The air in the crumbling temple hung heavy with the scent of mold, stagnation, and rot. Normally, Lir's sensitive nose would have made it difficult to stomach such a strong, unpleasant odor but after years exploring ruins it didn't affect her much anymore. Max, Vijeeter, and Warren, on the other hand, coughed and scrunched up their noses as they passed through the ancient rooms, following her lead as she guided them to the central chamber where a valuable artifact hopefully waited.
"How much further?" Warren asked.
"Not much, the end of this hall I think," Lir replied.
The hallway had once been ornate and regal, much like the rest of the temple, but now the grime-covered marble was disintegrating and any paint or carvings had been worn away long ago. It was barely more than a cave at present, complete with echoing water drips and nebulous groaning sounds. The only light came from the lacrima lanterns Warren and Max carried, creating a glowing field around them. She could see about thirty feet into the pitch-black darkness courtesy of her enhanced eyesight so she noticed the empty pedestal at the end of the hall first. After a few more steps the lamplight revealed it to the rest of them.
"Is there seriously nothing here?" Vijeeter exclaimed.
"Don't panic yet," she said.
She walked to the back wall and knocked her way along it until she found a brick that felt hollow and shoved it in hard. A heavy thud echoed through the hall followed by the sound of stone scraping against stone as the wall pried itself open to reveal a staircase going down.
"This should be it," Lir said, leading the way down.
The stairs opened up into a rectangular chamber with a high, vaulted ceiling and in better condition than the rest of the temple. A thick layer of dust settled over everything but statues of soldiers lining the path to the podium in the middle of the room could have been carved yesterday. Perched atop the podium was a twelve-inch tall, golden, jewel-encrusted idol in the form of an ancient goddess - likely an invaluable piece of information for the museum that hired them to find it.
"Oh thank gods, I thought we were going to have to go through another false room," Max said.
"Seriously, let's grab it and get out of here," Vijeeter added.
Warren stepped forward and Lir watched attentively as he approached the pedestal; the floor was clear of pressure plates or trick panels concealing pits of spikes and she didn't smell any caches of explosive chemicals. But intuition and years of experience told her the room wasn't clear.
"Wait," Lir called out.
"What is it?" Warren asked.
She walked up to the pedestal, eyes sweeping over the finely carved details, and circled it. A small sun-shaped symbol caught her attention, the lines around it were not just shallow carvings like the rest but cut deep into the stone. She pressed the button, causing a loud clunk to echo through the room and a six inch wide section of the wall, even with Warren, slid open. She walked over to it and cautiously reached into the darkness until she felt the edge of a sharp piece of metal. Further groping found her the wooden pole attached to it and a strong yank brought it out into the torchlight. A huge, curved, ax-like blade had been poised to swing out and slice the person standing at the pedestal in two.
"How did you know that was there?" Max asked, shocked.
"This is a ruin from the Chidro civilization," she said. "They didn't use a lot of traps, but this one isn't uncommon for them."
She released the blade and it swung harmlessly a few times before settling. Warren glanced nervously around the room, scrutinizing all the nooks and crannies he had passed over when they entered.
"Do you think there is anything else like that in here?" he asked.
"No, I doubt it," she replied.
"So if I get impaled or shot with poison darts you're putting yourself as my cause of death on the paperwork when you get back," he said, half-joking but also half-serious.
"I promise there's nothing else," she replied with a sincere smile.
He gave her a sideways glance before snatching the relic and leaping back. Nothing happened. The room remained still and silent apart from Warren's frantic heartbeat that only he and Lir could hear.
"See, nothing to worry about," Lir said.
But the second the words left her mouth a new scent hit her. The scent of a lot of people.
She whipped around to face the only entrance to the chamber. "We're about to have company."
The others followed suit, stepping into fighting stances. She wished the Chirdorians were the type to include secret passages in their temples, giving them another route out to avoid a fight in what was likely a structurally unsound room. The sound of numerous footsteps echoed down the stairs. Whoever this was there was a lot of them. She reached inside herself for her arsenal of spells, prepping Water Dragon's Blue Streak, one that made her stronger and faster. The others fired high powered blasts of water that she really didn't want to let loose in such close quarters with allies. The footsteps grew louder with each passing second. The adrenaline mounting in the room was almost palpable.
Then, finally, the interlopers emerged through the doorway. At least two dozen rough-looking men and women poured into the room, wearing mishmashed bits of armor and weapons. Lir's gut said they were bandits. A man in the front of the group stepped forward with the gravitas of being in charge. A jagged, pink scar ran down his cheek and jaw, cutting through his five o'clock shadow.
"We'll be takin' that artifact," he said, gesturing at the object Warren held.
"You think we'll just hand it over?" he replied.
"That, or we're gonna we're gonna pummel you for it."
"I don't think you know who you're dealing with," Warren said.
"It really doesn't matter because there's four 'a you and twenty of us."
The bandits began to assume fighting stances. Lir smelled fire, metal, and plant magic on them among others with less distinctive scents. This would be a dangerous fight, less due to the bandits themselves and more due to the crumbling stone around them. She suspected they hadn't taken that into consideration.
"What's the plan, boss?" Lir asked.
Warren glanced over their opponents. "Keep them bunched up. Vijeeter, you're on the offensive too, we take them out quickly. Limit your big spells or we'll bring this place down on our heads."
The three nodded. Vijeeter started drumming out a rhythm with his heel and Lir felt a rush of strength.
"Get 'em!" the bandit leader shouted.
They charged but the Fairy Tail mages were quick. Max launched a blast of sand at them, blinding them while Lir and Vijeeter flanked to the sides and dropped stragglers with powerful kicks and body throws. Warren cast his disorientation spell which didn't affect his allies but Lir could feel it tingling on her skin; the bandits began to stagger about like they were suddenly drunk.
"Sand wave!" Max shouted, knocking down two more confused, stumbling bandits.
"Poison cloud!" an unfamiliar voice shouted.
Lir's hypersensitive nose picked up the pungent smell, recognizing it as CS gas immediately. The room filled with the scent and her lungs and throat started to burn. She coughed hard but it brought no relief. Vijeeter and Max doubled over, hacking for air.
"Water dragon's steam blast!"
She brought forth a spell circle from which hot steam exploded and filled the room, but it seemed to do nothing against the gas cloud. Her eyes started to sting and water profusely, leaving her effectively blind, and snot poured out of her nose. The urge to lash out with a random spell was overwhelming, anything to maybe hit a bandit, but the risk of hitting Max, Warren, or Vijeeter was too high. She coughed again, only sucking more CS gas into her lungs. Then pain exploded in her head as something hard smashed into her skull. A few seconds of time vanished and she found herself on the ground and a pair of boots standing in front of her.
"Not quite so tough, are ya?" a voice asked.
Her vision spun and everything hurt. She fumbled to push herself up, not really having any idea what her body was doing. One of the boots launched forward and connected with her gut, driving the air out of her lungs. She gasped in more gas, only vaguely aware of how much that hurt in the face of everything else.
"What do we do with 'em, boss?" a voice asked.
"Just leave them," another replied, dismissively.
Something inside Lir started moving her body to get back up, she didn't know what it was but she had to get on her feet. She managed to get her legs underneath her and, with a significant amount of effort, drove herself into a standing position. The weight of her upper body lurched to the side, making her stagger several steps to regain her balance. Her head pounded and she only caught glimpses of the bandits as her vision tilted and flickered.
"Water Dragon's Riptide!"
A magic circle opened in front of her and a torrent of water shot out like a cannon blast. She had been aiming for the leader but only clipped the side of his group, hitting two others and throwing them into a wall. Dust and debris rained down from the stone ceiling. One wound up with a fireball aimed at her head. Instinct made her cast another spell immediately.
"Water Dragon's Seawall!"
The fireball sizzled out on the wall of vibrating, pressurized water in front of her. With a thrust of her arms, she launched it at the bandits, giving them a hearty smack but not doing any real damage. Her head spun from the poison in the air and she could feel her consciousness slipping.
"Water Dragon's Breaker!"
She threw another wave but it sailed right over their heads. She took a deep breath reflexively, expecting relief, but felt as though she had swallowed acid instead.
"You've got a lot of fight for one stupid -" the leader started but was cut off.
"Psionic burst!"
A shockwave exploded from somewhere behind her, hitting her in the back and knocking her to her knees. The bandits took it harder and were slammed flat on their backs.
"Cleanse!"
She finally recognized it as Warren casting spells. The scent and presence of the CS gas vanished and she gasped in a breath of clean air before doubling over to continue heaving.
"Are you guys alright?" Warren exclaimed.
"Just a little banged up," Lir said, through her labored breathing.
"Yeah, nothing too bad," Max added, voice equally as breathy.
Warren shook his head and turned slightly away from them. "Psionic burst always takes so long to cast. And I hit you guys with it too."
"Yeah, barely!" Vijeeter interjected, gesturing to the unconscious bandits scattered about the room. "Look how bad those assholes got hit while we're still standing!"
Lir's head pounded and her torso ached from the kick which she ignored as she got to her feet, trying to minimize how much pain she looked like she was in. No need to make Warren worry over some minor injuries.
Warren shook his head. "I need to work on it. I won't let that happen again."
The others didn't respond, still trying to bring their breathing under control. She had been through worse fights and knew she'd be mostly fine in a few minutes. Until one of the bandits groaned and stirred on the ground.
"Time to bounce," Vijeeter said, already making for the door.
"Yep, no point waiting around here," Max added, right behind him.
Max, Vijeeter, and Lir hobbled up the stairs as fast as they could while Warren watched behind them. They stumbled down a long hallway, out the hidden passage Lir found, through various smaller tombs, and through the antechamber before making it outside. The temple was nestled in a dense area of woods several miles outside Onibus Town, overgrown and hidden by decades of vines and shrubbery. They uncovered their backpacks from a thicket of bushes and moved as quickly as they could for the road back, decidedly against tangling with the bandits again.
A few hours later saw them at Onibus Town's train station with the payment for delivering the artifact the local museum - a solid 160,000 jewels split four ways.
"Did you know bandits were going to show up?" Max asked Warren.
Warren was notorious for taking jobs solo so the invitation of three other mages had to have been for a reason.
"I had my suspicions. There were a lot of reports of raids on historic sites in the area. I imagined someone would be watching for mages to do all the legwork of finding that temple and then swoop in a take the artifacts for themselves," he replied.
A train pulled into the station, its breeze tossing Lir's wavy, teal around, and the four boarded. Max found an empty compartment and they settled themselves in for the two-hour ride back to Magnolia. Vijeeter, as per usual, passed out almost immediately and Max pulled out a thick tome on sand magic, leaving Lir with tense anxiety of trying to think of a way to start a conversation with Warren. The train crawled forward and built to a speed that sent the trees rushing by in a green blur.
"So, I was wondering," Warren said, giving her a jolt. "Since you know a lot about temples and ruins, would you be interested in clearing a few more of these jobs with me?"
She blinked in surprise. "You want me to help you?"
"Of course. Some of those temple missions are starting to rack up big rewards since no one can actually find the artifacts but are still only ranked A-Class," he said. "And you obviously know what you're doing."
"You, I, I mean, I'd love to," she stammered.
"Great! I'll put a stake on a few of those for us when we get back," he replied.
She couldn't contain her grin and turned her attention out the window to distract herself with the scenery rushing by. Warren was one of the stronger mages in Fairy Tail - a fact that surprised her when she first joined the guild. He wasn't on the same level as the S-Class mages but he could go toe to toe with the likes of Natsu, Gray, and Elfman and regularly pulled high paying jobs due to his skill with psychic magic. And since she joined Fairy Tail a few months ago she had mostly been floating around, helping others clear the request board of all the jobs that required a water-based mage. This was her first offer otherwise and from a strong mage she liked working with no less.
Her leg started bouncing with excited energy as, for the first time in months, the fear that she had made the wrong call in joining a guild again abated. Maybe the voice in the back of her head that insisted the guild would run every aspect of her life and make her miserable was wrong. Her imagination took off with thoughts of them clearing ruins all over the kingdom which entertained for the remaining hour and a half of the trip.
When they disembarked it was evening, the sun casting an orange glow across the entire town and the streets packed with post-workday crowds. Lir had a bounce in her step and her large traveling bag felt weightless on her back.
"I swear if Natsu took that job in the Ossein Badlands I'm going to kill him," Max said.
"Good luck fighting him for it," Vijeeter said, elbowing him in the ribs.
"Natsu isn't going to take that job because it doesn't involve killing a monster or fighting thugs," Warren said. "I don't think anyone else in the guild is going to take a job involving that much sand besides you, Max."
"I sure hope so," he replied, picking up his pace.
When they made it to the guildhall it was packed to the brim with drinking, roughhousing mages and booming with loud music. They had to elbow and shove their way through their guildmates to get to the bar to get the debrief paperwork and turn in the guild's cut of the reward. Mirajane was mixing drinks for a few of the other mages seated at the bar and gave them a "hang on a minute" gesture when she noticed them before finishing.
"So how did it go?" she asked, wiping her hands on a towel.
"Fairly well. Some bandits gave us a bit of trouble but nothing we couldn't handle," Warren replied.
She pulled a packet of paperwork from under the bar and handed it to him and he took a seat.
"You guys can go, I'll deal with this," he said.
Max and Vijeeter said their goodbyes and disappeared into the hall but Lir sat down next to him. Mira produced a tall glass of water and handed it to her before leaning on the bar across from them.
"You finished much quicker than I expected," she said. "That mission has been failed a few times."
"Well all that research I did with Levy beforehand helped a lot so it wasn't too hard to find. Not to mention Lir, she got us through in a flash," Warren said, not looking up from the forms.
Heat rose to Lir's cheeks and she looked away. "Ah, it was nothing. I've just been through a lot of ruins."
Mira gave her a kind smile making her look away and scratch the back of her head to conceal how flustered she was. Warren finished the paperwork and returned them to Mira, who walked back up the bar to file it in another stack of forms. Lir took a long drink of water, feeling a rush as her magic used it to replenish her spent ethernano.
"Well, I'm going to head home, I'm about ready to pass out," Warren said, hopping off his barstool.
"Okay, I'm going to hang out a bit longer," she replied.
"Sounds good," he said. "Hey, unless you get snapped up for another job tonight we can start picking dungeon diving jobs tomorrow."
"That sounds great!" she exclaimed.
He waved a goodbye to her before pushing his way back through the crowd. Lir swung her legs back and forth, taking a moment to let her mind settle from the excitement.
"Come on Laxus, fight me!" Natsu's voice suddenly cut through the din of the hall.
She lifted her head and glanced around, there were far too many scents and sounds in the guildhall for her to differentiate between them so she hadn't noticed the Thunder God Tribe enter. She leaned back to catch a glimpse of them, she'd heard much of their exploits in her short time since joining and they almost seemed inhuman, especially their leader, Laxus. Was it possible for someone so young to be so strong or had the stories been embellished? Freed, Bickslow, and Evergreen sat down further up the bar, talking amongst themselves. Bickslow's seith dolls floated around their heads, she shuddered at the notion of the human souls trapped inside. Laxus himself sat six barstools up from her with only Bisca and Alzack between them, pointedly ignoring Natsu who had followed him. At a closer range, despite the bustling guildhall, she could smell his dragon slayer magic - a faint, reptilian scent mixed with raw ethernano - and the almost burning, ozone-y odor of his lightning magic. Especially surprising was the fact that she could feel the charged air around him, similar to the feeling before a thunderstorm.
And it was plain as day why girls fawned over him constantly, he was ridiculously handsome. So tall he towered over even her - and she was far and away the tallest girl in the guild - with a chiseled jaw, thick, blond hair and a scar over his right eye. But she had also heard that he wasn't the nicest guy, especially to new and lower-ranked mages so she opted not to draw attention to herself, sinking back into her massive hair.
"I heard we finally got a water mage," he said.
Lir stiffened and pointedly looked away, hoping he wouldn't notice her.
"We did," Mira said plainly. "She's been helping clear the board of the water mage jobs. She just got back from a mission with Warren, Max, and Vijeeter."
"Doesn't sound like she's all that strong then," he replied in a disdainful tone.
Heat flushed to Lir's face and an intense feeling of shame came over her. Logically she knew she shouldn't care what he had to say about her strength, but it didn't feel good to hear that from an S-Class mage of her new guild.
"She does well for herself," Mira retorted, clearly not happy with Laxus's judgment.
"I was hoping to take on that Vulen empire artifact job but if she's taking jobs with them, I don't think she could cut it," he said.
Lir was about to just get up and leave when Natsu decided to open his giant, stupid mouth.
"That's only because you've never seen her fight! Lir's really strong!" he proclaimed.
Her shame turned to horror instantly and her stomach dropped.
"Lir! Get over here!" Natsu called out.
At that moment she would have traded anything for her magic to be 'disappearing into the floor' if it got her out of her present situation. It was too late to make a mad dash out of the guildhall, though, as Laxus was already staring her down. She slunk off her barstool and over to their end of the bar.
"Hi, I'm Lir Elodea," she said, extending her hand to Laxus.
He gave her an obvious once over, making her squirm. "Have you ever even been on an A-Class mission?"
"Yes. Several!" she said defensively. "I finished a double-A mission on my own once!"
"A measly double-A doesn't matter much, the one I'm looking at is a double S," he sneered.
"You say that like it matters to your job how strong I am."
She didn't want to put the words in his mouth that he was planning on dragging her along but that seemed to be the direction he was headed.
"It's not like there are any other water mages in the guild," he said, making a vague gesture around the room.
Lir grimaced and a pit of dread settled in her stomach. "You're not… considering asking me to come on this job, are you?"
"Laxus you can't. That job is so dangerous!" Mira interjected.
"I thought Natsu said she was strong?" the tone in his voice seemed to dare Mira to counter him, to call Lir weak to her face.
Mira's lips pulled together in a tight frown and didn't answer. Lir's heart hammered and her hands were clammy, she knew she should turn him down but she couldn't get the words to form. For as much as she didn't want to go on his job, she couldn't force her way past the block in her head of saying no. He would be mad and she would be the source and that was something her ego couldn't handle.
"Wouldn't I just slow you down?" she said.
"Yeah, I imagine you would. But the temple is underwater so we need you to get us there," he replied.
She bristled, shocked by how arrogant he was and she couldn't even begin to think of a response that would have any effect on him.
"I don't have to go on this mission," she said.
"You'd be stupid not to, the payout is going to be huge."
"It won't matter if I get killed on a job so far out of my league."
"Come on, you're throwing away an opportunity that no one else in this guild will ever get," he said.
She could feel herself caving, unable to come up with a good reason to say no. If only Warren had picked out a job before going home!
"I mean, if you really can't get another water mage," she heard the words coming out of her mouth but didn't feel like she was actually saying them.
"Great, we leave at eight in the morning, day after tomorrow from the train station," he said with an awful smirk before getting up and walking away.
"What have I done?" Lir muttered.
"You'll be fine," Mira said, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "They'll make sure you get out in one piece. The Master would kill them if they let something happen to you."
"Is he like that all the time?" she asked.
"Unfortunately, he is," Mira replied, an uncharacteristic bitterness in her tone. "Sometimes I wonder why he hasn't just left the guild if he finds it so beneath him."
The dread inside her multiplied, if Mira had such a low opinion of him she was doomed. "Ugh, why did I agree to this?" Lir asked, putting her face in her hands.
"You'll be alright," Mira said, her voice returning to its normal kind demeanor. "Just think of how good this will look on your resume."
Lir chuckled, almost finding it funny. "Yeah, that's true."
Suddenly she didn't feel like hanging around the guildhall, her stomach churned and her heart fluttered nervously like a trapped bird. She wanted to be at home, by herself, to try and not think about Laxus or the job he had strong-armed her into.
She hopped off her barstool, her body feeling full of lead. "Hey, Mira? Can you let Warren know that I'm going on Laxus's job?"
"Of course," Mira said, a sympathetic, almost pitying look on her face.
"Thanks."
Lir waved her goodbye before pushing her way back out of the guildhall. Night had set in and the crowds had thinned greatly. The bounce in her step was gone, replaced by a quick, almost frantic pace, and she kept her head down. Aching anxiety settled in her chest, locking her heart in a vice grip, making it feel like it was trying to beat in a vat of molasses.
No, don't be afraid of him.
She was the water dragon slayer, trained by Oceanus, the dragon queen of the sea. She wouldn't be scared of him no matter how little he thought of her. Besides, he needed her for the job and she knew more about ancient ruins than anyone in the guild. She balled her hands into fists and fixed her face into a serious expression, she could do this. She'd prove herself to him and the Thunder God Tribe.
AN: So I'm going to try this story again. It's significantly different from my first attempt and I have a much clearer idea of where it's going to go now. Thank you so much for reading, any feedback is greatly appreciated.