Chapter 7: Who goes for the grim reaper?

"Where's Kageyama?" One of the members of Eisenwald asked. They were all waiting on the Kunugi Station. The plan was simple: He will bring them the flute and they will hijack the train and go straight to the capital.

"Have you ever ride a train? Those shits can never get on time, I spend two hours waiting for a train."

"Shut the fuck up, idiots." All the members stop their rumblings. A shirtless man was sitting on a wood box. He had white hair and tattoos on his eyes. He was very slim but in a very unsettling way, he was too pointy on his edges. It remind people of a skeleton. He was the grim reaper of Eisenwald, Eligor. "Look, the train arrived. You can complain to him as much as you want."

The dark guild approach the platform and enter the train. His plan was to kindly ask to the driver to give him the train. IF he resist….well, he could show him some of his manner.

"Where's everybody?" One of them said with good reason. Trains are usually packed with people, especially these ones. But there wasn't a single soul to be see, not even Kageyama.

"This isn't right." Eligor's thoughts synchronized with the train sudden movement. "Someone go to the engine room. We are not alone."

*Gara*

All the dark wizard looked at the recently open door at the end of the wagon. Before them was a man wearing a red armor. "Oh, new passengers! How you doing, fellas?!"

"Who the hell are you supposed to be?"

"Hmmm, that's a hard question. Thousands of people call me Etherius. Others 'the one who bears the demon soul'. People like you call me 'Salamander'. My friends call me Natsu. Well, some of them call me 'idiot', but I don't like it!"

"Oooh, I get it know. I read about you. You are that stray fly that everyone thought dead." Eligor chuckled. "Never seen someone come back from the dead. But my pride as a Grim reaper doesn't allow me to let you live, fly."

"I suppose that you are Eligor."

"The same. Do you happen to know where my partner is? He goes by the name of Kageyama."

"Kageyama? Do you refer to this guy?" He grabbed something from behind his hip. It was Kageyama's head.

All of the men presents were on shock. Some screamed his name, other scream and a guy puked. But Eligor….

"Hahahaha! Didn't expect that a fairy had the balls to do it! You're better than I thought!"

"You don't care that I did this to your partner?"

"Nah, he probably was going to end like this sooner or later. He was more of a thief than a warrior, which makes him the perfect guy for the job. Well…not that perfect, seeing that he got himself kill."

"Wow….I didn't expect this, to be honest. I went a little too far for nothing…" The members of the dark guild composed themselves and stared at him with rage. "Can I ask you something about this guy?"

"Sure."

"Was he a music enthusiastic?" Eligor's smile disappeared. "Because when I look his stuff, I found this very odd flute." On his other hand was a flute. "Kinda creepy, very bad made. I give points for the skull tough."

"Give it to me."

"You forgot to say 'please'."

"Give it to me and I will give you a painless death."

"That doesn't sounds like a good deal, man."

"Take it or leave it, your choice." The members of the dark guild were starting to active their magic. Natsu tossed them the decapitated head to them, they got distracted by it and that was all he needed.

"Dragon breath!" A wave of fire covered the wagon, most of the wizards were get by it. Although, plenty of them reacted on time and managed to covered from the blast. But he didn't stop, he took advantage from his fire and strike them with his sword. The strength, the speed, he was like a bulldozer.

A robust man managed to stop his rampage, his body had the same color as steel. So was his magic: Endurance. Like a wrestler, he grabbed the knight and jump. They broke the ceiling and fall into the next wagon. They almost broke the floor and that will be the death of the two of them, even with that magic, he will end up like a bend can.

The steel man grabbed the knight's arms and start to head butt him. His helmet fell off, showing his bloody face to the world. He never stop his barrage but what stop him was when the dragon slayer kiss him. No, it wasn't a kiss. He just put his mouth on his mouth.

What he felt next was his inside being melted. His body turning into a human oven. An explosion emerged from his eyes, ears and nose. He now become an empty husk.

"AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!" One of his partners jump to him with an ice sword. Natsu kicked the man, tossed him to the top. On it, he impaled with his massive sword.

He looked down, they were coming to him. His heat sword started to burn and with a scream, he smashed the nexus between wagons. The previous wagon was detached from the rest of the train, leaving the Einsenwald mages behind.

Or so he thought, until he saw a scythe coming towards him. He raised his longsword and shield the attack. Eligor was stronger that he thought, pushing him to the middle of the wagon. The grim reaper was smiling at him, he was truly enjoying this.

"I don't usually ask for this but don't die quickly." He pushed the reaper back. Eligor landed on the roof and launched himself towards him. Natsu dodged the attack and try to kick him but miss him. The scythe was about to hurt but he blocked. Unfortunately, Eligor took advantage of it and use it to bring him close.

He saw that he was charging a magic attack on his fist, so he kick his hand and directed the wind other way. His magic made a massive hole on the wall. Natsu pushed the scythe away and swing his sword, Eligor duck and attack his lower body. He jump and put fire on his sword. But Eligor was too clever, before the sword hit him, he used his wind to boost himself out of it.

Now there was a good distance between them. The grim reaper chuckled. He incrusted his weapon in the floor and summon a tornado. Natsu mimic the same action, his sword acting as an anchor.

Eligor's wind was devastating, no wonder that he was the strongest of his guild. A magic like this could eradicate a town in a matter of seconds.

Suddenly, his foot didn't feel that straight. No. It was the train. The tornado was derailing the train.

At this moments, Erza scarlet feel like a failure. How didn't she realize that Natsu was on that train? Right now, she was on her chariot going at full speed to intercept that train.

"That idiot, how the hell did he get sleep on a train?!"

"C-Can you go a little slower, Erza-san?!" Lucy was holding herself with all her strength. If she relax a little, her head would crush the ground and most likely die. "Besides, Natsu-san will get off on the next station."

"If he wakes up."

"Hold on, look over there!" Lucy point up at the horizon a group of people. Some of them were doing gestures to get them to stop. So did the three of them. They were a lot of people, almost a hundred. No one seem dangerous, just regular people.

"Thank god! We've being waiting for help!" A man dressed as a train driver spoke.

"What happen?"

"It was horrible! A man wearing an armor stole the train! He told us to grab all our stuff and get out!"

"By any chance, his armor was red?"

"Yes!"

"Oh, you have to be fucking kidding me…"

"Did he used force?"

"N-No….he was very polite and wait for everyone to get down. He even apologize but…oh god!"

"He is a psycho!" A passenger scream. "He walked around with a head on his hand! I can't take it off my mind!"

"A-A-A-A head?!" Lucy said completely horrified, something that her friends were feeling too but were able to hide.

*KA-BOOOM!*

Far from them, they all saw an explosion. It looked tiny but in reality, they were too far from it. But if they were able to see it from here…how big it was?

One of the good things about being a Dragon slayer was that you are completely immune to fire and every kind of variant of it. That includes explosions. But no smoke. He love fire but the smoke that comes from it was too annoying.

His senses are enchanted, he could see, smell, taste and hear better than others. But when there was a very strong smell or too much smoke like now, 3 of his senses started to work worse than normal people. No one could comprehend how horrible is smoke combine with gasoline and leather.

*Slash*

On his back appeared a cut. Eligor didn't have the same problem as him. Natsu recovered himself and grab his longsword. The grim reaper was coming with another attack but he deflated it.

He wave his sword and clear up the smoke. Eligor was flying with his magic. This man took his title way too seriously.

"I don't remember the last time when someone manage to survive this much. Never expected that a fairy will give me this much fight. You fool death once, Dragneel. But not this-" Eligor was interrupted when a blast strike him. Now he was on the ground. But before he could curse, he had to roll in order to not be crush by the knight jumping attack.

Natsu extended his free arm and launch fire. Eligor did the same with his wind. But he was losing by a lot. So he manifested a magic circle below him and catapult himself to the air. Suddenly he feel a pain on his feet, looking down he saw that both feet were burn.

"You know what? I'M FINISHING THIS!" He created an enormous magic circle in the sky. Suddenly, they were trapped inside wind walls that hide the sunlight. "And…Storm mail." Now his body was covered in wind, acting like an invisible armor. "Let's prove something."

Eligor disappeared and suddenly the wind started to hurt Natsu. They were like whips constantly hitting his body. No. They were blades! Jumping, dodging and deflecting. He was doing everything possible in order to not get hit by them.

But he still got hit, by his scythe. Thankfully his armor protect him from a bad wound. He roared but when the flame hit Eligor, it turn into smoke.

"As I thought, you cannot use fire if there's no oxygen to use. No wind, no fire. It's over. MAELSTROM!" Eligor throw a literal maelstrom to Natsu. Its power was like the real one. The dragon knight was spinning in the air unable to escape. "HAHAHA! GOD, I LOVE MY JOB!" With his scythe up, he jumped into the storm. "GRIM REAPER'S EXECUTION!"

The massive weapon cut the dragon slayer. Natsu crashed into the dirt like a ragdoll. Eligor was still floating, with a smile on his face. He took his eyes to his scythe and….

"W-What?! It merely has any blood! But I cut his throat!" The grim reappear turn to see the Dragon knight who was on his knees. Looking with more detail, his left low arm was bleeding. The bastard stopped his attack with his arm. His fucking arm! "You are tougher than I thought, Salamander. Of all the people I kill, you are by far the one who manage to live the most. Never thought that someone will be crazy enough to cover himself with his own fucking arm." He chuckled. "Before we continue, I want to ask you: What you think about my magic?"

Natsu stared at Eligor with dead serious eyes. Eligor was still smiling. He might be tough but his was the perfect counter for his fire. Not matter how strong the fire is, without wind, it couldn't be more. "Eh. It's alright." He said in the most casual and carefree way possible.

"WHAT?!"

"I mean, your magic is clearly useful and cool. That thing with the oxygen to cut off my flames is a very good plan….buuuut, you're not the first one who does that. And comparing you with him is very unfair to you. Is like comparing an A-class wizard to a saint wizard. Not that you're weak, far from it. But, he was way stronger than you."

"Aaand he was bigger…and had stronger wind magic….and thunder…..and he was better with his weapon…..and had a dragon as a mount. I think it was a dragon. Honestly, I never get if that thing was a dragon or-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Eligor finally snapped and invoked as many storms as he can. Natsu find himself trapped in all sides. "I'll fucking murder you and hang your head in my bedroom!" Once again, he launched himself to the dragon knight with his scythe charged.

So there he was, going straight to Natsu.

Directly.

Right in front of him.

Mad.

Completely open.

Song: "Find your own way"-Guilty gear strive OST by Daisuke Ishiwari and Naoki Hashimoto-

"Awake from your dream and feast of everything you see…" Eligor ignored the words that came from inside the storm.

"GRIM REAP-"

"LEFT DEVIL ARM!" From inside the winds, a giant hand came out. No, it wasn't a hand. It was a claw. A gigantic claw that was the size of his torso, he knew this because it was grabbing it. His reaction was perfect but for some reason his wind didn't work.

No, it did work. But that…claw was sucking all the wind. The maelstrom. His mail. Even the magic that charged his weapon with. That monstrous thing act like a vacuum that suck out his magic.

And then he make the great mistake of looking the face of his opponent. His eyes turn completely yellow and fangs were growing out inside his mouth. He looked like he was screaming but in reality he was roaring like a beast.

Like a demon.

"STRIKE BACK!"

Elig-….

…..

….