Chapter 126: Dark Horse

"Let…me…OUT!" At the height of her exclamation, Esmerelda broke free of her imprisonment, nearly foaming out the mouth in anger. She didn't even realize that she had a sword in her hand once again, signifying that she was free from Ano's EMP. Once realization set in however, the knight quickly requipped into her Rabbit's armor, preparing to leap back into battle from where she stood. The instant she took off however, she was immediately kicked right back into the ground, landing on her back. It nearly knocked the wind out of her, but as she came to, her eyes widened as she just rolled out the way of an incoming brunette with a long sword now stabbed into the crater she once laid in.

"Hold still!" Skye shouted as she lunged for Esmerelda. Blade met blade as the knight held her ground, and Esmerelda then scored a knee to Skye's abdomen, but that didn't stop the assassin from moving forward, returning fire with a powerful kick of her own that snapped her head downward. Here came a skyward swing of her sword, but Esme was able to lean away from it, following up with a spinning kick of her own. Skye held her stomach as she slid back unwillingly. "You're real desperate for these ten points, aren't you!?" Esmerelda asked as she charged forth, swinging her blade downward for Skye's head. "Well I'm no bounty, assassin! I'm a former knight of the royal guard and S class of Black Phoenix!"

"And I'm the greatest weapon meister in Ishgar!" Skye shouted as she parried the incoming swing.

"That's a proclamation!" Esme replied, to which Skye ended the exchange with, "It's a prophecy!"

The two charged each other again, but this time they were interrupted by a large wall of ice that ran between the two. "Shit!" Skye cursed, forced to leap away. "What is this?" Esme asked, and her answer showed his face. It was Gray, who Skye had left behind not even a minute ago to hopefully take out the ten pointer of Black Phoenix in time. Now with him here, it just made things that much more difficult to handle. Gray came sliding in on a road of ice, heading directly for Esme while Skye was blocked off. "Sorry, Esmerelda, but I can't let Skye defeat you! It's personal!"

"Why is everyone speaking to me as if I'm the helpless damsel! Are you two that far stuck up your own asses that you really think you're only competition is each other!? Fine then!" Esme was fuming as her body armor changed shape once again. Just before Gray could reach her, the chest plate of her armor turned to that of a Dragon's Head, with scales and aesthetics of a traditional dragon appearing all around her attire. The sword in her hand grew a bit longer, and immediately ignited in flames. "Let me show you two jackasses the fine line between a damsel and a dark horse!"

Gray came rushing in with his Ice Bringer, and with a single twirl of her blade in her hand, Esme swung, meeting fire and ice together as Gray's blade shattered. "Ah! Again!?" The ice maker was stunned, and took the penalty for his hesitation as Esme literally jumped on top of him, pressing both boots into his already injured sternum. "No ice can conquer a dragon's flame! That's why I had to make sure to gather an armor that could hold its prestige!"

"No ice you say!? You just not know who I am!" Gray protested as he grabbed one of Esme's legs. Ice immediately ran up it, holding the knight in place for a few seconds as he was able to shimmy out from underneath. Easily broken again with a single swing, Esme wanted to give pursuit to the male but instead had to turn to meet the incoming Skye who just sliced through the ice wall to rejoin the fray. Esme swung again, but the Phoenix missed as Skye contorted her body midair to duck underneath the flaming blade. The instant she landed, Skye swung her blade, landing a direct hit on Esmerelda's armor, but not a dent nor scratch was made.

The surprise caught her off guard, and Esmerelda followed up with another swing, speaking at the height of her downward strike. "Greatest weapon meister, huh?"

Skye rolled out the way, but she was still in the vicinity of the destructive strike and the explosiveness behind the impact of blade and ground sent her flying a little ways out. Skye was able to regain balance, and instead of turning back to Esme, she used her unwanted momentum and turned it into a boost as she ran directly for Gray Fullbuster himself. The Fairy Tail member created a shield to block, but Skye's poise was simply a feint. Instead, with her light footwork, the assassin used his ice shield as a platform to leap past him and high into the air. With her blade behind her ear, Skye's weapon changed shape from her classic Claymore, into her Biofrost weapon — A ring-blade which resembles a hula hoop, comprised of two rings. With her hands already at the ready, Skye launched her ring-blade forward in trajectory of both Gray and Esmerelda. Gray avoided it, leaving the heavy lifting for the Phoenix as she met the blade with her own. Sparks and flames would fly, and as Gray looked back to see that Skye was no longer in the air, he turned around again to see Skye running full speed for the struggling Esmerelda.

The S-class didn't see her in time, and with that, Skye closed the distance while forming a path of blue lightning magic in her hands. She would then strike Esmerelda with it, allowing the current to run through the knight in order to paralyze her temporarily. It worked, and as Esmerelda let out a pained scream of agony, the combination of the lightning and Skye's Biofrost did the work with two direct hits. The knight then fell to her back and Skye readied herself for a final blow to knock her out. Fullbuster unfortunately played spoiler again however, but this time it was much more effective. The entire area became chilling, and something clicked and told Skye to move out the way. She did just that, leaping as high as she could as she then noticed the ground and even most of the buildings turn to solid ice. She looked back to see Gray's hair now standing straight up with black markings over his frame — the same markings her demon blade carried.

Gray watched as Skye took to the air, but then back to Esmerelda who remained lying down. "That's it, right?" He asked, seeing the frozen Phoenix. That was until a powerful torrent of flames not only sprouted from the ground, but slammed directly into the midair Skye Ravenwood, who cried out in pain before now freefalling back towards the ground.

"I told you…" Esmerelda began, standing up once more. She got to a knee first, letting out one chilling breath before her armor gained a red aura, heating up to the point it exuded flames and cleared a decent radius of the ice. "…That these flames will quell that ice of yours. Demon or not."

Skye flipped over at the very last second, landing in a crouching position as she rejoined the two standing off. Her hair remained draped over her eyes, but the blade in her hands shifted once more, back to the same blade that defeated Kagura earlier. "Claymore: Demon Mode.." She murmured just loud enough for everyone else to hear. As she stood back up, the three gave each other one final look over before taking stances. The weight of the pressure behind this triple threat fight was immense, yet it wasn't enough for any of them to show even a sign of folding, and suddenly, all three of them lunged forward, meeting one another in the middle to begin what they predicted to be their final clash.

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Marshall stalked towards Zalen in his Wrath persona, and this would be the first time that someone would walk towards Marshall willingly. Zalen matched him step by step, keeping up the bravado even as they both reached fighting distance. Of course Marshall swung first. His persona wouldn't allow any other method because with each attack, Marshall would only grow stronger in this sin. As Marshall swung, Zalen did what he does best. He defended. Holding both hands up, iron quickly coated over his hands like gloves, allowing the architect to block the incoming strike. Marshall spun, planning on using that momentum to strike again; this time horizontally. An attempt was made, but Zalen's defenses proved too strong still as multiple iron walls erected around him, quelling the spinning strike and the four more that followed from Wrath's relentless pressure.

"So that's it.." Vivi began. "Wrath definitely has a weakness, it's just hard to see because of the destructive strength behind it. And that weakness is-"

"His temper." Minerva finished. "Sounds like common sense now that it's out in the open."

Despite the defenses winning the exchange, they were indeed broken and dented from each blow, showing that Marshall was indeed growing in strength. "You can't run forever!" He yelled in a near demonic-echo of a voice. That's when Zalen grinned. "Who's running!?" He yelled. "Redesign!" The architect slammed his iron coated hands together, and the walls around him quickly molded together into a new shape; a large drill that began to spin violently. It rushed forward, and Marshall swung his blade simultaneously, catching the drill at its tip before roughly splitting it apart. He planned on following up by beheading the four eyed White Eclipse member, but suddenly that split in half drill remolded again into two smaller drills. They circled around, rushing Marshall from each side, and this time as Marshall saw them at the last second, he swung his blade at the one to the left, and as for the right, he bit into it; catching the drill with his teeth as it would grind and grind from the spinning spiral until he finally threw his head off to the side, literally spitting out the drill.

The second he turned back however, Marshall's chin was met with a statue of a large fist made of brick. It was a direct hit that snapped his head back, but Marshall lost no ground. Instead, his head remained towards the sky for a few more seconds until finally, he let out a vicious roar of frustration that shook the entire city. Zalen stumbled backwards, but he managed to keep a confident visage as he held his ground. That's when he yelled. "All that yelling isn't going to make you any better, psycho! Come on! Come at me!"

"Did he know his weakness this entire time?" Vivi asked, to which Minerva replied with a scoff. "No, I doubt it. He's just being exactly what his guild is. A cocky little toad."

Salivating at the mouth, Marshall-Wrath slammed a foot down, creating a line of stalagmites to rush for Zalen. Again however, the architect had a counter, creating a large iron plating that quelled the rising rock formations. A couple of them broke through, but it wasn't enough to harm him. Marshall charged forth again, once again in a straight line with his sword reared back. He swung, and though Zalen instinctively dodged, the force behind the swing nearly sent him off his feet. Zalen teetered to the left, and as Marshall attempted to follow up with a brutal kick aimed for his stomach, Zalen countered once more by covering himself in a ball of brick. The kick shattered a hole through the brick, but as it began to crumble, he could see that Zalen escaped from the backside of the ball. Marshall leapt over the crumbling structure to close the distance once again, but Zalen now had him exactly where he wanted him as iron poles shot out from the ground and towards him. Marshall was able to destroy the first few, but the architect was too fast at creating and the remaining plethora of iron poles slammed into him at various locations with brute and blunt force — ending with a shot between the eyes.

"Hey! Marshall! I know you're not losing to that nerd!" Mizaki, his sister shouted as if he could hear her. "And he might lose completely." Hubert added. "What was that?" She barked, but Hubert waved away the hostility. "This is a classic chess match, but Marshall is playing checkers. Tumultuous yet straight forward offense against impenetrable defense. Wrath is it's own hardest opponent. Don't you remember when he fought Dancho? It played out just like this, except a lot quicker. Wrath was where their fight ended too."

"Because Wrath refuses to retreat." Nina added. Zinnia then corrected her. "It's not that he refuses to retreat. It's that he doesn't know how. There's nothing in his mind but anger. He won't stop until he loses or his opponent is dead."

"Unfortunately…" Hubert said, fixing his glasses. "It once again won't be the latter."

As Marshall hit the ground, a large shadow loomed over him. As his blurry vision came to, all he could see was a large iron fist being dropped from a great height, on its way to crush him. "Marshall!" Ano shouted, a giant serpent rushing over toward him only to be held back by bulging muscles and green hair. "Just because you shut off my magic…it doesn't mean that I'm useless!" Orga shouted, swinging around once and launching the giant snake back away from Marshall. "Nice! Now get the kid!" Sting yelled, and now Ano was once again realizing how much jeopardy he and Marshall were in. Watching as the entire guild of Sabertooth (besides Minerva) were rushing for him gave him a horrible flashback of the council barging and destroying his home, rushing directly at him like he was some true menace to society. He scrambled back to his feet, and his snakes once again covered him, sliding in front to stand before Sabertooth despite their newfound confidence.

As for Marshall however….

"Wrath. Wrath…it's time."

In a pitch black space, a golden-human shaped aura stepped forward, placing a hand on a red aura's shoulder. The red aura quickly swiped at him, pushing the golden one off. "No! Not until I'm satisfied! I won't stop until I've quelled this anger! Step aside, Pride!"

Pride didn't move for obvious reasons, but it did sigh before speaking again. "This is…painful for me to admit. But Wrath, we've made this mistake once before, and you were at the helm of that mistake as well."

"What did you say, Pride!?" He barked back.

"But listen. If you just give up control."

"And give it to you and your weak magic!? You're just a lesser version of me! What? You're gonna match his defenses!? I can break through them! I don't need to match them!"

"Exactly!" A dark greenish aura spoke, entering the fray with five others. "You can break through his defenses. But that's all you can do. You haven't landed a hit on him yet, and coming from me, it's obviously a very greedy thing to do right now; to hold control when you're playing right into his trap.

"That is RICH coming from you, Greed!" Wrath shouted. "Right?" He replied. "That's why we're trying to tell you.."

"Tell me what?"

A blue aura then released a loud yawn, rolling over as he faced wrath to speak. "We've come to… a decision. Marshall is very close to fulfilling our wish. We can have our rematch against the man who knows how to free us. But we can't do it as seven different entities."

"Sloth is right. We can only eat together." Said the light green and much larger aura, Gluttony.

A purplish aura then stepped in, running a hand against Wrath's chin. "They're right, Wrath. We can only do this together you know. This is the perfect time to..experiment."

Wrath simply stared, finally turning to the others. "You guys too?" He asked.

"It's the only way. Though, I'm jealous at the fact that I never got a crack at the kid." Envy added his two cents. That's when Pride stepped forth again. "We're so close, Wrath. We can have our wish fulfilled. But we absolutely cannot lose here! So what do you say? Can we do this? Together?"

The six of them placed their hands forward, stacking them on top of each other, waiting for Wrath to join them. As they all looked his way, Wrath finally gave in, joining them with his hand on top. With all second combined, a colorless light shined brightly within the pitch black that was Marshall's person.

Suddenly, Marshall's eyes snapped awake, but not in time was the giant iron fist crashed on top of him.

Zalen watched the entire thing, and as moments went by without any movement, the architect prematurely declared victory. That was, until the sounds of eating could be heard underneath his creation. A second later as Zalen turned around, the fist immediately disappeared, the remnants of it swallowed instantly as Marshall rose to his feet with that same colorless light now acting as an aura around him.

"What…what just happened!?" Vivi asked, and she was the wrong person to ask such a question, since she was the one with the most information on Marshall Izumi.

Marshall simply stood there, across from Zalen quietly until he finally raised his head again with colorless eyes and a wicked smile. Suddenly, a chill went down Zalen's spine, but he remained rocksteady as the two faced off once more.

But Zalen could feel it in the air. Something was definitely off about Marshall now. Especially because Wrath was no longer present. Or was he? Zalen had a few questions and unfortunately for him, he was sure they were about to be answered.

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"I'm going to end this." Rylo thought to himself, standing back to back with his guild mate, Flynn. "This back and forth is breaking apart the Black Market. I've used every magic in the city and both Natsu and Takeru are still standing, even with Flynn by my side. It's like the only one who can defeat them….is each other!"

It clicked in his mind immediately, and he knew exactly how to pull it off. "Hang on, Flynn…" He whispered to his comrade. Flynn nodded. "I trust you, Rylo. Lead the way."

Rylo smirked. "Just don't move, no matter what."

On his right, was a Lightning-Flame Natsu Dragneel charging up, siphoning his magic into his right fist as he prepared to knock the Magician's block off. To their left, Takeru was doing the exact same with his Darkness Demon-Dragon Mode. "I gotta move on! I don't have time to play around with you guys anymore! After this, I'm coming for you, Natsu!"

Natsu then shouted back. "I'll take all three of you out right now! Lightning Flame Dragon's Iron Fist!"

"Darkness Demon-Dragon's Black Hammer!"

The two took off simultaneously, rushing towards their targets in the middle. Rylo then took in one more deep breath before yelling. "Now!"

At the very last second, Rylo and Flynn switched places with the momentous Natsu and Takeru, causing the two Dragon Slayers to slam directly into each other fists first. Both scored direct hits on each other, jawline for jawline as a shockwave of respective elements clashed, shaking the area to its core.

The two of them began falling to their backs with white eyes, but of course the magician was going to make sure that Twilight Zone would gain credit. Rylo spun around, launching his top hat to hover of them both, and from there, a poweful blast of raw magic shot out from it, hitting an already unconscious Natsu and Takeru before they could hit the ground.

It virtually had no real effect on the two, but they were unconscious regardless, and Chapati had no choice but to call it like the judges saw it. "N-Natsu and Takeru are down! What a comeback by Twilight Zone! Two points for them means one hundred points and second place! Everyone thought they were goners against the two Dragon Slayers, but can they really pull the upset! It looks like we've found our Dark Horses of the free for all!"

Flynn took time to admire that both Natsu and Takeru were knocked out. "Nice move Rylo!"

"No time for celebration! We're right there, Flynn! Now, I'm sending you on a suicide mission that only you can accomplish! Are you ready!?"

The yellow haired speed mage looked into Rylo's eyes. Nothing but determination could be seen in his burning visage, causing Flynn to nod immediately. "What is it?" He asked.

Rylo then pointed East. "That was two KO's. Three more, and that's ten points! That plus two out of the three Captains, and we outright win! Your job, Flynn, is just one person! Flynn. I'm going after Esmerelda. I need you…

To beat Sting!"