Natsu and Mavis' victory was short lived, for only seconds after Natsu successfully dispatched Black Steel Gajeel, the gigantic building known as Phantom Lord's guild hall began to move. Again. The four outer towers fell away, the main building split into three and folded backwards. It was truly quite the spectacle to behold. Maybe not for the people inside, getting shook around, but for Natsu and Mavis it was quite something. At the end of the strange transformation, the guild took on the shape of a massive humanoid robot.
It's head was shaped like the helmet of a knight of old, and glowing red eyes pierced through the darkness of the visor. The main chassis of the creature was formed by what was the main part of the building, and the many windows gave the robot's chest a kind of car grill type look. What were the outer towers became the arms and legs, and from within came two spheres with three cylinders each that became the hands.
The arms began to move. From their resting position, they began to shift so that both hands were side by side at the robot's head level. From there, one hand started moving in a clockwise direction, while the other moved in a counter-clockwise direction. They would meet again at the bottom of the presumable circle.
But that wasn't what shocked them the most. It was the fact that the two hands were leaving behind a trail of magical runes and lines. The construction of a magical circle. Mavis gasped. "What kind of spell would a gigantic robot be able to cast?!" She exclaimed.
Natsu shrugged. "I don't know, Mavis. But I don't think it's going to be of assistance to us." He commented.
Mavis deadpanned. "Wow. Who would of suspected." She replied in a deadpan.
Suddenly, they heard a sharp gasp from behind them. "No way... that's the Abyss Break spell!"
Natsu and Mavis turned. They saw Mirajane standing behind them with one hand over her mouth and a worried expression on her face. "So what does it do?" Natsu and Mavis asked simultaneously.
Mirajane sweat dropped. You'd think that people as powerful as them would know these things... She mused. "It's a powerful spell that unleashes a devastating blast, completely obliterating anything it's pointed at!" Mirajane explained. "It utilizes fire, water, earth, and wind to function, combining them all to create the effect."
Mavis went over what she just learned. Fire, water, earth, and wind... what does that remind me of... She began to rack her brain thinking of what she had been on to. Somehow, Natsu said it without her revealing a thing. "The Elemental Four is what you're thinking of." He said.
Mavis looked shocked. "What?! How'd you do that?" She questioned him.
Natsu smirked. "Magic, I suppose. No?" He answered. A few seconds of silence later he spoke again. "I honestly have no idea." He said, completely deadpan.
Mavis sighed. "Whatever, just go tell Kakashi. Him and the rest should be able to take care of it." She told him.
Natsu nodded. "Right." He responded, and warped away in a spiralling circle of space. Things were silent between the two remaining mages for only a few moments.
"So... are you two dating yet?" Mirajane asked with a cheeky smile.
Mavis smiled and waved her off. "Oh, don't be silly. We're just friends." She replied, giggling.
Mirajane raised an eyebrow in skepticism. She sighed. "If you say so."
WITH KAKASHI
Inside the main guild hall of Phantom Lord, things were going well for Kakashi and the rest of Fairy Tail. Much like what had happened at the fight in Oak Town, Fairy Tail's wizards were far more powerful than those of Phantom Lord, and were able to overcome them quickly without Gajeel there.
Kakashi was just getting ready to deal with three more Phantom Lord mages when Natsu suddenly appeared behind them and took them all out with one swipe of his reaper. Natsu nodded at him as a greeting. Kakashi nodded back at him. "What's up?" He asked.
"Whatever the hell kind of robot thing this is started writing a magical circle for some kind of spell called Abyss Break. Long story short, unless you defeat all four of the elemental four before the spell gets casted, all of Magnolia is gonna look like Konoha after Pain's assault." Natsu explained as fast as he could. He knew about Pain from Hagoromo and other books he's read.
Kakashi nodded. "Right. I'll get to it, but you'd better explain this to me after." He responded.
Natsu waved him off as he phased into the ground. "Yeah, yeah, I will."
Kakashi rejoined the other members of Fairy Tail in their assault on Phantom Lord. Led by Erza, Aki, and Gray, they were cutting a path straight through the enemy mages with little to no effort. They were searching for the command center, where Erza knew they would find Jose.
Erza was not quite sure, yet fairly confident in their ability to take on Jose if it came down to it. She figured none of them would be able to take Jose on in a one versus one scenario, except for Kakashi. So by that logic, if Kakashi fought Jose with the might of his guild behind him, it would be an easier victory.
She also wanted to test the power of the blade that Natsu gave her all those years ago. It had proven a valuable asset to her in her various jobs over the years, and was her most powerful blade. But never had she been able to test it against the power of one whose magic was at the level of a wizard saint.
She named it the Nejireta Shinchu, or Twisted Brass. Erza knew it was not the most flattering of names. Not the kind of name that would make enemies fear it, yet she found it the most fitting. Besides, she would give people a reason to fear the name Nejireta Shinchu. When she paired it with the dragonscale coat that Natsu also gave her, the pair became her favourite and most powerful set to use. Not only was the coat her two favourite colours, royal blue and scarlet red, the protection value the material gave it was unmatched. It was like wearing the strongest chain mail on the planet.
Kakashi grabbed their attention. "Guys! Listen up!" He shouted, stepping in front of the rampaging group of mages. They stopped.
"What is it?" Erza responded. She switched back to her Heart Kruez armour and waited.
Kakashi cleared his throat. "I've received word from Natsu. Apparently that rumbling we felt earlier was actually this entire guild hall morphing into something that can cast a spell on a gigantic scale." He explained.
The Fairy Tail mages responded with a collective. "WHAT?!"
Aki and Gray grimaced. "So what's the catch then?" Gray said. "Yeah, what kinda spell is this thing going to cast?" Aki added.
"Some sort of spell called Abyss Break." Kakashi responded. "I don't know what it does, but Natsu said it's really bad." Kakashi envisioned the scene of Konoha as an enormous pile of rubble. He shuddered.
Erza's eyes widened. "WHAT!? ABYSS BREAK?! THAT WOULD DESTROY ALL OF MAGNOLIA!" She exclaimed.
Aki grit her teeth. "Right. So how do we stop this thing?" She inquired.
Kakashi smirked. "Lucky for us, Natsu figured that out too. According to him, and I'm assuming Mavis, if we defeat all four members of the Elemental Four, it should deactivate the spell." He explained.
Gray grinned and slammed one fist into his open palm. "Awesome. So all we gotta do is defeat some Phantom Lord freaks?" He asked. Kakashi nodded. Gray continued. "Dibs on takin' out that weird water mage. My ice magic will work perfectly against it." He explained.
Aki set her hands on her hips. "I'll go too then." Aki said. "Gray and I are the best team!" She exclaimed with a smile. She looked beside her at Happy. "Happy too of course." She added on.
Gray smiled and nodded. "Then let's get going! We haven't got a second to spare!" He said and began running off. Aki quickly followed behind him, Happy not too far behind.
Erza raised her hand. "I'll take care of Totomaru of the flame element. Nejireta Shinchu's fire should be able to overcome his. If not, I still have my fire empress armour." She explained.
Kakashi shrugged. "Go for it. I can deal with Aria then I guess." He declared. "That just leaves Sol then. Anyone wanna have a go at him?" Kakashi asked the group.
Elfman raised his fist. "I will fight him! I shall test my manliness against his! MAN!" Elfman roared.
Kakashi sweat dropped. "Right... you do that, then..." He responded. He looked back at the Lucy, Cana, and the rest. "You guys just keep holding off the common rabble. Even though they outnumber you, your superior strength will come out on top." He told them.
In response, the large group of Fairy Tail mages roared with approval and raised their fists in a cheer.
"We can do it!" Yelled Cana. Lucy shouted, "Yeah!" in agreement.
"Let's show these Phantom punks just who they're dealing with!" Exclaimed Macao. Wakaba smirked. "You bet."
Kakashi grinned at the scene before discretely slipping away into the floor. Erza requipped into her dragonscale armour and bolted off. Elfman ran in the opposite direction.
Suddenly, a portion of the wall gave way in a plume of smoke, revealing rows and rows of Phantom Lord mages, grinning and leering at the group of Fairy Tail mages. Cana stepped forward, cards in hand. "LET'S GET 'EM!" She shouted as loud as she could.
They charged.
WITH AKI, GRAY, AND HAPPY
The trio found their desired opponent upon the roof of the great being. Strangely, despite it being nice weather just moments before, clouds quickly surrounded them, and soon enough droplets of water began to fall from the sky. Gray held out his hand and watched them splash lightly against his open palm.
"Weird. It's raining now." Gray said, looking up at the sky with a confused expression.
"Yeah," Aki agreed, tapping her black sneakers against the pooling water on the tiles of the roof. "It was sunny just a second ago... I wonder what happened?" She questioned.
"That would be because of Juvia, the rain woman." A new voice announced from across the rampart.
The voice came from a blue haired girl, wearing a black, Russian styled coat with a fur collar and cuffs. On her feet were tall, leather boots that went up past her knees, and upon her head was a hat that matched the style and colour scheme of the coat. Her long, azure coloured hair fell past her shoulders and had a wavy, non-stylized look. Her face was unemotional, and her eyes held a pink umbrella, stylized with hearts of a darker shade of pink.
"Juvia of the deep sea is the rain woman, what type of woman are you, pray tell?" She asked Aki in a cryptic manner.
Aki blanched and scratched her head. "Uhh... what?..." She replied in utter confusion.
Happy gave a cheery smile and waved. "Aye! Aki is confused again!" He exclaimed joyously.
Aki grew a tick mark and waved her fist at him. "EH! WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN!" She shouted at him. Juvia and Gray sweat dropped at their strange antics.
Gray took on a serious look, which was seriously hampered by his taking off of his shirt at the same time. Juvia blushed. Just what the hell is he doing? She wondered.
"Aki and I are going to take you down! You're not gonna win this war, you Phantom Lord creep!" Gray proudly stated. Aki readied herself and nodded. "That's right!" She agreed.
Juvia sighed and extended her hand. "It matters not... Juvia will defeat you and complete her mission." She declared. "Water Lock!"
The pools of water around their feet extended up from the ground and began to form a ball around the two dragon slayers. After a few seconds of squirming around, they both realized that the ball would move with them as to keep them ensnared in it's grasp.
Gray closed his eyes and focused, extending both his arms to either side of his body. The water around him quickly froze completely and fell to the ground, shattering and leaving Gray perfectly fine. He turned to the side, where he saw Aki literally on fire. The ball of crimson fire in the middle of the aqueous sphere quickly evapourated the water, and left Aki standing in a gigantic cloud of steam. Of course, since she was a dragon slayer the high temperatures didn't affect her in the slightest.
Gray grinned. "You're fighting a losing battle, you Phantom Lord bastard, both of our magics counter yours!" He shouted triumphantly. Aki held up a flaming fist and smirked to show her agreement.
Juvia scowled and once again raised her hand towards them. "Water Slicer!" She yelled. The rain drops from the sky began to form themselves into thin crescent shaped blades of water. Said blades promptly began flying at the Fairy Tail mages at high speeds.
Gray and Aki danced from side to side, dodging the blades and evapourating or freezing the ones that they couldn't. One of the thin lines of water that Aki dodged cut straight through solid steel, which the pair couldn't help but stare at in amazement.
Juvia smirked. "High pressured blades of water, able to cut through even steel." She boasted.
Aki grinned and charged, both hands smothered in crimson red fire. "Hmph! Doesn't matter if they never touch me!" She exclaimed while running towards Juvia. Gray followed directly behind her. He had an idea of what Aki was planning to do. After all, they had done it countless times in the past.
Juvia snarled at her and raised her dainty little pink umbrella and pointed it at her. "Tsunami!" She roared with a furious expression on her face.
All the water from the ground and in the air came together behind the water mage to form one gigantic wave, truly befitting of the title "Tsunami". It was over twenty five feet tall and spanned the entire roof area.
But much to Juvia's shock, Aki was smirking and she maintained her running pace. "Gray." She said.
Suddenly, Gray leapt up from behind her, arms spread apart. "Ice Dragon's Cold Wave!" He called out, and immediately after an invisible wave of freezing air released from his body. It traveled forwards faster than the wave, and reached it before it could hit Aki.
The wave completely froze over. Solid. It just became a block of ice on the spot. But Gray wasn't done. Pointing his palm to where Aki was headed, a small portion of the frozen wave shattered to leave room for Aki to run through, which she took full advantage of.
Juvia stared at it, shocked. "What!? That's impossible!" She exclaimed.
Gray smirked. "Don't underestimate us dragonslayers. We have more control over our elements than any normal mage could." He explained.
Aki roared and unleashed a fiery punch at Juvia. "FIRE DRAGON'S IRON FIST!" The blow went straight through her, leaving Aki with half her body inside Juvia's. She stared at the blue haired woman, shocked. "What the hell?!" She exclaimed. It felt like she was in water.
Juvia smirked and turned to her. "Juvia's entire body is made of water. Nothing you do can even touch me." She boasted.
Aki returned the smirk, much to Juvia's confusion. "What's so funny you little Fairy Tail weakling?!" She snarled at Aki.
Aki lit her body aflame. "Oh, nothing. It's just that since your body is made of water, it'll also have the basic chemical properties of water!" She said cheerfully.
Juvia began to sweat. She began to feel... lighter, almost. Like she was more fragile, and could be blown away by a small gust of wind. She grit her teeth. "What the hell does that mean?" She growled.
Aki smirked yet again. "It means you can be boiled into steam. Heh." She finished with a small snort of laughter.
Juvia's eyes widened in horror. No! She thought as she looked down. True enough, her body was beginning to become see through and wavy, like a projection almost. How intense must those flames be for her to do this so quickly?! And then it began to rise. She flapped her arms around desperately, but it didn't do anything. She just kept floating up, up and away. "AHHHHHH! HELPPPPPP!" She wailed.
Aki turned and looked at Gray. "Your turn." She told him. Gray nodded and placed both his palms on the ground. "Ice Dragon's Rising Predator!" He shouted.
The ground beneath Juvia's floating body began to shake. She stared below her in disbelief at what was going on. A huge shark head composed of ice was rising out of the ground, as if a real shark was jumping out of the ocean. It had razor sharp fangs made completely of ice, and it's wide maw was wide open. All she could do was stare as the beast came closer to chomping down on her. Dragon slayers... She mused. They're insane...
The shark closed it's jaws around her with a resounding *SNAP!*. And as soon as it did, it just stopped. Juvia was completely frozen within the maw of this gigantic ice shark, like an incredibly intricate frozen sculpture atop the roof of Phantom Lord's guild hall.
Aki let out a sigh and sat down, cross legged. Gray walked over and sat beside her in the same pose. They both looked at the shark. "No matter how many times I see that spell, it's just as cool as the first time." She said with a grin, and looked at him.
Gray blushed and rubbed the back of his head. "Haha yeah... thanks."
WITH ERZA
Erza encountered her desired enemy in the destroyed remnants of the Jupiter Cannon. He was just sitting there, looking over the ocean peacefully. He looked calm as ever. His dual coloured hair was waving softly from the breeze that was pouring through the open chunk of wall where the Jupiter Cannon. His sword layed beside him.
Erza walked behind him and declared her presence. "Totomaru of the Great Flame, I, Erza Scarlet of Fairy Tail am here to defeat you." She said clearly.
The man sighed, and casually got up. He brushed off his pants and coat, and picked up his sword. He stared at her with a blank expression. "I see. May I ask, who was it that destroyed the cannon with some sort of explosive dragon?" He asked.
Erza smiled. "That was-" An explosion shook the building. "The same guy who's doing that." She said, pointing at the ceiling. "An explosives expert that one of our members managed to summon." She explained. She frowned. "Why do you ask?"
Totomaru sighed. "After witnessing that first hand-" He remembered with a shudder the white clay dragon flying straight down the barrel of the Jupiter Cannon towards him. If not for his ability to control fire, he would've been burnt to a crisp. "I know we have no chance of victory, unless we manage to cast Abyss Break." He admitted.
He drew his sword and pointed it at her. He lit his other hand aflame, and stared her in the eyes. "Which is why I must defeat you here, for the sake of Phantom Lord!" He declared proudly.
Erza raised her sword in turn, and pointed it at him. "I respect your loyalty to your guild, but unfortunately I have to win this fight, for the sake of Fairy Tail!" Erza retorted.
The two sword users charged each other. They met in the middle ground with the distinct sound of metal clashing. For many seconds after, all that could be seen was Totomaru's signature katana clashing with Erza's signature greatsword. The pure swordsmanship displayed by the two of them was truly remarkable. A battle between two masters of the blade.
They danced around each other, jumping and dodging strikes that they couldn't block or parry. Sparks flew every which way. Before long, both mages were panting from exhaustion. Neither had landed a strike on the other.
But that fact was quickly rectified when Erza managed to catch the tip of Totomaru's sword in one of the gaps of Nejireta Shinchu's broad blade. She flicked his katana out of the ensnarement of her greatsword towards his face, making the flat of it smack against his forehead, dazing him temporarily.
She smirked at her opening and took full advantage. Raising her sword, she unleashed a devastating diagonal slash from his left shoulder to right hip. It left him with a massive gash across his torso, and sent him soaring backwards. He landed with an audible *THUNK* and groaned in pain.
Erza didn't let up in her attack. She charged forwards with her blade in tow, and let out a loud battle cry. Totomaru's eyes widened at her quick follow up. He quickly stood up and readied himself, with his sword once again in front of him. He was barely in time to parry Erza's first strike, only just managing to redirect the blow at the last second. He was under pressure.
Erza continued to rain down slashes and stabs from all directions, and Totomaru was nowhere close to escaping the pressure. He was becoming more and more defensive, and couldn't find an opportunity to escape and reset the playing field. He was being forced to back up to give him more time to react to Erza's sword. He grit his and teeth and grimaced as he kept giving up more and more ground. Erza's grin only widened.
But then something happened that neither of them expected. To their right, a section of the ceiling just straight up exploded, allowing a big plume of ash gray smoke to pour in and obscure their vision of what had dropped in from the spot on the ceiling. Both mages swiftly jumped away from each other, not wanting to risk maintaining the fight while the other could potentially receive backup in mere seconds.
When the smoke cleared, Totomaru paled. Erza grinned with delight. What the smoke revealed was Kakashi, standing over the knocked out form of Aria. He had both hands in his pockets and a laid back posture. He was eye smiling. He took one hand out of his pocket and waved at Erza. "Yo!" He greeted her.
Erza smiled and put a strand of her hair behind her ear. She waved back. "Hey!" She responded.
Totomaru scowled and jumped back even further. His mind was going at a hundred miles per minute. Damnit. If that guy was able to defeat Aria I need to go full out from here. I need to use the rainbow fire on my katana, and probably also-
"Too late." He heard a voice directly behind him.
He turned around in complete shock, to see Kakashi standing behind him. "H-how?!" He stuttered in surprise.
Kakashi just smirked. Without any warning whatsoever, he hit Totomaru with a crash magic laced punch. Said fire mage's eyes widened at the raw strength behind the blow. Only one thought went through his mind before he lost consciousness. I never had a chance...
Totomaru was sent flying at the wall at supersonic speeds, making a crater where he impacted it. He slid down the wall, knocked out cold.
Kakashi shunshin'd back to where Erza was standing. She had requipped back into her regular Heart Kruez armour, and had her arms crossed with a bemused smile on her face. "You're too strong for your own good, Kakashi." She told him with a laugh.
Kakashi scratched the back of his head and eye smiled. "Maybe I am." He responded, also laughing.
TWENTY MINUTES LATER
Kakashi and Erza had regrouped with Elfman, Aki, Gray, and Happy, and the team was now heading to the head of the mechanical beast, where they assumed Jose would be.
And after only a few minutes of searching, they assumption was proven correct. They found Jose leaning on one palm upon his throne-like chair. His smirk was wide as ever, and his hat covered his eyes ominously. As they approached, he leaned forward and began to clap sarcastically.
"My, my, well done. I never imagined you would be able to take out my Elemental Four so quickly." He leaned back in his chair, putting a single hand on his forehead and sighing to accentuate his disappointment. "What a shame." He said, lifting his head slightly and showing a malevolent glint in his eye.
He stood up. Dark purple magical energy began to flow around him like a great fire. Erza's eyes widened. What a sickening magic aura! The amount of animosity and evil eminating from it almost makes me sick! She thought in disgust.
Kakashi watched him carefully. This guy is way stronger than the rest of his guild. I'm going to have to be careful around this one. Kakashi went over his options in his head. I doubt I'll have to resort to anything above my skeletal susano'o, but I don't think I can afford to hold back against him. Even if he dies in the end. Kakashi thought grimly.
Jose sneered. "Just the fact that Makarov has this many powerful wizards in his band of misfits... IT SICKENS ME!" He finished with a scream. "Phantom Lord has always been the number one guild, and it will stay that way." He added.
She raised a hand at them. Dark purple magical energy began to swirl around it. "Which will make it all the more fun to kill you lot." He said.
Erza grit her teeth. "Damn you!" She yelled. Requipping her black wing armour, she charged at the guild master of Phantom Lord, using her armour's power of flight to aid her rush.
Jose smirked at the success of his taunt. As Erza's sword approached him, he simply batted her sword away with his magic infused palm.
Now, the black wing armour is no normal suit of steel. It's a specialized armour that increases the user's speed and offensive power. But it's no normal boost. The black wing armour allows the user incredible power on single strike attacks. It is used best for attempting one hit knockouts, or attacking once and retreating before attacking again.
What does this mean for Erza? Well, due to the armour focusing all her energy and focus into that single hit, said blow getting knocked to the side threw her off balance far more than a normal attack would.
Erza grit her teeth in pain as her body was slammed sideways into the concrete beneath her. She was lucky that her sword didn't impale her during her fall. Damnit... that's never happened before... she realized.
She looked up, only to see Jose grinning down at her with a raised hand. His signature dark magic was swirling around it. She grit her teeth and braced for impact.
But suddenly, she found her world spinning. The strange feeling and sight only lasted for an eighth of a second before she appeared in some kind of strange room. Could she even call it that? It was massive, and all black. The only thing she could see were these aquamarine, hexagonal platforms. Hell, she was standing on one of them. She looked around her in utter bewilderment. Where the hell am I?
She cupped her hands around her mouth. "HELLO!?" She yelled. Nothing. Nothing but her echoing voice, slowly fading from existance.
Erza considered exploring, but in the end decided it would probably get her nowhere. At the same time though, she couldn't help but feel this nagging feeling in the back of her mind that she was forgetting something.
Then it hit her. All those years ago, back when Natsu first joined the guild. Back when Fairy Tail required new members to go on their first mission with a more experienced mage of the guild. It was then, when she first had the technique used on her.
FLASHBACK
"Now, we shall complete these requests as fast as possible. Clearing three bandit encampments shouldn't take longer than an hour." Natsu stated with a dead stare.
Erza frowned, forgetting about what she was saying earlier. "I suppose, but the train rides combined will be at least a few days."
"I don't know what a train is, but we're using my preferred method of travelling." Natsu responded, surprising her.
Never the less, she just accepted it. "Which is?..." She asked him.
"Teleportation." He stated, grabbing her shoulder.
"Kamui!"
FLASHBACK END
That was where she had remembered it from. Kamui, some kind of space/time technique that she now assumed was linked to Natsu and Kakashi's eyes. Thought, last time she had Kamui used on her, Natsu was directly touching her, and she had ended up straight at the bandit camp, not in this... place.
Maybe Kakashi uses a long range version of it, while Natsu only uses a close range version?... No, now that I think about it, Kakashi also used a close range version of Kamui when he was fighting Gildarts. So does that mean Natsu can do the far range version? Erza thought. She shook her head and requipped back to her heart kruez armour. "God, those two are so confusing sometimes." She said to herself.
But before she could do anything else, her world began to spin yet again. Once more, she found her self spinning out of existence. She mentally sighed in exasperation. Here we go again.
And then she was back in Earthland. Back in the fight with Jose. She fell to one knee from her momentary disorientation. "Erza!" She heard Aki call from her left. Shakily, she rose to her feet. Along with Aki were Gray and Elfman. She looked in front of her and saw Kakashi in a hand to hand confrontation with Jose. She walked over to her friends.
"You okay, Erza?" Gray asked with a concerned expression.
Erza nodded. "Yep. I don't really know quite what happened, but I'm fine." Erza responded. She experimentally rolled the shoulder that hit the ground when she was parried by Jose. She winced in pain. "On second thought, my shoulder could do with some of Natsu's healing jutsu." She admitted.
"Can you fight?" Aki asked her impatiently. Gray nodded. "Yeah. Kakashi said he'd hold Jose off until you were ready to fight again."
Erza grimaced. "I think I can. But I'm going to have to only use my left arm, and I'm right handed." She told them.
But before any of the mages in front of her could respond, a loud from Jose interrupted them and stole their attention.
"AMATERASU FORMULA 77" Jose roared, holding his palm forward. Kakashi was standing roughly twenty meters away. A numerous amount of purple seals formed around him in a circle.
Aki's eyes widened in shock. "Impossible! He knows all the way up to seventy seven?!" She exclaimed in disbelief.
Erza, Gray, and Elfman turned to her for an explanation, but she ignored them. "KAKASHI! WATCH OUT, THOSE ARE GOING TO-"
Jose grinned evily. "TOO LATE!" He yelled. Kakashi swore mentally as he realized what Jose's spell would do. "DIE!" Jose roared.
Inside the circle of violet seals, a series of powerful explosions went off. Kakashi was hit directly. The other members stared in shock. Never before had they actually seen Kakashi get hit by an attack. "Kakashi!" They cried out in worry.
Kakashi came spinning out of the circles incredibly fast. He shot straight up and hit the ceiling so hard that he went straight through it, leaving a hole in it. "No!" Erza exclaimed.
"ERZA! LOOK OUT!" She heard her friends call to her. She only had time to turn her head before a dark purple beam of energy smacked straight into her torso, sending her tumbling away.
Aki and Gray growled at glared at Jose with a murderous stare. Aki ran straight at him, Gray alongside her. They both surrounded their fists with their respective elements. Simultaneously, they swung their fists at Jose, attempting to land a hit. But Jose was too fast. He evaded their attacks by simply leaning this way and that, knocking away the ones that he couldn't avoid.
He began to taunt them. "Hmph. To think that the dragon slayers of Fairy Tail would be so weak. Gajeel wouldn't even have trouble taking you two on." He sneered at them.
Aki snarled. "Damnit! You think we couldn't take that metal head on!?" She retaliated.
Jose smirked. "Yes." He responded, and followed up with a roundhouse kick that hit Aki in the stomach, sending her flying through the air to land right beside her.
Gray watched Aki fly. "Aki!" He shouted in concern. This was the only lapse in concentration Jose needed. He quickly stamped his foot on the ground, shaking it slightly. "Dark Eruption!" He declared.
A pillar of violet magic shot forth from the ground right under Gray. He cried out in pain and was sent straight backwards just as Aki was only moments before. He landed beside Aki with a thud, barely remaining conscious.
Seeing his comrades being taken down so easily scared the living daylights out of poor Elfman. But he didn't call himself a man for nothing. Braving his fears, he raised his arm high into the air. "ARGHH!" He roared. "Take Over! Black Bull Arm!" He exclaimed.
But when he cast his gaze to where Jose was standing mere moments beforehand, he saw nothing. "Wha-?" He breathed, confused.
Then he heard a voice beside him, which made his blood run cold with fear. "Hah... you're too slow." Jose declared, and punched Elfman in the jaw. The take over mage went straight into the floor, cracking the ground from his devastating landing. He was rendered unconscious almost immediately.
With no enemies remaining, Jose returned to his stance with his arms folded behind his back. He walked towards the four downed mages of Fairy Tail with a victorious smirk.
Aki was barely conscious. Her vision was blurry. All she could make out was Gray laying right beside her in the same state she was. It was almost completely silent. The only thing she could hear was the sound of Jose's footsteps echoing towards them.
Is this it?... is this where I die?... At the hands of legal guild master no less?... She thought with disdain. She didn't want to die. Not one bit. She still had so much more to do! And she still hadn't found Flamaria. But if I'im going to die... there's still one last thing to do...
"G-Gray..." She croaked out, using her damaged arms to crawl inches closer to him. Gray managed to crack open his eyes just a smidgen when he heard her.
"Gray, I don't want to die... and I know you don't either..." She said in the same weak croak. "But if I'm going to die, I'm glad the last person I was with was you..." She shakily reached out her arm and cupped his cheek with her hand. "I love you, Gray."
Gray's eyes managed to widen, despite his condition. "A-Aki... I-" But his response was cut off. A high pitched sound had begun to fill the space with it's presence.
The distinct noise of chirping song birds.