I do not own Fairy Tail.

Chapter 6:

The next morning, as the other two awoke, Gajeel sat against the tree still staring at Talia. He hadn't been able to sleep or even close his eyes for any period of time. If he wasn't nervous about the woman before, he certainly was now.

They all moved to pack up their camp site and get back on the road, so to speak. After everything was put away and everyone had gotten a good drink of water, Talia met eyes with each of them to check their condition.

Wendy looked a little stiff and sore and briefly Talia felt guilty. It was her pace that had done this to the girl. But the fire in Wendy's eyes assured her that she could take it. Natsu looked ready to get moving again, hopping from one foot to the other. Talia was glad at least one of them was ready to move like she was.

Lastly she looked at Gajeel, who met her eyes. They stared each other down, his eyes even more intense than the first time she had looked into them at their guild. She considered for a moment that saying what she did the previous night may have not been the best idea because it put an extreme distrust for her in his heart, and she actually did want them all to feel comfortable working with her.

She shook that thought from her head, knowing she couldn't feel those kinds of emotions. They were there to help her on a job, and she had been given her permissions and understood what she was to do if the time called for it. They were nowhere near where she stood, and she had to make sure they knew it.

"Let's go."

With only those words she sprinted off, preferring to run on ground instead of the trees for the time being. The three of them followed behind her, easily keeping up with her speed. She grinned from her place ahead of them.

"Time to see if you're worthy of your title, little dragons" She spoke at a normal tone, knowing they would hear her speak. Once the words were from her mouth, she picked up her speed to going twice as fast. She kept that pace for a bit before drifting her eyes to the side, surprised to see Natsu right next to her, grinning enthusiastically. She also grinned, happy one of them understood the meaning of the game.

Then she took an abrupt turn to the right, leaping over Natsu in the process to avoid slamming into him. He looked surprised before matching his pace with her. She looked well behind her, happy to see Gajeel and Wendy keeping up.

At the sight of her smile matching Natsu's, a look passed over their faces, finally understanding what was going on. Wendy grinned and looked at Gajeel. Despite himself, Gajeel smirked.

He had been wondering what the woman was doing, while simultaneously watching her closely as Natsu got closer to her. Now that he knew what she was doing, he was fighting the urge to sport a sinister grin. "She's playing with us" Gajeel thought. He then decided it was time to see how much their skills matched up to hers. After all, no normal human can match up to the speed and agility of a dragon slayer.

At the sight of Gajeel's smirk, Talia grinned. They were ready, and she was ready to test them.

Then she stopped in place and leaped up past the trees, the dragon slayers staring after her surprised before leaving the ground themselves. They hardly noticed Talia flick her wrist and the slight words on her lips. Vines shot from the ground and trees, entwining themselves around the legs of the slayers.

Wendy and Natsu were kept to the ground, but Gajeel moved quicker and cut them before following her up into the trees. He pieced together her movements and the vines and realized she was trying to use her magic to hold them back.

The two of them appeared above the trees, Talia flying much farther above his head before landing on a tree yards away from him.

"Well you passed that trial, let's see about the rest" She spoke, watching him hold on to the tree while she stood easily on hers. As she spoke, Wendy and Natsu appeared above the trees, both of them having gotten free.

"You used your magic!" Natsu yelled indignantly. Talia just smiled.

"Magic is the name of the game, dragons. I chose you, now it's time to show me that my choice wasn't wrong." She told them. They didn't understand, did she want them to fight her? They wouldn't stand a chance!

"You want us to..fight you?" Wendy finally spoke, albeit timidly.

Talia nodded and held up her arm, "As long as my limiter is in place, I am roughly the same strength of the three of you." She shifted her weight and threw off her cloak, finally uncovering herself completely. Her cowl covered most of her shoulders and chest and she held two pouches on her belt, they only knew was one was used for and could only guess of the other.

"Each day I will give you three a challenge, if you complete my challenge I will answer any question you ask me" She told them before narrowing her eyes, "And when I say any, I mean any".

Her statement seemed to catch them by surprise. She knew they'd had questions for her from the start, but as much as she didn't want to answer them she knew eventually she'd have to. So why not give them challenges in the fashion of training in return?

"Today, your challenge is simple. Pin me, and you win." She told them, tossing her head to the side and letting her hair fall over, "But I will use my magic. So don't be afraid to go all out, I promise I won't hurt you" She directed the last statement towards Gajeel who gritted his teeth at her words. It was if she was taunting him for what he told her the previous night.

"Ready?" She asked.

"Begin" A she bought both of her hands up, vines shooting up from below them and gripping on to every part of their body they could hold on to. As they held their targets, Talia stepped off her tree and dropped into the forest below.

"What the fuck, she's getting one hell of a head start" Gajeel growled as he cut through vines, just to have more replace them.

"Screw this!" Natsu yelled before rearing back and letting forth a roar and burning the vines off all of them, not sparing Gajeel and Wendy singes to their clothes and hair.

"Eeeep" Wendy exclaimed as her hair was burnt. "What the fuck Salamander?" Gajeel yelled.

"Shut up! I'm serious about this, I have something I have to ask her!" Natsu yelled at them before jumping over to where she disappeared into the trees and following her path down. After a second, Gajeel and Wendy did the same and followed him. The three of them used their sense of smell to follow her, Natsu inwardly cheering because there was no way she could hide from them with their dragon sense of smell. He would catch her in no time and get the answers he wanted.

They were running around blindly in the forest for an hour before they realized she had anticipated their sense of smell and had crisscrossed through the forest, making her trail impossible to follow because it was all around them. When the three of them realized this, they paused and Natsu yelled in irritation. While Natsu was throwing a tantrum, Wendy stood still and observed her surroundings. Then her ears picked up a noise, having been covered by Natsu's ranting until then. She looked up immediately, Gajeel following her sudden movements. To their surprise, Talia was perched on a branch directly above them, grinning at Natsu's frustration.

"Iron Dragon's….club!" Gajeel announced suddenly, shutting Natsu up. His, now, club-clad arm shot forward towards Talia. She turned, a bit surprised they noticed her, and jumped from the tree and landing on the club itself. As it pulled it back towards himself, Natsu leapt at her from his spot. "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Natsu screamed as he threw himself at her, determined to knock her off her feet.

Talia, in retaliation, grabbed firmly on his forearms when he reached, turning her body and flipping him over her shoulder onto the ground.

"Sky Dragon's Claw" Wendy then joined in, jumping to Talia and swinging her leg towards her abdomen. Talia swept her leg under Wendy, knocking her to the ground and throwing her attack off balance.

"Iron Dragon's Sword" Gajeel tries again, swinging his blade towards her with all of his strength. She jumped from where she stood and placed her hand on top of the blade and used it as leverage to throw herself towards Gajeel. She planted a hand on his shoulder and attempted to bring him down with her. As she placed her hand, he gripped her arm and threw her off, swinging his blade simultaneously. This took her by surprise, Talia didn't expect him to see her move coming soon enough for him to counter. She threw her leg out and kicked his blade away just in time, landing in a crouch away from him. When she looked back, the three slayers were standing together a few yards away.

She looked out of breath, which spurred the mages on. At once, as if it was some dragon instinct they all could feel, they each drew in a deep breath.

"Fire dragon's.."

"Iron dragon's.."

"Sky dragons's"

They echoed each other's words, "Roar!"

Three bursts of power shot forth towards Talia at once. Only a moment later did any of them really consider how much power they had thrown at one person who was already on her knees. As they thought this, Talia's voice finally rang out.

"Nature God's Earthy Protection!" Her words were clear as the Unison Raid made contact, emitting a bright light and dust to block all of them from seeing anything.

When the light dimmed and the dust cleared, there was a wall made of vine arcing around Talia, light glowing from the vines themselves.

Before the vines fell, Gajeel shot forward, taking the advantage that Natsu and Wendy were too shocked to take. The vines broke down just as he met them and he flew through them. Talia was knelt on the ground panting when Gajeel shot through and took hold of her shoulders, throwing her body back against the rough forest floor. He pinned her hands with his knees, his legs locking hers down as he kept his hands against her shoulders, her entire body flat on the ground.

Talia stared up into his face, one that was molded in a look of intense focus. She processed what had just happened, then smiled. "You've pinned me, you win" She chuckled slightly before laying her hand flat on the ground. More vines shot from the ground and wrapped around Gajeel and lifted him away from her. He was shocked, and then he caught sight of her wrist. Her limiter was glowing, even after everything they had seen she still hadn't broken her limiter. She was still only using a fraction of her power.

After Talia made it to her feet, she broke the vines hold and released Gajeel. Wendy and Natsu came up to meet them, and she could see questions bubbling up in Natsu's mind and decided to speak before he could.

"Do you understand why I'm doing this?" She asked honestly. Natsu looked clueless, but Gajeel and Wendy held a look that made it seem like they did.

Gajeel spoke first, "You want to show us exactly how much stronger than us you are". Talia huffed out a laugh, shaking her head. Wendy rocked on her heels before speaking up.

"Are you..trying to train us?" She said quietly. Talia grinned and nodded.

"Notice that I barely used any magic until the end, yet you three were throwing as much magic as you could. It's good to preserve your magic and have your bodies trained to defend from magic attacks without using it yourself, which is what I did." She told them and she went and began to walk away from the clearing. The three of them followed closely behind her.

"I also did it to show you exactly where you were in, say, comparison to me. Rarely will you find someone who is as strong or stronger than a Wizard Saint, my goal before the end of this mission is for the three of you, combined and separate, to be able to hold your own against me in a fight with my limiter removed" As she said this, Natsu gave a rather loud "What?!" and Wendy gasped. Gajeel had been silent this whole time and finally spoke up.

"So are you trying to say that you want us to be as powerful as you by the end of this mission?"

Talia stopped in her tracks and turned to face him, her eyes narrowed.

"Of course not, because it's not possible. No amount of training I can do would allow any of you to best me in a fight, I only want you to be able to keep up. Maybe then, you'll be suitable for the title of Dragon Slayer" She spoke with a heavy tone of arrogance. Gajeel and Natsu's faces contorted in anger at her words, but before either of them could get a word back, Talia turned and began running north to get back on track on their journey to Seven.

This time, they didn't use the trees, but stayed on the ground. It was much easier for them to keep up long stretches of flat land because they had built up an endurance after having to move through the trees. The three were aware that once they stopped, they had a question to ask her and that was what spurred them on.

Well I really need to pick up the pace with my updates..whoops.

Anyway, now you're starting to kinda get an idea of what Talia's magic is. If not, it'll be explained next chapter in full. For the most part, at least.

Review please?