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"Now, tell me about that mission." She flashed him a smile that made him probably the happiest man on Earthland.
Lucy is in the middle of searching for an enormous Wyvern. This was what Laxus was talking about when she asked him that afternoon. It was apparently an S-Class job and more importantly, irritatingly and surprisingly her solo mission. Of course, she objected and said that he should come along too. The man replied and said that, "You're absolutely right! I should tag along so that I can watch you." It's either he misinterpreted her or just said it to tease her. Knowing him, it's probably the second one. Take note, it's 'watch' not 'help'. It was probably one of that man's grand schemes to punish her. She did put up another mild fight but before she could fire words from her mouth, the man presented an offer she can't possibly refuse with heavily tempting reason. He intends her to join the S-Class Examination but disappearing for four months would put a strain on her amount of job records, thereby eliminating her from candidacy. The only way for her to join is to complete an S-Class mission. Laxus said that, with this, adding the fact that he was the one that supervised her, he'll be able to convince his Gramps of her status and with this quest, she'll be able to determine her strength. She was effectively silenced because she can't argue with that. She promised to her team and to herself before her disappearance was to become an S-Class mage like them and she intends to keep it.
It has been almost a week since they have arrived here and they have only started searching for that blasted creature yesterday after they had checked out from the hotel they were staying. Laxus was confident that, with her abilities, she'll be able to find it in no time. But there's no way she's confident. Today's the last day of June and tomorrow's her birthday. Just as promised, they will train for one month and return to the guild. How she missed her teammates and their highly destructive, radioactive and hazardous cake. She'll surprise them, eventually.
However, even for her, a mage who has an immense amount of magical energy, tracking a monster despite its huge appearance is quite a work. She's not a Dragon Slayer for crying out loud! She doesn't have that sensitive nose or that good hearing they all seem to possess. She's a Celestial Spirit Mage. She can't smell that creature. And she doubted that even a lion, goat, bull, crab, ram, scorpion or even a horse could smell it. Laxus wasn't even helping at all. He would just follow her wherever she goes despite knowing full well where that Wyvern was. She's a Celestial Spirit Mage. Her main attribute doesn't lie on physical prowess but rather on intelligence, versatility and teamwork with her Spirits. She should think first before going head-on. Sighing, she thought of a brilliant idea. She took two Silver Keys from her key holder and recited,
"Open! Gates of the Canis Minor and the Compass! Nikora! Pyxis!" Two little forms emerged from the light. Laxus raised an eyebrow at the girl's sudden action.
"Okay, how can those two help in a situation like this?" He gestured at the deep verdant forest surrounding them, obviously teasing her.
"Just watch, Sparky!" She flashed him a triumphant smile which clearly disturbed the other blonde. Lucy turned to her Spirits.
"Plue, can you smell some monster around here?" She asked the Canis Minor.
"Puuun Puuun!" Plue replied as he bobbed his head up and down as if he was saying yes.
"Good. Pyxis, help him." She smiled and turned to the red bird.
"Piku." Pyxis saluted.
After a few minutes of smelling and searching, both Spirits returned to Lucy and both raised their arms in their northern direction, signaling that they have finally found the hiding place of the Wyvern. Lucy then dismissed them back to their realm. Laxus was stunned by this. He didn't know weak Spirits such as that can actually help Lucy. And they were right; the creature really is in their North. Just like that, his definition of weakness and strength was immensely changed. Lucy, watching the man, came to the conclusion that he didn't expect that two, small and Silver Key Spirits could actually do something. She gestured him to follow her which the man silently complied to. When they finally reached the northernmost part of the town, they have discovered a cave.
'Figures.' Lucy thought. It was a large beast so it made perfect sense that it will be here.
They entered a cave and there, they found the sleeping form of the beast. It was really massive and was thrice the size of a regular one. They also heard that it doesn't even eat plants. It was a carnivore and therefore humans were also part of the food chain. Thinking about it, made Lucy's skin crawl.
"Be careful, Blondie. That things' really dangerous." Laxus dared to tease and chuckle in a situation as dire as this. Lucy began walking towards it but before she could reach it silently, she stepped on a stick. Nope, it wasn't even a stick. It's too hard to be a thin wood. She looked down only to be frightened at the sight of a bone. A freaking human bone! She held her screams but it was futile for as she looked back at the monster before her, it was wide awake with its red eyes, flaring of anger were directly staring at her. It bared its fangs and gave off a deafening roar. She turned to look at Laxus, panic coursing through her veins but he was nowhere to be found.
'He must be hiding. That idiotic…' She didn't even finish her thought when the creature lunged at her. Luckily, she dodged it and rolled to her left. She took her whip and extended it towards the monster only to find out that it too was missing. She heard some flapping noise. 'Oh, great! It can even fly. Hurray for me!' The Wyvern flew towards her but she thought better, she dodged again and began pouring more energy on the whip and wrapped the whole length at the creature's neck. She pulled her whip and slammed the creature in the hard solid ground and took one of her keys.
"Open! Gate of the Giant Crab! Cancer!" Lucy called out and in a flash of soft golden light, there stood her hairdresser.
"What can I do, Lucy-ebi?" Cancer asked.
"Use Altarf Blade: Hundred Slice Dance." Lucy quickly ordered the Spirit. The technique was unconsciously inspired by Gray's Ice Blade: Seven Slice Dance. During her training sessions while she has amnesia, she and Cancer thought that there should be more ways that they could put better use to the Giant Crab's speed and precision. Now that she has regained her memories, she named it in honor of her teammate's powerful attack.
"Ready? Go!" Lucy threw the monster towards a nearby empty space, uncoiling the whip and retracting it back to its original form. Cancer, with his speed, soon followed and managed to go there before the Wyvern.
"Altarf Blade: Hundred Slice Dance!" He called out the name of the technique as he prepared his scissors and performed one-hundred slicing attacks with precise, fast and powerful strikes. And just like that, the mighty monster was defeated.
"Good job, Cancer!" Lucy cheered and sent him back in his world. Not long after, Laxus reappeared behind one of the boulders, clapping at her.
"That was a good job, Blondie and that concludes your training." He stopped clapping and smiled at her.
"You." Lucy was seething at being left alone to fight the monster, silently walked towards him. She didn't expect that Laxus would really do it. She took her whip and cracked it in front of Laxus, almost touching his boots.
"H-Hey, Lucy, enough with the jokes, okay?" Laxus walked back, frightened. Lucy still cracked the whip.
"Okay, okay. I'm sorry!" He backed up more, hands raised as to surrender but he was cornered. Oops, wrong move. Lucy didn't respond. She aimed her whip for his foot. Laxus jumped in time just as the cracker hit the ground where he was standing seconds ago.
"Please, I'm sorry. There, happy now?" Laxus Dreyar, scared beyond his wits at the fury of a woman, begged on his knees, kept his eyes closed and readied himself for eternal damnation like a sacrificial lamb. Never has he been afraid of his life. Not even Titania Erza or Demon Mirajane could do that to him.
"Better." Lucy smiled at him like she was never angry in the first place.
'Women. You can never understand them.' He thought.
"Come on, Laxus. Time to go, it's already noon!" She called to him at the entrance of the cave.
A/N: Hello everyone! I'm not actually planning on writing this chapter but the I can't ignore the training requests. Anyways, the chapter concludes how much our dear Lucy has grown. I didn't use two Spirits this time so that you can gauge how much a single summon can do and there you have it. Of course, she was still inches away to be in Laxus' level and by the way, I did purposefully made it look like our 'hunk of sexiness' (according to Lightningeye. :D) was a little bit of a jerk so that it doesn't look like that he's gone soft. He, is the Great Laxus Dreyar, after all!
Note: Altarf is the brightest star in the constellation of Cancer. I really patterned it after Mr. Mashima's way of naming of Lucy's attacks. Love you, by the way, Mr. Mashima! Please don't yet end your work and can we have at least some LaLu action. Please, I'm begging you. :)
As for the reviewers (if that was what they were called), here they are, I want to thank you all for those reviews. They did give me the courage. What am I saying? It feels like I'm saying goodbye. Hahaha. But, no worries, I promise to finish this and that's A SOLEMN VOW TO TAKE! :)
Lightningeye: Thank you very much for that. Laxus really loves Lucy and I will never let anyone come between them because LAXUS IS THE HUNK GOD OF ELECTRIFYING SEXINESS! Hahaha :)
Kishka24: Thank you for those encouraging words. I'm sorry I won't be able to grant the 'horrible cake thingy' because it will probably take too much time and I really suck at anything related to cooking. And I won't stress on my writing style anymore. :)
VespraKiora: Hahaha. I was actually planning for Lucy to dump the guy (as a joke to the readers) but the I thought that 'Nah, I still love my life' and so I just gave him a dose of his own 'zapping' to let him know that Lucy is not someone to drop a friend or *ahem* a boyfriend. :)
mromero18: Oh, don't be so harsh on the guy. He was a jerk, we all know that but at that moment, he sure looks like a cute lost puppy, searching for his master. Hahaha :)
XLALUX: Thank you for those wonderful words. I hope you find this chapter better than the last one. And I sure will keep my promise to update as much as possible to finish the story.
Paname: Hahaha. That thought also struck my mind but like I said, our dear Lucy is much to innocent to elope. :)
AnimeLuver778: Here it is, as promised and the S-Class mission Laxus forced Lucy to undergo is the end of her training. :)