Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 49: Applying Pressure To Wind & Sound! Kagura, The Swordmaster! Kagura's Harsh Advice! Rogue's Shadows Shine In Lapis Blue!
Despite the fact that Kagura had shown up to help Kūkiatsu and Kusabue fight against Kaisui and Kōsui, Kūkiatsu still didn't feel like he would be very useful to his teammates in this situation. He merely looked at the icy battlefield that had some cracks in it, due to all the magical power that had struck the battlefield, and Kūkiatsu wondered how his remaining spells would be able to help his teammates. Kusabue was now in a drunken state again, causing her to be quite unpredictable, and Kagura seemed to have the situation under control.
However, turning his head to glance at Kagura for a moment caused Kūkiatsu to see that the hazel-eyed woman had a feeling of sternness in her eyes. She could see that her Gravity Magic wasn't going to completely her foes' bodies, since their new limbs were durable enough to not be as damaged as their human limbs, but Kagura watched Kaisui and Kōsui merely grow blue limbs that replaced the ones that had just been crushed. Their new limbs had spikes protruding from them while the twin sisters seemed to have gained more power, and they even started to make themselves attempt to stand up again.
They were resilient enough to end up standing up again, using sheer force to break free from the pressure of Kagura's Gravity Magic, and Kaisui merely gave her new enemy an evil smirk. She proceeded to use a new spell called Aqua Whirl, and Kaisui shot out a three-ringed whirlpool of dark blue water from her mouth while the whirlpool had several dark blue whips of water moving below it. The whips deflected the gravity that Kagura created, only for Kusabue to loudly scream in a drunken state, and something interesting began to happen.
Kusabue's waves of sound seemed to reach a deeper tone of voice from being underneath the gravity field, before detonating to make shamrock green blasts that were quite large, and those blasts of Sound Magic were strong enough to make Kaisui be sent flying high into the air! She watched her spell start to burst into several splashes of water, the water itself covering the field to instantaneously freeze on the ice, and that must've been the purpose of Kaisui's spell. Kaisui groaned in frustration how Kusabue disrupted the twins' newest combination attack, prompting Kōsui to try finishing it.
"Let's see if you weaklings can handle this attack! Aqua Cyan Blitz!" Kōsui stated with a vicious look on her face, as a dark blue aura started to completely engulf her body.
Kusabue shouted in a serious tone, as she ran straight towards Kōsui, "Instead of that, let's see how you like my music! Record-Scratching Sound Burst!"
Upon seeing Kusabue nearly stumble while a large shamrock green disc started to appear on her tongue, "Kagura asked Kūkiatsu in a curious tone while they both jumped upward, "What's wrong with your friend?"
Kūkiatsu explained with a somewhat embarrassed look on his face, recalling that Kusabue landed in some flowers, "The scent of those plants must've made my little sister be drunk again."
Kusabue wasted no time with moving her hands back and forth on the record disc, scratching it loudly in a rhythm to make some music while sound waves of classical music began to emerge from the spell, and Kusabue made her spell be just as menacing as what Kōsui chose to do. Kōsui's spell caused all of the splashing water from Kaisui's spel to become heated bubbles of water when the water touched Kōsui's body, and Kōsui slammed the bubbles upward with her palms to make them go up high. The bubbles went up quite high, before they started descending towards Kusabue.
However, the bubbles exploded in midair to create cyan blue explosions after they came within range of the sound waves. Kusabue's waves of sound became increasingly louder from making contact with the water bubbles, which increased the sound's range, and several shamrock green blasts occurred! They not only dealt some damage to Kōsui's body, but the blasts amplified all of the other sound waves that were being created from Kusabue's spell. She drunkenly watched the sound waves smash through the ice, even smashing through Kaisui's frozen water, and Kusabue was propelled quite high into the air.
Kusabue looked down from the sky to see shamrock green clouds of smoke obscuring the cyan blue clouds of smoke, which started to fade away, and Kusabue got to see the sight of Kōsui laying on the ice. She soon heard the ice loudly crack around Kōsui, who was definitely affected by those pressurized blasts of sound that came from Kusabue's fierce attack, and Kōsui ended up falling through some cracks in the ice to be submerged under a high amount of water. The water roared violently from all the wind that was created from the blasts, but Kūkiatsu quickly inhaled all of that wind. Inhaling the winds that were infused with Ice Magic was Kūkiatsu's only chance to help Kusabue win, regardless of if he was making the fight be more dangerous, and he starting to face Kagura while a quick analysis of her Gravity Magic gave him an idea.
"Miss, can you make your Gravity Magic immensely increase the impact of your own attacks on the battlefield?" Kūkiatsu asked Kagura with a serious facial expression, having an idea in mind.
Kagura replied in a calm manner, as they were slowly descending to the battlefield, "I can certainly do that, especially for combinations with this sword. Its name is Archenemy."
Kaisui loudly responded to the duo, caring less about Kagura's sword while looking enraged at her sister being defeated, "You're all my archenemies, and you're going to die here!"
As Kaisui went down to the ground and placed her hands on the water to send magical power into it for her final attack, Kagura hastily ran towards her. She kept her sword sheathed while running at high speeds, gracefully jumping from ice flow to ice floe without even slightly losing her balance on the slippery surfaces, and Kagura decided to attack Kaisui with her sword's Slashing Form. She lunged at Kaisui with tremendously-high speed, subtly applying a bit of Gravity Magic to her feet for her body to move much faster than normal, and Kagura managed to hit Kaisui.
Despite being viciously slashed to where her clothes started to be torn, Kaisui merely got her hands out of the water to quickly slam them together. She ignored the winds that were created by Kagura's slashing attack, as her own attack made the winds howl in a malicious manner, and Kaisui made an extremely large tsunami rise up from the water. The tsunami started to split itself in half, becoming two slightly smaller tsunamis that moved through the water to be bordering Kagura, and Kaisui kept her hands together as a way to keep increasing the density of her attack.
Kaisui wasn't the only person applying density to her attack, however. Kūkiatsu continued to inhale winds, simply breathing through the pain of Ice Magic that was within the winds, and he was charging up power for his last attacks. Kūkiatsu quickly decided to use a spell called Zephyr Zero Wind, and he ended up firing an immensely large twister of mint green winds from his right hand. The twister of winds zeroed in on Kaisui, who looked quite shocked to see Kūkiatsu unleash a high-speed attack, and she tried to deflect it with her tsunamis moving to act as shields that would defend her.
Kaisui made her tsunamis come down upon Kūkiatsu's attack, only to see Kusabue move through the air while unleashing explosive sound waves from loudly clapping her hands in midair. She clapped her hands multiple times while aiming them down at the sound waves, causing several of the sound waves to bounce off of the water that made them become amplified in strength, and Kusabue watched the waves of sound repeatedly bounce off of the water. Kagura decided to assist Kusabue by using her Gravity Magic to push the sound waves down against the water, which also became crushed, but Kagura also made them be propelled back up into the sky before they'd come down again.
When Kusabue's waves of sound came down towards the ground, several of them touched Kūkiatsu's attack to strengthen it. They made it grow much larger while the attack's winds howled in a much fiercer manner, and Kusabue's other sound waves landed in the water to simply make shamrock green blasts occur. The blasts were intensely amplified by the high amount of water, even being strong enough to break through some of the densest ice floes, and Kusabue cheered happily at how her attack made Kaisui lose her balance on the ice.
That moment of disrupting Kaisui's balance also caused her tsunamis to start falling apart, prompting her to try controlling the water again by moving her hands in a slow manner. However, Kaisui couldn't move out of the way to evade Kūkiatsu's attack. It struck her directly, creating a large shamrock green blast that was engulfed in a massive mint green blast, the sight and noise of the attack being loud enough to make everyone else in Seigan Town cover their eyes as they wondered who was fighting. Even the other members of Team Sabertooth turned away from Suzuna while assuming that their friends encountered some trouble, prompting Yukino to go look for them.
As Yukino started to run in the direction of that large blast, Emiria and Hiyasu were also distracted from almost battling two opponents as part of the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour. The two sisters jumped up high to be on two buildings while ignoring the blast's heavy amount of winds, and Hiyasu watched Emiria put one hand above her eyes like she was scouting from a distance. Emiria took notice of the situation where mint green clouds of smoke were covering the battlefield, but she could see Kaisui's body slowly falling down from the sky. Since one of the nobles had been hurt, Emiria looked at Hiyasu in a stern manner.
"Let's go see if Kotomi Takeuchi is doing well in this fight, Hiyasu." Emiria told her in a calm tone, interested in seeing who she believed to be Kotomi.
Hiyasu responded in a doubtful manner, as the magic seemed different than before, "I wonder if that's really Kotomi, Emiria. Perhaps she really is wild enough to fight another one of Seigan's nobles."
"If she is fighting without my authority, then she's breaking the rules of this festival." Emiria explained with a stern frown on her face, not wanting people to think that they could just battle whoever they wanted to fight in this event.
Since Emiria didn't want the festival to be ruined, she made a light blue aura of Ice God Slayer Magic engulf her body. She wasted no time with jumping off of the building to land on the ground, the impact giving more power to her feet for a large burst of speed, and Emiria ran towards the fight. Hiyasu wasted no time with running after her in a normal manner, not needing to use magic when she could still sense its general direction, and the younger of the two sisters wondered if Emiria was going to have a rematch with Kotomi again.
The thought of Emiria fighting Kotomi in a rematch was something that Hiyasu had been looking forward to witnessing, since Kotomi had seemed so determined to win that fight, and Hiyasu wondered if Kotomi getting a victory would allow her to possibly become an ally for breaking one of the remaining locks on the seal that was in the secret cavern. If mages could help Emiria destroy the locks, then she would have a strong amount of power at her disposal. Emiria would become strong, and Hiyasu also started to hope that she could personally receive a taste of the statue's power.
The statue's power seemed to be impressive, as Hiyasu had sensed some energy emanating from it, and she wondered about what it would be like to personally see its full power. She would first have to see if Kotomi was making all of her spells be at a high level of power, and Hiyasu continued to run towards the battlefield. When she got close to Emiria, Hiyasu looked just as stunned as her sister. Emiria couldn't believe that Kaisui had been defeated by Kūkiatsu. He was currently applying Wind Magic to his feet for the purpose of quickly kicking Kaisui quite high into the air, and the green-haired mage watched the snobby woman quickly fall down to the icy ground. She ended up hitting the part of the ground that was in front of Emiria's feet, hitting the icy ground quite hard, and Kaisui lost consciousness while Emiria looked up at Kūkiatsu.
"Wait, you weren't invited to the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour! Uninvited guests are viewed as tourists, but tourists can't attack nobles! I hope you're aware that there are consequences for attacking a noble." Emiria sternly told Kūkiatsu with a scolding facial expression, assuming him to be the aggressor.
Kagura spoke for Kūkiatsu in a calm manner, narrowing her eyes at Emiria, "That woman attacked my two apprentices as part of their training against strong enemies. Whether you care or not, this fight made them get accustomed to real combat outside of a festival."
Hiyasu asked Kagura while looking quite appalled, viewing Kagura to not be fighting in the spirit of the event, "What do you mean by that?! Aren't you being rude to the other wizards who are in the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour by just using them to power up your teammates?"
"Not really. We're likely viewed as tools for your event, so we should understandably be allowed to behave in the same way if we desire to make ourselves or our friends stronger. Speaking of strength, I'd appreciate it if you could heal my young friend's head." Kagura explained to Hiyasu in a calm manner, as she folded her arms while stoically looking at Kusabue's bleeding head for a moment.
Upon seeing that Kusabue was bleeding, Hiyasu created an azure blue aura of Water Magic in her hands while walking over to the girl who had landed on the ground. She gently placed her hands on Kusabue's head while quietly activating a spell called Azure Aqua Restoration. The spell caused two small azure blue bubbles of Water Magic to emerge from the center of Hiyasu's palms, and the bubbles lightly touched Kusabue's wound. When the bubbles popped against the bleeding wound, the azure blue aura began to surround the injury. Kusabue drunkenly giggled at how she could feel the injury quickly healing, the injury itself healing at a rapid pace to make the young girl no longer have a serious injury.
Despite how Kusabue no longer had to deal with that injury, she was still stumbling around in a drunken manner. She even blushed while looking at Hiyasu with her eyes halfway opened while giggling, causing Hiyasu to smell Kusabue's breath, and Hiyasu recognized the scent to be from plants that were known as Azure Windflowers. The windflowers were infamous for exhaling their scent towards anyone who made direct contact with them, and they messed with a person's senses while strangely enhancing the quality of their magic to make that person be like a drunken master.
Judging by how Kūkiatsu didn't seem fazed by the way Kusabue had fought against their opponents, Kagura and Hiyasu both assumed that this type of situation had happened before. Kūkiatsu sheepishly laughed at how Kusabue started to take the position of holding a glass of alcohol in one hand while swaying back and forth in a drunken manner, and Kagura was quite surprised that the young girl had so much power in her Sound Magic. That type of magic was powerful, causing Kusabue to be viewed as a strong warrior by Kagura, but the purple-haired woman felt like she needed to later tell Yukino about expanding on Kūkiatsu's analytical abilities for them to be enhanced.
45 minutes later...
Yukino arrived at the icy battlefield to see that it had been broken up into several ice floes with a high amount of water flowing in a calm manner, and she had to walk through the icy winds that blew through Seigan Town. The frosty town seemed to get much colder from the battle that had occurred, due to the frigid winds riding the air currents, and Yukino could feel the Ice Magic in the air. She proceeded to look at Emiria, who merely faced her with an expression that showed slight interest, and Yukino shifted her attention to Kūkiatsu.
Kūkiatsu seemed to smile a bit at how Kaisui and Kōsui were both unconscious, the former laying facedown on an ice floe while the other one was having their body float up to the water's surface, and he was glad to have helped Kusabue defeat them. Kusabue's drunkenness slowly started to subside, since she didn't inhale an immense dosage of the Azure Windflowers' scent, and she fully opened her eyes to see the damaged battlefield. She curiously looked around to see what had happened, taking notice of the wrecked ice, and Kusabue started to smile at her older brother.
She happily jumped up to give him a high-five, glad that they defeated the snobbish pair of women, and Kusabue felt like they helped their friends in Sabertooth not have to worry about some dangerous mages causing problems for them during the festival. She soon heard Kagura clear her throat loudly, prompting Kusabue to look at the older woman with the feeling of curiosity starting to be in her eyes, and Kagura proceeded to run towards the siblings at high speeds. She quickly tried to attack Kusabue with a curved kick, only for Kusabue to grab her leg with a slight sign of struggling.
The fact that Kusabue didn't easily block the attack caused Kagura to sigh in a calm manner, and Kusabue released Kagura's leg from her weakening grip. The fact that Kusabue and Kūkiatsu weren't as strong as Kagura wanted them to be was something that made Kagura glance at the siblings for a moment, and she turned to face Yukino. Even though Kagura had defeated Yukino in the Grand Magic Games, she felt like this situation required Yukino to give her some advice. Even though Emiria and Hiyasu were probably just as knowledgeable, Kagura felt like Yukino could give her a satisfactory answer.
"Yukino, don't you think that this teenager and his sister need more training with their magic? If they're such a great team of fighters, why did they need my help at the most crucial points of the fight?" Kagura calmly asked the Celestial Spirit Wizard, as she subtly explained the situation to her.
After thinking about the siblings' prominent past fights and realizing how the snobbish women were more powerful than Harui, Yukino told Kagura with a calm look on her face, "Kagura-sama, I think you're right. Kūkiatsu-san and Kusabue-chan need more training, but they should get accustomed to fighting powerful opponents."
Kūkiatsu responded to Kagura in an offended manner, as he recalled his strategy for beating the twin nobles, "Hey, we're not weaklings! Listen, lady! I appreciate you helping out Kusabue and I, but we're very powerful!"
"Don't measure your strength by such overconfident standards, kid. Judging by your level of battling experience, it seems like you can't do anything without your sister helping you. For a big brother, you're so weak that you couldn't even protect your little sister from harm or even sacrifice your life to save her. What an interesting pair. A loud-mouthed warrior works with an analytical coward." Kagura sternly explained to Kūkiatsu, sounding quite harsh like a strict teacher who had to tell him very important truths.
Upon hearing Kagura's harsh critique of his abilities, Kūkiatsu attempted to build up Wind Magic in his fists. He swung at Kagura, only to see her dodge out of the way with the slightest movements, and Kūkiatsu was soon grabbed by one of Kagura's arms for her to roughly throw him down on to the ice. She made him hit the ice with a level of power that was similar to a punch dealt from Kōsui's fists, and Kūkiatsu felt one of Kagura's hands go down to his chest to nearly break one of his ribs from applying Gravity Magic into her hands.
Kūkiatsu screamed in pain, prompting Kusabue to run towards Kagura at high speeds, but Kagura aggressively kicked her away right before sitting down on Kūkiatsu's back when he tried to get up. He tried to blow air against the ground, only for Kagura to apply Gravity Magic to her body, and Kūkiatsu soon felt like Kagura had a body of dense platinum metal that was sitting on him. Kūkiatsu nearly felt his bones starting to be crushed while he coughed up a bit of blood from all the pressure that Kagura was forcing down on him, and she only had enough mercy to make her rear not be directly on his spine.
Kūkiatsu groaned in pain, even trying to stand up, but Kagura moved one of her legs around for her foot to aggressively stomp his hand down on the ice. More cracks were starting to form on the ice, signifying that it would soon break from the amount of weight that Kagura was pushing down against the ground, and she watched Kūkiatsu start to nearly pass out from the pressure and pain. Kagura released her Gravity Magic for the purpose of getting herself and Kūkiatsu off the ice that cracked like glass, dragging him across the ice, and Hiyasu proceeded to heal him with the Azure Aqua Restoration spell. Despite how Kūkiatsu was being healed, Yukino found Kagura's training method to be quite questionable.
"Kagura-sama, why did you put them through such a rough training exercise?" Yukino nicely asked with a concerned facial expression, as she watched Kagura give Kūkiatsu and Kusabue a look of disapproval.
Kagura told Yukino in a calm tone, as she closed her eyes for a moment, "Yukino, I saw the entire fight before intervening. If they struggle against medium-paced enemies who weren't thinking very fast with Water Magic, imagine how your friends would've died against enemies who think and fight at a much faster pace. By attacking Kūkiatsu so quickly while also using Gravity Magic, I gave him a demonstration of how fights in this event could be just as ruthless as fights against dark mages."
"Speaking of dark mages, fight me as if I'm a dark mage when I'm training you later tonight outside Seigan. I'm Kagura Mikazuchi, the strongest mage of the Mermaid Heel guild. Starting tonight, I'll train you much harder than whatever weak exercises Kotomi Takeuchi puts you through." Kagura told Kūkiatsu and Kusabue in a stern tone, knowing that they could hear her as she started to casually walk away from the battlefield.
Kūkiatsu managed to weakly reply, feeling exhausted, "Yes... ma'am."
As Kagura walked away from the damaged battlefield, she started to have a calmer look on her face. Despite how her methods of scolding the siblings had been harsh, Kagura felt that it was for their own benefit. If the other members of Sabertooth only encouraged the siblings to focus on their strongest aspects of magic, then they'd just be babying spoiled brats. In order to prevent mages from getting cocky and spoiled in battles where they would have to fight for their lives, they had to be trained in harsh conditions by people who wouldn't show them much mercy.
Kagura felt like she'd certainly have to be merciless towards Kūkiatsu, as she sensed that his own level of power really paled in comparison to Emiria's level of power, and Kagura probably prevented him from getting killed by the icy hostess. She didn't seem to view Kūkiatsu in a very pleasing manner from how he attacked a noble, even though Kusabue was lured into a fight, and Kagura saved his life by acting as if she was helping him adapt to the town's culture. Seigan was certainly a dangerous town, especially with other people having slaves who had icy collars around their necks, and Kagura didn't need to see Sabertooth mages possibly end up in that situation.
Kūkiatsu's life was now in Kagura's hands, just like how Kusabue's life was also in Kagura's hands, and the sword-wielding woman would also report this matter to Kotomi or Risa. She could sense that they were in a different part of the town, possibly training, and Kagura hoped to find any other members of Sabertooth who came here uninvited. If they were mistaken for being part of the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour, then Kagura would gladly challenge Emiria or Hiyasu to a fight. Winning against them would probably put Mermaid Heel above Sabertooth in terms of prominence, and Kagura could only sense Kotomi's power at a very faint level while walking on to one of the snow-covered streets.
30 minutes later, back in the icy tundra...
Lucy's level of magical power was quite faint, since she was watching Suzuna fire dark blue beams of magic from her mouth. They were all aimed at Rogue, who easily dodged them to watch dark blue blasts occur, and destroying the ice in the tundra caused icy winds to heavily surround the group. Rogue and the others felt the air be more frigid like a vicious blizzard, but Rogue couldn't afford to break his concentration right now. He wasted no time with dodging Suzuna's spell that was known as Torrential Water Beam, and Rogue decided to counter with the Shadow Dragon's Roar spell.
Rogue unleashed a large black vortex of Shadow Dragon Slayer Magic from his mouth, only to see Suzuna block it by putting her hands on the ice to quickly melt it down into water with the dark blue aura that engulfed her hands. She aimed her hands at the water in a hasty manner, before raising them upward to create a large wall of water, and the water that rose up from the ground had been dense enough to block Rogue's attack. It ended up creating a high amount of black smoke on the battlefield, prompting Rogue to jump up high into the air, and Rogue decided to use another spell.
Rogue proceeded to use the spell known as Shadow Dragon's Raven Arrows, and ten black bullets with spearheads emerged from his shadow that had been on the ground. The shadowy projectiles sprang up from the ground to be in Rogue's hands, before he threw them all down at Suzuna, and Rogue watched black explosions of Shadow Dragon Slayer Magic occur on the ground. The explosions were strong enough to make cracks appear in the dense ice while also creating some craters, and Rogue chose to make a follow-up attack to that spell.
He activated a new spell called Shadow Dragon's Ominous Wind, and Rogue aimed his right hand down at Suzuna while his left arm tightly grabbed his right wrist. He fired a black sphere of shadowy energy from his right hand, letting the sphere hit the ground to have four jagged blades emerge from it while they rotated positions in the clockwise direction at high speeds in a vicious manner, and Rogue watched the sphere itself grow larger to spin outward in the form of a black cyclone! Unlike a wind cyclone, this particular cyclone absorbed the shadows of the ice that got sucked into it while the shadows significantly boosted its power. The powerful cyclone headed straight towards Suzuna, who noticed that Rogue was controlling the attack by moving his right hand in a certain direction, and Suzuna was somewhat impressed.
"Using an unorthodox attack to possibly strike me with a powerful blast after enhancing your spell is smart. However, you're not smart enough to beat me." Suzuna replied in a calm tone while smiling softly, before making a huge bubble emerge from her right hand.
Rogue asked aloud while his eyes widened in a stunned manner, not expecting Suzuna to counter his spell again, "What is she going to do now?!"
"Blue Bubble Entrapment!" Suzuna shouted fiercely, as she hit the bubble with her right fist to make the bubble touch the cyclone.
When Suzuna's bubble touched Rogue's cyclone, the bubble quickly absorbed Rogue's spell to make itself grow much larger. The dark blue bubble became quite large, before bursting to create several bubbles that were all aimed up at Rogue, and he wasted no time with activating Shadow Drive. The Shadow Drive spell caused a black aura to heavily engulf Rogue's body, and he quickly became a black silhouette to move like a shadow. Rogue's shadowy body vanished from the sky, before he reappeared on the ground to move at high speeds.
He quickly appeared in front of Suzuna to strike her with the Shadow Dragon's Ominous Wind spell at close-range, and striking her with the black sphere caused another black cyclone to appear. Rogue wasted no time with sending his magic into the ground to retrieve the shadows of the bubbles right before they exploded, and he threw their shadows at the cyclone to majorly increase its level of power. That high level of power only made the cyclone spin more quickly and violently, before it exploded to create a massive black blast of Shadow Dragon Slayer Magic, and Rogue felt like he had won.
However, he soon gasped in shock from seeing Suzuna transform herself into a puddle of water that slithered up from the thinnest layers of ice that now made water be exposed. The water made Suzuna slowly emerge from the dark blue puddle, the entire silhouette of her body also being dark blue, and Suzuna smirked in a very patronizing manner. She seemed patronizing because of how obvious it had been to Rogue that she merely waited for the powerful spell's explosion to destroy the ice, which allowed her to deliberately fall into the water, and Suzuna used a simple spell called Aqua Intangibility.
"As long as I'm using Aqua Intangibility, your attacks can't hit me." Suzuna explained to Rogue in a calm manner, letting some blobs of shadowy energy pass through her body that was seemingly made from water.
Rogue thought to himself with a frustrated look on his face, wondering how he could get stronger, "What am I going to do? How can I beat someone who my spells can't touch?"
Upon remembering a certain incident that occurred with Risa in the forest near Parmanie Town's ruins, Rogue thought to himself with a look of realization appearing on his face, "That's it!"
Rogue proceeded to aim his Shadow Dragon's Roar up at the sky, before firing the spell at full power five more times, and Rogue began to pant heavily. He just expended a high amount of magical power for some of his last attacks to occur, and he was nearly out of energy. Rogue lowered his head to look at Suzuna, who wondered about what Rogue was going to do next, and she fired the Torrential Water Beam spell from her mouth. She watched Rogue continue to pant heavily, nearly out of energy to where he was barely standing, but Suzuna started to look stunned.
She was stunned at the fact that Rogue's lips formed a faint smile, and he proceeded to lower his head while opening his mouth at the same time. Rogue ended up inhaling Suzuna's spell, taking in all of the Water Magic, but it didn't taste like ordinary Water Magic. Despite the interesting taste of the dark blue Water Magic, Rogue hastily swallowed all of it. By consuming the spell, Rogue felt his own level of power go up past its normal limits while he seemed to also have a new ability. Rogue watched his vortexes of shadows from earlier come down on the tundra to make black explosions that were quite large, but even their sounds of breaking the ice weren't really music to his ears.
He proceeded to use the Shadow Dragon's Roar attack again, only for the vortex of shadows to change from being black to being in a lapis shade of blue, and Rogue watched his attack head straight towards Suzuna. As it went to try striking her directly, the spell began to make lapis blue shadows of the water emerge out of the water while shadows of ice chunks were being gathered into Rogue's spell. The attack managed to strike Suzuna, despite her Aqua Intangibility, and she strangely couldn't eat her own magic. Being struck by a spell infused with her own magic meant that she couldn't absorb it, and Suzuna screamed in pain while a lapis blue blast occurred. The blast was powerful enough to destroy a high amount of ice in the tundra, even exposing some spots of light coming from crevices underwater, but they were obscured by lapis blue clouds of smoke.
Suzuna calmly spoke to the group through the smoke, seemingly durable enough to handle Rogue's powerful spell without being badly injured, "That's enough training for now, everyone. It seems like you'll all become strong mages who can make the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour be more interesting than it already is."
Rogue asked Suzuna in a curious tone, the feeling of suspicion forming on his face, "What do you specifically mean by that?"
"When the time comes, you'll find out. Until then, perceive water and ice to be an enjoyable combination." Suzuna replied through the smokescreen in a calm tone, before the fading smoke only showed her quickly being pulled down into the water to where only the sight of a splash was left behind.
All of the smoke soon cleared up to reveal that Suzuna was gone, leaving behind no noticeable traces of where she specifically went, and Rogue looked down at the water. He had acquired some new power, a different type of power that seemed much different than what his evil future counterpart had utilized, and Rogue looked back at Risa. She lightly slid across the ice to happily smile at him for gaining new power during this training session, as well as seeing other lessons that Suzuna displayed to the group in today's training session, and Risa gently kissed Rogue's lips. His lips felt like cold water while hers had the feeling of hot flames, almost like two opposites mixing together to create a beautiful representation of their romantic chemistry.
Romantic chemistry made Sting start to think about how he and Lucy could use their free time in the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour to bond more, and detecting the smell of sweet desserts on the wind made Sting think about how this festival involved people selling sweet foods during this event. He recalled seeing a place that sold sweets, only seeing it for a few seconds while the group had been running, but he felt like Lucy would enjoy spending time there. Of course, Sting also looked at Lucy in a confident manner while thinking that she could handle any problems that would occur if the festival required her to participate in anymore dangerous events.
How was Chapter 49? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Kūkiatsu and Kusabue have defeated Kaisui and Kōsui, but the siblings must now train under Kagura for a few days. Kagura may be able to help the two siblings be able to make their spells nearly be as tempered as her sword's blade, but she will have to help them figure out new strategies. Speaking of strategies, Suzuna is now finished with training the other members of Sabertooth in how they can use their different types of magic more effectively. As for how a dragon slayer such as Rogue was able to eat Suzuna's magic, Rogue will eventually realize that in the second half of this arc. Speaking of this arc's second half, that's where the story is finally heading! More exciting moments, story plots, and battles shall come! In fact, you may have noticed that this chapter and the previous one were for training while Lucy didn't battle much. Well, she'll be battling someone again soon. Also, this is the sixth part of the Azure Ice Arc! I'll update soon. :)
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YellowThunder5: Here you go!
GreenGrass4: Thank you so much!
BlueWater234: Thank you!
PurpleReis155: Thanks!
Matt: Thank you!
jennie: Thanks!
Kiri-chan: Here it is!
Sena: Thank you very much!