Levy, Lucy and Lily were in another part of the ruin. Levy was working along the walls, scribbling down everything that she could gather from the writing. Lucy helped her at first, but after a small time began to realise just how much Levy was on a different level from her.
Yeah, a lower level! Gihi!
Huh. Where had that thought come from? Anyway, Lucy sat down with Lily and just watched Levy go. How did one start to learn a language without knowing anything about it? Lucy had no idea, but Levy clearly had some clue as to what to do.
"Impressive. I can see why Gajeel is drawn to her," Lily mumbled.
"What?" Lucy asked, shocked. Lily looked startled, as if he hadn't meant to speak out loud. The pair stared at each other for a long moment and then looked away. That was a lot of information for a few words, Lucy thought. She smiled, thinking that Levy was also drawing lots of information from a few words.
"Does Gajeel like her, then?" She whispered to the Exceed.
"I shouldn't say too much," Lily replied with a large smirk. That in itself was a huge statement.
"He does! He totally does!" Lucy thrilled.
"Who does what, Lu-chan?" Lucy looked up. Levy had walked over and was looking down with curious eyes. Lucy and Lily panicked and babbled some nonsense that thoroughly confused Levy. At last, Lucy composed herself enough to ask a question.
"Did you get anywhere?" She asked, eager to distract Levy. The smaller girl nodded, holding up her notepad.
"You see, I've picked up a pattern in the sequence of words. I don't think I could have gotten anywhere without Gajeel and Natsu's help. Every sentence seems to start with a collection of characters in varying arrangements. It seems like the speaker always comes first in a sentence, with the mood and characteristics altering that."
"What do you mean?" Lily asked.
"Well, as you know, a dragon always has an element. Fire, Iron, Sky, Light, Shadow and so on. I think this character here represents a dragon. It appears a lot, but only as a basic framework with additions. I think those additions represent the elements. Then these parts on the right refer to the mood of the sentence."
"Wow, Levy-chan! You're so amazing!" Lucy gushed, embracing her friend, who blushed with embarrassment.
"No, I haven't really done anything. I don't have any meaning from the words," Levy replied humbly. "I still have a lot more work to do."
"Make sure you rest," Lucy replied sternly. "I know that you overwork yourself."
Levy frowned. She might overwork herself, but that was not a sentence that ever got aimed at anyone else, was it? No, it was a sentence for the weakling who couldn't look after herself. No one ever told Natsu or Gajeel to stop fighting – that they were going too far. Well Levy herself had told Natsu that once, against Laxus, but still.
"Lu-chan? What do you think of Gajeel?" She asked. Unseen by them, Lily stepped away into the gloom. He didn't want to tread on this discussion. He felt like he shouldn't violate Gajeel's privacy to Levy, but he had no plans to monitor this conversation either.
"Huh? What brought that on?"
"Gajeel's all about strength, isn't he?" She sighed. "I'm not strong enough for him, am I?"
"You silly little girl," Lucy huffed. "You're never gonna realise that Gajeel likes you for you, are you? He likes your other assets."
Lucy was about to launch into a tirade on Levy's better qualities when there was a tremendous roar down the corridor. A beast emerged, hurtling towards them at breakneck speed, looking like a rhinoceros carved from granite, or the D-class monsters from pandemonium. Startled, Lucy began to fumble for her keys, but there was no way that she'd make it in time.
"Solid Script: Guard!" Levy threw up the word, creating a barricade that the beast slammed into, recoiling in pain. Its attack wasn't that strong, Levy noted. If she could just…but the beast recovered too quickly for her, lowering it's now broken horn to gore.
"Open Gate of the Bull: Taurus!" An enormous great axe appeared out of the ether, carving a tremendous wound into the beast as its owner mooed.
"I won't let you hurt the one and a half nice bodies behind me!"
"What was that!?" Levy snarled, but her attention was drawn as the beast, beaten, vanished in a puff of magic. That wasn't a normal beast, it was… "A summon?"
"Kukuku, very good," a voice said, dripping sarcasm. Levy and Lucy watched as three people appeared, detaching themselves from the gloom of the corridor. The summoner was immediately obvious, a young man dressed in leathers with a headdress and a fur cloak.
There was also a young woman, and Lucy made the connection to Flare Corona at once. A long mane of golden hair writhed and twitched, attached to a head with a cruel, leering expression. She was dressed in a black catsuit, making Levy jealous of her curves.
The third looked like a Buddhist monk, dressed in green robes and carrying a stave. His head was shaven and he had stern features behind a thin beard.
"Who are you?" Levy demanded.
"I am Melk," the monk stated. "And these are my associates, Rakarth and Lyria. We are from Moonlight Jaguar."
"A dark guild," Levy said boldly. "What business do you have here?"
"Oh, that's simple. You see, our job is to crush you!" Melk waved a glowing hand and Taurus vanished. Magic cancelling? Lucy balked. This was bad! If that man could seal their magic, they were in trouble as neither was a physical fighter. "Rakarth!"
"Right! Summoning Magic: Naggaroth Cobra!" Rakarth the summoner made an intricate series of gestures with his hands and a huge serpent with lustrous violet scales appeared out of thin air, lashing out towards the two girls.
"Solid Script: Fire!"
"Open Gate of the Ram: Aries!"
"Nope!" Melk waved his hand and both spells failed to materialize. Levy and Lucy were helpless! A black rush passed between them, Lily doubling, tripling, dectupling in size, his sword growing to match. A powerful downward strike smashed the snake's head into the floor, cracking the stonework and banishing the beast.
"Lily!" They both cried.
"Tch, I can't banish his magic if it's part of his body," Melk noted with annoyance.
"No problem," Lyria said, speaking up for the first time. Her hair was writhing more violently as she became excited. "I want to play, anyway! I prefer to torture men, but little girls do squeal so nicely!"
"Charming," Lily spat, taking a moment to absorb the situation. He'd seen the cancellation and summoning magic. The girl's magic seemed obvious. The problem was that monk and his null magic. As long as he was here, the girls couldn't fight. "Levy, Lucy. I'm gonna separate the monk from the other two. Can you handle them?"
"Um…," they both replied hesitantly.
"I believe in you." With those words, Lily surged forwards, wings erupting from his back.
"Let him go!" Melk shouted, running into the darkness. I'll beat him, you two get the girls!" As the pair receded into the gloom, the four combatants got ready to fight.
"Which one do you want?" Lyria asked.
"That blondie has summoning magic too. I'd like to test the fortitude of the celestial spirits."
"Fine by me!" Lyria's mouth split into an evil, chilling smile. "I wanna have that Shorty squirming in pain."
Levy balked. She was nervous. Not only was she not very strong, but she wasn't a good fighter. Didn't know when to attack, when to defend and so on. But she was much braver than she realised, always keeping her eyes open, even when a punch was coming for her.
"Stay together," Lucy advised, drawing her fluer d'etoile. "We should fight as one."
"Okay," Levy replied, now more nervous. What if she let Lu-chan down? She looked up at the face of her friend and found strength. Lu-chan was scared too, but wasn't going to back down. "Wait! What's happened to Gajeel and Natsu?"
"Them? They're being dealt with," Rakarth answered. The two evil mages were stunned as the girls began to laugh.
"Sorry, but no one's taking them down," Lucy said with a confident smile.
===][===
"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Natsu shouted, charging through a hail of stone needles. Erutan blocked with his forearm, rocky scales protecting him from being burnt.
"Earth Dragon's Talon!" Rock blades formed around his fingers and he slashed, forcing Natsu to jump back, a thin line of red appearing across his chest. "Kyeh! That all you got? Show me your lightning mode!"
Natsu smirked. "Just you and me, slayer on slayer. I'll beat you without an unfair advantage."
"Haven't you noticed, Salamander? Here, I have the advantage! We're deep underground, with tonnes of rock pressing down upon us – this is my battlefield. Earth Dragon's Spear!" Multiple sharpened pillars of rock erupted from the floor, ceiling and walls, moving to impale Natsu. He jumped and dodged, avoiding the blows.
Suddenly, the ground he was standing on surged upwards as Erutan was attempting to squish him against the ceiling. Wreathing his fist in flame, Natsu punched downwards, shattering the rock. As he landed, he looked around, realizing that he'd lost sight of the other slayer.
Natsu screamed as something slammed into his back. He whirled around to see a stone projection of the Earth dragon appearing from the floor, his fist shifted into a large mace. He destroyed it in moments, but there were two more appearing.
"Show yourself!" Natsu shouted.
"Now, why would I do that?" Erutan's voice rang mockingly from no discernible source. "I can crush you just like this! Come on Fire Dragon, show me your full power. Aren't you worried about your little girlfriend?"
"Heh. Hahahaha! Lucy's strong. She doesn't need me running to look after her. And she has Levy and Lily by her side. No Fairy Tail mage will fall as long as they have their nakama with them!" Natsu's body began to blaze with fire, brighter and brighter. "Now, if you aren't coming out, I'm gonna come and find you!"
===][===
Gajeel spat blood and cart-wheeled through the air, slamming into the hard ground multiple times before righting himself. Despite the pain of the bastard's howl, he was grinning ferociously. A God Slayer! Natsu had beaten his. Laxus would probably have beaten his. Wendy had tied. Now it was his time to prove himself!
"Bring it on, old man!"
"I'm forty five," Garren noted blandly. "I wish all of you bloody youngsters would stop considering me old."
"Don't care, I'll beat the shit outta you, whatever. Iron Dragon's Club!" Gajeel charged forwards, his right arm forming into a metal pillar which shot out towards the god slayer. Garren passively raised a hand, catching the attack.
"Is that all you've got?"
"Not even close! Iron Dragon's Sword!" Using the club as a pivot, Gajeel span head of heels, changing a leg into an extending blade, aiming for the other man's neck. Garren ducked under the swing and drove a fist into Gajeel's gut.
"Iron God's Club!" The fist shot out, extending into a pillar of black metal, sending Gajeel all the way back across the room. "I have spent over a decade training my body. Even if my magic wasn't superior to yours, my reflexes and strength are. You might say that I am hand crafted to destroy you."
"You seem to care a lot about me, old geezer," Gajeel grunted as he swayed back onto his feet. "But you've spent a decade waiting for me? Jeez, I was trapped in time for most of that!"
"A minor inconvenience. Metalicana was sure that you'd return. It is a shame that you still have the body of a child, though. I'd hoped that you'd be an adult, properly strong."
"Bastard. Don't drop that name like it means nothing."
"No, no, no! It is a great name! In fact, you could say that it is my name too!"
"What!?"
"I'm saying too much. Damn it, but I've been alone for too long. Meeting another human is making me garrulous. See? Here I go again. I should have just said: Iron God's Spear: Daemon Logs!"
"Iron Dragon's Spear: Daemon Logs!" Gajeel countered the move blow for blow, a thousand metal needles impacting each other halfway across the room. Gajeel didn't wait for the attack to end, but charged forward, iron scales covering his skin to ward off any small blows. Garren looked surprised as Gajeel's fist smashed into his face.
"Yes! Using bravery to overcome strength! Brilliant! Just what I wanted!" Ebon scales began to cover Garren's body as well and the two iron masters clashed, their spells augmenting their offence and defence.
"Tell me, Iron dragon! What motivates you? What drives you?"
"I am a Fairy Tail mage! That's all you need to know!"
"Really? We've been watching since you entered the ruins. Driven by lust at all?"
"What!?" Damn his feeble brain, but Gajeel was momentarily stunned by the question and took a blow to the face, before pressing back in.
"She's a real cutie, am I right?"
"Shut up!"
"Shame if my colleagues were to harm her in any way."
"I said; shut up!" Gajeel raged and smashed Garren hard enough to send him sailing across the room and into the wall. Grunting, the god slayer looked up at the dragon slayer, his entire face shrouded in darkness save for those evil red eyes. "I promise you; if she's hurt, I'll carve the same damage from your flesh!"
"Caring about another's well being?" Garren asked, wiping blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. "Metalicana will be pleased."
"Damn you! I don't know what you know about pops or why you give two fucks about me, but I am gonna beat it outta your skull! I don't care if you're a god slayer!"
"God slayer? Who said that I was a god slayer?"
"What!? Grah, damn your riddles! I'm just gonna beat the shit out of you!"
"Yes, Gajeel Redfox. Defeat me, and I promise that I'll answer all of your questions."