"Gajeel, how are we going to practice my defenses for Bickslow? I really don't know anything about his magic except that it's an energy force. I mean, I think I can protect against being taken over, I'll just have my glasses handy, but the totem blasts, those I don't know much about."
The Dragon Slayer tilted his head to the side, considering her words as his hands continued shaping the objects he was going to be throwing at his tiny mate. They had come up with this plan together, and he was pretty proud of her for how seriously she was taking everything.
"Yeah, ya let me handle that one. He ain't so tough on the hand t'hand, ya know?"
Levy nodded, taking some mental notes as well as physical. She looked down at the ground for a moment before taking a deep breath, finally speaking something that had been on her mind since it was announced that she had been chosen.
"Neither am I, if we're being honest. Should we try some physical training, Gajeel? I don't want to hold you back by making you deal with pretty much everyone just because I'm not strong enough. When I'm about tapped for magic today… Can we work on to hand to hand?"
She closed her eyes, holding her breath for a moment as she heard him sigh. Here we go. He's going to tell me no because he's afraid of hurting me again. She heard Gajeel grumble low in his chest, heard him draw in another breath, and braced herself for disappointment. She hated that everyone thought that she was weak.
Gajeel just grunted, not pausing in his work on the words he was shaping for their magic practice. It wasn't that he agreed with her. He KNEW how fucking strong the little woman was. The problem was that she didn't believe him when he told her. And it didn't help that he wasn't willing to fight her hand to hand. She'd been trying for weeks anyway to get him to train with her again. This was their second day since the trials announcement, and they'd only worked on her magic so far. Levy had asked Gajeel three different times to fight with her. She even tried a sneak attack yesterday. He'd just sidestepped the punch, caught her arm, and lifted her up in front of him. She'd pouted that he wouldn't fight her and it had looked so cute he couldn't resist claiming her mouth and that had been the end of training for the day.
"Well, it is true that you'll need to be quick to fight the cat, while I take care of the freak. We've got a few days yet, I'm sure we'll figure something out. The magic training should work your speed and reflexes anyway."
With a sigh, Levy nodded, knowing that she'd lost the argument again. Gajeel couldn't tell her that he wouldn't spar with her because he was afraid of hurting her again. She wouldn't understand that it wasn't because of her own weakness, but his. He didn't trust his control, not since he'd cut her the last time. He didn't think he was strong enough to see her injured by his own hands again.
"Right. Let's try that again."
Levy huffed out a breath, pushing blue hair out of her face before retying the headband she wore. She watched her Dragon Slayer walk around the training field they were in, picking up the projectiles he'd been hurling at her for the last hour. Gajeel had shaped words out a lightweight metal and was using them as a training tactic. Glaring at him a little, Levy pushed herself off the ground, shaking out her arms and fingers to loosen them up again. The metal was light enough that it wasn't going to do lasting damage if she didn't move fast enough, but there were still bruises forming on her arms and legs.
Gajeel moved his pile of words behind a long wall he'd made along one side of the field so that she wouldn't see the word until it was flying at her, and hunkered down for a moment, tossing the objects onto the ground at random.
"Ya ready, Shrimp?"
Levy nodded, sliding her right foot back a little and lifting her hands in front of her, almost as if they were about to spar. Her left hand was open, her palm facing Gajeel, only the first two fingers of her right hand extended so she could write defenses as she went. As she settled into her stance, the first word came flying at her and her hand whipped around in the air, "water" appearing in front of her as the "fire" that Gajeel had lobbed at her passed through it. Levy stepped to the side to make sure the word missed her as it fell.
That was one hiccup to their training technique, the retaliations didn't always fully stop the attack. They had realized it a little too late that this wouldn't disappear as a regular fire would, and it had slammed into her chest, knocking her over. Not surprisingly, Gajeel had just grunted to hide his amusement, once he knew she was okay.
"Laxus would hit harder than that."
As her feet slid to her left to avoid the first falling word, Levy's eyes locked onto the next, Gajeel not wasting any time in his assault. No one else was going to be taking it easy on them, he wasn't going to let his woman expect fairness from their opponents. Again, her hand flashed in the air, this time her own "fire" erupting from her fingers and engulfing the "ice". Levy threw herself forward, rolling underneath it and feeling the heat from the metal as it passed. That particular word was covered in scorch marks and ash, fire being the only word she'd used in defense so far. Her momentum continued and Levy came up onto her feet without missing a beat or wobbling, her left hand batting away a small word that was flying at her face. There were several "physical" attacks of varying sizes, and she'd discovered that she could save herself a little energy if she deflected the smaller ones with her hand instead.
They continued this exercise for several minutes, Levy deflecting or countering each of the words that Gajeel threw at her. Gajeel wouldn't admit it to her until after the trials, he was ridiculously proud of his tiny woman. She'd come so far in her recovery, and her timing and thinking were as quick as ever. Here she was, nearing exhaustion, and she still hadn't let a single attack slip through. And she wasn't just blindly throwing her magic around, either. There were some attacks that were completely avoidable that she'd simply moved around. He had caught himself once or twice just standing there watching her. She was starting to flag a little, which was understandable, but he still wasn't going to let that drop in her defenses slide. She'd allowed her back to turn to him as she reacted to the "lightning" he'd thrown at her a moment ago.
Grinning to himself, Gajeel leaned to snatch a handful of the smaller projectiles that he'd fashioned to represent small physical attacks. There would be several opponents who could unleash those, and Levy needed to have defenses for those as well. He pulled back his right arm, throwing three of the words at the same time, watching them fan out as they flew towards the bluenette. He immediately snatched three more words in quick succession, whipping them one after the other. Gajeel waited a count of five before taking the last five and launching two at Levy's torso, two at her feet and one at her hand. The fact that they had a good distance to travel allowed the final words a chance to catch the others since he threw them a little harder.
As all of the words raced towards Levy and she still hadn't turned around or responded, Gajeel wondered for a moment if he'd gone a little overboard. He started to open his mouth to yell a warning, after all in a fight he'd be watching her back anyway, but stopped short of saying anything as a new word formed in the air behind her. Almost quicker than he could track, "dome" appeared behind Levy, growing and shifting its shape until the letters lost most of their distinction, curving around and over the tiny woman like a shell. The physical attack words all bounced off harmlessly and fell to the ground. There was a silence for a moment as she waited to make sure there wasn't another attack about to assault her defenses.
Gajeel thought for a moment to see if there was a weakness to this defense she'd come up with. With a smirk, he stomped a foot into the ground, sending his metal out to drill up underneath her. At the same time, to keep her from dispelling it too soon, he drew in a great breath, bellowing out shards of metal with his Iron Dragon's Roar. His sensitive hearing heard her squeak as the metal collided with her shell, but this just made him smile. Within seconds, his drill had neared the surface inside the dome. With a final push, he pulled the metal back down, flattening it into a platform about three feet down. This way the ground would collapse underneath her, but she wouldn't be hurt from a fall or be impaled on the drill.
Again, he heard her squeak in surprise, and this time her defensive word disappeared as the shock made her lose her focus.
"Gajeel! That wasn't one of the plans!"
He sauntered over, peering down into the hole with a deep chuckle before he bent down on one knee and extended his hand to pull her out.
"Because our opponents are gonna stick to our plans? C'mon Shrimp, yer the brains of this op. Ya know they ain't gonna go easy on ya. What if we're against bunny girl? Ya know that one spirit of hers could do that to ya too, and she ain't likely to keep ya from gettin' hurt in the process."
The tiny woman puffed out her cheeks in frustration, knowing he was right. Gajeel chuckled again, slipping an arm around her waist as he lifted her out, settling her on his knee.
"Yer reaction times are great though. 'Specially with how tired ya are."
Levy blushed, leaning against him as she pulled in slow deep breaths to slow her heart rate.
"So… about that hand to hand sparring?"
Gajeel made a strange snorting sound before turning his head to the side of the training field and calling out to the watchers he'd noticed a few hours ago,
"Ya may as well come out, ya assholes. I know yer watchin'."
Levy pulled away, blinking up at her dragon in confusion and looking around the training area that they were in. There were some plants lining one side, but she hadn't even thought about it before. Kicking herself as the realization set in that those plants weren't natural, she saw her friends step sheepishly from behind a particularly large bush.
"I'm assumin' yer here 'cause ya wanna help with her trainin', no? Fine. Help."
Gajeel stood, setting Levy on her feet, his hand resting on her back as he glared at the two men standing in front of them. He lifted his hand to pat her shoulder and then turned, starting to walk to the side of the training field to sit and watch. While it wasn't the straight up denial that she'd been expecting, Levy still sighed, her shoulders drooping slightly as she watched the Dragon Slayer walking away from her.
"Gajeel! They won't fight me! And even if they do, it's not going to help. They're both too afraid of cracking fragile little Levy…"
Her voice broke as she trailed off, looking away as anger warred with tears on her face. Droy looked down at the ground, nudging a rock with his toe. He didn't even try to argue, because she was right. Almost the entire time that they had been a team, he'd been unwilling to fully train with Levy for fear of hurting her. Although at this point, if he was honest, he wouldn't be much of a challenge for anyone to fight hand to hand, but he didn't really want to admit that out loud. That would just make Levy and Jet start harassing him about a diet again. Gajeel simply folded his arms across his chest, raising an eyebrow at the Script Mage. He really didn't want to have this fight again right now. Not with these idiots around.
Before anyone else said anything, Jet shot forward. He wasn't actually using any of his speed magic, so far as Gajeel could tell, but he was still moving pretty fast. Levy was going to be hit if she didn't stop sulking. The Dragon Slayer held his tongue, he wouldn't always be able to warn her of attacks when they were in the middle of a fight, and he knew she was capable of defending herself. Just as Jet neared her with his fists raised, Levy's demeanor changed. Gajeel wouldn't have noticed if he hadn't been watching her so closely, but her shoulders tightened a little and her hands clenched into fists. Jet threw his first punch and Levy simply ducked under him, throwing a cross straight into his chest and allowing his own momentum to add to the force of her counter attack.
Gajeel caught his own hands clenching as he watched his tiny mate defend herself against her tall speedster. They exchanged several blows, the both of them blocking or deflecting. The Dragon inside threw itself against the tight hold that Gajeel had on it at one point when Jet landed a solid punch to Levy's stomach, knocking the woman back a few feet, but she recovered quick enough with a kick that managed to slip inside the redhead's defenses. They both stood for a moment gasping for the breath they'd knocked from each other before Levy straightened, a heated glare leveled at her best friend.
"You're holding back! You aren't even going at your top speed!"
Jet shook his head, turning to dash to the edge of the field for a bottle of water for each of them, tossing one to Levy.
"I've matched Mira's speed a few times. She's the only one who is going to be out there who is close to my speed. The rest of them you're already a match for. Well, maybe not Laxus in his lightning form, but Levy if you come up against him with that you'd better throw a lightning rod and get the fuck out of there. Don't even try to fight him."
Gajeel rumbled his approval at that logic before stepping forward.
"He's not gonna be a problem for the Shrimp. If we go against Laxus, I'll keep his attention on me. Yer right though, these idiots aren't enough of a challenge for ya. Fine. Ya get yer wish. Tomorrow Shrimp, it's you and me."
A/N - Another chapter! Once again thank you for Gajeelswoman for actually wanting to write this with me, and to Kmmcm for being our beautiful beta reader.