S.R: FINALLY I HAVE FIGURED OUT WHAT THE HELL ERZA WILL BE FIGHTING!
Erza: Calm down. *smacks S.R upside the head with a gloved hand*
S.R: Owwwww… Did you have to hit so hard?
Natsu: It's your own fault. Plus now you know how we feel. *points at himself and several others*
S.R: Yeah, yeah… Now if you'll excuse me I've got a story to write.
NATSU'S POV
I watched as Erza jumped back away from the corner she was about to turn while hunting for the last monster. I was able to see a good portion of the wall break, but then a huge cloud of dust obscured everything from view. As the dust settled a blue figure was seen.
Shimmering horns sat on top of a catlike head with a humanoid upper body, though it had yellow lizard like eyes and light blue scales covering it's arms and chest, with a tuft of white fur surrounding it's neck. The clawed hands also shimmered thanks to the light, making it hard for people who didn't know what the beast was to tell they were made of ice. The lower body was lizard like in appearance complete with deep blue scales. The creatures tail not yet retracted from slamming into the wall revealed the pronged trident like tail tip that once again shimmered in the light.
After a moment it's mouth split open in a hideous roar as white bat like wings extended out from it's back.
"Oi, Salamander is that what I think it is?"
"That depends, do you think it's a Frost Dracomera?"
"Where the hell did the council find that thing!?"
With that asked Gajeel and I both looked over to master with pissed off expressions. But he looked clueless and worried. After a moment he realized we were looking at him and questioned why. After repeating ourselves he looked just as pissed as we were.
"It doesn't seem like this is going to be an easy fight for Erza" we heard one of the commentators say, bringing our attention back to the fight.
Erza was dodging the Dracomeira but struggled to get close enough to attack, as any time she tried the Tail would knock her back. Any ranged attack she tried was batted away by the clawed hands, or in one case knocked right out of the air by flapping wings. Thankfully Erza was fast enough to dodge it's attacks. But her speed wouldn't last forever, especially since as a frost elemental monster it's icy attacks freeze its surroundings. Eventually the air around them would be could enough to slow Erza down more than enough for it to kill her, and it definitely had more than enough power to do so.
"Dracomeras are extremely rare, and extremely powerful. Powerful enough that a newborn Dracomera is S class level. Apparently the council doesn't know that full grown Dracomeras like this one are at least ten times stronger and should be classified at SS class level." Gajeel growled out apparently coming to the same conclusion I did.
"Then we must have this called off immediately! Erza is powerful yes but she's not quite ready for SS level jobs or monsters" Gramps cried out, jumping out of his seat to do just that.
But I stopped him before he could make it very far. After making sure he was paying attention to me I told him that I was confident she could still win.
ERZA'S POV
"Aaaargh" I cried out lunging forward over the tail my beastly opponent tried to knock me back with, and almost impaled it with my sword, but instead it just bounced off the creatures chest. Twisting backwards I dodged it's claws just enough for its knuckles to send me flying up.
As I went up into the air I finally noticed the chill in the air thanks to the monster's attack. Thinking quickly I re-equipped into my Flame Empress armor. I also changed my sword. Up till this point unless I needed a certain element for an attack I'd still been using one of my simple basic swords. But now I'm wielding my Red-Black Twin Blades. Based off the fact my simple swords being useless I called the twins swords out because if they aren't strong enough as twin swords I can use their built in magic to combine them into a zweihander with twice the power which should be enough.
Finally landing I look towards my opponent to see it stopped moving and covered it's eyes when I used my magic. Taking note of the fact bright lights are enough to distract it enough to stop attacking, I jump towards it once more. This time rather than try to knock me back it thrust the tip of it's tail at me. Shifting my blades I combine them into the zweihander form and slice upwards, shattering the icy trident tip but still failing to cut it's scaly skin.
Unfortunately thanks to the momentum from our attacks the tail slammed into me pushing me into the ground. Standing up I shook myself off only to have to jump away as a beam of ice nearly hit me.
"Well that's new" I muttered to myself when I noticed the icy breath coming from it's mouth. But once the attack cut out a magic circle appeared above the creature which generated several fairly large icicles that were launched in my direction.
Splitting the zweihander back into twin blades I rapidly spun them in front of me dicing up the icicles, for a few moments before having to jump away as the beasts tail came swinging at me from the right. In my head I was going through my strongest weapons, trying to think of something that would be capable of piercing the scales that covered it's body.
Quickly thinking through my weapons I decided to try my Purgatory Mace, summoning it to my hands and swinging it sideways to bat the monsters tail away once more. There was a loud crunching sound and the beast cried out in pain, but after glancing at the tail I could see I still hadn't pierced the scales, instead the blunt force made the tail snap sideways broken like a nose.
Charging me in anger the monster leaned forward seemingly intent of impaling me with it's horns. Moving without thinking I threw my mace forward into its face as I jumped off to the left. Smirking I noted that my mace broke one of the horns and bent the other. I didn't wear the grin for long as I had to dodge clawed hands just moments after the monster reoriented itself. The frenzied attack was so fast and strong I couldn't even think about anything other than moving out of its way. Instead I just channeled some magic to summon a random weapon from my Ex-quip Space. Within an instant I had summoned a sword that I had forgotten about. The sword Natsu had given me shortly before the Grand Magic Games were announced, which he called Blazing Talon.
The handle of the sword had a golden hilt, encrusted with rubies that looked as if they were made of fire decorating it. The handle itself was wrapped with a pale beige colored material that looked and felt like scales. The blade itself was long roughly two and a half feet long, and double edged. After the first 4 inches of the blade it widened out a bit and had a slight back curve to it making it seem somewhat like a stretched arrow head. Etched into the blade were runes I couldn't read but gave off a sense of extreme warmth. That same warmth, stalled the beast and it's attacks as it hopped back from the heat.
"I can't believe I forgot about the sword you gave me Natsu" I spoke with a smile, knowing I now had a clear advantage since I remembered him saying Igneel forged it with his scales and a claw. Channeling a bit of my magic into it I let the heat grow stronger. Taking off I dashed towards the beast grinning in triumph.
"Scorching Fury!" I cried out unleashing a torrent of slashes that created blisteringly hot bursts of air.
I heard the beast cried out in pain even louder than the previous time, but didn't let up. Slashing and stabbing I continued cutting through the scales until a sudden flapping of it's wings forced me back as it became airborne. Looking on in satisfaction I knew the creature was seriously injured by my attack. The creature leaned it's head back preparing to unleash its breath attack once more. Accepting the challenge I shifted my stance and held my sword out to my side with both hands, tip pointing straight at the monsters heart. Charging my magic into the sword this time I made it burst into flames swirling around the blade as I built my attack up.
"Torrential Blaze"
My opponent and I unleashed our attacks at the same time, but the swirling fire blast cut through the icy breath like it was nothing before hitting and punching clean through the beasts heart. It cried out in pain for a few moments thrashing about before slowly dying. After a moment of silence I lifted my sword heavenward as I looked right at Natsu with a smile. The crowd burst into applause and cheers at my performance. It took a while for the roar of the crowd to die down enough for the announcers to speak again.
"Erza Dragneel has done it! She has defeated all 100 monsters of Pandemonium scoring the full 10 points for the game! As for the rest of the competitors, well there will be a short deliberation on what they shall have to do instead."
At that I smirked and made my way back to the stands to sit with Natsu and Wendy. Upon reaching the stands I was pulled into a hug and kiss by Natsu, while the guild cheered. Once we finally pulled away from each other and sat down I asked about what he and Wendy did while they were gone. Eagerly telling me about their day Wendy shifted from her seat beside me into my lap, looking up at me and explaining with a smile.
Once Wendy finished telling me about what they did she started talking about how awesome I was in the event saying she wanted to become strong like me. Though before her praise could continue on for more than a moment the announcers spoke up. They mentioned that in order to place the remaining guilds for the event they would have to use a Magic Power Finder or MPF for short.
Each of the remaining participants were to strike the MPF with their best attack. It really didn't take too long, and after maybe twenty-five minutes we had the results for the event. I was in first since I finished the event. From Sabertooth Yukino scored 1870 on the MPF, taking second. Third was my childhood friend Millianna with a MPF score of 546. Blue Pegasus's Hibiki earned 328 MPF points taking fourth. Nobarly from Quatro Cerberus scored 183 points on the MPF and claimed fifth. I wasn't really paying attention to Scarmiglione's mage so I don't know their name or score, just that they were in last for this event.
"Okay now with that out of the way we can move on to the second event of the day! This event is called Hidden."
After a short discussion about who would participate we decided to let Gray show off. He took off for the arena and met up with a the other competitors while Hidden was explained. Hidden is basically tag mixed with hide and seek. But they would make clones of the participants. Tag a clone and you loose points. Get tagged you loose points. Tag someone else to get points. Fairy simple.
Gray did fairly well, but Sabertooth's Rufus managed to snag the win this time. After taking a moment to verify the results the commentators gave the standings for the event. Sabertooth was in first, Blue Pegasus had second, and Gray got us third place. Fourth was Mermaid Heel, fifth was Scarmiglione, and in last for this event was Quatro Cerberus's Jäger.
"And that wraps up today's events. Tied in first place with 46 points are Fairy Tail and Sabertooth. Coming in second with 26 points is Blue Pegasus. Maintaining fourth is Mermaid Heel, and last place is still currently being shared by Quatro Cerberus and Scarmiglione neither team seem able to get the lead."
As the announcers began to close out the games for the day they were interrupted by the council chairman. Not bothering to grab the microphone being offered to him he used his magic to amplify his voice.
"Normally when we welcome a wizard into the fold of the Wizard Saints it is a private affair, with just the council and current Saints present. But at the behest of the king I have been asked to publicly announce and welcome our newest Saint. Just yesterday you all witnessed his triumph over the current 9th Wizard Saint Jura Neekis… In light of that victory and all of the good he has done for this country I gladly announce that Natsu Dragneel has been granted the empty 8th Wizard Saint position."
At that the crowd roared in an approving cheer, but the loudest group was of course sitting right beside us in the stands. With that Natsu proudly strode forward and hoped over the edge of the stands into the arena. He glanced around smiling and waving to the audience before approaching the announcers box. Looking up at the chairman Natsu bent down on one knee and bowed as he accepted the honor publicly.
"As you are close with Saint Makarov, I'll ask that later on he brings you to Era so that we can properly grant you the position."
Time skip and NATSU'S POV
We eventually had cleared out of the stadium and gone back to the inn we had been staying in. Once we got there though gramps announced that we would party to celebrate me becoming a Wizard Saint after he and I got back from Era. I gave Erza a hug and quick kiss before ruffling Wendy's hair for a moment before following master out the door and over to Era.
Since they knew we were coming there was no waiting to be sent into the meeting room, and we walked in seeing the entire council along with the other 7 Wizard Saints. Gramps moved to join them and stood in his position as 6th.
"Natsu Dragneel you have proven your valor and might countless times. You have fought and defeated several of the demons created by Zeref… Just yesterday in front of the world you defeated 9th wizard saint Jura. And it was recently brought to our attention that the former 10th Wizard Saint Segrain, or Jellal as he should have been called was also defeated by you. Normally we would place you in one of the positions that you have bested, but we still have yet to replace former 8th Wizard Saint Jose Porla. So rather than place you in the 9th position and demote Jura to 10th, we shall instead rank you as the 8th."
"I am incredibly honored and humbly accept." I spoke stepping forward to kneel before the council.
A few more words of praise were thrown my way from not just the chairman but a few other people in the room, before a round of polite claps was started as the chairman placed my Wizard Saint medallion around my neck and handed me a folded cloak that bore the Magic Council's insignia on the back. Standing I shook his hand before moving forward and shaking the hands of the rest of the council members. Once I finished that I moved to sit in the empty seat between Jura and the 7th Saint.
"Now that you have officially taken your seat amongst Wizard Saints, we now call this meeting to a close."
Everyone stood at that and the council members left the room, while Jura, Gramps, and two other Saints that I didn't know the names of surrounded me. One of the Saints that didn't move to talk to me just walked towards the exit completely ignoring everyone else. At least the remaining three acknowledged me with nods of the head as they left.
"It's a pleasure to welcome you Dragneel."
"You've more than proven to be worthy young man."
The two I didn't know spoke. Thankfully gramps introduced them for me. The first to speak was the current 5th Wizard Saint a man by the name of Ryner. Just from how he stood and spoke I could tell he was laid back and pretty relaxed and calm in most situations. Though I couldn't help but wonder if calling me by my last name was because my rank is lower or if he didn't feel we were friendly enough to refer to my by my first name.
But the second person that spoke was far more interesting as not only was he the 4th Wizard Saint, he was also one of the founding members of Fairy Tail. Thankfully he was really cool and carefree, cutting me off and just telling me to call him Warrod when I went to speak.
Both Warrod and Ryner gave a few tidbits of advice on how to deal with the formalities when called upon by the council before leaving. Jura waited till it was just him, gramps and I to speak.
"It is great to see you being recognized for everything you've done, but don't let this go to your head and start slacking off. I wish to climb the ranks and you're first in line."
"Me slack off? If anything I'll be pushing myself even harder now. Despite trying to end our fight quickly I did enjoy it. I look forward to your challenge."
S.R: Okay…. Finally I got Pandemonium finished. I swear it took forever to create that beast I called the Frost Dracomera. Mostly because the appearance just wouldn't come to me.
Natsu: I know in your other stories you've mentioned that you personally believe Makarov to be either 5th or 6th in the Saints but why is Jura so low in rank?
S.R: Remember this is an AU without the 7 year time skip. That means Jura isn't as strong as in Canon. As for Jose and Jellal's ranks? Well Jellal and Jura are the youngest and while they could be stronger than Jose, his experience leads me to place him higher, but still lower than Makarov. But considering how early in the story Jose was taken out I figured that he would be pretty low in the saints.
Natsu: Makes sense. But now I ask why Ryner? I mean why not use Yamuraiha like in Salamander's Story?
S.R: I want the stories to have more differences so that there's better variety in my work. So I just pulled a random anime wizard/mage out of my ass. Anyway, see ya'll next time.