"Speech"

'Thoughts'

"Attack"

[E.N.D speaking]

A few hours had passed since Natsu had decimated the Alpha Rock Dragon and his pack. Natsu had been fortunate enough to not run into anymore large packs and was even able to find a source of food that wasn't so bad. He was currently walking through a much more dense part of the jungle than he had been in and was casually munching on a piece of purple spotted blue fruit with yellow flesh. His sharp canines sunk in and fresh fruit juice oozed out and into his mouth. His little feet continued marching onwards in a one-two rhythm. Even though it could be said that Natsu had just recently escaped from a life and death situation he wasn't exhausted or bothered in the least. In fact Natsu only felt an overwhelming sense of curiosity and adventure within himself. However he didn't dare to pursue these feelings, there were countless unknown dangers lurking about and despite his carefree posture Natsu's forehead was covered in sweat. The sweat that had been worked up was not due to him being afraid but instead was caused by Natsu heightening his senses to the utmost limit. Everything living thing within fifteen kilometres, whether they were conscious of it or not, was silently being watched in detail by Natsu he even had a faint idea of what their heartbeat and rhythm of breathing was like. Doing this was undoubtedly taxing on Natsu and his strength was slowly depleting. [Found anything yet?] E.N.D spoke up at this point. Natsu was glad that E.N.D was with him. He might be in some hell hole but at least he had company. 'Not yet but I get the feeling I'll come across something soon.' Natsu thought back as he took another bite from the fruit in his hand. [You better hope that you do, night's coming soon and considering this place is crawling with dragons, I doubt you want to find out what the real predators are here.] E.N.D did have a point. Night time was usually when predators awoke back on Ishgar but this was Apex. The home of the dragons, what single beast is more powerful than a dragon? E.N.D was right, he didn't want to know. Natsu quickened his pace as much as he could, easing into a light jog. Although to a light jog would have most normal people having to sprint just to catch up to him. It was only due to the tortuous training Acnologia put him through that he was able to achieve such a feat. 'Hey E.N.D.' Natsu started, gaining the demon's attention. [What is it?] E.N.D replied, Natsu continued. 'Before when you told me "I didn't want to know what the real predators" were here, you sounded like you had a vague idea of what they were. Care to elaborate?' E.N.D did not reply for a few moments and then he spoke again. [I don't know what it is for certain, but there's something here that has me on edge.] This time Natsu stayed silent, other than the furrowing of his brows nothing else changed on Natsu's face. He continued jogging a few metres before something he ran past caught his attention. He quickly slammed his door into the ground, causing an indent on the ground, he came to a stop, turned on his heel and headed back slowly. He turned his head and smiled, because he had finally found that which he had been searching for, shelter. Not a moment too soon as well, looking up Natsu noticed that,through the leaves of the jungle trees, the clouds were painted a bright orange.

'Well it looks like we won't have to find out after all.' Natsu stated as he made his way over to his objective. It was a small mound that had been slightly hollowed out but still retained its natural look with jungle foliage covering the top of it and it's insides mainly comprising of dirt. Natsu crouched down and entered, when he lay down there was fortunately enough space for him to fit. It wasn't one of the comfiest of places he had slept in but he didn't care he'd slept in worse places before. Hell he was just grateful he actually got to sleep on his own accord for once. As Natsu laid down in the dirt he began to think. Tomorrow he'd definitely have to find a reliable source of food, if he could find something within a reasonable distance of the mound he'd be thrilled, but he knew he shouldn't get his hopes up. The second thing he thought about was more of a reflection. Natsu thought about his battle with the pack. Back then had he known he wouldn't be running into anything else afterwards Natsu would have definitely fought against without using Chaos Drive. Because he activated it he was able to easily deal with the situation but it did consume at least over a quarter of his magical supply despite it being active for less than a minute. Losing magic power wasn't that big of a deal to Natsu due to how fast he could replenish it however it definitely wouldn't hurt if he could maintain the Chaos Drive for a longer period of time, it certainly wouldn't do any harm. Natsu did take into account that he hadn't fully matured yet making his magical container smaller than what it should be, but in the end he still decided that he'd work on it starting tomorrow. The last thing on his mind was the new ability he had unlocked. True Dragon Slaying Secret Arts. It was the first he'd heard of it and wondered why Acnologia never mentioned it to him. It sure seemed like something important and the power he wielded was unlike anything he'd ever experienced before. Not to mention the fact that it allowed him to become intangible. Though he didn't really know how much magic power it consumed as it had disappeared before he could grasp how much he had lost. His magic regeneration didn't help with that either. Natsu sighed. "Well looks like I'll have one more thing to work on." He muttered. "What a pain in the ass." Sighing one more time he shut his eyes and let sleep claim him. The sounds of insects buzzing and the whistling of the wind relaxed him and soon enough he had drifted off into a deep sleep.

Natsu awoke approximately ten hours later. The sun had already begun to climb up into the sky when Natsu's eyes fluttered open. He groaned and began to stretch, only to have his feet hit the insides of the mound halting their advance. Natsu glanced down in annoyance, taking note of the lack of space, he huffed and then rolled out. Once in open space Natsu stretched his small body and let out yawn. His body now awake Natsu sat upright and immediately extended his senses, once again everything within fifteen kilometres was made crystal clear to Natsu. Every leaf, every blade of grass, every drop of water, nothing escaped. Natsu searched his surroundings and almost immediately he found something of great interest. Around ten kilometres east of where Natsu sat was a very large river. In fact calling it very large didn't even do it justice, Natsu had located this river yesterday but since he had other, more pressing matters he decided to leave it alone. The river had to be at least five kilometres wide because from where Natsu was, the river was so wide he didn't even know what type of terrain was on the over side. Regardless of its size, what interested Natsu was that there was something in the currents that was directly opposing them. Something was swimming up stream, actually there were a whole group of them. It was only because of his enhanced senses that he could identify this. 'Looks like we've got our next destination.' Natsu declared. [So it would seem.] E.N.D agreed. Natsu stood up and brushed the dirt of his hands onto his pants. He frowned when he saw the scales through the tears on his shirt's sleeves. He reached up and touched his hand to his jaw. It now had a leathery feel to it and Natsu could feel the familiar toughness of scales on it. His fingers traced his jawline, the left side didn't have any solid scales on it yet but then again the left side was always one step behind for some reason. His fingers slipped off his jaw and onto his neck and sure enough he felt the same leathery texture again. He sighed as his fingers dropped to his side. Deciding to forget about it, he grinned as he thought about the events today could bring and began to head off. He walked at a leisurely pace, every now and then his eyes would scan his surroundings as he looked for any signs of the blue fruit. He'd eaten the last one yesterday so he didn't have any food on him at the moment. Hopefully he was right about this river. If he was he wouldn't have to worry about food for a long time. A couple hours passed and Natsu finally arrived at the river. It was surprisingly calm and when he got there Natsu instantly realized just how big this thing was. It was a deep blue but despite its size it's currents were relatively calm. He could barely just make out the peaks of a few mountains off in the distance. "Holy crap." Natsu muttered. He stood there stunned for a few minutes before shaking his head to clear his thoughts. "Right, let's not forget why we came here, Natsu." He spoke to himself before taking a step into the river. He focused his senses and immediately he could make out the silhouettes of an abundant amount of fish. Natsu focused even more, he calmed his breathing and slowed his heartbeat to the point where it was as if it had completely vanished. Natsu slowly waded through the water. His very being had been camouflaged. He inched closer and closer and then both of his arms simultaneously lashed out. His hands became claws and their digits sunk into the flesh of two bodies of fish. He retracted his arms and out of the water came two large fish both half the size of his body. Natsu didn't know what kind of fish they were and quite frankly he didn't care. He sniffed them and confirmed that they weren't poisonous before biting a chunk out of the one in his right hand. He didn't know how to cook so he just settled for raw. [Woah, that's quite a catch you've got there.] E.N.D praised. 'Yeah no kidding.' Natsu replied back smugly as he continued to chew, the sound of bones cracking coming with each movement of his jaw.

When he reached the shore line Natsu sat down and laid the second fish in his lap. He held the other fish horizontally as he begun to dig into it. He ate peacefully enjoying the taste of the fish. Within minutes the fish had been devoured bone and all. Just as he was about to begin eating a loud, powerful voice boomed out. "Who was it?! Who dares to steal what is mine!?" It shouted. The voice was filled with anger and hatred and it seemed to come from the depths of the river. It was so powerful that it caused waves to erupt from the source. These waves originated from the centre of the river and by the time they reached Natsu they were over twenty metres tall. Seeing the waves Natsu's face darkened not out of fear but instead it was annoyance. He begrudgingly allowed his body to stand, the fish fell into the sand and landed near his feet. Natsu lowered his knees and his right fist reared back. Hen the wave came within range Natsu took one step forward and planted it firmly onto the ground. His body leaned forward with his fist following. Natsu's body stopped but the fist carried on as Natsu threw it into the wave. The instant the fist made contact with the wave it burst apart leaving Natsu completely unharmed. The force of the wave carried on throughout the entire wave destroying it completely. Suddenly the water started to shake and in the centre of the river burst out a silver dragonic shaped head with deep blue eyes. It had a turquoise colored fin running from the top of its head, down its long neck and into the water. Soon after two more identical heads burst out, a Hydra had appeared. "Was it you who stole from me, human!?" The first head shouted as the other two stared at Natsu who said nothing. "I asked you a question boy!" It bellowed before an ear-piercing roar erupted from the three heads. The water was disrupted but Natsu seemed to be unaffected. At this moment Natsu's magic energy spiked, a blackish blue magic circle appeared beneath him and his hair lifted slightly. A ring of magic energy pulsed up and outwards as Natsu entered the Chaos Drive. Seeing this the Hydra reared it's heads back. "Dragon slaying magic?! And it's of the chaos typing no less." The Hydra sounded surprised. "This kid….must be eliminated!" Making its decision the three heads opened their mouths as magic energy began to gather. The three head poured the magic together and released it. The magic fired off in the form of a massive torrent of water. Natsu opened his palm as he gathered magic energy. Shortly after a small black orb with a blue out line appeared. It flashed and then morphed into a black colored trident. "Chaos Dragon's." Natsu began before positioning himself in a throwing stance. "Soaring Trident!" Natsu launched the trident at the torrent of water and the two attacks met. There was no clash as Natsu's trident tore right through the water and proceeded towards the Hydra. "Impossible!" Was all the Hydra said before the trident made contact with one of it's heads.

It pierced straight into its skull as the other two heads roared out in pain. The trident seemed like it was about to pierce straight through but before it could Natsu whispered one thing under his breath as he watched his trident soar through the sky. "Boom." The trident exploded and chunks of the Hydra's flesh flew everywhere as it's neck sunk back into the ocean. Natsu breathed out then checked how much magic energy he had left. He'd lost about a quarter of it already. Without having to think about it Natsu sat down cross-legged and began to draw in the magic energy around him. As he recovered his lost magic energy back out at the ocean the Hydra was roaring in pain and anger. "Arghh! You fool!, Even if I have to die today I swear on my honor as one of the twelve guardians of Apex I, Thrak, shall exterminate you!" Just as he finished speaking the neck that had fallen into the water rose back up, it's head regenerated and with it another neck emerged roaring as it prepared for battle. Natsu too rose up but not with a roar but a laugh. "Hahaha! To think I'd find the perfect training partner and a source of food in the same day." Natsu raised his hand and taunted with a "come hither" gesture. "Come at me however you want! Natsu Dragneel challenges you!"

A/N Alright so Chapter 6 is done! Sorry for those of you who have been waiting for this but I have good news. I've decided to focus solely on this fanfiction before moving on to the others so you can expect more chapters soon!

Shout out to Aoutre for being the first to review this story. I hope everyone else leaves their opinion on this story.

That's all, see you next chapter!