Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail
The lightning disappeared only to see Natsu holding Tyson's fist with a bare hand and Gajeel's metal pole held back with a flaming hand. "Salamander," Gajeel snarled the name.
"Sorry, metal face, but if you want to fight 'the brat that's been following me', then you'll have to fight me," Natsu gave a small laugh.
Gajeel withdrew with a 'tch' while Natsu continued to hold Tyson's fist. Natsu watched as the iron dragon slayer sat back down and scratched at his hair once more. Natsu let go of Tyson's fist and knelt down in front of him, giving a warning, "Don't let Gajeel get to you. If he wants to give nicknames, that's just fine, though he's got worst names for people than what you've got," Natsu ruffled Tyson's hair.
Tyson nodded, feeling a bit guilty of him snapping at Gajeel. "Why the sad face? Don't worry about what Gajeel-san said. Plus, I bet one of us can teach you some type of magic. I bet..." Sting came up to them and looked at Natsu and small smile formed on his face.
"I can hand you over to Erza if she's still alive. She can teach you real swordsmanship plus magic," Natsu smiled a bit more.
The name 'Erza' sent chills down Tyson's back. He learned a bit more than he needed to about Titania Erza. "Come on, Natsu-san, Tyson. We should eat and start training," Sting said with a smile and grabbed one of the pieces of fruit and bit into it.
Natsu passed a fruit to Tyson and took one for himself. Each dragon slayer ate three whole fruits while the normal mages ate one piece. After breakfast, Rogue disappeared, Gajeel went to meditate under a waterfall, Lucy and Levy went somewhere more peaceful, and Natsu was the one being attacked by another dragon slayer and a swordsman. "Attack me seriously," Natsu sighed, seeming to be bored of the attacks of the duo.
"I can't attack you seriously, Natsu-nii," Tyson told him and Sting nodded in agreement.
"Fine, I didn't want to say this, but Tyson, it was I that killed your pet mouse. Sting, I think that Lector is stupid and is even lower than Gajeel's cat," Natsu told them. Both began to growl deeply.
"How dare you lie to me about my pet mouse," Tyson said, purely angered a his older brother who he had been adopted by.
"Natsu-san, your cat's even lower then Lector and his name is stupid," Sting threw back, magic power bursting from him as he said, "White Drive." Natsu smirked, looking satisfied with his work.
Tyson attacked first taking his sword and swinging it a Natsu's face on which Natsu ducked under the blade, only to here, "Receive white justice again, Natsu-san," Once more, Natsu was punched in the stomach, sending Natsu flying back. Frozen in place as a magic circle-like stigmata was shining brightly on Natsu's stomach. Natsu gave a small 'tch' as both of his opponents smiled at their teamwork. They neared him and Sting said, "Haven't been frozen in place for many years now haven't you, Natsu-san?"
"I'm working on my skill with a sword still, Natsu-nii. One day I'll surpass you," Tyson smirked.
"Tyson, you're beginning to sound like Sting so many years ago. Sting," Natsu sent a glare at Sting and continued, "Just because I haven't been frozen like this in many years doesn't mean I don't remember the trick I used!" Natsu moved fast as he punched Sting in the face and then quickly moved to Tyson in which he was punched in the gut.
Tyson dropped his sword and put his arms over the area he was punched in and Natsu quickly used his foot to move the sword out of reach from the boy. "Let's see how strong your fists are, Tyson," Natsu challenged as he shuffled the sword away from himself.
Sting rubbed his face and charged first, using his foot to kick. Tyson came soon after and with his hands in fists. Natsu blocked Sting's attack and threw Sting's foot back, making Sting go clumsily backwards, stumbling before hitting the floor. Tyson was met by Natsu's fist except Natsu's fist was stronger and Tyson hurt his own fist. Tyson backed up to where Sting sat, both seeing Natsu as a strong opponent. After moments of analyzing a voice was heard behind them, "Seems you'll need help defeating Salamander."
They both turned to see Gajeel with him quite wet. Sting smiled, saying, "That'll be fine, Gajeel-san. We may need a bit of help defeating Natsu-san." Tyson turned back and eyed his sword behind Natsu.
Though, the dragon slayer was prepared for the three to go against him. Sting got up from the floor and the three stood tall, trying to overwhelm Natsu. Gajeel attacked, his arm turning into a metal pole. Natsu met it with a flaming fist and Sting sent a fist with a white glow on it at Natsu in which Natsu also met it with another flaming fist. While the two distracted the fire dragon slayer, Tyson quickly got his sword and swung it at Natsu, in which backed away, leaving both opposing dragon slayers to stumble forth and land on the floor and Tyson to trip over those two, landing on top of Gajeel. Tyson felt his clothing soak in the water as he was on top of Gajeel. Sting reeled back from the other two and panted. Tyson immediatly got off of Gajeel as the iron dragon slayer began to twitch. "Salamander, I thought you couldn't handle three knights yesterday, though you can take us down," Gajeel growled at Natsu as he stood there.
"My fighting skill is slowly coming back to me as I fight you three, but I won't be able to use any big moves yet for a bit of time," Natsu explained.
The three just couldn't get Natsu down and that's when Rogue appeared behind the three defeated-looking people that lay on the floor. "Oh, Rogue. I didn't know you were there. Mind if you give us a hand?" Sting turned to greet his partner.
"Come on Rogue. We need all the magic we can get. It seems that Salamander is too good for three opponents," Gajeel got up from the floor.
Rogue looked at the three and then at Natsu's bit of a serious expression and then Rogue stepped forth. "Sure, I'll help," Rogue finally said and Sting smiled as he picked himself off the floor.
Tyson got up himself and readied his sword. Though, he watched as his older brother took a step back from them. A grin grew on Sting's and Gajeel's face as the suddenly pushed off and went directly at Natsu. Rogue held back and Tyson did the same as he watched as Natsu had made a large ball of fire, though neither dragon slayer going toward him stopped. After moments, Natsu threw the fire ball and both Gajeel and Sting got caught in the fire. That's when Rogue went in for an attack, his hand having a black shadow coming off of it. Natsu swiftly dodged, going , Tyson ran towards that area and swung his sword at the dragon slayer, though, he only sliced the air as Natsu had ducked under the sharp sword.
Hours past and that's when Natsu finally fell to the floor after Tyson had given in and Sting who couldn't keep up anymore. Though, Natsu had left Gajeel and Rogue to panting hard. They gathered around the campfire where Lucy and Levy sat at and Natsu lit the fire before falling asleep in the afternoon sun. Levy and Lucy talked quietly while Tyson looked at his sword closely to see a ruby heart embedded into the hilt of the sword with amber coming off of it in the form of wings, resembling a phoenix. The question came to Tyson of if he had magic himself except it just didn't come to him. After a few hours, Lucy awoke Natsu to eat something. Their small dinner had quite a bit of tension and Gajeel had finally said, "I feel like someone's watching us."
Frowns were on all four dragon slayers as they searched the clearing for a hidden person. Lucy and Levy had serious expressions on their faces and Tyson gave a small laugh, "It's probably no one."
"Tyson, don't under-estimate a dragon slayer's senses," Natsu strictly told Tyson which only the boy frowned.
Later, Tyson feel asleep next Natsu, feeling the warmth the fire dragon slayer gave. The warmth gave him a feeling of being safe. Tyson wished he could be like this forever without having to feel the danger of someone near and about to attack them.
Three days passed since they've arrived at the camp. Natsu's clothing had been torn, but Natsu didn't seem to care a bit about it one bit and the cuts on his arms had healed fully, not leaving a sign of being there. Though, his training showed improvement and he was able to fight longer than when he began to train. Lucy had been training with Capricorn, becoming stronger everyday with the use of magic. She was almost able to call out two spirits without tiring herself out. Gajeel was showing quite a bit of improvement also as he battled Natsu out. Gajeel was able to use all of his strongest moves at this point of time, but even though he was as strong as he was ninety years ago, he still denies that he's strong, but extremely weak still. Sting and Rogue can stay in Dragon Force for a bit of time, but not as long as before. Though, both of them showed improvement in training everyday and Sting was able to keep up with Natsu for a much longer period of time as the two dueled. Both Rogue and Gajeel also took their battle to the extremes also, though was a lot less destructive. For Tyson, he was able to use his sword much better and was able to combat without a sword for quite a bit. Natsu had taught him while they both went against Sting, in which Sting thought it wasn't very fair to do that. Though Natsu had decided to ignore his pleas and he had left most of the fighting to Tyson. Natsu only joined in if Tyson was starting to lose against Sting, but that was it. They had all decided that this would be a resting day from all the training and then the day before visiting the dragons would be another rest day. After breakfast, Levy, Lucy, and Gajeel decided to go back into Crocus and see some of the sights. Gajeel only went to make sure that the two wouldn't get hurt there. Sting and Rogue had decided to take a walk through the luscious forest and return later during the evening. Natsu had decided to stay in their campout and sleep for a bit and so Tyson stayed with him. Tyson lay on the floor and looked up at the sky and dozed off a bit, hearing Natsu's quiet snores. "Wake up!" A shout made Tyson's eyes widen and grip the sheathed sword by him.
"Natsu, you better wake up or else the knights will kill you!" Tyson got up from the ground and saw that a ring of knights surrounded them and a scarlet-haired woman stood with armor and sword in hand, seeming to protect the fire dragon slayer while he slept.
"I'll wake him up," Tyson ran over to Natsu's side and shook him violently.
"If you don't wake up, Natsu-nii, we might all die from the knights surrounding us," Tyson told Natsu as the dragon slayer's eyes opened quickly as he made his way up.
"Your finally up, Natsu," The woman said, taking down another knight and added, "I brought the knights to you Natsu. I didn't mean too, but it was an accident. After this fight, you can hit me."
"No, it'll be fine Erza. Though, it seems I can put my training to use," Natsu pressed his back to Erza's.
Natsu looked at Tyson and said, "We'll need your help too, Tyson. We won't be able to take down this many knights ourselves."
"I thought you were able to do so, Natsu," Erza gave a glance behind her.
"That was ninety years ago Erza. I haven't used magic in so much as eighty years," Natsu told her and hit a flaming fist at two knights charging at him.
"Fine. We can catch up after this battle," Erza said as she hit another two knights charging. Tyson swung his sword at another knight, slicing the throat. The two mages split and attacked the group of knights, though after ten minutes of fighting, Natsu was completely surrounded by knights and Erza was unable to help the fire dragon slayer out.
"How are we going to get to Natsu-nii?" Tyson asked Erza, trying to break through the line of knights that surrounded Natsu.
"Don't worry about Natsu. He was raised by a dragon," Erza told him, now using two swords.
A scream of pain came from Natsu which alerted them that Natsu's been cut badly. Tyson's eyes widened and he stilled to see the knights trying to get closer to Natsu. Erza took one after another down, but she wasn't fast enough. Tyson felt a flame beginning to burn inside of him and smoke came off of him. Erza backed off to see Tyson angered deeply and the smoke rising from him. The sword that was in his right hand was covered in 's when Tyson attacked. He flew right to the first knight and with a touch of the blade, he set the knight on fire. Erza shivered and remembered the Tower of Heaven, except this was someone different. Tyson cleared a path and reached Natsu to see cuts from swords all down his back and hands, all seeping blood from the wounds. The fire dragon slayer was unconscious and Tyson stood over him, looking quite protective. Erza ran through Tyson's open path straight to Natsu and made both swords in her hands disappear from sight as she looked Natsu over and his ragged clothing. Erza looked around to see Tyson taking one knight after another down. At this point of time, Tyson was covered in flames, head to toe and it was in the shape of a... PHOENIX!