Chapter 28
Mid Afternoon
Erza sheathed her sword as she walked through the grasslands. She took a quick drink from her nearly full canteen. She'd been lucky enough to find a puddle of water and with her water purifying pills she now had a full canteen. She glanced up at the clouds, they were a light gray color and Erza was pretty sure that it would rain either tonight or the next morning.
She looked down at the tracks she was following. They were deeply planted in the ground, meaning that whoever they belonged to was heavily wounded. Next to the first set of footprints she would find an occasional much smaller footprint, which meant that the first person was being followed. She sped up her pace, she was eager to fight whoever was at the end of the footprints.
Even with her sped up pace she still wasn't catching up much, which meant that whoever was making the footprints was running. This surprised her since the person seemed to be wounded. She changed into her flight armor. Though the armor wasn't as protective as her other armors, it suited her occasion perfectly. The armor increased her speed dramatically and she was sure she would catch up to whoever she was following.
Even with help of the armor it still took her another two minutes to catch up to the person she was following. She saw an explosion of fire and knew immediately who she'd been tracking. When she finally reached Natsu the grass all around him had been disintegrated. She saw that he was facing off against his district partner, Akame. The girl with the long black hair, and red eyes.
Erza looked at the girl's weapon, it was a simple long katana but Erza was sure there was more to it. She turned her attention to Natsu who was heavily wounded. Even though he was an incredible fighter Erza knew he didn't stand a chance. Akame charged forward and Erza watched as Natsu yelled "Fire dragon roar." The girl, however easily jumped out of the way dodging the attack.
She was about to change her armor to help Natsu when the girl managed to cut Natsu's hand with the sword. Erza watched shocked as Natsu stumbled forward and she quickly broke out of her cover to go see what was wrong. Akame backed up allowing Erza to catch Natsu before he hit the ground.
"He'll be dead in a few seconds." Akame told her. Erza watched as Natsu shook violently, his eyes wide in pain. She could see the poison as it traveled up toward his heart. However it was apparently having trouble, and Erza knew they had a couple of minutes before it reached his heart killing him. Akame appeared surprised and Erza was sure that Akame was used to the poison taking affect right away.
Erza smoothed Natsu's sweaty hair away from his face trying to get him as comfortable as she could, when an idea hit her. She quickly removed his shredded jacket and then taking her sword she brought it down on his arm. Natsu's scream of pain teared at her heart, but she managed to finish removing the arm from the rest of his body. He groaned in pain and Erza took his shredded jacket and wrapped it around what was left of his arm.
When Erza turned to look for Akame the girl was gone. She could see that Natsu was severely dehydrated and probably starving. It made since considering that he'd been in the grasslands for at least a day and half with no food and little water. She helped him sit up and she could tell he was delirious from the pain, and lack of food and water.
Taking her water canteen she let him take a sip from it. She could tell he wanted more, but she had to be careful. Too much water and food at once would only make him sicker. She looked up at darkening clouds. She also had to get into some sort of shelter. She hoisted him onto her shoulders and then brought him back to the shelter of the grass.
Though it took a while she was able to make a nearly water proof shelter. She was relieved to find that he still had his water canteen, though it was empty. She set both of them were they would catch the rain for sure. And hopefully they would be filled to the brim. She dragged an unconscious Natsu inside the small hut and then set off to look for food.
Luckily for them there were plenty of locusts that were hopping around. She was able to catch a good amount and while they weren't the best food in the world they would do. Natsu was still unconscious when she game back so she changed his already bloodied jacket replacing it with her own. She hung it outside where it would hopefully get cleaned by the rain.
As she predicted it rained later that evening. She chewed on one of the dead locusts and watched as the rain poured outside the hut. Sometime during the storm she drifted off to sleep.
Fallen Tributes
Apollo
Kurome
Levy
Wendy
Leone
Gajeel
Esdeath
Hinata
Angel
Tatsumi
Yuri
Remaining Tributes
Natsu
Lucy
Erza
Gray
Lubbock
Akame
Run
Otonashi
Yui
Eren
Armin
Mikasa
