Hey, y'all! It's Monday and I'm back with another chapter of DKQ. Now, what the hell happened last chapter? Hold on one second and I'll refresh our memories.
Previously on DKQ:
Gajeel scowls, following after him, and I look back when Mira lays a hand on my shoulder.
"Go save Lucy and Clare, we'll clean up the mess out here."
I nod and we wait long enough for lightning and metal to start flying before running toward the entrance to the portal cavern.
Good enough of a refresher? Good, go read the chapter and I'll see y'all at the end with some important information.
Chapter 28
Stop Them!
Natsu P.O.V.
Explosions sound off behind us and I push Gray and Wendy into the shadows as more people come running down the tunnel.
I lift my head out of the shadow, turning first to the way we came then to the darkness leading to the portal cavern. When I'm sure the coast is clear I step out allowing the others to follow as we break into a run.
Wendy shoots ahead of me and I have to grab her by her shirt when she trips on her feet to keep her from falling into the cavern and alerting them. I growl softly, pulling her back to her feet, then behind me.
We reach the end of the tunnel and I take the chance to observe the chaos.
In the corners of the cavern I count at least twenty stands holding five glowing lacrima the size of my head. The brackets remind me of a small tree with two arms holding each lacrima, one above the other. On the other side of the room a group of five of the hunters surround something.
I take a closer look and my nails dig into the wall when I realize the something is actually two someones. Namely Lucy and Clare.
A man in a black trench coat walks up to them. He grabs Luce by her chin, then drops her when Clare spits at him. He looks at the Exceed and while his back is turned I turn to Gray and Wendy.
"You two go free the girls, I'm gonna create another distraction."
They frown but I'm already stepping out of the tunnel and into the light cast from several lacrima. The hunters remaining in the cavern don't notice me right away so I take the chance to come up with an insult to grab the guy's attention.
When one comes to mind I school my look.
"Oi, Slappy Mc Jackass, get the hell away from my mate and the Exceed!"
As the guy turns away from Clare I catch a glimpse of the stripper and Wendy sneaking behind some crates.
"Well, well, Mr. Dragneel, so kind of you to grace us with your presence."
The oily tone the guy uses draws my attention back to him and I growl sharp and low, my flames beginning to crawl up from my fingers.
"Look, give me my mate, let the Exceed go, and I won't turn you to ashes."
The guy actually has the nerve to laugh and shakes his head in amusement. "You see, Mr. Dragneel, I can't do that. You and your mate as you so barbarically put it are the pieces in a game that has been in play for nigh on twenty years now, and I'm not about to throw it all away."
I itch to just start clawing his eyes out but stall myself when I see Gray and Wendy take down the guards behind Lucy. I just need to stall long enough for them to get out of harm's way then I can let loose.
"And what kind of game, you sniveling boot licker, have you been playing that involves us or the dragons?" I surprise myself with how smooth my question comes out and I watch as his lips curl into a sneer.
"In all honesty this was never supposed to include you or the blonde bimbo you chose, I just wanted everything Layla Heartfilia had to her name and the key to Igneel's hoard." He turns away and I bite my tongue hard enough to taste blood to keep from burning him to ash. "But then that foolish son of mine had to jump through the portal and kill that nest."
I freeze at his off hand comment and the heat under my skin intensifies, any idea of staying cool headed long gone. "Your son killed off the chaos dragons?" At the edge of my hearing I make out the telltale sign of crashing from above but I'm too focused on the guy to care.
He turns back to me with an eyebrow arched. "Why would you care about those emotion meddling lizards, I mean after all one did try to kill you and your precious guildmates?"
"The guild is my family but so are the dragons, Acnologia and any that choose the chaos element as well."
When he laughs this time I look over to see Wendy and Gray helping Lucy to her feet and I take the chance to unleash a surprise attack on him. He wants to talk about chaos then I can do chaos. Moving with ease, I jump until I'm standing in front of him. Bringing my left hand up, I keep it palm down and level with my mouth. My right hand I lower until it's level with my stomach and palm up.
"Chaos Dragon's Darkening Veil!"
Before the spiraling mist even has a chance to touch him it turns bright red and explodes in my face sending me flying back. I hit the wall and I have to lay there a second to gather my senses. When I get up my ears are ringing and my eyesight is blurred.
Lucy P.O.V.
My eyes go wide when I see Natsu's attack get thrown back at him and I act quickly, pushing Gray away and turning Wendy. "Wendy, give Natsu the defense spells!"
She nods and I walk toward the boss. "Open, Gate of the Lion: Leo! Open, Gate of the Sea Goat: Capricorn! Star Dress: Virgo!"
Capricorn and Loke appear at my sides even as Virgo's maid outfit and chains change out the torn up dress I had been wearing. The familiar feel of fleuve d'étoiles settles in my left hand but I look down in surprise when a second similar weight settles in my right.
"Lady Lucy, it would appear that Virgo wants you to punish your captors." Looking up at Capricorn as he says this I grin and look back at the lead hunter.
"For once I like her idea of punishment, lets go."
They jump forward and I flick my wrists, enjoying the crack that comes from the twin whips, before following them. When I get close enough I swing with my right hand and manage to grab the hunter by his ankle. Loke takes the chance to aim a knee for his chin only for the hunter to grin and Loke to go flying back from a smaller explosion.
I look up when a rock hits me and only then do I realize the ceiling has large cracks spreading through it. First thing I do is look to my spirits.
"Capricorn, Loke, go back to the spirit realm, now."
When they go back I swing the twin whips, splitting the rock that would've hit Wendy and look around for Natsu.
Natsu P.O.V.
"Natsu!"
I look up when I realize I heard my name and climb to my feet, the defensive boosts helping me to straighten out. I move out of the way of the falling rocks and jump across the room to land next to Lucy where she wields two whips and is cutting through the bigger rocks.
From above I can make out yelling and from the cracks in the ceiling I recognize the scent of whiskey and destruction. I grin, grabbing Luce by her waist and pulling her back just as the ceiling shatters into many small cubes.
Definitely Gildarts' work.
She starts fighting, trying to get out of my arms and I tighten my hold. "Relax, Luce, it's Gildarts with back up."
She stops fighting me and we look up when the smoke clears. For picking himself up out of the rubble is the s-class mage.
He grins when he sees us and walks over. "Natsu, I'm glad to see you got Lucy back, now are you ready to clean this up?"
I grin. "Hell yeah, let's get to it."
Even as the words leave my mouth the tunnel rumbles with many more hunters pouring through the opening. I turn my head, angling my ear to the tunnel and when I hear the sounds of fighting, realize that the others are still going at it.
Lucy pulls away from me, her expression thoughtful. Then when she does look at me I see the glitter of ice in her eyes even as the temperature starts to drop.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?"
Not really, but I nod anyway and watch as she steps further away, one hand folded in the other.
Copying her actions, I take a deep breath and we swing our hands around, slamming one to the ground.
"Ice Dragon's Frozen Catacomb!"
The ice spreads out from our hands, sprinting across the floor and turning it into a room of grotesque sculptures. It races up the walls, through the opening and on into the night, the magic required to stretch increasing with every foot. When it covers the walls of the hole up to the surface we drop the spell.
While it slows the hunters down, causing them to slip and slide across the floor, it does nothing to take them out and when ten of them dig their feet in, aiming at us we jump.
Every time we take down one, two more fill the position and just as we start getting swamped the impossible happens.
"Card Magic, Lightning Fire!"
Lightning and fire appears around us and when we turn around we're greeted with the sight of Cana holding another set of cards ready to fire and the Exceeds each holding a deck of cards.
Cana turns to the Exceeds and from where I stand, dangling a hunter in the air by his shirt, I can see her drunken grin.
"Alright guys, drop the cards and step out of the way."
Normal P.O.V.
Natsu punches the guy's lights out and turns his head to watch as the cats spread the cards then fly closer to Cana. When they're close enough Cana connects her hands at the wrists, turning them in a counterclockwise motion and claps them together. The magic circle created from the motion spreads throughout the room causing the cards to glow and people to form.
The people stand straight and when the glow disappears Makarov walks up to where Natsu and Lucy stand in the middle of a pile of hunters, unharmed saved for a few bruises and scratches.
Natsu grins and walking past the twitching limb of an unconscious hunter, stops in front the guild master.
"Gramps, what took you so long?"
The sound of fighting rolling down the hall distracts the guild master before they can reply and everyone turns to watch as the group causing the distraction pours out of the tunnel, Gajeel and Laxus turning back to deliver another attack before they stop in front of Makarov.
Laxus takes a deep breath, stands straight and turns to his grandfather. "Gramps, it took you long enough to get down here, they just keep coming—" His statement comes to a stop as he takes in the sight of the ice encompassed cavern then turns to Natsu.
"Next time why don't you come help us instead of sitting here and shooting the bull."
Natsu growls, fire surrounding him as his restraint reaches it's end and no one notices the moving rubble on the other side of the cavern until evil chuckling echoes through the room.
When they turn to the source of the sound Natsu has to grab Lucy to keep her from jumping at the lead hunter where he holds Clare at sword point. Lucy growls so suddenly that everyone around her look at the celestial mage in surprise.
"Listen here, dickhead, give me back the Exceed and I won't turn you to ash."
He throws his head back as he laughs, missing the look of courage Clare takes on. The next thing he know he has a face full of feathers and Clare is jumping out of his grasp only to trip on a pile of debris and fall to the ground.
She looks, her eyes going wide with fear when he snarls. The sword that was pointed at her swings through the air and she can only close her eyes waiting for the inevitable sound of sword meeting flesh.
However when she opens her eyes she finds herself looking at a black furred back as Panther Lily fends off the sword with his own then pushes on his sword, his lips curled in a snarl.
The hunter backs away, aiming his sword in a downswing and Lily meets him, sparks flying as the swords make contact. Slowly, ever so slowly Lily maneuvers the hunter around until they're away from Clare and when the hunter swings again Lily steps out of the way allowing the sword to bounce off of golden scales.
Around them battles rage on, the many hunters finally having filtered into the cavern, with mages from all the guilds meeting them head on.
He looks up in surprise, only to scowl when he makes eye contact with the blazing blonde. "Ms. Heartfilia, surely you realize you cannot win against me?"
Lucy snarls in turn and when he swings the sword she rips it from his hand. She takes a bite out of it, ripping the metal to shreds and when only the wooden hilt remains she tosses it over her shoulder, rolling her shoulders in preparation.
"One thing, hunter, you apparently haven't learned is that Fairy Tail will always win. Water Dragon's Wave Slicer!"
Dark blue water wraps around her outstretched hand and she strikes quickly, leaving four long scratches along the hunter's face.
He raises a hand to his face, the fingers coming away with blood and he scowls. "If you want to act like a barbarian then so be it."
The next time she comes around for an attack, the water in front of her flashes red, exploding, and sends her flying back. Her flight is halted, though, when a ball of water surrounds her and she turns over, looking over to where Juvia stands concentrating on the water lock while Gray and Lyon watch her back.
Lucy grins, her mind going back to a lesson of Aqua's and she reaches up, pulling her limiters off. Almost as soon as they leave her skin mages and hunters alike stumble from the power swamping the area.
The leader hunter watches her with horrified surprise and he can do nothing as she raises her hands above her head then slams them forward until they reach the surface of the water lock, the chant echoing.
"Water Serpent: Rising Geyser!"
CLIFFHANGERS! Gotta love them! But don't worry, the reason behind this is because I didn't finish this chapter until midnight last night, and it only got done then because I was able to talk to ShanaHollows and get some ideas out that were kind of gluing my train of thought in place. But it's done and there are some other things to discuss.
Now, as you know this story is almost over, there's only two weeks left before I mark DKQ as complete and move onto my next story. HOWEVER, all is not lost. There is a sequel in the works and like I told y'all last week, I'm willing to spoil you with the title and summary in the closing A/N of Chapter 30.
There is a catch to that.
I would like to see this story hit 175 reviews before Chapter 30. You read that right, if y'all can hit 175 reviews before Chapter 30 then in the closing A/N of the final chapter I will leave you with the title and summary of the sequel.
This goal is possible. I know y'all can reach it, and I'm hoping you do.
Onto other things, A certain someone *cough* sam *cough* has asked if I would give you the summary for the next story I plan to upload as just from the title he think's it sounds similar to 'Magnolia Crews'. 'Life Behind Bars' is an M- rated story but it's a completely different AU then Crews.
Crews is my mob/ mafia AU. LBB is as the title suggest, a prison AU. With that said I'm feeling generous and it spent me an hour to come up with so here you go:
Life Behind Bars
Two serial killers. He meets her. She meets him. The impossible happens and the two fall in love. One day she disappears and the next time they meet is in prison. Can the two jail birds keep the flame alive or is life behind bars too much?
Short and simple, I KNOW, give me a break. When I get the time, or if something better hits me then I'll put up something different. For right now, though, that's what you get.
Next up on the list: Um, OH! reviews.
multyfangirl19, Randomness makes up life. Plus some of the random stuff I read from reviews like yours truly makes me smile. Why would I take a month to update this? I haven't done that since November or December, seriously after the new year I've pushed myself to have these chapters out every week. Well except for that one week but that was because I was swamped with school work.
Strike, *ducks to avoid stampede* gotta give me a sec to boil this down. As for your review you saw how The lead hunter is able to defeat dragons, his magic turns their attacks back on them as an explosion. As for Clare and Lily... *swoons* I did an amazing job with their adorable factor. The scene with Lily protecting Clare is actually one of the ideas I went into this chapter with so I'm happy with how it turned out. Btw, be perverted again and I'm having Lucy kick you back to WWII. *stink eye* YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Sam, I'm awake! don't throw any M.R.E.'s at me! All jokes aside. There's not really much for me to talk about in this one but I do have to say that Natsu would definitely be my husbando, though if I was to go that way I would pick Cana as my waifu. What can I say? Crazy calls to Crazy. XD. For Kuma, she's pretty much me, character wise, the way I act, the way I look, though I don't have any tattoos yet. Also, I'm glad to know that you don't think Natsu turned out too much like his Crews role.
Hime, NO TOAST DRAGONS! I am not gonna be the one vacuuming crumbs up all the live long day. Btw when I read your review to Mom she cracked up laughing. Mary Poppins is her favorite movie and to hear someone want to name an animal, even if it is imaginary, that was just really funny. Believe me when I say the psychiatric ward DOES NOT have wifi. Also they don't let you have cords of any kind so you wouldn't be able to charge your device to read my stories.
FairyTail9908, I'm glad to hear you think that.
Nighthowler, Before the sequel can come out I would like some time to finish planning it and actually have some chapters written. As for this one ending, by the time I uploaded the third chapter of this I already had this planned to only go to 25 chapters, so I would say that we're lucky it's gotten this far.
Shad, I'm working on it, any chance I get I'm constantly writing for my stories.
Guest, cliffhangers are there just to piss my readers off and give me a break to back away and clear my mind before I dive back in to several different universes constantly playing on a loop in my mind. In majority of my stories I'm thinking like ten, twenty chapters ahead of where I'm actually at, and so those scenes will keep replaying until I manage to write them out.
Pixie Pixel, you won't even know what toast is until you read next chapter. Seriously, Carnage is what these chapters are all about, well that and me getting to play around with some new spells. Example: Chaos magic imagination strikes again. Hehe. Aye, when my friend and I are together it's like cirque de crazy has come to town, but honestly I wouldn't wish it any other way. We've known each other since middle school, and I see her more as a sister then I do a friend. I value friendship as one of my greatest virtues, but it's extremely hard for me to make true friends so I'm lucky beyond all hell to have found her. Anyway I'm rambling. *arches eyebrow* did it seriously not cross your mind that they asked her to help forget their troubles? Dude, more then anything I LOVE the cracked Levy theory. Like seriously, the reason Gajeel loves Levy is not only because she's so short and has a fiery temper but because she's off kilter and it makes her a joy to be around. For the ships sitting in my harbor, it would seem that we do.
Alright, now that that's done, all I have to say is:
TO MY NEW READERS: Fave and follow not just this story but myself as well so you'll know when I drop my new story and any one shots that I may think of.
TO MY OLD READERS: Y'all know the deal, leave a review to let me know what you think. 175 reviews earns you the title and summary of the sequel in the closing A/N of Chapter 30.
Now I have a headache and I still have to transfer more chapters from my writing app to my google docs, until next time.
Grizzly out for the night.
