AN: Thank you AliceCullen3, Nox Zeyphrus (who, if I'm not wrong, is a renamed scoolharis), and Goku275.
"Richard, Sawyer, Cosmos… now!" ordered Macbeth, commencing Crime Sorcière and the Garou Knights' plan to defeat the Armor Dragon. He and Kama had come up with this idea after simply hammering away at the dragon had only removed the rest of its weaker outer layer of scales.
"Alright!" cried the three mages.
Richard softened the ground beneath the Armor Dragon's legs, causing them to sink. Sawyer slowed down the dragon's perception of time as much as he could. Cosmos created a number of vines, which wrapped around the dragon's body.
"Phase two, Kamika!" shouted Kama. The knight gave her leader a nod, then turned to the Armor Dragon.
"Paper Blizzard: Red Dance!" declared Kamika. A storm of red paper swallowed up the dragon and burst into flames. The heat caused the vines to burn and the ground under the dragon further liquified.
"Is that all?" spoke the Armor Dragon condescendingly, chuckling as the fire faded and its scales remained unharmed. "A little bit of heat?"
"Uosuke, phase three!" yelled Kama, unperturbed by the dragon's words.
"Terrain Effect: Cone Zone!" exclaimed Uosuke, still cheerful despite the situation. With a hand gesture, the whole area become extremely cold. Frost began to form across the Armor Dragon's body.
"Now you're trying to freeze me?" berated the dragon, still unfazed. "My scales insulate my body from extreme temperatures, so trying to bypass them like this won't work."
"Neppa! Erik!" shouted Macbeth. "It's up to you!"
"Aim for the back right leg, at the outer thigh!" Erik told Neppa.
"Take this!" bellowed Neppa, firing a stream of acid at the specified location.
"Do you still not understand how useless your efforts are—" the Armor Dragon said, cutting off its words as a spike of pain shot through the point Neppa was attacking. Though it was not all that painful, the shock of it caused the dragon to let out a scream. "Argh!"
As the previous phases of the plan unfolded, the dragon slayer had focused his unparalleled hearing on the Armor Dragon's scales. The sudden heating and cooling had made those scales a bit brittle, leaving the area Erik had identified as the weakest point on the dragon's body (relatively speaking, as the dragon's scales were still very tough).
And, now, it was Erik's time to strike. "Poison Dragon's Roar!"
A stream of poison shot from the dragon slayer's mouth, striking the area that Neppa had just attacked and resulting in another scream from the dragon. With the scales melted away by acid, the poison successfully made its way into the Armor Dragon's bloodstream.
Erik smirked. Once someone was infected, even the strongest of armors wouldn't be able to protect them against his poison. All they had to do now was pump more into the dragon until it croaked.
Bacchus slammed his palm into the face of one of the dragon-like creatures, creating the distinct sound of bones shattering. As it fell to the ground, dying, he took a swig from his gourd.
"One down, who-knows-how-many to go!" exclaimed the mage, grinning. He looked at a nearby group of the creatures. "Who's next?"
The Grand Magic Games had gone poorly for his guild, with Quattro Pup… Quattro Cerberus — "The bet is over now," passed through his mind — getting less than half as many points as any other guild. Not to mention their quick elimination in the final event, without earning a single point.
Suffice to say, Bacchus was a bit glad for such a convenient opportunity to let off some steam. (Only a bit, though, with the rest of his bluster just being the mage psyching himself up. A draconic invasion wasn't exactly something to be cheerful about).
"Argh!" cried a nearby Warcry as one of the dragon-like creatures shot a laser from its mouth and clipped his right arm.
"Case in point," thought Bacchus, frowning for a moment as darted over to the creature that attacked his guildmate. "These things are all looking to kill."
It opened its mouth, readying to fire another beam, only for the mage to force its jaw shut with a palm strike to the chin. The draconic creature's face seemed to expand for a moment as its attack exploded within its closed mouth. The creature fell to the ground, blood flowing from its eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.
"It's a good thing that Fairy Tail was able to warn us. If we'd been caught flatfooted, then I doubt as many people would be alive right now."
"Armor Dragon's Steel-Fist Strike!" roared the dragon, swinging its fist toward the ground where Erik was standing. After getting injured, the Armor Dragon had entered a blind rage and started attacking the humans relentlessly.
Worse, it had quickly become clear that the dragon hadn't been taking them seriously before they harmed it. The Armor Dragon's attacks had already taken out Macbeth, Richard, Neppa, Uosuke, Cosmos, and Kamika, all without showing the slightest sign of slowing down. Only Erik with his Hearing Magic, Sawyer (who had learned to be fast even without slowing down others), and Kama — possessing the well-trained body of a physical fighter — remained.
"At this rate, we'll be taken out before dosing the dragon with enough poison to do it in," thought Erik grimly. "And I doubt that former criminals and shady executioners could expect a miracle."
The Armor Dragon's tail whipped by, forcing the dragon slayer to jump. Unfortunately, as Erik did this, he heard the dragon's planning to unleash another spell while he was in the air, unable to escape.
"Fuck," cursed Erik. "I guess I'll never get to hear Cubellios's voice again…"
"Armor Dragon's Roar!"
A torrent of what appeared to be metal plates surged toward the dragon slayer, threatening to smash him into a pulpy blend of meat chunks and bone shards. But, mere moments before the attack struck, two voices suddenly appeared in front of Erik.
"All Crush!" yelled one of the voices. A cross-shaped blast of energy shot forward, splitting apart the Armor Dragon's spell.
"I hope we aren't too late," spoke the other voice, one that Erik recognized as Mest.
"I guess even guys like me can get a miracle from time to time," thought Erik, giving a small grin. "Too bad… you're definitely late. We had to fight this Armor Dragon on our own, and it took everything we had to make a small hole on its hind right leg."
"Its scales are that tough, huh," went the first voice. Gildarts. "Then it's a good thing that a human wrecking ball like me showed up."
Gildarts cracked his knuckles. He'd already lost to a dragon twice. This time, he would win. For his kingdom. For his guild. For his daughter!
"Watch out!" shouted Gray, tackling Juvia and Meredy to the ground. A moment later, one of the dragon-like creatures fired a beam through the space that the two women had just been occupying.
As another mage killed the creature, the three of them rose to their feet.
"Ahh!" cried Juvia happily, bringing a hand to her mouth. "Gray felt my bottom."
"Juvia…" said Gray, sighing. "Juvia, there's something I think I need to say to you!"
"Is he going to confess to me!?" though Juvia, gasping. She decided to act clueless, although the joy on her face while responding made it obvious what she was thinking. "Wh-what could it be!?"
"Well… it isn't anything important, but…"
"It may be all-important to me!"
"I think I see a big misunderstanding coming up here," observed Meredy, though neither of the Fairies heard her words.
"Juvia!" someone shouted in warning. The Water Mage in question was too distracted by Gray and her fantasies about him to recognize the voice. Fortunately, she was still lucid enough to notice to the warning, turning to see one of the draconic creatures charging up a beam to shoot at her. However, she did not have the time to react.
The Fairy could only watch as Gray pushed her out of the way again, leaving himself exposed to the creature. Time seemed to slow down for Juvia as the dragon-like creature prepared to kill the man she loved.
"Meteor!"
Luckily, it was at that moment that Jellal showed up. The former Dark Mage, clad in his Heavenly Body Magic, smashed his fist into the creature's head, snapping its neck before the beam could be fired.
Jellal turned to Gray, Juvia, and Meredy and shouted. "Behind you!"
The three mages turned and saw several more draconic creatures, which Gray quickly took care of with his magic.
"U-umm…" went Juvia after the creatures were defeated, earning Gray's attention. "…About what you were trying to tell me before…"
"Later," dismissed Gray. "A battlefield isn't the place to be talking about that sort of thing."
As the Ice Mage rejoined the fight, Juvia became depressed. "He was so close…"
"It's okay," comforted Meredy, patting her friend on the back. "There's always next time."
After a few more seconds of moping, Juvia perked back up and also reentered the fight. After all, the sooner the battle ended, the sooner she would be able to hear what Gray had to tell her.
"Over here, Cracked Shell!" insulted Sawyer, grinning as the furious Armor Dragon knocked him out with a swipe of its hand. Because of how ineffective his magic was against the dragon Sawyer had decided that the way he could help his allies the most was to distract it so that they could strike.
"Thanks," murmured Erik, understanding his friend's intentions. The dragon slayer leaped toward the injury on the Armor Dragon's back leg, ready to attack. "Poison Dragon's Twin Fang!"
However, as Erik crossed his arm and unleashed two poisonous slashes, the dragon twisted its body, causing the spell to hit undamaged scales.
"Did you really think I would forget about the only one of you who can harm me?" bellowed the Armor Dragon sardonically. It inhaled, readying to cast another Armor Dragon's Roar.
"Who said I'm the only one who can hurt you?" replied the dragon slayer confidently.
At that moment, Mest teleported himself and Gildarts to the dragon's leg injury.
"Thanks for the opening," said Gildarts as he drew his arm back, preparing to strike. "It makes things a lot easier. Mizuwari!"
As the Fairy struck the dragon's leg, his Crush Magic sent shockwaves through its body. Cracks spread across the surrounding scales, doubling the size of the damaged area.
"Arrrgh!" screamed the Armor Dragon, its rage and pain also doubled. The dragon's body snapped around to face the one who had injured it, only to find that Gildarts had already been teleported away by Mest. "Get back here, you puny hu— Augh!"
The dragon strained its neck, turning to see that its injured had just been attacked again. This time, the attacker was Kama, his scythes digging into the wound. He wasn't able to inflict as much damage as Erik or Gildarts, though the strike did provide the former with another opportunity to deliver his own blow.
"Poison Dragon's Scales!" shouted Erik. The dragon slayer swung his arm and shot several scale-shaped masses of poison at the Armor Dragon's eye, blinding it momentarily and eliciting another cry of pain.
Then, while the dragon was preoccupied with the damage to its eyes, Gildarts (with Mest's assistance) performed another Crash-enhanced attack on the Armor Dragon's injured leg.
"This dragon must be so used to its scale protecting it against everything, because it has no idea how to fight with a weak point," said Gildarts with a grin, causing the Armor Dragon to snarl. But the Fairy ignored it, shouting to his allies. "Don't try to deliver any big, finishing blows! As long as we keep up these hit-and-run tactics, we'll be able to win the battle of endurance, especially with Erik's poison accumulating!"
Mest, Erik, and Kama nodded, agreeing with Gildarts's reasoning. Although, they could only sigh in exasperation at his next words.
"This is for you, Cana! Your dad is going to beat a dragon for his little girl!"
Omake
As Cana used an exploding Magic Card to kill one of the draconic creatures, she felt a chill run down her spine.
"Damnit," cured the Fairy. She had been experiencing this sensation ever since the incident on Tenrou Island. After about a week or so, she had figured out the source of this feeling.
Somewhere, somehow, her overly doting father was embarrassing her.
AN: I know I said at the end of last chapter that I didn't intent to focus on the dragon-like creatures, but thinking about them made me realize I should at least bring them up. If, for no other reason, to explain why there weren't a ton of deaths despite the lack of Ultear casting Last Ages.
Anyway, in case it wasn't clear, the battle with the Armor Dragon is essentially over. Having lost its composure, the dragon is in no state to avoid or counter the hit-and-run tactics. The most it can do is flail around wildly and cause a greater amount of property damage.
That is all. Goodbye for now!