The day had just begun, and the sun was just starting to shine as a man was walking towards the Fairy Tail guild hall.
He was a man of 6 feet 2 inches, with a muscular physique to him, but not to the extent Tyson was, he was much slimmer than the brown-haired Dragon Slayer. This man had a body build identical to an Olympic swimmer, muscular with a six pack, but not overly so. He has dark blue eyes and has long dark blue hair. He is currently wearing a dark blue T-shirt, has on golden wrist guards, has black jeans on held up by a dark brown belt that has a silver snowflake as the belt buckle and lastly brown shoes. On his left hand's middle finger is a silver ring, the middle of the ring is a extremely light blue gem in the shape of a snowflake, while on his neck is a silver necklace that appears to be a sword with a red ruby in the middle.
He walked calmly and slowly as he approached the building when he heard the voice of our favorite dragon slayer.
"So Happy, do you think Cana, Yukino, Minerva, Gray, Laxus, Mystogan, Ur and Erza will come back to the guild today?" Tyson asked his blue furred Exceed partner.
"Why don't you look over here flame-brain?" The man mockingly called out to him.
Tyson turned towards the man and had a massive smirk form on his face as he said, "How's it going Popsicle. How was your last job?"
The man smirked and said, "Those losers were no match for me."
Tyson nodded in understanding and said, "So, where is Ur right now?"
"Ur took a small trip to the Magic Council to go see Ultear. She said she would be back within three days." The man explained.
"I see. Any word from Cana or her group?" Tyson asked the man as the two walked towards the guild.
"Nope. They must still be on that Wyvern extermination mission. I've gone up against enough of those assholes to know they don't go down that easily." Gray muttered.
"I really should remember that not everyone has the power to obliterate entire nests of Wyverns at once." Tyson said.
"Aye sir!" Happy said as he flew up onto Tyson's head.
"Hey Happy. Tyson didn't do anything stupid while I was gone, did he?" Gray asked the blue Exceed.
"Well, he did take on another apprentice. Her name is Lucy, and she is a Celestial Spirit mage." Happy replied.
"Seriously, another apprentice. Dude, you have taken on and trained more wizards than anyone else. Why take on another one?" Gray questioned.
"She has the spark. She has the same thing I saw in you, Cana and everyone else I trained. She has the potential to become an amazing wizard. In only two days, she learned and mostly mastered her first combat spell. It took you and the others a lot longer to do the same thing. She has a frighteningly high ability to adapt and improve." Tyson told his old friend.
Gray nodded with his old friend's explanation and then noticed that they were standing in front of the guild hall.
Tyson pushed the doors open and saw that for now it was just Lisanna, Elfman and Mirajane inside the guild hall, as Makarov had gone to the guild master's meeting in Clover.
Elfman then saw Gray and said, "Gray! It's been too long! How have you been?"
"It's been good. That three month S-Class mission to wipe out that cult was dull. Those cultists were idiots, barely had any power and just let me in with the intention of killing me later. The only real threat was the monster they were planning to release, but thankfully I stopped them before they could release it. Honestly it was more of a waste of time than anything else." Gray said as he sat down at the bar to the left of Elfman while Tyson sat on Elfman's right and Happy flew onto the counter.
"Only a real man could have taken on an entire cult and called it dull." Elfman said as he handed Gray a mug containing his favorite drink.
Gray gulped it down in one gulp and asked, "So did anything interesting happen while I was gone?"
Elfman shook his head and said, "Besides Macao nearly dying on Mt. Hakobe, nothing really. We did get two new members recently. Their names are Lucy and Hyuuga."
"Already heard about Lucy from Tyson. Wasn't really aware of Hyuuga though. He told me she is a Celestial Spirit mage. Anything about her that is interesting, like does she have a metal arm?"
Tyson shook his head and said, "She has really low levels of magic, but a unnaturally high ability to improve, like I told you outside. She got the magic mapping technique down in a day."
"As for Hyuuga, he goes by another title, the Black Knight." Tyson added.
Gray spit out his drink and started choking a bit before he calmed down and said, "She got the magic mapping technique down in under a day? It took me several days to get that technique down."
Elfman nodded and said, "Same for me. This girl sounds very promising. I think we found our next potential S-Class wizard."
Tyson nodded and added, "I am determined to get her to the S-Class trials this year. I consider it a challenge for myself. Objective: get Lucy to S-Class in a year's time. You think I can pull it off?"
Gray placed his hand on his chin and said, "Depends. Based on what you told me, by getting the magic mapping technique down so quickly, she will be able to improve her magic container by quite a bit in a short amount of time. Do you plan on unlocking her Second Origin anytime soon?"
Tyson shook his head and said, "Not yet. She needs to be able to open three gates without any difficulty. Until then, her Second Origin will not be unlocked. Once she can open three gates, her training will be ramped up. We all know how unlocking your Second Origin doubles and even triples the person's ability to grow and improve. With Lucy's high ability to grow, my fear is that unlocking her Second Origin this early will cause her to improve too quickly and she might hurt herself with power she can't control."
Gray nodded in understanding, "True that."
The three guys then went to engage in some guy talk as several other members began to come into the guild.
Eventually, a familiar buxom blonde Celestial Spirit mage came walking into the guild hall.
She then saw her good friend Levy McGarden talking to the other members of Team Shadow Gear, Jet and Droy.
Lucy walked over and began to talk to Levy for a bit before she walked over to the request board to see what jobs were available.
"Let's see. Stop bandits, translate an ancient tome, search for a lost dog, fight lava monsters? Wow, I never knew that job requests could be so varied." Lucy observed as Tyson walked over to her.
"Yep. As the strongest guild in all of Fiore, we get practically every single type of job you can imagine. Be it finding lost animals, destroying cursed objects, clearing out ancient ruins or just plain old clean up jobs. We do them all." Tyson explained.
Lucy nodded and went back to looking for a good job then asked, "What jobs do you normally go for?"
"Well, due to my enhanced senses I hunt escaped criminals. I also like taking out Dark Guilds and fighting monsters as well, but every now and then I just prefer simple jobs like looking for lost animals." Tyson told her.
"Dark Guilds? What are those?" Lucy asked.
Tyson turned to Reedus and said, "May I borrow your Light Pen?"
"Oui." Reedus said as he handed the object to Tyson.
Tyson then proceeded to draw a diagram of different rectangles with several different names on them and said, "The magical world is controlled by the Magic Council in Era. They are one step below the government and it is their job to keep peace in the magical world. If a wizard breaks one of their laws, the council will then place that wizard on trial. Below the council are the different Guild Master Leagues which are local groups that work together. Then there are the individual Guild Masters. It is their job to pass on the decrees of the council. They also communicate with other Guild Masters on a regular basis. This is how order is kept in the magical world. However, sometimes the council will take away a Guild's right to legally work. A guild that is allowed by the council to work and submits to the council's authority is called a Legal Guild. A neutral guild is a guild that although the council allows them to work, they do not submit to the council's authority. They walk on the knife's edge of being declared a Dark Guild. A Dark Guild is a guild that the Magic Council has declared as a threat to the peace of the magical world. They often take assassination jobs or demolition jobs. They are most of the time comprised of people who love and revel in the pain and misery of others, but some of the members are just confused people who need help and are actually good people, but the world and society beat them down so many times that they just decided to push back."
Lucy nodded and said, "That is a lot of information to absorb."
"Yeah, it is a little complicated, but it works for the most part. Recently there has been an increase in the amount of Dark Guilds." Tyson said, frowning.
Gray walked over and said, "He's right. In the last six months alone I have destroyed more Dark Guilds than I did last year. That is cause for concern."
Lucy turned towards the Ice Devil Slayer and said, "I am sorry, I don't believe we've had the pleasure of meeting. I am Lucy."
"Nice to meet you. My name's Gray Fullbuster." Gray introduced himself as he shook Lucy's hand.
"Wait, Gray Fullbuster? As in one of Tyson Dragneel's ex students? The guy that took down 7 different criminal organizations in only a year's time? The guy who uses the coldest Ice magic of them all?" Lucy asked in astonishment.
"Yes. That's me." Gray said with a smile.
"Wow. Fairy Tail has quite a few powerful wizards." Lucy observed.
"Yeah. Tyson here is to thank for that." A new voice said. Lucy looked to see a 17 year old man with brown hair that reached down to the back of his neck.
"What's your name?" Lucy asked the man.
"I'm Nicholas Bouldton. I use Earth Dragon Slayer magic." Nicholas introduced himself to Lucy.
"So, I heard you and Tyson took a job to take down Duke Everlue recently. I also heard how you did on your first job as a Fairy Tail wizard. Not bad for a newbie." Gray said.
"Thanks, but I didn't do much. It was all Cancer's handiwork." Lucy said rubbing her fingers together nervously.
"You still did good on your first job." Tyson said reassuringly.
"Yeah. For someone of your training and power level to do as good as you did, nothing short of extraordinary." Gray added.
Lucy looked a bit more confident and said, "Yeah, I guess I did good, but Cancer and my other Spirits do all the hard work."
Gray was about to say something when suddenly the guild doors were thrown open and in came a orange-haired man with a light blue colored fur jacket shouted out, "Everyone get ready she's back! Erza is back!"
"So she finally returned from her job." A man with spiky brown hair said to himself up on the second floor of the guild.
For a few seconds the guild was quiet before almost everyone began running everywhere to get the guild cleaned up.
"Erza Scarlet is here?" Lucy asked with a hint of excitement in her voice.
"Took her long enough." Tyson said.
"So, Erza is back?" Mira asked as her eyes twinkled with mischief.
"Mira, please don't attack her. She is just getting back from a mission." Lisanna pleaded with her older sister.
"Don't worry, I won't hurt ginger. Too badly." Mira said with a glint in her eye.
Further conversation was cut off as loud footsteps were heard approaching the guild hall.
Suddenly, the doors were flung open and in came a 6 foot 3 inch tall woman with long scarlet hair and a massive decorated monster horn in her hands.
The woman had lower back length scarlet hair, deep brown eyes, was wearing a custom made suit of armor on her body that had the mark of the Heart Kreuz on the right side of the armor's breastplate. Her attire also consisted of a knee length light blue skirt, black boots and diamond shaped earrings. On her forearms were metal gauntlets, the middle of each gauntlet having a metal wing made to look like the wings of a fairy on each elbow point.
She placed the giant horn on the ground and said, "I have returned. Can someone please tell me where Makarov is?"
Lisanna smiled brightly at the scarlet-haired woman and said, "Makarov is currently at the Guild Meeting in Clover Erza."
Erza nodded and said, "I see. That is unfortunate. I had something I wanted to discuss with him. Very well."
"Hey there, Titania." Erza looked up to the second floor as a man with spiky brown hair made his way down the stairs to greet the young woman.
"How's it going, Mr. Chaos Dragon?" Erza walked over and hugged the spiky brown-haired man. He and Erza were childhood friends from the Tower of Heaven.
"What? He already knows Erza?" Lucy asked, surprised.
The spiky brown-haired man then looked at Lucy.
"I don't believe I know you." He said. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Ryu Yamamoto, a S-Class wizard and one of Fairy Tail's seven Dragon Slayers."
"Nice to meet you. Wait, did you say seven Dragon Slayers?" Lucy asked, shocked.
"I did. Two of them are currently on that Wyvern extermination job, and the remaining five are scattered all across the guild. In fact you're about to meet another one. Hey Laki, come say hi to one of our newest members."
A lavender haired young woman then came up to the two.
"Hello. I'm Laki Oiletta and I'm known as the Wood Dragon Slayer." Laki introduced herself.
"So, you came back Tin Can?" Mira said to Erza as she radiated a dark aura.
"Of course I did. Such a mission might have been the death of a slut like yourself. But for me, it was easy." Erza said back to Mira as she faced her childhood rival and Erza started to radiate a red aura.
The other guild members were starting to get nervous, Erza and Mira might get along well with the others in the guild, but towards each other, they are like cats and dogs, and can't stay in the same room for more than a minute before they start fighting.
"Hey, do I need to put a lacrima on you to make you behave?" Tyson asked the two women.
"Or perhaps you wish to go a few rounds with me?" Thor declared, pointing Mjolnir at the two while thunder trailed off his body.
The two women backed down, they both knew they were magnitudes stronger, but these two were a lot stronger than they were.
"Honestly, you're both S-Class wizards so you should be better behaved than this." Nicholas shook his head in disappointment.
"So, you're Titania Erza?" Hyuuga suddenly asked. "I've heard the stories about your exploits."
He then pulled out Bull Riot. "Knight Rebirth!"
"Black Knight, Hyuuga!" He slid his sword against his armor, then pointed it at her. "I'd like to see what you can do."
Erza smirked at his challenge declaration.
Mira then went behind the bar while Erza approached Tyson.
"Hey." She said.
"Hey yourself. It's been a month." Tyson said back as he hugged her, which she returned.
"Well, I did take a S-Class mission and not all of us can blow up cities with a punch or track monsters for a dozen miles with no problems." Erza said.
"I am very proud of you. You and Mystogan are the only ones that can hold their own against me when I'm not using my Dragon Slayer magic." Tyson said.
Erza then gave him a kiss on the lips, one which he returned and once they broke apart she asked, "Speaking of which, where is Mystogan?"
"He went on a SS-Class mission, so we won't see him for a while. Hey, want to meet my new student?" Tyson asked.
Erza sighed and said, "Really? Another one? Save one for the rest of us S-Class mages, you are starting to make us look bad."
"First come, first serve. Go out and look around, I'm sure you'll find a student." Tyson said as he gently led Erza towards Lucy.
"Lucy, this is my girlfriend, S-Class mage and strongest female wizard in the guild. Erza Scarlet." Tyson said as he introduced Lucy to Erza.
"H-hi. I am Lucy, newest Celestial Spirit mage of Fairy Tail." Lucy said with a bit of nervousness in her voice.
She had seen and sensed the amount of power Erza radiated when she activated her aura, while not else close to Tyson's level, it outclassed Happy by a mile and was nearly the same level as Mira, who also held quite a bit of strength.
"So, you are Lucy, the newest mage and also his newest student." Erza said as she studied Lucy.
Lucy began to shuffle slightly nervously due to Erza's stare, but after a few minutes Erza said, "Nice to meet you."
Erza reached out her hand to shake Lucy's, which Lucy took and shook, trying to make a good impression with her teacher's girlfriend.
"So what do you think of our guild so far Lucy?" Erza asked the blonde.
"Well, it is certainly never dull around here. Also everyone I met in the guild has been super friendly and nice to me, not only that, but they have been super helpful in getting me whipped into acceptable mage standards." Lucy said.
Erza nodded and said, "Yes, although they can be a bit rambunctious, they are still family. Oh, I almost forgot. Gray, Tyson."
Both men gave their attention to Erza as she said, "I learned something troubling the other day and I had planned to speak to the master, but he is currently off at the conference. Normally I would have handled the matter myself, but my gut told me to come and ask for assistance. You two are the strongest mages here currently, I need you two as well as help from Hyuuga, Mizu and Nicholas."
The entire guild was quiet, Erza had asked for help? Inconceivable!
Gray raised his right eyebrow and said, "This sounds serious. What do you need help with?"
"I think it would be better if we discussed this at a more private location." Erza said.
Tyson nodded and said, "Let's head to my house. Oh, and before we leave I have something for you and Mira."
Mira walked over as Tyson opened his pocket dimension and took out the Demon Soul for Mira and the Magma Sword for Erza.
He handed the yellow/black orb that was the Demon Soul to Mira, who almost immediately absorbed it, while he handed Erza the Magma Sword.
The Magma Sword was a rather interesting sword. It was three feet long, had a jet black blade with magma lines crisscrossing all over the blade, while the edging of the blade itself was made up of magma held together by a simple spell. The cross guard of the sword was a simple black line that curved upwards on the bottom and backwards on top. The handle of the blade was a simple leather wrapped handle, while the pommel was a simple silver five sided star with a emerald green jewel embedded in the middle.
Erza gave the sword a few swings before she nodded and said, "This is a good sword. Judging from the crisscrossing lines, I guess that this is a cursed sword that controls magma or lava."
Tyson nodded and said, "Although the curse is harmless to both user and target. The curse is that the blade can control magma, it doesn't affect anyone at all."
Erza nodded and then requiped the cursed blade away into her pocket dimension, saying, "Let's go to your house so we can discuss what I found out."
Tyson nodded and then he, Erza, Happy, Gray, Hyuuga, Mizu and Nicholas all started to head to his house, when Tyson said, "Hey Lucy, don't forget you still have training today."
Mira gasped and said, "Tyson, Erza, Gray, Lucy, Hyuuga, Mizu, Nicholas and Happy all working together on a single job? This is without a doubt the strongest team in Fairy Tail history!"
Lucy started to sweat nervously at that information, she had known Tyson was the strongest of all the Fairy Tail mages, but now she was a part of Fairy Tail's strongest team? Why her, she wasn't that powerful.
The group of eight then went to Tyson's house and he asked, "So, what's the problem?"
"While on my job, I overheard a conversation between three men. They were mages from the Eisenwald guild based on their guild marks that I could see, talking about a item called Lullaby and how they were going to get their revenge on the guild masters. I would normally take all three down and be done with it, but I didn't want the possibility that one of them might get away and take the item in question underground with them."
"Good thinking. We don't know if they had the item and if news was heard someone knew of their plans, the entire guild would go underground and it would be almost impossible to find them. They would wait and then strike again when we least expect it. And this time, there would be no one to know when they were making their move. Did they say when they were planning on using this Lullaby?" Gray asked.
"Yes, they talked a little about something big going down tomorrow, but that's all I could overhear." Erza said.
"So, tomorrow we make our move and catch them in the act, allowing us to legally take them down. It's a good plan." Tyson said.
Erza nodded and said, "So, until tomorrow, I suggest the eight of us work out together, just to try and get a feel for how the others work. It's been over a year since you, me and Gray went on a job together and we never worked with Lucy, Hyuuga, Mizu, Nicholas or Happy. We need to get a feel for how they fight."
Tyson nodded and added, "I also have a new spell that I want Lucy to learn."
He led the group out to the training arena and said, "Go and start your training guys. I will start teaching Lucy her new spell."
Erza nodded and then glowed golden as her clothes also began to glow and eventually disappear and in their place Erza was now wearing a new outfit.
Erza now had on a grey tank top with grey sweatpants on and a blue headband on.
Erza then went and used the barbell set while it was 30 times it's regular weight and she was now also under 30 times Earth gravity.
Gray himself had put some weights on his lower half and began to do chin ups while under 25 times regular gravity and the weights on 25 times regular gravity.
Happy was currently focused on increasing his magic containers and was meditating while doing the magic mapping technique.
Nicholas, Mizu and Hyuuga ran through the woods surrounding the house.
Tyson and Lucy were in the middle of the arena and he said, "Now Lucy, you mostly have the Celestial Spirit Star Blast almost 100% down, now we are going to focus on another problem area. You have extremely poor defenses, what I am going to teach you is how to change that fact."
He then opened Lucy's celestial spirit book he had asked her to give to him so he could show her what he was going to be teaching her today.
Tyson opened the book and flipped through the pages until he got to where he wanted.
The page had a diagram of a shield that stands in front of the user made up of interlocking star shaped blocks.
"This is Celestial Star Bunker. It is a large shield that is approximately 8 feet tall by 11 feet wide and a foot thick. It can be changed into the shape of a sphere for better protection, but that costs more magic to make and maintain and you are immobile while the shield is active, while the other version is mobile, but offers a lot less protection, due to it only facing one direction, you are going to learn how to create the simplified version today and focus on the sphere version another time." Tyson explained to Lucy, who nodded her head.
"Now, concentrate on your magic, submerge yourself within it." Tyson instructed his student.
Lucy closed her eyes and concentrated on her magic, submerging her consciousness in the waves of her own power.
"Now, imagine a wall in front of yourself, made up of stars." He continued on.
Lucy concentrated on the mental image in her head and slowly, ever so slowly, two small tendrils of golden light came off of Lucy and began to merge together a few feet in front of Lucy, building and creating star shaped blocks of see through golden light interconnected together to form a large wall in front of Lucy.
Tyson smiled and said, "Good job Lucy."
Lucy opened her eyes and saw the wall right in front of her.
Lucy smiled and then asked, "How long did that take me?"
"About an hour. Let's stop that for now, you have the basics of the spell down, you just need to practice it. For now, let's concentrate on increasing your magic containers and the efficiency of your magic as a whole." Tyson said as he got into a meditative position and began the magic mapping technique.
Lucy closed her eyes and did what Tyson was doing.
Soon, they were joined by Erza, Gray and Happy, all five of them in a circle and using the technique.
They could all feel it, the raw amount of magic power circulating in the air.
It was like a ocean of power, but it wasn't just the result of one person, all of them were creating the ocean.
The ocean felt warm like Tyson, calm like Erza, hopeful like Happy, curious like Lucy and determined like Gray, a true fusion of their inner selves given form.
The waves of power from their efforts wrapped around them like a warm blanket on a cold night, giving them warmth that they never knew that they wanted.
This went on for quite some time, no one would ever know for how long the five of them stayed that way before they all stopped using the technique and the ocean of power disappeared.
The sun was about an hour or two from setting, showing that they had been meditating in that position for quite some time now as Mizu, Hyuuga and Nicholas rejoined them after finishing their run through the forest.
"Hey Tyson." Gray said.
"Yeah?" He asked his friend.
"Fight me." Gray said.
Tyson flashed a smile. "You're on."
He and Gray went to opposite sides of the arena, while Erza, Lucy, Happy and the others walked closer to the house.
Gray and Tyson assumed their battle stances, steam starting to come off Tyson while a purple mist started to come off of Gray.
Lucy turned towards Happy and asked him, "What magic does Gray use?"
"Gray once used pure Ice-Make Magic, but after he freed his master from a piece of ice that held a demon, his magic transformed itself into Ice Devil Slayer magic, which gives him the ability to resist even the coldest temperatures, he can eat ice to get his strength back, has increased strength, durability and speed due to being a devil slayer and he can cause black markings to go over his body to better protect himself from demonic energies." Happy explained to the shocked Lucy.
"So wait. There are other types of Slayer magic besides Dragon?" Lucy asked.
"Aye. The ones I know that exist are God Slayer magic, Dragon Slayer magic and Devil Slayer magic. There could be others, but I have never seen them." Happy said.
"So, how many Slayers do you know?" Lucy asked.
"Currently 8, and that is all the Slayers I know. There could be more, but I never met them." Happy said.
"This battle is between Tyson Dragneel and Gray Fullbuster. It will continue until one side is unable to do so. No fatal spells or aiming for vulnerable areas. Understood?" Erza said.
Both nodded their heads and then Erza shouted out, "BATTLE BEGIN!"
Right off the bat, both sides opened their mouths and began to channel their magic into their mouths.
Gray had purple ice forming in his mouth while Tyson had a large amount of fire in his jaws ready to fire.
With voices like thunder, the two of them shouted out.
"FIRE DRAGON ROAR!"
"ICE DEVIL RAGE!"
A massive stream of orange/red fire came roaring out of Tyson's mouth, while a large stream of purple ice came out of Gray's.
The two powerful spells clashed in the middle, causing a massive steam cloud to be formed, blocking both of the fighters from view.
Not to be deterred, both combatants focused on their senses to determine the location of their opponent.
Tyson shouted out, "FIRE DRAGON IRON FIST!" while Gray shouted out, "ICE DEVIL RAGE!"
Tyson's flame infused right fist struck Gray's ice covered fist, causing a large explosion that blew back all of the smoke, leaving Erza, Lucy, Happy and the others once more.
The two jumped backwards and began to walk around, like two predators circling each other.
Then, the two disappeared and then reappeared in front of each other, Tyson blocking Gray's left hook with his right hand.
Gray then began to unleash a blistering barrage of punches, all of which he stopped with just one hand.
"What's going on Happy? Before Gray was matching Tyson's blows, now he can't even get a punch in?" Lucy asked.
"Tyson is using his Electric Dragon Slayer magic to move faster than Gray can and he has been a lot stronger in terms of physical strength than Gray has been." Happy explained.
"Alright, I guess you asked for it!" Gray shouted out as he jumped backwards.
Gray then yelled out, "ICE DEVIL GLACIER CANNON!"
Gray's purple ice then formed into a massive bazooka that he placed onto his shoulder and then sent a massive blast of pure purple ice towards Tyson.
He clenched his right hand and then threw it forwards, creating a large beam of fire that struck the stream of ice and melted it with ease, causing yet another screen of steam.
Tyson charged forwards, his right fist cocked backwards as he reached Gray.
But, when he struck Gray, Gray shattered like ice!
"Gray!" Lucy shouted out in shock, thinking Tyson killed him.
'Ice clone. Where are you?' Tyson thought looking around as he then heard a familiar voice shout out, "ICE DEVIL ZEROTH DESTRUCTION BOW!"
Tyson turned around just in time for a massive amount of ice to strike his chest with incredible force, sending him flying backwards.
Tyson stopped himself by digging his feet into the ground, causing small trenches to be formed from where he skidded backwards.
He then looked up and saw the smirking face of one Gray Fullbuster about 150 feet away from him.
"Very clever Gray. Using the smoke as cover to create a Ice Clone for me to attack, and then attack me when I wasn't prepared for it. Not bad. Looks like I have to take this seriously now." Tyson told his opponent.
Gray then began to panic slightly, he knew his limits and how incredibly powerful Tyson is, if he was to go completely all out, he would lose without a doubt.
Tyson then disappeared once again and then reappeared in front of Gray.
Before Gray could respond, Tyson buried his electricity infused left fist deep into Gray's gut, sending the Ice Mage flying backwards.
Gray rolled over several times before he stopped and laid there for a few seconds before he started to get back up.
"That was a nasty punch you got there Tyson. I see that you still got it." Gray said.
"Yes. I may not train as hard as I did with Igneel, but I'm not rusty." Tyson said as he raised his lit right hand up. "But enough talk and enough testing each other. Time to go all out."
Gray smirked and said, "I couldn't agree more."
Gray then clenched his hands and began to scream out as his power level began to rise dramatically.
On his right arm a strange black tattoo began to form, going from the bottom of his wrist all the way past his elbow.
Gray now had a thick purple aura surrounding himself and his eyes began to glow purple.
"Well Tyson, let's get this show on the road." Gray said with a smirk.
Tyson nodded and he too began to scream out as he clenched his fists and began to power up.
After ten seconds of screaming he stopped and stared at Gray with his slightly changed eyes.
Tyson's eyes were now a bit more narrowed, like a lizard's, and also instead of being completely obsidian, his eyes were now golden with lighter golden streaks going through his eyes.
'Okay, right now I am using 85% base power. I'm surprised Gray managed to force me to go this far in only a few years after mastering his Devil Slayer power. One day I will have to use 100% of my power, not just in this form.' Tyson thought.
The two men stood still for a few seconds, not twitching a single muscle at all as they studied each other for a few minutes before they attacked.
The two men then disappeared once again and then reappeared in the middle of the arena, arms almost moving faster then the eye could follow, the blows and counter blows happening almost instantly.
This went on for a minute before the two disappeared and reappeared all over the arena randomly, the force of their blows causing small shock waves to appear.
Tyson and Gray then reappeared above the arena, Gray's left leg extending and hitting Tyson's raised left arm.
The two back flipped onto the arena floor, their feet touching the floor with not a hint of struggle in them.
Tyson then said, "You've gotten a lot better Gray. You can almost hold your own against me."
Gray smiled and said, "Of course I did Tyson. I have to keep up with you."
He smirked and said, "I think you are a few years too early to believe you can stand up to my true strength."
Gray said, "Whatever. Let's end this."
"Ladies first." Tyson said with a smirk as he saw how irritated Gray was getting.
"ICE DEVIL ZEROTH LONG SWORD!" Gray yelled out as he summoned his ice to create a ethereal long sword that went into his open right arm.
Gray then dashed forward and tried to slash Tyson, who ducked, dodged and weaved his way out of the strikes with almost impossible speed, but for someone as fast as electricity and the wind, even with Gray's increased speed Tyson saw those strikes coming from a mile away.
Gray, growing a bit frustrated, created another sword for his left hand and then doubled the intensity of the strikes, but even that was unable to get Tyson.
After a few minutes of dodging, he decided to end this by shouting out, "Electric Dragon Claw!"
Tyson's left fist was covered in blue electricity as he swiped it in front of him, instantly destroying both of Gray's swords, leaving him open for another attack which was, "Fire Dragon Roar!"
A large pillar of fire came out of Tyson's mouth and struck point blank, sending the ice mage flying backwards.
Gray slowly got up just in time to hear him yell out, "Thunder Dragon Judgment!"
Tyson's right fist was coated in thunder.
Tyson reared his fist back and Gray knew he had seconds to act before the spell was unleashed and he would soon be defeated.
Calling upon his power, Gray then yelled out, "ICE MAKE SHIELD!"
Gray's purple ice then began to form into a purple flower shaped shield, just in time because Tyson then finished the spell and sent the thunder at the shield.
It hit the shield, causing thunder to strike the shield and although the spell was powerful, it wasn't strong enough to stop the thunder completely, allowing a large amount of the spell's power to strike Gray.
Gray was hit by the power of the thunder, causing him to yell out in pain, while the force of the explosion had sent a large amount of air flying outwards, causing Lucy, Erza, Happy and the others to be moved several feet backwards.
After a few minutes the dust cleared and Gray could be seen standing, but just barely.
Gray looked at Tyson and said, "That was a good match. Let's do it again sometime."
Gray then began to fall forwards, but Tyson caught him and then led him over to a chair where he could rest for a bit.
Tyson powered himself down and sent a pulse of magic into Gray to not only replenish his magic, but to accelerate the healing process for the injuries he received during the fight.
Erza, Lucy, Happy and the others all came running over and Lucy asked concerned, "Are you gonna be alright Gray?"
"Yeah. By morning it will be as if nothing had happened to me." He said as he popped his right shoulder and began to rotate his arm.
"That was an excellent match Gray. You stood well against Tyson. Before hand you could barely take a single hit from him and now you are able to keep pace with him throughout the course of the fight and you took several very powerful spells before you could no longer fight. I will say though you need to reign in that temper. If you had kept your cool, you could have kept fighting for a while." Erza noted.
"Yeah, yeah yeah. I know my temper is my weak point and I need to work on that. But still, I did a very good job." Gray said with a hint of pride in his voice.
The group of friends all rolled their eyes and Tyson said, "Let's call it a day. We need our sleep if we hope to stop whatever Eisenwald has planned tomorrow."
The group nodded and went back to their homes, ready to get some sleep and stop whatever Eisenwald has planned.
The next morning...
Tyson, Happy, Lucy, Gray, Mizu, Nicholas and Hyuuga were all at the train station now, waiting for Erza to show up so they can begin their mission.
Right now Tyson had on a pair of reading glasses and read a book he purchased in Crocus that contained a collection of poems or famous phrases from across history. One of his favorites was, "Then out spoke brave Horatius, the Captain of the Gate: To every man upon this earth death cometh sooner or later. And how can men die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of the fathers, and the Temples of his gods?"
He was rather fascinated by this quote, it spoke to him on a personal level. He loved fighting, more specifically he loved to fight against enemies that were a lot stronger than him. However there were very few people who could match or even exceed his own strength, which is why he lowered his power to their level, to prolong the fight and give himself a challenge. He only did this however when there was no threat to anyone else, if there's even a chance anyone could be hurt, he took down the threat with ruthless efficiency. He was a battle maniac, but he would never place his love of fighting over the safety of his loved ones.
He was so lost in his thoughts he didn't hear Lucy calling out to him and didn't react until she lightly tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to turn towards her.
"Yes?" He asked.
"I was saying, what was that Dragon Slayer magic you used towards the end of your fight with Gray?"
"That was Thunder Dragon Slayer magic. It's something I taught myself over the last seven years to add some variety to my attacks." Tyson said with a smile.
"Exactly how many Dragon Slayer magics do you possess?" Lucy asked.
"Well besides Fire, Electric, Wind and Thunder, there's also Air, Arctic, Celestial, Darkness, Earth, Ice, Light, Solar, Storm and Water Dragon Slayer magic." He explained with a smile.
"That's so cool." Lucy said with stars in her eyes.
Tyson chuckled a little seeing his friend act this way and said, "It is a little cool. So, have you been reading the book I purchased for you?"
Lucy nodded and showed him that she had brought the book along and said, "I have learned a lot about Celestial Spirit magic. Did you know that Celestial Spirit mages can form a special contract with their spirits so they can create a form known as Star Dress?"
"Star Dress? Never heard of it." Tyson admitted.
"Well, Star Dress forms are specially made so that only the summoner of a Zodiac spirit can use them. The Star Dresses are special because they allow the user to take on some of the power of the Zodiac they are based off of. For example, if I was to create and use Star Dress Cancer Form, I would now have a specially constructed samurai suit just like he does and I would gain most of his abilities, so I would be able to swing the katana almost as well as Cancer can, while also being able to move as fast as he can. If I were to use Star Dress Taurus Form, I would then be clothed in something similar to what Taurus wears, plus I would gain immense strength and I would also have a giant battle axe I could then use." Lucy said with excitement clear in her voice.
"Really? It seems that's the next thing you'll be trained in." Tyson said.
"Apparently there is also something called the Battle Form for Zodiac Spirits. It is where the summoner sends a pulse of magic into the Zodiac Spirit in question and then the Zodiac Spirit will change. They will have a new appearance and gain new magic, while still having their regular personalities. It is also a very useful ability to have." Lucy explained.
"Wow, I had no idea Celestial Spirit mages could become that powerful." Tyson said.
"I know right? I always thought that although Zodiac Spirits are powerful, that Celestial Spirit magic itself was rather weak. But now I am finding out that me and everyone else was just thinking too unilaterally. There are so many ways to increase your power with Celestial Spirit magic." Lucy said as she turned through the pages of her book.
"Well, when you think about it, it makes sense. Celestial Spirit magic is literally using the power of the heavens, so it would make sense that there is a lot of different ways to get stronger. There really is no right or wrong way to be a Celestial Spirit mage, there are certainly better, faster ways, but in the end there is no right or wrong. I guess the same could be said for all magics." Tyson said.
"You got that right. Look at my Ice Make magic. Although Ur and Lyon have different ways of using the magic, I could probably beat Lyon and give Ur a run for her money, just because I am not using Ice-Make magic. I guess when you just specialize in one type of magic, you become rigid and stale. But when you combine magic together, you get something new and a lot more powerful." Gray said as he petted Happy who was sleeping on his lap.
"You got that right. I mean, can you imagine how weak I would have been if I had just worked only in Fire Dragon Slayer magic." Tyson said as his glasses and book disappeared.
"Yeah, or if I had never gotten my Ice Devil Slayer magic? I probably would have had my annoying stripping habit still and you probably would have been an idiot, Happy would probably just have been our incredibly cute, but useless mascot, while all the other S-Class mages would have never gotten their needed training." Gray said with a smile.
"Yeah. Imagine you being the stripper, me the adorable moron, Lucy the blonde cheerleader, Happy the irresistible mascot and Erza the strict disciplinarian." Tyson said as the three of them shared one giant imagination bubble.
Inside, there was a less muscular and smaller Tyson with a black and golden open vest and white baggy pants fighting a Gray who was also less muscular and was currently only in his boxers and then a smaller and more violent Erza sent them flying into unconsciousness with a single hit, while a wimpier Lucy was using a completely useless Happy as a shield.
The three stopped imagining that and Tyson said, "Those are thoughts better left never thought."
"Agreed. I praise the ever lasting sun that I don't have that stupid stripping habit anymore." Gray said with a shudder of what could have happened to him if he had kept that habit.
He could imagine the dreams of perpetual pain and horror Erza would have unleashed upon him if he had kept that habit.
"You had a stripping habit?" Lucy asked with a hint of surprise in her voice.
"Yeah, it was so bad I would strip to my underwear in a second, and I wouldn't notice that I would do it. It was horrible. To the point where Tyson placed a Dragon Glyph on me that wouldn't come off until I say, "Glyph off." Gray said.
"Eventually, he trained his body to not have to strip anymore, so I removed the glyph and since then, not once has he stripped. Thank goodness. I can only imagine what everyone would think of Fairy Tail if he still had that habit." Tyson said.
"Yeah, but that can never happen, so let's just forget it." Gray said.
Just then, Erza appeared in her usual custom made Heart Kreuz armor.
"Sorry I took so long. I was busy repairing one of my armors that was damaged on my last mission and lost track of time." Erza apologized.
"It's fine. Now that you're here, we can get started." Tyson said.
"Yeah, let's go and bust some Dark Mage's heads. It never gets old." Gray said.
"Remember, our job is to retrieve Lullaby and arrest any and all Eisenwald members." Erza reminded them as the group got onto the train.
"Yeah yeah Erza we remember. We aren't little kids anymore. I have been an S-Class wizard for years now and Tyson here has been one longer than anyone of us here." Gray said as he sat down in one of the seats, with Lucy sitting to his right.
Mizu, Hyuuga and Nicholas were in a seat further down the aisle.
"Just reminding you. We cannot afford any mistakes. Eisenwald is not playing around and so, we must not as well." Erza said as she waited for Tyson to slide into his seat first.
"We're aware of what's at stake." Tyson replied.
"Aye sir." Happy said as he flew down onto Erza's lap.
"Well then, let's hope we can stop Eisenwald before they do anything." Erza said as the train started moving, unaware that there were several Eisenwald members on the train.
Several hours later and the train had stopped.
Erza, Happy, Gray, Lucy, Mizu, Nicholas and Hyuuga all got off the train, completely forgetting about Tyson, who had fallen asleep due to the train rocking.
He may not have his motion sickness anymore, but now he found it really easy to fall asleep while on transportation.
Tyson woke up just in time to see that he was all alone and the train was leaving the station.
'Hold on they seriously forgot about me? Wow, really S-Class material. Oh well, everyone makes mistakes.' Tyson thought.
He was about to get up and leave the train when a man came over and asked, "Mind if I sit down here?"
He looked up and saw a man of about average height with black eyes and black hair tied in a short, tight ponytail. He was currently wearing a white shirt with a high collar and a intricate symbol on the back over a plain red undershirt. He has a pair of aquamarine pants on, black shoes and small black earrings in each ear.
Tyson immediately sensed that this man had something with dark magic emanating off it.
Suddenly thinking it was a good idea to talk to this man, Tyson said, "Sure."
The man sat down and asked, "Are you a mage?"
Tyson raised his right eyebrow and questioned, "Is there some kind of problem?"
The man chuckled and said, "No, but I can sense you have a lot of power. Are you part of a guild?"
"Not at the moment. I am on a journey to get stronger before I try and join a guild." Tyson said, using his acting skills to play the part of a new, inexperienced mage.
"Well, a mage of your power would be most welcome into Eisenwald. What do you say?" The man offered.
Tyson pretended to think about it and then said, "Okay, no one else has given me an offer. I accept. What do I do now?"
The man smiled and said, "Well, since you are new, go to our Guild Hall. Here is it's location."
The man handed Tyson a map and he said. "Thank you. May I ask for your name?"
The man then said, "My name is Kageyama."
Tyson then stood up and said, "Okay Kageyama, I will head to the Guild. When can I expect the Guild master?"
"Our leader Erigor is currently in the middle of an operation that is only known to his inner circle. I can't say anything more due to you just joining." Kageyama said.
"Okay. I understand. I shall see you at the guild." Tyson said as he stuck his hand out for a hand shake.
Kageyama shook his hand and then the train suddenly stopped, causing something to be flung out of his pocket.
It was a simple wooden flute that had a three eyed skull head at the top, but it was emanating dark magic.
Kageyama quickly put the flute back into his pocket then got up and walked into the forward train car.
Tyson was tempted to go and take the flute, but knew it was better to wait.
Especially since he had placed a tracking glyph onto Kageyama's hand, allowing him to track the man across the continent if necessary.
Tyson then went to the last train car and saw a magic mobile trying to catch up to the train. Another one was behind it.
He quickly located his friend's magical signatures in both magic mobiles and then jumped off the train.
He ignited the soles of his shoes and flew forwards, headed directly for the first magic mobile.
The first magic mobile stopped and his friends out of both and approached him as he sat down.
"Tyson. Sorry we forgot you." Lucy apologized.
"Don't worry about it. I ran into a member of Eisenwald." He said.
The group grew silent and Erza said, "Explain."
"I had woken up on the train and discovered I was alone figuring you forgot to wake me up when a black-haired man came over and began to talk to me. He said he was a member of Eisenwald and they would love to have a mage like me in their guild. Playing along I said yes and he was kind enough to give me a map to their guild, plus he told me Erigor, the guild's current leader was in the middle of an operation. Then the train stopped and a flute with a three-eyed skull head came out of his pocket. It emanated dark magic and he was quick to hide it. I then placed a tracking glyph on him when we shook hands, so we can track him and he should lead us to where Erigor is currently headed." Tyson explained to the others.
Erza nodded her head and said, "Good job. So where are they headed?"
"Well, the only other destination on that train was Oshibana Station." Tyson said.
"That's good. Everyone get in the magic mobiles. We are going to the Oshibana train station." Erza instructed.
Everyone got into the magic mobiles and drove off, heading towards Oshibana as quickly as they possibly could.
On the train...
Kageyama was in a good mood, he had just gotten Eisenwald a new recruit and he had broken the seal on the demonic flute Lullaby so they could use it on those pesky guild masters at Clover Town. He literally could not see how this day could get any better.
Kageyama then entered another train car and saw his leader, Erigor was standing in the middle of the car, waiting for him.
Erigor was an extremely tall, lean-built yet mildly muscular man with silver hair, some of it spiking upwards while some of it fell over his left eye in tufts and went down to his shoulders. His eyes are dark and his face is partially elongated. His ears are somewhat pointed and he lacks eyebrows. His eyes are circled with a black line, below each is a simple tattoo of a vertical line intersected by three horizontal lines. The upper part of his body is similarly tattooed, these ones being larger, more intricate and had blue motifs which took on spiraling forms and decorate his shoulders, stomach, pectorals and back. He is wearing torn Japanese-like clothing like that of a grim reaper. His chest is bare, showing all of his tattoos, while he wears a long, worn skirt, below a darker, shorter cloth, held up by an even shorter and darker cloth tied up as a belt. He has a black scarf wrapped around his thin neck, dark gloves with a silver "X" on the back, bandages wrapped around his forearms and geta sandals.
Erigor's signature weapon, his massive scythe was currently in his right hand.
"Master Erigor, I have unlocked Lullaby's seal." Kageyama said as he handed the flute to Erigor.
Erigor took the flute and inspected it for a few minutes before he laughed and said, "Good work Kageyama."
Kageyama then said, "I also was able to recruit a new mage to our ranks."
Erigor gave Kageyama a look and said, "Continue."
"He is immensely powerful, easily on your level or even higher. He appears to be new to the magical world, he said he was on a trip to gain more strength before he joined a guild." Kageyama said.
"Good thing you snatched this mage up before any of the other Dark Guilds managed to get their dirty hands on him. I shall inspect him when we return to the guild after the mission. If he is as powerful as you say he is, he shall be a very important asset in all the chaos we shall create with the Guild Master's deaths." Erigor said as he placed the flute in his belt.
"I live to serve master, may I ask how far we are from the station?" Kageyama asked.
"We are about an hour away from the station. Once there, we shall use the speaker system as a means of creating a vast amount of chaos and with the magic council scrambling to contain the situation, we shall sneak our way to Clover and then play the flute, killing all of the Guild Masters. Oh I can see it now! The Magic Council in complete disarray as their precious Guild Masters are now dead! They will be in too much chaos to pay attention to us! We will be able to get away with anything!" Erigor said as he began to laugh manically.
Erigor then ordered the Eisenwald members he brought with him to take over the train and to go full speed to the Oshibana train station.
The Eisenwald members were only too happy to comply with Erigor's orders. They too felt his rage at the magic council for taking away their rights as mages.
However, they had underestimated the power of the Legal mages and this shall be their undoing, for driving towards Oshibana Station are seven wizards and a knight that shall stand against the Eisenwald guild and fight until the bitter end to keep not only their master safe and sound, but the innocent people safe and sound as well.
As long as they are alive and fighting, Eisenwald will not prevail.
They will stand against anyone, be it a devil from hell, an angel from the Heavens or even a god, these eight shall stand for what they believe is right and keep everyone they care about safe.
To all who wish to do Fairy Tail harm, beware the wrath of the strongest team.