Chapter 13
It seems lucky thirteen is a thing. Look and enjoy all these words! So many…
Who honestly cares about disclaimers? Lawyers? The hell are those!? Tell them to go to chapter one or ten.
Unsurprisingly, the raven haired child attacked first, screaming obscenities he rushed the prepared Natsu and immediately stabbed at the taller boy's torso, Natsu neatly sidestepped the attack and swung his staff round, Rouge blocked with his other sai but the power behind the staff forced him back
It was then that Minerva attacked, recognising that holding back would only end with them captured or even dead she charged a ball of greenish energy between her outstretched hands, once charged she drew her hands above her head
"VOID BLAST!"
She flung the fluctuating orb at the disguised dragon slayer in a high arc while he seemed to be unawares, blocking Rouge's attacks but not fighting back, despite many opportunities to do so
Unfortunately for Minerva, Natsu had both sensed the gathering of magic energy and smelt the buildup of the orb so as soon as it was within about two feet of him he spun on his heel and thrust the end of his staff into the attack
The smirk that had made itself present on Minerva's face was quickly replaced by a look of shock as instead of exploding like it should have the attack seemed to solidify in a way she could never get it to do and Natsu, holding in one hand the other end of his staff flung his whole body round with the fang following, clothes lining Rouge and making the end -with Minerva's attack still trapped there- collide with Sting who had attempted to sneak up on him
The magic ball then exploded as it should have and Sting was flung back, where he collided with Minerva and then the two of them were sent careening into a wall and despite the loud thud Natsu knew the two of them were fine beyond a couple of bruises
As the three children got up shakily off the floor and their legs got some strength back in them, they shared a look and at once rushed Natsu from three directions and as one struck…
Jet, who had never really been one for patience attacked first, he rushed the larger of the two men, figuring him to be far two slow to even consider dodging, what he didn't take into consideration however was the speed of the older brother
The smaller man swiftly pulled the frying pan from his back and swung it round into Jet's path; the collision sounded remarkably like the sounding of a gong and as such seemed to signal the beginning of the fight
The larger vanish brother leapt over his brother who was steadily fending off the dazed Jet's sloppy attacks and launched himself at Droy; Droy in retaliation threw his hands out, palms facing his feet
"BRAMBLE WALL!"
The large man managed to stop short of the spiked bushes that burst from the floor, after a quick scan over the obstacle the vanish brother simply began to tear at the wall, ignoring the small scratches sustained
At the other end of the room, Jet had regained his balance and was literally running circles around the older vanish brother but despite his best efforts he could not land a hit, the thin man's odd weapon and his incredible skill rendered any attempt at hand to hand combat suicide
"PRESSURE CANNON"
Throwing his hands forward Jet created a blast of compressed air that hurtled towards the unsuspecting vanish brother, the man was thrown off balance and Jet used his magical speed to rush in and landed a swift punch to the face, then one to the ribs and a low sweep that floored the man all in the space of a second
The younger vanish brother broke through the wall of sharp bushes only to be met with a hard wood fist to his gut, taking a retreating step back the vanish brother saw that Droy had covered himself in an armour that looked to be made out of trees
"My iron wood armour, you like it?" Droy asked condescendingly, receiving a grunt in response only for the larger man to suddenly rush forward and shoulder tackle him to the ground, repositioning himself to pin Droy down by sitting on his chest the man proceeded to pummel the wooden casing protecting the mage
All too quickly Droy heard cracks developing along his armour's surface and threw his right arm out; pressing a now uncovered palm to the floor he summoned a log of wood that collided with the large man
Seeing the attack coming the vanish brother had time to defend somewhat but the log colliding with his hastily crossed arms still threw him off his captive and he slid across the room
The older brother having since regained his footing was steadily beating Jet off with the considerably greater reach of his weapon, despite Jet's advantage in speed his accuracy still left a lot to be desired and the thin man was finding it simple to dodge the speed mage's attacks
Recognising that the fight was going nowhere Jet halted his movements and threw his hands out towards his opponent
"PRESSURE CANNON"
Once again the compressed air rocketed towards the vanish brother but this time he was prepared, "not this time!" He called and repositioned the cooking end of the frying pan into the blast's path, upon the connection of the two the compressed air seemed to disperse along the surface of the pan. The man then swung the weapon around his body so he was holding it behind him and the cooking face was directly at his side
"PRESSURE COOKING!"
A blast of compressed air twice as big as Jet's pressure cannon shot at the red headed wizard, despite his increased speed the unexpectedness of the attack threw Jet off and he was hit, flying backwards across the room just as the other brother slid past him, who then rose to stand next to his brother
Levy and Lucy had retreated to a tunnel like sub basement that Lucy had discovered, they both recognised it lead directly into the local towns sewer system, Levy was sitting against the wall off the tunnel with a blue pair of gale force glasses perched on her nose as she calmly blitzed through the book on her lap
Lucy however was high strung, expecting at any moment an attack from Everlu or his two mage hunting cronies, she had in her hand the key of Cancer in preparation taking into account the relatively tight space they were in
Feeling the ground below her quake Lucy quickly launched herself to the left just as Everlu launched himself from the earth where she had been standing
"ho ho my dear, I'm quite impressed, not very often can people dodge my diving magic.", He praised before his face twisted into a sneer as he noticed Levy who hadn't even reacted to his entrance
"There's my precious possession, I'll just deal with you two ugly thieves myself but I suppose not before you tell me the location of that good for nothing's secret fortune!", He yelled as he leapt at Lucy, she ducked to the side and kicked Everlu into the sewer water, then drew her hand up and, with key still in hold, swung it down
"OPEN; GATE OF THE GIANT CRAB! CANCER, BATTLE FORM"
A white glowing silhouette appeared before Lucy and as it subsided the appearance of the summoned spirit was revealed, Cancer was a tall spirit with orange tinted skin, his hair was black with thin streaks of red was mostly concealed under a red samurai helmet emblazoned with a crab pointing it's pincers into the air, his eyes were also concealed behind green tinted lenses that came off the helmet
His clothing looked like simplistic samurai armour, only the essentials were still there, the chestplate was stripped orange and blue, the trousers were a solid orange, the covering on each arm looked like six crab legs had wrapped themselves around his arms and a red fabric spread between them
But the most fearsome thing were his weapons, he wielded a pair of large blades, each easily as tall as himself and as wide as board they were triangularly prismatic, starting off at a wicked point and gradually widening to a edge about 5cm long, the blades curved slightly away from the edge, their handles which were similar to the circular handles of scissors looked to be stylised as crabs
But most odd of all was what looked to be a pivot joint on the right blade and on the left a hole in exactly the same place
"you summoned me? –ebi.", He said in a smooth voice, Everlu shot out of the water looking absolutely livid
"a celestial spirit eh!? No matter, if I deal with you the pesky thing will simply disappear!", He screamed
"Cancer! I need you to subdue this man!", Lucy said as Cancer blocked the duke's lunge with the flat of one of his blades
"Can do. -ebi", he threw Everlu into a nearby wall and in one swift motion positioned the hole on his left blade ofer the pivot point on his right, with a snap the two blades joined with the blunt edges facing inwards, Cancer then dashed forward and captured Everlu between the two blades turned tongs
Holding the blades together with one hand Cancer turned to Lucy with Everlu struggling wildly trying to escape
"now what? –ebi", Cancer asked
"let me go you overgrown seafood platter! Don't you know who I am!? I'm…", Everlu's annoying rant was cut off by a gasp from Levy
"VOLCANIC PILLAR!"
Smacking the end of the dragon's fang into the ground a pillar of fire had heat exploded upwards around Natsu throwing the three children back, all three repositioned and nimbly landed on their feet, deciding to change tactic they all pointed their weapons at Natsu
"VOID BLAST!"
"SHADOW COBRA!"
"LIGHT GRENADE!"
The three attacks converging on the still lieutenant seemed to happen in slow motion, Natsu using the staff as a pole vault clears the light attack's detonation, flips around horizontally and decapitated the large shadow snake with a slice of fire before landing and batting the green energy orb into the group of adult members who were attempting to flee
Undeterred Minerva charged in again while the two younger boys prepared another magic attack
"perhaps I should wrap this up", Natsu muttered before nimbly twirling the staff round, knocking both Minerva's hands away form her body and thrusting the end of his staff into her forehead, instantly knocking her out cold
Natsu then turned and using incredible speed rushed to stand beside Rouge, the boy looked shocked at the fact his target had moved so fast and was too slow on the uptake to defend the oncoming attack, Natsu swung the staff low sweeping the boy's legs out from under him and as he fell towards the earth with his eyes to the sky, Natsu quickly repositioned the dragon's fang and swung down on the boy's torso, crashing him into the earth at a speed that caused cracks to form along its tiled surface
Natsu straightened and swung the staff around behind him in a wide arc
"HEAT WAVE!"
The wave of hot air easily picked Sting who had been shocked frozen up and flung him directly into a nearby pillar with enough force to knock the young man out, at that moment some of the scout reserves entered, having been attracted by the sounds of battle and they swiftly captured the three children and the adult guild members who were all resigned to defeat, some were even weeping and whining at how unfair everything was. Satisfied, Natsu then left the courtyard, following his nose…
"I must admit you two are easily most formidable opponents, for mages at least…", The shorter of the vanish brothers said
"But unfortunately for you, your skills won't be enough, myself and my brother are specially trained to deal with mages.", the taller of the two nodded as his brother monologued
"You see: we spend every hour of everyday we are not on a mission training our bodies to become the most skilled and unbeatable fighters, mere mages who instead spend their time training their minds to better preform magic and neglect their bodies will be incapable to ever defeat us"
"Hey Jet. I think this guy talks too much. What about you?", Droy said with a scowl
"I couldn't agree more, but it's the other one's dumb face that pisses me off", Jet replied
"what do you say we switch?", Droy proposed
"Done! Besides this fight is irritating me, how about we go all out?", Jet responded with a cocky smirk
"Oh? Getting bored are we, mage? Well I must say that I'm inclined to agree with you… Brother. Let's finish this!", the older brother held the pan out parallel to the floor and the younger stepped onto it, then in a display of incredible strength the smaller man tossed his larger sibling into the air
Following the trajectory of the large man the two fairy tail mages missed the older brother's mutterings, "as you look to the heavens…"
"WE STRIKE FROM THE EARTH!"
The smaller man swung his pan around, it cleanly collided with Droy, throwing him into a nearby bookcase and he then pivoted and back kicked Jet into his recovering friend. The two's attention now focused on the older vanish brother missed the younger's voice, "and as you peer to the earth…"
"WE STRIKE FROM THE HEAVENS!"
The large man crashed onto the unprepared mages with enough force to crash through the floor and an opposing wall, sending them both careening into the mansion's large foyer
"HEAVEN AND EARTH EXTINCT SLAYING ATTACK!"
The vanish brother's bellowed in stereo
"that should do it…", The older then said as he jumped nimbly down with the frying pan set casually across his shoulder
"I just hope Mr Everlu doesn't get too mad we broke his house.", The younger said
"meh, we'll just blame it on the mages…", The older brother dismissed before the movement of rubble caught the pair's attention
A large slab of rubble moved over to reveal a large sphere made of vines, as it unraveled the two fairy tail mages appeared, Droy clutching one of his arms and Jet with a gash above his left eye, Jet let out a low whistle as he looked around at the damage caused
"that's quite the attack, for non-mages at least…", he said with the same cocky smirk from earlier
"That's impossible! No one has ever survived the heaven and earth extinct slaying attack!", The smaller vanish brother exclaimed looking affronted
"and that name!", Droy exclaimed with a smirk matching his friend's
"such a mouthful! Well Jet, the've gone all out, how about we do the same?", Droy said raising his arms out so he stood straight with his wrists crossed over each other, one Palm to the floor, the other the ceiling
"Took the words right of my mouth…", Jet said lowering his body in a pose that looked exactly like those of Olympic sprinters, after a moment his body began to glow a bright white...
"MACH TEN!"
Jet seemed to disappear, leaving only a loud bang as the sound barrier shattered, the younger vanish brother's face became etched in shock at it seemed three Jets appeared before him; one crouched low, the second preparing a punch and the third winding up for a roundhouse kick; seemingly all at once, the younger brother was uppercut, punched in the gut and sent flying across the room from a roundhouse kick
As he flew, his body convulsed as Jet landed punches and kicks across the man's entire being without once affecting his flight path. The older vanish brother looked shocked at his brother's seemingly impossible defeat before quickly turning to the other mage who he found with his eyes closed and his palms glowing dark green
"GARDENS OF JOYA!"
The ground throughout the room developed cracks and not a moment later a great forest of thick vines grew and buffeted the older brother, he tried to raise his weapon in defence but found it had been pinned to the floor by thin vines wrapped around it and he was unable to move it, he released the pan and tried to jump away only for more vines to burst from the earth and entangle his legs causing him to fall and become encased in vines.
"And that's that", Droy said as he sat down quickly, Jet came to a stop and bent over breathing deeply
"phew… Yup, huff, I wonder, huff, how the girls are doing?", He said.
"What is it?! Have you found out where that worthless author hid his fortune!? TELL ME!", Everlu screeched, still being held captive by Cancer's odd weapon
"shut it you monster! I can't believe you would stoop so low as to do that to someone!", Levy yelled looking furious
"What are you talking about you miserable thief!?", Everlu asked in indignation
"you forced Kemu Zaelon to write this book didn't you!?", Levy accused pointing an angry finger at the captured man
"of course not! Where would you even get such an idea like that you ugly little girl!"
"Don't lie to me! It says it all right here!", Levy yelled , now pointing at the book in her hands
"what in Earthland are you blabbering about!? That book's barely eligible as literature! Besides its plot is about yours truly not Zaelon!", Everlu responded, now beginning to sweat slightly
"Levy? What are you talking about?", Lucy asked timidly, honestly scared of the shorter girl's temper, the bluenette in question let out a huff of hot air and looked at her companion
"the book had a magical enchantment on it, one that rearranged the words so that someone like him…", she sent a scathing look at their captive
"couldn't read what it really says", she explained
"So what does it say?", Lucy asked, half excited and half scared about the answer
"well the idiot duke is right about one thing, in its original form this book is easily the worst one I have ever read, it's supposed to be about a 'Count Neverla' so basically Everlu in every aspect but name", she began to explain
"And who wouldn't jump at the chance to write a book about me, I'm easily the pinnacle of humanity! Unlike you two…" Everlu said snobbishly
"SHUT UP!", The girls screamed in stereo
"as I was saying, the original form details the counts adventures that almost certainly never happened, but the book after the enchantment is unraveled tells a much darker story"
"What? What does it say?", Lucy asked, completely entranced with the small woman's story telling skills
"Do you remember when Kemu Zaelon wrote his last book?", Levy asked unexpectedly
"well yea, it was about thirty five years ago wasn't it?", Lucy answered
"thirty three but close enough, I now know why…"
"After publishing one hit after another, this narcissistic ass approached Zaelon and proposed a story with him as the main character, and he expected it to be done completely for free! Obviously Zaelon refused outright having more pride as a writer than that"
"But it turns out this guys isn't just a duke he's also a major M.P. And threatened to take away the citizenship of Zaelon and his entire family if he didn't cooperate and write the book, seeing no way out, Zaelon agreed but Everlu was angry about the initial rejection and so locked him up in a solitary cell until the novel was finished"
"The book also contained his last will and testament and his last words to his family and friends, which also explains why this job exists, Kemu Zaelon is a pseudo name, his real name is Zekua Melon.", Levy finished explaining, causing Lucy to gasp
"th-this book… Does it say anything about m-my uhh… Dealings?", Everlu asked now sweating quite profusely, Levy turned to him with a simply evil smirk on her face
"oh it says all kinds of things about your 'dealings'", Levy said maliciously, I feel sorry for any boyfriends she ever has, Lucy thought, unfortunately hearing what Levy said Everlu doubled his efforts to escape and managed to free one of his arms and in it Lucy saw something gold catch the light
"OPEN: GATE OF THE MAIDEN! VIRGO, BATTLE FORM!"
"Ehh!?", Lucy exclaimed
"you're a celestial spirit mage too!?", before them Virgo burst from the ground, the spirit was feminine, with a slight body and the same bright pink hair as the gorilla woman, on her wrists and ankles were shackles with two or three rings of chain on each, her clothing was form fitting black and white leather hunting gear, she also had war paint on her face that looked like she was adorned with a purple skull
Despite the fearsome paint it was undeniable the spirit was quite the looker even though she had an apathetic look adorning her face
"ugh! I hate having you use this form, it makes you look so ugly! No matter, Virgo! Get me out of here and deal with these pests, don't let them leave here alive! They know too much!", Everlu screamed orders
"Cancer! You can let Everlu go! Protect me!", Lucy cried in fear as the Amazon of a woman rushed at her, Cancer immediately and unceremoniously dropped Everlu and ran to Lucy's side, blocking a swing from the female spirit he split his blades apart again and began returning attacks
Lucy could see plain as day that Virgo was the stronger spirit but she knew that she had more magic power to supply to her spirit making it not battle of strength but of endurance, well at least that was the case until Levy stepped in
"SOLID SCRIPT! FLAME!"
The word 'flame' made of solid flames appeared before Levy before she released the spell into one continuous stream of fire towards the pink haired spirit, having been caught off guard Virgo took the hit head on and Everlu stumbled form the intense magical drain on his body
"Virgo finish this quickly!", He yelled beginning to fear defeat
"yes master.", The spirit responded in a bored sounding voice before lunging at Cancer, blocking the attack with the flat of his right blade, he swung the left one round only for it to be blocked by the shackle on Virgo's right wrist
"Mistress! Little comrade! Buy me a second!", Cancer exclaimed as he jumped back
"Can do" Lucy exclaimed with whip in hand
"I AM NOT LITTLE!", Levy yelled with a tick developing on her forehead
"SOLID SCRIPT! EARTH!"
As the Levy wrote the word before her, Lucy flung the whip round, tying the female spirit's ankles together; the word now complete, Levy releases the spell in the form of five letters made of solid earth hurtling towards the trapped spirit
The spirit in question simply raised her hands and the letters simply dissolved into dust and settled in a pile behind her, she then reached down and in one quick movement grabbed the whip and snatched it out of Lucy's hands
As this happened Cancer once again placed his left blade over his right but this time with his wrists crossed so the edges faced inwards, with a snap the two were locked and his weapon now resembled a giant pair of razor sharp scissors
Lunging forward he stabbed at the opposing spirit who was forced to dive into the earth to protect herself, she resurfaced behind the crab spirit but he was prepared, releasing his grip on the left handle he swung the left blade on its pivot like a fan, the unorthodox attack method caught Virgo by surprise and she suffered a deep gash up her midsection
Lucy and Levy knew the battle was over, Virgo looked far too tired to continue and Everlu looked and sounded like he was running a marathon
"Virgo … Huff… Why have … Huff … You stopped!?", Everlu angrily asked between pants but just as he did his magic ran out and Virgo disappeared in a small flash of light
"Useless spirit…", Everlu huffed before passing out himself
Jeez look at that, it's like a fucking essay, whelp I'm not really sorry this took so long, me starting sixth form has left me with tonnes of homework and trying to balance school work, social life and regular sleep patterns has put this little project on the back burner, only something I really work on when I don't want to do my math homework or just feel like I've left it sitting too long
That is to say by no means am I quitting it's just updates may be a little slower, but if for what ever reason I don't update in more than two months you have my permission to yell at me