Here's the next chapter! I hope you all enjoy!
It had been a few minutes since Azuma had attacked and left Zale, Wendy, Carla, Pantherlily and the Magic Council spy an injured wreck. Zale was the only one who wasn't rendered unconsciousness from Azuma's attack and played possum until he was a hundred percent sure the coast was clear. As he got up, he could hear someone running in their direction.
"Wendy! Zale!"
Zale looked over and saw Natsu running, with Happy flying next to him, toward them. The strange thing was that Natsu's scarf was no black and he had his vest inside out to better clash with it.
"I'd ask why your wardrobe changed, but we've got more important things." Zale said.
"Wendy! Wake up!" Natsu picked up the unconscious girl.
"Carla! Lily! When did you get here?" Happy asked. "What happened? Open your eyes!"
"We're under attack, Natsu." Zale stated.
Natsu looked over and saw the Magic Council spy. "Is he the guy you beat up?"
"Beat up?" Zale raised his eyebrow.
Natsu started shaking the guy frantically. "Was it you?!"
"Natsu, he's with the Magic Council." Wendy said as she started to regain consciousness.
"What a nice coat you have…" Natsu stopped rough-housing the agent in an attempt to butter him up. "WAIT! WE'RE FIGHTING THE COUNCIL?!"
"OH NOOOOOO!" Happy screamed alongside Natsu.
"The enemy is Grimoire Heart." Carla said as she woke up. "A dark guild."
"Grimoire Heart?" Natsu asked.
"You mean one of the big three guilds of the Baram Alliance?" Happy asked.
"The very same." Zale confirmed.
Lily regained consciousness, still beaten from the fight with Azuma, and looked up into the sky. "What's that?"
Everyone else looked up and saw what looked like a goat in a tuxedo flying around in a jetpack dropping transparent orange spheres like air bombs onto the island.
"Is… that a goat with a jetpack and a tux?" Zale questioned. "That's… weird."
As the spheres got closer to the ground, it appeared as if there were small people inside of them. Just as they got about ten feet above ground level, the spheres cracked open and the people inside them grew to normal size and thrust whatever weapon they had at the Fairy Tail wizards.
"Water God Blitz!"
Zale surrounded his arm in black water, thrust it forward at the pack of wizards and shot a barrage of aquatic bullets at them like a machine gun. Natsu also started fighting off the hoard of Grimoire Heart mages.
*Why here?* Zale thought. *Out of all the places in Fiore, Grimoire Heart chooses to attack Tenrou Island. Why? I just hope Juvia and the others are okay.*
After a few minutes of fighting, there was a quake that shook the entire island as if it had been struck by a meteor.
"What now?!" Natsu shouted.
"Whatever it was, it doesn't sound good." Zale said as he continued taking out more enemies. "We should clean up here so we can check it out as soon as we can!"
One of the mages started to shoot flames at Natsu while another tried to blast Zale with a water torrent. Both Slayer wizards ate the respective blasts which shocked the dark guild mages.
"He ate the flames!"
"And he ate the water!"
"They must be Salamander and Poseidon!"
"Fire Dragon Wing Attack!"
"Water God Hunter!"
With wings of dragon's fire and claws of divine water, Natsu and Zale took out the remainder of the enemy battalion. With their overwhelming power of the Slayer wizards, Grimoire Heart started to panic, unsure of what to do next.
*The enemy's morale and numbers are dwindling significantly!* Zale continued thinking. *At this rate, we can see how the others are holding up.*
"That's enough!" A strange, crazed voice shouted.
Everyone looked toward the voice to see a man with wild gold hair and an insane grin walking toward them.
"Sir Zancrow!" One of the Grimoire mages said.
"You guys got no hope of beating them!" The man referred to as Zancrow said with a crazy look in his eyes."Hehehahahaha!"
Something about this guy made Zale feel uncomfortable. He wasn't sure if it was because of his manic expression or the foreboding presence he was giving off.
"Y'all go look for Zeref!" Zancrow ordered them. "I can handle these two by myself!"
*ZEREF?!* Zale felt shock upon hearing that name. *Is that why they're here?! Wait, Zeref's here of all places?! What's going on?!*
"Okay, thanks…" One of the underlings said to Zancrow.
"They're both really tough…"
"They're the Salamander and Poseidon people have been talking about."
"Anyway, excuse us…"
In an instant, Zancrow's smile turned into a spiteful scowl.
"Wait a damn minute!" Zancrow growled.
The henchmen stopped in their tracks and looked back at their superior.
"Did one of you just call them 'tough'?" Zancrow questioned. "Huh?!"
The Grimoire wizards became scared.
"There are no guilds in this world tougher than Grimoire Heart!" Zancrow proclaimed. "We're the strongest guild there is, ya know!"
Suddenly, Zancrow's hand became surrounded in black flames. On closer inspection, Zale knew exactly what kind of magic it was, especially since he knew it so well.
"No way…" Zale gasped. "That can't be…"
"And Grimoire Heart has no need for weaklings!" Zancrow screamed.
With a wave of his hand, all of the Grimoire Heart subordinates were set ablaze by black fire as Zancrow cackled maniacally. Zale, Natsu, Wendy, Happy and Carla watched in horror as they were all reduced to ash.
"Black fire?!" Happy exclaimed in shock.
"You bastard!" Natsu shouted. "They were your guild mates!"
Zancrow then shot black flames at Natsu.
"Like I told those guys, fire doesn't work on me!" Natsu shouted as he readied to eat the black fire.
"NATSU, DON'T EAT THAT!" Zale yelled at the top of his lungs.
It was too late as Natsu was engulfed in the black flames, unable to eat it.
"Why can't I eat this fire?" Natsu questioned.
"Flames even a Fire Dragon Slayer can't eat?" Carla gasped in shock.
"It's as I thought." Zale said. "He's a God Slayer, just like me…"
"Oh, so Fairy Tail has their own God Slayer as well?" Zancrow looked at Zale. "Doesn't matter! Grimoire Heart is the strongest guild! Which means that I'm the strongest God Slayer!"
"Natsu!" Zale called to Natsu. "Take Wendy and the Exceeds away from here and check on everyone else while I handle this guy!"
"No way!" Natsu shouted. "I wanna fight that guy!"
"Natsu, you're at a complete disadvantage." Zale pointed out. "You can't eat his flames, but he can eat yours. And what's more important, settling a grudge or ensuring the safety of your friends?"
Natsu simmered down a bit and growled to himself. "… Tch, you're right, Zale. But ya gotta promise me ya won't lose to this jerk!"
Zale gave Natsu an assuring smile as he left with Wendy, Happy, Carla and Pantherlily.
"You're not getting away that easily!" Zancrow tossed another blast of black flames at them.
However, Zale got in front of the blast and covered his entire body in black water. He withstood the blast as best as he could with his makeshift armor, but he could still feel the heat and power of Zancrow's attack.
*This guy is really strong!* He thought. *I can still feel his attack through my water armor. But I won't lose!*
Once the black flames died down, Zale was ready to counterattack. He dissipated his water armor and charged at Zancrow, spinning his body forward with a water hook extending from his foot.
"Water God Hook!"
Zancrow sidestepped out of the way and surrounded himself in black flames.
"Fire God Kagutsuchi!"
A sphere of black fire burst forth from Zancrow, blowing back Zale a bit slamming him into a tree.
"Fire God…" Zancrow inhaled deeply.
*I know what's coming next!* Zale thought as he took a deep breath as well. "Water God…"
"BELLOW!"
Both of them shot their elemental breath attacks at each other, meeting and stopping each other on impact. The stalemate caused an explosion of smoke that completely reduced all visibility in the immediate area.
*If I can get to the shore, I'll have a complete advantage over this guy!* Zale thought quickly. *The ocean should be straight ahead, so all I have to do make a mad dash while I have a chance.*
Zale started running in the direction he knew the ocean would be. Unfortunately, about hallway there he ended up dashing right past Zancrow, who was able to completely see him.
"… Gotcha!" Zancrow smirked.
Zancrow punched Zale right in his right rib and a black explosion blasted him away several meters. He skidded across the ground until he came to a complete stop. In an attempt to get up, he felt himself get kicked in the stomach and rolled onto his back. Zancrow kept stomping on his stomach and chest, dealing a great deal of pain to Zale.
"You're an insult to God Slayer Magic!" Zancrow shouted spitefully. "I can't believe a weakling like you has the audacity to use such divine magic!"
*I won't be able to fight back properly unless I can get some water!* Zale thought as he suffered a beating at the hands of Zancrow. However, something popped into Zale's mind. *… THAT'S IT!*
Before Zancrow could deliver his eleventh stomp, Zale grabbed his foot with his right hand and surrounded his left arm in black water.
"Water God Haymaker!"
Zale punched Zancrow in the chest and pushed him back a fair distance. With his opponent off of him, Zale took in a deep breath before inhaling as if he was sucking in water.
"What are you doing?" Zancrow questioned. "There isn't any water for you to eat."
Around Zale appeared small droplets of water that started to get sucked into his mouth by his God Slayer Magic.
*The air is humid here.* Zale thought. *Which means there's plenty of water for me to increase my power. It's basic science.*
Once he was done taking in the water in the air, black water started to form in each of his hands and extended to the shape of a long blade.
*I've been working on this new technique for a while now.* Zale thought. *This will be the first time I've ever used it, so this had better finish him off.* "Water God…"
Zale charged at Zancrow with the water blade.
"Dumbass!" Zancrow sneered. "You're leaving yourself wide open!"
Zancrow shot another blast of black flames at Zale, which he stepped out of the way of in order to keep his forward momentum going. He kept firing at him as he kept moving, getting faster and faster as he got closer. Zale was readying the swing of the water sword.
"AETHER!"
Zale slashed Zancrow with the blade of divine water and slid right past him, blood spurting from the Fire God Slayer's chest where he had been cut and fell to the ground. The black water around Zale's hands forming the sword evaporated and he took a sigh of relief once his opponent was lying on the ground.
"Looks like that did the trick…" Zale panted to himself. He then turned to the forest. "I better go check up on the others." *Juvia, please be all right…*
Just as Zale was about to head into the forest, he could feel his heat and pain emanating from his back. Before he knew it, he was engulfed in black flames.
"GGGGYAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Zale screamed in agony.
"YAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
After dousing himself off with his divine water to rid of the flames, he saw a wounded Zancrow standing up and cackling insanely.
*He's STILL standing?!* Zale gasped in his head.
"You're a lot tougher than I thought, but Grimoire Heart is still the strongest guild!" Zancrow said loudly. "I won't lose to a weakling like you! Fire God Kagutsuchi!"
Zancrow blasted Zale with another explosion of black flames and sent him flying into the forest, crashing into a tree on canopy level and Zancrow leaping after him.
(To be continued…)
A/N: I'm ending this with a cliffhanger so the fight doesn't end too soon. There's also another little something to show Zale's development in both his strength and character. I won't tell you what it is, though. You'll have to find out next time! I hope you all enjoyed! Stay tuned!