Bonds, Part 2
When they are near each other, the female praetor swings her sword horizontally at Natsu. Natsu dodges her attack by sliding through the ground and pass by her. When Natsu gets up and turns around, the female praetor whirls about and delivers a diagonal strike at him. Natsu dodges by moving to the right and delivers several swinging punches at the praetor. The praetor quickly backs away to dodge every punch that Natsu tries to throw at her.
Meanwhile, Yukino, who remains where she is, swings her key horizontally as she shouted, "Open the gate of the Heavenly Scales! Libra!"
A woman whose black hair is tied to two horn-like buns and wears a long white cloth to conceal her mouth magically appears in front of Yukino as she kneels down on a knee. She also wears a green bikini with yellow stripes, a long green loincloth with yellow stripes, red dangles around her lower arms and lower legs and green sandals. Dangling from her hands, she also carries a pair of golden scales, with thin cords running from her fingertips to the sides of the scales. As the woman stood up, Yukino ordered her, "Libra! Use Gravity Change on them!"
"Right." Libra replied flatly as she swings the scale from her right hand. This causes the two taller male praetors to levitate from the ground for a brief moment before they find themselves being flown through the air and having their backs slam against the trunks of two nearby trees.
The shortest male praetor yells furiously as he and Darren run over to each other. He swings both of his gauntlets at Darren, who easily blocks them with his katana. The praetor jumps into the air, briefly swings his gauntlets up and brings them down to deliver an overhead strike on Darren. But Darren holds up his katana to block his attack again and quickly delivers a kick to the praetor's abdomen. The praetor groans as he is sent falling and sliding through the ground on his back. Alicia swings her yo-yos around his gauntlets and pulls the strings to tighten her grip around them. The praetor growls behind his helmet as he tries his best to pull his gauntlets back and free himself. As Alicia continues pulling the strings of her yo-yos, she turns her head around for a moment and sees Happy, Mei Li and Amelia hiding behind some bushes.
"How are you guys doing back there?" Alicia cried to them.
"I'm okay!" Happy responded as he holds up his paw.
"W-we're fine!" Mei Li replied timidly as she trembled.
"Likewise." Amelia muttered with a frustrated frown. Although she didn't want to admit it, she too is shaking uncontrollably in fear as she cowers behind the bushes with Mei Li.
Meanwhile, one of the taller male praetors, who recovered from his earlier blow from Libra, charges towards Lucy with his spear. Aries quickly places herself in front of Lucy and shouts as she holds up her hands, "Wool wall!"
A thick cloud of pink wool appears between Aries and the praetor just as he thrusts his spear. The praetor stares dumbfounded as the wall pushes back the tip of his spear, stopping his attack. Suddenly, the praetor could hear Aries shouting behind the wall of wool, "Wool bomb!"
When a huge circle opens in the centre of the wall, Aries shoots a massive amount of pink wool at the praetor and he finds himself flying through the air again.
"I'm so sorry! I just wanted to protect my mistress!" Aries cried apologetically as she bows her head to the praetor who lands back down on the ground with a hard thud.
Meanwhile, the female praetor and the other taller male praetor are busy with Natsu and Sting respectively. Natsu jumps into the air and delivers a flying kick at the female praetor. The female praetor holds up her sword to block his foot, but the impact of the blow sends her sliding back on her feet. The other male praetor thrusts his spear at Sting, who grabs his weapon and brings his elbow down to break it. The male praetor gasped in shock before Sting tosses away what is left of his spear and delivers a powerful punch to his face with his left fist, sending him sprawling through the ground and lying next to the other taller praetor.
"We may not have our magic, but we can still pack a punch!" Sting yelled with a huge grin.
The female praetor swings her sword several times at Natsu who dodges all of her attacks by backing away. After Natsu backs away from another swing of her sword, the female praetor turns her head to see the shortest male praetor falling onto the ground on his face after receiving a kick from Alicia.
"Hodaka!" The female praetor cried in horror.
"G-get them, Brenda!" The shorter male praetor responded weakly as he points his finger at Happy, Mei Li and Amelia who are hiding behind the bushes. The female praetor turns her head to them and growls.
"We will not fail this time." Brenda muttered as she runs towards the bushes. Natsu swings his left fist at Brenda, who dodges it by getting down on her knees and sliding through the ground. Natsu whirls about as she quickly gets back up from the ground.
"Hey! Stop her!" Natsu shouted as Brenda continues running for the bushes.
Alicia swings her yo-yos at Brenda. But Brenda jumps into the air and performs a somersault above the strings of the yo-yos to dodge her attack. As she lands back down on the ground, Darren runs over to her and swings his katana vertically at her. Brenda gets up and swings her sword diagonally to deflect his attack. As Darren backs away, Brenda thrusts her sword at his chest. Darren quickly dodges the attack by turning his body to his left, but Brenda takes the opportunity to turn to him and hits his chest with the bottom of the hilt of her sword. Darren groans before Brenda brings down her sword and knocks the top of his head with the bottom of her sword again. As Darren collapses on his knees and hands, Brenda turns back to the bushes and runs over to Happy, Mei Li and Amelia.
Yukino runs over to Brenda and jumps in the air to deliver a flying kick. But Brenda bends over down enough to dodge her kick. As Yukino lands back on the ground, she turns around and sees the praetor continue making her way to the bushes.
Happy flies over to Brenda and grabs onto the front of her helmet, hoping to stop her. But the praetor easily grabs Happy and tosses him aside as she continues running towards Mei Li and Amelia.
"NO!" Yukino yells in horror.
"AAAAHHH!" Mei Li and Amelia both screamed in unison. Amelia quickly turns around, crouches down and places her hands above her head to curl herself up into a protective ball. Mei Li continues screaming with her eyes closed as Brenda goes near her and thrusts her sword at her left shoulder.
But suddenly, Mei Li turns her body to her left and backs away to dodge the sword. She swiftly grabs the praetor's arm by placing her left hand on the side and her right arm at the bottom of it, much to Brenda's surprise.
"DON'T HURT ME!" Mei Li screamed as she now swiftly places her right hand above Brenda's arm and brings it down, causing the praetor to yelp as a strong force causes her to drop her sword and bend her knees against her will. Mei Li proceeds to swing the back of her right arm at the right side of Brenda's head, causing her to back away as she releases her arm.
"STOP!" Mei Li screamed in terror again as she now takes a step forward and slams her hands onto Brenda's chest. Brenda gasped in pain as the impact of the blow pushes her back and sends her stumbling backwards. This gives Yukino the opportunity to run over to Brenda and tackle her to ground. As Brenda lands on her back, Yukino quickly sat on top of her, grabs her wrists and pins them onto the ground.
"Great work, Mei Li!" Yukino said, smiling at her.
"Huh?" Mei Li snaps her eyes open, realizing that she is still alive and well. As she stands back up and lowers her hands, she turns to Yukino and replied shyly to her, "W-what just happen?"
Yukino turns back to Brenda as Natsu, Alicia, Darren, Lucy and Happy go over to them. "Where are the others?!" Yukino demanded Brenda.
"What do you mean?" Lucy asked.
"There were eight of you during our last encounter, but now there are only four." Sting replied as he, Aries and Libra stood above Hodaka and the other two male praetors who are still lying on the ground in defeat.
"Where are the others hiding?" Yukino questioned Brenda.
"You should know!" Brenda replied furiously to her. "You killed them!"
"What?!" Yukino cried incredulously. "Sting and I would never kill!"
"Liars!" Brenda snapped.
"Actually, Mei Li and I remember there were twelve of them hunting us when we first arrive at this world." Amelia said as she stood up from behind the bushes.
"That's right." Mei Li said as she nods her head.
"That's probably the first expedition who was assigned to find you guys, but our superiors reported that they are all dead!" Brenda yelled at Mei Li and Amelia before looking back at Yukino. "Probably killed by you damn mages!"
"That's insane! We guilds would never kill anyone!" Natsu yelled at Brenda.
"Not to mention, Sting and I only just arrived here two days ago!" Yukino added.
"Then how did the first four members of my expedition died?!" Brenda inquired.
"How would we know?" Yukino said, frowning in confusion.
Suddenly, Darren gasped as he felt the ground trembling. He turns his head to the trees behind him and shouted, "GET BACK!"
As everyone turn their heads to the direction where Darren is staring, several large vines suddenly burst out from the ground and heading straight towards them. Mei Li, Amelia and Aries scream as they, Lucy, Natsu, Happy, Darren and Alicia quickly get out of the way. Yukino also quickly gets off of Brenda and pulls her up by her collar, getting themselves out of the way in time before the vines burst out from where they originally were. As Yukino and Brenda lie onto the ground, the praetor lifts her head up and grabs her sword she had dropped earlier.
When the trembling came to a stop, everyone look back to see what had appeared. They see several gigantic vines wrapped up together and sprung out from the ground.
"W-what is this?" One of the taller male praetors uttered in fear as he stares at the vines and lied where he is.
"I don't know." The other male praetor replied as he lies beside him.
Everybody turn and look up when they heard footsteps coming from the back of the vines. They see two figures casually walking on the vines and heading towards them. One of them has the head of a crow, black feathers, a yellow beak and blood red eyes. He also wears black robes that conceal the rest of his body and black boots.
The other is a short girl with dark grey skin, scars across her forehead, golden eyes, and spiky light purple hair. She wears a sleeveless white dress with a dark purple skirt underneath it, dark purple ribbons circling around her arms and neck area, black ripped stockings and dark purple shoes. She is also placing a pink umbrella with a black handle and an orange pumpkin head with a golden spike on top of it over her right shoulder.
The two figures came to a halt when they are near Darren, Natsu and the others. As she hides behind some bushes along with Amelia and Happy, Mei Li widens her eyes and tremble in horror again upon seeing the humanoid crow.
"It's him! The crow demon!" Mei Li cried as she points a shaking finger at him.
"There are more of them now?" The humanoid crow remarked.
"Doesn't matter. The master orders us to capture anyone who invades the forest." The grey-skinned girl replied. "So do your thing, Tokoyami."
"Same to you, Road." The humanoid crow responded. Suddenly, as Tokoyami swiftly turns his head to the taller male praetors who are still lying on the ground, a shadowy, monstrous figure that resembles a darker version of him comes out from his body through an umbilical cord and flies over to them. The figure quickly grabs and picks up the praetors with his gigantic claws, causing them to cry in horror.
"AAAAHHH!" One of the praetors yelled.
"HELP US!" The other praetor cried to their allies.
"Yegor! Jason! Hang on!" Hodaka shouted to them as he gets back up on his feet. But as soon as he does, Road aims her umbrella at him and a smirk appears on her face.
"Uh-uh-uh!" The umbrella lifts its head up and cried with a sadistic smile before firing a blast of dark red energy from its mouth. The blast hits Hodaka on his chest, which sends him falling back onto the ground.
"Did the umbrella just talk?!" Lucy cried incredulously.
"Yes I did! Why do people always say that when they see me do that, Lero?!" The umbrella shouted hysterically as he turns his head to Lucy, with his sadistic look now replaced with one of unhappiness and self-pity. Road chuckled as she now turns to Lucy and aims her umbrella at her. But suddenly, a pair of yo-yos wrapped around the umbrella, causing him to squeal. Alicia gave a pull and snatches the umbrella out of Road's hands. "AH, ROAD! HELP ME, LERO!"
As Alicia grabs hold of Lero, Darren runs past her and prepares to swing his katana diagonally as he goes near Road.
"Calm down, Lero." Road said to her umbrella nonchalantly before she gets into an offensive crouch. Her teeth break out into a mischievous grin as she yells confidently, "It's not like we'll be defeated that easily!"
Road swiftly charges over to Darren and swings her right hand diagonally at him just as he delivers a diagonal strike with his katana at her. After the two deflected their sword and nails, Darren and Road both deliver several horizontal and vertical strikes at each other. Darren is barely able to catch up with her and he is surprised to see a short girl displaying such strength and agility against a taller man like him. Road brings her hands down and delivers an overhead strike at him, but Darren manages to block her attack by holding his katana up. As the two now stayed in a stalemate, Road leans her head towards Darren as she gives him a mocking smile.
"I'm surprised your sword is able to withstand my nails. Usually, other weapons break as soon as they make contact with them." Road complimented. Darren manages to push Road back, but the girl quickly recovers and delivers a powerful punch to his chest with her right fist. Darren gasped as he is sent flying through the air for a moment before his back collided against the trunk of a tree.
"Darren!" Alicia cried.
"Let go of me, Lero!" Lero yelled as he now continuously slams his head against the side of Alicia's head.
"Ow-ow-ow! Stop it!" Alicia cried as she clings onto the umbrella while withstanding the annoyance and pain that Lero is delivering onto her right now.
Meanwhile, Natsu and Sting are now occupied with Tokoyami and his shadow. Natsu tries to swing his punches at Tokoyami. But Tokoyami remains calm as he dodges his attacks by backing away and moving side to side. When Natsu tries to deliver an uppercut to him, Tokoyami quickly dodges it by leaping into the air and performing a backwards somersault before his fist could collide against the bottom of his beak. As Tokoyami lands back on the ground safely on his feet, he looks back up at Natsu and said flatly, "We can do this all day."
Natsu snarls at Tokoyami before charging towards him again. Meanwhile, Sting also struggles to swing his fists and legs at Tokoyami's shadow, which kept dodging his attacks by swiftly moving side to side while flailing the praetors around in his claws.
"Let go of them now!" Sting shouted at the shadow as he prepares to throw another punch at its face. But the shadow quickly holds up Jason in his left claw in front of Sting. Sting gasped as he quickly stops in mid-punch before his fist could collide against Jason's face. Behind his helmet, Jason looks surprised to see Sting choosing not to injure him despite being his enemy. The shadow chuckled as he moves Jason aside and quickly thrusts the top of his head at Sting's chest. Sting yells in pain as he is sent stumbling backwards by the powerful blow before landing onto the ground on his back.
"Gravity Change!" Libra shouted as she quickly goes over to Sting's side and swings her scales at the shadow and Tokoyami. Natsu quickly jumps out of the way as the gravitation force lifts Tokoyami up from his feet and sends him flying through the air. As he does, his shadow is also being pulled back due to the umbilical cord still attached to his body.
Natsu takes the opportunity to bend down on his knees, leaps himself into the air and throws his fist back, preparing to deliver a punch at Tokoyami. However, Tokoyami quickly recovers and turns his head to a nearby tree that he is flying over to. He adjusts himself and aims his feet at the tree. When his feet made contact with the trunk of the tree, Tokoyami bends down on his knees and pushes himself into the air, sending him flying towards Natsu along with his shadow in incredible speed. Tokoyami reached the Fire Dragon Slayer before he could throw his punch. He adjusts himself again and kicks Natsu into his gut, causing him to gasp in pain as the two lands back down onto the ground.
"Natsu!" Sting yelled as he and Libra run over to Tokoyami who pins Natsu onto the ground by standing on top of his chest. But suddenly, Libra groans as she felt someone punching her at the back of head. She soon felt someone grabbing her by her neck and she finds herself being picked up for a brief moment before getting slammed onto the ground.
"What?!" Sting said incredulously as he turns his head to see Libra lying on the ground defeated. But her enemy is nowhere to be found. And before he could react, Sting gasps in pain as an invisible force punches him right in the gut. Shortly after, Sting throws himself back when he felt a direct uppercut to the bottom of his jaw. Finally, Sting felt something grabbing him by his face and he finds himself being slammed onto the ground like Libra.
"Sting!" Natsu cried in horror as he lies on the ground, bewildered to see his friend being defeated by an invisible force.
"About time you show up to help." Tokoyami murmured.
"Wool shot!" Aries shouted as she thrusts her hand and fires several blasts of pink wool at Road. Road however kept charging towards the Celestial Spirit as she slashes through the blasts with her fingernails.
"Ha!" Road cried with a huge grin. "Do you think some stupid soft material is going to stop-"
"LUCY KICK!" Lucy screamed as she suddenly appears beside Road and kicks her at the left side of her head while in mid-air. Road is sent rolling over the ground, but she quickly recovers from the blow and gets back up. As she does, Brenda charges over to her and swings her sword horizontally at her. Road dodges it by bending herself back enough to evade Brenda's sword. As she throws herself forward, Road swings both of her hands horizontally and successfully slashes Brenda across her chest, causing her to cry in pain as she falls onto the ground.
Yukino runs past Brenda. She proceeds to jump in the air and perform a twirling kick at Road, who blocks it by crossing and holding up her arms. The kick is still strong enough to push Road back, and when she came to a halt, the purple-haired girl looks over her shoulder to see Hodaka running over to her from behind.
But before Hodaka could reach her, the praetor finds himself getting punched across his left cheek, bringing his charge to a halt as he stumbles to the side. Suddenly, Hodaka felt the sides of his head being grabbed. His body is turned to his left and Hodaka's head is brought down. He throws himself back after something kicks him at the front of his helmet hard. Finally, he felt his arm being grabbed before the invisible force throws him over its shoulder and slams him on the ground. The invisible force finished him by stomping him on the front of the helmet.
"Hodaka!" Brenda cried in horror as she watched from where she lied.
Meanwhile, Road and Yukino continue throwing their punches and kicks at each other. The two managed to keep up as they block each other's attacks. But Yukino eventually manages to throws a punch across Road's face. She tries to deliver an uppercut with her left fist before Road could recover. However, Yukino suddenly felt her left arm being grabbed, stopping her from delivering her attack. As soon as Yukino turns her head to her left, she felt a fist slamming against her face, making her yelp. When the invisible force releases her arm, Yukino felt two more punches across both of her cheeks before it delivers a final overhead strike onto the top of her head, making her unconscious and sending her falling on the ground on her face.
"Yukino!" Lucy cried as she, Aries, Alicia and Darren watch their friend go down in shock.
"What's going on?!" Alicia uttered while clinging onto Lero in her hands.
"Haha!" Lero laughed mockingly while still struggling to escape from Alicia's grip. "Let's see if you guys can fight against something that you can't see-MMMMM!"
Lero's voice is suddenly when Darren stuffs some of Aries's wool from the ground into his mouth.
"Thanks." Alicia said to Darren before the two turn back to Road. Road sneers at them as she holds out her right hand and gestures them to come over. Lucy, Aries, Alicia and Darren remain where they are, knowing that Road is not alone and trying to lure them into a trap.
"What do we do? Whatever took down Yukino is surely near her." Lucy whispered to her friends.
"And we can't see its movements and footprints either." Alicia added.
Darren briefly remains silent as he pondered. Suddenly, he turns to Aries and asked softly, "Aries, do you have a spell that produces some sort of air around the area?"
"I-I do." Aries replied with a whisper.
"Then do it." Darren said.
"O-okay." Aries nods her head.
"What are you guys babbling about?! Have you all chicken out?" Road asked with a mischievous grin. "If you are, then let us put an end to your misery!"
Road runs her way over to Lucy, Aries, Darren and Alicia and throws her arms back, preparing to attack them. But Aries soon pulls her hand back and forms a light pink ball of wool magic.
"100% Fluffy-Fluffy Wool!" Aries cried as she thrusts her hand forward and sends forth a thick, flurry of wool that engulfs the entire area in front of her, Lucy, Darren and Alicia. Everyone in the surrounding area including Road, Brenda, Tokoyami, Natsu, Sting, Libra and the other praetors are caught within the wool.
"Cover your mouths!" Natsu informed Sting and Libra before placing his hand over his mouth. The two obliged and cover their own mouths with their hands as well. Tokoyami tried to cover his beak with his hands but it was too late as some of Aries's wool has gone through his nostrils. He started coughing in pain as the wool went down into his lungs. The wool also leaves his shadow wheezing and he accidentally releases Yegor and Jason from his claws and drops them onto the ground.
While holding his breath and enlarging his cheeks, Natsu quickly grabs Tokoyami by his left foot and gave it a twist, causing Tokoyami to trip and get off of him. He and his shadow collapse onto the ground while Natsu gets up. As Natsu turns around, he barely sees Road coughing and clutching her chest in distance.
"W-What is-" Road tried to speak but she throws her head down and lets out a series of hacking coughs. As Lucy, Aries, Darren and Alicia stare at her; they soon spotted a silhouette beside her, who appears to be coughing as well as it holds its fist in front of its mouth.
"There it is!" Darren shouted. Lucy throws her whip at the silhouette while Darren charges over to it. As her whip coils around the silhouette's body, Lucy gave a hard pull to tighten her grip around it. When Darren got near it, he yells as he jumps up and delivers a twirling kick across the silhouette's face, sending him falling to the ground just as the wool began to clear.
As Darren lands on the ground, the silhouette began to take form as its ability to turn itself invisible died down. The person gets back up as he finally becomes visible to everyone's eyes, revealing himself to be a tall and muscular man with swept back white hair, grey eyes and tanned skin. He wears a tight black sleeveless suit, red separate sleeves that cover his arms and attached together by a knot in the front and a metal shard at the back, black pants, an open red skirt, and black boots.
When the pain in her chest is gone, Road breathed heavily as she slowly lifts her head back up and gave a ferocious glare at Lucy, Aries and Alicia. The three get back into their fighting stances as Road snarled at them.
"You will pay for that!" Road roared before making a mad dash towards them.
Meanwhile, Darren and the white-haired man stare boldly each other before the former holds up his katana and gets into his battle stance. The white-haired man closes his eyes and opens his hands as he magically summons two almost identical swords. While the sword in his right hand has a white blade, the other in his left hand has a black blade. The man clings onto the hilts of his swords and gets into his fighting stance.
"I humbly admit that it's very clever of you to think of something like that to force me to reveal myself. But now it's time for me to show you what you are actually up against." The man said.
"My name is Darren Leong." Darren introduced himself to the man.
"And my name…is Archer." The man replied before he swiftly charges over to Darren and swings both of his swords horizontally in incredible speed. Darren barely manages to dodge his attack by bending himself backward and the swords miss his face by an inch. Darren quickly swings his katana vertically upwards at Archer, who swiftly dodges the attack by moving himself to his left. When Archer finds himself beside Darren, he swings his swords down at him. But Darren quickly turns to him and swings his katana diagonally to deflect his attack. Archer backs away for a brief moment before swinging his swords horizontally at Darren again. Darren holds up his katana diagonally in front of him to block his attack and the two stayed in a stalemate.
"Darren!" Natsu yelled as he tries to run over to Darren and help him fight against Archer. But suddenly, Tokoyami's shadow grabs Natsu's arms from behind. Natsu grits his teeth and struggles to break free as the shadow lifts him up from the ground.
"You're not going anywhere!" Tokoyami, who is back on his feet, yells at Natsu before his shadow turns and tosses him over to a nearby tree. Natsu groans in pain as his back collided against the trunk of the tree, and he lands on the ground on his face.
"Natsu!" Happy cried to him before flying over to his friend.
Tokoyami and his shadow turn to their right and see Sting, Libra and Yegor running over to them. His shadow flies over to them and swiftly throws his right fist at Libra. Libra dodges the attack by jumping into the air and the shadow's fist landed onto the ground where she originally stood instead. Sting goes over to the shadow and throws a punch at the shadow's face. The shadow quickly recovers from the blow and as he turns his head to Sting, he swings his left claw at him and sends the White Dragon Slayer flying through the air. Yegor tried to thrust his spear at the right side of the shadow's head, but Tokoyami swiftly leaps over to him and kicks the praetor at the left side of his helmet with his left knee. This causes Yegor to drop his spear and Tokoyami uses his right leg to kick him at the back of his head while in mid-air. Yegor falls onto the ground on his face and loses his consciousness.
As Tokoyami lands back on the ground, he turns to his right and sees Jason in the distance. Jason, who is completely defenceless after having his spear broken by Sting, flinched at Tokoyami. He turns around and tries to get away, but Tokoyami's shadow quickly flies over to him, swings his right claw down and slams Jason onto the ground. As the shadow pulls his right claw back, he also picks the now unconscious praetor up.
Darren swings his katana vertically downwards at Archer, who blocks his attack by holding up and crossing his swords. He pushes his katana back, causing Darren to take a few steps back away from him. This gives Archer the opportunity to lift his right leg up and swiftly kicks him in the gut. Darren manages to land back on his feet and his boots slide through the ground. Archer swiftly charges over to him and performs two upward diagonal swings with both of his swords. Darren manages to block them before Archer swings both of his swords down in a vertical downward strike. Darren blocks it by holding up his katana and the two stare furiously into each other's eyes as they push their swords against each other.
"You definitely have skills for a single sword wielder. But I assure you that you will never stand a chance against me." Archer said icily to Darren.
"I'll still do whatever it takes to defeat you and protect my friends." Darren responded before he manages to push Archer back with all of his strength. But Archer quickly responded by swiftly running past Darren and going behind him. As soon as Darren whirled about to face him, Archer delivers another powerful kick, this time landing on his chest. Darren gasps in pain as he is sent sprawling through the ground.
"Such a persistent fool." Archer remarked before charging over to Darren again.
Meanwhile, Aries falls to the ground after getting herself punched across the face by Road. Lucy and Alicia now run over to Road. Alicia performs a twirling kick at her head, but Road quickly grabs her left leg, turns around and tosses her to the ground. Road turns back to Lucy and sees that she is about to throw a punch at her. Road quickly dodges her punch by turning her body to right and grabs Lucy's arm. She swiftly hits Lucy's forehead with her left elbow before tossing her over and slamming her onto the ground on her back. Road finally stomps Lucy on her face to knock her out.
Road looks up when she heard Lero's muffled scream. She sees Alicia running back to her and about to swing Lero across her face. Road quickly backs away to dodge the attack. Alicia thrusts Lero at her, but Road ducks down and throws a punch to her stomach. Alicia groans in pain as she bends over and drops Lero. Road quickly delivers an uppercut to the bottom of her chin, and as she gets up, she brings her fist down onto the top of Alicia's head. Alicia falls onto the ground on her face and passes out. Road sweeps back her hair before picking Lero up from the ground and removes the wool from his mouth.
Lero made a few hacking coughs before saying to Road, "Thanks Road. I thought these guys wool be the death of me, Lero!"
While all of this is going on, Mei Li and Amelia were cowering behind the bushes as they watch the entire fight in front of them in fear.
"Amelia, what do we do?" Mei Li asked Amelia timidly. "Is there any way we can help them?"
"How can we?! I'd be stuffed fighting 'em since I can't fight and you're as scared as a mouse! Screw this! I ain't copping a beating or getting caught up with those guys! I'm ditching 'em!" Amelia cried before turning around to flee.
"Amelia, no!" Mei Li cried as she tries to reach her hand out to her. Amelia ignores her as she kept running for the trees. But only after running a few meters, Amelia shrieks as a wire suddenly wraps around her ankles and gave a hard pull. Amelia finds herself falling over and she groans as the back of her head slams onto the ground with a hard thud. The wire soon pulls her up and Amelia is hung upside down. She screams again as she quickly pulls her skirt up to prevent herself from exposing what is underneath it to everyone around her.
"What the hell screwed me over just now?!" Amelia cried exasperatedly before a woman with long lime green hair and dressed in black and white jumps down from a branch of the tree and lands in front of her. As she crouched, the woman lifts her head up and gives a wan smile at Amelia.
"Nice of you to fall right into my trap. Now sleep." The woman said softly before reaching her finger out to Amelia.
"What are you-" Amelia gets cut off when the woman taps her finger onto her forehead. Within a second, Amelia rolls her eyes back and closes her eyelids as she falls into a deep slumber. Mei Li simply watched in fear as the woman stood up and magically summons a knife in her right hand. She swings it diagonally to cut the wire and release Amelia. As her hostage slumps onto the ground, the woman places her left hand on the left side of her hip as she turns her head to her allies.
"Road! Archer! Tokoyami! We are running out of time before we report back to the master! Just grab whoever you can and leave already!" The lime green haired woman calls out to them.
"You got it, C.C.!" Road cheerfully responded to her before picking Alicia up from the ground by the back of her clothes. Darren breathed heavily as he watches Archer lowering his swords and standing back up straight.
"I'll deal with you again some other time." Archer said before turning around. He swiftly goes over to Yukino and picks her up from the ground.
"No! Yukino! Alicia!" Darren shouted as he sees Archer and Road carrying Yukino and Alicia over their shoulders. He tries to run over to them, but Tokoyami's shadow suddenly slams his left claw onto the ground in front of him. The strong rumble causes Darren to fall onto the ground on his back. The shadow pulls his left claw back before he returns to Tokoyami and helps him pick Yegor up from the ground. As Brenda kneels beside the unconscious Hodaka and tends to him, she widens her eyes in horror behind her helmet as she sees Jason and Yegor being taken away by Tokoyami and his shadow.
"NO!" Brenda shouted. She tries to get up, but she stops and winces as she clutches onto the injury on her chest.
"Lucy!" Natsu murmured and Happy cried as they see Archer picking up the unconscious Lucy and carrying her over his other shoulder. Happy grits his teeth and flies over to him as fast as he can. But C.C. quickly runs over and gets in his way while carrying Amelia over her right shoulder. She throws a punch across Happy's face with her left fist and kicks him to the side with her right leg as she turns. Darren quickly gets up and catches Happy in his hands. C.C. stares blankly at Darren for a brief moment before she turns around and flees from the scene.
"Dammit! No!" Darren shouted as he gets up. Road, Archer and Tokoyami also swiftly run past him and the others as they follow after C.C. while taking Alicia, Lucy, Yukino, Jason and Yegor with them.
"Lucy!" Natsu cried helplessly as he reaches out his hand to her. But she and the captors had already left the area. Sting and Libra go over to Natsu who hangs his head down and slams his fist onto the ground in frustration. "Darn!"
Natsu remains silent and stays on the ground for a moment before he looks up at Sting and Libra who help him get up. Darren walks over to them and hands Happy over to Natsu.
"Don't be sad, Natsu." Happy whimpered to him.
"I'm sorry." Darren said apologetically to Natsu who takes Happy from him. "I failed to stop them."
"It's alright. So did I." Natsu replied grimly, but does feel relieved that Happy is fine.
"Hodaka please! Hang in there!" They turn their heads to Brenda when they heard her crying over her fellow praetor who is still unconscious. Aries and Mei Li stood near her as they watch in concern.
"M-Ma'am," Mei Li tried to speak to her. "How about you let me-"
"Stay away from us!" Brenda bellowed at Mei Li and Aries as she turns her head to them. Mei Li and Aries flinched as Natsu, Darren, Sting and Libra go over to her and Aries.
"It's okay. We're not fighting anymore." Sting said to Brenda as he holds up his hands. "Just let us help you and your friend."
"Because of you, my friends got taken away! Get out of my sight!" Brenda yelled furiously back at him.
"Please! We won't hurt you!" Natsu added. Brenda picks up her sword from the ground and swings it horizontally in front of them.
"LEAVE!" She screamed as Natsu and the others back away from her. After sheathing her sword, Brenda carries Hodaka in her arms as she gets up and runs away from them. Natsu and the others stood where they are and frown as they watch her leave.
Sometime later, Road, Archer, Tokoyami and C.C. drop Lucy, Yukino, Alicia, Amelia, Jason and Yegor carelessly onto the ground in a horizontal row. All of them have regain consciousness by the time they were brought to where they currently are now. After doing so, Road, Archer, Tokoyami and C.C. got them up and kneeling on the ground. Tokoyami and C.C. remove the helmets off from the praetor's heads, revealing that Jason has spiked up blonde hair and blue eyes while Yegor has short white hair and brown eyes. Amelia turns her head and looks at Archer over her shoulder.
"What the bloody hell is-" Amelia soon cuts herself off when Archer points the tips of his swords at the backs of her and the other hostages.
"Hands behind your heads." Archer said flatly to them. Amelia, now trembling in fear, quickly turns her head back to the front and did what she was told. The other hostages obliged as well and Lucy turns to her right to see Road standing beside her. She and Lero momentarily glare at Lucy before everyone could feel the ground rumbling.
Lucy, Road and Lero turn back to the front and everyone see many gigantic vines emerging out from the ground. The vines stop right in front of them and they see a huge flower bud growing up from the top of the pile of vines. The bud blossoms up into a large flower and revealing a teenage boy inside it. Road, Lero, Archer, Tokoyami and C.C. close their eyes and bow solemnly to the boy as he steps out of the flower, walks down the pile of vines and makes his way to their hostages.
Lucy, Yukino, Alicia, Amelia, Jason and Yegor widen their eyes as they take a closer look at the approaching figure. He has short grey hair, calm green eyes and wears a white long-sleeved tuxedo with long coattails, a white collar shirt and a dark blue vest underneath it, a large red ribbon tied around his collar, dark blue shorts, long black socks that goes up to his thighs and dark brown high heel boots. The most distinguishable features of his appearance are that he has large rat ears and has a light pink tail at the back of his waist. When he is near them, the boy stops and folds his arms.
"Intruders of the West Forest." The boy said icily to the six hostages kneeling in front of him. "My name is Laurent Mendy."
Sovereign: I would like to thank Ushindeshi and AquaBluey for reviewing this story. And special thanks again to Crimson-Tuna-Sub for helping me with Amelia's dialogue. Thanks guys!
Hodaka Morishima is from Makoto Shinkai's Weathering With You, Tokoyami Fumikage is from My Hero Academia, Road Kamelot is from D. Gray-Man, Archer is from Fate/Stay Night and C.C. is from Code Geass.