Dance of the Fairies, Flight of the Phoenix
Chapter 48:- Embodiment of Life
Gray could hardly believe his eyes… when last he'd seen Ultear she'd given up the fight for evil. The spirit of her mother had revealed the truth to her daughter, the truth that Ultear had long since been missing, which finally explained why Ul had seemingly abandoned her to torture at the hands of the Bureau of Magical Development, having been tricked into taking her there to cure the fever born of possessing too much magical power and then being told she'd passed away. Her eyes had been filled with remorse and guilt and Gray had wished he could stay and help her through it, but with the looming threat of Master Hades he had been unable to do so.
The Ultear standing before him now… none of that remorse was there. In its place was that exact same cruel smirk she'd worn during her battle with him. And at Rustyrose's word she'd already lashed up her hand in Erza's direction and cried, "ARC OF TIME… TO THE FUTURE!"
Instantly the Heart Kreuz Armour that Erza was wearing began to rust away into nothingness, causing the redhead to start and slap her arms in over herself when she realised her clothes were deteriorating as well, leaping backwards and shedding her armour to Requip quickly into her Heaven's Wheel Armour.
"TENRIN… BLUMENBLATT!" she shouted, launching a volley of swords out of thin air down upon Ultear, only for a matching volley of glowing pink blades to come lashing out of nowhere from Meredy, parrying them aside and littering the battlefield with the blades. Caprico and Rustyrose both leapt forwards too, the goat-man sweeping out with a wide kick to hammer Evergreen straight in the stomach with a hoof and bowl her away, while Elfman was forced to leap aside as Rustyrose's Dark Sword slashed dangerously close to his flank. Battle was instantly joined between the two sides and Gray immediately made a beeline straight for Ultear.
"Oi, Ultear!" he shouted, slamming a wall of ice across the ground to forcibly cut the both of them off from the rest of the fighting. "Stop this! We made up our differences before already! You told me you were done fighting for Grimoire Heart!"
"Who are you exactly?" Ultear sneered, vaporising the ice wall with a swish of her hand except for several very sharp shards which she sent pulsing in at Gray, forcing him to dodge by creating an ice pillar beneath his feet that carried him up and out of the way. Seconds later the pillar vanished as well, turning to steam, and Gray yelled as he dropped like a stone while Ultear flung her orb at him.
"FLASH FORWARD!"
The orb split into at least thirty separate orbs of identical size to the original and pounded into him, sending him crashing into a boulder and bombarding him like a rain of solid punches.
"GWWWAAAAAAHHHH!" he yelled as they crashed into his body over and over again. Quickly he encased his arms in icy spears and slashed some of them into pieces to give him enough breathing room to leap away, but all those that he destroyed immediately fixed themselves and swooped in for him again, forcing him to punch some of them away with his bare hands when the ice spears also evaporated into nothing. They swarmed him from all sides and pounded at him relentlessly, while Ultear herself advanced upon him with a smirk and with a wave of her hand she caused a small cliff nearby to erode enough to cause a rockslide that cascaded downwards towards Gray.
"Gray-san!" yelled a voice from above and suddenly Wendy was there, the Sky Dragon Slayer having been flying around the battlefield thanks to Charla, helping out wherever she was needed. Charla quickly dropped her straight into the middle of the melee of flying orbs and with a yelled she cried, "TENRYUU NO YOKUGEKI!"
The wind of her Wing Attack blasted outwards in all directions at once, flinging all of the orbs away at the same time which gave Gray enough time to seize Wendy and pull her out of the way of the falling rocks, diving to the ground out of their path before the both of them could be crushed.
"My, my, you've got some fight in you for such a small child," Ultear remarked, clapping her hands together. "You very much remind me of Meredy."
"Ultear," grunted Gray as he pushed himself to his feet, opening his arms and looking to the Time Arc mage beseechingly. "You don't remember anything we talked about here before? Do you remember anything about me? About Lyon? About Ul… your own mother?"
"What are you blabbering on about?" Ultear sniffed scornfully, summoning her orb back into her hand. "You and I have never met before. And you really think I care about my mother?"
"Of course you care! You told me yourself! Everything you were doing at Grimoire Heart was so that you could be with her again! You're not a bad person!"
"Nonsense. Grimoire Heart is my life! It's always been my life!" Ultear snarled, and she threw her orb again to start another bombardment upon Gray and Wendy, but this time even as they fended off the attacks as best they could she fan forwards as well and summoned a thin, magical sword from thin air which she slashed in at Gray. He only just managed to jump backwards in time to avoid serious injury, but the tip of the blade still carved a line across his chest. Wendy gasped and unleashed a Sky Dragon's Roar that pulsed Ultear backwards, but she was able to dig her sword into the ground and anchor herself from going too far.
Gray growled, clutching his stomach as Wendy quickly tried to heal the damage. It had been naive to think that this Ultear would remember anything about their previous battle. Or that she would even have the same personality or motive. This Ultear had been imagined into existence by Rustyrose - which meant she had the personality and drive that he imagined her to have. Nothing more than a fierce loyalist to Grimoire Heart. She probably didn't even have any memories of Ul, or anything that Rustyrose himself didn't know about.
"You…" he grunted, looking up to fix her eye with his own. "You are but a pale imitation of the real Ultear. You may look exactly the same, but there's nothing of her in you. And in her name… in Ul's name… I'm going to destroy you!"
"You can try," Ultear sneered as the tossed her orb high into the air. "But sooner or later all from Fairy Tail shall crumble before the might of Grimoire Heart. LUMINOUS MINUTES!"
The orb replicated again, only this time instead of hammering in at him like normal they swept down like beams of light that smashed and pummelled at Gray once more, tossing him backwards and straight over Wendy's head with a yell. Only this time it felt less painful when they struck him and he felt a surge of strength rushing through his body even as he landed on his feet.
"ARMOUR!" Wendy shouted, which explained what had happened - she'd raised both his and her magical defence moments before the bombardment could strike. She quickly thrust her arms out wide and added, "ARMS! VERNIER!" and their body's glowed as they felt the added power rushing through them.
"Come on, Gray-san!" Wendy nodded firmly. "I don't know what's going on here, but if you say we should take her down then I'm with you!"
Gray grinned, but balked when he saw Ultear leaping up behind Wendy and slashing her sword straight down for the Sky Dragon Slayer's head. With an explosion of speed brought on by Wendy's enhancements he dove forwards to smash his fist into Ultear's own moments before the blade could strike down, throwing her backwards. She was able to flip neatly back onto her feet, but moments later and Gray had covered the floor with ice which made her slip flat onto her back just in time to see a huge icy hammer descending down towards her. Growling and lashing her hands up, Ultear blasted all the ice around her to vapour and sprang back upwards only for Wendy to suddenly be in her face with her foot swinging forwards.
"TENRYUU NO KAGITSUME!" she shouted and hammered her claw attack for Ultear's nose. At the last second Ultear managed to summon her Orb back into her hand and use it as a shield to take the strike, the orb fracturing into pieces as the blow pulsed her backwards, but fixing itself and blasting forwards to hammer Wendy in the stomach a second later, throwing her backwards and away.
Gray leapt up and caught her before she could crash onto her back but a second later the both of them were caught up in the branches of a tree which suddenly sprouted out nowhere, thundering upwards from the ground as Ultear accelerated the time of a little seedling beneath them and swamping them in its branches. The tree aged so much in the space of three seconds that it withered, died and fell over, sending both the mages crashing down towards the floor. Gray sprang from the branches before they could be crushed beneath it, creating an ice slide to allow him and Wendy to whoosh towards the ground. Once again the slide vanished before they could reach it but this time Charla was there, the little white cat sweeping in to catch them and, despite the fact she couldn't carry them both, she was able to provide them with a soft landing, like a feline parachute.
"She seems like she'll be a troublesome opponent," Charla murmured.
"Yeah, but this time I'm not facing her alone," Gray growled as he pushed himself to his feet, just in time to see a volley of orbs come zinging their way once again.
Elfman wasn't really sure what to expect when a small girl that couldn't have been any older than thirteen, maybe fourteen at a stretch, stalked towards him. He'd seen her be created out of thin air right before his eyes by Rustyrose's magic but he still froze up as Meredy approached, not sure what to do.
"I… I can't do this…" he croaked, stepping backwards nervously. "There's… there's no act more unmanly than to hit a child."
"You hesitate," Meredy whispered, her eyes blank and her expression almost robotic. "Which will make this easier for me. Engaging enemy." She swept an arm out to the side and swung it inwards towards the big man like a sideways karate chop. "MAGUILTY RAYS!" she yelled, and about half a dozen streaks of pointed yellow light whooshed out of nowhere to converge in on Elfman's position. Elfman instantly bounded backwards with on large leap to get out of the way, but the rays corrected their course and followed him, all of them lancing towards his chest at the same time and plunging straight through at the same time.
"GGGGGWWWWAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Elfman roared as every nerve in his body seemed to scream with intense pain at the content and he crashed down on his back, clutching at his chest. There were no wounds there but it felt exactly like he really had been speared in six places at the same time.
Meredy was quick to capitalise on his fall and sprang forwards, raising one hand above her head and shouting, "MAGUILTY SODOM!" which caused several ethereal and glowing blue swords to appear above her head, all of them twisting around to rain down upon him in a manner distinctly similar to Erza's Blumenblatt attack.
"YŌSEI KIJŪ: LEPRECHAUN!" Evergreen suddenly swept forwards and sent a streak of dust needles pummelling in from the side, peppering the swords and sending them cascading out in all directions except where Elfman was currently lying. The Fairy Mage twisted around on her wings and threw a punch at Meredy, who was able to catch it by crossing her arms but the blow still knocked her back towards the ground.
"Elfman, focus!" Evergreen yelled at him from above. "That girl's not real! She's a figment of that poser's imagination."
"I know that but…still…!"
"You've got to fight her or she'll make a meal out of you! Nobody will judge you for defending yourself against a child if she's trying to kill you! Especially one that's fake!"
"…Right…" Elfman growled, pushing himself to his feet and activating his Beast Soul. Meredy looked up as the two mages took up combat positions before her, but she didn't show any concern at all.
"Two opponents now," she whispered. "Danger levels have been raised, but it is no cause for me to back down." She looked quickly to Evergreen and added, "Target is capable of turning me into stone with her eyes. Taking necessary precautions."
Those necessary precautions turned out to be closing her eyes, but her body began to glow with a pink aura as she magically enhanced her other senses, sharpening her hearing in particular. But she also enhanced her eyes until she could actually vaguely see through her own eyelids. Which was why when Elfman jumped towards her and hammered his fist down on top of her she was able to see and hear him coming with ease and dive forwards, forward-rolling underneath him and sending a volley of Maguilty Sodom swords racing up towards Evergreen. The Fairy Mage twisted away and dodged violently from side to side to avoid the blades but they were able to twist around and come back towards her from all directions.
"YŌSEI BAKUDAN: GREMLIN!" she shouted, spewing dust out of her body which detonated in a volley of explosions all around her, tearing the swords to shreds. Meredy herself was quickly distracted as Elfman descended upon her with a flurry of punches that had her flipping right to left to get out of the way. Elfman's hand swiped in close to her head, forcing her to duck under it and spin away, dodging backwards as Elfman slammed one, two, three punches into the spots where she'd just been and creating large holes in the ground whenever his fist impacted, but his third strike turned into an uppercut clawed up a barrage of earth and stone to bombard Meredy and send her skidding backwards. Elfman leapt towards her with one arm raised for a mighty final swing…
…but then Meredy spread her arms out to either side and Elfman gasped in mid-swing. That was exactly the same pose that Lisanna had been standing in when he'd taken a swipe at her years ago… the same pose she'd been in when he thought she'd killed her! Before he could stop himself he pulled out of the swing and stumbled sideways and Meredy took the opportunity to dive the other way and fling another volley of swords at him. The Beast's hide was tough so the swords failed to cut far into his skin, but for every nick they still felt like they had plunged straight through to the other side.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Elfman bellowed, collapsing to the floor and gasping for breath, swords continuing to rain down upon him as he crashed onto his side, heaving for breath and his body wracked with pain, as if his internal organs really had been sliced open two dozen times.
"ELFMAN!" Evergreen shouted and charged inwards with another burst of machine gun needles that forced Meredy to somersault backwards onto her hands and flip over several times to avoid the shots. Evergreen landed beside the fallen Beast and knelt down beside him to make sure he was okay.
"First target immobilised," Meredy whispered. "Switching attention to the second." She raised her arms and flung ten blue swords out towards Evergreen. She quickly rocketed up into the air to draw the blades away from Elfman, twisting and turning at tight angles to dodge and slip by the blades as they whipped themselves around in hot pursuit. Evergreen quickly turned to dive bomb Meredy, intent on seizing her and forcing her to open her eyes if necessary. But Meredy launched another Rays attack at her to cut off her charge and the moment she altered course to avoid the Rays she ran straight into the swords pursuing her from behind.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
Elfman gritted his teeth through the pain, his eyes sparking open and narrowing at Evergreen's screams. "Evergreen," he whispered as he fought through the pain and pushed himself to his feet, flexing his claws and growling. "I failed to protect you before… I will not do so again! If I did… then I could never call myself a Man ever again."
"First target unexpectedly back on his feet," Meredy murmured, more swords conjuring in through the air around her and firing at Elfman, but the Beast let out a terrific roar and thundered towards her straight towards the oncoming storm of blades. He scooped up a massive log as he passed as if it weighed no more than a bamboo cane and twirled it around before him, scattering the swords but for a few that nicked at his shoulders or legs, but ignored the lancing pain and slammed the log down atop Meredy's head. She vaulted backwards to avoid the blow and the log splintered to pieces when it hit the ground but Elfman immediately let it go and sprang forwards to seize Meredy in one hand, spinning around and throwing her hard right for a nearby cliff face. Meredy screamed as she smashed into the rock hard enough to fracture the stone and Evergreen immediately took advantage of her distraction to leap back into the air.
"YŌSEI GYORAI: UNDINE!" she shouted, and fired her torpedo attack with devastating force. Meredy gasped and launched another Rays attack forwards, the spells colliding together and exploding in mid-air with devastating force. Meredy leapt away to avoid being engulfed in a shower of smoke from the explosion and pushed herself back upright, squaring herself against the two Mages again.
"For a little kid she's pretty tough," Evergreen muttered.
"Yeah," Elfman muttered clenching his fist and shivering as the memory of how he'd lost control and 'killed' Lisanna played in his head. "And I've had my fill of hitting little girls. But I didn't kill my sister. She's alive. And I will not be killing this Meredy girl either, for the real her is probably safe back in our world. This imaginary girl… she's nothing but a threat. So as a Man, I will fight her anyway!"
"That's the spirit," Evergreen chuckled, before she and Meredy launched a barrage of needles and swords at each other at the same time!
"WIND EDGE!" Cana shouted as she swiped the appropriate card through the air, blades of air peeling away from the slender object to lance in towards the goat-man standing before her. But he didn't even twitch a muscles - the blades completely missed him. It didn't look like they peeled away at the last second or something - they just sliced up the ground around him instead as if they were always going to miss, even though Cana knew full well her aim had been accurate.
"Damn it!" she whispered. "So your power works exactly the same as the original you, huh?"
"You cannot hope to defeat meh," Caprico stated. There was no arrogance in his voice, as far as he was concerned that was just a fact. "There is not a human who can." And quite abruptly he burst forward with a shocking turn of speed to grab Cana's shoulders and hammer his knee straight into her gut.
"KKKAHH!" Cana gasped as spittle flew from her mouth along with most of her air, but Caprico instantly flipped over her and heaved her up behind him, tossing her up and into the air where she was left perfectly vulnerable for a round-house kick straight to the chest. Cana yelled as the goat's hoof hammered in against her, wheezing as she tossed another card into the air even as she crashed to the floor. This time it was a lightning card which exploded around the fake Spirit, but he he just strode through it as the lightning vaporised the rocks on all sides of him.
"I hope meh have shown you the futility of your situation," Caprico said as Cana scrambled to her feet, nursing her bruises and wincing in pain - those strikes had been harsh and brutally swift after all. "Perhaps meh will make you into my subordinate as well. There are many of you Fairy Tail mages that would be ripe for the taking in that regard."
Cana growled, but knew that threat was an empty one - these fakes that Rustyrose had conjured were extremely convincing and there was no denying that his power was vast to be able to create three that could walk, talk and use magic without Rustyrose himself having to direct their every move like they were puppets. But he wouldn't be able to generate them forever and if this Caprico cast his magic over her to make her his subordinate, it would wear off the moment Rustyrose was forced to make him vanish.
Still, with a power like his, there was no way that Cana could hope to defeat him. This was an opponent that even her father might struggle against if his attacks simply refused to connect with the subject. She wondered how Master Hades could have kept him from getting grandiose ideas about taking over, and then she remembered what Lucy had told her about how Hades could create dust devils which would definitely be able to hit him.
…But if a non-human was what it took to win…
Caprico suddenly leapt upwards into a full somersault and brought both feet hammering down towards Cana's head at the same time. Cana quickly threw a card down upon the floor and a sudden billowing smokescreen burst outwards, engulfing her and allowing her to jump away in an unseen direction as Caprico smashed down where she'd just been hard enough to fracture stone. He whirled around in search of her, but Cana had already run out of the smoke and was looking ahead to where Gajeel and Pantherlily were still locked in battle against Kain Hikaru. Kain had just hammered Gajeel into the floor though Gajeel was able to lash up with one iron clad foot and hit him in the face while Lily was circling around, looking for an opening.
Cana flung a card out towards Pantherlily and before he realised what was happening he was sucked right into the card which boomeranged around to return to Cana's hand, where she let him out again.
"Huh?" Lily blinked, looking around wildly. "Cana? What did you…?"
"I don't really have time to explain," Cana cried. "Look!" She pointed to where the smoke was clearing and Caprico was waving it away.
"Isn't that…?" Lily frowned.
"That's a fake version of one of the Seven Kin of Purgatory, but it still has the same powers as he did. Human Subordination Magic," Cana explained quickly. "None of us can fight him properly and Lucy's not here to summon her Spirits to battle. That means you're the only one here who can combat him because his magic won't work on you."
"…I see," Lily said, not bothering to question Cana any further - he got the point. Gajeel would have to fight Kain without him for now and he hefted his sword as he prepared for Caprico's next move.
"So you send a non-human to fight against meh instead," Caprico bleated. "A logical decision, but being non-human does not guarantee victory against meh." He sprang forwards in a full on charge straight for Lily who threw himself in to meet him head on and swept his sword in a colossal sweeping arc that carved through the stone like it was paper, but Caprico nimbly leapt off the ground and kicked against the flat of the blade with his hoot, rebounding off it to slam his horned head straight into Lily's face. The big Exceed's head snapped backwards under the blow and he almost dropped his sword, giving Caprico plenty of time to land on his shoulder and hammer both feet upwards into Lily's chest then twist over to sweep kick his legs out from underneath him all in swift, decisive motions.
But as Lily fell backwards he activated his wings and swept backwards, face up, before he could hit the floor. Clearly this guy was an expert martial artist, so he would need more than brute force to finish him - Lily too would have to use his combat skills. Twisting himself up and over in the air he shortened his sword down to a more regular length and flashed back downwards towards the opponent in a full downwards slice. Caprico easily vaulted to the side but Lily swiftly brought the blade up to counter a swift kick and span around with two rapid diagonal slashes and a cleave in across the midsection. Caprico dodged left to right and somersaulted backwards over the final sweep, rebounding off a boulder and jumping over Pantherlily's head, his hands lashing out to grab the Exceed by his small, rounded ears and tried to pull him down with him.
However, despite Lily's yell of pain as his ears were yanked on he didn't let himself get dragged downwards. Instead he jumped into a backflip of his own, rolling with Caprico's tugging to jump over the goat-man's head in turn and as soon as his feet touched the ground he shot vertically upwards into the air before Caprico could let go of his ears, dragging him up into the air with him. When Caprico finally did let go he was already fifty feet up and Lily took advantage of his lack of footing to pull back and hammer a fist straight in for Caprico's chest. Caprico formed an X with his arms to block the blow but it still hammered him down towards the ground and Lily pointed his sword down after him, extending it rapidly as the point chased him back towards earth, seeking to impale him on the rocks as soon as he landed.
Once again though Caprico proved to be insanely agile and was able to land on his hand and flip himself out of the way as the blade pummelled into the ground inches from his fingers. Not wishing to let the opportunity pass him back, Lily rammed the blade deeper into the ground and with a mighty uppercut he swung it upwards, cleaving through the rock and sending debris flying everywhere to batter against Caprico even as he tried to dodge. The goat went sprawling and Lily dropped down towards him, drawing back his sword to take another mighty swing downwards.
Caprico's response to the incoming cat was to sweep a hand up, purple rune like letters trailing through the air from his fingers, and shout, "Open, Hero of Rubengard, San Jiao Shin!"
Suddenly a bearded man wearing a green robe and carrying a very long spear appeared in a flash of red light before him and slashed the spear in towards Lily, countering the sword strike with a shower of sparks. The force of Lily's strike still carried them backwards across the turf slightly but the man was able to bring Lily to a halt and heave the sword away, spinning around to swipe his spear in for Lily's neck. Lily arched his back rapidly so the sweeping blade passed in front of his face, clipping one of his whiskers slightly but he turned the rapid motion into a flip so he could avoid San Jiao Shin's follow up slash for his ankles.
"Hmm…" Lily grunted as he hefted his sword, facing off against both the man and the goat-man as the latter sprang onto his feet. "If he's not real then you're not real either," he said to San Jiao Shin. "Which means you won't mind if I cut you down."
"Bold words," Caprico dusted off his hands. "Let's see if you can back them up."
Seeing as how Pantherlily seemed to be doing okay against Caprico and Cana could be of no more help to him really, she turned her attention elsewhere. Namely towards where Erza was currently in the middle of a battle with the man who'd conjured all these fake Grimoire Heart members up, Rustyrose himself.
"KANSOU!" Erza shouted, her body glowing as she took on the Lightning Empress armour and sprang into the air, her spear twisting over her head like helicopter blades until she lashed it downwards and discharged a lightning bolt from the tip which quite literally thundered in towards Rustyrose on an erratic zig-zag course.
But suddenly an enormous metal rod sprouted out of the ground to act like a lightning rod - the attack diverting to strike it instead and leaving Rustyrose more than open to leap into the air, the wings on his feet carrying him high above Erza to punch down towards her with his Dark Sword arm. Erza instantly switched into her Black Wing armour and evaded the blow with a sideways twist of her wings that threw her into a barrel roll and she spun around to roar, "KUREHA: GESSEN!" and sweep her blade through air in an X pattern, huge light blue energy blades generating from the blade and sweeping up at Rustyrose while she barrelled after them, only for all the attacks to be blocked with a solid clang upon Rustyrose's golden shield. Sparks flew as Erza slammed into the shield, putting her full body weight behind the attack, only for the shield to suddenly sprout golden spikes which tore at her armour and forced her to dodge away before it could pierce her skin.
"Your armours are impressive, Erza Scarlet," Rustyrose admitted with a cruel smirk on his face. "But they can only do whatever they were designed to do. My weapons can do anything that I choose for them to do at the time! For instance…" The spikes on the shield suddenly moulded into what looked like a cannon and a gigantic laser ripped loose from the barrel, pulsing across the sky to smash straight into Erza. A swift Requip into her Adamantine Armour allowed her to take the brunt of the attack upon her own shields but Rustyrose quickly pressed home his advantage and swiped the Jet Black sword across, the claw-like fingers lengthening to dash across the shield and tear it asunder. Erza fell towards the ground, switching back into the Black Wing armour to try and catch herself only for a huge iron weight to suddenly appear beneath her, long chains attaching it to her ankles. Gravity took hold and Erza was yanked straight downwards.
But before she could hit the ground, Erza flipped herself over to slash clean through the chain with one stroke of her blade, allowing her to seize the iron weight. She switched armour again, transforming into her yellow Giant's armour and heaving the weight upwards in a colossal throw, pulsing it straight up at Rustyrose, who barely had time to react. He dove sharply downwards as the weight blasted through the space where he'd just been like the world's biggest cannonball and as he tried to recover his trajectory Erza had already shifted into her Morning Star armour and levelled its two spears in his direction.
"VENUS PHOTON SLICER!"
"GWAAAAAAAH!" Rustyrose cried as a titanic yellow energy blast fired from the spear tips and crashed into his chest before he could raise his shield in defence. He exploded backwards to like a meteor and was sent thrusting down towards the crowd. For half a second, all three of the Grimoire Heart mages he had created flickered, almost disappearing, but they solidified again a moment later when a jetpack suddenly appeared on Rustyrose's back and fired into life, spinning him around and allowing him to land with a skidding halt on his feet instead of crash landing, nursing his bruised chest.
"My armours may be designed," Erza stated as she stepped towards him. "But that means I know exactly what they can do, what each of their strengths and weaknesses are, whereas you have to keep coming up with whatever you're going to do next in the moment. Which one is the better option when put under pressure I wonder?"
"It is unequivocally mine," Rustyrose growled as he pushed himself upwards. "Your armours provide you with a varied skillset, but you are are still limited in your capabilities. But I can do anything. Everything that I desire."
To prove his point his body suddenly glowed and his clothing began to morph, her torso and limbs becoming encrusted in black armour and a pair of wings sprouting out of his back. Erza's eyes widened, quickly realising what was happening - he was wearing a variation of the Black Wing armour that covered his entire body from the neck down, complete with the exact same sword!
"I can even do what you can do," Rustyrose grinned and blasted forwards, slashing his new sword and roaring, "KUREHA: GESSEN!" to blast forth an energy blade attack just like Erza used before.
But Erza just smirked and said, "Bad idea," before shifting into her Soaring Armour and shooting away to the side so the attack went horrendously wide of its mark before she arced back in at incredible speed. Rustyrose yelled as her swords slashed into his new wings, tearing them apart and dropping him to the floor.
"I know my armour's inside and out, like I said," Erza said simply, shooting back round for another pass and raking her blades across his front to tear a rent in the metal over his chest. "I know where all their weak spots are as well. HISHŌ: SONIC CLAW!" she added with a bellow, blasting forwards with six slashes at blazing speed, so fast that they created an actual shockwave even as they tore open Rustyrose's armour and pulsed him backwards at the same time. However, he was able to sprout wings on his feet again and arc back upwards.
"Good point," he muttered. "But whatever armour you choose I can still match it!" he slammed his fingers to his forehead and yelled, "Come forth, cheetah warriors! Hunt this woman down and reduce her to meat for your cubs."
Instantly about half a dozen slender looking men and woman with slender bodies, cat ears and tails, golden fur peppered with black spots and each one holding two swords in their clawed hands, appeared before him. Gnashing their fanged teeth they all tore forwards at the same time, so fast they were almost blurs. Erza instantly dashed away, parrying the strike of one and spinning around to catch the blade of a second and grab its wrist, heaving it round to crash into a third and twirl into a spinning duck as the blade of a fourth whooshed over her head. She leapt up to kick her squarely in the jaw but as she did so two more slashed their blades into her from either side at the same time.
She skilfully parried them both, but one of them still managed to nick her side. She grunted and shoved them both away to land with a spin and smash the blades out of the hands of one and uppercut him to the chin, somersaulting backwards over another as he attempted to stab her in the back and slashing him across the back, before another two charged in from the side and kicked her in the side, slamming her away and forcing her to roll back to her feet as they all charged in at her from all angles at once.
All of that happened in the space of about seven seconds, and all anyone could else could make out was a blur of motion and slashing swords that kept going in a full scale brawl between Erza and the six creatures. But neither Erza nor Rustyrose was aware that Cana was watching. And the Card Mage's mind was racing, a thought tugging madly at the back of her mind as she watched the cheetah creatures at work.
What did they remind her of?
And then she gasped… able to practically feel a light turning itself on in her brain. She had an idea. A crazy idea that she was pretty sure wouldn't even work, but well… nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Rustyrose cackled as he watched his cheetah warriors tearing across the rocks and slashing relentlessly at Erza, and as she cut one of them down and threw another two away. "Truly you are a valkyrie, Erza. I can see why even Azuma had trouble with you. But sooner or later I will find something even you can't combat and then…"
"Oh would you shut up?" Cana shouted as she swept a card out to the side that sent several icicle spears crashing out towards Rustyrose's back. Rustyrose span around and was forced to throw himself sideways in a mad-dive to avoid the incoming shards but even as he took to the air he suddenly found another card flapping straight into his face, glowing brightly enough to force him to shade his eyes even through his shades. And suddenly everything warped into two-dimensions as he found himself sealed away inside another card which zoomed through the air to return neatly to Cana's deck.
"Why you little…" Rustyrose growled up at the smirking brunette, pounding his hand against the barrier with made up the face of the card. "What delusion possesses you to think you can imprison me?"
"I dunno, you look pretty imprisoned in there if you ask me," Cana snorted mockingly, shaking the card and laughing as Rustyrose yelled and tumbled about in two dimensions, smacking up against the sides of the cards like the little balls inside a rattle. When she stopped he nursed his head and snarled at her, incensed by her gloating expression.
"You think you can keep me in here?" he growled. "I can destroy you without even leaving this place if I so chose."
"Oh, do enlighten me."
"Look around you, oafish girl? I am in here yet all I created with my Arc of Embodiment moves around unhindered."
And he was right about that. Erza's sword plunged through the gut of another cheetah man while Ultear, Meredy and Caprico were all still locked in heated combat with their selected adversaries.
"But you created them before," Cana taunted. "I highly doubt you'd be able to create something new out here while you're stuck in there."
"We shall see," Rustyrose's head flew to his temples again and he growled, "Sacred Guardian Beast, Gale Belfast!"
Then next ten seconds were a sudden blur of power and light as Cana acted the moment Rustyrose activated his magic, thrusting her hand straight up into the air with three separate cards gripped tightly in her fingers. One was the card Rustyrose was trapped in and as he activated his Arc of Embodiment from inside the card his magic had to traverse its way across the barrier trapping him in two dimensions. It had to pass through Cana's own magic, which was why she was able to latch onto it, channelling a portion of it into herself. Cana roared as she felt a sudden influx of power rushing through her - power foreign to her body just like the Fairy Glitter - and drew it to her centre just as she did with that, knowing she had to act quickly before she lost it.
Which was why she had the second card, which happened to be her Sexy Lady card. This was one of the few cards she possessed which allowed her to summon a solid object into existence - a solid object with a rudimentary consciousness capable of moving and acting on its own or under her direction. The Sexy Lady card was the closest thing she had to emulating Rustyrose's own magic and she activated that magic now.
"What… what are you…?" Rustyrose gasped as he felt some of his power being drawn away. "Stop it!"
But Cana didn't stop. She gritted her teeth and kept going, channelling her magic and Rustyrose's magic together, the two intertwining in what felt like a tight spiral and amalgamating together like strands of DNA. It was not a Unison Raid… it was more like when Laxus had given Natsu his Lightning Dragon Slayer magic and it had fused together with Natsu's Fire Dragon Slayer magic to birth something new. That was the principle Cana was drawing upon now with two magics that could create something from nothing, and she gasped as the two magics fused together a blast of power that felt like every nerve in her body had suddenly burst into flame, becoming one under her control!
And with a final shove she channelled the new magic into the third card in her hand…
…which happened to be one of the Magic: The Gathering cards that Dennis Creevey had given her before.
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!*
"RRRRRRAAAAAAWWWWWRRRRR!"
The entire battlefield momentarily stopped as not one, but two terrific roars rent the air. One belonged to the Gale Belfast beast, a large draconic creature as tall as a tree, with a wide gaping maw, enormous sweeping wings in place of arms and covered in black armour and spikes. But the other belonged to creature that immediately lunged at it and sank its teeth into its shoulder, pushing it backwards with terrifying strength and twisting it around to send it sprawling across the ground with a spray of dirt and dust. The new creature stepped back, lashing its tail and snarling from deep within its gut, preparing itself for another charge.
Even from on the beach some distance away from where the Fairy Tail mages were fighting the Death Eaters and Hogwarts staff and students paused in their bout to look back and see what was going on. And the first person to speak was Dean Thomas, who croaked in an awestruck voice… "Is that a dinosaur?"
And it was! It was an actual theropod dinosaur, two-legged and snatching its three-clawed hands at the air, its huge jaws lined with long jagged teeth, razor sharp and dripping with saliva. Its stomach was a pale white but the rest of its scales were green with blue-black stripes. It had two large black ridges on its head, one above each eye, while a series of smaller ridges ran right the way down its spine all the way down towards the tip of its long, swaying tail.
But that wasn't all. Because on its back was a large saddle that stretched down to allow the straps to loop beneath its belly. Around the base of its head was another strap, to which a pair of reigns had been connected. And sitting in the saddle, feet hooked into the stirrups and holding the reigns, was a rider. A rider with a large spear in one hand and a long green cloak that matched the dinosaur's scales sweeping back from her shoulders.
Cana herself was sitting on the dinosaur's back.
"The Allosaurus Rider," whispered Dennis, recognising the creature immediately from the picture upon his card.
Cana looked down at herself and blinked in amazement. She hadn't exactly expected herself to be the one in the saddle but hey, she wasn't about to complain. She looked badass as hell and the Allosaurus she was suddenly riding was obeying her without question, waiting for her cue to charge at the Gale Belfast again as it began to clamber to its feet, pounding its wings to help get itself upright.
"You… what… what did you do?" shouted Rustyrose from where he had a vague view of this sudden new development within his card.
"I think… I just made a breakthrough," Cana grinned giddily, hefting her spear. "A brand new Card Magic just like I was hoping for! Thank you very much indeed for that leg up. What should I call it I wonder? Your magic's the Arc of Embodiment isn't it? Maybe then this should be something like… Embodiment Card… or something like that."
"…DAMN YOOOOUUUUUU!" Rustyrose shouted and suddenly he exploded out of the card in Cana's hand, tearing himself free with his Jet Black Sword slicing through the dimensional barrier. Cana hadn't expected that and reeled backwards but she hammered her spear upwards to deflect his arm away before he could slash at her with it and the Allosaurus moved on its own to come to her defence, dodging sideways and twisting around to lunge at Rustyrose with its gaping jaws. Rustyrose instantly activated his shield which expanded round his body enough to form a glowing, golden Sphere which the Allosaurus seized in its mouth and flung away with a roar, smashing it straight into the face of the Gale Belfast which reeled back, pounding its wings in disorientation. Rustyrose's sphere dropped to the ground where it unravelled and allowed him to stand up and lash his hand out in the dinosaur's direction.
"DESTROY THEM!" he shouted. "My fragment is shaking for all the wrong reasons! End this now!"
Gale Belfast bellowed and sprang into the air, lashing in for the Allosaurus with claws outstretched. The dinosaur roared back and all it took was a flick of the reigns from Cana for it to thunder in as well, hammering three-toed footprints into the rock as it ducked nimbly under Gale Belfast's gnashing jaw and seized it by the neck, the armour stopping its teeth from going in too far but muscling it backwards towards the cliffs.
Not to be outdone, Gale Belfast's feet came into play, slashing at the Allosaurus' scales and cutting deep gouges into its stomach but the Allosaurus ignored the apparent pain enough to slam the Gale Belfast into a rock face, which gave Cana enough opportunity to lunge forward and bury her spear deep into one of the draconic creature's eyes. Gale Belfast screeched but managed to swing one wing in and clout the Allosaurus across the side, sending it stumbling and forcing it to release its neck. Pressing home its advantage the Gale Belfast sprang upwards and crashed both its feet into the Allosaurus' flank, burying its claws deep into its scales and throwing it away.
Somehow the Allosaurus was able to keep its feet, but it had to twist around wildly to do it and its tail smashed the Gale Belfast right across the face. The Gale Belfast reeled, which provided ample opportunity for the dinosaur to twist its way back around and sink its teeth into the Gale Belfast's wing, dragging it sideways with a furious wrench of its powerful neck. As the draconic creature was thrown to the floor in a spray of dirt, Cana slashed her arm out and yelled, "RAKURAI NO UNMEI!" and instantly a bolt of lightning surged from the cards in her hands to crackle its way over the creature's armour. It bellowed in apparent pain, its body smoking, but it still managed surge back upwards and slam a claw into the underside of the Allosaurus' jaw, knocking it for a loop once again.
The Belfast's jaw descended to seize the base of the dinosaur's tail in its teeth and haul it backwards. The Allosaurus howled but and thrashed wildly as it was pulled off its feet, kicking up to slash at the Belfast's belly with its claws. Cana yelled as she was thrown sideways but she managed to keep her seat in the saddle and sent a flurry of cards out that pasted themselves over the Belfast's remaining eye and stuck there, blinding it. Disorientated the creature let go and shook its head only for a spear to suddenly come flying from Cana's hand to bury itself in its neck. It gave out a strangled squawk, and then another when the Allosaurus heaved itself back upwards and rammed its head into the Belfast's stomach.
"Tear them apart!" Rustyrose growled as the reptilian titans brawled furiously. "I will not have my magic usurped in this ma…" he stopped and summoned his shield as Erza crashed into him, garbed in her cloth outfit and wielding the Benizakura. Metal clanged upon metal in a shower of sparks Erza smirked into his Rustyrose's face over the top of the shield as they strained against each other, whereupon Rustyrose noticed that his cheetah warriors had all vanished, cut down by the Titania.
"You're spreading your magic thin, Rustyrose," she observed, trying to push him backwards. "How many more things can you create that move independently of yourself? I'm impressed you've done this much, but even you have you your limits."
"Ggghhnggh…." Rustyrose growled. "Then I guess I'll have to defeat you in person, Titania," he growled and suddenly lifted himself off the ground on his Pegasus wings, Erza donning the Black Wing armour once more to come after him.
Down on the beach though things were not going well for the amassed students. As they'd hurried to the water to put Flitwick's advice of putting the sea at their backs into action they'd become a little more spread out and the Death Eaters were trying to take full advantage of it, zapping it to cast a spell from a random angle before zapping away again before they could be hit by a retaliatory spell, and already it was beginning to have an effect.
Justin Finch-Fletchley was down, nursing a broken ankle from where he hadn't quite dodged a Blasting Hex quickly enough, and he was now being shielded by Flitwick, who's wand sang through the air to pound out spells that the students could only begin to guess at. Most of them missed thanks to the hit and run tactics the Death Eaters were now employing but one did manage to hit Jugson in the face and promptly made his hands grow until they were the size of dustbin lids, causing him to completely overbalance and allowing Flitwick to finish him off with a Stunner straight to the chest.
But it wasn't just Justin. Terry and Susan had both been knocked unconscious, Ernie was nursing a heavily bleeding forehead, Dean was on the floor clutching his broken ribs and even Cho had a deep cut on her leg which was making it difficult for her to stand. Marietta was standing in front of her, clearly terrified out of her mind but valiantly casting Stunners at any Death Eater who popped in before her.
Dolohov suddenly blitzed in and casting a Killing Curse straight for the two Ravenclaw girls but another spell reached them first - a Banishing Spell from George that knocked them both sideways so the Killing Curse sailed harmlessly by to plunk into the sea.
The twins and Ginny were all taking point, the three Weasleys running wildly between groups to support the teachers wherever they could. Ginny gasped as she tripped over a rock and went stumbling, her lack of balance being capitalised on by two Death Eaters who threw Killing Curses at her at the same time, only for Ginny to suddenly be levitated into the air so the spells missed her. She looked around to see Luna aiming her wand at her and quickly lowering her to the ground, the both of them firing Stunning Spells at the Death Eaters at the same time moments before they vanished into thin air once more.
"Thanks," Ginny said as Luna pulled her in next to Sprout and Zacharias.
"That's alright. It would have been very sad if you'd died," Luna said simply.
"…Yeah, that's one way of putting it," Ginny gritted her teeth and looked out across the beach. "We're not making any headway against them. If we had anti-apparition wards this would be more of a fair fight!"
"AAAHH!" came a voice from nearby and they looked around to see Hannah Abbott being thrown backwards to crash into the tide, her arm hanging funny and making it clear that whatever had just happened had dislocated her shoulder. One of the Death Eaters immediately apparated in over her, wand raised and preparing to cast a point-blank Killing Curse down upon her but before he could cast the spell he was suddenly blindside by Fred, who had taken the initiative to actually charge forwards and physically ram the Death Eater with his shoulder, slamming them both away. The Death Eater looked startled and tried to raise his wand, but Fred was quicker to act and punched him in the face, three times in rapid succession, knocking him unconscious.
"FRED!" George shouted as two other Death Eaters suddenly appeared next to his twin brother and cast spells at him, but Fred dove forwards and dashed his way back towards the surf, using all the lessons on dodging and movement that Erza and Mira had been helping to teach them. George dashed out to meet him and suddenly conjured a large bat into his hand, along with a large iron ball that looked very much like a Bludger, which he smashed with the bat and sent pounding into one of the Death Eater's stomachs. Fred grinned and began conjuring more balls in front of George as he ran, allowing George to swing repeatedly and send more Death Eaters scattering for cover under their bombardment.
At least until a Reductor Curse came out of nowhere and shattered George's bat, throwing him backwards under the force of the blow and hitting his head on a rock, knocking him unconscious. Fred yelled and dashed forwards to repel another spell aimed for his brother's limp body and threw him over one shoulder, hurrying forwards to lay him down behind McGonagall who was locked in a fierce duel with another Death Eater.
The whole place was a mess and while Ginny couldn't really tell which side was winning at the moment she could tell the Death Eaters had the advantage. And the DA still hadn't learned enough in a mere couple of weeks to be ready to take them on. If McGonagall, Flitwick and Sprout hadn't been there, she knew they'd probably all have been taken out by now.
"Damn it," Ginny whispered, fear gripping her heart as she hoped George was okay and leaping out to hurl a Disarming Charm at another Death Eater only for him to disappear again before it could hit him. There was no escape for them - the only way out would be to win or force the enemy to retreat and with even the Fairy Tail mages being kept busy nearby, she couldn't see any way out anytime soon.
Bluenote was chuckling with amusement as Mirajane threw punch after punch at him, occasionally launching herself into a sweep kick and even trying to hammer him into the face with her tail, but he was deflecting each of the blows without too much difficulty. The woman was ferocious, he had to give her that. But in terms of raw power she was no match for him. None of these Fairy Tail brats were any match for him apart from Gildarts and it didn't look like he was even here this time. If he was he would surely have come rushing at him by now.
"Rise," he said, knocking Mira's claws away and thrusting a hand straight into her stomach to knock her backwards. Suddenly Mira felt herself plucked from the ground before she could even take another step, whooshing straight up into the air like she'd been fired upwards from a cannon. She rose fifty feet up in an instant, but then she plunged straight downwards without any warning whatsoever to be slammed painfully into the ground. The air was driven from her lungs but before she could regain it she was whooshing up again, dropping down agains, then again and again and again.
CRASH!
CRASH!
CRASH!
"Guuuhn…" Mira gasped, unable to articulate much else as she tried to recover but her saving grace from this cruel treatment came when Juvia surged herself forwards once more, her body whirling into a cyclone of liquid blades as she pulsed herself in towards Bluenote from the side, leaving a trail of shredded rocks in her wake.
"WATER JIGSAW!"
"Mmgh!" Bluenote grunted, slamming his arms up to take the brunt of the attack while simultaneously issuing a gravity wave to pulse Juvia backwards before it could make full contact. Juvia's body was slammed by the force so powerfully that she disintegrated into several flying puddles of water which all came together abruptly to reform the mage's body as she skidded to a halt. Bluenote scowled. This Water Mage was rapidly becoming a nuisance. She wasn't making any more of a dent in his defences than Mirajane but she was rather irritatingly unhurt by their fight so far. Mira was pretty bruised and battered by this point even as she pushed herself back upright, but Juvia didn't have a mark on her.
It was hard to crush water.
"It seems thus far you and I have been trading blows with each other without any visible result," he stated, his coat and ponytail swaying in the wind as he glowered Juvia down.
"You cannot harm Juvia. You do not possess the magic necessary to harm Juvia's water body."
"Is that so?" Bluenote growled, slamming his hands together. "Well then let's see how you handle this one. BLACK HOLE!"
Juvia gasped as the purplish orb appeared before her and she felt herself being dragged forwards by the sudden, powerful suction that emanated from the hole. She turned and tried to jet herself in the other direction but though this helped her to fight the pull somewhat it still dragged her inexorably forwards.
Bluenote roared with laughter as she watched Juvia fighting to get away. "Once you're in there, that'll be the end of it Water Girl. The Black Hole will crush you so fiercely that you'll be reduced to atoms and scattered to the wind. Not even water can withstand something like that!"
Juvia gritted her teeth and fought even harder, releasing jets of water from her hands and feet in a bid to increase her momentum and escape the pull, but it made almost no difference at all. A quick look over her shoulder and she saw the water she was letting off be sucked right into the Black Hole and vanish from existence, spurring her to struggle all the harder with absolutely minimal results.
But this was the point where something came sweeping in to hammer Bluenote straight in the nose, almost breaking it and throwing him off his game enough to break his concentration. Juvia collapsed to the floor as the Black Hole spell vanished and turned to stare in awe as Bluenote was slammer in the face over and over again by metal gauntlets and whatever it was that was attacking him was cloaking itself in flames which licked hungrily at his clothes and pulsed over his body with every hit. Bluenote himself was taken aback by this sudden barrage of punches and took more than one bruise to the face before he recovered his wits enough to retaliate and punch the attacker away.
Said attacker didn't land far off but Juvia gaped at what she saw. It was unquestionably Mirajane, but she looked different. She was dressed in a white and blue coat over an equally white and blue bodysuit, held in place with a belt around her waist and another just below her bosom. The coat had a high blue collar and her feet appeared to be actually made out of flames. She wore clawed gauntlets that extended up to her elbows, along with a long, blue cloak. Her hair was wilder than Juvia had ever seen it and her face was framed by brown armour plating that extended into two yellow horns that swept out to either side in place of her ears.
This was Mirajane Sitri. The strongest Satan Soul she possessed… and a form that she hadn't used for a very long time. But like everyone else, Mira had been training hard these past couple of weeks, and now the demonic entity's face was twisted into a vicious snarl as she glared daggers at Bluenote.
"I won't allow it," she growled furiously. "I will not allow you to harm Juvia, or any of my friends. Not now, not ever."
"You certainly have a few tricks up your sleeve," Bluenote rubbed his nose ruefully. "But no matter what form you pull out against me you are still too weak to stop me."
He raised his hand and suddenly the ground beneath Mirajane heaved upwards, a huge chunk of rock lifting up from beneath her and flipping upside down with her still standing on it, smashing her downwards towards the floor with intent to crush her. But Mirajane channelled her power into her feet and an explosion of flames rent through the falling rock, tearing it to powder and launching her forwards towards Bluenote once again. She slammed into him and hooked her arms around his waist, heaving him right off the ground and throwing him down hard enough to fracture the stonework when he landed.
She thundered down towards him feet first, flame pulsing around her like a rocket but Bluenote lashed his hands up at her and she reversed direction, shooting upwards instead. Two enormous boulders, each the size of a small house, uprooted to lance up towards her from either side, trying to smash her between them. Mira's hands lashed out and caught them at arm's length, but she grunted as she fought to hold them off, her immense strength in this form fighting with the intense pressure of Bluenote's magic seeking to crush the rocks in upon her.
Just as her arms were beginning to bend a plume of water rocketed over Bluenote's head to crash into Mira from behind and knock her out from between them rocks at high speed, the rocks smashing together on nothing behind her. The water twisted itself back into human form and Juvia twisted herself around to launch herself back at Bluenote, spinning herself in circles and shouting, "WATER NEBULA!"
Huge plumes of water rushed outwards in a helix, homing in on the Gravity Mage. They pulsed over him to send him skidding backwards, digging his heels into the ground as he was soaked to the skin, and as soon as Juvia's attack relented Mirajane was suddenly in his face again, slamming her flaming foot into his chest and unleashing a cascade of hellfire that washed over him, drying him instantly and burning through his coat and throwing him back powerfully enough to force him to perform a backwards somersault to land back on his feet.
Even despite all that though, he appeared to have only minor injuries.
"I grow weary of this," Bluenote snarled and suddenly the ground was rent asunder, both Mirajane and Juvia being slammed into it hard at the same time. Juvia instantly dematerialised into water and rushed through the splinters and cracks in the rocks towards Bluenote, but this time Bluenote was prepared for that and swung his hands around, influencing the gravity so the ground was pushed downwards in the shape of an inverted cone - perfectly smooth slopes all leading down to a single point where Mirajane was currently being crushed downwards. And water or not, Juvia couldn't battle the gravity up the slope and cascaded downwards towards Mirajane. She tried to reform herself back into something solid again but ended up crashing down onto Mirajane while still in a liquid state.
And therefore Mirajane ended up partially submerged inside Juvia's watery body as the both of them tried to fill the same space.
And this included Mirajane's face.
"Glllrrbbrb…" she coughed bubbles into Juvia's back, her eyes widening as she was suddenly robbed of air. Juvia gasped when she realised what had happened and immediately started thrashing, struggling to get up and allow Mirajane to breathe, her movements echoed by Mirajane herself, fighting to stand up or at least wrench her face free of the water but neither of them making any head way at all.
"Mira-san! Hold on!" Juvia cried, and dematerialised, filling up the cone as she gushed towards the surface just like before, but Bluenote just smirked and increased his power, the both of them sinking deeper and deeper into the ground.
"I wager the divine protection upon you Fairy Tail mages doesn't cover running out of oxygen!" he laughed cruelly. "Everybody needs to breathe after all! And now you, Water Girl, it looks like you're about to drown your own comrade. How very unfortunate for you."
Juvia's heart seized with fear as she reformed back into a human shape, unable to solidify with Mirajane inside her. "MIRA-SAN! HANG IN THERE! JUVIA WILL THINK OF SOMETHING!"
"HHHHMMNNGH!" Mira heaved, her Sitri form fading away until she was back in her regular body. Her lungs were rapidly beginning to burn, the air driven out of her under the intense pressure of Bluenote's gravity which was also bombarding her body! Her struggles began to lessen and Juvia noticed, the Water Mage panicking and fighting for all she was worth to pull away from her friend. She was also trying to form an air bubble around Mira's mouth and nose but the gravity was so intense that the air bubbles could no longer form - she was just solid water.
"You were strong," Bluenote conceded. "You would have given any of my comrades a hard time. But you picked the wrong opponent this time, ladies."
"MIRA-SAN! STAY AWAKE!" Juvia screamed as Mira's world began to descend into blackness. "MIRA-SAN! MIRA-SAAAAAAAAN!"
"Aaagh!" cried Colin Creevey as a stray Killing Curse whizzed by his ear, missing him and his brother by inches. The diminutive boys tried to return fire but that was the point where another Death Eater sent a jet of red light flying overhead, landing at their feet and exploding like a firecracker to send the both of them flying. Dean was quick to catch Colin with a Cushioning Charm while Ernie manually grabbed Dennis, the both of them tumbling to the ground and so far the only one who hadn't sustained at least some form of injury was Flitwick.
Those still fighting were standing in front of the fallen like shields but whenever a Death Eater went down they'd be whisked away by one of the others and would rejoin the fight a few minutes later, a little worse for wear but still going strong. Ginny ducked under another Killing Curse by throwing herself flat upon the ground and Marietta shrieked as a Stunning Spell collided with her own spell almost the instant it left her wand, a small blast from the colliding spells snapping her wand in two before she could draw her hand back. She gasped and stumbled away, and Cho had to seize her and pull her down as no less than three jets of green crashed in through the space where her torso had been.
Luna was still on her feet, but she and Zacharias were both now trying to cover Professor Sprout, who had most likely broken her hip from a Reductor Curse that she had blocked a second too late. But quite abruptly one of the Death Eaters appeared right in front of the startled duo, a mere few feet away. He Apparated away again a second later before any of them could cast a spell… only he'd left something behind.
Nagini.
The huge serpent slithered forwards rapidly for something with no legs and instantly Zacharias screamed and cast a Stunning Spell at her. With a twist of her coils she avoided the spell and lashed upwards at the Hufflepuff boy, striking with blinding speed, fangs agape. Zacharias threw himself backwards just in time to avoid the fangs burying into his leg but in the process he crashed straight into Luna, almost knocking her over and with Nagini motoring after him.
"No! No! Get back!" Zacharias panicked and quite suddenly he seized Luna and heaved her forwards until she was between him and the snake, pushing her flat onto her face in front of the legless reptile. Fear gripped Luna as she looked up and met the snake's eye with her own. Nagini reared, hissing fiercely and baring her fangs as Luna grasped frantically for her wand.
"LUNA! NO!" Ginny screamed.
Nagini struck!
And something clouted her across the snout mere moments before she could sink her venom into Luna's neck, knocking her off course and slamming her flat head against the ground. Luna gasped as she scrambled backwards, pushing herself to her feet and looking around for her saviour… though even she wasn't expecting it to be what appeared to be part of a totem pole, a block of wood with an ugly face floating above the ground as Nagini reared back up and hissed at it.
"Bad snake!" the block of wood said.
"Bad snake, bad snake!" Three more blocks agreed as they swirled in out of nowhere and began firing green lasers from their mouths at Nagini. The snake hissed and screeched, twisting and thrashing around to try and avoid the sudden barrage but she was still struck many times, gaping wounds opening in her scaly flanks. She twisted and knotted her body around, lashing her heavy tail to knock two of the wooden dolls away, but they recovered almost instantly and returned fire.
"What… in the…" Zacharias muttered, a sentiment shared by everyone who was watching what was happening.
"GAAAHAHA!" a high-pitched, raucous laugh cut through the air like a knife and everyone wheeled around to see a tall man with a sallet over his face and a plume of purple feathers atop his head, balanced perfectly atop a fifth wooden doll as he swooped in across the sea. "Go forth, my babies!" Bickslow shouted, leaping off the doll and into the surf. "Let's teach these guys not to pick on children!"
"Bullies, bullies!" the dolls cried and swept in pursuit of Nagini as the snake fled, zig-zagging madly in an attempt to avoid the laser blasts until another Death Eater whooshed in to seize her and Disapparate with her. The dolls didn't even pause for an instant and whooshed around the battlefield, turning and firing lasers the moment a Death Eater appeared anywhere close to them and either forcing them to Disapparate again before they could let loose a spell or in some cases hitting them and throwing them back off their feet. The DA cheered as Bickslow marched up amongst them, grinning like a lunatic.
"Well it looks like we arrived a quite a party, didn't we?" he laughed, raising his hand in the air, "VICTORY FORMATION!"
The dolls whooshed upwards and arranged themselves into a V shape in the air, bombarding the beach with a rain of lasers that kept any of the Death Eaters from getting anywhere close to the DA members, forcing them to stay up on the rocks and off the sand.
"Who are you?" McGonagall asked.
"Who am I?" Bickslow smirked, allowing his tongue to loll out and pointing at the jet black mark upon it. "Judging by the fact I can see all my friends fighting over there, I'm guessing you know what this means," somehow speaking perfectly even with his tongue out.
"Fairy Tail… you're a Fairy Tail mage…" McGonagall breathed.
"You bet I am, baby!" Bickslow grinned, and if he noticed McGonagall's shock at being referred to as 'baby' he didn't respond to it. "And I didn't come alone!"
*Stomp!*
The beach shook.
*STOMP!*
The beach and the rocks shook.
*STOMP!*
Everyone noticed the third step including the battling mages, and the DA all noticed that they were suddenly bathed in a shadow. Mouths dropped open as they turned to behold an enormous, elderly looking man walking towards them through the water, surrounded by a blazing yellow aura and getting visibly larger with every step he took until he was easily the size of a giant. Cheers and whoops erupted from the Fairy Tail mages, their fists pumping into the air and tears of joy falling from some of their eyes.
"MASTER!" Erza shouted.
"HE'S HERE!" Levy was jumping up and down excitedly. "OUR MASTER'S FINALLY COME BACK TO US!"
"OH HELL YEAH!" Gray bellowed.
"NOW THAT'S A REAL MAN MAKING AN ENTRANCE LIKE THAT!" said Guess Who.
Makarov Dreyar loomed high above the petrified Death Eaters, the sea around him churning and whipping into a frenzy from his mere presence, his moustache bristling, thick veins throbbing in his head and eyes blazing.
"THIS IS THE SECOND TIME THE SACRED GROUND OF MY GUILD HAS BEEN VIOLATED BY INTRUDERS!" he roared. "BEGONE, OR I SWEAR BY ALL THE GODS THAT NO MATTER WHERE YOU RUN, YOU WILL BE CRUSHED BY THE WRATH OF THE FAIRIES!"
The Death Eaters panicked instantly and a rain of curses, jinxes and hexes flew upwards from their wands to strick Makarov in the chest - Blasting Hexes, Stunning Spells, Impediment Jinxes, even Killing Curses and Cruciatus Curses. But he didn't seem to notice any of them, his aura burning through the magic lights before they could even touch him and with one great sweeping motion he raised his fist back and drove it downwards like a falling aeroplane right on the rocks the Death Eaters were standing in. All of them Disapparated to safety in time but all of them were thrown to their feet when the re-emerged by the shockwave that ran through the ground from the impact of the punch, the rocks smashing into more sand to join that on the beach beneath his fist. With one great stride Makarov stepped over the weary DA members and smashed his foot down, sending the Death Eaters screaming and scattering for cover as he laid the rocks low around him.
The fighting between Fairy Tail and Grimoire Heart resumed in earnest moments later but all the DA could do was stare in disbelief.
"Am I… seeing this?" whispered Flitwick.
"I… I can't even…" Dean was in complete agreement.
But despite her astonishment, Ginny was able to pull herself together enough to march across the beach, grab Zacharias by the arm and smash her fist into his jaw, laying him out flat across the sand.
"There's no damn way you're staying in the DA after what you just pulled, mate," she growled to the unconscious Hufflepuff boy, despite the fact her hand was now smarting quite badly. But she turned her back on him after that and stood up next to Luna, going back to watching with awe as Makarov sent the Death Eaters scattering with mere stamps of his feet.
But of course two of the Fairy Tail mages couldn't celebrate the sudden appearance of the Master - Juvia and Mirajane were still struggling to get up from under Bluenote's power and Mira was fading fast, her lungs burning and just barely clinging onto consciousness, as Juvia screamed and thrashed, desperately trying to pull herself loose and let her dear friend breathe.
"Hmm…" Bluenote muttered, barely even paying attention to his drowning victim. "Makarov's here, huh? Well that complicates things a little… but not enough," he turned back to them and added even more force to his magic. "Because the demon girl will be gone before he even notices she's in trouble."
"NOOO!" Juvia cried, as Mira's eyes rolled up back into her head, the blackness starting to consume her.
*KA-CHHH-BLLLRRMM*
Juvia looked up in shock as the intense gravity was suddenly cancelled out and she lurched upwards, pulling away from Mirajane and collapsing onto her front on the side of the slope. Air swept into Mira's lungs like a freight train and water was forced right out, hacking and spluttering for life-giving air, but even as both panted in relief they looked up to see the enormous lightning bolt that was sweeping Bluenote away to smash him into the rocks hard enough to smash them to pieces and partially bury him in stone as they cascaded downwards atop him.
A lone figure stood where Bluenote had been standing atop the slope, his raised fist indicating he'd quite clearly slammed it into the Gravity Mage moments earlier, lightning crackling over his body and filling his eyes, which were staring daggers at Bluenote even as the Grimoire Heart ace, pushed himself back upright and glared straight back.
"Laxus…" Mirajane whispered. "Thank… goodness…"
"…He saved us…" Juvia breathed, and for the first time since she'd met Gray she felt in that moment like she could kiss another man.
"…You like crushing your opponents into the ground, do you?" Laxus growled, electricity rippling over his knuckles and through his hair. "Well then, I guess I'll be making you the one to eat dirt for a change."
And this time, nothing ruined his entrance.