Levy's stomach dropped into her feet when the Dragon Slayer next to her suddenly stilled. He'd been clenching and opening his fists since they'd landed on the shore, eagerly striding down the path they'd chosen. He'd tried sniffing around at the entrance to a few of the trails, but apparently the S-Class mages hadn't started at the beginning of the paths like they were. Which made sense, most of the teams had someone who would be able to track by scent and try to make their choice that way. At one point, Gajeel had been almost bouncing with each step, excited for their upcoming fight.

While she was honored that he trusted her ability that much, Levy had found herself crossing her fingers that they would get the tranquility path again. She'd started relaxing; they'd been walking forever without coming across any opponents. The Script mage had even felt a little bad for her partner, watching him become restless as they continued without contest. But then, he stopped. No warning, no hand signals to tell her there was a monster nearby, nothing. Just stopped dead. She noticed that the wind blowing through her hair had changed, and assumed he'd caught someone's scent.

"Gajeel? What is it?"

He was prepared. He'd trained her in tactics for every team they could come against, and he was eager to fight Laxus, Natsu, and even Erza. So who could have made him freeze like tha- oh, no. Levy groaned as she put all of the pieces together. She rested her hand against the Dragon Slayer's back as they both started forward, moving down the last few yards into a clearing.

"Gajeel, we didn't have a word for Gildarts! I don't know what to do!"

Red eyes turned to meet hers, holding her gaze for just a moment before he took a deep breath, shaking himself slightly as a grin started to split his face.

"Yeah, Shrimp. I know. But battle plans never last past the first encounter anyway, yeah?"

She bit her lip, already pouring through all of the words that she knew she could turn into an attack. Most of them would be useless, he'd simply break them apart. Even if Gajeel kept him engaged enough that they'd hit, she ran the risk of hitting her Dragon Slayer. Shit… how did we forget Gildarts?

"Why didn't we just sneak around, Gaj? It's not like he's got the enhanced senses…"

Levy knew it was too late now, but she couldn't resist whining at the man as she faced such a powerful opponent. She'd never been the one to rush into fights, or to fight much at all unless she had to. The bluenette shook herself, still staring down the tall man next to her. There was nothing for it. She was nominated as S-Class for a reason. There had to be a logical solution.

Gildarts, for his part, didn't look bothered at the two standing in his clearing. Of course, none of the candidates were a threat to him, but he'd been hoping for someone other than Natsu, so this was nice. Not that he minded thrashing the boy, it was just a good change up to teach other people a lesson. Who knows? Maybe this pair could provide a challenge. They were probably one of the teams who would work together the best, if you really thought about it. He was glad it wasn't Cana, too. He knew he'd have to be impartial, but just didn't know if he was physically capable of that. At least this way it wasn't going to be an issue.

Levy tapped Gajeel's arm and motioned for him to lean down so she could whisper something in his ear. He started to grin as she outlined her plan and nodded to her. Gildarts still stood in the middle of the clearing, his cape draped over the metal side of his body. It would bloody hot if he let the sun hit it too much. He watched his opponents, figuring it was only fair to let them get a sort of battle plan set up, not that it was going to do them a whole lot of good. The tiny Script Mage kissed her Dragon Slayer on the cheek and stepped away from him, pulling a pen from her pocket. The raven haired man grinned a little wider and started walking towards the S Class man across the clearing, stretching his arms alternately across his body.

"I've heard a lot about ya from the Salamander, old man. This'll be fun."

Gildarts grimaced, kicking a stone by his feet.

"Did you have to go with the "old man" comment? It's not like I can control my age."

Gajeel threw his head back laughing as scales started crawling over his skin. Hopefully they would help a little as this fight progressed. He stopped about ten feet away from the older man, tilting his head to look his opponent over. Of course Gildarts was still just standing there. He wasn't one to put in more effort than was absolutely necessary in this sort of situation. Growing impatient, and slightly insulted that he didn't seem to be worth Gildarts' effort, Gajeel growled and drew back his right arm.

"Iron Dragon's Club!"

He threw his arm forward, a thick metal pole shooting down his arm and extending towards the other man. It raced forward, crossing the distance between them in mere seconds, but it wasn't fast enough. Gildarts just grinned, throwing up his right arm as a flash of magic left his body. Gajeel's eyes widened as the iron started to break into pieces.

"What the- SHIT!"

He immediately dispelled his magic, instead of pulling the metal back into himself. Gildarts' magic was fast enough that he almost lost his arm as well. The pieces of iron fell to the ground, heavy clunks sounding through the clearing as squares of metal crashed together and embedded themselves in the dirt. Well there's a lot of wasted magic..

In the short time that this encounter took, Levy had begun writing an intricate rune trap that she was unfortunately very familiar with. Her gaze kept flicking back to the men as Gajeel charged forward, deciding to test out the older man's strength without wasting any more of his iron. Gildarts was easily blocking and deflecting each strike and Levy started to worry as she finished the words she was writing. This will help… As she finished the trap, she saw both men stagger, and bit her lip. Gajeel was used to this, he should recover quicker and… Even as this thought went through her mind, both men straightened, their breaths short.

"What the hell was that?!"

Gildarts whirled to look at the giant tree that was the focal point of the island and source of power for the Fairy Tail members on this island, remembering what had happened the last time they'd been here. The tree was fine and still standing and when he looked back to Gajeel, he realized the Dragon Slayer was smirking, no surprise in his expression at all. His mind was racing and then he remembered the things he'd been told about the guild's recent fight, and the rune trap that Levy had devised. Sure enough, when he searched the clearing for the small woman, she was kneeling with her pen still in hand, runes glowing in the dirt in front of her.

"Well then. That's an advantage you two have, for sure… over most people."

At that point he smiled brightly, finally actually moving himself. He took two quick strides forward, closing the gap that was between him and Gajeel, drawing back his right arm and hurtling it forward at his face. Gajeel's eyes widened and he lurched to the side, his own arm coming forward at Gildart's stomach. They resumed their sparring, each throwing powerful punches and kicks, although Gildarts was more than just blocking this time around. Levy cursed under her breath, realizing that she'd just expended a lot of magic for no reason. Of course Gildarts wasn't going to be as affected by this trap. Yes, his magic was insanely powerful. But he'd have to be pretty powerful himself to be able to contain and wield such a magic, wouldn't he?

She left it for now, moving herself to a different part of the clearing, mind racing for something else to use against the man. She worked her way around behind him, an idea forming in her mind. While his back was still to her, her pen whipped through the air, writing the word "Hole" and tossing it to the ground. The word raced across the ground towards the two men, the O widening as it went. Gajeel saw the word coming at them and leapt to the side, rolling as he hit the ground and coming up to his feet, breathing a little heavily. Gildarts had spun to see what was coming that had made Gajeel run, just as the letters slid under his feet, and he fell into the hole under his feet with an amusing yell. Levy bit back a laugh as she moved away. They'd talked about how she shouldn't stay still in any one spot as she used ranged attacks, in case their opponent tried to blindly attack the last place they'd seen her.

It had only been a temporary move, she never expected it to keep him for long, just wanted to give Gajeel a respite. He smiled over at her, waving a hand towards the rune trap around them. She nodded, knowing he wanted her to dispel it and did so, watching him close his eyes and take a few slow breaths as the Dragon raged to the surface for a moment. It was never happy after she found a way to disable its hold on her mate. About the same time that he opened his crimson eyes, there was an explosion in the ground where Gildarts had fallen. A sort of ramp was now there and he walked up it calmly, a strange look on his face.

"You two think outside the box, I'll give you that. But this isn't over yet!"

He locked eyes on Levy and started towards her instead, even though he knew he wouldn't get far before Gajeel stopped him. Sure enough, he'd only made it about three steps when the Dragon Slayer charged at him, attempting to tackle him. He stopped suddenly, watching the raven haired man go flying by, grinning a little at the growl that erupted from his throat as his caught himself. Gildarts didn't give him much time to recover before he threw a low hook at the Dragon Slayer with his left arm. He'd planned to hit him in the stomach or chest as he pushed himself to standing, but that wasn't how it happened.

Instead, Gajeel wrenched his body to the side, allowing Gildarts' arm to pass in front of him, wrapping his arms around the metal appendage, his back to the older man. Before Gildarts could do much to try to pull his arm away, he heard a strange clank and then a metallic screech. Gajeel moved away, and the Crash Mage stared at his arm in complete shock.

"WHAT THE HELL, MAN?!"

Gajeel chuckled, moving away from the older man, holding a metal hand. He'd bit through the metallic arm, ripping Gildarts' hand free from his arm and taking a huge bite out of it, gnawing on the metal.

"What? Ya took some of my magic, I'm takin' it back."

Gildarts gaped at the Dragon Slayer, not even able to form a response. Gajeel backed away, ripping off a finger and tossing it into his mouth. Levy was standing on the edge of the clearing still, covering her mouth as she tried not to giggle. Finally, the Crash Mage snapped his mouth shut, lifting his right hand raising open handed to point at the Dragon Slayer. Gajeel's eyes widened as a glow started around Gildarts' remaining hand, expanding before exploding at the Dragon Slayer. He threw himself to the side, glancing over his shoulder to make sure Levy wasn't in the path of the older man's attack. His Dragon was somewhat appeased to see that she wasn't, although they both shivered a little as the trees behind where they'd been standing exploded into small cubes. Gajeel caught the scent of iron and realized he was next to the pieces of his attack that had been detached earlier. He wouldn't be able to eat them, but they could still be useful. He pushed himself to his feet, scooping the cubes up and sticking most of them into his pocket.

The Dragon Slayer drew back his arm, chucking one cube and then another at the Crash Mage's back, but they just bounced off, the older man glancing over his shoulder at Gajeel. He looked forward again, sighing heavily.

"Congratulations. I officially don't want to fight anymore."

Gildarts waved the stump of his left arm towards the other side of the clearing, shaking his head slowly as he stared at that particular appendage. Levy whooped from the bush she was hiding behind, jumping out into the clearing and running to her mate. He caught her as she leapt at him, hugging her tightly. Gajeel glanced over at the S-Class Mage, his ears picking up a sound. The older man was standing with his handless arm held in front of his face, almost whimpering. The Dragon Slayer snorted and set the tiny woman down again, walking over to their opponent.

"Look, I'm sorry 'bout yer hand. I can make ya a new one?"

He fished out a few cubes of the iron from his pocket and held them out in offering. Gildarts looked at him for a few moments and slowly held out his arm skeptically. Gajeel snorted again and touched one of the cubes to the stump, focusing his magic into melding it with the metal that was already there and shaping the iron into a hand.

"It won't be as flexible, probably. I'll fix that later, don't wanna waste too much of my magic just yet."

Gildarts studied his new hand, narrowing his eyes as he opened and closed his fingers a few times.

"You're damn straight you'll fix it later. Now get out of here before I change my mind."

A/N - This is so late. I have zero excuses.