DISCLAIMER: I do not own Fairy Tail, the honor belongs solely to Hiro Mashima-sama.

Wow. I wrote 19 chapters for this story. Back then when I would be reading the completed stories in this site, I would always be amazed at the stories that end up being more than 15 chapters. Huh. This is me being amazed at myself.

In my quest for more inspiration in battle scenes I decided to reread the first book of the Temeraire series.

Right! On with the show!

Chapter Eighteen

Sweetness and Light

"I have full trust in my magic and my will. Do you feel the same way to your magic and yourself?"

Areca stiffened at Solana's question. "Isn't the spell I am creating right now proof of my belief to myself?"

Solana tilted her head to the side, "This spell isn't of your choice. If I'm not mistaken Ajowan taught this to you as a last resort. Also your hands are shaking."

Areca's eyes widened in surprise and realization that indeed her hands were shaking. Shaking her head in denial she hugged the earth mage more tightly.

Solana placed a hand on the girl's head. "Being afraid of death isn't a sign of weakness. It is proof that you are alive and that you want to remain in this world for yourself and the people you cherish."

Areca bowed her head and concentrated more on the creation of the dangerous spell. Solana stared sadly down the younger mage; she lifted her hand up to the air. At this the rock spikes quickly rotated themselves like drills.

"I don't want to hurt you Areca but if you continue this then I have no other choice but to finish this fight now."

Areca gritted her teeth together in frustration, the shadows had encompassed their lower body and was just by the teen's chest. Solana was taller than her, the shadow mage knew for the spell to work the shadows had to cover their whole body. The teen looked up into Solana's face and froze, the older woman eyes were set so seriously down at her. Areca knew right there and then the earth mage was going to drop the spikes.

The shadow mage closed her eyes and gripped Solana more tightly. In the teen's mind if she was going to get crushed by the spikes she might as well drag Solana along with her death. She felt Solana's body turn into granite rock at this she opened her eyes and looked up at the descending rock spikes in fear.

"What in the world is that?" They heard Erza call out in surprise.

The two women were taken aback by this call, looked back at Erza. They saw a ball of light flash past the Fairy Tail mage and float quickly up above the two battling mages. The ball of white light was now between the rock spikes and the women.

"That's-" Solana started to utter when the ball of light shone brighter than ever. Its shine illuminated the whole beach and washed away the shadows and as the ball exploded in a kaleidoscope of colors the rock spikes were split into a thousand pieces and fell harmlessly down. Areca let go of Solana and fell down to her knees in relief. After being touched by the light Solana's body was back to its normal state.

Solana sighed and shouted to Erza, "What do you think of Raul's new spell?"

Erza walked towards the earth mage and answered, "I was about to use Blumenblatt upon the rock spikes you created when I saw the light coming towards us."

Erza looked at Solana with sharp eyes. The earth mage sighed and shrugged. "So even you Erza wanted to interfere. Well Raul felt the same way as you I'm sure. He must have thought using Chaos Spikes on Areca and I was a bit much."

"Solana, I know the effect of your spell, not even your Granite Armor would have survived it." Erza said to the earth mage with her usual bluntness. On seeing the sad look upon the other woman's face, Erza look up to the moon and asked "You said that was Raul's new spell, what is it?"

Solana smiled sadly at Areca who was still visibly shaken and couldn't even stand up. "It's called Light Show. It's a spell that cancels out any other ongoing or oncoming spell without causing harm to the opponent. It's a light that chases away regrets."

Solana held down a hand to the still seated Areca. The shadow mage grabbed the wrist of the earth mage and produced a knife from her back. As Erza and Solana looked on in surprised the girl swiftly plunged the knife towards Solana as a voice comes out of nowhere screaming "STOP!"

~0~X~0~X~0~

Bixlow dodged the bandages quickly. He ran with Nana quickly following behind. As the woman jumped over a stone bench she called forth a volley of sharp bandages towards the seith mage. Bixlow quickly ran past the few trees and tall tombstones in the area with his dolls blasting off a number of the bandages.

Just then a huge white blade swiftly made its way towards Bixlow's head. He ducked and crawled behind a huge statue just as the dolls jointly blasted the blade. Bixlow jumped from the back of the statue and saw the blade turn into long lengths of bandages that quickly destroyed the three totem dolls.

Bixlow stood and stared straight ahead at Nana as she once more joined the bandages together and creates another huge blade. The Fairy Tail mage smiled and ran straight towards the incoming blade. Just as the blade slashed the body of the seith mage, he ducked and gave off a burst of speed not unlike that of a panther making its way to a kill. Surprised, Nana broke the blade into a volley of bandages that quickly attacked Bixlow from behind. Just then huge black wings sprouted from the seith mages back and he flew up into the sky.

Ajowan looked in shock at this as Nana gathered her strength and jumped up towards the flying man and pushed forth a volley of more bandages. Bixlow grinned and raised his hands up and cried "Earth Spikes" at once spikes came from the ground and destroyed the incoming bandages.

Eyes wide with shock and surprise Ajowan looked towards his weapon Nana only to be horrified. Nana had a huge spike protruding in the middle of her stomach. But since the body was already dead it burst into dust but not before they saw Nana smile in gratitude towards the Fairy Tail mage.

Bixlow landed lightly on the ground. Wings gone he made his way sedately towards Ajowan, "The spirit you forced into servitude has been set free. Why don't you just surrender?" The masked seith mage asked out to the older mage.

"Surrender? Are you crazy! Look around you we are in a cemetery I can just pull up another wandering soul and reanimate more dead bodies!" Ajowan screamed out triumphantly.

He spread his arms wide and called out "Awaken from your sleep and serve me, my undead army!"

Ajowan Umbelliferae laughed into the night but then a bright purple light spread out the area where the two seith mages stood. Freed Justine appeared, stood beside Bixlow and said "You won't be able to call them out near you. I created a barrier around us that prohibits you on call any undead out and serve as a prison for you as well. The only way you can be free is if you defeat us."

Bixlow laughed maniacally and said "Fat chance with that old man. Now I should really keep my promise to my old friends."

Bixlow held out a hand in front of him. "Earth Trap!" From the ground where Ajowan stood a huge earth hand came out and grabbed the man tight. Bixlow smiled, approached the man and said "Now why don't you look into my eyes."

Ajowan's widen in horror as he looked into the Fairy Tail's eyes. Horrorstruck he looked on as his flesh turned a darker color and Bixlow cried out "Crush!"

~0~X~0~X~0~

Lucy and Natsu pop out the hole Virgo created. As they climbed out and surveyed the destroyed house they kept well away from the fissure that was close by. As they called out for Gray and Juvia they carefully made their way past the ruined structure.

"Juvia and Gray-sama is alright." They heard a familiar voice. As they looked on a ball of water came and produced Gray who was being straddled by Juvia who still had her arms in water form.

Juvia smirked out at Lucy and said "Gray-sama was in me and not-"

"I get it already!" Lucy quickly interrupted the girl. "Come on we should be going."

Natsu grabbed Lucy's arm and said "We can't go just yet Lucy! We have to find whatever that fortuneteller lady asked for."

The three sweat drop having forgotten that Natsu was unconscious when Lucy found the pouch. Smiling Lucy produced from her pocket a pouch and held it up to Natsu who took it with a confused look.

"Natsu, I think that's what the lady wanted."

"This?" Natsu blinked down at the pouch in his hand. After a couple of seconds Natsu laughed uproariously and danced on the spot chanting "We found it! We found it!"

As Gray shouted at Natsu to stop acting like an idiot and white blast of lightning fell from the sky onto the ground near them. At the explosion the four mages fell in surprised disarray. Quickly standing up in outrage Natsu screamed "You bastard! Show yourself!"

As Gray, Lucy and Juvia stood beside Natsu. A man came out from the shadows on top of the biggest rubble of the house. He had on dark cargo pants that were tuck into black combat boots, a tight black shirt and an indigo cloak on. His face was heavily bandaged yet they all could see his red eyes and fanged smile.

Natsu blinked at the man and said "Oi, Gajeel what kind of a costume is that supposed to be? Since when did you learn to call out lightning? Is Laxus helping you out or something?"

The girls and Gray all face planted on the ground. Gray grabbed Natsu's shirt and snarled at him "You idiot! That's not Gajeel! Look he has a crew cut and Gajeel has hair as long as Bisca's also it's obvious that's his older than all of us!"

The pink-haired dragon-slayer stared at the bandaged man once more and said "So it's you Laxus since when did you decide to dye your hair up?"

Everyone face planted at this. The bandaged man laughed out loud and said in a deep voice very unlike Laxus' "My..my.. That's the first time someone thought on comparing me to Laxus. I'm Raul Wolfia, an S-class mage from Wolfsbane and you have something I want."

The man jumped down and stood a couple of steps away from the Fairy Tail mages. "You see I want that pouch in your hand right now." He pointed to Natsu.

The fire dragon-slayer smirked and threw the pouch to the blonde stellar mage. Lucy frantically tried to catch the pouch in time.

"Lucy! Keep the pouch and whatever in it safe!" Natsu said to the girl and looked back to Raul.

"If you want it so bad you'll have to beat me first!"

Juvia and Lucy sweat drop at the battle fever that was currently taking over Natsu. Gray muttered idiot and stood beside the dragon-slayer "Listen up flame brain this guy is an S-class mage. I've also heard about him, I hear his as strong as Erza or maybe stronger."

On hearing this Natsu grinned and growled out Raul. "Are you really stronger than Erza? Come on let's get this on!"

The bandaged man sighed and scratched his head. "You guys are really the reckless type aren't you?"

A/N:

From my handy dictionary:

Sweetness and Light (noun) – an untroubled or harmonious state of condition or amiable reasonableness of disposition

Tell me what you think ^^,