A/N: This technically a double update because I split the chapter in two for story-flow reasons. However, the last two times I did a double update, I noticed that the second chapter got a lot more hits than the first one? Not sure if it was a cause for some confusion. So this time I will be posting the second chapter approx. 24 hours later. So early Sunday morning/late Saturday night. Those of you who want to wait and read them together are welcome to do so!
Chapter Twenty
It was chaos. One minute he was standing on the porch waving at Erza and Gray and the next he was being slammed against the wall of an underground cavern by a pylon of pure muscle. The phosphorescence of the lacrimae that lined the walls threw the grotto into sharp relief. Natsu could make out a hulking shadow rising above the water to his left; horns, four legs, hooves, a tail. Was that a-?
"Everyone! Are you alright?" Erza slid down to her comrades, tiny stones scattering in her wake. Her lip was split, tracking blood down her face. Like her comrades, she too had been given a violent welcome. They had barely gotten to their feet when the grotto shook, and they were smashed against the wall again. Horns this time, rather than tail.
"Show yourself!" Erza demanded, requipping into her Heaven's Wheel armour and flying up.
The beast stepped forward, letting herself be illuminated by the glowing lacrimae. The shadows fell away from a muscular body that ascended fifty feet in the air. The clip-clop of her hooves, like steel on stone, echoed around the cavern. This far underground, the ceiling soared high above the curved horns upon the Ox's head. In a flash, her tail darted out and knocked Erza out of the air.
"Erza!" Lucy shouted, rushing over to her friend.
The Ox wasted no time; she used the distraction to swipe at Natsu and Gray. Gray cried out as the tip of the Ox's horn gored his left shoulder. Stomp! Her hooves crashed down. Charle pulled Wendy away in the nick of time. An ominous feeling was creeping up her spine. She shook her head to dismiss it. Now was not the time. The Fairy Tail wizards were in disarray; they had been ambushed.
Lucy flicked out her fleuve d'étoiles, using it to grab onto a stalactite and pull herself high into the air. "Stop!" she screamed, "we are the 99th Questers, what is your task?" This was a Guardian Spirit; she was sure of it. Nothing else could explain the magical energy that was pressing down on them. Why had the Guardian attacked their group without preamble? Why was there so much malicious intent permeating the air around them?
The Ox bared her teeth at Lucy, before opening her jaws and lowing right in her face. The sound shook Lucy to her core. The smell, the reek of a hundred years of sleep, blasted her, hot and sticky and wet. With a yelp she let go of her whip. Natsu scrambled to catch her as she fell.
"My task?" the Ox sneered, "Beat me in combat." She kicked out with her hind legs; the thump of her hooves against the wall causing lacrima-stalactites to break off and hurtle towards the group.
"Now you're talking," said Gray, rolling out of the way. He stripped off his jacket, along with the thick woollen sweater he wore beneath. "Time to get serious."
Wendy swept into the air with Charle. "Ile Arms! Ile Armour! Ile Vernier! Enchant!" Green beams of light rolled away from her arms, silhouetting her comrades' body as her enchantments increased their attack, defence and speed. "Sky Dragon Roar!"
"Fire Dragon Roar!" Natsu bobbed up beside her in Happy's arms, combining his attack with hers. The whirlwind of flames shot towards the Guardian Ox, hitting her square in the forehead. She flinched fractionally, before turning back to the two and moaning, the soundwaves powerful enough to knock the four wizards back.
"Ice Make: Lance!"
"Heaven's Wheel: Blumenblatt!" Erza slashed into the Ox's back hock in the wake of Gray's ice. She landed neatly some feet away, her secondary swords striking the Ox mere moments later. "Concentrate your attacks on her back leg," she called to the others, "If we can get her off balance it will be easier to take her down." The Ox's underbelly was too far up in the air for them to attack with efficiency.
"Amateurs," the Ox sneered. Her tail whipped out, catching Erza across the face and sending her barrelling into the back wall.
Undeterred, Erza rose from the rubble, requipping into her Morning Star armour. "Photon Slicer!"
Lucy ran forward, slipping past the Ox's forelegs to the safety of her underbelly. "Open. Gate of the Bull! Taurus!" She twisted the golden key in the air, calling forth the bovine Celestial Spirit. "Star Dress: Taurus Form!"
Crack! The bullwhip wrapped around the Ox's tail. "Not. So. Fast," Lucy grunted, pulling in the opposite direction. But even the enhanced strength of her Taurus Star Dress was no match for the Ox. She was jerked off her feet and swung up into the air. Below her, Taurus hacked away valiantly at the Ox's hindleg, but to no avail. The Ox skin was impenetrable. Lucy flipped away, using the momentum of the Ox's swing, and landed on her back. "Star Dress: Leo Form!" She sprinted up the Ox's back, right to her head. "Regulus Lucy Kick!"
Her foot swung out, enveloped in golden light and made contact with… quicksand. The entirety of the Ox's head had transformed to mushy earth. Lucy's eyes widened as she sank into the Ox's skin, knee deep in the mud. From her vantage point she could see her friends were suffering similar setbacks. Gray's Ice Makes were being melted instantaneously upon reaching the Ox's skin, Natsu's fire attacks were being swallowed up by water, and Erza struggled into the air, caught in a vice-grip by a mass of twigs spilling from the Ox's tail. Just what kind of creature was this? "Happy!"
"Aye Sir!" The Exceed sped over to Lucy, grabbed her about the shoulders and hoisted her into the air. The damp mud slicked away from her legs, disappearing once more into the Ox's forehead.
"Sky Dragon Wing Attack!" Wendy lashed out at the Ox, only to find her skin had turned to metal.
Charle pulled Wendy away. "She's using elemental magic to change the nature of her skin." They would never score a hit if they did not find a way past that.
"Regroup! Teams of two!" yelled Erza. The wizards ran, dodging this way and that to avoid the Ox as they formed up with their partners. Gray took his place beside Lucy, ready to freeze and manipulate the mud when it next appeared. Natsu lined up next to Wendy, prepared to unleash his fire on the Ox's metal. Happy and Charle grabbed their partners, lifting them into the air for aerial attacks.
"Let's try to attack all at once!" Erza instructed, reequipping into her Piercing Armour. "She can't defend against all of us at the same time." She twirled the silver jousting lance in her hand, a battle cry falling from her lips as she dove straight towards the Ox's skull.
"Shattering Light: Sky Drill!"
"Open. Gate of the Lion! Loke!"
"Regulus Impact!"
The three attacks fell on the Ox's head, back and hooves. Erza's lance made it a few feet into the Ox's thick skull before she was stopped short. Vines sprouted from the Ox's skin, grabbing her around the waist and throwing her down brutally.
The Ox's back sheeted into cold hard steel, making Wendy's attack bounce off it harmlessly. Natsu used the opening to swipe at the Ox's back with blazing feet. "Fire Dragon Claws!" But his suppressed fires were not hot enough to do any damage to the beast.
A lion made of pure light sprang from Loke's fist and bounded towards the Ox's hindleg. It crashed into the Ox, a split second after Taurus' axe. The Ox's leg moved back a mere inch. Pressing their advantage, Gray leapt into the air, bringing his hands together as he cast his spell. "Ice Make: Death Scythe!" He swung the heavy weapon towards the Ox's leg, only for the Ox to temporarily modify its skin to fire, melting the scythe before it had even made contact. The fire jumped up, catching Gray's trousers. He rolled on the ground to put out the blaze, his clothing now ragged beyond redemption.
Sensing the opening, the Ox let forth with her tail, thrashing all four of them across the cavern. Taurus and Loke mumbled an apology as they were returned to the Celestial World.
"Damn it, just how many elements does this Spirit have control over?" Gray mumbled, wiping the blood trailing from his lip.
On the other side of the room, Natsu was having his own problems. Try as he might, he was unable to break through the Ox's magical skin. Attack after attack, it stood, impervious to his magic. Even his combined attacks with Wendy were of no influence. Frustrated, he lashed out repeatedly at the Ox. He choked suddenly, as the Ox's entire back turned to water.
"Natsu, Happy. Move!"
The two of them flew out of the way just as a lightning bolt from Erza's spear crashed into the Ox. Garbed in her Lightning Empress Armour, Erza landed ankle-deep in the water and jabbed her spear into the Ox's back. She grit her teeth as the exploding lightning crackled across the water.
The Ox lowed, thrashing about the grotto. Moments later, her back had turned to earth. A stone launched itself from the mud, socking Erza in the stomach and sending her flying.
"Ice Make: Net!" Gray muttered hastily, stretching a series of nets across his end of the cavern.
Erza crashed through several of them, each net serving to lower the momentum of her fall. She landed in a crouch, scraping back several feet. She coughed, spitting up blood that shone like treacle in the phosphorescence.
Gray caught Natsu's eye and nodded. He charged towards the Ox, running up her foreleg and onto her head. "Ice Make: Hammer! Gungnir! Vambrace!" The last of these spells created a gauntlet of ice upon his hand. "Natsu!"
Natsu sprang down from Happy's arms, spinning in the air to generate momentum. He landed on Gray's outstretched palm just as Gray swung. Setting his body aflame, Natsu zoomed towards the Ox's tail. "Fire Dragon King Purgatory!"
He blazed forward, burning everything around him before exploding against the base of the Ox's tail; making her hide sizzle open. Quickly, before the Ox had time to manipulate her skin, Erza burst forth in her Clear Heart Armour. She delivered a series of swift strikes to the Ox's tail; sawing through the sinew until it hung limply by a thread.
The Ox raged. She stomped the ground, rocking the grotto with tremors. When the wizards were thrown off balance, she charged. She whipped her head into Natsu, flinging him far into the cavern's depths.
A spare second later, she had Erza's ponytail in her teeth. A violent shake of the Ox's head and Erza's bones were rattling in her body like a bag of loose change. With an angry moo, she cast Erza's limp form away. Erza crashed through a series of stalactites before falling. Screaming in agony, she bounced off the lacrimae lining the walls before landing on the floor, her spine broken.
"Erza!" Gray yelled, coughing at the cloud of dust thrown up by Erza's fall. He turned to the Ox a second too late. The Ox's horn caught him through the old wound in his left shoulder. She flipped him into the air, turning to deliver a swift kick with her hind quarters. Gray heard the bones in his legs crack from the Ox's metallic hooves. He landed, crumpled, in a heap of rubble, unable to feel his crushed legs.
Not one to forget her other enemies, the Ox then roared at Wendy and Charle; the force of her voice sending the two of them spiralling away. Charle crashed to the floor, using her body to cushion Wendy's. Her Aera dematerialised and she was filled again, with dread. Something terrible was about to happen.
"Enough!" said Lucy, scrambling to her feet in front of the Ox. She spread her arms out wide; whether to draw the Ox's attention or in an attempt to protect her friends, she was not sure. "Stop it! You'll kill them!"
Fear shot down her spine as the Ox struck a stalagmite to her left. "You can't kill them." Lucy strengthened her voice. "You're not allowed to kill them at the first encounter. It's in the Rules!"
The Ox paused in her rampage, her ears quirking in surprise. "How do you know of the Rules?"
"What do you mean?" Lucy demanded, "We are the Questers. We are entitled to the rules!"
That was the wrong thing to say. The Ox raised her face to the heavens, her teeth bared in anger. "Entitled, are you?!" she roared, "You are entitled to nothing. Not my time, not my Key and certainly not the Great Gift." She spat, the outsized glob heading straight for Lucy. "I made a mistake the last time, I certainly don't plan to make one again." She pawed the ground before charging, hatred brimming from her eyes.
"Lucy!" Happy whizzed down and lifted his comrade away, mere seconds before the Ox's horn punched through the air where Lucy had been.
"I can't kill you, you say," the Ox jeered, "there are plenty of ways to stop you without killing you."
The Ox hummed, a low guttural sound springing from her throat. Suddenly, water was bursting forth from her body, every surface a font. It began to fill the cavern, threatening to submerge the wizards.
Happy dropped Lucy on a high ledge and left to rescue his drowning comrades. Lucy saw Erza, her body twisted in an improbable heap and prayed Happy would get to her before the water could. Anger twisted her gut. What was this Ox's problem? Like the Snake Guardian, she seemed to have taken against the Questers, determined to destroy them without giving them a reason why. Her knee buckled and Lucy realised, with grim resignation, that she was almost out of magic. There was only one thing left for her to do. She pulled forth a golden key and played her trump card.
"Open. Gate of the Twins! Gemini!" The celestial spirits merged, reforming into an identical incarnation of Lucy. "You know what to do," Lucy said. She laced her fingers with her doppelganger's and began to chant. "Survey the Heavens. Open the Heavens. All the stars far and wide, show me thy appearance, with such shine."
The roof of the cavern blinked, dissolving into a pool of black, the stars and planets in the sky above suddenly visible. Glowing orbs of magic began to descend into the cavern, circling the Ox Guardian.
Lucy shut her eyes, channelling the last of her energy. "Oh Tetrabiblos, I am the ruler of the stars. Aspect become complete; open thy malevolent gate. Oh 88 Stars of the heaven… Shine!"
Her eyes flew open as she and Gemini directed their magic towards the Ox. "Urano Metria!"
The spheres of magic burst forward, converging on the Ox, exploding over her body. Lucy fell to her knees, Gemini disappearing back through their gate. That was it. Her most powerful spell. She blinked slowly, her eyes struggling to stay open now that her magic was depleted. Surely it was enough to have dealt the Ox some damage?
A rumbling echoed through the cavern as the dust around the Ox cleared. Her back had split open, discs of swirling elemental magic rising high on her skin. Through the gaping wound, Lucy saw stars and planets and something else. Something iridescent. The Key!
"You fool!" the Ox laughed, her back sewing itself closed, "I am made of the magic that birthed yours. Do you truly think it would impact me?" Almost lazily, she rose up on her hind legs and swatted at Lucy. Lucy cried out as she was sent sprawling over the lip of the rock, down to the storming waters below.
"Lucy!" Gray moved, blood leaking from his damaged shoulder. He crawled forward, using his good hand to move himself to the edge of the water. "Ice Make," he muttered, lacking the energy to finish wording the spell. The ice flew forward from his fingertips, an icy fist snatching Lucy out of the air and returning her to the rest of them.
"Are you done?" The Ox leered down at them. "Or do you want to come back another day and try again?" She did not wait for a reply, instead tipping her head into the water, sending wave after wave towards the wizards.
"Damn it," Natsu whispered, rising unsteadily to his feet. Lucy was hurt. Erza was unable to stand. He could not even look at Gray, the way his arm was hanging loose from his body. He cast a glance at Wendy, the only member of their party remaining with strength enough to fight the beast. Even she was panting, her reserves of magic running low. There was no way they could retreat, there was no way they could defeat the Ox Guardian if she stopped holding back. There could be no next time. "Wendy," he said quietly, "let me go."
Wendy's eyes widened as she took in his meaning. She darted a glance at Erza, clocking the imperceptible shake of Erza's head. No. Erza struggled to stand, her broken spine be damned, the pain coursing through her body be damned.
"I said, let me go!" Natsu shouted.
Wendy glanced once more at Erza and then again, over to Lucy's unconscious body. Erza-san would just have to forgive her this time. "High Enchant: Deus Sepeleo!"
A glowing green circle appeared under Natsu; a blaze of magic drifting upwards and circling his body.
Charle's eyes widened as she took in the scene before her. The dread she had been struggling to silence came back in full force. This feeling she was having. It was déjà vu.
"Reverse!" Wendy slashed the air, cancelling the magic circle.
The flames licked up Natsu's body, burning the vibrant orange-red of a Fire Dragon. "It was a bad idea, laying a finger on my friends," he said, as the full force of his magic returned to him, "I'm going to turn you to ash."
A flare of light and Natsu was gone, attacking the Guardian Ox with all he had.
Charle staggered as clarity struck her with its full force. It had been months prior, standing in a balcony in Tekka, her shoulders shaking as the vision resolved itself in her head. She had seen this before. She had seen it all before. Natsu would go all out to defeat the Guardian Spirit. The poison would burn him up from the inside. This was it. This was the moment she had foreseen and sworn to prevent. This was how Natsu died.
A/N 2: Ending on a cliffhanger is such a cheap tactic but it was the natural position for me to split the chapter. The next chapter finishes off the battle but also has some other stuff. You'll find out soon enough.
A/N 3: Just wanted to let you know, that despite Happy calling out the author last chapter, everything in this story is PLANNED. That includes the Rules of the Quest (though I will admit I wrote 6 weeks last chapter instead of 2 months. Oops. Tiny oversight, will fix that). The rules clearly said 'do something related to the quest.' Not my fault they took it to mean find a key. The words I choose to use for things in this story are usually pretty intentional; hopefully that will be clear by the time the story is wrapped up.
Thanks to everyone who fave/followed and REVIEWED! I was surprised (and thrilled), I usually get like two reviews a chapter. Idk if it was the shameless begging or if y'all just have a lot of time on your hands on Thursday mornings. Whatever it was, lmk so I can do it again, ha ha ha.
As always, please fave/follow or leave a review if you feel like it :). Until tomorrow!
