The loud shockwave echoed throughout the forest area, bringing everyone to a halt. "What was that?!" Aira asked as she continued dragging Selene against her will.
"I don't know, but would you LET GO OF ME ALREADY!?" Selene finally pulled her hand out of Aira's grip, rubbing her wrist. "Geez…"
"Oh, come on, we'll make a great team!" Aira said joyfully, nodding.
"Yeah, yeah; just be careful, we don't know what these mages can do…but from the sounds of it, it seems like someone was just taken down…" Selene said quietly.
"Do you think someone else is in the forest as well?" Aira asked.
"Maybe…let's just keep going…" Selene started to lead the way as Aira followed just slightly behind her.
.
.
Melody simply walked away from Laki's unconscious and bruised body, pulling out a spherical lacrima from her pocket, using it to contact a male with red spikey hair, and red eyes. "One Fairy idiot is down~" she said in a singsong voice humming to herself.
"Excellent," the male said, grinning. "Everyone is stationed where they should be, yes?" The male asked, now eying Melody seriously.
"Yes sir!" Melody replied with a large grin. "Veronica's over in the west, uh…I dunno which way Brent and his pet went…or Elisa….ahehe…
The male face palmed, groaning, "You can't be serious! I thought you said they were in position!"
"THEY ARE! I swear, Mack!" Melody flailed her arms around.
"Hrm…fine…take out anyone else who dares to intrude…" Mack cut the connection after.
"Hmph," Melody mocked Mack's last words as she walked down deeper into the forest.
.
.
"What was that shaking…?" Natsu asked as he looked around.
"Probably from Lucy's jogging…" Happy commented.
"WOULD YOU CUT THAT OUT!?" Lucy shouted, obviously annoyed, and angered by the cat.
"But Lucy!" Happy snickered, placing his paws over his mouth to prevent laughter.
"Hm…Where is someone! I wanna fight!" Natsu kicked a rocked, starting to get bored. "I don't want the others to get all the fun!"
"Don't worry, Natsu!" Lucy nodded, giving a reassuring smile, "I'm sure we'll find someone and beat them easily!"
"Yeah!" Natsu raised a fist in agreement, and then sniffed out something familiar in the air. "What the…"
"What's wrong, Natsu?" Happy asked, looking up at the Dragon Slayer with a confused expression.
"I smell something…familiar…" Natsu followed the scent, casing Lucy and Happy to follow behind him, both wondering what Natsu smelled and where it was.
.
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Zalen groaned softly, listening to Taya and Reve argue over directions. "I told you we should go this way!" Reve shouted, pointing north. "There's bound to be someone there, and you're just too stupid to realize it!"
"Oh, I'm the stupid one now?" Taya replied, pointing south, the opposite direction Reve was pointing. "And how would you know someone isn't in that direction?" Taya asked, scowling at the guns mage.
"Psh, have I ever been wrong?" Reve asked with a smirk.
"Well…" Zalen opened his mouth to start talking.
"No one asked you, Zalen," Reve said quickly to shut Zalen up.
.
.
Carla, Cynthia, and Wendy slowly made their way through a thin area of the forest, not having to worry about many tree branches due to the thinness of the area. Carla examined the area carefully; for some reason, it seemed as though she saw this area before. In a dream? A vision? She couldn't pinpoint what, but she kept flying beside Wendy anyway, occasionally glancing at Cynthia, whom she didn't completely trust yet. "Do you sense anything?" Carla asked to Wendy.
"No, nothing yet…it's quiet…" Wendy replied, keeping her senses focused on the surroundings.
"Dark mages sure aren't people to mess with, huh…?" Cynthia said aloud, mostly talking to herself.
"No way; they're really dangerous…" Wendy replied, shaking her head.
.
.
Luke found himself on some surprisingly high ground for a forest. He looked around, knowing that he was lost. "I hate this…" He groaned, walking on high ground. He was never good with directions, so being lost in the forest aggravated him to no end; all he could do was walk around and hope he came across a dark mage, or that a dark mage came across him. All was going well until he tripped over a tree root, and started rolling down the hill. "WHY MEEEEE?!"
.
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Gajeel and Patherlily made their way through the deep part of the forest, eventually coming across a small clearing. The shockwave from earlier didn't really phase him at all, he figured one of the Fairy Tail members managed to take out a dark mage. "Tch, looks like I gotta step up my game," Gajeel said aloud, mostly talking to himself as he and Patherlily stood in the middle of the clearing.
"It appears you will be able to do so soon, Gajeel," Lily said, taking a grip on his sword.
"Giehe…" Without a word, Gajeel set his sights on a tree. He then pointed his arm forward, causing it to morph into an iron pole and crash into the tree, easily breaking it. He noticed a figure hopping immediately to the next tree over, so he simply moved his extended arm over, crashing into the tree, causing that one to fall over. "Timber!" A female rolled in front of Gajeel. She appeared to be middle aged, brown curly hair that reached her lower back, red eyes, sleeveless yellow shirt, brown pants, and sandals. "There you are…" Gajeel said, retracting his arm, a smirk appearing on his face. "Giehehe…"
"Elisa, Earth Mage," The female said, dusting herself off. "Prepare to die, Fairy Tail scum."
.
Elfman ran through the forest, giving himself an inspirational speech about how he was going to get the job done like a true man. Though he was starting to have doubts as he realized he abandon the others without much of a word, and he wasn't prepared to face Erza's wrath for leaving like that. "I will accept my punishment like a man!" He said to himself, grinning and nodding as he hopped over tree roots that attempted to trip him. He continued running for a few minutes before silver arrows nearly impaled his feet, so he jumped back, skidding back across the dirt. "T-That wasn't manly!" Elfman looked around to see where the attacker was, but he was unable to see anything. He only heard the faint giggling of a female from above. "Show yourself!" Elfman demanded, activating his takeover spell, Beast Arm Iron Bull, on his arm.
"Oh, fine, if you insist," from the trees, Melody leapt down, dusting her pants off. "Hi!"
"Who are you?!" Elfman asked, readying himself.
"Oh, just your normal day to day dark mage bent on getting revenge," Melody, replied nonchalantly. She then took notice of Elfman's Fairy Tail mark on his neck, smirking sadistically once again. "You're a brat from Fairy Tail, aren't you?"
"Brat!?" Elfman's eye twitched at the derogatory term. "I am the manliest man you will ever meet! And Fairy Tail will take both you and your operation down!"
"Pssh…WAIT!" Melody stuck her hands out. "Is Gray-sama here!?"
"You sound just like…" Elfman shook his head. "Yeah, he's here, but your opponent is me!" Elfman dashed forward, pulling his Iron Bull back. "MAN!" He started to throw his fist forward, but something happened. Someone blindsided ELFMAN and sent him rolling across the ground. "W-Who the!?"
"Who's that guy?!" Melody asked, her eyes widening.
"The illusion does not fade away until it is beaten. I am not beaten; I am the illusion that will never fade away. My name is Michio, and I am the illusion," Michio said calmly, completely disregarding the fact Elfman was practically seething with anger while on the ground. "White Eclipse has come to take you and your operation down, so I hope you enjoyed it while it lasted."
"Oh, that's cute…" Melody giggled mockingly towards both Michio and Elfman. "You two are from those rivaling guilds. I can't tell if this was done on purpose or not. Oh well, I'll take you both down anyway!"
"Hmph," Michio ran forward, only to be shoulder tackled by Elfman.
"This is mine!" Elfman then shifted his attention to the Silver Make mage, pulling his arm back as he shouted.
"Silver Make: Wall!" A silver wall appeared in front of Melody just in time to block Elfman's Iron Bull arm. The silver wall cracked slightly, but otherwise it held firm. Just as the wall dispersed, another silver magic circle appeared in front of Melody's hand. "Silver Make: Pole!" A pole extended from the magic circle, slamming into Elfman's chest as it forced him into a tree, quickly dispersing after. "Hehe!"
"Tch," Michio recovered from the shoulder tackle to see Elfman slammed into the tree; he used this time to create several illusions of himself as he dashed towards Melody.
"What?" Melody noticed that the illusions of Michio, and Michio himself fought with a vulgate hand-to-hand style. She quickly took note that Michio was trying not to give Melody any time for a comeback. "I see…Silver Make: Dome!" As the illusions attempted to dog pile Melody, a silver dome appeared around her, the illusions bouncing off as they rolled across the ground.
"Tch! Don't hide!" Michio snarled; keeping his illusions and himself circled around the dome, waiting for it to vanish like the other silver creations.
"I'm not hiding!" Melody smirked from within her dome, placing her hands on the ground as several silver magic circles appeared under Michio and his illusions. "Silver Make: Pillar!" Several silver pillars shot up from the magic circles, all of them making contact with Michio and his illusions as he skidded back across the dirt, coming to a full stop.
"Tch…" He rubbed his mouth with the back of his hand, spitting out some blood before turning back to the dome. "Alright, let's try this…" Michio ran forward, only for Elfman to backhand Michio into a tree, now in his Beast Soul Takeover.
"Oh, this is rich!" Melody grinned as she saw Elfman attack Michio. "Silver Make: Lance!" Several Silver lances shot out of a magic circle towards the fighting pair, making direct contact with them and knocking them back. Elfman didn't stay down at all, instead he charged forward, aiming a punch at Melody's petite figure. "Nope!" Melody leapt over the punch, landing on Elfman's arm. What Melody didn't expect was Michio jumping up on Elfman, punching him in the spine, causing Elfman to fall over and Melody to fall back. Elfman hit the floor, groaning in a beastly voice while Michio used this time to axe kick Melody into the ground, landing the first hit anyone managed against her. "Oof!"
"Got you," Michio smirked. An opening has been made, and that's all he needed. Michio created another illusion of himself to jump Melody, but Elfman grabbed both him and the illusion and banged their heads together, throwing them aside. The impact caused the illusion to fade and left Michio dazed as he leaned against a tree. "Dammit…!"
"Take this!" Elfman threw yet another punch, but Melody ducked, then did a baseball slide under Elfman, now between Michio and Elfman. Michio quickly stood up dashing towards Melody as Elfman dashed as well. They both threw punches at the girl simultaneously, but Melody jumped up, upside down, pointing her hands out at Michio and Elfman as their punches flew by her head, silver magic circles appearing.
"Silver Make: Spear." Silver spears shot out from the magic circles, impaling Michio and Elfman in the chest, causing Elfman's takeover spell to wear off as he hit the ground, unconscious with a chest wound, and Michio to hit the ground, unconscious as well. Melody caught herself on her hands and merely got back onto her feet, dusting herself off. "Pssh, that's two more," she said to herself, stepping over the two bodies as she walked off into a different direction. "I need to find my Gray-sama."