Hey guys! Sorry for the wait, but I finally finished the newest chapter! (Longest one yet!) I tried to include more GrayxAki and KakashixErza moments, but it's actually harder than it looks, and this is my first story, so if you have any tips as to how I could build up their relationships better it would be greatly appreciated!
I also tried to portray how Natsu has two sides to him, the 'joking' side, and the 'serious' side, I don't know how well I did it though, sorry if it just turned out cringy. On a side note, for the pairing, I was thinking maybe NatsuxMavis? I have a bunch of cool ideas on how I could pull it into the story, but I'm not gonna say as of now because it would ruin the surprise!
Anyways, enjoy the chapter
In Magnolia station, Gray and Aki sat on a wooden bench in their regular clothes. Gray wore his white trench coat and green pants with a leather sachel over his shoulder. Aki had her navy blue tailcoat with gold trimmings, and jean short-shorts. Beside them sat a tired looking Lucy, who had plue happily sitting upon her lap. The trio had yet to see anything of Natsu, Kakashi, or even Erza, who had told them to be there that early.
"Man," Aki started. "These guys must be some big news if Erza needs help." She said to Gray. Gray nodded, before closing his eyes and leaning his head back, relaxing.
"Yeah, no kidding." He responded.
Lucy looked over at them in confusion. "Is Erza really that strong?" She asked. She didn't understand how they could be surprised that someone would ask for help for a job.
"Mhm," Gray responded. "She's freakishly powerful, and by far the strongest woman in Fairy Tail."
Lucy's eyes widened. "Strongest woman in Fairy Tail!? Wow! I can't wait to see her fight!" She exclaimed. Must be why Mirajane said this was the strongest team in Fairy Tail. She thought. When I saw Gray and Aki fight, I thought they were super strong, but if Gray's saying that Erza is freakishly powerful, I can't even imagine how strong she must be!
Just as she was thinking that, she began to hear loud, clanking footsteps approaching. She turned her head to the incoming noise, only to be greeted by a ten foot tall stack of luggage, which was almost as long. It was being pulled along by Erza herself, who acted as if it weighed about as much as a feather.
She pulled her cart alongside their bench and stopped, looking down at them. "I see that most of us are already here. Excellent." She said, looking over their group. Suddenly, she stopped on Lucy, making said girl shake nervously at her intense stare.
"Hello there, I think I saw you at the guild yesterday. I'm Erza Scarlet." She said, holding out a armour clad hand.
Lucy tentatively shook her hand. "Y-yeah, hi, I'm Lucy." She said back. "Mirajane asked me to come on this mission, to get more experience."
This seemed to strike some sort of recognition with Erza, who raised an eyebrow. "Oh? You're the one who struck down a powerful spirit with one finger. It'll be great to have someone like you on board!" She responded.
Lucy chuckled nervously. "H-hehe, yeah..."
Then Erza frowned. "Now we just need to wait for Natsu and Kakashi." She said, clearly disappointed with them being late.
A couple minutes later, Kakashi floated right out of the group, standing behind the bench. He waved at them lazily. "Yo." He said.
Erza gained a small tick mark and huffed. "You're late. Where's Natsu?"
"Right here." Said a voice, coming from right beside Aki. A second later, Natsu just appeared out of nowhere, sitting beside her.
They decided not to question it, just accepting that Natsu could do things like that. Of course, Kakashi knew what was going on, but he decided not to say anything. Erza nodded at him. "Good. Now, we can go. I'll explain the specifics while we're on the train.
A FEW MINUTES LATER, ON THE TRAIN
The makeshift team sat in one of the train cabins. On one side sat Natsu, Kakashi, and Erza, on the other side sat Aki, Gray, and Lucy. Of course, Happy and Plue rested on Aki and Lucy's laps respectively.
Aki, who wasn't doing so well, groaned in frustration and pain. "H-how do you not get m-motion sick?"
Natsu shrugged. "I dunno." He responded simply.
But knowing Erza, she had the perfect solution. "Aki, come sit beside me." She said, beckoning Aki.
Gray furiously shook his head. "Nuh-uh. I've seen this before, she's staying here." He said, wrapping his arm around Aki's shoulders protectively.
Erza rubbed her temples in frustration. "Then what do you propose we do?" She asked him, clearly annoyed.
Gray seemed stumped. "Uh... hmm... well-" But before he could fully answer, Aki shut her eyes tight and leaned into Gray, resting her head against his chest and wrapping her arms around him. She curled her legs up on the bench and they heard her sigh contentedly. Gray blushed an even brighter shade of red than Erza's hair. "Th-thanks, G-Gray..." He heard Aki mumble.
After a few seconds he sighed, and returned the hug, holding her close. In a few minutes, Aki was fast asleep, still sleeping and holding on to Gray.
Natsu smirked. "Yep, just friends alright."
Gray shot a nasty look at him, but ultimately decided to drop the matter. He turned to Erza. "So, I think it's about time you filled us in."
Erza nodded. "Ok." She said, before taking a deep breath. "We're going after the dark guild Eisenwald. Their guild master, Erigor the Reaper, is a dark mage who only accepts assassination mission, earning him his moniker. I've heard news that they're currently in Onibus, which is where we're headed."
Lucy gasped. "W-what? Uhm, I think I should go back..."
Kakashi eye smiled at her. "Don't worry about it, Lucy. Erza here is a super powerful S-Class mage." He said, causing Erza to blush.
"Y-yeah," Erza began, still flustered at Kakashi's praise. "Don't w-worry about it. Nothing w-will happen as long as I-I'm here." She said before finally gaining her composure. "And besides, I doubt I'll have to do anything with Natsu and Kakashi here. All modesty aside, I don't hold a candle to either of them."
Lucy's eyes widened in shock, but Gray had no reaction. "WHAT?! JUST HOW STRONG ARE YOU GUYS?!" She yelled.
Kakashi and Natsu shrugged and spoke at the same time. "Fairly strong."
Seeing as how they were too modest to say anything, Erza decided to take this into her own hands. "Put it this way, Lucy. On Natsu's first day at the guild, he beat me with his eyes closed. Kakashi beat our Guild's Ace, who's as strong or stronger than master, using only one kind of magic." She said.
Lucy stared at them in shock. How the hell are they so strong? Kakashi looks the same age as us, and Natsu looks even younger!
Lucy had a lot of questions lined up by now. "If Kakashi beat the guild ace, then shouldn't he be the guild ace? What kind of magic do you two use? Which one of you two is stronger?"
Kakashi shrugged. "I don't really feel like having the title of 'ace'." He said, causing them all to sweat drop. "What kind of magic do I use?..." He continued, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Well, I use quite a few, but my favourite is requip." He said.
"Like Erza?" Lucy asked.
Kakashi tilded his head. "Sort of. Yes, I do use requip like she does, but she uses a kind of requip called Requip: The Knight. This kind of requip allows her to change her armour mid-battle, which gives her certain abilities like increased speed, or flying." He explained.
Lucy nodded. "Okay, but what's yours then?" Erza looked towards him expectantly. "Yes, what kind of requip do you use?" She asked.
Kakashi eye smiled. "I call it Requip: The Magician. I named it after common street magicians you would see back where Natsu and I come from."
Lucy tilted her head. "What do you mean, 'where Natsu and I come from', aren't you from Fiore?" She asked.
Kakashi shook his head. "No, we aren't. Where we're from there's no such thing as magic, so people would do tricks such as slight of hand to fool people, giving the illusion that something abnormal had taken place."
Lucy shrugged, accepting his answer. Erza on the other hand wanted to know more. "So what does it do?" She asked enthusiastically leaning forwards.
Kakashi sweat dropped, scratching the side of his head. "Well... Basically, I place various pieces of paper which I named 'Requip Tags' all over the ground. Doing this allows me to move myself through the requip space instantly to any tag I chose. It's quite handy in battle, most of the time I can clear out whole groups before they even notice me." He explained. If only you were still here, sensei... We could finally have an even battle, eh?
Erza looked stunned. She suddenly burst out, speaking words so fast that nobody could even understand what she was saying."OhmygoshIneverthoughtofusingrequiplikethatholycrapthatsamazing!" Kakashi blinked and nodded, trying to give the appearance that he was actually listening.
Lucy smiled. "That's amazing Kakashi! You came up with that all on your own?"
Kakashi looked out the window, growing silent for a few moments. "O-oh crap... Uh, sorry Kakashi, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories..." Lucy said.
Erza turned sharply towards Lucy and was about to let loose when Kakashi broke out of his silence and spoke. "It's fine, Lucy, I was just thinking for a moment. In regards to your question, yes and no."
"What? What do you mean?" Lucy asked, confused.
"Yes, I did come up with the magic on my own. No, it wasn't all me because I based it off my old sensei's technique." Kakashi explained.
"Well I look forward to seeing it." Erza replied.
AT ONIBUS STATION
The team exited the train, getting out onto the station only to realize that they had forgotten something very important, or rather, someone very important.
"WAIT! WHERE'S GRAY AND AKI?" Yelled Lucy.
Natsu and Kakashi lazily jabbed a thumb at the now leaving train, not even looking. Happy stood on the edge of the tracks. "Aki departed!" He exclaimed.
Erza looked horrified. "I forgot them while I was talking! I am such a fool. One of you, hit me." Erza said.
They all sweat dropped, including little Plue. That's a little much...
ON THE TRAIN
Gray was quite annoyed. Those idiots forgot Aki and I! I swear, when I get my hands on them, I'm gonna-
"Oh? A Fairy Tail wizard and his cute little girlfriend?"
Gray snapped his head up at the voice, coming face to face with a guy who wore white clothing, and had black hair that looked like a pineapple. The guy had a cocky grin, and looked like he was smirking at them.
Suddenly, the guy raised his leg up in an attempt to kick them, but Gray was faster. He stamped his foot on the ground, creating a makeshift pillar of ice underneath the man's foot, throwing him off balance and causing him to fall over.
Gray gently set Aki down on the bench, and got up to face their attacker. Said guy was slowly getting up, dusting off his white coat. "Y'know what you legal guild wizards are to us? Flies. I'm Kageyama of Eisenwa- Why the hell are you taking your clothes off?!"
Gray looked down at himself. True enough, his shirt was off, leaving only his green pants. "Oh. Well, who cares! Now I'm gonna show you what happens when you mess with Fairy Tail!" He yelled, rushing at him. ICE DRAGON'S HAMMER ARM! He called out, forming a cylinder of turquois ice around his fist.
Kageyama raised his arms in a flimsy defense, having no time to use any magic. Gray's attack hit him like a truck, sending him flying back, crashing through multiple cabins and making a loud crashing noise.
Gray would have followed up on his attack, but it just so happened that the loud speakers came on.
*WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE! THE EMERGENCY STOP WAS A FALSE ALARM, WE WILL BEGIN MOVING AGAIN SHORTLY!*
Gray decided against continuing the fight, choosing instead to grab Aki and jump out of the nearest window. He hit the ground with a loud thud, and looked around. A few second later, he saw a car slowly making it's way over to where they were.
The car pulled over beside them, and Erza dropped out of the driver's seat, running over to them.
Gray stood up, still carrying Aki piggyback style. "Oi!" He yelled. "You left us on that train!"
Erza looked down. "I apologize! I'm just glad you're okay." She said, trying to bring Gray into a one arm hug.
But luckily for Gray, Aki woke up right then. Gray turned his head around to talk to her, but not realizing where she was, Aki tried to stand up, pulling them both down backwards.
Aki landed on her back with a thud, and soon after Gray landed directly on top of her, face first. They were centimeters away from each other, staring. Gray could feel his face heating up, as could Aki, and after realizing what had happened, Gray jumped off of her, dusting himself off, before reaching down to help her up.
He turned around, and to his horror, saw a smirking Natsu, and Kakashi with his eyebrow raised. Of course, Erza was completely oblivious as to what had just happened. Gray shook his head, clearly frustrated.
"Let's just go, some weirdo from Eisenwald attacked us on the train." He said.
Erza's eyes widened. "WHAT?! Those are the exact people we're chasing! Why did you let him get away?!" She yelled.
Now Gray was angry. "THE TRAIN WAS ABOUT TO START MOVING! WHAT DID YOU WANT ME TO DO?! JUST LEAVE AKI THERE TO SUFFER!?" He yelled.
Erza blinked. She had never seen Gray act like this. "O-of course n-not... I-It's j-just..."
Kakashi decided now was the time to interject. "As Gray said, let's just go."
OSHIBANA STATION
When they reached Oshibana town, they saw smoke rising from somewhere in the middle of the city. Realizing it was coming from the train station, Erza put the car into overdrive to get there as quick as possible. As they arrived, they saw a huge cluster of people gathered outside the train station. There were several train workers in front of the masses with megaphones, blaring whatever their employers had told them to say.
Erza pulled their car up next to the train station and hopped out. Immediately, she set to work questioning the poor workers, although it was more like interrogating. The group just sighed as Erza began knocking out the workers one by one, should they not meet to standards.
Man, Lucy thought. Just when I thought there was someone normal in the guild... Well, I guess Natsu and Kakashi aren't too bad, but who knows?
Kakashi gripped his forehead, shaking it slowly. He walked over to where Erza was brutally head butting the poor workers. Laying an arm on her shoulder, he pulled her back.
"Erza, Let me handle this one, okay?" He whispered in her ear. Erza nodded begrudgingly, and allowed Kakashi to walk past her.
Kakashi approached the next worker and waved at him, putting the guy at ease from the recent trauma. "Hey there! We're some mages from Fairy Tail, could you please tell us what's going on inside?" He asked.
The man sighed in relief and nodded. "Yeah, sure. A bunch of dark guild creeps came outta nowhere and took over the station! A group of rune knights went in earlier, but we haven't seen 'em since."
Kakashi eye smiled and nodded. "Thank you, we'll be sure to have this dealt with shortly. I'd advise for you and your colleagues to clear the surrounding area."
"Alright, we will, good luck!" The man said.
Kakashi waved as he walked back to the group. "Thanks!" He yelled back at the guy.
Arriving at the group, Kakashi gave them the basic rundown. "A dark guild, Eisenwald I assume, has taken over the station. I told the worker to get everyone out of here, so we don't have to worry about civilians."
The group nodded briefly before all running inside. They walked across the echoing, marble floors until they reached a flight of stairs. The bodies of dead rune knights littered the cold steps like confetti, causing the group to freeze in shock, save Natsu and Kakashi.
The duo walked up the stairs non-chalantly for a few seconds before realizing that the rest of the group wasn't following them. Kakashi turned around, clearly confused. "Coming?" He shouted at the them.
The group remained silent for a few moments, taking in the fact that there were corpses just twenty feet away from them. Eventually, Lucy broke out. "TH-THEY'RE DEAD!" She yelled, pointing at the dead warriors, eyes wide.
Natsu turned a lazy eye towards one of the dead bodies, inspecting it for a few moments before looking back at the rest of the team. "Yeah, I can tell. Now, are we going to go fight these dark mages or not?"
The rest of the rag-tag team blinked, surprised. Are they just oblivious? Erza thought. And as if Aki could read her mind, she continued. Or do they just not care?...
Realizing that Natsu and Kakashi were just going to leave without them, they quickly caught up, meticulously avoiding the corpses.
The team arrived in the main hall of the train station. It was looked at least ten times bigger than normal being so empty. The tiled floor pattern continued into the room, before stopping at the plain white walls. Pillars surrounded the room, coming out a few meters from the walls holding up a balcony. There was a run down train on the tracks, but in front of that was the entirety of the dark guild Eisenwald.
"Welcome to the fun house, Fairy Tail flies!" They heard a voice shout from behind the group. Suddenly, they saw a man with spiky white hair and ragged skirt fly out from behind the dark guild, hovering a few meters above them. He had a malicious sneer upon his face, but what completed the whole look was the nasty looking scythe he carried.
Natsu raised an eyebrow at the guy. He noticed how the guy was floating. Just like him. He noticed how he had a scythe, albeit not as cool, but still. Just like him. And finally he noticed his hair. Just like Kakashi.
"Hey!" He yelled, causing the attention of the entire room to shift onto him. "Are you trying to copy Kakashi and I or something? I mean you've got the whole flying thing down, but that scythe needs some improvement. And I mean COME ON! You call that Kakashi's hair? Were you even trying?!" He yelled, completely breaking the atmosphere, and causing everyone to face fault.
Erigor swiped his scythe furiously and snarled. "You think I'm trying to copy you? Some weak Fairy flies? Why would I do that, when I'm already ten times more powerful!" He yelled. Suddenly, he produced the Lullaby flute from... somewhere? He brandished the flute above his head and grinned. "With this, I'll finally make them all pay! All the foolish people who live on as others have their rights stolen away shall be punished for their insolence! And who better to do just that than Erigor the Reaper! Who knows? Maybe if I play it loud enough the whole city will hear!" He shouted at them, howling with laughter.
Suddenly, Natsu had a revelation. Well, two to be honest. "Wait a minute! If you play the flute, won't you hear it too? And what if people wear ear plugs? Wait! that solves the earlier proble-"
"SILENCE!" Yelled Erigor, now furious. "I leave this to you... Show them the terror of the dark guild Eisenwald!" He yelled, before disappearing in a gust of wind.
Erza grimaced. "Gray! Aki! Go take down Erigor!" She yelled.
"AYE!" They both yelled, running off. Out of the corner of her eye, Erza saw two Eisenwald mages run off after them. But she'd have to leave that up to Gray and Aki to deal with.
This seemed to give the Eisenwald members quite the confidence boost.
"Only leaving four mages here? Too easy!"
"You underestimating us, Fairy flies?"
"We'll show you power of Eisenwald!"
Before anyone else could speak, Erza leapt into battle brandishing a plain looking sword. She released a mighty swing, taking out at least ten of the unlucky Eisenwald members. Suddenly, she leaped yet again, this time requipping a spear. She swung in a wide arc, disabling a chunk of the dark mages.
"Who the hell is she? I've never seen someone able to requip as fast as her!"
"No way... It couldn't be..."
"I-IT'S TH-THE TITANIA!"
Erza smirked as she heard her moniker. Leaping back to her team she requipped her spear into twin short swords and got into a ready stance. Damn, she thought. There's still so many of them... I'll just take these psychos out in one shot.
Erza put away her weapons, confusing many of the Eisenwald members. She spread her arms out and was about to change into the Heaven's Wheel armour when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking back, she saw Kakashi's bright eye smile.
"Don't worry about this one," He said. "Natsu and I can handle it. You used too much magic on that car." Erza took a deep breath and nodded, stepping behind them to stand beside Lucy.
"Shouldn't we be helping them at all? I mean, there are a lot of them." Asked Lucy.
Erza shook her head, confusing Lucy. "We don't need to. Just watch." She said, crossing her arms and relaxing. Lucy just shrugged and decided she would listen to her.
Kakashi walked forwards while Natsu floated in a sitting position.
(How Hagoromo sits when Naruto meets him in his mindscape)
Getting ready, Kakashi requipped a tanto that gleamed a brilliant white. He readied the blade in front of himself, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. He opened his eyes to reveal one normal sharingan, but the other had green tomoe and black sclera. He waved his tanto in front of him wildly, much to the confusion of the Eisenwald members, who were expecting some sort of attack.
Suddenly, he stopped his sword movements and requipped it away. Staring at the space in front of him with his green eye, he spoke in a clear voice. DARK ECRITURE: RAIN REQUIP TAGS When he said the words, purple, runic looking writing appeared in front of him. Requip tags started appearing in the space above the Eisenwald mages, floating down to land around their feet.
One particular fellow decided to pick up one of the strange objects, inspecting it closely. After a few seconds, he shouted to the rest of his guild.
"GUYS! I THINK THIS WAS SOME SORT OF DUMB BLUFF, THESE THINGS DON'T EVEN-"
But he couldn't finish his sentence, because before he could, Kakashi disappeared from his position, leaving a requip tag fluttering where he just was. Looking to the mage who spoke, everyone in the room gasped, minus Natsu, who had seen this plenty of times. The poor guy who was holding the tag was shot backwards at insane speeds, crashing into the back wall with a resounding crack and falling unconscious.
All they could see was a flash of silver.
And just like that Kakashi was back to where he was previously, holding the requip tag he had left behind. The whole room went silent, even Erza and Lucy who had this explained to them before hand.
Natsu sighed. "Let's just get this done with, Kakashi."
Kakashi nodded. "Let's go." He said, disappearing in a flash of silver.
Erza and Lucy watched in amazement as the Eisenwald mages dropped like flies from what seemed like an invisible enemy. Kakashi was just that fast! I can only imagine what he would be capable of should he incorporate his dragon slayer magic or crash magic into this. The results would be devastating to any foe.
Natsu raised and arm, holding it out in front of him towards the now terrified Eisenwald wizards. I mean who wouldn't be scared? Your entire guild being taken out by someone who's so fast you can't even see him. Pretty spooky stuff!
SAND HEADHUNTERS! Natsu yelled. Sand flowed out of his gourd en masse, only to go straight into the ground behind him. A few seconds later, a hand made of sand came out of the ground next to every single Eisenwald mage, pulling them into the ground up to their necks.
Lucy watched in awe how a seemingly impossible amount of sand poured out of the gourd, and later came right back in. Erza didn't really react due to the fact that she had seen it before. Natsu turned back around and floated back to the group with a deadpan, expressionless face, as if nothing had happened.
A second later, Kakashi flashed into existence right beside Erza, making her jump in surprise with a cute little scream of "Kyaa!".
Natsu sweat dropped at the scene, while Lucy's jaw dropped in shock at Erza acting so feminine. All she had seen up to this point was Erza taking control of the guild, and scaring Aki and Gray. She never imagined Erza like this in her short time of knowing the scarlet knight.
Although during the time on the train, she did get a few clues to Erza's crush on Kakashi. The blush and flustering at Kakashi's complement were at least some sort of indicator.
"Well, I believe it's time we get a move on. Why don't we go see how Gray and Aki are doing?" Kakashi said.
Erza nodded, glad to escape the embarrassing situation. "Indeed. Let's go." She said, marching out of the room towards the main exit.
TEN MINUTES EARLIER, WITH GRAY AND AKI
Gray and Aki ran along the narrow hallways of the train station side by side. Their coats fluttered behind them as they ran, looking for the lone scythe wielder.
"Where the hell could he have gone!?" Yelled Gray.
"I don't know! Maybe outside!?" Aki shouted back.
The pair kept running down the corridor until they reached split. One way lead outside, while the other led to the communications booth. They stopped abrubtly at the fork, taking a brief moment to decide what to do.
"Should we split up?" Gray asked. "He could have gone outside, but he also could have gone to the communications room if he wants to play the damn thing through the loud speakers."
"A-actually, I'd r-rather stick t-together." Said, Aki, blushing furiously. Good going, Aki! She though to herself. Now you sound like a total wimp!
Gray broke her out of her thoughts. "Yeah, that sounds good. Why don't we check the communications first, then head outside?"
Aki nodded. "Yeah, sure." She replied.
The duo ran off down the left hallway, not even noticing the abnormal shadow growing on the ceiling above them. The dark spot kept growing until it eventually covered the entire ceiling, blocking the normal white paint.
"Hey Gray..." Aki called out, getting Gray's attention.
"Yeah?"
"Look up."
Gray did just that and came to a screeching halt when he saw the pitch black ceiling above them. He looked at it, clearly confused.
"The hell?! Wasn't the ceili-" Gray tried to say, but was cut off.
"I'VE GOT YOU NOW, FAIRY FLIES!" Yelled Kageyama as he burst out of the black ceiling and landed in front of them. SHADOW KNUCKLE!
Several translucent black fists rose out of the magic circle that appeared at Kageyama's feet. They twisted and spiraled around each other, making their way towards the two dragon slayers. Gray, who was ahead of Aki by a considerable distance, took the attack point blank, having no time to dodge. He was shot back at least twenty feet and landed right next to Aki, who already have her fists lit up with red flames.
Gray rose up shakily, dusting himself off and coming to a standing position next to Aki. She looked at him with concerned eyes.
"Are you okay?" She asked.
Gray nodded, breathing heavily. "Y-yeah, I'll be fine."
Kageyama smirked at them as another member of Eisenwald ran up beside him, also sporting the cocky grin. "You sure about that, fly?" He said, snickering alongside his fellow dark mage.
But Kageyama decided to take things a step further, hoping to get a better reaction out of the pair, specifically Gray. Unfortunately for him, it would be the mistake of a lifetime.
"Hey, hey, tell ya what, if you give us your pretty little girlfriend over there, we'll let'cha go. I'm sure she'll make an excellent maid for the guild, eh? Maybe more?" Kageyama taunted, sporting a crazed and lustful grin.
As soon as he finished, the temperature in the room dropped by at least fifty degrees. The very shadows themselves began to freeze over, beginning to look like frozen oil. It became so cold that Aki's flames actually dimmed a little bit, unable to stay at full strength due to the freeze. Aki looked beside her at Gray, and was honestly a little scared of what she saw.
He was breathing heavily, looking down at the ground beneath his feet with his long, dark bangs overshadowing his eyes. His fists were clenched, and he was trembling with rage. He began to let out so much magical pressure that the floor beneath him began to crack, and simultaneously freeze.
The two poor Eisenwald members could only shake in fear at what they had unleashed. Kageyama began to backpedal reaaaal fuckin quick. "H-hey man, w-we were ju-just kiddin, y'know?"
Suddenly, Gray's head shot up, and he stared at them with rage filled eyes. He then held one arm in front of him as a magic circle appeared. ICE DRAGON'S BURIAL! He yelled.
The arm in front of him promptly turned into an spear-like icicle, extending forwards at breakneck speeds towards the two dark mages. They tried running, but it was to no avail. The icicle spear pierced them both like a needle, going right through both of their stomachs and completely immobilizing them.
"AGHHGHGHGHHG!" They both screamed in agony. "PLEASE! WE WERE JUST JOKING! PLEASE LET US LIVE!" Kageyama yelled.
Aki turned to Gray to see his reaction, and her eyes widened. Gray was smirking. Okay, just what the hell is he doing? Is it all because they threatened to take me? Aki wondered.
A second later, the poor dark mages began to scream even louder, causing Aki to look back up at them. The reason for this is that they were now freezing into ice from the point of contact outwards.
The ice spread across their bodies like water, freezing every last cell. Aki stared at the two in shock. What the hell is this? I didn't even know Gray was capable of something like it! Did he come up with this on his own?
Almost as soon as the freeze started it was over. The dark mages had been turned completely into ice, still with their horrified expressions. Gray retracted his icicle arm, leaving a huge hole in both their now ice bodies.
As soon as he did this however, he collapsed, unconscious before he even hit the ground. Aki rushed over to his downed form, picking him up and putting him on her back piggyback style. His head limply fell on her shoulder, and his legs dragged uselessly along behind them as Aki ran down the hallway towards the exit.
I can't believe Gray just killed those two. Even he was shocked to see the dead rune knights at the stairs, so why did he just start killing all of a sudden? She thought. Although it does feel nice that he would go so far to protect me. After all, I would do the same for him.
OUTSIDE
Aki got outside only to find the rest of the team waiting for her and Gray to return. She ran up to them and knelt down, leaning Gray against her.
"What the hell happened to him?" Asked Erza. The others also looked at Aki, wanting to know the same thing.
Aki shook her head furiously. "IT DOESN'T MATTER RIGHT NOW! NATSU CAN YOU HEAL HIM?!" She shouted, shocking them.
Natsu nodded. "Yeah, sure. It seems like he used up most of his magic power all at once. Must of been one hell of a spell he used."
He floated over to where the pair sat, and hovered down to their level. He extended a palm out to Gray's stomach and closed his eyes. A yellow glow grew from his palm for a second before suddenly disappearing.
Gray's eyes snapped open and he sat up out of Aki's embrace. He rubbed his eye, as if waking up from a good night's sleep. "Ugh... hey guys... did ya find Erigor?" He said sleepily.
Natsu tilted his head, giving a contemplative look. "Well... yes and no. Yes, we did find him, but he disappeared, leaving behind this strange wind barrier to trap us in here."
Gray was about to respond, but Kakashi cut him off. "But don't worry about it, we have a plan." He said, holding out his hand towards Lucy.
He then requipped two golden keys into his open palm. Lucy gasped. "WHOAH! Two golden zodiac keys?! Where did you get those?" She asked.
Kakashi shrugged. "We found them while we were away. Take them, Natsu and I have no use for celestial keys."
Lucy took the keys and inspected him closely, jumping with joy at two new keys in her arsenal. A few seconds later though, she looked up at them. "Uhm... I don't mean to be rude, but why did you give those to me now of all times?"
"The one named Virgo can create tunnels. She can create a tunnel to get us out of this barrier." Natsu explained.
Lucy nodded, holding out the key in front of her. OPEN, GATE OF THE MAIDEN! VIRGO!
At the sound of a bell, a pink haired girl appeared out nowhere wearing a maid uniform. Lucy immediately took action.
"Virgo! There's no time for a contract right now! Can you dig us a tunnel to get out of here?"
Virgo nodded. "Yes, princess!"
As soon as she said it, she disappeared into the ground leaving a wide tunnel behind her. The team quickly followed her. They soon arrived on the other side of the tunnel, coming up on the other side of the barrier.
"Now then," Kakashi said.
"Let's go reap the reaper." Natsu finished.