CH18: Fairies and Ravens

Zancrow was looking over the scarlet mage who was asleep and mumbling something about a picnic. It was 12:00 A.M. and they needed to start getting ready for patrol around the castle. He grabbed Erza by the shoulder and shook her lightly to wake her up. Nothing in life is simple, and the God Slayer found that out the hard way. Erza in her sleep wrapped her arms around Zancrow's and flipped face down. The God Slayer's hand was now directly on her right breast with the only thing separating the two from colliding being a simple nightgown. Erza finally woke up, only to find herself being groped in her sleep. After judo flipping him to the floor, Erza reequipped her sword into her hand and attempted to stab Zancrow where it hurt most.

"I told you what would happen if you tried anything!" she screamed in rage.

"Hold it you crazy bitch. Ow! You can poke someone's eyes out with that thing!"

"I'm trying to cut off…"

"I know what you're trying to do! Now get off me!"

Erza realized that both were on the floor and she was riding him reverse cowgirl style, leaving her ass exposed near the God Slayer's face. She jumped up so quickly she almost hit her head on the high ceiling. Zancrow called her a crazy bitch again and ordered her to get dressed because the thieves would strike again in less than an hour. Still mortified, Erza changed while Zancrow waited for her in the living room.

…

Zancrow and Erza were patrolling the inner walls of the castle keeping close to the royal vault. They figured that the assailants could not avoid an encounter with them without jumping this perimeter. The wizards currently had the element of surprise. The job offer was hand delivered by the king's messenger so that only Fairy Tail would receive it. The royal palace and the guild were the only ones aware that the king had hired help to take care of this problem. As far as the dark guild members knew, they would be able to loot the castle again no problem.

To make things even better, the king let the wizards borrow soldier uniforms so that they may blend in and not tip off the dark guild members at first. It was a little past one in the morning and there was still no sight of the assailants; however, the night was still young.

Zancrow looked focused, deadly, and ready to crush anything that came his way. Erza on the other hand was flustered. She had been staring at the God Slayer most of the night and could not help but think about how much he has changed since he has joined Fairy Tail. When his probation ended, she half expected him to bone most of the female members of the guild or start a deadly brawl within the guildhall. She wasn't surprised when he went out and partied a bit, but Erza expected him to make many more stupid decisions.

"Paint a picture, it lasts longer." Zancrow said looking annoyed. Erza found out she had been staring.

"W-who said I was looking at you?" Erza stuttered. Zancrow smirked and walked right in front of Erza until his nose was centimeters from hers.

"Your face because it's as red as your hair." He smirked confidently. Erza's face was steaming hot now. To think that she would be caught in the act.

"I'm just keeping my eye on you like master said."

"Evidently." Zancrow perched himself near the ledge of the wall and stared intensely at Erza. "You know, if you wanted a date with me you could have just asked. You didn't need to come with me on this quest to spend time with me."

Erza couldn't believe the God Slayer's audacity. "Who would ever want to go on a date with you? Besides all the whores in Fiore?" Erza asked smugly.

"That's why I'm asking you."

"You ass…"

"Jokes aside, think about it. I'll take you out for ice cream, or we can spar…or maybe I'll take you to the meadows near the outskirts of Magnolia for a picnic."

'Picnic?' How did Zancrow know she wanted to go on a picnic? "As flattering as you are, I see you as nothing more than a fellow guildmate." She stated with a hint of red on her cheeks.

"The point of dating is to move past that mere guildmate stage in case you didn't know. Or have you even gone on a date with anyone before?"

Erza was silent. For a while all you could hear at the top of the castle was the wind blowing and the crickets chirping.

"No."

"Hmm, your loss." Zancrow walked away faking a tough guy act when he was actually furious. No one denied the God Slayer.

Erza was pondering the God Slayer's forwardness. Why was he flirting with her? Surely he knew he was playing with fire so to speak.

Suddenly, Zancrow tackled Erza to the ground.

"GET DOWN!"

(BOOM)

The two immediately recovered as the explosion subsided. The vault door was melted and the rubble around it was on fire. Off to the side he could see two purple spikes embedded into the ground where they were just standing. Zancrow then noticed two more spear-like objects soaring straight towards them. This time it was Erza's turn to protect them and she reequipped into her Heaven's Wheel armor. She slashed the two barbs out of the sky and sent them crashing into the wreckage behind them.

"The hell was that!" Zancrow yelled.

"It appears we are under attack."

"No shit woman. I mean watch where you swing those things! You could have sliced my head off!"

Erza merely looked at the God Slayer and smiled. "You're welcome."

Both wizards looked towards courtyard to see two dark figures standing in the middle. One was a female in a scandalous red dress revealing most of her breasts. She had long red hair and a crazy look on her face. The other was a humanoid purple creature who was buff, had a literal double chin, and was covered in spikes.

"So you're the ones responsible for the castles sudden reduction in staff." Zancrow said as he was consumed with black flames.

The dark guild members merely smirked. "Flare, be a dear and kill the blonde loudmouth for me. I will take care of the cute armored wizard."

"Sure thing Nullpudding."

Flare then ignited her hair and wrapped many strands of it around Zancrow's limbs like tentacles from an octopus. She then jumped off the balcony with the God Slayer in tow.

"Zancrow!" Erza ran in his direction but was stopped by Nullpudding who now appeared like a purple hedgehog. He was covered in spikes that protected all his limbs and weak points.

"No you don't. Your fight is with me lady."

…

Zancrow was barely able to get one of his hand free for his Explosive Flame attack. He blasted Flare midair and sent her crashing through the foundation of the outer yards of the castle. He landed right behind her expecting her to be knocked out. No such luck. In the dark he could see her face of surprise.

"How are you unharmed?" she asked.

Zancrow looked over all four of his limbs and remembered that he was immune to fire attacks. He was a Flame God Slayer after all. He just smirked as he began to charge up his Chaos Sphere. "This just isn't your lucky day lady."

(BOOM)

Zancrow looked hopeful that his attack hit his target. Instead, Flare leapt out of the way and counterattacked.

"Red Hair Storm!"

Multiple locks of her hair started to whip Zancrow mercilessly as he tried to block as many blows as he could. The initial impacts however sent him flying back through a wall.

"She's tougher than she looks." Zancrow stood up and saw that he was in a weird cavern that had a weird green glow to it. He decided to ignore it for now since the crazy red haired lady (not Erza) was darting right at him.

"Red Hair Mace!" Flare's hair formed a big mace complete with spikes heading straight for Zancrow. He jumped out of range as it crushed the ground he was just standing on. Zancrow launched a bombardment of black flame fireballs towards the dark wizard only to have them blocked by her powerful hair.

"Impressive. No soldiers have ever given us this much trouble before." Flare said.

At this point Zancrow ripped his helmet off and ditched the royal armor which was only weighing him down. "I'm no soldier bitch, I'm a God Slayer. You think your attacks are hot, try this on for size!"

Flare licked her lips lustfully and started charging at Zancrow. "It's too bad I have to kill you. After all, you are indeed really hot."

She struck at him with her hair with him easily dodging it and counter attacking with a kick to her stomach. She flew back and fell on her ass. Quickly she recovered and launched yet another attack. This time her hair shot a tempest of fire towards the God Slayer.

'How stupid can she be?' he chuckled. As big as the tempest was, it disappeared in seconds as Zancrow devoured all of it. With that, he was now at full power again. He looked at a wide-eyed Flare who seemed to be frozen in shock. Seeing his chance, he charged up his most powerful attack.

"Flame God Kagutsuchi."

(BOOM)

He pulverized her. He walked up to where her body laid on the floor injured, and now even more undressed than before due his fire burning her dress. "You know, you're actually kind of cute when you're knocked out." Zancrow carried her out of the ruins of the underground ready to claim his reward.

'I hope Erza managed to knock out that purple spiked freak without much trouble.' He blushed as he thought of the scarlet haired mage doing battle so fiercely. 'Guess she's kind of cute too.'