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)
"Would you happen to be interested in being an assassin?" Said Ikaruga as she casually attempted to take Bishop's head off.
The second that the pink-haired lady had drawn her katana she had started to unrelentingly attack her opponent. Since then the two had been locked in a battle of blades as Ikaruga swiftly sent slash after slash at Bishop or had been on the defensive since the fight had begun. The Assassin had decided to play with her prey for a bit before she started to go out.
Bishop did not respond to the question besides a slightly raised eyebrow. Upon not hearing an answer Ikaruga decided to continue onward with her talks. "You have the look of a paranoid and deceptive person, perfect for being an assassin. Your swordplay is also rather good as well. Death's Head Caucus is always looking for new members and I'm sure that I could work something out with my current employer to let you live. I would love to see how far you get my line of work. Helps that you are rather easy on the eyes."
Upon finishing her little speech Ikaruga attempted to impale the Gatekeeper who in turn went right to dodge. In reaction to the dodge, the pink-haired woman turned her blade so the edge was pointed towards Bishop before quickly swiping at him. The Illusionist blocked the swipe with his saber and after a small contest of strength, Ikaruga let up and jumped back a little.
Bishop did not respond to his opponent's question as he got into a ready stance for when his opponent decided to attack once more. He knew she wasn't taking him seriously right now and so was taking the time to plan and prepare. Ikaruga gave her prey a few seconds to respond to her offer and when he didn't she spoke up once more. "A rather quiet man aren't you? I guess that's a no. Shame it would have been fun to show you the ropes. I guess I might as well end this."
"Naga's Striking Cut"
With a flare of Sword magic, Ikaruga was right in front of Bishop, her sword raised to his right. The Illusionist's eyes widened as he attempted to try in some way to block. But not even a second after she appeared did the Assassin's sword, quick as lighting, slashed to the left as time itself seemed to pause. Bishop's body stood still for only a moment before his head tipped forward and slid off his neck and landed on the ground as the body fell backward.
Ikaruga gave a small sad smile at the corpse before flicking the blade in order to spray some of the blood off only for the blood not to move at all. She paused as she looked at the blood on her that refused to move. She once more flicked it and frowned when not even a little of the blood came off. She was about to make a third flick before she let out a pained gasp as she felt something sharp stab into her back.
The pain did not distract her long as she turned to slash at the attacker only for the said attacker to swiftly back up and avoid the attack. Ikaruga's eyes widened slightly at seeing Bishop standing before her completely uninjured. Her widened eyes swiftly narrowed as she looked behind her slightly to see that her opponent's corpse was still very much there. The question of how was on the tip of her tongue but she ended up not having to ask it.
"False Death"
Before the Assassin's eyes, the fresh corpse seemed to fade away to nothing along with the blood on the floor and her blade. She once more focused on her enemy when she noticed that something was off with her body. The pink-haired woman felt strange tiredness in her body which was at its strongest where she had been stabbed in the back. It didn't take her long before she realized what was happening.
"Poison? Hahahaha both poison and illusions! I was right you would be a natural assassin. Are you sure you don't want to accept my offer?" Bishop once more said nothing to her question as he prepared for his next plan.
Ikaruga frowned at the silence before rolling her eyes. She was finding the silent treatment to be getting rather annoying. That said she found a smile splitting her face as she looked at her opponent. She found that she rather wanted to recruit the man to her guild and so she planned to show him just how outclassed he was right now.
In a flash, the Dark mage was once more on her prey. Bishop found himself struggling to keep up with her faster slashes and strikes but thanks to his Ring magic flowing through his Ring of Haste he was able to keep himself from being stabbed. But the Gatekeeper knew he needed to go on the offensive soon in order to try and get more Blue Waltz poison in his opponent system. So he ducked under another slash then jumped back and before Ikaruga could follow he cast his spell.
"Multiply"
Bishop seemed to split in two as one ran right while the other ran to the left. Soon after more Bishops started to spill from the two as Ikaruga found herself surrounded by dozens of her opponent. As she was thinking about what to do one of the Bishops ran toward her and attempted to slash her. In response, she quickly avoided the blade before slashing at him only to find her blade simply went through him before the illusion faded and the pink-haired women found the others start to attack.
Ikaruga did her best to avoid the strikes, unsure if the attacker was real or not as she cut down any illusion that got close. The more she failed to hit something solid the more annoyed she got as she quickly realized she was simply wasting time and energy on fakes. So after she started to once more pour magic into her blade she took a large jump back. Once she landed she unleashed the magic in her katana.
"Bhramari's Hundred Stings"
The Swordwomen's katana glowed brightly before it was swung with immense force. A large slash arc made of magic shot out of the blade but it didn't make it far before exploding into a hundred smaller slash arcs that scattered and flew all through the large hallway. The many Bishops reared back in surprise as their number swiftly started to dwindle until all faded back into nothing but magic.
Ikaruga looked on in surprise at the fact that despite hitting every single one of her opponent none produced a body. In the end, she didn't have to wonder where Bishop was when she felt another stabbing pain in her side. The second the stab happened a veil was lifted revealing the Illusionist and his blade. During the assault by his illusionary clone, her head used "Vanish" to hide in the background and waited for his opponent to counter with some kind of area of effect spell.
Bishop didn't give his opponent much time to react as he quickly pulled the saber from the stab wound and started to attack with slashes and stabs. Ikaruga's reflexes saved her as she was able to block the first attack and then her blade skills allowed her to block the rest. The Gatekeeper was able to keep up a rather impressively fast barrage of attacks but sadly found no flesh to hurt as his opponent just as quickly blocked his strikes.
Eventually, Ikaruga found an opportunity and aggressively blocked a stab to her chest with a powerful upward swing. The block forced the Illusionist's blade to go up and left his torso open for a counterattack. With a wild grin, the pink-haired Assassin slashed at his chest but with a swift application of his Ring of Defense, the resulting cut on the Gatekeeper's body was shallow. When Ikaruga went in for another slash her opponent brought up his free hand to her face.
"Shattering Light"
Ikaruga's world was blinding light and ear-shattering noise as she reared back with her eyes closed while resisting the urge to cup her ears. Bishop jumped on the opportunity to strike with another stab to her torso. Upon feeling the stabbing pain the pink-haired woman swung her blade forward blindly.
Unfortunately for Bishop, her sword found ground in his left thigh. With a grunt of pain, he jumped back and tried not to stumble at the pain that shot through his left leg upon landing. The Illusionist hadn't thought to use his Ring magic when he struck and the blind hit had come too fast for him to pour magic into his Ring of Defense. While said ring might passively toughen up his body it could only do so much.
While Bishop pulled out the custom vial of Stone Flesh from his hammerspace his opponent found herself able to see once more. The blinding of her eyes and the ringing in her ears completely stopped once the illusion ended and the swordswoman was able to inspect her body for the damage. So far the only damage had been the three stabs which she noted were all in nonlethal places. What was worrying her was the slowness and fatigue were more prominent now and she knew that with each hit more and more of the poison was being injected into her body.
"My my you're proving to be much more challenging and annoying than I thought. I think I might just kidnap you to train you as an assassin just so I can work you to the bone. You could have ended this much more sooner if you simply went for vital organs. I guess that will be the first thing we work on." Ikaruga finished her words with a side grin trying to evoke some reaction out of her prey. Bishop's only response was to drink the little vial of poison and get into a ready stance with his face set in his usual stoic blank expression.
Ikaruga frowned once more at the lack of response before pulling her sheath out of her own hammerspace and seething her blade. Bishop looked at her in a bit of surprise before narrowing his eyes when he felt her gathering magic into the blade. Without much time to react, he swiftly brought up his free hand with the ring on it and channeled Ring magic into the Ring of Fire. A large fireball erupted from the ring and flew towards the pink-haired Assassin who simply smiled in response.
"Yasha's Empty Flash"
Despite not swinging the blade a slashing arc quickly shot out of the sheathed blade and cut the fireball in half before making its way over to Bishop. Said Illusionist rolled to the right to avoid the spell but found the second he was back on his feet Ikaruga was on him. The female Assassin unsheathed her katana and was now using both the blade and the sheath to attack.
Bishop found himself prioritizing blocking the blade rather than the sheath which was quickly finding purchase on several parts of his body. Even with his Ring Magic making his Ring of Haste more powerful he couldn't block all the strikes and was forced to let some of the attacks with the stealth through in order to keep the blade at bay. While the hits were blunt they were still rather painful and the Gatekeeper found himself needed to get away from the assault.
Soon Bishop started to focus his mind once more on an illusion as he tried his best to ignore the pain he was feeling from the blunt hits. It was thanks to years of practice that the pain didn't break his concentration as he weaved and wove the illusion within his mind. Quickly the spell was ready and just as Ikaruga was about to get another hit she found her world engulfed in black.
"Darkness"
The spell was simple. It caused all the surrounding area to be engulfed in complete darkness that removed eyesight. Bishop had created the spell as a more cost-effective version of his Remove Sense spell which he really only used to remove eyesight while in battle. With his opponent blind but his eyes seeing everything perfectly the Illusionist swiftly retreated backward and started to prepare for his next big spell.
Ikaruga herself was stunned by the sudden lack of light. She swung her head from side to side to find some source of light but found that she was plunged into a world of nothing but black. She gritted her teeth in frustration and swung her sword around her just in case her opponent had decided to stay by her but found no impact.
The pink-haired woman found that she was getting more and more annoyed with her opponent's illusions. She knew of a few Illusion users back at the guild but none of them were as good at the art of illusion weaving then her current opponent. She also couldn't sense his magic so she knew that way of finding him was out so with a sigh she prepared. The Assassin got into a ready stance so she would be ready for whatever attack would come her way.
She was not prepared for what would come her way.
For a few seconds, she did nothing but wait. It didn't take long for something to capture her notice though when she noticed that the darkness that had robbed her of her sight seemed to be...wavering.
Before she knew the world of darkness seemed to be ripped away as the dark was pulled from all directions. Ikaruga found her sight once more to see the darkness all converging on one location. Soon Bishop was revealed with his left hand flung upwards and she noticed what the darkness had been absorbed into.
What could only be described as a small sun hung above Bishop. The last of the darkness was literally eaten by it as Ikaruga felt a massive amount of heat from it. With the last of the magic used for his Darkness spell recycled into his new spell, the Gatekeeper of Fairy Tail unleashed the illusion he had crafted.
"Greater Illusion: Providence of Flames"
The mass of flames flared as it brightened to a blinding sight before bursting and releasing a wave of fire going in all directions. Ikaruga's eyes widened at the incoming illusion and as the heat overcame her she swung her sword hoping to in some way divert the flames. Sadly for the pink-haired Assassin while the flames might feel real they still had no physical presence and the swing did nothing as she let out a scream of pain while the illusion forced her mind into believing that she was being burned alive.
Providence of Flames was not like most of Bishop's Greater Illusions. Most of them had programming built-in to keep the illusion around. But this new one wasn't meant to last, something meant to simply last a few seconds and hurt the enemy as much as it could in those few seconds. Without the programming, it took less magic and less time to cast.
Bishop knew he needed to act fast to capitalize on the illusion, only taking a second to consider then dismiss the thought of grabbing some of the magic that made the flames and repurposing it. With speed from his Ring of Haste, the Gatekeeper flew across the large hallway and was on top of Ikaruga who was still reeling from the fading fire. Without hesitation, he stabs at the killer.
Ikaruga had just finally gotten over the worst of the pain when she felt a new sharper pain coming from her thigh. Upon opening her eyes she saw Bishop stabbing into it with his saber before quickly pulling the blade at and trying again. The Assassin allowed the next stab which hit her ribs before swiftly grabbing the Illusionist's sword hand and preventing him from moving away.
"You know what!? I think I'll just stab you repeatedly now! But before that why don't I return the favor for what you just did." Ikaruga hissed out the words as she ignored the lingering phantom burning pains. She once more poured magic into her blade which soon started to give off heat. Bishop noticed this and tried his hardest to get away but the pink-haired woman's grip was simply too strong.
"Garuda Flame"
Flames reputed from the steel of Ikaruga's katana as her grip on Bishop's hand threatened to start breaking his fingers. It never got that far as she promptly released her grip before swinging her sword right at his chest. The Gatekeeper tried to block but found himself too slow as the flaming blade slammed into his body and sent him rocketing back across the large hallway.
After tumbling a bit once he hit the ground, Bishop came to a stop on his back as the flames had been put out from the tumbling. Despite this, his chest was now badly burned and had a cauterized slash mark running across it. Trying his best to ignore the pain the Illusionist got to his feet and was about to pull a red potion from his hammerspace when Ikaruga appeared right next to him, her sword positioned to stab him.
Before he knew it Bishop found himself once more blocking strike after strike. He was having an easier time from the last as the Blue Waltz poison was finally starting to make some good headway towards bringing down its victim. But that didn't prevent a few cut her and there from appearing on his body as Ikaruga's ferocity with her attacks more than made up for her lack of speed at the moment. While the Gatekeeper's Ring of Defense was allowing him to take more damage he knew that this was a battle he needed to end soon.
Knowing that he just needed to get in one or two more hits before he could bring down his opponent Bishop started to work on an illusion. Doing his best to ignore his body's protest he focuses his mind the best he could and once more started to weave a spell. He didn't need much time, just a few seconds to land a hit. With all that in mind, he completed his spell and promptly cast it.
"A Nightmare Cometh"
Just as Ikaruga pulled back her katana to prepare for another strike an extreme amount of fear shouted through her system as the world around her seemed to be ripped to shreds. She found the floor she was standing on gone as she fell into a black abyss that consumed all of existence. For a solid second, nothing but hopelessness and fear consumed the Assassin's mind before she remembers the situation she had been in before.
Rage pushed the fear away as the pink-haired woman gritted her teeth in anger before releasing a large pulse of magic through her magic channels and the world around her stopped. The all-encompassing black void shivered before fading to nothing and the real world greeted her along with a saber to the shoulder.
Powering through the pain and poison Ikaruga took a large jump back as her opponent attempted another strike. The second her feet were once more back on the floor she flooded her sword with an immense amount of Sword magic. Bishop instantly noticed the insane amount of magic being manipulated and quickly crafted his most used illusion.
"Vanish"
Before Ikaruga's eye, her opponent completely blinked out of existence but she paid no attention to that. She was pretty sure it was only her adrenaline keeping her from collapsing from the Blue Waltz so she knew that the next spell needed to end this or at least bring her close to ending this. So she shaped the magic in her blade into the form of her most deadly spell.
"Shiva's All-Encompassing Wrath"
With a swing of Ikaruga's katana, the world seemed to freeze for a moment as if reality needed a second to prepare. Once that second passed the world was invaded by a sea of slashes that erupted from where the sword had slashed and started to expand out to the rest of the hall. The walls of the large hallway had dozens of cuts carved into them along with the archways that held the entire section of the building up.
Bishop stared in fear at the swiftly incoming wave of slashes. He had thought that without sight of him his opponent wouldn't have a target to throw the attack at but didn't realize that the spell would be a rather insane area of effect type. The Illusionist instantly knew there was nothing he could do to completely avoid the attack so decided to minimize the damage he would take. He quickly threw himself on to the ground so that only his back would be facing the wave and poured as much Ring magic into his Ring of Defense as he could.
Not too long after this Bishop's concentration on his Vanish spell was utterly destroyed as dozens of painful but thankfully shallow cuts were slashed into his back. The back of his suit vest was completely shredded when the attack finally passed and the pain mostly went away. After a few seconds, the Gatekeeper pushed himself onto his back which he instantly regretted from the pain that shot throughout his body as a result of the movement. He tried to get up but his back didn't even leave the ground before a foot slammed into his stomach and kept him there.
Above Bishop stood Ikaruga. The pink-haired woman looked a good bit better than her opponent as there were only a few cuts on her body compared to the large amount now on the Gatekeeper. Despite this, she swayed a little as she did her best to fight off the poison in her system. The still lingering phantom pain from the false flames didn't help.
"Ha...ha..hahahahaha! It's over! I thought the only person that could have given me a good fight in this building was the Fairy Queen but it appears I was wrong." Ikaruga grinned as she spoke those words and even grinded her foot into Bishop's stomach a bit for added measure. The grinding didn't distract the Illusionist much as he with the utmost speed weaved and crafted an illusion.
"You know I still kinda want to just take you back with me to Death's Head Caucus. I wasn't lying when I said you would make an excellent assassin. But at this point, I think I've had enough of you. So I'm just going to take my blade and crave up that handsome little face of yours. What do you think of that my little illusionist?" As she spoke those last words Ikaruga held up the katana and readied it to fulfill the promise she just made.
Bishop let out a small breath he had been holding as he stared up at Ikaruga's eyes. With the time that his opponent had been giving him with her monolog, he had just finished his spell. So for the first time in this entire fight he spoke.
"I think you talk too much."
"Greater Illusions: Tempest of Lighting"
Without a warning, Bishop's entire body was lit up as lightning surged all around it before erupting in all directions. Ikaruga got the full force of the illusion as she screamed and stumbled back as her nervous system screamed in unison. Soon black spots started to appear in her vision as she also started to lose her footing.
At this point, her body had all but given up. The Blue Waltz poison was flowing all throughout her body. Her brain and nerves were numb from the false but very real feeling of flames and lightning. The fact that she was very low on magic was simply the cherry on top.
Ikaruga opened her mouth to say something but no words came out as her legs finally failed her and she fell onto her back. She stared up at the ceiling for a few seconds as she contemplated her mistakes before her eyelids started to fall as well. Not a second after they were closed did she drift off into a land of slumber where nightmares of fire and lighting awaited her.
With a pained grunt, Bishop got to his feet. Once finally back on his feet, he looked towards the downed Ikaruga. For a split second, he felt the Whispers spring up in the back of his head, all of them begging to end the one that had caused him so much pain and had probably given him some new scars. Once that split second was over he aggressively shoved the Whispers away as he reached into his hammerspace and grabbed a red potion.
After downing the horrible tasting liquid he started to check his body. He felt that most of the cuts would heal just fine but the rather large cut and burn on his chest probably scar. With a sigh, he quickly activated his Requip magic and his ruined clothes were replaced with an intact and perfect copy.
After taking a few seconds to think he pulled a blank card out of his hammerspace and with another second of thought said Erza's name. It didn't take the magic card long to create a 3d arrow pointing towards Bishop's red-headed sibling. He took a moment to wait as the red potion started to slowly but surely heal his wounds and made his way out of the large hallway.
There was still more work to be done.
AN: Got to admit I was slightly dreading this fight. I have found that you all have rather high expectations for how Bishop fights and how he uses his illusions. I just hope that I meet them. Fun fact: while she only used two spells in the show Ikaruga's spells for some reason use Hindu figures in them. Don't know why but that's just the theme for her spells apparently. Anyway next up is Erza but that should be obvious from the process of elimination.
Volfwildman still couldn't actually Beta this chapter as his laptop is no longer working and he needed a new one. This weekly shout-out goes to Poharan mainly because a lot of you did not comment but I do appreciate the compliment for how real I make the characters feel. Thanks man.
Going to do something slightly different here and recommend a manga of all things. The manga I'm talking about is Records of Ragnarok. Basically, the gods from all the pantheons have decided to kill off humanity but some Valkrys point out that humanity can win another 1000 years of existence if they win a 13 vs 13 one on one tournament between gods and humans. It mainly just famous humans vs gods, think the Fate series but without half of the cast being genderbent. My favorite fight so far is Jack the Ripper vs Hercules but Adam vs Zeus is a close second. You can find the fights on youtube so there not that hard to get ahold of, that said the fights on youtube are just the fights and leave out the backstory that the manga gives the humans and gods.
Have a great day.
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