Time restraints left no time for xenosaiyan to beta this one. Any mistakes are mine.
Jaune had hoped that the terrifying fire demon would be hurt when he'd thrown him through a wall. Maybe a broken arm, or a sprained leg. Hell, he would have settled for a splinter, maybe one in his eye.
But noooo. That would be too easy.
The blond huntsman trembled in the middle of Haven's left courtyard, his sword and shield drawn as his enemy stalked out of the plume of dust and made his way across the cobblestones, casually brushing the dirt from his shoulders as the very air shimmered in his presence.
"Not bad, Jaune. Not bad at all," End smiled.
Jaune reached out and summoned another ankh shield beneath the demon's foot the moment he lifted his leg to take a step. Unfortunately, his enemy was not distracted this time and knew what to expect. His heel blossomed with sapphire flames and disintegrated the golden construct with a touch.
"Not bad. But not that good," End teased. "Now step out of the way. This is a business matter, and I can only hold back so much. If you fight me, I cannot guarantee I won't accidentally kill you."
Jaune gulped and forced his legs to quit trembling, locking his eyes on the demon. "I thought Salem only said Team RWBY had to be brought back alive. What, has the Queen of the Grimm heard of my legendary charm? I'm flattered, but I have to decline. I'm taken."
End chuckled. "No. No, the Queen has no knowledge of you. I'm afraid the interest in you is solely my own."
"Really? Once again, I'm flattered, but still taken."
"Ha!" the fire demon chortled, a vibrant smile spreading across his face. "Not that kind of interest, my friend. You impress me, Mr. Arc. You are limited. Your origin is large enough to use magic, but hardly anything to write home about. You've trained hard, but others have trained harder for longer. But you know this. You know your weakness, and that makes you strong. You are clever, tactical with what little you have, and dedicated wholeheartedly to your friends. You would make a splendid Gate."
Jaune cocked an eyebrow. "You want me to become a Gate? After one late-night talk?"
"That, and your contribution at Oniyuri. I have an observant eye for quality. Especially that so contrasting to a certain fool I was once stuck with," End elaborated. He raised his arm and formed his hand into a finger gun, a spinning marble of blue fire forming over his nail. "Though, I would appreciate if you shared his knack for survival."
Jaune steadied his stance, raising Crocea Mors's shield in front of his face, as if it'd do any good against the flames. But at the same time, he reached out with his magic and tried to weave the complex strands of spell work that Ozpin had shown him. Slowly, emerald hexagons formed in front of him, coming together bit by bit in the air to transform into a single brilliant shield—
And that it collapsed to nothing and fizzled out.
End cocked an eyebrow. "The Shield of Memory? It seems Ozpin shares my faith in you. Though I wonder if he bothered to mention that my blaze devours it the same as any other magic. Bang."
The sapphire bullet rocketed off his finger and screamed straight for the blond huntsman.
Jaune wasn't ashamed to say he flinched. He was afraid. He'd heard just as many stories about Natsu Dragneel as Erza Scarlet, but instead of his girlfriend's mother, the legendary hero of Fairy Tail was barring down on him as Salem's most powerful soldier. Or his body was? Either way, the young wizard knew the caliber of foes his opponent had triumphed over before. He wasn't even a bug in the face of the Devil Dragon. Fear was the logical response.
But he was far more afraid of what was going on behind him. Ruby leading the others in their stand against the Gates. Yang, with no hands of flesh and blood, fighting for her life against Mercury. Ren and Nora, with even smaller origins than him, valiantly throwing themselves into the fray.
Pyrrha, lost in her pain, lost in her fear, barreling after Cinder like a woman possessed. She ran off without them again. She'd broken off the plan and charged into a battle she knew she couldn't handle alone again. Did she not realize how much unnecessary danger she was putting herself in? She could die! She could die and he couldn't help her!
No. He could do his part. His partner may have broken off her part of the plan, but he could still handle his. Pyrrha may have been in a fight she couldn't win against Cinder, but every second he kept End off the others was another second they could use to finish their own fights and back his girlfriend up.
His friends were priceless to him. He would protect them.
Besides, even if he didn't have the Shield of Memory down, that hadn't been Plan A anyway.
His magic flared through him and a four-layered golden ankh flashed into being in front of him. The flame bullet crashed the shield and the front of the energy barrier vaporized in a thunderous explosion.
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Darkness. A sea of darkness crushing her, drowning her.
Yang thrashed through the depths of Mercury's black water, but it was no use. While she'd learned how to swim years ago, those lessons had been when she'd still had flesh and blood arms. Now, her original limbs were gone and her incendiary replacements had been dowsed by the enemy. Unless the stump of putrid black flesh that constituted her Full Demon Form's right elbow suddenly sprouted a hand, she could do nothing but flail uselessly as she sank to the bottom of Haven's arena.
Above her, moving even more gracefully than he had on land, Mercury bore down on her, now some demonic shark creature with four arms and prosthetic legs. He'd changed a lot when he revealed his Eclipse Etherious Form, but his cocky smirk was still easily recognizable, even if his teeth had been sharpened into daggers.
"Poor, proud, Yang Xiao-Long," he chuckled, somehow able to speak underwater with perfect clarity. "Not so fiery now, eh?"
Yang had to bite down on the instinct to fire back with her own insult. This Dark Deluge of his had caught her off guard. She hadn't exactly taken a deep breath before she'd been pulled under and her scant air supply was already plummeting, her lungs burning as her oxygen fizzled out.
There had to be something she could do! She couldn't let this cowardly bastard win! If he did, he'd knock her out, go after her friends, take them all to Salem! She couldn't give Ruby and the others another Gate to deal with because she was too weak! They pulled their weight, so she had to pull hers! She had to find a way, just like Lucy! Just like Natsu!
Water smothered fire but a hot enough flame could also evaporate it into steam. She just needed a spark and pure oxygen to fan it. And the only air was… in her mouth! It was an all or nothing gamble. She'd only get one shot. But if she could weaponize her held breath, maybe, just maybe, she could conjure a blaze big enough and hot enough to evaporate the deluge—gah!
Mercury dove down and slammed his metal foot into Yang's stomach. The blonde huntress gasped, spittle flying from her mouth as water surged in and banished her breath. The bastard had ruined her plan without even trying!
The silver-haired shark unleashed a salvo of ruthless, punishing kicks, smashing Yang into the floor of the arena as her mouth flooded with water, her aura crackling under the bombardment.
"What's wrong, blondie?! Come on! Pound me into paste like you said you would! Show me 'the power of friendship'!" Mercury ranted, each word accompanied by another brutal blow. "Guess there isn't much to it after all! You cut off your hand to pick this fight and look where it's gotten you! Armless, helpless, powerless, and gasping for air! You're nothing!"
No… no… she wasn't nothing… she wasn't… Raven had abandoned her twice, but she wasn't nothing… she wasn't…
She had her friends. She had her guildmates. She had… her… team…
But she couldn't help them. And they couldn't help her. Ruby was probably fighting for her life against the other Gates, doing everything she could to lead the charge. And the others… Weiss… Blake… they weren't even there—
"Rrraaaaahhhhhrrrr!"
Yang's eyes widened as the thunderous roar crashed through the waves, exhaustedly wondering if Mercury had somehow summoned a Leviathan into his little pool. As if he needed the backup.
But her opponent seemed just as surprised by the cry as she was, whipping his head around to the top of the lake. Yang followed his gaze but had difficulty making out anything in the inky black water, only for a rush of movement to break through the depths and smack Mercury aside, its only herald a pair of devilish yellow eyes.
The blonde huntress wanted to contemplate what the hell was going on, but at that point, the water she'd been forced to take had started to reach her lungs and she was a bit too busy drowning.
The glowing yellow eyes whirled towards the wizard. Yang felt a tight pressure curl itself around her chest and suddenly she was rapidly ascending through the depths, wrapped in the creature's grip.
With a great splash, the two of them erupted out of the dark sea. Yang was thrown over the rail of the stadium and sent sprawling into the stands. Ren rushed over and knelt by her side, helping her onto her knees and supporting her as she hacked out the water from her lungs.
"Easy, Yang, easy," the green-robed huntsman cautioned. "Just get it out."
"Ach… ach…I… I'm alright. I'm alright," she assured him. "What was that?"
Ren grinned and gestured with his head. "See for yourself."
Yang looked up, her violet eyes widening at sight before her.
Flying in midair was a Grimm, a vaguely humanoid Grimm. Features of a Sea Feilong dominated the creature, from a muscular serpentine tail replacing its legs to the massive leathery wings that dominated its back. It ignored the huntsman, rearing back its head and unleashing a vortex of crackling lightning into the stadium reservoir. The black water shuddered with sparks, electricity racing throughout the lake. No matter how powerful Mercury had become with his transformation, he couldn't dodge an attack like that, not as long as he was within the terrain he'd created.
Yet, the asshole who'd just nearly drowned her was the furthest thing from Yang's mind. Her gaze was locked on the Grimm. She knew who it was, who it had to be. There was no other reason one of them would save her. But, after so many months apart, her heart couldn't help but hold fearful doubts, no matter how much her mind pointed out their illogical nature.
Fortunately, the Grimm slowly descended back to the stands and its black muscle disintegrated off its form. Yang's mouth burst out into a wide grin as the shadows of doubt were banished from her soul, replaced with jubilation.
"Blake," she murmured, her joy breaking through her ragged breath.
Her partner shot her a nervous smile, her cat ears adorably twitching atop her head. "Hey. Sorry, I'm late."
Yang waved her left stump. "Eh, don't worry about it. If I hadn't been kidnapped, you would have beaten me here."
"Yeah, Carla mentioned that—" Blake's yellow eyes widened at the sight of her second handless arm. "Yang, my gods—"
"Don't worry about it," Yang cut in.
"But your hand—"
"I chose this. And I don't doubt for a second that any of you guys would do the same if it was my life on the line. Besides…"
Yang smirked and her Purple Flare arms blazed to life. "…It's not that much of a hand-icap."
Blake gaped openmouthed at her, with even the normally stoic Ren facepalming. It was a decidedly familiar situation, the rest of the group not comprehending her genius sense of humor after they'd saved each other from a brush with death.
Honestly, that was part of the reason why she'd said what she had. She'd seen the pity rising in Blake's eyes, the horror that her partner had been crippled even more than she'd been when they went their separate ways on Patch. She'd needed to diffuse that, assure her guildmate that despite everything she'd gone through, she was stronger than ever. She wasn't broken. She wasn't a burden.
A torrent of water suddenly surged out of the stadium, churning and spinning like a drill. Yang, Blake, and Ren leapt back from the pillar, jumping into the seats of the stands just as the attack burrow a hole in the wood.
Mercury burst out of the black depths, the floor cracking under his weight. The silver-haired shark bastard cracked his neck and snarled at them, errant sparks of electricity dancing across his prosthetic legs.
"Pun later. Fight now," Ren advised, Stormflower blossoming in his grip.
Yang smirked, her eyes burning red the moment they locked on to Mercury. Time to teach him not to insult her friends.
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End's eyes narrowed as the cloud of smoke cleared. Something was off. There hadn't been a single cry of pain once his attack had landed. No grunt, no gasp, no scream. His flames were the blaze of hell itself, none could suffer their assault without some expression of discomfort. Yang had the double natural resistances of a fire slayer and a Devil Slayer and even she hadn't been able to stay silent. How had Jaune? Had he accidentally killed the young huntsman outright? No, an attack of that magnitude shouldn't have done his candidate in so easily.
And indeed it hadn't. The smoke cleared away quickly, and Jaune was revealed to be standing in the same place he had before, completely unharmed with his ankh shield fully intact.
His attack had failed? That didn't make any sense. Natsu's Flames of Emotion had burned Zeref's magic to ash, and they had drawn on only a fraction of his curse. He had been designed to kill his creator, immortality or not, to incinerate even the work of gods. Jaune may have been clever, his power would have been average at best on Earthland. How had he pulled this off?
Well, he'd have to figure this out. If one dismissed themselves as above their opponent's tricks, it was likely that opponent would be the one to finish them. Fortunately, if what he was sensing about the rest of the battle was true, he could take a few moments to investigate. Cinder's recklessness may have scattered them to the winds and given their opponents the chance to fight back, but each of his allies blazed like radiant suns surrounded by the flickering matchsticks of their foes.
Except Happy. But he was close enough to the sniper duel that he could see Ruby dancing across the roof to avoid his fire, so he had faith that his partner would be fine.
Now to see what exactly his chosen candidate had come up with.
End pulled back his arm, conjuring a fireball the size of his palm instead of one that could fit on his fingertip. If his first attack had been stopped due to a lack of power, a simple increase in energy would be sufficient to overwhelm his opponent. But given he doubted that such was the issue, altering another aspect would provide him additional insight into Jaune's defenses.
So instead of firing a straight shot as he had before, he hurled the sphere of sapphire flames in a curved arc that seared toward his enemy's flank. To withstand it, Jaune was forced to rotate his ankh shield to the side, another cloud of smoke exploding around the young man upon impact. Yet, he held, unmarred by the flames that should have burnt him to ash.
And thanks to the look he'd gotten at the energy barrier's side, its layered side, End knew exactly why that was. He couldn't help but offer a sincere round of applause.
"Bravo! Bravo, Jaune!" he complimented. "I wasn't aware that you'd developed a variant of Weiss's Vacuum Aias for yourself."
Jaune growled, hastily realigning his shield in front of him and replacing the two layers that had been burnt away. "I'd hoped I have a little bit longer before you figured that out."
End grinned. It really was a good idea. He hadn't noticed it the first time because the smoke of the initial impact had obscured the first golden layer's destruction.
Just as Weiss had developed her seven-layer shield as the ultimate fire defense to aid her and Fullbuster in their brawls with Natsu and Yang, Jaune had used the same principle in his own defense. By conjuring his four ankhs together as one structure and then dissipating sections within the outer shell, he created three vacuum-sealed areas to protect himself when the front energy layer was disintegrated. End's fire could butcher gods and sunder their works, but it was still fire. And fire cannot burn in a vacuum.
Of course, that hardly meant it was an invincible defense. There was a reason Jaune was so dismayed that he'd figured it out after only two attacks. If End knew how the spell worked, he could easily circumvent it. After all, Jaune had to use all four of the ankhs he could conjure to make the shield he had. Assuming that he could split it in half, the maximum he could create was still two one vacuum layer shields. End could hit him from three angles at once, unleash a rate of fire faster than he could replace them, use the smoke as cover to rush him with a physical attack, or simply melt the ground beneath him into lava.
And yet, the fire demon didn't want it to end so easily, so lethally. Jaune hadn't stopped impressing him since their first encounter at Higanbana and he truly wanted to continue watching the boy grow, just like Yang. This was his candidate for the Gates, and he couldn't help the fire that crackled within him when he imagined what the blond huntsman could do once he had the brawn to match his brains.
"Come on, Mr. Arc!" he challenged, bending his fingers back and conjuring fire to spell out 'Bring it'. "Use every trick! Exploit every advantage you can muster! Unleash every scrap of strength, cunning, and will you have! Only then will you have even the barest chance in hell of surviving me on your own!"
"Who said he was alone?!"
End's eyes widened. That voice… could it be?
The fire demon whirled around, sweeping his claw into the ground and scattering a bombardment of molten rock towards Jaune. He heard the thuds of the blond weathering the barrage with both his physical and mystical shields, but he needed to focus on the shout that came behind him.
A streak of red and black flew at his head, End thrusting his hands high to catch a familiar broadsword between his palms. He twisted, tossing that foe to the side where she immediately flipped back into a perfect combat stance.
Unfortunately, that was all the opening her unseen ally needed. A pink blur raced at him low, a whirlwind trailing her fist.
"Sky Dragon's Crushing Claw!"
A volleyball-sized tornado rammed into his side, a solid steel buckler adding its strength to the blow. End grunted at the slight discomfort, sweeping a wave of blue fire at the offender. Alas, his target was small and agile, dancing just out of reach of his flames and leaping back to join her allies side-by-side.
Despite the surprise attack, the demon found that his spirits only rose higher once his new opponents were properly in his sight.
"Wendy, I was wondering when you were going to show up. Excellent work manipulating the wind to mask your scent on approach," he said to the young wizard, her wild pink mane signifying that she'd come to battle in Dragonforce. A wise move given he was her foe, and she proved herself wiser still by thrusting out her hands and basking her party in the soft glow of enchantments.
Still, End couldn't find it in himself to focus on her shouts of "Deus Corona" and the like. Not when his vision had locked onto the redheaded woman beside her, clothed the unmistakable Black Wing Armor. He'd wondered if he'd imagined her shout from before, but now that Wendy had stopped shielding her scent, it was impossible to deny that it was her. At last.
"Erza Scarlet," he grinned. "I have waited a long time to see you again."
The Fairy Queen narrowed her dark brown eyes, but she couldn't hide the confusion that flashed through them. "You. You're him. E.N.D."
Fury flared through the demon, his curse bursting out of his control as his anger spiked. The wizards and the huntsman scrambled back, barely escaping the surge of sapphire flames that scorched a good chunk of the courtyard black.
"I'll thank you not to refer to me by that moniker again, my dear Titania. My name is End," he proclaimed, the dark rumble in his voice brokering no argument. "I do not wish our glorious battle to be tainted by such undue feelings."
His brief tenure of influence during the Alvarez War was not an overall pleasant experience. Even when Natsu's desperation to save his precious Celestial bitch from DiMaria had combined with the growing instability of the Demon and Dragon Seeds to allow the Fire Dragon Slayer to tap into his strength and crush the vessel of Chronos, End could still not achieve any true command of his own body. He was a battery, like always, but this time his could assert influence on the parasite's mind. He begged him, pleaded with him to return to Zeref, to fulfill their purpose, to use his power to do what he nearly had with Igneel's. He begged him to make his suffering mean something and murder his creator as was his duty.
Fullbuster's interference had stalled that plan. If End himself had been fully in control, wielding his full power, he could have overcome the Ice Devil Slayer. As it was, Natsu could only tap into a portion of his strength and thus it was all he could do to stalemate his guildmate.
And then Titania Erza had stalemated them both at the same time.
It was only one blow each, hardly an insurmountable feat, yet an impressive one nonetheless. And she followed it up with one even more stunning. With her words, no magic, no threats, just her words and her presence, she moved both those fools' minds and souls. End had witnessed the power of Fairy Tail's bonds before through Natsu's eyes, had even seen Erza finish the fire and ice wielders' brawls before. But to silence a death battle of such magnitude just by arriving on the battlefield? It was perhaps the moment he best understood how dangerous the Queen of the Fairies truly was.
After that, with Natsu's mind calmed and his discovery soon after that his blonde partner wasn't as dead as he'd mistaken in his grief, End had been sealed away once more. Trapped in his own body, able to see everything, hear everything, feel everything… and yet unable to do anything, even move. All he could do was let out screams that no one could hear.
And honestly? He doubted they would care if they could. What did he matter to anyone compared to that pink-haired moron?
He wanted to fight Erza Scarlet. Not kill her, like Heartfilia, but fight her. He wanted to test his power against such a pillar of iron will, his blaze against her blade. He wanted to clash with a warrior he could respect, a bastion of strength and determination. He wanted to battle the one warrior Natsu always feared, that he could never overcome… and he wanted to prove once and for all that he was separate from that wretch by crushing The Queen of the Fairies at her best.
He was not a battery. He was not an attack dog that could be commanded out when needed and then put down when he became inconvenient. He was alive! He was himself! He was End! And even if no one in Fairy Tail called him friend, that did not mean he would lie down and be sacrificed on their altar!
Erza glared at him, her sword raised high. Yet, her eyes flickered with worry, specifically noted the charred, blackened ground.
"Jaune, where's Pyrrha?" she inquired, a note of panic in her voice. "I thought she was supposed to be with you?"
Pyrrha? Face-to-face with a demon more powerful than anything less than Acnologia himself and she was worried about Pyrrha Nikos? Not even her protégé Ruby? Why—
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Nikos. She saw Cinder and she… she's in the Vault!"
… oh. That was why.
"Pyrrha Nikos is your daughter?" End asked incredulously. "How long have you been out of your sphere? You've barely aged a day!"
Erza ignored him as her eyes widened. "Can you two—"
"Go!" Wendy shouted. "She needs you!"
"But against him—"
"The plan was always to have us handle this guy," Jaune pointed out. "You can back us up once you're done. Now go save Pyrrha!"
Erza hesitated only an instant before nodding. White light flashed over her, replacing her Black Wing Armor with the cheetah styled spots of her Flight Armor. The requip hadn't even completely finished before she turned and begun racing back into the school.
End couldn't allow that. Disregarding his own desire to face off with the Titania, his duty as the Ophiuchus demanded that he protect the other Gates from any danger that might be too much for them. Honestly, at her maximum strength, Cinder might, in theory, be able to defeat Erza. She did have more raw power, that much was undeniable, but there was much more to a fight than mere raw power. And given the Fall Maiden's recklessness that was on full display earlier? Her showing that despite her ascension, she was still just an indulgent, theatrical, child?
No, she was not ready to face a foe of the Fairy Queen's caliber. And no matter how irritated he currently was with her, it would irresponsible to leave her to the Titania's mercy.
"Fire Devil Emperor – Purgatory's Hound!"
End raised his hands and a wave of sapphire flames poured out of his palms, streaking straight towards his opponents. Jaune bravely leapt in front of the surge, summoning a pair of two-layer vacuum shields to block the assault. If it was a simple wide barrage, it probably would have been sufficient.
Unfortunately for him, it was not.
Utilizing a similar technique to Purple Flare, End sculpted his hell blaze, morphing it from a simple, predictable sea of fire into an enormous hound of flames, a living inferno that chased its prey for as long as its alpha demanded it. The beast let out a booming howl right in the blond huntsman's face and leapt over his defenses, racing across the courtyard after Erza.
However, while Jaune had been understandably surprised to suddenly be faced with a wolf of living fire larger than an Atlesian Paladin, he was no longer alone on the battlefield. And his new partner was much more accustomed to reacting to the fantastical reversals of a battle between wizards. Within the blink of an eye, a pink blur had zoomed above the Purgatory Hound, a tempest swirling in each hand.
"Sky Dragon's Wing Attack!"
Wendy spun her hands downward and a typhoon of purple-tinted wind crashed down on the incendiary beast. The Purgatory Hound screeched as the cutting cyclone sliced into it, the mighty hunter forced off course, allowing Erza to make it safely into Haven's main hall.
The azure blaze beast whirled on the Sky Dragon Slayer, selecting her as its new quarry now that the redhead had escaped its grasp. The hound's flaming claws extended out and slashed towards the pink-haired wizard, reared back on its hind legs.
But with time to recover, Jaune acted swiftly, shifting his vacuum shields right in front of Wendy. The Purgatory Hound was far too close to dodge and smashed into the holy barriers. Being made of End's curse fire, the first layer of the defenses crumbled as intended, and just as planned, the infernal creature was sucked into the opened void and extinguished.
Wendy landed back on the ground, both she and Jaune glaring at End amidst the ashen courtyard.
"You're not getting her," the Sky Dragon Slayer growled.
"You're not getting any of them," Jaune declared. "We will protect them."
End smirked. "That is your purpose, my friends. Let's see if you can achieve it."
This would be tricky. While it was his personal preference to keep Jaune alive, Wendy's death would cripple Salem's plans. Her enchantment skill was crucial if the war effort they were building was to have any chance at success. Even to get to Cinder, he couldn't risk killing her.
And that kind of a handicap would be an issue if he was to timely reinforce his allies. With two maidens nearby, the atmosphere had all the ethernano Wendy would need to maintain her Dragonforce. With her power and intelligence combined with Jaune's vacuum shields, will, and cunning, they weren't a pair he could afford to take lightly. One wrong move and they might deliver quite the walloping to him. Or worse, make him lose his temper enough that he accidentally used too much strength against them.
End licked his lips in anticipation. It'd been far too long since he'd had a challenge.
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Yang slammed back into the stadium stands, the chairs smashing into a crater as her head span, a thin line of blood trickling down her chin. Friends or not, Mercury was proving himself far more of a challenge then she'd expected.
With Blake's Sea Feilong lightning cannon, the silver-haired punk couldn't jump in his personal pool without becoming an easy target for extreme shock treatment. It might not have killed him in one shot, but the fact that he came out to fight them instead of bombarding them from within meant that it still hurt. And he could bombard them.
With swift thrusts of his lower arms, Mercury had called up a barrage of water from his black lake, sculpting them into a pair of spiraling tentacles. Each liquid construct swept towards the huntsmen, pulverizing the floor beneath them when they dodged and smacking them into craters when they didn't. Which was how Yang ended up in her current predicament.
However, the blonde smiled as she rolled out of the way of the spear streams followup attack, her gaze focused on Blake and Ren capitalizing on her injury. She understood her role in her team's strategy. Every hit she took powered up her semblance and, more importantly, was a hit her friends didn't have to take. And if the enemy's attention was on the girl on fire who kept getting stronger, that would leave the faster, stealthier fighters with opportunities.
Blake and Ren utilized the opening to rush in close to Mercury. The green-robed huntsman circled around and sprayed their enemy with a barrage from Stormflower, the swarm of low caliber dust rounds too fast and too close for the brute to dodge.
Unfortunately, he didn't need to.
A rush of steam blew out of the holes scattered over Mercury's chest, the gaps immediately closed by metallic bolts. The same shining steel sheen spread all across his flesh until every scrap of his skin had been coated in hardened armor. The bastard lowered his aura and let Ren's dust rounds hit him straight on, just to make them watch as the bullets harmlessly bounced off his body.
Blake charged in, morphing in an armored Deathstalker form bigger than even the Gate's current state. She thrust forward with all three of her limbs, her massive pincers lunging for their enemy's stomach while her stinger screeched for his head.
If their foe didn't have four arms, it might have worked. A trio of Mercury's hands, one lower and both upper, lashed out, each one catching one of Blake's scorpion limbs and holding them at bay. Once his aura flashed back to life, he actually started bending them backwards, the Blake Fairy shrieking as her Grimm appendages were forced to move in a direction they weren't made to.
"I ain't your ex, kitty cat. You're not even close to being strong enough to bulldoze me," Mercury gloated. "And I'm also not stupid enough to miss that you're distracting me!"
The silver-haired shark's free arm swiped out behind him, right where Ren was dashing towards him, his hand outstretched to plant his palm on the Eclipse Etherious's back. The huntsman's pink eyes widened, and he frantically danced away from the demonic limb, the arm's awkward angle of attack allowing him to escape despite his enemy's superior speed.
But his focus was on the arm, and not the fact that it was one of his lower arms, that even hardened into near-invincible metal was still colored navy blue.
Yang rushed for her friend when she realized what was happening, but one of the water tentacles bashed her into the stands before she could get to him.
The other spear churned around and smashed into Ren head-on. The green-robed boy cried out as if he'd just been rammed by a Manticore, only for his screams to be garbled by water as the writhing pillar propelled him into the depths of the black lake.
"Not in the mood for small-fry," Mercury chuckled. He tightened his hold on Blake, her chitin plates cracking under his finger strength. "Now then, how about you go to sleep for a bit, kitty—"
"Regulus Stinger!"
Blake's voice was meshed in with the unholy screech of her Grimm form, but her incantation instantly prompted her stinger to blaze a shining gold. The scorpion's appendage twitched down and fired a point-blank luminous blast straight into Mercury's chest. A great crash shuddered upon impact, a cloud of smoke billowing over the Gate.
"Alright, Blake!" Yang cheered, pumping her fist. "That's what I'm—Regulus?"
How did Blake have Regulus energy? She'd used up her stock from Earthland back at Beacon. The only way she could have gotten more was if she'd run into Loke. And the only way she could have done that was if she ran into…
Her train of thought was cut off when a shark fin slashed out of the smoke and slammed Blake across the face, cracking the rim of the stands and driving her head into the dark water.
The smog cleared and Mercury bore down on her, his metallic hide not even scratched.
"Now that was just rude," he mocked, raising his mechanical foot.
He stomped down on Blake's throat, but the Black Fairy dissipated with a shadow clone, pivoted around to the shark man's flank. Darkness melded around her body and she shifted into her Sea Feilong form, a lightning beam charging in her mouth.
In turn, Mercury shuffled his position until his back was to the lake. It was a simple move, but one Yang had to admit was a clever one. Even if Blake hit him dead on, there would be spillover, sparks and electricity that would ricochet off the metallic flesh and bounce into the water behind him. If that energy struck the pool or worse the Gate dodged and the whole blast hit, Ren would be cooked alive.
And in that moment of hesitation he forced on Blake, the silver-haired bastard had already sent his water pillars streaking out of the lake and swinging right for the pseudo-Grimm.
Only to evaporate into steam when Yang jumped into the air punched right through them. Her flame arms were extinguished by the collision, but it was simple enough to reignite them. She stretched the violet fire arms to unnatural, wild lengths, repositioning herself in midair so she had the perfect artillery angle from above Mercury's front. After all, the spillover from her magic wouldn't do squat to the lake.
"Fire Devil's Rage!" she roared, her Full Demon tattoo pulsing with hellish fury as a column of pink flames rained down on her foe.
Mercury kicked his leg into the sky, release a trio of wind dust rounds from his greaves so that they just hung in the air before him. He sliced the ammunition with a single lightning-fast uppercut from the shark fin on his upper arm.
"Slash Arm – Saber Gale!"
The sheer strength of the uppercut, the obscene sharpness of the shark fin, and the release of the wind dust all combined into a single slash of air that shrieked into the sky. With its power all condensed into such a thin cut, the supersonic gale sliced right down the middle of Yang's breath attack, splitting the blast into two separate blazing pillars and striking the Devil Slayer straight in the chest. The blonde wizard gasped as she was sent hurtling back into the wall of the stadium, the wood crumbling under the impact as she laid in an exhausted heap.
Even still, her attack had bought Blake a moment to collect herself and counter their enemy's pivot. With the two pink infernos on either side of them, the only way to be sure she wouldn't hit the pool and Ren was to bend her serpentine body low to the ground and angle upwards. That way, any errant sparks would be thrown into the air to harmlessly fizzle out.
A yellow crackle built with the Black Fairy's maw. With a defiant roar, she opened her jaws unloaded a full column of lightning straight in Mercury's face. The tempestuous cannon boomed throughout the stadium, blowing right past the Gate and ravaging the ceiling, chunks of the roof's elegant architecture crumbling down to the black lake. For a solid second, the only sounds were the splash of rubble and the shriek of thunder.
But the next, a steel hand tore out of the lightning stream and clamped itself around Blake's jaw. The wizard barely had time for her monstrous eyes to widen before the actual monster's fist shot down and plowed her into the floor.
Mercury smirked, his aura crackling but unbroken, and swung a heavy kick at Blake's face. The huntress dodged with a shadow clone, but the Eclipse Etherious's reflexes were too sharp, and he slashed at her with his fin the moment she reappeared. Blake dodged again and again, but now that her enemy's focus was solely on her, she was rapidly being overwhelmed, her breath running short as every clone cost her a chunk of aura.
When the enemy raised his lower arms and conjured up two new water pillars from the black lake, she was finally cornered, caged against an opponent she couldn't hope to overpower.
"No," Yang muttered, struggling to rise from the rubble heap she'd been blasted into, blood dribbling from her lips. "No…"
She'd achieved her Full Demon Form. Blake had returned in control of her powers. They worked together as seamlessly as ever. She was a freaking Devil Slayer and their enemy was half-demon! But it still wasn't enough! Why weren't they enough?! Why wasn't she enough?! How much more pain did she have to go through before she was strong enough to protect her friends!?
She had reached the apex form of her magic, her hate for her enemy blessing her with a well of strength. The air was saturated with ethernano from two maidens. Where else could she get more power to win this fight? Her semblance? That hadn't done much good against End! And even if Mercury wasn't as strong as him, that metal super armor of his made him feel just as invincible! She had to break through it! She needed more power—
'Power is one factor of combat… but it is not impossible for the weak to close the gap with skill…'
Yang growled, shaking her head to force the Ophiuchus's words out of her mind. They only came up at all because she'd been remembering her earlier defeat. But she didn't need advice from the evil doppelganger. She knew who she could count on. What would Natsu do—
'You fight like him… All wild instinct and relentless power. It's predictable. And disappointing.'
Ergh! Fine! She wasn't Natsu! No matter how similar their fighting styles were, her teacher's raw magical energy was simply far greater than hers, especially if he'd grown as strong as Wendy said he had. He had a hard-earned skill at improvisation, of using whatever he had on hand to invent new spells to overcome the enemy in his way, and Yang simply didn't have that skill for mastering complex new spells on the fly. But if her current style wasn't enough, what the hell did she do? Every second she spent thinking, Blake was getting the crap kicked out of her! How did she stop an opponent who outclassed her in every regard?! Who the hell did that—
… Lucy.
Lucy did that every time she fought. And she never backed down from a fight. She didn't always win, but she always pressed on, whether with help or alone. She analyzed her enemy, worked out which spirit had an advantage, and then exploited that advantage for all it was worth.
Alright, so what did she know about Mercury? Other than he was stupid strong, stupid fast, had four arms, could summon his own lake, either had Pisces or Aquarius as his Celestial Spirit half based on the hydrokinesis, had fins sharp to launch long-range air slashes, had body that was harder than iron… and he pivoted. He pivoted to keep Blake from shooting him with her lightning cannon.
Why? The Sea Feilong's cannon wasn't strong enough to break through the armor covering his flesh, and from how cocky he was before and after that, he must have known. So why did he bother making things more complicated when he could have just tanked the attack the first time? What was different about the attack Blake would have launched compared to the one she did launch?
Simple, the second one was aimed up to avoid possibly hitting Ren, hitting Mercury's head and chest. The first was aimed straight on, so it would have hit his chest, stomach, and… legs.
His prosthetic legs.
Yang's mind whirled, everything clicking into place. Mercury's prosthetic legs weren't part of his organic body, so his metallic armor wouldn't extend over it. His legs were weapons, so they weren't weak by any means, but they were made on Remnant by a normal mechanic with no knowledge of magic. They weren't made to be as strong a demon's curse or withstand the heat of a Devil Slayer's flames. They were the chink in his defense.
Of course, hitting that chink at all, let alone hard enough to do anything, was far easier said than done. Mercury's aura had sustained damage over the course of the fight even if his body was fine, but who knew how much impact their attacks had really had, even with Blake's two point-blank blasts. There was no telling how many solid blows Yang would have to land to wear him down.
And they needed to be solid blows. Glancing attacks wouldn't cut it. Which was a problem because Mercury was at minimum just as good at hand-to-hand combat as her, if not better, and he had two more arms than she did. If she made it obvious that she was going for his legs, he'd easily be able to defend against her assault.
Fortunately, she had a plan. Her aura had just enough left to make use of her semblance. Combined with all the damage she'd taken since she'd cut off her left hand, she'd only get one shot at it. She'd never done the spell to the degree she'd need to now, but her mastery of its basics would need to provide her with a sufficient foundation.
Yang staggered to her feet and raised her Purple Flare arms. Despite everything, she managed to throw a grin on her face.
She could do this. With Lucy's tactics, Natsu's instinct, and, as much as she hated to admit it, End's advice.
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Blake had known how dangerous a Gate was before she and Lucy had knocked on the Nikos' rental house and found out that Erza was Pyrrha's mother. She'd watched Tyrian survive Urano Metria and decimate the walls of Menagerie. She hadn't been expecting an easy fight when they'd made their way to Haven.
What she hadn't realized was just how implacable that ludicrous power could seem when it was solely focused on her.
With Yang bashed into the wall (when did she lose her other hand?!) and Ren possibly unconscious from the rubble that fell into the pool, it was left to her to hold off Mercury. But the Gate was a lethal combination of lightning speed and rock-solid defense. Even her Sea Feilong, the strongest form she had, just bounced off his metal body. Combined with the aqua pillars he could summon from his lake, every time Blake used a shadow clone to escape one blow she just flashed into another. Before long, her aura was depleted and she was bashed into a crater that was once the stadium's bleachers, her Grimm form evaporating to dust around her while her battered and bruised body collapsed in the rubble.
Mercury stomped on her stomach, a glob of blood retching from her throat.
"Heard you handed Tyrian his ass. With help of course," the silver-haired warrior noted. "The boss lady really wants this Lucy Heartfilia babe. Care to tell me where she is?"
"Go to hell!" Blake squelched.
He kicked her across the jaw, smacking her face into the rubble.
"Half-demon, remember? Not really a problem," he taunted. "Believe me, you'd rather I found her than old flamey. You're all going back to Salem anyway. The only thing these fights actually decide is how much pain you go through along the way."
"You're… wrong…" Blake coughed. "You'll lose. You only fight for yourself."
"Well, yeah. No one else is gonna," Mercury replied. "What about you, kitty cat? How's that great and noble cause working out for you? The White Fang you fought for is gone, your old idol has joined up with us, your boy toy is deader than a doornail, and his groupies are window dressing with a very imminent expiration date."
"Old idol…" Blake murmured. "Sienna… No, she'd never… and Adam… dead?"
"Yup. And here you are, bleeding out in the middle of a kingdom that hates you," the Gate gloated. "You gave all your strength to a pointless cause, fighting for others. So, who's gonna fight for you now?"
"That'd be my job, handsome."
Blake and Mercury both turned up to the top row of the stands, Yang's bloody form leaping over the bleachers towards them. The Gate scoffed, removing his foot from atop Blake and placing it back on the floor, pivoting into a strong stance to meet the Fairy Tal wizard's charge.
"You really don't learn, do you, blondie?" Mercury chuckled. He launched another wind dust round and sliced it with his fin, this time horizontal. "Slash Arm – Saber Gale!"
The air slash cut across the room, streaking straight for Yang. Yet, the blonde huntresses flame arms responded by streaking down in a way no muscle could do and launching off the floor to shoot their mistress into the sky and over the attack. Even still, they were sliced apart by the wave.
Mercury swept his lower arms forward, the aqua tentacles swinging for Blake's partner. Yang pulled what remained of her infernal claws close to her body, both they and the water pillars evaporated into steam as she flipped over to the other side. As soon as she was on solid ground, she rushed towards her target, close enough that the Eclipse Etherious only had time to turn to face her, raising his four hands to defend from her inevitable assault.
Blake grit her teeth and tried to get up, to fight with her friend. But all she received in return for her efforts was the agonized blaring of her muscles, too battered and brutalized to move without protest. She managed to roll onto her side, but with her pain hampering her speed, that was as far as she could get before Yang took her final step to get in melee distance of Mercury.
But when her partner took that step, when she planted her feet to fortify her attack, Blake heard her whisper something under her breath.
"Why stop at one?"
Yang's golden mane ignited with pink flames, her semblance triggered at last. The Devil Slayer blaze surged over her hair and down to her shoulder, merging with the purple inferno that erupted out from her sides and formed into her arms.
Her many arms.
Both Blake and Mercury's eyes widened as a dozen vibrant fire arms burst out from each of Yang's sides, swarming out of her shoulders like two nests of angry serpents, curling and writhing in ways flesh and blood never could.
The Black Fairy could hardly believe it. She'd surmised that her partner had trained her aptitude with Purple Flare when she'd seen how she compensated for her lost appendages, but this? Creating so many individual limbs, all of which she'd had to separately maintain? Had was she doing this? Natsu didn't usually bother with solid fire due to how much concentration it required! How was Yang doing it?!
"Welcome to my punching spree, asshole," Yang snarled. "Fire Devil's Molten Gatling!"
Her swarm of fists stormed forth and crashed into Mercury, an infernal maelstrom of immolating wrath bombarding the Eclipse Etherious. To his credit, the silver-haired warrior didn't allow his surprise to overtake him. Likely recalling how the fire arms could stretch, he didn't bother to try to dodge or move out of range, simply bringing his quartet of limbs up to block as much of the incoming barrage as possible.
For a second that felt like an eternity, Blake beheld their clash, Yang's bombastic blazing fury against Mercury's stalwart steel defense. The blonde devil slayer rained down dozens of blows each instant, yet even with her semblance's stockpile of strength behind them, even outnumbering their enemy's limbs by a wide margin, even with the scorching flames of hell at their back, the Gate's super armor held firm. A soft glow began to shine off its metallic surface, but no more than if a pair of scissors was stuck over a stove. It was far, far from breaking, and it wouldn't be long before Yang's semblance exhausted its store of damage and Mercury was able to stride through the barrage as easily as he had Blake's lightning cannon.
Except… no… yes!
The cat faunus's lips gaped in shock as she realized what was happening. Each of Yang's strikes was packing every ounce of power she had left, but they weren't being thrown as some random defiant stand. They were targeted. Only about a quarter of the attacks were aimed at Mercury's upper body, their brilliant shine and unrelenting onslaught blinding the assassin's vision. This was probably the first serious fight he'd ever used his new form in. His instincts were still to have his arms retreat back to defend his chest and stomach, which were now invulnerable.
But his legs weren't, and that was where Yang was focusing the true power of her barrage. Hundreds of flaming fists, each one packing the pinnacle of her current strength, bombarded the combat prosthetics, hammering them over and over until their all-encompassing heat seeped throughout the metal.
Finally, Mercury's aura crackled, and the joints of his right knee crumpled under the strain of the inferno.
"What the—" he shouted, but his words halted when his eyes flickered down to the source of his sudden loss of balance. "Yaaannngg!"
"Mercuuurryy!"
The Devil Slayer twisted forward and put her entire body into one final volley against her foe's left leg. At the same time, the Eclipse Etherious caught on to her strategy, abandoning the pointless defense of his armored body to catch the Fairy Tail wizard with a pair of brutal haymakers from his right arms.
They struck simultaneously, both their auras shattering to pieces as the two brawlers did their worst. Mercury's fists torpedoed into Yang's chest and sent her flying back into the stands just as her bombardment of flame arms slammed over his last leg and melted the prosthetics into useless slag. With his footing annihilated, the Gate was not immune to the force of his opponent's strike, his body hurtling through the air.
Towards his lake.
Blake stomach dropped when she realized it. When he'd thrown his last punches against Yang, he'd also shifted his weight so that the force of her final attack would throw him into the lake! Even if the loss of his legs crippled his combat capability on land, his hydrokinesis would make him nearly unstoppable in the water! How had he done that? Was it just a fluke? What kind of ridiculous battle instinct did he have that would let him plan something like that in a split second?!
The cat faunus forced every ounce of adrenaline she could through her veins, scraping all the ethernano within her breath into her origin. With the nearby maidens keeping the atmosphere saturated, it was only a matter of whether the organ would have enough time to convert it to magical energy to fuel her transformation. And since she'd been doing that during both Mercury's gloating and Yang's assault…
Shadows gathered around her, ready to shift her body into her strongest Grimm and fire off whatever shots she could before her muscles gave out.
Only for an aqua tentacle to sweep in and smack her back into the crater before she could complete her shift.
Blake growled. He'd used the punch of his lower right arm to summon up a new water pillar and direct it to attack her?! That had to be planned! How did he do that?! How?!
It didn't matter. Because he had. Blake fearfully glanced back at the lake, her amber eyes widening with horror as she saw the second aqua tentacle ram into Yang. Her partner just barely dodged, but she was kept from capitalizing on their enemy's current position.
Mercury fell towards his black pool, barely a foot above the sanctuary that would allow him to decimate the exhausted huntresses with impunity. Fixed them with his arrogant gray eyes and flashed one final cocky smirk.
Because before he hit the water, a green-robed hand shot up from the depths and gripped the back of his auraless scalp, followed by a gasping pink-eyed face.
"Crushing Evil:" a soaked Ren screamed. "Truth's Revelation!"
Mercury's eyes widened. He thrust his lower arms up, panickily recalling his aqua tentacles to his side, but it was too late. The moment the incantation left Ren's mouth, blinding white lines of crisscrossed the Gate's face, slicing through his impenetrable flesh without any resistance and only growing brighter as they coalesced.
The Eclipse Etherious screamed as the magic tore across his head and exploded his skull in a thunderous flash.
Blake and Yang were both left gaping open-mouthed at the black lake. The aqua tentacles immediately dispersed into puddles, so their foe really was gone. But that… that had been far too close.
The blonde huntress staggered to her feet and limped to the broken rail of the bleachers, using a pitiful, skinny flame arm to drag Ren back onto land once he swam over. When he arrived, he sagged onto all fours and hacked out a gargled spat of black water.
"We… we won?" the robed huntsman said, sounding stupefied even though he had delivered the killing blow. "We defeated a Gate."
"Ha! That we did, buddy," Yang assured him, fighting through her own exhaustion to force a grin on her face. "You certainly came in clutch at the end there. What was that? Crash Magic? When did you learn something that badass?"
Despite the agony coursing through her body, Blake managed a smile. She'd made it. She'd made to Haven. Just like she'd promised, she made it back to her friends.
No matter what battles were still to come, that was a victory she would always treasure.
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The pain was brief. Horrible, like a sun had erupted inside of his head and roasted his brain to charred cinders, but brief. If he wasn't already dead, he thought he could have survived it.
What came after though?
He was fully conscious. He could see the void. He could hear the silence. He could smell the endless nothingness. But he couldn't feel. Because… there was nothing to feel.
No, not just nothing to feel. Nothing to do the feeling. No body. No… him. No way to move, not even to shift his vision. He was just there, forever. Dead.
Powerless.
He had no mouth. He had no throat to form sounds or lungs to provide air. But he screamed. He screamed despair that no one could hear.
Not even himself.
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The fall down to the vault was vexing. She'd been thrown down the chasm before she'd been ready, forced to grapple with the other two women as they tried to shove each other into the ancient metal walls while they plunged through the pit.
When they landed, it was amidst a crater of fire and rubble, scattered throughout the chamber.
Cinder rose to her feet, her eyes blazing with the Fall Maiden's power as she stomped through the entrance. Across the thick stone bridge, rising up before the majestic orange gate of the Spring Maiden were her current irritants.
Branwen was the main issue, the hag who was hogging the power that was rightfully hers and the bandit wench she would need to keep from escaping through one of her portals. Also, she'd need the mantle of the Spring Maiden to unlock the Vault, get the Relic of Knowledge, and succeed for Teacher.
But she would have already done that already, already claimed her rightful power and the Relic for her mentor and her mistress, if it hadn't been for the second interloper.
Pyrrha Nikos, the prodigy who seemed to think it was her destiny to inconvenience the Fall Maiden in whatever insignificant vexing way she could, leapt into a combat stance, her emerald eyes hard.
How adorable. She actually thought she could win this encounter.
"You," Cinder snarled, her bone whips extending further from her hands.
As if the Invincible Girl even had a chance at surviving this slaughter.
And done. Now sleep time.
Thank you for Reading! I hope you enjoy what comes next!
Go Forth and Conquer!