Hello once again readers. I know it took a while, but I've got one heck of s surprise for you people who were patient with me and school, but before I reveal it, let's get to the fun fact of the week. Fun Fact Of The Week: I'm probably not going to be uploading for a while again since I need to focus on my finals for a while.

Nicholai: The surprise is...

Me: *Punches him* NOPE! I'M SAYIN IT!

Sayume and Sam: This chapter is almost 11K words long!

Me: Dammit you two!

Sayume and Sam: MwahhahahahahhahaahahahahAHHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAAHAHaahaha…haha..*Cough*.. umm hi readers!

Nicholai: Why didn't you punch them!?

Me: You deserved it more, and you confused me with that dream last chapter

Nicholai: Oh well, let's just get to the chapter.

Me: Alright then, BTW I would like to warn the readers that one of the scenes near the end of the chapter is a bit more graphic, and another one contains the F-word. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED PEEPS!

I woke up only to the feeling of my face and the floor introducing themselves. "Gah! Damnit!" After rubbing my forehead and waiting for the fuzziness to clear for a while, I looked back up to the clock to see that it was about eight in the morning, but no one but me was awake yet. I guess everyone drank a bit too much last night. I took a few moments to fully wake up, and then I quickly checked about the guildhall to see if Natsu was here yet. Nope. Not a trace. I tiptoed towards the door of the guild in hopes that Natsu was at his house instead. It's strange… I don't see Erza anywhere. Just then I felt someone grab my cloak, "You thought you could skip out on your training Nicholai?" I slowly swiveled my head around to see Erza with a look on her face that could kill. She wasn't done talking, "Believe me when I say you will not eat, drink, or sleep until I allow it, and you will be ready for the s-class trials in the four days that you have." I spoke in an extremely sarcastic tone, "That's nice, but listen, it's my birthday today and I really just want to find Natsu." She paused for a moment, "Okay, you can go look for Natsu, but only on two conditions." "Alright, what?" "First, you need to escape my grip, and second, once you're done, you have to promise me that you'll meet me in the woods just outside of town for our training." "Awesome, thank-" I made my eyes falsely look surprised, "A GIANT PIECE OF STRAWBERRY CAKE!" I honestly hoped she would fall for that to some degree, and sadly, she didn't even look for a second. She gave me a blank stare before smiling and then laughing so hard that she couldn't keep her eyes open, which gave me barely enough time to quickly grab my scythe's handle and swing it at just the right angle to clip off the small area of my cloak that Erza was holding. I darted out the door, and turned around about twenty feet away to see her mouth gaping open, still holding that piece of my cloak. I turned back around and continued to laugh all the way to Natsu's house.

After about fifteen minutes of alternating between running, walking, and occasionally flying with my flames out of sheer boredom, Natsu's house came into sight. I walked straight into the door, immediately tripping over Natsu, who happened to be sleeping right in front of the door on the floor. My nose took the second hit for the morning in a pile of random things Natsu had on his floor, and as I got back up, I felt a little bit of blood seep down from my nostril, "God… DAMMIT!" I quickly grabbed a tissue to block the blood as Natsu got up, slowly rubbing the part of his back that I accidentally kicked, "Ow… that accident didn't just hurt you idiot…" He said it with a smile on his face, so I knew he was joking. His hair seemed pretty messy, and his eyelids were droopy. "Um… how late did you get home last night Natsu?" He shook his head, somewhat tidying up his hair while making him look more awake in general. "Well, I actually stayed out a bit too late last night, and by the time I got back to Magnolia, I just went straight here so I wouldn't wake up in the middle of the street. Wait… is it the tenth today?" "Yeah! Do you remember what I told you December tenth was?" He slapped his hand onto my shoulder, "You really think I would forget my brother's birthday?" He continued to talk as he walked off into a different room, where I heard him clearly shuffling around to try and get something, "And since you've missed two of your birthdays here, I've got two different presents for you." He came back out with a large, rectangular box slung over his shoulder, "Here's the first one, which is solely from me. The next one is outside, and a little bit farther away from here, but it is from everyone at the guild who was there when you first joined. The others didn't help because I wanted you to be a surprise to them. Anyways, here's your first gift." He set down the large box, and even though I had just turned sixteen, childish instincts got the best of me, and I tore through the wrapping and cardboard boxing to end up gripping a large, smoothed out piece of wood, which upon further inspection and unwrapping, turned out to be a rather simple looking, acoustic guitar. Natsu spoke up, "I remembered from the week that we trained for your s-class trials that you said you liked music, so I decided you might want a guitar." I was amazed, "Natsu, did you make this?" He answered as I threw away the tissue that was blocking my nose's bleeding, as it had stopped, "Yes and no. Everything except for the strings and the pegs I made myself, but I bought and put in those two parts." I plucked the strings, tuning the pegs accordingly. The strange thing was, I had never picked up an instrument as far as I could remember, but maybe, like fire magic, it was something I learned before everything with the dark wizards happened, and now it was just muscle-memory taking over. Natsu brought out a guitar case, "Before you get too excited about that, lemme show you the other present, and trust me, it'll be even better than this." I quickly packed up the instrument and slung the case strap across my chest as Natsu walked out into the slightly cold winter air.

We both kept walking without saying a word for a few minutes, that was, until we reached this 'birthday present' from the guild itself. I could not express my shock, or frankly any of my emotions through words as we walked up towards my next present. My mouth was hanging open as I looked at a fully-fledged house, almost twice the size of Natsu's house. "T-this is my second present? The one everyone in the guild contributed to?" "Yeah! Come on inside, it gets even better." Before I even began to walk in, I took a few more moments just to take every detail of the house in. The walls seemed to be about twenty feet long on the shorter sides, and fifty feet long on the two longer sides. The external parts of the house made it seem somewhat log-cabin like, with most of it being wood save for a few stone fillings here and there around the doors and windows. I walked in throughout the whole house. It seemed that everyone I knew from the guild had contributed somewhat. There was an old-fashioned rifle over the mantle that appeared to be from Alzack and Bisca. A painting of Happy, Natsu, and me with our arms over each other's shoulders while Happy was flying to the right of Natsu was above a polished-wood rocking chair. I noticed this theme continuing throughout the whole house, and overall, the house was amazing. There were three bedrooms, a fairly large kitchen, a cozy den and living room, and a beautiful dining room. I thought that was all, but after Natsu showed me all of that, he led me to a certain spot in the living room. There was a small hole in the floor, which he looped his fingers through and pulled on, which pulled up a 3x3 area of wood that led into a basement area. He dropped down into it, and I followed. Down there was a huge hot spring bath area with stone floors; a couple of sinks, a stall off in the corner that I assumed had a toilet in it, and a single shower. "Woah… this is cool." I wiped some sweat off of my brow as I took off my shoes and socks so I could dip my feet into the pool of hot water. I heard Natsu kick off his sandals and sit himself down next to me. "You know, this is probably the first time we've actually relaxed and hung out together. Any other time, it's been training." Just then, there was a loud knocking on the door, and like any other somewhat bored teenagers would do, Natsu and I quickly ran out, seeing who could get to the door first. Natsu got up onto the main floor first, but due to his feet still being wet, he slipped. Since I noticed this, I used this to my advantage to slide across the floor, all the way to the front door. I quickly opened it to see Sayume holding a limp and groaning Sam. "Woah! What's wrong Sayume?" "Sam has just been groaning and saying she feels like… the S-word. I thought I should bring it to you since I remember this happening to you sometimes after those really long nights where you drank a lot." I couldn't keep the embarrassment from showing on my face as Natsu gave me a slightly judgmental stare. "Well… um… let's just get her up to bed. I'm actually going to have to go soon anyways, so just make sure she stays hydrated and in bed." I helped Sayume carry Sam up to the bedroom, told him exactly what he needed to do, and left quickly so I could catch up to Erza and escape the social awkwardness of Natsu knowing I got drunk at fourteen years old, and more than once at that.

I had gotten out into the woods in only a few minutes, and then I realized that I had no idea where exactly Erza wanted me to meet her. I slowed my pace, walking with my hands shoved into my pockets, my hood flung over my head, and my guitar case still strapped to my chest. I just then realized that this was Erza I was thinking about. She wouldn't just let me find her and train with her. She's testing me even right now. I slowed my pace even further, taking in every sensory input I could. I quickly threw down my guitar case and kept walking, adjusting to a more brisk pace. Where are you Erza? I heard a branch crack, and the beginning of the sound of a sword slashing from my ten o' clock. I could barely grab the handle of my scythe and turn it so her blade ran into it and not my shoulder. "Well, you aren't completely bad at this. You managed to figure out that I'd do this." She looked at my scythe, which she still had her sword slammed against, "You probably could've properly parried my strike if you had gotten that faster. As part of your training, I'm gonna make sure you can at least requip that scythe." I grinned, excited, "Well, then I'd guess we'd better get to it!" She jumped back, using her sword as leverage, "Indeed."

*Four days later*

I definitely felt a lot stronger, and Erza knew it too, so she concluded my training a bit early. I had a few hours before I had to get back to the house and go to sleep so I could be ready for the hell of a trip tomorrow, so I decided to just sit down on a nearby hill overlooking Magnolia and play my guitar. It was a nice scene. The sun was still peeking over the horizon, there was a light breeze, and the only sounds were the notes from my guitar and the wind whistling through the grass and trees behind me. After a while, I started to hum along with the notes that I was playing, and eventually, the humming transitioned into words.

Sometimes it happens

we lose our way

Greed, anger, and loneliness

they lead us astray

Being lost like that

it's the worst feeling of all

You have stumbled

and all you can do is fall

But family

to them its never too late

Even if you're at the gates of hell

they'll save you from that fate

Lost and alone

What's one to do

I've got no family

Will I just keep falling too

All I saw in me

was a husk of what I could be

But then Fairy Tail came along

and they caught me

I had a new family

I became strong

My path was right

but once again it then became wrong

No matter how righteous

A goal may seem

If the pursuer is corrupt

then it's just an evil scheme

It was happening again

I was falling for the second time

I even stared death in the face

yet my family still helped me climb

I can say

to this day

That even though I have always gotten lost

because of family I've found my way

I put away my instrument through requip, leaned back, and closed my eyes. After a few more minutes of listening to the wind, I heard some rustling behind me, and I turned to see Sam. "Hey Sis. How long have you been standing there?" She didn't answer, and as I looked closer, I saw that she was crying, but also smiling, "You sing… just like Dad..." She looked at my face and chuckled, "You're even getting a bit of a beard like his…" I felt my chin, which had a small amount of hair on it, although not enough for me to think of it as anything but that. I walked up to her, "You've got a voice just like Mom's too… comforting… gentle… and kind." I coughed, which kind of ruined the touching moment, but made it easier for me to move the conversation along, "So… was there a reason that you came up here before you heard me singing?" Sam grinned, "Well, I came here to tell you to come home and eat dinner, and seeing as you've been training for the last four days, we still need to celebrate your birthday!" "Oh yeah… we didn't really celebrate it I guess…" She grabbed my hand and started running back to the house, "Well come on then!" After a few minutes of awkwardly running behind Sam, we got to our house. I walked in, and noticed an absence of lights being on. Since I remembered the basic layout of the house, I walked to the right, which led to the kitchen. Just as I was about to flick on the lights, they did so themselves as Natsu, Happy, Sayume, and Sam, who had somehow hidden with them, jumped out at me. Before I knew what I myself was doing, I let out a high-pitched scream and punched the person closest to me, which happened to be Natsu. He grunted as he raised his right arm to guard any possible follow-up hits, "What was that for?" My heart was still beating out of my chest as I responded, "You nearly gave me a heart attack!" Happy and Sayume tried to get between us, "Come on, there's no need for fighting." Let me make a mental note to tell them to NEVER do that again… Sam shoved herself between Sayume and me, "Anyways, we made an awesome dinner for you, and I managed to bake what I remembered to be your favorite thing when we were little, triple layered caramel cake. And after dinner, we've got some late presents for you." We all sat down and ate what was more or less a feast, and considering how much Natsu, Sayume, and I eat, that was exactly what we needed. After dinner, we all took plates of cake and moved into the living room to do presents. "Well," Sam muffled through some cake, "I think I'll go first." She took out a box that was shaped like a painting, "I saw that painting of you and Natsu, and with his permission, I had that man Reedus edit it a bit, just to include everyone." She handed it to me, and I slowly unwrapped it. The picture seemed mostly the same, with me on the left and Natsu on the right, and both of us had our arms over the other's shoulders. Happy was still flying slightly to the right of Natsu, and Sayume had been added to be sitting on my shoulder. Sam was the last addition, and she was standing behind me, tall and smiling, with her hand placed in my hair, messing it up playfully. I looked at the picture, and I couldn't help but let a tear or two escape my eyes, "Thank you. It's wonderful." I set the picture aside as Sayume walked up to me with his hands behind his back, "You know, this is the first time I've ever done something like this, so sorry if it's not okay." He pulled out a small envelope, which I slowly grabbed and opened. Inside, there was a little booklet, and it was titled My Best Friend: Nicholai. I opened it, and it seemed to be a rather well drawn picture book. Each page depicted something we did together, along with including a statement from Sayume saying something about me from each one. They were all wonderful, but a few in particular stood out to me. The first one that stood out to me was actually the very first page I read. It was a picture of me and him fighting the bandits that had been harassing him before I met him. On this page, Sayume's statement was, "My best friend Nicholai, and the start of my first and best friendship." Next, he had drawn two pictures side by side. They were me turning away from an unconscious Erigor, and me and Sam breaking down in tears and hugging, "My best friend Nicholai, who has shown me that no matter how angry, frustrated, or emotionally damaged someone is, they can always show kindness and mercy." I turned the pages slowly, enjoying the touching words of my best friend. The next especially touching picture I saw was him grinning lightly, me standing next to him, and those final two members of the Oracion Seis standing behind us. I looked to the statement on this drawing, and got a catch in my throat. It read, "My best friend Nicholai, who makes me smile in even the bleakest situations." After that, there was the drawing of him and I facing Acnologia unwaveringly. This time, it read, "My best friend Nicholai, the person who helped me face anything, even death." At this point, I began to choke up, but continued to read. Lastly, there was a picture of him, Sam, Natsu, Happy, and I standing in the doorway of the guildhall. As a wonderful closing note, Sayume said as I read out loud, "My best friend Nicholai, who was my family, is my family, will always be my family, and gave me the opportunity to be a part of his family." Dropping the book, I picked up Sayume and held him in a tight embrace, crying a bit. "I love it Sayume. Thanks." I set him down, and we all went back to sit on the couch to eat our cake. I turned to Natsu, awkwardly looking at him for a few moments before I could speak since I had to swallow a big bite of cake. "Natsu, since you already gave me two presents, I'm going to do you a favor for tomorrow." He shook his head, "Nah, you deserved those two presents anyways, and I won't need any help passing these S-class exams." I smiled, "Well in that case, consider this a challenge rather than a favor. This is all you've got to think about tomorrow, Route E. Don't forget it." He smirked, "Fine."

I looked at the clock and saw that it was already past nine PM, "Woah! I need to be going to bed soon if I want to get up tomorrow." I finished off my cake and gave everyone a big hug before I rushed up to the bedroom I already claimed as my own. Once I got into bed, I noticed just how tired I was after the training with Erza, and I was out like a light.

After what honestly felt like a few minutes of dreamless sleep, I felt someone quickly pull the blankets out from on top of me while opening the blinds, "Come on Nicholai, we're goanna be late getting to Hargeon if you don't get up soon." Despite knowing how important the exams were, I pulled my covers back over my head and uttered the timeless phrase, "Just five more minutes." I immediately regretted this decision as I felt someone grab me by the ear and start to drag me out of bed, "I waited for eight years so you've got no right to tell me you're not getting up when I say you are!" My ear was pretty close to being ripped off, and my back hitting the wooden floors and stairs wasn't helping how I felt. After about thirty seconds of me saying 'ow', Sam let go of my ear and pulled out a chair for me at the table. "Now sit down and eat so we don't miss the early train." I rubbed the sleep that was still in my eyes after that out of them. Once my vision was completely clear, I saw Sayume pouring some syrup on a pancake, making sure not to get any on his gashouse-style eggs. Sam had spread strawberry preserves on her pancake, and was currently cutting up her gashouse eggs, covering the bread in creamy egg yolk. I had always been partial to cinnamon sugar and butter on my pancakes, so I grabbed both of them and began to spread them on my breakfast. I did the same thing with my eggs that Sam had done with hers, and after a few minutes of fast paced eating, all of our plates were clear. I stood up, "Well, are you two ready?" Sam grinned, "Well, I've got some stuff to fetch, because unlike you, I don't sleep in all of my equipment and normal clothes. I'd also recommend you bring some sort of water bottle and snack." I requipped a backpack full of those things, "Already taken care of, and with enough for all of us." She walked upstairs and yelled back down to me, "Awesome! Just give me a minute!" About five minutes of awkward conversation between me and Sayume involving how he and Sam were going to hide on the boat, Sam ran down the stairs with our tickets. She straightened her hair, "Ok, let's go!"

The majority of the trip to Hargeon was uneventful. Well, it was uneventful for me anyways, and that's only because I was unconscious to prevent my motion sickness. I was shaken awake and I slowly walked out of the train as Sayume hid himself under my cloak. I turned to Sam, "Well, that's Sayume taken care of, but what about you?" "Let me show you." She grabbed my hand and pulled me into an alleyway. "Well," I stood there awkwardly, "This is pretty familiar, but at least you aren't hiding who you are now." Sam jokingly pushed me, "Oh shut up. Anyways, you know that girl Juvia? Well, my magic is pretty similar to hers, but… just let me show you." I actually didn't know what Juvia's magic was, but I didn't care, because just in that instant, her body shifted. The surrounding air heated up, her clothes appeared to evaporate, and her whole body completely snapped from being flesh to being flames. I slowly took a few steps back, trying to regain my composure, "That's uhh… interesting, to say the least. I guess you could just tail the boat without anyone seeing you." She quickly changed back to normal, "Yeah, let's just go."

Sayume did a pretty good job of hiding and keeping quiet once we got to the dock, and Sam was hovering about a hundred feet above us. I ran onto the boat and quickly found a place where I could lie down comfortably while Sayume could relax under my cloak. I managed to fall asleep before the ship started to move, so I wasn't victim to my own horrible seasickness until I heard the ship hit land, "Oh god!" I quickly stood up and puked over the edge of the boat. Makarov raised his voice, "Okay everyone! You know your routes, so head to them and I'll go back to get the candidates." Everyone hopped off of the boat, running off to their respective paths. Before I could reach route E, Gildarts stopped me, "Hey, just so you know, pretty much everyone saw Sayume under your cloak, and I'm pretty sure that bunch of human-looking flames following the boat was your sister. I needed to vent my frustration, "Hey Sayume, cover your ears for a second." After coming out from under my cloak, he did that, "Alright" I took a deep breath in, "DAMN IIIIIIT!" I took a few more deep breaths and pulled Sayume's hands away from his ears. "Thanks for being cool about it Gildarts." He threw me a devilish grin, "Maybe I could tell master next time. Anyways, cya!" I ran into the passage as Sayume flew behind me. We got to the open area where the fight would be, and Sam had already arrived. "What took you two so long?" I jumped into the crater in the center of the room, "Someone called Gildarts who happened to see you two had a conversation with me." Sayume and Sam awkwardly laughed a bit, "Yeah, we're sorry 'bout that." I sighed, "Oh well." I spotted a few fairly thick vines suspended from the ceiling of the cave, and I decided to jump up to them and lie down. As soon as I did, I felt someone get squished under my back. I quickly got up and saw that I had nearly crushed Mavis, "I'm so so so sorry Master Mavis." "Ow… that hurt Nicholai." Sam and Sayume flew up to where we were, and Sam looked at Mavis, pretty confused, "Who's this?" I gestured towards Mavis, "Well this is-" I was interrupted by a sphere of golden light surrounding me, and freezing me in place. Mavis smiled in a way so mischievous-looking for someone like her, "I can introduce myself, you'll stay in there for time-out until I see fit." She moved over to Sam, "Well, I'm Mavis Vermillion, Fairy Tail's first master." She got closer to Sam, whispering into her ear something I barely even heard, "How old is he?" Sam whispered back, "He just turned 16 a few days ago. Let me guess, you're going to keep him in there for as many minutes as he is years old." Mavis closed with a giggle and, "Yep." Sayume then pulled a deck of cards out of his bag, and I believe he suggested that they play go fish. I ended up sitting there in suspension, watching their game for about ten minutes before I began to mentally scream with frustration. I tried to move, but I stayed frozen in place, which fueled my occasionally short temper. This time… this time, I'll get it. With every ounce of my willpower and strength, I urged every part of my body to move, and I felt the sphere's resistance on my movement vanish. The sphere itself expanded a few feet outwards on all sides, I was free to move, and I wasn't going to stay in here for another minute. I gathered my energy into my chest, heated it up, and prepared to launch it out, "FIRE DRAGON'S ROAR!" The giant fireball was condensed due to the size of the sphere, but as soon as it hit the walls, the sphere shattered. Sadly, the fireball also went heading straight back towards my face after hitting the edge of the sphere, and it nailed me right in the chest, sending me flying. All I could hear aside from some light buzzing in my ears was the laughter of Mavis, Sayume, and Sam. Once I had somewhat recovered, Mavis waved to me, "That seems like enough punishment, now get over here and play before the candidates get here!" Although I did wait a bit longer so I could see straight, I slowly walked over once I was ready. Sayume was already passing out cards for a new round as I came and plopped myself in between Mavis and Sayume.

We ended up playing about five or six games before Sayume warned me that 'someone' was coming down the path to the cave. I motioned for everyone to try to hide before whoever it was got here. Sam and Sayume jumped into the shadows near the exit tunnel, I jumped back up into those vines suspended from the ceiling, but Mavis just stood there, looking slightly frustrated. She whisper-yelled to all of us, "I'm horrible at hiding!" I responded at about the same volume, "Just stay there! I've got an idea!" I quieted down once I heard some talking coming from the entrance. "I'm definitely going to become s-class this time! No matter what!" "Yeah…sure." I wasn't expecting anyone other than Natsu and Happy, and I wasn't disappointed when I saw them trot into the room. I was even less disappointed when I saw Natsu's face after he had laid his eyes on the only person he could see in the room, Mavis. And what he said afterwards, it was just priceless. He was wide-eyed and open mouthed as he yelled, "NICHOLAI YOU LYING BASTARD! WHEN YOU TOLD ME THAT ROUTE E WAS A CHALLENGE, I THOUGHT YOU MEANT ERZA BECAUSE OF THAT WHOLE THING YOU SAID ABOUT ME BEING BELOW YOU UNTIL I BEAT ERZA MYSELF! IF THAT WASN'T THE CASE, AT LEAST I SHOULD'VE FOUGHT YOU, NOT MAVIS!" I couldn't help myself from bursting out laughing, rolling out of the vines, and falling down to the floor. I struggled to get back up because of how much I was laughing, but I eventually did it, only to get slammed right in the face and knocked back down by Natsu. I jumped back onto my feet again, beginning to talk before he could interrupt me, "All jokes aside, we should start the test. Before we do," I turned to Mavis, "You should probably go watch from over where Sam and Sayume are." As I said that, they both walked out of their cover and waved to Natsu and Happy. "Now, I think it's about high time we start to fight." Natsu cracked his knuckes, "Yeah, I'm all fired up!" We both took our stances and before we started, I said one last thing under my breath, "This clash of the brother dragon slayers will be something to remember Natsu, so let's see who's stronger."

I slid my left foot across the ground, getting ready for a quick dash right towards Natsu. Lucky me, he was doing the same thing, and we both lit our hands on fire at the same time, and just like that, our fight started. "FIRE DRAGON'S IRON FIST!" In an instant, we both dashed towards the other and our attacks collided in the form of the world's most destructive fist bump. Natsu recovered from it quicker, and he prepared another attack, "FIRE DRAGON'S ROAR!" Luckily, I reminded myself that I could just eat it, so I kept my cool, swallowing the fireball as soon as it reached me. Natsu laughed at himself a bit, "Oh yeah, I kinda forgot that you can eat my fire. Let me fix that! LIGHTNING FLAME DRAGON MODE!" His flames were suddenly surrounded with a cloak of lightning, and before I could do anything else, he quickly gathered a large sum of fire and lightning in each of his hands and yelled, "LIGHTNING FLAME DRAGON'S BRILLIANT FLAME!" I quickly gathered my energy and filled a large area around me with super-condensed portions of my flames. Let's hope this new technique holds up! The attack collided with my dome of flames, and I felt absolutely no impact from the attack. I awkwardly smiled while surrounded by an inferno "Yeah...it works." I knew that Natsu was going to try to make his next move soon since the debris from the explosion of that last attack were beginning to clear, so I prepared another one of my new techniques. I took the flames that were surrounding me, and manipulated them into two jagged swords. I slowly walked out of the dome of flames as it dissipated, holding both swords as I got into dueling stance, "You know, when you train with Erza, you really pick up an interest for blades, and just to make sure you don't even think of eating these, POSIONOUS FLAME DRAGON MODE!" Just as it had done many times before, Cobra's poison seeped out into my fire, leaving Natsu wide-eyed. However, he quickly began to smile once again as he began to talk, "Hehe…so you weren't bluffing when you told me that. OH YEAH! I'M ALL FIRED UP!" He quickly lit up his fists as he charged towards me, barely leaving me time to parry Damn, this lightning helps him move faster He quickly spun upwards and used this momentum to kick me right in the jaw, which sent me flying right into the cave wall. Judging from how all of my muscles were contracting, he seriously ramped up the electricity on that attack. I slowly got up and saw that he was on the ground panting, because he received several cuts from my swords as he tried to move around me so fast. I dropped my swords, which I was surprisingly still holding onto, "Well, while I enjoy using these, I've got to admit," I requipped my scythe, "I'm much better with this." Natsu was once again surprised, "Y-you learned requip magic? When? How?" I walked forward as I explained, "well, as you know, I'm a pretty fast learner, and since Erza agreed to train me in the week leading up to this, she thought I should at least learn how to requip my scythe." I kept walking as Natsu stood there, with a blank expression on his face. Once I got to him, I leaned in to whisper something into his ear, "You know, I bet we're going to destroy this cave if we stay in here, so how 'bout we take this outside?" Just as he seemed like he was going to respond, I swept his legs out from under him with my scythe handle and kicked him through the ceiling. Lucky for me, Happy was paying attention and he quickly flew up and caught Natsu before he fell back down. "Ok…I might as well use this one too." I got rid of my scythe for the time being and produced many flames and let them gather around me, and once there was enough, then the magic happened. I focused some onto my back in the form of dragon wings, a bit of them onto my hands and feet to act as talons, and the rest of them went into making rough scales and horns all over my body. "Well, let's hope this can hold up."

I attempted to manipulate the wings so I could fly, and surprisingly, it took a lot less energy than just blasting myself up. I quickly left the ground and made it through the newly formed hole in the ceiling. Natsu barely dodged me as I barreled through. I stretched out a bit, "Ah…much better. Now we can fight without having to worry about the cave's integrity" After thinking a bit, I laughed, "Ya know, it's pretty funny, this is the first time outside of training where I haven't been fighting someone who I was angry at. Even I can tell how differently I'm acting" he grinned, loosening up a bit "Yeah, no kiddin, I wouldn't think you were the same person who fought Erza if I were just going off of what you were saying. If anything, you're more laid back. Also, WOAH! What the hell kind of technique is that?" I smirked, even though I don't think he could have seen it under my scales of fire, "Well, I had a conversation with Erza about a little incident at a place called the Tower of Heaven. She told me about this power you unlocked called 'dragon force'. She told me that you became much more powerful in that form, taking on the qualities of a dragon. This is a new secret art of mine, and since it isn't actually that form, I just call it false dragon force." He then gave me a look that seemed to tell me to come over there and show just how strong it is. Before I did though, he began to chuckle and point behind me, "Look who's watchin'." I did a 180 and groaned in frustration when I saw Sayume, Mavis, and Sam all flying and watching, rooting for me. "Wahoo! Go Nicholai! You can do it," they shouted. Natsu heard this and got pretty annoyed, "Hey! Where's my support?!" Happy sighed, "Don't worry Natsu, you've got the same chance of winning as I do against Pantherlily." Natsu seemed confused at that statement, "Well, then why haven't you beat him yet?!" "That wasn't what I was trying to say Natsu…" I saw my opportunity and charged, "I see that you're underestimating me! Let me fix that!" I extended my talons and took a swing, "POISONOUS FLAME DRAGON SLASH!" Happy was quick and got Natsu away fast enough so I only grazed him across the chest, slightly ripping his vest. "Oh great, now I'm going to have to go through the rest of the trials like this." I flew up about fifty feet, preparing to dive-bomb. "I thought I told you," I pointed myself down and completely got rid of my wings, "not to underestimate me!" Natsu stood still, but this time, he didn't look scared. He seemed poised and ready for anything I was going to throw at him. I saw him mouth something in the last instant of my descent, and he completely vanished. I formed my wings again and stopped on a dime and began to turn until I heard something from far behind me, "MAX SPEED!" With that shout came another presumably from Natsu along with a solid force slamming into my back, "LIGHTNING FLAME DRAGON FIRING HAMMER!" The attack connected at my upper back under my shoulder blade, making me flip as I was sent flying. Just before I hit the ground, I produced my wings again and quickly flapped them to ensure that I didn't KO from that attack. "So… you saw that chink in my 'armor', I can't have anything there or else my wings wouldn't be able to work" I rubbed that spot where he hit me, "Damn, that hurt…" I probably should've been paying attention since I looked up and saw Natsu charging down towards me as fast as Happy could've flown. I began to requip my scythe, hoping that it would materialize in time. The handle formed first, and I turned it so that the blade would block his punch when it actually formed. Natsu was only about a few feet away, and just as the blade of my scythe was forming, I saw Natsu's fist peak through the golden light. I cringed, closing my eyes, but when no hit came, I looked up and saw that Natsu's arm was actually caught in the blade. He kept struggling to get it out, and I just floated there, watching him struggle. It was kind of funny, but once he started to swear, I got rid of it just so Sayume wouldn't end up hearing all of those words. "Ok, shut up now Natsu." I smacked him across the head, which actually knocked him and Happy down a few feet. I probably shouldn't have done that; because that positioning gave Natsu the perfect opportunity to take a cheap shot at my 'man area', and boy did he take a shot. I couldn't even scream since he immediately followed up, "LIGHTNING FLAME DRAGON IRON FIST!" He connected right at my lower jaw, nearly making me bite my tongue off. I couldn't help but just fall to the ground, limp and in pain. I laid there for about ten seconds before I felt like getting up, "I-I'm only giving you a pass on that just because I gave you a hard time earlier. Just make sure you never do that again, or I'll cut off your head with that scythe. I am still going to beat the tar out of you though." I re-established my false dragon force and flew up to Natsu. I wasn't going to waste any time to finish this fight. "POISONOUS FLAME DRAGON CLAW BARRAGE" Unlike the first few times I used this technique, I constantly slashed at anything in front of me, which was mainly Natsu, although I did clip Happy on the edges of his wings every few swings. I was trying not to cut too deep as to not mortally wound Natsu, but deep enough so it did damage. I finished the attack and flew back far enough so I could take a second to breathe. Natsu looked pretty worn out after that, and I wasn't feeling too good either. I need to end this now, or else I'm going to end up being defeated. I flew up along with Natsu, who was looking like he was going to try and finish this too. I gave him a serious look, "I've still got one technique I want to try out. Let's see if you can hold up against it." He smiled and chuckled, "We'll see." We both put some distance between us, gathering our strength. I heard Natsu off in the distance, "Happy, go as fast as you can and then let go of me." Happy responded with a quick, "Aye sir," and then began to get himself ready. For a brief moment, all was silent. I found it intriguing, how in all of the chaos that had been going on, for one moment, all suddenly became quiet. The silence came to an abrupt end when the shockwaves went out from us accelerating towards each other. As we approached, Happy threw Natsu ahead as I took one last swing of my wings to boost me before getting rid of them and beginning to spin. Me and Natsu both shouted out as we surrounded ourselves in flames, "DRAGONSLAYER SECRET ART." I had one small source of fire in front of my head, and as I spun, it shot back behind me, forming a cyclone. "FLAME LOTUS." Natsu shot out his lightning to propel him while using his fire to form a cone around him, with the part that was pointing to me being the sharp-looking end. "POISONOUS FIRE STORM/PHEONIX LIGHTNING SWORD!" We both collided; hitting one-another's head, and we were still pushing our attacks, trying to overcome each other. We maintained this equilibrium for a few moments, but both of us were completely out of energy, and our attacks died out. Freefalling was something I was quite familiar with, but it honestly feels so different when you can't even move. You feel absolutely nothing except the wind, and that feeling was all I could think about in that moment. I then realized that I'd be hitting the ground any second. I momentarily freaked out, but was stopped before I hit the roof of the cave by Sam and Sayume. Even though it hurt a lot, I looked up and saw that Mavis and Happy had caught Natsu, and they were carrying him back down to the cave just as Sam and Sayume were doing to me. Once we got down, I dropped and fell onto my back, leaving my eyes open. I saw Sam start to walk over to the other end of the cave, and when she came back, she dropped someone right next to me, "Hehe… so, who won lil' bro?" I let out a long sigh, "Well, you and Happy are partners right?" He gave me an affirmative grunt, "Ok, since one of you guys is still standing, you guys win. If you're talking about just our fight… I'll tell you after the trials." Natsu let out a weak 'yay' as Happy flew over to join the reast of us, "It's great that we gat to go on and all, but what are we supposed to do for the next round? I can't really do much, and Natsu's outta commission." I took a moment to think before and idea popped into my head, "Sam, I'm goanna need you to give him some fire. Just enough so he can at least walk." She nodded and walked back a short distance just to make sure no one got burnt. She made a sphere of fire between her hands that was about the size of a beach ball and then she condensed it into the size of a pea. She walked over, dividing her focus between the ball of fire she was carrying and her balance as she walked. Sam got back to Natsu and kneeled next to him, "Here, this should make you feel better." She dropped it into his mouth, and just like that Natsu was up and ready to go, "HOLY CRAP THAT WORKED FAST! Thanks Sam, I'm feeling ready to ace these trials now!" Before he dashed off into the base camp on the other end of the path, I spoke up, "Natsu, look at me," He did, "I know you can win these trials, and I'm counting on you to not disappoint me. Promise me that when we leave this island, that you'll be the newest s-class wizard." Natsu threw me a smile and a small ball of fire, "Promise me that you'll be there to watch." I threw the flames into my mouth and swallowed before answering, "It's a deal, Natsu." He ran off with Happy following behind him. Sayume walked up and stomped his foot down into my gut, "You are a pretty good liar, but you can't fool me. Get up Nicholai, I could tell that you were holding back in that fight." I laughed as I got up, "Well, just because I was holding back in power does not mean I took a dive, but it also doesn't mean that I didn't do that." Mavis giggled, "I guess we won't know. Anyways, I'm going to go ahead to the camp. I'll see you all there!" She left, leaving Sayume, Sam, and I in awkward silence. I requipped my backpack and got rid of my cloak, leaving me in jeans, old shoes, and a white tank top. "Should we go ahead and go?" Sayume and Sam both responded with 'yes', and we began to trot down the path.

*SAYUME POV*

I knew we would probably get in trouble with Mr. Guildmaster Makarov once we got to the camp, but I didn't really care as long as I was having fun with Nicholai. He seemed to be doing rather well after his fight. Not too many visible injuries, although I did see Natsu kick him in his privates. Sam even gave him the same thing She had given Natsu to make him feel better, and after that, Nicholai even offered me a ride on his head. I accepted and climbed up onto the top of his head that was full of shaggy hair. It was nice, and I was having a great time until I felt something weird. I could sense an energy from where we had just come from in the cave, and it wasn't anyone from the guild either. I needed to go check out what it was, but I didn't really want to make anyone worry. I tugged on Nicholai's shirt a bit, catching his attention, "Hey Nicholai. I think I left something back in the cave, can I go get it?" He picked me up off of his head and set me down behind him, "Alright Sayume, but don't take too long. You'll miss out on all of Mira's good cooking." I nodded and quickly flew back to the opening in the cave. I know it probably isn't much, but I've got to check. I heard that the council had gotten to the island once, maybe they're here again to observe the trials. I thought and though of anything that could be the scource of this energy, but all of my theories were proven wrong when I enetered the chamber. There was a single figure wearing a dark robe with a low-cut hood. I entered battle shift mode and grabbed my Bo staff just to be safe, "This is Fairy Tail's sacred ground. You must leave at once or I will make you leave by force." The figure stood there for a moment, as if taking in what I had just said. The person removed their hood as they spoke up, "Fairy Tail, yes? Good, I was hoping I was in the right place." This person was a man in his late 30-s to early 40-s at best, and his appearance put me even more on edge. He had completely white hair, with a shagginess that was comparable to Nicholai's, but maybe a bit longer towards the back. His pupils were blood red, and his teeth resembled fangs more than anything else. I got into a fighting stance, "Didn't you hear me? I TOLD YOU TO LEAVE!" The man disappeared as I felt a finger go up against my lips, "Shhhhhh…let's use our inside voices, shall we?" The man had appeared right in front of me, and as he brought his hand down from my face, I couldn't feel anything except my paralyzing fear of this person. He ignored me and walked along the path towards camp "Now, I wouldn't want to leave with all of these valuable targets here. Gray Fullbuster, he's worth 2,000,000 J. Erza Scarlet, Titania, I've heard that she's worth about 5,000,000 J. Then there's the Salamander, Natsu Dragneel, his head should go for about 7,000,000 J. I'm pretty sure Gildarts is on this island too, and he's gotta be worth at least 10,000,000 J. Of course, I couldn't forget Makarov. He'll fetch me a good price, maybe about 25,000,000 Jx." He turned towards me, looking me dead in the eyes, "In fact, I know you. You're Sayume, one of the newest members of Fairy Tail, and an exceed as I can see. I hear the base commission for exceeds is at least 1,000,000 J. Tell you what, I'll start with you, and then move onto the rest of your guild." He removed his hands from his pockets, revealing one large dagger in one, and a set of brass knuckles in the other. "Oh… and there's one more thing. I've got to have a special conversation with my primary target here, Nicholai Kasai, so would you mind telling me where he is?" My fear shifted to anger after hearing this guy's plans, and I couldn't prevent myself from getting really angry, "DON'T YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT DOING THAT!" I extended my staff, sending it straight into his stomach. Catching him off guard, the attack sent him flying straight into the cave wall, which is where I held him as I walked closer to deliver my final warning. I wrapped my hand around his throat, picking him up and bringing my face to his, "This is your last warning, leave this island or I will kill you." He merely cracked a smile and started to laugh, "You'll kill me huh?" He then began to easily overcome my grip, bringing his right hand to my elbow and his left one to my wrist. Before I could try to escape his grip, he tightened his grip around my wrist and struck my elbow with his palm, and I felt my arm snap. "AAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!" I felt everything except for the point of breakage go numb, and I let go of the man. I fell to the floor, returning to my normal state, and the man stood over me laughing. "You know, I can never stop myself from laughing," he picked me up by the throat now, "when I find something so weak that is worth so much money. And as a matter of fact," He brought his knife up to my non-broken arm's wrist, lightly slitting it, "I've never tasted exceed blood." He took the blade, licking it clean, "Oh yes… that's divine." I struggled to escape, which only served to make him tighten his grip, "Don't leave now. I was just starting to enjoy myself," He lifted the blade back to my throat now, "but I guess all good things must come to an end. At least there'll be plenty of people in the guild to devour." "N-n." He brought me up to stare him in the face, "Hm? What're you trying to say?" I annunciated, "Nicholai… he won't let you touch anyone. He'd kill you even if it meant him dying too." He laughed again, lowering me from his face and bringing the dagger even closer to my neck, "Oh don't worry, I'll be done before he notices anything. Now, if you please, allow me to check off one hit from my list." I had been trying to stay strong throughout this encounter, despite the pain and fear I felt, but after realizing I was really about to die, and at that, alone, I started to weep. Everything that I had held in poured out, and along with that, I began to cry put for help, "SOMEONE! ANYONE! NICHOLAI! SAM! NATSU! HELP ME!" He now covered my mouth with his hand that had been around my throat, "Now now, didn't I tell you to use your inside voice? Stop whining and I promise this'll be over quick." He lifted the knife up behind him, preparing to thrust it into my chest, and I closed my eyes and cringed.

*JUMP TO NICHOLAI*

We reached the clearing soon after Sayume flew back to get something, and as I entered the base camp, a giant fist almost instantly crushed me. "And that's your punishment for bringing those who aren't candidates or examiners to the s-class trials." I meekly got up, slightly grinning."Well, at least I wasn't put in time out in Fairy Sphere." All of the examiners, along with those who did and didn't pass the first round were just hanging around wherever. If I was counting correctly, there were six of the eight teams that had made it so far, so there were two teams still fighting each other. Sam and me both climbed up into trees and laid down, enjoying the warm weather despite the fact that it was the middle of December. Soon after, I smelt something pretty strange. Back through the passage Natsu and me had fought in, I could smell two things, Sayume and one other person. What made this particularly strange was the fact that the other person, while clearly still alive, smelt cold and decomposing, like someone who was on the verge of freezing to death. "Sayume's in trouble. I can smell it." I wasn't going to answer Sam's oncoming question, instead, I jumped out of the tree and ran as fast as I could back into the cave. I knew I was tired and worn out, but I needed to get to Sayume. I didn't know how or why this person was here, but I was damn sure going to find out. As I was running, I heard Sayume let out a blood-curdling scream for help, "SOMEONE! ANYONE! NICHOLAI! SAM! NATSU! HELP ME!" I ran even faster now, trying to reach him in time. I saw the opening, along with Sayume and this man who was holding him by the mouth and preparing to kill him. Sayume was crying, his right arm was bleeding badly at the wrist and his other arm was bent the wrong way at the elbow. Without even thinking, I jumped in the path of this man's knife, which deeply penetrated my shoulder. My feet were pushed along the ground as I stopped the attack. The man was shocked, "What the hell? I didn't even see him get in here! Wait… you're Nicholai Kasai. I need to talk to y-" I slapped my palm over his mouth as I used my other hand to pull out the dagger from my shoulder, "Listen here buddy. I don't know who you are, or what you're doing here, but as soon as I find out," I jumped, pushing him back into the wall of the cave and putting the knife against his throat, "I'm goanna fucking kill you." I threw his knife down and moved my hand from his mouth, "You heard me. TELL ME WHAT I WANT TO KNOW!" He grinned and laughed at me, "Well, if you're going to kill me anyways, why should I tell you anything?" I requipped my scythe and pinned him against the wall with it in half of a second, "Because if you tell me what I want before I get impatient, I'll end this quickly. If not, I'll tear you limb from limb." He kept a smile on his face, but began explaining anyways, "Well, my name is Anthrax Sanguine, and I am a member of the one and only assassins' guild in Fiore, Semper Shadow, and I am also a hexenbeast, but you probably don't know what that is. I am here to do two things. First, I came here to collect a couple of bucks from the targets in this guild. Second, I needed to speak with you about something." I was losing what little patience I had left, "About what!?" He gave a lazy yawn, "I'm not exactly the best at talking with a blade at my neck." "Go kill yourself," I I swiftly took the blade away from his neck and slammed it back towards him up at eye level, "cut the crap and start talking." "Okay, okay. I was going to ask you to join my guild. We'd been watching you for a while now, starting about eight years ago when news spread of a wizard going from dark guild to dark guild, taking out one or a few targets at a time. Obviousy though, that ship has sailed, but there's still plenty of money to be made here for me." Just as he finished his sentence, his already pale white skin got even whiter, the red color of his irises overtook his eyes, and his teeth elongated and sharpened further. He pushed my scythe away from his face and ran towards Sayume, making me do a 180 to yell to him, "SAYUME! GET OUT OF H-" I didn't even finish my sentence before Anthrax already had Sayume by the neck, "Not another word or move or else Sayume over here gets it." Me and Sayume kept direct eye contact as Anthrax slowly moved them both farther and farther away from me, "Now, here's how this'll work. You're either going to join me and the rest of Semper Shadow after I finish collecting my targets here, or you're going to die along with them." I responded slowly as to ensure that he didn't do anything rash, "Tell me Anthrax. Do you know what it's like to be alone, with no friends, family, or anyone to depend on?" He seemed caught off guard with that question, "I can't say I do." I sighed, "That figures, because if you did, you'd have realized something already." Bewildered, he came back with,"What would I have realized?" I shifted my stance, preparing to dash for him as fast as I could. All of the blazing fury I felt in my heart was condensed into my right fist as I launched myself towards Anthrax. Anthrax was just as fast as me, but my arm dug into his stomach before he could try and snap Sayume's neck. He stood there for a moment, giving me just enough time to grab Sayume and get him away from Anthrax. I set him down, trying to not hurt his broken arm. I turned back around and saw Anthrax getting back to his feet, "Anthrax, you should've know that anyone who has felt the pain of lonliness will do anything to ensure they don't ever feel like that again." I ran towards him once again, igniting both of by fists. I started punching him, letting out my rage; "I'VE LOST EVERYTING BEFORE, AND FOR SIX YEARS I FELT THAT LONLINESS CLAWING AWAY AT MY MIND! NOW I'VE GOT MY FAMILY AND HAPPINESS AGAIN, AND YOU WANT TO TAKE THAT ALL AWAY FORM ME!?" I formed two swords and slashed, stabbed, and cut my way into Anthrax, "THERE'S NO WAY IN HELL I'LL EVER LET YOU DO THAT! IF YOU OR ANY OF YOUR GUILD EVEN THINKS OF COMING CLOSE TO MY FAMILY AGAIN," I formed my wings, grabbing Anthrax and flying up and out of the room, "I'LL DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!" I began to spin him around, preparing to throw him, "Now," I spun even faster, "GET THE HELL OFF OF THIS ISLAND!" I threw him as hard as I could, and he went flying into the ocean, skipping along the surface of the water before sinking, just like a stone. Flying back into the cave, I ran back over to Sayume, who was still whimpering in pain, "Buddy, I know it hurts, but you've gotta hold on. Wendy is already at the camp, she can heal you. Just be sure to stay awake."I picked him up, trying to not touch his broken arm while holding his bleeding one as tight as possible to try and stop the bleeding. I knew I was running towards the camp, but I was too focused on keeping Sayume alive. When I did notice that I had gotten out of the cave and into camp, I immediately screamed for help, "WENDY! WHERE ARE YOU!?" She, along with everyone else who was there, came running when they saaw Sayume. Wendy gasped when she saw Sayume, "W-what happened to him?" I handed him over to her, falling to my knees after she had him in her grasp "I'll explain it later, just please heal him." I looked to Makarov, breathing heavily and sweating, "I… need to hear everything you know… about an assassins guild known as… Semper Shadow." He was just about to answer, but the adreniline that had really been keeping me going up till this point wore off, and I collapsed.

Me: That went bad pretty fast, and who the hell is Semper Shadow?

Nicholai: A bunch of pretentious assholes who think they can mess with us, that's who.

Sayume: Nicholai, didn't you pass out?

Sam: Weren't you bleeding out?

Sayume: Fair point

Me: Well, I don't see this going anywhere, so I'm gonna end the chapter. Again, no updates for a while once again, so bai readers!