Heyo!
NEW CHAPTER! I'M GENUINELY EXCITED FOR YOU GUYS TO READ IT!
Warning; Lots of feelz.
ALSO: Happy New Year in advance!
(Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail)
Enjoy! ;)
Chapter 21: A Dance With A Demon – Part 4 (End)
1 hour remaining
Floyd
When we arrived at the scene, the first thing I thought was: crap.
Lily lay against a pillar, unconscious. Tilly sat on her knees, leaning on one hand and trying to fend off the demon erupting from a portal in the floor. Layton came running from the library, barely able to even stand, and Ibisan wasn't far behind. From what I could see, he had a black eye and blood dripping down one side of his face. Martin dragged one leg behind him, his face drooling pain. Rose was nowhere to be seen, as she was probably too weak to move around.
Gajeel said he was would follow with Ary, and I was hoping they could somehow teleport here, because damn; we needed them badly.
"Ok" Kai said, and I turned to look at him while we ran up to the crap. His face looked pale as a sheet and his eyes glassy, as if his mind had troubles somewhere else. "Ok, ok."
"That all you gonna say?" I mumbled, as I fastened my pace a little. We needed to finish this quick, otherwise all our efforts would be for naught. Greg's efforts.
The demon seemed bigger than I remembered. It basically covered most of the space in the hall and was as tall as the pillars the school was leaning on. If one of those happened to break, the roof would come down on all of us.
Which didn't seem like a bad idea, actually. If it would stop the demon, I wouldn't mind sacrificing school.
I would practically sacrifice school for everything. Except Gajeel's classes, of course.
To be honest; I was bad shit crazy. I was so mad seeing that bastard again. Revenge is stupid, of course. I watched enough anime to realize that. But I just couldn't help it.
"Get the girls" I said to Kai, which would be a cool phrase if we were at a party. Now, it just meant 'save everyone'. Kai nodded, although he didn't really look like the hero we needed. More like one of the girls he was supposed to save.
As thus we split up, Kai heading over to Lily and I to Tilly. The demon stretched out a thin arm, almost like the branch of a really ugly tree. I didn't even take the time to properly gather my magic. I just mad the air shove his stupid arm back a little, so it wouldn't touch my classmate.
In those few seconds I was able to hold that, I shoved myself between Tilly and the claw.
"Floyd?" she gasped, not at all happy to see me. Here I am, saving the day, and this is how she responded. "What are you doing here?"
"Saving your ass" I mumbled over my shoulder, as I was too focused on the danger in front of me.
"Don't be stupid" she said, and this time she sounded concerned. Just like Kai did before.
Why does everyone immediately think I'm that 'VENGENCE'-kind-of-guy?
"Don't worry" I sighed, folding my hands. "I can't get any stupider."
I let go of the claw, and it immediately came crushing down at me. Dashing back, I grinned a little. C'mon, I could at least enjoy this fight a little. At that moment I absolutely wanted to taste the sweetness of beating the crap out of this bastard.
For my first attack, I took the time to gather magic. I felt the atmosphere shaking around the demon, who seemed to understand what was going on and somehow tried to keep all the magic to himself.
Ain't happenin', bro. You're going down.
"Flying ropes!" I shouted, as I aimed my hands at the monster. I had to make sure this sucker would be flying, so Kai could have a shot at closing the portal by cracking the floors.
The demon let out a surprised scream as it bumped his head into the ceiling, and struggled to get back on the ground. My grin widened.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Kai already running to do his part. The demon saw it too.
Before I could react, it stretched out another thin arm.
"Shit!" I cursed, turning around. But it was too late.
The end of the arm formed a fist and slammed itself in Kai's stomach. His eyes widened in surprise. The air loudly left his lungs as he flew backwards by the shock.
"No!" I shouted, as if that would somehow do something. Kai got slammed into a pillar, and his eyes rolled back in his head as his body slid down.
"Damnit!" I whispered, feeling more anger in my stomach. I tightened my grip around this stupid, ugly, filthy, evil, dark demon and I enjoyed the satisfaction as it screamed in pain.
"Floyd!" Layton had finally arrived, breathing heavily. The demon moved around, as if it noticed his presence.
"Oh hell no, not again" I told that sucker, as I used the invisible hand which I was holding the bastard in against the wall. It screamed out again, and this time the walls and pillars seemed to tremble. This thing was really, really pissed now. But not as pissed as me.
I was actually so pissed that for a moment, I didn't know what to do. I had this demon in my hand, but what now? It was already clear that one bottle wouldn't be enough to trap this bitch. And Jake was really taking his time getting here.
I had to think of my next attack. It had to be something that would stun him till the others would arrive. And clearly I was the only capable of still doing that.
Layton looked like shit, Ibisan was half dead already, Martin probably had a broken leg, Tilly was about to faint, Lily was unconscious and Kai might've died right there. At that moment I wasn't sure of anything.
"Dang…" I mumbled, as I felt my arms were getting sore. I couldn't hold on for much longer. Where the heck was Gajeel?!
How did this shit get so complicated?
All my brother and I ever wanted was to make enough money to buy food. To stay alive and out of the hands of the police. We'd been in the system for too long and it was all too clear that no one wanted two weirdos as kids. Not even our own parents did.
Our favourite food was waffles, but only those of the little baker in the mall where we always hung around. They were quite expensive, and it always took us two or three days to gather the money. And it was worth it.
Back then, the only goal in our lives was to gather money to buy waffles. In those days, people on the streets loved two boys who could do magic tricks. No one knew the secret behind our floating pencils. We even asked the passer byers to gives us any item from their purse, which we would send flying around their heads. We were applauded, but left with only a few cents. Greedy bastards.
We once had a rough week. It took us eight days to get the money. And when we finally headed over to the bakery, with our stomach whispering in our ears, it was closed. For good.
Instead, this high class designer store would be built. No waffles, only on t-shirts.
We spend the money on some bread instead, which might've been a better idea from the start. But it just didn't deliver the same satisfaction as waffles.
With the disappearance of the waffles in our lives, there wasn't much left. We continued doing magic tricks, but with less motivation. Slowly but surely, the light died out.
But one day, this guy in a fancy coat appeared. We first thought he was a pimp or something, but he turned out to be something else. Looking back, I think I might've seen that guy in one of the crowds that same day. He said he loved our act and had a place to offer in a circus. We agreed, on one condition; waffles for life.
And so we joined the a parade of freaks, our weirdness exploited to a greater audience. We were the stars.
For about two years, that was. We returned, no, got thrown, back on the streets. We were angry at the pimp, at the circus, at the baker, at the people, at the world. Greg said he wished he could slap all of it in the face, crush it. I agreed.
But we knew we couldn't. We didn't have the power, and something more important.
It was Kubo who told us. He found us scavenging in a trash can, told us how admired he was by our abilities, and respected our kindness.
"Kindness?" I had frowned. When I eyed my brother, he had shrugged, as if he didn't know either.
Kubo had grinned, and I remember a gold teeth glimmering in the dark. "Yes. Allow me to explain. You two possess a remarkable power. A rare power even an intellect such as myself has barely ever seen the likes of. You have already trained this a lot at such a young age, but I like to believe that with proper teaching, you two could really change the world."
"The…world?" Greg had whispered. Kubo nodded.
"Yes. I understand this might be hard to believe. People have looked down upon you for your entire lives. They've cursed you, neglected you, pushed you around like filth. But they're blind. They've never seen the potential. You have the power to do great harm to these horrible people, and deep down the both of you are aware of that. Yet you choose not to." He leaned forward, his golden tooth glimmering. "That is what I call 'kindness'."
Next, he told us about this magical place he lived in, where there were all kinds of kids like us. We, as twelve year old boys without a future, barely any muscle and only each other to hold at night, didn't hesitate to follow him to this new world. We didn't even ask about waffles.
Although most of my classmates don't particularly liked Merlin's School of Magic, Greg and I both cried when we got to sleep in a bed again. Sure, we didn't ever do any homework and mostly fooled around during class, but at least we had a place to sleep. Sure, there was no future in it for us, but we had friends. And of course, we would probably end up back on the streets after we graduated here, and that's why we would enjoy our time here for as long as possible.
But then Gajeel got in the way. He lifted the curtain and showed us a whole lot of other possibilities. There was a continent full of people like us. Greg and I immediately decided we would head over there. No matter what. Even if they don't have waffles.
Greg and I would go together, like we always did. But as long as this demon was around, we couldn't go.
Then it hit me. I knew what I had to do.
Greg and I had spent days and nights doing homework. Gajeel's assignments, I mean. We had developed the most amazing spell ever created. In our opinion, that was. Only the two of us could perform this spell. The two of us.
And here I was, all alone, my friends injured and my teacher missing.
There was no time to think about it. I had to do this technique. It might be the only way to keep this monster from hurting anyone ever again.
I folded my hands into fists and slammed them together. The amount of magic it took made my arms feel sore. I don't think I've ever bit my tongue so hard.
The point of this spell was to suck away all the air around the enemy. Together with Greg, I would spin a net of magic which would extract all air and magic from the places it touched. Since the making of the net takes a lot of effort, we always did this one together.
And this was just a grim reminder why.
"C'mon, c'mon!" I whispered, as I stretched my arms further and further. The demon had no realized it was free again, and spun around like a tornado on steroids. With my arms spreading the net got wider and wider. I felt all the blood leaving my limbs. But it was working. I was doing it. It would work. It just had to.
"It kinda looks like a waffle" I heard Greg say. Through the tears streaming down my face, I grinned. Yes, it did look like a delicious waffle.