Things were going as usual in Fairy Tail, laughts echoed through the building, especially after hearing what Lucy tell them what happened last night.
"Giehehehe. You got angry and you beat up that big-mouth dude? Hahaha! That's somethin' I like" Gajeel said while ruffling Shizu's hair. The unnexpressive girl didn't seems to be bothered by the gesture, but she nodded noneless. The hit she delivered at White Eclipse definitely boosted the moral of Fairy Tail.
"And you done that for Lu-chan" Levy said, smiling at Shizu "Thank you for that"
Shizu stared intensively at her for few seconds. Levy wondered if she had something on her face. Shizu lifted her thumb. Before Levy could sk what was happening, Shizu pressed it on her forehead
"H-he?" Levy blinked, having absolutely not clue about anything.
"I wonder why I didn't do that earlier" Shizu said quitely, mostly to herself. After removing herthumb, Gajeel, Lily, and Natsu, who was also here for the story about last evening looked with wided eyes in surprise
"What?" Levy asked why these two looked at her before bursting into a laugh. Annoyed, she touched her own fronthead, feeling a strange matter stick on it
Is it...plastic?
"Hm, perfect" Shizu said while nodding multiples times. Levy managed to removed whatever was on her face. She looked at it, puzzled "What is...?"
"Sticker. For cute things" Shizu respond with a low voice, as if she pouted because Levy took it off.
"C-Cute?" Levy blushed for the word and covered her face with her hands.
S-stop looking at me like that, Shi-chan. It's you who are so cute. For some reason, Gajeel stopped laughing.
Aura, her, felt a little sceptic by her behavior the last day. If that action permitted them to deppened their infiltration, it cuold also be the source of a bad reputation as persons. And if these White Eclipses humans tried to avenge their comrade? She didn't know. She will asked her lady for that, after scolding CZ for her outbreak.
Erza was talking to Makarov, who called her on a special mission
"Erza, if I call you, it's because of an urgent matter"
"Urgent?"
"Yes. Apparantly, a group of dark mage are causing trouble, so the council want multiples guilds to take care of it. I want you to assemble a group to handle them"
Erza nodded "Understood, Master" She went toward the center of the hall
"Your attention!" Everyone stopped what are they doing and turned their head to Erza
"Master gave me a mission. A group of dark mage are causing trouble. So I will choose the people who will follow me!"
Natsu jumped at Erza "Me! Me! I want-" He was stopped by Erza's armored hand which was on his face
"Like I was saying. The peoples who will follow me are: Natsu, Gray, Lucy, Elfman, Shizu, Aura, Gajeel, Wendy, Cynthia"
Natsu and Gajeel bumped their fists together, happy to be choose. That wasn't really the case for Wendy, but Cynthia was glad as well.
"Yay! We're going together, Wendy!" Cynthia said happily.
"Of course we're choosed" Lucy said. If Erza was forming a group, she and Gray were always part of it.
"Me? If you said so" Aura was not complaining to be choosed. Shizu, as usual, didn't respond, but accepted
"As a man, I will take care of them, count on me!" Elfman screamed, fists in the air.
Erza nodded to their answers "Then, we're going!"
"Yes!" They yelled at the scarlet mage.
Aura felt a message for her. Discretly, she placed two fingers on her temple, received it
' Aura, can you hear me?'
' Galadriel-sama? Yes, I can hear you, what's the problem?'
' My new guild was volonteer to doing his job. Since we can't used shadow demons without absolute surety nor use our limited [Message] scrolls. Communications are unfortunately very limited. Is Fairy Tail part of the hunt?'
'They just named the members who will go. CZ and I are part of it'
'Good, we can use this opportunity to meet each other and say in more details how things going. I will use [Elise the Spider Queen] to tell you where to meet
Aura shivered when she heard 'spider', despite being specialised at taming beasts,she hated small insects or others similar creatures
O-Okay,see you soon, Galadriel-sama
As the communication ended, Aura approached Shizu and whispered at her ear what her lady just told her.
Reve observed the hall below him, where the majority of the guild was. After looking around, he spoke loudly
"Everyone! I have something to say! Some dark mages needed to be calmed. I have received the order to bring people and make them a visit"
"I hope they will be sturdier than the last ones" Luke said, landing on the couch.
"You speak like you will be on track. The ones will be: Me, of course, Taya, Selena, Aira, Zalen, Takeru, Michio, and finally... Luke"
Taya rolled her eyes when he said his name
"Why did you last the suspence for me?" Luke said with a deadpanned expression
"If you said it."Zalen said while cleaning his glasses
Aira get cose to Selene "Don't worry. I'm with you" Selene only nodded
"Then, if everyone's ready. Let's go"Reve jumped from the balcony before leading the group to the exit.
The Fairy Tail group arrived to the last know location of the dark mages
"Ugh, a forest, again..." Cynthia complained. She still remembering about the flower quest. She hoped they won't not searched in a cave to.
"This place is huge" Wendy said, contemplating the size of the forest.
"Okay, then I suggest we separate. In a large field like that. It's the best way" Aura suggested, and everyone nodded in agreement
"Then make groups of 2 or 3, it's dangerous to go alone" Erza said, getting closer to Aura as well as Shizu.
"Wendy! Let's go there!" Cynthia tugged Wendy's arm, forcing her to went to one direction. Carla folowed them by flying
"My manly senses tell me to go... there!" Elfman screamed while dashing in a random direction
"Geez, why am I with that?" Gray scratched his head, walking slowly toward the same direction as Elfman
Natsu grinned widely "Hehe, finally, fight. Here I go!" Like Elfman, Natsu ran in one direction
"Natsu, wait" Lucy screamed, her and Happy following Natsu.
"I'm gonna beat'em first, Salamander" Gajeel said before running as well, Lily accompagned him.
Aura used her skills to detected what she searched. At her glee, she saw several, small, tiny spiders aligned, indicating the path to follow. She lokked at Shizu, who understand, nodding to each other
"Well, first arrive!" Aura smirked while passing elegantly through the forest.
Shizu began her course with great speed, leaving Erza behind them
"H-Hey, wait" Erza extended her arm, trying to stop them, but it was not availed. She speed up, pursuing her fellow members.
Deeper in the forest, Elian, Regina and Nabe stood here, waiting for something. Regina, after looking away thanks to her enhance vision, found nothing.
"Elian-san, I was wondering. I know you didn't send shadow demons with Aura and CZ-chan, but is it necessary? Because of that, we never know how much things do. I want to see my little sister again!" she whined in the last part
Elian smirked under her helmet "I know how you fell, trust me, but it's necessary for them to not have any suspicious movements and make Fairy Tail in trust with them. I know it's hard to not seeing your comrade, but don't worry. If things go wrong, in the worst case scenario, they can leave without waiting. And judging by what I learnt about that guild. They don't seems to be bad persons. A bit reckless, maybe, but good. Aah, here they are."
From the threes above them, small, very small figures came out and leaked their way until the three. One of them posed itself on the armor's shoulder
"Report!"
"There is 3 others groups in others extremities of the forest. At the bottom, there is what we search, the dark mages. There is 9 in total. At an entrance, there is the guild Fairy Tail. Like planned, Aura-smam and CZ-sama are present, they run at us, accompagned by a woman in armor."
"A woman in armor? Well that's unfortunate, but I guess we can't do much about this"
"And finally, not far from them, there is an other guild who seems to participate. Unfortunately, we had trouble to discover who it might be. All of them decided to separates themself in small groups"
Elian nodded "Thank you for the informations, Elise"
The tiny spider seems to bow before dissappearing in the trees.
"So? What is the plan?" Asked Narbe, who began to be impatient of waiting
"We are going to 'coincidentally' meet our future friends" Elian said, before going to the opposite direction of the three members of Fairy Tail
"Yay! New friends!" Regina said joyfully before following her mistress. While Narbe did the same, adding nothing more.
White Eclipse arrived at the same moment of Fairy Tail
"So, by where we begin?" Luke requested
"Being separate seems to be a good start" stated Taya "I will see you later" She waved at the others while moving out
"Me too, I go" Takeru said before leading to the deep forest, alone
"Selene, we move?" Aira pukked Selene's arm, separating them from the rest of the group
"Don't try to break a lot of things, kids" Reve said jokly, smirking, while doing on his own way
Luke just stared everyone leaving one by one, not leaving his enough time to say anything
"Well, it seems we are the last now-" But Zalen and Michio were already gone "Come on guys!"
Elfman was deeper in the forest, trying to find a adversary
"Is there anyone manly enough to dace me?" He screamed through the woods. With the echo, it was sure someone would come soon. A giant black wolf appeared from his dead angle and jumped at him, with its bang and clawed apointing at him
Elfman sensed that and transformed his arm into Iron Bull, rending it harder. He brough it on the wolf trajectory, successfully blocking it, although he recoiled from the mass of the canide
"I though you will be raid dead with that surprise attack. It's not that bad, a little adversity is always a plus" A man with shaggy brown hair and a red trench coat said, going out of his hideout
"A real man fight is when two faces each others!" Elfman screamed while using his magic "TakeOver: Beast Soul !" He transformed himself into a beast, using his other arm to grab thewolf by the neck, performing a catch hold. The bacck of the wolf percuted violently the ground, causing it to release its grip and whined in pain.
"Impressive." The man said with a grin
"And it's only the beggining" Elfman said, grinning as well.
Aira lead Selene through the forest. Despite not doing that on her own, the Dragon Slayer was not complaining
"Did you pick something?" Aira asked. As a Dragon Slayer, Selene had a sensible nose to pick scents
"Nothing so far. I noticed the scents of our comrades, but the dark mages are too far for me to pick them" She stopped,looking up
"Hm? What is it ?"
"Strange, It doesn't rain, but there's water closeby"
Aira looked at her with incomprehension, before her eyes wided "Selene! Watch out!"
"Huh?" Selene didn't know what happened as Aira pushed her. Just as they were on the ground,they felt something passing just over their heads
"W-What is-"
"Difficult to small something in water" A ball of water wsa coming toward them. It dispatches itself, revealing Byron, the water mage.
"He's one of them !" Aira said, positioning herself quickly in a fight stance
Byron lifted his finger, water was forming above it. It grows until it reached a certain diameter
"Water Ball" He said calmy, unlike the ball which flew at great speed toward Aira. But before it could hit its target, something blocked it. It was Aira. She used her two arms covered in diamonds to block the attack
"Not so fast. If you want to hurt her, then you must pass by me"
Water circled around Byron, taking the dhape of sharp tendril "I planned to beat you two in the same time anyway.
Through the forest, people started making contact with the dark mage: Gajeel fough against a middle aged woman with curly brown hair which reached her lower back and red hair
"Giehehe, finally, my first fight" Gajeel said while cracking his knuckles
"You reach your own death, Fairy Tail scum, I'm Elisa, and you will regret fighing me"
Wendy and Cynthia were face to Veronica
"You again?" Wendy said, surprised with a tilt of fear
"Surprise? I can finally get my revenge on you" Veronica said with anger, remembering their first meeting
"Whos is her?" Cynthia asked, ready to fight
"She's the one who poisoned her" Carla answered, causing Cynthia to narrowed her eyes
"Don't worry, Wendy, I will not let her hurt you again"
"Aw, that's cute, but you think you have a chance against me even if you are two?" Veronica said, a purple mist surrounding her
Zalen, him, was against Surge, the elemental mage
"You're not from Fairy Tail" Surge said. He hoped fight against Erza again
"Sorry for that. But it's not a reason to underestimate me, dark mage" He repositionned his glasses, although it was not particulary necessary
During these encounters, the others were trying to find an adversary at their convenience. They didn't know they were observed from the trees everywhere