SailorStar9: So, after getting Chapter 88 out, this is Chapter 89 of this fic. (Sighs) Guys and girls, is it too hard for you to leave a review, instead of just putting this fic up on your favorited list and story alerts?
Disclaimers: I own nothing, except for the plot bunny and my OCs.
Chapter 89: Gray Vs. Rufus!
"I swear I'll get you back." Gray muttered, stalking towards the library. "I was told I'd meet you here if I came here." He stopped before Rufus. "Chalk up another one for Shodai.""
"Well, I almost forgot about you." Rufus mocked. "Will you help me remember?"
"Don't bother racking your brain." Gray retorted. "This is the end of the line for you."
"Oh my!" Chapati gushed. "Fairy Tail's Gray and Sabertooth's Rufus are about to duel in the library area!"
"Molding Magic versus Molding Magic…" Levi mused.
"That guy gave Gray a whopping before." Elfman reminded. "Is he gonna be okay?"
"Did you calculate this too, Shodai?" Romeo turned to Mavis.
"Yes." Mavis replied.
"What kind of strategy did you give him?" Max asked.
"I don't know if he's going to win or lose." Mavis admitted. "But he just has to win. Rufus is the key to Sabertooth's fall."
Flashback to the previous night…
"Wait a minute, Mavis-sama," Ulyo voiced. "Then Rufus has pinpointed all of our locations?"
"That's right." Mavis nodded. "I believe Rufus should be defeated first."
"Let me do it." Gray offered. "Shodai, it's okay, isn't it?"
"According to my calculations, you and Rufus aren't a very good match for each other." Mavis looked away. "The chances of you winning are…"
"I don't give a damn about that!" Gray snapped. "I'm gonna help Lucy. And also pay him back for kicking my ass before. Let me fight as a Fairy Tail wizard."
"Sometimes feelings outweigh calculations." Mavis explained. "Please show me your feelings."
"Here I go, masked bastard." Gray readied his spell. "Ice Make: Freeze Lancer!"
"Memorize…" Rufus dodged the ice spears.
"You're not getting away!" Gray readied his next spell as Rufus landed. "Ice Impact!"
"Memorize…" Rufus once against dodged the ice drill.
"What are you muttering about?" Gray asked.
"Memories become weapons." Rufus stated. "I can memorize magic that I see, then use those memories as a base to mold new magic."
"What the hell is that?" Gray retorted.
"Your magic, Ice Magic." Rufus remarked. "Orga's magic, Lightning Magic. I remember, Memory Make: Sword of Frozen Black Lightning!" raising his hand, he sent a wave of ice spikes and black lightning at Gray. "Shrine of the Raging Wind Fang!" he cast his next spell after Gray dodged the attack.
"Ice Make: Shield!" Gray countered with a barrier, seeing the tornadoes around the area.
"Shield… memorize…" Rufus muttered. "And then… forget." He nullified the barrier, the raging hurricane sending Gray flying into the air.
"Gray…" Ulyo turned to the hologram screen.
"Oh my!" Chapati declared. "Rufus has Gray on the ropes with a fierce attack!"
"What's wrong?" Rufus taunted. "I thought this was the end of the line for me. What's this?" he picked up a fallen book. "The Magic System: The Book of Heavens… The Book of the Abyss: Advanced Dark Magic…" he levitated another book from the ground. "Awakening Alchemy in the Subliminal Mind: Ancient Fairy Magic…" another book was picked up. "I found some good things here."
"Bastard…" Gray growled. "This is no time for casual reading."
"Memorize…" Rufus ignored him. "You can still move?" he mused, seeing Gray get back to his feet. "Well, if you couldn't… I'll make the most of our time together by letting you have a taste of ancient magic. However, I can put a different spin on the magic I memorized and combine it with other kinds of magic to produce completely new magic. That is, it's ancient magic with a new interpretation. Line of Ancient Master Swordsmen!" he conjured up numerous ice knights. "Feast your eyes on this wondrous ancient magic! To think, I can create soulless soldiers out of stray elements. But this is a 'new interpretation', the memories I have of your Ice Molding Magic have made this brilliant dream come to fruition. Do a pathetic dance for me."
"Go to hell!" Gray snapped, the ice knights charging forward at Rufus' command. "You and your second-hand knowledge!" and used his 'Ice Make: Crescent Blades' to take out the ice soldiers, only to have the ones he did not manage to destroy crash into him. "This is nothing..." he muttered.
"I see." Rufus noted. "It seems I should combine forms of magic that are a bit more powerful in battle. Memorized, Blade of Flash Lightning!"
"Oh my!" Chapati announced, the lightning genie hitting Gray head on. "Will Gray be able to get up again after that fierce attack?"
"Gray…" Ulyo muttered worriedly. "You still haven't activated the Mariner Ring?"
Flashback to after the meeting the previous night…
"You're serious about this, aren't you?" Ulyo sighed, the group having split up after the meeting and Gray was walking her back to the inn.
"Of course." The Ice Make mage replied, the couple stopping before the inn's door. "Ulyo…" he blinked when his female counterpart turned to him.
"Then promise me something." Ulyo stated, her eyes serious. "If you lose, I'll hate you forever." She gave him a kiss on the cheek and entered the inn.
Gray watched as the door shut and then opened his hand to see what she had pressed into his palm; it was a small ring, with a blue star and the symbol that had a circle above the cross, with what looked like miniature horns. "The symbol of Mercury, the planet of ice and knowledge." He realized.
"But I believe you, so I'll follow Mavis-sama's plan." Ulyo resisted the urge to back her lover up.
"This interpretation would be interesting." Rufus mused. "Memorized."
"Hey, jackass." Gray muttered. "This is a library. After reading the books, you're supposed to put them back." he cast his 'Ice Make: Shield'. "And there's no cheating, either."
"That's too bad." Rufus shrugged. "However, I've already memorized them. Colourful Slashing Attack Flames! This battle is a requiem that I sing for you." He added, having blasted Gray into a book shelf. "Remember this, you'll never beat me."
"This is a one-sided fight so far." Chapati announced. "In the battle of Molding Magic, will Rufus win?"
"I told Gray, Molding Magic is easy to remember." Mavis stated. "He was well aware that Rufus could wrap him around his little finger."
"What kind of strategy did you give him?" Makarov asked.
"There is no strategy." Mavis replied. "The power of feelings… I'm betting on the power of his feelings, Hachidaime."
"I'm Yondaime …" Makarov muttered.
"Rokudaime!" Levi and Elfman chorused.
"Oh dear!" Chapati gushed, Gray was sent rolling on the ground by a fire blast. "An awesome follow-up attack! Is Gray helpless to do anything but lick the floor?"
"I'd admit it, I underestimated you a bit." Rufus chuckled, sitting on the railing on the second floor. "I didn't think you would hang on for so long. And I'm grateful to you. For being my guinea pig today as I test the ancient magic I memorized. Showering Ancient Wisdom!" he pinned Gray to the ground with a gravity spell. "The ancients certainly did come up with some heartstoppers. There's nothing I can't do with magic. You're sensing that first-hand, aren't you? I can even control gravity. At this rate, you'll be crushed by the light. And there's no way you can escape!"
"Oh boy!" Chapati continued his commentary. "Gray can't get up! Will Ice Molding Magic be defeated by Memory Molding Magic?"
"Yeesh!" Gray muttered, pulling himself up as the small ring around his neck glittered. "As if…"
"You still can move?" Rufus was shocked.
"Defeated, you say?" Gray growled, the power of Mariner Ring nullified the gravity spell. "Molding Magic is magic that gives you freedom. Isn't that right, Ul? On top of that," he got to his feet. "My memories… Ul, the battles I won with your magic and what I got from them. The feelings I sensed from them…"
"Are you my new master?" a cute masculine voice sounded in the air above the Ice Make mage. "Yo!" the small silver-blue fox sprite greeted the gaping Gray.
"Who…" Gray gasped. "What are you?"
"I'm Stribog, the Ice God." The silver-blue chinchilla introduced himself. "And I reside within the Mariner Ring which holds the knowledge of many other things; I can only be summoned by one who has the blood of the ancient Mercurians running through their veins."
"But I'm not…" Gray blinked.
"You are." Stribog insisted. "Otherwise Isis-sama won't have entrusted the ring to you. Now master," he turned to Rufus. "Let's defeat this guy."
"Oh my!" Chapati gushed, Gray forming an even larger ice shield with Stribog backing him. "Has Gray Fullbuster started to counterattack at last?"
"It looks like you want me to hurt you even more." Rufus jumped down.
"Nah, I had plenty of that." Gray retorted. "Memory Make is pretty darn impressive. But you know, my own memories can turn into big-ass power too."
"That's an interesting thing to say." Rufus noted. "What kind of memories do you have?"
"I doubt you'd understand." Gray shrugged. "The pain of getting hit, the frustration of losing, the joy of winning, all of that. They've been driven into this body, these fists and this head. It becomes my strength in the next fight. All my battles up to now, these memories, they are all of my power! The power that's gonna knock you for a loop is my memories!" he snapped, pulling his shirt off.
"He took it off!" Chapati gushed. "He took it off!"
"Was about time you got serious." Ulyo grinned.
"That's a unique logic." Rufus noted. "But I don't care for it. Typically, the weaker the dog, the more it barks. Or so they say. Remember is learning. You shouldn't use it to focus on emotions. Your memories are only emotions. There's not enough honour."
"Master," Stribog floated beside Gray. "I've enough of his trash-talk. Can we take him out now, pretty please?"
"I agree." Gray nodded and turned to Rufus. "Since getting the seal of Fairy Tail, I've never lost against the same opponent twice."
"Do you have some kind of plan?" Rufus was intrigued.
"Ice Make…" Gray stood in his stance.
"Memorize…" Rufus started.
"Oh no, you don't!" Stribog retorted. "Icicle Rain!" he let loose a torrent of minuscule icicle shards at Rufus.
"Ice Make: Unlimited…" Gray begun his spell as Stribog kept Rufus distracted.
"What is this?" Rufus was stunned to see the numerous ice swords and axes forming rapidly around Gray in an upward spiral. "How can his molding be so fast?"
"Have you memorized it?" Gray snorted.
"My memory…" Rufus was taken aback. "Can't keep up!"
"Powerful Dance of Chaos!" Gray let loose his spell, the chain of weapons raining on Rufus and freezing the Memory Make mage, along with the area around him.
"Except it's unfortunate that it's only ice." Rufus smirked. "I remember flames that can destroy ice. Memory Make: Karma of the Burning Earth!"
"Master!" Stribog floated before Gray and curled into a ball. "Throw me! We don't have much time!" He urged the hesitant Gray. "Throw me!"
"Got it." Gray nodded and caught the fluffy ball within his hands. "Go!" he tossed the spiralling sphere.
"Kooridama!" Stribog shouted out his attack, shooting through the flames and freezing the fire and Rufus in his wake.
"Amazing…" Gray was stunned.
"Are you surprised?" Stribog manifested before his new master. "This is my offshoot power, the Kooridama. See you, master." He bowed and vanished. "I look forward to battling by your side in the future."
"Gray did it!" Chapati cheered, Gray catching Rufus' hat and putting it on. "Fairy Tail won! Rufus lost!"
"A wonderful win, Gray." Ulyo smiled. "I knew entrusting Stribog to you was a good idea."
SailorStar9: Now that's done, read and review.