Well, okay so the P.O.V. is kinda weird in this, a little inconsistent. So it kinda acts as if you're floating around observing, but really… well at the beginning you kinda are. But You'll know as soon as it goes into a main P.O.V. so work with me here.
Chapter 25
Pant, pant, pant.
That's all that anyone could hear.
"Master.." Natsu breathed, a puff of smoke following it out, ".. I'm here to take this guy down." A small sigh of relief came from the small olden man behind Natsu, not because the seemly overpowering guild master would be taken down by someone he believed perfectly capable, but because.. it had been a long time since Natsu, his child, had referred to him as 'Master', it threatened to bring tears to his eyes.
Instead of letting loose the tears that wished to spill from his eyes, he gave a curt nod.
"Aha ha ha ha ha!" a laugh boomed through the room, breaking the meaningful moment between Natsu and Makarov, and taking every present being's attention to it's owner. "Natsu~ It's been so long~ I was beginning to believe these barbarians had taken your life." he chuckled once more, smiling at the obviously highly enraged teen in front of him. "I'm glad you've come home. Now stop this foolishness about 'taking this guy down', and rejoin me as I rid the world of this godforsaken guild, Fairy Tail!" "As if I'd join up with you!" Natsu growled, the Master's smile disappeared when Natsu didn't move. "I'm a man of my word, and if you do not stop spewing such blasphemy soon I'll be forced to end your journey here and now."
"I am a man of my word too!" he growled, leaning back and letting loose a furious roar before whisking to the man that had caused all this grief. As if the roar was a gunshot to start the race, everyone on each side, mages, good and evil, sandmen, and a dragon alike, all slammed together, taking on who just happened to be in their main perimeter.
The sand men weren't like any kind of sand the mages have every seen in their lives, upon closer inspection they could see black, and shiny specks laced through it's entire body. Some how when touched, instead of the sandy, non-fortified figure they expected, it was as hard as steele, and just try to imagine that feeling when getting hit. Ow.
But even still, sand men, and a few mages fell as the fighting intensified. Lucy had 6 of her keys out, 5 of which provided support to all other Fairy Tail beings. She looked a little worse for wear but she continued to push on, Leo by her side, protecting her.
Gajeel and Gray fought side by side, each pulling moves that would take down 5 sand men at a time, Gray pulled ice spell after ice spell despite his malnourishment, and injuries. Just as he used ice hammer to smash two sand made men, he was tackled from behind, pushing him and his bruised ribs into the ground, pressing as hard as it could. He cried out, but the pressure was quickly knocked aside with the help of Gajeel. Getting up Gray went back to what he had been been doing before, as if nothing had happened.
Moving along, Erza was slicing through sand bady after sand bady, making her own path to her guide members, making sure to be at least 10 feet from any one of them, just in case she was needed. It wasn't long before the sandmen started dodging, getting used to her slashes, and actually getting hits in. One sand man in particular got a nasty left hook in, landing perfectly across her jaw, and knocking her down in a daze.
The sand man loomed over her dazed body, his hand changing a swirl of sand into a spear end, he pulled it back and sent his fist/spear straight in her stomach direction, ready to deal the last blow, ending the encounter, but right as he got meer inches from her abdomen an arrow flew by, pushing the sand man's spear fist backwards, giving Erza just enough time to get up and slam her sword through it's neck, jerking to the side, and decapitating it.
Looking to her right she saw Sagittarius, he had already moved on, shooting any sand man that was getting too close to the Fairy Tail mages, giving most just enough stall time for them to take it out themselves. Otherwise he just took them out himself. Everything was running smoothly until…
"Ahhh!"
"Gahhhh!"
"Ackh!"
The small victories that we're being focused on before were drowned out by those that were actually being hurt. Looking around, Erza saw another guild member, Jet, fall, shouting out in pain as the sandman landed a blow to his stomach, the spear's tip protruding from his left back side. She bolted to him, killing the sandman and leaning down by him, she didn't say anything, only glanced him over, the wound in his stomach, based on the entry and exit point, was angled and had missed a couple of main organs, but the exit point was directed where his left kidney should be. He was in no condition to continue fighting, and looking up she could see that he wasn't the only one.
Mirajane was limping, and a gash could be seen on her forehead. Levy was clutching her arm, and beside her Macao sported blood across his white cloak, but he didn't seemed hurt himself. He continued pushing back the sandmen that advanced, looking around for more.
Erza looked away, still holding Jet up as he began to lose consciousness from blood loss, and found exactly who she was looking for, "Warren!" she shouted. The man in question was pushing back the enemies he could using what looked like a broomstick with no broom to it. He glanced in her direction, and Erza knew she'd need to help so that she could use his ability to her advantage, looking back down to Jet, she laid him down, "I'll be back!" She ran to Warren's side, dealing with the enemy flanking him. When they were finally given a little breathing room, she turned him to her, "Warren, we need to get in touch with everyone at once!" he nodded, understanding and closing his eyes in concentration, 'Everyone! We need to get the injured away from the fights before we have casualties!' she shouted through her mind to everyone.
'But Erza, some of us can't get from the battle without putting ourselves in danger of getting injured as well, and that'll leave us worse than before!' the voice of Carle replied, she was pulling Wendy from an enemy when she could, trying her best to keep Wendy from getting hurt, and she knew that Wendy and everyone else needed concentration just to save themselves, as rude and narcissistic that sounded, it was just how it was!
'I understand it'll require risk, but we have to protect the injured and that can be accomplished easily if the injured are in one spot! Erza looked around as she spoke, grabbing injured others when she could, she had gotten at least 6 guild members when Lucy intruded.
'I can try and summon another celestial being to help with injury evac!' She offered, her voice, even from inside her head, was laboured, but even so, it held determination. Erza nodded as if she were right in front of her to see, 'Lucy, please. Be careful!'
From across the room Lucy nodded, pulling keys that she still had that didn't take as much magical energy to summon, her silver keys, "Door of Horologium, and Lyra!" she shouted, as the spirits came out they instantly sensed the dire situation and as if reading their key-holder's mind, they ran toward anyone in bad shape. pulling them aside and taking them to the back of the room with Jet.
Erza saw this and nodded in approval, turning back to the battle and rejoining.
(~LINE~)
While all of this was going on, Natsu was fighting for his life, blow for blow being a miracle if they landed against his previous fake guild master. Even then, the blows would blast sand-y holes through the larger man, and he'd chuckle. It was only when Natsu hit him for the fourth time did time and the sand catch up to him and his fire.
As the master chuckled, Natsu smiled, and continued to punch. One problem with having a body that sent no sense of pain, or warning to it's user of any issues, and that played well for Natsu. Even.. as he was kicked backwards, crashing into sand beings. The master,chuckling, went after his former liege, his fist drawn back. When he got to Natsu, he slammed his fist into the smaller man's face, crushing him into the ground.
Natsu let out a groan, but didn't have time to do much else as the master kicked him in the air, and knocked the air from his fiery lungs. Natsu's eyes were clenched shut but as he rose they opened, allowing himself to move before the master could slam him back down. Natsu landed on the ground, and used it to push off into the master, his body covered in fire as he headbutted the man in the stomach. As before the sand took the impact. But this time the sand lagged, taking a few extra seconds before releasing Natsu's head. The master, ignoring the blow for he couldn't feel it, grabbed Natsu's pink hair, pulling him up to punch him with the other as they both began to fall victim to gravity and started falling back to the ground.
The master had land 4 very strong, very painful punches to Natsu's face and when he released him it took Natsu by surprise, leaving him unprepared for the fall, forcing his legs to buckle and land on the stone ground. the shock probably bruised his knees, but he didn't care as he spit out the blood in his mouth, and wiped away what was gushing from his nose, it was probably broken, he mentally noted. He'd need to remind himself to repay the guy who did it to him. Pushing himself to his feet, he slammed another enflamed fist at the towering being in front of him, and this time instead of hearing the slush of the sand that made of the master's body, but he instead heard crunch. It's working!
"I have a feeling you'll be down soon!" Natsu chided, standing up straighter. The master laughed whole-heartedly, "I've been serving you your own ass for the past 10 minutes! I think I may have given you a concussion with that last punch to your head!" he scoffed. Natsu smiled, "You'll see!" he shouted before grunting and encasing himself, yet again in red and orange flames, but this time along with the blaze was strikes of lightning, "Lightning Dragon mode, on!" and with that, he shot at the master like a bullet, and on contact..
(~LINE~)
Everyone, turned towards the explosion in the front of the room, even the sandmen froze. But.. not for the same reasons as the mages before them. Everyone in Fairy Tail turned out of concern of another unknown, and seemingly impossible threat that could come from it, but the sandmen.. they had to stop.
(~LINE~)
The smoke was everywhere, Natsu couldn't see, but he could definitely smell the things around him. Behind him he could smell his family, his rightful guild, and to his left he could smell the stench of the evil guild master and.. something else that caused a smile to form on his lips.
(~LINE~)
The smoke covered everything in the direction of the explosion. The last injured person she could find was placed down before Erza turned to it, and began her way to it, when she could close enough she could see a silhouette of a spikey haired man. Natsu! But.. he fell backwards, and she jetted forward to catch him, she caught him with no time to spare before he hit his head on her arm instead of the ground like gravity had intended. Looking over him, she saw something. And at that moment, every sandman in the room, zoomed to the ceiling, crashing together and dispersing out of the windows.
(~LINE~)
As the smoke clear the structure that was in the place of the evil guild master looked like the after-effects of a.. well an explosion. It towered 10 feet in the air, breaking in different directions from the main center creating a wicked looking tree made from entirely glass. A few understood the outcome, and the rest just didn't care, they were just happy they were alive.. for the most part!
Yay~! I did it! Two.. months after my last update ^_^' Sorry. But hey, this is the second to last chapter! So basically all that's left is the love interest conclusion and the aftermath. I hope you will wait a little longer for the final chapter of this long as hell, and drug out fanfiction! Can you believe I started this almost 2 years ago? Haha, again sorry for eachg update being so drug out and spacious. And as for what happened to the guild master, I hope you understand that when fire/lightning meet with sand, glass is formed.
Either way, please review me~ Reviews are usually what push me to type the next chapter. Especially thought out ones, and not just 'update please!' thought that is accepted to. Now, I must go lie down and eat my fries, for I typed all of this in one 3 hour, nonstop session. X~X