Chapter Four
It was exactly as Lucy had feared; standing before them in all of its glory was none other than a dragon. Her thoughts on how impossible it was did nothing to its flesh and blood form. It had crawled out of the crack on the broken orb and regarded them with piercing yellow orbs. Its capacity for expression was limited, but she could sense its disgust in those amber depths. This was not mutual, as Lucy admired its metallic scales. They were colored like the shifting sands of the desert and were so huge along the front of its body that it appeared to move within them like a suit of armor. Its entire outline was jagged and ferocity personified.
Giant jewels were embedded along its side; lacrima, she realized. They sparked to life and formed arcs of sky blue electricity all along its midline. These arcs were increasing in intensity. It also stood on two powerful legs instead of four, and it used its ragged wings as counterweights to move with unbelievable grace. Overall, it was not the largest dragon she had ever seen, but the aura of its power was frightening.
Lucy was just considering how its wings could not possibly support its oversized body in flight when it started to run towards them. It had no need for flight to be a threat, crossing the clearing in seconds. Partly it was propelled by lightening magic that reminded her of how Laxus teleported in battle.
"Not one for talking, huh? That's fine by me." Before Lucy had a chance to process the situation, Laxus had launched himself at the charging best. Lightning bolt met lightning bolt in a fantastic explosion of sparks. When the dust had settled, the creature was laughing. Its lacrima were even more energized then before, blue arcs moving between them constantly.
"I did not think I would meet another who wielded my magic. Still, I am insulted to think a whelp such as you would raise its hand to me."
Where Laxus had landed a fist upon its sharp snout there was not even a dent. On his clenched fist however, Lucy could see blood dripping from a nasty gash. It was not like him to be daunted by such revelations, and he seemed to be losing his temper. That is, of course, if that almost visible gathering of magic was any indication. The electricity cloaked both of them, creating twin suns of rage. She knew she needed to act quickly if she were to contribute meaningfully to this uneven match.
"Open, gate of the giant crab!"
Cancer looked as confused as the dragon by his appearance. Not that he would ever doubt his master, but his options were few in this situation. The cloak of light subsided briefly on the dragon as it contemplated the sudden appearance of her spirit. Its head was turned slightly to the side as an inquisitive dog might. Instead of giving Cancer a command to enter the fray, she took advantage of the lull in the action and gestured towards herself.
"Stardress, Cancer form."
Her clothes were replaced by a red dress and just beneath her collar bone the symbol of the constellation Cancer appeared. Her movements became much faster, much like the spirit she had called upon. Lucy felt a bet like a coward for using this strategy. Utilizing the speed of the celestial spirit, she put some distance between herself and the skirmish. The height of trees were little obstacle to the sight of the beast, who towered over their thick foliage. This distance, she knew, was important if she had any chance of surviving the dragon's attacks. It backfired slightly, as the dragon rounded on her and gave chase. Thick palm trunks fell like toothpicks to its frenzied pursuit. Lucy smiled grimly; it was at least easily distracted. Perhaps she could use this to their advantage. Reaching for another key, she poured energy into her summon.
"Open, gate of the lion!"
Both Cancer and Leo seemed uncharacteristically solemn as they regarded the dragon, side by side. Lucy put more magic into the connection between herself and the two spirits, before she commanded them to stop its charge. Leo aimed for the unarmored portion of its lower leg with a Regulus fueled strike. Cancer was a little bit more at a loss for a strategy, being there mostly to allow for his master's greater evasion. He resolved to simply back up Leo, adding his power in the form of a cut to the same spot Loke's fist landed. The leg crumpled underneath the behemoth, but appeared uninjured. With a surprised, almost feminine yelp, the dragon landed hard on its breast bone and neck.
From behind its fallen form, Lucy spotted an aggravated Laxus running towards them. "Are you running away?" He jumped up over it, and his lightning dragon's jaw hit squarely on the less armored lower spine of the prone beast. It howled its protest, large head whipping around like a snake's. With one of its wings, which both sported a single scythe like claw, it swiped clear through Cancer at the same time. Cancer gave a weak "Ebi…" before fading back into the spiritual realm, divesting Lucy of her speedy Stardress. The lion spirit dodged it by a hair, returning to Lucy's side.
"I will make you suffer for that!" The beast addressed Laxus, before unleashing a roar of massive energy. This knocked him clear off the dragon's back, and Lucy could see he had gone rigid as he lied on his side in the dirt. His hand twitched a bit, and a rolling wave of static came up off of him. The dragon righted itself, and approached with a cruel smile twisted upon its face. Placing a foot over him, it pressed him down and reveled in the pain it was causing when it heard Laxus groan beneath its talons.
"How foolish. Why didn't you dodge it? Were you expecting to eat my lightning? That is too much power for your fragile monkey body. You've become overloaded with energy and if you don't expend it you will die."
Lucy struggled to think as Laxus reached up and weakly grasped one of its talons with both of his hands. As he tried to push the crushing weight off of himself, the talon cut deeply into his fingers. Loke, not wanting to just watch, attempted a Regulus impact against the other leg, but the dragon didn't even notice as it twisted its foot and tried to crush the slayer.
"I need a distraction… Open, gate of the scorpion!" She shouted in desperation.
Commanding Scorpio to attack the dragon's eyes, he crouched in readiness for the spell. "We are on it!" He affirmed to Lucy, sending a tornado of sand right up into the sensitive mucous membranes of the gloating dragon. Next, she reached for the only spirit who came to mind for this situation, and flinched as her fingers ran over the broken key. Aquarius would've been perfect here, and she was surprised by the acute pain it caused her. Now was not the time to linger on it. Improvising, she grabbed Virgo's key.
"Open, gate of the maiden!"
As she summoned her third currently active spirit, the dragon rocked back off of Laxus as it tried to wipe out the gritty dust with the palm of a wing. Eyes red and swollen, it glared menacingly at Lucy. The air became thick with tension as she met its eyes. Using as much magic as she could muster, she strengthened Loke to help keep it back as she instructed Virgo.
"I need you to drill up into the ceiling and find the water source. Try and get it over the dragon."
"Yes, princess," and with that Virgo was off in her typical way of disappearing beneath the floor. The other spirits struggled to keep the dragon contained in the area. Using a combination of sand buster attacks and lion brilliance, it was effectively stripped of its ability to see. This didn't stop the randomly aimed roars being sent in her direction. They were missing but only barely.
In a timely fashion, Virgo fell from the ceiling onto the dragons back. She was followed shortly by a torrent of water. This caused her to be electrified as the dragon's power surged through the liquid, and she disappeared having closed her gate. Exhausting her last magical reserves, Lucy thanked the remaining spirits as they were forced to leave. The dragon shook itself off, but the water coated it. It crackled but the arcs between its lacrima were disrupted.
"I see you monkeys are not as dumb as you appear," the dragon remarked to Lucy. "But I can still bite your head off."
Lucy paled at this. The dragon stalked forward purposefully with her set in its sights. She could feel the ground tremble as death itself neared her fragile body. The intent to kill was clear in those yellow orbs. Full of an equal mix of pain and determination, Laxus slowly got up. First he was up on just one elbow, and then he pulled his knees up underneath himself. The creature clearly had more than just a weakness for water. "You talk way too damn much," he gritted out through clenched teeth. "If you'd just shut your trap and do it already, you would've won." Using a running start, he got a heaven's halberd to overcharge the central lacrima over the left side of its chest. The spell expended all of the extra energy he had been struggling with.
Unable to focus the magic elsewhere in its body due to the water, the beast screamed as the lacrima exploded into tiny glittering blue shards. As it fell it brought its wing's claw down across Laxus' chest, knocking him back. Both bled heavily into the dark loamy earth. Lucy ran to Laxus, examining the deep wound.
"Are you going to be okay?" He nodded, but even the small gesture caused him some discomfort. Slowly, he moved to get up again, and Lucy lent him a hand which he only reluctantly took. Beside them, the dragon panted as more of its bodily fluids mingled with the dirt, creating a dark mud that made Lucy feel nauseous.
"Do you want my power, whelp?" Its eyes sought his, but they were unable to fall onto any discernible shape as its vision burned. Pressing a hand futilely over his wound, Laxus replied unsteadily, "Of course."
"To what end?"
"To protect what is important to me." Though his voice trembled with effort, his answer was certain.
"In my life, that is all my power has ever served. This forest and the lives within it are not your enemy, and without someone to look after them they will perish. They are all that matter to me anymore."
Sensing its eagerness to talk upon its death bed, Lucy pressed it for answers. "What is this forest, anyway? And what are you even doing in here? I thought Acnologia had killed any dragon not within the dragon slayers."
"This was the last city of the fae. Hundreds of years ago, this desert was brimming with the life of their magic. They cannot cast it, they breathe it out into the world, causing plants to sprout as they pass and nourishing animals," here the dragon stopped to gesture at the bounty around them. "I, Fulgora, then the last lightning dragon, came here and helped the remaining fae to form this mountain, a sanctuary in which all life that had started to disappear could remain safe."
It was clearly struggling to continue. The colors of its scales were fading quickly, and it tried to pick up the pace of the tale. "Then came Zeref, who was destroying all life with his magic. Fae were called by their very essence to protect the world, as nothing was more important to them, even their own lives. I had by then long slept, providing energy to this cavern passively. I awoke briefly to see them leaving, and when they cursed him with their love of life, I felt the plains dry up and the desert forming as if from far away as their lives ended. Since then I have protected what they held dear, the creatures and plants which live nowhere else in the world."
A small pang of guilt was felt by Lucy. Earlier she had wanted that insect destroyed, but now she knew that its life was cherished by someone; that this entire place had been constructed in its interest. Looking around at the stone, she imagined it being carved with loving hands. Even the fae light was the nourishing embodiment of the spirits who had once dwelled here.
"How are you able to keep this place hidden? That is no kind of lightning magic I've ever heard of."
Blood pressure continuing to drop, the dragon responded feebly. "Lightning magic is one of the purest forms of magic." Here Laxus wrinkled his nose at the word pure. "To wield it is to concentrate your own body's essence, and can fuel other types. That is why water affects us so, it prevents the conduction of energy into a single point for a strike. Some other magic can be used like this too, but only lightning can sustain all forms of magic perfectly. The fae spells of illusion continue to act as strongly as the day they were cast so long as they are connected to my lacrima. I have evaded Acnologia simply by never leaving their area of effect."
Laxus looked like he wanted to ask more questions, but sensing the nearing of Fulgora's end, only nodded his understanding. "So you want me to come back here every now and then and charge them up."
"Yes, but to take my power you must end my life directly," the female wyrm added grimly. He raised a questioning eyebrow at that, but the dragon gestured him to draw near with a beckoning wing tip. Lucy placed a restraining hand on Laxus' shoulder, but he shrugged it off and approached the ailing dragon.
"Is this what you want?"
Fulgora nodded weakly, whispering, "All those I love are waiting for me on the other side. I do not want to linger like this," and closed her eyes, whose light had begun to fade. There was a shroud of peacefulness that fell upon the clearing. Great scales began to rise and fall more slowly, as if it were preparing to go to sleep. Lucy looked away respectfully but couldn't help but hear a sickening crack that made her stomach flip. The blow he struck was directly upon her head, and instantly Lucy could hear Fulgora's heart slow down. With one last shuddering breath everything stopped. Lucy was surprised when she looked back to see what appeared to be a smile imposed over its face in the last moments. It made her wonder if this had been what the dragon had wanted all along. That would certainly explain its brash behavior; it may have sensed the slayer and thrown itself at Laxus in hopes of this outcome.
"This is no longer a dragon's age," she said softly into the silence.
A shimmering soft light lifted up into the air around Fulgora's fallen outline. It drifted languidly for a moment. The pinpricks of power sparkled and were suspended midair like a snapshot in time. It was forever before it began to move. This whole place seemed to exert some strange effect on the laws of the world she knew so well outside. There was this nagging surreal feeling, as if it were all a dream. Or, it would've been, if the copper smell of blood wasn't thickly coating her mouth and nose. Lucy's breath caught as she watched the energy move towards Laxus, infusing him with a white glow. It slowly was absorbed into his body. It was as if the responsibilities of an older generation were being directly passed down. After a contemplative minute, he stepped back from the departed. When he turned back towards her, she gasped when her eyes met his.
"Laxus, your eyes…"
She had expected the usual soft gray color, but it was the amber of the fallen wyrm. As she took it in, it made him seem harsher as a whole. He didn't ask her to finish her sentence. Tiredly walking past her towards the exit, he simply said, "I couldn't have done it without you. Let's head back; we've a long way to go to town."
Author: I've put up a link to the picture I made of Fulgora on my profile page if anybody is interested.