SailorStar9: We now continue with Chapter 118 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 118: Art of Regression

"For not using magic, you guys are impressive." Natsu awed.

"Hey, we're Sylph Labyrinth." Hiroshi reminded. "Don't group us together with all the other treasure hunter guilds. We're the Guild that won the Grand Secret Treasure Games which decides the number one treasure hunter Guild in Fiore."

"If you get it, get the hell outta of here." Drake grinned. "You mages over there are no match for us."

"Except I'm not over there." Gray shrugged. "Ta-da." he showed them the bottle of liquid Moon Drip he managed to snitch. "Thanks to Ice Make: Thief's Hand."

"I don't even want to know how you managed that." Ulyo sweatdropped.

"Drake, shoot him!" Hiroshi ordered.

"Gladly!" Drake fired his shot.

"Sagittarius!" Lucy shouted.

"Leave it to me!" the archer countered. "Again, I am a master archer as it were, moshi-moshi!"

"Give it back, you thief!" Hiroshi extended his sword.

"I'm gonna save the giants." Gray retorted. "Sorry, but we're keeping this. Natsu!" dodging Hiroshi's attack, he tossed the bottle over.

"Got it!" Natsu caught the bottle, dodging Rala's hammer strike. "Lucy!" he threw the vial.

"Chain Blade: Gunner Form!" Hiroshi changed his weapon's attack form.

"Wendy!" Lucy ducked the rain of bullets and tossed the bottle over.

"Carla!" Ulyo tossed the bottle over to the white Exceed, Wendy having passed it to her from the back.

"Happy!" Carla then threw the vial over the the blue Exceed as she dodged Hiroshi's bullets, only to have the bottle fly over Happy's head and smash onto the ground.

"It broke!" everyone else exclaimed.

"Well, who didn't see this coming?" Ulyo snarked.

"I'm sorry." Happy mumbled.

"But look at that." Lucy pointed. "Only that little bit of ice is melting." she noted, the liquid Moon Drip having dissolved a small patch of ice.

"Then, that amount of Moon Drip wouldn't have been enough to save the whole village, anyway." Gray reasoned.

"That's what I keep trying to tell you guys." Ulyo remarked.

"I don't believe it!" Hiroshi was in denial. "Our plan was doomed to fail right from the start? Let's change the plan." he looked at Rala.

"I can hear something." Natsu knelt down by the revealed earth patch. Sweeping the glass shards away, he pressed his ear to the ground. "Someone's voice... someone's voice is coming from the ground where the ice is melted. It's kinda of calling out. This way!" he took off running into the forest. "I've heard that voice before."

"Natsu, wait!" Gray called out, taking off after the Dragon Slayer.

"Anyway, let's follow him." Lucy suggested.

"Whose voice was that?" Natsu wondered. "I can't recall. A comrade of the thieves?" he stopped in his tracks when Doriate walked towards him. "There are more of you?"

"I'm no thief." Doriate corrected. "Now then go back to the memory of a long-ago day." he activated his 'Law of Retrogression' magic, reverting Natsu back to his child form.

"What the hell is this?" the shrunken Natsu was shocked.

"Changing you into a little brat makes it easy to dispose of you." Doriate stated.

"I'm a little kid!" Natsu panicked. "Did you do this?"

"That's right." Doriate confirmed. "My name is Doriate. I'm a member of the Guild called Succubus Eye."

"You're a thief, but you can use magic?" Natsu echoed, kicking off his shoes.

"I told you I am not a thief." Doriate repeated. "Well, whatever. I need to take you out." he charged straight at Natsu.

"What is this?" Natsu questioned, his 'Roar of the Fire Dragon' emitting only a small fireball. "I could use more magic than this when I was a kid."

"Outward appearance is only a bonus effect." Doriate supplied, Natsu dodging his punches. "My Retrogression Magic decreases human abilities."

"That's fighting dirty!" Natsu snapped, his 'Iron Fist of the Fire Dragon' failing and enabling Doriate to punch him away. "Which kind of punch are you packing?" he glared at his opponent.

"Your defenses are also lowered." Doriate added.

"And what the hell is that?" Natsu exclaimed, looking up at the sky.

"What's what?" Doriate looked up, only to find that Natsu had used to distraction to escape. "That brat is playing me for a fool." he pulled down his mouthpiece. "But he shall learn the power of inhumanly power."

"Wendy, are you okay?" Lucy asked, the younger mage having slipped on the ice.

"Sorry, the ground is so slippery." Wendy apologized.

"And we got separated from Gray." Ulyo added.

"What should we do?" Wendy wondered. "I have no idea where we are. Ulyo-san, Lucy-san, there is something on my mind. On my mind... more like, it's really strange." she deathpanned. "It looks like we're being followed." she cast a side look at the badly disguised Hiroshi and Rala.

"Are we supposed to think you're Happy and Carla?" Lucy questioned.

"Did they really think we would be fooled by that?" Ulyo twitched.

"Since they exposed us, there's only one thing to do." Hiroshi declared, as both he and Rala threw off their disguises. "Let's totally change the target. Those keys of yours are totally rare, right?" he pointed at Lucy.

"We'll take them!" Rala announced.

"What's with those guys?" Lucy rested a protective hand on her keys.

"We don't wish to fight." Wendy tried to reason. "We just want to help the giants."

"The giants?" Hiroshi scoffed. "I don't give a rat ass about them. For treasure hunters, there's only one standard with which to assess things." he pulled out his sword. "It's whether something is a treasure or not!" raising his blade, he hacked off at one of the giant's foot.

"Stop it!" Lucy barked. "They're still alive!"

"Dead or alive, if it ain't treasure, I'm not interested." Hiroshi shrugged.

"Please stop it." Wendy muttered.

"I ain't gonna stop." Hiroshi smirked. "I'll do whatever the hell I want and take what I want. That's a treasure hunter." he continued stabbing his sword into the giant's foot.

"Please stop it!" Wendy shouted, letting loose a powerful blast of wind and forcing Hiroshi off the giant. "I didn't want to be odds with you, but you're being cruel. I can't just ignore it."

"Instead of harming the villagers, take us on instead." Lucy declared.

"Nice idea." Hiroshi grinned. "We'll take the treasure and the women."

"There are three of us." Drake reminded, firing his shots at the ground. Gotcha. he smirked when Wendy slipped on the ice. He fired his shot at the defenseless Wendy when Flare's hair stopped the bullet.

"What are you doing here?" Lucy was shocked.

"Make that four ladies." Flare corrected. "A redhead, a bluenette, a blackhead and a blond."

"That symbol..." Ulyo noticed the sun spiral on Flare's breast. "Flare, you're..."

SailorStar9: Now that's done, read and review.