Bonds, Part 6
Mala delivers two horizontal slashes at Natsu with his swords and the Fire Dragon Slayer blocks his attacks with his flaming arms. Mala now throws a vertical overhead strike at Natsu with his swords. Natsu holds up his arms and crosses them to block the attack. He pushes the swords back and throws his right fist horizontally at the praetor. Mala ducks down and swings his right sword across Natsu's abdomen, leaving a horizontal cut on it. Natsu groans in pain as he backs away and clutches his abdomen.
Darren dashed at Mala and swings his katana diagonally at him. Mala quickly counters it by getting up and swinging his left sword diagonally to deflect Darren's katana. As Darren backs away, Mala thrusts his right sword at him. Alicia stops his attack by throwing her yo-yo at Mala's right arm. It knocked his arm out of the way, stopping Mala from stabbing Darren with his sword which barely misses his chest by a few inches. As Darren recovers, he goes over to Mala, twirls around and delivers a diagonal kick to the side of his head, knocking him to the ground. Mala rolls over and gets back up to see Darren and Alicia standing together as they face him.
"Natsu!" Lucy cried to her friend as she runs past Darren and Alicia to attend to him.
"I've been through worse." Natsu responded as Lucy helps him get back up.
"You know, we could get this fight done and over with if you would just use your Orb of Heart right now. So why don't you use it?" Mala asked Alicia.
"No, I won't." Alicia replied flatly. "Your superiors make use of the Orb of Mind to force innocent people into serving them against their will. If I use the Orb of Heart to force my enemies into getting down on their knees, then I will be no different than them."
"Tch. Even with the Orb in your possession, your mind is still weak." Mala said. He connects his swords together, forming it back into a double-bladed naginata. He twirls the weapon around in the air before he pulls it back and charges towards Darren and Alicia.
Mala swings his weapon horizontally at Darren and Alicia. Alicia ducks down and rolls out of the way and Mala ends up clashing his weapon against Darren's katana. Darren pushes Mala back as Alicia gets back up and turns around to face the back of the praetor.
As Darren blocks a few swings of Mala's naginata, Alicia swings her yo-yos horizontally at the praetor from behind. Mala swiftly turns around and swings his naginata horizontally to deflect the yo-yos. Darren now swings his katana diagonally at Mala's back. Mala quickly holds his naginata above his back to block Darren's attack.
Alicia swings her yo-yos vertically at Mala, who gets back up and swings his naginata horizontally again to block her weapons as he turns around. When he faces Darren again, Mala sees him swinging his katana vertically at him. Mala holds up his naginata to block Darren's katana with its hilt and pushes him back.
Alicia twirls around and swings her yo-yos horizontally at Mala again. But as he turns around, Mala detaches his naginata and deflects the yo-yos with his left sword before aiming his right sword at Alicia.
"DESTRUCTIVE EDGE!" Mala shouted and suddenly, a large explosion erupted diagonally from the ground in front of Alicia. Alicia yelps as the explosion sends her flying through the air and slamming against the pile of vines behind her.
Mala turns back to Darren who is about to swing his katana horizontally at him. Mala quickly responded by swinging his swords horizontally at him.
"DESTRUCTIVE SLASH!" Mala yells and fires two gusts of wind from his swords at Darren. The gusts of wind send Darren flying through the air. Natsu quickly goes over to Darren and catches him with his arms.
Lucy runs over to Mala and throws her whip at him. Mala grabs Lucy's whip with his hand and pulls her over. As Lucy is dragged over to him, Mala lifts his knee up and kicks her in the gut. Lucy bends forward and Mala brings down the bottom of the hilt of his sword onto the back of her head. As Lucy collapses on the ground, Mala turns his swords around and tries to stab her but Natsu quickly shouted as he throws his head back, "FIRE DRAGON'S ROAR!"
Mala quickly crosses his swords as Natsu throws himself forward and fires a large blast of fire from his mouth at him. As Mala blocks Natsu's attack with his swords, he makes his way over to the Fire Dragon Slayer. Natsu widens his eyes to see the praetor resisting his attack as he walks over to him. When Mala is near Natsu, he lifts his knee up to kick him at the wound on his abdomen. Natsu stops firing from his mouth as he bends forward and backs away in pain. Mala walks over to him again and swings his right sword diagonally upwards, leaving a diagonal slash on Natsu's chest before the Fire Dragon Slayer falls to the ground on his back.
"Natsu!" Darren shouted to his fallen friend as he runs over to Mala from the side and thrusts his katana at him. Mala swiftly turns and deflects his katana by swinging his left sword to the side. As Darren stumbles to the side, Mala delivers a hard kick to his abdomen, sending him falling to the ground on his back. Mala walks over and stands above him.
"Your struggle is over!" Mala proclaimed before he turns his swords around and brings them down onto Darren.
But just as the tips of his swords are only a few inches away from Darren's face, several vines fly over to Mala, coil around his arms and torso and lift him up into the air.
"NOOOOOOOO!" Mala cried in despair as he lost his opportunity to kill Darren again.
"Enough of this!" Laurent shouted from the top of his pile of vines with his arms stretched forward. "I will cleanse my territory of your filth!"
Soon, multiple flower buds emerge from the ground and the pile of vines. They fully open to reveal Laurent's possessed soldiers. Sixteen of them were former praetors while many others were unfortunate mages and civilians who have trespass into his forest before. As the buds return back into where they originally emerged from, the possessed soldiers slouched for a moment before they look back at their enemies and shriek at them. They hold out their arms and several vines grow out from them to form sharp green drills made from plants. They all hold up their drills in front of them and run towards their enemies.
As Darren quickly gets up from the ground with his katana, he sees Alicia struggling to break free from the vines around her arms and legs as she lies against the pile of vines. He looks up and sees the possessed soldiers running down the pile and heading towards her. Darren glances at Alicia again before he charges over to her.
"Hang on!" Darren shouted as he reaches Alicia. As he holds up his katana, he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before he swings his katana diagonally four times. Alicia looks down in awe as the swings slash off the vines from her arms and legs without leaving a scratch on her. But as Alicia gets up and turns around, the possessed soldiers are now only a few meters away from her and Darren. They both get into their battle stances, preparing to fight off the soldiers.
Suddenly, Archer swiftly runs past Darren and Alicia. He stops in front of the nearest possessed soldier and slashes him with one of his swords. Before the soldier collapses, Archer already runs over to the next nearest soldier in incredible speed and swings his right sword diagonally to take her down. One possessed soldier runs over to Archer, who simply defeats him by swiftly thrusting his left sword into his chest. Darren and Alicia simply stood there and watch Archer fight with pink wool wrapped around his upper body in awe.
"Are you guys okay?" Darren and Alicia could hear Tokoyami asking them. They turn around to see the demihuman, along with Lucy and Natsu, running over to them.
"Yes, we are." Alicia said. "What about you?"
"Yeah, I'm fine too. Thanks to your friend." Tokoyami replied. "It seems our master finally lost it and unleashed his army of soldiers upon us. And after what C.C. and Road did to him, he definitely wants his own servants to die too."
"Is there any way to make them stand down?" Darren inquired. "Your friend is killing them when these people were once just like us!"
"Unfortunately, no. Not even our master has a reversal spell to bring these soldiers back to normal." Tokoyami said.
"What are you saying?" Lucy asked as she, Natsu, Darren and Alicia widen their eyes in horror.
"Once they become possessed, they are our master's mindless pawns forever." Tokoyami said grimly. "And that means the only way to put an end to their misery is to kill them, which is why my friend is currently doing so."
After Road slams the back of a possessed soldier's head onto the ground with her right hand nearby, she and Lero turn their heads to Natsu, Lucy, Alicia, Darren and Tokoyami and said to them, "He's telling the truth."
"We have to kill them, Lero. There's no other choice." Lero said hoarsely as Road holds him in her other hand. Sting and Yukino, who stood nearby them, turn their heads and stare wordlessly at each other.
Natsu, Lucy, Alicia and Darren also stare silently at each other for a moment before the latter gave them a solemn nod. Natsu, Lucy and Alicia nod their heads back before they and Tokoyami look back at the advancing possessed soldiers who managed to run past Archer.
"I wish it never had to come to this." Natsu said grimly as his fists tremble.
"Let's go!" Lucy yelled with a mixture of sadness and frustration as she pulls her whip tightly. Tokoyami stood where he is and unleashes his shadow while Natsu, Lucy, Alicia and Darren charge towards the soldiers.
The nearest soldier swings his drill horizontally at Darren, who quickly dodges it by sliding through the ground. As he does, he swings his katana horizontally to slash his legs, causing him to fall. Darren gets up, turns around and walks over to the soldier as he screeches in pain. As he stands above him, Darren holds up his katana, turns it around and sombrely stares down at the soldier for a moment. The soldier turns around and tries to thrust his drill at him as he gets up. But Darren quickly brings down his katana and stabs him in the chest to end his life.
As Darren stands there and tries to comprehend what he has done, another soldier runs up to him from behind and tries to stab him with her drill. Alicia swiftly wraps her yo-yo around her drill arm and pulls her away from Darren. As the soldier falls to the ground on her face, Tokoyami's shadow brings down his fist onto the back of her head to knock her out.
Lucy coils her whip around a soldier's neck and gave a hard pull, sending him falling to the ground on his face. Lucy drags him over and knocks the soldier out by stomping onto the back of his head. Natsu yells furiously as he runs his way to the top of the pile of vines where Laurent is, punching away any possessed soldier who goes over to him with his flaming fists.
When Laurent sees Natsu coming towards him, he thrusts his right finger at him, sending several vines to fly over to the Fire Dragon Slayer. Two vines managed to grab Natsu's left arm and right leg. As the vines carry him up into the air, Natsu sees six more vines flying towards him. As he quivered with rage, Natsu throws his head back and shouted, "FIRE DRAGON'S ROAR!"
He blows a huge blast of fire at the vines, burning them into ashes. Laurent rolls out of the way before the blast landed on where he originally stood. After the blast dies down, Natsu engulfs his right hand with flames and grabs the vine around his right leg to burn it off. He also engulfs his left arm with flames to burn off the vine around it as well and Natsu lands back on his feet. As soon as he looks up and turns his head to Laurent, Natsu pulls back his right arm and curls his hand into a fist as he engulfs it with flames.
"FIRE DRAGON'S IRON FIST!" Natsu shouted as he leaps into the air and flies over to Laurent.
Laurent leaps back and crosses his arms. A wall of vines emerge from the ground in front of him. Natsu throws his fist and burns through the wall of vines, but he sees Laurent swinging his right arm back. Several vines grow on his right arm as he shouted, "NATURE DRAGON'S CRUSHING VINE!"
The vines transform his right arm into a long and large whip and Laurent swings it at Natsu. The vine slams at the side of Natsu's torso, causing the Fire Dragon Slayer to gasp in pain as he sent flying through the air. But suddenly, Tokoyami leaps into the air and his shadow catches Natsu in his claws. Tokoyami twirls around and the shadow throws Natsu back towards Laurent.
"Damn you Tokoyami!" Laurent shouted furiously as the vines on his right arm withered and shattered.
Natsu yells as he pulls his flaming fist back and throws it at Laurent as he lands back on the ground in front of him. Laurent dodges it by moving to the side. He swings his right fist at Natsu and successfully punches him across his cheek. Natsu quickly recovers and delivers an uppercut to the bottom of Laurent's chin with his right fist. Laurent looks back at Natsu as the Fire Dragon Slayer throws his left fist at him. Laurent quickly grabs his fist with his left hand to stop his attack. Natsu proceeds to throw his other fist at him and Laurent also grabs it with his right hand.
"How could you strip away the minds of these innocent people?! Don't you have any dignity for anyone around you?!" Natsu shouted at Laurent.
"So what?!" Laurent responded. "If you want to accomplish your goals, you must have the conviction to do whatever it takes! Surely as a mage, you should know that as well!"
"You damn monster!" Natsu bellowed as he throws his head back and brings it down onto Laurent's forehead with the force of a sledgehammer. Laurent stumbles backwards for only a brief moment before he snarls at Natsu and the two Dragon Slayers run towards each other.
Meanwhile, back at the base of the pile of vines, Mei Li tosses a possessed praetor over her shoulder and swiftly throws a punch to the front of his helmet to knock him out. She pulls out his sword from his scabbard and turns to Jason as she gets up.
"Jason! Catch!" Mei Li cried as she tosses the sword to him. Jason easily catches the hilt of the sword with his hand.
"Thank you, Mei Li." Jason said to her before he runs over to Yegor, who fights against a larger-built possessed soldier with a spear that was also taken from a praetor that Mei Li just defeated. The soldier deflects Yegor's spear with his drill arm and grabs his throat with his left hand. But Jason runs over to him and stabs him at the right side of his stomach, causing the soldier to yell in pain as he releases Yegor. Jason momentarily removes his sword, goes over to the soldier from behind and delivers a diagonal slash to his back. As the soldier stumbles forward, Yegor moves out of the way and Capricorn runs over to him, throwing a punch to his face and sends him falling to the ground on his back.
As Amelia and C.C. stood behind Aries, the three sees four possessed soldiers running over to them while holding up their drills. Aries holds up her hands at them and shouted, "WOOL SHOT!"
She fires several blasts of pink wool with her hands at the soldiers, sending them sprawling through the ground.
After defeating a possessed soldier by punching him in the face, Hodaka turns to his left and sees another soldier running over to him. As the soldier swings his drill vertically at him, Hodaka quickly stops his attack by grabbing it with his left gauntlet. He throws his right gauntlet at the soldier's gut and punches him. As Hodaka releases his drill arm, he delivers a punch across his left cheek with his right gauntlet, sending him falling to the ground just as another possessed soldier runs over to him and prepares to swing her drill horizontally at his head. Mei Li quickly runs over to place herself in front of the soldier and grabs her arm. She knocks her face with her right elbow and as she turns, Mei Li tosses the soldier over her shoulder. When the soldier slams onto the ground, Mei Li stomps onto her chest and gave it a twist, causing her to widen her eyes for a moment before passing out.
"Arigatou." Hodaka said to Mei Li gratefully.
Mei Li looks up and smiles at him. "Bie ke qi."
After stabbing another possessed soldier, Brenda kicks him in the gut just as she removes her sword from his chest. She suddenly turns around when she heard the footsteps of another possessed soldier running up to her from behind. Brenda whirls about and swings her sword horizontally to block the soldier's drill. But as they stay in a stalemate and push their weapons against each other, Brenda widens her eyes and drops her jaw in horror as she recognizes who the person before her is.
"Petra?" Brenda uttered as she gazed at the female praetor with black bowl cut hair in front of her. The possessed praetor hissed at her as she manages to push Brenda back.
Brenda quickly snaps out of her thoughts and sees Petra swinging her drill arm vertically at her. Brenda dodges it by moving to her right.
"Petra, it's me! Brenda! I thought I lost you!" Brenda cried, trying to reason with her friend as she dodges every swing from her.
"Shut up!" Petra screamed as she thrusts her drill at her. Brenda couldn't react in time as Petra successfully stabs her drill into her left shoulder, causing her to cry in pain. Petra delivers a hard kick to her stomach and as soon as Brenda's back hit the ground, the possessed praetor quickly kneels above her and wraps her hand around her throat to pin her down.
"P-Petra! Don't do this! W-We promised each other that we will fight and survive together! So that we can all go home!" Brenda pleaded as she tries to remove Petra's grip around her throat, but to no avail.
"Just die." Petra replied ferociously as she pulls her drill back and prepares to stab her in the face. However, Yukino runs over to Petra from the side and punches her across her left cheek, causing the possessed praetor to get off of Brenda and roll over the ground. As Petra tries to get up and turn her head, she sees Yukino already beside her as she brings her leg down to deliver a vertical kick onto the top of her head to temporarily knock her out.
"It's no use reasoning with her! She cannot go back to normal!" Yukino said to Brenda as she gets up.
"What?" Brenda uttered with her eyes wide as she kneels there.
"It's true! She is done for!" Yukino cried.
"N-No…That's not true!" Brenda said, trembling in horror and denial. Yukino kneels to her level and stares into her eyes.
"Look, I know it's hard to accept the loss of someone whom you cherished. I know that feeling too. It's a long story, but at the time, when I thought my sister could possibly be dead after being taken away by some bad people, I kept having negative thoughts about myself to the point I actually tried to take back time to reunite with her. Only to realize I ended up creating even more trouble for everyone in the process, all because of my selfish desire to reunite with my sister. If you don't let go of your past, not only will you die, but so will your friends who are still alive and fighting for you!" Yukino yelled.
Brenda turns her head to the left to see Mei Li grabbing hold of a possessed praetor's arms. She shrieks at her as she tries to break free from her grip. Fortunately, C.C. goes over to the possessed praetor from behind and thrusts her left hand onto the back of her head. Mei Li could see the possessed praetor's eyes rolling back through the holes of her helmet and she tosses her to the side. C.C. gave a pat on Mei Li's shoulder and the two women smile at each other before they get back into the fight and help their friends.
Meanwhile, a possessed praetor slashes his drill horizontally across Yegor's chest, making him turn around and collapse to the ground on his face. The praetor now stabs his drill into the back of his left shoulder, causing Yegor to yell in pain again. Sting suddenly runs over to the possessed praetor from the side and tackles him to the ground. As Sting began delivering several punches to the praetor's face, Jason runs over to Yegor and pulls him up from the ground. Brenda noticed that not only two of her friends have injuries all over their bodies, but they are also starting to breathe heavily from exhaustion.
"So come on!" Yukino yelled at Brenda again, causing her to snap of her thoughts and look back at her. "Get back up on your feet and save whoever still has a chance to live!"
As Petra runs over to Yukino from behind, she whirls about and punches the possessed praetor across the face before she could even swing her drill at her.
As Brenda watch Yukino and Petra fight each other, she couldn't help but reminisce all the memories she and Petra had together. Even before they got back their memories of their hometowns, Brenda and Petra formed a close relationship by working together and communicating with each other during their training sessions at the Abbey's headquarters. But after being hit in the heads during a live-fire exercise, Brenda realized that in reality, Petra is a kind and innocent girl who, just like everybody else in her expedition, is afraid of being in a completely different world that she has no knowledge of. Although she had always been a headstrong girl back in Germany, even Brenda admits that she too fears being in a place that she doesn't recognize. That is why when she is appointed as the new squad leader, she vows to Petra and everybody else in the expedition that as long as they stick together, she will take them home to their families.
Seeing Petra now becoming a mindless servant who will attack anyone at will including herself truly broke her heart. Petra didn't deserve this. She deserves to be brought back home to her farm in Kentucky where she would be safe and sound with her family. But now it seems impossible after Yukino told her that what happened to her is irreversible. It would seem the only way now to put an end to her suffering is the same way that every dying soldier should be treated. But how can Brenda bring herself to do it? How can she kill someone whom she had fought alongside with? How can she put a sword into someone whom she made a promise to that she will take her home?
However, when Brenda sees Petra swinging her drill horizontally across Yukino, causing the mage to yelp as she clutches her stomach in pain, that was when she is finally brought back to reality and realize the horrible but honest truth.
"No…Petra…" Brenda murmured. "You shouldn't be doing this…"
As Petra delivers another diagonal slash to Yukino's shoulder, making her cry in pain again as she turns around and falls to her knees, Brenda finally regain enough control of her muscles to pick up her sword from the ground and grit her teeth.
"You shouldn't be killing anyone!" Brenda shouted furiously at her former friend. Before Petra could thrust her drill into Yukino's back, Brenda yells as she gets back up and runs over to the possessed praetor from the side. She aims the tip of her sword at Petra, thrusting her weapon into the side of her torso and pushing her away from Yukino.
Brenda turns Petra to the side as she removes her sword. As Petra looks back at her, she quickly blocks Brenda's diagonal swings of her sword with her drill. But she eventually stumbles backwards from the impact of her slashes, and Brenda thrusts her sword into the area where her heart is.
As they stood in front of each other, Petra's arms hang limply at her sides and her eyes turn from green to their natural blue colour. As she slumps her head to the side, Petra manages to form a weak smile as she said barely above a whisper, "Thank you…Brenda…"
Brenda's eyes grew wide. As she backs away and removes her sword from her friend, Petra collapses onto the ground on her back with her eyes closed. Brenda clenches her fist and sword tightly as she gazes at the smile on her deceased friend's face.
"I'm sorry Petra…I'm so sorry…" Brenda managed to say hoarsely as tears flow freely down her cheeks. As she stood there for a moment, she could feel Yukino placing her hand on her back to comfort her.
After wiping away her tears, Brenda walks over to the side of Petra's body. She kneels and carefully removes a metal heart necklace from her neck before standing back up. As she looks back to the front, she sees more possessed soldiers running up to her and Yukino. Brenda puts away the necklace before the two women look at each other. They nod their heads before they get back into their fighting stances and charge towards the enemy.
As Laurent and Natsu continue fighting with each other, Mala manages to bring his right sword towards his left arm, near enough for him to slash off the vines coiling around it. After freeing his left arm, Mala swings his left sword to cut off the vines around his right arm. He looks down at the vines around his torso and deliver a cross-like slash with both swords to cut them off.
When he lands back on the ground, he looks up to see three possessed people running over to him. Mala gets up and deflects a horizontal slash from one of the praetors with his left sword. Mala thrusts his right sword into his sword and kicks him to the ground. Afterwards, Mala moves to his right to dodge a vertical slash from a possessed soldier and thrust his left sword into his chest. Mala removes his sword from him and runs over to the next nearest possessed soldier, swiftly swinging his bloodied right sword diagonally at her before she could even react. As the soldier stumbles backward, Mala goes around her and swings his bloodied left sword diagonally at her back. After she collapses onto the ground, Mala turns around to see more possessed soldiers running over to him. After attaching his swords together to form his double-bladed naginata, Mala lets out a yell as he twirls his weapon around and runs over to them.
"FIRE DRAGON'S FLAME ELBOW!" Natsu roared as he pulls his right fist back. Flames burst out from his right elbow before Natsu throws his fist over to Laurent, punching him across his left cheek. After rolling over the ground a few times, Laurent quickly recovers, gets back up and pulls his right fist back.
"NATURE DRAGON'S SNAP TRAP!" Laurent bellowed. As he throws his right fist forward, his arm turns into a large and long green vine that extends itself over to Natsu and his fist transforms into a large head of a Venus flytrap. It opens its snap traps and gnaws onto Natsu's abdomen when it reaches him. Natsu yells in pain as he throws his head forward. Laurent drags him over as he pulls his vine back and throws his head back as he prepares his second attack. "NATURE DRAGON'S ROAR!"
When Natsu is near him, Laurent throws his head forward and fires a huge blast of green energy from his mouth, directly onto the Fire Dragon Slayer's face. Natsu screams in agony as Laurent holds him in front of him for a few moments before he finally releases the Fire Dragon Slayer and his blast sends him sprawling through the ground. When Natsu came to a halt, barely at the edge of the pile of vines, he looks up to see Laurent breathing heavily as the demihuman quivered with rage.
"Do you see now, human? Because you care too much about the lives of your friends who are only mindlessly delaying their inevitable defeat, you could never match the same level of power and strength as me." Laurent said.
Natsu turns his head to his right and sees Archer swiftly running over to another possessed soldier and slashes him diagonally with his left sword. Five possessed soldiers run over to Archer and pounce onto him. Archer manages to toss one of them over his right shoulder, but the other four wrap their arms around his neck and lower body to restrain him.
"Archer!" Tokoyami yells as he sees his friend struggling to break free. His shadow tries to fly over to Archer, but four possessed soldiers suddenly leap into the air and pounce onto him. As his shadow struggles to throw them off, the possessed soldiers continously stab their drills onto his arms and torso, causing him to scream in pain.
"NO!" Tokoyami yelled in alarm as he quickly pulls his shadow back towards him. This causes the possessed soldiers to fall off of his shadow as he returns back into Tokoyami's body. While his shadow tries to recover from his injuries, Tokoyami now tries to run over to Archer who manages to kick off a possessed soldier in front of him. But suddenly, one tall possessed soldier runs over to the demihuman to block his path. Tokoyami jumps into the air and delivers two horizontal kicks across his face, but the soldier quickly recovers and grabs him by his left arm. He throws Tokoyami up into the air and slams him onto the ground on his face as he releases his arm. Tokoyami gets up and wipes his beak with his arm before Darren and Road go over to him. Tokoyami glance at them as they hold their katana and Lero in front of them. He looks back at the soldier and they and Lero all yell as they charge towards him.
"If only you had nothing to hold you back, you would have been at your most powerful form." Natsu looks back at Laurent who is now standing up straight with his hands behind his back. He holds up his right hand into the air and squeezes it tightly. "And what you had just witnessed from me…is mine."
Natsu grits his teeth for a moment, before he throws his head back and burst into laughter, much to Laurent's surprise.
"Why do you laugh at the face of defeat?!" Laurent yells at him as he swings his right arm horizontally through the air. After regaining hold of himself, Natsu takes a deep breath before he slowly gets back up on his feet.
"If that is your most powerful form…" Natsu wipes his mouth before looking back up at Laurent with a devilish grin. "Wait until you see mine."
Flames engulf his arms as Natsu throws them down. Laurent grits his teeth at him as he gets back into his fighting stance and grows vines all over his arms. The two Dragon Slayers yell ferociously as they charge towards each other.
"NATURE DRAGON'S…" Laurent yelled as he throws his right arm back and transforms it into a long and large whip. "CRUSHING VINE!"
He swings it horizontally at Natsu, who quickly dodges it by throwing himself back and sliding through the ground on his knees. As Natsu gets back up, he delivers a powerful uppercut to Laurent's abdomen as they go near each other. Laurent gasps in pain as Natsu throws back his other arm.
"FIRE DRAGON'S…" Natsu grabs onto Laurent's face with his hand. "GRIP STRIKE!"
Natsu releases a vast amount of fire onto Laurent's face and creates a huge explosion that sends him flying backwards through the air and falling to the base of the pile of vines. Laurent yelps as he lands on the ground on his back with a thud. He snarls as he lifts his head up. He brings himself back up on his feet and look up to see Natsu flying down towards him as he pulls back his right flaming fist.
As Natsu throws his flaming fist at him, Laurent crosses his arms and covers them with vines to block his attack. After Laurent pushes him back, Natsu performs a backward flip before landing on the ground. Laurent charges towards Natsu and delivers a series of punches at him, who swiftly dodges them by moving himself side to side. Suddenly, Natsu swiftly grabs Laurent's left arm, much to the demihuman's surprise. Natsu swings his left fist at Laurent and punches him across his right cheek.
After releasing his arm, Natsu grabs Laurent's shoulders and delivers a hard kick to his abdomen with his knee. He throws his right fist and punches Laurent across his left cheek before he thrusts his left hand at his chest and gave him a powerful push that sends him sprawling through the ground.
"You're wrong, Laurent." Natsu said to the demihuman as Laurent looks back up at him. "You are so wrong about achieving your most powerful form by putting away your emotions."
As the Fire Dragon Slayer walks over to Laurent, the demihuman gets back up and pulls back his left arm, transforming it into a large vine with a Venus flytrap head, preparing to use his Snap Trap attack again.
"Because my power comes from my friends. Lucy, Happy, Darren, Alicia, Sting, Yukino and everybody else who is fighting for their survival right now." Natsu said.
Having enough of hearing his rambling, Laurent shouted furiously as he thrusts his vine at Natsu, "NATURE DRAGON'S SNAP TRAP!"
But this time, when the Venus flytrap head opens its traps and attempts to bite him, Natsu swiftly grabs its jaws to stop his attack. As Laurent stares back at him in shock, Natsu grits his teeth in fury.
"Let me show you how strong it truly is!" Natsu pushes back the upper jaw of the Venus flytrap head with great force, making a crack that causes Laurent to scream in agony. After pushing the Venus flytrap head back, Natsu throws his arms back and generates huge amounts of flames on both hands.
"FIRE DRAGON'S…" Natsu claps his hands together, creating a huge fireball before lifting it up into the air. "BRILLIANT FLAME!" Natsu tosses the fireball into the mouth of the Venus flytrap head. As the fireball goes inside its mouth, Laurent widens his eyes in horror as he sees his entire left vine arm turning into ash before being engulfed in flames. Laurent screamed again as he quickly transforms it back to normal. He painfully clutches onto his left arm, which is now covered in ashes and his entire left sleeve is burned off.
As he looks back to the front, Laurent could only watch in terror as Natsu flies over to him in great speed, aiming the top of his head at his chest.
"FIRE DRAGON'S SWORD HORN!" Natsu shouted as his entire body is engulfed in flames. The top of his head collided against Laurent's chest, causing the demihuman to gasp in pain as Natsu sends him flying towards a large tree behind him. Natsu finishes him off by slamming him onto the trunk of the tree. Laurent rolls his eyes back and hangs his head before the flames die down and Natsu falls to the ground on his face. Laurent slumps down into a sitting position as he sat against the tree in defeat while Natsu gets back up and looks down on him.
As both men breathed heavily, Laurent clenches his fists and said wearily, "This…T-This can't be…My plan…to invade Petunia…" As he looks back up, he shot a glare at Natsu and grits his teeth. "I will not let it end like this!"
However, as soon as Laurent tries to get up, Natsu swiftly punches him in the face, causing Laurent to sit back down as his back slams against the trunk again.
"Just admit defeat already!" Natsu bellowed. The two Dragon Slayers remain silent for a few moments before he continued, "You are a Dragon Slayer. You are supposed to use your powers for good. To protect innocent people across Earth Land. Instead, you used your powers to either kill them or turn them into mindless slaves. You should be ashamed of yourself!"
Soon, Natsu heard a sniff from Laurent. When the demihuman looks back up at him a few seconds later, Natsu could see tears brimming in his eyes.
"You think I've never used my powers to protect people before? I did so…when my father was still the mayor of Petunia." Laurent explained as he furiously fights back his tears. "Back then…everyone in Petunia admired me and my parents. My father and my mother took good care of the town while I, as the Nature Dragon Slayer, protected it from bandits and invaders. For a while, things could go no wrong for any of us. But then, after the Tartaros Incident happened, all the townspeople completely turn their backs on us. My father's aide, who was a human, betrayed us by allowing the humans to storm into our home and attack us. They injured my parents while they were protecting me. And when we stepped outside, I got to witness the true nature of humanity. Everywhere we go, I see humans forcing the demihumans out of their homes, burning their property, and beating them on the sidewalks. After everything me and my parents have done, this is how the humans reward us in return. My parents and I escaped into the West Forest where we take refuge. I tried to look for help. But no matter where I go, nobody heeds my requests. And eventually, my parents die from their injuries a few days later. That is why…" Laurent paused for a moment as he sniffed again. As tears finally pour out from his eyes, Laurent bawled unhappily at Natsu, "I will never forgive humanity for what they did to us!"
For a few moments, the two Dragon Slayers stare at each other in silence again. Finally, Natsu responded to the heartbroken demihuman, "I'm sorry for what happened to you and your parents. I too know the feeling of losing them. But while you chose to follow your misguided beliefs, I chose to move on and become better. If you continue walking down the path you had chosen, you are only hurting yourself further. Face it. You can kill and enslaved as many people as you want, but it will never undo the past!"
Laurent's eyes grew wide as his words struck him with great force. Natsu frowns as he places his hand on his chest.
"I too hated the guy who killed my father. But while my father may no longer be in this world, I believe his spirit will always live within me." Natsu said firmly before extending his hand to Laurent. "So stop crying. Stand back up, and show your parents how much you've grown, and how you have lived your way since."
Laurent continued staring at Natsu in silence as tears continue flowing down his cheeks. He lowers his head and replied, "No. It's too late for me."
"It's never too late…while you're still alive." Natsu said.
Laurent looks back up at Natsu and pursed his lips. He reaches out his arm and grabs Natsu's hand. The Fire Dragon Slayer smiled back at the demihuman as he pulls him up from the ground.
But suddenly, Laurent pushes him out of the way. As Natsu turned to see why he did it, he drops his jaw and froze in complete shock. Right in front of him is Mala, impaling Laurent on his naginata.
Sovereign: I would like to thank Amanny, AquaBluey, ZKARYX and AlecLightwoodMagnusBane for reviewing, favoriting and following, and Crimson-Tuna-Sub for checking out my story. Thanks guys!
To all my readers, please stay safe and healthy during the pandemic.
