A/N: Hiya! I'm back! After a really long while too. Hhh... Author's block is really hitting on me like crazy. I can't find any ideas to write with. Even this chapter is already squeezing through what's left of it. Seriously. Ugh, it's making my head numb!

Anyway, thank you for your continued support and reviews. As usual, I really appreciate all of them! And guess what, there's a good number of them on the previous chap! I'm so happy! Twelve! TWELVE! Thanks a lot guys. So let's answer the questions and suggestions.

Firstly, Pairings. The Shonen Ai route is unfortunately doomed to nonexistence, unfortunately. However, any other candidate such as Mirajane, Cana, etc. is still open into consideration. I'm leaning towards Mirajane for now.

Secondly, Magic. So, I've decided to take Primordial-Chaos85's suggestion with Earth Magic as it was quite convenient and multifunctional. Combined, of course, with originally planed Illusion Magic. Sorry, Angelfaux, but Memory Make and Arc of Embodiment in collaboration is just OP on a whole other level. I think even Makarov would be hard-pressed to fight against those two magic working in conjunction with one another.

Thirdly, plot suggestion from Angelfaux. I'll take some part of it, but the part where he joins Fairy Tail to wait for Erza is a no go. I'll be going solo from there on. Thanks, by the way.

Lastly, Hi Dragon. Long time no see. I've read your reviews and honestly, I don't understand 80% of it. Sorry. Tehee.

Anyhow, thank you all for the continued support and reviews! Don't forget to leave me lots more reviews about what you thought was lacking or good enough in this story, and don't be shy to press on that cute little like and follow button either! Enjoy the chap!


Chapter 4: The Hunt.

"W-w-well? Can y-you s-s-see a-anyt-thing?" It almost took me a physical effort just to utter that sentence through the non-stop chattering of my teeth. There was too many close calls on my tongue's well-being for me to count after the first ten minutes of my stay in this god-forsaken mountain. Honestly, just hurry up and die Brain!

"Yeah. They're camping around some sort of cave mouth, I think. Must be searching for something." Old Man answered, gazing through his newly conjured super binoculars which was capable of watching things from a very far distance, like what he was currently doing, and even through harsh weather such as storms, blizzards or thick fog with perfect clarity. The word useful doesn't even begin to describe it.

"B-by the w-way" I began, slowly forcing the word out of my mouth in fear of getting my own tongue bitten off. Actually, now that I think about it, I can't really feel my tongue anymore, nor does my fingers for that matter. Huh. "H-how a-a-are you ab-able to spe-speak n-normall-ly?"

"Ah!" He exclaimed, pulling the classic I-just-remembered-something look commonly seen in anime. Well, THIS is an anime world, so I guess my point doesn't really stand. He rummaged through the stuff he kept close on his person, hidden beneath those layers of extra thick clothing he wore and produced a flask of something that smelt like a very potent alcoholic beverage.

"This is-"

"Nevermind. F-Forget th-that I even a-a-asked." It's not like my body could handle the drink even if I wanted to. After all, I was pretty sure that the kidney and liver of a four, nearing five, year old kid aren't supposed to process potent alcohols. How Cana could do that so early in his life without getting at least ten liver donor was beyond me.

"Your loss." Old Man shrugged nonchalantly and continued on his espionage watch over the group of Dark Mages, keeping a vigilant eye on their activities via his brand new binoculars. I keep myself silent, letting my Old Man work in peace, and amused myself by continuing on my meditation and manipulating the flow of my Magic to pass the time.

And then everything went to hell.

"Shit!" He cursed under his breath, throwing his flask away to quickly grasp the Manta's reins and reassert control over the panicking flying fish as it frantically threw itself to the side to dodge an incoming beam of destructive magical energy. "What the fucking hell are you doing back there, brat?!" He turned to me, orange eyes glaring accusations pointedly to my own panicked golden eyes.

"I did nothing!" I screamed at him as I tried to grab a steady hold on the Manta's back and stop myself from falling and plummeting down to my, undoubtedly, cold and messy death in the mountains deep, dark abyss. It's just a shame that this thing doesn't come with a seatbelt on it, or it would have been a very fantastic transportation. "I'm just meditating and practicing my magic controls!"

"That ain't nothing!" He shouted back, sharply pulling the reins to the right to dodge another incoming beam of green energy. "You're alerting him to our presence by flaring your magic!" He explained, all the while urging the manta to move faster and get away from the persistently chasing beam.

"How should I know that!?" I shouted at him, desperately holding on to the base of the Manta's tail for dear life. Literally.

"It's common sense!" He shouted, turning to me and gestured with a light tilt of his head to come over and help him handle the reins. "What are you doing on that part of the world? Get over here and take over so I can fight back!" Basically, he's tired of running away like a bitch and wanted to teach the bastard, AKA Brain, why he shouldn't mess with someone named after the Spanish war.

"I would if I could!" I hollered, yelping when a stray beam flew close enough to me for me to be able to feel the heat radiating from its light. "Gyaaaa! He almost got me!" I screamed, face paling from the near death experience.

"Tsk. Hold on, puppy!" Who the fuck did he just call a puppy!? Old Man taped his foot twice on the Manta's head and the tail I was holding on to suddenly whipped upwards, throwing me up into the air, eliciting a.. very manly scream out of me. Yes. That's that. Old Man deftly caught me with a single hand before I could finish my downward trip to the ground and subsequently turn into a bloody, human shaped pancake and quickly set me down in front of him, reins shoved into my tiny, calloused hands.

"Pull left to go left, pull right to go right. Whip it up to accelerate and pull it back to slow down. Good luck, Short-stuff." And the nicknames just keep pilling on. Wait, are you just gonna leave me here with the Manta? Seriously? By the way, how are you getting down anyway? You can't possibly be jumpi- Nope, he did it. He seriously did it.

"Watch and learn, dipshit! This is how a pro does his job!" With that, he created a pair of black wings from his back and leapt off of our ride, gliding like an expert through the air and down towards the encampment to get some very serious, upclose and personal session with Brain. Someone's gonna die, that's for sure.

"Drop dead, you shitty Old Man!" I shouted back at him, harrumping in irritation before I was forced to accelerate the Manta or risk obliteration by either the beam or the fall if the Manta was to be killed. "Fuck, fuck! What am I gonna do now?"

On the bright side, My teeth's not gonna go all Mary-Antoinnete-Guillotine-Execution on my tongue anymore. Oh well, time to find a good spot to park the Manta and hide before I got my ass shot with a laser beam.


"So you have finally decided to show yourself to me, cur?" Brain regarded the winged man dropping down from the sky in front of him with as much condescending amusement as anyone could possibly make in a lifetime, so much so that even Lepanto struggled to stop himself from materializing a chainsaw to rip his face apart and erase the smile off of his face once and for all.

It was just a shame that Brain has picked himself the worse possible enemy in the game of annoying-the-shit-out-of-people. Nobody challenged Lepanto in the bitch-talk game and walk away from it with their pride intact and unscathed.

Taking a quick moment to make sure that he wasn't about to lost his control over the annoyance bubbling inside him and make a mistake and possibly kill his paycheck, Lepanto returned the Dark Mage's condescending smile with his own. "I prefer the term Bounty Hunter. However, I suppose such an advanced vocabulary was beyond your comprehension, am I right, mongrel?"

Brain almost immediately lost his amusement, his face set into a blank visage hiding the cold fury underneath. "What did you just say?" He growled, sickly green aura of pure magic power slowly blazing around him.

Far from being intimidated, the veteran Bounty Hunter continued on his rant. "What? Are you saying that not only is that space inside your head's empty but you're also bad on hearing? My, your mother must not have taken proper care of you when she was pregnant. Then again, if I knew that my child's going to grow into this-" He gestured at the seething Dark Mage's form with a mockingly disgusted and repulsed face. "-abomination, I might just abort you and be done with it."

"Seriously, look at yourself! Who the hell wore indian clothing in the middle of a blizzard? Forget about blizzard, I don't think anyone with half a working brain would ever wear indian clothing in public!" Lepanto snickered to himself, very much aware of the pun in that sentence. Somewhere out there, a child Nab and an old Roubaul sneezed, feeling as if they've just been insulted. "You, sir, is a legit fashion disaster."

Indeed, anyone who had even a modicum of fashion sense would've vomitted rainbows at the sight of Brain's style. He wore an open vest made out of the pelt of some beast instead of a shirt, leaving it open and exposing his torso. Resting on top of his head was the hallowed skull of a bear, looking very much like a crown made out of bone. Following that was a kilt made out of leaves and bones strapped snuggly on his waist. Luckily for Lepanto, Brain still had the decency to wear a pair of white jeans underneath. The Bounty Hunter was internally glad for that, he wasn't really sure if he had the mental fortitude to survive should he accidentally saw something that he shouldn't have in the battle through a flipped kilt.

"That's enough! I shall hear none of this nonsense from you, maggots!" Brain exclaimed, his face twisting into an ugly, wrathful visage that could undoubtedly make babies cry with just one glance.

"For the record, 'maggots' is a plural whereas I am only a single person. Please, come back when you've finally learnt proper grammar." Lepanto waved his arms dismissively at the fuming Dark Mage who was literally seconds away from exploding, even going so far so as to make a show of casually honing his nails as if he wasn't about to fight a Dark Mage of very prominent reputation.

That was the straw that broke the camel's back.

"Dark Capriccio!" Brain raised Klodoa, the skull-topped staff he had been gripping, and fired a bright green colored beam from the jewels stuck between the skull on top of the staff.

Lepanto leapt to the side, dodging the beam that was aimed right to his chest with the intent to no doubt blow a hole right through him. "Oooh! You're playing a dangerous game, Brain." He flashed him his signature predatory grin, sharp canines glinting under the dim light. "Two can play that game."

"Dark Capriccio!" Once again, another beam made its way to him and just as easily, Lepanto leapt away and dodged the beam. "Stop dodging, you worm! Dark Capriccio!" Lepanto vaulted over the incoming attack, looking quite amused at the attempt to harm him.

"Yeah, how about no." He deadpanned. "But I've got to say, you're quite the one trick pony. All you did was fire the beam at me, which is quickly becoming boring. How about I liven up the atmosphere a lil' bit, just to make things more interesting?" Bright orange aura began to coalesce around him as he let loose his control over his magic power.

"Cerberos." A pack of oversized, overgrown three-headed dogs on steroids with bulging muscles, burning red-eyes, dagger-like claws and fangs as well as hellfire for mane appeared behind him, growling and barking at the lone man standing opposite of their master. Drool dripped down their gaping maws in excess, sizzling as the foul substance made contact with the snow covered ground.

"Garuda." A sudden screech brought Brain's attention away from the growling pack of mutts in front of him and the flock of man-sized birdmen encircling them in the sky, their form barely visible from behind the blizzard. They were large humanoids with the head of a bird, the torso of a man and hands and legs of a bird's talons. On their back, was a pair of massive wings.

"Verdugo." A massive T-shaped claymore made out of obsidian-like steel appeared on his hand, bearing the inscription of Game-Over on its black blade. Lepanto gave a fond smile and gripped the handle to the oversized weapon, lifting it as easily as one did a twig.

"You best be careful, Brain." A bloodthirsty smile made its way upon his face, the blade in his hand glowing and shaking in response to his bloodlust. "My beasts is especially cruel to the sinful."

To Be Continued.