Disclaimer I do not own Fairy Tail. Why would I be writing fanfiction if I owned something like that?
Beta Reader: volfwildman
Cover Art by KegiSpringfield
(3rd Person Battle POV)
Gajeel was the first one to act. The Iron Dragon Slayer rushed the two adopted brothers as he channeled his magic into both of his arms.
"Iron Dragon's Club"
Both of Gajeel's arms transformed into a pair of iron clubs as he jumped forward towards Gray and swung his right arm towards the Ice mage. Said mage was just fast enough to bring up his arms to block the heavy swing with a painful grunt. The Phantom Lord mage soon found himself back on the ground and moved to strike with his other club arm.
"Fire Dragon's Claws"
Before Gajeel was able to perform his attack Natsu came charging forward as his spell caused twin jets of flames to start erupting from his feet and propelling him into the Iron Dragon Slayer and sending him back a bit. After ramming into his opponent, the Fire Dragon Slayer twisted his feet to get away from his opponent slightly before performing a full backflip to cause the dual-stream of flames to flung into the Phantom Lord mage, sending him even further back and burning him slightly as well.
"Ice-Make: Cannon"
Now no longer under assault, Gray was free to cast his spell which caused a cannon of ice to appear beside him. The cannon itself would usually use some random rubble for ammo but due to the lack of debris, the Ice mage simply created a ball of ice for it to use. Said ball of ice was swiftly shot into Gajeel who had just got back on his feet after Natsu's attack. The ice ammo burst into a white mist after slamming into the Iron Dragon Slayer.
The two Fairy Tail mages smiled at the combo of attacks. Natsu even felt like taunting his opponent a bit, feeling a bit vindictive at his fellow Slayer for what he's done to his family and friends. "If that's all you got then you're going to be easier than that weird Monochrome guy!"
Gajeel, who had tanked the attack by flaring his magic and causing his skin to harden, heard what Natsu said and grew angry as a result. Not because he considered it an insult to him but rather because it insulted Totomaru. The S-class Fire Mage was a good friend to the Iron Dragon Slayer, someone that he would often hang out with and spar with as well.
Gajeel also had a rather large amount of respect for his fellow S-class Phantom Lord mage. Totomaru had originally been an heir to a family of mages in the Kingdom of Enca who practiced Rainbow Magic. He had been a source of pride and respect for the family until his younger brother had tricked him and put him into a situation that forced him to break his family's code. Afterward, he had been disowned from the family and banished.
The Fire mage had traveled around Earthland for a bit after that before being recruited into Phantom Lord. It took a few years for Totomaru to get close enough to his fellow S-class mages and tell them about his past and Gajeel had really wanted to punch his entire family in the face for abandoning their own blood.
Like how Metalicana abandoned him.
Gajeel's rage built up from his thoughts and pointed one of his iron club arms towards the ice cannon still beside Gray and with a shout, the club extended. The club soon rammed into and destroyed the cannon then with all his might swiped the extended club to the right where it hit Gray and would have hit Natsu had the Fire mage not just barely jumped over the attack. In response to the attack, the Fire Dragon Slayer growled before rushing forward while preparing his magic.
"Fire Dragon's Flame Elbow"
Like with his last attack a stream of flames erupted, this time from his right elbow, and shot Natsu forward. Gajeel had a second to harden his skin before a rocket-powered fist slammed into his chest and sent him crashing into the wall that was behind him. The Iron Dragon Slayer didn't stay down for long as he was out of the hole he had made; his arms were now back to normal as he didn't keep the concentration for his spell. The Iron Dragon Slayer was about to shout an insult at his fellow slayer but said insult died in his throat when he saw his opponent preparing for a very familiar attack.
"Fire Dragon's Roar"
A beam of fire shot out of Natsu's mouth and made its way over to Gajeel who responded by flowing his magic through his body and preparing a spell of his own.
"Iron Dragon's Scales"
Just before the roar of fire hit him, Gajeel's entire body shined as it was soon covered in a thick layer of iron scales. The spell impacted the Iron Slayer who simply took the brunt of the attack the best he could. Natsu had rushed the process for his attack and as a result, it wasn't as strong as it normally was, the Fire mage had thought that if he attacked fast enough then his opponent wouldn't have time to react but sadly he underestimated the Phantom Lord mage's reaction time.
Once the attack was over Gajeel rushed forward with his newly improved body and planted a fist into Natsu's chest. He went to follow up with an uppercut, but the Fire mage jumped back in time to avoid the strike. The Iron Slayer let out a growl and rushed forward to once more contact his opponent.
"Ice-Make: Wall"
Only to end up slamming into a freshly made wall of ice that head emerged between him and Natsu. Gajeel let out an annoyed grunt as he freed himself from the wall that he had impacted and looked down it to see Gray standing at one of the wall's ends. Just before the Iron Slayer could rush his remerged opponent though said opponent released an attack.
"Ice-Make: Battle Axe"
With a swing of his arm, an arc of ice was sent towards Gajeel who simply backhanded the attack out of the air once it got close to him. Grinning at Gray's surprised face, the Phantom Lord mage ran forward and attempted to land a hit on his opponent. The Ice mage soon found him performing a series of dodge as he tried his best to avoid being hit once more by the Iron mage. After rolling to the side and avoiding attack number nine the Make mage extended his hand forward and called forth his mage just as he was about to be attacked once more.
"Ice-Make: Sword"
A dual-edged blade erupted from Gray's hand and slammed into Gajeel who ended up taking a few steps back from the attack. After stopping his feet, the Iron Slayer looked over and saw the Ice mage standing in a ready stance for any attack that would come his way. The Dragon mage let out a chuckle before extending his hand forward slight and preparing a spell.
"Iron Dragon's Sword"
Like with Gray, Gajeel formed a sword of his own. Only this one was his own arm morphed into a sword and unlike the rather classic looking design of the ice sword, the iron sword looked industrial and more like a big saw then a sword. With a wide grin, the Iron Dragon Slayer rushed forward and was soon in a duel of blades with his opponent.
Gray kept on the defensive as his surprisingly durable ice sword parried and blocked strikes from the saw sword. After years of training with Erza and Bishop, he had picked up a few skills with a blade and was even better at defending against a blade as well. After parrying an overhead slash from his opponent, the Ice mage retaliated with a swing to the knee which forced the Slayer to crouch down a little and then slammed the flat side of his blade into the Phantom Lord mage's head.
Gajeel only barely just caught himself and prevented himself from falling on to his back before he rushed into a clash with Gray. Despite being physically stronger than his opponent the Iron Dragon Slayer couldn't push the Ice mage back. For a few seconds, the two stood there, pushing at each other trying to gain any ground they could until a whirring noise started from the iron saw sword.
Before Gray could react Gajeel's sword started up like a chainsaw and soon the Ice mage's sword was whittled away into a broken ice sword. The Fairy Tail mage took a few steps back as the Phantom Lord mage loomed with his sword out of nightmares. When the Iron Dragon Slayer took a step forward, he expected his opponent to grimace or something along those lines but when he saw him Smiling, he stopped his advance and tried to figure out why.
"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist"
Before the Iron Dragon Slayer could react, he found his face being forced into the ground as Natsu slammed his flaming fist down onto the top of his head. After a second or two of debating the Fire Slayer decided to not press the attack and instead get beside Gray as the two eyed the quickly recovering Gajeel.
Despite his magic empowering his fist for the attack Natsu couldn't help but shake his hand a little. The iron scales on Gajeel's body had put up an amazing resistance against the attack and the Fire Dragon Slayer couldn't help but be slightly amazed at it. "Damn those scales of yours are tough! It's like when I tried to beat Igneel back in the day."
Natsu paused when he spoke those words as it reminded him about something important. He was fighting another Dragon Slayer. Someone who had a dragon of their own to teach them. "Hey!" Natsu shouted at Gajeel as the Iron mage was finally up, "What happened to your dragon!? I've been looking all over for Igneel and can't find him, where's the dragon that taught you!?"
Gajeel paused when he heard his opponent's words, he too had forgotten the fact that the person he was fighting had magic that was taught by a dragon. "Igneel," The Iron Slayer muttered it under his breath like he was testing the words before remembering his own dragon, "You want to know what happened to Metalicana? The dragon that raised me like his son. Well, he fucking abandoned me! I trusted him and saw him as my own dad and he just one day decides that apparently he's had enough of me and left!"
Natsu blinked at his opponent's words, surprised by the anger behind them. After a moment of thought, he spoke once more, "Have you tried looking for him? For Metalicana? I mean there must be a reason why he and Igneel left us right? Don't you want to find him and ask why?!"
Gajeel snarled the Fire Dragon Slayer as he growled out his next words, "I don't fuck care about Metalicana anymore! He left me! If he's done with me then I'm done with him! Besides I got Phantom Lord now. My friends here won't abandon me like he fucking did!"
Natsu couldn't help the sadness that was found its way into his heart. Gajeel was putting up a good front but the Fairy Tail mage instinctively knew that his fellow Dragon Slayer was truly hurt by his dragon leaving him. But before the Fire mage could talk further the Iron mage's saw sword once more whirled to life as he had enough of the talking and rushed forward.
Gray had been awkwardly standing to the side of his brother while the two had their conversation. He knew very well his little brother's situation, hell he had gone with him many times to try and find the fire dragon but had nothing to truly contribute to the conversation and just stood ready in case something happened. When the Iron Dragon Slayer rushed forward the Ice mage moved to intercept.
"Ice-Make: Shield"
A segmented shield of ice appeared between the Phantom and the Fairies. The saw sword rammed into the ice and started to whirl away at the protective ice. After a few seconds, the shield's strength fails, and it shattered as Gajeel's sword and the mage himself thrust into and past it. The second he was through though Natsu was there with a spell ready.
"Fire Dragon's Sword Horn"
The Fire Dragon mage was completely engulfed in flames as he head-smashed into Gajeel's chest. Natsu had intended to follow up the attack by reorienting himself and hitting with a few punches but he had very much understated the Iron Dragon Slayer's defense as the attack had done little but annoy the Phantom who proceeded to attack back.
"Iron Dragon's Hard Fist"
Magic gathered and empowered Gajeel's left hand as he unleashed a powerful punch onto Natsu and smashed him into the ground. But the Iron mage wasn't done as he repeatedly punched the other Slayer into the ground to the point that the Fairy ended up letting out a cough of blood. Soon the Iron Dragon Slayer paused to lift his saw sword into the air and whirl it to life with the intention of slamming it into his opponent's back and start massacring the Fire mage's back. Unfortunately for the Phantom, someone had other ideas.
"Ice-Make: Freeze Lance"
Upon seeing the damage being done to his younger brother, Gray decided to unleash one of his more powerful attacks. Dozens of large lances made of ice swerved and barreled towards the Gajeel who was just able to bring up his saw sword in mock defense. Each powerful lance smashed into the Iron mage, but despite the attacks dealing much pain, they left little in terms of physical damages as the iron scales held strong against the assault. Not to say that it wasn't effective as the Iron Slayer was forced to dismiss his sword and the only barely stood his ground.
Despite the power behind the attack though Gajeel kept his position and refused to move. Once the Ice spell was over Gray looked and saw his opponent was still standing over his brother and teammate. Let out a little curse the Ice-Make mage made to run forward but didn't get far before the Iron Slayer made his move.
Gajeel delivered a powerful kick to the downed Fire mage who was sent flying straight into his brother. Gray stopped and tried to catch Natsu but the force behind the Fire Dragon mage's flight was a tad too much and the Ice mage nearly found himself falling over to make the catch. Just as the Winter Fairy was able to stabilize with his brother in his arms Gajeel unleashed a powerful attack.
"Iron Dragon's Lance: Demon Logs"
Gajeel thrust his arm forward and was swiftly transformed into a large spearhead. From said spearhead, several spears made of Iron Dragon Slayer magic were shot out towards the two Fairies. Gray tried to move away but was weighed down by his slowly recovering brother and as a result, the magically made spearheads struck true. They mostly hit Gray who was sent backward and slammed into the wall. By the end of the assault, both the Winter and Summer Fairy were letting out pained groans as they lay in the crater they had made in the wall and ground.
Gajeel let out a pained sigh as he turned his hand back to normal and struggled to keep his Iron Scales up. The last spell had taken up a good bit of his decently low amount of magic, the fighting from the morning and with Lucy was starting to really lay into him. Natsu and Gray weren't much better as the two recovered from their opponent's attack, the fight with Totomaure had taken out more from them then they had thought. Both sides were damaged and nearing the end of their stamina and all three knew they needed to end this soon.
"Hey, Bro," Gray began, "Why don't we try the Unison Raid? I'm pretty sure I have just enough to do the spell. What about you?"
After taking a second to breathe and look over his remaining magic he spoke back. "I got enough. Ok, let's do this."
Taking a moment to prepare the two soon assumed the standard Unison Raid stance, their knees bent, and one arm stretched out with the hand taking the form of a fist. Just as the two started to power up Gajeel noticed what they were doing and paled slightly. The Iron mage had seen much magic over his years and had worked with some mages that had been able to pull off a Unison Raid. He knew very well what the two Fairies were doing and how powerful the spell would be, and he wasn't about to let that happen. He quickly flared the magic in his system and gathered a large portion of it into his throat as he prepared to unleash an attack before the two finished.
"Iron Dragon's Roar"
Just as the two Fairies were about a little more than halfway done with the charge time for the Unison Raid Gajeel released a mighty and powerful roar of pure iron magic towards the two. Both of their eyes widened at the oncoming attack and both moved to react. In the end, it was Gray who moved first as he shoved Natsu out of the way of the attack before bracing himself as the onslaught of iron hit him. Despite trying to prepare for the attack the Ice mage was already far too hurt and tired to stand up to the roar as it carried him to the wall of the room and slammed him into it as he was forced to take the full brunt of the spell. By the time the attack ended the Fairy of Winter's consciousness had given out and he fell to the floor defeated.
Natsu stared wide-eyed at the fallen form body of his adopted older brother. For a second fear overcame the Fire Dragon Slayer's mind at Gray's condition. This didn't last long though as soon rage overcame not just the Fairy of Summer's mind but his body also as fire burst out of his skin as he turned towards the man who had taken down his brother.
Gajeel was still standing where he had been when he launched the attack, trying his best to regain his breath. He was running dangerously low on magic at this point, but he knew he would need his Iron Scales to end this, so he did his best to keep his full body protection up. After taking a few seconds to recover his breath he looked towards his last opponent, only to see Natsu's cheeks bulging as he was about to release a full-powered roar of his own.
"Fire Dragon's Roar"
Gajeel could do nothing as a roar of flames overcame him. He gritted his teeth in pain as the fire heated his metal skin and started to cook his insides. Despite the pain though the Iron Dragon Slayer was a resilient and determined mage and lasted till the end of the attack. Once the roar was over the Iron mage stood in pain as his red-hot skin still burned him. Before he could do anything though Natsu was right next to him as he flowed damn near all his remaining magic into his hands as he prepared his final attack.
"This is for Gray!"
"Crimson Lotus: Fire Dragon's Fist"
A hard flame punch found its way into Gajeel's chest as his Iron Scales dented horribly.
"This is for Lucy!"
Another powerful punch impacted Gajeel's chest causing a loud crack filled the air as large cracks formed all over the Iron Scales that protected the Phantom Lord mage.
"This is for Gramps!"
A devastating punch slammed into Gajeel's chest and a shattering noise filled the room as the once unbreakable Iron Scales broke and scattered across the room. Leaving the Iron Dragon Slayer's chest completely exposed, showing tender red and burned skin.
"And this… IS FOR BISHOP!"
One last mighty punch hit Gajeel on his unprotected chest and sent him flying into the wall at the other end of the room. Before he even impacted the wall, the Iron Slayer was completely knocked out but the explosion from his collision would make sure he wasn't getting up anytime soon. Once the smoke and dust disappeared Natsu saw a completely defeat Gajeel laying on the floor, his eyes rolled up into the back of his head.
Natsu stared at his fallen opponent for a few seconds before calming down. The fatigue from the battle hit him instantly and he just barely kept himself standing. He swiftly grabbed a red potion from one of his pockets, thankful for the magically reinforced glass it was made from, and down the entire thing.
After taking a moment to get past its horrid taste he looked back to his brother. Lucy was already beside him and giving him a red potion as well while Happy floated next to her. The blue cat had stayed hidden for the battle and near its end, he had sneaked into the room and freed the Celestial mage who had spent near the entire fight tied up and watching. After pouring the drink down the Ice mage's through everyone in the room stood still and waited for any sign that the fallen Fairy was ok.
After a moment Gray started to cough as his right hand moved to his throat and he started to mumble about horrible tasting potions. Everyone in the room let out a sigh of relief as the second Vern son opened his eyes and looked around the room. Once he saw Gajeel's crumpled body he turned to his younger brother and gave him a shack thumbs up.
Natsu let out a tired laugh from the sight, already feeling slightly better from the red portion. Eventually, the laugh ended, and he gave his guildmates a wide smile before speaking. "Come on guys. Let's get out of here."
The three humans and one cat were about to start making their way out of the room when they all paused as a familiar form of magic entered their senses.
An insanely powerful Illusion had just been cast near them.
Aria let out a very tired breath.
Erza laid on the ground. Defeated.
The battle between the two had been a long and grueling one. Aria's Airspace magic was powerful and had a large area of effect but the many different armors that Erza possessed allowed her to fight him, even after the Phantom Lord mage went all out and removed his blindfold.
In the end though what decided the battle was the fact that Erza simply didn't have armor to resist and fight Air-based magic. Fire? Yes. Water? Yes. She had even recently got an armor that resisted Earth-based magic. But not Air-based magic and in the end that was the deciding factor in the battle. The Fairy Queen put up a good fight and almost won but, in the end, she fell when Aria used his ultimate spell Zero and she only survived by using her Adamantium armor.
Aria was close to falling too though as his magic was very low and he had taken a large amount of damage over the course of the battle. For a second though he simply just stood there and took in the moment. It had been an amazing battle that had more than given him a sense of satisfaction. He gave the fallen women a smile and silently thanked her for the battle.
Said smile soon vanished though when he remembered that he could not let her live. The Airspace mage truly wanted the Fairy Queen to live, not just because he disliked killing but because he hoped to one day battle her again. But in the end, it didn't take long for him to work up the nerve to do the deed. Jose had told him that it was a necessary evil when it came to war and so he would do it.
Aria held up his right hand and started to gather his magic into his palm, not even bothering to plan a spell but simply was going to end her with a simple spear of wind. But just as he was getting ready the Phantom Lord noticed someone coming into the beaten up and messed up the chapel.
Bishop had just entered the room after a good few minutes of being lost in the consuming maze of a mech. He had just entered the room in time to see his sister laying on the floor motionless as Aira held his hand out with magic gathered. Not only did the eldest Vern sibling's body freeze but his mind did as well as he stared at his sister's possibly dead body.
Aria mentally cursed at the arrival of the Illusionist. While slightly surprised that the man was up and moving the Airspace mage knew that he was not one to be underestimated. Rumors had spread of him revolutionizing the magic of Illusions and while there was no concrete evidence of this the tall man knew it was better to air on the side of caution. It didn't help that he wasn't too far from running out of both magic and stamina.
In the end, Aira dismissed his building magic and switched to his usual theatrics as he swung his hands to the side and gave Bishop a wide smile before talking. "Hello, Gatekeeper of Fairy Tail! I'm afraid that you have caught me at a bad time. As you see I have just defeated Erza, The Fairy Queen and-"
That's as far as the Airspace mage got before Bishop's gaze switched from Erza to him. It was that look that made Aria pause. For years the Illusionist had struggled with his Emotion Problem. He had learned over the years how to feel guilt, satisfaction, fear, and even happiness. But there was one emotion that he had long for during times where he should have felt it.
And now he was feeling it.
Anger, RAGE, WRATH.
An emotion of many names.
Something had snapped in Bishop's mind as he stared at Erza's body. For a single second, he truly believed that she was dead. And that single second was all he needed for him to feel an emotion that escaped him for both his first and second life.
Bishop's mind was malestream at that moment. The emotional part of it that had been growing over the years was raging and taking full control. The logical part didn't even try to hold the floodgates and simply decided to work in tandem with the emotions for the sake of one goal.
To hurt the one before them.
While this happened in the back of Bishop's mind the Whispers spoke. They were drowned out by the rage and had no chance to take control, but they didn't care. They were happy with what the Illusionist was working towards and subtly lent their own aid as they watched gleefully from the shadows of the mind. All of this was the effort for a spell that the enraged man was pouring magic into, completely ignoring his body's protest such a thing.
After a few seconds, Aria was able to regain his composer from the look he was getting even if a horrid nerviness was creeping into his own mind. The Airspace mage resumed his smile, though it didn't have wide as before, and started to talk once more.
"I'm sorry for my pause. That look of yours was simply too much for me. Now if-"
Bishop didn't let him finish
"Greater Illusion: Hell of Frost and Flame"
And Aria's world was consumed in crimson red, blinding white, and pain.
AN: You guys have been wanting some badass Bishop moments and you're going to be getting them. Anyway, this chapter was mainly just Gajeel VS. Gray and Natsu. I hope you enjoyed it, tried my best to make Gajeel feel like an S-class mage and not just give Fairy Tail the victory. I'm sure some people will be protesting Erza losing to Aria but I did make him more powerful here, he is supposed to be the most powerful mage in Phantom Lord after. He still worked for the victory though. Now here's to hoping I can up on time in two weeks.
Thanks once again to volfwildman for being a Beta. This weekly shout out goes to TheOrangeLord for all of his reviews and message as well. Glad you liked my story man and thanks for the little chat as well.
Now usually I put some joke here about reviewing but at this point my story is popular enough that I don't really have to beg for reviews. Still going to put a joke about reviewing here for the most part but occasionally I'm going to recommend a fanfiction that I feel like should have more followers. I'm recommending 'The Knight' by NewtypeAuther346. A Dark Souls and MGE (Monster Girl Encyplpieda) crossover about the Ashen One going to the world of MGE after the game ends and having to deal with the monsters of the world. Love how he develops the world and the character of the Ashen One is great too. I have to be one of the few people to get into MGE for the dark and interesting setting rather than...well the porn. Shame that most of the fanfiction for MGE are just lemons, really feel like that world would be a good setting for an epic adventure. Oh well.
Have a great day.
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