Erza vs. Azuma

Author's note:

So here's another one. Sorry it's going so slow. There was a lot of fighting in this fight that didn't progress the storyline much. I'm worried I'm getting repetitive. Also not as dark as any of Erza's meetings with Jel'al. Oh well; for those who know the story SPOILER ALERT we know there's some Jerza later on in Erza vs Azuma. So you can look forward to that when I get around to writing the next few chapters. Keep mailing ideas, like I said, I'm happy to take things on. If you want it to be darker, or there are aspects of my writing that don't appeal, or if you think I'm getting out of character, don't be skittish about telling me. I don't bite. It's extremely difficult to do over the internet :}

I'd also like to thank the various people who've sent me messages to continue. I wasn't sure anyone would read my story. But it seems people are. Thanks all, and I hope you continue to enjoy.

Chapter 2

"Well then, Titania. Come show me!"

Erza arched her head, looking up so she could meet his gaze. "You are 'Azuma', of the seven kin of purgatory." She felt sick to the stomach, but it didn't show on her face. She cleared her throat to rid it of the lump that had formed. "Why are you doing this?"

The world around was becoming eerily silent, devoid of movement but for the occasional falling leaf. Azuma's face was emotionless.

"Orders from Master Hades." He frowned slightly at having to break things down for her, perhaps doubting his prior belief in her power."I am to erase every last mage of Fairy Tail.

Erza almost laughed at his misunderstanding. "Not that. I meant why have you made it so only I can move?"

Azuma's face became blank once more. "I already told you... I want to try fighting with you when you've gotten serious, that's all."

That seemed like a great risk to Erza. He must be extremely confident in his own skills to place Hade's entire plan in jeopardy. "If what you're saying is the truth–" he glared at the slight to his honour – "then when I defeat you, you'll return everyone's power to them?"

Azuma's lips curled up in the guise of a small smile. "I promise. To be honest, I don't like doing things this way either." Erza studied him. It seemed like the closer they got to beginning this fight, the less in control he was. Emotions that seemed o have little to do with their conversation were flashing over his previously emotionless face. He seemed to almost throb with anticipation, so thick were the waves pouring from him. She narrowed her eyes at him, not sure whether to feel sympathetic towards him, unstable as he appeared; not knowing whether to pity him for not being given the chance he perceived necessary to prove his power by beating all of Fairy Tail; not sure whether to believe him at all.

Azuma didn't appear to notice Erza's glare deepen in angry sympathy, continuing quietly, almost as though talking to himself. "But of course, that's only if you win..." He stared at her and clenched his fists, his eyes widening suddenly, lighting up with bloodlust.

Erza materialised her swords, muscles clenching as she prepared for the hard fight ahead. "My comrades' lives are on the line," she murmured back at him, crouching to gather power about herself. "No matter what, I will win."

With that, Erza leapt at Azuma, irritation making her blood sear in her veins as his face brightened for the battle's beginning. She reequipped into her Heavenly Wheel Armour, feeling the familiar heavy weight of the skirt of swords about her thighs. Whipping her gauntleted forearms before her, the feathers tethered at the elbows fluttering in the wind, Erza began a Blumenblatt attack, materialising a number of swords in a giant spinning circle that she directed towards Azuma.

He twisted branches about himself for protection, so fast Erza almost missed their movement. She blinked in surprise. He smiled, smugly satisfied with her shock, and sent an attack of leafy blades back before Erza could recover. Erza quickly defended with a flurry of her two blades, cutting at the speeding leaves that came at her like bullets. She wasn't quick enough. Several got past and sliced into her. Her armour may as well have been nonexistent. As she fell, losing her footing briefly for the pain in her shoulder where the most severe blow had fallen, Azuma dramatically pointed towards Erza. Following his direction, a series of boomerang-like blades of wood launched at her. Still reeling from the last attack, Erza couldn't get her swords up fast enough, and many of the blades got through. They tore at her steel armour like real wood never could, ripping smaller plates away from the breast plate, punching holes to bruise and stab at her midsection. While she still defended the blade-boomerangs, an immense branch shaped like a massive bludgeon followed the boomerangs, catching a distracted Erza by surprise. She was knocked back several metres with the great force, and slid several more before she regained her footing upon the slippery branch, resting upon her hands and knees.

Her Heavenly Wheel armour greatly damaged, Erza reequipped back into her normal armour, breathing heavily and trying not to wince at the numerous aches and pains about her body. She groaned inwardly. If only she hadn't been so hard on Juvia. She had wasted a lot of strength to no real end, toying with the poor girl to get a bit of practice. If she had known she would be fighting an important battle a mere few hours later...

"I don't believe that's all you've got, Titania," Azuma practically purred at her, a picture of mock disappointment. " I told you to get serious."

He grinned and with a flick of a wrist sent thick roots at her, writhing threw the air like giant tentacles. Dark anger stirred in Erza. This was not a fair fight. Before her was a man with the entire magical powers of the Fairy Tail Guild, all of the life forces upon Tenrou Island, including that of the giant tree he had felled which apparently had the power to prevent uncountable numbers of people from dying, despite their injuries, as well as his own significant power. She was a single person, exhausted after a day of strenuous exercise, mental, physical and magical. Still, she could not help a swell of contempt for this man. He must think to play with her, as she had with Juvia, to attack her so openly, so obviously. Well, she was no novice. She dodged his attack without even looking at it, throwing herself over the side of the branch to land sure footedly blow. She used the energy of the fall to rebound back at Azuma, gathering herself to reequip into her Leopard Soaring Armour. Instantly, she felt her speed increase. She no longer felt fatigued, her mind becoming almost overactive to match her greater velocity.

She came at him in a flurry, briefly acknowledging his shock at her retaliation, which allowed her first blow to strike him solidly, and three following blows to land before he was gathered enough to react.

"Shes fast..." She heard him mutter as she swung again, distracting her long enough for him to throw out an arm, creating a solid wall that slammed into her, knocking her from the air. Another huge bludgeon branch followed, hammering her into a heavy trunk. The blow was so strong it shook dust from the ground to mix with the splinters and bark sprinkling from the mess.

It slowly cleared to reveal Erza standing unharmed behind her Adamantine shield. She sighed. If she hadn't reequipped the armour fast enough, she would be finished, and her friends would be dead. She had to wake up, had to get her head into this fight, before she made a stupid mistake and became solely responsible for getting all of Fairy Tail killed.

Erza lowered the shield to gage Azuma's position. He stood watching.

"The ultimate defence..." His eyes swept over her Adamantine armour, interest mixing with his surprised expression. "The armour that stood against the magical convergence weapon, Jupiter..." He studied her, then grinned in excitement, his expression bordering mad. He rose his hands to deal another attack. "Wonderful," he praised, then sent a swarm of sharp stakes at her. Erza returned herself behind the shield and stood fast. Not a single attack breached her defence. The battering her armour received was bearable, and Erza figured she might be able to wear him out with it. After all, if he couldn't hurt her, how could he win?

The blows stopped, and she glanced again towards Azuma. He appeared angry. Erza felt a glimmer of hope. She had at least succeeded in raising his ire. She must be doing something right.

She could almost hear him grinding his teeth. For all of his prior statements of wanting her to fight back, he didn't appear pleased that she was no longer retreating. "I wonder if you can shield against this!" This time when he rose his arms, an uncountable number of sharp, deadly stakes arranged themselves before him, so thick and in such great numbers that the forest darkened about them. He grinned again as he sent them at her. Erza winced as her wrists and legs began to burn, pushing against the weight of so many spears. She felt her strength waning as her earlier battle caught up to her in the static defence. If she didn't move soon, she knew she would be blown away like a moth in a winter gale. Gritting her teeth, Erza made a speedy change into her Lighting Empress armour, sending forward bolts of lightning to obliterate the remaining stakes before they could contact her unprotected body.

Azuma ceased his attack and snickered in admiration. Erza took advantage of his immobility to leap at him, staff ready, only to miss as he abruptly evaded the blow by jumping up to another branch. Erza followed him as he continued to jump up. Erza felt a brief moment of panic as he vanished from her sight in the canopy. Realising she had been tricked, Erza swiftly leapt to the side and spun, expecting him to come at her. She was correct, and felt a stab to her honour as she found him attacking her from behind. Her evasion meant that the blow he had aimed to break her nose missed and instead took her solidly in the cheek. He had put an enormous amount of power into the blow. Erza felt as though a giant demon had pummelled her. She flew back several metres to split a tree in two. Her momentum was so great she fell further away before sliding in a crumpled heap along a splintered branch. She felt as though every bone in her body was broken, though she knew from experience it was unlikely any actually were. The stress that her body had taken to cause a heavy trunk to rip apart was not small. She struggled to get a breath, her vision going red as her brain began to cry for lack of oxygen. She came to a stop, and struggled to rase herself on an arm that was one big bruise.

Azuma made his way to her through the branches, looking much too pleased with himself. "I know of that one, too. The Lightning Empress Armour." It was a little creepy, Erza thought as a small breath allowed her mind to clear a little, that he knew so much about her. He knew more about this island, about what it could do, than she did, and she was a member of Fairy Tail. IT seemed strange, for an outsider to know what intimated members of the guild didn't. She caught her breath enough to steady her arm so she could tilt her head to keep him in her vision. He made a final jump to stand on the branch above her, where he proceeded to be self satisfied. " I see now. It is indeed magic befitting your Titania status." Well, she was glad he thought so. She would have told him so, but her breath was still too short to waste on pointless sarcasm. She watched as he merged himself with a tree branch. He reappeared from the trunk of the tree to walk onto a branch at eye level with Erza, had she been standing. He was staring at her, eyes taking her in entirely. She uncomfortably began to rise further, the movements slow to ease the ache in her. Lying prone with a half naked man staring at her with eyes that seemed to see into her was not appealing to her sensibilities. He continued. "Swift ex-quipping, coupled with expert swordsmanship..."

He jumped to a tree branch nearly level with Erza's. Erza forced herself onto her knees with a grunt so she could keep him in her sight. "As expected of you. It was truly enjoyable to watch." He crossed his arms, his expression changing from something akin to hunger to become unreadable.

Erza looked up at him, barely able to move. She scowled angrily, her armour in disarray. She tried to control her beating heart, to reduce the rush of adrenaline. Once more, her emotions were getting the better of her. So this was the Great Tree Arc. It was going to be tough to defeat, if she was capable at all. It didn't seem likely, but then, she had managed to land a few blows. Perhaps it wasn't impossible. No. It couldn't be impossible. She had to win.

She forced herself to stand, straight and tall. She inhibited herself the barest shudder or tremble, loathe to show any sign of weakness. She cleared her throat. It seems like you're not just all talk, either," she conceded. Not that she had had many doubts about his power since their fight had begun. Still, he wasn't incredibly smart.

"Your strength seems to be your asset," she commented. He straightened with pride at what he perceived to be a compliment. Erza almost sighed. Intelligent he was not. Or perhaps it was his pride and selfishness that made him incapable of identifying her subtle insult.

He cocked his head at her. His eyes shadowed as he studied her again. "So...will you fight seriously now?"

Erza set her jaw. Seriously? She had to win. It didn't matter how she fought. So she said all that she could to answer his question.

"You don't have enough power to stop me."