Okay, regarding what I said at the end of the chapter (Chapter 2), it depends on the chapter on how long it takes to write. I still have homework to do and such. I happened to luck out. Not because the homework is easy as of right now, but this chapter is really just a battle. The re-writing it is gonna be what takes long, but as long as I blast the Fairy Tail Theme into my ears, it should be easy.
Disclaimers: I do not own Fairy Tail or it's characters.
Claimers: I own my characters.
It had only been an hour since Maemi had returned to the guild. Everyone had filed out of the building after the two mages began to exit. They seemed to have a battleground already picked out in their minds. The Master trotted along, seeming eager about the battle. The older members seemed just as eager, many muttering about how they've never seen Maemi used her magic before.
Lucy was surprised. She had thought that they would all know, and could easily bet who would win. They were all mistified. A few spoke about since they knew Erza's magic, they could bet that Erza might win, and that Maemi's magic may be a fluke. They were doubting their own guildmate? Many argued that they hadn't seen her standing on the S-Class floor before she left. Lucy could only presume that they had joined after the girl left for some mission.
The older members argued to the others that she vowed to never use her magic publicly. She always went on missions on her own. Large or small, she came back nearly the next day. The longest she had been gone was a week, excluding her recent endeavour, and that was only because it was half-way across the region. Lucy listened in the entire time. Natsu and Happy were poking her shoulder constantly while they walked. This Maemi person was interesting. No one knew her magic, and if anyone did, they didn't seem to speak up about it. She seemed to be well known amongst the older members of the guild, but only seemed about the age of 19.
Lucy made a mental note to write about this. It was interesting. "Lucy…" Happy whined, and she glanced at the exceed, not even slightly bothered. "Natsu, she isn't hitting me! Something's wrong!" The blue exceed squeaked.
"Nothing's wrong, you dumb cat. Just thinking about something…" Lucy responded, looking at Maemi. That girl was interesting. She was obviously S-Class, as that's what the older members were saying. She remembered that back then, only S-Class mages could stand on the S-Class floor. No one knew her magic. Additionally, there seemed to be an air of mystery surrounding the girl.
She didn't notice that Natsu was staring at her until she stopped pondering. She glanced at him with a slight annoyed look to her. "What?"
"You're looking at Mae. What'cha thinkin' 'bout her?" Natsu asked. He seemed to draw the conclusion that Lucy was thinking about the girl.
"She seems so mysterious…" Lucy responded, returning her gaze to the girl. The rest of the guild was behind her. It seemed to whole guild wanted to see the battle. "How much of her do you know about?"
"Mae's confusing. She never told us her past, her magic, or anything! All we really know is that she's supposedly strong enough to be an S-Class mage at 12, able to fight Time Magic-using monsters that freeze her in time for 7 years, and that she's a pretty nice person!" Natsu answered. Lucy stared at him. He basically revealed a bit of information; that she had been frozen in time for 7 years. Just like the group that was at Tenrou.
The group included Master Makarov, Erza, Mirajane, Gildarts, Natsu, Gray, Cana, Juvia, Freed, Levy, Happy, Carla, Pantherlily, Gajeel, Lisanna, Elfman, Evergreen, Bickslow, Laxus, Wendy, and herself. All 21 of them were presumed dead for 7 years. This was an odd coincidence.
The group then seemed to stop. Lucy hadn't realized that they were in a large field, Maemi and Erza standing at opposite sides. Everyone began to round out a battle arena. The entire guild had a front row seat basically. Makarov obviously stood, as he wanted to make sure the two were ready. He then sat down.
It was deadly silent. There was a breeze. The excitement was strong, though. The older members, including Natsu, Gray, and everyone else that was there before she left were filled with anticipation. In the corner of her brown eyes, she saw the Thunder God Tribe standing with Laxus in the distance. She watched the lightning mage for a moment.
He seemed confused at first, and she noticed that he had looked at Maemi, and had a realization.
"Erza Scarlet versus Maemi Dyslin!" One of the older members chanted out, informing everyone in case they just wandered here accidentally. It became deadly silent once more. The anticipation was real, and it was intense.
When are they going to start? Lucy asked herself. She had butterflies in her stomach, but mostly from the excitement. It was probably slowing down time. She noticed that Maemi's exceed sat near the Master, just smiling. The exceed had to know her magic, for sure. She seemed confident.
There was movement from both sides, both seeming to charge forwards. Erza was enveloped in white light, indicating that she was Re-Equipping. Everyone wasn't paying attention to Erza, though. Everyone was focused on Maemi, who had some sort of layer around her. It enveloped her body, and had silver-glow to it. Large wings were part of the layer. The layer had a scaly-design, as well as the wings. The wings themselves reminded Lucy of a dragon's. Her hands seemed to resemble dragon claws.
Erza had re-equipped into her Black Wing Armor, her sword for it in hand. They clashed together, sword against claws, before leaping into the air for an aerial battle. The speed of both mages was incredible. As Maemi leaped into the air, everyone noticed as she seemed to have a tail as well.
Everything about this layer around her resembled a dragon. Scales, wings, claws, tail. Lucy looked at the eyes as Maemi turned around to fly forwards. The girl's eyes had lowered, and were in the shape of a dragon's, with pointed pupils. Only one of her eyes remained truly light blue. The other was drifting off to a green, as if something was activated. The two mages charged at each other again, clashing again. Lucy could only capture that Erza was swinging her sword and that Maemi was using her claws to deflect it. It was vice-versa as well. Each hit the claws and sword made, a light spark was seen. Considering the speed of which the sparks were appearing, the battle was fierce. Both were giving it their all.
They interlocked briefly, and then they pushed away at the same time. They landed to the ground. A magic circle appeared before Maemi's mouth, and her left began to glow yellow. "Guardia…" Maemi had began to say something, but she drifted off. Her left eye returned to normal color, and the magic circle appeared more silver now. "Silver Dragon's Roar!" She quickly held her hands up to her mouth, and did the familiar dragon move. It flew towards Erza, who deflected a bit of it.
There were noises of confusion from the guild. Lucy glanced over to look at Natsu, who's face was contorted with confusion. She was a little confused too. Is her magic only Dragon Slaying magic? What was she trying to use only a second ago before the change? Erza seemed to notice the change and didn't move. The aura-like layer around Maemi disappeared, as it seemed she was trying to hide something.
"Mae," Erza began. "You held back on something." Maemi didn't answer, and looked at the ground. "Mae," the woman re-stated, hoping to get a response.
"Mae, what was that magic?" One person asked. "That aura thing?"'
"Yeah, and your eye began to glow yellow! You were gonna start a different attack!" Another added. Lucy glanced at Maemi's exceed. She was no longer smiling, and looking at her friend quietly. "Why'd ya stop?" Lucy noticed that Maemi glanced at the Master.
She could see the emotions flowing in the woman's eyes. She was lost, and unsure about something. The Master stood up and looked Erza in the eyes for a moment, as if sending a message telepathically. She didn't seem to receive it and looked at him in confusion. He looked back at Maemi. The blonde had taken a breath before speaking. "Sorry, everyone. I wasn't ready to show my magic. I panicked."
Erza now spoke. "I may not understand the secrecy, but if you want, we can postpone this duel. I don't want a watered down fight. Though, I must admit, I had no clue you were able to use Dragon Slayer magic. I would like to fight the Maemi Dyslin, the one whose magic is unknown and able to get her to the S-Class rank at a young age. The one who was asked to fight a life-taking monster and destroy it, despite the chances of death."
"Erza," Maemi then began. She took a deep breath in. "I'll fight." Many people seemed relieved that the battle would continue, but didn't know what to expect anymore, after Maemi had used a watered down attack. There was still the sensation of excitement and anticipation, but it was overwhelmed with disappointment.
Erza then gave Maemi a smirk, almost as if mentally telling her something. The woman smirked right back. The excitement of the guild seemed to rise more. Now they were serious. Maemi's mystery aura appeared once more, her eye glowing yellow quickly. The magic circle before her mouth appeared once more, now on a tinier, more condensed scale. Erza, who remained in her Black Wing Armor, flew forwards to Maemi.
"Guardian Dragon's," Maemi began, the magic circle radiating a more blue color. Lucy noted the difference. "Sound Wave!" She yelled into the circle, large sound waves exiting it with great speed. They hit Erza one after another, knocking the scarlet haired knight back. She steadied herself, and flew at a great speed to knock Maemi over with her sword. The blonde flipped back and tried to re-steady herself. Her wings came handy now. Normally, her wings would've only pushed her upwards a bit.
Her wings were fully materialized. There were scales dotting the blonde's body. The wings worked quickly to fly their user up and away. As she flew, her light yellow eye emitted a tail of yellow light behind her. The wings were attached to her. Everyone could see the diffusion of her skin color to the light blue grey color. "Guardian Dragon's Wild Charge!" Maemi flew forwards, the speed of a bullet. Her wings closed around Maemi, and she spun at an incredible speed. A light blue light enveloped her as she sped down, hitting the ground nearby Erza. There was a slight explosion. Dust, dirt, stones, and other earthly materials scattered into the air. Erza had been knocked back but had entered the dust cloud, beginning to swing her sword.
It was a while until someone flew out. Maemi had been knocked out of the dust, bruises appearing on her body. Her wings had disappeared. Many scales remained. Maemi hit the ground, and rolled. As she slowed, Maemi used her arm and hand to push herself back up. Erza had charged out of the dust a bit after she did. Maemi's eyes were unable to be seen, but they flew open. Both were radiating as a brilliant, golden-colored eyes. Her pupils were sharp. "Gādian no negai!" A white aura surrounded Maemi and she charged at Erza at a blinding speed. One left punch, one right punch, back, and forth. Her fists were enveloped in a light blue light, inflicting damage down onto Erza.
Maemi's punches began to halt, as she was tiring from the speedy attack. Erza then hit her back with her sword, seemingly returning each punch with a strike from her sword. Maemi then grabbed onto the blade of the sword, basically interlocking with it. Both sides were equally damaged, despite the fact that one thing was clear. Maemi was based on brute force and Erza was speedy. Erza had managed to get more hits onto Maemi, while Maemi only had a few hits on Erza.
They pushed away once again. The both seemed to fly upwards. They halted at about the same level. Maemi attacked once more with the Wild Charge. Erza just regularly charged with speed forwards. Since the Wild Charge caused an explosion, both females went crashing down from the sky. A small sphere of energy remained in the sky.
The two mages crash landed into the ground. Particles flew up again. The damage had been great to both sides, since Maemi remained while the explosion happened. Many injuries were on the two.
Lucy couldn't really figure out what the girl's magic was. It was obviously some sort of Dragon Slaying magic. There were multiple attacks that were odd out from the regular attacks. So far, that's what everyone knew. She decided to not ask anyone on what they thought so far. What seemed to matter right now, was that there were two female mages absolutely wrecked. A few went to help Erza up, along with Maemi.
The blonde seemed nervous about it, and insisted that she was fine. She seemed to be a bit defensive now. She claimed that all she needed was some rest. She was attempted at standing up, and beckoned Red over. The small exceed made her way over. The exceed activated Aera, and grabbed onto Maemi's back. She flew away with the female. The girl was so mysterious to Lucy, and probably still one to the older members of the guild.
Maemi sighed as she flew away with Red. The exceed was silent for a few minutes. "Mae, you didn't go all out," The exceed commented. Maemi nodded.
"I know I didn't," Maemi responded, looking at the ground.
"Why?" Red asked.
"You know exactly why," the blonde answered. Red sighed and nodded.
"Yeah, I do. But you seemed to promise Erza with a full fledged fight."
"That was my real magic. I wasn't really lying or breaking a promise."
"It was, but it was the far weaker attacks. Why didn't you use your regular attacks?"
"I might've seriously damaged her. She's a good friend of mine, and I'd feel guilty. I know my strength, and I wasn't going to risk it. Plus, the attacks I were using were the ones a regular human can survive. I know mages can endure more, but the next attack was too powerful, even if Erza was in some sort of stronger armor. I gave Erza everything I could've." Red didn't ask anymore questions, and landed near Maemi's home. She needed rest, as when Red looked into Meami's eyes, they had a golden rim around them, and she seemed drained. The sharp pupils remained.
"You silly old dragon. Get some rest. You're gonna go berserk if you don't." Maemi opened the door and closed it as Red entered with her. The door had slammed shut. There was a scream, and a loud thud only seconds later from the house. "Mae!" Red yelped.
I added a few more weaknesses to Maemi's magic. First, she doesn't have the heart to use her too powerful attacks on non-monster creatures. Second, her attacks, after being used, she can't use anything right after, and there's a delay. This allows her enemy to do damage. Finally, no matter what, Maemi will go a bit insane after using it, screaming, and fall unconscious. Her sanity returns to normal when she wakes up. Even if she was talking calmly a moment before, she'll scream and collapse randomly. She's learned to postpone it until a good time.
This chapter was easier to make since it was really just a battle. Battle chapters are more likely to be shorter, since I'm terrible at coming up with how the two characters are gonna fight. I decide the outcome before anything though. The next chapter may come out a bit later in two days, since it's a non-battle chapter.
See ya guys in the next chapter!
R&R! (Seriously, I need to know if you guys like the revised chapters! If they still have that old spark!)
~Strawberrycheezecake~