Chapter 17: Black Adversary
"Get ready, cause your all about to face death." The figure glares under his hood as he puts his two hands on up on it.
"And just who the hell are you?" Tyrone asks with a brow tilt.
"It shouldn't matter who I am since some of you won't have a slight chance at last long on the field." The figure replies.
"You've got some nerve saying bull crap like that after just appearing to us." Gray scoffs.
"This guy's scent..." Natsu catches.
"It's just like..." Sueong also figures out/catches.
"..." Wendy widens her eyes in a little shock as well.
"The stench in this guy smells just like..." Jetoal trails.
"A dragon...!" Kanata utters.
"Say that again?!" Hiouis exclaims, hearing that right and is stunned, so are happy and Carla.
"5 out of the 10 of you know what my Odorous scent means... The figure then lets down his hood, "That's right, I'm also a Dragon slayer, but on a different level than the rest of you." The figure reveals his face, "For now, call me... Zet." With a now-sudden grimace, he flexes his magic around them, making the teams sweat in shock at this pressure.
"His magic power..." Lucy trails, shivering.
"It's on a different level..." Chelliel trails.
"It's almost like... mercuphobia at 50%!" Erza thought, shocked.
"Grrr...!" Sueong and Natsu feels this pressure, but still know this guys scent matches up with another.
"Now, shall we begin?" Zet smirks, extending his hand out and proceeds to attack with what appears to be shockwave in form of a dark field.
"!" The teams gasp in the incoming attack and they're too late to react as the dark wave appears to have hit them all.
Zet looks on as the gust blows and when the smoke clears...
"*Pant*Pant*Pant*" Grunts of pants are heard and when after the smoke clears and they're revealed to come from Natsu and Sueong, both revealing to have blocked and took the full brunt of the attack to protect their friends.
The teams look on in shock at their further bruised bodies.
"Sueong...!" Chellial gasps.
"Natsu...!" Lucy gasps.
"Bastard!" Gray exclaims in anger at Jet.
"Oh? despite that last battle you both had and the one prior with Mercuphobia... you both withstood my dark wave." Zet states with his eyes wide, impressed, "Not bad."
"Hold on sec, were you watching our battles this entire time?!" Jetaol asks, really surprised, almost dramatically.
"Yep, sure did. From start to finish, everything that occurred." Zet replies with a hand on hip and smirks, "Starting with you all joining forces against Mercuphobia and despite everything you threw at him, even with that little girl absorbing some of Mercuphobia's water to power-up, "He refers/glances to Kanata and adds, "It all did nothing, even while he was at 50%." He continues, "Hence, you all were on the verge of defeat and death until the Fire dragon god, Ignia, and the Ice Dragon God, Icigonis unexpectedly appeared and lended you guys a hand." He adds before glancing only Natsu/Sueong, "That's when you two consumed your slayer attributes from them and used that rapid increase in power to defeat mercuphobia effortlessly." He grimaced as he adds one more thing, "And last but not least, he points at two lead slayers, "You both engaged in a brutal battle in your amped states and took it all the way out here in this now-destroyed landscape. In the end, even though it was down to the wire... the Ice dragon slayer barely won, due to be more level-headed and still in control of his actions... a little bit."
The teams are taken back by all of this, now knowing that Zet wasn't joking when he said he watched the fights the entire time.
Zet stretches out his arms front and back with eyes closed, and says, "Today was quite the show..." He opens eyes and stops stretching, "The amount of attacks, destruction, and especially that last battle between you two, Natsu, Sueong." He points at them, "Just how I strong I expected you two to be... since you are the ones that dealt the killing blow to Acnologia."
"You even... know about that too?!" Natsu asks.
"Why wouldn't I? In fact, that's the main reason why I'm here." Zet replies, he frowns mad and his expression turns serious again at mentioning that.
"Main reason?" Erza murmurs, trying to get what else there is he means.
"So, you came to test us... is that it?" Sueong asks.
"There's more to it then just a "test". " Zet interrupts him, changing the subject, "I'm sure all of you will figure it out..." He grimaces darkly, with a hand extended, "That is if you get out of here alive." He charges another black, but this time, with his index finger pointed forward.
"!" Natsu widens his eyes.
"That position... it's just like..." Sueong thought, gasping a little in thought and recognizes the index pose.
Zet slowly grins and reveals his attribute attack, "Black Dragon's..."
"What?!" Gray widens.
"Black Dragon?!" Wendy exclaims, stunned.
"The hell?!" Jetoal exclaims.
"Gyro beam!" Zet fires from his tip, a huge radius blast seemingly engulfing them.
But once that move finishes, a combination of an Ice wall and Wood wall surfaced.
"?" Zet widens a little.
The wall are brought down as Jetoal and Gray are the leading front, followed by Erza, Tyrone, and Kanata. While Chelliel and Wendy are using their healing magic on Sueong and Natsu.
Zets scoffs, but knows what this means and states out, "Let me guess, I have to get through you chumps to get to sueong and Natsu?" Zet guesses right away and shrugs without a problem, "Fine, be my guess." He power-ups his right fist in dark aura, "I only need a little portion of my power to dominate you all anyway."
"Tch...!" Erza glares in anger, sword out in ready.
"This guys arrogance is really pissing me off!" Gray glares in annoyance.
"That's if you have what it takes to back those words up." Kanata states.
"Which you sure as hell don't!" Tyrone exclaims and adds against him as all five of them attack Zet together.(Erza with her sword, Tyrone with his diamond coated fist, Kanata with her spinning water above him, Gray with an Ice wave, and Jetoal with a wood ranged pillar.)
Before they could strike him, Zet widens his eyes in a sadistic way before having both his arms spread out, "Black Dragon's: Dark Push!" An a swift instant, a black shockwave releases from all sides of Zet and pushes/destroys Gray and Jetoals ranged attacks while it hits/pushes Erza, Tyrone, and Kanata away.
"GWAAAHH!" The three are sent flying violently and crash into the crater walls.
"Kanata! Tyrone!" Jetoal exclaims, shocked.
"Erza!" Gray too.
"He sent... everything flying back...!" Lucy utters, hands on mouth. Her, wendy, chelliel and the 3 exceeds are shocked while Natsu/Sueong look on in a glare of disbelief.
When the dust clears on the crater walls, Erza, Tyrone, and Kanata are hurt badly, unable to get up.
"Ugh... how..." Erza utters, lifting her head off the ground.
"Before... we could even hit him..." Tyrone utters.
"What's with... this guy..." Kanata as well, all of them shocked in disbelief that them and their attacks were blow back.
Zet smirks with a hand on hip, seeing he took out three of them without any effort. He looks straight at Gray and Jetoal, despite both being stunned, they stand in their fighting positions.
"2 out of 5 left to go." Zet says in smirks and adds in a notice, "The expressions on your faces says it all. There is zero percent chance of beating me written all over it."
"Zero percent chance my ass, quit acting like you're invincible all because you did that black push!" Gray states out, not backing down.
"Without that cheap ass move, you're nothing. It'll be easy to bash your lights out!" Jetoal adds to that, stepping up.
"Oh? Alright then, I won't use my dark push against you two, nor will you force me too." Zet honestly states in confidence, much to the annoyance of Gray/Jetoal at his cockiness, "I have other tricks then just that and I'll demonstrate them gladly, so show me what you're capable of while I'm not at my fullest..."
"Grrr...!" Gray scowls.
"You asked for this...!" Jetoal widens seriously.
They make the move first and Jetoal attacks with his legs spread and his left fist reared back, "Wood Dragon's: Branching Claw!" He releases his wood coated hand forward, branching it apart into straps towards Zet.
The latter grimaces and dodges them one-by-one. As that happens, Gray sets off his attack, "Ice Make: Super Freezing Arrow!" He fires off via Ice bow.
Intercepting them, "Dark Pulse." He extends his hands and a beam comes out of both of them. Cancelling out the Branching Claw and Ice Arrow.
Zet then fires a dark pulse in their direction, which the two move out the way and dash forward at Zet to attack him up close.
"Wood Dragon's: Bark Fist!" Jetaol attacks, arm coated with dark wood.
"Ice-Make: Battle Axe!" Gray makes and gripsthe weapon.
They attack Zet at the same time from both sides, but the latter is dodging the axe and blocking the fist without much effort.
"Stand still, damn it!" Gray swings his axe downward.
Zet smirks and darkens his fist before smashing into the Ice axe, making it shatter upon impact.
"!" This shocks Gray, before Zet kicks him under the chin, "GUH!" backing him away.
"You're wide open!" Jetaol proceeds to strike, and is close to it, but Zet's reaction is fast and he intercepts Jetoal's wooden fist with his dark fist, which ends up in an interlock battle.
However, Jetoal struggles holding Zet's fist back and the black slayer wins the interlock and shatters Jetoal's wood fist before directly punching him, "GWAH!" Making him flying across the ground.
Turning around, Zet catches wind of Ice-lances launched his way by the recovered Gray and jumps above, dodging them before retaliating with a point of his finger, firing off dark beam shot, which Gray manages to put up an Ice shield on time.
When Zet lands, he looks downward and sees the ground crumbling. He realizes this is Jetoal's doing and dodges out the way from underground tree roots.
"Shit, Almost had him..." Jetaol scoffs, releasing his joined hands.
Zet straightens up, in between both Gray and Jetoal, but isn't bothered and keeps his calm smirked composure.
"Is that all? I've barely even broken a sweat." Zet glances to both, but the two are frustrated to answer while glaring at him. With no answer, Zet says, "Fine, if you two won't come to me... then I'll make you come to me!" He aims his hand out in a crossed position, one at jetoal and one at gray. He then attacks with his dark energy coated hands, "Dark Pull!"
"What?!" Gray and Jetoal feel like they've been hit by a vortex and their bodies begin moving forward... almost like they're being pulled in.
"My body's..." Jetoal trails.
"Moving on it's own...!" Gray finishes the sentence, both shocked and can't resist after fighting it.
"!" This stuns the others as well.
Soon enough, Gray/Jetaol are pulled towards him at fast speed as Zet then adds to this attacks, "Dark Pulse." He fire from his both palms, engulfing Gray to his left and Jetaol to his right, both sliding violently across the ground.
"Gray!" Lucy exclaims.
"Jetoal...!" Kanata utters, worried.
"This is not good, dudes..." Hiouis murmurs, sweating a little at Zet's power.
"How powerful... is he?" Happy murmurs.
"First mercuphobia... and now him." Carla adds, both sweating a little in the same manner.
"Now then..." Zet now sets his sights on the others, especially sueong and natsu, "Time to finish every last one of you."
However, "*pant*pant*pant*pant*" Gray and Jetaol slowly stood up with bleeding heads, surprising everyone and Zet.
"This fight..." Gray trails.
"Isn't over yet...!" Jetaol finishes.
"You both took the full force of my dark pulse at point blank? Impressive, but at the same time, so damn persistent." Zet admits, frowning a little darkly.
Begin to flow with magic aura, "Giving up is never an option!" Jetoal's flexes even more magic power, gaining dark brow scales on his face, hence, he's now in Dragon-force.
"That's his dragon-force..." Erza utters in notice.
Gray also goes Devil Slayer mode, as his right side is now black.
"Dragon-force." Zet looks at Jetoal before at Gray, "And this must be what a Devil slayer looks like..." Out of his thoughts he states to them both, "So this is your best forms, huh? Even those alone won't get me to use Dark push, so show me your last capabilities before darkness consumes you all."
"Like hell you will!" Gray and Jetaol exclaim in serious unison.
Jetoal dashes first, now behind Zet with enhanced speed and proceeds to strike him with a wood coated fist.
"!" Zet is a little surprised mostly due to his speed, and barely dodges out the way.
"Not yet!" Jetaol changes his direction, not intending to let Zet get away. The latter sees he's being kept up with and quickly coats his fists in darkness to defeat strikes from Jetaol, hence, engaging them in close combat.
"Like I'll miss out on this!" Gray dashes behind Zet with his Devil slayer fist as they move, ready to strike.
After blocking Jetoal, Zet narrowly avoids Gray's punch aimed at his head, and ends up blocking strikes from both him and Jetoal. Now Zet's engaging them both in close combat while moving around the crater. After a few seconds, he sees that they're starting to push him back with their combined attacks and doing better than what they did before.
"Their simultaneous strikes are on the same rhythm. On top of their enhanced speed, their attack powers falls in the same category. Not bad." Zet thought before forcing himself to use dark pulse at close range, separating himself from Gray and Jetaol as they also survived that attack without much damage.
The duo equally glare daggers at Zet, both thinking at the same time that they need to finish Zet off once and all.
With that thought in mind, Jetoal makes the first move, smash his palms together, "Wood Dragon's: Bark Prison!" With a big rumble, Tree roots appear out the ground around Zet and begin to tie themselves around the Black slayer, restraining him.
"Kuh!" Zet sees himself trapped in one spot.
"Ice-Devil's: Zeroth Prison!" Gray creates a large rectangular cage out of ice to add to that.
"Yes! They got him now!" Happy says in positivity.
"Just one more shot and it's over..." Tyrone murmurs form where he is.
"Now to end this." Jetoal forms one more move in his dragon-force state, summoning four roots around the restrained Zet.
"This move will be your last." Gray readies his attack at the same moment in his Devil slayer mode. Creating a bow and arrow.
With everyone else watching, the two launch their blows.
"Dragon Slaying Secret Art: Thorn Needle Barrage!" The 4 roots from all sides of the restrained Zet fires off multiple large thorns at high speed.
"Ice Devils: Zeroth Destruction Bow!" Gray fires off the high-speed arrow.
Zet sees the two high-speed attacks headed his way, and now that it's come to this situation, he finally subjects to using it, even though he said he wouldn't need it and with quick wide eyes, "Dark Push!" He bursts a dark shockwave from himself, breaking free of the Wood and Ice prison restrains, as well as countering the Needle barrage and Ice arrow, destroying them and shocking Gray and Jetoal.
The shockwave fills the whole crater and everyone in it, and as the smoke clears, Zet walks up completely unscathed.
"Son of a...!" Tyrone curses, as everyone else is shocked.
"Even that didn't work...!" Lucy utters, shaking a little.
"Just, what is this guy..." Chelliel utters, wide eyes.
Jetoal and Gray only glare, wide stunned at their strongest moves not being able to get the job done in on Zet, who begins clapping his hands and states out, "Bravo. I'll admit your attacks took me by a huge surprise to the point I was forced to use dark push, so I take back what I said earlier about not resorting to it." He stops clapping, "If those attacks struck me... it would have hurt quite a lot."
"Damn... we're out of options at this rate." Gray thought, now out of devil slayer mode.
"There's no way we're beating this guy now..." Jetoal hates to think it, now out of dragon-force. Both back to normal.
"I presume that's the limits of dragonforce and devil slaying form? Alright, then I'll go ahead and erase all of you here and now." Zet glares ominously darkens up with his black slayer magic aura around him, preparing something with his hand raised to the air.
"Crap!" Gray quickly puts his right hand over his left, making this last ice-make.
"This costs for a temporary retreat!" Jetoal also smashes his hands together for another move.
"Wood Dragon's: Bark Prison!"
"Ice-Devil's: Zeroth Prison!"
Gigantic Wood roots and and a Large Ice wall surface and trap Zet in the inside as he's still charging his attack. "!" This also surprises Zet, since this was out of nowhere.
"We're getting out of here, A.S.A.P!" Jetoal exclaims, running up to Sueong, Chelliel, Hiouis, Kanata, and Tyrone.
"Good point! Especially in this situation, let's hurry!" Hiouis nods and follows Jeotal. Tyrone nods and carries Sueong with one arm over his shoulder as he and the girls leave too.
Gray runs up to Natsu, the exceeds, and the girls, and say the same, "Hurry up guys! We're leaving now!" He carries natsu over his shoulder too.
"Good call, let's go!" Erza runs and follows.
"R-Right!" Lucy nods back as she, wendy, happy, and carla follow.
Separately, the teams get out of the crater on opposite ends and retreat separately back into the destroyed elmina.
Meanwhile, Zet uses Dark push to destroy the Wood and Ice prison/roots before looking around to see that neither Team Natsu or Team Sueong were in sight, "Tch, they all got away..." He scoffs, but has no choice but to get over it, "Ah well."
"You sure did take awhile trying to wipe them out, Zeteske." A voice said, Zeteske turns and looks up to see his exceed partner flying down to him, pausing to his height.
"Wreich." He identifies the cat, glancing.
"You could have easily taken them out if you wanted to, so what stopped you?" Wreich asks.
"Nothing stopped me at all... but yeah, I could have taken them quite handily if I hadn't decided to test and play around with the Ice guy and wood dragon slayer." Zeteske replies, arms crossed, but adds, "The only exceptions are the fire and ice dragon slayers, Natsu and Sueong."
"What do you mean by that?" Wreich asks, narrowing a brow.
"What I mean is in a 1-on-1 scenario, I could take one of them on and win." He replies, "but at the same time? That's a different story."
"If that's true then this was your chance to take them out since they were weakened from their last fight and the one with the water dragon god." Wreich said.
"Don't worry about it, my revenge can wait a bit longer. On top of that, they'll eventually figure out who I really am, which makes it all the more worth wild." Zeteske adds to this with a frown, "I'll make sure to get payback on them for "his" sake." He reveals and declares, with the tighten of his right fist.
That's ends the chapter, the reveal of Zet(Real Name: Zeteske) and his Black Dragon Slayer Magic, as well as his exceed, Wreich.
The Mercuphobia arc is almost over and the highlights of this was Gray and Jetaol fighting him off, but nothing worked against the latter.
Zeteske Appearance:
A lanky young man with a lean built, light-black skin, dark green eyes(lacks pupils/eyebrows), silver earrings, and disheveled black spiky hair. He wears a black cloak with lavender lining and under it, he wears an open black jacket and a dark blue sash with black pants and black sandels. He has the diamond tattoo on his chest, as well as black line blacks starring from his headline to above his the uppersides of his eyes(left and right). He has dotted markings below his eyes as well. Age 20(Same age as Sueong/Natsu, but a few mouths older.)
Wreich Appearance:
A dark-grey cat with a small deep voice and yellow eyes. he wears a sleeveless dark green shirt with the same colored belt and pants, as well as open toed shoes.
There's Zeteske and Wreich appearances and there's also more to Zeteske than what was shown in this chapter.
Jetoal and Kanata's dragon slayer gen number will be revealed once the rest of the Arkobolos guild is introduced, and you guys can take your best guesses at how many members are within guild.
Until next time.