Chapter 7: The Ways of Fighting

Three Months Later, Wendy Age 13

Gathering the wind around her hands, she launched herself forward with a whirlwind spiraling out around her feet. Her opponent continued to stand still across from her, unmoving as the smaller girl charged forward. His large coat rustled in the wind but remained steady on his shoulders.

The trees shook and rustled as the wind continued to bluster around the forest. Leaves, branches, and twigs flew about the clearing, but didn't affect the two combatants. The closer she got to the man, the faster the wind moved. And while feeling the usual ache in her bones, she had gotten used to the pain by now, and the results of the training were finally beginning to show. She was able to move faster than ever before, hit harder than she had been able to, and had steadily grown more determined to progress to the next stage.

It only took half a second for Wendy to finally reach him, and once she was in range she let loose a barrage of punches and kicks. While he had managed to successfully block every one of her strikes, it didn't deter her. She had quickly learned that it would take more than just basic punches and kicks to break through his defenses. Although there was one noticeable difference from their fights a few months ago.

Before, Laxus didn't even have to move from his spot to block or dodge any of her strikes, but now, she found that every so often he would have to take a step or bend his body in an unusual way to ensure she wouldn't hit him. Focusing her thoughts back onto the fight, she quickly pushed herself away from the man using the winds.

Her feet slid across the ground as she came to a halt while letting the wind swirling around her feet slow and brought her hands up closer to her mouth. Puffing up her cheeks, she glared in the direction of the man who had brought his hands up in front of his body.

"Sky Dragon's Roar!" she shouted as a tornado spewed out of her mouth. The condensed wind shot across the clearing at record speeds, and the man only had a moment before the attack was upon him. Putting his hands up he, pushed back against the attack, but just as he had started to notice a few weeks ago, he was slowly being pushed back. Planting his feet firmly into the ground, he continued to hold his arms up to repel the attack.

Feeling the attack dwindling down, he started to relax his guard. Squinting his eyes to see through the condensed air, he calmly waited for his opponent to make herself visible again. But to his surprise, before the attack had fully dissipated, the girl burst through the tail end of the attack, with the wind still swirling violently around her feet.

Swinging her foot up above his head, she smirked when she noticed the surprised expression on his face. "Sky Dragon's Talon!" she roared as she brought her foot down on top of the man's head. With the wind aiding the attack, she moved so fast that it was nearly impossible for someone to track it and thinking she had landed the hit the small smirk on her face grew.

But to her disbelief her foot never connected with his head, and as she managed to get a better look through the winds swirling violently around the two, she noticed he had crossed both of his arms above his head to block the attack. This moment of hesitation on her part gave Laxus more than enough time to wrap his hands around her ankle and fling the girl to the ground.

Wendy's back slammed into the ground with a thud. Spit flew from her mouth as she gasped for air. Rolling over to her side, she slowly pushed herself onto her hands and knees before looking back at her opponent. He remained in the same spot, unmoving as always, but there was one key difference from all their previous fights.

A smile was stretched across Laxus' face, which was something she had never seen during one of their fights before. Grunting as she pushed herself back up to her feet, she let her arms fall limp by her side as she turned to face him once again. Taking a deep breath, she began to feel around for the wind twisting and flowing throughout the clearing.

A frown quickly replaced the smile on Laxus' face as he now glared down at the girl across from him. She had slowly begun sucking the air into her mouth and he knew that she had something planned. He just needed to figure out what that was. Crossing his arms over his chest, he planted his feet into the ground and waited. She had caught him slightly off guard with that last attack and he wouldn't be falling for something like that again.

After a moment, the air swirling around Wendy's mouth slowed before dissipating completely. Breathing softly, she lifted her arms up on each side as two magic circles appeared on each hand.

"Enchant, Arms. Vernier." she chanted as the circles began to glow. Her body began to feel lighter than normal, as she felt the Arms enchantment wrap around her hands.

Taking a small step back with her right foot, she bent forward slightly as two spheres of wind formed around each of her hands. Closing her eyes, she took one last deep breath before looking at the man with determination etched across her face. Launching herself at her opponent she moved faster than she ever had before, leaving a trail of dust and wind in her wake.

Laxus barely had time to blink before the girl was upon him with a ferocious scream. She swung her wind covered fist down at his face and he quickly raised his arm to block. To his surprise, the attack forced him to take a step back, as he felt a searing pain flare up on his arm. Although he didn't have time to dwell on it as he raised his hand to block Wendy's other fist.

Once again, he felt the same pain erupt on this arm, and he knew that she had finally managed to hit him with the power he had been waiting for. Taking another step back, he repeatedly raised his arms to block the onslaught of attacks from the girl. And in between the bursts of wind colliding with his forearm, he was finally able to notice the small trails of blood dripping down his arms.

Smirking to himself, he decided that it was time to end the fight and when the next attack came he quickly grabbed the girl's arm before pinning her down to the ground. Wendy continued to thrash around and fight back against his grip for a moment before finally giving in and relaxing her body. Once he noticed she was calm, he let go of her wrists before taking a step back and looking down at his own arms.

The cuts weren't deep, but they were always in a pair of two or three. And some had done more damage than others, with small trails of blood sliding down from the end of a few of the cuts. A small groan from the girl tore is attention away from his arms and when he looked back over at the girl, he finally got a good look at the destruction they had caused.

Leaves and sticks lay all over the clearing, and a few of the smaller trees on the edge of the clearing had either been uprooted by the winds or had been chopped clean in half. Their campsite was in complete shambles, with their belongings ending up in completely random spots within the forest and clearing.

Sighing to himself, he ignored the state of the clearing for the time being and chose to focus on Wendy, who still lay on the ground. Even though she hadn't been hit at all during the fight, her appearance had taken a toll during the fight as well. Her long hair had seen better days, and there were quite a few tears in her clothes.

Laxus opted to wait in silence for the girl to catch her breath before starting to speak. She had done well over the past few months and the training had really begun to show. Up until these past two weeks, she had not been able to get close enough to hit him, let alone actually cut him. And with these last few fights, she had begun to show that she can last long enough before needing to stop.

It only took a few more moments, but eventually the girl pulled herself up onto her hands and knees. She kept her eyes closed as she faced the ground, but he could see the frown stretched across her face. Now that she held her head up, he couldn't help but notice that she was in an even worse state than he thought.

Her hair had a few leaves and twigs sticking out of it and it stuck out in random directions. The back of her shirt had been completely ripped open, and there were cuts and scratches along her back. Looking down at her foot, he could see a small patch of purple spread across her heel. Although when he noticed this, he looked down at his arms to see a light bruise on them as well. She must have hit him much harder than he initially thought.

Letting out a light chuckle, he took a small step back and crossed his arms over his chest. His long, black coat rustled slightly in the breeze as he continued to stare down at the motionless girl. He heard her take a deep breath before finally pushing herself up and getting back onto her feet, although she stood leaning slightly to one side to relieve some of the pain on her bruised foot. She had once again opened her eyes and had taken to glaring down at the ground.

Raising an eyebrow, he watched the girl continue to glare at the ground. Eventually, growing tired at the lack of words from the girl, he decided to speak up. "What's your problem?" Wendy shot up as her head whipped to look at him. She looked at him with wide, brown eyes but remained silent.

Laxus sighed as he ran a hand down his face. While the smaller dragon slayer had grown on him during these past few months, the one thing that drove him crazy was the lack of words from the girl. If he hadn't heard her speak before, he would've thought she was a mute.

"What's your problem?" he repeated, watching as the frown on her face grew and she clasped her hands together in front of her. "I'm sure that the ground did nothing to deserve that glare."

A flurry of emotions flashed across the bluenette's face as she opened and closed her mouth a few times. A blush appeared across her face as she stopped and took a breath to calm herself. All the while, Laxus had just watched the girl in slight amusement. It was clear that she was unsure of how to express her thoughts, which resulted in this.

"Whatever you need to say, just say it." The girl shifted her gaze back up to the man as she opened her mouth once again. "I've been training for three months," she started, and Laxus waited patiently as she took a breath before speaking once again. "It has been three months and I still can't even land a hit on you. I'll never become strong enough to defeat you at this rate."

Wendy let out a shaky breath and she felt tears beginning to build up in her eyes. "If I can't become strong enough to protect anyone, how am I supposed to keep my promise?" Bringing her hands up, she rubbed at her eyes furiously to remove the tears. Sniffing, she let her hands fall back down before speaking once more.

"I-If I can't keep my promise, th-then what is the point of training anymore?" She reached up and grasped the edge of the scarf tightly. A single tear slid down the right side of her face, and as she stared down at the scaley, white scarf in her hand, the memories came flooding back.

Natsu's final moments, watching him say goodbye to everyone before finally turning to her, asking her to make him a promise. Watching the tears slide down his cheeks as he turned away, so she wouldn't see. Even in his final moments, he had wanted to act strong in front of her. And when she turned to run, the increase in power she felt emanating from the mage had been overwhelming.

She was knocked out of her thoughts when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Blinking her eyes a few times to be rid of the tears, she slowly looked up to see Laxus standing above her with a serious look on his face. "Stop crying," he started, not removing his hand from her shoulder. "You have cried enough. Would Natsu want you crying over something like this?"

Shifting her gaze back down to the scarf still wrapped tightly in her hand, she took a deep, shuddering breath as she shook her head. She felt the man pat her shoulder once more but decided to keep her gaze down. "And besides, you have improved a lot since we started."

The frown deepened on her face as she heard these words. He had told her before that she had been improving, but there was nothing to show for it. For three months she had trained, and she still couldn't land a single hit. She hadn't even been able to give him any cuts or bruises. Even though she was the only one to attack, she was always the one who ended up with the cuts and bruises.

Shaking her head again, she took a small step back and let Laxus' hand fall back by his side. "I am just too weak." she whispered as the tears started to build up once again. Her lower lip started to tremble as she struggled to keep the tears from falling. "W-Why would y-you waste your time training s-someone like me?" she stuttered, distress evident in her voice.

"I'm not s-strong like many others in the guild, and I-" Two hands being grabbing onto her shoulders interrupted her words. She let her grip around the scarf go slack as her watery brown eyes stared into his fierce grey ones. There was a deep frown across his face as he narrowed his eyes at the girl.

"I don't want to hear another word." he spoke fiercely. "I didn't go to any of the other guild members and offer to train them, now did I?" Wendy hesitated at the question before slowly shaking her head. "Have I spent the past three months training anyone but you?" Another shake. "Do you think I would spend three months training someone if I thought they didn't have potential?"

As Wendy shook her head for a third time, she opened her mouth to speak but was stopped by the man raising his hand. "I wasn't finished yet." Removing his hands from her shoulders he brought his arms up in front of her face before showing her the cuts and bruises. "You say you aren't strong enough." he began, twisting his arms so she could see all around them. "Not everyone can say they have managed to cut me. And dragon slayers are notoriously hard to bruise."

Dropping his arms once again, he looked into the wide eyes of the sky mage. "You are strong Wendy. Stronger than many other mages alive already. You still have many years of growing to do, and seeing how strong you are now, who knows how strong you will be in just a few years." Leaning back, he noticed the tears slowly starting to dissipate within the girl's eyes.

"Now, no more crying. We need to pick this place up." As he noticed the tears finally disappear and the sad look disappear from the girl's face, a small smile appeared on his own. He had never been the emotional type and was generally the last person you would go to if you needed comforting, and so he was relieved to see that he was able to cheer her up.

Turning away to start picking up the mess, he suddenly felt a force slam against his lower back and two small arms wrap around his waist. Turning his head to look back, he found Wendy with her head buried in his back and her arms wrapped tightly around him. Although since she was so small, her arms couldn't completely wrap around him.

"Thank you." she whispered, and if it weren't for his enhanced hearing, he was sure that he wouldn't have heard it. Reaching his arm back, he gently placed it on her back. "No problem."

They stayed like that for only a moment longer before Wendy took a few steps back and looked away with a small blush spread across her face. There was a moment of silence between the two before Laxus turned away once again and bent over to pick up one of their bedrolls. "Let's get this place cleaned up. I'm starving and want to make some dinner."

Laxus sighed as he sat beside the campfire, watching the flames rise and fall, with small embers flying up into the night sky. Wendy was asleep on the opposite side of the fire, as the fight they had earlier in the day clearly took a lot out of her. But he knew she wouldn't sleep long, she never really did.

She didn't know, but he knew about the nightmares. He had noticed it on the first day of training but had chosen to remain quiet about it. If she didn't want to talk about it, then he wouldn't bring it up. Although the one thing that he noticed, and had become slightly worried about, was the fact that the amount of time she slept each night seemed to be getting shorter and shorter.

Even though he wasn't entirely sure, he couldn't help but think that her increasing lack of sleep had something to do with what had happened after their fight earlier in the day. Nothing like that had happened before throughout the three months they had been together. While it had probably been the largest amount of words he had ever heard her speak, he wasn't sure if he should take that as a positive or negative.

Not to mention the complete change in attitude during the fight. In the beginning, he had seen the determined look on her face. She had come at him with more power than he had ever seen the girl use before and had even managed to catch him off guard for a moment. But as soon as he declared the fight to be over, she had taken to beating herself up over not being able to do more. She had gone from determined to distraught within a few seconds.

And these changes all revolved around one central issue. That promise. The one promise that Natsu made the poor girl swear to right before he ran off and got himself killed. Laxus clenched his fist tightly as he thought about the fire mage. He wished that he would be able to see the pink-haired teen again, just so that he could beat the life out of him for making Wendy agree to such a ridiculous promise.

Narrowing his eyes as he stared in the flames, a frown appeared on his face. With the night sky hanging over head, the flames reflecting in his eyes gave him a terrifying look. He wasn't entirely sure what had happened today, but he knew that there was more to it. And he had a feeling that whatever it meant, it was only going to get worse from here.

Edited 8/27/18

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