Calculating Brain vs Determine Souls
The scene shows the crimson sky for three seconds before comes Panther Lily as he grew his sword and swings at Samuel who dodges each strike swiftly and moves away from his black opponent.
"Don't run away! Come face me like a true warrior!" Panther Lily yelled chasing after him.
"Charging into a sword head-on a practice best left to imbeciles and cannon fodder." Samuel stated, landing on the ground and quickly flies up to dodge Lily's attack.
"An intelligent fighter considers strategy, methodology, and outcome before they outcome!" Samuel believed as he is the brains of the legion platoon.
Samuel unleash his Claw Beam attack that causes the ground to erupt with large debris to fly up while Panther Lily manages to dodge him, but Samuel uses the large rocks at cover to fly around and kick the black cat warrior sending him flying several feet.
"You have no chance of winning! The Legion Platoon has endured training far more intense than you can imagine. Therefore, we can cope with any situation! My victory's assured!" Samuel said and fired another Claw Beam.
This attack was very close to Panther Lily to make him fall down further of the mountain.
"Damn it!" Lily shouted before crashing at the outer part of the side.
"Precisely as I calculated!" Samuel believed his plan of victory is going to happen.
"I even impress myself." Samuel flew down to where Panther Lily crashed.
"Now according to my calculations, he should've landed around here." Samuel looked around to see where Panther Lily is.
"Behind ya, Sammy!" Panther Lily shouted after bursting out from the dust clouds.
The sneak attack was very close to hitting Samuel as the flying cat of the Legion Platoon dodges it at the last second.
"You're remarkably stubborn, aren't you?" Samuel asked with a grin.
"I'm not gonna fall for the same trick twice in a row! And I know Gajeel is gonna find that clock piece any moment now. Your victory is far from assured." Lily said strongly with confidence.
"Such confidence…" Samuel smirked.
"Are you not aware the ruins are filled with traps?" Samuel asked which makes Lily started to feel worried.
"You can't be serious." Lily gritted his fangs.
(Inside the Temple)
"Nothin' up here!" Jet reported standing on top of one of the blue weird statues.
"I don't see anything that looks like a clock piece…" Droy feared this will take a long time to find this clock piece.
"Oh my, to think such a dangerous adventure would befallen onto the Giant Slayer and her son." Echidna chuckled.
"I know, and we just found out that we're really in another world. How could something like this happen?" Cattleya asked with her arm between her breasts.
"I'm not really sure how, but it feels like you and perhaps most from that other world were originally of Earth Land just like how Lucy and her sisters were." Levy stated.
"But that doesn't really explain how I'm here too since I died over 4,000 years ago after helping my kingdom overthrown another kingdom, I was sent as a spy." Anarista pointed at herself, confuse of how she is brought back to life.
"This is gonna involve some deep researching once we find the clock piece and meet up with the others." Levy said.
The more she thought about this dark magic that separated Lucy's older sisters and now finding out more people are from another world, or at least were sent to that other world and seemingly were actually of Earth Land, the more she thinks that there was a big part that no one knows about. And she's going to find out what that is.
"Hey, Levy-Shrimp!" Gajeel called out, snapping Levy out of her deep thoughts.
"There's something scribbled on this one." Gajeel informed when he spotted some weird symbols.
"Lemme see." Levy walked over to Gajeel to see these symbols.
"A question that is off top: are those two a couple by any chance?" Echidna asked with a teasing grin.
That question causes both the Iron Dragon Slayer user and Solid Script user to stop flinching with their face turning two shades of red, and their heart stop for a second.
"I have to say, those two being so opposite with each other feels to attracted by a powerful force that brings them together. Such a classic romance scenario." Anarista said with a grin.
"Now that you mention it, I have always notice that Gajeel likes to be next to Levy as much as possible." Cattleya recalled those few moments while coming here.
"SHUT UP! THERE'S NOTHING GOING ON WITH US?!" Gajeel and Levy yelled at the same time.
"Aw, so cute when trying to hide your feelings for each other." Anarista chuckled teasing.
"J-Just hurry up and read this thing." Gajeel groaned.
"S-Sure." Levy stuttered blushing, she calmed herself down and looks at the symbols.
"It says, "I'm hungry"." Levy puzzled of this one.
"Hungry? Is that really what is says?" Rana puzzled of why would this weird ancient writing mention about someone one being hungry.
"It does, but I don't know why." Levy said, also puzzled of this.
"You know, this little room kind of looks like we're inside a clock." Echidna commented as she looks around.
"Inside a clock?" Gajeel raised an eyebrow.
"She might be right. From up here, it kinda looks like a clock face." Jet informed as he looks at this scene a bit more.
"Wait, does that mean… it should point at snack time or something?" Droy guessed.
"Well, it's not like we got anything else to go with. Might as well give it a try." Echidna shrugged.
"So, all we gotta do is move it, huh?" Gajeel grinned as he moves to one of the hands.
"But how do we even know which way is the 12 and the other is 6?" Cattleya asked as there are no numbers.
"Don't worry, I can help with that." Levy said with a wink.
(Back to Panther Lily vs Samuel)
Panther Lily charges in swinging down his sword at Samuel but he misses when Samuel flew upward a little faster to dodge, then he flew behind Panther Lily trapping him in a hold with his arms around his neck and his legs around his waist.
"I told you, there's more to me than just intelligence. My combat skills are unparalleled." Samuel stated, making his hold tighter.
"Statistically, you've got no chance of winning!" Samuel pointed out.
However, at this very moment, Panther Lily's mind is on something else than fighting Samuel for he grows concern for Gajeel and the others in the ruins and worry about the traps Samuel mentioned.
"(Gajeel, please be careful.)" Panther Lily thought hoped everything is okay.
(Back in the Temple)
"Alright, one more push should do it." Cattleya said as she waves at Gajeel.
Gajeel nods then threw an Iron Dragon Club at one of the clock hands to make it move to get it right at the right time for "snack time" to solve this puzzle.
Then everything started to shake for a moment as the clock stones went down and something came up, it looks like a round stone hand holding onto something and that something is the clock face.
"Looks like we found it!" Levy smiled in relief.
"It's an actual clock face." Droy surprised.
"And that's only one part of this big bad clock you guys are looking for." Echidna commented. But there was something on her mind that she couldn't quite shake, something odd about this.
Gajeel look at the clock face for a second, giving if a sniff, and he just lick it.
"Gajeel, what compel you to do something like that?" Cattleya asked as the others thought it was weird too.
"It smelled like iron; I just wanted to make sure." Gajeel answered, being an Iron Dragon Slayer having a thing for iron.
"Well, now that you know, you can carry it." Jet stated.
"I agree, the doggy deserves his little treat." Anarista teased a bit.
"Whatever." Gajeel said as he was going to do that anyway.
"There's some writing, I bet I can read it." Levy noticed the writings right blow the clock face.
"We don't got time to study the thing, sweetheart." Gajeel said and grabbed the clock face which scares the others, except for Echidna and Anarista.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Echidna asked.
"She's right! You shouldn't try taking that off yet!" Levy said in a panicking tone.
But Gajeel didn't listen as he continues struggling with the clock face for a few seconds until he pulls it right off, and then there are some explosion sounds with the ground beneath them raising and something else came out.
"I tried to tell you!" Levy yelled and pointed at the writing. "It says, "Warning! He who takes this shall face the wrath of rock guardian!""
Everyone jumps off to see the giant rock guardian looks just like the strange blue statues, only this one is moving with tiny little blue hands and big thick-looking tentacles at the bottom like it's a giant octopus monster, it also has a little red light orb at the top of the head.
The rock guardian threw down one tentacle making the others jump away to dodge and the guardian chase started chasing them.
"I told you not to take it, but no, you just had to go and do it anyway!" Levy yelled.
"Next time, talk faster!" Gajeel yelled back at Levy.
"Next time, listen to me!" Levy argued.
"When we get out of this alive, we are going to have a serious talk about this, Gajeel!" Cattleya said in a scolding tone while carrying Rana on her shoulder.
"Could you save the arguing for later?!" Jet and Droy screamed as there's a giant rock monster right behind them.
"Hahaha! This group certainly feels like a lot of fun!" Echidna laughed.
"I agree! I cold get use to this!" Anarista laughed as well.
"This is not something to laugh about!" Jet and Droy yelled at them too.
(Panther Lily vs Samuel)
"It appears that your comrades have managed to spring the trap. Precisely as I calculated!" Samuel smirked as Lily is shocked.
"I see, so that's the reason you drew me away from them. You planned this!" Lily figured out what this battle was really about.
"You're powerful and you can fly. That made you a prime target. Taking all threats out of the picture is essential for victory." Samuel stated while tightening his grip on Panther Lily.
(Back in the Temple)
The rock guardian threw down one of its blue hands to smack down at the group only for Cattleya to deflect that tentacle her Giant Slayer sword, sending it crashing into a wall.
"Nice one, Cattleya! You really are strong!" Droy amazed.
"Thank you, but I'm not sure if I can keep up with fending off those tentacles for long." Cattleya admitted this foe seems a little tougher than any Giants she fought in her past.
"Then I think the best thing we can do is try to go for that red glow where the clock face use to be." Rana pointed at the red light at the top of the rock guardian's head.
"He's right, whatever that red light is must be the mechanism for the rock guardian." Levy nodded in agreement.
"Then all we gotta do is take down that red light and that big rock should stop." Jet guessed.
"Sounds like a tall order, and something tells me it's going to be fun." Echidna grinned and Keltan hiss his tongue at the rock guardian.
"It's been a long time since I had a challenge, I'm suddenly getting excited." Anarista cracked her knuckles and tap her toes.
"I'll start us off!" Levy stepped forward ready to use her magic.
"Solid Script: Oil!" Levy created a word "OIL" in the air, and it turns into oil that the rock guardian slither on and started to lose its balance.
"Nice job, now the thing can go anywhere when it can't straighten itself up." Echidna impressed as she took out her sword and shield.
While the rock guardian is having trouble to keep itself straight from the slippery oil, it didn't stop from attacking the others for taking the clock face and threw down few of its tentacles at the group to crush them.
"I don't think so!" Anarista jumped strong and unleash a powerful high kick send one tentacle back.
"Whoa! I guess that woman never skipped a single leg day!" Droy gasped.
"Which is something you should do…" Jet muttered, thinking Droy should really start working out on his body.
The other tentacle was deflected as well by Echidna when she spins around fast to slash at the tentacle away with her attack, and managed to move away just in time when another tentacle came in to strike her down.
"I've faced giant monsters before, but you are the weirdest looking thing I have ever seen." Echidna commented.
Another tentacle was coming at them only for Cattleya to step in and slash the tentacle away.
"Hey Cattleya, you mind giving me a boost. I can take out that red light thing in one shot." Gajeel suggested his own plan.
"I think you should do it, Mama. The rest of you can try keeping that thing distracted." Rana agreed with the plan.
"Alright, we got nothing else to lose here." Cattleya readied in a stance with her sword lean back.
"You only get one shot at this!" Cattleya reminded Gajeel what's at stake here.
"I know!" Gajeel jumped onto the side of the Giant Slayer.
"GO!" Cattleya threw Gajeel high above the rock guardian.
"Alright, time to end this." Gajeel smirked.
But the rock guardian senses something coming down to destroy the red beacon and threw its two long blue arms to attack Gajeel. However, none of them reach the dragon boy because Cattleya made a strong jump to help protect Gajeel from those arms.
"Giant Slap Slash!" Cattleya swinged her sword horizontal right between the two blue arms, and they are shattered into little pieces.
"Never lost her touch." Echidna impressed with the mother.
(Panther Lily vs Samuel)
Panther Lily can feel this hold is getting tighter and Samuel refuses to let go, so he decided to fly backward fast to slam Samuel into a rock forcing him to let go.
"I saw that one coming!" Samuel proclaimed.
"Taking a battle form like this is strange for an Exceed born in Earth Land." Panther Lily said.
"Yet it's the truth. I was born in this world, the same as your friends Happy and Carla." Samuel admitted.
"Then explain to me why you choose to side with the Legion Platoon! Why do you refuse to show compassion for those who share your circumstances?" Panther Lily demanded to know while getting into his battle stance.
"Zentopia took me in after I was hatch and gave me a place to call my own. Lord Byro has been nothing short of a father to me!" Samuel answered, entering his own battle stance.
"I ow everything to Zentopia and the Legion Platoon. Repaying that debt is far more important to me than the Exceeds or Edolas!" Samuel stated strongly and kick Panther Lily down to the temple.
"NOW!" Cattleya and everyone screamed together.
"Dragon Slayer Secret Art: Karmic Demon: Iron God Sword!" Gajeel threw down his ultimate attack destroying the red beacon, thus taking down the rock guardian.
"No! Impossible!" Samuel gasped upon seeing this and Panther Lily smirks.
"It's inconceivable! How can this be?!" Samuel started to freak out of this outcome.
"I've never once come across anybody who can elude my calculations! Perhaps they were incorrect, but if that's the case, all my strategizing was completely meaningless! I can't take this! It makes no sense!" Samuel complained and shouting.
"Who's the white cat man? He sounds like he had a bad birthday party." Echidna asked.
"A fight's a dynamic thing. Strategy helps, but you must be able to adapt when things go wrong." Lily lectured making Samuel angry.
"It looks to me like you've still got a lot of learning to do, Sammy." Lily mocked.
"My name is Samuel, you troglodyte!" Samuel shouted in a fit of rage and attack Panther Lily who uses that to dodge and grab his arm.
"You've left yourself open!" Panther Lily smirked and threw down Samuel so hard to the floor that he gasps in pain and puffs back into his little cat form.
"Wow, that was amazing!" Rana cheered as Gajeel lands giving Lily a thumb up.
KO a new chapter is done and hope you all enjoy it!
Gajeel's group have managed to get themselves the clock face of the mysterious dangerous clock and Panther Lily has just finished his battle too, this battle definitely went way off from Samuel's smarty brain to calculate.
KO comment, favorite, and follow through of how this story will go!