Chapter 11

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Natsu roars into the sky as he suckers punches the dragon in the face, knocking him off balance and causing him to miss his own attack, "How about we see how you handle a dragon slayer like me?"

Natsu stands tall in front of the jade dragon before him. His hand is a lit in flame and he stares down the dragon with a confidence only a dragon slayer can know.

"Ow, that hurt kid." The dragon complains, rubbing the side of his face where Natsu struck him.

The dragon's scales are cracked and scarred with burn marks. The injury is minor in the grand scheme of things and will heal with time, but it is an injury, nonetheless.

"I'll give you one chance to leave."

The dragon smirks at Natsu and begins to laugh to himself, "Who do you think you are, Achnologia? I ain't scared of some brat!"

The dragon lifts his hand up and swipes at Natsu with his right hand. The fire dragon slayer counters with a Fire Dragon's Iron Fist. Natsu's fist meets the dragon's open palm and erupts into flame. Unfortunately, the much larger dragon has a lot more force behind his attack and successfully swats Natsu away. The dragon doesn't escape unscathed though, a nasty burn has formed on its palm.

Natsu isn't thrown far thanks to Mard Geer's timely intervention. Thorns shoot up from the ground and catch him. The thorns lower Natsu down to the ground next to Mard Geer, who is sporting a few cuts and bruises of his own.

"Don't do that again." Mard Geer warns him, "You're magic may be custom tailored to take down a dragon, but they are still physically stronger than you. You'd be wise to take caution against this one."

Natsu nods his head and flies back into the fight, "Fire Dragon's Claw!"

Natsu kicks at the dragon in the face. This causes the dragon to stumble a bit. Once the dragon recovers, it growls at him and goes to grab him with his left hand as Natsu falls. Luckily, Virgo's chain reaches first and latches onto Natsu's ankle, pulling him out of harm's way.

"Thanks!"

"You can be punished later." Virgo says ominously.

Natsu looks at Virgo concerned. At that moment, the dragon goes for another swipe with his left hand, this time with his magic charged into it. Natsu, who has his back turned to the dragon, doesn't notice this, and has to be saved by Erza, who tackles him out of the way. Virgo gets Anna and Wendy to safety without any problem.

"Natsu, focus!" Mard Geer yells over to him.

The two teens get off the ground just in time for the dragon to slam his magically enhanced claw down on them. Natsu and Erza are able to jump out of the way, as the ground crumbles beneath them. Regardless, they find stable rubble to jump on.

"Thanks." Natsu says.

"You're welcome."

"You're real annoying brat."

Natsu scowls at the dragon, "I got a name you know."

"And I don't care. I don't need to know what my food's name is."

Natsu clenches his fist and ignites it into flame, "I'm definitely going to take you down."

The dragon charges his magic into his left hand and punches at Natsu. Natsu rolls out of the way along with Erza. He quickly counters by exploding off his feet at the dragon with an uppercut. His attack hits the jaw of the dragon in a fiery explosion. The dragon's head shoots up with an audible crack.

Fed up with this, the dragon flexes its wings and takes to the sky, "That's it! I won't let a couple of humans make a mock of me, Zirconis!"

"So that's your name." Natsu remarks as Zirconis begins to charge up a dragon's roar.

Natsu slams his fists together and gathers up magic in his lungs. The temperature in his body erupts and increases significantly. He feels the fire building in his lungs, ready to be released.

"Jade Dragon's Roar!" Zirconis announces as he lets out his jade green breath attack.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!" Yells Natsu as fire erupts from his mouth.

The two attacks clash and cause a massive explosion immediately. The force of the impact knocks Natsu back. Zirconis meanwhile was knocked out of the sky and looks worse for wear. Unfortunately, it looks like Natsu got the worse end of that exchange.

"That'll show you to mess with a dragon." Zirconis remarks as he turns his attention to Erza, "Now, you look like you'd taste good."

Erza requips a sword as she glances over to Natsu. He looks worse for wear. He's bleeding and his clothes are badly ripped. It looks like his attack managed to mitigate the effects of Zirconis's magic. She only hoped that he wasn't out of it yet as Wendy rushed over to his side.

Zirconis blew a puff of his magic at Erza, who requiped into a new armor. This armor was one of her lighter ones. It has a cheetah print on it and reveals a decent amount of skin. The armor is called the flight armor, and it grants the user a greater level of speed. With that bonus, Erza is able to escape from Zirconis's magic easily.

Before Ziconis could follow up with another attack, Natsu flew at him and slammed his fist into the dragon. He was no longer bleeding and look rejuvenated. It looks like Wendy got him back into fighting fit.

"Are you kidding me!?" Zirconis cried as he stumbled back.

Natsu looks at Zirconis was a sly grin as he sings, "I'm baaack."

"Grah! How the hell did you take less damage than me!?"

"I di-"

Before Natsu could finish explaining that he didn't, Mard Geer jumped in saying, "Clearly you underestimated Natsu. Surely now you realize this isn't a fight you can win?"

Zirconis growls and surveys the battlefield. As much as he wants to feast on these humans, their Fire Dragon Slayer has proven himself a match for him.

He spreads his wings and flies into the sky, "I'll let you live this time! But when next we meet; I won't be so nice!"

With that, the Jade Dragon flew off into the distance. The party of humans let out a deep sigh of relief.

"Natsu, do us a favor, don't lose consciousness at the start of a battle ever again." Mard Geer says.

"Uh…" Natsu looks away embarrassed, the sight of a naked Erza etched into his mind, "Yeah, won't happen again."

Speaking of Erza, she runs up to Natsu and gives him a hug. Natsu revels in the feeling of the skimpily dressed woman embracing him.

"Thank you." She says.

Natsu hugs her back, "You're welcome."

The two teens break off and face the rest of their party, "But it's really Wendy you should be thanking, if she didn't heal me when she did, I wouldn't have been able to make Zirconis run away."

Erza smiles and approaches Wendy, "That's right. Thank you, Wendy."

She gets down to Wendy's level and pulls her into a hug. The poor bluenette begins to freak out as Erza embraces her, clearly not enjoying the invasion of her space.

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