Erza let out an annoyed grunt as she turned towards the source of the unknown voice.
What she saw was a young man with long, two-toned hair of black and white that was tied up into a top knot on the back of his head, with the black portion overlaying the front and left side of his head, leaving the smaller white portion concentrated on the left, with the top knot also having the two separate colors correspondingly. On his face, he sported a simple marking consisting of three horizontal black bars passing across the ridge of his nose and both cheeks in a linear formation, with the one in the middle being the longest. He was garbed in a ninja-like attire consisting of a long, orange reddish cloth, held closed by a black belt, with prominent reddish fur around the collar, and with the sides being made of thick fishnet, with other, looser fishnet appearing on his forearms, with his robe's sleeves being rolled up. His attire was completed by a simple shirt appearing from under his gi, and a pair of loose black pants tucked inside simple black boots. He also carried around a simple katana strapped to his left hip.
"And who are you supposed to be?" the redheaded knight asked with narrowed eyes and slightly clenched fists.
"I am Totomaru of the Element 4. The Master of Fire." he declared, his voice full of arrogance and smugness. "And it is my job to ensure that none of you fairies tamper with Master Jose's canon. Even you, Titania."
The female mage opened her mouth to retort when she was stopped again by another voice echoing through the room. "Nine minutes to Jupiter charge."
The announcement reminded her just how precarious her situation was. As a result, she immediately gave up on her initial intent to make some sort of snappy comeback and instead went straight to business. "Requip: Black Wing Armor!" As soon as she had finished her transformation, the Queen of the Fairies lunged at her opponent in an attempt to strike him with her sword and end this thing quickly.
Unfortunately for her, the aforementioned fire mage had good enough reflexes to unsheathe his katana fast enough to block her attack. "You're a feisty one, aren't you?" he asked in an amused tone, which only served to piss her off further.
After that, the two wizards exchanged a few blows with their weapons in order to evaluate the other's skill and power. The two were stuck in a sword lock when: "Eight minutes to Jupiter charge."
Upon hearing this, Erza used all her strength to push her weapon and violently hurled her adversary into the nearest wall. As soon as he crashed into it, Totomaru instinctively jumped away, which was fortunate because not even a second later, the red-haired S-class mage struck at the very spot he used to be, trying to string together blows.
The fire mage exploited this opportunity to go on the offensive. "Orange Fire!" he called out and extended his free hand, sending a thick jet of blue flames.
Unlike her enemy, Titania didn't manage to get out of the way of the attack before it hit her. However, when the smoke and dust it had generated upon impact cleared, it was revealed that not only had Erza not sustained any damage, but she had also changed into her Flame Empress Armor. Although the latter probably explained the former.
As she descended back onto the ground, the Fairy Tail mage started to formulate her next strategy. 'This is taking too long. He's not trying to defeat me, but merely stalling for time. Which means I need to end this fast. At least with this armor, it should be an easier task.'
"Seven minutes to Jupiter charge." the automated voice announced, just as Erza was pointing her sword at her opponent. It was now her turn to attack by emitting a stream of fire. Except this one was the usual orange color and came out of her blade instead of her palm.
But as the attack neared him, Totomaru swiped his hand to the side and it turned around, heading for its caster instead. Upon witnessing this, the shock that filled Erza prevented her from dodging and she was once again forced to brace herself and take it.
As if this wasn't bad enough, the first thing she saw after recovering was her adversary's smug face. "I'm afraid this won't work. All fire obeys my will."
With another grunt frustration, and in another flash of light, the Requip mage swapped outfit and tactic again, seeing as these ones wouldn't get her anywhere. This time, she switched to her Heaven's Wheel Armor. Simultaneously, she summoned a dozen swords that levitated around her.
Even before the light that surrounded her had completely vanished, these swords were launched at the Phantom Lord mage who managed to dodge them all effortlessly, further increasing his confidence. "I guess you're not nearly as good a fighter as your reputation suggested. That pitiful attack of yours didn't even come close to hitting me."
"It wasn't meant to." she retorted while pointing behind him with the sword in her right hand.
When he turned around, Totomaru saw that, indeed, all of the swords were now lodged into the main lacrima and cursed internally. "If you think the power source for Master Jose's weapon is so fragile that a few- OOF!" Before he could finish his taunt, the fire mage was struck in his side and sent flying.
"Six minutes to Jupiter charge."
"Unlike you, I won't let my pride get in the way of my mission. Because I can't afford to." the female S-class mage stated before turning back towards the giant sphere in the middle of the room and using her armor's flight ability to take off towards it.
However, Jose's lackey was able to recover quickly enough to position himself between her and her target and block her in yet another sword lock, thus stopping her dead in her tracks.
Or so it seemed at first. But this time, Erza was prepared for just such a move. Indeed, she used the blade in her first hand to collide with Totomaru's katana and the other to immediately strike him and throw him out of her way again. As soon as that was done, she resumed her advance towards the gun's power source.
As he skidded and rolled across the floor, the member of the Element 4 barely had time to extend his hand towards his foe and cast a last-minute spell before she could reach the crystal ball. "Rainbow Fire!"
In doing so, he created and launched a small but dense fireball of seven different colors. It traveled at great speed towards Titania. So fast in fact, that she was unable to register, let alone react to what was happening before she was hit by the attack. When she was, it generated a large explosion that blasted her into a wall and made a lot of smoke. After it dissipated, the Queen of the Fairies was revealed to be panting and holding her side with one hand but still on her feet.
By that point, both fighters were getting pretty worn out and had scrapes and cuts all over their bodies, with Erza fairing a little bit better but not by much.
"Five minutes to Jupiter charge." This time, as the announcement ended, the four smaller spherical crystals started to glow and send lighting bolts to the bigger one.
Seeing this gave the Fairy Tail mage an idea. It was bold, risky, some might even say insane, but I was clearly her best option at the moment.
So in a quick flash of gold, she switched to her Purgatory Armor and rushed at her enemy before her transformation was even complete. This had the bonus effect of blinding him with the light of her Requip Magic. And with exquisitely precise timing, she was fully equipped right at the moment Totomaru came within range of her Spiked Mace, which she swung at the member of the Element 4 with all the strength she could muster and hit him right in the ribs before he could even comprehend what was happening. As his scream of pain echoed through the room, even louder than the sound of the lacrima charging, he was thrown violently not only against a wall, but through the wall.
"Four minutes to Jupiter charge."
Although her attack had been an unequivocal success, it had taken a lot out of Erza and had left her near exhaustion, panting heavily, and having to rely on her weapon to even stay up. Switching her gear so many times today had put a strain on her magical reserves and she doubted she would be able to do it again right now.
"BLUE FIRE!" she heard the incantation being yelled out from the gaping hole where she had sent her adversary. The knight barely managed to lift her mace in time to protect herself; and even then she was pushed back several steps before it was finally dissipated. And when it did, the side of her weapon that she used to block found itself covered in snow and ice.
As the dust cleared, she lifted her gaze and saw the fire mage standing in a pile of rubble. There wasn't a part of his body that wasn't riddled with wounds of all kinds and he looked just as ready to drop as she was. His sword laid shattered at his feet, the hilt being the only part that was still somewhat recognizable.
"Three minutes to Jupiter charge." the automated voice declared again.
At the announcement, the Phantom Lord mage started to laugh hysterically. "You have lost, Titania! Even if you defeated me right this instant, there's no way you would ever be able to regather enough strength to destroy that lacrima in less than three minutes!" he continued cackling for some time before he finally calmed down and stared at her with an air of malice and superiority. "Surrender now and I might let you witness your guildmates' demise before I finish you off."
But, much to his fury, Erza's response wasn't a look of uncertainty or even fear as he had expected but one of mockery as she adopted a wry smirk. "Don't flatter yourself. The only reason why you're even still standing is because your guild's ace did the heavy lifting for you when I fought him earlier today. If I had engaged you at full strength, you wouldn't have lasted more than a minute."
Totomaru sure wasn't laughing now. On the contrary, his teeth were gritting so hard, he might just break one or two. Blinded by his rage, he clenched both of his fists and ignited them with his Rainbow Fire again before jumping at the Fairy Tail mage. "HOW DARE YOU?! I'LL BURN YOU TO A CRISP! RAINBOW F-!"
He was never able to finish his spell; for in his rage, he never anticipated that he might be playing right into the redhead's hand by attacking her again, especially at point-blank range. As soon as he was close enough, the S-class mage twirled on herself and used her mace as a bat to propel him right into the very object he was here to protect.
"Two minutes to Jup-" the announcer tried to inform but was cut off when Jose's guild member collided with the power source full force. He went through the glass, but was stopped at the center of the sphere where he was struck by countless bolts of lightning of different colors.
The room was filled with the horrible sound of Totomaru's screams of agony and the cracking of electricity. This only lasted for a handful of seconds however, before the giant lacrima exploded and all the noise and light in the room suddenly vanished.
When all the ruckus ended, Erza saw that there was noting left of the main lacrima, and even those around it had either been damaged or destroyed. In its place, stood the broken, charred body of Totomaru. You could scarcely tell it was a human being.
Only when she was sure that she had won did Erza finally allow herself to drop her mace and fell to her knees. The fight and the emotions had been grueling. But she had accomplished her objective: the Jupiter cannon was out of commission for good. And so was one of the enemy guild's elite members. Looking back towards what was left of him, the red-haired mage couldn't ascertain if he was still alive; she was too far away to see if he was breathing or not. And she wasn't going to go and check. It's not that she thought he deserved to die, and she certainly didn't like the idea of her killing anybody; but he was the one who put her in a position where she had to choose between risking his life or her friends' and that was no choice at all. That thought reminded her that just because she had won that battle, didn't mean the war was won. And with that in mind, she managed to force herself back on her feet and slowly limped her way out of the wrecked room to regroup with her team.
A few minutes earlier, with the members of Fairy Tail who stayed in front of their guild hall, they had been battling Jose's puppets for some time now and were increasingly struggling to hold them off. Furthermore, as the cannon was getting ready to fire at them again, they could see dark blue light getting progressively brighter from inside the breech and it made them more and more anxious. Until suddenly, there was a booming sound when the very devise that had been emitting that same light exploded, tearing open the structure and sending the barrel of the gun flying into the lake that surrounded it. This spectacle instantly raised the morale of the defending mages back up to new heights.
"They did it!" Bisca exclaimed and all of her guildmates cheered with her.
"Take that, Jose!" Macao provoked.
"Come on, let's get rid of those things so we can join the others and attack Phantom directly." Cana encouraged, which prompted all her guildmates to redouble their efforts to fight the enemy guild master's shades.
Jose, however, wasn't worried or even phased by this new development. "You are as foolish as you are pathetic if you think that's all I've got. You've only made it worse for yourselves...FACE THE GIANT!"
All their celebration ended then and there when the enemy guild hall started to completely change its layout, with several legs being detached from the main building, a single, more massive pair remaining in the lower part, where the base stood; two more, large limbs sprouted on the top part, some mechanical parts appeared from the main body alongside several pipes, and a small, helmet-like head sprouted on the highest part. The result was a gargantuan, humanoid mechanical being standing on two legs, possessing a pair of large arms, with its dark hands having just the thumbs and two more fingers, and bright "eyes" visible in the crack of its helmet. Smoke was produced profusely from the pipes on the upper part of its body, at its head's sides.
As the transformation was taking place, all of Jose's shade-soldiers disengaged from their fight with the Fairy Tail mages and began circling the robot protectively.
"The hell is that thing?!" a member of Fairy Tail asked, terror evident in his voice.
"They call it "The Giant". It is their most powerful weapon." Loke answered, calmer but also sweating in fear.
"And now kneel before me...or die. On second thought, forget the kneeling, I'm just gonna kill you all anyway." the Wizard Saint taunted and with his last statement, his puppets charged back at the gathering of wizards and witches.
"Oh great. Now we have to deal with the ghosts and the giant killer robot." Ur sarcastically remarked.
"No matter. We'll just keep focusing on those bastards until Erza and the others destroy the Giant." the card mage instructed, her voice full of determination. Her speech and her attitude raised her friends' morale, but that was canceled out when they noticed the colossal contraption using one of its "hands" to draw a specific magic circle.
"I-Is that Abyss Break?" Lucy asked, praying she were wrong.
"Yes, it is. And with its size, if they fire it, it will the whole of Magnolia that'll be gone." Gray's teacher confirmed.
"And when will that be?" Fairy Tail's heaviest drinker inquired, surprisingly calmly.
"In 10 minutes, give or take."
This new piece of information spread panic among the defenders. But none of them felt as helpless as Mirajane Strauss. While literally everyone else was fighting, including her little sister, she was trying to provide medical care to their wounded guildmates. But she had very limited supplies and next to no experience, which meant that she ended up mostly just peering at the ongoing battle from within their damaged guild hall. And every time one of her friends got hurt, she felt her simmering anger rising. Her gaze lifted to Phantom's weapon and her fists clenched at her side. Her brother was in there, surrounded by enemies who would love to see him dead. She couldn't help but see the parallel between this situation and the one two years ago. Once again, the people she cared about most in this world were in imminent mortal danger, except this time she was even more powerless than she had been back then. As flashbacks of that horrible day passed through her mind, her whole body started to tremble with fear and rage, tears streamed down her face and her nails dug into her palms, drawing blood. No one noticed in the chaos, but the barmaid's magical output was steadily going up.
"No…" she muttered.
Some people felt the ground shaking, but with everything that was happening, they didn't think twice about it. But when an intense light shone through the windows of their guild hall, everyone noticed. Even the mindless shades stopped their attack in confusion and the entire battle entered a lull.
"No." they heard an inhuman voice say from within.
Less than a second later, an explosion ripped through what remained of the wall, throwing debris of rock and wood everywhere. What they saw when the smoke dissipated was a sight most of them didn't believe they'd ever see again.
There Mirajane stood, but she was barely recognizable. Her eyes, eyelashes, ears, and hair had all changed drastically, and dark, thin markings appeared all over her body. Her forearms and hands became covered in scales, and each sprouted a fin-like protrusion on its outer side. She had also grown a large, stocky tail, seemingly made of metal plates or scales. Her clothing also changes, with her usual attire being replaced by a dark, skimpy one-piece suit revealing her arms and legs, which was opened on the front and the back, exposing most of her belly, wide cleavage and upper back. She also donned a pair of gauntlets covering the back parts of her transformed arms.
"Never again." the white-haired woman declared in an emotionless voice, but the fury in her eyes was clear for all to see. With that statement, she sprouted a pair of wings from her back that were reminiscent of a bat's and had small spike-like protrusions on their upper edges. She then used those wings to take flight and began effortlessly slaughtering Jose's troops left and right with Darkness Magic.
This display made her allies rejoin the fight with newfound determination.
Nevertheless, it seemed that no matter how you destroyed them, the shadow-soldiers would just reform themselves seconds later. Still, they now weren't nearly as overwhelmed as they had been a minute ago.
Back into Phantom Lord's headquarters, Wendy was making her way deeper into the structure, her legs still a little wobbly. Its transformation minutes earlier had inflicted her with her worst episode of motion sickness yet. And she thought that bloody boat had been bad. To make matters worse, she had no idea where she was going. Between the whole building rearranging itself and the fact that she'd nearly passed out while it was happening, she could barely tell up from down at this point. Although to be fair, she wasn't entirely sure of her destination even before that. In the end though, she must have stumbled onto the right path, considering the room she was in at the moment. It was long but not very wide and at its end stood a double stairway with an enormous purple banner of Phantom Lord and a weird statue of their symbol in the middle.
But as she was making her way towards it, a sudden feeling washed over her and she jumped into the air just in time to avoid an intense whirlwind that had come from behind her. When she landed in a crouch position, the Sky Dragon Slayer was greeted by the sight of a miniature tornado spinning in the middle of the room.
"This is so sad." she heard a male voice from inside. The second after, it dissolved and in its place stood Aria, the Element 4 of the Air. "That I'll have to extinguish such a pretty little thing as you."
At that sentence, Wendy's eyes narrowed in annoyance. She hadn't trained so hard for so long just for someone to call her a "pretty little thing". However, part of that training was not letting her temper drive her to make foolish mistakes, and she could see that guy was no pushover. Not least of which because the size difference between them was almost comical, so ridiculous was it; she wasn't even sure she reached his midsection.
"I am Aria of the Great Sky, leader of the Element 4. I was hoping to get a chance at taking down Fairy Tail's famed Salamander, but I guess you still count as a dragon too." the monster of a man introduced himself, without any emotion but with a constant flow of tears emanating from beneath his blindfold.
The blue-haired girl scowled at that. Was he doing that on purpose? Or was he just naturally offensive? Well, if he wanted a fight, she'd give him one! And whether he was taunting her or not, she sure as heck wasn't going to let him continue. "Sky Dragon's Roar!"
Much to her surprise, her opponent made no movement to either dodge or block the attack, and instead simply took it head-on. She quickly understood why when it stopped and revealed he was completely unscathed. "So you use Air Magic too. This shall perhaps be more interesting than I had anticipated."
"Fast wind that run the heaven...Vernier!" instead of succumbing to the shock of the ineffectiveness of her attack, Wendy cast a spell to improve her movement speed. If her enemy wanted to rant so badly, let him, she'd capitalize on it. She then used the combination of her spell and still being in her crouch position to jump high in the air, higher than she'd ever be able to under normal circumstances to the point where she flew over the member of the Element 4 and was now behind him. And as she was traveling through the air, she wrapped her arm in a strong gust of wind. "Sky Dragon's Wing Attack!"
The next instant, she sent a tendrils of swirling wind at her target, who had merely turned his head to keep her in sight the whole time. And just as the attack was about to hit him, he vanished into thin air and the Dragon Slayer's attack struck the ground instead, making a big chunk of it collapse to the next floor. When Wendy landed, confused and frustrated, she instinctively took a big whiff of air and listened when her nose told her her adversary was still around there somewhere.
"Such a sad display. I shall be merciful and end this quickly." the Fairy Tail mage heard his voice resonate through the hall. He then appeared behind her with his hands on either side of her, his palms open wide. "Airspace: Ruin!" he called out and a blinding golden light shone under Wendy's feet and...she didn't feel anything. "Once caught in this spell, all wizards get drained of their powers. This is so s-."
"Sky Dragon's Twirling Fist!" his supposed victim cut him off and punched right at the bottom of the chin, sending him flying into the ceiling, before falling back down like a rock. "Not all wizards. Air Magic has no effect on me."
"Is that so?" the member of Phantom Lord reacted as he got back up, only a few small scratches on him and an obnoxious smirk on his lips. He then reached his hands up to the bandages covering his eyes and proceeded to remove them. "I will admit it was a sad mistake on my part to underestimate you." As they came off, they revealed two wide magenta eyes topped by thin dark eyebrows. "But I will correct it now."
As his blindfold fell to the ground, the room was flooded with dark golden light coming through the windows from outside. She didn't know what it was, but the Sky Dragon Slayer could easily guess it wasn't friendly. "Sky Drive." she calmly called out and her body glowed pink and light blue. She had wanted to try to avoid using this technique; she hadn't mastered it yet and it took a lot out of her; but time was of the essence.
"Airspace: Sever!" Aria yelled out with his left hand extended before him, its palm open, something which prompts a series of purple bubble-like airspaces to be fired at his target with great speed.
Instead of trying to dodge backwards or to the side like most people would, she pressed forward, directly into her enemy's attack, confident her own speed would enable her to evade most of the projectiles. And that is what happened, she was hit a few times and every time one of those things touched anything solid, it generated small and yet powerful blast. In the end though, that too served her purpose because it prevented Aria from spotting her until she was right in front of him with her hand pulled back. "Sky Dragon's Crushing Fang!" she called out and swiped at his right flank with her fingers, leaving a wake of wind behind as she did so.
As the leader of the Element 4 screamed in pain and his blood spilled onto the floor, Wendy skidded to a halt a little distance away from him and turned around to admire her handy work. She had hit him right below the ribs and she could distinguish four deep gashes in spite of his large hand holding his side in an attempt to lessen the pain and blood flow. She, herself, had sustained injuries, bruises and scratches all over her body but none of them looked serious. And as she wiped the small trail of blood flowing from her split lip, she smiled proudly. "You're lucky my brother wasn't the one to show up. If this is the best you can do, you wouldn't have lasted long."
That mocking comment was the final straw for the huge man. When he shifted his gaze from his wounds to the person who had given them to him, his eyes were full of nothing but rage. "That's enough! I've been trying to be merciful! But if you want to see what I can so, so be it! It shall be the last thing you ever see! Airspace: Zero!" And with that statement, his eyes started shining brightly and he brought his relaxed hands before him, the right one on top and the lower down, with their palms facing. This prompted a very large, spiraling airspace to be generated before him, made visible by a large, smoky whirlwind.
All the while, the Sky Dragon Slayer was standing in the middle of his attack, still as a statue. Even when Aria fired barrages of smaller airspaces at her, she didn't move a muscle. Until finally, right as the first of his projectiles was about to hit her, she opened her mouth took a deep breath in. Within seconds, the entirety of Aria's spell was sucked into her mouth and she merely swallowed it. Without another word, she spread her arms out and a fast wind barrier was formed, trapping her enemy with her. He tried to escape the spell by teleporting away like he had previously done, but it felt like he had run into a brick wall and was thrown back on his previous spot. "Dragon Slayer's Secret Art: Shattering Light: Sky Drill!" she cast and moved her arms in a counter-clockwise direction, causing the barrier to contract inwards towards the strongest member of the Element 4. When he was hit by the attack, still too disoriented to react in any way, it was like he was a small leaf in the middle of a hurricane. Despite his size, the spell flung him with ridiculous ease until he was thrown out of the building, leaving an enormous hole in the wall behind him. And as soon as he did, the light emanating from outside progressively dimmed until it was completely gone.
When she was satisfied that she had won, Wendy deactivated her Sky Drive and allowed herself to take a few deep breaths. This battle had been more grueling than she had realized. But as she was preparing to continue her path up the stairs, she heard footsteps behind her and turned around, only to see one of her guildmates slowly making her way towards her. "Erza?"
In the middle of the control room of Phantom Lord's headquarters, Jose was standing for the first time since he had stepped into that room. Before that, he had never even considered getting his ass out of his "throne". And the sole reason why he had done so this time, was that he was fuming with rage.
"HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE?!" the guild master bellowed at the top of his lungs. "MY ELITE WIZARDS, BESTED BY SOME PUNY FAIRIES?! TELL ME I'M DREAMING!"
But no one told him that. No one could tell him that, on the account of everybody else in that room being dead. Indeed, as soon as his great weapon had lost power, he had seen the people handling it as having lost their usefulness and, in a fit of rage, permanently expelled them from his guild. Even now, Jose could hardly believe how badly everything had turned to shit like that. He had planned it all so perfectly, only for his guild members' incompetence and stupidity to ruin it all. They couldn't capture the girl, couldn't protect Jupiter, couldn't even defend themselves against the scum long enough for Abyss Break to be fired. If they had dared survive their encounter with the fairies, he'd rectify that in a hurry!
He then took a few seconds to calm down. He still needed to take care of Fairy Tail before that. And of all his guild members, the only one left in condition to do anything was Gajeel. Now, he would have thought the Dragon Slayer to be enough to tear through almost all of those fairy brats, but he could no longer be sure of anything. But no matter, even if he had to do it all himself, he would. To hell with the Heartfilia girl, to hell with the money. All that mattered was that this pathetic guild was wiped out from the face of the earth. And with that thought, he focused his magic and doubled the number of his shade-soldiers attacking the beach and started walking towards the door.
Back in the room where Wendy had defeated Aria, she had now been joined by Erza, Gray and Elfman. They had all filtered into the room one by one and, at Erza's insistence, were now waiting for Natsu to arrive too before making their way deeper into the structure. In the meantime, Wendy had done her best to heal her friends' injuries but, once again on the knight's orders, had only attended the most serious wounds in order to save up as much of her magic power as possible.
"I still have a hard time believing you took Aria down all on your own." the ice mage offhandedly commented, glancing at the hole left by the bluenette's spell that had ended the fight.
The Sky Dragon Slayer was about to react to that comment but the S-class mage beat her to it. "And why is that, Gray? Need I remind you that the two of you tied when you sparred?"
Her intervention made the dark-haired mage blush and look away in embarrassment. "No. No, you don't. But we all took down one of those guys."
"Of course we did. When I saw my sister had retrieved her power, I knew a real man wouldn't be scared of a Full-Body Take Over and beat up that unmanly monacled freak!" Elfman declared confidently. "What about you, Gray?
"Yeah, that was...interesting." Ur's student simply answered.
"But none of this matters now. What does matter is that the Element 4 have been dealt with. Which only leaves Black Steel...and Master Jose himself." the Requip mage interrupted, until she saw her blue-haired friend smell the air repeatedly and rapidly summoned a sword in her right hand. "What is it, Wendy?"
"Someone's coming." the Dragon Slayer responded, looking slightly pale.
"Is it Natsu?" Gray asked hopefully, though with clear doubt in his voice.
His apprehension grew when she shook her head. "I know my brother's scent. This is...something else. Something I've never smelled before. It's definitely human but...this is by far the foulest scent I've ever smelled. Worse than Deliora's."
Gray and Erza felt a chill run down their spines at that explanation. And even Elfman, who had no idea who Deliora was, knew this wasn't good. All four of them then froze in a mix of shock and fear when they registered wicked magical feeling flood the room.
"W-What is this?" the ice mage of the group stuttered.
"It feels like death itself." Erza added.
"Yes, indeed." a new voice confirmed from the end of the hallway. "More specifically, your death." They all turned towards it, to see the last person they wanted to see. Here Jose stood with a new outfit and an insane grin on his face.
His second outfit was less flamboyant, being more militaristic: it consisted of a long, blue coat closed on the right side of Jose's chest by a belt circling his waist and by another one going over his right shoulder, sporting Phantom Lord's symbol on its buckle; the coat had wide golden stripes going down from the high collar, which sported a pair of large rings hanging from it on the front, to the cuffs, with other golden parts in correspondence to the closure and below the waist, on each side. His Wizard Saint's medallion was still visible, but had dark ribbons hanging from it instead. Covering Jose's left arm was a brownish cape, sporting a wide golden-colored stripe near the edges and some small shield-shaped ornaments placed at the same distance from one another. The outfit was completed by loose pants tucked inside boots. While donning this second attire of his, Jose did not sport a hat, and his hair was tied in a high ponytail. To add to his intimidating appearance, he was surrounded by a black and dark purple aura.
"Master Jose." the S-class mage said through gritted teeth, anger evident in her voice and on her face.
"So, it's him." Gray muttered.
"You were going to die no matter what. But after everything you've done today, you couldn't deserve it more. You trashed my guild hall, destroyed my Jupiter cannon, defeated my Element 4 and laid waste to my Giant. Do you have any idea how much all this will cost my guild? How much it will cost me? Both in jewels and in reputation? Now I have to find a way to rebuild what you have ruined. Oh, I know. When I'm done killing the most insufferable of you, perhaps the rest will be worth something at the slave auction." the Wizard Saint continued, his last statement making the knight tighten her grip on her sword.
The two male Fairy Tail wizards of their group reacted much more strongly, unknowingly taking Jose's bait, and jumped to attack their new foe.
"No, don't!" the redhead tried to warn them, but she was too late.
Before either of them could utter a single word of a single spell, their enemy swiped his hand to the side and sent a wave of black and purple energy that hurtled them away.
"Power of the stout arms that tears heaven...Arms!" Wendy capitalized on Jose's distraction to increase the offensive capabilities of all four of them, and Erza requipped into her Black Wing Armor at the same time. Both of them were now assuming battle-ready stances.
"At least the two of you don't seem to be completely inept. And I've never seen this enchantment before. Good. Perhaps you can provide me with some entertainment before I make the light leave you eyes." the older wizard evaluated with a look of pure madness on his face.
'Are you kidding me? Have you even looked at what's on your head? It looks like an enchanted porcupine is living on your head.' Mavis jibed.
'This coming from the girl who can't tell the difference between hair and a cape.' Natsu fired back.
This had been going on for some time. Ever since the dragon separated as a matter of fact. While all of their guildmates were fighting, they had been mentally arguing about this or that. Although Natsu did neutralize a handful of Phantom members, that hardly count as fighting.
'You think I had many hairdressers to choose from on Tenrou Island?' the First Master retorted.
'And after that?' her host inquired.
'...I was busy…' she responded sheepishly.
'You just like it, don't you?' the pinkette insisted, his voice full of amusement.
'...So what if I do?' the blonde defensively asked.
'Well, you'd be right. I think it really suits you.' he complimented, surprising his interlocutor.
'Oh. Thank you, Natsu.' the ghost thanked, glad he couldn't see how much she was blushing. 'I hope you know I didn't mean any of that stuff I've said this whole time.'
'I do. Just like you know I didn't mean mine.' the pink-haired mage cheekily confirmed as he arrived in front of large, double-leaf metal doors with a black Phantom Lord's symbol painted on it. 'Now, please let me concentrate. We're here.'
'And where's "here"?' the thought projection questioned.
'Gajeel's room.' he supplied, before gently pushing the door opened and peeked inside.
What he saw was a little disconcerting to say the least. Gajeel was there alright, along with six of his guildmates. Although if it weren't for their guild marks, Natsu wouldn't be sure they were on the same side. Because Gajeel was in the process of beating them up pretty bad.
'Damn. What a jerk.' the observer noted and fully stepped into the room. As the Iron Dragon Slayer didn't to have noticed him, he started to slowly walk towards him. "I'm not really sure your guild can afford to lose members in such a fashion right now."
Upon hearing the new voice, Gajeel finally diverted his attention away from his "allies" and towards the newcomer. When he saw who it was, he flashed an exited grin. "If you feel so bad for them, then you should also feel guilty. I've been waiting for you to come face me since I smelled you arrive here. But you took your sweet time and I got bored."
"Well, here I am now. What are you waiting for?" Natsu taunted with a hand gesture.
That was all the invitation Gajeel needed. "Iron Dragon's Club!" he transformed his left forearm into one of his steel clubs and propelled it at his opponent.
Despite how fast it traveled, the Fairy Tail wizard was able to intercept the attack by grasping it with one hand.
Black Steel, however, was apparently expecting this and used Salamander's firm grip to his advantage. Indeed, by retracting his club in this disposition, it was his body that was pulled forward in the blink of an eye, and as soon as he was close enough, he swung his right fist at his enemy.
But once again, Natsu reacted swiftly thanks to his instincts and experience and had let go of Gajeel's arm just in time to duck under the oncoming punch, which put him in a prime position to counter-attack. "Gravity Dragon's Propelling Fist!"
Although he was caught off guard by his adversary's move, Phantom's elite mage still managed to used his still-transformed left arm to block the attack. However, while this was successful at reducing its damage, it did nothing to mitigate its magical properties and he was consequently flung into a nearby wall.
"Impressive. I half-expected you to just repeatedly attack me like a mindless beast." the pinkette kind of complimented while his opponent was sliding down the wall and back onto the floor.
Instead of replying with a snappy comeback of his own, the black-haired Dragon Slayer attacked again in the same way, only this time, instead of aiming for his enemy himself, he targeted the ground he was standing on.
Natsu saw this clearly and prepared for it by pulling his fist back and cold vapor was emanating from it. Finally, at the very second Gajeel's club was about to hit its target, Natsu struck, not at the club, but at the ground too. "Ice Dragon's Freezing Fist!"
When it connected, the Fairy Tail mage's punch froze both the floor's surface and the metal limb together.
Thinking on his feet, the Iron Dragon Slayer formed multiple small poles at the end of his original one, which succeeded in shattering the ice and forcing his foe to jump back to avoid being hit.
While he was retracting his club, and despite how one-sided the fight seemed to be, Gajeel was the one who began to chuckle. "Gi Hi. It's good to finally fight a fairy worth my time. Now, let's see how you handle this! Iron Dragon's Sword!" With his spell, he turned his right arm into a large, jagged steel blade with spikes along the blade's edge that started spinning until they became a blur. And without another word, Black Steel jumped high in the air and brought his new weapon down on Salamander.
And this time again, the pink-haired mage made no effort to dodge and, just as his opponent's sword was about to connect with his face, he stopped it by placing one hand on each side of the blade and pressing down firmly. Nevertheless, Gajeel remained confident to the point of cockiness and pushed on with all his might. But, much to his shock, his sword-like arm did not budge a hair. Given the situation they were in, it would imply that the fairy he was trying to squash was several times physically stronger than he was, which made no sense.
Before he could dwell on it however, the pinkette interrupted his train of thought by speaking up. "Do you know what steel does do, Gajeel? It melts." And with that declaration, he lit both of his hands on fire. Within seconds, his blade turned red then orange and he felt a pain the likes of which he had never experienced before. And when he had just recently tried to push his sword further, he was now trying to pull it away. But once again, his efforts came to naught. Out of desperation and panic, he deactivated his spell and turned his arm back to normal. That was enough to free him from the trap, but it also left him open. "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" his enemy called out and hit him in the chest, pushing him back.
As he got up, Gajeel had a large burn mark on his torso and had lost all sense of humor. To add insult to injury (literally), Natsu mocked him once more. "You know, I wonder what Metalicana would be the most bothered about: how weak you are or how much of a prick you are."
That was too far for the member of Phantom Lord. "Iron Dragon's Roar!" he yelled out and expelled an immensely powerful tornado of sharp metal shards from his mouth.
"Ice Dragon's Iceberg!" the Fairy Tail wizard quickly reacted with a swipe of his hand, summoning a small but dense pile of ice in front of him. For several long seconds, Gajeel's attack gnawed away at Natsu's defense until there was nothing left of either spell.
As it turns out, this offensive was merely a distraction. Because while Natsu was preoccupied, it bought time for Gajeel to both use his "Iron Dragon's Scales" spell and run towards him.
"Iron Dragon's Hard Fist!" the black-haired mage pressed on when he stood right in front of the opposing wizard. Seeing as he had no time to cast any spells, said opponent only raised both of his arms in front of his face in defense.
Black Steel smirked contently when he saw Salamander being pushed back a few paces. But that grin faded when he noticed the total absence of damage to his enemy. So he decided to attack again and turned his right arm into a large spearhead and pointed it at his target. "Iron Dragon's Lance: Demon Logs!" he cast and fired a large number of thin but fast and sharp steel spears.
And again, Natsu showed no sign of alarm. "Gravity Dragon's Stasis Field!" he called out with another swipe of his hand, creating a translucent purple dome around himself.
Every time one of the spears collided with the dome, it lost all of its momentum and stayed frozen in place. Until all of the spears had been stopped, at which point the dome dissipated and all of the lances fell harmlessly to the floor.
At this point, Natsu was honestly starting to have a lot of fun for once. Battling another Dragon Slayer was more exiting to him than any other type of mage. And seeing the look of shock and terror as he was taking an arrogant bastard down a peg was quite satisfying too. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. And as he felt various magical impulses coming from above, there was a fight upstairs that required his attention a lot more than this one. So he resolved to finish the job quickly, even if it meant coming back to it again later on.
With this in mind he leapt toward Gajeel and, in a single second, was right in his face with his hand in a claw-like shape with his fingers swirling with both fire and air, poised to strike. "Fire Sky Dragon's Crushing Fang!" he called out and swiped his hand at the strongest member of Phantom Lord from his left shoulder to his right hip, leaving four trails of a mix of fire and air behind them. As the streaks hit him, Gajeel was knocked to the ground, the armor on his chest utterly cracked, dented and blackened.
Not letting up, Salamander followed up with another attack. "Gravity Fire Dragon's Roar!" he blasted Black Steel at point-blank range. Usually, this breath spell at this distance could very well be fatal. But considering Gajeel was a Dragon Slayer and still had his extra layer of protection, he had a much better chance of survival. Still, the Fairy Tail mage's attack tore through multiple floors.
When the dust cleared, Natsu could see that Gajeel was back to normal, his clothes were in tatters and he wasn't moving a muscle. But after further inspection, the pink-haired mage spotted the up-and-down movement of the black-haired man's chest, indicating that he was still breathing.
Satisfied with the result he had obtained, Natsu promptly turned around and used his Fire and Air Magics to climb the structure at great speed and take on his next opponent. The one truly responsible for all this madness.