I don't know when I will post the side chapter, but when I do, it'll have '.5' next to the number of the chapter that came before it.
Enjoy!
Chapter 21: The Man Who Became Beast...
Erza and Jellal followed slowly behind Natsu; both were silently wondering how Natsu could walk in any direction and think that it would lead them to Lucy.
Did he have an innate ability that allowed him to find any missing friends or family? Or, was he just fluking it? Hoping and praying that it was the right way to Lucy and Happy? Or was it something else?
Neither Jellal nor Erza could figure it out. But they still followed him blindly through this blinding darkness of a forest.
Natsu wondered about it too.
As a child, running around the village, that was like a giant maze to him, he always managed to find his way home. Even if he went into the forest and turned and swerved off of a straight course, then slept for a few moments, he'd still find his way home to the Clive residence in time for their family dinner.
"Can you contact Happy? He'll be able to lead us to where he and Lucy are," Erza placed her hand on a twig while talking calmly.
"I didn't even think of doing that - good idea!" Jellal sighed as Natsu replied cheerily; Erza made a fist and brought it to the middle of her forehead, hitting herself.
They continued wandering through the dense vegetation. Natsu moved at a much faster pace than Erza and Jellal, who strolled behind scanning their surroundings.
"Happy, buddy? Are we within range of each other?" Natsu tried to reach out to Happy through their mental connection.
Everything was silent for awhile, but then a high pitched voice came through in his head, "Lucy's injured! She can't heal herself! She's passed out." The voice was rapid, shooting different short sentences at Natsu.
"Where are you?" Natsu asked in a hurry. His eyes became sharp, and his fists began shaking.
"We went back to the old camp."
Natsu turned to Erza and Jellal, who were watching him. They knew, just from how zigzagged his spine had become that something had gone wrong. He nodded to them, taking off at full speed.
The three swiftly made their move. The leaves rustled as they shot past at an incredible speed, and the crunching of twigs beneath their feet quickly faded into the padding on dirt.
Natsu moved quicker than the others; he didn't care if he used every ounce of stamina he had or if he used all his magical energy in a second by pushing himself this hard. He had promised to protect Lucy and now look what had happened; she was bleeding; she was unconscious, and he wasn't there to help her.
Natsu stopped dead in his tracks.
His ears perked up like a beast, and his spine became a jagged broken sword. He moved his eyes sharply left and right, then turned and did the same. He closed his eyes, watching as the fire, wind and destruction particles mingled together in his surroundings. He watched as the wind particles bobbed softly in open space.
Then he saw it.
A creature was lying low in the bushes. Just from how it was hunched over, and how the particles moved along its long body, Natsu could roughly figure out the ranking of the beast. A rank six monster.
"Erza, Jellal," he pointed a finger in the direction they should head. "Head straight that way."
After they left Natsu unlatched his sword, allowing it to taste his blood once again. He swung it left and right to warm himself up and jumped on the spot a little. He began creating a golden ball of heat and fire in his hands, then with one swift motion, it hurtled towards the beast.
The beast was not quick enough to dodge the hurtling ball of violent fire and became fatally scorched by it as it hit the beast directly in its chest, causing it to fly back into a tree. Natsu planted his feet firmly in the ground and raised his sword to his side, aiming it directly at the beast.
He pushed off with incredible speed, causing a loud booming noise to be heard which made birds all around fly, in flocks, away from the scene.
Natsu sword pierced the beasts think skin that acted like armour, it was a War Bear beast. They were formidable with their tough hides and large paws that could topple a tree, but they were slow and couldn't move as fast as Natsu.
He had gotten lucky. If it had been one of the wolves that he had encountered before, he wouldn't have won so easily against it.
Natsu pulled out his sword, sighing out heavily as he did so.
He was about to sheath the blade until he heard loud claps from behind him.
He turned to see a tall, long red-haired man, with dimples in his cheeks and a wide grin with perfect white teeth behind him. The man wore a long robe that was black with gold trimmings. But, the man's eyes are what caused Natsu to be on guard. They were a dark purple, like the night, and were sharp and held some happiness as the man had watched the killing.
"Bene Factum! Well done!"The man had yelled in a language Natsu didn't recognise or understand, but he could guess that it meant 'well done' in another language. "My name is Adrian Belldon. I've been sent here to kill the girl, but that's already done. So I'll kill you next!"
Jellal and Erza left Natsu behind.
They didn't want to, but they had to. Erza and Jellal had a lack of information about how Lucy was, or how bad her injuries were, and so Erza had prioritised that over having to fight with Natsu.
Jellal had masked their scent to make sure that, if that beast had any friends with it, they wouldn't be able to follow them. While Erza was on guard holding her double edge sword that had been gifted to her by a warrior that saved her life when she was younger.
She clutched the sword, turning her knuckles white.
"She is going to be okay, Erza," Jellal said in a rough voice, his black cape flapping behind him. "Just focus on the task ahead, I'll take care of everything else. I promise you this."
Erza nodded, her cheeks turning red for a short amount of time, releasing her intense grip on the handle of her sword by a fraction.
The two broke through into a clearing, where they saw a huge blue panther striking at people clothed in black around them. The beast stayed close to Lucy, swiping at anyone who tried to attack her body.
Erza and Jellal nodded to each other. There were about six or seven of these people clothed in all black, most likely assassins, and there were three of them.
The two snuck up behind two of the unsuspecting assassins, while Erza only knocked out the one she had chosen to take down, Jellal took a more brutal approach, but one that would benefit them.
He had used his dark magic to project hallucinations in the eyes of the assassin, causing the killer to think that there were enemies in place of his fellow assassins. This caused the assassin to go berserk, taking out his weapons and attacking one of the unknowing assassins.
"What are you doing?" The other assassin yelled in surprise as the berserk assassin attack them, "There are others here! Get them!"
Erza readied her sword, as did Jellal, and they bother headed into the thick of the battle. Erza deflected one of the blows of an assassin who had jumped towards her, sending the killer back. They stumbled on their feet a little, but swiftly caught their balance.
Happy kept on protecting Lucy's unresponsive body, swiping this way and that way. Only ever managing to scratch his opponents, because of his defensive position.
"Blue panther thing, I don't know your name, but switch!" Jellal ordered while yelling, jumping up into the air to switch places with Happy.
Happy was unable to respond back because he wasn't at a rank where he could talk to others. He merely growled and dived onto an assassin that tried to catch Jellal, sinking his teeth into the killer's neck.
Jellal's choice in weapons were slightly peculiar, he had a long silver chain, like the ones used to tie around prisoners hands, with a black sickle head attached to the end.
Jellal held onto the chain near to the sickle head, deciding that he'd only used half the chain for these close quarters combat. The sickle dropped to the floor but didn't stay there for long as Jellal picked it up. He spun around and chucked it towards one of the assassins.
The assassin was too awe-struck to move, and when he finally came around, he only had enough time to side step and lost his right arm in the process.
Jellal turned his body to the left and pulled the chain to the left also. The chain began to wrap around the assassin, who tried to comprehend what was happening but couldn't.
After the chain wrapped around several times, the sickle pierced through the assassin's stomach.
Jellal tugged the chain to the right, unwrapping it from around the dead assassin.
He looked around to see that all the killers were dead and that he, Erza and the blue panther were the only ones still standing.
"Jellal, help Lucy." She ordered, watching as Jellal dropped down to his knees and began looking for any fatal wounds.
The only dangerous wound he found was a large gash on the front of her head, which was easily treated with the ointment that the head of their school had given them. It allowed deeps wounds, that would take weeks to heal, to recover within hours.
"Natsu should have been here by now," Was the only thing Erza said before the three began to make sure Lucy was as comfortable as possible.
"What the hell do you want?" A low growl that was Natsu voice echoed around the forest.
The crazy looking Assassin named Adrian still had a creepy, broad smile on his face. He reminded Natsu a little of one of the people that worked with Gildarts called 'Clown'. He was given that name for a good reason.
Much like Clown, Adrian had a pale face and red lips, and both of their hair was slicked back and long. Clowns was a lot more elegant than crazy and weren't a blood red but more of a dark brown.
"I've already said, I'm here to kill you," Adrian took three of the knives from his belt, juggling them around like a mad man. "I've had a bone to pick with your father, Gilarts, for quite some time. He gave me a nasty scar."
Adrian pulled away a cloak, which gave Natsu a clear view on a violent scar that ran down Adrian's face like a river. The stream travelled down his body rapidly, until the scar faded into his body.
"I've always wanted..." Adrian licked his lips, then licked the tip of his knife, "To kill everyone close to him!"
With a maniacal laugh, he began to throw the knives towards Natsu, who quickly turned on his heels and used his sword to block them. Natsu didn't think about any plan. Instead, he charged forward, still deflecting the knives thrown his way.
"Let's dance, my puppet!" Adrian yelled, running towards Natsu, which stopped the barrage of knives being hurtled towards Natsu.
Natsu took a swing for Adrian, but the red-haired man gracefully dodged and leapt behind Natsu. The Adrian threw a knife towards Natsu back. But he side stepped, and the knife was an inch away from grazing his skin.
"I don't dance, and I am not a puppet!" Natsu took another swing, but this time he fainted the attack and made it look like he was turning to the left, but he used wind magic to speed himself to the right and jumped behind Adrian and took a swing towards his back.
There was a whoosh of air that caught Natsu in the face, his eyes widen, and his back becomes straighter than the edge of a blade.
Adrian had turned around in half a second and stopped Natsu blade with the sole of his boot. Natsu tried to force his way through but he couldn't, and when Adrian pushed back, Dezeus went soaring through the sky, planting itself in the ground.
Adrian took his palm and shoved it into Natsu chest. He crashed into a tree. His head felt light, but he shook it off and tried to make a run for his sword.
If I can get there... I need to get there... Come on, body! Move and get there! Natsu yelled at himself internally as he tried to run as fast as he could.
"Come on-!" Natsu felt two feet on his back, and he felt his body crash into the floor.
"There is a difference between you and me, puer." Adrian pressed his heel into Natsu's spine, "One of us, I won't say which one, has a higher rank and more experience than the other. That's why... you died."
Natsu felt a sharp pain come from his back, making its way slowly through his skin, past his ribs, past his lungs, barely grazing his heart, and threw into the ground. Then he felt the pressure stop.
He coughed up a hefty amount of blood onto the grass.
"Tell me a story, puer," Adrian chided, sitting near Natsu's face, "Make it a good one."
"I'll... kill you." Natsu coughed up more blood, his voice was no longer strong, but in fact was extremely hoarse and weak, he felt like his world was caving in around him.
Natsu placed his hands on the floor, listening as Adrian spoke, "Next I'll kill your precious little friends you care about so much, the ones that were here with you. Then maybe..."
Adrian had a sinister laugh, and a grin that spread wide across his face, "I'll deflower that blonde girl's body."
"Don't... touch... Luce," Natsu breathed out, pushing himself up.
Now he was on his knees, looking at Adrian straight in the eyes, he grabbed the point of the sword and began pushing it back out his body. Screaming in agony as he did so.
"If you... touch... my friends. I will..." Natsu felt himself collapsing again, he felt his eyes become dark and his body give way from underneath him. "Kill you..."
"You're weak, Natsu. How do you expect to protect anyone with the weakness you hold within you. You refuse to remember anything about who you really are, who Igneel taught you who you really are." A voice said inside Natsu's head, he saw himself. Only as a young child. "Let me remind you."
"Natsu!" Igneel yelled out to the small pink-haired boy, who scratched at the wall with his fingers. "Snap out of it!"
Igneel turned Natsu around, only to find that his son's onyx eyes had become red and that there were scales cascading down his face. Amongst all his hair there were two small horns growing, but not enough to protrude.
"I taught you to control this, don't let it control you!" Igneel flicked Natsu in the head, causing Natsu to flinch backwards but then snarl.
He lunged forwards, his hand turning into scales and sharp claws replacing his finger nails. He reached out and stabbed Igneel through the leg.
Only then did Natsu return to his senses and quickly change from that form to his human one, consoling himself. Igneel had already begun healing, but that didn't stop him from flicking Natsu on the head, once again.
"This is who you are, son, and there's only a matter of time to how long you can forget about who you are."
Natsu's eyes opened, not black, but red.
Slowly scales started forming on his skin, and wings sprouted from his back. They looked like angel wings but burnt and had a dragon like texture to them. His horns were now larger and came at least five centimetres above his head.
Natsu pushed out the sword and looked at Adrian who still had his eyes closed in a tree. Natsu didn't know how long he had been unconscious for, but it had been awhile as the sky was now golden and not orange.
He set his hands on fire, and then pinched his wound closed and burned it, melting the skin to make a scar.
Adrian opened one eye and watched as Natsu looked at him dead in the eye.
"What rank did you say you were, Adrian?" Natsu's voice hadn't changed.
"Eighth rank." Adrian gulped, sweat now starting to form on his head.
In front of him was a man, that had raised from the dead, to become a beast. This must only be a sign that hell will rain upon the earth for there to be such a monster...