Chapter 13 – The Northern Desert
Chuparosa, the desert town, despite being sat on the edges of the Northern Desert the townspeople still managed to make a life for themselves getting around the harsh conditions which came with the town's location. In the day the yellow-ish stone of the town remains heated through the scorching sun but it was just another thing which the townspeople had grown accustomed too or had made their own solutions to with their magic to help cool them down.
For the most part, no-one from the team had neither the tolerance nor magic to help effectively keep cool in the heat, the moment they had gotten off of the train which was as far as it could even go they were immediately hit by the heatwave of the desert getting them to sweat in no time.
"Thank god we changed our clothes for this…" Levy sighed as she already felt her first beads of sweat appearing on her skin as they walked through the town.
"You would surely have passed out in this heat if you hadn't," Lily added on as he walked alongside Levy with unchanged attire since all he ever wore was already the bear minimum. "But are you sure you won't get sunburnt, Nathan?" He then asked changing his attention to Nathan instead who walked closely beside Wendy helping to support her as the last of her motion sickness wore off.
"I'll be just fine, I'm a light god slayer so light of any form doesn't affect me," Nathan replied nonchalantly with his usual laidback, worry-free appearance. The reason why Lily had even asked in the first place was from how Nathan had decided to dress to best combat the heat of the desert, choosing to wear as little as possible which was more accepted within the desert heat.
He didn't wear a single thing on his upper body, leaving his whole chest exposed with only his irremovable pendant around his neck. While he was wearing shorts and sandals the majority of his lower half went covered by a coat which he had wrapped around himself like a cloak covering his legs and making them the only thing which went protected from the heat of the sun. The only reason why he had the coat was so that he had a little more to wear for when it eventually became night in the desert where the temperature would most certainly plummet.
At first, Wendy was a panicking mess due to not really having seen Nathan shirtless before unlike her previous partners Natsu and Gray of which it was almost commonplace to see them like that. And it didn't help much that Nathan had to support her off of the train either, but it was something that she slowly but surely adjusted too, even if it was a mixture of the desert heat and her flustered reactions that was causing her to slightly overheat.
"Are alright now Wendy?" Nathan asked as he felt her stir slightly beside him, throwing a glance her way.
"Yeah, I can walk by myself now at least." She answered as she lightly pulled away from Nathan helping her calm down slightly as she adjusted her hat slightly. When they had opted to get a change of clothes Wendy had gone to a clothing shop just to get her something to wear in the desert heat and was wearing the clothes she had purchased. What she was wearing was a simple grey tank top and sky blue shorts with sandals alongside a sunhat for added protection against the rays of the sun.
"We should all make sure that we're not pushing ourselves, we can't be passing out here especially while we are within the desert!" Carla said as she walked along in a dainty little dress with a tiny little sunhat to match. "And that goes double for you!" She suddenly said to Nathan with accusatory tones pointing a figure right at him.
"I won't, I won't…" Nathan immediately responded passing off her concern without care further disgruntling Carla. "I promised didn't I?" He added in further hopes to improve the exceeds mood.
"It'll make it a lot harder than it's worth, you know? It's best that you don't move too much, I don't think any of us wouldn't pass out if we did anything like running." Levy added with a sympathetic smile knowing that it would apply to Nathan more than anyone else with how much he moves about far more than anyone else when he fights.
"I could scout about a little bit though…" Nathan suggested in solemn tones as they walked along through the town.
"Nathan…" Wendy said in response to the suggestion as she gave him a hard stare that was completely devoid of any and all forms of intimidation or warning, instead of coming off more like an upset child.
"At dawn?" Nathan carefully added on, hoping that it would be enough to calm her down.
"It would depend on how cool it is, but until you can start running without problem we're just limited to Lily and Carla flying into the sky. Besides, do you want to keep running through that?" Levy said as she gestured to the space just before them, of which was the open desert.
Just looking out at the burning sand plains, barren and devoid of all life with heatwaves not at as into the distance as both Nathan and Wendy would have expected was enough to cause hesitation even within Nathan.
"Just how harsh is this desert supposed to be?" Nathan asked as he blankly stared across it, rubbing off a few drops of sweat that rolled down his face.
"Most people agree it's one of the harshest, with the weather and conditions it makes whatever can manage to survive here pretty dangerous. You've got to either be brave or powerful to go through here but at least determined." Levy answered with a tired voice, seemingly full of the same sense of realization than the teenagers possessed.
"Such a place would make for the perfect place for a time gear to be hidden then if so few people were to come here in the first place." Lily speculated with an unwavering gaze, seemingly the only one who remained unfazed from the prospect of the desert. Something which the rest of the team assumed was due to whatever kinds of things he got up to whenever he was with Gajeel like his training regimens. "Should we leave? We have everything we need now right?"
"Yeah, the sooner we can get this over with the better." Levy agreed as she took the first steps into the desert as a leading example for the others, seemingly taking the role of leader for this mission. A role she naturally accepted as the main adult of the group.
The moment they stepped into the sands of the desert they felt the scorching heat of the desert sands on the soles of their feet despite the sandals they wore. Strangely enough, it even felt that the intensity of the sun's rays increased the further they got from town not that it really affected Nathan who's only issue was the heat.
"I almost forgot!" Levy suddenly burst out as they walked, almost bringing the group to a standstill. "Nathan, the master said you have some way of finding the time gear right? Does that mean you can start tracking it now? How do you do it even?"
"Oh! Well…" Nathan started not knowing quite what to say.
"It would be imperative to this mission and likely one of the main reasons why we're the team without an S-Class mage. If fact it might also be the main reason why we were the ones assigned to this desert." Lily added on thinking of the multitude of advantages they had over the others for the desert and befits they would bring if Nathan really did have the ability he was said to possess.
"It's not wrong, it's just… slightly situational." Nathan eventually answered. "I can only track them when I'm close enough, I can hardly do so across a whole desert!"
"So what do we do until that happens then?" Wendy asked.
"It's hardly like there is much for us to go upon here, with it being so bland and all. The only thing we can go along to search for is something which slightly stands out from the desert, which could be anything!" Carla complained with irritancy as the true challenge of searching the desert was now starting to present.
"Last time we did our best to locate a river and then we followed it upstream, maybe we could at least try to find a dried-up river and follow that in one direction?" Nathan suggested, hoping that their original plan could be reapplied in a similar manner.
"It's a better plan than not having one at all," Levy said in agreement. "Are we all happy to try and do that then?"
"We're assuming it's in another lake?" Lily asked as they walked along. "It's better than nothing but it's still pretty vague."
"If there's running water nearby I'm sure that ill manage to hear it from a distance!" Wendy mentioned hoping to be even more helpful to the group.
"I guess we could check right now if there is anything like that to be seen then," Carla said simply as she sprouted her arms, leaving Wendy's arms to take to the skies as Lily followed after her. For the few moments that they were up there Nathan, Wendy and Levy were left to simply look up into the sky at them whilst they checked the surroundings doing their best to pick up on anything in the distance.
They didn't stay in the sky for long as soon after they came flying back down, each of them shaking their heads voicing their findings, or rather lack of. "Well we should at least keep track of what direction we are travelling in so we can return to town," Levy said as she pulled out a compass, noting down the direction to be a little into the south-east.
"Well, shall we start searching then?" Levy asked the group earning enthusiastic answers in response.
That enthusiasm, however, quickly found itself being burnt through…
Minutes had turned to hours and before long the team had been wandering through the desert for more than half of the day, only stopping occasionally for breaks and for Carla and Lily to recheck the surroundings, each time they tried them always came back with nothing. The only thing which was to be seen in the desert was the odd dried up shrubbery or even bones of corpses long passed which was accidentally noticed after Wendy had stood on it and jumped back in shock of the cracking sound it then produced.
"When's dawn gonna come…" Nathan moaned as he wiped off another load of sweat that had accumulated as they walked, all motivation drained from him and he wasn't the only one.
"Can we have an ice-cream at least?" Wendy also moaned as she dragged herself along, seemingly just as devoid of enthusiasm as Nathan.
"I'll make some ice the next chance we get, but for now we've got to push on," Levy said trying to keep the teenagers motivated to keep on moving, not that she was doing much better herself and even while she had promised them ice, hers would barely last that long in the heat. If Gray was here it might not have been too much of a stretch to stay he could have kept them all cool with ease.
The only one in the group that remained seemingly unfazed by the heat of the desert was Lily who somehow managed to keep walking on a strongly as they had started, his determination never wavering. The whole remained of the team was quick to silently agree that it was just the result of some form of training he did in the past with Gajeel, whatever they got up to for training.
"Excuse me! Hello!" A friendly voice shouted out to the group managing to wake them up slightly.
"Someone else is out here?" Wendy said in shock as they looked about to see just who was talking to them.
"Hello!" The voice shouted out again as the sounds of footsteps could be heard in the dunes, gradually growing louder as they approached the team. Before long a somewhat skinny woman was walking right up to them with a warm smile on her face, somehow vibrant with energy despite the heat. "I saw you three off in the distance and wondered what you were doing out here, and travelling in the middle of the day no less!"
"Someone else really is here!" Carla exclaimed, who before was certain that her mind was playing tricks on her.
"Hi! But we have to ask as well what are you doing out here? This time of year is quite dangerous you know, on top of the weather as well!" Levy greeted, doing her best to put on her usual enthusiasm that she held at the guild.
"Merchants, we have to come out here all the time even now to get our goods. Due to the dangers of this place what can be found here becomes rather valuable you see!" The woman cheerily answered. "But even then we never roam quite as you're doing! Right now we have a small camp set up."
"You do!" Wendy said cheerfully with a sense of rejuvenation from the simple fact of a camp not being so far from them, the idea of finally getting some rest being priceless in her mind.
"We do! After I saw you in the distance I wondered if you were doing alright, if you would like you could come and rest with us for a while. If there's something you're looking for out here then maybe you could even stay with us!" The woman suggested cheerily, clasping her hands together as if the most wonderful idea had sprung into her mind.
"Well we can't really stay with you but…" Levy started to answer as she took another glance at Wendy who was still seemingly over the moon at the chance to take a rest. There was no problem with them taking a rest, but there was when it was with a group of people they randomly encountered in the middle of nowhere.
Usually, it wouldn't have bothered her so and would have loved to have met some friendly faces but she was currently the leading adult of an S-Class mission with her teammates primarily being merely teenagers and none of them were S-Class. That on top of the fact that the Northern Desert was not the kind of place to be meeting people especially right now had her on the more cautious side.
"We would appreciate a little break, however!" Levy finished, putting on her usually cheerful, friendly smile keeping her more serious thoughts masked.
"Oh, really?" The woman responded, taken back from the response from Levy but nevertheless quickly recovered. "Well, we're still glad that you'll take a rest with us at least! It's not very good to push yourself so hard through a desert, you know?" She said resuming her cheery demander from before.
"Are you sure this is a good idea? We could take a break away from them at the next tree we spot out here instead." Lily asked in a low whisper making sure that he's suspicions weren't heard.
"I already thought that they might not be so trustworthy, but right now it surely would be fine just for a short rest right?" Levy lightly argued, knowing that if she was wrong then they would have an unfavourable fight on their hands.
"We should remain on guard at least." Lily finished as they began to follow after the woman who was starting to feel more overly friendly on Nathan's part. Naturally, Wendy still managed to hear their conversation and with one worried yet serious glance at Nathan informed him, who nodded back in response getting the vague idea to remain on guard. Not something he would like to do when trying to take a break but understood the importance nonetheless.
It was only a short walk to where the camp the woman came from was situated, with it being full of people all wearing clothed clothing to help keep the sun off their skins whilst makeshift shelters from the sun were setup making as much shade as possible from simple sheets of white fabric. It was all across this smallish camp were people sat down, resting and talking with a small pile of their supplies all to the side.
"And this is our little camp! You're free to stay here with us as long as you like!" The woman announced as they finally entered the grounds of the camp where various people gave them a wave as they entered.
"Please sit down!" the woman ushered them as they were finally brought under some shade near the middle of the camp. "I'm afraid that we really can't share supplies with you, but you seem to be doing well enough right?"
"It's fine! We're already grateful for everything! We'll just need a short rest and then we'll be going again!" Levy replied cheerily, a response that would have helped calm down any hospital host or made them feel better but the woman they were faced with only seemed to appear crestfallen for a moment.
"I see, well if that's what you insist upon doing then we won't stop you!" She said trying to perk herself up before briskly walking away seeming need to be somewhere.
"She said 'we' didn't she?" Lily asked, picking up on the language that had been used.
"Because she's talking about the group? There's nothing wrong with saying that right?" Nathan asked as he laid himself back against a nearby rock, already taking every moment to relax to the fullest and regain the energy they had spent searching tirelessly and without reward in the desert.
"You do understand that we have nothing to trust these people with don't you? In fact, they are more suspicious than trustworthy." Levy pointed out hoping to get Nathan more on guard but it was no avail.
"Completely, but that doesn't mean having paranoia is any good as well," Nathan argued.
"Paranoia to you would still include commonplace suspicion in situations like these!" Carla shouted back, "If the master knew just how bad you were like this then I wonder if he would have allowed you on this mission."
"At least I don't shout out what I'm thinking for all to hear," Nathan replied, not giving even the faintest amount of attention to Carla.
"Sometimes I think it would be better if you did," Carla said with a huff as she sat down on the desert sands, which despite the shade was still rather warm to sit upon.
"As of right now, it would be a bad thing, why would you even say that about me?!" Nathan responded getting Carla to shift around to face him, wearing an expression that it clear that she was either going to start listing things or do her best to start stressing a point, not that Nathan gave her the chance. "Before you say anything, look around."
Doing as suggested, Carla then moved her gaze around the entire camp, seeing everything as it was before but now the traders of which they were resting with all seemed to be eyeing them warily, clearly not pleased with something. The moment they knew that someone was looking at them however they did they best to appear friendly but Nathan's vision was sharp enough to still see them even if they were not directly in his sight.
"They started acting like that after you yelled out," Nathan added on in a low voice, each and every action of his completely relaxed but it was only now that Carla realized that it was mostly an act, to keep the trader's knowledge of that at a minimum.
"It seems they don't want us leaving…" Levy said in a whisper for the group which was now just stating the obvious. Following her words one of the 'traders' held out an open arm to them from the side, a red magic seal appearing just before him as he blasted of several fireballs at the group.
Despite their suspicions the action still caught the group off-guard with only Nathan having the reactions to do anything about the attack, silently cancelling them out with several bolts of black light. The collision of the two spells caused a small explosion that left behind a small patch of fire from where it had occurred, supplying even more heat than what they were already getting from the desert.
"We've barely been here at all and they're already attacking…" Nathan said as he got to his feet with the rest of the team.
"Perhaps due to knowing we were thinking of leaving soon enough they wanted to catch us while we were still fatigued," Lily suggested as he reached for his tiny blade that he kept on his back. As he did so his body was momentarily covered in a shine as he figure grew in size as he assumed his battle form, ready for the fight ahead leaving Nathan alone shocked by the sudden change.
"You can get buff?!" Nathan exclaimed as he looked at Lily in surprise as he easily towered over him and Wendy now.
"It's my battle mode, I can't sustain it forever, however. Stay focused." Lily briefly mentioned to the teenager without letting his focus waver for a moment getting Nathan to do so as well, viewing the site of all of the people in the camp to begin rising up, getting ready to subdue their prey as so they could do whatever they pleased.
Once again the 'traders' attacked, this time multiple of them tired attacking unleashing a barrage of fireballs from all sides as others reached for their weapons or prepared other forms of magic.
Wasting no time either Wendy immediately acted upon the attack, spreading her arms wide as she manipulated air around them. "Sky dragon's Aegis!" Wendy chanted causing her winds to form a protective dome over them not only shielding them from all the fireballs but also extinguishing the nearby fire.
For a moment Nathan appreciated and recognized what the spell likely was, one of the fruits of Wendy's training despite how brief it likely was. He didn't get too much longer to marvel at Wendy's quick growth as he was snapped out of it by Wendy herself.
"Nathan, do you think you can attack despite my wind?" Wendy asked as she looked over at him as she maintained her spell, a moment afterwards the sound of lightning could be heard smashing into Wendy's wind barrier as a tiny flash of light happened but otherwise held firm.
"Only one way without needing to see anything," Nathan answered as he began his own spell. Letting a soft pulse of dark light leave his body and filling the area, the bandits outside the wind barrier were simply confused at the sight until they saw the following effect.
"Photon Radiance!" Nathan finished, causing a multitude of black orbs of light to rapidly appear in the camp outside of Wendy's barrier before detonating them in the next instant, the explosions already beating a fair portion of the bandits down.
With the shouts and groans caused by the unexpected attack serving as a signal that it very much had an effect, Wendy released her winds letting them barrier burst of them blowing back their enemies as a result.
"We know how much you like to move in your fights but remember where you are, we can't risk heatstroke right now!" Carla mentioned as she kept close to Wendy, her words for Nathan leaving with the faint feeling of irritancy from the prohibition of movement.
"We need to take care of the fire wizards first! Otherwise, they might cause the heat to get worse!" Levy instructed as she tried to spot at least one of the mages who had made the preemptive strikes.
"And we can't beat them all at once because?" Nathan asked, casually already attacking a group of people with enough force to make them seem helpless with a barrage of lights blasts.
"You can just prioritize!" Levy answered, "Solid Script: Sword!" She chanted as she wrote out the word taking a swing at the crowds who tried to fight back.
"Sky dragon's roar!" Wendy yelled, unleashing a hurricane from her jaw that struck at the groups, forcing a majority of the people back with even a few of them already ending up unconscious, making the exposure of the mages and ordinary bandits. Her wind did even more, however, as the mages who remained standing were blinded by the sand that was kicked up into their eyes by the wind.
"Dam wizards, what reason do they have to be out here?!" One of the bandits yelled in irritation.
"It doesn't matter, the boss said he wants the cats at least and so we're getting them! Imagine how much talking flying cats are worth!" A familiar voice yelled as a woman joined the other bandits, being the same lady who had led them into the camp, to begin with. "Burning Wall!" She then yelled, causing a stream of fire to rush towards and surround the team, intensely heating them up once again.
"So that's their goal, they want Carla and Lily. And they really are trying to make us pass out." Levy said as she faced the fire with the rest. "Solid Script: Water!" She chanted, forming the word water made out of said substance before it splashed down putting out the fire for the group.
"Trying to make use of the heat is the most valid strategy for them, considering their lack of strength considering ours," Lily mentioned as he enlarged his sword to take another swing with a few of the mages managing to dodge whilst some took the blow.
"Thunder Flash!" One of the mages yelled as she wildly unleashed lightning bolts over the camp trying to hit as many of the fairy tail mages as possible.
"Light gods bellow!" Nathan yelled as he nimbly avoided the attack, returning fire with a blast of black light that came far too quickly for the lightning mage to avoid after having used her spell. Getting struck by the spell she was easily driven back and slammed into the ground with a resounding explosion that Nathan assumed would have been a finisher for the woman.
"Just burn them up and grab the cats!" The original deceptive bandit, and seemingly secondary to the boss, demanded getting a rough chorus of agreement in return.
"Enjoy this one! Inferno Overdrive!" One of the random mages yelled catching Wendy's attention with ease getting to spin around to see something which shocked her, five different mages all seemingly trying to perform a single unison raid.
"Stop! Doing a unison raid with so many people is really unstable magic!" Wendy desperately argued gaining the attention of Nathan as well after hearing her words.
"You're just scared, little girl!" Another one of the mages yelled before they all took their shot, firing a seemingly highly compressed fireball at Wendy that had great strokes of flames trailing off behind it. The spell hardly seemed well put together as it triggered small bursts of explosions even as it travelled along and it didn't even stick to a straight path, but Nathan wasn't risking any of it for Wendy.
Before Wendy even had the chance to do anything herself in the attempts to block or pass off the spell Nathan with enhanced speed was already before her. "Light gods dance!" He yelled at he kicked the fireball far off into the distance as if it was an ordinary ball. The result was something that Wendy was already completely expecting as many large, powerful and uncontrolled explosions proceeded to go off in the distance as a massive fire was left to burn.
It was clear that if the spell had taken effect anywhere near the camp or collided with anything else then the whole place would have been completely blown up. But little did everyone know that it was just far enough and loud enough for something else…
"Are you idiots!?" Nathan yelled back at the five mages who were now panicking from the fact a single child managed to pass off their combined power. "Light gods Apollo!" He yelled, unleashing several bolts with barely any restraint that pummeled the group with a series of explosions as well that reverberated through the area.
During the moment, Wendy was completely shocked from what had just transpired and of her saving but Nathan's latest attack also snapped her out of it. "Thank yo-" she began to apologize before she noticed the state of Nathan's foot which was now rather well burnt, no doubt from kicking the super unstable and powerful fireball from only moments before. "You're burnt!" She quickly stated as she pointed it out, not that Nathan needed it.
"Naturally," Nathan answered before keeping his whit's about him and looking around for any danger in the area. "You mind helping after this is over?" He asked with a quick smile earning an eager nod instantly.
"Of course!" She agreed without hesitation before turning back to the fight which Levy and Lily were mostly handling by themselves.
Sending a blade of light cutting between Levy and Lily striking yet another mage through some of the makeshift shelters Nathan stood beside their older companions with Wendy right behind. "Can we just get this over with?" Nathan asked, growing impatient from the sheer numbers that they were faced with.
"It would be nice but I'm not sure if we can afford to waste energy here," Levy answered as she was starting to pant from the effort of the fight mixed with the heat of the desert.
"You won't be getting much of a choice tiny!" A deeper, more enraged voice sounded from just ahead. Upon hearing the voice every last of the bandits stopped in their tracks and turned their attention to it with praise and joy in their eye's as if they saviour had just arrived. From the closest tent that lay before them that Nathan had just freshly cut into, a huge hulky man emerged from, his whole body practically pure muscle whilst being littered with scars of various sizes from all over.
"After everything you've and your group have done, there ain't the slightest chance of just letting ya walk away without a beating!" He finished as he stood just before the group with anger clear on his face as well as the closest thing Nathan had seen to murderous intent in his eyes. The was no need for anyone to do anything to know that this person was clearly leagues above the other bandits, but it wasn't so clear just how well he stood against the team.
"Iron make Lance!" The bandit leader yelled as he sent forth a great spear from between his hands, sending it racing towards the group but the straightforward attack was easily dodged.
"Iron make: Spikes!" The bandit leader yelled out again as he slammed one of his great fists to the ground causing massive iron spikes to form out of the ground like spears as the floor itself became iron as the attacked rushed up to the split up members of the group.
"Solid script: Fire!" Levy chanted as she wrote out the word to counter the oncoming attack, which for a moment seemed to be effective as he melted through the already made spikes, but it failed to actually stop the oncoming ones. In the remaining moments, Lily managed to grab a hold of Levy and lifted her clear into the air, well out of the way of the attack clearing the two as safe.
Although Wendy was doing well enough keeping her distance from the attack by herself, it wasn't long before Carla decided to follow Lily's lead by taking Wendy into the air as well, saving her the effort of moving around in the heat.
Seeing the perfect chance to get close and better deal with the fight Nathan did away with trying to avoid movement as he prepared his own offensive. "Lightspeed Flurry!" Nathan yelled as a dark glow quickly covered his body moments before he raced towards the oncoming attack. With his enhanced speed, he easily made it past the initial attack as he reached one of the iron spikes before proceeding to bounce off a few of them as he closed the gap between him and his foe within an instant.
Unable to keep up with Nathan's movements the bandit leader was taken by complete surprise at Nathan's fighting prowess before he was kicked clean in the face forcing him right back.
Smiling at landing the first hit, Nathan immediately chased down the leader to keep on the pressure and not give him the chance to recover in the slightest. "Iron make: Sword!" The leader somewhat desperately yelled as a bland yet large blade formed in his hand as he swung at Nathan.
The attack never connected however as the bandits bulk made his movements slow, allowing him to easily foresee the attack and jump over to the leader's backside and kick him again. Not even allowing the pleasure of impact with the ground Nathan shot towards the leaders flying body, landing a flying kick that drove the leader into the side of the nearest bolder the camp was built around.
From within the air, the girls were quick to cheer seeing the one-sided fight unfold before them while Lily only gave a stern glance, taking any chance to further learn from others about combat.
"W-Why… You!" The leader grumbled in his boiling rage as he clenched his fists so tightly they started going white as he stared down Nathan who stood before him with a seemingly bored expression. "Iron make: Chains!" He yelled sending forth several chains with only a few of them aimed towards Nathan, while their main objective very much was Carla and Lily within the air.
While Nathan easily evaded his chains with a simple flip and side jump leaving them stuck in the ground, Carla and Lily quickly snapped back into the reality of them being targeted instead of Nathan. While Lily took his sword in one arm and cleared off his assailing chains with a single swing, Carla was forced to back off immediately and avoid the chains that unlike the others made continuous efforts to wrap around her and Wendy.
"Sky dragon's wing attack!" Wendy yelled as she threw forth two blades of wind that cleanly cut through the chains getting them to limply fall down to the ground in pieces. Seeing yet another of his attempts be easily foiled by the leader's rage only grew, reaching height's that made it look as if his head was about to burst.
"Boss, what about the arena?" His seeming secondary whispered into his ear as he stood upright. The moment he heard the suggestion he switched into a grin in an instant, but it only lasted a few moments as he looked back up at the flying exceeds.
"Just make sure the animals don't getaway." He sternly said, earning an immediate response from all of his lackeys as they cheered in response.
"I'm sure they won't leave the kid behind, they appear to be guild wizards and most of their kind would hardly abandon a child of their own. He would be a perfect hostage wouldn't get Boss?" Hearing that, the leader needed little more persuasion as he went straight into their plan.
"Iron Make: Arena!" The leader yelled out causing a huge caged arena to appear, trapping Nathan, the bandit leader and his assistant inside. The moment it was formed Nathan looked about realising that the leader was clearing starting to use more of a plan than before and he was placed within a hefty disadvantage.
Not only was he now completely cut on from Wendy and the rest in a two on one fight, but spikes adorned the whole of the inside walls of the arena making it completely impossible to bounce off the wall like he usually did if the opportunity presented itself. The two facts combined with the heavy burns on one of his feet defiantly made it so he could hardly let his guard down for.
"Nathan!" Wendy yelled out as they were cut off from him, knowing the disadvantages he faced completely herself.
"Get them!" The rest of the bandits yelled as they barraged the four guild mages in the sky with an assortment of magic which was primarily fire.
"Wendy, we have to deal with the other's first!" Levy yelled, trying to get Wendy to prioritise their greatest threat at the moment, despite knowing the complete danger Nathan was in.
"But!" She tried arguing back before she went interrupted by a blast of sand which Carla narrowly pulled her away from.
"Nathan is a competent fighter Wendy! Likely the most capable of all of us! He'll be able to hold his own; we need to deal with everything else before we can help him, however! And before he loses his stamina. It's likely the only area he doesn't surpass the two combined on." Lily yelled out as he and Levy raced towards their portion of the bandits, tearing into their numbers and knocking back a fair few.
It took Wendy a few moments to accept the fact but she ultimately did, but not before leaving Nathan some assistance in the meantime. "Dues Eques!" Wendy chanted, laying the enchantment on herself but primarily Nathan causing the glow covering to grow as he felt a new surge of power in his body.
"Thanks for that Wendy!" Nathan yelled out, knowing full well the cause of his power surge.
"You can do it! Just hold on!" Wendy shouted back as she finally gave her full attention to the bandits who were trying to strike her down from a distance. "Sky dragon's roar!" She yelled blasting a hurricane of wind towards a mixed blast of fire and red hot sand that was rushing towards her easily blowing it all aside and making a clear hit on the attackers.
"Those blasted idiots are already losin?!" The leader shouted out in irritation, "Not that it will matter much when we hav you!" And without any further warning, he attacked.
"Iron make: Spikes!" "Inferno!" The two bandits yelled, aiming their spells to first trap and then obliterate Nathan but his actions were quicker and his movement much more superior.
"Light gods dance!" Nathan yelled as he fought down the pain from his burn, leaping outside of the two attacks before racing towards the bandits with incredible speed, blitzing straight through them and pluming them to the side with kicks. "light god's bellow!" Nathan yelled again blasting a ray of light from his mouth immediately after which went blocked in the nick of time by an iron wall.
But even the wall was barely enough as it was completely blown to bits, something only managed from how hastily the barrier was put together. "Please, is that all your capable of?" Nathan teased, half out of his actual thoughts and half out of wanting to blind his foe with his own anger.
"You bastard! I swear I'll spear ya one!" The leader yelled as he clambered to his feet, but he never got his chance…
As they fought on the outside of the metal dome, beating aside any bandit that flung themselves at the group it was wasn't long at all before Wendy swore she saw something in the distance. "Carla! Lift me up!" She cried out to the feline who wordlessly complied despite her confusion on why Wendy wanted to be lifted.
Upon gaining the airborne view she immediately confirmed just what she had thought she had seen, a massive dune of sand that was getting closer and closer to the camp at an alarming speed, as if a moving sand dune wasn't alarming enough.
In the next few second's nearly all the fighting began to stop as they felt the tremors in the ground which quickly became strong enough to knock people off their feet if they weren't stable enough.
"Levy, Lily! Get off the ground!" Wendy desperately yelled to her companions knowing that something was wrong, sensing that being on the ground was currently the last place anyone wanted to be currently.
While Lily and Levy were somewhat confused at Wendy's plea they still complied due to the worry in her voice, taking to the skies to join her. "What's the prob-" Levy started as they joined her in the air before she noticed the complete problem for herself. "That's a-" Levy began to point out she aimed a finger at the great moving sand dune but went interrupted as it busted through the camp and leapt out of the sand, effectively answering for itself.
The moment the leader had finished his sentence a great coiling beast burst up from below, easily tearing up half of the created arena as if it was paper. "What is that?!" Nathan exclaimed as he took a step back in shock whilst the bandits were practically screaming.
"A Molduga!" They yelled as they tried to get away from the great desert beast. "Run!" He shouted out he desperately began to sprint but seemingly in response to his movement the beast swung its tail at the man, seemingly crushing him unless he managed to get lucky.
Silently Nathan knew that he at least had to get out of his confined space, but the moment he took another step the creature turned his attention to him and lunged. Unlike the bandit leader, he was a great deal more athletic and mobile, easily managing to leap over the attack and land on the great sand serpents scaly, sandy back as it continued to burrow back into the ground.
With no other option to escape his cornered situation from the moving monster, Nathan was quick to make use of his greatly enhanced speed to run along the beasts back quicker than it could burrow, leaping off the tip of its tail into the air just before he ran out of surface to run on.
"Nathan!" Wendy cried out as she noticed his figure clear into the air off the back of the Molduga, alerting the others to his presence.
"That's a molduga?!" Nathan shouted out as Lily grabbed hold and carried him under one of his arms with Levy in the other.
"Yeah, we must have been fighting too close to one of their nests," Levy answered as they watched the great sand serpent lay waste to the bandit camp and all of those that still inhabited it.
"Wait, if we were near a nest then…" Carla began to mention before she was interrupted by the arrival of a second molduga bursting out of the sand. "Would those be the parents then?" She instead asked.
"It's quite likely," Levy answered as they continued to watch the carnage from above as the two great sandworms tore through everything beneath them leaving Carla and Nathan stunned whilst Wendy was terrified at the sight of the monstrous jaws which looked like shredders as they devoured everything.
They were all snapped out of their daze however as one of the two molduga's lunged at the group, doing its best to reach them in the sky forcing Lily and Cara to move aside from the attack leaving the great beast to fall back down and into the sand below.
"Do they happen to create quicksand by any chance?" Nathan asked as he looked back down at the chaos beneath as every patch of sand which the molduga's emerged from and then left or sometimes even just burrowed into quickly became what was easily distinguishable as a quicksand pit.
"No, they simply just tunnel through the sand. It must have been like that naturally but the molduga's are just removing what the sand is being supported by. But that only makes it stranger, since quicksand can only form from waterlogged sand or clay." Levy answered as the inspected the area with shock.
"But we're in the middle of a desert!" Carla shouted.
"Would this be worth exploring then?" Wendy asked with hopes of being closer to their goal than they thought.
"Wouldn't Nathan know?" Levy asked as she faced him taking him back a little.
"It wouldn't be a waste of time I think…" Nathan answered, not sure of what to say. If his pendant was reacting then it would be a certainty that they were at their goal however that wasn't the case. And even if it wasn't reacting it might just be because they weren't quite close enough to the time gear for it to react.
As much as Lily wanted to question the vague answer from the one person who was supposed to be able to track their goal, he never got the chance as he limits were drawing alarmingly close. "Either way I think you're going to have to beat these two, for now, I can't keep this form up for much longer to hold the both of you."
"Then drop me, I'm much better at movement that all of you." Nathan calmly responded, already completely prepared for the drop to the ground and whatever would come after his initial landing.
"But your foot is burned! You can't be able to move very well!" Wendy argued instantly as she remembered the injury he received upon saving not only her but arguably the whole camp from before.
"Can't you heal it quickly? What he said is true, the one who stands the best chance on the ground would be him and right now it isn't the time to be arguing about who will be in danger!" Carla instantly rebutted as she moved over to Lily, bringing Wendy to Nathan as if it was an already settled matter.
"Right." Wendy agreed not all that enthusiastic sounding as she held out hands out to Nathan's burned foot causing a soft green light that gave him instant relief from the pain that he had been struggling to hold down. Within moments the burn was completely cured Nathan quickly flexed his foot as if to test it with a smile.
"I'm at my limit." Lily suddenly announced as within a quick puff his stature instantly reverted to his much smaller form, alongside causing Nathan to begin falling to the ground as he was released.
"Thanks for that Wendy!" Nathan yelled as he fall, unable to look back at her as he planned out his landing amongst the chaos below. The moment he touched the sand he already felt the sand begin to move upwards all due to a rapidly approaching molduga.
Thankfully he hadn't released his lightspeed flurry and nor have Wendy lifted her enchantments allowing for Nathan to easy leap to the side, escaping the jaws that shot out of the group that otherwise likely would have consumed him and killed him within an instant.
"Solid Script: Fire!" "Sky dragon's roar!" Levy and Wendy yelled out as they quickly began helping out Nathan from the sky, their two attacks mingling into a burning tornado that managed to strike one of the molduga's square on, pushing it back some.
"Light god's divine fist!" Nathan yelled as he rocketed at the other molduga, slamming into it with enough force that he too managed to push back the sandworm so the two giants crashed into one another causing them to screech out in pain.
In agitation of being attacked, they immediately tried crushing Nathan with their tails, but their large bodies made the attack easy to notice and with their speed paling in comparison to Nathan's, they were nowhere near close to hitting by the time he had gotten out of the way.
Taking the presented chance, Nathan hopped on one of the tails of the lengthy molduga's bodies and quickly began running along with it. "Light gods Apollo!" He yelled out as he threw forth bolts of blacklight striking of the other molduga's all along its body as it came rushing at him.
Nathan easily managed to leap onto of it however as he ran along its moving figure, allowing it to throw its body at its likely partner sending them both to the ground. "Light gods Ira!" Nathan yelled again as he threw an orb of light to the sky, causing a constant rain of light bullets from the sky that continued to pummel the two beasts.
"Sky dragon's wing attack!" Wendy cried as she let loose as many different wind blades as she could muster at once doing her best to continue to strike away at the clumsy desert beasts doing her best to keep them down.
The two beasts quickly burrowed under the sand in order to escape the assault from above, but not before having flicked Nathan off of their bodies and high into the sky. In the next moment one of the molduga's were already leaping out of the sand towards Nathan whilst he was airborne, with him helpless to do anything but admire the massive jaws that were surely about to devour him.
"Light god's bellow!" Nathan yelled as he released a blast of black light right into the molduga's gaping jaw, forcing him to swallow the blast causing it to wither in pain from the sudden strike at its innards. But it did nothing to help him against the other molduga that was also now lunging towards him.
"Dragon slayer secret art: Shattering light: Sky drill!" Wendy quickly chanted as she hurriedly cast her most powerful spell, sending a powerful blast of wind right at the centre of the suffering molduga and into the other one, forcing the two to retreat under the sand once again.
"Thanks!" Nathan yelled out as he finally touched upon the ground again, finally free to make whatever movement he wanted. Making sure that he was no sitting duck for either of the beasts he wasted no time in beginning to move once again as she rushed along the sand, carefully managing his breaths as he fought against his rising body temperature.
While he didn't like the fact, if he was forced to keep moving about in the open too much longer he really would be prone to passing out.
Little did he know, however, his movement didn't matter in the slightest as the molduga's were no longer targeting him. Instead, they rose out of the ground not too far from him but their target was clearly different. Instead, they both continued high into the sky heading straight for Wendy and Carla.
Shocked by the unexpected attacked the girls were nearly defenceless as they could only gasp at the monsters sudden change of target, and of the impending doom coming their way. In the few moments he had, Nathan quickly did what quickest action he believed would work.
"Photon Edge: Gigagash!" Nathan yelled out at he formed a massive blade of light above his head that towered into the sky being visible to even those far off in the distance. With all of his effort, he swung the blade down sending the two molduga crashing to the ground just before they could reach the girls and Lily.
"Thank you!" Wendy called back down as she finally managed to regain her breath from the shocking experience.
"No problem!" Nathan yelled back as he panted heavily, doing his best to keep his remaining strength from being sapped by the heat.
Despite the massive blow to their backs the two sand beasts still managed to somehow move their massive bodies as the desperately fought on, but it was no longer just the parents anymore…
As the two molduga's rose they went accompanied by many more smaller ones that rose out of the sand with them. "That must be the rest of the nest!" Levy pointed out as they saw all the smaller molduga's rise out of the ground, which despite being much smaller were still nearly the size of Nathan himself as the popped out from all round him.
"Things have gotten even worse; they might have sensed their parents were in trouble," Lily commented as he looked down at the situation.
Nathan didn't need much time to know the position he was in, and how limited his choices were. If he kept forcing himself to fight on without taking a break, even he knew that his every movement now was precious, and couldn't waste anything.
"Guess I'll have to try and end it here…" He mumbled to himself as he narrowly sidestepped one of the smaller molduga. 'Even if it'll upset Wendy, there's nothing more for it…' Thought as he began to concentrate what would likely be the last of his strength.
"What is he planning? He would have moved from there by now." Carla asked as they looked down upon Nathan, readying more spells to fight the molduga's with.
"Is he running out of strength?!" Wendy thought aloud in worry, alerting the others to the possibility as well.
"Considering the heat, we have been fighting for quite a long time…" Carla mentioned, not helping calm Wendy in the slightest.
"We shouldn't have taken the risk at all!" Levy said with a heavy heart, knowing that all their current problems stemmed from her one simple, yet big mistake. "We can't waste any more time, someone needs to switch out with him quickly!"
The moment she heard the sentence, Wendy was more than willing to be the tag in but she never got the chance to say it as their attention quickly caught hold of something. "Boost: Power… God slayer secret art…" Nathan started as he crossed his arms over his chest forcing power to well up from inside him, constantly building it to ever greater heights as he poured everything he had remaining into it.
The momentary power surge was clear to the airborne team stunning them into silence as they viewed whatever Nathan was up too on his own, with it being right at multiple of the molduga's lunged at him did Wendy snap back and try to take action to defend him but there was never the need.
"Dawn of the Divine!" Nathan called out as a black light sparked from his body before he threw his arms wide, unleashing all of his stored power at once that rushed out an engulfed the area in a ginormous explosion. Even from their spot in the sky Carla and Lily were forced to fly back some to garentee their safety from the expanding dome of black light which completely consumed all of the molduga's
When the light finally dispersed Wendy, Carla, Levy and Lily all began to look frantically for the missing teenager and source of the explosion. If they weren't so worried then they would have been amazed at the attack and its results as all around were the now-dead bodies of the molduga's , yet little sign of Nathan.
"Nathan?!" Wendy cried out, hoping for a response that would help her single out his location amongst the sand.
"Right… here…" A weak voice answered her in response, a voice so weak that the other's had to strain themselves to hear but for Wendy's draconic hearing it was still clear as day.
"He's there!" Wendy said as she pointed out at a newly revealed quicksand pit, one far large than any of the other revealed pits. It was nearly in its centre did they spot Nathan, who was already quickly getting consumed by the sand.
"Hold on!" Lily shouted as both he and Carla flew in towards him, getting close enough for Wendy and Levy to grab ahold of one of his arms each. "Now!" Lily said, giving the signal to Carla to start pulling. Slowly but surely the four began to pull Nathan out of the sand before suddenly bursting into the sky upon his freedom.
With a bump, the team crashed upon the safe desert sand just beside the quicksand pit with Nathan collapsing in complete exhaustion. "Is he alright?" Levy asked as she turned him over onto his back.
"He needs to cool down, otherwise I think he just used all the strength he had remaining…" Wendy answered as she checked his slumbering body before releasing a sigh of relief herself.
"Does he have to be so reckless?" Carla said with a huff as she sat down beside Wendy.
"If he was running out of energy then he would have had few possible moves, it was likely one of the few things could manage. And wiping out the enemy right away is a plausible strategy." Lily commented as he also sat down, looking at the descending sun of the desert signalling that night was on its way. "Right now I suggest we set up camp until Nathan has recovered." He then added on.
"Right, I don't think any of us are even capable of continuing to search the desert as it anyways. Since Nathan just took out the whole nest there shouldn't be any molduga around and the bandits seem long gone by now. It might be close to the quicksand but what does everyone think of camping here for the night?" Levy said as she looked at the group earning a nod of agreement from them all.
"It also means that we won't have to move Nathan too much either," Wendy added on with a smile.
"Right, then we should start setting up then. It can get really cold in a desert in no time at all when night arrives." Levy said, prompting their action. However since they were travelling with effectively just the necessaries there was little for them to even do, with the use of her solid scrip magic Levy when straight to making wood for them to burn.
The moment she had finished the spell a great big block of wood caved in the shape of the word suddenly appeared and fell to the ground. "When it starts getting cold I can set it on fire, but it might be best we wait until Nathan feels cooler." She said as she placed a blanket beneath herself to sit on.
"Ok." Wendy agreed as she started to join Levy on the blanket before looking back at Nathan with a frown.
"What's wrong child?" Carla asked as she went past Wendy to sit on the blanket, struggling to understand why her attention was back on Nathan when they all knew he just needed some rest.
"Do you think he's comfortable?" Wendy asked as she walked back over to him, inspecting his face for any signs of discomfort, something she knew how to look for when it came to Nathan due to his previous instances of it in his sleep.
"You could fold up a blanket for him and place it under his head; we have one more in the bag," Levy suggested with a smile, getting one in return from Wendy as she began to do just that.
Levy couldn't help but keep her smile as she watched Wendy fold up the remaining blanket and place it under Nathan's head, even going as far as removing the coat he had tied around his waist and carefully placing it under him. While the others couldn't really tell from their distance from the two, Wendy saw his features relax slightly once she was done, telling her of her successful actions.
"I'm starting to see why you get so excited about them," Lily said with a slight smile of his own from watching the two. "Maybe Gajeel might even change his mind if he saw them."
"I wonder if he's just a bit protective of Wendy and doesn't want to admit it, she has looked up to him and Natsu like role models for a while now hasn't she," Levy suggested the whole guild knew she had looked up to the older dragon slayers and defiantly got along with them well in her own way. It was clear to the guild that they cared for Wendy in a unique way and Wendy cared for them back as if they were a bit of a smaller family of the larger one which was the guild.
"I can't tell his reasoning's. I don't think it's like that at least." Lily replied as he pondered over the iron dragon's behaviour.
"We can ask him when we see him again, but I think he just doesn't want to come through as a softy and protective of Wendy," Levy said, making her bet with Lily.
"Honestly, can't people keep to themselves?" Carla said, pulling Lily and Levy away from their talk of bets over Gajeel.
"Can we talk about you and Happy then?" Levy asked with a smile as Carla stiffened up, not expecting such a question to be raised.
"No, you cannot!" She sharply said trying to deter the solid script mage, but till little effect, as she proceeded to ask question after question whilst Lily simply sat to the side, amused at the two.
Back besides Nathan, Wendy looked over at the three with a smile before placing a hand on Nathan's head to check his temperature, smiling contently as she felt it lower than before soundlessly getting up and joining Levy with interrogating Carla for anything they could about her and Happy…
Once again, I hope that you all enjoy yet another one of my chapters even if it felt a little battle heavy, maybe I should have done a merger with the next chapter but this is what I've already done.
Reviews:
Amanny: Just what is he up to Amanny? Who knows.
STAND UP PROUD: Thank you very much, its very motivating to hear!
Bungster: You didn't make a review on the last one but I thought you would be happy to know that the chapter that you suggested is roughly only two chapters off now!