The Regal Key

===Chapter 7===

Girl Power

Lucy coughed, trying to reassert order onto the world. The earth dragon's roar had been massive, sending the group of Fairy Tail mages flying and showering them with sand and dirt. Natsu and Gajeel weren't springing immediately to their feet. They just used their secondary elements, which was exhausting. They also shielded the others from the blast, taking all of the damage onto themselves.

Lily lay a little way away, not moving, back in his tiny form. Levy looked semi-conscious inside Gajeel's embrace. Happy looked alright, having been shielded by Natsu. The pair squirmed out of his grasp.

"Luce," Natsu hissed.

"Stay there. Leave this to me," Lucy replied with firm conviction. She advanced towards Erutan, drawing her keys. He looked amused by the situation.

"I was hoping to fight one of the slayers. The idea that you can even touch me is insulting."

"I'm going to show you that I'm stronger than I look!" Lucy shouted back.

"Aye! She isn't just a nice rack!"

"Happy!"

"Then show me! Earth Dragon's Talon!" Erutan surged forward, his right fist becoming covered by his trademark rocky scales. Lucy wasn't scared anymore. Now, she was just angry.

"Open Greater Gate of the Scale-Bearer! Libra! Crush him!" Instantly a hemisphere of sand ten metres wide around the slayer dipped into the ground under the stifling gravity. With an enraged roar, he kept going, ploughing on heedless.

"Open Greater Gate of the Scorpion! Scorpio!" A cyclone of sand hurled Erutan back a great distance, propelled by complex gravity manipulation by Libra. He righted himself and dragged a great furrow through the desert sand as he halted his momentum and instantly began to charge forward again. He could see that both spirits had been banished immediately. She was using a lot of magic at once.

"Open Greater Gate of the Serpent Bearer! Ophiuchus!" In his human form the serpent emerged, radiating healing magic over his comrades even as he charged forward to meet the earth dragon. Erutan parried and countered as the black and white blade swung at him repeatedly.

"I'm finishing this! Open Greater Gate of the Lion! Loke!" Erutan's eyes widened as the serpent bearer suddenly ducked, to be replaced by the roaring lion, clad in light. A blazing fist slammed into his face and he went over backwards. An instant later Ophiuchus swung back in, cutting him deeply.

He looked up in fear as the two spirits stood over him. "I'm…a slayer…how can you do this to me?"

Still, losing here was part of the plan. Suddenly, Erutan vanished from view. Lucy assumed that he'd used the teleportation magic again, but in truth, he was being shielded by Ivan's illusions. Invisible to them, he slunk away to tend his wounds. Ingesting a large quantity of sand would help.

"Not bad, bunny-girl!" Gajeel said with a grin. He felt invigorated by the healing magic and seeing strength. Maybe she'd be a worthy fight these days. A far cry from the woman he'd captured in Phantom Lord. Lucy practically fell over and Natsu caught her, cradling her in his arms.

"Four greater gates so fast…I'm exhausted," she admitted.

"Just rest, Luce. You were great," Natsu said fondly.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Lily snapped urgently and repeatedly, trying to get attention. "Where's Levy?"

"She was just here…," Gajeel breathed. He scanned the seemingly endless desert to no avail. The realisation slowly began to dawn. "That bastard…this was a diversion!"

===][===

It had been a long and complicated use of Ivan's illusions. After Erutan had attacked, he had made Melk and Rakarth invisible and replaced Levy with a mirage temporarily. They had gone in and carried her out between them, completely unseen. When Ivan had cloaked Erutan, he had also dropped the vision of Levy.

Levy was groggy and dazed from the attack. She had been taken before the healing magic had gone off, and she was still hurt. She had been shielded by Gajeel, but she wasn't tough like them.

"How long until the transporter gets us out of here!?" Melk snapped.

"They said that it had a ten minute recharge time!" Rakarth said. They were running for their lives. They had to hold onto the girl until the transporter reset, and not let any angry and protective (and homicidal) iron dragon slayers catch up to them.

Listening to their words seemed to bring Levy back around, making her realise that she didn't have a lot of time. Currently, she was slung over Rakarth's shoulder, but he was expecting her to be limp. With a sudden burst of movement, she slipped from his grasp and plopped onto the hot desert sand.

"Hey!" Rakarth snarled angrily.

"No matter!" Melk held up a hand glowing with green aura. "I have sealed your magic, girlie. Don't fight us. There is nothing you can do."

"You're right," Levy said sadly, head hung. She passively marched to stand right in front of him, looking broken. "Without my magic, I can't possibly hurt either of you unless I was to KNEE YOU IN THE BALLS!"

Melk began to double over as agonising pain slammed into him. He'd never expected the innocent looking girl to do something so crass. But as his head came down, Levy's hands came up.

"Solid Script: Impact!" Melk snapped back up, a tremendous blow to his jaw reverberating around his skull. Helpless, he was hit by two more spells from Levy in rapid succession and went down like a lead balloon.

"Word of advice," Levy said to the man. "Anyone is vulnerable if they're not expecting it."

"You little bitch!" Rakarth snapped. Levy was worried, expecting the man to pounce on her. It would have been easy for him to overpower her, but that wasn't his fighting style. Instead, he sprang back and began to summon a beast. A tiger-like beast leapt out of nowhere, trying to maul Levy.

"Solid Script: Twister!" A hurricane of letters slammed into the cat, scooping it into the air and dumping it back down several metres away. Damn, she hadn't quite beaten it. It came at her again.

"Solid Script: Blaze!" That did it. The fire engulfed the beast, killing it. The mage looked apoplectic.

"How…how can such a weakling like you beat my beasts?" He hissed.

"Maybe you're just really weak?" Levy suggested with a confidence that she didn't really feel. She hated fighting. It wasn't part of her, like it was some of her other guild mates. Hell, most of her guild mates.

"You…you…huarrrrrrrrrghhhhhh!" Rakarth screamed in rage, glowing with magic. Levy took a couple of steps backwards. Suddenly, the beast mage was carried aloft by his appearing beast. And up, and up and up. Levy had never seen a creature so large, like a whale give legs, like a mountain given life. Grey, mottled skin covered it's bulbous body, a wide mouth set below small eyes.

"Hahaha! Behold the Goliath! Go, squish her like a bug!"

"You don't need something that big to squish me," Levy said wryly. Well, Gajeel wasn't here, so someone had to make the short joke. She threw several words up at it, but the beast didn't even seem to feel them. It raised an elephant-like leg to step on her. But it was slow, and Levy simply ran to the side to avoid it.

She looked up, puzzled and began to slowly walk away from it. It ambled after her, unable to keep up with even her short legs.

"It's a bit slow," she called up to the mage.

"Give it a minute," he called back.

"What?" She shouted, unable to hear him.

"I said to give it a minute!" He shouted down at her. The Goliath's mouth began to open and a long, whip-like tongue lashed out, snaring Levy. "Hah! What are you going to do now!?"

Levy sighed and touched the bottom of the tongue, writing the word 'Char'. The appendage suddenly recoiled, burnt.

"What are you doing, you big lummox!?" Rakarth shouted at his beast. "She's like an ant to you!"

"My god, Gajeel is going to be so angry that he's missed all these size comparison opportunities," Levy giggled. In a moment of clarity, she wondered where this confidence was coming from. Was she spending so much time with Gajeel that being in a fight seemed normal? "This thing is too big and slow. It can't hit me."

"But you can't hurt it," Rakarth replied smugly. "Eventually, you'll tire out."

"Solid Script: Hole!" The beast fell and even though it was only a short distance, it died. Its own weight was so vast that it hit the ground with terrific force, shattering bones and rupturing blood vessels. Rakarth screamed as it vanished, suddenly falling to the ground. He saw Levy smirking, writing offensive words that he couldn't dodge in mid-air. By the time he hit the hot desert sand, he was a smoking mess.

"How did this runt beat both of us?" He grimaced.

"In fairness, I have no idea," Levy admitted. "I'm as surprised as you."

She felt elated. She was tired as hell and all a bit banged up, but that came from before, not from this fight. She'd taken out two mages by herself! Was she getting stronger? Maybe not. This beast guy didn't seem all that strong, really.

"Sand Rebellion!" Levy screamed as sand slapped her onto the ground hard. She looked up at the third man with a grimace. Kurohebi.

"Y-you…but you're in jail!" She shrieked.

"You shouldn't believe everything you hear," he said with that hollow laugh. He reached down to grab her and she was helpless to stop him.

"Iron Dragon's Roar!" The piercing drill of iron blades came out of nowhere, slamming through Kurohebi, making him dissolve into sand and be dragged along by the cyclone. Now much further away, he reconstituted, turning to face this new foe with a displeased expression.

"Gajeel."

"How dare you hurt my Levy!?" Gajeel shouted, apoplectic.

"I have no interest in harming her. Only you, traitor." Kurohebi's dispassionate stance was falling. He looked angry. Angry at betrayal. Time was almost up. The transporter cycle would be going off in a few seconds and they didn't have the prize. He tutted in annoyance. "We'll settle this another time."

The trio of mages disappeared in a green flash. Gajeel spared them no further thought, instead running to check on Levy.

"It was going great until five seconds ago," Levy said with annoyance. "Damn it, I could have looked a hero then, now I look a mess. I'm fine though, just a few scrapes." Gajeel raised a brow and Levy puffed out her cheeks. "I'm not made of glass. I can be tough too, I don't need to be your damsel in distress at all times."

"But I like when you're my damsel," Gajeel moped.

"Well, I'll try harder next time," Levy replied dryly. "But did you see-?"

"Raven Tail," Gajeel spat.

===][===

"You fools!" Ivan shouted. In response, Narpuding and Kurohebi smashed the unfortunate pair of mages into the floor again with a spray of blood. "How could you let her get away!? She's a weakling and you both lost!? I expended so much magic to get you in there!"

"Hey stop!" Erutan shouted angrlly. "They're my nakama!"

"They are failures!" Ivan spat, overcome with anger. He watched as the two Raven Tail mages laid into Rakarth and Melk with kicks and punches.

"I said to stop!" Erutan demanded, charging forward to grab Ivan. Alexander thundered into him, slamming him to the floor before he could lay a finger on Raven Tail's master.

"I suggest that you calm down," Alexander said smoothly, standing over the earth dragon. "Your loss was part of the plan. You are not in trouble. Yet. They, on the other hand, are done."

"Lyria! Are you okay with this?" Erutan asked desperately.

"They are weaklings, Eru-chan!" Lyria tittered. "They aren't fit to be our guild mates!"

"Nakama, Lyria! They are our nakama!"

"What a foolish concept," the woman said coldly, turning away.

"Kill them," Ivan ordered. "Prove your loyalty to Raven Tail."

"Of course, master," Lyria accepted. As she strode forward, she fashioned spears from her hair. Erutan could only watch helplessly as she murdered her previous guild mates in cold blood. He could hear their cries for mercy. Tears streamed down his face. He didn't care for them particularly, but this was wrong! They were people he'd spent time with, fought alongside.

"Wonderful, Lyria-chan!" Ivan beamed. "If some good has come out of this mess, I am now happy to grant you Raven Tail's guild stamp."

Alexander leaned down over Erutan. "I know that you're angry, but remember the important things in life. Money, power, women. Friends aren't on that list, and you won't have anything if you die now to a stupid misplaced attack on this guild."

Erutan said nothing, glaring back with icy eyes. He'd happily have killed everyone in that room, but knew that he'd not even get past one in his current condition. He slowly got to his feet and left, heading for his chambers.

"He'll be trouble, Master," Alexander said harshly.

"He is welcome to try, Alex-chan! Leave the manipulation to me. Now, Lyria-chan! I want that girl. I can trust you to do a better job, can I not?"

"Of course," Lyria purred. Her hair twitched sympathetically. "I had that mouse in my clutches once before. I look forward to granting her a slow and painful death."

Ivan chuckled. "All while Gajeel-chan watches. And then I will finish him too!"