The blades of Ace and Erza clashed, the two seemed to be on equal footing. Both combatants jumped back to gain space away from the other, a heavenly light surrounding the both of them as they changed armors. For Erza, she entered her Flight Armor to gain the speed advantage over Ace, while Ace changed into his basic Black Ace armor. With her speed, Erza circled around Ace, appearing as a blur to the untrained eye. Eventually, she moved in, using her speed to land multiple slashes on Ace's armor. "Sonic Sword!"
"She's annoyingly fast..." Ace said as he felt Titania slash his armor, taking some damage from her rapid slashes. He closed his eyes and focused on the movements of the air rather than Erza herself. His eyes shot open as he successfully predicted Erza's next move. He slashed and landed a hit on Erza, causing her to fly back from the force of the slash. "Too slow."
Erza let out a yelp as Ace slashed her, but she flipped and stabbed her sword into the ground, cutting down the distance she slid back. As soon as she stopped, heavenly light appeared around her body as she entered her Black Wing Armor, now using her increased power to assault Ace with an onslaught of slashes. The two sword wielders clashed multiple times, once again entering the stalemate from just seconds ago. "Where are our other members!?" Erza bellowed out while trying to force Ace down, but he held his ground, much to her annoyance.
"Would you believe me if I said they were safe and sound?" Ace asked in what seemed to bd an honest tone, but Erza wasn't having any of it. Instead, Erza jumped back, once again changing into something she believed would have the advantage over Ace. "What's next?"
Erza leapt into the air just as her requip finished, now in her Heaven's Wheel armor. A circle of swords appeared around her person, spinning around like a wheel. "Heaven's Wheel!" Erza exclaimed, using her telekinesis to send the circle of swords hurtling towards Ace, who had an "oh" expression under his helmet.
Despite his expression, Ace had a solution to his current problem. He pointed his gun forward, though it took the shape of a Vulcan-type weapon. "Vulcan Cannon!" The Vulcan spun around before unleashing a rapid flurry of bullets towards the incoming swords, managing to deflect and destroy most of them. Unfortunately for Ace, he had to remain stationary or at least hold his firing arm with his other hand. This left him open for the swords that did manage to get by, thus scraping his armor as a fault. "Tch..." Ace slid back, now pointing his sword forward. "Not bad, Erza! You're as strong as they say!"
"Flattery won't save you!" Erza replied as she flew forward with two swords in hand. When she was close, she slashed in the pattern of a Pentagram, flying past Ace while doing so. "Pentagram Sword!"
Erza's speed was almost too fast for Ace at this point, but he managed to defend against most of the force of the Pentagram Sword, only sliding back an inch or so after. It wasn't long before a light engulfed Ace's armor, changing to his Earth Water armor, resisting the effects of Fire and Lightning while enabling Ace to use Earth and Water attacks. Ace turned quickly, raising his sword high as the element of Earth surrounded it. "Earth Blade!" Ace swung his blade down just as Erza turned. She was just able to avoid the Earth Blade, though her right wing was caught and she spiraled into the ground. Where the blade stuck cleaved a Magnolia street in half.
Erza quickly regained herself, now leaping into the air once again. Two swords in hand while a multitude of swords appeared around her person. "Blummenbalt!" Erza sent her swords forward first, following behind them with her arms crossed into an X.
"Egh..." Ace groaned as he brought his blade up, spinning it around, creating a barrier of Earth and Water to deflect the incoming blades. He didn't expect Erza to follow in with a slash, which sent him skidding back across the ground, changing into his Lightning Flame armor after realizing his previous armor wasn't working. "This is going to be more of an issue than I thought..." He even started to cough a few times as well. He wasn't trying to get into a real serious fight with Erza, but Titania was no one to be taken lightly and he was aware of this. "Damn, if this keeps up..."
Just then, Natsu, Lucy, and Happy slid from around the corner. "Found him!" Natsu roared as he lunged off his feet, flames covering his body as he raced headfirst towards Ace.
"Salamander too...?!" Ace grit his teeth and crossed his arms, allowing Natsu to slam into his arms. The force caused Ace to slid back a few feet, but he was relatively unharmed by Natsu's attack. Still, Ace realized the situation growing against him. This was never supposed to be a serious fight, but clearly Fairy Tail had no intentions of making it easy. On one hand, that was good. One the other...
"Natsu, Lucy, Happy?" Erza raised a brow at the appearance of the trio, but she wasn't complaining about it.
"I saw him from up above!" Happy exclaimed while balling his laws into fist. "Now, it's time for our counterattack!"
"That's right!" Lucy shouted while pulling out a silver key. "Tell us where our other members are!"
"I said they were safe and sound, but it seems as though she won't believe me on that, so I doubt you three will too..." Ace replied as he changed back into his standard armor. Too many elemental variables were in play now, so changing from armor to armor would just be a waste of magic. "Alright, come at me."
Natsu didn't need the invitation. He rushed forward once again, fire wrapped around his fist as he charged towards Ace once more. "Iron Fist of the Fire Dragon!" Natsu swung his fist towards Ace, but Ace grabbed the incoming fist with his hand, not even sliding back this time. "Grrrr...!"
"Gate of the Maiden, I open thee! Virgo!" Lucy swiped her get across the air, a loud bell chime echoing throughout the area before the maiden spurt appeared before Lucy.
"Punishment time, Princess?" Virgo asked while giving a bow.
"N-No!" Lucy shook her head rapidly before pointing at Ace. "Take him down!"
"As you wish, Princess," Virgo gave a simple nod before leaping into the air, swiping the chains on her wrist towards Ace.
"This is almost more trouble than it's worth..." Ace sighed before pushing Natsu away and jumped back, allowing Virgo's chains to hit the ground. Right after that, Erza moved in with her Giant's Armor, swinging a heavy haymaker towards Ace, but he dodged that as well, though just narrowly. He then jumped back to gain some distance, spinning around as wind swirled around him. "Typhoon Dance!" Ace sent a tornado forward, slamming into Erza and Natsu, causing them to fly back.
"Gate of the Ram, I open thee!" Lucy called out, now swiping a golden zodiac key across the air. "Aries!" Another bell chimed out, and the shy ram appeared, tugging the bottom of her wool clothing nervously.
"Y-Yes..?" Aries stuttered out.
"Trap him in wool!" Lucy exclaimed.
"H-Hai!" Aries bent over, extending her hands forward. "Wool Bomb!"
"Wool what-" Before Ace could finish, he was suddenly trapped in a large sphere of extremely fluffy dark pink colored wool. "Whoa...this is comfy..."
"Now, Natsu!" Lucy shouted over to her partner.
"On it!" Natsu ran forward, only to have Happy lift him into the air. "Let's go Happy!"
"Aye, sir!" Happy yelled as he flew high into the sky before flipping over, now transferring his momentum to Natsu, who rocketed from the Exceed's grip and hurtled towards Ace like a rocket, fire blazing around the Salamander's arms. When he was close, he spun his arms in a counter clockwise motion, creating a large blaze around his person that extended several feet away from him. "Fire Dragon! Crimson Lotus!"
Ace managed to bring up one arm, clenching it as water and earth surrounded it. With his wings, he easily broke free from the wool and flew towards Natsu, swinging at the fire dragon in the midst of his Secret Art. "Aqua Earth Upper!"
.
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The sounds of conflict off in the distance were hard to ignore. The first ones to pick up on this were team Shadow Gear. "Did you guys hear that!?" Levy asked Jet and Droy. The two of them nodded in response.
"It sounded like it came from the west side of town..." Droy said, looking over in that direction.
"I got covered!" Jet said, taking a runner's stance, and speeding off in that direction. Knowing his guild, they probably found the culprit and started fighting him right away. So all he had to do was track them down and lead the others to that location!
.
.
Gildarts, Sidney, Evanee, and Roy stood off against some of Tartaros; Maggie, Ur, Kiora, Sora, Tobias, Rugal, and Ruika. "Let's...have a blast!" Roy exclaimed while throwing the bomb in his hand down at the ground in front of his feet. As soon as the bomb touched the ground, smoke exploded into the room, covering the 4 aces.
"That trick won't work..." Kiora said as her irises turned red once activating her Eye Enchantment She could easily see the four aces moving within the smoke, and decided to act accordingly. She extended her arms forward, using her enchantment to create her favorite weapon; the scythe. She swung the weapon into the smoke, however the four aces split ways by the point to take on various targets, so she missed. "Dammit, hold still so I can chop your heads off!"
Take out the weakest link; that was Sidney's plan. Who was the weakest link out of all the mages surrounding them? Tobias, of course. The only human among demons. Sidney's fist wrapped around in Ghost Magic, and he faked a swing towards Tobias, but he vanished in a white puff of smoke before he actually swung, leaving the elemental mage confused. "Where'd he...?" Before Tobias could continue, he felt a powerful blow to the back of his head, causing him to stagger forward, dazed from the attack. Sidney went to finish with a high kick, but Rugal conjured up a portal that put Sidney off target.
Behind Sidney was Ur with her hands in the ice make position. "Ice Make: Ice Cannon!" Ur formed a large cannon on her shoulders, and fired a large ice blast towards Sidney.
"Another..." Sidney thought to himself before jumping back, allowing the ice blast to hit and freeze the wall that Sidney was standing in front of, now sliding off while surrounded by Tobias, Rugal, and Ur.
"You're not making it out of here alive..." Rugal said while drawing his katana. "We can make this easy and swift, or difficult and slow. Either way is just fine with me..."
Gildarts was dealing with Ruika, and Maggie, the celestial demon and the lava demon. "I'm not one for fighting pretty ladies..." Gildarts said while rubbing the back of his head, letting out a sheepish laugh while eying the two females.
"Don't worry about it then, love," Maggie said as she snapped her fingers, creating several lava golems around the ace of Fairy Tail.
"We'll save you the trouble." Ruika said after Maggie, swiping her hand across her chest. This opened up a gate, the gate of the Dragon, Draco. The dragon spirit appeared before Ruika and let out a roar.
Gildarts merely let out a sigh once he saw what he was up against. "Can you ladies at least wait a few moments? I'm not good at holding back, see..."
"Fuck that rubbish!" Maggie said as she ordered her golems to attack Gildarts.
Gildarts let out a heavier sigh than the last, a white aura appearing around his body. "Don't say I didn't warn you..." As the lava golems charged the crash mage, he merely repelled them away with his basic hand to hand maneuvers. Though it took him a moment to realize the golems were made of lava, so he shook his arms in a comedic fashion. "Oh, wow! That's hot...!"
"Idiot..." Ruika pointed her finger forward, commanding Draco to spit out a large funnel of fire towards the ace, but Gildarts brought his cape up and blocked the attack, only sliding back a few feet as a result.
Evanee faced off against Kiora, finding herself on the defensive as Kiora swung her scythe in a fluid motion. Evanee grit her teeth in a sort of annoyance before she allowed her body to faze into a purple mist, letting Kiora's scythe pass through her. After the swing was finished Evanee's body returned to a physical state and she aimed a high kick at Kiora's head, but Kiora brought her arm up, her curse changing her arm into an unbreakable golden shield, blocking the kick in the nick of time. "Annoying little..." Evanee sneered while sliding back.
That left Roy with Sora, who for some reason he felt as though he shouldn't attack. He did it anyway, swinging a kick to the little girl's head, but she ducked and gave a rather cute smile, but this irritated Roy just a little bit. "Okay..." Roy formed a bomb in his hands, preparing to throw it at Sora, but he stopped when he felt a hot breath on his neck, causing the hairs on his neck to stand on end.
"Hurt the girl and I'll eat you alive. Slowly..." Mithril said with a low growl.
"Mithril-kun!" Sora exclaimed with a wide smile.
"That's a dragon..." Roy said as he slid away from Sora, now back to back with the other three aces. "This is a rather precarious situation, isn't it...?"
"Just a bit." Tobias said while shaking off the impact from Sidney's kick.
"Everyone's here, great," Daityas said as he and Arc appeared via blue flame.
"Daityas..." Sidney and Evanee said at the same time.
"And Arc..." Sidney continued.
"Brought just about everyone, didn't you?" Evanee asked in a sarcastic tone.
"You should've known better," Arc said while licking his lips as he stared at Evanee. "Virgin..."
Arc's words and tone caused a comedic shiver to escape Evanee before she regained her senses. "Any ideas..."
"Lie down and die?" Daityas suggested...no, more so demanded.
"Actually..." Roy said as he formed another bomb in his hands, a white one. "Gildarts, as soon as this bomb goes off, do your thing."
"Alright..." Gildarts nodded.
"Not so fast." Daityas said as he snapped his fingers, creating demonic seal under the four aces, but it was just as Roy threw the bomb down. It was a Flash Bang; bright light shone in the room, blinding everyone.
"NOW!" Roy shouted.
"Right!" Gildarts exclaimed as he placed his hand on the ground.
.
.
The ruins trembled for a second before collapsing completely. After what seemed like hours did the four aces crawl out of the rubble, quite bruised as a result. "I think we lost them..." Gildarts said while dusting himself off.
"I don't sense the presence of the one with a soul...so they all must be gone." Sidney said with a nod.
"This turned out to be a giant waste of time..." Evanee grumbled while shaking off debris.
"We might as well just report this to the council then..." said Roy as he began walking.
"Did it work...?" Arc asked Dait, the two quite far away from the aces.
"We'll see..." Daityas replied with a sly grin. "Until then, we'll return along with the others back to Tartaros."
.
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Back in Magnolia, Ace stood over a defeated Erza, Lucy, Natsu, and Happy. It wasn't easy, but he managed to overcome them. Ace coughed a few times, panting heavily with his victory. All of that fighting caused a commotion, so it was only a matter of time until the others came. He didn't want to put up with that right now, so he was going to make his swift exit. "Ugh...that was tiring..." He snapped his fingers and teleported the 4 off somewhere. "I can finally take a nap now...and the plan finally begins tomorrow..."
And that that moment, Jet appeared. Not just him, but Bickslow, Evergreen, and Freed as well. They all arrived at the same time, just spotting Ace alone. "You guys saw him too?"
"We heard it." Freed said with his sword drawn.
"So, are you the guy that's been attacking our guild mates?" Evergreen had her fan at the ready. Jet dashed off to grab the others, meaning it wouldn't be long before Ace was surrounded.
"Better answer now!" Bickslow said with a sneer.
Ace grit his teeth. Could he take them? Absolutely, but it wouldn't be wise. He'd already drawn too much attention to himself against his and Lisanna's ideals. Plus, continuing to fight with his worsening condition wasn't the best idea. "Nope! Sorry, but I'm not the guy you're looking for!" A magical seal appeared under his feet. The Raijinshu weren't buying his words, so they leapt to attack him. Just before they could reach, Ace vanished in a flash of light.
"Damn!" Freed cursed. "That was absolutely the one..."
"He slipped away..." Evergreen scowled. They were so close...
"We should tell the others about this right away." Freed sheathed his sword. They had to plan their next move.