Chapter Eighteen: May the Best Man Win
Gray's POV
As a pillar of the brightest light I had ever seen- brighter than Lucy's previous attempts – I instinctively held my hand up to shield my eyes. Beside me, Natsu did the same so I could stop worrying about him for the moment and relax my muscles since they were prepared for a surprise attack. He was watching Lucy as I was. I ducked my head because the light was hurting my eyes even when I shielded them with my hand.
A humongous white and gold magic circle stretched out in the clearing, bigger than any magic circle I'd ever seen. It was as if the whole floor of the clearing had been covered with a transparent carpet with white and gold patterns.
Suddenly, my intuition flickered and I jumped to the side the same time Natsu did as two black figures zoomed past us at an inhuman speed. I could sense malicious intent from the figures as they darted after us, not seeming to slow in the least in the air. I flipped and moved in mid-air to avoid being hit. Then I froze a part of the river to land on and quickly jumped away from onto the land as the shape rocketed there a second after I jumped, smashing my temporary platform to pieces.
Agility, power and with such a dark intent… Is she doing this? I glanced for a second in Lucy's direction. She stood there, completely emotionless in the clearing. I felt shivers go up my spine as I saw her eyes which were usually bright and happy. Now they looked unseeing and blank and it scared me. A dark, what looked like a black flame crept up her arm, flickering.
"Lucy! What the hell's the matter with you?" I shouted, while avoiding attacks from the figure. Suddenly the figures dropped back and retreated to the other side of the river.
"Gray!" yelled Natsu. I looked over and he was panting but all right. Despite our earlier fight, I was glad for that. His fist was engulfed in flames, as he had used it to defend himself against the figure.
"What's wrong with Lucy?" said Natsu.
"I don't know," I replied honestly. None of this made any sense to me. Suddenly, I sensed something underground and leapt aside as a black, long, huge stake came out of the ground. They suddenly sprouted from everywhere, shooting at us. I dived aside and one caught me off guard, coming out of a tree and cut me on the cheek. I winced slightly and landed on one of the black stakes.
"They're solid," I said more to myself than actually speaking to Natsu.
"I think I figured that out!" said Natsu, rebounding off black stakes and jumping around, trying to avoid being hit, "I'm going to try and get near Lucy."
I nodded and began jumping from stake to stake, trying to get near Lucy.
"At least these stakes are keeping the other dark things away," said Natsu, looking at the figures standing on the opposite bank of the river.
"Yeah," I said, leaping over a stake and landed in front of Lucy, "Oi Lucy, wake up! Are you in a trance or something?"
She stayed silent but thrust out her arm with the black flame in a punch. I narrowly avoided it as the flame switched places to her feet and she kicked out at Natsu.
"Lucy can fight!" said Natsu and despite the situation began laughing, "Who ever knew I'd see the day?" He ducked as she punched and leapt back.
"Are you crazy? Laughing now?" I shouted. I didn't want to hurt Lucy but her combat ability seemed to improve as well as her agility. I only narrowly avoided being hit and every part of my body was itching to fight back but I didn't. I could tell Natsu felt the same as his flame withered out and he just avoided the attacks like me.
Suddenly, dark wisps of something floated around Lucy's hand, slowly taking shape of a sword, replacing the fire which suddenly vanished. Slashing at us with surprising accuracy and aggression, I backed away, not able to do anything else. She didn't let one move get past her and predicted everything I was going to do, already finding ways to counter them. Plus, she was predicting and countering Natsu at the same time too.
Damn! At this rate, I thought and felt air under my foot, "Ah!"
I fell into the river and Natsu fell beside me. Lucy held the sword horizontally so it could slash my and Natsu's throats.
"What's gotten into you?" said Natsu.
Lucy didn't answer; her eyes blank and merciless. She raised the sword.
Suddenly a black glow pierced through my eyes. I blinked and opened my eyes.
"That was dangerous, dangerous…" a figure in front of me straightened up as his magic circle disappeared. He turned to me and Natsu and I immediately recognised his face.
"You!" cried Natsu, beating me, "You… you… what's-your-name…"
"Are you OK?" he asked, not seeming offended.
"Yeah…" I replied, getting up, "Aston."
"That's it!" said Natsu.
All at once, with whatever Aston did, the black stakes, swords and figures melted away into the ground and Lucy blinked once, sudden realisation coming to her features.
"What… just happened?" she asked, confused, "What's Aston doing here?"
"You tried to kill us!" yelled Natsu bluntly.
"What?" said Lucy, not having any idea what he was blabbering about. She touched a hand to her head, "I don't… remember."
"Well, what did you do?" I turned towards Aston, the only person who would know what was going on.
"I'll explain," said Aston after a moment's thought. He looked at all of us, "Listen carefully."
Lucy's POV
As I saw Natsu and Gray, I was confused. Had they wet their pants or something? Why were their pants wet, why was Aston standing there, weren't Gray and Natsu fighting a minute ago and I didn't remember anything at all except the sight of the two of them colliding in a death match. After that, everything went completely blank.
I looked at Aston for an explanation.
"Well firstly, Lucy somehow managed to summon shadows," said Aston, "Which, congratulations by the way, didn't exactly turn out the way you planned."
"Thanks," I said.
"You're welcome. Anyway, because Lucy was so wrapped up in you two trying to kill each other I presume, she didn't have a thought of controlling the shadows. Plus she used up much magic power unknowingly."
"But, were all those things shadows?" asked Gray, "I thought there were just shadows of living things?"
"That's one type," said Aston, "There are three types of shadows. Lucy here managed to use all three at once. The first type is the type you've described. Seisoku Shadows, the shadows of living things, like a person or animal or something like that, the exact copy of the living thing with the same abilities and fighting style, etc. Then there are two other types. The second is the Nai Shadows, the Dead Shadows. These are the shadows of things that are, well, dead, like swords, stakes and the like. The last is the rarest type. The Seibun Shadows, the Elemental Shadows, in which you can literally make water, fire or earth to fight with. For example, if Lucy had landed a blow on either of you with her fire fist, it will burn you like real fire and if she sent the shadow of water and put you in it, you will drown and stuff like that."
"I attacked you two with fire?" I cried, horrified. I mean, sure, it probably wouldn't do much for Natsu since he'd probably eat it but it would for Gray…
"Don't worry about it!" shrugged off Natsu. Gray nodded and looked at Aston, "But, if shadow fire is just like ordinary elemental magic, why is it so rare? You could just, I don't know, shove a lacrima inside yourself and you'd have flames that burn and water that can drown people. So how are shadow elements different?"
"There is a significant difference," said Aston, "If, if the day would ever come, Lucy were to set you on fire," I swallowed, feeling a bit sick at the thought of burning Gray, "the flame would not go out no matter how much water you put on it. The only way to get rid of it is to extinguish the real form of the fire. For example, Lucy couldn't use her fire fist anymore because Natsu put out his fire, the base for the shadow."
"I see," said Natsu, "So if I hadn't put out my fire, Lucy would've really killed us."
I was aware my face was turning pale. Fancy that, when I wished for them to not kill each other, I would be the one who nearly murdered them. I wondered about that fortune Celina gave me. '…Something you've wanted for a while will appear when you least expect it but it is not as great as it seems…'
Celina must have been talking about the shadows. I had wanted the ability to summon them for a while but when I actually got it, it wasn't particularly great as I had thought it to be. Although I stayed positive and was sure if I could tame the shadows and took control next time, it would be good.
"What did you do, Aston?" I asked.
"What do you mean, 'what did you do?'?" asked Aston.
"If I was in some sort of… trance and lost control over the shadows, you must have done something to cancel everything and return me to normal. What was it?"
"A seal," answered Aston, "Things were really starting to look dangerous so I jumped in and made a seal to force the shadows to go back to the Shadow World. And no," he said, cutting me off when I started, "I can't teach you. Everything about shadows, you have to learn yourself."
"What happened today nearly got us all killed!" I said, "It's too dangerous for me to just learn myself and suddenly activate at the wrong time!"
"Precisely why many people have quit learning about shadows," said Aston, "I'm not judging you and saying you are making the right or wrong decision, it's up to you whether you continue or quit. But I can't teach you anything."
I flinched. Of course I never expected learning shadows to be so easy but at the risk of other people's lives? I nearly burnt Gray to death today or stabbed a stake through Natsu. For a second, I considered giving it all up because of those reasons.
"She'll continue doing it," said Gray suddenly. I looked up and saw them both smiling at me.
"Yeah, she will," agreed Natsu.
"You guys—" I said but then my thoughts came back to hit me, "But… it'll be continuously dangerous to be around me. Aston won't always be here to save us."
"Like that's important," shrugged Natsu, "This is what you want to do, right?"
"Well, yeah," I said sheepishly since I had progressed so far and I wasn't the type to just give up everything without finishing it, "But you two—"
"You always put others before yourself, you know," said Gray, "You should get what you want once in a while. It's only fair."
"At the expense of your lives!" I said.
"We won't die so easily," laughed Natsu. I had to smile, that was true. Even if Natsu and Gray were hanging onto their lives by a thread, they would keep on finding other threads to hang onto. They were like immortal, it was scary.
"I suppose…" I said unsure.
"WHOO!" shouted Natsu happily. He turned to Gray, "So about that fight…"
"Don't you start!" I scolded.
"Obviously Lucy won't let us decide that way," said Gray, "So, we'll just have to win her like other people."
"But it's so boring!" whined Natsu.
"What? Are you forfeiting?"
"NO!"
"May the best man win, then," grinned Gray, practically over-flowing with self-confidence.
Natsu grinned, equally as cocky and shook hands with him.
I was about to protest but stopped myself. This was the most rational and safest outcome. There was nothing I could suggest that would be any better.
But… in the meantime… WHO DO I LOVE? I screamed in my head. I couldn't choose both of them! I was sure I loved Gray but lately Natsu…
"Well, we're going," said Natsu and Gray, treating each other like old pals. I shook my head, hardly believing not ten minutes ago, they were set on killing each other, I will never understand male relationships…
When they were both gone, Aston turned around and walked off, "Well, I'm going to leave. See you, Lucy."
"E-Eh? Wait! What?" I looked around, suddenly by myself.
Ah… I cried, anime-style, what do I do now…?