Author's Note:
Hey all! Well... we're off to a great start aren't we? Lol... looks like I missed the weekend this time around. But hey, at least I posted within the week! So, yeah, we're not TOO far off schedule. 😅 I'll try and post on Thursday or Friday next week, and that'll start easing us back towards the weekend again. ;D
Anywho! I'm so glad that you all seemed to enjoy chapter 1! Again, sorry it took so long to get Part 3 out... I really, really appreciate you guys for not giving up on me! Thank you all SO much! Big hugs and kisses to my reviewers: FairyTailxFanGirl, SistershoOk, Natsulover89, and Lovesmutbabe! You guys are AWESOME!
Well, no time like the present! That's enough chatter from me... let's get on with the show, shall we? It's time for a little action and adventure!
"Alright… this is where their nest is. I can't take you any further…." the guy (Steve or whatever) said as he stalled out in front of a big cave.
He'd brought them here all the way from the village, which had taken a good couple hours. It was just Natsu, Luce, and Happy though, 'cause Wendy and Carla had stayed behind to keep healing the villagers.
"Thank you, Stewart. We'll take it from here," Luce replied, and Natsu seconded it.
"Yeah! We're gonna go roast those gargoyles for ya, don't worry about it!"
The guy didn't look super convinced, but he nodded and hurried back the way they'd come without saying anything else. He was definitely spooked and probably wanted to get outta there as quick as possible.
Not that Natsu really paid much attention, 'cause he was totally focused on the cave in front of them and getting this thing taken care of. "All right! I'm all fired up! Let's do this thing! OI! COME OUT AND FIGHT!"
He'd bellowed right into the cave's mouth, figuring that was the fastest way to get the gargoyles out and kicking, and he heard Luce snort behind him.
"Well, that's one way to do it…."
Happy snickered and told her, "Yep! He always does stuff like that."
"Somehow, I'm not surprised."
"Hey! It usually works!" he shot back.
The three of them hung around the mouth of the cave for a bit to see if anything would happen, and when it didn't, he huffed and walked in with the other two right on his heels. "Guess we've gotta go in and take the fight to them."
"Great. I hope it doesn't get too dark…."
Natsu hadn't even thought about that, but he wasn't too worried. After all, his fire magic meant he had a couple of ready to use torches all the time right on the ends of his arms. But Luce obviously didn't see it that way.
When the light from the front of the cave went away pretty quickly, she groaned and said, "I'm not really happy with this, you guys. How deep do you think we've got to go?"
"As deep as the nest is, I guess. Why're ya freaking out all of a sudden?"
She frowned at him, looking a little ticked off and tense. "I'm not freaking out. I just don't like the idea of being underground in a dark cave with a bunch of monsters flying around. Which is a perfectly normal response, I'd think."
"But it's not really dark, ya know…" Natsu pointed out and waved around his hand with the fireball sitting in it. Though, he didn't even need to use his fire, 'cause she'd pulled out her light rings, and they were doing a good job of lighting up the tunnel all on their own.
"That's not the point."
"Really? Then what is the point?"
She just shot him a look and huffed, "Nevermind."
"Luuushy's scaaaared…."
"Shut it, cat!"
Natsu laughed at the way his buddy blew a very stupid raspberry at Luce. He laughed even harder when she got mad and smacked Happy.
The exceed was in his human form, so the big, watery 'kitten-eyes' he tried to give her weren't super effective, and she just fussed at him some more. 'Course, that was also probably 'cause the guy didn't know when to quit, and he kept on teasing her.
Natsu got in on it too, and they all started ribbing and roasting each other as they continued on down the tunnel. On the plus side, that seemed to distract Luce from the 'being underground with monsters' thing. And it also helped pass the time, since a whole lot of nothing happened.
The gargoyles were pulling a no-show, and pretty soon, it'd begun to weird them all out.
"Geez… this is taking forever. How deep does this fricken' cave go?!"
"That's what I've been saying this whole time," Luce grumbled, and he ignored her.
Happy was gonna say something too, but Natsu drowned out whatever it was by shouting again, "OI! YOU BUNCH OF WIMPS! GET YOUR BUTTS OUT HERE ALREADY! I WANNA FIGHT YA!"
Maybe that was a little sudden, but he didn't think it really warranted the shriek Luce let out… or how mad she got after. "Warn me next time before you yell like that! You nearly scared me half to death!"
"Whoops, sorry, Luce!" he snorted, kinda feeling bad for freaking her out. Sorta. A little. He was more interested in waking up the gargoyles though and getting this hunt on the move.
But even after he shouted at them, nothing happened for a couple minutes.
Everything stayed dark and quiet, and he was just about ready to explode… 'til FINALLY they heard wings flapping and screeches come up the tunnel.
He grinned and built up a bunch more fire in his fists, ready to let it loose. "Alright! It's about time! Now we've got a party!"
As soon as he could see all five of the little monkey sized monsters flying at them, he gave a big yell and shot a good-sized explosive fireball down the tunnel. He'd aimed to get all of them at once, so it was kinda a surprise when the flames died down and they were still coming… a little black around the edges but definitely not dead.
That's when he remembered that these guys had skin almost as tough as stone. Which meant he probably needed to use a lot more power to actually do any damage.
"Okay then! Think you're tough, huh? Well, take this on for size!"
He blasted them with a much larger explosion, shaking the walls a little and kicking up some smoke.
There were a whole lot of screeches, and all the gargoyles thunked to the ground – goners. Except for one that tried to sneak by him, but he wasn't having any of that. Natsu grabbed the monster by its boney foot, then swung it around and slammed it into the wall of the cave. And to make extra sure that the stoney bastard would stay down, he also boosted his strength with enough magic that the monster went 'crunch.'
"Wow… these guys are actually pretty weak," he grunted as the dead gargoyle flopped onto the cave floor.
Happy frowned at the five remains, looking surprised too. "Yeah, what's up with that?"
"I don't know, but we should keep up our guard. That was too easy," Luce agreed with them.
They went on, and pretty quickly, a second group of ticked-off rock monsters were headed their way. Natsu revved up another fire attack – this time going stronger from the get-go – and he dropped most of them with his first shot. Almost all the rest were cooked on his second blast, but two managed to survive somehow.
He hit one of the escape-artists with an up-close fire punch to the gut that busted a hole through it, while the other snuck by him.
"Watch it!" he yelled as it seemed to pick a different target.
"No problem!" Luce shouted back, and a bright beam of light shot right in the thing's face.
She must've done a flash attack with her rings, and the gargoyle stopped with a shriek and grabbed its eyes – probably blind as a bat now.
Natsu turned around right in time to see Happy finish it off with one of his patented hyper sonic punches. He flashed through the air almost too quick to see and socked the gargoyle right in the face. At that speed, there was a lot of power behind him, and it popped his opponent's head clean off and sent it flying.
"Good one, Happy!"
"Aye Sir!"
They high fived, and after a long moment of silence, Luce said (sorta weakly), ".… Wow. That was… something else."
There was something in her voice, and when Natsu got a good look at her, he noticed she definitely seemed a little green around the gills. And at that point, he realized this was probably the first time she'd ever seen this much carnage.
"Hey, uh, you doing okay there, Luce? Is this getting to be too much for ya?"
"Um. It's… it's a lot. But… this is just part of the job, right? So… I guess… I need to get used to it," she replied with a really wobbly smile that wasn't convincing at all. "I'll be okay after a minute…."
…
.
…
Natsu frowned, obviously not believing her, but there wasn't much she could do to convince him that she wasn't perturbed by the blood spattered everywhere.
In the last attack, only one of the gargoyles had been killed in such a brutal way, but even being crushed against a wall didn't hold a candle to decapitation or having a hole blown through it. This was just… something right out of a horror movie, and she was finally starting to realize the full implications of a monster-fighting mission.
Lucy kicked herself a little for not thinking of it sooner, but even though she'd known that there would be violence and death, somehow this little detail hadn't occurred to her. They were hunting a whole group of creatures… which should have clued her into the fact that there would be a lot of killing and plenty of gore.
Yes, she had been around plenty of raw meat and cleaned game before, and the battle on Balsam island had resulted in some deaths, so this wasn't her first bloody rodeo in that sense. However, she hadn't ever been exposed to this level of violent carnage before, and it was jarring to say the least.
Her stomach turned over, and she suddenly had the urge to vomit as she looked at the bloody remains in front of her.
At least there was enough time for her to turn around so that her companions didn't have to see, and she bent over far enough to keep it off her clothes. But it was still painful and gross, the way throwing up always was, and she groaned after the first few heaves, grimacing at the taste and sensation.
"Woah! That doesn't look okay to me," Natsu commented, and at the same time, Happy said, "Yikes…."
She flushed, feeling a little embarrassed about vomiting in front of the others, who were both undoubtedly battle hardened. There was no stopping it though, and she kept heaving for a few more minutes.
Considering how busy that kept her, she didn't see the look Natsu and Happy shared, but she did become aware of them as they came over and stood next to her. She couldn't see who was doing what, but based on how gentle or rough they were being, she guessed that the one holding her hair was Happy, and the one patting her back (vigorously) was probably Natsu.
"Get it all out, Luce."
"Aye Sir!"
When it finally subsided, she wiped her mouth with a grimace and gingerly stood back up. "Thanks, guys. Sorry about that…."
Sure enough, Natsu had been the one smacking her on the back, and he gave her one last whap with a big grin. "Don't worry about it! Happens to all of us at the start."
Once again, Happy chimed in with his catch phrase and agreed, "Aye Sir!"
Gratitude and warmth replaced some of the remaining discomfort she was feeling, and she smiled back at them weakly and repeated, "Thanks you two,"… since there wasn't much more that she could say.
"No problem. So, ya good now? Ready to keep going?"
She nodded and wiped her mouth again as they set off back down the tunnel.
It wasn't long before they heard the telltale wingbeats and shrieks again, and Lucy groaned softly, mentally preparing herself for more carnage. This wasn't the time or place to get stuck inside her head. She needed all her wits about her while they fought… especially since the next group was even bigger than the last, and it was made up of larger-bodied gargoyles.
The tunnel had gotten wider as well, so they were more spread out, and that meant it was going to be harder for Natsu to catch all of them with his attack. Alarmingly, as they approached, they also split into two groups, one on either side of the tunnel, as though they were trying to make sure that he couldn't blast them all at once. It was like they knew what had happened to the previous group… but Lucy didn't have the time to really contemplate the ramifications of that at the moment. She was busy trying to think of a way she could help.
An idea shot through her mind at the last second, and she quickly yelled, "Close your eyes!"
"What? Are you crazy?!"
"Just trust me!"
She waited until they had done what she'd asked before flooding her rings with power. The gargoyles had gotten dangerously close by that point – especially since the other two had their eyes closed – but they came to a screeching halt when she set off a flash bomb. Unlike her 'beam' attack, this one affected everything around her (not just what she was aiming at), and the entire cave went completely white for a long second as her rings lit up like a supernova. Her magic kept her immune to the damaging effects of this attack, but even she couldn't see anything while it was active.
When the light blinked out though, she could immediately see again… while her opponents weren't so lucky. Every one of the gargoyles was grabbing at its face and screaming in pain.
"Okay! Go!" she yelled, and the others sprang into action.
"Alright!"
Natsu cranked his arm back, and Lucy could feel the wave of heat come off him as more and more fire wrapped around his fist. In several seconds, the flames had licked all the way up to his shoulder, and then he snapped his knuckles forward in a punch that launched all that fire magic in an enormous explosion down the tunnel towards their enemies. Some of the gargoyles dropped out of the air instantly, but a lot more survived this time, which confirmed her fear that they were a little tougher than the last group that had attacked them.
However, they still couldn't see, and they all shrieked and started flying around blindly in a panic – some of them banging into walls and others careening towards the three mages. Happy flashed forwards in that insanely fast attack he had done before, and one of the gargoyles was rocketed into the wall with a crushed chest. Another was kicked out of midair by Natsu, and it also fell to the ground, no longer intact. He brought down three more with a large explosion of fire that burnt them to a blackened crisp, while Happy performed his second decapitation.
The rest were eliminated in similar ways, leaving another grisly scene behind, which Lucy just did her best to try and ignore this time.
Instead, she focused on what she'd noticed at the beginning of that scuffle, and as they continued on from there, she brought it up to the other two. "Hey, did you guys see how they split up? It's like they knew about Natsu's fireball attack."
"Huh… yeah. Now that you mention it, that is kinda weird. Maybe they've all got some sorta telepathy or something?"
"Ooh, I hope not. That'd make it a lot tougher to fight them," Happy said with a wince.
"That's exactly what I was worried about. If they learn our powers and adapt every time… each wave is going to be harder to beat. Not to mention those last ones seemed bigger than the others…."
"Yeah, but we can still take them!" Natsu bragged confidently, not seeming too concerned.
She and Happy shared a look. The exceed shrugged as though to say, 'Oh well….' and she shrugged back, also at a loss. All they could do now was just continue on and hope for the best.
Lucy sent up a quick prayer that Natsu was right as they kept spelunking deeper into the gargoyle infested caves, and soon enough, the next round of monsters made their appearance. There were even more of them this time, but at least they hadn't gotten any bigger.
"Close your eyes! I'm going to try blinding them again!" she called right away, not wasting a single second.
"Right!"
"Aye Sir!"
Once again, she poured magic into her rings and set off the flash bomb attack that blanked everything out to a white slate. It was just as intense as the first time and left her blinking spots out of her eyes afterwards, but unlike the last wave of gargoyles, these hadn't been sent into a blind frenzy. When the light dispersed, she saw (with plenty of horror) that all of their opponents had closed their eyes and covered their faces – which proved without a shadow of a doubt that they were learning from their previous comrades' mistakes.
"Shit! It didn't work!" she cussed, panicking a little.
"What?!" Natsu yelled, sounding surprised, and Happy groaned.
"Great… they are telepathic."
"Looks like…" Lucy replied with her own groan, and then she shouted, "Watch out; they're coming!"
In response, Natsu immediately reared back and wrapped fire around his body. He snapped his fist out and unleashed powerful flames down the tunnel like he'd done before… but this time, he instantly retracted that arm and twisted, jabbing with his other fist in a wicked double-punch that shot a second blast of power at the enemy.
The gargoyles had split up like last time, but Natsu's two explosions caught both groups, leaving nowhere for them to hide. He had also increased the power of his fire, so even though the monsters were larger, they still fell to his magic. And the few who did somehow manage to survive were quickly dealt with up close and personally.
"See? Easy!"
Lucy huffed and returned his grin. Both Natsu's confidence and the way he'd just neatly handled their problem helped to set her mind at ease… but she still didn't think that they should let down their guard.
As if to prove her right, the next wave of monsters came even faster than the last one, and not only were there more of them, but the gargoyles had grown in size too. The tunnel had also gotten wider again, and it was fairly obvious that this time around, they wouldn't be able to defeat them quite as quickly.
She didn't even bother trying her light attack, since they would know to dodge it as soon as she warned the others. So instead, she swapped out her light rings for Aquarius's urn, thinking that she could provide better backup that way. Natsu was making enough light with all of the fire he used in his attacks… although the visibility did drop some as soon as she sent back Leo's vessel. It was a little harder for her to tell what exactly was going on, but she could still easily see that Natsu's first few explosions only took out about half of their enemies.
Then, they were swamped by gargoyles that were obviously much tougher than the others. It took more than one blow from Natsu and Happy to break through their stony skin, and they packed stronger punches themselves.
At least ten swarmed them, and several broke past Happy and Natsu – coming straight for her. The sight of three large beasts bearing down on her (with their claws and fangs ready to rip her apart) shot terror and adrenaline through her blood, and she reacted on instinct without thinking. Her urn was pot-sized, and she packed it with all the magic she could in the span of a few seconds before releasing it all in one panicked burst.
The geyser that shot out blasted her enemies away, knocking all three back and saving her from being torn to pieces. Unfortunately, her aim hadn't been the best, and she'd accidentally sent them flying directly into the others – which, on the plus side, smacked them into their fellow gargoyles and dropped all of them to the ground in a tangled wet mess. However, her water attack had also leveled Happy and Natsu… and even worse, it'd doused Natsu's flames; so they were suddenly plunged into pitch blackness.
"Woah! Watch it, Luce!"
"Sorry!" she yelled back, panicking for another reason now.
But even though being blind was terrifying, she knew she couldn't let that keep her from fighting, and she harshly pulled herself together. They couldn't afford another mess-up, and at her urging, the urn in her arms shrunk to a long skinny bottle that she could hold in one hand. It started glowing blue as she poured magic into it, ready for anything.
That wasn't enough to illuminate their surroundings, but Natsu's flames were only gone for a few seconds before he lit up again, showing them the battle scene. Apparently, the gargoyles could see in the dark, because they hadn't been slowed down by the sudden blackness… but luckily it'd taken them a moment to untangle themselves.
Both Natsu and Happy launched right back into fighting with the monsters, and the three that Lucy had shot down came for her again, murder in their eyes.
This time, she was ready for them though. She dodged their first attack, almost getting by unscathed, except that one raked its claws across her back as she dove to the ground and rolled. That hurt, but she didn't let the pain distract her, and it hadn't been a serious injury. Leaping back to her feet, she spun so that Natsu and Happy were to one side of her and couldn't be caught in the crossfire of her next attack. The first gargoyle was almost on top of her by then, and she had a split second to act before it had its claws in her.
Using her urn like the hilt of a sword, she swung it in a slashing motion and let the pressure that had built up inside of it loose. A blade of water sliced through the air, hitting the enemy in front of her solidly across its chest, and the resulting deep gash caused it to fall back with a yelp.
That one was immediately replaced with the other two, and she didn't hesitate to swing her weapon again, shooting three more blades of water at them in quick succession. They just kept coming though, and she desperately aimed for their throats, launching slash after slash at the three gargoyles. Her heart cringed at all the pain she was inflicting, and each new wound made her stomach clench, but she pushed that aside. She couldn't afford to be merciful or let her emotions weaken her attacks. That would get her killed.
One finally fell, its throat gaping wide open, and the other two weren't far behind.
After staring at the three corpses for a moment, Lucy shook herself and focused on the fight still going on. Her eyes flicked between Natsu and Happy, watching them defeat one enemy after another.
Of the five left, Natsu grabbed one and smashed it into the wall, the way he'd done before, but this monster just shook off the blunt force trauma and went back after him. At the same time, another was launching an attack from behind, and Lucy immediately tried to shout a warning. Before she could finish though, Natsu had caught the one that'd survived his wall attack and swung it around like a baseball bat, slamming it into the gargoyle behind him. They were both sent crashing into the opposite wall, and he followed close behind to finish them off with a fire kick. He broke both their necks at the same time, then quickly turned to face yet another enemy that was gaining on him.
That one actually managed to land a hit, and Lucy winced when he was knocked back with a powerful-looking punch. He skidded and spat out some blood as he grinned, his teeth flashing in an expression that was truly terrifying. His body slid into a stance, wound up tight like a spring, and then he leapt through the air with fire licking all around him. A burning knee slammed into his opponent's face, and they both came down with a crash that broke the gargoyle's skull on the ground.
Meanwhile, Happy was also doing well. He zipped between two enemies, faster than they could counter, and neither of them could land a single attack on him. These gargoyles didn't break as easily as the smaller ones, but even so, the two that he hit with his lightning-fast punches both went down. Obviously, the exceed was used to dealing with opponents that didn't die easily, and he seemed to know where to aim his attacks to do the most damage. His incredible velocity packed too much power, and even if they weren't being decapitated anymore, he left a snapped spine and crushed belly in his wake.
Those were the last two, and as Happy dispatched the final gargoyle, Lucy breathed a sigh of relief.
"How many more of these are there…? They have to run out sometime, right?"
Even Natsu looked a tiny bit concerned, and he frowned and shrugged. "I dunno, but there sure are a lot, aren't there?"
"It's pretty fishy. You'd think that if there were this many, they would've destroyed the whole town by now," Happy commented, and Lucy wholeheartedly agreed.
They continued down the tunnel from there, all of them a little more tense and wondering what was up. This mission was turning from weird to weirder, and she wracked her brain for solutions.
When a potentially useful idea occurred to her, she quickly brought it up to the other two. "How about I put the next wave to sleep with my harp? That would make it a lot easier, don't you think?"
Natsu's face screwed up, and he didn't appear to approve. "Yeah, but that's not really sporting, ya know? I mean, they at least deserve to get a fighting chance."
"What's the matter with knocking them unconscious?"
"'Cause I don't really wanna kill something in its sleep… unless I gotta."
Lucy gaped at him and squawked, "What?! I never said anything about killing them! I just meant we'd make them go to sleep and leave them there!"
"Oh! Yeah, that didn't really seem like you. I was kinda surprised!" Natsu said, laughing as he figured out where they'd miscommunicated. "But that wouldn't work, Luce. We couldn't leave them behind us. They might wake up while we're gone, and we'd end up with gargoyles coming from both ends."
"Or they'd just go for the village," Happy added, and Natsu nodded his agreement.
"Yeah, they could do that. And this job is to get rid of them."
"But does that mean we have to kill every single one? Can't we just destroy the nest or something, and they'll go somewhere else?" Lucy protested.
"Nah. There's only two ways to make sure that monsters leave people alone. You either gotta relocate 'em or kill 'em, and there's no way that we'd be able to relocate this many gargoyles. Besides, these guys have apparently got a taste for humans, 'cause they're going outta their way to hunt that village every night. They're too dangerous to leave alive."
After taking a moment to absorb that information, she sighed, giving up on the idea of preserving any of their adversaries. "I can see your point. Okay then, I won't bring it up again. And I won't use my harp unless there's no other choice."
"Sounds good!"
Lucy nodded and was quiet again for a little bit. However, that wasn't the only idea she had, and she told them about her plans as they walked along.
So, everyone was on the same page when they heard the telltale sounds of another approaching gargoyle attack.
"Alright… here they come. Get ready," Lucy said through slightly gritted teeth, feeling her whole body tense up.
Amusingly, both her partners replied with Happy's catchphrase of, "Aye Sir!"
The exceed took to the air and hovered above them, since naturally the cave had expanded again. Though, at least it was long and straight at the moment – which would hopefully give them a little more time to attack the stone monsters from a distance.
A blast of heat made her take a few steps to the side as Natsu fired himself up, and this time, he shot his explosive flames down the tunnel before they could even see the gargoyles in the darkness. Based on the howls, it sounded as though he'd caught a few. He bellowed, "Yeah! Take that, you jerks!" and roasted them again.
In the meantime, Lucy charged up her biggest, bazooka-sized urn, and once it was fully loaded, she shouted to Natsu, "NOW!"
His grin was feral as they both let loose with their strongest attacks. Her water canon erupted down the dark cave, side-by-side with Natsu's crackling fire, and the two collided right in the middle of the enemy pack, setting off a steam bomb that shook the entire cave from floor to ceiling. The three of them yelped and dodged falling stalactites, and for a second, Lucy was terrified the roof would cave in on top of them.
Once the last pebble fell, she wheezed, "Maybe we shouldn't do that one underground…." and the other two shakily agreed.
As the clatter of rock finally stopped, they were met with silence, telling them that they'd taken care of that wave of enemies. However, right as they were catching their breath and dusting themselves off – ready to continue on – a series of new shrieks echoed from the cave, and Lucy gaped.
Happy groaned, and Natsu cussed. "Shit! There's another group already?!"
"That, or this group was split into two…." Lucy replied sourly and shouldered her urn again, shrinking it down some.
Her boyfriend went back to torching them with his flames, and this time, she waited until the enemies became visible. As soon as they were close enough to see, she took aim, and in between two of Natsu's explosions, she picked out a handful of gargoyles and shot them with balls of water the size of a fist. All of her projectiles hit their targets, but her first round didn't do as much damage as she would've liked. Despite being extremely destructive, Aquarius's magic wasn't meant for long range sniping… the water lost a lot of its power after a certain distance.
That didn't matter much at the moment though, because the mass of gargoyles was moving fast, and to her horror, it looked as though these were even bigger than the last.
After another of Natsu's explosions, she took aim again and launched a second barrage, pouring even more magic into her water and targeting their wings. This time, most of the ones she hit lost their ability to fly, and they had to drop to the ground and run forward on stubby legs instead. That slowed them down significantly, but unfortunately, she hadn't taken out enough to put a serious dent in their overall numbers… there were still at least twenty coming at them.
Each of Natsu's attacks pushed them all back a bit and dropped the first few, but the ones behind them weren't phased.
Feeling her muscles lock with tension, Lucy increased the power of her urn again and waited for the next gap between explosions. As soon as the flames died down and the gargoyles burst through them, she chose her victims and fired, having to widen her stance this time to prevent herself from being knocked back from the recoil. Since they were closer now, she went for the monster's heads, and almost all of the ones she hit fell to the ground. Dead.
"Alright! Good job, Luce! My turn!" Natsu crowed, and he wound back and threw out an even stronger blast of fire, crisping another handful of gargoyles and eliminating them from the line-up.
She followed his attack with one of her own, but even with that, there were still an alarming amount, and she realized her initial estimate had been way off. Rather than twenty, they were probably facing fifty of the stony monsters.
"How many are there?!" she gasped, alarmed.
From above, Happy solemnly answered, "A lot."
Even Natsu had gotten more serious, and his eyes burned in a different way when she chanced a glance at him. All he said was, "Yeah…." with another of those terrifying grins that sent shivers down her spine.
That was all the time they had for small-talk, and the three of them sent several more attacks at the approaching enemy before all hell broke loose.
At the last second, Lucy switched to Leo's vessel and blinded the first row of enemies with a wide beam. Those fell back, screaming, but the ones behind them kept on the attack. Natsu launched into the midst of them with his flaming fists, and Happy swooped through the air, doing aerial battle with the ones above.
When three came at her, she switched on her camouflage and simultaneously created several illusions of herself – which thoroughly confused them. They split up, going after her illusions, and she side-stepped one as it nearly ran into her. Ducking under another's wings, she spotted a few facing her way and seared their eyes with another beam of light. They grabbed their faces and howled in agony, going into a crazed frenzy that sent them crashing into the ceiling, walls, and other gargoyles.
Happy took advantage of the confusion and picked off several as they tried to recover – making Lucy have to dodge the falling bodies.
Unfortunately, her beam of light had also exposed her position, and about five of them came after her. Since the gargoyles had already discovered that her previous illusions were fake, she dropped those and created more in her current location before quickly evacuating. Though, of course, that was easier said than done as the mass converged on her. With that many monsters in close proximity, it was hard to avoid being run into or hit.
It took all her concentration and combat training to dodge them, and despite her best efforts, one managed to smack her with its wing, knocking her back. She fell and slid across the ground, losing her camouflage and illusions in the process… and as soon as she became visible, the gargoyles rounded on her again. Breathing heavily, she quickly flipped onto her back, staying on the ground to save a little time. When they all dove at her, she set off a flash bomb to blind them.
Two of the five covered their faces, but the others screeched as their eyes burned. All of them kept flying towards her though, even blind, and she rolled out of the way just in time to avoid being crushed. The ones who couldn't see bulldozed headfirst into the stone, then flailed around, still trying to attack her.
She rolled and scrambled on her hands and knees at top speed to evade them and managed to stagger upright, only to throw herself to the ground again when one of the not-blind gargoyles took another dive at her.
This was getting dicey, and she knew that. To escape, she created a number of illusions of herself again and activated her camouflage as she crawled at top speed away from that spot… and not a second too soon. Bangs and the sound of claws scraping against stone behind her said that they had gone for her illusions, but she didn't turn around to look.
However, she did glance back when Happy yelled, "Hold on, Lucy! I'm coming!"
He divebombed the gargoyles that were currently smacking her doppelgangers. These were tougher, so his first attack ripped the wing off one, and while it was down, he focused his efforts on the second. It blocked his punch to its face, and he zoomed away as the monster tried to retaliate, circling around behind it instead.
The gargoyle didn't have a chance to block him this time as he piledrove into the back of its neck. That enemy's carcass fell on top of the wingless one, pinning it to the ground, and Happy looped back around to finish it off. He shot forwards, inches above the floor, and grabbed the gargoyle's arm as he passed by. His speed wasn't enough to rip the monster's arm off, but it was definitely enough to yank it out from underneath the other one, and he picked up the pace again with his victim still in tow. When the exceed screeched to a halt in midair and let the gargoyle loose, it went flying headfirst into the wall with enough force to break its thick skill.
As soon as it was out of the picture, Happy hovered anxiously over where Lucy's illusions were and looked around for her, calling, "Are you okay?"
She dropped her camouflage and answered, "Yeah, thanks!"
He grinned, obviously relieved as he spotted her. "Aye Sir!"
After that, she put her camouflage back up, and he zoomed over to the three blind gargoyles who were still banging around nearby trying to find her.
This time around, Lucy put some distance between herself and the fight, realizing that she would probably be more helpful creating chaos and openings for her companions from a distance. Once she was far enough away to be safe from any stray attacks, she turned and watched closely, immediately spotting some opportunities. Natsu was facing off against three gargoyles at once, and as he slid under one, she wrapped her magic around him and made him go invisible, then created several more copies of him.
Even from this distance, she could hear him cuss and say, "What the… ?!" sounding shocked. This wasn't the first time he'd seen her ability though, so he didn't stay confused for very long. With a laugh, he took full advantage of the opportunity and started wreaking havoc, raining fire down from seemingly nowhere. She made sure to create fake flames for her illusions as well – which helped mask what direction the real ones were coming from – and gargoyle after gargoyle went flying from invisible-Natsu's magic, punches, and kicks.
Next, she created similar illusions for Happy, though maintaining all of them stretched her power to the absolute limit… and she couldn't camouflage him. He just moved too fast for her magic to keep up with. But even so, her light magic helped them gain the upper hand, and the monsters started falling faster and faster.
They were doing good, and Lucy actually thought that this round was almost over… and hoped it would be the last. Of course, naturally, that's when things took a turn for the worse.
There was a yell and spray of blood from midair, right where Natsu was supposed to be, but since he was invisible, Lucy couldn't see what sort of injury he'd just sustained. From the amount of blood though, it looked serious, and her stomach clenched, terror hitting her hard. She created one illusion in his spot, gave it an injury, and made it run from the gargoyle, which drew that one away from the real Natsu.
It dropped to the ground a moment later, burnt to a crisp. But unfortunately, that drew the attention of other nearby gargoyles, and all of her previous illusions were suddenly ignored. She quickly created a new batch, all with some sort of wound, and dispersed the old.
Happy swooped in to help finish up that group, and between the two of them (and all the illusions that Lucy pumped out), they finally managed to defeat the last few gargoyles. As soon as the last one fell, Lucy cut off her magic, gasping a little to catch her breath. Even though she hadn't physically done much fighting in the past few minutes, maintaining that many illusions at once had really drained her and left her panting.
However, instead of dropping to her knees like she wanted to, Lucy ran over to the others – namely Natsu, worried to death about his injury. "What happened?! Are you okay?! I saw blood and heard you yell…."
She trailed off and petered to a halt in front of him, immediately able to see what had caused the red spray she'd seen. He had a set of deep claw marks across the side of his chest and shoulder that his chainmail shirt bared, and blood dripped down the metal at a fairly steady pace, smearing the tail of his scarf and dampening his pants.
"Oh my god! That looks awful!"
He glanced down and shrugged, then winced a little when it opened his wound. "Eh, it's okay. Wendy'll fix it as soon as we get back. I'm just pissed that he fucked up my tattoo…"
Sure enough, the gouges carved through his black inked scales, and she shook her head. "I'm sure Gajeel will be able to patch you up once it's healed. But that's not the problem here! You're losing too much blood! You can't fight like that!"
"We don't have much of a choice, Luce."
"We could turn back and finish later!" she growled, angry at his dismissive attitude.
"No way! I'm not giving up now!"
They continued arguing for a few more moments, with Happy staying quiet and glancing back and forth between them like he was watching a tennis match.
Natsu refused to retreat, and after several minutes of trying to convince him, Lucy gave up, knowing it was a lost cause. "Alright, fine. But we have to at least bandage you… or something."
Suddenly, a brilliant idea occurred to her, and she trailed off, kicking herself for not thinking of it sooner.
"Wait! Maybe this will work!"
She ignored Natsu's question of, "What?" and focused instead on switching out her light rings for her newest celestial vessel. There was some sputtering and cursing as her light went out, and Natsu hurried to summon a ball of fire to replace it.
"What're ya doing, Luce?"
"You'll see," she replied, hoping against hope that this would work the way she thought it would.
…
.
…
Natsu watched Luce and wondered what the heck she was doing as she pressed her new pocket watch to his shoulder. Maybe he was dumb or just tired, but it took him a while to realize what she was going for – even though he'd watched her use it before.
Nothing happened at first. But right as he thought that maybe it wasn't gonna work, his whole body started glowing. The minute hand on the clock flipped directions, and he stared down at his chest, pretty freakin' amazed as the big gashes closed up. "Woah! That's so cool, Luce! I didn't know you could heal with it!"
"Me neither, it just occurred to me."
Then, Happy chimed in, sounding super shocked. "Uh… what just happened? How'd you make him all better?"
"Oh yeah, you've never seen her use the clock-thing, huh?"
Lucy smiled in a tired kinda way and explained it to his buddy. "This is my new vessel that I got a couple of weeks ago. It lets me rewind and fast-forward time; so, I just turned back the clock on Natsu's body to before he got the cuts. I'd do it for all of our knicks and bruises, but I'm running a bit low on magic now… sorry guys."
They both told her no problem, and Happy whooped about how cool her new power was. Which Natsu totally agreed with.
But they couldn't celebrate for too long, 'cause all of them were getting pretty sick and tired of these caves and never-ending jerkwads. Even Natsu just wanted to whip this mission's butt and be done with it already. So, they pushed on deeper, expecting another rush of annoying gargoyles to get in their way again.
As it turned out though, they were closer to the end-zone than they'd thought. Just a couple minutes later, they popped outta the tunnel into a huge cave, and Natsu had to hold back his yell of excitement. He figured they'd finally found these bastards' nest… but there was a surprise waiting for them. Instead of a monster-den, they found something else. Right smack dab in the middle of the cave, there was a big magic circle surrounded by mages.
"What the… who're you guys?!" he asked, ticked off and already putting it all together.
One of the mages split off from the circle to come and give them trouble. Natsu figured this guy was the boss, 'cause he had fancier robes than the others and seemed pretty full of himself.
"I'm shocked that you managed to get this far. Congratulations…. Though, unfortunately for you, this is where your journey will end."
Happy and Natsu scoffed at Fancy-Robes while Luce asked the obvious question. "Are you the ones responsible for the gargoyle attacks?"
"Of course. As you will soon see for yourself."
That irritated Natsu even more, and he cut in with the next question. "Why'd ya sick those things on the village?!"
"I suppose it doesn't hurt to tell you, since you'll all be dead soon," Fancy-Pants said with a smug grin and cocked his eyebrow. "A huge deposit of dragomite ore was found in that valley, but they've refused to relocate. The king of Bryophyta Kingdom has lost his patience and sent us to… motivate them."
"Talk about a plot-twist," Luce muttered, and Natsu agreed. Though, this kinda stuff happened all the time, so he wasn't exactly surprised to find out there was a greedy bastard behind it all.
Happy snorted. "It sure does explain a lot though."
"That's true. No wonder there were so many gargoyles… they were being summoned. Technically there was an unending supply."
"Talk about annoying…." Natsu grumbled, and Happy agreed with, "Yeah, seriously."
The three of them made a couple more comments, but after a bit, Fancy-Pants got pissy about being ignored and interrupted them with a huff. "You three don't seem to be taking your predicament seriously. You're all about to die, you know. Do you have any last words?"
"Uh, no. 'Cause we're not."
A big veined started going nuts in the guy's forehead and he snarled, "Let's see if you're still cocky after you see this! Do it!"
The last part was shouted at the other mages, and they started chanting like crazy. That giant circle they were standing around went bright purple and glowed in a pretty ominous looking way, which immediately made Natsu take a battle stance.
He braced his back foot, getting ready to plow into them and break up the party, but he never got the chance. All their chanting was suddenly drowned out by a beautiful song that suddenly filled the whole cave, and he glanced at Luce, blinking with surprise. Sure enough, she'd pulled out her harp and was playing a lullaby… one that made him wanna curl up and take a nap. But she'd gotten really good about picking her targets, and he could keep his eyes open easily enough.
The mages though… they were pretty much up a creek. All of them tried to keep chanting, but they started slurring and staggering like they'd drunk a gallon of dragon whisky. And within seconds, the guys began dropping like flies one after the other.
Pretty soon, they'd all plopped to the ground, pushing up zzz's, and Natsu slowly stood back up.
He scratched the back of his head, kind of at a loss. "Well… huh. That was sorta anticlimactic."
Sneak Peek
It didn't take long at all before they were busting through her door, and the second it shut behind them, he started kissing her. That probably surprised Luce, since she staggered back a step… but he just followed along with her, and she ended up with her back pressed against the door. Some kinda noise came outta her that sounded a little like a protest, so he eased up on the throttle and made sure to move his lips and tongue the way he knew she liked – hoping it'd help get her on board.