Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 37: Bitter Herbs & Dark Shadows! Rogue vs. Sosai!
Lucy ran through the forest with Sting by her side while Risa and Rogue stayed behind the duo to closely guard Haruna, who simply ran behind al of the mages. She was glad to have them all be in front of her, since they could probably handle dealing with any booby traps or ambushes that would come from the four remaining researchers, and putting her own survival above everyone else's really mattered to Haruna. She softly smiled at how the mages who were in front of her could be like useful shields, since they would be protecting her while she could probably get to the other end of the forest unscathed.
Getting to the other end of the forest wouldn't be easy, however, and the sight of the group running into a much darker area with rays of sunlight slightly down on to the dark green grass made Haruna start to widen her eyes in shock. This area of the forest was where people couldn't just go straight ahead to reach the other side of town or the Lostlorn Meadow, since there were large roots of Plant Magic and giant flowers blocking the path that people could use for running to the other side of the town. The researchers seemed to have private research, as well as seemingly better businesses on that side, and they did try to keep out citizens such as Haruna.
That didn't stop her from running ahead of everyone else to suddenly swerve on to a new path that would take the group to a unexpected route. Everyone followed Haruna down the path that curved to the left while they all looked quite stunned about why Haruna made them go on an alternate route, but they soon saw the reason for her decision. Haruna chose to take this path that zigzagged, before it became a straight line at the end, and she led the group to a dead end that only had a large cloud in a jade green color. This was a Sky Garden Cloud, and the light green grass that was around it in a square signified that this was a landing area for one of the clouds.
Despite how the group could use the Sky Garden Cloud to float above the forest's blockade of Plant Magic, Rogue began to narrow his eyes in a stern manner while his nose detected four scents that were slightly recognizable, and he could tell that those people weren't far from the group of Sabertooth mages. Rogue walked past the cloud to look through the row of trees, and his red eyes peeked through the small spaces between the trees to see that the four researchers were all now stopping to rest against some bushes. They had all been running for at least thirty minutes now without a break, so their choice of stopping was something that Rogue and the other protagonists could use to their advantage.
"It looks like they're resting, everyone. This is a good opportunity to take that ring away from the researchers, so let's do it carefully and quickly." Rogue told his teammates and Haruna in a calm manner, as he turned around to simply inform them of the situation.
Sting responded in a soft whisper while looking very confident, "You're right, Rogue. Let's get that ring, and then we'll ambush them with our plan. After all, a surprise attack can prevent them from properly using teamwork."
"At least our teamwork is going to be great, Sting. Let's retrieve the ring, and we'll show those researchers that they were wrong to create so much trouble." Lucy replied to him with a happy smile on her face while looking at him, before walking towards the trees.
The researchers definitely created a high amount of trouble in the town, but going past the trees to let her feet touch the grass showed Lucy how those horrible researchers were also causing trouble in the forest. This part of the forest had dark green grass with a neon green liquid also being in the grass, feeling almost like a puddle of water. The liquid was not water at all, and letting her legs brush blades of grass forward was like pushing strings in one direction before they would have to naturally bounce back into place. That was what happened with the substance that was on the grass, and it made a springy sound when bouncing back into its original areas on the grass.
Hearing the springy sound made the four researchers wake up, and a man with short neon green hair was the first person to retaliate against the person who was trying to ambush the group. He created neon green leaves in his hands, before using his Plant Magic to seemingly mold them into looking like small towers of leaves, and the neon green leaves were soon coated with the neon green liquid that the researcher created in his hands. He watched the neon green towers of leaves be propelled from his hands, and they ended up creating explosions in midair while leaving behind neon green powder.
Lucy ignored the powder while activating her second spell of Psychic Magic, and the spell was known as Psychic Psychotic Warp. Lucy fired a fuchsia pink sphere from her mouth, the attack looking almost as large as Miru's Psychic Spatial Twist attack. Unlike that spell, Lucy's psychic spell had another sphere inside of the larger one. The bigger sphere touched the blast and the power to immediately create several fuchsia pink explosions, and the neon green explosions from the powder also took everyone by surprise. Lucy was surprised enough to where she ended up getting caught in the clouds of powder, and she felt her eyes become filled with water while she started to cough in a sickly manner. In fact, her sick coughs prevented her from seeing that the smaller sphere detonated to create a fuchsia pink explosion that was only followed by more explosions that were around Lucy.
"Well, it looks like someone's coughing from the Neon Drip's explosive aftereffects! This is the perfect time for me to be the one who wipes out the rest of the garbage, Yaeko, so run away with the others!" The researcher told Yaeko with a heckling look on his face, before turning away from Lucy to order his teammates to run away.
Yaeko responded to him with a frustrated look on her face, as she looked at the current situation, "I'll keep going to the research lab, but you better not be so lazy like that fool Harui. Sosai, make sure tha you heavily injure her after you're done fighting these people."
"He'll be done with fighting us soon, since I won't let you get away!" Sting exclaimed with a fierce look on his face, as the sight of the antagonists getting on to a nearby Sky Garden Cloud prompted him to fire a very large White Dragon's Roar attack at the group of researchers.
They unfortunately ended up floating upward into the sky very quickly, but that wasn't all Sting needed to worry about. His large beam of white light was intercepted by Sosai firing a bouquet of neon green roses from the palm of his right hand, and the roses ended up bursting in a neon green explosion when they hit Sting's attack! The high amount of light created shadows, which made Risa smile in a happy manner while creating an Esper Ball in her right hand. She picked up the shadows with the magenta aura of Psychic Magic surrounding her left hand, before placing them on the Esper Ball to create the magenta sphere, and Risa threw it in front of the antagonist to create a large pink blast! The blast made six shadows stretch outward, before they rose up to reveal themselves as Risa's six clones.
They followed her telepathic order of making five clones jump upward while one strangely used the light as a distraction for hiding behind some trees, and the clones seemed like they would all try hit the enemy with some powerful spells of Psychic Magic. They were intercepted by the enemy making a neon green aura surround his hands, and he made some neon green seeds emerge from his hands. The seeds hit the ground to create a dark green grassy meadow, but the flower were all neon green while they fired beams of that strange powder into the air. The powder struck the clones directly, causing them all to be caught in dark green explosions, but Risa's distraction was the perfect moment for Sting to get Lucy out of harm's way while he heard her start to choke on the powder.
Sting ran towards Lucy, and he pulled her out of the powder cloud to get her back to his group. When Lucy was back with everyone, Risa narrowed her magenta eyes and fired a healing beam from her mouth. She watched it strike Lucy to completely heal her, no longer letting Lucy be injured at all or even feel slightly sick, and seeing Lucy fully recover made Risa felt like the group could now win. However, Rogue had a stern look in his eyes while he realized how the time that they would all spend with fighting Sosai was the same amount of time that would be decreasing for them to easily get the ring. Since Rogue cared just as much as Sting about helping Lucy get her body back, he activated the spell known as Shadow Drive to make a black aura surround his body. Rogue moved at high speeds to place Lucy on the cloud, prompting Sting and Haruna to get on, but Risa looked at him in a hesitant manner. Upon seeing her be worried, Rogue frowned in a calm manner before giving her a smile of assurance.
"Listen to me, Risa. You have to protect Lucy and Sting on their way to the research lab, so you can't let them get hurt anymore. That's the duty of a caring and beautiful princess, after all. Risa, you don't need to worry about me. I'll be fine, and I know that you'll also be okay. Your fight may also be a one-on-one situation, but it'll have to be this way for this mission to be successful." Rogue explained to her in a calm manner, as he tried to make Risa feel much more comfortable.
That prompted Risa to tell Rogue in a concerned manner while proceeding to hug him, not wanting him to nearly die again, "I trust your judgment, Rogue. Just... please make yourself be okay."
Risa added in a calm manner as she ended the hug, smiling confidently at her boyfriend, "Make sure that you get to hit him with a powerful surprise attack for me, Rogue. I'll see you later!"
Rogue and Sosai watched Risa glance at one of the trees for a moment, almost like she was looking at someone or something in an instructing manner, but they both brushed it off because of how Risa quickly ran towards the Sky Garden Cloud. She placed her hands on it to send her magic into the cloud, bringing the group up much higher than expected, and Rogue was now left to face his opponent. He proceeded to fire the Shadow Dragon's Gravity spell at his foe, causing a black sphere to come from Rogue's mouth while Sosai was aggressively pulled forward to touch his shadow, but the sight of a small black explosion only made Rogue fire the Shadow Dragon's Roar spell from his mouth. He fired a black vortex of shadows that smashed some trees down while it headed straight for Sosai, and Rogue watched a much larger explosion of Shadow Dragon Slayer Magic occur.
Five minutes later...
The smoke from the explosion faded away for Rogue to see that his opponent was somewhat damaged by the combination of attacks, only having a few bruises that were bleeding, and Sosai simply smirked in an arrogant manner. He thought that winning against Rogue would be a very easy task, especially if that had only been the shadow dragon slayer's weakest combination of spells. Rogue felt ready to try out his next combination of powerful spells, and he was ready to activate the spell that was called Shadowy Immobilization.
As Rogue was about to officially activate that attack, Sosai built up a large amount of neon green leaves in his hands. The leaves in his hands created large towers again, before the tower in his right hand ended up bursting to create neon green spheres of liquid in midair, and Sosai aimed at his palm at the trail of bubbles. They were soon struck by the tower of leaves getting propelled off of his hand, and that only made the spiraling tower of leaves double in size and speed right before they actually tripled in size and speed from how the garden spell from earlier boosted their energy.
The garden spell was known as Botanical Meadow's Sprout Seeds while this current spell involving the leaves had simply been called Neon Leaf Twister Strike, and the tower of leaves quickly slammed into Rogue! He ended up being caught in a dark green blast that also created a high amount of the strange powder, and Rogue screamed in pain from the high amount of power in this attack! He could feel the spell burning his body, almost like this Plant Magic contained some acid that could be found in plants. Rogue got to see the acid corroding parts of his arms and legs, but it also appeared to corrode his magic like the plant was associated with making people very sick.
The plant that was tied to Sosai's magic had actually been abundant in the grass, having dark green leaves that were jagged while they were quite large, and this particular plant was called Stunning Rose. However, the Stunning Rose was only one of the plants involved with making the deadly perfume. Sosai decided to make one of the other plants emerge from his hands, and he watched the neon green clouds of smoke fade away for Rogue to see neon green leaves that tied themselves into knots. The leaves were actually in the wrong color for that particular plant, but the sight of Sosai slamming his hands against the ground made Rogue narrow his eyes with the feeling of intensity.
"Those plants and that powder... Is it all coming from Caster Magic?" Rogue asked his opponent in a calm manner, before seeing liquid drip from Sosai's hands.
Sosai responded with a condescending facial expression, acting as if Rogue really needed to be corrected, "What you're seeing is the Plant-Make variation of Molding Magic, which allows me to create whatever I desire from the plants themselves, so it's like Caster Magic combined with Molding Magic. In fact, this magic can even create plants that involve my precious Neon Drip Powder."
"Did it create the ones that are used in the making of the nasty perfume that's making people be so ill?" Rogue asked Sosai in a stern manner, thinking about all of the deceased people who he saw in the streets of the nearby town.
Sosai replied to Rogue with an offended frown on his face, glaring at him with disgust in his olive green eyes, "If I were you, I wouldn't be so quick to judge research based on the data involving people who can't appreciate the hard work of thoroughly analyzing plants and their various aromas. That's the job mainly handled by me, Sosai Fushigidane, the Head Herbalist of plant research. In fact, I'm also the Head Herbalist because of how I can inhale the powder without getting sick. If you frequently eat enough bitter herbs, you'll eventually be impervious to their effects."
Upon hearing that the man who wore a neon green lab coat was the head herbalist, that made Rogue feel like he needed to be more cautious in this fight. He was fighting someone who presumably outranked Harui, since she didn't boast about having a high-ranking title. Still, fighting a high-level enemy meant that Rogue couldn't waste any spells. He activated Shadowy Immobilization, which created two black rings of shadows around Sosai, and Rogue's enemy was unable to move from how he had been in the smaller ring. That prompted Rogue to run towards him, and the shadow dragon slayer had an interesting plan.
His plan involved running towards Sosai, before becoming a black shadow that vanished right in front of the herbalist, and Rogue jumped high in the air to appear above Sosai. Rogue's opponent watched him fire the Shadow Dragon's Raven Arrows spell from his hands, and ten black bullets with spearheads rose up from Rogue's shadow that had appeared on the ground. The shadow soon disappeared when Rogue also vanished again, but he had hastily moved his hands around in a psychic manner to make all of his bullets converge on striking Sosai.
The antagonist was soon engulfed in large black blasts that forced him to be sent flying high into the air, before Rogue aggressively kicked him in the chest for him to fall down towards the larger circle of the Shadowy Immobilization spell. That wider circle was just about to detonate, due to how the bullet's shadows had entered that area when they were going towards Sosai, and he ended up being caught in an onyx black blast that was quite large. Its power obliterated some large trees, making them fall over, and more sunlight started to shine on all of the debris. Despite how Rogue had more light for his shadows, this fight wasn't over.
"If you really thought that a combination of spells like that would kill me, then you're very mistaken." Sosai told Rogue in an arrogant manner, before snickering evilly with four leaves now floating around his body.
Rogue thought to himself with a curious facial expression, as he saw the leaves start to corrode the fallen trees after touching them, "What is this guy going to do now?"
"Plant-Make: Leaf Shield of Verdant Grass!" Sosai shouted with an evil smirk on his face, as the floating leaves all became surrounded by more leaves and clumps of grass that formed the appearance of budding flowers topped with dark green grass.
This spell was an immediate upgrade of the Plant-Make: Leaf Shield spell that had other variants, but its effects were drastically different. This attack corroded trees faster, before making them explode in neon green bursts of grassy energy, and the projectiles remained around Sosai's waist before they were being explosive to whatever they touched. He purposely made them strike the fallen trees, since the large explosions produced high amounts of neon green powder that would be in the air. Rogue ended up coughing from the smoke, no longer being a shadow in midair, and the sound of his sickly coughs made Sosai strike him with the spell's aftereffect.
The makeshift budding flowers opened up to absorb high amounts of the powder, before they all closed up. They all quickly opened up to fire all of the powder at Rogue, creating many dark green explosions in midair, and Rogue fell down to the ground that was now being covered in the remaining powder. He quickly got up to use the Shadowy Spread spell, firing two black vortexes from his right hand while they twisted together to form a much larger vortex, and the shadow dragon slayer decided to pick up the shadows of some damaged plants. He began to consume them as a way of giving himself more magical power, only to dislike their bitter taste. They were bitter from being covered in Sosai's herbal powder that definitely had a bitter smell, as well as a bitter taste to it, and Rogue felt sick after eating them.
To him, it felt like he was eating medicinal shadows. That didn't stop him from giving himself more magical power, but Rogue ended up firing another vortex of the Shadowy Spread attack from his mouth. He watched the vortex be as strong as the previous two attacks, and Rogue got to see the interesting sight of black powder lightly falling down on to the grass. The grass started to become black, almost as if the powder in the shadows was overtaken by Rogue's magic, and he watched his vortex start to grow larger from the shadows on the ground stretching upward to send themselves into it. Rogue ended up seeing his first large vortex smash into Sosai's shields, making four neon green blasts occur around the antagonist before the explosiveness of Rogue's attack made him scream in pain, and Rogue watched his second attack strike Sosai directly while its black powder kept landing on the ground. As the powder began to explode from being in such close range to the attack, Rogue felt like he found a smart way to fight his opponent.
"It's not just about power, but I have to try using that powder against him. I just have to keep doing that, since it's the best tactic to use right now." Rogue thought to himself with a look of realization on his face, before letting out sick coughs again.
After letting out screams of pain and being wounded by Rogue, Sosai asked aloud with an offended look on his face from seeing the changes to his Plant Magic, "What have you done to my beautiful plants, you uncouth swine?! Are you really trying to make yourself seem as dirty and disrespectful as that lowly little girl with dark green hair?! Black-haired mage, you really think that changing the properties of my herbs is such an acceptable thing to do?!"
Rogue managed to utter, before letting out more sickly coughs from the green powder that was starting to be around him, "It's acceptable for a spell like Shadow Void!"
Rogue fired a black sphere from his left hand, and shadows rose up from the ground for the sphere to become larger while it moved at a somewhat faster speed. The swift attack soon engulfed Sosai, who became surprised at the sudden sight of no floating shields remaining for him to break out of Rogue's spell, and even exhaling the neon green liquid from his mouth for it to become powder wouldn't be useful. His futile efforts were followed by him seeing nothing but darkness, before being dragged down into the shadowy depths when Rogue lowered his hand down to his side. Rogue watched the sphere go down into its own shadow, and Sosai merely watched all of his powder strike different parts of Rogue's attack. He was soon engulfed in a large blast of shadowy energy that was as onyx black as the darkness, and the neon green explosions from the powder sent him flying up through the shadows' darkness. He was propelled out of the shadow of a broken tree while the aftereffect of the spell made him be a black silhouette that could go into shadows, but being in midair wouldn't be so bad for Sosai.
That was because of how Sosai got to see Rogue eating several of the shadows that didn't come from his own magic, which let Sosai see that Rogue was increasing his magical power by eating shadows. That prompted the antagonist to stretch out his hands, and the neon green aura surrounding them allowed him to attract green leaves from the trees to his palms. The dark green leaves were absorbed into his palms, before he activated a spell called Plant-Make: Herbal Growth. This spell made a neon green aura engulf his body, before it spread outward in a high amount of aura beams to strike the broken trees. They quickly grew back, before Sosai aimed the aura down at other parts of the area to make more trees grow.
Rogue watched the high amount of trees conceal the sky, effectively concealing the light that could be used for making shadows, and he groaned in frustration. That groan was followed by more coughs while Rogue started to feel dizzy, as the trees were now having the neon green powder blow off of them with wind passing by. The breeze carried the powder on the winds, a high amount of the powder getting on Rogue's body, and he started to fall to his knees from how the powder of Sosai's dangerous plants was now spreading through his body.
"Well, it looks like you're being affected by my magic's explosive powder and the lack of sunlight. Without any shadows for your fancy attacks, it looks like I've finally found a blind spot! You're not exactly very bright, if you only rely on shadows for your attacks!" Sosai stated to Rogue with a rude look on his face, as he landed on a nearby tree branch to look at his wounded opponent.
Sosai continued speaking while starting to look quite cruel, "In fact, let's see what you can't do without your shadows! They can't help you shake off the explosive powder, which will kill you after one powerful attack! I'm too strong, dark-haired mage! You can't defeat me!"
Rogue weakly replied with a frustrated look on his face, trying to stand up, "No, you're wrong. I can... still fight."
Before Rogue could use one of his high-level spells, he was struck by neon green arrows of Plant Magic that Sosai fired from his mouth. The arrows felt quite hard, almost like iron, and the powder that was on them only merged with the powder on Rogue for the five arrows to detonate. Those arrows created neon green explosions that were quite powerful, and they were part of a spell called Herbal Green Sniping Arrow. Rogue screamed in pain from dealing with the blasts that occurred around him, and he was sent rolling towards some trees.
When Rogue landed against two of the trees, they immediately exploded in neon green blasts! They were part of the Plant-Make: Herbal Growth spell, which meant that even a regrown tree came with the side effect of detonating, and feeling more powder be around him caused Rogue to continue feeling very sick. He felt himself start to have a high fever, before collapsing, and Rogue's most rational thought in this moment was that he couldn't even use the Shadow Dragon's Roar attack without the trees exploding to create much more powder.
That didn't matter to Sosai, who fired a neon green sphere of energy from his mouth while sharp-edged leaves began to be created from the liquid that was on the sphere. The neon green orb was part of a spell called Plant-Make: Brightened Forest, and it involved an orb that had blades. The blades sliced through one of the trees near Rogue to create a neon green explosion, making more smoke and powder fill the area. The fallen tree was soon set ablaze from the explosion, before the fire made the powder detonate to create neon green flames, and Rogue was caught in the initial explosion. He ended up feeling pain from the powerful attack that absorbed Plant Magic from any plants that it touched before detonating, and the high amount of plant-based powder also strengthened its intensity. The powerful explosion sent Rogue flying, before he hit a tree that hadn't been created or regrown, and he was heavily bruised with blood dripping from several wounds that now looked as sickly as the color of neon green. As Rogue tried to suppress his coughs and cover some bruises, he panted in a worried manner at how his chances of beating the researcher looked very low.
"This mage doesn't use any pointless attacks, and he's been gathering so much information during this fight. He knows that I can wield shadows, and even trying to hit him with my last four spells may be futile. He's been able to bounce back after enduring my spells, and he's countered my strategies. If there's nothing more that I can do, then-" Rogue thought to himself with a worried facial expression, wondering how he'd get out of this situation.
A familiar female's voice softly told him with courage in every word that came from her mouth, "Then, I'm just going have to find my own ways to win!"
Upon looking over at Risa's clone to see her hiding behind a tree and simply observing him, Rogue thought to himself with a soft smile on his face while thinking about his girlfriend, "Risa. You know, I wonder what crazy or clever actions you would've taken to make this fight be in your favor."
Risa's clone proceeded to fire a thin beam of Psychic Magic from her mouth, and she aimed it at Rogue to make a bubblegum pink aura surround his body. He was soon fully healed, no longer feeling sick, and Rogue turned around to look at his opponent. Sosai was now jumping from tree to tree, trying to find Rogue for the purpose of killing him to make this fight reach its end, and Rogue's eyes widened with realization from recalling something about his enemy's Plant Magic. He had made that powder be on the ground, as that was how the plants destroyed almost all of Risa's clones, and Rogue had an idea.
He looked at Risa's clone, who had her eyes in a magenta color, and she was able to read his thought of applying Psychic Magic to her feet. She ran all the way to the other side of the battlefield while going behind a row of trees, and she decided to fire the Esper Ball spell into the area for Rogue's fight. The battlefield was soon struck by a magenta-colored sphere striking the ground, as well as making some regrown trees detonate, and that caught Sosai's attention. He curiously wondered if the mage who wielded Psychic Magic was fighting Ayane or another researcher close by, as he interpreted that as the only sensible reason for why another mage seemed to be here.
The slight confusion was sufficient enough for Rogue to reactivate his Shadow Drive spell, before becoming a black shadow that moved at high speeds to get inside the shadow of the pink blast, and Rogue soon emerged from the shadow to see that Sosai's shadow faintly appeared because of all the light that was now brightening up this area of the forest. That prompted Rogue to quickly go towards the tree where Sosai sat down on the branch, before quietly activating the spell called Shadow Puppetry. That particular spell caused a black aura to surround Rogue's right hand, and the aura sprang up from his hand to engulf Sosai's body. The villainous researcher soon saw a black silhouette of his body appear in front of him, and he got to see Rogue quickly aim his hands at all of the shadows that he could see. Every shadow that Rogue saw soon changed into a black drill of Shadow Dragon Slayer Magic, and he pretended to throw them at Sosai. That prompted the plentiful number of drills to head straight for Sosai's silhouette, and the silhouette smirked sadistically. The shadow of the researcher caught all of the drills, before bombarding Sosai by throwing them all at him as part of a close-range attack, and Rogue quickly ran towards Risa's clone to evade what would happen next. He turned around to see Sosai get struck by numerous black drills that created large blasts of black shadows, and Sosai screamed in excruciating pain right before he fell to the ground.
"How...? How does he still have the energy to use spells, especially after inhaling all of that powder?" Sosai asked himself in a shocked manner while feeling a high amount of pain, some wounds starting to bleed.
Rogue asked himself with a curious facial expression while hearing Risa's clone go behind some trees that were somewhat distant for her to effectively have a good hiding spot, "How can I not smell the powder around here anymore? Did that pink blast create winds that were strong enough to instantly blow it away?"
Risa's clone responded aloud to him in a soft whisper, continuing to read his thoughts, "That's right, Rogue. With more light and less powder around, fighting this guy won't be a tough task. Speaking of tough tasks, getting shadows to constantly appear on the ground would mean that you better eat them quickly."
As Risa's clone felt like Rogue would still be disadvantaged because of her personal concerns with the ground, Rogue noticed that the ground where Risa's attack created a blast had been covered with black burn marks. The burn marks had white clouds of steam heavily rising up from them, and the ground being charred gave Rogue an interesting idea for having an easier time fighting Sosai. Sosai quickly got back up to see that Rogue was standing in front of the charred ground where an attack from Rogue's teammate had landed, and he became quite angry from seeing that his plants were destroyed.
He attempted to use the spell called Plant-Make: Herbal Growth, but Rogue stopped him by creating two swords of black shadows in his hands. Those swords were part of the spell called Shadow Sword, and Rogue made five slashing motions with each sword. Those swords made waves of shadows head straight for Sosai, who couldn't react fast enough to avoid being struck by them, and the ten onyx blasts were quite large! They were enormous while also having a high amount of destructive power, and Sosai let out more screams of pain from having to endure this attack.
The fact that the attack involved Rogue using swords prompted the shadow dragon slayer to aim his swords down at the shadows of some trees, effectively absorbing their shadows, and he slashed the swords at Sosai one last time. The antagonist jumped over them to counter with a spell called Plant-Make: Verdant Needles, and a neon green aura engulfed his hands. He slammed them against some branches that were covered in leaves, causing several dark green spikes to emerge from the leaves, and Sosai smirked in a cocky manner at how having his hands on the trees would allow him to keep on shooting out spikes from the clusters of leaves. The leaves began to have the neon green liquid surrounding them, making it possible for Sosai to possibly create an endless number of spikes, but Rogue would put an end to his plan. He jumped high into the air, before the numerous amount of shadows detonated, and the aftereffect of Shadow Sword created large blasts that were onyx black in color. They were almost as large as the blasts that had just been created by the remaining waves of shadows, even overshadowing all of the neon green blasts that came from Sosai's knives being damaged, but these shadowy blasts came with a harsh side effect for Rogue.
"My hands are feeling an immense amount of pain! I've... got to end this fight fast!" Rogue thought to himself with a pained facial expression while loudly wincing, before he had the feeling of determination in his eyes.
Rogue exclaimed fiercely, wanting to win this fight, "Shadow Dragon's Dark Wasteland!"
"He still has new spells?!" Sosai exclaimed with a stunned look on his face, wondering how he was going to counter this attack.
Rogue's new spell caused him to fire five thin beams of black shadowy energy down at the ground that had been severely charred, and the beams emerged from his right hand for him to make them pierce through cracks in the damaged ground. The broken-up ground had darkness underneath it, causing the beams to look like they gained enough power to grow larger and duplicate themselves. The beams continued to grow in quantities, before they all hastily headed towards Sosai, and the beams soon exploded underneath Sosai's feet! They instantly ended up bursting to detonate, creating powerful black blasts of energy that tore through the ground to make several chunks of the earth rise up, and the power of the blasts was strong enough to uproot several trees while they were sent flying quite high into the air with Sosai!
He was heavily bruised from that unexpected attack, especially with rocks flying upward to strike his body while some of his newly created or regrown trees exploded to create the neon green powder in midair, but even having blood dripping from painful wounds wouldn't stop him from trying to defeat Rogue. Sosai felt like he only had one option left for accomplishing that task, and that caused him to unleash a spell called Plant-Make: Herbal Master of Neon Green Meadows! That spell required Sosai to form claws with his hands, having one positioned a few inches above the other, and Sosai rotated his hands back and forth while a neon green aura surrounded his body. As the aura was around Sosai with a part of it going down to the battlefield to affect trees and plants, his spell made several leaves propel themselves off of the trees to be in the middle of his hands. Sosai's hands soon felt some small plants be on them, the plants uprooting themselves to be part of the circle, and the plants glowed in a neon green color while the leaves also glowed in that same color.
The glowing lasted for a few seconds, the plants emanating neon green beams of light, and the spell merged them all together to form a neon green orb of energy that seemed to be quite large. Sosai smirked rudely while throwing the orb down at the area where Rogue had been standing, and Sosai hoped that this last attack would kill him. Rogue remained calm, however, and he charged up a black aura of Shadow Dragon Slayer Magic while getting ready to use his final spell. Rogue activated a spell called Shadow Dragon's Ebony Inferno. The spell required Rogue to stand with his right foot slightly behind his left foot while his hands were aimed down at the ground, and the shadows that were on the ground began to quickly go towards him. Rogue could even feel the shadows coming up from beneath the large holes that were created in the ground, all of them converging on him, and the shadows of trees also went towards Rogue. He got to observe how Sosai's large attack was also casting a massive shadow that converged with the others, and that also applied to how Rogue could see the descending powder cloud also display its large shadow on the ground right before that shadow joined up with the other shadows. Rogue watched all of the shadows stretch outward like slingshots, before they quickly came back to him, and a massive onyx black blast of shadowy energy soon occurred around Rogue! He wasn't hurt by the blast, and Rogue got to see it spread outward.
Sosai exclaimed aloud, as he thought that his attack would destroy Rogue's spell, "It doesn't matter if your attack is expanding to cover such a wide range, since it probably won't make you have enough power to stop me!"
Rogue confidently responded with a clever smile faintly appearing on his face, as he thought about how the range of the attack didn't need to just involve the ground, "Actually, I think that this spell will definitely have the power to stop you! It just needs a bit of a boost."
"What?!" Sosai loudly asked him, as he watched the neon green sphere strike Rogue's attack.
Even though Sosai's spell struck Rogue's attack, the massive amount of light from the neon green blast only exposed more shadows that converged towards Rogue. He watched them enhance the spell, increasing its power, but power by itself wouldn't get Sosai out of the sky. Rogue's eyes soon became filled with curiosity from seeing some chunks of earth still be in the sky, as the ones that reached the highest heights were still in the air, and they were beginning to descend towards the ground. As they went down towards the ground, Rogue noticed that the undersides of those rocks had shadows.
The sight of the shadows prompted him to use the Shadow Dragon's Gravity spell again, and he fired a black sphere of shadowy energy from his mouth. The sphere went up through the dome while absorbing some of its energy, and the attack went up towards the rocks at a much faster speed. The quick-moving spell pulled several rocks towards their shadows, before creating black explosions that were quite large, and absorbing energy from Rogue's most powerful spell caused his weakest spell's sphere to burst with a black blast that had eight shadowy bullets of energy spreading outward. Those shadowy attacks had the property of gravity, since they pulled down anything or anyone who was above them while this makeshift fusion of spells pulled targets down to Rogue with an immense amount of pressure.
Rogue managed to faintly see the sky through the shadows, and he got to see Sosai get pulled down towards the black blast. The blast had been expanding outward to make whatever it touched be caught in black blasts that were somewhat smaller, and it heavily tore through this part of the forest! Plants were soon obscured by black bursts of shadows, and the sight of their destruction made Sosai vengefully look at Rogue. He scowled at the faint sight of him in the shadows, before looking shocked at how the shadows triumphed over his final spell of Plant-Make Magic to where the neon green light faded away while only leaving the powder behind, and Sosai fell into the shadows of the large blast. He ended up getting caught in multiple blasts that occurred, as the antagonist couldn't escape the shadowy blasts that were seeking to even destroy the trees that fell or branches that were on the ground, and Sosai screamed in an immense amount of pain.
After Rogue ended the spell and let all of the black smoke clear up, Sosai weakly asked him with a very pained look on his face, "How are... you still alive? Shouldn't you be... dead, after being exposed to all of that powder?"
Rogue calmly explained to his enemy with a stern facial expression while walking towards him, "I could've been dead, but a good friend reminded me that I cannot lose here. She wanted me to win, and you are the strongest enemy that I've ever faced. In fact, you were so strong to where only I could handle inhaling your powder without having to be in hiding."
"In... hiding?" Sosai weakly asked, before coughing up blood and feeling his open wounds heavily bleed.
Upon weakly raising his head to see Risa's clone running to be a few feet away from the situation, Sosai stated with an annoyed look on his face from remembering Risa's spell and her action of nodding to someone, "I.. see. That girl held one of her clones back from attacking me to lure my focus entirely on you, so I didn't assume that I'd be giving you enough time to cast... a healing spell."
Rogue soon needed a healing spell, as the aroma of the powder and the powder itself being in the air made him start to let out sickly coughs again, and he turned away from Sosai to fall to his knees. The high amount of powder made Rogue feel quite ill, his face becoming neon green while his nostrils ended up inhaling the bitter powder that lingered around the area, and he even felt pain in his body from using such a high-level spell of Shadow Dragon Slayer Magic. The pain was primarily in his hands, and Rogue couldn't even lift a finger without feeling pain.
Sosai weakly chuckled at his pain while looking sadistic, before he felt himself start to die from how Rogue's spell severely injured him. He was bleeding heavily, and the high amount of blood loss made him start to experience his last few seconds of being alive. Sosai soon died while his eyes closed, which meant that Rogue won the fight. However, the shadow dragon slayer felt like he couldn't just pass out in this forest. He turned around to face Sosai, seeing his neon green lab coat be mostly damaged to reveal that he wore a lime green T-shirt with olive green jeans that matched his neon green boots. Rogue decided to just see if something crucial was in his enemy's boots, but there was nothing there.
That prompted him to place one hand against the intact and sealed pocket of the neon green lab coat, and Rogue opened up the slightly durable lab coat to see that there was an assortment of white papers in the pocket, along with a small and round glass bottle of neon green pills that looked like they contained miniature samples of that powder for the perfume. Rogue put one hand over his mouth while coughing, and he used his other hand to grab the small bottle. After placing the bottle with a neon green cover on the ground, Rogue removed the important papers from Sosai's lab coat. Rogue glared down at the researcher while feeling like a better Head Herbalist needed to be in charge of that sector in Ryokufū Town, and he tried to stand up. Upon falling back down to his knees, however, Rogue realized that he could barely stand and the powder made him feel much sicker to where he could barely breathe. That prompted Risa's clone to fire another pink beam from her mouth, making it be magenta pink, and the spell healed Rogue to where he no longer felt sick while he also didn't feel any severe pain anymore. Being healed only made him cover his mouth and nose, before running out of this area of the forest, and Rogue decided to give Risa's clone a direct order.
"Since I don't want her to worry about me, use your Psychic Magic to tell the real Risa that I'm going to go see if Yukino's okay." Rogue told the clone of his girlfriend in a calm tone, as his thoughts about Risa also involved how she had been worried about Yukino.
That caused the pink-haired girl's duplicate to reply to him with a nice smile on her face, "All right, Rogue. When you find Yukino, just make sure that you both catch up with the group."
"We'll definitely catch up to everyone else. Anyway, I'll see you later." Rogue responded to her with a kind facial expression, before running back to where Yukino had fought Harui.
As Rogue was now looking away from Risa's clone, he wondered if Yukino had been okay. He hadn't heard anything with his enhanced hearing, not even able to hear a gasp coming from the area where Yukino's fight with Harui had taken place, and Rogue hoped that his friend wasn't dead. He could only faintly smell Yukino's scent coming from that part of the forest, almost as if she went back to town, and glancing down at the papers in his left hand for a moment made Rogue wonder if Yukino found something important or at least met up with the young mages who hadn't followed the group deeper into the forest.
Meanwhile, in Ryokufū Town...
Yukino slowly opened her eyes to see that Kusabue was standing over her, the young girl wearing a dark green mask over her mouth while it also covered her nose, and Yukino also noticed that she was wearing a light blue mask over her mouth. It also covered her nose, and Yukino wondered how she was wearing a face mask. She looked at it for a moment, before looking at her nearby surroundings to see that Kūkiatsu walked out of a store with a dark green box of the remaining face masks while the owner with dark green hair had died outside that store from being severely ill.
The situation of the deadly perfume making people sick had caused mages such as Kūkiatsu to not view his action as stealing, since he even wore a mint green face mask to ensure that he would be protected. Kūkiatsu definitely did a bit of research on how to keep himself and Kusabue safe, but the sight of his sister suddenly lowering her mask to chew on some leaves that were somewhat large only made Kūkiatsu calmly slam his palm against his face. He wondered about how Kusabue could be feeling hungry again, especially after their picnic lunch, but his eyes widened in shock from seeing how those leaves weren't commonly eaten as appetizers.
Those leaves were medicinal herbs that Kūkiatsu found in the forest for Yukino, just in case she wanted to get her strength back up, and they had a dark green syrup dripping from them because of how researchers of Wind Magic discovered that minor explosions on the leaves could turn the green sap into syrup. Despite that being an interesting discovery, people who consumed the Midori Medicine Leaves were prone to their side effects that came after the sweet taste. Kusabue offered one leaf to Yukino while putting two of the five remaining leaves from her right hand into her mouth. and chewing on the leaves caused Kusabue to have a very satisfied look in her Kelly Green eyes.
Kusabue's eyes soon noticed that she and Kūkiatsu were in front of the town's research laboratory while Yukino got back up on her feet, but Kusabue soon felt herself be quite woozy. Her vision began to get distorted while she walked towards the lab, which had a large roof in the color of mint green while it was pitched with four smaller roofs on top of it while two of those pitched roofs had stained-glass windows that were made to resemble wind vortexes being seen from above. They were different from the other two windows, which resembled flowers, and walking towards the dark green door of the building that was made from slabs of concrete in various shades of green allowed Kusabue to see a light green square plaque above the door with dark green flower petals surrounding it. The plaque and the door were situated in between two pedestals that had two hollow indentations in their middle parts while the pedestals were in the colors of light green and juniper green, which respectively associated themselves with the statues of a light green twister and juniper green rose on them. Kusabue playfully stumbled in front of the statues to land against the door, which didn't have a doorknob on the outside to make itself appear to be locked, but Kusabue stumbling backwards and slamming her hands on the front sides of the pedestals at the exact same time while engulfing her palms in a shamrock green aura caused something strange to happen.
"What's happening?!" Yukino asked aloud with a worried facial expression, as a large gust of wind blew itself out from the ground that was starting to glow in a mint green color.
Kūkiatsu explained to her with a calm look on his face, as he built up magical power to absorb all of the winds into his hands, "Those statues are infused with magical power, and hitting them both at the same time means that you'd want to activate the Manual System for entry into the lab. Normally, you'd just need to scan a magic-infused badge in the bottom part of one pedestal. However, that only works for current employees and I'm unfortunately at a loss for how we're going to get in."
As a mint green pedestal with a large statue of mint green twister appeared a few inches away from the door with the dark green daffodils of the statue surrounding the twister, Kusabue told Kūkiatsu in a dizzy manner, "Five-seven-five... Five-seven-five... The song... Everything is spinning..."
Kūkiatsu asked his sister in an annoyed tone, wanting her to stop fooling around, "What exactly is that supposed to mean?"
Yukino had curiosity in her eyes while wondering if Kusabue's cryptic words were pertaining to some kind of access code for getting into the town's research lab, since that part of Kusabue's song had seemed a bit strange to the Celestial Spirit Wizard. She looked at Kusabue, who dizzily walked to be in front of the statue that had a rose on it, and Kusabue chose to eat the rest of her syrup-covered leaves. Yukino noticed the dark green aura faintly being around those leaves, meaning that they were infused with Plant Magic, and the positions of the statues made Yukino gasp with realization.
She realized that one mage's magic would probably have to require the usage of five spells or a strong spell that was at a high level equaling the strength of five combined spells, and the other mage would probably have to do the same thing with their own magic. She watched Kusabue build up magic in her mouth, before activating a spell called Symphonic Sound, and the spell caused the young girl to shoot out a shamrock green orb from her mouth. The orb was soon surrounded by a dark green ring of treble clef notes, and Kusabue aimed her spell at the juniper green statue's indentation. There was a large blast inside the hole that appeared to be shamrock green for a moment, before turning dark green, and the energy from that attack created a shamrock green aura that ascended up from within the statue to reach the very top of the juniper green rose for it to temporarily be shamrock green. That color changed to be dark green, before both colors alternated like they were mixing together.
The sight of that statue changing its colors prompted Kūkiatsu to fire a powerful beam of wind from his hands, which was part of a spell called Sky's Feather Dance, and he aimed the spell at the statue's indentation. The hollow spot was struck by a mint green vortex that had several feathers surrounding it, the feathers landing in the hollow spot to create explosions when they lightly landed in the hollow spot, and the beam itself detonated in a mint green blast that was filled with a high amount of energy. The mint green aura ascended up from within the statue to change the light green twister into being a mint green color, and the fact that both statues were engulfed in auras caused something interesting to happen.
The auras went towards the third statue, fusing their levels of power together to where their average levels of five ended up being enhanced by two levels to reach the level of seven, and the mint green statue soon had a mint green twister on it while three daffodils became shamrock green. Those daffodils of the statue were just as pretty as the daffodils that became a juniper shade of green from mixing shamrock green with dark green, and all three statues glowed brightly in their varying colors, The bright glow kept everyone from seeing the ground start to break apart from the winds that were created by the blasts, but everyone got to hear the earth crumble to reveal some grey stairs that led downward. Kūkiatsu was the first one to see the stairs right after all three statues stopped glowing, and he quickly pulled Kusabue over to his side. He looked at her in a somewhat respectable manner, as she did something very useful instead of bringing trouble to him.
"Kusabue, we found the entrance to this town's research lab! We finally found it, and now we can go help Kotomi-san discover everything about the town's deadly perfume!" Kūkiatsu told Kusabue with an excited facial expression, before impulsively hugging her tightly while he seemed so proud of her.
That made Kusabue reply in a pained manner with her vision still being strange, as Kūkiatsu was hugging her very tightly, "Kūkiatsu, you're hurting me and... you look very weird."
As Kusabue started to make comments in her woozy state about Kūkiatsu turning multiple shades of green right now, Yukino told Kūkiatsu with a cautious look in her eyes, "Now that we're heading down into the research lab, we should be very careful. Kūkiatsu-sama, please guide us there and make sure that we can find what we need."
Kūkiatsu nodded in agreement to her words, before taking out the folded piece of paper from the left pocket of his pants, and he handed it to Yukino. She opened it up to see that Harui had written a specific list of plants that were involved with the perfume's creation, and Yukino wondered if any of those plants could really grow in a place without natural sunlight. Kūkiatsu confirmed that to be true by how he could strongly smell certain plants that had grown in the forest, as well as some that grew in the research lab, and he led the group down a hallway that had white walls matching the grey tiled floor.
When the group reached the end of the hallway, Kūkiatsu got to see that the juniper green reception desk was unattended. There was no one keeping watch over who was coming into the research lab from this secret entrance, and the mage looked up at the nearby staircase to see that it simply led up to where employees with working badges naturally entered the lab. That included the research lab's receptionists, who would still have to go down here, and Kūkiatsu remembered how one of the receptionists had sternly told him to not come back through any entrances after he had been fired. That only prompted him to touch the juniper green Surveillance Lacrima Crystal situated on the receptionist's desk, and Kūkiatsu watched the thin juniper green beams emanate from it. They soon faded away while the orb turned on to reveal that the previous receptionist was organizing future scents of perfume, and Kūkiatsu rubbed the orb downwards to get to its list of options for surveillance. The option for the Lostlorn Meadow was selected, causing the orb and nearby cameras that were aimed away to now have a juniper green glimmer around them, and Kūkiatsu snickered with delight at how the meadow would now be having an unnecessary second set of cameras on it.
With the reception desk's cameras now messed up, Kūkiatsu rubbed upward on the orb to get it back to displaying the list for future scents of perfume. He ignored the list while proceeding to lead Yukino and Kusabue into a hallway that only had one door on the right side, and going through that door allowed Kūkiatsu to be on the lowest floor of a botanical garden. There were various kinds of plants around while the walkways for researchers were composed of pale green cobblestones, and walking on the first path made Kūkiatsu remember that getting to the Head Botanist's room would be very important.
"Yukino-san, every head researcher has information on different things that make up the perfume. The Head Botanist has all the information on the plants, as well as an important type of key, but it puzzles me as to why plant research would make her be busy enough to where she'd authorize Harui to be with the other head researchers instead of just joining in on her own as the fifth member." Kūkiatsu explained to Yukino with a serious facial expression, wondering why the Head Botanist hadn't been seen in months.
Yukino asked Kūkiatsu in a calm tone, as she lowered her mask, "Is the Head Botanist nice, Kūkiatsu? Do you really think she'll just give us the information?"
"She's the nicest one in the group, so she'll probably be lenient enough to share her expertise on the plants with a former researcher, so let's not waste any time with asking her about how to fully solve the town's issue." Kūkiatsu told Yukino with a smile of assurance on his face, thinking that the situation would be resolved with the Head Botanist's full cooperation.
After getting to the end of the path and taking a left turn to be near some pale green stairs that led up to a path containing neon green stairs, Kūkiatsu knocked on the door with a smile of optimism on his face. Unfortunately, the sound of the door creaking open to show the group that there was nobody inside the room really made Kūkiatsu start to look quite shocked. He may not have seen the Head Botanist in months, due to getting fired, but she was gone. All that remained was a stack of pale green papers looking disorganized on her desk while folders were on the floor, and dark green plant roots were motionless on the floor to possibly show signs of a struggle.
It seemed like Harui had fought the Head Botanist for money, which would explain the scorch marks that remained on the pale green floor while there appeared to be a note left by that woman on her dark green desk that matched the plain green walls. Those walls were the same color as the Head Botanist's folders, and the folder on her desk had a pale green rectangular card poking out from underneath some papers. Those papers were on various types of plants, including the hybrids, but Kūkiatsu brushed them aside for a moment to get the rectangular card that had an image of green roses on it. This card was the Master Key, which could open any door on this level. That included the doors where botanists were studying hybrid plants, and Kūkiatsu wondered if this list showed the order of how the plants were mixed in the perfume's formula.
If it did, then Harui probably kept that list on hand for her to know which plants to restore or quickly grow with her Plant Magic. She had mainly created the plants in the past five months, due to the Head Botanist's note of going to the town of Seigan for the purpose of researching northern plants, but even the thought of a Head Botanist leaving her sector in Harui's hands seemed odd to Kūkiatsu. The note also seemed odd to Yukino, as the handwriting seemed like it was written hastily by someone who had to leave as fast as possible, and she started to wonder if anyone besides Haruna had been framed for the sickness-inducing perfume. If other important people were framed in the bad situation, then Yukino hoped that her teammates could get some crucial information from the perfume shop owner.
How was Chapter 37? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Rogue has defeated Sosai, and he has found more documents pertaining to the perfume. That doesn't mean he has all of the info, though. More information will be gained from the other researchers, who all have varying perceptions on people such as Kusabue. However, the researchers also do have certain pieces of information that would definitely make Lucy and the other protagonists be quite shocked. Having crucial information also applies to Haruna, who will tell Lucy and her friends some important things in the next few chapters. Interestingly enough, the details of that information will also expand on plot points such as her clash with Risa. Also, this is the fourth part of the Emerald Wind Arc! I'll update soon. :)
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