Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)

Chapter 13: Earthy Work, Yet It's Dirty Work

An entire week had passed since Lucy and had that rivalry battle on the beach with Shelly, and the blonde mage was currently checking out the jobs on Sabertooth's golden request board while Sting was beside her. They were looking for a pretty good job that they could do today, not too hard or too difficult, and Sting felt really confident right now. He had been working with Lucy all week to get her Lightning Magic to be really impressive like the other three types of magic in the spell book, and her attacks had been getting stronger.

Lucy also realized that she could consume lightning like Laxus and Orga were able to do, but she was not a dragon slayer or a god slayer. The book really did have the strangest abilities that she had ever seen, and the spells were even weirder at times. Despite her moves being weird, though, Lucy had figured out that she just needed to absorb electricity before using a move. This way, by properly concentrating her Lightning Magic into her moves, they could be used with much more speed and power in them. Even though she had tied with Shelly in that battle, Lucy was still determined to beat her.

She smiled happily at Sting while they kept looking at the request board, wanting to find what would hopefully be a good job, but Lucy felt something in the left pocket of her green miniskirt. She curiously pulled out a brown piece of paper, unfolding it while remembering that Wendy had given it to her at dinnertime last night, and it was the flyer that Shelly had given to the young sky dragon slayer. Lucy hoped that this would be a real job, not another one of Shelly's tests, and the brown-eyed girl examined the flyer to see exactly what this job entailed.

Lucy wondered what kind of job she would be handling with Sting, hoping that it was something that could make her lightning continue to reach new heights, and she also hoped that this job would not end up containing any deadly traps or dark curses of any kind. The flyer had not described the location at all, not really telling much about it, but Sting had looked over at the flyer while smirking confidently at the sight of Aqua Kyogre being the client. Shelly had obviously wanted Lucy to do something for her guild, but what? As her blond partner sniffed the flyer, he now had an idea of where they had to go.

He told her that the flyer's sandy smell meant that this job was actually far from Rustboro Town, going past Verdanturf Town and up north past Mauville Town, prompting Sting to smirk arrogantly when he told her that this would be the best place for her to try and test out any new skills that she had. Lucy looked a bit curious when she heard those words come out of her companion's mouth, and he let her know that this place would be known as the Desert Resort. It was a pretty sandy place with sandstorms around, from what Sting had once told her, and it was too harsh to actually be a resort.

The brown-eyed girl wondered what Sting could be thinking as he smiled, and Lucy looked over the flyer while reading the back side of it as well to see that they now had the job of taking down someone who was scaring away many of the treasure hunters from the ruins. The place was already dangerous with its rumors of nobody ever coming out alive, and Lucy also assumed that Lightning Magic was ineffective against the sandy earth. Many rocks did have the quality of being lightning rods, capable of absorbing electricity, and this made Lucy look a bit doubtful.

She didn't want to doubt her abilities, but she knew very well that her first four spells of Lightning Magic weren't exactly up to par with a Wizard Saint or anyone near that level. After all, she had only improved them after one week. That certainly wasn't enough time to really get them up to a pretty high level, but Lucy also widened her cocoa brown eyes when she also realized that doubting herself was not the actual way to get things done. She wanted to become stronger than she was in Fairy Tail, desiring to become much stronger, and she had gotten out of tight spots before.

As she opened up the yellow spell book for any new hints about the magic that she had gotten from Courtney, Lucy looked stern while thinking about how her first two spells were not even able to touch Shelly. The black-haired woman had certainly been quite a troublesome foe to deal with, showing off more power than she did in their first battle, and Lucy knew that she had to really step it up a few notches. Her skills had to improve, if she wanted even the slightest chance of really beating Shelly, so Lucy knew that she had to take this job from her rival.

"No matter what happens, Sting, I refuse to lose you to a person like Shelly. You know, I heard her telling Wendy that she would kiss you to spite me. However, she'd only do it if I didn't step up my love for you. I'll show her that I can be the best girlfriend ever, and we'll take care of her dirty work. Whatever it is, it better not be something scary or disgusting to deal with. Anyway, I not lose her to you. I will make Shelly suffer greatly, especially if she tries flirting with you! You are mine!" Lucy shouted loudly with a determined look on her face, before blushing pink at the last part of her speech.

Sting chuckled a bit from hearing his blonde partner be so full of courage, intent on showing Shelly that she was definitely far from being weak, and he was glad that Lucy had been continuing to blush like this. She had even thought that the copious amount of Aqua Kyogre grunts in Fiore had been a concerning matter, making her think that they had been watching her every move to inform Shelly of what Lucy could do, but Sting only saw the high number of thieves as more people getting to know how powerful he was.

Lucy looked back at the flyer that she was holding in her left hand, and she noticed that the reward for capturing this person would be 400,000 jewels. This person did not have that high of a bounty on their head, but they were rumored to be pretty powerful. She could not be scared now when Sting was beside her, wanting to do her absolute best for him, and the disadvantage of one type of magic against another had never mattered to Sting. Lucy began to think that it didn't matter that much as well, especially since the spells in the book were like boxes of chocolate. She never knew what she was going to get.

Lector had also decided to join them while he flew to the top of Sting's head, knowing that his friend would definitely get the job done, and Lucy seemed happy to have another member on the job. Wendy and Rogue had already gone out on other jobs, not able to accompany Lucy and Sting right now, and Orga had also gone out on a job with Rufus and Yukino. When Sting and Lector ran from Sabertooth's entrance doors, Lucy knew that she had to bring out the full power of lightning. Sting believed in her, and she began to look fierce while having confidence in her magic. As she ran after the duo, her yellow spell book glowed once again.

Meanwhile, in the desert...

Two people were standing in front of the Relic Castle, one of them smirking confidently while her eyes widened from sensing something, and she kept looking out at the hills of sand while having a few thoughts. This woman's name was Runo Sabaku, a criminal who had also been part of the dark guild known as Magma Groudon, and she had been wanted for committing many crimes. She wore a simple red T-shirt with a black skirt, and she also wore some knee-high black leather boots. Her brown hair was waist-length, and her eyes were of an orange color.

Her accomplice was a guy wearing a red blazer with a white shirt underneath, and his pants were also scarlet red. His tennis shoes were white, and his hair was dark red while having it in the shape of red flames. This guy was known as Eshros Iwa, another mage from the dark guild known as Magma Groudon, and he had only partnered up with Runo because she was a strong person who had been stealing money from treasure hunters and tourists who entered the Desert Resort. His calm demeanor was one reason why Runo liked having him around, too.

Eshros noticed that Runo was shaking with excitement, looking like she had just sensed a great vibration of power, but then she ceased with her shaking. This meant that the power she sensed had now been faint, not having the same vast amount of power that she had been detecting last week, and all of that strange power had seemed to be coming from Humilau Town. That was interesting, since she sensed that at the same time that Lucy and Sting were training on the beach there. She still smirked, however, and giggled a bit.

Runo could detect the level of a mage's power, no matter how far away they were, and she could even track them if they were deep in a mine shaft. She could tell that this person was coming her way, making her giggle even more, and Runo looked a bit surprised at his girlfriend's current state. She had been sensing a lot of power lately, coming from different places at different places, and this immense power was most likely the power of Lucy's spell book. Runo did not know Lucy, however, only knowing her level of power.

The guy with the flaming hair knew that his girlfriend could be quite arrogant in fights, displaying her power to make quite an impression on anyone who entered the Relic Castle, and she planned to take all of the castle's treasures for herself. This new enemy of hers was probably nothing to really worry about for Runo, but Eshros knew that she really had to be cautious. That level of power had been really intense last week, most likely coming from the electrical stingrays that came from Lucy's fourth spell, and Eshros had to wonder if Runo could beat that.

"I sensed quite a strong vibration a few moments ago, but now I only slightly feel it. That means I am more than powerful enough to defeat the next foolish mage when they arrive. There is no doubt. I can't get their exact location, but that magical power is heading our way. This will be a good opportunity to take out someone else, and I'll become even stronger." Runo said in an arrogant manner, feeling very sure of her abilities.

Eshros responded cautiously while glaring at his girlfriend, not wanting her to be in over head, "You've sensed their power, but we still do not even know what kind of power this mage has. Whatever type of magic they have, we must be really careful. They could even hit us with sneak attacks when we least expect it, or maybe they would even have-"

He was suddenly kicked hard in the groin by Runo, who shot a death glare at him for even assuming that anyone could be stronger than she was. He was supposed to be her boyfriend, but she only cared about him because he made her look strong to other people. Runo was known as the Earth Dragon Slayer by anyone who had encountered her, and she had learned her magic from an Earth Dragon named Clay. She was very prideful, and she also punched Eshros in the face for not thinking that she could handle anything that came her way.

Runo also possessed many spells, and she grinned evilly when she believed that she was an elite-class dragon slayer. She could make many spells of Earth Dragon Slayer Magic, and she always tested out the spells by destroying every single dark guild to get some recognition for herself. It was interesting to see a dark mage destroy dark guilds, and Runo always ate the rubble of each guild to make herself stronger. She could eat earth, sand, mud, and even some of the rocky statues in the Desert Resort.

She narrowed her orange eyes at Eshros, seeing him as nothing but a weak tool that she could use to find dark guilds since he knew most of Fiore like the back of his hand, and Runo planned to blow up the light guilds when her selfish plan was finished. Since Sabertooth was the nearest light guild, the green-haired woman thought about starting there to really give the world a true demonstration of her power. She planned to kill Eshros when he was no longer needed in her plans, but he did not know anything about her scheme.

Runo actually had a team in Magma Groudon, but she had kicked out the other four members because they were much weaker than she was. She had the thought of weak trash not being needed on her team, and she only saw Eshros as a tool that would help her get stronger. She didn't need him for anything else, not even really considering him to be her boyfriend, and she was just using him like a pawn. Runo had been manipulating him, since he was the guild's most recent rookie, and this plan of hers was certainly self-centered and egotistical. Those adjectives sounds familiar and perfectly fitting with another certain mage, do they not?

At the entrance...

Lucy, Sting, and Lector had arrived at the entrance to the Desert Resort. This was a large and barren desert with vicious sandstorms raking it, and Lucy tried her best to not let any sand get in her eyes. She hadn't exactly dressed appropriately for the heat, either, and she was sweating profusely. Lucy currently wore a simple white T-shirt with a green miniskirt, and her flat shoes were blue. She could see the deep sand being a darker brown color than the golden sand, and she curiously walked towards it.

However, Sting quickly grabbed her left arm and pulled her back towards him while looking cautious. He sternly looked at her with care in his charming blue eyes, letting her that the brown sand was quicksand, and he didn't want her to sink into it at all. Quicksand was extremely difficult to escape from, and nobody knew where the quicksand pits would lead to. Sting could see that some tourists were here, mainly people who wanted to explore the ruins from their various entrances, and he had to wonder about what was in the Relic Castle.

Sting had heard the legends about ancient ruins containing many secrets, and he himself had once visited the Hippowdon Temple in the country of Almia to discover a secret that involved two dragons of space and time. He had also been researching on three legendary golems that were the keys to unlocking a much greater being, but he had never found out what any of them were. Sting opened his mouth to eat some sunlight, and he looked a bit serious when he could feel that the enemy was around here somewhere.

The heat in the Desert Resort was certainly unbearable for Lucy, and even resting against a rock wall made her feel like heat was on her back. The golden sand was very hot as well, burning her hands when she tried to pick it up, and the blonde girl yelped in pain while blowing on her burnt hands. Sting saw that she was in pain, so he activated a move known as White Dragon's Healing. Holding her gentle hands in his, Sting made a white aura surround Lucy's hands and make them pure again. They were now free of the sudden burns, making her smile from the relief.

In order to thank Sting for helping her out, Lucy opened up the yellow spell book to see if her Lightning Magic could help him in any way. She widened her cocoa brown eyes from seeing that the book had given her the next four spells to use, and Lucy did not even know how she had unlocked them. They had now been written because of her love for Sting, believing that more power was inside of her, and the blonde female wondered what kind of effects these spells would have. Would they be really useful without anything backing them up, unlike the other four spells?

"I call upon thee, the fifth spell, Lightning Magnetism!" Lucy shouted happily, confidence in her eyes while she looked ready to find the criminal and protect Sting.

This spell caused a slow-moving ball of electricity to emerge from her left hand, and it headed straight for the sandy hill in front of the entrance to the Desert Resort. Lucy waited for the spell's effect to transpire immediately, hoping to see something powerful happen for Sting to be impressed with her once again, but nothing happened. Not even a single spark of lightning occurred, really giving Lucy quite a shock, and Sting also seemed puzzled by the spell's effect not showing itself. Lucy saw nothing occur, and she sighed sadly.

As Sting comforted Lucy, not wanting her to feel down about this, he didn't even take notice of Runo and Eshros standing in front of the Relic Castle. Runo had definitely picked up on that little vibration, detecting that spell as soon as it was used, and her orange eyes traced the power to the two people who seemed to have recently entered the Desert Resort. She finally realized that they must have been the ones who were heading her way, ready to defeat her, and Runo grinned evilly before snapping her fingers to vanish in a twister of sand.

She reappeared in the twister that was in front of Lucy, making a giant fist of sand strike the blonde girl in the face with tremendous force, and Lucy was sent flying backwards into the nearby wall of rock. Sting looked concerned for her, rushing to Lucy's aid, and he quickly figured out that this was the criminal they had to defeat. In retaliation for hurting Lucy, Sting glared at the sand twister and used his White Dragon's Holy Breath attack to destroy it. He unleashed the enormous white beam of light from his mouth, only to have the criminal slam her fists against the ground to summon a large rock wall from underground to cancel out his attack.

Lucy managed to get up, wincing in pain from her impact against the rock wall, and she used the sixth spell of Lightning Magic that was known as Electric Shield. This spell obviously made two grey pillars rise high into the air, being on both sides of a wall that was made from yellow electricity, and it was perfect for defending against some needles of sand that were fired from the large twister. Lucy's shield bent like rubber, absorbing the impact of the numerous needles, and it converted them into electrical needles before sending them back at their user.

This shield also amplified the reflected damage by six times the original power of the attack, and many large blasts of lightning transpired when the twister deflected some of the electrical needles to hit other areas of the Desert Resort. Lucy didn't want any innocent people to get hurt, and she got some relief from seeing many tourists run past her to get some safety. The needles of electricity had made blasts that were large enough to break through the twister, and Runo screamed in pain when she was getting electrocuted. Sting finally got to see who the criminal was, and he was shocked at what she did next.

She explained in a harsh tone, angry with the Sabertooth mages for getting in her way, "Well, look what we have here. All the magical power that I've been sensing has been coming from one of Sabertooth's dragon slayers, and it's also coming from his girlfriend as well. That doesn't matter, though. I am Runo, the Earth Dragon Slayer, and I am an elite among the light and dark mages alike. I also don't like having weaklings on my team. They are all trash to me, including any followers I have."

Before Lucy or Sting could even retaliate, Runo slammed her palms against the ground to make two walls of earth rise up from the ground and crush her foes with a hard slam. She felt very confident about this two-on-one battle now being a one-on-one battle, thinking that she had taken out Lucy with one shot, and dealing with Sting would be very fun for her. A battle of dragon slayers would be pretty great, in her opinion, but she first had to make sure that one foe was crushed. Upon hearing no response, Suna arrogantly smirked before laughing.

She didn't even see that Lucy had quickly jumped on to Sting's shoulders before the rock walls could crush her, and she looked pretty angry to know that there was a female version of Natsu right before her eyes. She still had a score to settle with him, remembering that Erza had gotten in the way of Lucy delivering the finishing blow in Fairy Tail, and this situation was like a reverse of the genders. She never knew that some girls could be just as rude as Natsu was, and hearing Runo's arrogant laughter made Lucy determined to beat her.

"I don't know what kind of elite dragon slayer you think that you are, but you aren't that strong if you can't even beat someone who was the weakest mage in Fairy Tail!" Lucy shouted fiercely, looking pretty angry as she used the Thunder Jolt spell to help herself and Sting escape from Runo's attack.

The rock walls were easily destroyed, definitely making Eshros and the Earth Dragon Slayer look very surprised, and they both looked startled to see the two mages from Sabertooth running towards Suna at high speeds when she had distanced herself from them. Lucy and Sting both looked pretty determined to succeed on this job, and they were capable of understanding each other through simple eye contact. They ran straight towards Runo, but suddenly veered off to the left and the right to get her confused.

Eshros, being a new mage to Magma Groudon, looked pretty startled by such a maneuver. He stepped back while asking Runo about which one he should try to attack, but she just angrily called him a dope for asking that question. She thought that by attacking Lucy, there would be no way for the blonde girl to defend herself with any techniques. Runo attempted to launch another giant sand fist at Lucy, only to have Sting strike her from behind with White Dragon's Roar. Runo gasped in shock from the sudden attack, and she fell to the ground before getting up again with a frustrated scowl on her face.

She angrily asked Lucy and Sting, looking pretty pissed off, "What kind of cheap sneak attack was that? Are you seriously so reckless?"

Runo slammed her fists against the ground once again when Sting and Lucy both lunged at her, and the ground began to crack before making multiple explosions transpire. They sent the mages flying backwards, making Runo giggle at the thought that she already won this fight, but she looked straight ahead to see her opponents simply panting while strength was still in their eyes. Their persistence startled Eshros, never having seen this kind of thing before, and he became even more shocked to see a yellow aura surround Lucy's body to allow her to move at lightning speed. She was heading straight for him this time, making him panic a bit.

His green-haired teammate groaned in frustration, angrily shouted that she just had to be paired with a weak loser like Eshros, and she tried to finish off Lucy by making giant brown spikes of earth rise from the ground to strike her from underneath. However, Lucy quickly called upon the seventh spell to stop those spikes. It was known as Electric Curve, and this spell simply made a beam of lightning emerge from her left hand. It hit one spike, and curved off to hit the others. Every curve it took caused the beam of lightning to grow bigger and faster, and it was also stronger. The beam was redirected around like a pinball bouncing off numerous objects, and it finally exploded in a massive yellow blast when it destroyed a single earth spike. With this spell being torn through, Suna looked pretty hotheaded.

She continued to chastise Eshros, calling him a useless buffoon, and Runo fiercely turned the sand below Lucy into gooey mud that rose up from the ground and immobilized Lucy with its properties of being really sticky. However, Sting ran towards her and freed her with Holy Ray while grinning with confidence. Lucy landed in his arms, and she blushed a bit while thanking him for the nice save. She got back down to the ground, and Lucy realized something interesting about the Electric Curve spell. The curve didn't just go in a random trajectory, but it could also be used for other spells as well. Every time it bounced off an earth spike, the large spike would have a yellow aura surrounding it. If the theory that Lucy was creating would prove to have been correct, Lightning Magic was more useful than it seemed to be.

As she used Electric Curve, however, Runo quickly went op top of the large hill where Lucy's fifth spell had seemingly failed to work. The green-haired woman could change the properties of the earth, and she created iron rock walls out of the sand in front of her. Even the quicksand made large iron rock wall rise from the ground, and they all turned from brown to a grey color to represent the change. Even the hill of sand that she was standing on became grey like iron, and Runo laughed viciously with the thought of Lucy's lightning not being able to break through the hardest iron in Fiore.

The yellow beam of lightning emerged from Lucy's hand, and it quickly curved off the first iron rock wall to reach the second. It touched the walls in a zigzag manner, making a yellow aura surround them, and Sting had a clue about what Lucy was up to. He remembered how that spell worked in a chain manner of succession, similar to the Aqua Ball spell of Water Magic, and the Electric Curve spell had now hit seven of the ten rock walls in front of the hill where Runo was located. The spell was evolving with every link in the chain, and its power just kept getting stronger.

Eshros thought to himself, looking really frightened at this level of power that Lucy was demonstrating, "Those guys are human, aren't they? Why aren't they scared like me, especially after having to go through all of Runo's attacks? Where in the world do these guys get all their strength from?"

Sting's blue eyes widened from seeing the spell continue to just bounce off the remaining rock walls, and he thought that Lucy's efforts would really go to waste when he saw Suna preparing to jump off of the hill of grey iron sand. However, he became even more surprised to see that she found herself unable to move at all while she stood on the iron hill. It was crackling with yellow electricity surrounding it, almost like some kind of magnetic force was holding Runo down, and that's when Sting remembered the fifth spell. It hadn't worked earlier because the hill wasn't containing any metal, but it worked now because of their opponent making the ground have metallic properties.

Scowling angrily at the fact that all her spells were being torn through, Runo quickly changed the terrain from iron to to being sandy again to regain mobility. She could see that Lucy's spell was extremely large now, possibly at the level of causing instant death upon impact, and she made a sand twister bring Eshros for her to use as a human shield to stop that spell in its tracks. Runo thought that she had now won, but Lucy's yellow spell book began to shine even brighter while she looked determined to defeat Runo for treating her own teammate so badly.

The blonde mage couldn't believe that someone could be lower than a dirty snake to use their own partner as a shield, and Lucy activated the eighth spell of Lightning Magic. This was the final spell, and Lucy looked pretty heated when she could definitely see similarities in Runo and Natsu. Her last spell was known as Electric Vortex, and it caused a massive vortex of yellow lightning to be fired straight from her mouth. Its power caused the already powerful Electric Curve to merge with it, making the eighth spell even more powerful, and Runo could only curse at Eshros while strangling him for being so scared of this level of power.

When the final spell hit both of the dark mages, it created many massive blasts of yellow lightning that nearly obliterated all of the sand in the Desert Resort. Suna and Aisu both became paralyzed with electricity because of the spell's side effect, and they were sent blasting off into the sky. As one last act of revenge against the Sabertooth mages for messing up her fun, Suna made the ground become filled with muddy tidal waves that would simply cover their targets in dirty mud. The impact would be like getting slammed with the pressure of tidal waves, though, and the sore loser laughed evilly.

Lucy looked like she wanted to panic, as she slipped down into the mud, and she gasped in shock upon seeing her yellow spell book sink into mud. She knew that even Virgo's digging skills might not save her from something like this, and she closed her eyes while a tidal wave of mud slammed down on her. She was sent down into the mud, sinking pretty fast, and Lucy couldn't find Sting or her book anywhere. Her clothes were being ruined by all the mud, and so was her hair. All this mud would not really make a good spa treatment, to be honest.

Suddenly, she felt something like a person's hand grab her left arm and pull her to safety. Lucy slowly opened her brown eyes to see that Sting had pulled her up to the surface of the Desert Resort, and he was also covered in the dirty mud. She was really glad that he had helped her out today, and Sting had also saved Lucy's life. He really was a great guy to have around, and Sting had really made Lucy feel happy. She really saw him as the guy who could heal her pain and erase her worries, even though she seemed to have lost the book.

"Oh, man! I totally have to get your book, Lucy! I know you really cherish that thing, and all your spells are really cool! You're a pretty great girl, too, so I have to help you get-" Sting shouted in a somewhat alarmed tone, noticing she didn't have the book with her, and he was suddenly silenced.

Lucy cupped Sting's face in her hands, kissing him on the lips with gentle ease to show how much she loved his newest acts of gratitude, and she was really lucky to have him as a partner. She wanted him to know that she wanted to be more than friends, and Sting kissed back while he blushed from feeling her soft lips. He was enjoying her sweet kiss, loving the fact that she was a great partner to have with him on jobs, and he also thought that she looked cute when she was muddy. Lucy was now the girl that he wanted as a girlfriend, and Sting was the guy that Lucy had wanted as a boyfriend.

She told Sting in a loving manner, removing her hands from his face while she blushed from the beauty of his blue eyes, "Sting, I really couldn't have been so helpful without you. I've never faced someone who had so many moves, and our teamwork really proved that we're an amazing combination. I'm in love with the greatest guy ever, and he's you."

"Thanks, Lucy. We really do make a great duo, and I really think we would be good for each other. I love being around you, Lucy." Sting responded in a kind manner, before grinning happily from getting a kiss from the girl that he loved.

Lector had been watching everything from the sky, not wanting to get muddy or hit with powerful chunks of earth, and he smirked with confidence from seeing Sting get kissed. He knew that his friend had the charms to make Lucy fall in love with him, and he also knew that a great dragon slayer would never screw up a relationship. He was about to go down there to make sure that his friends were okay, but something began to bubble in the water between them. What in the world could that be?

Lucy could see that a rectangular object had risen to the surface, obviously being her spell book, and it was strangely smelling like chocolate with some caramel mixed into it. The mud suddenly slithered off of the book, revealing it to be in perfect condition on every single page, and it had now changed from yellow to being orange. That made both Sting and Lucy look surprised, especially when the latter looked in the book to see a fifth section with words in a new olden language that had its first few lines of information in orange text. The unreadable words were in brown text, and Sting had to wonder what this book truly was. It certainly was anything but ordinary, that's for sure. It had even changed all the dirty mud into chocolate, from what Sting tasted when he got curious. Had it absorbed Suna's substance-changing ability?

As the duo smiled at each other while holding hands, going towards the entrance to head back to their guild while Lector followed them, they did not even notice that Shelly emerged from behind the right side of the Relic Castle. She looked pretty satisfied at the sight of what had happened, content with the fact that two of the pests from Aqua Kyogre's rival guild had been dealt with, and just seeing Lucy in action made her smirk deceptively once again. She was certainly glad to have been sneaky enough to find out Magma Groudon's hideout was close to here for Lucy to defeat those commanders, and she would be sure to have the reward of 400,000 jewels be waiting at the Sabertooth guild for the blonde girl.

"This is wonderful, really. I had been dreading the thought of fighting enemies in the desert with no water around, and Lucy Heartfilia has done my dirty work for me. After all, it would be quite troublesome for me to have to deal with those flaming idiots on my tail. Lucy has much potential like I do, and it's quite interesting to note that she really hates Natsu while having finally kissed Sting. Lucy has a heart and soul of light, but it needs a little darkness as well. After all, I'd love to see her use that anger on me with all of her energy." Shelly thought to herself while smiling at the sight of Lucy's book being orange like a beautiful sunset that occurred after it had led her from the redness of Natsu's flames to being yellow like Sting's blond hair.

Meanwhile, in the castle...

While most of the action had been going on outside the castle, something quite interesting had been going on inside of it. The inner portion of the Relic Castle was filled with sand and stone walls, quicksand pits on the floor to send people down into the lower chambers of this old castle, and let's just say that a certain iron dragon slayer had fallen down one of them while he had been on a job in here. Gajeel was doing a job that involved tracking down a certain person in the depths of this place, but what could anyone possibly be doing down here?

The black-haired male looked stern while walking down a hallway that was far underground, even though Magma Groudon had put a warp panel at the end of this hallway to be outside the Relic Castle to keep watch on people who could try any attempts to steal the treasures inside, but Gajeel did not really mind being underground to look for this person. She had apparently been missing for a few days now, having been seen entering the castle, but this female had not come back out. Even if she had gotten lost, her voice could probably echo far to also faintly reach the upper floors.

Speaking of hearing things, Gajeel thought that he heard a bunch of explosions occurring outside as well. He had wanted to see what all the noise had been about, but the iron dragon slayer felt like shrugging it off for now. There was nothing really interesting about someone digging up a few bombs that were hidden in the Desert Resort, since Magma Groudon had hid them in the ground to keep people from digging up their precious stuff, and Gajeel had actually walked right past Runo earlier without her or Eshros even paying any mind to him.

Suddenly, he began to stop walking while he saw the yellow warp panel up ahead. That wasn't the thing seeming odd to the red-eyed user of Iron Dragon Slayer Magic, but he noticed that a girl with purple hair had her back turned to him while she was faintly humming an eerie tune. It was creepy that she hummed the tune in such a weird way, almost making some parts of her song sound like they were meant for happiness, and Gajeel simply kept his hands in his pockets while approaching this strange girl. What in the world was she here for, anyway?

As he got closer to her while looking pretty bored, the girl with the purple hair simply turned around to face him. She had turned around slowly while keeping her hair over her eyes, a purple aura surrounding her body, and this girl gave off a pretty haunting vibe to Gajeel. Whatever she wanted from him, it might not exactly be a ticket out of the castle. She moved her hair over her left purple eye only, letting her right eye be visible now, and it suddenly began to glow while she seemed to be using a spell of some sort on him.

"Stay away!" She shouted in a harsh tone, speaking in a ghastly voice while smirking evilly, as she blinked her left eye once to use her move on Gajeel.

The iron dragon slayer blinked as well, suddenly finding himself in midair, before he fell down into the sea of chocolate that Runo had made to drown Lucy and Sting. The iron dragon slayer quickly rose to the surface while taking some of the substance in his hand, and he noticed that it was chocolate. If this had something to do with that weird girl, Gajeel did not find it to be funny. Still, something about her seemed pretty weird. She had looked similar to someone who was in the guild of Fairy Tail, but Gajeel looked grumpy enough while not being in the mood to put a name to a face right now.

How was the 13th chapter? Did you like it? Sorry if I changed the plot a bit from what I originally planned, but it all came together. Sting and Lucy are now officially boyfriend and girlfriend, a true StiCy couple, and things will get good for them in these next few chapters. This chapter was also mostly focused on them, too. The Grand Magic Games or a similar event is coming up, too. What will happen when Happy has loose lips? Will it cause Natsu to do something? Will Lucy's past catch up with her, and cause quite a ruckus? Standby for the update!