Sinner and Redemeer: was Dot actually the protagonist the whole time!? Good old Anser and his sillyness.
Yorozuya Forever: truly goated
Animefan13579: you are correct.
Getwo: a lot of people liked Dot's fight it seems. Wendy is a small girl with long blue hair, yeah, Lance is protecting her with his life for sure.
Yogaratw607: that sounds kinda interesting, I'll think about it.
Epantoja521: :)
Mash and Erza had just finished defeating a massive boar monster, it was a weird fight since it was said that its skin was harder than steel but Mash was able to beat it with one punch, now the redhead and the boy were going back to the guild in a rather calm walk
"This was fun." Mash said
"The small feast that was thrown in our honor was indeed fun. It was quite a shock for them when you defeated the creature who terrorized them for so long in such an easy way." Erza said crossing her arms
"I guess it was. The giant pig wasn't that strong really." Mash said while feeling his knuckles
Suddenly Erza stopped walking and put her hand on his shoulder causing the boy to then around in confusion, the redhead looked like she was with a very serious expression so this was probably important
"Mash, listen, I know this will sound sudden but I think it's the best time to ask this since we are away from everyone. Is it true that you don't possess any magic?" Erza asked looking Mash directly in the eyes, the boy could feel her staring into his soul
Mash looked back at her with wide eyes for a moment, it seemed like his secret had been discovered and by Erza of all people, he couldn't go to jail again, he had to try something
"N-n-n-n-n-n-no…" Mash lied badly, his entire body shaking and sweating, his eyes refusing to focus on Erza
"I can tell you're lying."
"Yes."
The red-headed knight sighed, she should've expected a reaction like this, from what she heard in his story the magic council he would've been executed in his homeland if this secret was discovered
"Mash, I want you to know that if you wish to keep this information a secret I shall keep my mouth shut about it." Erza said putting both of her hands on his shoulders "But I'll tell you that things here aren't like in your homeland, we would never order your death over something so insignificant like your inability to use magic, you have proven yourself to be a great member of the guild and has helped us a lot. Now, do you wish to keep this a secret?"
Mash had to stop and think about everything that had just been said to him, Erza knew about it but she wasn't treating him like garbage, she, in fact, was actually being very gentle about all of this… Maybe everyone will treat him like this if he tells them. But then a thought came to his mind… What if they don't? Just imagining the faces of disgust on his friends' faces while looking at him made his stomach hurt. He wasn't yet confident about all of this…
"I don't think I'm ready to reveal this to everyone… It's just, so many years of hiding it and being scared of what would happen to the people I love if they found out, I can't just tell people about this." Mash said looking down
"It's fine, I understand. Your secret is safe with me." Erza said with a small smile "Now come, we have to go back to the guild. I'll give you your reward there."
"Thanks. This is the first time I never actually talked to someone about this." Mash said thinking about his situation and then smiling slightly "It's nice that you were the first friend to ever talk to me about that in such a nice way, and the first friend I ever have a trip alone with."
"I'm happy to introduce you to these experiences, you'll have a lot more of those with the other members of the guild, I'm sure of it," Erza said patting Mash on the head
The two then made their way back to the guild, now having a happier mood. Mash thought Erza was a very good friend, maybe he could introduce her along with the others to his dad? That would for sure be nice.
—
Mash and Erza were now staring each other down. Lucy, being behind Mash, began backing away from them so she wouldn't be caught in the middle of their fight
"So, you are not only challenging me but also the rules of the guild?" Erza said keeping her glare
"Yes, I am. I refuse to let you punish my friends for helping people." Mash said cracking his knuckles
"I see. So you won't let me do my duty unless I beat you, correct?" Erza said sighing
"Yes. But let me tell you." Mash said and cracked his neck while maintaining eye contact with her "I've never met someone stronger than me, so let's see if you can be the first to beat me."
"You sure are confident…" Erza said and almost instantly reequipped a new blade on her hand and swung it at Mash, who blocked it with his arm, fleeing his muscles to be able to resist the strength of the blade "But that alone won't be able to win against me."
Mash and Erza glared at each other once more and so their fight began, Mash pushed her sword away with the arm he was using to block and threw a punch directly at her chest pushing Erza backward, the knight remained standing however, and charged at Mash once more, she swung her sword in an arch at Mash who dodged it by ducking and moving to the side, Erza managed to follow his movements with her eyes and saw him throwing one more punch at her, she moved her body to the side and blocked the hit with her sword, which proved to be ineffective when the sword snapped into two, Erza got punched on her side and was pushed back once more, she could be seen visibly flinching from the hit and her armor showed small cracks
"You two, stop!" Lucy yelled at them but they chose to ignore her
"Simple swordsmanship isn't going to work against him. As expected. Let's see if you have the drive to keep your word in a situation like this, Mash Burnedead." Erza thought and activated her The Knight, changing into her Heaven's Wheel armor
"I remember that one…" Mash thought for a moment until Erza charged at him at full speed prompting the boy to raise his arms in a defensive manner
Erza passed through Mash, slashing him with her swords in a pentagram formation, Mash managed to block most of the attack with his arms but he was still blown back a little, which was enough of an opening for Erza
"Pentagram Sword!" Erza said and then turned around and dashed at him again "Trinity Shot!"
Erza slashed at Mash with her swords in a delta formation throwing the boy forward with a grunt, Mash spun in the air and landed on his feet, he needed to think of a way to deal with this, and quickly, he soon looked up and widened his eyes with what he saw, various swords on the sky aimed directly at him, soon they all came flying toward him causing the boy to remember something
"Just like that guy…"
The swords all hit their mark causing a massive smokescreen to rise, Erza looked at it with focused eyes, she wasn't sure if he was defeated or not, but when the smoke cleared Mash was sitting on a throne made of Erza's swords like they were nothing, Erza stared at him with a blank expression while Lucy had her mouth agape
"Just like with that guy." Mash thought proud of himself
"What just happened!" Happy yelled surprised
"I saw everything, the moment the swords were approaching him, Mash grabbed them by the hilt and put each one of them in place to build his throne, shoving the beginning four in the ground so hard they caused the smokescreen to rise…" Lucy said in shock with herself, how did she catch all of that?
Erza recovered from her shock and shook her head rapidly, dashing at Mash once more, going into another armor, the swords that Mash was sitting on suddenly disappeared causing him to begin to fall to the ground, but before he even managed to hit the ground he felt something kicking him at super fast, he was blown backward by the attack and saw Erza in a new armor, this one having cheetah themed clothing on her chest, arm and leg, along with a bushy tail, a puffy collar and cheetah ears on her head, this was her Flight Armor, an armor that increases her speed dramatically
"Fast…" Mash thought
Erza then changed to a different armor, now her Black Wing Armor, flying up at Mash and trying to slash him, but Mash grabbed her sword and snapped in two once again, Erza tried to back away from him but he was faster and grabbed hot of her arms to keep her in place
"Platysma Magic: Wrecking Ball Headbutt," Mash said and then headbutted Erza with a massive amount of strength, the knight was thrown downward and hit the ground hard enough to make a small hole
Erza put a hand on her head and got up dizzily, Mash fell on his feet and prepared to continue the fight but as soon as he took one step forward Erza recovered and changed armors, Mash felt an attack hitting him but he couldn't see it, and once again Erza changed her armors, this time wearing golden and light bluish armor, the breastplate being decorated with gold and having two ribbons on her head, she was now holding a spear on both her hands, she pointed it at Mash and it's blade divided into two, a massive amount of electricity beginning to charge up on it, this was Erza's Lightning Empress Armor
"Lightning Beam!" Erza blasted a beam of lighting toward Mash who put both his hands in front of him as if he were trying to catch the attack
The lightning beam ended up hitting Mash but instead of him being electrocuted the attack just seemed to fizzle away when it hit his hands, Erza looked at that confused but Mash simply pointed at his gloves
"Rubber gloves. I asked Lemon to buy me ones after I fought Laxus." Mash said simply
Happy looked at that with his mouth comically open and eyes open wide
"Damn Mash!"
"And he is saved by a coincidence…" Lucy said with wide eyes
Erza then changed into her Flame Empress Armor, at this point, it looked like she was just trying everything to see how he would do against it, until now the only one who wielded good results was the Flight Armor, but Erza for some reason guessed that Mash could probably get used to her speed if given a chance, the redhead decided to push those thoughts away and charged at Mash once again, hitting him with a Flame Slash strong enough to send him flying into a tree, but Mash got up with his clothes slightly torched, he suddenly put one hand inside his jacket and pulled out a burned cream puff
"Aw… You burned it." Mash said, causing Erza to blink twice, did the cream puff absorb all of the heat from her attack!?
Erza shook her head and changed armors once again, but mid-change she felt her gut being punched, she widened her eyes and saw that Mash had hit her and sent her flying backward toward the water, she had never been hit mid-change before… What was this boy!?
Inside the water Erza finalized her armor change and got up, now wearing a green seaweed-like armor that covered the sides of her body, on her head a headgear with a swirl and fins, and on her hand a crystal sword, this was her Sea Empress Armor, Erza moved her sword in the form of an arch and blasted Mash with a massive water slash, she then began to move her sword rapidly with no stop, throwing various water slashes at Mash, but when she had a better look at the boy she saw him diving through her water slashes, like a salmon jumping up a waterfall, and when he got close he punched Erza square in the face blasting the knight back.
She changed into her Flight Armor once more and dashed at Mash trying to hit him with a dropkick, only for her attack to be blocked, but thanks to the speed used she managed to drag him back to the beach, she jumped away from him while Mash tumbled backward through the sand until he got himself up
"He already got used to the speed of the Flight Armor!? But he only saw me use it twice…" Erza thought impressed, she took a deep breath and seemed to get out of her fighting stance
But she ended up doing that when Mash was already mid-attack, Erza seemed to notice this and at the last second changed armors once again, she grabbed his fist with one hand and hit him in the face with the other knocking the boy to the ground with ease, Mash was stunned by the incredibly fast and strong hit but when he looked up Erza was in her normal armor… She didn't hit him in that, he could've sword he saw pink armor for a second…
"That's enough. You convinced me." Erza said walking toward Lucy
"Wait, really?" Mash said surprised
"Yes. Your determination didn't waver for a second during our match, that shows that you really want to help these people and your friends." Erza said while turning her head toward him and glaring at him "But be aware, when we get back, you shall be punished along with them."
"I'm fine with that." Mash said getting up and slapping his clothes to get the sand off them
Erza stared at him for a moment, he really didn't care what happened to him as long as he could help the people he liked… Erza let out a small laugh at that, he truly is a member of Fairy Tail…
"So… Does this mean…" Lucy began but one glare from Erza shut her up
—
Lucy, Mash, and Happy were now inside a tent in the village, they were tied up together with Erza sitting beside them on a box
"Damn…" Lucy said with tears coming out of her eyes
"Why am I tied up?" Mash asked
"You also disobeyed orders, so you will be treated the same way as them." Erza answered sternly
"Fair enough."
"DON'T JUST ACCEPT IT!"
Erza heard some voices coming from the front of the tent and glared intensely at the entrance, and who entered it were Lance, Dot, and Abyss who seemed to be talking about something and didn't notice them there
"So you fought a bunch of rocks and got this beat up?" Lance said while looking at the gravely injured Dot
"Shut up, you shitty pretty boy! You fought a rat!" Dot shot back annoying Lance
"Can you two not act like children?" Abyss asked them but was ignored
Erza stomped on the ground causing it to share slightly, the three boys turned forward and saw what was inside the tent, an angry Erza with a tied-up Lucy, Happy, and Mash, their faces got white with fear as they looked at what they thought was the true personification of death
"Erza… Mash… When did you two get here?" Lance asked trying to remain calm
"About twenty minutes ago." Mash answered
"Abyss. I thought you and Gray were going to bring them back." Erza said causing Abyss to shudder
"EVERY MAN FOR THEMSELVES!" Dot screamed and ran out of the tent, Abyss and Lance did the same, they ran like their lives depended on it
—
It didn't take five seconds for them to be caught and tied up right beside the other three
"Well, we are dead." Abyss said already accepting his fate in the hands of Erza
"How long are we going to be tied up?" Lance asked
"Until I decide otherwise." Erza said sternly
"Well… We might as well sleep. You guys look tired." Mash said looking at everyone there
"I just hope we can end all of this soon…" Lucy said with tears still coming out of her eyes
Shorter chapter this time and I have a feeling this one wasn't that good but it happens.
Erza: When we get back, you shall be punished along with them
Virgi appearing out of nowhere: Did I hear punishment?
Lucy: Virgo, no!