Dragonheart
Chapter 4: Testing Time
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or any of the characters involved except for the members of Dragonheart
Albin and his team faced down their opponents who were grinning. Natsu stepped forward and slammed his fist into his palm, the rest of his team consisting of Lucy, Gray, Erza, and Elfman stood readied behind him.
"Well, well, good to see you Dragonheart," he said.
Albin put his hands out to his sides. "Guys… follow my lead," he said over his shoulder to his team.
They nodded their understanding, and everything was still for a moment. Then Albin kicked off the ground hard, shooting himself towards Natsu.
"Claws of the Ghost Dragon!"
A pair of large, spectral, purple claws appeared over Albin's hands as he swiped at Natsu, but he ducked the attack easily and rolled to the side.
Mantra, the cloaked member of Dragonheart, raised his rod above his head, and dark clouds began to form above the fight, the rumble of thunder echoed down to the team below.
"Wait, did he just summon a thunderstorm!?" Lucy asked in shock as she grabbed one of her keys.
She yelped in surprise as a lightning bolt struck the ground near her. She covered her head as she saw another one coming towards her, but it was stopped as Erza stepped forward and absorbed it with her sword.
"It would be best not to underestimate them. They may be young, but that doesn't mean they don't know what they're doing."
"Requip!" Her clothes changed into a white light, then flashed as she donned her Heaven's Wheel Armor. Taking to the sky she summoned a multitude of blades, before aiming her sword at team Dragonheart. The blades rained down from her position on the young team.
"Multi-blade!" Redd leaped forward, drawing the blade from his back. In a flash, it split into multiple copies of itself and he aimed his blade at Erza, each of their attacks slamming into each other and ricocheting off the impacts to the ground below.
"Beast Soul: Bear!" Elfman's extended arm was obscured by his magic, before being revealed to have increased in size and become covered in black fur. He charged at Reina but was intercepted by the fifth member of the group, Marcus.
Elfman stagged as Marcus tackled him, the two toppled over one another before regaining their feet some distance from the others.
"I guess you want to be my opponent then?" Elfman asked with a grin.
Marcus lifted his fists and nodded, his body began to emit a wispy, black essence before he disappeared into the floor.
Elfman's eyes widened in shock as he swiveled, trying to find a glimpse of Marcus.
Marcus silently rose behind Elfman out of his shadow before delivering a powerful kick that slid Elfman a few feet as he was able to block the attack.
"What was that?" Elfman asked as he looked past his raised arm at Marcus who was coming back to his feet.
Meanwhile, Reina dodged a barrage of ice shards from Gray. She raised her hands, formed into a sphere, and aimed at Gray.
"Manipulation Magic: Sun!"
A ball of fire appeared between them, its light blinding both of them, forcing Gray to lift his arm to block the light and stop his advance.
Reina slid to a stop as she lowered her arms. She pointed them at the ground, her index and pinky fingers extended.
"Manipulation Magic: Spikes!"
Large, earthen spikes began to rush from where she was pointing at the ground towards Gray, who heard the rumbling and managed to catch a glimpse of the attack past the bright light. He leaped up to avoid them and landed off to his left. He put his hand on the ground.
"Ice Make: Wall!"
A large wall appeared between himself and the small sun Reina had made, distorting the light and making it easier to see.
"Nice trick, but I won't fall for that again," Gray said as he stood.
Reina clenched her teeth as she struggled to think of a way out of her current predicament. She jumped in shock as she felt a hand on her shoulder, looking back she saw Mantra standing beside her, facing down Gray.
"Mantra…" She looked at her guildmate who looked over his shoulder at her and nodded.
She understood what he wanted her to do and nodded her understanding.
"Manipulation Magic: Fire Storm!" She raised her hands to the sky as Mantra lifted his rod upwards as well.
A dark cloud formed above the battlefield, and pieces of flaming debris began to rain down around everyone.
Gray leaped back to avoid a larger piece. "Impressive! Being able to combine your magic like that takes some skill," Lucy rushed to his side as she drew a key from her belt.
"But they're not the only ones who can do it," She said with a smile as she held it up as it began to glow.
Meanwhile, Natsu and Albin were locked in place as they both pushed against the other in a hand-to-hand confrontation.
"Not bad, you fight just like Slicer," Natsu said as he grinned at the younger dragon slayer.
"He is my master," Albin replied.
The two pushed off each other and as they both slid to a stop they noticed the storm cloud forming above them.
"What the-" Natsu yelped in surprise as it began to rain fire down around them.
"Nice going you two," Albin said to himself as he rushed Natsu.
However, he didn't notice the grin that had spread across his face. Natsu leaned back and began to inhale. The flaming debris around them flew into his mouth. He inhaled a large amount of the fire before swallowing… then he began hacking as if he was choking.
"What gives! That fire tasted awful! It didn't taste like fire at all!" He shouted as he pounded his hand on his chest.
"Uh oh," Albin stopped and his eyes widened as he realized what Natsu had just discovered.
Elsewhere, the rest of team Fairy Tail heard his remark and looked back at their opponents. Erza looked up as one of the flaming debris pieces came screaming towards her, she stood her ground and lifted her sword. The "fire" splashed around her like a liquid and sizzled as it hit the ground at her feet.
"Not a bad trick, but you'll have to do better than that now that we know what it is," She said to Reina and Marcus.
Reina lowered her hands and the pieces of flaming debris returned to their true forms; large puddles of water. The storm above them ceased to be flaming debris and instead showed itself to be a rain storm.
"What the?" Lucy asked as she looked around.
"Illusion magic," Gray explained. "And a powerful spell too, she made the water appear and feel like actual flames, but it looks like she can't completely change the magic she affects, otherwise Natsu wouldn't have been able to tell the difference," he continued.
Lucy nodded and turned back to their opponents. "Well, if you're done showing off, now I think it's our turn!" Lucy said with a smile as she raised her key again.
It glowed with a blinding light for a moment before Sagittarius appeared. He fired off a salute to Lucy who smiled as her friend appeared.
"Sagittarius! Open fire on those two!" She shouted.
Sagittarius turned to face Reina and Mantra and nodded "As you say, Lady Lucy!" He nocked three arrows to his bow and released, sending more along the way and creating a barrage around Reina and Mantra.
"Manipulation Magic: Wall!"
Reina put her hands on the ground, and the platform they were standing on stretched upward and blocked the arrows.
"Seems she can do more than just create illusions," Gray said as they watched the defense form.
"She could be dangerous, there's no way to tell what's real and what's not," Erza told them as she approached.
Redd ran up behind the wall and joined Reina and Mantra.
"How are you two doing?" he asked.
"I'm running out of magic power, this is taking too long, we have to find a way to end this and get to the objective," Reina said as she held the wall up.
Redd nodded, "You thinking what I'm thinking brother?" he asked.
Mantra nodded and lifted his rod again. The rain storm stopped and the rumble of thunder resumed. Redd raised his blade and pointed it at the sky as well.
"Combo Magic! Blade Storm!" Redd called.
Lightning and blades began to rain down from the cloud. Erza sent her blades to stop the attack and protect herself, Lucy, and Gray.
"These are real!" Erza shouted as the blades glanced off each other "Find cover!"
"Ice Make: Dome!" Gray put his hand on the ground again as he created a dome of ice to protect the group.
"They've got us trapped!" Lucy shouted as she heard the blades scrape and slide off the ice.
"We need a plan…" Erza said as she lowered her sword.
Meanwhile, back with Elfman and Marcus.
Marcus was darting back and forth as he disappeared and reappeared, each time he would get a solid hit on Elfman. The larger wizard was feeling each of the younger man's blows more and more as the fight wore on, so he knew he needed to end it quickly.
"Beast Soul: Lizardman!" Elfman shouted as he was covered in the magic from before.
Marcus stopped his assault as he saw Elfman reappear, now covered in thick green scales.
"Now let's see you keep that up!" Elfman shouted as he charged Marcus.
The younger wizard ducked a punch from Elfman and rolled away, making his way towards his companions as he dodged more of Elfman's assault.
"Albin!" Albin heard Reina shout for him as he disengaged from Natsu again. He looked back and saw the stalemate forming with his team versus the rest of team Fairy Tail.
He turned back to face Natsu just in time to block another attack.
"Your friends are in trouble," Albin said to Natsu, hoping to distract him.
"That's their problem, I'm your opponent, and your friends are theirs," Natsu replied as he kicked off Albin and sent him sliding across the ground.
"You think you have any chance of defeating me?" Albin asked.
"If you're anything like Slicer, easily," Natsu grinned as he slammed a fist into his palm.
"I'm running out of ideas… I need to end this quickly," Albin thought to himself as Natsu rushed him again.
As Albin blocked the last attack from Natsu's most recent barrage, the two stopped as they heard a sound echo to them: cracking.
Looking toward the rest of their teams they both saw large cracks appearing in the wall created by Reina. Despite the counter-attack by Redd and Mantra, Erza continued to assault the wall with her blades while Gray blocked the twins' attack with his dome. The wall was showing damage as it was cracked and broken in multiple places.
Reina was panting behind it, the effort of keeping it up under the assault having almost completely drained her of magic power.
"They're breaking through!" Redd shouted as he saw a blade tip emerge on their side of the wall.
Marcus whistled, drawing their attention. They all looked back to see him approaching with Elfman hot on his heels.
"Get back here!" He shouted after Marcus.
"That's not good if they attack us from both sides-" Reina started to say before the cracking sounded again, this time traveling up the entire height of the wall in a second. Another crack echoed around them as a larger blade pierced the wall, and a second later it shattered, raining pieces of debris to the ground. Reina trembled for a moment before she passed out.
"Reina!" Redd shouted as he slid down to his knees to catch her.
"Natsu! That's enough" Erza shouted to him.
The two dragon slayers stopped their fight and looked at her.
"They're down a member, and the others are almost about to collapse themselves. We should end this now before someone gets hurt, and we still need to find the door!"
Natsu nodded before turning back to Albin "Nice fight kid, we'll have to spar again sometime."
He gave an informal salute-wave and turned to the rest of his team. They gathered together before choosing a direction and taking off.
"C'mon," Albin said as he ran up to his team.
The others looked at him confused. "Reina's knocked out, we can't continue."
"We can! C'mon!" Albin said as he scooped Reina up and slid her onto his back.
"Are you serious? You're just as beat up as the rest of us!" Redd shouted at him.
"We have a mission to carry out, don't we? We don't quit until the job's done. That's the Dragonheart way!"
The others were taken aback by his reply, but their determination showed on their faces as they nodded and let Albin take the lead. They followed behind the Fairy Tail team, sneaking past those they attacked and left moaning and groaning on the ground until eventually, they arrived at the door. They had lost sight of team Fairy Tail sometime before then, after a particularly nasty bout with another guild who had a smoke magic user who had created a massive smokescreen.
As team Dragonheart approached the door, Albin felt a sense of relief, but also a sense of worry. Had they been fast enough? Were they in the top 8?
As he turned the handle of the door they all heard a bell echo over the city.
"And that's it, folks! Our first 8 teams have been accounted for! The event Sky Labyrinth is over!" the voice echoed over the city.
Albin's fist trembled on the door. They had been so close.
"Hey, it's ok," Redd said as he put a hand on his friend's shoulder.
Albin looked up at him, his eyes on the verge of tears.
"Come on, let's get Reina back to Miss Anna and have her take a look," Redd said.
Albin nodded, swallowing hard as he fought the tears back.
The group waited as the city re-arranged itself back to its normal shape and returned to the inn. As they made their way through the streets, Reina regained consciousness and was able to walk herself back. As they walked in the door they were immediately tackled into a massive bear hug by Bruga.
"Well done! All of you!" He said with a grin.
"But… we… failed…" Albin gasped between breaths as Bruga's hug crushed him.
"Let them down, you great oaf! You're killing them!" Tin said as he stepped forward.
"Right! Right… sorry kids," Bruga said as he let them down.
They all gasped for air as their lungs weren't being squeezed by Bruga.
"But he did have a point, well done. All of you," Tin said with a smile at them.
"But… we didn't make it in," Redd replied.
"No, you didn't, but you came close, much closer than a lot of the other teams," Slicer said as he came down the stairs into the taproom.
"Master!" The kids all said together as they came to attention.
"Relax, this isn't the time for formalities." Slicer said as he held up a hand.
The kids looked at one another as they relaxed.
"Anna, take a look at them and patch them up would you?" Slicer asked her.
She nodded as she came down behind him and approached the kids. She began to check each of them over for wounds, healing them with her magic as she did so.
"So, can anyone tell me what you did wrong?" Slicer asked as he approached them.
They were silent, none of them wanted to admit it, but they all knew it.
Albin inhaled deeply before stepping forward "We shouldn't have gotten into that fight with team Fairy Tail."
Slicer nodded as he sat on a chair "Right, they're more experienced, as I'm sure you've seen for yourselves," Slicer told them.
They all nodded.
"But, as I said, you did very well. You were the youngest team in the event, and you placed 9th,"
"So we were the first losers," Redd said.
"No! Not at all!" Slicer said as he shot to his feet, the disapproval obvious in his voice.
"Just because you didn't score in the top 8 doesn't mean you didn't do well… as I was saying, you were the youngest team in the event, you got caught up in a fight with Fairy Tail, and still managed to place 9th. You used your wits, and when Fairy Tail gave you an out, you didn't push back and try to keep fighting. You realized you weren't going to win and used your skills to keep yourselves in the event. There's nothing wrong with losing. Failure is often the best teacher, as I hope you realize tonight," Slicer told them.
They all nodded.
"Good, now that that's settled. Simon! Break out the drinks! We're celebrating our friends here for their performance!" Slicer shouted to a young man behind the bar.
"Yes, Master!" He shouted back with a smile.
Bruga moved to help him as the two broached a pair of casks and Dragonheart spent the rest of the night partying to celebrate the team's performance.
In the morning, the rest of the Grand Magic Games awaited them, and they awoke to an interesting sight…