Deep in the woods of Southwestern Fiore, there was a battlefield of uprooted trees and shattered craters in the ground. The cause of said destruction was adding to it as she wielded a lumbering tree like a mallet in the most frustrating game of whack-a-mole.
"Stay still!" Mira yelled as she leveled her weapon and slammed it onto the head of the bullfrog, which avoided it again by phasing into the ground. Her tree snapped in half from the force as the man popped up in front of her and slammed an oversized palm into her face, pushing her back and pissing her off as she dropped her broken weapon, planted her feet in the dirt, and threw a straight that could level a boulder, "Fucking annoying bullfrog!"
Her fist phased through his stomach again, and he responded with a quick palm strike to her gut before phasing into the ground and popping up further away from her. Out of grabbing and punching distance, he murmured almost pitifully, "My name's not Bullfrog."
"I don't care!" Mira roared with a new red mark on her face as she dashed forward and swung her fist like a sledgehammer. She was watching as the man phased through it, and a new crater was added to the ground right before the man kicked her in the face and launched her back into the forest. The loud crunch of her nose snapped her head back and threw water on her burning rage so she could think clearly about her opponent's magic.
I still need to figure out what the trick is...
It seemed perfect; whenever he wanted to, he phased the part of his body she was targeting and immediately followed up with an open-palmed strike.
I don't know how to hit him.
She couldn't hit something she couldn't touch, and the more she missed, the more he hurt her during the aftermath.
He'll wear me down if this keeps up...
Mira's stamina was excellent, a side effect of her magic, which gave her insane physical strength, but she couldn't fight forever. The man, Karacka's strikes packed a punch; they would tire her out eventually.
His strikes aren't as accurate as Vera's, but they still hurt.
As long as he kept hitting her...
His strikes are powerful...
As long as his strikes kept connecting...
His strikes...
As long as he kept contacting her, there was a chance.
"Got it," Mira grinned as she dashed back into the fray, watching as the man prepared to phase through her attack just as he always did, only to widen his eyes in surprise as she changed her aim at the last second. His demonic fist brimming with unseen power as she turned her punch from his chest to the ground and connected with the force of a TNT strike.
"You can't phase through what you can't see."
Then she faded into the background of the giant bloom of dust and debris that towered over the battlefield and high into the sky.
Kageyama's eyes twitched in surprise as he heard thunder in the distance. The strange sound caught his attention before he ignored it because the last time Kageyama saw his boss, he fell from the sky with a deranged child attached.
Fucking Erigor...
The worst part was that this was familiar when talking about Erigor. Kageyama's boss was a strange guy. If there were a mix between free-spirited and erratically violent, it would be Erigor.
Where the fuck did you go?
Kageyama scowled as he ran through the woods with Rayule swinging through the trees. The two headed towards the section where they'd seen Erigor fall to, courtesy of the crazy fucking kid that jumped him mid-flight, "You see him yet, Rayule!?"
"No! Nothing at all!"
Kageyama cursed as he stopped, sinking into the shadows as he traveled to the tree Rayule was sitting on and reappeared on a thick branch. His narrowed eyes looked over the thick leaves as Rayule looked at him questioningly.
"Should we split up and look for him?"
The forest was too dense to keep searching in a single group. They'd get lost before they found anything.
"He's probably already killed the kid by now," Rayule added with a shrug, leaning against the tree trunk as he spoke with a slight sigh, "He'll be pissed if we take forever to find him and Karacka ends up killing all the others by himself."
"Karacka's a big baby," Kageyama retorted with a huff, taking out a communication lacrimal orb as he dialed Erigor's line and conversed with Rayule about their big fat baby, "The only thing he'll kill is time."
Karacka was too soft for the underworld.
"At most, he'll take out the demon girl, but I doubt he'll be able to stomach the others."
Too bad he was also too nice to quit it.
"Well, let Erigor handle those," Kageyama said with a foul taste in his mouth, ignoring the dark idea as he waited for the line to answer. He tapped his foot incessantly until the line clicked, and Erigor's voice lazily picked up over the radio: "Eh? What's up, Kageyama? I'm trying to take a nap."
"A nap!? We're looking everywhere for you!" Kageyama hissed with a frown as Erigor chuckled over the line. The 'shinigami' yawned and spoke with ill-fitted boredom, "Don't worry about that; I'll come to find you guys later."
"How? We're in the middle of nowhere, and every tree likes the fucking same."
"Relax, dumbass," Erigor's voice cut in with a sharp chuckle that boasted unwavering confidence in his abilities, "The wind will tell me where to go."
Kageyama hated that uncaring attitude sometimes.
"It always does."
The charismatic genius that owned it was hard to deny, so Kageyama gritted his teeth and muttered a few curses before giving up. His eccentric boss's shitty personality got the better of him as he sighed and pinched his nose.
"Fucking... fine, whatever. Just bring that kid's hand when you're done napping."
Dark guilds had a morbid way of doing things.
"We need his guild mark to prove we killed the right target."
An assassination request was one of the most harrowing transactions.
"You got that, Erigor?" Kageyama asked as he listened to the silent line for a few seconds. His eyes furrowed as the voice on the other end picked up with an almost sheepish laugh, "Oh yeah, about that. I won't be able to bring his hand with me."
"Why not? Did you destroy it or something? That's fine, bring his head then," Kageyama replied with a scowl as he heard Erigor chuckle once again before speaking with dry sarcasm, "Actually, I can't bring his head either. I can't bring anything."
Kageyama's face fell to suspicious confusion and disbelief as he heard a rustling in the woods.
"I didn't kill the kid."
Kageyam's eyes went wide as he processed what was happening. He dropped the lacrimal and turned to Rayule to warn him, only to find he was too late.
"I made a deal with him instead."
A boy with jet black hair and red eyes had already shot through the air and slammed his feet into Rayule's stomach, simultaneously knocking the wind out of the man and off their perch in the treetops. Meanwhile, Kageyama's picture of the unlikely encounter became a little clearer as the boy's shadow shot towards him, with a clawed swipe looking to separate his head from his shoulders.
Fuck!
Kageyama growled as he raised his arm and was smacked off the branch he stood on. He was falling to the ground with a bloody claw-shaped scar on his arm and a groan before he got up and saw the shadow charge after him, with the boy doing the same to Rayule in his periphery. Kageyama's face twisted towards irritation as he was forced to battle the fucking shadow as Erigor's words rang from the fallen lacrimal orb a few meters away.
"I still have about thirty seconds till I can head over to you guys. So try not to die till then."
Kageyama gnashed his teeth in annoyance as he sent shadow snakes to swarm the belligerent shadow creature. The multitude of his snakes entrapped the strange shadow thing for a few seconds as he gained distance and began to adjust. It wouldn't be easy, but keeping the shadow out of reach for thirty seconds shouldn't be impossible.
"That would be embarrassing."
Kageyama was pretty good at dodging, after all.
Karacka wasn't good at dodging.
What's with this girl...
That's why he had permeation magic. He was a big target. So if he couldn't evade attacks, he'd stand before them and let them pass through.
I can't see anything.
It could have been better, though. He couldn't breathe when he used his magic on his entire body and couldn't see if he used it on his eyes. The worst drawback was that it drained a lot of magic, so Karacka had to space out which parts of his body he made permeable and which parts he kept tangible. Otherwise, he'd run into the ever-present threat of magic exhaustion.
Doesn't she get tired...
A problem his opponent didn't seem to care about.
I've already hit her so many times.
Karacka frowned at the thought as he waded through an ocean of dust and upchucked soil. His eyes itched as he squinted through the smokescreen and tried to keep his balance on the freshly shattered earth that had become his foothold. His hand raised as he heard a series of quick footsteps, making his head impermeable: "How many times do I have to tell you..."
Karacka's lips trembled with sorrow as he felt a breeze pass above his neck and turned back, his head tangible again as he saw the girl rear her demon arm. Her fist pressed against her ribs as if she was aiming for a sharp straight toward his stomach, "It's not going to work."
Karacka let the punch shoot through his gut, the force of it kicking up wind from just the pressure as he reared his arm back for an open palmed strike, and slammed it towards her head. His eyes went wide as his hand was caught by the girl's human one, an inch from her face, as she loosed a shark-like grin and laced her fingers around his, clasping their hands together as she squeezed with enough power to shatter a boulder.
"You have to be tangible to hit me. Don't you?"
Karaka let out a scream as the bones in his hand shattered under the weight of her iron grip; using his magic too late to escape as he fell back into the ground and rocketed up a few meters away from her. He was nursing his broken hand as he turned to keep his eye on the girl just in time to see a stone with the velocity of a bullet barreling toward his face.
Crap.
Karacka instinctively made his head intangible, saving himself from a stone thrown at Mach velocity. He made his head tangible again just in time to see a demonic fist an inch from his nose. The force of its might crunched against his nose the instant he'd stopped using his magic so he could see the girl he was supposed to kill—the girl with a maniacal grin on her face and eyes that lit up like a demon parading in the night.
I messed up...
It was the last thing he saw before his head snapped back, his feet left the ground, and his head rung with enough bells to knock him out cold.
Rayule was a little disoriented.
Where the hell did he come from!?
One second, he was waiting for Kageyama's talk with the boss to end, and the next, it felt like a cannonball flew out of nowhere and nailed him in the stomach.
I thought Erigor took care of him!
Rayule growled as he vaulted back to his feet, raising an arm as the boy's leg slammed into it with intense speed and forcefulness. Rayule winced as he tried to shake the boy off, but he was instead greeted by the end of a sheathed sword to his face.
Shit!
Rayule's breath sped up as he tilted his head, and the weapon missed by an inch. It grazed past his cheek, allowing Rayule to move his ribboned fingers forward like sharpened fingernails. Rayule's grin widened as he saw the look of surprise flash across the boy's eyes at the new use of his magic.
"Urumi Short Spear"
Rayule thrust his hand forward, waiting for the sound of it piercing the kid's flesh, only to hear a small smack. Rayule's eyes tilted to surprise as he saw his ribbons sink into the hilt of the boy's sword, with the boy yanking his hand to the side before using the momentum to rotate and swing his weapon straight towards Rayule's head.
That'll hurt.
Hurt it did, the virtual club that the kid used ended up smashing into his cheek, stunning him as he staggered towards the ground. He could only get some breathing room as he let his ribbons explode in every direction like a porcupine. They forced the kid to back up briefly, letting Rayule catch his breath.
Damn, kid...
Rayule gritted his teeth and whipped his hands forward, watching the boy easily dodging his ribbons. The boy inching his way closer slowly but surely as Rayule continued to move back so that kid and his freaky ass sword couldn't get near. That air slash wasn't something he wanted to test.
Wait...
One good hit would probably kill him.
Why hasn't he used it yet?
Rayule furrowed his brows at the thought, a drip of blood falling from his busted lip and mixing the sweat of concentration as he watched the kid get closer but never unsheathe his sword, even if the perfect opportunity to do so had already passed.
What's going on...
Rayule didn't think the kid giving him so much trouble would waste that chance.
Why isn't he-
"There it is," the kid murmured, stunning Rayule out of his thoughts as the boy bolted towards him with his sword in a death grip, "Times up."
Rayuke furrowed his brows in confusion, unable to comprehend what the boy was talking about as he shot streaks of ribbons. His momentary panic rose as he saw the boy dodge between them quickly as if in a hurry, a sentiment that seemed to be confirmed as Kageyama shouted out.
"Stall him Rayule! Erigor's on his way!"
That's what it was. The kid was trying to take him out before Erigor arrived.
I can't let him get close.
Rayule grimaced as he watched the kid close the distance. His options narrowed as he kept his eyes on the kid's blade. He knew a wind blade could come from it, and he couldn't let it hit.
That'll kill me.
Rayule felt his mind racing at the thought. His eyes laser-focused on the sheathed blade as he moved his ribbons in a cross-hatched manner. He created a shield wall of ribbons before him as he watched the boy dash towards it.
What's he...
The boy jumped, and in the middle of the jump, he turned his back to Rayule.
Doing?
Rayule could only watch in confusion as the boy landed back first into his wall like it was a net. The boy's strange actions were followed by a familiar sound that Rayule hadn't expected but couldn't forget.
'Click'
The unsheathed blade sent a blade of wind tearing through the air.
"KAGEYAMA!"
Straight toward Kageyama's battle with the shadow.
"DODGE!" Rayule yelled as he quickly wrapped the kid in a cocoon of ribbons. The kid didn't fight back as the boy's sword and sheathe fell to the earth when Kageyama heard Rayule's voice.
"Shit..."
Rayule watched in tense silence as the blade cut through the boy's own shadow and shot towards the surprised Kageyama, who, in a about of quick thinking, saved himself from death as he tilted his head back and fell into the ground. The blade cut across the shadow mage's face and left a bloody gash on his forehead. It was a diagonal scar starting above his nose and cutting to the upper left corner of his forehead. It looked deep, and the pained cry that Kageyama let out before he vanished into his shadow made it look even worse, but it didn't claim the life of the shadow mage like Rayule had expected.
That was close.
Kageyama had nearly died.
He almost got-
"Finally."
Rayule froze as the kid murmured from next to him, his red eyes tilted back with a smirk that sent shivers down Rayule's spine. An eerie feeling washed over him as he saw two shadowed arms splitting out from the boy's back, ripping the ribbons binding him to shreds as the boy snatched his wrists in an iron grip and murmured, "Thanks, dumbass..."
Rayule tried to back up, but his efforts were unsuccessful as the boy snapped his head into Rayule's nose. The loud crunch was followed by his tumble to the ground with a pained cry and teared-up eyes. Barely able to see the boy tower over him with four arms reared back, two shadows, and two regulars, before meeting his gaze with a feral grin and blood trickling down his forehead, "I was waiting for this."
What happened next was a blur. A flurry of punches was thrown as Rayule's body was pounded into the ground. The sound was reminiscent of a Gatling gun as every fist was indented into his body, two sets light and the other set heavy, but all of them hurt. There were so many punches thrown that he'd lost count, but he had a thought at some point.
This kid's insane.
It was the last thing to cross his mind before he passed out.
Mira didn't think to breathe until she was sure her opponent had passed out.
"I did it..."
Mira let out a heavy breath as she stood over the unconscious man, Karacka. Her eyes were shaky as she waited in the cover of a fading dust cloud. Her face was covered in soot and dust, but it didn't stop her busted lip from pulling back in a wide grin.
"I DID IT!"
Mira laughed giddyly as she bathed in her victory, her first victory. With her magic, she had fought back against someone out to kill her—someone the villagers had probably hired to kill her and her family—and she had won.
"WOOHOO!"
It was exhilarating, like a stamp of approval telling her that all her hard work over the last week had been worth it. That all her suffering over the past few months hadn't been for nothing; she had grown stronger since the demon had first ruined her life.
"TAKE THAT, YOU FUCKERS!" Mira roared with a loud cackle as she raised her arms in victory until her adrenaline high slowly died down and she could get control of herself. A feat that made her realize that she was standing in the middle of a destroyed arena and screaming like a madwoman. With her only audience snoring with a large welt on his face courtesy of her demonic fist, "Oh yeah..."
At that moment, Mira realized she was probably boasting, and to be fair, she was a bit embarrassed about it. Enough to stain her cheeks slightly red as she rubbed her neck sheepishly.
"I should probably tie you up, huh."
Then again, she couldn't stifle the vicious grin on her face; even as she finished tying the frog man up with tree roots, she pulled out of the ground and left the war-torn battlefield of her making. Her grin stayed glued onto her face as she moved on to the sound of distant violence that echoed through the air like thundering machine gun fire.
I won...
Even as she made her way deeper into the woods, her body sore and muscles aching, her eyes alight with excitement. Not once did she ever feel anything but the satisfaction of victory.
He didn't even hurt me that much...
Except there was this one moment when she felt a strange tiredness in her body like she was dehydrated or something similar.
So why do I feel drained?
It was a strange sensation, but she could chalk it up to the stress of battle draining her energy.
Weird... Vera usually hurts me more than he did... well... Whatever.
Mira could figure out the specifics after she tracked Vera down and helped him with his fight.
I still won.
Not like she couldn't handle a little tiredness.
Vera would need a good nap after all this was over.
That was close.
Sadly, that wouldn't be for a while. He had gotten lucky when he got rid of the first one; if he had been a few seconds later, he would've missed the opportunity that Erigor had given him.
Speak of the devil.
He was instantly reminded of that bleak possibility as Erigor's voice sounded from above.
"You broke the deal, kid."
"No, I actually didn't," Vera retorted as he stood over Rayule's disgruntled body, and Sho's arms sank back into his back. Bruises and welts lined Rayule's entire body, but his breath was still fresh and raspy. Vera pointed at Rayule and ignored Erigor's look of disappointment before speaking without remorse.
"He's still alive."
"I'm talking about your sword." Erigor challenged, pointing at the unsheathed blade as Vera shrugged and countered, "I said in those five minutes I wouldn't unsheathe it, and I didn't."
Vera had kept his end of the deal.
"I used it after the five minutes were up."
He had just been a little sneaky with it.
"Ask your lackey," Vera offered with a shrug as he sheathed Kaze Kokyu and watched as Erigor tilted his head back at Kageyama, who was still fighting back sharp breath as he cupped a hand over the bloody scar now resting above his brow, "I was keeping count, he did it after thirty seconds."
Kageyama had seen it right before he fell into his shadow to scream in pain and nurse his wounds.
"Sorry, boss, I couldn't stop all of it."
Kageyama frowned in frustration as Erigor scowled and put the pieces together. He looked back with a click of his tongue, slightly impressed that the kid played him like that and annoyed that he didn't think of it first, "You used the wiggle room between the time limit and me getting back here."
"Yup."
"Tch! Sneaky kid," Erigor scowled but accepted that it was within the bounds of the deal. Erigor glanced wayward at Rayule before shrugging helplessly, "Well, what's done is done."
Rayule was the weakest of his little team.
"I'll kick his ass later for losing so badly."
There's not much he could do about that.
"Kageyama," Erigor ordered with an iron tone, watching as the boy stiffened, his shadow writhing in tense anticipation. Vera waited for Erigor's turn, only for him to do something that hadn't been accounted for: "Hunt the girl."
Erigor glanced back at the lingering dust cloud in the distance and pointed his thumb at it as Kageyama stiffened. "She'll be in that direction."
There was a second of silence, Vera's mind processing the moment too late as he cursed and watched Kageyama nod before sinking into the dirt. The shadow mage slinked off towards the distant scene of destruction and debris as Vera grits his teeth and murmured, "Fucking bastard."
Erigor wanted him to send Sho away.
"Sho..."
It was a relentless plan that would have worked, as Sho was already moving to chase after the escaped mage before he stalled as Vera made his intentions clear, "Get the fuck back here."
Vera wasn't going to send Sho to help Mira.
"She'll be fine on her own."
He didn't need to.
'Tug'
Thankfully, Sho got that message and returned to Vera's side as Erigor chuckled before he called out with a mocking taunt: "Are you sure you don't want to help your little quarry kid? Kageyama isn't the best, but he's no slouch. He's been at this for a while."
Erigor didn't have faith in the shadow mage, but he could be practical.
"He can handle a greenie any day."
That girl he had seen in the initial ambush was practically leaking amateur. She was as inexperienced as hell, which wouldn't fly with Kageyama.
"You still have time, kid."
He was more of a snake than anything.
"It's not too late to send your little shadow over."
A frog fresh out of the well was bound to get devoured.
"You might save her life that way," Erigor observed with a devilish expression. With a growing sense of intrigue and interest, he watched as Vera huffed and stretched his arms, "Yeah, right."
Vera wasn't going to send Sho to help Mira.
"Your lackey is experienced; yeah, that's fair."
In fact, he wasn't going to lift a finger to help her.
"So fucking what."
It wasn't like he hadn't thought about it; he knew it was dangerous, but he was willing to make a bet.
"Mira's not just some girl I have to babysit."
He would bet on the monster barreling head first towards S class with the demon she had already conquered by her merit.
"She's a badass that I trained to the fucking bone."
So, there was no reason to worry.
"If she loses to that dunce, I'll kill her myself." Vera taunted with a razor-sharp grin as his shadow pooled beneath his feet. His muscles tensed as he prepared to jump after Erigor once he took flight, only to see him smirk and do something Vera hadn't expected.
"That was adorable, kid; you're that confident?"
He lowered himself to the ground. His footsteps were light as a feather as he flourished his scythe. The wind magic that Erigor practiced readily was nowhere to be seen, and Erigor gave a shit-eating grin, "Guess we'll just have to agree to disagree."
The sight was almost comically unexpected. The wind mage was walking barefoot on the ground by choice. Like a bird that chose to clip its wings, it shook Vera enough that he couldn't stop the words that fell from his lips or the venom they held.
"What the fuck are you doing, Erigor?"
Since he had just watched Erigor willingly give up his most significant advantage in the fight.
"Why aren't you flying!" Vera yelled as he watched Erigor tilt his head in feigned confusion. Then, leveling a shit-eating smirk, Erigor asked, with a tone dipped in sarcasm, "Eh? Why would I do that?"
Erigor shrugged as he strolled around the perimeter, his scythe resting on his shoulder. He circled the kid like a lazy shark, "I rarely get the chance to practice my scythe work, kid."
The life of an assassin really was brutal.
"Why would I waste such a good opportunity?"
The point of his work was to kill without being spotted. If his target put up a fight, that would mean he did his job wrong.
"I guess what I'm trying to say is..."
Erigor rarely got a chance to have fun or test his skills in a combat setting.
"You're my training dummy."
He would be hard-pressed to ruin this opportunity before he had a chance to enjoy it thoroughly.
"Like a warm-up, you know," Erigor said with an uncaring attitude as he watched the kid bristle at his words. A moment of silence passed between the two as Erigor's words wafted through the air, and in a rare moment of lackluster self-control, a vein bulged out of Vera's head as he growled, "Oh yeah?"
Vera gnashed his teeth as he settled down, his eyes burning with fury as he took his sword out of the sheathe and snarled, "That's fine..."
It was the year x778. The story begins in six short years when Natsu defeats Erigor. In the story of Fairy Tail, Erigor is the first villain; the difficulty only ramps up after his defeat. This meant he would be the minimum level needed for anyone wanting to participate in such events.
"That's perfect, actually."
Vera could only change something if he could leap past that minimum strength threshold.
"I'll do the same."
The tension built as Vera told Sho to take a back seat. Vera's eyes looked far ahead as he tilted his shoulders back and raised his sheathed sword. His grip was laced with pent-up aggression as he faced his first hurdle, who just lazily smirked back at him.
"You'll die, kid."
Like a lazy hunter.
"Who cares."
Versus belligerent prey.
"Is that supposed to scare me..."
Vera breathed deeply as the air built to a boiling point, his feet planted as he faced a new wall—a wall he hadn't expected but was grateful for because he knew that Erigor was the one he needed to overcome to get what he so desperately desired.
"There are worse feelings than death."
The strength to reach S class, survive the dangers littered throughout the story, and surpass them—Erigor was the first step.
"So what are you waiting for?" Vera snarled eagerly, his heartbeat pounding in his ears as he was flooded with adrenaline, and his eyes trembling with excitement. "Let's fight."
Vera didn't join Phantom Lord for nothing.
"I'm gonna use you as a stepping stone."
This was his chance to prove it.
"You damn loser," Vera grinned ferally as he watched Erigor's eyes widen slightly in surprise before the assassin tilted his head back. Erigor sported a smug expression and a slight smirk.
"Thanks, kid..."
There was a tense silence, broken instantly as the two shot forward and crossed weapons. Their eyes locked as Erigor spoke with a maniacal laugh.
"You're the best target I've ever had!"
Those were the last words spoken before the sounds of clashing weapons and vicious exchanges echoed throughout their small section in the deep woods.