Taking Root II

[Arvid Sawyer]

Arvid woke up to the soft rays of sunlight that slipped through the crack of the curtains and hit his face. His heavy eyelids fluttered open and, for a moment, he considered turning over and drifting back to sleep. However, after an entire life of hard work and early mornings, gathering the will to fight off the drowsiness and fully wake up was rather easy.

He sat up and stretched his arms for a moment, a large yawn escaping him as he took heed of his surroundings in confusion. His foggy mind took a few moments to clear itself enough to recall the previous day's events. A large smile grew on him immediately as he brought his right hand up to look at it.

A shining forest-green Fairy Tail mark greeted him, glowing softly as he channeled the smallest bit of magic to it.

"It wasn't a dream…" Arvid whispered to himself. His eyes lit up, taking in the irrefutable proof that he had actually made it. "We actually did it!" he screamed this time, jumping out of bed and suddenly feeling absolutely full of energy.

His excitement was answered by a tired groan that made him turn to his side. Saul continued to rest sprawled out, one arm off his bed and a pillow teetering to fall from the edge of it. He was probably regretting deciding to get a place with a shared room to pay less, but Arvid wasn't too concerned with that.

"Shut up…" his friend slurred between snores.

"C'mon, Saul, wake up!" Arvid exclaimed cheerfully, rushing to the small bathroom of their rented hotel room to get ready for the day. "We are having our first day as Fairy Tail mages today!"

The sound of water pouring reached his ears as he turned the shower handle. An impatient part of him wished to forgo his morning routine and immediately rush towards the Hall again. Yet, hygiene was important, he reminded himself. He couldn't just show up to the Guild smelling, after all.

The more he thought about it, the less he could believe it. The same excitement and wonder that had kept him up until late hours the night before started bouncing around in his skull once more. It took all his effort not to start running in circles like a child on a sugar rush.

'I'm a Fairy Tail mage!'

The excited young man placed his hand under the stream of water that fell from the pipe head, checking its temperature. The water was plenty cold, just the way he liked it. Nothing beat jumping into an ice-cold shower early in the morning to fully wake up. It truly helped get rid of any remaining numbness out of his body as well as rattling his drowsy mind. Not that he needed that at that moment, but still.

Before that though, there was something else he needed to take care of.

"Saul, wake up already!" he called back, poking his head back into the dormitory.

"Five more minutes…" Saul pleaded, covering his face with the pillow.

"No, get up or I am using the cold towel again," Arvid threatened, walking back into the bathroom.

Saul groaned in protest, but the sound of rustling sheets indicated that his friend had reluctantly conceded.

Arvid knew that a freezing wet towel to the face was one of the few things threatening – read, annoying – enough to get Saul out of the dreamlands. It had saved them from countless missed trains due to his slow mornings. Yet another reason why he loved cold water, it certainly made their travels much easier.

"Why can't we sleep in for once? We just finished crossing half the country yesterday," Saul complained while rubbing the drowsiness from his eyes.

"The sun is already out, Saul. We already slept in," Arvid retorted. Not something that could be helped given that neither of them managed to get a wink of sleep during most of the previous night. "I'll get you a cup of coffee later, okay? Now, get yourself ready. I want to go see what jobs we can get."

With that part of his morning routine taken care of, Arvid jumped into the shower. The cold water reinvigorated his body while he imagined what their first day as mages of Fairy Tail would be like. It was bound to be awesome one way or another, he was sure.

He expected it wouldn't be something for the magazines. He expected their first few jobs would be boring. After all, they needed to get money quickly, for one. Just so that they could secure themselves a stable home situation and such. For another, he kind of needed to have some more wand dependability and variety.

So, Arvid was more or less convinced that their start as Fairy Tail mages wouldn't be some epic tale or crazy adventure. It'd be normal mage stuff… but that sounded fairly awesome to him. His first mage job had been underwhelming and it'd still managed to have its own sort of charm. Their journey to Magnolia hadn't been all that exciting, he supposed, and yet he'd enjoyed himself through it.

He didn't need to be a hero of legend.

No, Arvid was just looking forward to seeing the world, experiencing new things and generally having a good time. He could do that without being some kind of main protagonist of a story. An ordinary mage life sounded like a dream to him and he was now living that dream.

Or, at least, he was now going to take the first few steps into that life. Saul and him both, really. They'd go out there and earn a living. He'd experiment more to create more wands and he'd made beautiful pieces. His art would be alive and part of his life in a way no piece of furniture could ever try to be.

He had a friend by his side and magic to brighten his world.

There was nothing that could ruin his mage life now.

Arvid could hardly wait to get started.

[}-o-{]

"Found the one, yet?" Arvid asked his friend as he continued to scan through the posters placed on the large billboard at the side of the bar counter.

"Nothing," Saul languidly answered, taking another sip of the large cup of coffee Arvid had bought. He looked far less grumpy now, so Arvid imagined he appreciated the gesture.

"I see, I guess we should keep looking then," he said simply, his eyes moving back to the large billboard.

He had known that Fairy Tail was one of the most popular Guilds in Fiore and that said reputation translated into a large influx of missions. However, even then he had underestimated the sheer amount of what would be available to them. The sight in front of him was kind of intimidating, he wasn't going to lie.

Posters were pinned over each other in a large chaotic mess of quests. Occasionally, he was forced to remove some of them just to read the ones behind them. He could hardly see any spots of the green board from behind the imposing sea of yellow parchment.

Missions of every kind littered the list. Exterminations, investigations and explorations were the most common of the lot. However, there was also a random assortment of quests ranging from bodyguard work to delivery missions, to even attending children's birthday parties.

His eyes swam as he stared at the rewards some of them offered. Some with numbers so exorbitant he was sure he had never seen that sum of money with his own eyes. He wondered if that was the crazy difference between independent mage jobs and Guild ones, or if Fairy Tail was just built different. Maybe it was both? It could be both, Arvid supposed.

It was all so much information that he could hardly decide anything. Sure, he could discard jobs way out of their league, which was most of them. However, for the majority of the quests they could take, he could hardly string two thoughts together. The numbers, the rewards, the excitement, none of that allowed him a clear mind.

Unfortunately, either Saul was in a similar situation, or he was feeling extra lazy that day.

Both options were equally as possible, really.

"Wow, you guys suck," a voice said from beside them. Both Arvid and Saul turned to the side. Idly, broken from his stupor, he was once more aware of the chatter and general noise of the Guild Hall behind them, with people asking for drinks or meals or generally having fairly loud conversations. It was a very rowdy atmosphere, but also pretty warm and fairly amusing most of the time, from what they'd seen so far. When they weren't going overboard, that is. "You've been standing there for hours," Cana told them, looking fairly amused.

"Fairly sure it was a few minutes," Saul replied flatly.

"About half an hour, but still," Arvid chimed in, looking towards the clock on one of the nearby walls. "Are we in the way?" he asked, bringing a hand to rub the back of his neck self-consciously. Maybe she wanted to get a job herself? "Sorry," he added, shuffling a little so there'd be space for her to check the fliers.

"Oh my gods," the girl said, looking at Arvid weirdly. She seemed somewhere between surprised, incredulous and amused, all in one. It was an… interesting expression, he supposed. "Is he always like this?" she asked, turning towards Saul.

Was Arvid missing something?

"Yes, yes he is," his friend answered, further confusing him. "Don't worry about it, V," Saul added, patting his arm. He'd have liked answers more than reassurances, quite honestly. Alas, before he could ask for those, Cana started talking once more, making his mouth click shut.

"Well, that's gonna be interesting. For a number of reasons," she commented, looking off to the side. He tried to follow her gaze, but she turned back to them and spoke again. "So, you were told that you need a chaperone, right?"

"We were told we need an experienced mage to show us the ropes for our first job," he corrected. Although, admittedly, it was the same thing. It just sounded less embarrassing when said like that. Not that Arvid cared overly much, since he knew Saul and him knew very little, but still.

"Same thing," the girl replied mercilessly and he decided that it was a lost battle. Not like she was wrong anyway. "Also, you are in luck. I so happen to be an experienced mage," Cana continued, looking very proud and puffing out her chest as she said the world "experienced". "And also free."

"And bored, I bet," Saul commented, looking unimpressed.

"That too," Cana admitted shamelessly. "So, I'll help you guys out. Besides, while looking at you two trying to choose a job is plenty fun, it's also kind of sad, not gonna lie," she added, walking around them and looking closely at their expressions. Which Arvid wondered what they told her. Saul had a great poker face and he… Well, he was a little overwhelmed with emotions, so his expression was probably just a mess. "What do you say?"

Immediately, Saul's expression changed.

"Now, that's just mean," Cana protested, offended by just the face Arvid's friend made alone. "I'm not that bad."

"I beg to differ," Saul said dryly.

"We'd appreciate the help," Arvid said, drawing a betrayed look from his friend. "I'd like to actually get started and this is kind of… a lot," he added, waving his hand towards the job board. He didn't feel confident on getting anywhere anytime soon, after all. They'd more or less agree to find something and then look for someone like Macao or whoever would help them out in their first job.

Hell, they'd even thought they'd need to pay something just for the privilege.

Sure, Cana was a bit of a… character, but she didn't seem all that bad. And she was openly offering, so that was kind of a big plus in his books. So, Arvid decided to go out on a limb. If she turned out to be… not great, then they'd learn about it and that'd be that. They just had to make sure not to pick a job that'd take a lot of time.

"Great," she replied, beaming at him. "So, what are we working with here? What can you guys do?"

[}-o-{]

[Cana Alberona]

"Simple job, really," she told the two newbie fairies as she followed them. She'd usually walk ahead, but she was there to supervise them, basically just watch and give some pointers. She was also there to make sure they didn't get themselves in over their heads.

The Guild wouldn't take that well if it happened… at all.

Cana wasn't supposed to carry them through the mission though. So, she settled back, helped them pick a job without leading them by the nose and then followed behind while giving some nuggets of wisdom from her time as a Fairy Tail mage.

Was it weird to essentially be the senior to two guys that were older than her by a few years? Yes, yes it was. However, it was also kind of cool, she'd have to admit. It was nice not to be the one that was on the weaker side of the scale for once.

"Windweavers are slippery, but they are very weak, all things considered," Cana continued. She was kind of looking forward to this, because no matter how much she explained it to them, windweavers were a pain in the ass. She remembered fighting the slippery things shortly after she joined the Guild and by the gods had they been annoying. "Venom's a paralytic though, so careful with that."

"We will be, thank you," Arvid replied, his sunny smile directed in full power towards her. Cana imagined many of her fellow female Guild members would have swooned. There was a lot of potential for teasing and mischief there, but… she was the senior here. She had an image as the cool veteran to maintain.

"So, did the flier say how many there were?" Saul grumbled, sounding like he'd rather be taking a nap than walking with them.

"Just that it's a group and a rough estimate of 10," Arvid answered for her without having to check the flier.

"Good memory," she praised, getting a proud grin in response.

"Thanks. Years of memorizing orders from clients," he explained

"I don't trust people to know how to count. Let's prepare for 20 of them," drawled the less sunny of her disciples. Cana half expected Arvid to argue given his positive golden retriever energy. However, much to her surprise, he nodded in agreement, even if he kept smiling.

'Well, guess you really can't judge a book by its cover,' she mused, looking at the two curiously. She felt like she'd enjoy having these two around, so it was good that they weren't too bad. They seemed more chill than most other members around her age, at least. Gray and Levy were the only exceptions that came to mind.

"Good mindset," Cana commented. So far, her role as a chaperone had been largely unnecessary. The two seemed to more or less have actual heads on their shoulders. They were actually thinking it through instead of charging at the problem like Natsu would have. They also didn't blind themselves in a nonsensical competition like Erza and Mira, who put more effort into outshining the other than actually doing their jobs. Or Jet and Droy who spent more time trying to get Levy's attention, than actually working at all.

Now, if they could put up a fight though? That remained to be seen.

"Even with the screening process jobs go through for Guilds, some things can still slip through. Especially in those of low importance."

"Of course," Saul huffed before letting out a disappointed sigh. "Why'd I expect differently?"

"Because there's some optimism somewhere in your cold, shriveled and ashy heart," Arvid quipped, somehow managing to keep a straight face as he patted the other guy on the back. "Auntie will be pleased to hear that."

"Perish the thought. Inside me, there's only salt, lemon juice, and spite," Saul responded before stopping and glaring at his friend. "You aren't writing to my mom too, are you?"

Cana, for her part, settled on watching the show unfold while they continued on their way. The job wasn't precisely far. They could get it done within a day without much issue and without needing to take any transport. However, it had taken a few hours of walking across the outskirt forest paths of Magnolia to reach their target.

After that, they'd have to search the surrounding area for the magical, slippery, flying snakes, which, as one could expect, could take a while.

It was already difficult to find something in a forest normally and windweavers didn't tend to be very big. It would be a challenging task, but that was also part of the point as to why she had selected this quest. Cana could have probably narrowed things down with her cards, but she wasn't supposed to help so directly. Instead, she'd watch what they did, half of their job as mages was finding the target, after all.

A hiss made the three of them turn to the side.

'They found us, it seems,' Cana realized, eyes widening at the swarm of flying cobras that broke through the foliage towards them. That wasn't common. They weren't generally that aggressive unless one got too close to the hollowed tree tops they used as burrows.

With a quick wave of his hand, Saul sent a gust of ashes at the monsters. The gray cloud of dust moved with unnatural force as it clashed with the pit snakes, sending the lot of them into disarray. Their wind abilities were briefly overpowered.

'That's more than ten. Fifteen, maybe,' she thought while counting quickly. She couldn't know for sure, with how quickly they moved but that sounded about right. Their scaled, deep green bodies moved with grace even as they tried to right themselves in the air. Her eyes scanned the area, taking heed of the situation and the newbies' chances. That was when her eyes widened as she spotted two of the snakes shrug off the ash spell. Their almost black scales and vibrant-colored hoods glinted under the sunlight while their fangs bared menacingly.

'King Windweavers,' she recognized the species' variant immediately. Is it mating season? That'd explain why they are so aggressive. Shit! I should've checked with Levy,' Cana reprimanded herself bitterly. First chaperone job and she was already ruining it.

Her right hand moved instinctively and dug into her satchel, fingers pinching one of her stored cards before she forced herself to stop. 'Not yet though,' she told herself. Then she removed her hand from the satchel, but still let it hover over it, ready for action. The test had to continue. She needed to do her job well and see what these two were capable of first.

One of the King Cobras slipped around Saul's magic and flew at Arvid with the speed of an arrow. The young man responded to this with a swing of his axe that missed the target, the creature dancing with the force of the swing, almost as if mocking the man for the attempt before lunging once again towards the man's neck. Arvid didn't have any choice but to scramble away, falling to the floor and dodging fangs as large as a finger by a hair's breadth.

Saul kept the rest of the creatures at bay with his larger range but ran into similar difficulties as Arvid when it came to hitting them. The flying snakes moved around his ash blades while keeping a careful distance from any larger area attacks. After all, windweavers moved with the winds, or any other kind of air current… Such as the ones caused by Saul's ashes or Arvid's axe.

'Yep, this is what I was expecting,' Cana thought, smiling widely. Always entertaining to see people flailing around. Maybe she'd get to see one of them fall on their faces? That'd be fun. Windweavers weren't particularly strong monsters, but they were pretty high on the list of the most infuriating monsters to fight against. Funnily enough, she hadn't come up with that list, it was an official survey done by some research magazine.

"Fuck, just die already, will you?" Saul cursed, sending a small barrage of his "Sables". The smaller yet faster-than-usual barrage of moon arc blades proved to be a more successful strategy as two of the snakes got bisected, unable to dodge all the attacks in time. That seemed to cheer him up a little. "Two points for me!"

"So we are keeping count now?" Cana asked with a grin. She kept her attention on the battle still but there was always something more relaxing about fighting while snarking at each other. 'Yeah, these two are alright.'

However, before she could continue, something blurred at the edge of her vision. The sound of wind being displaced reached her along with the dying hiss of one of the snakes. Its body, bisected in half by… was that an axe with a cord?

"One for me," Arvid stated with a grin, quickly pulling back on the thin rope along with the axe.

Well, that was kind of badass.

"Bullshit, when did you learn to throw axes? Actually, where did you get that rope?" Saul asked as his attack killed yet another one of the snakes. "Three," he added.

"Bought it when we got out of the guild. I didn't want to have to wait for the next monster-" Arvid started explaining, interrupting himself with a swing of his weapon at a nearby monster. "-to be at a chomping distance of me to attack them like those Jagras the other day," he continued, his hand rearing back with the axe. "So, I learned from my mistakes."

Cana could faintly feel the use of body reinforcement before the axe was thrown again with a much higher speed than someone with Arvid's complexion should be able to. The tool soared through the air, nicking one of the regular snake tails that barely managed to get out of the way. The pretty boy clicked his tongue at the failure even as he reeled the weapon back to him, all the while keeping a close eye on the hissing King Windweavers who swam around the battlefield slowly encroaching on them.

"Gods, they are annoying," Arvid admitted.

"Tell me bout i-Fuck!" Saul started, before cutting himself off, when with a hiss of their leaders, the nest changed their strategy.

With unnatural coordination, the snakes spread out like a tide surrounding them from all angles before shooting forward. They seemed to have thrown caution out of the window and decided that a few sacrificed members was better than all of them being picked one by one.

"Ash Dome!" Saul called out, thrusting his arms to the sides. A sphere of ashes emerged from his body. She closed her eyes at the incoming impact, only for the cloud of gray to harmlessly pass around her, fluttering her hair like a small breeze.

The same couldn't be said about the windweavers who crashed into it as if it were a wall, halting their attack completely.

"Not bad," Cana whistled. That was more than she'd expected from them. 'Reminds me of Wakaba's shield from yesterday. Did he have a similar spell or did he try to copy it?' she wondered to herself. The dome seemed weaker, not quite solid enough in certain places, but if he really had just copied it from what he saw Wakaba do, that was actually kind of impressive.

"Neat trick," Arvid nodded to his friend.

Saulus, who looked slightly strained as he kept his arms outwards, seemingly incapable of moving if he wanted to keep their shield up – a telltale of a spell not being mastered yet, which gave credence to her theory – tried to answer them. However, while the attack managed to stop the regular windweavers their leaders weren't deterred.

The king windweavers doubled down though. Their normally smooth air currents gained force and started to swirl around them chaotically, forming a mini tornado that followed the line of their bodies. A sound similar to a drill digging through sand filled the dense forest for a moment, their attacks halted for a second before the shield was bypassed and their enemies soared toward them.

It was perhaps that moment of momentary halt that allowed Arvid to dodge. His body twisted in an admittedly impressive feat of athleticism as the slightly concussed snake crashed into the earth. Arvid didn't wait a moment before swinging his axe and beheading the windweaver with scary precision even with his body twisted as it was.

His companion, who continued to keep the shield up to keep the rest of the attackers away, couldn't quite dodge, considering everything. Saul had only a moment to grit his teeth as the monster crashed into his right shoulder with the force of a boulder, large fangs sinking deep into it as blood smeared the face of the snake.

"Fuck!"

"Saul!" Arvid called, dashing towards the man.

The brunette boy grabbed the aggressor by the back of the neck and severed it from its body carefully, so as to not aggravate the injury of his friend. Only after death did he remove the still twitching head of the snake from the shoulder, looking worriedly at the wound. His face slowly transformed before her eyes, the twinkling in the boy's eyes long gone already. His ever present, soft smile turned downwards along with his frown into an expression Cana could only call fury.

"That's it," he growled, his voice quite different from his previously animated tones. "We have to finish this quick, Saul," he said then, pulling out one of his wands.

'Oh?' Cana thought, interested as she pushed the card she had taken out when Saul got bitten back down. With those two things out of the way, the fight should be easier even if they were now on a countdown.

Her eyes went to the small black stick that seemed to hum with magic power. She had heard about his magic crafting and such, but she'd also heard him say that he'd rather not use them, since he had few of them. It seemed like he was angry enough to forgo that though.

'Now this should be interesting.'

"Put down the shield and be quick with the blades," Arvid told his friend, who nodded while his posture both slacked and stiffened at the same time.

'The venom is taking effect, it seems,' she thought, wondering if she'd have to step in after all. No shame in that. As far as she was concerned, they had done great for their first official job. It was just unlucky for them that this nest of windweavers was a little special.

However, whatever she might have been thinking was put aside when the dome came down and Arvid raised his wand into the sky. A white light shone from its tip for a moment like a small lamp. Then, every single cobra froze mid-air.

'What?' was Cana's eloquent thought as she stared at the odd phenomenon.

Their previous storming dance of activity came to an instant halt. Their posture locked in place as if she was looking at a still image or painting. 'No, not quite,' she thought, looking closer with narrowed eyes. It was hard to spot, but she could see small ripples in the snakes' bodies as they fought with whatever spell kept them locked in place.

"Sables - Storm!" Saul called as multiple dozens of hand-sized blades came from all around his body.

The attacks were directed at the ironically paralyzed windweavers, turning them into gore that fell to the ground.

"What the-?!" Saul exclaimed once again as another King Cobra shot through the canopy.

'There was another?' Cana thought. There was a reason they were so high in the most hated monsters to fight against. Not only were they slippery, but also ambush predators that would wait in hiding for a perfect opportunity.

Ambush or not, the creature, who thought it could sneak around them, found itself trapped in the same spell its other companions had when Arvid pointed the flickering light of his wand at it.

"Wand's falling apart, Saul," Arvid warned, and sure enough, the stick in his hand was crumbling piece by piece in his hold rather quickly.

"I know!" Saul exclaimed, sending an arm-sized blade at the creature, only to be met with the same wind drill technique the other two Kings had used. "What's up with those?" he growled in annoyance as the ashes did little more than splash against the tornado harmlessly and drift away.

"Wand's out," Arvid called tersely, as the flickering light of the dark wand died. The tool itself creaked as it broke apart into chips of wood. With its restraints gone, the King Windweaver launched itself toward them again.

"Oh no, no, you don't," Saul hissed, his body hunching slightly as one of his arms dangled, completely paralyzed. While the other pulled back.

The remaining ashes from the dome that had fallen onto earth and the sable storm that remained dispersed in the air coalesced rapidly around the man's arm up to his undamaged shoulder. In less than a moment, what was once a normal arm, had now become a compressed mass of black so thick she could see through. The cloud rose with the arm taking a familiar shape as it continued to compress.

"Ashen Giant's Fist!" he called, as he glared at the flying cobra while punching forward. The aptly named ash fist stretched forward from his body at high speeds and met the cobra head-on.

'Grandpa's fist,' Cana noticed, realizing why the shape was so familiar. It looked almost the same.

Cana blinked at that for a moment before looking at the lanky teenager who was now falling on his face due to the paralytic venom. Come to think of it, he had seen Grandpa's titan magic the previous day during the party. Did he try to copy that too?

The Snakes tried to get out of the way, but the attack expanded as it moved, occupying too large of an area for it to dodge. The crash resounded through the forest with booming force as it crashed against and through a tree heavily damaging the one behind it.

"Your turn, Arvid," he added when he noticed the bloodied reptile embedded into the tree. Hurt, stunned, and probably only partially conscious, the snake didn't have time for anything other than looking in their direction before Arvid flung his axe at it. The attack went through the last remaining monster and dug the entire blade into the trunk with such force it shook.

'Well, that is kind of gross,' Cana mused, looking at the thoroughly destroyed corpse while blinking. 'Still…'

"Good job!" she called. "And you got the three kings too."

"... Kings?" Arvid asked, tilting his head confusedly and, she'd admit, rather adorably too. "Oh, the big ones, huh?"

"If you two assholes could help me already…" came the muffled voice of Saul.

They turned to find the other young unmoving, sprawled face down on the forest floor.

'Right, the venom,' she thought, cackling at the hilarious image.

"These are a lot of materials right here," Arvid commented, thoroughly ignoring his friend as he looked at the fallen serpents. "How many wands would I be able to get with all these? I might even get one that won't break down after use-" he continued enthusiastically checking the remains of the creatures.

"-I hope none, you dick-"

"-Oh, is that a bloodhorn tree? Neat!"

Cana just looked as she pondered the merits of telling Arvid to stop messing with Saul and…

"So, what's up with the tree?" she asked curiously, walking by Saulus and looking at the plant.

"Well, those tomato-like fruits? They are highly poisonous, same with the white sap of the tree. If I don't get a poison wand out of this and maybe a venom sack from the windweavers, I'd be very pissed," Arvid explained, starting to walk around looking at the floor.

"I'll bite, why are you looking at the floor?"

"Looking for fallen branches, naturally fallen ones are better than those just hacked off," he answered, not even looking up. "Can you lend me a hand with this? It's not really related to the job."

"... Sure."

"I hate you both."

[} Chapter End {]

Arc: And with this, our duo completed their first quest successfully. There were some problems along the way, but they pulled through. Windweavers weren't meant to be a super dramatic enemy but you can't expect newbies to go through world-changing missions from day one. This is more of a lax story, exploring the growth of what would be regular mages before actually jumping to the crazy stuff. With all that said, I hope you guys liked the fight scene.

Adrian: For anyone that might be curious, we used a monster randomizer I came across to decide what our boys would be facing. And then a few rolls to see how many there were and such. It makes things more interesting for us, even though it probably doesn't matter to you all.

Arc: With all said and done. We hope you guys have a good weekend and enjoy the chapter just as much as we enjoyed writing it.

Random Arc Question: Did you guys have a favorite arc while watching the OG series? I've personally always liked the Tenrou Arc. Lots of hype moments in it also it felt like the stakes were truly high during that time.

Adrian: I think mine was Tenrou too. I just can't get this picture of Natsu sitting on a log or something all gangsta. It was so badass it was burned into my memory… And there's the Lightning Flame Dragon Slayer mode, which was just very epic.

Discord Link: discord .gg/UTDransjJZ