Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters.
-The Enchanter of Fairy Tail-
Chapter 56: New Arrivals
Year: X758. 26 years till Canon begins.
Cade POV:
'Well. This is quite the situation I'm in right now…' I thought as I began to think carefully.
"So what's your move now?" Remarked Frag from ahead of me.
"Hmph, you've got me good here, I'll admit that."
Yes, this truly might be the trickiest chess game I've ever been in.
Currently I was in Fairy Tail, at one of the benches playing chess with Frag. This was my idea of taking it easy for a while.
Only a week had passed since my day out with Lilly. As expected, we mostly got rain and some light sunshine now. All the big, strong sunny days were behind us until next year. Good thing I got that day out before all this downpour.
I had came into Fairy Tail and decided to play some games with some of the guild members. Chess was one that I found fun to play. I was by no means an expert at it, but I think that made it all the more fun.
Still. It was hard to focus when there was a brawl going on behind us. No idea how this one started, but I didn't care as long as it didn't effect our game here.
Frag was my third opponent today. Currently, I was tied 1-1 in terms of wins and losses. I was hoping to make that score more in my odds with this game.
Honestly, he was getting me pretty good here. I had lost my Queen, two Knights and a few Pawns. He on the other hand still had quite a few pieces on his side.
I was no mind reader, but it was obvious that he was trying to box me in for a checkmate. I still had a few pieces clumped together at the bottom of my side of the board, he was hoping to lock my King in there for that easy victory.
I did have a plan, I just had to hope that Frag wouldn't spot it.
"Are you giving up?" Frag remarked with a confident look.
"I'm thinking." I protested calmly. "But I have just thought of a move." I explained as I moved one of my Pawns closer to Frag's side of the board.
Frag sat back a little. "I see." He began with a smart look. "Well if that's your plan then you won't be executing it." Frag then moved his Bishop to where it could now take my King. "Check."
'As expected. Had a feeling he would do that.' I reckoned internally. 'Good thing I had a backup plan for that.' I moved one of my Rooks into place. Frag grinned as he moved his Bishop to take my Rook.
And with that, I think he doomed himself.
I smirked as I moved my last Rook into position taking his Bishop. "That's check." I stated with a grin.
"Well that's not – wait what?" Frag responded as he looked at the board in closer detail.
Indeed. He was in check! I had fooled him into moving his pieces to try and take my boxed off King. By doing that he made it to where his pieces were in the firing line of my rook.
Frag looked stunned to see this. He gave a huff as he moved his King to avoid losing the game.
Now I was the one on the attack here. Over the next few turns I was able to take Frag's Queen and his remaining Knight and Rook. He still had one Bishop left, but I was on my way to getting another Queen with my pawn.
This game was looking to be my win!
And then someone crashed into the chess board and destroyed all the pieces.
Someone in the brawl had thrown someone in our direction. I was mortified at this, while Frag grinned as he stood up.
"So with no clear winner, we'll call it a tie then!" He declared smugly, as he ran off into the brawl of people that was getting bigger and bigger.
"A TIE!?" I yelled in frustration as I ran over to try and find Frag and whoever disrupted our game. That had stopped me from winning after all. Right when I was about to Requip into my armour and join the fight, I nearly stumbled over as I passed by the front door.
That's because there were two boys standing at the front door of the guild. They were just standing there and watching everything going on.
I immediately halted and stopped before the two boys. They were young, they looked about maybe nine years old? One had brown hair, while the other had dark blue hair. They both had a look of confusion at what they were seeing. When they saw me however, they turned up to look at me.
'What in the-? Who are these two kids?' I thought with interest. 'Are they related to someone that's a part of this guild?'
"Uh, hi kids." I gave them a smile as I waved to them. "What brings you to Fairy Tail?" I asked with curiosity, trying to ignore the brawl happening.
The blue haired boy spoke up first. "We want to join the guild!"
I blinked. That's… not what I was expecting.
"You want to join?" I asked as if to confirm what he said.
"That's right!" Spoke the brown haired boy. "We just discovered our magic a few days ago!" He explained.
'This is not how I imagined this day would go.' I muttered in my head.
"Well… I don't think there's an issue with you boys joining the guild. But you'd need to see Master Makarov about that." I confessed as I scratched my head. "I'll go and see if I can find him. You boys just wait outside the guild. Wouldn't want you getting hurt." I advised them.
"There's no need Cade. I'm right here." Came the voice of Master Makarov from behind me.
"Oh! Master!" I jumped as I turned around to see the old man. He was dressed in his casual orange hoodie and jester hat outfit.
I then moved aside so Master Makarov could see the two boys. The two boys were just a bit taller then Master Makarov, so they only had to look down a little to see him.
"What's your names kids?" Master asked kindly as he smiled at the two boys.
"I'm Macao!" The blue haired boy greeted with a grin.
"And I'm Wakaba!" Stated the brown haired boy who was also grinning.
"I heard you say that you've got magic. Think you could give me a quick demonstration kiddos?" Master requested to them.
Macao held out his hand and a small blue flame came out of the palm of his hand. Wakaba concentrated himself and summoned a small smoke cloud from thin air.
'Fire and smoke eh? They do go quite well together.' I gave a light chuckle when seeing their demonstration.
Master Makarov nodded his head, pleased by what he saw. "Well I have no problem letting you join our guild!" He cheered happily. "There's no entrance test required for you. Just need to know that you have magic. Now then, if you'll follow me so that we can get you your guild mark!" He told the two boys as he walked over to the guilds bar.
Macao and Wakaba gave a joyful smile to each other as they ran over to the counter to get their guild mark – them simply walking right through the brawl that was happening. I decided to follow them to the counter to see where they would put their guild mark.
When they got to the counter, Master jumped and sat on the counter and used some basic wind magic to summon the guild marker stamps from a shelf above him. They fell on to his hand and he then turned to Macao and Wakaba.
"Now then. What colour do you want your stamp to be, and where would you like it?" He asked the enthusiast boys.
Macao rolled up his shirt. "Here please, I'd like it coloured black!" He pointed to the right side of his chest, just below his shoulder.
Wakaba also rolled up his shirt. "I'd like mine here!" He gestured to his left chest. "Oh, and I'd like mine yellow if that's ok!"
Master Makarov picked out the two stamps and stamped the boys chests with them. When he removed the stamp the emblem of Fairy Tail was displayed on their chest. The two boys gave a happy look and Master Makarov raised his voice to speak to everyone.
"Could you idiots stop destroying the guild for one second and look to see what we have here!" He yelled out to the guild members that were all fighting. Everyone snapped to attention and suddenly stoped fighting to listen to Master.
"Look here!" Master then gestured his hand to Macao and Wakaba. "We've just had some new people join us! If I didn't interrupt that fight would you have known about them joining?" He yelled with annoyance to them.
There were a few mutters and murmurs among the guild members when Master informed them of that.
"This is Macao and Wakaba." Master introduced them to everyone, him gesturing his hand to them to as he said their names. "They've just joined this guild, so we better make sure that they feel as welcome as they can be here! Show them the ropes and make them proud members of Fairy Tail!" Master ordered.
There was a cheer from the guild members when he said that, before the fight that Master Makarov interrupted resumed again with even more punches, kicks and spells casted.
Macao and Wakaba gave a puzzled look. "Uh… is that meant to be happening there?" Macao asked Master Makarov.
Master just sighed. "Oh, it's tradition around here. Everyone gets so excited when new people join. Don't worry they'll calm down in the next hour I bet." He muttered as he then turned to me.
"Now then Cade? I'd like you to help Macao and Wakaba here with showing them everything in the guild as well as explaining the rules." He requested.
"Me?" I said in surprise as I saw the two boys looking around the building. They had moved away from me and Master somewhat. "Why me Master?"
"I think it'd be good experience for you. Many people who join guilds at a young age can be quite overwhelmed at times with everything there. Plus Gildarts helped you out when you joined the guild, so it would be somewhat fitting if you helped these two boys." Master answered.
I thought about this. Here all I wanted was a nice quiet few months at the guild. But this was an opportunity that didn't come around every so often. Also Macao and Wakaba seemed nice.
"Alright Master. I'll show them the ropes around here." I smiled. "Guess I've got nothing else on."
Master gave me a pat on the back, him using his magic to reach up to me. "That's the spirit!" He cheered. "Now I have to be getting back to my office. Take care!" He waved as he left the main hall of the guid and headed to his office.
I could have sworn that I saw a pink Sorcerer Weekly magazine stuffed into his pocket as he went into his office, but Master moved too quick for me to properly see.
'Well there goes my quiet day in here. Not sure why I thought that I'd get one, this IS Fairy Tail after all.' Yajima had always said that we were Fiore's rowdiest guild.
I shifted my gaze to Macao and Wakaba who were making their way to the stairs that led upwards to the second floor.
I quickly intercepted them by casting Soar to leap over them and block them from going upstairs as they were just about to walk up. "Ah, not so fast you two. You're not aloud upstairs." I informed them, folding my arms
Both boys had a look of confusion. "Why not?" Asked Wakaba.
"Well that's where the S-Class jobs are." I explained. "You know how the job system works in guilds right?" I spoke, realising that this might be the most important thing to establish to the both of them.
Both boys had a puzzled expression. They then shook their heads.
Right. This might be why Master chose to walk out just then.
I took a deep breath. "Right, so there are jobs here in the guild that wizards like you can complete for money and for the sake of helping others." I then directed their heads to the job board. "That's the job board there. You can do D, C, B and A ranked jobs."
"But why can't we go upstairs?" Questioned Macao again.
'I'm getting to that…' I thought with a tint of annoyance.
"Because that is where the S-Class jobs are. You need to be an S-Class wizard to take on those jobs. Non S-Class wizards aren't allowed upstairs for that reason." I finished.
Both boys now seemed to understand what I was saying. "Oh ok." Wakaba said. "How can we become S-Class?" He asked with excitement.
'Aren't they eager?' I was a bit amused at their gusto for the position.
"Close to the end of every year Master Makarov – the old guy you saw back there, will announce the S-Class trials. If you get announced as a candidate then you can compete for the position." I explained.
Both boys nodded their heads again. "How can we get chosen as a candidate?" Macao wondered.
'Good grief… nothings stopping these two from asking me how to become S-Class.' I gave an internal sigh before answering.
"Ok you aren't becoming S-Class until you are at least 14 years old for a start. Also there is the fact that you have to be pretty strong to be a candidate. You guys said that you just unlocked your magic so I have doubts that you would be elected for a while." I spoke. Hopefully that would answer all their questions.
Both of the boys looked a bit upset when I said that. "Ah. Ok then…" Macao said.
"Well we can still take the other jobs down here right?" Wakaba spoke up.
"Yeah that's right. You can take a look for any D-Class jobs that may be a good start for you." I suggested to them. Wakaba looked to speak up to me, but I chose to answer the question he probably had. "And yes while you can take an A-Class job… I would advise you not to. They are for some of the more experienced wizards here." I said firmly.
Wakaba nodded his head at me when I said that. So that was what he was going to ask then.
"So!" I said as I clapped my hands to get their attention. "Any more questions you have for me?"
Macao and Wakaba opened their mouths to speak to me. This was going to take a while I feel.
Around an hour later, I was walking through town with both boys by my side. I had shown them everything in the guild and had introduced them to a few of the members that were present once the fighting in the guild stopped – Gildarts included.
Now we were walking through town, as Macao and Wakaba had just moved here apparently. I had decided to show them around town in case they got lost at all.
"And this here is the bakery. They do lovely strawberry shortcakes." I told the both of them as I pointed to the building to the right. Then a curious thought occurred to me.
"Say. Where are the both of you living right now?" I wondered.
"We're both staying with our parents here. They always wanted to come to Magnolia, but that huge festival that was here a while ago convinced them to come here for good." Macao answered for them both.
"Ah I see. Was just curious." I spoke, turning back onto the path.
"Where do you live Cade?" Wakaba asked we passed by a building and came out onto one of the large pathways that were in the town.
"Oh, I live at that huge building up there." I casually pointed to my home in the distance, on the hills outside of town.
Macao and Wakaba's jaws dropped. "You live there?!" Macao gasped with shock.
"I thought that was the mayor's house!" Wakaba added after his friend said that.
"Yeah most people tend to think that." I chuckled with a shrug as we continued to walk through town.
After a few minutes of walking, we came to a small shop that had a sign advertising it above it. Macao spoke when he saw it. "Hey I know where we are!" He pointed to the sign. "You remember what happened here Wakaba?" He asked his buddy.
"Yeah I remember!" Wakaba said with realisation. "This is where that wizard saved us a few years back. I didn't even know that we were also going to die back then.
This… certainly surprised me. "What? You almost died in Magnolia?" I spoke, gobsmacked by this info.
"Yeah, that sign up there nearly fell on us. But then we were saved by a wizard in Fairy Tail! He used some ice to cover us from the sign that was falling." Wakaba elaborated.
Sign? Falling? Ice? This was all too eerily familiar. Something at the back of my memory seemed to recall a certain detail.
Wait just a second…?
"Hey do you know that guy who saved us? I'd like that thank him properly for how he saved us." Macao asked me.
I smiled at that. "Know him? Well of course I know him! He's me." I smirked, before using an Ice Pillar that came out of the ground.
Macao and Wakaba looked excited and shocked to hear me say that and see me demonstrate that move just there. To think these were the two boys I saved all those years ago!
"WHOA!" They both shouted.
"It was you who saved us back then!" Macao gave a joyful look.
"Thanks so much for that… Hey! We don't know your name yet!" Wakaba suddenly realised.
Huh, guess I haven't said that yet.
"Oh yeah, I guess that I have forgotten to introduce myself to you. I've just been so busy showing you around the place." I said. "Well my names Cadewell, but you can call me Cade." I smiled to them.
After the conversation we had just there, I continued to show them both around the town, before they then decided to head back home. It was getting to close to sundown now. As we were coming up to the winter now, the sun would set much earlier than in the summer.
Both boys seemed confident that they could get back home and to the guild without any issue. They also said that they had a good bearing of where everything in Magnolia is now, so I guess I didn't need to help them with that.
I chose to head back home for the day, perhaps tomorrow I could get a nice quiet day at the guild.
Looking back, I can't even begin to imagine why I thought that would be possible.
The next day, I entered the guild and saw that it was mostly quiet. But I did see Macao and Wakaba standing at the job board. They were both looking at jobs that were up there. I chose to approach the two boys to see what jobs they might pick.
"Hey there." I said as I came up to them from behind them. "Ah. You plan on taking a job huh?" I said with some interest.
Macao turned to face me, while Wakaba still looked at the board. "Yeah…" He said with some relief at seeing me. "Think you could help us pick one Cade?" He requested.
"Sure!" I grinned. "I'd be happy to help. Just let me see what there is."
Macao and Wakaba moved aside for me to choose to job for them. My eyes skimmed over the job requests, and one of them caught my eye.
I picked up the job and looked at it.
'Yes. This would be a perfect start for them.' I decided.
—
D-Class
Reward: 100,000 jewels
Requesting some protection with a merchant caravan. We need some wizards to act as some bodyguards for a day while we make the journey. Head to Omnibus town antique shop for more details.
—
"What do you think of this one?" I held up the job for them to see.
Both boys peered their heads forward to see the job. I saw their eyes skim the page before they answered for me saying that they thought it was a good job to start with.
"Alright then!" I handed them the job request. "Say. Mind if I come with you two?" I requested as I scratched my chin. "I won't take the reward for the job, just coming to make sure you know what you're doing."
Both of the boys seemed surprised by that.
"Oh sure! It'd be nice to have someone make sure we know what we're doing." Macao said with a nod.
"Should we head and get the train then?" Wakaba asked.
"Yup. With the new railway installed it'll only take an hour or so to get to Omnibus town." I spoke. "Alright then, let's get going." I stated as I moved towards the exit to the guild with Macao and Wakaba following me.
We then boarded the train to get to Omnibus town. The new railway that was installed made it to where it now only took an hour or less to get to the nearby towns! That made going on jobs quite easier. Some places like Crocus or Aster village would still take at least over a day to get to however.
It was around midday when we arrived in Omnibus town. Following a map of the town we were able to try to the antique shop where we saw several carts and wagons set up outside. Clearly a caravan was about to set off.
Entering the shop, showed a group of men that were talking among themselves. When they heard us enter they turned to see us. I chose to speak first in the room.
"No need to worry. We're the guild wizards that accepted the job here." I assured them as I rolled up my sleeve to show them my Fairy Tail mark (Macao and Wakaba doing the same when they saw me doing it.)
The men had a look of relief when they heard me say that. "Oh that's a relief." One of them spoke. "I thought that we would have to move out without any sort of protection." He added.
"Yeah we had that request sent out for a while now. Was beginning to think that we would be alone out there." Another man said.
"We need to protect this caravan of goods correct?" I asked. The men nodded, so I asked another important question. "Where is it headed?"
"It'll be heading to Clover town. It'll take a few hours for it to get there. We'll be taking the fast road to avoid the forest. Course that'll mean a high chance of running into some bandits." Another man addressed.
"When do we set off?" I inquired. "If you need help managing the goods onto the carts we can help you with that." I offered.
"Yeah we were just about to take all those crates and throw them on the carts." Spoke the fourth man. "If you could help us out, then we can get going a lot faster." He nodded.
Me, the four men, Wakaba and Macao helped lift the carets that had the cargo I then onto the carts and wagons. It took around 30 minutes, as Macao and Wakaba were only able to take lift some of the smaller crates.
When we were done, one of the men brought some horses to carry the wagons and carts. There were four horses, one for each of the men. Thankfully they would be moving slowly due to all the luggage so I would be able to walk beside them, while Macao and Wakaba would sit on one of the carts.
We then set off following the path to Clover town. The main path that we were following took us over a few small hills and was mostly an out of place path from any towns or cities. Due to that, many bandits often try to ambush many merchants coming down this path.
As we were travelling, I spoke up to Macao and Wakaba. "Have you actually casted some offensive spells before?" I asked them with interest. Perhaps I should have asked this before we set out on this job.
"Oh yeah!" Macao said with a cheer. "Check this out, Purple Fire!" He cried as he sent a blast of purple flames from his hand into the air.
"Hey not bad." I grinned when seeing the demonstration. "How about you Wakaba?" I asked as I turned to face him.
"Heh, wait to you see this." Wakaba said as he pulled out a pipe from his pocket.
"Aren't you… a bit young to be smoking?" I questioned suspiciously with a raised eyebrow.
"I don't smoke! I need this pipe for my magic." Wakaba protested as he put it in his mouth. "Smoke Punch!" Wakaba summoned some smoke from his pipe and it shaped into a fist that went flying forwards in the air.
"Hmm. Not too shabby." I nodded at the demonstration. "If we do get into a fight, make sure to stay together. I'd like the both of you to be watching over each other if that happens." I ordered to them.
"Sure. We can do that." Wakaba said as Macao nodded along with him.
"Good. If we run into bandits. I'll take the more serious and powerful ones. You guys can take the weaker ones." I explained to them.
They both nodded again, and Macao then spoke up to me. "Do you have any other magic apart from your Ice Magic Cade?" He questioned.
"Yeah I do. Enchantment Magic." I answered.
"Enchantment Magic…?" Macao gave a confused look. "What is that sort of magic is that?" He wondered.
"It's… complicated." I replied with hesitation. "Erm, all you need to know is that it's pretty powerful. I'd be happy to give you a more detailed explanation when we get back to the Magnolia sometime." I offered as a compromise to that.
"Oh, uh ok." Macao said understanding the situation.
We had now came to a small set of rocks that came up pretty far from the ground. They were quite jagged and spiked. It was as we crossed by one of them, that I swore I saw something move from behind one of them.
'What the-?' I immediately snapped to attention when I saw that. Was someone behind the rock?
I gave a hiss to Macao and Wakaba. "Hey! Stay alert. I think we might have company. The bad kind." I quickly said with seriousness.
Macao and Wakaba looked a bit shocked to hear me say that. They swallowed a lump in their throats as they began to scan the area around them.
Even though they were putting on a brave face, I could tell they were both still nervous about this. A first job was always quite stressful. I certainly had it rough with my first one.
As I was scanning the area around us. The wagons and carts suddenly stopped almost instantly, causing Macao and Wakaba to fall off as they were on the edge of the cart. They quickly got up and frantically looked around.
I stopped walking and focused my magic. "Hey! Why have we stopped?" I shouted to the drivers of the cart.
There was no reply which concerned me. I walked over to the driver of the cart that was closest to me and saw that the driver and the horse was asleep! Now that I looked closer, all the drivers and horses were asleep! Someone had forced them asleep using magic!
"Macao! Wakaba! Watch out, it's an ambush!" I shouted to warn them both.
As I yelled that, two men suddenly burst out from behind the rocks. They looked as if they were in their mid 20's and one wore some rather dark green clothing, while the other wore some dark red clothing. They both had a moustache that were trimmed neatly in a thin line. They both wore some flat caps that were a dark brown colour.
"We got 'em! Nice work using that lacrima to put the drivers asleep!" The man in red cheered.
"Now all we have to do is take those kids out and the loot is ours!" The man in green grinned as he looked at us.
"Sorry but that's not happening." I announced as I powered up my magic. "Delirium's Blades!" I cried as I fired off some enchanted blades at the man in red.
The man in red was able to use some sand that he had summoned to create a thick and hard sandstone wall to block my blades. Due to the sheer strength of the blades, he was still thrown backwards from the carts.
"Macao, Wakaba. Watch that guy. I'll handle this one." I ordered as I casted Soft and Soar and leapt after the red clothed man. I had faith that the two boys could deal with the other man, while I would deal with this guy.
I Requiped into my armour as I landed not too far away from where the man in red landed, with me preparing to cast off another spell. "Stone Spikes!" I shouted as I sent dozens of sharp spikes towards him.
He scowled and used some sandstone to catapult himself up into the air to dodge my spikes. He then casted a spell at me. "Sandstone Hail!" He casted.
This sent a wave of sandstone flying towards me in the form of a blizzard of sorts. I was able to dart out of the way and fire off a counter spell. "Five-Layered Stoneflake!"
The five shards of stone were summoned at my back and were sent flying around me and towards him. He was able to use some sandstone to cover himself from the attacks I sent to him as he was falling back to the ground.
When he landed back on the ground he leapt towards me and covered his fists with some thick sandstone. "Sandstone Barrage!" He cried as he began to punch his fists rapidly as he came towards me.
"Stone Wall!" I shouted as a thick wall on stone bust out from the ground and protected me from the many punches.
He made contact with the wall and it didn't take long for the wall to burst into pieces. Thankfully it did stop him from advancing, meaning he was wide open for an attack.
"Take this! Stone Beam!" I summoned a large beam that hit him right in the chest causing him to be sent flying backwards.
He out a cry as he was sent backwards him hitting the ground with his back. He quickly leapt up and fired off a spell. "Sandstone Geyser!" He casted.
This caused the ground to rumble, before jets of hard sandstone was launched from underneath from the grass. I had to leap back in the air to dodge the geysers.
As I leapt up into the air, I saw that Macao and Wakaba were handling themselves quite well against the other man; them using a mixture of magical attacks to push him back somewhat. He seemed to have some water magic, but Macao's flames were doing surprisingly well against the water.
Their opponent seemed to be the weaker of the two men. His water looked to be lacking in a regard to the water that many other water mages used for their magic. It seemed to be shallow and less smooth than the water that my father used.
Good. The fact that they were doing well meant that I could focus more on my opponent. Having to try and manage both would be a bit of a hassle.
Thankfully my fight here was still decently far away from where they both were. Here's hoping that they didn't both collide.
I landed back on solid ground and fired off another spell towards my enemy. "Stone Slicer!" I uttered as I sent slices of sharp stone towards him.
He dodged this by throwing his hands down to the ground and causing the ground to turn shape into sand, before he then sank down into it, with my attack flying right over him.
'What in the-!?' I thought with surprise as I saw him do that. 'He used his sand to sink into the ground!? How can I find him now?'
I frantically looked around to try and spot him. The ground was completely undisturbed, with now the pile of sand that he sank into getting bigger and wider.
'Dammit. He could be anywhere.' I scowled internally as I scanned the ground. 'How do I deal with this?'
I began to watch my backside as best I could, while also trying to watch to see if he would come out from ahead of me.
Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye I noticed something. A small ripple of movement in the sand. I instinctively dated to the side and barely missed the punch of thick sandstone that flew by my side.
I readjusted myself and tried to watch for more movements in the sand. It didn't help that some wind had begun to breeze through the area we were in, causing all the sand to be disrupted.
I scowled as I jumped up onto one of the big rocks that the two bandits had hid behind to ambush us. I took a quick look and saw that Macao and Wakaba were doing well against their opponent, the two boys being able to push him back somewhat. Then I turned my gaze to try and see where my enemy was in the ground.
A good chunk of the ground was now covered in sand, all the grass now being replaced by thousands of grains of sand.
As I was scanning the ground, several hard bullets of sandstone shot out and flew towards me. I dodged by jumping to another stone that was to my side. As I landed on it though, more attacks of different kind such as punches, whirlwinds and sharp spikes destroyed the rocks I was landing on.
If this kept up… there would be nowhere for me to land other than the sand – that would make me a sitting duck.
Not to mention if I was defeated here, this guy would most likely try and take down Macao and Wakaba. That I couldn't let happen.
As I leapt from rock to rock, I tried to think of a plan to deal with his submersible tactics.
'Think Cade!' I thought. 'How can you deal with this sort of situation? He's sunken down into the ground and I don't know where he is. I need to find a way to force him out of it somehow. But how?' I frantically wondered as I jumped to another rock.
Then it hit me. I had gotten a bit better control over this spell in the last few months. Time to see if I could cause a big enough eruption.
"See how you like this! Disappear!" I shouted as I thrusted my hand forward to the sand that was beneath me.
This caused an explosion that shook the whole ground completely blew up all the sand that was beneath me. The sand flew up into the air and around where we were fighting. In the large crater that was as formed by my spell, I saw my opponent looking completely horrified at what had just happened.
I smirked as I now leapt up off the rock I was on and flew down to finish this fight. I prepared my magic and casted a powerful spell off.
"This will end this! Stone Extinction!" I shouted as I held out my fist and caused a large eruption of stone spikes to be summoned from the ground. This sent him flying up into the air, and he was thrown backwards before he hit a rock and lost consciousness.
With that the fight on my side was over.
I then heard a yell of a man behind me that started me somewhat.
I immediately turned backwards and saw the body of the other bandit flying past me and hitting the same rock that the other bandit did, him also falling unconscious next to his ally.
Macao and Wakaba then came forwards and gave each other a hi five.
"Alright!" Came the enthusiastic voice of Macao. "We got him!" He cheered as he pumped his fist. I turned to the two boys and smiled.
"Nice work you two! I'll admit and say that I was expecting to help you both take care of that guy after I had finished my battle." I confessed as I held up my hands in apology. "But you handled it very well!" I praised both boys.
"Thanks!" Wakaba grinned as he put his pipe in his pocket. "Hey uh, what do we do now?" He asked he pointed to the two men lying unconscious at the rock.
I grinned. "Watch and learn."
"Honest! All we wanted was to put the drivers asleep, beat you and take the antiques!" The red clothed bandit protested as he found himself handcuffed to a nearby tree.
"Yeah we didn't want to kill anyone!" The green clothed bandit backed up his friend as he looked to him. He was also handcuffed to the same tree.
We had found the lacrima that was keeping the drivers from walking up. When we destroyed it they all woke up and were quick to arrest the two for trying to steal their cargo. Both men were then put into some magic sealing stone handcuffs and were tied to a nearby tree worn some rope.
We had sent out a beacon in the air with some magic that signalled that the Rune Knight branch in the nearby town were to come and arrest the two men. As the town that the antique caravan was going to was just ahead, they decided to pay us (in which I made sure that Macao and Wakaba were the ones paid) for our services of helping them and headed to the town. The three of us chose to stay here to keep an eye on the two criminals.
As we bid them farewell, the two bandits had woken up and were trying to weasel out of the situation.
"Look. If you let us both go then we'll never commit a crime again, promise!" The red clothed man pleaded.
I was unconvinced by this. "Righhhht. You know by saying that you've basically just confirmed that you WILL be committing more crimes in the future. Also why would I let you go?" I questioned with bafflement.
"Yeah! You still tried to attack us!" Macao said from behind me.
"How could we let you both go? You're criminals!" Wakaba added on.
"Gah, please!" The green clothed bandit begged. "We've been arrested before and it's nothing like they say! Hours in your cell, not a lot of time to get some fresh air. The place is torture!" He had a look of desperation on his face, as I looked behind me and saw a small platoon of Rune Knights coming along the path.
'Ah, so they HAVE been arrested before then.' I thought as I raised an eyebrow.
I gave a sigh. "You seem like the kind of people that wouldn't purposefully try to kill someone for profit. Yet you still tried to rob a caravan of goods and attacked wizards that were trying to defend it. That will be a few years in jail I reckon." I explained to the men.
Both of the criminals had a look of horror and defeat on their faces. As I finished saying that I could hear the sound of the Rune Knights coming this way. Now it was time for my final lesson to Macao and Wakaba.
"Alright, listen up you two." I said as I turned to the two boys. "There is one final lesson I have to tell you. It's an important one."
Both of the boys looked on with interest and curiosity as to what it is.
"We caused a bit of damage here with my crater. As this area is quite close to the town the mayor will most likely try to sue Fairy Tail for property damage – even thought this isn't his town technically he can still somehow sue us." I rolled my eyes that that last detail.
"Then what do we do?" Macao asked with a bit of panic at the guild getting sued.
I gave them both a smirk. "They can't sue Fairy Tail if they don't know we are from Fairy Tail. That means we have only one option here."
I grabbed Macao and Wakaba's hands. "Run away!" I shouted as I began to run away from the Rune Knights. I heard the angry voices of the Rune Knights yelling at me as I ran away.
Macao and Wakaba thankfully used their legs to keep up with me as I ran away back to Clover town to get the train back to Magnolia.
Here's hoping that Macao and Wakaba learned a lot from this job. I had a feeling they would turn out all right in the future.
And cut! That's this chapter done. Feel free to leave a review if you liked it.
And now we have finally, finally had some more characters from the show join this story. It was obviously going to be Macao and Wakaba, of course. While we didn't get an exact date for when they joined, I'm guessing by the fact that they both always went on about reminiscing about their "good old days in the guild" I had a feeling that they joined at a young age.
Anyway, we'll be seeing the main focus of this arc in the next chapter. Stay tuned for that.
With all that written, I hope you all liked this chapter, and I will see you all in the next one!
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Guest - Thanks for the review! Like I said, I have a lot planned for these next two arcs. More characters from the anime, returning characters from this story, and much, much more. Hope you continue to enjoy the story.
