A/N: And here we are with the next chapter!

I don't own Fairy Tail!

I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 18: Banshee Claw

July 29th, X784

Raoul let out a hiss of pain as he felt a bolt of neon blue magic energy brush past his right arm, quickly dashing to the side as he saw another holographic magic drone circle around him as he swung his arm, sending several metal discs flying towards the drone as more metal floated out of the pouch he kept on his lower back.

"Dammit. You'd think a bright, blue target would be easy to find in the woods at night," Raoul mumbled as he looked around him, seeing several blue lights surrounding him deeper in the woods, "The kid's smart, I'll give her that," Raoul chuckled as several plates of metal came together to form shields on either side of him as well as behind him, "Guess I'll try and flush her out," he muttered before running towards where there were the most lights as his metal discs returned to his side, floating beside him as he ran deeper into the woods, noticing more drones closing in on him, firing off several bolts of magic energy that impacted against his shields, "Piss off!" he shouted as he stopped in his tracks and waved his arm, sending his discs flying through the drones, each one exploding into small holographic debris before disappearing as the discs impacted against them.

"Wide open!" he heard Misaki shout as a bright, neon blue glow suddenly appeared in the underbrush as she dashed out towards him, low to the ground as her hands glowed with magic energy, impacting against Raoul's stomach and pushing him back, his heels digging through the ground as he swung his arm in retaliation, causing one of his metal shields to swing around him and bash Misaki away.

"Sorry kid, but in a close-up fight like this, I'm a lot tougher than you are," Raoul growled as he placed his left hand over his stomach, hissing in pain when he felt his touch against the singed wound on his stomach before looking up to see the young girl had dashed away again, "Damn… This is more Nika's kind of fight than mine. I hate these cat and mouse kinds of fights," he complained before taking off after her, his metal shields and discs falling in around him, orbiting him as he ran deeper into the woods, not stopping when he saw several blue lights appear and begin to follow alongside him from behind the trees on his flanks. Raoul quickly noticing that all the lights had a single origin point and dashing off in that direction as his shields began to protect his sides before the lights began firing off bolts of magic at him, several of them impacting against his shields or on the ground around his feet, forcing him to jump and hop over the small explosions of energy as they happened so his feet weren't taken out from under him, only stopping when he saw the tree line in front of him light up, nearly blinding him with how many lights were appearing as he held his arm up in front of him to tree and see, "Oh shit," he cursed before he collected all of his metal in front of him as one giant shield as the lights quickly closed in on him, impacting violently against his metal wall again and again, bending and denting it with the force of seemingly unending explosions as Raoul strained to keep the shield together and in good shape as he reached out his left hand, sensing with his magic until he managed to grab hold of something and reeled it in, a loud thud impacting against his wall as the onslaught of magical energy suddenly stopped.

"What the hell!?" he heard Misaki curse from the other side of the wall, Raoul peeking his head around to see her stuck to his wall by her belt buckle, her hands fumbling over the buckle in an attempt to undo it and take the belt off, though he couldn't help but frown when he noticed she was bleeding from her forehead from when she had impacted against the wall, the red blood dripping down her face and onto her shirt.

"Most people would be out cold after smacking their head like that, squirt," Raoul chuckled as he watched her continue to struggle with the buckle.

"Fuck off! And don't call me 'squirt' you… you… you old man!" the black haired girl protested while she continued to squirm against the metal wall.

"Ooh… Scathing retort there," Raoul smirked as he moved in closer, "Y'know, since that first hit to your head didn't knock you out, you know that means I've gotta hit you on the head again, right?"

"Ass," Misaki growled before Raoul bashed her on the back of the head, the young girl quickly falling forward against the metal wall before Raoul held his hand out to it and made it start to float up into the air, Misaki laying across it as if it was a makeshift stretcher.

"Now I hate to get handsy with a girl this young, but I've gotta search her for any pieces of Lullaby," Raoul sighed, "Maybe just… pretend it's someone else, like…" he grumbled before he got to work, first checking her shorts' pockets and finding nothing before flipping her over onto her back and looking inside of her hoodie's pockets, his hand brushing against something hard inside of her shirt before he realized she was wearing some kind of necklace around her neck, pulling it up and out of her shirt by the string and pulling it off of her, "A metal tube?" he mused before unscrewing the lid, his face quickly settling into a scowl as he felt a fowl magic energy come over him as he looked inside the tube, seeing a small wooden splinter inside before quickly closing it back up, "That's it then, a shard of the Demon Lullaby. I hate to think of what they planned to do with it," Raoul sighed before looking back to the unconscious girl and holding out his hand as four metal discs flew towards her wrists and ankles, wrapping around them and restraining them against the makeshift bed as Raoul began to walk back towards Clover Town.

. : + : .

Izzy ran through the woods, looking left and right as she scrambled through the bushes and over rocks as she quickly made her way through the forest.

"You know, it's a bit difficult to track down a splinter in the middle of the woods," she mused to herself as she quickly came to a stop and started turning from side to side as she looked around, "Like… How big would a piece of Lullaby be? Is it a tiny splinter? Is it as big as a tree?" she wondered aloud before starting to walk again, "Though, I guess it'd have to be small since they'd be pieces the Magic Council missed… But would I put it past them to completely miss a splinter the size of a tree?" she asked herself as she brought her hand up to her chin in serious thought for a moment, "No. No I would not," she decided before taking off in a run again.

Eventually, Izzy came to a stop again as she heard the distant sound of a tree falling, "A logger? At this time of night?" she questioned, "That's incredibly irresponsible! Someone could easily get hurt! I better go and put a stop to it!" Izzy declared as she started making her way northward towards where the noise came from, the sounds of heavy power tools quickly becoming apparent as they reverberated through the air as more and more trees quickly fell, the sound of trees falling accompanied by the sound of a drill and laughter. Soon, Izzy came upon the scene, seeing a massive woman whose left arm had transformed into a chainsaw while her right arm had changed into a massive drill and was swiping and stabbing them at Kord, who was covered in damaged and cracked crystals that were struggling to repair themselves under the woman's onslaught.

"Weakling! Weakling! Weakling!" the woman roared, bursting into maniacal laughter as her drill impacted against Kord's arms, shattering and breaking the crystals as blood sprayed out of them, "All you puny little mages are so WEAK! Only now do you understand what pain and struggle is!"

"Piss off!" Kord shouted back before he was sent flying backwards, smashing into a cliff face that was behind him, but quickly getting back up and moving out of the way of the woman's drill as it smashed into the rocks where he had been, tearing the cliff apart and causing a large part of it to collapse around the woman who merely moved her drill above her head to destroy any falling debris that might've struck her.

"I'd tell you to hand over the piece of Lullaby and I'll let you live, but that'd be lying," the woman chuckled as she slowly walked over towards Kord, "Course you're one foot in the grave already, ain't ya? Might be easier to just let me end it all for ya."

"Dammit," Kord hissed as he slowly backed away from the woman.

"Now just sit still and let ol' Grindor put an end to your miserable life," the woman chuckled as she raised up her chainsaw arm before she felt her foot snag on something before it quickly grabbed onto her other foot and pulled it out from under her, causing her to quickly fall forward as she tripped.

"Kord!" Izzy shouted from behind Grindor, "Come on!" she yelled as the man began to move, Izzy quickly moving her attention back to the giant of a woman, "Snag Magic: Underground Constrictor!" she shouted as more and more tree roots burst from the ground and began to wrap around the woman before they began to harden and petrify.

"You piece of shit! When I break out of this I'll rip you limb from limb you coward!" the woman roared as she thrashed and struggled against the roots, her arms completely useless.

"You're just lucky getting Kord some help is more important than finishing you off!" Izzy snapped back as Kord hobbled past them, Izzy quickly moving to give the man her shoulder so he could move quicker, the two of them hobbling as quick as they could to get away from the woman before she broke free.

"Dammit all…" Kord gasped after they had made it a good ways away from the woman.

"Who was that?" Izzy asked.

"Some sort of Dark Mage. Didn't seem the cultist type, but I guess you don't have to be to work with them," Kord stated, "She's probably in it for the power they'd get from Tartarus if they succeed."

"Makes sense," Izzy replied, "She said you had a piece of Lullaby? Did you actually manage to find one?"

"Yeah. I sealed it in crystal and stuffed it in my pocket," Kord answered before letting out a groan and nearly collapsing if Izzy hadn't been there to hold him up.

"Woah there! Are you alright?" Izzy asked as she slowly set him down against a tree, only now realizing just how badly he had been bleeding.

"Not really, but I think I'll live," Kord groaned before looking up at Izzy, scowling when he saw just how much he bled on her, "Sorry about that mess on you."

"Hey. It's fine. I'm more worried about you and keeping you from bleeding anymore than you already have," Izzy stated as she started rooting through some of the pockets in her dress, pulling out a small container and opening it, "This is some of the medical salve I made from the herbs I grew in the garden, it'll help you heal and stave off infection, okay?" she explained as Kord stared at her intensely, nodding when her explanation was done.

"Go ahead," he muttered before Izzy got to work applying her medical salve on Kord's arms, but soon came to a stop, "What?"

"Um… I'll need to remove your shirt to properly apply it to the wounds on your torso."

"That's fine," Kord answered as he grabbed onto what was left of his green vest and pulled it off, the fabric tearing very easily due to the terrible state it was in before Izzy began unbuttoning the pale gray button-up shirt he wore underneath, Kord gasping a bit as he sat forward so Izzy could peal it off of him, leaving Kord with nothing on above the waste with the exception of his black, wide-brimmed hat as Izzy was able to now fully assess his wounds.

"You got lucky, these are mostly surface wounds, but there are a lot of them," Izzy said as she started to clean his wounds.

"My magic did its job, despite how bad of a match-up that fight was," Kord growled, "That was a fight for Raoul, he'd tear her apart with his magic.

"We'll have to hope we run into him on our way back then," Izzy mused before she pulled out a roll of bandages and began wrapping his wounds, "But if she finds us again… I want you to run. I'll distract her and hold her off, okay?"

"You're insane. She'll tear you apart the moment she gets her hands on you," Kord retorted.

"I'll just have to make sure that doesn't happen then," Izzy said, a confident smile lighting up her face as Kord sighed in response, relenting to the woman's request.

. : + : .

"Oh my, what terrible circumstances those must've been," Lulu mused after listening to a family's story about the recent events with Lullaby as she sat inside of their living room, a teacup in her hands.

"While I'm grateful to the Fairy Tail mages for defeating the demon, the damage they caused is inexcusable. Our farmlands were completely decimated in that explosion," the man complained, "We can hardly grow crops in a crater."

"Dear, please," the woman next to him said gently as she placed a hand on her lap, "The Magic Council's delivery of food is on its way, we'll be fine until we can bring in some more mages to fix the crater.

"The Magic Council is sending a delivery of food?" Lulu asked.

"Yes. It's what most of the money they took from Fairy Tail as a fine went towards," the woman answered.

"Bah… The rest of it lined their own pockets," the man grumbled.

"Dear…"

"While I'm not sure if I know any talented earth mages that can fix the crater, I do know a skilled plant mage that could restore life to your fields once they are repaired," Lulu stated as the couple's faces lit up.

"Is she here with you?" the woman questioned.

"Unfortunately not, but I can send her this way when I see her next," Lulu answered.

"That'll have to do then," the man sighed.

"Now then, you said you had a question for us?" the woman asked as Lulu set her teacup down on the coffee table between her and the couple.

"Yes, I was wanting to know which parts of the town were damaged by the explosion from when Lullaby was defeated," Lulu replied as the couple began to think.

"Well, a couple of houses got smashed, but the Magic Council was all over those buildings before they left," the man answered after scratching at his beard.

"The general store and the flower shop were damaged some since they're closer to the fields," the woman stated.

"And that new Zentopian Church also got a bit of damage as well," the man added, "Now that I think about it, I don't know if the Magic Council's Rune Knights went there."

"Then that is where I will start my search," Lulu stated, "Which was to the church?"

"It's on the eastern edge of town. Do you need me to show the way? Cause of the blindfold?"

"No thank you, I believe I will be fine," Lulu responded as she began to stand up, "Thank you for speaking with me and for your hospitality. May the light of the Khala shine upon your family," she said with a curtsy before leaving the home and the couple behind before making her way towards the eastern side of town, keeping a slow and steady pace towards a bell tower she saw in the distance. Soon enough, Lulu found herself on the doorstep of the Zentopian Church, made obvious by the crest of Zentopia engraved on the large doors of the stone building. Lulu said a small, silent prayer before reaching out for the doors and opening them, stepping inside the moonlit chapel to see a large, muscular man with a gladius in one hand and roughly taking a small satchel from who Lulu assumed to be a priest of Zentopia dressed in a black, hooded Cossack robe.

"I was worried this would be too easy," the large, muscular man scoffed as he stuffed the satchel into a pouch on his belt, "What is a mission for power and glory without a fight at the end?" the man asked as he stepped away from the priest and towards Lulu, "I can feel the power sleeping in you, young one, it calls to me, it challenges me to glorious combat."

"Have you been threatening that man?" Lulu asked calmly as the priest watched on without a word, the large man beginning to pace.

"I have only retrieved what I was asked to get," the muscular man responded, "I am Spiculus Maximus, champion of the arena and warrior of Banshee Claw. State your name, your master and your purpose so that we might begin our glorious combat."

"Oh my…" Lulu gasped before looking to the priest.

"Do not worry about my well-being, child," the priest requested, "This man will not harm me."

"It is as he says. I cannot harm him," Spiculus stated as he continued his pacing, flourishing his blade in his hand.

"Very well then… My name is Lucretzia Celestine Zemerik, priestess of Khalai and mage of Phantom Hearts. My purpose here is to retrieve that shard of Lullaby in your pouch." Upon hearing this, Spiculus burst into laughter.

"Yes! Good! We are at an impasse then and battle is assured! Lucretzia of Phantom Hearts! Together, we shall paint the arena red!" Spiculus declared as a bright light began to shine from the center of his chest, before growing bright enough to engulf the entire chapel as the earth began to shake beneath them.

Credits:

Grindor – Benthino

Spiculus Maximus – Benthino

A/N: And I'm back! Work has been nightmarishly hectic the past couple of months, but now that that's finished and I've had a bit of a break, I can get back to writing again. But the S-Class Mission continues! And will continue in the next chapter as well, exciting stuff.

Anyways, I'd like to thank Grimnack, Benthino and Coffee Swirl for the reviews, they do mean a lot.

But that's all for now.

Your host,

Dreadburner94.