Chapter 10
The guild watched in amazement as Natsu got redder and redder the longer he hugged Jennifer. Eventually the two broke apart and Natsu was met with the sight of Jennifer's red and puffy eyes from where she had been crying. Grabbing Natsu's hand Jennifer said "come on pyro boy, we need to have a chat...and get those wounds looked at." The moment she mentioned Natsu's injuries a wave of depression washed over her, noticing this Natsu squeezed her hand and softly said, "hey, it's okay, it's my fault for pushing you so far, you haven't done anything wrong." She looked at his face and found a warm, beaming smile directed at her, instantly making her feel better. Gray watched the two leave the arena and head for Wendy, still amazed by what he had seen. In the many years he had known Natsu he'd seen plenty of girls try and flirt with him, but without fail Natsu either didn't notice, didn't understand or didn't care. This was the first time a girl had ever managed to make Natsu blush with flirting and hugs, let alone make his face turn the colour of tomatoes. A few minutes later the arena had repaired itself and Natsu had been healed, but instead of returning to watch the next match he and Jennifer wandered off to talk privately. Lucy wondered if she should postpone the next round until they returned, but decided it might be a better idea to use the match to distract everyone from wanting to be nosy. She stood up, without Cal's hat this time and shouted; "alright everyone, this is the last match before we decide who fights me so let's hope it's a good one. Gajeel, Frank if you'd like to make your way to the arena." They did as asked but on his way the former professor turned and said, "Master if possible would you refer to me as 'Stein'? I've always preferred that to 'Frank'." Lucy nodded with a smile replying "certainly", while Stein positioned himself within the arena. Both Gajeel and Stein stared at each other silently while Lucy activated the field, "ready? 3...2...1...FIGHT!" Gajeel pulled his right fist back like he was going to punch.
Iron Dragon's Iron Rod
Gajeel punched forward and as he did his fist and forearm transformed into a black iron rod, which extended forward at great speed heading straight for Stein's chest. Stein stepped to the side just enough to make Gajeel miss before grabbing the rod.
Mimic: Lightning Dragon's Taser Claw
The lightning electrified the iron causing Gajeel to growl as he was electrocuted. He rapidly retracted the rod and smirked, "now I remember, mimic magic right? I thought that meant you could only mimic what you've seen in a small space of time?" "In many cases that is correct" explained Stein, "more advanced users are able to mimic spells they witnessed days if not weeks previously. I myself am able to mimic spells from up to 9 days ago, however thanks to experimentation I have created a form of archive within my brain, that allows me to store and recall spells I find of particular interest on an indefinite time scale. For example, this spell I witnessed when Death City was attacked by a full fledged Keyshin 2 years ago," he raised his hand and a dark red magic circle appeared.
Mimic: Madness Blast
A sphere of dark red energy formed in the centre of the circle before bursting and firing a beam at Gajeel. Having little time to counter Gajeel simply crossed his arms in front of his chest and allowed the beam to hit. To everyone's surprise Gajeel didn't move an inch when the blast hit, it wasn't until afterwards they realised his skin was covered in dark silver metallic scales. "He he he how very interesting" Gajeel sarcastically remarked "let's see what else you've got."
Iron Dragon's Broadsword
His right hand and forearm once again transformed, this time extending to form a black spiky sword shape, he charged at Stein and began slashing, forcing Stein to dodge and weave until;
Mimic: Reequip
Stein summoned a sword and parried several of Gajeel's attacks before the two blades became locked together. Sparks flew as the two blades pushed together with great force, each trying to overwhelm the other, this moment of stillness allowed everyone to get a better look at the sword Stein had summoned, which appeared to be one of Erza's, much to her great surprise. At that moment Gajeel smiled and smirked "hehe, I've faced mimickers before and I know your weakness," he raised his left arm and sent another iron rod into Stein's gut, winding him and forcing him back a few feet, "you can only use one mimic at a time, so only one sword for you hehe." Back on his feet Stein smiled an almost evil smile and pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose, "true, but who says we need to." He raised his hand and a black magic circle appeared.
Mimic: Vector Arrows
Seemingly from out of his shadow a group of 6 black direction arrow shaped arrows rose, leaving a solid black trail behind them. They fired at great speed at Gajeel who began to dodge, but had difficulty as the arrows had the ability to change direction mid-air. Gajeel had a brain wave and used his broadsword to parry and eliminate 5 of the arrows before jumping as high as he could into the air. The remaining arrow shot at him, but he ignored it and angled himself so that his feet were facing Stein and began spinning.
Iron Dragon Secret Art: Iron Drill
His feet became a drill and he shot forward towards Stein, destroying the remaining arrow in the process. Stein smirked, since Gajeel took out the last arrow he could use another spell.
Mimic: Vector Plate
A large black arrow appeared under his feet, making him hover about 1cm above the ground for a moment before sending him at high speed in the direction the arrow was pointing. Not being able to alter his course Gajeel impacted just behind the arrow, which faded away shortly after. Stein made a vector plate under the sword he had summoned, which had fallen to the floor after Gajeel's iron rod attack, sending it to him. Gajeel had a funny feeling he knew what Stein was planning so began sucking in air as stealthily as possible so Stein wouldn't notice. Just as Gajeel expected Stein created a series of vector plates that would get him behind Gajeel, before shooting him at him for the final strike. Stein stepped on the first plate and launched to the next and the next before reaching the one behind Gajeel, who quickly turned around and unleashed his roar.
Roar of the Iron Dragon
The dark green magic shot at Stein, who thanks to his vector plate was moving directly towards it and couldn't change direction. He tried his best to block using his sword but it made no difference as the roar was too strong, forcing Stein straight back into the rune field and pinning him there until the spell was done. Once the spell ended Stein fell face first into the dirt, he weakly put his hands down and tried to get up, but while he pushed himself up Gajeel casually walked over and put his broadsword against Stein's neck, showing his victory.
Lucy declared Gajeel the winner while both he and Stein were checked out cy Wendy, Lucy put Gajeel's name back into Cal's hat alongside the names of the other winners, meaning she could be facing Gajeel, Laxus, Erza, Oliver, Jennifer or Kid. She was very excited to see who she'd be facing, so she stood up, with a giddy smile on her face and shouted "Well everyone," they all turned to look at her and listen in silence, apart from Natsu and Jennifer who still hadn't returned. "Those matches were definitely exciting right? But now it's time for the grand finale, one of you lucky winners will face me for the chance to win a great prize. That person shall be..." She put her hand into Cal's hate, at which point Jennifer and Natsu re-joined the group silently mouthing 'sorry' causing Lucy to giggle slightly, pulling out a name she continued "Oliver! So Ollie, will you accept the challenge?" Oliver smirked to himself for a moment as the only person that ever called him 'Ollie' was Jennifer, "me against you huh?" he answered, "oh I definitely accept, I want to see how much stronger you've gotten since your S-Class exam." Both combatants walked to the centre of the arena, Oliver on one side and Lucy on the other with Cal stood next to her. For this battle Freed had agreed to operate the rune field and Lord Death had agreed to be adjudicator. Once Freed activated the Runes Lord Death addressed Lucy and Oliver, "okie Dokey you two, remember this is both for pride and for Oliver to win a special prize if he wins OR if he loses but still proves himself worthy in my opinion. So, ready? 3...2...1...off you go!" Instantly they both decided the same thing, Oliver drew his sword and Lucy shouted "Cal!" "at once my lady" he replied transforming. The two blades clashed together a couple of times before becoming locked together, Lucy was ready for this however, since she was wielding Excalibur one handed she used her free hand to grab a gold key from her chain.
Open! Gate of the Bull: Torus!
Torus appeared next to Oliver and attacked with his oversized axe. Oliver took one hand off his weapon, before breaking the lock between swords, deflecting the axe with his sword, parrying a few more blows from each before re-locking blades with Lucy. Knowing that move probably wouldn't work again he aimed the palm of his free hand at Torus.
Arctic Dragon's Blizzard Canon
A ball of blizzard strength ice and snow hit Torus straight in the chest, sending him flying backwards, forcing his gate closed and sending him back to the spirit world. Without thinking Lucy let her eyes move to see Torus disappearing, which Oliver noticed and used to counter. He spun counter clockwise instantly releasing the locked blades and causing Lucy to fall forwards from the sudden lack of resistance. Lucy regained her senses just in time to parry a slash from Oliver, then another before rolling out of the way of the third. Realizing Oliver's sword skills were superior to hers Lucy figured it was time to switch to ranged attacks, she smirked having remembered the perfect spell to use to get out of range, a spell she had learned from her 'secret teacher' just before the S-Class exam. Oliver rushed in to attack again, but just before he struck Lucy exclaimed;
Solar Flare
Her whole body instantly glowed brilliant white before giving off an incredibly bright light that filled the whole arena, blinding Oliver as well as everyone who was watching. "Dam!" Oliver said laughing to himself, "so that's what you were doing that day." Thinking back to his S-Class exam he recalled when he first met Lucy.
-Flashback-
It was a bright and sunny day and Oliver was exploring around the outside of the test centre having left Jennifer talking to some other entries, when he heard two voices from around a corner then there was a bright white flash. He ran around the corner to see what had caused the flash and make sure everyone was ok, but when he turned the corner all he found was one teenage girl with long blonde hair in a ponytail. She was wearing a white sleeveless top with a blue cross on the front, a fairly short black skirt, black canvas shoes and appeared to have a whip attacked to her belt. "um...hi" Oliver started "are you ok? I saw that flash and came running...though I thought I heard two people." "No it was just me" the blonde girl replied, "I was just practicing for the exam." Oliver didn't believe her that it was just her but everything else seemed true, looking around there was nothing to prove someone else was there apart from a wet patch on the floor, like someone had spilt their drink. "Ah okay then" Oliver said with a smile, "your here for the exam too huh? Then I should introduce myself, I'm Oliver Reven," "Lucy Heartfillia of Fairy Tail, it's nice to meet you." The two started chatting and walked back towards the main entrance to take their exam.
-Flashback End-
Snapping back to reality Oliver saw, even though his vision was still blotchy, that Lucy had summoned Scorpio. Just as he was about to charge Scorpio fired his sand blaster at Oliver's feet forcing him backwards a few steps. "Alright then, let's play ranged attacks."
Arctic Dragon's Shuriken
He sent 3 waves of shuriken at Lucy who dodged all but the very last two, which she deflected with Excalibur, before swinging it behind her. Excalibur began to glow yellow and as it did she swung it forwards, scraping the blade on the ground. Once it had swung far enough and the tip left the floor the yellow energy formed into a slightly curved blade and fired at Oliver.
Regal Slicer
Oliver used his blade to block thinking the energy would disperse or be deflected, but instead it was so strong that it became locked against Oliver's blade, causing sparks to fly from the point of contact. Seeing an opportunity Lucy quietly told Scorpio what to do, they both ran so that they were each on the opposite side of Oliver in a straight line. Realizing what was about to happen Oliver used the same spin trick he used on Lucy to send the Slicer into the rune field, but just as quickly Scorpio pointed his tail and Lucy raised her palm.
Sand Blaster
Starlight Canon
Silvery white star light formed into a ball and fired from Lucy's hand but Oliver was prepared and acted quickly.
Arctic Dragon's Defence Dome
A dome that looked a lot like an igloo formed around him just in time to block the attacks. Realizing any external attacks wouldn't work, Lucy decided to try and attack from within the dome itself. She took another of her gold keys in her hand and whispered her plan to it before shouting.
Open! Gate of the Maiden: Virgo
The magic circle appeared in front of Lucy but Virgo didn't, causing Lucy to smirk.
*inside the dome*
Thanks to his dragon hearing Oliver heard Lucy call for Virgo and instantly knew what she was planning. He stepped back to the edge of the dome and waited for a few seconds until the ground shook slightly and Virgo burst out, attempting to uppercut him. Using her surprise at missing to his advantage, Oliver clenched his fist causing it to glow before uppercutting her in the stomach.
Arctic Dragon's Glacial Fist
The force of the impact sent Virgo smashing through the roof of the dome and into the air. As she began to fall Oliver jumped onto the roof of the dome and then into the air, his feet now covered in ice and glowing like his hands. Once he was at the right angle he kicked at Virgo.
Arctic Dragon's Glacial Kick
With great force Virgo collided with Scorpio before impacting the floor, creating a mid-sized creator and sending both spirits back to their world. While his attention was on Virgo Lucy raised her palm again.
Star Shower
The magic circle appeared in front of her hand firing numerous bright yellow 5-point stars at Oliver, striking him all over and knocking him to the floor, causing his dome to crumble at the same time. As he stood up Oliver laughed to himself at just how powerful Lucy really was, once he was up he decided it was time to finish it so he sucked in the air, puffed out his cheeks and released the attack that broke down all of Gray's defences.
Roar of the Arctic Dragon
As the mighty roar sped forward towards her, Lucy stabbed Excalibur into the ground and cried;
King's Shield
The roar impacted the yellow barrier with an intense force, as Lucy had only recently learned to use Cal's barrier it wasn't nearly as strong as it should be and wouldn't last for long. Once the shield failed that roar would wipe her out as she couldn't move from that spot while casting it, so she decided to put everything into one last attack. Taking Loke's key from her chain she brought it to her lips and whispered, "Loke, Virgo, Cancer, Torus, Scorpio, Aquarius, Sagittarius, please lend me what little strength you have left," she could sense her spirits were channelling their power into Lucy happily. She lowered the key so it was pointing at Oliver and unleashed one of her strongest spells.
Celestial Radiance
Dropping her shield as she cast, a beam of yellow light equal in intensity and heat to the sun erupted from a magic circle in front of Loke's key. The blast crashed into Oliver's roar overwhelming it and pushing it almost all the way back to Oliver, before it began to resist and the two beams became locked together. With the two incredibly powerful attacks locked in stalemate it seemed the battle could go either way, until a certain individual shouted from the crowd "you can do it Lucy, I believe in you!" Feeling the heat rise in her cheeks as she started to blush Lucy knew exactly who was shouting, she looked to the crowd and saw she was right, it was Gray. Her blush only got worse when she saw he was stood up and had no shirt on (as per normal), revealing his muscular and well defined torso. A feeling of calmness, friendship (and possibly more) and encouragement washed over Lucy thanks to Gray's cheers, giving her the strength for one final push. So she gathered what little strength and magic she had left and sent it into her radiance blast, completely overwhelming Oliver's roar and hitting him in the chest. Once the spell faded Lucy dropped to one knee panting, "LUCY!" Gray shouted worriedly, "I'm okay gray, just not used to all my new magic just yet is all" she replied with a smile, before looking over to see if Oliver was still standing. He wasn't, in fact he was on his back splayed out like a star laughing "okay it's official, you are definitely powerful master, I definitely lost there." Taking that as a sign of defeat Lord Death declared Lucy the winner and Freed de-activated the rune field, the second he did Gray and Wendy ran over to Lucy to see if she was okay. "I'm alright Wendy just a bit tired, tend to Oliver first" Wendy nodded and reluctantly went over to Oliver leaving Lucy with Gray. Not convinced that Lucy was as okay as she was saying he moved to help Lucy up, who politely refused saying "seriously Gray I'm okay you don't have to worry." As she tried to get up her legs gave out and she started to fall forwards, straight into Gray's chest as he moved to catch her, he wrapped his arms around her in a hug to stop her from falling again and whispered "yeah I think I'll carry on helping." Lucy nodded and in doing so found herself snuggling more and more into Gray's shirtless chest. The warmth from his chest and the slow steady sound of his heartbeat made her feel safer and more secure than she'd felt in months, that's when she was hit with a sudden realisation, all the times she had looked out of the corner of her eye when he had his shirt off, all the times she'd had thoughts about him being handsome and all the times she'd felt sort of warm and 'fuzzy' when he had said something nice, there could be only one explanation, she had feelings for Gray Fullbuster in fact she would go so far as to say she loved him. Deciding it was time she got some medical attention, Gray picked Lucy up bridal style and started walking towards Wendy's first aid station only to be hit with a barrage of 'whoop's and wolf whistles, causing Lucy to turn a shade of red that could rival Erza's hair. Once they arrived they found Oliver and Wendy were already there along with a rather happy and rather amused Jennifer. "Awww, did poor Ollie get his butt handed to him by a girl?" she asked sarcastically, "oh ha ha" Oliver replied equally as sarcastically, "we both knew Lucy was strong, but I didn't know she was THIS strong, you are definitely worthy of S-Class Lucy." Going even redder than she already was (if that was humanly possible) Lucy quickly came up with a plan to get the topic of conversation off of her, "so Jennifer" Lucy started, "you seem very happy, was it something to do with your little chat with Natsu?" "well...maybe" Jennifer replied looking away with a hint of embarrassment. "Ohh! I sense a story here! Do tell" said Lucy with a squeal of excitement, "well if you insist" Jennifer replied "what happened was..."
*Just before Gajeel's fight*
After being healed by Wendy, Natsu found his hand being taken by Jennifer, leading him back into the Guild hall for a little private chat, since everyone else in the guild was watching the matches. She led him through the guild to the bar where the two sat down at a table. "So Natsu" said Jennifer "now that we're alone, do you feel like telling me what happened?" "erm...well..." Natsu stuttered getting redder and redder, "It's like I said in the arena, I just suddenly got the feeling that you were mocking me and weren't even trying and...well...my head got all fuzzy and I started seeing red." He looked at the floor, to ashamed to look her in the eye "Look at me Natsu" Jennifer said softly lifting his chin with her finger to reveal the sorrow and shame that filled his eyes. "You were right I wasn't going all out yet, but only because I wanted to see how close you were to S-Class so I could maybe help you that's all" "It doesn't matter now" said Natsu with tears streaming down his cheek, "when you first walked through the door I started having strange feelings, I liked you a lot, a lot more than I should after just meeting you...actually a lot more than I've ever liked anyone even Igneel my dragon, you looked so good...beautiful I think is the word that I got this strange warm feeling which turned to butterflies when I introduced myself. But then during the fight when we were playing around a little voice in the back of my brain said 'look at her, someone as beautiful as that would never like you! She's just toying with you, mocking you, she's not even trying' which made me feel...I don't know...stupid I guess, which made me feel so angry that I...lashed out..." Natsu stayed quiet for a minute with Jennifer completely stunned by what she was hearing before he continued, "I mean what I said in the ring, I know I'm scum now and I understand that you probably want nothing to do with me at all and for what I've done...I deserve that, if that's what you want the I won't bother you again I promise, you just have to say the word." The noises outside told them that next match had begun so they didn't have long but Jennifer didn't care, Natsu Dragneel, the famous Salamander had effectively just confessed his love for her and she had never felt happier. "Natsu" she said softly, "those feelings you had the first time you saw me, well I got them too when I saw you, I mean I'd heard of you before and seen pictures in magazines, but after Lucy told me about you and getting to know you when I arrived...well in truth I fell for you. So let me make this perfectly clear, YOU ARE NOT SCUM! AND IF I EVER HEAR YOU CALL YOURSELF THAT AGAIN I'LL...I'LL...OH I DON'T KNOW BUT IT'LL BE BAD." Natsu was shocked beyond belief, this woman, the most beautiful creature he had ever seen in his life had not only forgiven him but said she had fallen for him, he didn't know what to say or do, he just sat there staring at her, tears still falling down his cheek. Jennifer could see Natsu didn't know what to do, she had wanted to take things slowly and get Natsu to realise his feeling over time but instead she had made them explode like a nuclear bomb so, thinking she had gone this far so she might as well go further, she took the hand away from his chin and placed it on the back of his head, pulling him closer before she placed his lips on his and kissed him. Every last thought in Natsu's head exploded, her lips were soft and sweet and he didn't want her to stop, ever, so when she pulled away and looked into his eyes he lent forward and kissed her again, this time it was a lot more passionate and heated. By the time they both pulled away they were a little out of breath, Natsu was happier than he had even been so wiped away the remnants of the tears and asked cautiously, "so, what does this mean?" Jennifer giggled, "what it means pyro boy is that I love you", Natsu's face lit up like a Christmas tree "I love you too Jennifer" they lent in and kissed again before Jennifer noticed the lack of noise outside, "sounds like they've finished, come on we'd better get back before people start wondering." Hand in hand they walked back to the rest of the guild.
*Present time*
Everyone who had heard her story stood / sat there stunned "so, you and Natsu are in love huh?" said Lucy with a big smile and another squeal, "good! I'm so happy for the both of you! Well I get the feeling things are going to get interesting now," everyone nodded in silent agreement, still slightly overwhelmed by what they had just heard with one exception, Gray was silent but was thinking "so Natsu's found someone he loves huh? Man hell must've frozen over, oh well good for him I'm happy for him...not that I'd ever tell him. I just hope charcoal breath doesn't mess it up...now if I just had the courage to confess myself..."