March 29th, X785

Lloyd

The next day, we continued our trek across Fiore. Around noon, we saw a figure walking towards us. After yesterday's events, I began to put my guard up. None of the others did. They seemed to recognize the man. "Gildarts!" Natsu ran past me towards the man. Natsu's hand began to catch fire as he lunged toward the man.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked the other two dragon slayers.

"That's Gildarts, an S-class wizard." Wendy told me. I watched as Natsu was thrown around by Gildarts every time he lunged toward the tall man. "One of Natsu's goals is to finally beat Gildarts in a fight."

"Well, it looks like he's got a long way to go." I said while watching Natsu get thrown around over and over. "So I take it they've known each other a long time."

"Longer than I've been in Fairy Tail." Said Gajeel. We approached the two fighters as Natsu was thrown directly at me. I stepped to the side and wacthed him fly.

"Wow. You're pretty strong."

"Thank you, um...I'm not sure we've met." He said.

"We haven't. I'm Lloyd frost. I hear you're an S-class wizard." I said.

"Yeah."

"Alright, then. Since Natsu's out cold, how about I give it a try. I love a challenge." I grinned up at the noticably taller man.

"Alright then. I accept your challenge." He said.

"I must warn you. I wont be going all out." I said nonchalantly.

"And why's that?" He inquired. I frowned a little bit.

"Because I like controlling my attacks and power. However, if you're as strong as you seem, I might as well go all out. You could probably stop me." I said. He chuckled,

"Might as well." He backed up. "Because now, I'm interested." We both got ready as Gajeel and Wendy backed away from the blast zone, dragging an unconscious Natsu. I began running toward him with no magic. I jumped and tried to kick him in the face, but he caught my foot and threw me back. I landed on my feet and ran toward him, this time charging an attack.

"Ice dragon, frozen fist!" I lunged toward him and was thrown once more. I landed on my back this time, but I got up quickly. "Ice dragon roar!" I sent the blast toward him. He put his hand up, and at the very last second, he nullified it. I backed up a step. Just how powerful is he? I decided now was the time to kick it up a notch. I charged magic power and bacame surrounded in a light blue aura. I began to seem as if I had scales. I entered dragon force.

I charged once more. "Ice dragon, talon!" I jumped and kicked him. He blocked it, which was something I was counting on. "Ice dragon, hail barrage!" I began a flurry of attacks. He seemed to have no trouble blocking and dodging all of my attacks. I made an observation as I was attacking him. He hadn't moved from the spot he was in when I started attacking. He finally found an opening and punched me im the gut, sending me flying. I hit the ground hard. "Damn, where were you last month?" He grinned.

"I was on a mission. Far from here." I decided it was time.

"Well, ready to end the warmup? 'Cause I'm ready to use my full power."

"Alright. I was worried that was it." He smiled. I am going to move him from that spot. Even if I don't remember it. With my dragon force still active, I began to imagine the guild being blown up with all of my friends inside. I began to lose consciousness as I kept tapping into my magic power. I was shaking the ground and Gildarts looked shocked.

"Time... to...go...berzerk!" I blacked out then and there.

Julie

Lisanna and I walked toward the train station. "Come on, Liz, tell me what the mission is."

"I'll tell you on the train." She said quickly. "Come on, we gotta catch the train." We ran through the city until we finally got to the station. We boarded and the train started moving. I suddenly started to get a headache. Then. The nausea came.

"Oh dear god." I groaned as I leaned against the window.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"I'm gonna kill Lloyd, that's what's wrong." I nearly threw up just trying to talk.

"Are you sick?"

"Motion sickness. I didn't think learning one dragon slayer technique would get me this."

"If only Wendy were here." She said.

"Whatever, how much farther till we get there?"

"We just started moving, Julie."

"Fuck."

Gildarts

This was getting out of hand very quickly. He was shaking the ground, and the ground nearest to him froze over. I looked into his eyes, but there were no pupils. More and more of his skin became scales. He Finally moved, but it was like lightning. I could barely keep up with his moves. He came from behind me, but I punched him away. Not even a second later, he was in front of me. I blocked his powerful kick and threw him. He disappeared before he hit the ground and kept up the pace. In fact, I think he was getting faster. After almost a full minute of blocking lightning fast attacks, he disappeared.

I looked around to no avail. But then, one second too late, I realized he was above me. "Ice dragon," he said as I put my guard up. "Frozen fist!" I heard him from in front of me. He punched so hard that I was actually pushed back several feet. I gawked at the power of his punch, not noticing that there were now four of him surrounding me. Once I did notice, I knew only one of them could be real. Now, not having to stand in one place anymore, I walked toward one of them. Before I could systematically test them all, I was ambushed by the one right behind me. He managed to cut through my clothes and draw blood from my back.

After this, we ended up in a fistfight brawl. After a while, I decided this battle had gone on long enough. I kicked him away. I used crash on the ground to try and scare him. He didn't take a beat, and lunged at me again. Damn. I dont think he's even conscious. I tried to stop him, but he dodged and punched me. I knew I could beat him, if he would just stay still. I refused to use huge amount of force, but I was scared of what might happen if i didn't. The collateral damage could be devastating. If i could land a good hit, he'd get knocked out. He just needed to give me an opening. I watched him speed around. I focused, trying to find an opening before he attacked again. Come on, come on...there! I struck the air in front of me, and he ran into my fist. He fell to the ground, out cold.

Wendy

Gildarts dragged Lloyd over to where Gajeel and I held Natsu back from jumping into the fight. "He's not as strong as me." He left him on the ground and sat down. "Though he is more persistant. More than you, Natsu. It looks like he might be the fastest person I've ever fought. At least when he goes all out."

"Is that how he was able to keep up a single fight so long?" Natsu asked, seeming to know that his fights with Gildarts were more him getting thrown around repeatedly than an actual fight.

"Maybe. He used dragon force and that wasn't nearly as strong as he got. He was right, though. He didn't seem to have any control besides basic fighting instincts. I haven't seen such a drastic powerup in a while."

"Yeah, well," said Lloyd, sitting up. "Is it worth while to use such an attack? For all I knew I couldve gone after one of them." He pointed to Natsu, Gajeel and I.

"Whatever, we could've taken you, right Salamander?" Gajeel said. Natsu was silent. "Um, right, Salamander?"

"No." All four of us stared wide-eyed. Admitting who is stronger is not something Natsu ever did. "I think all three of us, in our strongest form couldn't have taken him."

"Whoa." Lloyd said. "You can't be serious Natsu."

"I am. Gildarts is so much stronger than us, it was hard to see. But this was the second time I saw him like this. Helios was able to throw me into the air worh magic without a second thought. Lloyd turned him to dust." Gildarts' eyes widened. He looked at Lloyd.

"Helios. I've heard that name before. Wasn't he the master of Dark Dragon?"

"Yeah," Gajeel butted in. "He also almost killed Master Makarov without much effort."

"You know, I probably would've left Fairy Tail by now if I didn't have things to stay here for." I asked him a question, being on board with a subject change.

"And why's that?" His face darkened.

"I'm not strong enough. I have my own reasons to get stronger, let's leave it at that. It's gonna be dark soon. We need to keep going."

We continued our trek as Gildarts walked the other way.

Julie

The mission was easy. We simply needed to retrieve a stolen item. We found the thief in under an hour. "Alright, guess it's time to go home. Off to the torture chamber. I mean train."

"Nah, I'm not going home yet." She said as we walked throught the town.

"Uh, why's that?" She answered nonchalantly.

"I'm going to the club."

"Ugh, clubs. Just a bunch of sweaty people trying to get laid and dancing to stupid music."

"Yep." She said.

"So, why are you trying to get laid here, as opposed to magnolia?" She didn't answer this time. "Liz?" She kept walking. I sped up to catch up with her. "Liz? Come on. Is there something wrong?"

"No. Nothing. Why?" She said quickly. As we passed an alley, I dragged her into it. "Why are you being so annoying?"

"Why are you trying to get guys here?"

"Because of Natsu." A tear fell from her eyes.

"So you're in love with Natsu." She nodded with her head down. "I see. I guess Lucy kinda screwed that up." She nodded again. "Well trying to get screwed by a stranger isn't what I'd call a good way to deal with it."

"I know, but I don't know what else to do."

"Well, let's get home, then we can work on this." She nodded and we walked to the train station. Time for hell.

Lloyd

We finally made it to Magnolia in the dead of night. We walked to the guild to have a few beers. As we approached the guild, Levy ran out the door. "Wendy! We need your help!"

"With what?" Asked Wendy, being dragged toward the guild.

"It's...It's..." She tried to talk while out of breath. "It's Master Makarov! He's dying!"

And that's another chapter. 12 chapters until the end of this first part of Lloyd's adventure. R&R.

-Gildarts Clive.