unconscious."
Cuberos looked confused as its head snaked from one party to the other as if asking what it should do now, but the sudden appearance of Hoteye and Racer put a momentary stop to their squabble.
"I bring you good tidings and profit, my friends!" the taller mage shouted. Two prone bodies—a boy roughly their age and a young girl—were slung over his broad shoulders. The added weight didn't seem to deter his movement as he raised both arms at his odd declaration.
"Shut up, Hoteye! Racer, tell us who's the weakest out of the six of us?"
Racer nodded at Angel with his pointed chin. "She is. Then it's probably you, Hoteye, me, Midnight and Brain, I guess."
"I never agreed to that! You're a hell of a lot weaker than me!"
"Hoteye," Angel raised her voice to drown out Cobra's incessant tirade; the Wizard Saint suddenly all but forgotten now. "Is that who I think they are?" she hinted at the man's unconscious captives.
Instead of Hoteye's boisterous voice, Brain's dull monotone answered her as he made his presence known, flanked by a sleeping Midnight. "They are mages from the Light Alliance, but more importantly, Dragon Slayers." That had immediately grabbed Cobra's attention. "But one would serve a more important purpose than the other." Brain regarded Cobra with a small smirk. "You may kill the boy if you like."
"Cheh! An old-school Dragon Slayer? Probably wouldn't put up much of a fight anyway." Cobra ambled towards the pink-haired man that Hoteye had just dumped on the ground, nudging his head with his feet. "What about the other one? You want to keep her around like a pet or something?"
"No," Brain said. "She has a purpose that will be instrumental to help us obtain Nirvana. After that, you may dispose as her how you wish."
"It was fortunate that we just happened to stumble onto them in the forest, right?" Hoteye's eyes creased into slits as he beamed. "Just think of the profit a specimen as rare as her would be able to fetch in the black market. Although, I suppose it would be considerably less if she should unfortunately die."
Unknown to the rest but Cobra, the rhythmic thumps of someone's heartbeat were steadily growing faster. He looked down at his unmoving captive with a smile, staunchly pressing a foot atop his head.
Well, someone's mad.
"Oh, and what's so special about her?" Angel asked dully.
Hoteye bristled at her tone, looking scandalised. "This is a Dragon Slayer with the means to cure any illness under the sun! How could one not see how much we would gain from selling her?"
"And how was I supposed to know that?!"
"We should just kill her," Cobra said loudly. "I bet that'd make you mad, huh?"
His captive beneath him let loose a primal snarl as he glared up at Cobra from under his foot. Cobra lifted his foot to stomp down on his head again, but he had sluggishly rolled out of the way. It looked like whatever attack that had handicapped him earlier was still affecting him as he wobbled unevenly to his feet. His arms hung loosely at his side as his breaths got increasingly ragged.
Cobra laughed. "This won't even take a minute." Cuberos had slithered to his side, while the others just stood aside to watch the spectacle with detached interest. "Come on." He gestured rudely with his hand. "I'll show you what it's like to fight a real Dragon Slayer."
His spiky pink hair was messier than usual, causing his features to be partially shadowed by his fringe, but the sharp glare underneath pulled through. The man stood up straighter as he clenched his fists tight.
"I'll make you... eat your words!"
Side Note: This chapter was a bitch to write, but I hope you enjoyed it.
Your feedback for this massive action sequence of a chapter would be nice. Please give me your honest opinion, guys. I still have so much to learn before I can improve as an author.
Creative control: Some readers have asked me to put this story up for adoption or give it to 'the other writer'. I can't even begin to tell you how much I detest reading that. I can understand your frustrations, but this story starts and will eventually die with me.
No one else.
Next Chapter: Those Who Fight…