"Seems like I owe Mira mon-" Erza said, interrupted by a wall crumpling in, a large bald man walking through the hole. Roxanne stumbled backwards at the sight of him, "Y-y-you." "I am here for the council member, step aside and no harm will come to you." he boomed. Erza didn't bother replying, she instead re-quipped into her Flight Armor, jumping behind him in a blur. She wasn't quick enough, large he may be, but slow, far from it. He hit her hard sending her flying down the hall. Erza recovered in the air, sliding quickly to a stop and went speeding back at the mage. Roxanne noticed, as he stood there, taking the barrage of attacks, that his mark was different. He was a part of Tartarus now. Erza stopped the flurry of attacks and jumped back. Her attacks had seemingly no effect. She requipped into her Giant Armor to match his inhuman strength. Once more, Erza charged throwing a heavy-handed punch towards him. Freichen blocked, absorbing all the shock into his thick, bulging arms. His face showed no emotion whatsoever, even as he began slipping backwards. Eventually, the force produced between them sent them both sliding backwards. Meanwhile, Lucy summoned Taurus. "Taurus, take him down!" "Anything for you Lucy! Mooo!" Taurus charged alongside Erza and they attacked together, the force of their combined attack knocked the large mage down. Regaining her courage Roxanne stood up, ready to fight back.
"You." Edwyn said coldly, staring down Asalt. He cackled wildly, "That's not any way to treat an old friend, Eddy!" Edwyn started to walk towards him, only to be held back by Gray and Natsu. "What the hell are you doing?" Natsu asked, struggling to hold him. "Taking care of unfinished business." Edwyn replied. Gray, also having a hard time, said, "You dumbass, he's too strong, don't you see the Tartarus mark on him?" "Listen to your buddies Eddy, you don't want to end up like your brother, now do you?" Asalt taunted, a devilish grin spread across his face. Suddenly Edwyn remembered once more, his brother was helping him during the first fight, he had a brother, now probably dead at the hands of the cackling mage standing before him. His vision turned red with blind rage, he struggled free from the grips of Natsu and Gray, running forward throwing a powerful punch at Asalt. Asalt caught the fist in his hand with ease, a shockwave emitting from the force. Edwyn gritted his teeth, pushing as much strength as possible into the punch. Asalt's grin turned into a grimace as he slid back a bit, he released Edwyn's hand and flipped backwards stopping himself quickly. Asalt ran forward releasing fireballs as he went. Natsu dove infront of the fireballs swallowing them up, much to the dismay of Asalt, and stood up wiping his mouth, "I'm all fired up!" Not giving the dark mage anytime Natsu burst at him his fist on fire, and punched him in the gut sending him flying. Edwyn and Gray followed up, slamming their fists into their palms, "Ice Make: Poles!", "Shadow Make: Poles!", sending both shadowy poles and frozen poles at the flying mage. They stopped for a second as their attacks connected, "You stole my move!" yelled one, "No, you stole my move!" retorted the other. "Guys!" Natsu yelled, "Now is not the time!" "Shut up Pinky, we're arguing!" Edwyn yelled quickly, returning to his argument with Gray. "MY HAIR IS SALMON!" Natsu yelled, jumping into the middle of the argument.
While the mages argued, Asalt prepared a large attack, calling upon the depths of his energy, he sent a large pillar of fire towards the mages. Natsu noticed it first, he jumped in front of Gray and Edwyn, shielding them. He winced with pain, the flames, they burned! Why the hell did they burn? They seemed like normal flames, he had eaten them earlier without pain. "Having problems there, dragon slayer?" Asalt cackled from down the hall. "What the hell are you?" Natsu demanded. "Just your average demon." he replied, launching another pillar of fire. Natsu tried once more to eat the fire, but it still burned. "Don't you understand? I'm not human," he said amused, "I am a demon, always have been, always will. I joined Tartarus after me and my buddy, Friechen, massacred our old dark guild. I digress, my point is that my fire isn't dragon fire or god fire, nor any other type, it's hellfire!" Cackling wildly, he continued, "No matter what you try, dragon slayer, you'll always be burned because you're a mere mor-" Asalt stopped abruptly, a fist lodged in his stomach, "You talk too much." Natsu said, wincing in pain, due to his burns." "Wrong choice." Asalt said, his voice somewhat quivering in pain, leaning down and laughing in the dragon slayer's ear as he punched him, following up once more with a pillar of flame. The fire sent Natsu flying, Gray stopped him as he went by, and set him down. His clothes were singed, his vest nothing more than a few pieces of charred fabric, his pants in tattered, and his body covered in simmering burns.
The battle had gone on for a while, back and forth. Roxanne and Lucy joining in seemingly gave them an advantage. Friechen, though, had massive reserves of energy. If he felt fatigue, he didn't show it. The three mages stopped a bit down the hall and stared at him. "What are we going to do?" Roxanne asked, barely holding on to the courage required to fight her former captor. "We just continue fighting," Erza said re-quipping into her Purgatory Armor, "he can't possibly last much longer." Lucy summoned Loke, hoping that he would be enough of an advantage to allow them to win. "Hello, girls." The lion spirit said, pushing up his glasses. "I'm assuming we're fighting this wall." he said, turning towards Friechen, who was standing there, staring blankly towards them. "Yeah," Lucy said, "be careful though, he may be big, but he's fast." Erza charged forward, the rest quickly behind, Lucy wrapped her whip around the bald man, pulling him forward and releasing it before he could act. AS he stumbled Loke jumped hitting him with a glowing, divine fist, causing him to stumble backwards, only to have his legs knocked from under him by Erza. Roxanne ran forward jumping over the rest releasing a powerful roar, seemingly knocking him unconscious.
She landed next to him and her emotions took over, years of torture and pain turned into pure rage, fueling her revenge. She kicked his large head over and over as he laid there, her boot making a small crack on his head as she continued, Lucy and Erza tried to pull her back, but she kept kicking, tears falling from her eyes. Her anger turned into sorrow, eventually she stopped fighting the mages tugging on her she limply let them drag her back, streaks left on the floor from her bloodied boot. She leaned against a wall as they let her go. She looked at what she had done, the back of his head had a small dent and blood pouring from a crack in his head. He was still breathing, but barely. Her sobbing increased in strength and she hid her head between her hands. Lucy had talked with Erza, both upset with her, but also understanding. Roxanne had told about what this man had done in the past.
Erza, in a lapse of judgement, confronted Roxanne. "What were you thinking?" She said, looking down at the girl infront of her, "He is barely alive! What if you killed him? I will not have you killing anyone for some sort of revenge, no matter what he has done!" Roxanne looked up, tears still streaming. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?" The red-haired mage said, trying to get a response. Roxanne stood up, visibly shaken, not just from the yelling, but from her own actions, "Screw... you." she said. "What?" "I," she began, taking in a shaky breath, "I said screw you. I may regret my actions, I know I shouldn't have done that, but I'm not gonna apologize for a damn thing! So, screw you." Erza, still worked up, still lacked judgement. She slapped Roxanne carelessly, she didn't even flinch, she took the slap and sat back against the wall, rubbing the red mark on her face, her sobbing coming back full force. Erza simply stood there, looking at her hand shaking. Only once she slapped Roxanne did she realize what she was doing, she looked down at her. "I-I-I didn't... Roxanne, I'm sorry." Lucy, having witnessed it all, walked up, telling Erza to wait a bit, and kneeled by Roxanne, giving her a reassuring hug, "It's alright, she didn't mean it. I don't blame you for what you did. He was a demon from Tartarus, and he showed it in his past actions. Don't worry"
Asalt sat staring at the mages as they caught their friend. "Damnit, I think Natsu is out for a while." Gray said, standing up and turning to Asalt, he looked over at Edwyn, "You ready?" Edwyn nodded and the two ran towards Asalt. They both split off to his sides and flanked him, firing off attacks. The demon nimbly dodged, taunting them as they fired more attacks. "What happened Eddy? You were much more fun the last time we fought!" Edwyn ignored the taunting, fired off more attacks. In his arrogance, the demon slipped up taking black thorns to the shoulder and an icy missile to the side. He winced in pain, falling to the ground. Not allowing him any time, the two mages continued their barrages. "Alright," he said getting up once the barrage hesitated, "this isn't amusing anymore. In fact, I'm getting quite pissed." he said releasing a massive blast of hellfire.
Roxanne was still sitting there, her tears dry, and she had made up with Erza. Now all she could do was stare at his body, it had long since stopped breathing during the fiasco earlier. Erza and Lucy were standing and talking about what to do next. Roxanne noticed, while staring at the body, that it was decaying. Not into decomposed flesh, but into shadowy particles wisping up into the air, "Guys," she said, shocked, "the body!" They all turned to see the body disintegrating, only to be distracted by a large blast of heat, flames licking the edge of the hall. They ran to the edge of the pillar, ony to see it retreat back down the hall as quickly as it came. The group ran towards it.
Bursting into uncontrollable laughter, Asalt looked at the mages laying before him. Too caught up in the moment he failed to notice the absence of the third, pink-haired mage. He was about to deliver the final blow to the two mages on the ground when another pillar of fire erupted again, though not going very far through the halls. Once the fire was gone Asalt looked down to see Natsu with his flaming fist inside of his chest. "H-h-how?" he asked. He looked up, choking back blood and looked to see three more mages turning around the hall. He soon dissolved as did Freichen. Roxanne watched as the last reminder of her torment faded out of existence at the hand of Natsu. "He's not dead." Natsu said to the others, falling to the ground soon after.
"Damnit you two," boomed a voice, "how did you fall to those mages?"