Warden of Lore - Wow, thank you very much indeed! But to be honest, I've been writing this story much slower than my previous ones thanks to real life getting in the way all the time, most specifically uni. I hope I'll be getting on the ball soon but I make no promises. But thank you for your support!
Dance of the Fairies, Flight of the Phoenix
Chapter 28:- Gringotts Attack
Chaos broke out across the bank instantaneously from the moment the doors were blasted in! Goblins dove off their chairs and scrambled away in sudden panic, piles of Galleons and Sickles overturning to spill across the floor like small rivers, as the three Exceed carried their respective Dragon Slayers swooping down the middle of the foyer.
Almost without needing to be told, Happy abruptly released Natsu, allowing him to thunder downwards and skid across the polished marble even as his fist exploded into light and he wheeled around to one goblin teller who seemed petrified in his seat, staring down his crooked nose at the savagely grimacing Fire Mage.
"WHERE… ARE… THE DRAGONS!?" he roared with a whirl of his scarf as he hammered his fist into the ground. Fire erupted all around him, shattering the marble and billowing out in all directions to char the floor and the walls and send goblins flying with the sheer backlash of the blast. The moment it subsided, Gajeel and Wendy landed next to him while the three cats whirled around overhead.
"Natsu-san, let's not take it too far…" Wendy started, but then she clapped her hands over her ears as a sudden alarm blared throughout the bank and several goblins started screaming:-
"ATTACK! ATTACK! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK! ARM YOURSELVES QUICK, WE'RE BEING ATTAAAAAAACKED!"
"Doesn't sound like restraint's going to be much of an option here," Gajeel smirked, watching as several goblins grabbed polished swords and shields from a pile by a nearby door, brandishing them wildly as they charged straight in towards the intruders. The Iron Mage lunged forwards, to intercept, leaping into a furious spin and morphing his arm into a club, sending it sweeping out to the side to obliterate three desks and blindside seven Goblins at once, sending them catapulting across the bank to hit the wall at the bank.
"We'll make 'em tell us where the dragons are," Natsu grinned, his fists blazing. "We're not leaving here without them, so you better get fired up too, Wendy. We've got a fight on our hands!"
"R…Right…" Wendy nodded, her head whipping up around her as she drew on her own Sky Dragon abilities. "I'll do my best, Natsu-san, Gajeel-san." She punctuated the remark by sweeping her arms out to either side, generating a magic circle beneath each palm. "Arms! Vernier! Enchant!" she cried, sending power flooding straight into not only herself but the other two, their bodies glowing for a moment to signify the spell had worked. The other two grinned and barrelled forwards side by side at incredible speed, hammering through a nearby wall with a burst of flame and a clang of iron, sending goblins and a couple of other wizard workers scattering to avoid the debris.
Bill had dragged Fleur behind a pillar, holding the French witch close as they peered out at the destruction (a purely platonic gesture to keep them hidden, honest). "What the hell are they doing?" Bill hissed as he watched the goblins try to rally only to be blown back by another fiery blast. "They said they wouldn't pull this kind of stunt anymore!"
"Monsieur Bill?" Fleur blinked, looking up at him. "You… you know zem?"
Bill blinked and swore slightly when he realised he'd said that out loud. "Well… I just… okay, look Fleur its a long story and I promise I'll explain it to you when I have the time but now really isn't it. But if the Dragon Slayers are here…" he mused, before gritting his teeth. "Charlie must have told them… oh crap, why didn't we think of this before? Of course they'd be mad! Ugh, sorry Fleur, I have to do something!"
"But… wait…" Fleur blinked as Bill extricated himself and ran across the room, pulling out his wand as he went. He whirled towards the door and cast a silvery light with a flick of his wrist, which whooshed out of the door and vanished into the night sky, before Bill turned around to where Gajeel had picked up a desk and sent it shooting backwards with a kick, his legs extending outwards as a metal plug to splinter the desk against the wall and shower nearby goblins with the pieces. The Dragon Slayers were turning the foyer into a train wreck!
"Bill?" said a voice, and the eldest Weasley brother looked up to see Charla swooping down to hover nearby. "What are you doing here?"
"I was working a late shift! More to the point, what are you doing here? I'd have thought you'd have more sense than to let them do this, Charla!"
"I was heavily against it, believe me! But when it comes to dragons its impossible to dissuade any of them…"
"Are you going to help us?" Happy asked.
"I can't help you! If I did I'd be publicly letting people know I'm in league with you! I shouldn't even be talking to you!"
"KARYUU NO… YOKUGEKI!" Natsu roared as he barrelled his way into the middle of the room, lashing his arms out and unleashing his wing attack, which pulsed out in all directions to pulse the most of the remaining members of the staff in the foyer into the air, scattering them across and leaving them dazed or unconscious. Bill was now the only one left standing besides Fleur, and he couldn't help but gape as he stared about the room. For the first time he was witnessing a taste of what these offworlders were capable of… and it was stunning.
But now Wendy was sniffing the air, her head cocked as she raised her nostrils up to take in deep lungfuls. Suddenly she gasped and point off down a nearby corridor. "Natsu-san! Gajeel-san! I can smell them. It's faint but it smells a bit like the dragons I met a few weeks ago."
"Then we're going that way! I'll clear a path!" Gajeel grinned as he thundered forwards. Lines of goblins were charging down the corridor towards them, but Gajeel swiftly put paid to that by lashing his head around and crying, "TETSURYUU NO… HOUKOU!" His Iron Roar cannoned down the corridor in a swirling helix of metallic bits, scooping up goblins and sending them shooting backwards and to either side, littering the corridor with their faintly groaning bodies. Gajeel plunged straight down the middle like a freight train, Natsu right behind him and Wendy bringing up the rear.
"If you're not going to help us, Bill," Lily said as he lowered himself to the Weasley brother's level. "Then I suggest you get clear and tell the authorities that the attack happened just after you left."
"Wait!" Bill cried as the cats whirled around to follow their partners. "What the heck do they think they're going to do with those dragons once they find them! They're not tame you know!" But it was too late. They'd already left earshot. Bill gritted his teeth and, against his better judgement, he ran after them.
And after a short pause, Fleur's curiosity got the best of her and she followed.
"How many of these things are there?" Gajeel yelled a minute or so later as he kicked another Goblin squarely in the shield it was trying to use to defend itself against him and sent both flying backwards.
"Doesn't matter how many of them they bring at us!" Natsu bellowed as he sprang past Gajeel to land on his hands and sweep his legs through the air, sweeping fire from his soles to batter aside another cluster. "We've got 'em bang to rights! Doesn't matter what they throw at us - we're ready for them!"
"There's a door ahead!" cried Wendy, as they beheld a big, spherical golden door set at the end of the corridor, with goblins flocking around it. "I can smell the dragons on the other side!"
"I smell 'em too!" Natsu grinned. "And we're coming through! Out of my way!" He bolted down the pass, his body entirely enshrouded in flame that filled the corridor like an oncoming meteor. Natsu sprang in a mighty leap, flames surging as it blasted him down the hall towards the door.
"Gajeel-san! There's magic on that door!" Wendy gasped. "It might be able to withstand his attack!"
"Then let's give him a boost!" Gajeel grinned, solidifying his body into metal and lashing out with an Iron Dragon Club that lanced down the corridor to impact Natsu's feet and carry him forwards at an even greater speed. Wendy added a full scale Sky Dragon's Roar into the mix, throwing it beneath Gajeel's arms to fan Natsu's fire and send him even more explosively forwards. Goblins screeched and scattered before the oncoming comet as Natsu bellowed, "KARYUU NO… KENKAKU!"
He slammed headfirst into the vault door, a blow that would cave in the head of any ordinary person, but Natsu instead tore the not just the door, but the entire wall around it away. The blast lifted goblin and human alike into the air to send them flying willy-nilly, and Gajeel had to grab Wendy to keep her from being blown backwards as well, but as the door clanged to the ground, Natsu tucked his legs in and forward-rolled to a smooth landing on the other side…
…and also inside a cart.
"Huh?" Natsu blinked, staring down at the four-wheeled device he'd found himself in… and the rails in front of it that curved sharply down to descend into an enormous cavern below, numerous tracks crossing and crossing over the gap. And then… the cart started to move, Natsu's landing having jolted it free of its moorings as it tipped towards the edge of the rails.
"NAAH!" Natsu gasped, instantly turning around and trying to scramble off but the cart whooshed over the first drop in the tracks and threw him onto his back. "NO! HELP!" he wailed. "NOT… THIS…! MMMGHH!" His cheeks puffed out, his lips puckered and his face turned blue as a sudden urge to vomit swept through him. "Heeeeeeeeeeelp…" he croaked as the cart whooshed down the track and away!
"Natsu-san!" Wendy screamed. "Oh no, I didn't cast a Troia on him!"
"Bloody Salamander and his bloody motion sickness!" Gajeel yelled as he ran forwards to stare after the disappearing cart whirling its way around the impromptu rollercoaster. "This ain't supposed to be a rescue mission for him!"
"We've got more incoming!" Charla shouted as Goblins poured out of the corridors all around them. They had rallied quickly, arming themselves to the teeth. Swords and spears of glittering steel were clutched in their long fingered hands, and they quickly converged on the Dragon Slayers from almost all points of the compass.
"Leave them to me," Pantherlily said as he landed on the ground, sprouting out into his full battle size and hefting his Musica Blade from him back. "You guys go after Natsu and free those dragons. I'll hold them off for a while."
"Will you be okay on your own?" Happy asked.
"You kidding me!? That's my cat you're talking to," Gajeel grinned. "Come on, let's move!"
"Aye!" Happy cried as he grabbed Gajeel and hefted him into the air while Charla gripped Wendy and soared off too. Lily's face set in a fierce snarl as he hefted his blade at the snarling mob coming towards him. These guys were only protecting what was there's so Lily didn't want to kill them. But he couldn't afford to be lenient with them either.
"COME ON THEN!" he roared, swinging his blade out and enlarging it, using the flat of the humungous blade to blindside the front rows of the goblin attackers and like a cricket bat to the ball, knocking them all for sixes. More Goblins pressed in and Lily swept his blade back the other way, then threw himself into a full one-eighty spin that swept many more aside. But the waves of them approached and Lily quickly found them too close to wield the sword to its full length efficiently. So he shortened the blade and dived straight into the oncoming ranks.
His sword collided with two goblin spears with a sharp clang and he heaved the wielders aside with a mighty swing while he whirled around to parry another hacking stab from the sword of another goblin. He suddenly lashed out with one hand and grabbed the Goblin by the front of his robe, hefting him off the ground and using him as a flail to bat aside two more while his sword twisted to the side and batted the legs out from a further three. He spun with the grace of a dancer that belied his massive frame to pitch the goblin in his arm into a crowd of others and grab the hilt of his sword in both hands, bringing it in front of him to form a shield against the thrusts of four more Goblins and sweeping them back, enlarging the blade to crash it into over a dozen others.
But as he pressed his attack, the Goblins pressed theirs in turn, yelling and shrieking in some guttural language he couldn't place. And there were so many of them, coming on in waves, so when he made another sweep to send another five spinning, two Goblin spears raked across his back. "Nngh!" he grunted as he hefted the blade over his shoulder and slammed it into the ground, using it as a pole to swing his body around and kick several Goblins away, then gripped it and enlarged it before swinging it while still embedded in the floor, tearing up the marble in a plume of rubble that blasted aside several others. But even as he did that another spear slashed at his leg and a sword raked across his gut.
"Ghhg…" Lily jumped backwards towards the gap in the wall but the Goblins pressed in even further. Lily gritted his teeth - they filled the spaces he created instantly and they were so small and high in number that they were getting past his guard. Two of them flung their spears at him and he parried them out of the air with a sweep of the blade before bringing it down to shield himself from three hacking swords, but a fourth and fifth sword hacked into his thigh from the side.
"Damnit," Lily muttered to himself, blood streaming down his leg from the sharp blades even as he backhanded the goblins that did it with his fist. "I'm too big a target for such small creatures… but perhaps there's a way to rectify that."
He smirked as one Goblin lunged at him with a sweep of a large axe, before suddenly dropping back into his little form and parrying the stroke, levering the startled Goblin aside with his much smaller sword. He extended his wings and flung himself bodily into the nearest Goblin, head butting him backwards and kicking off from his body to bat the sword of another aside and clout him in the face with the flat of his own sword.
Instantly afterwards he looped over and soared across the line of Goblins, holding his sword out to the side to slam the legs out from beneath them, then swept up and over to land in the middle of a large bunch of them. They all turned to hack at him but he span in a circle with blade outstretched, surging up into full battle form again to sweep in one huge three-sixty degree swing that sent over thirty goblins flying in all directions, before immediately shrinking into his smaller form again and neatly dodging a flying spear before dive-bombing the one who threw it.
"Come and get me!" he grinned. "Let's see how you like it when your opponent is smaller than you for a change! Geehee!"
"….aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhnnnnnn…." Natsu could only squeak as he rocketed madly from left to right, round and round and all about in a series of angles that he would surely have fallen out if there was not some magic keeping him in the cart. He'd never had motion sickness this bad before on anything he'd ever ridden before and he could only lie in the bottom of the cart with his legs sticking up and try not to throw up or pass out, or both, as his ride barrelled down the track at insane speed.
"Natsu! Hold on, we're coming!" Happy yelled as he shot after the cart with Gajeel, spinning straight down the middle of the track and veering in pursuit at boosted Vernier speed, Wendy and Charla on their heels. "Gajeel, can you get him?"
"My pleasure!" Gajeel grinned savagely, windmilling one arm and roaring, "TETSURYUUKON!" hurling down an Iron Dragon Club that shot across the track right in front of Natsu's cart, causing a sudden head-on collision that sent Natsu's transportation flying off the rails and into freefall. Natsu spilled out of it, dazed and blue in the face as he obeyed the call of gravity and fell straight down. Gajeel quickly remoulded the end of the club back into a hand and swung it around to try and catch him by the ankle… when…
"YAAAGH!" he and Happy both yelled as they where suddenly yanked off course by an unseen force and began to spin madly around in circles on the spot, their bodies highlighted by a yellowish aura that indicated they'd blundered into one of the many traps that Gringotts had set in place for thieves that might try and fly in on a broom.
"WHAAAAAT THHHHEEEE BLOOOOOOODDDYYYY HEEEEEEEELLLLLL!?" Gajeel roared as he was whipped around like a tornado.
"NAAAAAAATSSSSSUUUUUUU!" Happy agreed as the Fire Dragon plunged further down into the darkness. But Wendy was streaking down after him, Charla putting her max speed into her downwards swoop as they drew level with Natsu, allowing Wendy to sweep out her arms and generate a Sky Dragon's Wing Attack that hoisted him back upwards by the sheer force of the updraft.
"ARMS!" Wendy cried, giving Charla a strength boost as she herself grabbed Natsu by hooking her arms beneath his, allowing Charla to easily carry two people up and away, landing on a nearby ledge just as Natsu began to recover. And up above, Gajeel roared and broke free of the curse by kicking out with his legs, extending them as poles to slam into a nearby wall and allow him to rebound off it from a distance. A dizzy Happy struggled to regain his equilibrium, but he was able to carry Gajeel down to an ungainly landing next to Natsu.
"Ugh… now that one almost made me motion sick," Gajeel muttered.
"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU!?" Natsu suddenly shot up and lunged forward to slam his head into Gajeel's. "YOU TRYING TO GET ME KILLED?"
"I WOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO DO THAT IF YOU'D JUST WATCHED WHERE YOU'RE GOING!" Gajeel roared, pushing back with his own forehead.
"HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT WAS THERE?!"
"YOU WOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO KNOW IF YOU DIDN'T GO CHARGING IN BRAINLESSLY!"
"LIKE YOU'RE ANY DIFFERENT!"
"YOU WANNA GO!?"
"I'LL PULP YOU TO IRON FILLINGS!"
"Guys!" Wendy shouted, bringing the argument to a momentary halt as she pointed upwards. Natsu and Gajeel swung their heads around to look, eyes widening as they saw more goblins rushing out of the catacombs a couple of levels above them, armed to the teeth and looking eager for battle.
"Bloody hell, how many of them are there?" Gajeel muttered.
"Doesn't matter how many there are. We'll send them all packing," Natsu grimaced, the two Dragon Slayers abandoning their argument and squaring off the of the upcoming fight.
It was unusual for Cornelius Fudge to still be in office at this late hour, but he had just been attending a meeting with the Wizarding Cabinet, in talks about how they were going to try and keep the Statute of Secrecy intact after that disastrously public show of magic in the Cairngorms. It had not got them very far - none of them really had any clue about how to tackle the problem except to issue a statement telling all witches and wizards to keep their heads down and not do anything suspicious in the hope that the situation would blow over and eventually the Muggles would forget about it. But considering the mass destruction in Chagford that had also gone down, it was unlikely that would be for a while.
The subject had naturally turned to what they were going to do about Fairy Tail, but given they had no clue where Fairy Tail was they had not made any progress on that front either.
The question on everyone's mind though was what they were planning to do with any Fairy Tail member that they did manage to capture. Their destructive capabilities, after all, had everyone on a knife edge and nobody could agree on how they should contain them. There were some who thought they should try and rehabilitate these offworlders into their society, but many others who were against it and thought they should be locked away in a bunker somewhere far from society.
It was a mess, and Fudge was struggling under the pressure to lead the scared public through this troubled time.
But the meeting was just about to adjourn… and that was when a green robed witch from the Department of Security burst in, pale in the face and almost frothing at the mouth.
"Minister! Minister!" she panted. "It's bad… Merlin's beard, it's very bad!"
"Calm down, Agnes!" Scrimgeour intervened, stepping forward to grip the woman's shoulder and steady her. "What's happened? What's going on?"
The witch heaved in a couple of deep breaths before gasping out, "There's an attack! We've received word that Gringott's Bank in Diagon Alley is under attack!"
"What?" Fudge was on his feet instantly. "By who?"
"F… Fairy Tail, Minister," Agnes quailed. "The Goblins say that there are three Fairy Tail mages there!"
"You see, Scrimgeour!" Fudge said. "How can we extend the hand of friendship, as you put it, to people that wantonly attack our finance system! They must be trying to cripple us by taking out our money reserves!"
Scrimgeour grimaced - he couldn't deny that he couldn't possibly fathom why Fairy Tail would suddenly attack a bank if they were the innocent party they were painting themselves as. Who could they possibly want to rescue from there? "Shall I deploy some Aurors to the scene, Minister?"
"Immediately!" Fudge cried. "With orders to stun first and ask questions later. These Fairy Tail mages must be brought in for questioning at all costs!"
Scrimgeour nodded gravely and made to depart when suddenly the door was flung open again and another green-robed witch ran in. "Minister! We've received am urgent report from Preston!"
"Is it Fairy Tail? Are they attacking Preston too?"
"No, Minister," the second witch shook her head. "It's Sirius Black! We've received an urgent message from a Muggle police officer who's married to a witch in the local area. Apparently they got a call five minutes ago claiming that Black somehow crept into a bed and breakfast in Preston, not far from a Muggle university and he has two female accomplices. The Muggle police force is mobilising. What should we do, Minister?"
Fudge froze. On the one hand, Fairy Tail was attacking the bank right now! On the other, they couldn't let such an notorious mass murderer as Sirius Black slip through their fingers again. And yet how could they send in the Aurors to capture him when the Muggle police were already after him? Would they be enough to stop him?
"Minister…" Scrimgeour prompted him.
"Send all available Aurors to Gringotts. Help the goblins against their attackers!" Fudge ordered.
"But what about Black?"
"We'll find another way to deal with him. Send the Aurors in. Now!"
The kitchen of Grimmauld Place was crowded. Word had spread rapidly that Sirius had gone missing and now the table was clustered with Order and Fairy Tail members who were anxiously waiting for the Dragon Slayers to return and give their report about whether Sirius was in London. Remus looked particularly ashen, drumming his fingers on the table-top until Tonks placed a hand over his own to keep his fingers still, squeezing slightly for comfort. Remus look up at Tonks grimly and for a moment their eyes met, their gazes holding for a moment before Tonks looked away, a faint blush in her cheeks. But she didn't let go of Lupin's hand.
Kingsley and Moody was stood in the corner, conversing in low tones, while Charlie, Arthur and Molly Weasley all mixed in with the various Fairy Tail members. All of them kept glancing towards the door, waiting for someone to come running in, except for Moody who kept his magical eye continuously locked on it.
Which was why he was the first to say, "Something's coming."
"Is it them?" Lucy looked up immediately.
"No," Moody said gruffly. "It's a Patronus."
That got everyone's attention, though some of the Fairy Tail mages blinked, unfamiliar with what a Patronus actually was. But suddenly a silvery light shot in through the door and morphed into the shame of a fully grown silver lion! Gray, Gildarts and Juvia all tensed in preparation to attack, but the lion opened is jaws and cried out urgently in Bill's voice.
"The Dragon Slayers are attacking Gringotts! I think they intend to free the dragons trapped beneath it! Help would be hugely appreciated!"
And then it dissolved into smoke.
Uproar broke out across the room. "Oh my gosh, what are they thinking?" Molly gasped.
"Those boneheaded idiots!" Gray shouted. "How did they get Wendy to go along with that?"
"This is exactly what we were supposed to not do!" Levy said at the same time.
"Oh I should have guessed they'd try that!" Lucy buried her face in her hands. "Even Wendy has too big a soft spot for dragons!"
"I thought you guys said you were going to work with us more closely from now on!" Tonks cried.
But all the yelling was brought to an abrupt halt by Moody, who drew his wand and generated a flash of light throughout the room. "Alright," he growled. "No point panicking over this. It's happened, so we have to deal with it!"
"What do we do, Alastor?" Arthur asked.
"Some of us need to stay here to wait on word for Sirius. Gildarts, Levy and Lucy I'm nominating you two for that. Levy and Lucy need to rest from the mountain experience and Gildarts, your magic's too strong to be used in an enclosed space like Diagon Alley. The rest of you, we're heading to Diagon Alley straight away. Soon as the Ministry gets word of this, they'll send for reinforcements."
"That means Aurors," Tonks interjected. "You want us to fight against them?"
"Only to hold them back. They can't Apparate straight into Gringotts due to the wards so we'll have to prevent them from entering through the front door. Everyone not from Fairy Tail, cast a Disillusionment Charm over yourself so they won't recognise you. We'll split into two teams, one to hold the Aurors back and one to run in and extract those foolhardy Dragon Slayers!" Moody immediately stumped towards the door. "Gildarts, Lucy and Levy, hold the fort until we get back. Everyone else, move out!"
Natsu collided with a nearby wall feet-first with enough force to splinter the stonework, whirling himself around to expel a great tongue of flame from his mouth that washed over the path to his right. The Goblins clustered upon it back-pedalled rapidly, scrambling over each other in a bid to dash around the corner and avoid the incoming fire, but Natsu himself was already gone, leaping across another gap as he descended deeper into the dimly lit cavern.
Not far away, Gajeel was quite literally running down the trackway that was meant for the carts, though occasionally the steep inclines forced him to slide, his legs spread apart over the gap between the rails as he whooshed downwards. Both his arms had been converted into swords and he was sweeping them through the air with the fury of a buzzsaw, blocking arrows that were being sent lashing in towards him. The Goblins had rallied enough to gather their archers and they were certainly good shots, which was why these two were no longer travelling down by Exceed, lest they get shot out of the air.
Wendy was now being carried by both Happy and Charla now, sweeping her arms around her to deflect the arrows as well, sending them whistling off to the side with slight wind gusts from her fingertips. And as they dropped further down, the scent of dragon was getting all the stronger.
"I don't think they're far away!" she called.
"Yeah, I smell 'em," Natsu nodded as he landed again, arms burning as another phalanx of goblin archers spilled out of a tunnel nearby like an endless tide, fitting arrows to strings and releasing a volley straight at him. Natsu grinned confidently and belched forth another plume of fire, expecting them to turn the arrows to ashes on the spot.
Except they didn't…
The goblin wrought iron shot straight through the firestorm, unaffected by the blazing heat and only knocked slightly askew by the blast. Natsu had just enough time to cross his arms in front of his chest like a shield, protecting his vital organs as several of the arrows punctured his skin. "GYAANNKK!" he gasped, stumbling backwards and spitting blood, a couple of the arrows embedding in his gut as he fell against the wall.
"Natsu!" Happy cried out in horror.
"Salamander!" Gajeel hollered, swinging his iron foot and clearing the Goblin archers off their ledge and sending them hurtling into the darkness below.
"Damn… didn't see that coming," Natsu gasped, trying to push himself up even now before falling back again, heaving for breath.
"Hold on, we're coming!" Charla shouted as the two Exceed veered Wendy in towards him. "Gajeel, can you hold them back?"
"They ain't getting past me," Gajeel growled with a savage delight, his arms morphing into a spear and roaring as he swing it out wide with a yell of "TETSURYUUSOU: KISHIN!" Even as another volley of arrows flew, Gajeel sent out twice as many spears bolting from his harm, swatting arrows aside and peppering the walls with spears that sent the goblins scrambling for cover. But a few that got through his barrage clashed into his iron skin and Gajeel gasped as he felt them embed in him slightly, about a centimetre of their tips digging into his armoured skin. Clearly these goblins were capable of making weaponry that left human arrows in the dust - no human-made arrow could penetrate the armour of the Iron Dragon even slightly!
Wendy scrambled forwards to land beside Natsu and grip one of the arrows protruding from his spleen. "This is going to hurt, Natsu-san!" she grimaced, yanking the arrow out of him. Natsu bit his tongue to hold in the scream and brought up his own arms to start yanking arrows out of himself, ignoring the bleeding it caused.
"Just… fix me up quick before more of them come," he grunted as Wendy's hands glowed and hovered over the wounds, watching as they began to close before his eyes. "Bloody hell that hurt! I'm not making that mistake again."
"GGGGGYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGHHHHHH!" Gajeel suddenly yelled, drawing everyone's attention, and their eyes widened to see what looked like electricity pulsing through him, pulses of it passing through the rails he was standing on to surge into the iron human standing atop them. The iron conducted the electricity with such force that Gajeel was bodily thrown from the tracks and sent hurtling into another wall. For a moment he disappeared in a cloud of dust but then he began to drop downwards. Still, he was was able to dig his metal fingers into the rock wall and drag himself to a stop.
"Ungh," he grunted, shaking his head as he slowly began to climb back up. "Damn, haven't felt a shock like that in a while."
"These Goblins may not be tough one on one," Happy observed. "But the things they've made down here are working against us!"
"We don't have time for this crap!" Natsu grunted as Wendy closed up a hole in his abdomen, the only trace of its existence being a splodge of blood around where the wound had been. Wendy then quickly helped him to his feet as Gajeel hopped over the side of the ledge to join them. "We're getting close! I can smell it!"
"It might be easier if we could have just ridden one of those carts down," Gajeel said dryly, prompting Natsu to flash him a look of annoyance and gag slightly at the thought.
"There's a path down here," Wendy pointed down a ledge way that descended further into the darkness, flanked on one side by rows of circular doors that led to individual vaults and on the other side by a steep drop. She hurried down it, the others close behind and all of them could hear the scurrying and clanking sounds of armour-plated Goblins coming closer behind them. Arrows continued to fly in their general direction and one of them nicked at the ribbon tied around Charla's tail. The two Exceed hurriedly dropped out of the air to run along with their partners to avoid the chance of being shot out of the sky.
And then, quite abruptly, Wendy's foot suddenly sank into the floor! One minute she was running down the path and the next minute her foot plunged straight into the ground as if there was nothing there! "Aaah!" she screamed as she pitched forwards and landed face first on the soft ground even as her other foot sank into it too. Natsu and Gajeel skidded to a halt quickly behind her but both of their feet also started to disappear while Happy and Charla were almost instantly up to their necks in the earth!
"What's going on?!" Happy yelped in alarm as he wrenched his body madly in a bid to break free, but now the earth seemed to be sucking at them, trying to drag them downwards into its mass as if it was made of quicksand even though it still felt like hard rock!
"Another trap!" Charla cried. "This place is riddled with them!"
"AAAGHHH! I BLOODY HATE SNEAKY MAGIC LIKE THIS!" Natsu roared as he set his foot alight in a bit to blast his way loose, but it didn't seem to have any effect! Gajeel hacked down at the rock with his arm turned sword but the moment he did his arm just got stuck in the ground as well. He tried to wrench it back, but it seemed to be dragged even further downwards as he tried.
"Gnng… whatever the hell this is, it's got us!" he snarled while Natsu was now firing both legs to try and force himself out the ground as if on rocket boots, but all he was succeeding in down was heating up the ground around him. It was like whatever was beneath them had no substance at all, and now he was almost buried up to waist height!
"Help! I'm going under!" Happy wailed, craning his face as the earth attempted to swallow over his head, Charla gasping next to him as she did the same. Wendy was in the same boat - having fallen on her face she was now wrenching her body to try and keep her head from submerging in the rock, straining as her torso was dragged slowly down beneath the surface.
And that was when several Goblins rounded the corner. On seeing the sinking mages, they cried out in their harsh, guttural tongue and ran forward eagerly, swords glinting in the surrounding torchlight.
"We've got 'em! We've got 'em!" yelled one.
"Not even the likes of Fairy Tail mages can navigate our bank safely!" grinned another harshly.
"Let's deal with them once and for all," another cackled, as they charged forwards, waving their blades in triumph. "And mount their heads upon our walls!"
Natsu and Gajeel, the former using both his hands to try and hold Happy and Charla up while the latter had seized Wendy's shoulder with his remaining hand to do the same. Natsu instantly spat out a humungous gout of flame that arced over the heads of the others to wash towards the Goblins like an incoming flood. But this time the Goblins had come prepared and, one of them ran forward to slam a large shield down, embedding it into the ground as the others crouched behind it. Natsu's fire blasted into it and was deflected to either side, washing over it like rain down an umbrella as the goblins pushed it forwards to advance down the middle of his roar.
"Nice try!" one of them sneered. "But we crafted this shield to stop dragon fire. You can't touch us now!"
Natsu swore loudly and Gajeel grimaced, the panicked yells of the two cats and Wendy ringing in their ears as they were all but dragged underneath! But just as Gajeel was debating to try a roar attack of his own or not, the space behind the Goblins erupted in flares of red light, which zipped in like miniature bullets to impact the Goblins in the back one by one.
"Ack!"
"Ungh!"
"Gah!"
"WhatNn…"
In the space of five seconds all the Goblins were unconscious and the Dragon Slayers blinked as they saw something run over the top of them. Something difficult to see properly cos it seemed to take on the colour of whatever was behind it.
A Disillusionment Charm. And the one who it was cast on… smelt like…
"Bill?" Gajeel gasped.
"Ssh," Bill hissed as he ran over to the spot where they were sinking, yet miraculously he did not start sinking into the floor. "Don't say my name or the point of disguising myself to help you out becomes pointless! Now hold on. You're caught in a Void Curse - nasty business. It traps anyone that gets caught in a pocket of space where the laws of physics don't apply until they either starve to death or are released. Fortunately as I'm a registered employee of Gringotts it doesn't affect me."
"Never mind the details, get us out! Hurry!" Happy begged before his mouth was submerged in the floor and he could no longer speak. Bill quickly waved his wand, murmuring incomprehensible words under his breath as he stepped around the sinking quintet, jabbing and hacking his wand in intricate patterns. Natsu was about to ask him what he was doing before Gajeel seized his lower face, silencing the question so he wouldn't break Bill's intense concentration.
About twenty seconds later, after which Happy and Charla could only be seen by their ear tips and Wendy's face had vanished into the floor, Bill rapped his wand down sharply upon the rock, which flashed and instantly expelled them all like it was spitting out peach seeds. They all fell back across the floor in heaps, Wendy and the Exceed gasping for breath and Bill grinning lopsidedly. "Good thing I made a career as a Curse Breaker," he said. "Or your little rescue mission would have ended very badly."
"Thank you, B… sir… you saved us," Wendy smiled as she pushed herself up.
"Why do the Goblins have so many horrible traps laid about?" Charla asked.
"Well they take guarding their gold very seriously," Bill noted.
"We're not interested in their damn gold," Natsu griped.
"Yes, but the traps don't distinguish between what one intruder wants to the next," Bill rolled his eyes. "I doubt the Goblins put any in for people specifically wanting to rescue their Dragons. Seriously, what are you guys thinking? You can't just expect to waltz out of here with six adult dragons!"
"Six? Is that how many they have here?" Natsu's teeth gnashed. "Bastards! But we're definitely getting them out of here!"
"You're in the middle of London! Have you ever stopped to think about what might happen if you unleash that many angry dragons on our capital city?"
"We'll stop 'em from causing damage," Gajeel growled stubbornly. "Like Wendy said, your dragons ain't nearly as tough as ours. We can handle 'em."
"We can't stay here," Charla insisted. "I can hear more Goblins approaching. Bill's right - this was a foolish and reckless plan from the start. We should just leave while we can."
"Like hell I'm leaving. I won't leave one Dragon trapped down here when I can do something about it! Not a single one!" Natsu snarled. "Cos I know that if Igneel was here, that's what he'd do!"
"…There's not going to be any talking you out of this, is there?" Bill sighed.
"Sorry," Wendy smiled sheepishly.
The eldest Weasley son ran a hand over his face. "Well… I can hardly stop you… so I suppose the only thing I can do is give you a hand. I'm risking my job and my freedom by doing this but… honestly… what the Goblins do down here has never sat well with me either. Come on, I'll show you where to find the dragons."
"I zink you might need a little more 'elp zan zat," said another voice that put them all instantly on their guard. They whirled around and… Natsu and Gajeel found their jaws dropping slightly at the sight of the beautiful girl standing there. For a moment they were physically unable to tear their eyes away from her, right up until the point where Bill gasped:-
"Fleur? What are… why are you…?"
"Monsieur Bill, did you really expect me to just stay be'ind while you went chasing after ze intruders alone?" Fleur chided. "I don't know what is 'appening and I zink you owe me an explanation as to why you know zees Fairy Tail people. But zat can wait until later. For now, we should move if we want to free ze dragons."
"Huh?" Bill started. "You want to help us."
"I do not like ze Goblins very much anyway," Fleur smirked. "Zey poke fun at my Veela 'eritage all ze time. I zink ze only reason they 'ired me was zat I was a Triwizard Champion. And I still trust you, Bill, in spite of zis. I still want ze full story later, but for now I brought zees to 'elp." She lifted up a bag that seemed to rattle slightly as she moved it, and after a few stumped seconds Bill beamed - though it was hard to see beneath his Disillusionment Charm.
"The Clangers! Of course! Fleur, you're brilliant!"
"Why zank you," Fleur smiled, a slight tinge appearing in her cheeks.
"I don't get it," Natsu frowned. "What's that bag?"
"We'll explain later," Bill said as Fleur rapped her own head to Disillusion herself and modified the memories of the Stunned Goblins with a flash of white light. "For now, let's just settle for the fact we have another ally."
"Another ally's always good," Natsu grinned. "Alright then, let's go!"
"This way. I'll make sure you don't blunder into anymore traps," Bill ran past Fleur and grabbed her hand to make sure they'd stay together, the others right behind him, following them with their sense of smell since it was so hard to see them. And not a moment too soon, for Goblins suddenly surged around the corner behind them and charged in towards them en masse.
Natsu paused briefly to wheel around and leap into the air. "KARYUU NO… TEKKEN!" he bellowed as his flaming fist connected with the ceiling, which burst into flaming fragments of rock that cascaded down onto the ledge. Goblins scrambled backwards to avoid being buried in the rockslide as their path was cut off, while Natsu smirked and bolted off after the others.
Scrimgeour Apparated into Diagon Alley with a group of Aurors that he'd been able to assemble, a grimace firmly implanted on his face. He was no longer sure what to believe about these Fairy Tail wizards. Everything he'd witnessed on his last encounter with them only the other day indicated that they weren't the kind of people who would break into a bank like this. He'd seen that blond girl save the lives of Muggles from a falling helicopter and that fire boy risk his life to stop an entire avalanche. Why would they suddenly turn around now and attack Gringotts? It didn't add up in his head.
Still, he was sure there had to be a reason. And he was going to find it.
He would have to. Because he didn't think the force he'd managed to collect at such a late hour would be enough to take down those mages if they were very serious.
As they couldn't Apparate directly into the bank they'd had to appear a couple of blocks away and they ran forwards as one, wands drawn and ready for anything…
Except the sudden wall of ice that rose up out of nowhere to block their path.
The Aurors pulled to a halt in shock, Scrimgeour's eyes tracking up to the top of the wall and settling on the black-haired young man standing on top of it.
"Sorry lads," Gray gave them a slight salute. "Can't let you get past here."
"You… I remember you from the Ministry break-in," Scrimgeour jabbed his wand at him. "Mind telling me what in the world you think you're doing here?"
"It'd take a while for you to fully understand it," Gray shrugged. "Let's just say that we've launched a rescue operation for the idiots who first broke in here to launch their own rescue operation."
"Who in the world could they be trying to rescue by breaking into a bank?"
"Not who. What. Turns out that boneheaded Natsu doesn't like the idea of those Goblin guys keeping dragons locked up in there."
"Dragons?" Scrimgeour blinked. "You're trying to free the imprisoned dragons? Are you insane? They'd try and eat you as soon as look at you!"
"I'm not the one who broke in here. Don't judge me for that."
Scrimgeour grimaced. On the one hand, it once again seemed as though these Fairy Tail people had good intentions underneath their reckless destruction, but that was not going to be an excuse this time. He couldn't ignore the fact they had broken into such a highly valued building and if those dragons got loose, there could be chaos. Yet at the same time, Gray had built his barrier right along the line of the wards, meaning they could not simply Apparate past it to enter the bank.
"I don't suppose you'll stand down and come in for questioning, will you?" he grunted.
"After the way you guys treated Levy? Not likely."
"Then I'm afraid we will have to use force."
"I knew you would," Gray said, and slammed his hand down into the ice wall. Before the eyes of the watching men it changed shape, remoulding itself into something far more solid and architectural, until it had a full set of ramparts and resembled an actual castle wall rather than some crude barricade. And almost immediately, red flashed of light began to emanate from tiny holes in the base. Stunning Spells. Two of the Aurors dropped beneath the barrage but the rest erected Shield Charms in time to deflect them.
"Take cover!" Scrimgeour yelled, firing a Stunning Spell or two of his own up at Gray who blocked it with a shield of ice he held in both hands before it reshaped into a hammer and he flung it downwards, scattering the Aurors on the front line as it crashed down into the street.
"So they do have help," Scrimgeour muttered as he turned aside three Stunners that were aimed at his chest, scrutinising the walls to try and make out the enemy wizards from his own world and not seeing anything. "The Minister was right, they do have people working with them… yet I see no Killing Curses… so they surely cannot be Death Eaters… but then who?"
"Return fire!" he cried, darting out into the street and hurling a Stunning Spell at once of the gaps. It sailed through, but whoever was behind it had clearly sidestepped before it struck because another Stunner lanced out at him a moment later. The Aurors around him quickly gathered to launch a barrage of spells at the wall, peppering it with red light along its length while others held up Shield Charms to guard from the assault.
"Bludgeoning Hexes on my mark!" Scrimgeour cried, and four Aurors lined up with him to fire upon the wall, blasting four simultaneous hexes forwards that belted into the wall and splintered it, sending a shower of ice inwards. But just as they tried to press forwards and get through the gap it closed again, Gray's moulding magic sealing the space in an instant flat.
"You ain't getting past me!" Gray cried, slamming his hands together and sweeping them out to the side, generating thick ice shards that pelted downwards like hail and a few moments later… a woman appeared! One that Scrimgeour was not familiar with - long brown hair and glasses with what appeared to be four wings sprouting out of her back! These guys could have wings now?
"YŌSEI KIJŪ: LEPRECHAUN!" she swung out her own hand, flinging dozens of energy needles that joined Gray's ice barrage upon the Aurors. She held her arms out wide as she landed on the wall next to Gray.
The Aurors reinforced their shields but they were pinned down under the barrage, those protecting the others unable to move very fast due to the effort of maintaining the barriers keeping the constant barrage at bay. The others darted around, firing back on the wall. Evergreen smirked as she glanced across at Gray. "So, these are those Aurors I've been hearing about? They're persistent, I'll give them that."
"They're tougher than they look," Gray noted. "They've never faced anything quite like us before. Though we are pulling our punches a little."
As he spoke, four of the Aurors rallied around and dropped to their knees, levelling their wands with cries of "INCENDIO!" Spurts of fire lashed out of the wooden instruments, licking at the wall and quickly beginning to melt at it. Gray quickly dropped to his knees to pour his magic into the wall and fix it, but as the Aurors tried to melt it, others continued casting Bludgeoning Hexes.
Which was not the best news for those on the ground behind the wall.
Arthur Weasley rolled to the side moments before a section on ice burst in where he'd been standing, blowing for breath and waiting for the the wall to solidify. All along its base, Order members were fighting back, mostly invisible thanks to their Disillusionment Charms and dodging quickly out of the way of incoming spells before returning to their window and firing back. Arthur quickly did that himself and fired a Disarming Charm through the gap that sent one of the fire-spitting wands zinging through the air and away, forcing the Auror to go and pick it up.
"I can't believe I'm doing this," he huffed as he fired two Stunners that ricocheted of their Shields. "Fighting against Scrimgeour? I'd lose more than my job if he found out it was me?"
"Then stop talking or you'll give yourself away," Moody growled, monitoring the Aurors across the wall with the use of his magical eye and spotting one leaping out of an alleyway to try casting a Stunner up at Evergreen. Moody's own Stunning spell caught him square in the chest and his snorted through his misshapen nose. "Like I'm always saying, constant vigilance, kid!"
Tonks was everywhere at once. For a girl that was usually so unsteady on her feet she was sure fast in combat, and was dodging from opening to opening in an attempt to give the impression there were more of them than there actually were. Kingsley ducked as an Impediment Jinx sailed over his head through the gap he'd been standing in and returned fire with a curse that made a noise like a thunderclap and caused the cobbles by the feet of one of the Aurors to explode and toss him backwards. And Remus was firing an Aguamenti spell out from his own space to impact with one of the Incendio charms, the two straining against each other in a cloud of steam, a push-of-war that Remus slowly appeared to be winning.
That still left Juvia, Lisanna, Charlie and Molly unaccounted for. They were hanging back slightly, watching the battle unfold for a moment.
"Are you sure they'll be alright?" Molly called, clearly worried for her husband's safety.
"They'll be fine," Juvia smiled, a little smugly, as she placed a hand on Molly's shoulder. "Gray-sama is the one protecting them. He won't let them down… though Juvia wishes she was up there with Gray-sama instead of Evergreen-san…" she added with a mutter. "Is she a love rival?"
"I think she's the least of your worries," Lisanna snickered, remembering how she'd started acting around her older brother recently. "But I think we can leave it to them. Come on, we should do our job."
"Yeah," Charlie nodded, as he and his mother Disillusioned themselves, mounting their Cleansweep Sevens. "Let's see if we can help Bill extract the others out of there."
And with a swirl of two brooms, a rush of feathers from Lisanna's sudden wings and a blast of water from Juvia's legs they arced through the door of the bank.