Chapter 10
Disclaimer: I do not own High school DxD or Fairy Tail they are property of Ichiei Ishibumi and Hiro Masima respectively.
Everyone took the opportunity to sleep in for once during their break except for Akeno. She was up early wondering if Natsu has returned during the night. As she was wandering around the castle she soon found herself at the entrance just as the doors opened up. The now open doors revealed a tired Natsu.
"Hey were you out the entire night?" Akeno asked her boyfriend worried.
"Yeah sorry if I worried you I just had a lot to deal with" Natsu replied while he embraced her in a warm hug her.
"It's all right Eossinth told us about your history with Ophis I hope that was ok" Akeno said.
"It was never a secret so you don't have to worry" Natsu replied with a smile as he let go of her.
The two walked to the dining area wanting something to eat. When they arrived they saw that the food wasn't prepared yet so Natsu offered to make Akeno some breakfast.
"It should be me offering to make you something since you were out all night" Akeno said making her way to the kitchen solidifying the fact that she will make Natsu something to eat.
A few minutes later Akeno returned with some eggs, toast and bacon. The two ate while chatting enjoying the alone time they had. After their breakfast they went on a stroll around the lake just talking about random subjects.
They returned a few minutes before everyone else woke up. Seeing as it was already ten o'clock the group had a brunch. They were all prepared for a relaxing day before school starts again. After brunch they remembered what they wanted to ask Natsu the previous day.
"Natsu would you mind telling us what's inside the box we found after solving that riddle?" Wendy asked.
"Oh yeah that I would have opened it and gave you guys what was inside if the events of last night hadn't happened" Natsu said apologetically.
Rias retrieved the box from where she placed it and handed it to Natsu. Just before Natsu opened the box he had an idea.
"I have one final test for you guys before I open the box and give you what is inside" Natsu said with a smirk. The ORC group felt a cold sweat forming on the back of their necks when they saw the smirk.
"What do you have planned? Please no more torture" Issei exclaimed with a worried expression.
"Don't worry I'm just going to evaluate exactly how far the training had brought you" Natsu said with the same smirk.
"You're starting to scare me" Wendy said embracing Asia in fear.
"I promise this won't hurt." Natsu said, "too much" he added in a very soft voice.
"Hey what was that last part?" Issei almost cried out in fear.
"You will all team up and try to land a hit on me" Natsu said with the biggest grin they have ever seen on his face.
Fear? Dread? Terror? Despair? Take your pick. That was what the ORC members felt. How will they ever be able to fight Natsu of all people? He who could fight a Satan on his own without really trying? Uhm yea h no…
"Are you insane how are we supposed to fight you? You will destroy us before we could do anything" Issei was crying anime tears.
"This doesn't seem like something that we can do" Rias said in calmer tone than what Issei had but fear was still evident.
"Don't worry guys I won't even use magic and all you have to do is land an attack on me" Natsu told them trying to set their fears to rest.
"I guess that could help a bit but still that is a bit absurd" Rias said with less fear in her voice.
"Ok how about this I will not attack you for ten minutes and only dodge if you can even graze me in that time you won, if not well…" Natsu proposed.
"You're not going to let this test thing go are you?" Rias asked with a deadpan expression.
"Nope" Natsu happily replied with his grin still on his face.
"I think if we all band together we might get a hit on him" Akeno said
"Yea it could be fun to see how far we came" Koneko added.
"Mind if we get to choose the location and prepare before you arrive" Kiba asked wanting all the possible advantages in the coming test.
"Sure I will give you thirty minutes to set up before I come searching for you" Natsu said taking a seat on a nearby couch.
With that the ORC group dashed out. Moving to a good place they could set up an ambush and lay traps they started strategizing. Where everyone will be what spells they will use and in what order. This will be their playing field and they will control the flow of the battle.
After thirty minutes Natsu stood up and started making his way out of the castle. Using his enhances senses he tracked the group by smell, wondering what they had in store for him. He took a leisurely stroll through the woods admiring what Mother Nature provided.
Five minutes into his stroll he sensed a bit of magic scattered out in front of him. 'So this is the site for their ambush. Good cover, lots of hiding places, narrow path for me to follow. They had a good idea too bad they couldn't cover the traces of magic they used in their traps' Natsu thought.
An idea came to mind as he stood still for a minute mentally mapping out the ambush site just out of their view.
"What's taking him so long?" Rias whispered. She was hiding in a brush with Akeno and Wendy while Kiba and Issei was on the other side of the path. Asia and Koneko were tasked with surrounding the Dragon King once he entered their 'Kill Zone'. The plan was to herd him into one of the traps Kiba set up that was covered with undergrowth. They had multiple traps set up to ensure he would be caught by at least one.
Some traps were hidden swords that would fly at him when he stepped on the trigger while others were a sticky mixture of mud and water to slow him down enough for one of them to land a hit on him. They knew he would easily dodge a sneak attack if he had full manoeuvrability that is why they placed as many movement inhibiting traps as they could without making it obvious. They also did their best to narrow the path leaving Natsu less space to dodge.
"I don't know he should be here already" Akeno whispered back.
"Yeah I think this ambush might have failed" another voice whispered.
"I think he might have known we would do something like this" Wendy agreed with the voice.
It took the three girls a full minute to realise that the voice that said that the ambush failed belonged to a male. That was when they turned around to look at the source of the voice. There crouched behind them was none other than the man they tried to ambush.
They let out a scream and either fire a random attack in his direction or in Wendy's case retreat.
The sudden ruckus made the rest of the ambush party speed towards the location of the frightened screams. Once they arrived all they saw was thee undergrowth burnt away where Rias an Akeno threw their spells and Wendy fleeing strait towards a sword trap. They were too slow to warn her and in her state of fear she did not see where she was going. The group waited for her scream in pain only to hear a yelp of surprise.
"You should be more aware of where you set your traps so you don't set them off" Natsu said to Wendy as he pulled her out of the way of the swords. He placed her down safely before dodging a lightning bolt that was heading towards his head.
"Attacking me when I'm distracted good job Akeno make sure to take any opportunity in battle with an opponent who is stronger than you are no matter how underhanded it might seem" Natsu praised her. Akeno blushed at the compliment. Natsu continued to dodge attacks while giving out advice when an attack backfired and complements for a good attempt at hitting him.
"You have three more minutes" Natsu warned them continuing his dodging.
Akeno and Asia combined their power and coated the ground under Natsu in a lightning blanket when he jumped to doge a wind slice from Wendy. Natsu then sprouted his wings and just hovered in the air.
"Hey you said you won't use magic" Issei complained.
"I'm not using magic I'm merely using what I have at my disposal naturally" Natsu said pointing to his wings.
The group now had an even harder time trying to hit him since he was now flying all around the place making their traps completely useless.
"Ten seconds" Natsu warned them. Ten second went by and no one could land an attack on him.
"Times up" Natsu said in a dark tone which was met with a few scream in terror.
Natsu made quick work of Issei by knocking him out with a fist to the head. After dealing with Issei Natsu used some of the vines to tie up Asia and Wendy in a tight bundle. Next up was Kiba who was met with a kick that had him falling face first on the ground. Koneko tried in vain to hit Natsu while he was busy with Kiba only for Natsu to throw Kiba into Koneko making them collide with a tree. Rias and Akeno were the only ones left at this stage.
"So who will it be the king or queen?" Natsu asked himself before vanishing into the shadows.
"Rias has more power so it might be advantageous to take her out first. Yeah I like that plan. But then again if I take out Akeno first her speed won't be a problem. Choices, choices" the two heard Natsu's voice coming from all around them.
Deciding their only option is to move to a more open space the two retreated to a clearing near the lake. This clearing was atop a steep cliff that led to the water below. When they arrived they opted to stand back to back thinking that this way Natsu won't be able to sneak up on them from behind.
Natsu walked out of the dark forest in his demon form. The girls nearly fainted due to dear. Natsu dashed towards them with unbelievable speed. Before Rias could react she was hit in the stomach and passed out. Now only Akeno was left. She started backing up towards the cliff.
"H-Hey N-Natsu can we talk about this" Akeno tried to save herself.
"You think just because you are my mate you will get some sort of special treatment?" Natsu asked while slowly advancing on her.
Akeno was frozen in fear and at the edge of the cliff. She closed her eyes waiting for the hit that would render her unconscious. It never came. Soon she felt warm lips on hers and opened her eyes to see Natsu kissing her. She quickly returned the kiss.
"I guess you do get special treatment" Natsu said with a smile after he broke the kiss.
"Let's collect the rest and go to the castle I think I've seen enough to know how much you improved" Natsu said as he picked up Rias and started walking into the forest.
Natsu and Akeno enjoyed their time alone before the rest of the group started joining. Natsu made it clear that he would only reveal the results of the test after everyone was there because he didn't want to repeat himself. Once the last member joined them they all turned expectantly to Natsu.
"Ok now that everyone is here I'll tell you the results. Even though you were unable to land a hit on me I am very impressed with the ambush you laid and if you were able to hide the magic from the traps I would have had a harder time dodging all your attacks, the location was also chosen well with it being cramped further limiting my movements. This showed me that you can come up with a good plan of action. I already commented on each of you attacks during the test. All in all I am very happy with the progress you made and decided that you can get the reward" Natsu said as he went and opened the box.
Inside the box was a collection of trinkets, two armbands and five necklaces. The armbands were black in colour and had a dragon engraved into it that curled around the armband. The necklaces were in a larger variety of colours. There was a light blue one, a white one, a crimson red one, a yellow one and a dark purple one. The necklace had a dragon pendant on it.
Natsu handed the boys got the armbands while the girls got the necklaces, Wendy the blue one, Rias crimson, Koneko white, Asia yellow and Akeno got the dark purple one. As Akeno admired her new necklace she saw hers had small Amethysts where the dragon's eyes were on the pendant. She also realised that hers was the only one with gemstones for eyes.
As she looked at Natsu she saw him look at her with a smile. It was then that she knew he had given her necklace something extra to show his love for her.
"These Necklaces and armbands will first off allow you to create a portal to the Dragon Realm, second they will increase your total magic power and third they will tell me if any of you are in danger. I don't want to see my friends get hurt" Natsu told them with a smile.
Everyone took their trinkets and put them on. After that everyone thanked him before leaving to get ready for school the following day. Akeno was the last to leave and gave him a quick kiss and thanking him for the special addition he added to hers to show her she was special to him.
And that is the end of Chapter 10. Wahoo double didges hehe. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Next up is everyone is back at school and the Excalibur arc starts. See ya next time!
