Chapter Five:
The dark mage stared at us, mirth present in his eyes. Why he thought the situation was humorous was unknown to me.
"No defiance? Boring. I think I'll kill you all now." he chuckled.
"Have fun trying!" Natsu's voice rang out. He smashed his fists together, flames licking from between his fingers. "Fire dragon's roar!" he shouted, brilliant orange fire spiraling towards the dark mage. But the man smirked and disappeared.
"Shadow magic." I muttered with a scowl, seeing the shadow slithering towards us. He popped back up.
"Dear little Natsu, always rushing into things. And Lucy, calculating your moves, trying to demobilize me. Don't even bother." his eyes narrowed as he threw his hand up, black gobs of shadow shooting towards her. Her eyes widened and she threw her arms in front of her face, not able to summon her spirits in such a short time.
"No!" I dove towards her, a burst of water spraying from my hands and stopping the shadow mage's attack.
"Mari-chan. What an adorable name for such a wicked girl." he set his sights on me, his lecherous gaze raking up and down from neck to foot. "You would make a nice addition to the guild. All that potential… why, such dark thoughts in your past as well. What do you say, water mage? Join us, or perish by your worst nightmare?" if it was possible, his irises got bigger and blacker, almost covering the whites of his eyes. I remained silent.
"Mari." Lucy whispered from behind me.
"No. Of course I wouldn't join your forces. These are my friends, to whom I am loyal." I scowled.
"Shame." the unnamed mage grinned wider yet. "Nightmare." that one word sent a blast of black magic flying towards me. I put my arms up to summon another water wall, but the attack hit me straight in the chest.
"Mari!" Gray yelled.
"I'm fine." I said, and I was. I began to pull moisture from the air, preparing an attack. But nothing would form around my hands. "What…?" I tried again. My feet felt wet. I looked down to see water slowly lapping at my ankles. It formed in a perfect circle around me, but it was rising, as if I were in a tank being filled with water. Nervously, I tried to dispel it, but it wouldn't work. My magic wasn't working. I sucked in a breath, attempting to use it to replenish my magic, but nothing happened. I couldn't even eat it. I looked up at the dark mage who began to cackle.
"Have fun drowning, my dear. Now, who's next?" he swiveled towards Natsu, who was about to attack from behind.
"What did you do to her?!" Natsu roared, his hand engulfed in flames that he used to punch him.
"Don't you understand nightmare magic?" the man recovered from the punch quickly, evading Natsu's next attack and then kicking him away. The water rose to my knees, my feet unable to move.
"Nightmare magic…" Lucy whispered. "Are you Bodus?" she called out to him. He snapped his head towards her.
"Where did you hear that name? I haven't been called that name in years. Call me Night-san." his eyes flashed and he shot an attack at her. She just barely dove out of the way.
"Lucy, do you know how to stop nightmare magic?" Gray sprinted across the clearing towards us, ducking an attack from Night.
"I'll ask Crux, just give me a minute."
"Lucy, hide behind me. He can't do any more damage to me." I said as the water rose to my hips. I was feeling panicked, but I knew that I needed to stay calm in order to get myself out of this mess. I tried using my magic again, to no avail. She nodded and dodged another attack. Natsu was keeping him pretty distracted, though. I'd have to thank him later, once I got out of this mess.
"Open, gate of the cross! Crux!" I heard her shout. "Please help us find out how to stop this!" I wished I could move to see what was happening behind me, but my feet were planted in the ground. Gray was standing beside Lucy with a big hunk of ice in his hands, and he was batting any magical attacks away from us. It was pretty quiet other than the grunts and shouts of the two men in front of us wrestling.
"Uh, Lucy?" I questioned as the water lapped at my shoulders.
"Oh my god, Crux please hurry." I heard her say. It rose steadily still. I was panicking by now, and I had to swallow a shriek.
"Lucy, can't you make him hurry faster?!" Gray smacked a blob of dark magic away from us.
"I'm trying!" she sounded horrified. I took about three more deep breaths before the water covered my face completely. It was silent. I covered my mouth and nose, forcing myself to keep from breathing in the water. I could see a bit, but it was blurry. I saw Gray attacking the orb that was covering me, he looked furious. He continued to beat at the water, but all of his ice creations would shatter against the surprisingly hard exterior. I blinked slowly.
It was really peaceful. I blinked again, harder, trying to dispel the black dots that were forming in my vision. My lungs were screaming for air, but I knew if I breathed in the water it would make things worse. My eyelids were struggling to stay open, and my knees were shaking. I was clenching my jaw shut and holding my nose, trying to stay awake, and also stopping myself for getting a lungful of water. The black dots were completely covering my eyes now, was I even awake? I heard a loud blast before I felt the water splash down from around my body. It happened at the perfect moment, because I felt myself fall face-first into the ground, holding my body up with trembling arms as I gasped for air. I was about three seconds from passing out. I sucked in as much as I could, coughing and sputtering all the while.
"-ri! Mari are you okay?!" I heard Gray shouting. My arms were shaking hard, and I felt angry that I was defeated so easily.
"Dragon force." I muttered before feeling my power burst around me. I threw my head back, basking in the chilly force of the watery magic. I felt my eyes turn into slits, and I turned my narrowed gaze onto Bodus, or "Night-san" as he had requested.
"Natsu, Lucy, Gray. Go ahead, I've got this." I smirked.
"Are you sure?" Lucy asked.
"I'll stay here with you. If we work together we can defeat him faster." Gray said to me. I hesitated for a second before nodding.
"Natsu! Come on, let's go get the next one!" Lucy smiled, her relief showing on her face. I wasn't sure if it was because I was alright, or if she got to get away from Bodus, but either way didn't matter to me. Natsu threw one last punch before sprinting over to Lucy, and they ran further towards where the trees thinned out even more.
"Ready?" Gray asked.
"Ready." I cracked my knuckles.
"Unision raid: Ice wave!" Gray shouted.
"Unision raid: dragon's typhoon!" I grabbed his outstretched and and let the power flow through my arm and into my hand, and I felt it collect with his icy cold magic before leaving us in a burst, smashing into Bodus' chest and sending him reeling through the air. He fell to the ground after pinballing around the few standing trees around us, and he didn't get back up.
"We make a good team." Gray grinned at me, my hand still pulsating with the aftershock of dispelling that amount of power.
"I suppose we do." I said distantly, letting the force around me drop and also dropping his hand. "Thank you, for helping me. How did the bubble finally manage to break?" I questioned.
"Crux gave me a spell that I used to pierce it and it burst." he looked off into the distance, a slight frown on his face. "Don't scare us like that again. You're starting to grow on me, even though you're weird." I think he was a little worn out, because he was grinning like a fool.
"Let's catch up to the others and get this over with." I sighed.
"Agreed." he nodded back to me, a small smirk playing on his lips. We ran towards where I could smell Natsu and Lucy engaged in battle. This would be a tough one, I could feel it.
