Battle of Crocus Pt. IV

This was unreasonable...

Worse than that, it was downright idiotic to a level of simply calling this a suicide run with every wave that came at Laxus. The knights had every right to be weary and cautious as what the enemy failed in armor, training and weapons, they made up for it in sheer numbers. The bulk of the things the blonde dragon slayer faced were creatures so low tiered to him you'd think he got stuck on a b-class request, with the real danger of these things outnumbering you. It was a pathetic sight to see these monsters rush him with bloodlusted eyes and sadistic grins to merely be electrocuted to death with a powerful lightning strike or storm, depending on the group size.

As for the humans he faced, simple fodder he could take care of without a care in the world though he tried to avoid killing them. Mainly as him keeping a silent vow he made years ago to uphold his grandfather's views, but if it were him from before his exile then Laxus would no doubt have killed at least over a hundred men by now. Though it doesn't go without saying that he has killed a few moronic thinking soldiers that didn't know when to give up and stay down. He had to give them credit for being resilient, but they became examples at how far he'll show mercy before they'd become a stiff on the ground.

Of course it didn't have the desired effect he was hoping for as the enemy only grew stronger in their determination in trying to get past him. Laxus could respect their fighting spirit to a minor degree, but whoever their commander was had to be the biggest and stupidest asshole he couldn't wait to lightning slam into next week. There's a point where you should avoid wasting your men to attack a major threat if they fall like flies every four seconds, but this guy only believes in siege numbers in the blonde's honest opinion.

Overwhelm the opponent with massive numbers and they will fall to the sheer might of it; basic and very costly as a tactic that only works with rustic forms of battle. With Laxus' years spent on trying to make Fairy Tail a powerful fighting force in the past, he'd pick up on battle tactics when the possible personal guild war would erupt. Though the force he faced was pretty lackluster to say the least as their mages were too simple to identify and eliminate that the dragon slayer was rather disappointed that he wasn't going to have a decent magic battle. He had to admit, though, that it was a very interesting sight to see dragon riders within their ranks.

For about the first ten seconds he saw them anyways.

Having the aerial advantage was not a very favorable thing within the enemy's hands, so a good lightning storm and it was raining dragon bodies and soldiers galore. Laxus wouldn't admit it, but he had noticed a few who had managed to escape, but trusted the others to bring them down with ease. Sadly the massive amounts of bodies that laid before him was becoming a very unpleasant sight, even for him. So, as casually as he could with his arms crossed, he began walking forward and threw the occasional punch when he allowed an enemy the chance to get near him.

The blonde realized his own cockiness when an adorned armored hostile struck a minor cut onto his hand as he caught his blade end of his sword, quickly realizing that he had an enchanted blade in his possession. After throwing this soldier into a nearby wall, Laxus destroyed the sword and made a mental note about it when he would report back in when this was all over.

In all this supposed "mayhem" the enemy was causing before he arrived, Laxus' hope to use some of his more pronounced attacks died out since a single lightning roar managed to decimate a large portion of enemies he faced. A part of him was actually starting to feel sorry for these bastards at how outclassed they were against one man, but that too died out when a few retreating Fiorean soldiers told him of what atrocities the enemy committed during the first hour of the attack. That pretty much was it before he became the literal vanguard all by himself and held the line until the enemy finally wised up and decided to split their forces in two other directions.

It was noticeable at first when soldiers would appear behind him, but as of now it had stopped completely. In his casual walk forward, the dragon slayer could tell that the rest of Fairy Tail's reinforcements had arrived to deal with the ones he couldn't. It was about time they should up as the fun in all this was pretty much nonexistent and the blonde slayer whole heartedly believed that fighting a wyvern would provide more enjoyment than this.

A complaint had formed in the back of Laxus' mind for his Gramps' idea of formulating this counter attack team since it was just too overpowered. He understood that caution was necessary for a battle of this scale, but with first hand experience, the slayer knew that it was too much. Sure there were a number of fires that needed to be put out, metaphorically and literally, but even just sending Natsu and Erza would've been enough to drive the enemy back. Whoever these guys were, they had no idea how knee deep in shit they just got themselves into for messing with Fiore and in turn its number one guild; Fairy Tail.

Gray had yet to speak with Natsu ever since their confrontation and Lucy was worried about it, given that they couldn't afford to be divided during a crisis. Both mages had a point on this topic, to a certain extent, but the way they handled the others differing view pretty much brought on the argument. Natsu said some words that the blonde tried very hard to believe that he wasn't thinking about them for a long time, but they way he sounded so resolute made it out otherwise. Then Gray goes on to just take it and leave it as is which bothered her since he wasn't one to let such a thing slide, so Lucy could only assume that there was a reason to it.

The ice mage could have either taken it to heart and decided to deal with it at a later time (or not at all) or decided to heed his words, but dropped the argument for the sake of saving lives and the city. As for herself, Lucy didn't know where to stand as she hadn't known the two as long as they had each other, plus she didn't dare to pick sides on the subject when it very well could cause more problems.

There wasn't many things Lucy hated in her life; save for chaos, mindless slaughter and destruction, but war pretty much encompasses all that. So in effect she hated war and now with more reason too; it pretty much caused an unspoken rift her two close friends had buried very deep beneath the ground to emerge.

Kill some to save hundreds maybe even thousands versus overpowering them, but not out right killing them. This was not a choice, it was an ultimatum between Natsu and Gray who have chosen their own sides to this long ago. Anyone else could choose which route to follow, but to them it was pretty much based on their history of where they stood and that greatly differed. If the blonde had to be honest, her mind stayed on the topic just to fill in the silence and to draw her attention away from everything. All Lucy did was repeat to herself that it was almost over, this was going to end with them winning although she knew it wouldn't simply end here.

"How long until we reach Laxus?" Natsu complained as they only fought the occasional group of enemies on their way, which of course only lasted a few seconds at best.

"Who knows Natsu, but we'll get there when we'll get there." Lucy voiced out immediately as Gray snorted at his question, no doubt bound to make some sort of comment that'll anger the dragon slayer.

"Fine whatever, but as soon as I see the main force of these bastards, I'm taking them all on!" If Gray hadn't rolled his eyes from her peripheral view, then Lucy would've done it in his stead as she couldn't believe his eagerness in such a situation.

Once again, no one bothered to say anything as the team ran and fought in silence since the tense atmosphere between the two mages still persisted. Gray would merely call out his attacks or give a heads up to Lucy, but didn't bother to give any banter to Natsu while the dragon slayer seemed to hold himself back when fighting an opponent. He wasn't killing much anymore, but who could tell if the ice mage's words got to him or for the fact that the blonde was present and she could be made to watch him take another human being's life.

That topic occupied her mind a good bit as well, yet she couldn't help herself but look on with heartache as they came across those affected by all this fighting. The survivors varied between families to just a single person hidden away in a crate or backroom the enemy hadn't bothered looking into. Though the worst of it that tore at Lucy's heart was the sight of two boys, brothers no doubt, holding each other in fear as the elder tried to make sure the younger didn't turn around to see their parents' lifeless bodies. The blonde felt for them, but it didn't compare to the way her guildmates reacted as they seemed to strike the enemy much harder than before. Those boys were now left to whatever family they have left, but it's just the knowledge that they're orphans for today stuck out the most.

The Fairy Tailers could empathize with them as they each were, in a way, orphans who had lost their parents. Lucy knew she didn't have such a harsh example for herself as her father lived for years after she left, until he passed away some time before she came back from being trapped in time. That was for her, but the blonde knew that it wasn't the case for Natsu and Gray as they were actual orphans.

Natsu is technically hundreds of years old, his family died centuries ago with Zeref and Igneel being the only family he actually had though how far did that extend for the black mage was anyone's guess. The dragonslayer thought to have lost Igneel when he was just seven years old and never knew about his older brother until years later in life. Still, the guild is his family now though it's the nonexist connection with anyone through blood that marks him an orphan.

The same could be put upon Gray as the guild was just as much a part of him as he is to it, but Lucy could never shake the knowledge that the guild was the third family he has. He may not openly admit to it, but just learning what she has about the ice mage's past is enough to dub him an orphan. They were all family now, Fairy Tail was where they all belong, but the blonde never put it into perspective that a few prominent members were orphans.

There she went again, distracting herself from the problem at hand, but would anyone really blame her for doing so? Her musings stopped as the loud crack of a lightning bolt snapped her out of her thoughts and a sea of defeated bodies laid before her as the culprit slowly walked his way forward. She could hear the pained groans from those on the ground and sighed to herself in relief that they were at least alive, though Gray had began clearing what looked like a collapsed garage as fast as he could.

"What are you doing Gray?" Lucy asked as he pushed off another beam with great force, revealing a magicycle in adequate condition given from where it was cleared from.

"I don't know if that lumbering blonde wall of power has noticed it yet, but the structure they told us about is right in front of him." He replied as he jumped onto the seat, silently apologizing to the owner, wherever that person was, that he was going to commandeer it for a bit. "Not only that, but I see a cart being shoveled into it. Now I don't know about you two, but I can rightfully say that it isn't filled with their wounded."

"Could they be filled with the people these soldiers were grabbing earlier?!" Lucy gasped in horror as their fates would be left to Mavis knows what if the enemy wasn't stopped.

"I don't really know and we've got to find out immediately, so I'm going to go ahead and stop them before those carts go any further." Gray said as he tried to search for the SE plug, but had come to realize that this magicycle was a model built from Alvarez. "Alright this thing's lacrima powered, looks like I won't need to waste magic to get there."

"I'm going with you..." Natsu voiced out as he began to step forward, but Gray merely shoved past him. "What they hell was that for ice princess!?"

"I'm going there on my own, you're pretty much useless once you get on." Gray pointed out as even Natsu couldn't hold out long enough against his motion sickness. "You'll have to catch up to Laxus on foot with Lucy and don't blame me for any of this, I didn't send Happy away when I knew I could handle the situation on my own."

Natsu gritted his teeth as he thought that Happy would be much suited to look for survivors in need of air lifting while he took care of the trash that littered the streets. He was unsure of where his furry blue companion was at this point, but he detested the fact that Gray pointed out how he couldn't help him. There was a way for him to help end this, but all that stood in his way was his motion sickness and the only person who could help him with that was off at the arena.

"Fine, but don't think this means anything, got it?"

"Whoever said I did? You're the one that came to that conclusion all on your own." Gray replied before revving the lacrima powered engine and speeding off towards Laxus and the giant structure.

Gray could tell that the odd feeling he was having was due to the fact that he was acting a bit petty for how he behaved with Natsu, but he couldn't help being aggravated by the dragon slayer's unawareness of how wrong he was. They have power that overshadows anything that has been thrown at them thus far, it was unnecessary to kill these men if a single punch could just as well knock them out. Death wasn't the answer to this, for a soldier it very well is, but they were Fairy Tail mages. As much as he stood by these words he couldn't deny that he had a similar thought as the dragon slayer, but his memories kicked in to remind him of what chaos would bring.

All he had to do was look in front of him and be reminded of all that he hated to see, an acquired thing to say the least but years of nightmares does that to a person. A dreaded sight to see, but he had to let those thoughts go and created a dividing plow with his magic at the front of the magicycle to get through. He flung fallen soldier after soldier off to the side as he rode forward until he had a decent enough clearing from the point in which Laxus began walking. Speaking of the blonde dragon slayer, Gray needed a clearer way towards the structure and Laxus was just the man to open a path for him.

"Laxus! Clear a path for me!" The ice mage called, unsure if his voice had been picked up by his super hearing, but had been assured of it once he noticed the lightning gathering around the slayer.

"Lightning Dragon's Roar!" Came the tremendous shout from Laxus' mouth as the wave of lightning cleared a straight path before him, though Gray didn't admire his handiwork as he zoomed past him at full speed.

It wasn't long before Gray could see the hulking structure, the opening so massive that it could possibly house the old guild hall in the opening. As for what was inside, there wasn't much to go off by as only looming darkness continued inward. The ice mage clicked his tongue as he noticed another blockade of troops in front of him that survived Laxus' attack, but he wasn't about to be stopped by them any time soon.

"Ice Make: Battering Ram!" He focused his magic to the front of the magicycle again and rammed his way through the line of soldiers, going straight inside the building and screeching to a halt with the brakes as he noticed the cart full of innocent people scared for the lives.

The ogre hauling the cart turned to Gray as fast as it could, but the dark haired ice mage immediately froze it solid and created an ice wall separating wherever the structure led to from the entrance he just came through. The captured citizens were terrified about what could have happened to them and there was no doubt in Gray's mind that Erza wouldn't take this lightly, but they weren't out of the woods yet. The sound of boots and armor were coming closer to them and Gray knew that he'd have to do some crowd control for everyone's safety, but at the first signs of the enemy there was an explosion behind their ranks.

"I didn't take you as being the hero sort Gray." Laxus said with a sigh as he stepped his way over more fallen soldiers, he truly wondered how much more of them he had to step over before the end of the day. "Another thing, don't use me as your personal street clearer alright?"

"Glad to see you too Laxus." Gray replied as he created an ice sword, but the blonde dragon slayer swiped his hand and allowed a wave of electricity to comb over the enemy. "Efficient way of taking care of all of them, to say the least."

"I've been doing this for hours already, it's too simple at this point that it's actually annoying me now." Laxus replied as he glanced towards the cart filled with relieved civilians knowing Fairy Tail mages had come to their rescue. "Well, shit..."

"What?"

"I thought these assholes were just hauling some spoils of war like silverware, jewelry, antiques even. I had no idea those things were filled with people." The slayer couldn't believe he didn't stop them at the first sign, all the screaming he was hearing confused him from realizing it was citizens of Fiore. "This one's probably the tenth one I've seen now."

"What!" Gray had the sinking feeling that this wasn't the only group of people that had been captured, but to find out that there were nine others before this was absurd. "Mavis help us, we won't be able to do anything at this point...fuck."

Before Laxus could add anything else to the conversation, an enemy soldier staggered to his feet and blew a horn as loud as he could before dropping right back down. The two Fairy Tailers had no idea what that was about until similar sounds throughout the city began to be heard in response. It became painfully obvious that it was a sign of retreat and it meant that whatever hostile forces that were still up and about would be coming straight to them.

"How long do you think the rest of these bastards are going to take to get here?" Laxus asked as Gray freed the captives and instructed them to find shelter as soon as possible.

"Not long, but we won't be facing a large force since the others have no doubt cut them down to size." Gray responded but had to bite his tongue at the sight of at least one hundred troops rushing their way towards the structure. "Or I could be wrong..."

"Why do their numbers bother you? Didn't you and your team take on at least two thousand cultists before? Not to mention what we did against Alvarez?" It was weird to the blonde dragon slayer to see the ice mage be cautious about this if he had done something far greater before.

"I'm not worried, just very annoyed because I know a certain idiot won't resist all these targets to hit." Just as Gray finished his sentence, a large fireball cleared the area in front of them and an all too familiar voice rang out amidst the settling dust.

"You bastards think you can mess with Fiore and run away!?" Natsu began to single handedly rush the enemy with fists aflame, Lucy trailing not too far behind him although she didn't involve herself in the one-sided fight.

It wasn't long before all that remained was a mass of unconscious soldiers and one very pissed off dragon slayer who went on to punch the massive structure to let off some steam. Lucy worried over the fact that he could bring the whole thing down if they let him go on, but Gray assured her that the pink haired slayer knew what would happen if he destroyed it.

In the end, Lucy accepted it and wondered to herself if it was really over. Not by a long shot obviously as minor waves of retreating soldiers or monsters would arrive, but it wasn't anything they couldn't handle. At first anyway, but all things are never so simple and it became very apparent when the enemy's remaining forces all came together as one.

"You've got to hand it to them, they sure don't go down without a fight." Laxus said as he charged lightning into his hands. "No matter how fruitless it is against us."

"Great, more dragon riders" Lucy voiced out as she transformed into her Sagittarius dress but hadn't noticed the slight flinch Laxus did once she pointed out the purple scaled dragons. "Better take them out before the guys in front get any closer."

"How come they get to ride dragons?" The pink haired slayer couldn't believe that the enemy had specific riders for that and quickly realized that they could have been the reason why Happy wasn't flying around.

"Are you seriously awe struck by that?" Laxus couldn't understand how his fellow kin, he assumed in a way, could switch attitudes so easily. Then again, trying to figure it out would only give him a headache so he dropped the thought there.

"In any case, it's better to only have to focus on the ground than that and the sky, so let's take them down" Lucy reaffirmed her simple command, in the sense that no one was going to say anything to get them moving, but Natsu gave her a strange look.

"You sure you can damage one of those things? They are dragons you know." Natsu, being ever so observant, knew that a dragon wasn't an easy thing to kill, so he was unsure if Lucy's magic would even work on a smaller one like that.

"Those things aren't so strong against the right amount of magic, I'm sure Lucy could bring a few of them down herself." Gray vouched for the spirit mage since if his magic could do it, then he was sure Lucy's could too.

"I wasn't asking for your opinion ice princess; I asked Lucy if she could." Natsu glared at the ice mage who only rolled his eyes in response, leaving the other two blondes to sigh tiredly at how much the two loved to argue.

"Have faith in the cheerleader, alright Natsu? " Was all that Laxus said and it had been enough to silence anymore complaints from the pink haired slayer.

With their magic charged, the Fairy Tailers were steadying their aim but before the first magical attack could be fired, a multitude of explosions rang out. They all searched the surrounding area for what had made those sounds until they noticed the dragons spiraling towards the ground with their riders screaming at the top of their lungs. No one had done anything and they didn't see any attack being fired off from the ground, yet the Fairies' wonderings had been solved as a large shadow loomed overhead.

"Would you look at that..." Gray dropped his stance at the sight of Christina, her weapon system firing a volley into the enemy and was slightly impressed that the pretty boys that are likely helping fly her had decent enough aim.

"I wasn't really looking forward to that fight." Lucy fought her fair share, but to stand against the enemy's final attack wasn't what she wanted to go through at all.

"It's about time the "other" calvary showed up. Too bad for them that a lot of people will claim Fairy Tail came when needed at the first call." Laxus had no doubt in his mind that if they were called upon last, their help would be left to clean up duty. "Looks like they'll handle mopping up for us."

Of the four, Natsu had surprisingly kept quiet as the chance to show the bastards one last thing had been taken away from him at the last moment. He couldn't complain as he sided with Laxus on the fact that they could be left to clean up whatever asshole was still alive, but that only drew him back to his conversation with Gray. As much as he already thought about it, now that there wasn't anything else going on for them it left the slayer with much to think about. Then again, what was there to figure out since what did Gray know about what was right during war? He remembered someone saying that all was fair in war or something, so didn't it mean that any way to crush the enemy was fine? There would be a chance to prove that later.

Even he knew that this whole thing wasn't over yet, they still didn't know why they were attacked or for what the enemy hoped to achieve. Although, the pink haired slayer knew that it was out of the guild's hands now as this was something the royal crown had to deal with and found the fact very annoying. As much as Hisui has done good for Fiore, Natsu knew that all the politics involved for things like this would hold everyone back from taking action. That was what he'd come to hate the most, having to wait before they could do something to help the poor souls that were taken away.

He hated the waiting game.

This battle had shaken not only Crocus, but Fiore as a whole since an attack on such a scale hadn't been conceived in two years and the country had been in a time of peace. Especially on the capital no less, but what other towns could only assume was vastly different for those fighting with everything they had. The attack felt like an eternity to those who faced waves of enemies, continued to fell soldiers as they tried to push their advance and watch as their comrades gave their lives in the name of protecting their homeland. An eternity summed up in approximately four or so hours, but it had been enough for devastation to wiggle itself into the capital and its people. Though the Fiorean royal guard alongside Fairy Tail had managed to repel the enemy very strongly, it was until the rest of the legal guilds had arrived that the enemy's forces had been completely thwarted.

The enemy's losses numbered in the hundreds to thousands, a victory shadowed by the fact that Fiore had lost a few hundred of their own. Which included the number of civilians who had lost their lives defending others or trying to run away from all the fighting to safety. Now it is all left to the Queen and her court to choose the next course of action, but even then, there are those who had seen this as a chance to forward their agenda.

In the end the battle had been won, but the fight was far from over.