Her Champion
Author`s note: I forgot to mention 2 things in the first chapter. First thing is that this is an M rated story. Meaning there will be blood, violence, and lemons later down the road. The next thing is that I am horrible at describing anything, so don`t expect much.
That is pretty much it.
Enjoy chapter 2.
Chapter 2
Dragon`s trail
When Erza opened her eyes, she noticed there was a wooden ceiling instead of a cobblestone one. She blinked before sitting up as soon as she did, she felt something she did not feel in a long time.
Pain...
She put her hand on her arching jaw where the pain was coming from. She rubbed the spot trying to ease out the pain.
She was in the infirmary. Her brigade must have taken her there when she was knocked out. The room was filled with 10 beds, each of the beds had a small table on the side with medical tools on it and one big closet filled with medicine bottles.
"So your finally awake..." a voice all too familiar to Erza said from her left, her eyes shifting to the owner of the voice.
Her mother was sitting in a chair, a good distance away from her. Her eyes were closed, her hands over one another as they rested on her lap. She got up from the chair and walked over to Erza`s bed. She set down at the edge of it, her brown eyes opening as she spoke again.
"How is your cheek," She said reaching out to touch her daughter`s cheek, Erza turned her head away from her avoiding her touch.
"It`s fine," She said not looking at her mother. Irene saw her daughter clutching the blanket that was covering her lap. She knew why she was angry right now and she needed to calm her down before they have their discussion.
"Erza look at me" Irene ordered leaving Erza with no choice but to do so."You have to calm down... A warrior must never let herself be blinded by rage" at those words Erza calmed down and nodded, her shoulders lowered as her eyes looked down in shame. Irene fixed some of her darker scarlet hair back into its ponytail before continuing with her talk.
"So... do you remember what happened?" Irene asked while tilting her head slightly. Erza looked up at her, she realized that after that "thing" growled at her, she could not remember what happened after that. She shook her head as an answer.
"Hmm... Well from what the guards told me. You went down there to punish him right?" Irene asked Erza nodded "Well my dear daughter... Were you flying through the stone wall, one of your punishing methods?" Irene asked but this time Erza set still her eyes opened wide in shock.
Someone sent her flying through the wall... Her? She couldn`t believe it. She refused to believe it. That man punched her once... ONCE. And that sent her fly-.
"Judging by the look on your face. I`ll say it wasn`t" Erza glared at her now but immediately regretted when Irene returned her glare with one of her own.
She crossed her arms under her chest and lain on the wall behind her. Irene sighed at her daughter's attitude, she really did not want to have to butt heads with her daughter over this. She closed her eyes and massaged the bridge of her nose, before opening her eyes.
"How did it happen," Irene asked, Erza taught about it herself, wondering how he hit her.
"ANSWER ME!" Irene shouted after not receiving an immediate answer
"I DON`T KNOW!" Erza shouted back "HE JUST PUNCHED ME IN A FACE AND BEFORE I KNEW IT, I WOKE UP HERE WITH YOU ASKING ME ALL THIS STUPID QUESTIONS"
...
Silence took over the room, only sounds that could be heard are heavy breaths from the two royalties. Irene was the first on to calm down, she stood up from the edge of the bad, fixed her robe around her before walking towards the door.
"The man`s trial will start in 30 minutes, don`t be late," Irene said before the door closed around her.
Erza angerly rose from her bed before flipping it over with one hand. She then slammed her fist down on the table that was by it. It broke upon impact. She was furious as all hell.
First, this man makes a fool out of her, and now her mother got here even more frustrated. She looked down at her right hand, slowly closing it into a fist. She squeezed her right fist in rage as she made a promise upon her honor.
"By my honor as a warrior and as a princess. I will make sure you suffer before you die" Erza thought as she marched out of the room and towards the throne room.
1 minute before the trail:
Erza opened the door to the throne room, upon her entering she saw many nobles and citizens have gathered in there. All of them will be acting as yuri, her mother was already sitting at her throne giving orders to the guards to bring the prisoner in.
Her mother was going to be the judge...
Erza hoped that she will be the executioner...
As she passed everyone in the room got down on one knee and bow down to her. She decided to stand on her mother's right side, her hands behind her back as she stood proudly in front of her people.
"You know we still have to have that talk, I told you about" Irene whispered to her, her cheek resting on her right fist in a slightly bored manner.
"I haven`t forgotten," Erza said while not looking at her, she was still upset at her.
The big door of the throne room opened as the young man with pink hair and onyx pair of eyes, was harshly dragged inside the room. He was still wearing his vest, pants, and sandals, the leather muffler still around his mouth. The moment the crowd saw him they started to boo him.
Insulting him with various names such as "animal", "disgusting" or "mongrel". He keeps on trying to pull back on chains that he was dragged by but since it was 5 on one, with each guard pulling one chain. He was chained by his arms, ankles, and neck, the neck one forcing him to move forward more so than others.
When he was 20 feet in front of sitting Irene, he was kicked into the back of his knees making him fall down on to them. He took heavy breaths, tiered from his struggle against his captors. Irene raised her hand, signaling for everyone to quiet down and sit.
They all did. She cleared her voice and started.
"Now we begin the trail to determine the fate of the man kneeling before me," Irene said as she looked towards the audience. "Will the first witness please step forward"
Kagura stepped forward and bowed down to her queen before rising again.
"State your name and rank," Irene told Kagura
"My name is Kagura Mikazuchi. I am the second strongest woman of Alvarez kingdom and general of princess Erza`s elite brigade." Kagura said with pride and determination making Erza smirk at her apprentice`s words.
"Now when did you encounter this man?" Irene gestured to the pink-haired man who was looking at Kagura.
"Me and 9 more of princesses brigade were scouting the surrounding forest around the kingdom. It was early in the morning that we encountered a group of 6 males inside it, not too far away from the kingdom" Kagura answered
"And what were your thoughts when you spotted the group?" Irene asked looking at the man more closely, studying his muscular arms, well-toned chest and six-pack.
"To capture them" Kagura answered swiftly
"And did you?"
...
Kagura`s answer was not instant, but she did answer after a few seconds.
"No your majesty" Irene removed her eyes from the man`s body.
"And why not?" Kagura looked down at the floor almost in shame. She shook slightly from nervousness as the crowd begin to whisper to each other. Kagura looked up, her right hand pointing towards the pink-haired boy.
"Because of him," She said pointing but not looking at him "He was not a part of the group form what we could tell, nor is he from our kingdom. He came out of nowhere and started fighting our group warriors."
"At first I thought he will be an easy first victim. But then he surprised me when he punched one of our riders of its horse with a single punch. Set her flying across the forest. Then he proceeded to fight all of us by himself while the group of males escaped. We managed to knock him out after a while, but 4 of our comrades are in the comas due to the concessions" Kagura finished her story.
Irene set up right now, her left hand under her chin in a thinking position. She was thinking about all the things Kagura told her now. She couldn`t believe that a single man was able to hold his own against a small group of 6 highly skilled warriors, not to mention Kagura was called the second strongest swordswoman in their kingdom. A title that is not earned from small tasks.
Her eyes fell upon the chained man again. She holds his gaze for a few minutes until turning back to Kagura.
"What do you think that his punishment should be?" asked the queen
"His punishment should be described in one simple word... Death" the crowed cheered after Kagura said that, wanting this man to die.
"No more questions. You are dismissed" Kagura nodded and went back to her seat "Now let`s begin the judging phase," Irene said, the crowd immediately started shouting for mans blood.
"CUT HIS HEAD OFF!"
"RIP HIS GUTS OUT!"
"CUT HIS DICK OFF"
"SILENCE!" "BOOM"
Everyone shut up as the loud sound tore through the room. Irene has just slammed her hand on one of the arm resters on her chair. Everyone was scared shitless as her glare was direct on them, all except Erza who just crossed her arms over her chest.
"As I was saying... Let`s begin a judging phase. That is unless the accused has something to say in his defense." Irene said looking at the man who seemed to perk up at those words.
He nodded
Irene raised her hand, gesturing for the guard to remove the muffler from his mouth. The guard went behind the prisoner and started to remove it. When the muffler was off, he took a deep breath then exhaled through his nose, he did that a few time before looking at the queen.
"What is your name?" Irene asked
"Natsu Dragneel" He answered with a voice filled with distaste and disrespect
Erza was about to walk down to him and show him what happened when you disrespect the queen but a hand raise from her mother stopped her in her tracks.
"Where do you hail from Natsu?" Irene continued. The name Dragneel sounds familiar to her.
"From the forest," He said simply.
"Forest? Did he live in a forest before being captured, is that why he looks like that?" Irene thought, Erza thinking the same thing.
"How did you manage to beat 4 of our strongest warriors," Irene asked, she bet everyone would like to know that.
"Strongest? If that`s what you call strong, then I strongly suggest you change your training regiments" This earned him another barrage of insults from the crowed as Irene raised her hand to silence them.
"What do you mean," Irene asked, the man just grinned as he said
"Those girls couldn`t even cut me" This surprised everyone in the room.
"Couldn`t even cut him... huh?" Irene thought to herself. For a few seconds, she was silent as well as the crowd. It was so quiet you could hear a fly buzzing in the air.
"Is this true?" She said looking at Kagura, she rubbed her right elbow with her left hand in nervousness before answering.
"Yes..." Irene looked at Natsu who now had a smug grin on his face.
Erza seeing how smug and cocky he was acting wanted nothing more than to wipe that smirk right off his face. But once again that approach was stopped by her mother.
So she went for shouting at him instead.
"THAT IS A LOUD OF BULLSHIT. OUR SWORDS CAN CUT THROUGH ANY ROCK, WOOD OR METAL. THERE IS NO WAY THAT IT CAN NOT CUT YOUR FLESH." Her anger showing in every word, making people inside the room take an instinctive step back.
Natsu`s smirk did not fall as he said.
"Well, maybe my skin is just too hard for your swords to cut. Unlike your skin red... You got knocked out from such a weak punch, that got me wondering if you are even a warrior."
"If your even a warrior..."Faster then anyone could react, she pulled her sword from her sheat and charged at him. Ignoring her mother shouting her name. She jumped in the air, her sword raised high over her head ready to bring it down onto his.
He reacted quickly by pulling the chain from the guard to his right, who was holding his right-hand captive. He quickly brought his forearm up in front of him, in an attempt to block the blow to his head.
Erza smirked at his action. What idiot uses his body to protect him, he was really delusional if he thinks he can stop her sword with just his arm. She used all of her strength to bring down her sword, in a clear goal to cut his forearm off.
The contact was made and then.
"CLINK"
"clink..."
"clink..."
The sword broke over his forearm. Erza, Kagura, guards, the crowed and the queen all had their eyes wide opened in disbelief. Erza landed on her feet and looked at her now broken blade. The blade was split into two pieces. The one where the tip was now laying on the floor between the two and the one with the guard, handle and pommel still in her hand.
She looked up from the broken piece at Natsu who now had a feral grin. His former no blood or cut anywhere. It's like he was not even hit with the blade. She meets his gaze and felt an emotion she did hasn`t felt in a long time.
Fear...
As everyone was still shocked Natsu dashed forward making the guards that were holding his chains let go. He moved fast and calculated, in a matter of moment he was in front of Erza his fist pulled back, his gaze set on the cheek that he hit before. Faster then ever she could react the fist hit her hard.
She felt her body being taken off the ground as she was sent flying towards the guards on the right side of the hall. Her world spun around her as her eyes rolled into the back of her head.
Irene looked down at her downed daughter in a mix of surprise and curiosity. She looked over to Natsu who was now being tackled by all the guards in the room. He tried to fight off some of them but one tugged at the chain around his neck was enough of a distraction for others to pile on top of him.
"Dragneel huh..."She taught while rubbing her chin. Then she stood up making everyone stop moving and shouting at Natsu. She walked over until she was about 20 meters from Natsu. She looked down into his onyx eyes while he stared back at her brown ones. He tried to stand up but only got up to the point where he was still on one knee.
"Natsu Dragneel... You are an interesting thing." She said as she touched his cheek, making him move away from her. "Really interesting".
She went back to her throne and set down. Her hand raised getting everyone's attention. And with a voice full of order and authority, she told them.
"I the queen of Alvarez, hereby sentence you... Natsu Dragneel...to" the yuri was at the edge of their seats as they waited for the kill command.
Kagura who was checking if Erza is alright, also wanted for the queen to issue to kill.
"To a lifetime as a slave to the castle of Belserion family and a gladiator in our arena, so that we could see if all that talk about your strength is truth or not."
...
No one expected this.
The yuri exploded. Shouting and yelling their protests and telling the queen to change her decision. The queen told the guards to take Natsu away, before addressing the noble crowed.
"SILENCE!... I know what is said in the law that I ordered. But this is a real gem in the rough. A man like him is born every 100 years, and I will not waste him if I can use him. So if any of you have any more words to be thrown. I will gladly listen to them"
...
With that, the queen nodded her head and turned back to sit on her throne. The nobles all left the room and went back to their homes. Kagura slung Erza over her shoulders and proceeded to walk out as well.
"Kagura..."
Kagura turned around, her eyes meet the queens.
"When Erza wakes up. Tell her that I want to speak with her okay?" Kagura nodded at the queen's request as she left for the infirmary.
Irene ran her hand over her face, before relishing a sigh. She thought back to that name Dragneel something about that name sounded so familiar to her, if only she could remember from where did she hear it from.
"Dragneel... Dragneel...
...
Igneel?" her eyes widen in realization, as a small smile made its way across her lips.
Author`s note: I wanted this chapter to be a little bit bigger on words and content, but I guess my inspiration left me pretty soon. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and are having a good day so far.
See ya in another chapter.
Bye.
