Author's Note:
Alrighty! Here we are! A brand new chapter, as promised!
Right off the bat, let me say that everyone seemed very happy with the new review policy, so it's going into effect now! In case you missed the notice last chapter, from now on, if I get ten reviews before Wednesday, then an extra chapter will be posted on Wednesday, and you get TWO chapters that week! Otherwise, I will always be posting on the weekends for the normal chapter update. :D
Now, as always, big, huge, magnificent, wonderful, joyous thanks to all my lovely fantastic reviewers out there. You are all amazing! Big hugs and kisses to my repeat reviewers: Elphaba818, mumof4, WisdomDragon27, TheOGFTfanatic, moeruhoshi, Donthedarkdragon26, valerioux, TheJSmooth, ravenqueen162, Leomae2.0, Wolves silver wind, RavenShadow, dihan, and FantasyDreamer06. And equally big hugs and kisses to my newest reviewers: Shadowslayer15 and FairyTailBookworm. You are all amazing and wonderful!
And finally! On with the show! Be sure to stay tuned till the end for a sneak peek of next chapter!
The next room was just a long hall.
Of course, the arrows that were shot at them from the opposite end made it slightly less than pleasant.
That was no problem for Natsu though, because all he had to do was blast flames at them and they fell into a pile of ashes on the ground. Unfortunately, they were shot continuously, so he had to keep blowing fire nonstop as the two of them made their way through the hall. Most of the projectiles were burned up, but a few managed to sneak past the fire through sheer repetition of shots. Natsu had to breathe sometime. He couldn't keep up a constant stream of fire forever.
Of course he covered his front in scales to guard himself, and any arrows that snuck through his fire just bounced off him. Since he had shoved her behind him to act as her shield, she didn't get poked either…at least not until they reached the middle of the hall and suddenly arrows started firing from both sides and behind as well. At that point all bets were off, and even Natsu couldn't completely get them all.
Several pierced his sides and back before he got his scales up – particularly since he wasn't entirely focused on protecting himself. Instead, he had spun around and snapped his wings out to wrap around Lucy. Just spreading his wings had knocked all the arrows back with a gust of wind, but they just kept coming. With his fire, wings, and scales, he did his very best to protect her as they made a mad dash towards the exit. Even so, some still snuck through to cut at them with glancing blows that left gashes.
When they finally managed to get past all the projectiles and escaped the hallway into the next room, both had to pull some arrows out of themselves.
"Ow…" Lucy hissed as she yanked one out of her bicep that had hit before Natsu could wrap his wings around her. Thankfully it hadn't severed or punctured anything important to the use of her arm, but it still left a decent hole and hurt like the devil.
"Sorry Luce…"
"It's not your fault. There were too many to get them all."
He grumbled something and obviously still wasn't happy about it.
Natsu had a lot more actually in him than her, especially in his arms and back and legs, though thankfully they hadn't gone too deep with his tough skin. As she watched him yank one out of his shoulder she winced, then averted her eyes to focus on her own wounds. She simply couldn't watch him removing any more arrows.
Most of hers were just nicks and scraps where an arrow slid past, thought there were a few deeper gashes here and there. The only arrow that had actually stuck was the one in her bicep, which she'd already dealt with and tied off with a strip of cloth ripped from her shirt. However, there was one other injury that worried her. When the arrows had shot from behind, one had hit her inner thigh and nicked her femoral artery pretty good, and that one just wouldn't stop bleeding. All her other cuts were already starting to ooze to a stop – aside from her arm, but even it was slowing down under pressure – but the one on her thigh just kept steadily trickling blood down her leg. It was a pretty decent gash, and she knew that if she left it unattended she could slowly bleed out.
As much as she hated to suggest it, there was really only one solution she could think of. "Hey Natsu? I think one nicked an artery, and it won't stop bleeding."
When his head shot up and he looked at her, she pointed at the cut on her inner thigh. He crawled over, since they were both sitting, and took a look – which was a bit awkward given the placement of it.
"Ouch…" he hissed as he took in the sight of her blood still steadily pumping out. It wasn't gushing, but it was definitely bleeding too heavily to ignore.
"Yeah…I mean, I know it's not super deep, but if it keeps bleeding like this I'm gonna run into some problems in a couple of hours."
He nodded, also looking concerned. "Okay…well…any idea on how to stop it?"
"I think…I think you should cauterize it."
"Say what?!" he yelped and jerked back. "I do not want to burn you Lucy!"
"But it's not like you're doing it to hurt me! You're just closing my wound!"
"It'll still hurt though…"
"I know, but we don't really have a choice. I could tie something around it, like a bandage, but if we have to do any more fighting, it's going to bleed through pretty quickly."
With a sigh and a thorough head scratch, he leaned back towards her again. "Alright…fine. I guess. But I still don't like it."
He lit one finger on fire and gingerly laid it over the cut. Lucy tensed, expecting a great deal of pain, only to relax a moment later when she felt none. Her eyes – which had scrunched closed of their own accord – opened and stared in surprise. She could feel his finger touching her, and the heat of the flames, but it didn't hurt. Not really. It stung a little, but it wasn't like the burning pain you would get from being … well … burned. Still, it was really, really, really hot despite not hurting, and so it was uncomfortable.
When he took his finger away, the skin was closed and slightly shiny and red, but still didn't hurt. It also didn't really look like a burn, and it didn't feel like a burn either when she poked it lightly – which was all incredibly surprising to her. Still, she didn't really feel like pondering it for too long … they still had to rescue Juvia.
"Thanks Natsu." she sighed and stood.
"Sure. I hope it didn't hurt too bad."
"Actually, it barely hurt at all. Mostly it was just uncomfortably hot. And it doesn't hurt after either. You must have used a really weak flame, huh?"
He just stared at her, as if in shock.
"What?"
"Oh, uh, nothing. I'm just glad you're alright." he hurried to say, but Lucy could tell that he was hiding something. She didn't press the issue right now though, because they had stuff to do.
As they turned to inspect the room they now found themselves in, they realized that it was basically a dead end…with two doors. The bottom of Lucy's stomach dropped out. Undoubtedly, this was going to be exactly the same sort of thing that happened back in the first room, where they were all forced to split up.
"Well…crap…" she muttered under her breath.
For once Natsu didn't have anything to say at all. He just glared at the two doors with enough heat that they should probably burst into flames.
"You know what this means right?"
"No way. We ain't playing that stupid game."
"It doesn't look like we'll have a choice. Unless…" an idea came to her. "What if I go through the door, then you pop through the celestial realm and reappear on the other side of the door?"
A broad grin appeared on his face and he agreed with a vigorous nod. "Way to cheat Luce!"
She grinned back, and then took a deep breath before going through the first door. Expectedly, it slammed closed behind her. "Alright Natsu!"
There was a pause, and then he cussed. "It's not working Luce! I can't close my gate to return!"
"What?!"
A jerk of fear tugged her heart, and she quickly snatched up his key and tried to do it herself. "Close! Gate of the Fire Dragon!"
Sure enough, she felt the gate twitch, but nothing more. It was as if there was a magical door stopper jammed into it, holding it open. "What the…this didn't happen with Taurus or Scorpio, so why is it happening with you?" she called through the door.
"Maybe cause I'm a 'contestant' in this stupid thing?"
She felt like face palming. Of course. It made complete sense.
"Well now what?"
"I'll wait here until you come back."
After a moment of thought, she shook her head. "No. How about you just go through your door? It's best if we hurry. The faster we can get through, the faster we can get out of here. And after you've completed your section, maybe it'll let you double back through my door to give me back up if I need it."
There was a long pause, and then she could hear his enormous sigh from the other side of the door. "Fine. I guess. Don't get yourself hurt."
"Not planning on it."
So saying, she turned around and strode down the dark hall she now found herself in. Despite wanting to pussyfoot around and creep forwards at a snail's pace out of nerves and discomfort, she walked quickly and with purpose. This place and these despicable people were not going to cow her.
Once she reached the end of the hall, she exited into a dark forest and blinked in shock, wondering if she had exited the building entirely. When she looked up though, the ceiling was made of tall stone arches like a huge cathedral, instead of the sky, and she knew that she was still in this increasingly crazy place.
Despite the ceiling, it truly looked like a forest, one that was dim and misty and really creepy. It was exactly the sort of setting for a horror film, and she grimaced, thinking to herself that this would be the part in the movie where she would be yelling at the heroin to turn around and get the heck out of dodge. Wishing she could follow her own advice, she stepped into the woods and was almost instantly swallowed by them. The walls disappeared, and no matter how she wandered, she couldn't seem to find them again. There was absolutely no way to orient herself, and she quickly became lost.
After wandering around for a while, the sound of a low growl made her freeze in place as cold shivers skittered down her spine. She'd known it was too good to be true that this was merely a maze. Of course there had to be some sort of monster to avoid as well.
Turning slowly, she saw a pair of glowing amber eyes peer out at her from the trees. And then another pair blinked open… and then another. And another. And another. Before she knew what was going on, she was surrounded by glowing eyes.
Terror assaulted her senses and a cold wave of paralysis tempted her to freeze in place. Instead she eased her hand down to her keys and fingered them, waiting to see what she was dealing with before picking what spirit to summon.
Slowly, the first pair of eyes grew closer, and then out of the trees an enormous wolf prowled, similar to the ones she had released from their cells. This one was larger though, and pure white, with bright red markings that were obviously not of this world. There were streaks around its eyes like eyeliner, and a second set of lines crawled up over its cheeks and slid down the length of its nose. A spiraled circle of red adorned its forehead and a line from that continued up between its ears. Spirals that looked almost like red tribal flames adorned its shoulders and hips and streaked its tail. Smaller versions of the markings embellished behind its wrists and ankles, where tufts of wing-like fur resided.
It was absolutely magnificent, but Lucy could hardly appreciate the beauty of this creature, because following the first – ten, then twenty, then thirty more came. They were all different colors and possessed the strange markings, but none were as magnificent or quite as large as the first, who was obviously the alpha. All of them were much larger than normal wolves – almost the size of deer or small horses – and Lucy found herself facing off with at least thirty of them.
"Get her," the alpha said in a deep feminine voice, and Lucy jerked, shocked that she could speak.
She didn't have time to be too surprised though, because she suddenly had to run. Yanking her whip out with one hand, she fended them off with pops to the muzzle whenever they tried to bite her. This close, she could feel the undeniable magic coming from them and instantly recognized it. The wolves she had freed in the other chamber must have had their magic dampened by the chains they wore, because their magic signatures had been much duller than these – and of course that would make sense, considering that the chains had been keeping them in this world.
They were definitely from the celestial realm, and the confirmation worried her… up until she realized that their magical signature was much closer to Natsu's than her other spirits.
Suddenly she had some hope. Out of all her spirits, only Natsu could easily ignore a direct order from her. She couldn't even close his gate without his permission – a fact which she had discovered once when throwing a temper tantrum after he'd popped in on her changing. If she tried to force his gate shut, she butted up against his magic – which was immense and much more powerful than her own – so if he truly didn't want to go, he wasn't going anywhere. If these were mythic spirits like him, there was a chance she could convince them to leave her alone.
"Woah, wait! I'm sorry for intruding into your space like this, but I have to get by!"
"Nobody passes through this forest. That is our purpose here." said a gunmetal gray wolf with vivid purple markings.
There was something about the way the wolf said it that she didn't like. There was a certain tone in its voice, a note of exhaustion and something else…something that sounded almost rabid and pained. When she looked closer at them, only a few were actually looking at her with sane eyes – at least half were sporting glazed looks and foaming mouths, like the ones that had been chained.
Something here was very wrong.
"Your purpose?" she grunted as she fended off a black and electric blue one with a pop of her whip to its butt, sending it scooting off with its tail tucked.
When two more attacked, she was finally forced to summon someone. Thinking fast, she summoned Leo, and he appeared with a brilliant flash of light as usual.
"Hey there Lucy, long time no see. You should really summon me more often."
"Well, you usually come of your own accord when you miss me." she countered, and he shot her a bright grin.
"True! But all that aside…what exactly do we have here?"
The wolves had backed off for a moment to judge the new threat, and Leo stared back with eyes that were just as calculating.
"These wolves refuse to let me by. But more than that, there's something fishy going on here, and I intend to get to the bottom of it." The last bit was said softly, and Leo's cat ears swiveled to catch her words.
"I understand. I won't hurt them too badly, I'll just keep them off you."
"Thanks."
So saying, Leo knocked the next attacking wolf back with a flash of light. Lucy turned to the nearest sane looking wolf and asked it, "What did your packmate mean by your purpose? Surely you were just summoned here to deal with me right?"
"We're always here…"
Lucy had to absorb that for a second and shared a confused and surprised look with Leo.
"Um…If I'm correct, you're all mythic celestial spirits, right? Shouldn't you be able to come and go as you wish?"
By this point, the attacks from all the sane wolves were starting to taper off, while the ones that seemed to have gone rabid continued fervently.
"And what's up with you guys?" she continued, as one of the rabid wolves attacked and she popped him on the nose.
"Those are the ones who have succumbed to exhaustion. Our mage has wedged open our gate and simultaneously cursed us to stay here. The walls of this room are etched in a webbing of curses that prevent us from leaving and saps our magic to keep us under control. If anyone passes through the door on the other side, another kind of spell will activate that give us pain." the alpha explained.
Lucy was left speechless. "Wha-how…how could your mage do that to you?!"
"It's a punishment. We refused to follow one of her commands, and this is what we received in return."
"So…you're forced to participate in this sick, twisted game? How many people could they possible put through this stupid place anyways?!" Leo asked, sounding disgusted.
"You would be surprised. They call it a 'funhouse' and take great pleasure in causing others pain…plus they always get something out of it. Once defeated, they rob the 'contestants' of anything valuable, then either hold them for ransom or sell them as slaves."
"That's just so wrong..."
Lucy couldn't quite keep herself from tearing up. She hated this, every bit of it, and grew even more determined to take this dark guild down. "My friends and I are here to rescue a guildmate that your guild kidnapped, but I promise to take down the mage who has so horribly abused you. I'll force her to release you."
The alpha cocked her head and stared at her with bottomless eyes. "And why should we trust you?"
At this point Leo stepped forwards. "You can trust her. She saved my life. I had been banished from the celestial realm for two long years before she came along and convinced the Spirit King to reconsider my punishment."
"Leo the Lion. Everyone in the celestial realm heard of what happened. It's good to know that you've been reinstated. And you…" The wolf turned her eyes back to Lucy. "You spoke to the Spirit King and convinced him to return Leo? I'm impressed." After a long pause, she finally sighed. "Very well, perhaps we can trust you. Cease!" At the barked order, the rabid wolves stood down, though it was obvious they didn't want to.
"Come. I will show you the way out."
"Thank you. I promise you won't regret it."
Lucy followed the alpha, and Leo poofed. The white wolf led her all the way through the forest, which didn't take all that long surprisingly. There must have been some sort of spell for confusion in the mist, and it obviously didn't work on the wolves.
Soon they had reached the other side and a door, which Lucy assumed would take her to the next room. As she reached out to open it, she stalled, remembering what the alpha had said would happen to them.
Turning back, she bowed. "I'm so sorry for causing you pain."
The alpha blinked, as if surprised. "We accepted that fact when we chose to trust you. As long as you uphold your promise, the pain is nothing to worry about."
"I understand. Thank you again for showing me the way. I won't let you down. As a celestial mage, I would rather die than break a promise."
And with that, she walked through the door and tried her best to ignore the agonized howls that erupted instantly behind her. They were muffled somewhat by the door, but they still cut into her mind and heart, and she resolved herself to do everything in her power to free them. They didn't deserve this torture.
The door led into yet another dark hallway, which she passed through without wasting any time, and soon she was bursting through the door on the other side. She exited out into a large chamber brightly lit with tall windows. It was absolutely gorgeous really. There were all sorts of plants everywhere in pots, and delicate furniture was scattered around tastefully. It looked like some sort of arbor from a host club – perfect for accommodating fine parties with tea, coffee, and cakes.
The scene was ironically innocuous after going through so much hell.
"What the…what is this?"
"Ah! How lovely! Company at last. It is quite the relief to see you managed to get through all those challenges mostly unharmed. I do hate leftovers."
She stared at the fine gentleman who rose from a chair by the window. He was holding a cup of tea, which he set down gently on its saucer as he stood. His suit was impeccable, and in every way he looked like a wealthy gentleman. Of course, with his slicked back dark hair and finely tailored suite, he could also easily be a mafia boss, which was certainly more in line with everything she had experienced so far.
"I hate your type…" Lucy groaned, already knowing how this was going to play out. The smooth-talking gentleman villains were always the worst. They could be so unpredictable. It was precisely the kind of person who would give you a polite smile as they pulled a trigger.
"Oh my, that's a little rude. Why don't we get to know each other a little better before trading insults? For example, my name is Pierre. What's yours?"
"Lucy. Nice to meet you."
Pierre grinned. "Wonderful. See? That wasn't so hard was it?"
She just rolled her eyes. "Look, we both know how this is going to pan out. You're not going to let me leave, so I have to defeat you in a fight. Why should we trade pleasantries first?"
He sighed. "As you wish."
Wasting no time, her fingers latched onto Taurus's key and she called, "Open! Gate of the Golden Bull! Taurus!"
With a loud, "Moooooo!" Taurus popped into being with a puff of smoke. "Helloooo Miss Luuuucy!"
"Hi Taurus. Sorry to call on you so much today."
"It's no problem, Miss Luuucy. I'm happy to help! Especially if you give me a smooooch!"
"Um, no. Can you take out that guy there for me?"
Taurus eyed the prissy suit and gave a grin. "Of cooourse."
Her minotaur spirit hefted his ax, stomped his hooves, and then charged. Strangely, the man just smiled and sighed. "Too easy."
He snapped his fingers and a hot pink magic circle flashed. Suddenly Taurus came screeching to a halt. He almost seemed to go limp - his shoulders went slack and his fingers dropped his ax. By the heaving of his shoulders, Lucy could see that his breathing had picked up, and she worriedly called out. "Taurus! Are you alright?"
He jerked and then swung around. His eyes were glassy and glazed over, and a little drool was starting to collect on his chin. When he faced her, his nostrils flared, and suddenly he mooed and came at her instead of the enemy.
"Taurus!? What's going on?!" she shrieked, stumbling back.
The answer was quickly presented to her when she got a really good look at his front. A certain bulge in his trousers explained his behavior at least, if not the cause of it. The only possible explanation was that the pink magic circle her opponent had cast made Taurus go bezonko.
"You! You did something didn't you?!" she screeched at Pierre as Taurus managed to knock her off her feet and pinned her to the ground.
"Of course. That should be obvious I would imagine."
"Stuck up son of a…" Lucy grumbled as she strained to reach her key. Taurus got a couple of humps in before she snagged it, but finally she was able to yell, "Close! Gate of the Golden Bull!"
He went poof, and she collapsed back onto the ground for a moment, stunned and traumatized. "Well…let's not do that again…"
"Shan't we? It was quite amusing from my perspective."
Lucy sent Pierre a fierce glare, absolutely infuriated. "You perv! I never would have pegged you to be so twisted, but that was just wrong!"
He chuckled and crossed his legs, sipping on his tea once again. Seeing him sit there, acting utterly unruffled and almost bored, made her blood boil. She scrambled to her feet with a growl. Right next to her was a fountain, and without thinking Lucy grabbed up a new key and plunged it into the water, shouting, "Open! Gate of the Water Bearer! Aquarius!"
Before Aquarius had even fully emerged, Lucy realized that she had made a mistake. If the guy could influence more than just lust, then she might be in some trouble.
"You! I was on a date! How dare you summon me?!" Aquarius raged, glaring at Lucy as usual.
"I'm sorry. But could you please just take that guy out for me? I promise not to summon you again for at least a week."
The mermaid spirit scoffed. "Good grief…"
Before she had even aimed her water at the pompous jackass, he had summoned another circle, this one bright red. She stopped her water-filled vase in mid swing and there was a poignant pause. Then, with a bloodcurdling shriek of pure rage, the fountain exploded, sending Lucy flying. Normally Aquarius would return back to the spirit realm after washing Lucy away, but this time yet another wave of water followed the first, hitting her as she smacked into a nearby tree pot. Lucy coughed, feeling like she was drowning.
The water just kept coming, and so she grabbed Aquarius's key and sputtered, "Close…Gate of the Water Bearer."
Finally, the torrential flood ceased, and Lucy was left to cough up a surprising amount of water that she had apparently aspirated without even realizing it.
"My, my… what a mess. I must insist you clean it up."
"You…jerk…" Lucy coughed, glaring at him through watery eyes.
If only she'd mastered her Urano Metria attack, she might have had a better chance. He probably couldn't influence planets at all. Unfortunately, at the moment, there was just no way she would be able to manage it.
So, she was once again climbing to her feet, and grabbed for another key. This time she actually put some thought into it though. Her best option was Gemini, without a doubt. If she could turn his magic against him, she might be back in business.
"Open! Gate of the Twins! Gemini!"
As they popped into being, she lurched a little, feeling the drain. They took a good amount of power to summon.
"Pirri Pirri!" the twins chirped their usual odd greeting in unison. "What can we do for you today Miss Lucy?"
"Him…can you turn into him?"
They glanced at him. Of course, to turn into him, they would have to touch him, so they immediately flew at him at full speed.
His eyes widened as the two blue haired twins flew at him, and he hurried to make a magic circle. A large ice blue seal appeared in front of him, almost like a shield, and from it came a blast of freezing terror, driving the twins back as they cowered in midair. Even Lucy was driven to her knees.
Too much terror coursed through her body for her to do anything at all. It was like her brain just ceased to function and everything in her shut down. She didn't even notice as Gemini disappeared, driven back to the celestial realm from the sheer amount of fear hitting them. When the oppressive emotion lifted, Lucy was left gasping, with tears streaming down her face.
"Sh-shit…"
A warm hand landed on her shoulder. "Lucy…I'll take it from here."
"L-Leo?"
Sure enough, it was Leo. He was also in his suit and pushed up his sunglasses with a finger while smirking mirthlessly at Pierre. "You'll regret making Lucy cry."
"Wait Leo! He can control a person's emotions, be careful!"
"That's a low trick. I hate dirty scumbags like you."
Without saying anything further, Leo charged, one fist glowing hot like a sun. Pierre summoned a red circle, but that only seemed to fire up Leo even more, and he broke through the magic seal to actually make contact. The fancy-pants suit man was knocked back into the window, which cracked, and his perfect hair became tousled. A bruise rose up on his handsome cheek, and he winced lightly, dabbing some blood off his lip with a handkerchief.
Like heck was Lucy going to let Leo do all her fighting for her, and she dragged herself to her feet – one hand going to her whip and unravelling it.
Pierre neatly dodged Leo's next blow. "So…you can channel rage, and it doesn't make you sloppy. Very well, let's try…"
Another icy circle went up, and Lucy flinched as once again the room filled with frigid terror. This time she was expecting it, so she was able to at least remain standing, but it still made her want to throw up or pass out. Through the terror, she forced herself to walk forwards, staying to the sidelines of the fight so she could get a good shot at him and hopefully give Leo an opening.
Leo was frozen in place for a long moment as one eye squinched closed. A visible shudder worked its way through him, and the light at his fists flickered. Undoubtedly he would have pushed through the fear and attacked, but Lucy was quicker. She had already experienced this unholy terror before, so she was somewhat able to deal with it. Plus, the circle hadn't gotten her full force, and it wasn't as bad as last time.
Edging up to the side, Lucy finally got in range, and she sent her whip snapping forwards, ripping through the circle and cracking across Pierre's face. The force of her whip snapped his head back and knocked him off balance, leaving him open for Leo to land a kick in his chest. He went flying again and hit the wall.
"Nice one Lucy!" Leo called, and she sent him a tired grin.
"Nice one indeed, you make a formidable pair." their opponent said, sounding mildly intrigued as he picked himself off the ground and brushed off his suit as if nothing particularly interesting had happened. There was a long cut across his cheek and nose where her whip had caught him, and his clothes were mussed, but otherwise he seemed fairly untouched.
Before Pierre could make another circle, Leo let loose a ray of blinding light, managing to knock him back once again and temporarily blind him. He gave a shout and covered his eyes, but after the initial grimace, he grinned.
"Clever! Very clever!"
He wasn't smiling for long though, because before his vision returned Lucy snapped her whip tight around his neck, holding him for Leo as he flew forwards with a full-forced attack. Somehow, the smug bastard managed to bring up his arms to block a lot of the impact and only ended up sliding back on the balls of his feet, yanking Lucy's whip from her hands as he did.
The long black bullwhip slithered loose and fell to the ground. Lucy made a mad dash for it, throwing herself to the floor in a running slide and snagging it as she rolled to her knees. When she saw Pierre make a hot pink circle she winced and threw herself to the side again, this time behind a tall plant.
As she dodged, she also shouted a warning to her partner. "Get out of the way Leo!"
This was the one that had sent Taurus into a lusty mess, and she knew just how much of a womanizer Leo was. It might work on him.
Despite her warning, he didn't manage to dodge the hot pink ray of light that flashed from the circle.
As the pink magic hit Leo, he froze in place. Then he started to laugh. "Oh please! Like I would be distracted by that during a fight!"
He blasted Pierre with another beam of light, this one singing his coat a bit and slamming him against a tree with a pretty good amount of force. He just so happened to land relatively close to Lucy, and she darted out from behind her plant to give him a solid Lucy Kick in the face. Unfortunately, somehow he snagged her foot and tossed her back into Leo with a shocking amount of force. The two of them hit the ground in a tangle of limbs.
"Then try this on for size!" An even bigger and darker pink circle went up, double layered with the first in front.
Lucy sucked in her breath and scrambled to escape again, but it still hit them both. Leo had just been standing up as it fired, while Lucy was already on her feet and moving out of the way. So, it smacked right into the middle of Leo, and she got a glancing blow as she scrambled behind the nearest object.
Leo paused in the middle of straightening to his full height and then did an abrupt reversal of movement as he almost doubled up for a moment. "Ah…okay. So…it's not just emotions, but also physical feelings you can manifest…. That's just wonderful." he grunted, sounding pained and out of breath.
She could understand why – that had been a lust spell on steroids, and as he had said, it had a very physical effect. Even though she hadn't taken a full-out hit, it still caused uncomfortable heat to flash through her and settle in the pit of her stomach. The most irritating thing about it was the disgusting stickiness that suddenly appeared between her thighs, and she felt the sudden urge to shove this guy's head in a hole and let Natsu run over him with a fire ball. This was just so wrong on so many levels that she was instantly enraged.
As she stomped out from behind her shield, Leo was just getting himself together. He inhaled deeply and seemed to suck it up, standing up straight. "Well, I can still fight with a raging case of blue ba…uh." He cut himself off, sent Lucy a sideways glance, flushed, and cleared his throat. "Right…"
She didn't bother to address Leo, instead she paid her full and undivided attention to their enemy. "You are the most disgusting pervert I have ever met! What the hell kind of spell is that?! It's downright crude!" she yelled, snapping her whip angrily.
With a subtle gesture and eye contact, she motioned to Leo that she would take the left side, and he nodded. They launched themselves at Pierre with gusto, both of them beyond ticked off.
She coiled her whip around his ankle, yanking his legs out from under him and leaving him vulnerable to Leo's attack. He got a good few punches in before their opponent managed to throw him off, and then when he staggered to his feet Lucy was right there to kick him in the teeth. He was knocked back, only to meet Leo's knee as he shoved it into his tailbone. Then the lion's fist met with the back of Pierre's head, sending him temporarily to his knees.
As he fell forwards the arrogant man twisted, landing on one hand, and threw a leg out backwards, sweeping Leo's legs out from under him. Pierre flipped back onto his feet, sparing a brief second to straighten his jacket, and then held out both hands, one facing Leo and the other Lucy.
"Fine then, if that won't do it, how about this?"
A jagged black circle – shot through with what looked like white lightning – appeared at each hand. Before they could dodge, black and white lightning zapped from the circles and squarely hit both of them.
Leo was still in the process of standing back up and fell to one knee as the lightning hit him. Meanwhile, Lucy doubled over, falling to both knees as she cringed. The spell was pure pain. It felt like every ounce of her body – especially the place where the spell had hit – was burning with agonizing electricity. Every nerve screamed as all her muscles spasmed in shock and pain. Some sort of high pitched noise sounded in the back of her throat, stuck there because her jaw had locked tight in a muscle spasm. Now she knew who had enchanted those levers…it was obviously this guy and his sadistic magic.
"…well, at least that fixed the boner…" Leo grumbled as his body cringed as well, and Lucy couldn't quite help but choke on a laugh.
"Still, I'm perfectly capable of fighting through pain you know."
With a groan, he dragged himself to his feet. Even though his jaw was clenched and he was quivering a little, he still fought back, sending a barrage of light at the emotion/pain mage.
Lucy also somehow managed to fight through the pain and get herself up, but by the time she had steadied herself, she was almost sent back to her knees with relief as Leo broke their opponent's circle and the pain left her body.
Leo also went limp for half a second before catching himself, and Pierre took advantage of their momentarily discombobulation to start forming another circle. Before it could finish, Lucy cracked her whip through it, and her weapon slapped hard across their opponent's chest, sending him staggering back. That gave Leo an opening to send a flying Regulus Kick his way.
Pierre flew back to hit the wall again, but he somehow managed to recover enough to cast a spell from where he was slumped on the ground. Before either of them could get to him, he'd drawn another circle of pain – this one laced with red. It hit them both and they were once again stalled mid-attack, as what felt like pure fire engulfed their bodies from head to toe.
It got a sharp agonized cry from both of them, and as they cringed in pain on the floor she turned to look at him. His tormented expression tore her heart apart, and she felt positively sick as sadness and guilt twisted her insides.
Gritting out between clenched teeth, she groaned, "Leo, go back…. It's okay…"
"No! What will happen to you if I go back?"
She had no response to that, other than to bite her lip and try not to cry. Her heart hurt almost as badly as her body, which was saying a lot considering that she felt like she was being burned from the inside out. Her blood was boiling in her veins, sweat popped up all over her skin, and her vision went blurry.
Still, Lucy knew Leo was going to have to leave soon anyways. Physical exhaustion was sapping at her very low magical reserves, and it was slowly draining her. He might have used his own magic to bring himself here and maintain his presence, but once her magic ran out he would be forced back to the celestial realm. Even with his own magic being used, he still tapped into hers to keep himself tethered.
Only mythic spirits had the ability to stay out after their mage ran out of magic or passed out.
Speaking of mythic spirits, she could feel a hint of warmth bolstering the last dregs of her magic and knew that wherever he was, Natsu was trying to lend her his strength – but it was really hard to do when they were separated like this. It wasn't going to be enough to keep Leo out for too much longer.
Leo knew just as well as she did that his time was limited, and he peeled himself back up from the ground to throw his fists and feet at their opponent. She likewise managed to crawl back to her feet. Their attacks grew fiercer and more desperate, even as they were beaten down time and time again by those magic circles. Their enemy was tiring too, and he was starting to limp and show a good deal of wear and tear – no matter how ridiculously tough he was. But he was wearing down much slower than Lucy.
It was only a matter of time, and eventually she did run out of juice.
Leo began to glow, and it was obvious that he was fighting the tug of his gate with everything he had. She could feel him using up more and more of his power to stay out, and it was draining him at an alarming rate. His attacks grew weaker and weaker until he no longer had the power to do any sort of magic at all and just resorted to pure brute force.
"Just go on Leo. It's fine. I can take it from here." Lucy said with a smile, doing her best to put on a brave face.
Her leonine spirit grimaced and reached for her right as he started disappearing. It was obvious that he didn't want to go, but there wasn't anything either one of them could do to prevent it now. With a final glitter of gold, he vanished, leaving her alone with the sadistic bastard. Pierre was definitely worse for wear, but not nearly as much as her. If it was a one on one fight, she was going to lose, there was no doubt about that. But that didn't mean she wasn't going to fight him with every bit of strength she had left … and possibly make a strategic withdrawal if it came to that.
"Alright…let's do this then." she growled, turning to him and grabbing her whip with both hands, drawing it taut with a little snap.
All she got in response was a polite grin edged in sadistic glee. His true colors were showing now that they had chipped away some of his polished exterior.
She was going to have to be fast, and so – gathering her strength – she darted at him, sending her whip flying. Another of those cursed circles showed up, and she managed to dash behind a nearby tree. She took a detour around several bushes and trees and came out behind him, snapping her whip across his back. He was knocked forwards and she followed him with a kick to his head that send him stumbling even more dramatically. Somehow he kept himself from falling and spun, making another circle aimed at her. Before she could dodge, a shaft of pain slid into her gut, making her stumble and fall. This one was black and gray, and it felt like she'd been stabbed. Every move she made caused new shafts of pain to spear her, as if she was in an iron maiden caught in a net of spears.
It got a scream from her.
Oh it hurt, but she gritted her teeth and somehow staggered back to her feet, with another scream for good measure. Once up, she swayed in place a bit before finding any sort of balance and then eyeballed him with blurry vision. He was just standing there, his hands in his pockets, looking smug and arrogant and so posh that she just wanted to drag him through the mud behind a magic vehicle driven by Erza.
She got some forward momentum going, and once she'd started she couldn't stop, because it would have caused her to fall over again. Her velocity was terminated by shoving her fist into his face, which probably only worked because she somehow took him by surprise. Maybe he wasn't expecting her to just stomp up to him and hit him.
Either way, the punch was relatively weak, but still broke the circle. That didn't really matter though, because he just grabbed onto her wrist and swung her around to smack into a nearby pillar. She hit hard enough to feel her chest compress and have to wheeze for air.
"Well, it was fun. But you look about done."
"I'm…not…"
"Oh really?" he questioned pleasantly.
She managed to crack her whip in the space between them, driving him back as she dove behind the pillar she'd been slammed into. Scrambling like crazy, she beat a hasty retreat, going for her last resort. If she could just stall him long enough, she had to believe that Natsu would come for her.
Sneak Peek
"Natsu!"
At the sound of Happy's voice, he turned and squinted until he found the little blue cat standing in the middle of the room.
"Happy! What are you doing here?!"
He rushed towards the little cat and immediately knelt to pick him up. As he hugged him though, something struck him as very wrong. "Why is your scent so weird?"
Suddenly a sharp pain got him right in the neck, and he jerked back to see Happy wielding a syringe and a devilish smile. "So gullible!"
"You're not Happy!" he exclaimed as he dropped the imposter and staggered back.