N/N: Huh, well…it's been so long, I've almost forgotten what to do in these upper notes. Oh right! Reviews!
Guest (Aug 9th): I am so sorry! It has been so long since you left your review (our first review), and all I can say is those few words of positivity you left means a lot to myself and duo. Seriously, I cannot explain how excited we are to know you are enjoying our story.
Here we go, the first chapter off hiatus!
*Disclaimer: neither duodragoon nor I own/have any affiliation with Fairy Tail; all rights go to Hiro Mashima. Seriously, we just do this for fun*
The New Fairy Tail
Guild Battle Arc
Chapter 17: A Coup de Grace
*The fog settles and we now see Duo standing between Gray and the girls. He is in Metal Mode and now his tattoo is glowing red (matching his eyes). Gray has a big grin on his face and begins to walk forward slowly*
"So, you finally made it Iron Dragon Slayer...you have your father's eyes, you know that?" Duo remains silent. Gray continues walking forward as his tattoo spreads up his arm, coming to rest on his shoulder, "Out of all the possibilities of fights, you were who I wanted to fight the most. Simon may be the strongest and Raiu is a 5th generation wizard, but you...you did something even more interesting." Gray stops halfway from Duo, "You took my princess and made her soft; made her weak like you all, so I'm gonna get her back."
Duo speaks for the first time, "Call this off Gray, there's no need for us to fight." Gray replies, "Oh yes there is, for you see, to get back my princess I'll use your battered body. Once she sees that, then *Gray snaps his fingers* she's daddy's little girl again." Duo clenches his fist, "She's not some play thing you can control. If you don't understand that, then I'll force you to." Duo gets into his fighting stance. Gray, recognizing the talking is done, gets into his fighting stance too and flings his top off. We see his tattoo has spread half way across his body. Gray punches his fist into his palm and the whole room freezes.
"I won't be holding back metal brain," Gray then launches forward, the air around his hand begins to freeze; Duo crosses his arms to block the attack. The impact sends a shock wave that quickly freezes and Duo is sent flying. In midair, Duo catches himself and flings several metal spikes towards Gray. Gray easily dodges the metal, then jumps up and collides with Duo; they struggle in the air for a moment when Duo sees Gray is smiling. Realizing why, Duo swings at him forcing Gray away.
Akiko yells, "Duo, what are you doing? Kick his ass!" Raiu punches her arm, "Pay attention." She then points at Duo's arm, encouraging Akiko to follow her gaze and sees that the arm that collided with Gray is now frozen solid. Duo punches his palm with the frozen arm, shattering the ice freeing his hand. Akiko looks over at Raiu, "I don't get it." Raiu shakes her head, "It's simple: Duo is a close-range fighter, relying on hard hits and being in close, while Gray is a mid-range fighter who can go up close or far away when need be. He's also using Ice Magic, which has a negative effect on metal."
She looks over at Akiko who has question marks for eyes; officially annoyed, Raiu simplifies it further, "Duo is in a very bad position and has no way of beating Gray on his own." Now fully understanding the situation, Akiko panics, "So what is he gonna do?" While the two have been talking, Gray and Duo have clashed several times with Duo coming up short every time. Duo lands close to the girls and stumbles a bit. He is breathing heavily and still has many small ice chunks stuck to him. Gray lands with some minor cuts, but nothing major. His tattoo now covers half of his body
"Well you've done better than I thought you would, but not good enough," Gray comments as he begins to charge up his next attack. Duo steps back and whispers to the girls, "When I give the signal, I want you two to hit us with everything you got left." Immediately concerned, Akiko asks, "What are you planning!? In your condition, there's no way you'll be able to distract him long enough to-!" Duo looks back at her and she stops. She nods in agreement.
Snow now swirls around Gray, "Time to say goodbye, metal head. ICE MAKE: -!" Before he can finish Duo disappears. Gray looks around, "Where did you go!?" Suddenly, Gray feels someone put him in a full-nelson hold, "I'm right here old man! Akiko, Raiu; now!" Gray looks over and sees both girls standing hand in hand, facing Gray and Duo. Gray begins struggling and freezing Duo, "Let me go you worm!"
Akiko and Raiu yell out, "UNISON RAID: GRAND LIGHTNING!" as a huge bolt launches forward. There is a huge explosion that sends dust and debris flying everywhere. The girls cover their faces to protect themselves. "Did we get him?" Akiko asks as the dust begins to settle. "I'll admit, I didn't see that coming," Gray walks out, "I was barely able to dodge that." He is holding his side, which is burned showing that he didn't fully dodge the blast.
Both Akiko and Raiu are horrified that, even with all their power, he's still standing. Raiu whispers to Akiko, "I don't know about you, but I'm spent." Akiko whispers back, "Yeah well, I can't do too much either. I put all my power in that last shot." As they're whispering, Gray is inching closer and closer, "Well it's been a blast, girls, but it's time to end you." Gray raises his hand and begins to freeze the air, but the cathedral shakes. Everyone stops and looks around before they hear a loud roar.
Holding their ears, Akiko asks, "What the hell is this!?" Raiu yells back, "Look!" From the dust, blue light peers through. The sound stops, and the rumbling begins to die down along with the light. Once the light is gone, the only thing that can be seen is two blue beams that resemble eyes. After a few seconds, they turn red.
*We see Simon is going blow for blow against the demon*
Simon sees an opening and upper cuts the demon, sending him flying into the wall. Quickly Simon rushes over and pins the demon against the wall. Simon unleashes a barrage of blows to the body and face of the beast. He grabs him by the neck and cocks back his fist, "Say goodbye beast!" He begins to swing his fist forward then stops as he sees his face. Part of the ice is gone, revealing Brazz's face with blue eyes and frosted white hair. "What are you doing in there!?"
The demon struggles then opens its mouth and unleashes a blizzard. Simon jumps back to a safe distance, "This is tougher than expected. What did that person do to him?" The ice grows back covering Brazz's face again; the beast roars and begins charging up another ice blizzard. Simon gets up and winces in pain he looks down at his side and sees an ice shard sticking out of his side, "Damn!"
The blast is sent flying at Simon, who doesn't have time to dodge or counter. A huge, black fire ball crashes down and cancels the blizzard, causing a dense fog cloud to form. Through the fog, a figure jumps down, picks up Simon, and jumps away. Once the fog clears the demon looks around for his prey.
"Hey!"
A familiar voice yells. The ice demon looks up to see Kaizer standing on a nearby rooftop, behind him is Simon being held up by Silvia, "What the heck are you, and why are you interrupting this guild match!" Simon answers, "That thing is Brazz. I don't know how, but he's transformed, and we need to stop him." Kaizer looks back at Simon in shock, "No way, I've never seen him use this before! It can't be him!" Simon tries to get up, but falls and begins coughing. "Wait a second, ice is still there. Let me help," Silvia says as she pulls the ice out of his side.
As she's holding the ice, her hand starts glowing as it dissolves 'What the,' she asks herself. Simon coughs again and blood starts pouring out of his side; Silvia puts her glowing hands over the hole and notices an instant reaction. The wound left by the ice is healing incredibly fast now. The wound is healed in seconds; once it's done Simon stands next to Kaizer and Silvia stands next to him. "So, what do we do now," Kaizer asks as the demon circles below, like a lion stalking its prey.
"I have an idea, I'm not sure it will work, but if it does he should be stopped," Simon says. Silvia asks, "Will it kill him?" To which Simon replies, "Mavis I hope not. I need you two to distract him while I charge up for this." Kaizer and Silvia nod, "Awesome, how long?" Simon shrugs, "Eh about 3 minutes, and since I'm the strongest here and that thing can heal...naw, there's two of you; you'll be fine." Kaizer and Silvia look at each other a little concerned, then jump down.
"Now let's get started," a magic circle appears below Simon and out rises a sword covered in a lot of chains. Simon's right gauntlet begins to glow red while his left begins to glow blue. As he begins a ritual, screaming and roaring is heard from below. A huge ice ball goes flying one way causing an explosion, while a wave goes flying the opposite direction and another explosion is heard seconds later, then a black fire ball is launched but is blocked by a blizzard [N/N: basically, total chaos].
Two minutes later, the last chain falls off and Simon grabs the sword, "Alright guys, stand clear!" They both jump up looking exhausted: scrapes, bruises, ripped clothes, and messed up hair. Angrily Kaizer huffs, "Next time you do the distracting; we'll charge up." Simon nods as he grips his sword: it is a Great Sword with angel wings on the cross guard and black leather on the grip. The blade begins to glow white, "Now I strike down with the power of light; cleanse this imperfection and free the boy trapped inside!" Simon jumps high in the air, punches the air, and the wave sends him flying back to Earth at an incredible speed. The demon roars and Simon raises his sword over his shoulder,
"Mavis's Light!"
He slices through the demon's shoulder and the wound glows white. For a few seconds there is no reaction, then the demon roars as it begins to glow white and explodes in a blinding light. The light fades as Kaizer and Silvia look down, they see Simon holding the unconscious body of Brazz. Kaizer and Silvia jump down, with Silvia taking Brazz while Kaizer takes Simon who looks to be suffering from magical exhaustion. "Heh, guess that took more magic than I thought it would," Simon mumbles as he passes out.
Silvia begins to walk which forces Kaizer to ask, "Where are you going?" Silvia responds, "The guild hall; these two are gonna need some medical attention." Kaizer then asks, "You sure about that?" She looks back at him and all he can reply is, "Alright, following you."
*rewind to right before the unison raid*
*We see Duo holding Gray right before the bolt hits them. Gray breaks free and dodges just enough for only his side to get hit, but the blast hits Duo fully. The explosion turns everything white. We see Duo standing in a foggy room; the fog is too dense to see anything else*
'Why does this place seem so familiar?' Duo turns around and sees two huge glowing blue eyes staring down at him. Duo is startled and gets in a fighting stance; he grips his tattoo, which is glowing the same blue as the eyes. The eyes notice his sudden movement and start to fade away. "Wait! What are you? Where is this? Tell me!" As the eyes fade farther away, Duo begins to hear a sound from behind him. He turns to see a light closing in on him. The light surrounds him and he is blinded. For a few seconds he can't hear or see anything, then he hears Akiko, "Duo! Duo, Duo answer me!"
Duo snaps, "What Sparky!? Why the hell are you yelling at me, what happened!?" Akiko still sounding frantic answers, "Well me and Raiu did our unison raid and shot you and Gray, but he dodged it, so you took the full force of the blast." Duo blinks, then responds with a blank stare, "So…I'm dead?" Duo's vision starts to return. Akiko then says, "I don't think you are... But that's not why I'm this amazed; look at yourself Duo!"
Once Duo's vision returns he looks down at his hands, "Well this is different... Wait..." He looks more at himself; instead of being black steel, his metal scales are now golden with sparks flying off him, "How the hell am I GOLD!?"
Akiko yells back, "I don't know! I thought you'd know!"
"What did you do bolt for brains?!"
"Only what you asked, golden boy!"
Gray, seeing this as an opening, sends a wave of ice at Duo. Duo sees this and disappears seconds before it hits, leaving sparks behind. Seconds later, a bolt hits a few feet away from where Duo was, and Duo appears, albeit stumbling. Everyone is shocked, most of all Duo. Gray shouts in frustration, "What the hell is this!? Now you guys are sharing powers! This is bullshit!" Gray slams his hands on the ground and waves of ice spikes start rising out of the ground and head towards the girls. Recognizing the danger, Duo disappears again and reappears in front of the girls. "Hope this works," he mumbles as he punches the ground.
A bolt of lightning strikes and sends a wave that cancels out the spike wave and sends Gray flying into a wall. Duo looks down at his golden hands as sparks fly off; his fingertips turn black, 'It's fading fast. Hopefully I can end this before my time is up.' Duo looks over and sees Gray getting out of the wall. His body is now fully covered in his tattoo: his muscles have grown, and his hair is spiked up [N/N: he looks like a bigger meaner version of Brazz]. He is breathing heavily and everything around him is being incased in a thick layer of purple ice.
In a deep beastly voice Gray yells, "I think I just found the newest ice sculpture for my collection. YOU Gajeel Redfox! Now, prepare for eternity!" Gray's eyes turn black and the cathedral begins to rumble; he lifts both of his hands near his face and ice begins to rise all around the room. Duo disappears and instantly hits Gray with a lightning powered uppercut. Duo launches a teleporting barrage, hitting Gray with tons of punches and kicks. Gray lets out a yell and a blizzard is unleashed, blowing Duo away. Duo lands on the other side of the room.
Gray notices the color fading from Duo and cockily starts walking over to Duo, "Looks like your time's running out metal boy: for your new color change, and your life." Gray is now standing in front of a Duo that looks like he's been hit by a battleship. Gray puts his palm out facing Duo, "Any last words, boy!?" Duo takes a deep breath, "Just a few..." His scales disappear as he lifts his head towards Gray,
"Iron Dragon's Grand Roar!"
Out of his mouth shoots a combination of metal shards and electricity so grand that a hole in the ceiling of the cathedral is made that spans the width of the cathedral. The dust settles, and Gray is motionless, with his eyes rolled back and mouth agape. For a minute there is silence, then Gray slowly falls backwards followed by a loud thump. Duo slowly gets up and stands over the unconscious Gray, "It's over old man, we won; Fairy Tail is number one."
He then turns to walk away, as Akiko and Raiu get up and begin to walk towards Duo. From Duo's perspective, the girls begin to run to him as his vision blurs and the floor comes into view. Akiko catches Duo right before he hits the ground with Raiu kneeling next to her, "Duo, Duo wake up. You gotta wake up. Duo, DUO!" Akiko yells with no response from the motionless Duo.
N/N: Ah, it is good to be back. Hopefully, I will be making a chapter post every two weeks, if not two then definitely three weeks. Anyway, this arc is (technically) over! *confetti flies all over* If you have read this far, let me say thank you for reading and be sure to follow/favorite/review to let us what you think!
Until next time FanFiction, this is
…
duodragoon & SkyFlameDragon
…
Signing off
