The loud shockwave echoed throughout the forest area, bringing everyone to a halt. "What was that?!" Aira asked as she continued dragging Selene against her will.

"I don't know, but would you LET GO OF ME ALREADY!?" Selene finally pulled her hand out of Aira's grip, rubbing her wrist. "Geez…"

"Oh, come on, we'll make a great team!" Aira said joyfully, nodding.

"Yeah, yeah; just be careful, we don't know what these mages can do…but from the sounds of it, it seems like someone was just taken down…" Selene said quietly.

"Do you think someone else is in the forest as well?" Aira asked.

"Maybe…let's just keep going…" Selene started to lead the way as Aira followed just slightly behind her.

.

.

Melody simply walked away from Laki's unconscious and bruised body, pulling out a spherical lacrima from her pocket, using it to contact a male with red spikey hair, and red eyes. "One Fairy idiot is down~" she said in a singsong voice humming to herself.

"Excellent," the male said, grinning. "Everyone is stationed where they should be, yes?" The male asked, now eying Melody seriously.

"Yes sir!" Melody replied with a large grin. "Veronica's over in the west, uh…I dunno which way Brent and his pet went…or Elisa….ahehe…

The male face palmed, groaning, "You can't be serious! I thought you said they were in position!"

"THEY ARE! I swear, Mack!" Melody flailed her arms around.

"Hrm…fine…take out anyone else who dares to intrude…" Mack cut the connection after.

"Hmph," Melody mocked Mack's last words as she walked down deeper into the forest.

.

.

"What was that shaking…?" Natsu asked as he looked around.

"Probably from Lucy's jogging…" Happy commented.

"WOULD YOU CUT THAT OUT!?" Lucy shouted, obviously annoyed, and angered by the cat.

"But Lucy!" Happy snickered, placing his paws over his mouth to prevent laughter.

"Hm…Where is someone! I wanna fight!" Natsu kicked a rocked, starting to get bored. "I don't want the others to get all the fun!"

"Don't worry, Natsu!" Lucy nodded, giving a reassuring smile, "I'm sure we'll find someone and beat them easily!"

"Yeah!" Natsu raised a fist in agreement, and then sniffed out something familiar in the air. "What the…"

"What's wrong, Natsu?" Happy asked, looking up at the Dragon Slayer with a confused expression.

"I smell something…familiar…" Natsu followed the scent, casing Lucy and Happy to follow behind him, both wondering what Natsu smelled and where it was.

.

.

Zalen groaned softly, listening to Taya and Reve argue over directions. "I told you we should go this way!" Reve shouted, pointing north. "There's bound to be someone there, and you're just too stupid to realize it!"

"Oh, I'm the stupid one now?" Taya replied, pointing south, the opposite direction Reve was pointing. "And how would you know someone isn't in that direction?" Taya asked, scowling at the guns mage.

"Psh, have I ever been wrong?" Reve asked with a smirk.

"Well…" Zalen opened his mouth to start talking.

"No one asked you, Zalen," Reve said quickly to shut Zalen up.

.

.

Carla, Cynthia, and Wendy slowly made their way through a thin area of the forest, not having to worry about many tree branches due to the thinness of the area. Carla examined the area carefully; for some reason, it seemed as though she saw this area before. In a dream? A vision? She couldn't pinpoint what, but she kept flying beside Wendy anyway, occasionally glancing at Cynthia, whom she didn't completely trust yet. "Do you sense anything?" Carla asked to Wendy.

"No, nothing yet…it's quiet…" Wendy replied, keeping her senses focused on the surroundings.

"Dark mages sure aren't people to mess with, huh…?" Cynthia said aloud, mostly talking to herself.

"No way; they're really dangerous…" Wendy replied, shaking her head.

.

.

Luke found himself on some surprisingly high ground for a forest. He looked around, knowing that he was lost. "I hate this…" He groaned, walking on high ground. He was never good with directions, so being lost in the forest aggravated him to no end; all he could do was walk around and hope he came across a dark mage, or that a dark mage came across him. All was going well until he tripped over a tree root, and started rolling down the hill. "WHY MEEEEE?!"

.

.

Gajeel and Patherlily made their way through the deep part of the forest, eventually coming across a small clearing. The shockwave from earlier didn't really phase him at all, he figured one of the Fairy Tail members managed to take out a dark mage. "Tch, looks like I gotta step up my game," Gajeel said aloud, mostly talking to himself as he and Patherlily stood in the middle of the clearing.

"It appears you will be able to do so soon, Gajeel," Lily said, taking a grip on his sword.

"Giehe…" Without a word, Gajeel set his sights on a tree. He then pointed his arm forward, causing it to morph into an iron pole and crash into the tree, easily breaking it. He noticed a figure hopping immediately to the next tree over, so he simply moved his extended arm over, crashing into the tree, causing that one to fall over. "Timber!" A female rolled in front of Gajeel. She appeared to be middle aged, brown curly hair that reached her lower back, red eyes, sleeveless yellow shirt, brown pants, and sandals. "There you are…" Gajeel said, retracting his arm, a smirk appearing on his face. "Giehehe…"

"Elisa, Earth Mage," The female said, dusting herself off. "Prepare to die, Fairy Tail scum."