Natsu continued to glare at the four people in front of him as they bounced his hand's above his head in the old cell they had attempted to escape from, Simon stood at the door with his back turned, Millianna spun on her heel and left the room, Wally followed after her. Sho smirked at Natsu apparent 'defeat'.
"You know everyone we talked to about you said you were a great hero and a strong fighter," Sho started "We captured you so easily, I guess you never got strong did you?" He taunted.
"What makes you think you I didn't let you capture me?" Natsu demanded as he gave the ropes around his wrists a hard tug, they snapped in half and he rushed the blonde before he could shout or make a single sound, He wrapped his arm around his neck and squeezed Sho gripped at Natsu's arm limply as his oxygen was cut off, He went slack and Natsu laid him down lightly "Sorry about this, but I need to have a chat with my big brother."
Simon appeared in the door-way "We have a small problem," Natsu looked up at him in confusion "Seems like your friend's caught up to us."
Natsu gritted his teeth "Then I will have to deal with Jellal quickly."
"Are you going to kill him?" Simon asked.
Natsu stared at the large man blankly for almost a minute "I promised someone I would bring him back," Natsu smiled "Someone important."
Simon nodded at the explanation and moved out of the way, Natsu bolted past him before turning around "Go explain this too them, they know about my past, but I doubt Jellal is just going to let us waltz in and stop him."
Simon nodded, before fading into the black behind him Natsu paid whatever magic he used aside as he ran down the corridor, he never let himself forget the layout of this accursed place and he had a gut feeling Jellal would still be at the top, like the self proclaimed king of the world he thought he was.
The wall's seem to pulse with magic and Natsu slid to a stop, expecting a trap when his brother's voice came through, he listened as he moved quickly.
"I welcome you all to my tower, I hope you find your stay here enjoyable," Jellal announced it much like a tourist attraction, it annoyed Natsu to no end "To congratulate you on arriving here so quickly, we are going to play a little game."
"Jellal! If you can hear me this end's here!" Natsu shouted defiantly
"My, my Natsu, you remain as feisty as ever. You have never been able to beat me before…What makes you think you can win now?" Jellal taunted.
Natsu's eyes narrowed angrily and he continued at an almost blur "There' s a first time for everything Jellal." He practically hissed.
The dark chuckle echoed around the wall's as answer "To make it to me, you will have to defeat my knight's I am afraid. I do hope you play nicely with them, after all they do cost quite a bit of money." It was like he was scolding children, it made Natsu want to make good on his original promise. He just growled and forced the thought out of his mind.
Although Raken, Wendy and Erza could hear Natsu it seemed like he could not hear them, Raken grit his teeth angrily and turned around "There is no point in me casting blame anymore, so here's what we are going to do."
The two girl's leaned in slightly "When Natsu told us about the tower, he said Jellal was changed in the top floor, it's likely he is still up there. The faster we can get up there the better help we will be to Natsu, so our first priority should be reaching the top of this tower as fast as possible."
Wendy and Erza nodded.
"Now, his 'Three knight's' might present a problem, if you encounter one they will likely be very strong mages for hire. If I knew what they needed Natsu for I might be able to come up with something more concrete but as it is now, this is what I have got." Raken finished.
"So how do we go about getting to the top of this tower, we have no idea where to go." Erza fumed as she looked around herself, the crossroad they stood in had three path's they could split up, but that would leave them more vulnerable to attack from jellal's men and they didn't have time to screw around exploring the whole tower.
Raken seemed to be following along the same lines as Erza as he looked around "I still think the best thing to do is split up, Erza go that way," He pointed to the right "Wendy you take the left," She nodded and set off, Erza was a moment behind her but she ran off to the right as fast as she could. Raken looked down the path in front of him and he bent down, his body glowed as he fired forward kicking up a large trail of dust behind him.
Natsu ran into an open room and looked around, it reminded him of some of the shrines he had visited when he was younger he reached out his hand and caught one of the many pale pink petal's that fell around him.
The soft feminine chuckle from ahead of him caused his head to snap up, he pulled a sword from the air and raised it up glaring over the blade at the woman, she wore a long white Kimono, it dipped rather seductively at the shoulder's exposing a large portion of her cleavage, she had a katana in her hand the weapon was still sheathed, the bright blood red of the weapon drew his eye for a moment, he widened his stance and continued to watch her.
"My, my a handsome one aren't you?" She almost purred out. He didn't move at all.
"Sorry I'm taken." He growled out, continuing to glare at her over his weapon.
She pouted and pressed her arm's together causing her breasts to seem larger for a moment "That's just too bad." She purred out. Natsu kept up his glare 'What is her game?' He thought as he watched her. She slowly readied herself into a battle stance, and gripped the hilt of her weapon.
Natsu felt her magic power surge, as she sent a quick succession of rapid strikes at him, he moved his weapon around him in a circle before spinning to the left and striking upwards, deflecting the last of the invisible attack 's with the clang of metal striking metal. Natsu continued to watch the woman in front of him, it barely appeared she moved at all.
"What's your name boy?" She asked suddenly.
"Natsu," He growled back "And you?"
She straightened and bowed "You may call me Ikaruga, it is a pleasure to make the acquaintance of someone as skilled as yourself."
He didn't answer, he just watched and waited.
She dropped back into her stance and he felt another surge, she swept the blade in an arc in front of her, the wide arc of flame swept out in front of her, Natsu's' eyes widened and he requipped, locking the blade against his forearm as his flame emperor armor fell into place around him, the spell slammed into him and he was sent airborne, he gritted his teeth and flipped backwards, landing with a heavy thud, His cheek stung and he left his hand to wipe at the gash that had opened under his left eye, he looked down at the dark crimson that was his blood and leaned on his sword heavily, the armor cracked and chattered around him.
"Hm, maybe you were not as skilled as I thought," Ikaruga taunted "No matter, I will kill you and then move on to the rest of your so called mages."
Natsu straightened out, he glowed again and when the light winked out he stood in a large black suit, the large black spikes on the shoulder looked like the horn's of a demon, the helmet was like the mouth of a dragon around his face, his eyes seemed to glow red in between the teeth of the thing covering his face, the armor was thing and heavy when he took a step the resounding thud caused Ikaruga to raised on eyebrow slightly, he spun the large mace in his hand and slammed it into the ground beside him.
A challenging smirk appeared on his face as he watched the woman in front of him "Let's soo what you got." He challenged.
She lowered herself and barely moved, Natsu raised his free hand in front of him, the wall of his own magic solidified in front of him, he walked forward slowly keeping his unoccupied hand in front of him, she flashed threw another set of strikes, they struck the barrier and seemed to chip away at it but the thing still held, she panicked slightly, she had never met a wall she couldn't cut through, she shook her head quickly and reset herself to attack again. Natsu reared his fist back and slammed it against the barrier. The wall of energy flew towards her at a blinding pace, she jumped high and it sailed under here, no sooner had she leapt into the air had she realized her mistake, Natsu jumped right after her, the two engaged in a quick battle in the air, The shear Strength and weight of Natsu's blow's overwhelmed her, her guarded broke and she brought the weapon down, slamming her into the ground like a missile, Natsu spun in the air and landed with a ground shaking crack. The woman in front of him let out her last breath as he walked by her.
Wendy ran into a large open room and let out a frustrated growl, two paths lay before her. She stepped forward then stopped, a sound was steadily reaching her ear's, she brought up her guard and watched the two path's in front of her. The sudden surge of magic power coupled with a blisteringly deafening sound hit her ear's, and she staggered and fell to her knee's, pressing her hands over her ear's against the torrent of sound. It abruptly cut off and she looked up, the long haired man in front of her, flashed her a grin that made her skin crawl.
He flipped the guitar around and leaned on it lightly "Well, how you doin baby?" He asked, she glared at him.
"Oh, been a long time since big boy Valdaldus got the cold shoulder." He announced loudly "I like a girl who knows how to press my buttons!" He practically yelled, flipping the guitar back around, he pounded away at the string's, Wendy could see the waves of sound rushing towards her. She raised her hand's in front of her and slammed them together, it was like thunder just rumbled the room, the waves split around her and slammed into the wall behind her showering her back with dust and bit's of concrete.
Valdaldus cocked his head to the left and rubbed at his ear's, the sickening smile reappeared on his face "I like it when my girl's get loud!" He shouted.
Wendy grit her teeth and anger rose within her, her eyes changed to slits, and the iris was now a deep blue, they seemed to glow under her hair as she glared down the man in front of her. She slammed her fist into her palm as her power flared around her, whipping her hair up and causing dust to swirl around her feet. The smile never left the man's face as he stared back at her, making an obvious point to look her over. Wendy shot forward, the blue glow around her fist's seemed to crackle with electricity as she moved forward, Valdaldus spun out of the way of the blow and hit the string's on his guitar again, Wendy merely stomped her foot into the ground, the same boom of thunder broke the waves around her and they slammed uselessly into the wall behind her. She glared at him out of the corner of her eye, as she shot towards him again, his back hit the wall as he moved away from the intimidating stare, she raised her fist as she flew towards him, seeing no other option he brought the instrument up in front of himself, her fist connected with it and it splintered and shattered, Valdaldus appearance reverted back into the robed man that had been speaking with Jellal, Wendy planted her feet and spun around, slamming her foot into his chin, he flew into the wall and back into the next set of kick's to his chest and stomach, he was hunched over and barely conscious when she reared her fist back and punched him through the stone wall behind him. She spun and looked between the two path's she had, she chose right and ran down the long tunnel.
Erza ran into long cylindrical room, large cages hung from chains at varying heights, she looked around before leaping up to the nearest cage she ran to the edge and jumped again, her ears and nose caught something she couldn't quite place, it was like the sound of an insect buzzing about your ear, her nose detected an animal and a man they seemed to be the same thing and it confused her greatly, until the soft buzz became and almost ear shattering roar as a heavy fist impacted in her side, sending skidding along the ground of the roof of the cage, which swung around wildly at the impact of the newcomer, She rose shakily on her arms and glared at the owl-headed man?
"What the hell are you?" She growled.
"Hah, My name is Fukuro, I have been hired to bring you and the pathetic rabble of hooligans you have brought with to Justice!" He exclaimed proudly.
"Justice huh? That's a pretty word." She growled threateningly.
"You mock a member of Trinity Raven?! You will suffer the sweet pain of Justice!" The man? Shouted enthusiastically.
"Let's see what you can do bird brain," Erza taunted as her fists flared alight, and the air around her quivered with heat "I Don't have all day here so how about we make it quick?"
Fukuro didn't retort, instead he hovered slightly off the ground the large pack on his back emitting a steady flame underneath his feet, He turned slightly and seemed to disappear in front of Her, she watched every direction, sound flared in her ears and she dropped low, the blow nipping at the end of her hair, she rolled forward and whirled around Fukuro was gone again, she grit her teeth in annoyance, she knew a delay strategy when she saw one. Jellal wanted Natsu alone for as long as possible. She closed her eyes and focused, the smell the sound of the enemy currently circling her, the buzz roared to life again and her eyes snapped open, she spun around and extending her hand, there was a sudden lurch and the sound stopped, Erza glared at the man she currently ha by the throat as she tightened her grip, he clawed desperately at her hand as his eyes grew heavy, She released him as he collapsed, his chest heaved heavily as his body struggled to return oxygen to his system. He raised his head slowly "Why?"
"I am not a murderer like you, I do fight for Justice and killing you here would not be in the name of anything but a personal hatred." Erza spat.
She spun on her heel and moved to leave him behind, his voice caught her attention "F-foolish girl." He croaked, the roar of the pack drew her attention and she all but folded her spine back as it flew over her head, the thing spun and turned speeding back towards her. She narrowed her eyes on it and waited, she flipped over the thing at the last second and it slammed into the downed man, the resulting explosion snapped the chain of the cage and Erza jumped and grabbed hold of another cage barely, her hand began to slip and she panicked as clawed at the other bars, her finger's barely rasping along the metal as she slipped off the bar, it was so sudden she nearly didn't catch the hand that caught her. The large man that had dragged Natsu away stared at her impassively, the second she was safe she sucked in air greedily, not sure why it was gone.
"Natsu sent me, I am glad I made it in time." Simon explained in as little words as possible.
She nodded her head in understanding and got to her feet slowly "We don't have a lot of time to waste then."
Simon nodded as the two continued ascending the tower.
A/N: So that's the Trinity Raven fight's done, I know a pulled a Spiderman with Fukuro's jetpack but I didn't think it was too bad, Valdaldus's change back to his original clothing when his guitar broke was kind of a spur of the moment thing, but tell me what you thought of it! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, the reason I am not releasing the whole arc in once piece as I usually do is for a simple reason, I haven't' actually planned the Jellal fight out yet, I have a few idea's (None of them on cannon) that I am working on, but get excited cause I think you guy's will like em :P.