Chapter Thirty-one

As I sent my whip towards him, a second Beta appeared behind Bixlow and a translucent black hole that looked to have small blue glitter trails swirling in them was beside Bixlow right where my whip was going to be, disappearing and reappearing through another black hole on the other side of him. I could only watch as the second Beta went to attack Bixlow from behind while the original Beta continued to distract him from the front. Bixlow, who thankfully heard me and saw my whip go through the holes, was luckily a very acrobatic person and was able to avoid being hit directly by the two Betas. Though he wasn't quick enough to remain unscathed.

"You know, my Shatter magic doesn't work very well on object that aren't completely solid, so the human body usually only gets minimal damage in comparison to other things like trees or rocks." Beta spoke as if it was thoroughly disappointing that people didn't explode like everything else he uses his magic against. "It delivers enough damage, though, that you won't be able to use that arm for quite a while." Beta's head quirked to the side, his endlessly flowing hair following, "Unless, of course, you heal like the girl behind you." Bixlow's right arm was dangling at his side, rivers of blood flowing from his bicep and dripping off his fingertips.

"Bixlow, you can't fight alone now. Especially with what he can do. Let me help." I begged him from my spot.

"We can't risk it. It's too dangerous. And not just for you."

"But-" I was going to argue more, but was cut off by Beta.

"The way you spoke about me, you sound as if you know what I can do."

"I have an idea. Mind filling in the blanks?" I ask sarcastically, not expecting his response.

"Only if you tell me about your healing ability." Before I can even think about it, Bixlow opens his mouth.

"No way." Beta's face gets an annoyed scowl across it that's so very different from, but just as terrifying as, his maniacal grin.

"That's not for you to say." He grates through his teeth at Bixlow, then turning to me, all traces of the scowl gone. "Well?"

"Fine. But only if I like what you tell me." I say after a few seconds.

"Lucy!"

"Seems fair. What's your idea?" His tall form seemed to relax as he crossed his arms in front of him, obviously not planning on attacking, and just talking.

He seems to be more consumed by his curiosity than his bloodlust.

"I don't know why, but for some reason you are able to use several forms of magic but only one at a time, other than that last attack, though you seem to be more proficient in your shatter magic. Also I believe that in some way, maybe another form of magic you have, you're borrowing magic energy from other people, which is why yours doesn't seem to be draining. It's almost as if you haven't been using your energy since the beginning of the fight."

Beta smiled his wide grin. "You're a smart girl. And you're very close. But in one way you're right, I haven't been using my own energy in this fight, and I have been using someone else's magic, though not because it's something that I can do. You see, there's a brain behind this operation, a new leader, you could say, and they aren't here, but they have this magic that's called Share. Very rare, very old. Each of us here got a special brand from them.

"These brands do two things, one is that everyone with matching brands can use each other's magic abilities. My true magic ability is Shatter, while the others here can use Speed, Multiply, and Portal, which is why I'm not overly good with them. The only downside is that we have to stay within a certain range of the others, and if we break line the others are cut off from not only the one who left, but everyone else who isn't close enough. So, for example, if I were to break line, the one fighting your black haired buddy, he could still use Adrian's magic, but not mine or the guy over on the other side of me, but when we're all together, we can all use everyone's magic, even the guys on the end who are too far from eachother to use it otherwise.

"Got it? If you don't, too bad. I ain't explaining it again.

"The second use of the brand is that when we use the other people's magic, we use the magic energy of the person who uses the Share magic, therefore we don't use our own magic energy. The downside to this is that we don't know when it will suddenly get cut off. Now, about your healing ability."

I heaved a sigh and opened my mouth to start, when Bixlow spoke again.

"Lucy, it doesn't just affect you when you tell him."

"His explanation was too good, there's no reason not to tell him, and as the kind of mage that I am, I am bound by my word."

"I was hurt a few months ago, I would have died in minutes, and in order to save my life, a friend of mine had my life force connected to another person's and now I heal faster than the average person thanks to that."

"And judging from the amount of blood on you, the healing goes both ways, but your downside is that you also share the injuries. Other than the original injury, I'm guessing, otherwise you both would probably be dead."

I just stared back at Beta. I agreed to tell him why I could heal the way I do. Not anything else. My promise is done. I couldn't tell him whether he was right or wrong either way though, thanks to me being unconcious for those two days.

"Well, now that we both have our answers. The fight can continue now." And just like that Beta had tensed again with his arms back in front of him, waiting for Bixlow or I to attack.

Bixlow forced himself up, and I walked forward with the intent to help him stand, when Beta, and all the others either yelled or grunted in pain. I looked to Beta and saw some strange symbol, like a scythe in front of a cresent moon, on his forearm glowing a deep red, looking almost as if it was burning him. That must be the brand he was talking about.

"Dammit! Now?" Beta's mark stopped glowing and he let out a small growl, "Well, I can't play here anymore. Too bad. I was looking forward to seeing how much your healing could withstand."

And staying perfectly in a line all of them walked off into the forest.

Laxus walked over to me and Bixlow.

"Laxus, shouldn't we go after them?" Laxus gave Bixlow a solemn look.

"We can't, Bix. We're all hurt. If we go after them, we'll just get killed." I stopped listening as I walked over to Levy. I turned her onto her back and saw that she had several injuries that were similar to Bixlow's. I heard a low growl and my eyes flickered to the side to see Gajeel standing beside me.

"Laxus, we have to get Levy to Wendy fast."

Heyyy, well, I've been gone for a while and I swear I didn't mean to be. I was going to come back sooner, but I got extremely sick and have barely been able to stay awake for more than six hours at a time and I'm actually still really sick right now.

I forgot to mention this last time, but, Adrian and Beta, I actually originally had their personalities switched, but Beta's looks with Adrian's personality was too similar to Karasu from Yu Yu Hakusho, and Adrian's looks with Beta's personality was really similar to Hisoka from HunterxHunter, so those got switched.

Also, I have my ideas sorted out for the most part, so it should be a bit easier to progress the story now. The next couple chapters may be a little mleh, though, mostly 'cause I'm probably gonna drag it out until I am completely certain it's what I want to do.

So, like usual, tell me everything, and I'll try to come back soon.