The Knight Vs The Black Guardian

A/N: We kick off the start of the Dungeon Exploration arc with a battle of our two resident swordsman. Chapter came out so fast because I was super excited to write this one. This'll be my first time writing an actual fight from start to finish, so let's see how it goes.

We also will be getting to see the Black Bulls appear in this chapter. They'll have some fun interactions with other Fairy Tail characters, so get ready for that.

I dropped the POV thing because honestly it's hard using just one perspective at a time, so it's just third person POV from now on.

I figured out what I want to do with Yuno in terms of relationships. It's kind of weird, but I want to flesh him out more as a character since he's gonna be around a lot more than in canon and I think that my idea can work.

After camping for the night (and Happy remembering to give Lucy Virgo's key, much to her annoyance), everyone is finally standing in front of the Fairy Tail guildhall. The new recruits looked at the building in excitement, knowing that their journey as wizards started once they got inside the building.

'So, this is where my journey as the Wizard king starts,' Yuno and Asta both think, 'I wonder what amazing guys are in there?' "You guys ready to see what the greatest guild in the world has to offer," shouts Natsu, exaggeratedly hyping up the guild's reputation. "Yes sir," Asta responds with stars around him while Yuno just stares at his rival with a blank stare at his usual antics.

"How about you two," Lucy asks Noelle and Mimosa, "How do you two feel about joining the guild?" "Well they should be honored to have us as proud-," Noelle begins before Mimosa interrupts her, "Proud, normal wizards that are excited to be here!" Lucy looks at them, confused about the interaction, before Natsu kicks open the door to the guild hall.

Before he can say anything, a fireball shoots him in the face knocking him back. While the new mages looked at the scene with shock, everyone else didn't seem too bothered by it. "Who shot that fireball," asked Lucy, "Macao and Romeo aren't that strong." "Oh, I guess you haven't met them yet," says Gray, "Feel like we haven't seen them for a while either."

"Why aren't you guys worried about Natsu," cried Asta. "Oh, don't worry," explains Erza, "Fire doesn't hurt Natsu."

Natsu then runs into the building, where we see a young man with glasses and black and white hair chasing around a blonde, childish-looking boy with lightning boots on his feet. "Get back here Luck so I can light you on fire," exclaims the punkish-looking man as he throws another fireball. "Bring it on Magna," Luck taunted as he kept dodging the fireballs. Thankfully, the balls only left scorch marks on the walls so far and everyone else just ignored them and had not been hit so far.

At a table covered in barrels of alcohol, a witch with pink hair and a brunette wearing only a bikini top and shorts were sitting together. "This time," said the witch, "I will finally defeat you Cana." "Oh really," Cana said, "You must not have learned a lesson after the past 199 drinking contests we've had, Vanessa. But I'm not one to refuse a good drink!"

At another table sat a big tan man with silver hair and a man with curly hair covering his left eye staring at a mirror with an image of a young girl on it. "Oh Marie," said the curly haired man, "I wish you and I could see each other more." "It's not manly to obsess over your younger sister like that Gauche," said the buff man. "Shut up Elfman, you brutish oaf," Gauche said in a threatening tone, "You have no right to say stuff things like that. Remember what you did to the last guy who asked out Mirajane?" "If that guy wasn't MAN enough to handle me, how could he handle my big sister," Elfman yelled out.

At the bar a beautiful woman with silver hair was serving a small woman with swirls on her cheek. "Oh Mira," said the tiny woman while stuffing her face with food, "I love your food so much, la. It's almost as good as my sheep's food, la." "Oh, thank you," said Mira, "It warms my heart to hear you say that Charmy."

Next to them were a man with light brown hair and a man in glasses with orange hair. "Please Loke," said the man with light brown hair, "Teach me how you get so many girls to go out with you." "Don't worry Finral," said Loke, "I will teach you the ways to get as many women as you want!" "Thank you so much master," said Finral with tears in his eyes.

In the back there was a man with thick black lips and black circles on his face with a black cap on his head named Gordon sitting next to a giant man with smoke coming out of his shadowed face called Grey (No, not the other one). The capped man talked to quietly for anyone to hear and the giant man just sat quietly.

'This is the number one guild in Fiore," the new recruits thought at the chaos and oddities they saw happening across the guildhall. Before Erza or Makarov could say anything, a booming voice called out from somewhere, "YOU IDIOTS BETTER CALM DOWN, I'M TAKING A HUGE DUMP!"

Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing, and the guildhall became quiet as everyone kept talking quietly. The new mages and Lucy were confused by the voice that appeared out of nowhere before Asta realized he needed to use the restroom too and left to find the bathroom.

"Who are these guys, and why haven't I met them before," asked a slightly bewildered Lucy. "They call themselves the Black Bulls," explained Erza, "they all live in a giant hideout in the middle of the forest. They were all brought into the guild and found by their leader-," before she can continue, an explosion from the back of the guildhall erupts.

From the smoke emerges a man in a white t-shirt and black robe with a five-clock shadow smoking a cigarette while also holding onto the head of a certain magicless swordsman. Asta was struggling in the grip of the threatening man as he looks down at Asta, "What kind of idiot interrupts a man in the middle of a dump? Do you wanna die," he says while squeezing harder on his head. "No of course not, I'm so sorry sir, I had no idea that you were in there," Asta exclaims while swinging his limbs wildly.

"Yami let the newbie down before you traumatize him," said Makarov. "Oh hey, it's the old man," said Yami as he dropped Asta on the ground, "I was waiting on you to show up so I could talk to you about our mission." "Please tell me you didn't break anything," begged the guild master. "We broke everything," Yami answered.

Makarov seemingly paled for a minute at the answer he received before Yami asked, "Who's the new girl and the other four with the grimoires," Makarov regained color in his body as he began to explain, "They're new wizards joining the guild. Lucy already joined a while ago while the other four ran into us after helping with a certain issue."

"Alright rookies, what can you all do," Yami asked them. "My name is Lucy, I'm a celestial spirit mage and use my keys to summon them," explained Lucy. "My name is Noelle, I have water magic," Noelle explained. "My name is Mimosa, I use plant magic," said Mimosa. "My name's Yuno, I have wind magic," Yuno said. The last three pulled out their grimoires to show him.

"Oh man, three four-leaf grimoires joining the guild at once, huh? Well, some of us have grimoires but none of us have four leaves. They say that their holders usually have good luck, so I'm expecting a lot from you three," said Yami, "You too blondie, Celestial Spirit magic is pretty rare, and you already have six gold keys."

"Hey, don't forget about me," exclaimed Asta popping up from the ground, "Check out my grimoire, it has five leaves on it!" As he pulled out his grimoire, Makarov looked at him in shock. "Did you say you had a five-leafed grimoire," Makarov asked him. "Yeah, it's pretty cool isn't it," Asta unabashedly rubbed the back of his head while smiling at himself.

Makarov stared at the old and dirty grimoire and took note of the black five-leafed clover in Asta's hands. "The three leaves of a grimoire are meant to represent faith hope and love, and in the fourth dwells good luck. However," he says ominously, "if a grimoire has five leaves, then a being from another world has taken hold of it." "What does that mean, master," asks Erza. "It means that your grimoire is possessed…"

"…by a devil."

…

"Oh, I already knew that," responds Asta.

Everyone's jaw drop at his response, breaking the tense atmosphere that was being built by Makarov's story. "What do you mean, 'you already know'," cries Makarov. "Well, I mean, he already talked to me about the whole devil possession thing when I first found it," answers Asta, "and he's pretty nice when you get to now him. In fact, get out here Liebe, before they think I'm crazy." ("Too late for that," mutters Yuno)

Asta opens his grimoire, and with a poof a small black demon with white hair pops out of his grimoire. "Finally," says the demon, "being stuck in that grimoire for so long is boring. Hey blockhead, who are these chucklefucks?" "Come on, be nice Liebe, they're our new guildmates," Asta says, scolding the devil.

"Did you three know about this," asks Lucy. "No, this is the first time me and Noelle have seen him," says Mimosa. "I knew about it of course, the idiot ran home screaming about finding it and shoved him in face the first moment he could," said Yuno, "The only other people who knew were the people at our orphanage, and they convinced him to keep it a secret."

The first one to interact with the demon is the beautiful barmaid Mirajane, as she walks up and looks intently at the tiny hell spawn. "I can confirm, that's a definitely a demon," she says, "But something's weird about it. It's like it doesn't have any magic." "Well, that's because I don't have any magic," explains Liebe.

Everyone's jaws drop on the ground once more at this sentence, finding it to be impossible. "Wait, you have no magic power at all," asks Gray. "Nope," says Asta, "same as me, not a drop of magic in either of us." This time everyone falls on their faces at Asta's casual admittance to a lack of magic.

"Then what does your grimoire actually do," asks Lucy. "Well so far, all I've got are these two swords," he explains while pulling them out, "the big one is the Demon Slayer sword and the small one is the Demon Dweller sword." "Don't know where they came from or how they got in the grimoire, I just kind of ended up in it on accident," explained Liebe.

"Your swords seem to be in terrible shape," shouts Erza, "any worthwhile swordsman should always take care of his weapons, it is a disservice to your weapons to do otherwise!" "Hey, it's not my fault," Asta responds, "every time I try and clean them off, they just get dirty again when I put them in the grimoire. Besides, I'm pretty sure that's what makes them special." "How so," asks Erza. "Well, it's easier to see them in action than explain," says Asta while grinning and pointing Demon Slayer at her, "So why don't we fight so you can try them out."

Out of all the things that the members of Fairy Tail have seen today, this is by far the most shocking. Even more than the revelations of Asta's demon possessed grimoire or the lack of any ability to use magic. The sight of a rookie, armed with nothing but two dirty swords and lacking any magical powers of his own, had challenged the most powerful woman in Fairy Tail, the Queen of the fairies herself, Erza Scarlet.

"Hey buddy, I was supposed to-," "Be quiet Natsu, we can have your fight later," Erza interrupts, suddenly deathly serious, "I take swordsmanship skills very seriously, and if you're challenging me to a sword fight, then you had better be warned that I am one of the strongest in the guild and have been an S-class for years." "Of course," Asta said, "I'm gonna be the Wizard King, I can't let something as simple as your reputation scare me."

Erza smirks in response to this. "Good, I see you have the soul of a warrior, now let us see if you have the skills to back it up.

We cut to a field where we can see the entirety of the guild hall surrounding the two sword users upcoming duel. Cana was going around taking bets from the onlookers on who would win. Unsurprisingly, so far everyone had bet on Erza because in a one-on-one sword battle, always bet on Erza. "Come on," Cana moaned, "can't someone bet on the little runt to make it fun." "How about me," asked Yuno, "can I bet on this battle?" "Oh, you're Yuno, one of the newbies, huh," said the alcoholic, "You know, I thought you would be nicer to your friend than betting on his downfall." "What are you talking about," laughed Yuno, "I'm betting against Erza. Asta's not allowed to lose."

Cana seemed shocked at the absolute belief that the young man had in his friend but found it kind of endearing. "Well, don't come crying to me when your friend gets his ass kicked and you lose all your money." "Um, excuse me," Mimosa says with Noelle standing next to her while both fidget, "Can we also bet on Asta?" Cana immediately noticed the nervous blushes the two had and understood what was happening. "Oh, I see," she taunted, "You two have a thing for shortie over there, don't you?" Noelle begins stammering in refusal while Mimosa just looks away bashfully. Yuno just looks at this with a blank stare while thinking, 'There are girls who like Asta?'

Lucy, Natsu, Happy, and Grey then walk up next to group as well. "Oh man, is Asta really gonna fight Erza of all people," Lucy nervously asks, "I hope she goes easy on him." "Fat chance," Gray says, "Erza never holds back in a battle, especially if it's a swordfight." "Oh man, I'm so jealous," Natsu whines, "I was supposed to fight Erza. Maybe when she beats him in a minute, I can get a round in if she's not too tired." "Wow Natsu," says Happy mockingly, "How can you be so cruel to the poor newbie out there. It's not his fault that he's almost as stupid as you." "Hey," Natsu annoyedly says, "I'm just being real. He just doesn't understand what a monster Erza is."

In the center of the field, the two combatants are getting ready for their duel. "The rules are as follows," Erza says, "No killing, or maiming. Any abilities we have at our disposal are fair game. One of us wins when we are either knocked unconscious or admits defeat." "That sounds good," says Asta, "but let's make it interesting. If I win, I get to be S-class." "Hmm, well you can't just get promoted like that, but I can guarantee a spot on our S-class trials, if that's okay with you," says Erza. "That's fine, but what if you win," asks Asta. "You're still new here, it would be unfair of me to put any heavy restrictions on you when you've just joined. How about no missions for a week." "No, that's not fair," refuses Asta, "If you win, you get one of my swords, how about that." "If that is what you wish, so be it," says Erza, "though to be willing to lose one of your weapons shows either extreme confidence in you abilities or foolishness."

"May the match between Erza Scarlet and Asta begin," says Makarov, waving his down signaling the start of the match.

Before anyone realizes it, Asta has leaped right in front of Erza, wielding the Demon Slayer sword in his hands and swings it down towards her. While shocked, Erza manages to requip a normal sword in her hands to block the strike. The initial clash pushes Erza's feet in the ground, shattering it and creating a blast of wind from the impact. Erza finds herself struggling to keep her balance against the giant sword pushing down on her but manages to push Asta away with a burst of strength.

Asta lands on his feet and then rushes forward again, swinging his sword at her multiple times. Erza shows her superiority by dodging and deflecting most of his swings. 'He's not bad,' she thinks, 'He clearly has some kind of training in using that giant sword. Not to mention his excellent physical shape to wield it in the first place.' Erza then jumps back and requips into her Heaven's Wheel armor. "The problem with wielding such a big sword is that it slows you down, so how will you deal with a greater number of swords," she says as she summons a few dozen blades in the air before sending them at Asta.

Asta tries to use the Demon Slayer to swat away at the blades, but for everyone he hits, another replaces it and manages to cut him somewhere. However, Erza notices that each of her swords hit by the blade suddenly lose their connection to her. 'What is going on,' she asks in her head, 'I use my spatial magic to summon armor and control the space around my swords. How is he cutting off the spatial link between me and my weapons?'

Before she can figure it out, Asta plants Demon Slayer in the ground before pulling out the smaller Demon Dweller. 'I need speed right now, not strength,' Asta thinks as he starts countering more blades with the normal sized weapon. As Erza keeps losing swords, she realizes she need a change in tactics and requips into her Black Wing armor. "Let's see how your speed compares to mine," she says while swooping down to swing at Asta. This time, Asta's the one on the backfoot, as he's barely able to handle Erza's swift aerial attacks. Every time Erza finishes an attack, she immediately flies away to begin another assault, leaving Asta with no way to launch a counterattack.

Asta, realizing how outclassed he is in mobility, starts planning how to clip the Fairy Queen's wings. As Erza begins to swoop in for her next attack, Asta throws Demon Dweller straight at her. As Erza barely manages to block in time, Asta picks up the Demon Slayer again and jumps into the air right above her and swings the giant weapon down. Erza, with no time to dodge the attack, tries to block his swing, but Asta's strength manages to break the weapon and send Erza slamming into the ground.

The Fairy Tail members are speechless at the impossible sight that they're seeing. Erza struggling in a sword fight. The mere thought is impossible to imagine in their heads and the reality of the battle is too much for them to handle. "You gotta be kidding me, there's no way," a shocked Gray says. "Is Erza going to lose in a swordfight against the new guy," asks a bewildered Natsu.

Yuno smugly grins at the sight of his rival turning the tables against the Fairy Queen. "That's the least I could expect from my rival." Mira, however, simply watches the fight intently. "Well, your friend is pretty good, but Erza didn't get where she is by losing fights at this level. Erza still has plenty more to give." Yuno looks at Mira, confused at her insight on the female warrior. "How do you know so much about Erza's fighting ability," he asks. Mira smiles at him sweetly before saying, "Well, it's the least Icould expect from my rival."

Before Yuno can respond, a column of fire erupts from the battlefield. From it emerges Erza in her Flame Empress armor. "Your swords are very strong I see that now. However, you need more than strength to deal with magical attacks," she says before sending a wave of flames at Asta. While everyone watches on, worried about how Asta will deal with the attack, Asta simply smirks before readying his sword like a bat. As the attack gets nearer, Asta swings Demon Slayer at the attack, reflecting incoming flames back at Erza.

Erza dodges before shooting another blast of fire at Natsu, who then does another shocking maneuver. He switches his grip so that he is now holding the Demon Slayer in his right hand and Demon Dweller in the left, before pointing the smaller blade in front of the fire. To everyone's amazement, the fire is absorbed by the blade as it begins to have a red glow. "Woah, it's just like Natsu," says an amazed Lucy.

Asta then shoots the fire back at Erza, this time catching her off guard and she receives a face full of flames. Asta starts to freak out before Erza walks out of flames slightly singed, but mostly fine. "I understand now, the nature of your swords," Erza reveals, "It wasn't easy, but after seeing you dispel the barrier in the station and everything I've seen in this fight, the answer has become clear. Your swords have the ability to completely nullify magic."

Everyone looks confused at the words Erza says. "Wait, do you mean like magic-sealing cuffs, that kind of magic nullification," asks Makarov from the peanut gallery. "No, this is different than those. While weapons can be made out of them, they do not work anything like his swords do," she explains, "the large sword can reflect magic shot at it and the small sword can absorb magic entirely. Not to mention, he used it dispel a wind barrier that Erigor made at the train station. The final hint was when I was using my Heaven's Wheel armor. All of my armor and swords are stored into my requip space, and I can manually control them by manipulating the space around them and forming a spatial link with them. It's a very complicated form of spatial magic and I am the only one I know of to use it.

"However, if you look around, you'll notice that some of my blades are still lying around the battlefield," Erza says while pointing at swords laying around the battlefield, "That's because they are no longer connected to my magic. His swords nullified the spatial magic being used on them." "Wow I didn't think you would understand how these things work so fast," says Asta, "But yeah, you got it on the head. These aren't just normal swords, they're Anti-Magic swords."

"Yes, I see now that I will have to get serious if I wish to defeat you," Erza says before requipping into one of her strongest armors, the Purgatory armor, "Apologies for any injuries you receive, for this armor is one of my strongest and I use only on the toughest of opponents." "Good, that means I'm close to winning," Asta says – right before Erza appears in front of him and swings her spiked sword right into his chest (she hit him with the blunt side so it wouldn't kill him). Asta goes flying from the impact and rolls on the ground for a while eventually landing on his stomach, still reeling from the impact. His swords left far away from his grasp as he gets up on one knee.

'Holy shit, that attack was so strong,' he thinks in his while grabbing his stomach, 'She was holding back this much strength the whole time! That's insane, and just imagine how strong the rest of the S-class in the guild are. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I can't-' before he finishes the thought a voice calls out from the audience, "Hey Asta, what are you doing just lying on the ground like that! Did you forget our promise?"

Everyone turns to look at Yuno, who continues talking, "all those years ago, when you first saved me, we made a promise to each other. If you give up now, then that promise is for nothing. So tell me right now, did you forget our promise!" Asta looks at Yuno in shock for a second before laughing. "Sorry you had to see me in such a pathetic state Yuno. Of course, I haven't forgotten our promise!"

"To protect the people we love," says Yuno. "And to prove that everyone, no matter their place in life can be worth something," says Asta. Then they both defiantly declare, "We will fight to see who first becomes the Wizard King!"

As he says this, Asta takes off the covering off his right arm, revealing to the audience what is hidden under it, causing them to gasp. His right arm is mostly black, with it getting darker the closer it is to his hand, which has a red glowing cross mark on it and his fingers have become more demonic. "That arm," Mira says, looking at it in shock, "It's just like when I was a kid." Asta then explains, "This arm is what I gained from making a deal with Liebe that as long as I don't give up, he'll help me. He said I couldn't use all of his power at once, but this is the most he could do right now. I gave up my arm to gain that of a devil, but I don't regret it for a second. I named this arm the Devil Breaker because this arm will break every obstacle on my path to the Wizard King!"

While most of the audience is simply in shock at his words, a voice is heard laughing from the audience, the source of which is Yami. "Alright kid," he says, "let's see what you can do. Most people would say that your powers are creepy and weird, but bout you wanna prove them wrong? Then right here, right now, surpass your limits and show us what you can do!" Asta looks shocked at his praise then smiles and says, "Yes sir!"

Asta charges toward Erza and throws his right arm to the side summoning a black demonic spectral arm made of Anti-Magic with red glowing cracks all over it that snatches the Demon Dweller and puts it into his left hand (A/N: If you want an image, look up 'dmc Nero'). Asta starts swinging it at Erza who blocks each hit with her weapon, but he then punches Erza in the stomach with his Devil Breaker arm, shattering a chunk of her armor. Erza almost falls to her knees from the force of Asta's punch but manages to stay on her feet. Erza manages to win their sword clash, knocking away Demon Dweller again, but Asta evens the playing field by knocking away her sword with the Devil Breaker, catching her off guard and leaving her emptyhanded.

However, Erza does not give up and simply punches Asta in the face. Thus starts a barrage of blows from both fighters as they forgo any weapons or strategies and begin hitting each other with everything they have. Asta's impressive physical prowess and his demonic arm hit very hard, letting him keep up with Erza's ability to enhance the power of her punches with magic. Unfortunately for her, she can't use any magic on defense as the Devil Breaker's Anti-Magic dispels it immediately.

Realizing that she cannot last in a battle of attrition against the demonic arm, Erza dodges a blow from Asta and tries to kick him in the chest, but he catches it and starts to spin her in a circle. He then throws Erza away, but before she can hit the ground, Asta has already caught up with her and delivers a flurry of blows to the scarlet warrior. She tries to block with her arms, but finds her strength failing, right before Asta summons the spectral arm again. "My magic," he begins before delivering a vicious punch straight to stomach, "Is never giving up!" This causes her crash into the ground with a large smoke explosion obscuring their view.

Everyone waits in baited breath to see the results of the match as the smoke clears, and to everyone's shock Asta is the one left standing with Erza in a crater on the ground. Erza looks up at him in shock, before letting out a hearty laugh, shocking everyone else. "It's been a long time since I've had such a fight with a demon," she said looking over in the audience at Mirajane, who looks away despondently, "That was a wonderful battle Asta, though next time I will win." Asta looks down at her before smiling and saying, "Don't worry, I'll fight you as many times as you want, even after I've become Wizard King."

The audience is awestruck at the interaction before someone says, "Wait did she just say, 'next time she'll win?'" Mira the gasps incredulously as she states, "Then that means that winner of this fight-,"

"Is Asta," Yuno finishes.

A chorus of cheers erupt from the audience at the surprise victory of the young underdog over the legendary 'Titania'. As he begins to fall over Noelle and Mimosa rush to the field and catch Asta in their arms. "Oh my god are you okay," Mimosa frantically asks before she starts healing him. "Dorksta, why'd you have to pick a fight with someone so strong," Noelle says trying to hide her worry for the young man. Internally however, she inwardly cries, 'I was so worried about him! I thought he might die and I don't know what I'd do!' Yuno then walks up to Asta and simply puts his fist in front of him. Asta looks confused for a second before meeting his fist with Yuno's, the same way they did when they first made that promise. "Don't get used to being the center of attention," Yuno says, "Next time, I'll be the one being cheered on." "Yeah right," Asta says playfully, "Don't worry I'll be there to comfort you when you lose."

Natsu and Gray pull Erza to her feet as she requips into her normal Heart Kreuz armor. "Erza are you all right," asks Gray. "Yes, I'm fine," she says, "the only thing hurt is my pride." "To think someone without magic could beat Erza," Lucy says with a worried look on her face, "Who knows what else he can do?" "Don't worry about it Luce," says Natsu while swinging his arm over her shoulder, "I bet I could've done the same if I got the chance to fight Erza for real." "Aye sir," says Happy, "you could beat him any day of the week."

"Well, that was certainly the most exciting introduction a guild member's had in a while," says Makarov, "But in the excitement we've all seem to have forgotten something." Everyone looks at him in confusion before he clarifies, "They don't have their guild marks yet."

Back at the guild hall, everyone has gone back to their usual shenanigans while the new guildmembers get their guild marks. Asta's is black and on his left hand, Yuno's is green and on his right hand, Noelle's is silver and on her left shoulder, and Mimosa's is red and on her right shoulder. Asta looks at his with stars in his eyes, as if it was a chest full of gold. "My very own guild mark," he exclaims, "I finally got my own!" "Jeez Asta, calm down it's not that big a deal," says Noelle trying to play off her own excitement.

"Hey newbies," says Yami while smoking a cigarette, "Do you guys have a place to sleep for the night?" "No, why do you ask," questions Asta. "Well, we've got some spare rooms if you need them back at our hideout," explains Yami, "And since you guys already have robes, Vanessa can put some Fairy Tail stitching on them with her magic."

As the dark mage keeps talking to the new Fairy Tail recruits, Makarov receives a message from his lacrama communication orb. His eyes go wide at the message and the person who sent it: the Wizard King, Julius Novachrono himself.

Looks like the dungeon mission has been sent to Fairy Tail, and Makarov has to choose who's going on the mission. Let's see who get picked for the first official mission of the series.

So, first battle of the series and plenty of reveals and changes in this chapter, huh? Let's discuss some of them.

I gave Noelle and Mimosa four-leaf grimoires because I figured Noelle deserved one, and Mimosa will be more of a fighter in this series and wanted to give her something to start of with. The leaves on a grimoire don't really mean anything in terms of power, they're merely aesthetic.

Asta revealed his demonic arm early, and it has powers it doesn't have in canon. I'll be honest, I just wanted to give him Nero's Devil Bringer from DMC 4, I used the name of his robotic arm because I thought that Breaker sounded cooler than Bringer. Be on the lookout for more powers and abilities later in the series.

Now the fight itself, I'll be honest, could probably be better. It's my first fight and it's early in the series, but it's between Asta and Erza, two characters known for their indomitable spirit and willingness to fight even when they're about to die. I wanted to make it a spectacle but didn't want to go too overboard with it. I know some of you are probably worried about Asta beating Erza so soon in the series, but he only won due to her not knowing how his powers work and getting drawn into a fistfight instead of sticking with her swordsmanship, which she was still way better than Asta at. She didn't even go through all of her armors. Also I changed how she controls her swords because in Black Clover, everyone has one type of magic only.

Also, I wanna talk about Yuno for a bit. In the planning of this story, I initially wanted to put him and Mimosa in another guild like Lamia Scale, or maybe keeping them in the Golden Dawn, but then I realized a problem in writing them that way. They would be missing from a lot of the arcs of Fairy Tail and wouldn't have anything to do. I also thought that it would be interesting to see Yuno and Asta's rivalry directly compared with the rivalries of Gray and Natsu and Mira and Erza, which I might be reviving once we get to Mira regaining her power. Yuno and Asta have my favorite rivalry in any anime because while they argue sometimes, they very clearly care about each other and don't treat each other like shit most of the time. Not that I don't like those, Natsu's rivalries with Gray and Gajeel are like that, and I love them, but it's nice to see rivals that actually push each other to be better in a positive way. You also might have noticed a hint or two about what I plan to do with Yuno, and yes, I know it might be weird, but the idea wouldn't get out of my head and fits into later plans pretty well.

Last thing I wanna talk about because I worry this might be a complaint for a bit until Galuna Island or Phantom Lord is a lack of Natsu. Natsu's not gonna get a lot of focus in this arc, or the Royal Capital Assault Arc which will be right after this one. Natsu doesn't really fit into the plans I have for these events, but don't worry, he'll still be as much of a main character as Asta, he just hasn't had anything to do yet, the story will just be kind of Asta focused for a while.

That's all I have to say this time, next time we'll actually enter the dungeon and see what our heroes encounter.

Next Time: "Spirits and Angels are Forever with you"