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40.11% Fairy Tail: Metal and Threads / Chapter 277: Gajeel Found His Cat

Chapter 277: Gajeel Found His Cat

Edolas, Edolas Continent, Floating Landmass.

November, x784.

While Marin was fighting Sugarboy, Panther Lily, the Captain of the First Magic War Division arrived at the floating landmass that housed the giant lacrima. And when he did, he was not surprised when he saw two intruders standing in front of it.

"So, His Majesty was right." Panther Lily said, floating in front of the landmass while reaching for the large sword that was strapped on his back. "I will stop you from destroying the hope of the Edolas Kingdom."

"Really?" Alfonzo asked with his eyes narrowed. "If the hope of this kingdom relies on the sacrifice of uninvolved parties, it's no better than a Dark Guild. And if that's the case, this kingdom doesn't need to exist."

Hearing Alfonzo's declaration, Panther Lily was shaken momentarily. However, his loyalty to his kingdom was currently overwriting his sense of right and wrong.

"Though, I understand what you're talking about, I cannot betray my king." Panther Lily replied, the resolve returning to his eyes.

"Whatever, that king of yours won't be in power much longer." Alfonzo said with a shrug. "Gajeel, he's all yours. This guy wouldn't even be a warm up for me."

"Haha! Hell yeah!" Gajeel cheered excitedly. Then, he pointed his right index finger at Panther Lily as he continued. "I'm gonna beat you up, cat. And when I do, you're gonna follow me back home."

"Bold words." Panther Lily replied while narrowing his eyes. "Especially when speaking to the Captain of the First Magic War Division. Now, allow me, Panther Lily, to show you why I have that title."

With that, Panther Lily pulled the large sword that was comparable to his own height off his back. However, when he held it in front of him, it began growing at an alarming speed. By the time it stopped, it was four times as tall as the Exceed.

"Alright, this should be fun." Gajeel said as he formed his hands into a trumpet shape before putting them in front of his mouth. "[Iron Dragon's Roar]."

With that, a spinning metallic mass capable of inflicting massive blunt force while the sharp iron shards spinning in the twister were able to shred its target spun towards Panther Lily.

Completely unbothered by Gajeel's spell, Panther Lily drew his sword back. Then, when the spell was close enough, he swung the flat of his blade at it, successfully redirecting it away from himself. Though, he did not notice that the spell went flying off in the direction of the city after curving around.

In fact, the reason the spell flew off towards the city is because Natsu, Happy, Lucy, Wendy and Carla were about to be surrounded by the soldiers of the Royal Army. So, Alfonzo took control of Gajeel's spell and opened a path for them.

Meanwhile, Gajeel threw a punch towards Panther Lily from a distance. And just as his punch reached its end, Gajeel's fist turned into iron before it was launched at Panther Lily.

"[Iron Dragon's Club]." Gajeel chanted as he repeatedly threw punches at his airborne opponent.

At the same time, Panther Lily had already had enough of the passive role in this fight. So, instead of waiting for the [Iron Dragon's Club] to arrive, he flew towards it. Then, when he was in range…

*Shing!* *Shing!* *Shing!*

… Panther Lily wielded his oversized sword masterfully, despite its unwieldy size, cutting all the incoming projectiles in half before they could reach him.

"Not bad!" Gajeel shouted excitedly. "but how about this? [Dragon Slayer Secret Art: Karma Demon's Iron God Sword]."

*Clap!*

With his chant, Gajeel clapped his hands above his head. Then, his hands turned into iron and elongated into a gigantic blade. A moment later, Gajeel swung his arms down with all his might, cleaving the gigantic blade down at Panther Lily.

"Impressive." Panther Lily said as he readied himself to swing his own giant sord. "but not enough. No blade in existence can match my Bustermarm."

"Hmph!" Alfonzo snorted from his position behind Gajeel. "I've made better, more functional swords than that one on a whim."

Hearing Alfonzo's mockery, Panther Lily's eye twitched. Still, he was not deterred from swinging his sword to meet Gajeel's blade.

*Shing!*

And just as he said, Gajeel's blade was unable to match Panther Lily's sword as the blade was cleanly cut in two.

Seeing that his [Karma Demon's Iron God Sword] was not enough to even slow Panther Lily down, Gajeel was forced to leap to the side to avoid the swooping Exceed. Alfonzo, on the other hand, did not even deem it necessary to move from where he stood.

"Now that there's no one between us, why don't you try the power of my sword directly?" Panther Lily said as he swung his sword at Alfonzo with all his might. On top of that, the two lacrima imbedded on the blade began to glow in a bright, reddish-orange color as the blade approached Alfonzo.

Although Panther Lily was a tolerant and gentle Exceed, at his core, he was a warrior. And his warrior's pride could not handle Alfonzo mocking the partner he had stepped into battle with many times.

"[Buster Bomb]." Panther Lily chanted as his sword was about to make contact with its target.

"Wrong move." Alfonzo said, holding up one finger in front of the incoming, giant blade.

Then… Nothing happened.

The [Buster Bomb] was the special ability of Panther Lily's magic sword. Upon impact, it causes a large explosion. But using it against Alfonzo was not a good idea. In fact, if Panther Lily had more information about Alfonzo, he would have never tried to do so.

Still, the visual effect of Alfonzo stopping his sword with only one finger was almost too much for Panther Lily to comprehend.

"How… is this… possible?" Panther Lily asked.

"Like I said, you're not even a warm up for me." Alfonzo said before flicking away Panther Lily's blade. "Now, be a good kitty and go play with Gajeel."

'*Sigh* I have to admit, I'm really surprised they use the same sigils as they do back on Earth Land for their magic item crafting.' Alfonzo thought to himself. 'But it's a good thing they do. Otherwise, I would have been able to stop the sword, but I wouldn't have been able to stop the explosion. I guess I should change the sigils back, too. That way Gajeel will have more fun.'

*Ding!*

Meanwhile, Alfonzo's flick sent Panther Lily spinning away from Alfonzo along with his sword.

"[Iron Dragon Incarnation]." Gajeel chanted.

Hearin Gajeel's chant, Panther Lily decided that now was not the time to ponder how Alfonzo stopped his sword so easily. Looking in the direction the chant came from, Panther Lily saw Gajeel was being covered by what appeared to be liquid iron that took on the form of a humanoid dragon with a long, thick tail, metallic wings, and a hinged jaw.

"Now, let's see how you do when your opponent can fly, too." Gajeel said, his voice sounding much more bestial in his new form.

A moment later, Gajeel flapped the wings on his back and he.. didn't move.

"Huh?" Gajeel exclaimed in confusion. "What's the big idea?"

"*Sigh* Why are so many of the Dragon Slayers I know morons?" Alfonzo asked himself.

"Hey, don't lump me in with Salamander!" Gajeel shouted in response.

"Gajeel, do you have any idea how heavy you are, right now?" Alfonzo aske, ignoring Gajeel's protest. "It's gonna take a lot more magic power than that to get yourself airborne."

"Oh, that makes sense." Gajeel replied in an enlightened tone.

Meanwhile, Panther lily was too surprised that Gajeel's wings did not seem to work to take advantage of Gajeel's confusion. Unfortunately, he would not get another chance to do so.

*Swoosh!*

With another flap of his wings, Gajeel shot up into the sky, directly at Panther Lily.

"Even if you're covered in iron, it's useless." Panther Lily said, preparing his sword to cut down Gajeel. "You should have seen it already, Bustermarm can cut through iron with little effort."

With that, Panther Lily attempted to cleave Gajeel in half.

*Clang!*

To Panther Lily's surprise, however, Gajeel simply raised his left arm and blocked the incoming slash with an excited grin on his face.

"Do you really think an iron dragon's scales would be the same as ordinary iron?" Gajeel asked as he griped the blade of Panther Lily's Bustermarm with both of his hands. "Now, let's see how the iron of this world tastes."

Seeing Gajeel opening his mouth wide, Panther Lily tried to activate his [Buster Bomb] once again. Unfortunately for him, Gajeel bit down on the sword too fast. As a result, many of the sigils necessary to activate the ability were destroyed.

*Chomp!* *Chomp!* *Chomp!*

"Hmm… not as good as the metals Alfonzo makes, but not bad, either." Gajeel said while licking his lips.

Once again, Panther Lily could only look on at his companion of many years with disbelief. This time, however, it would seem that he would be looking upon it for the last time.

Meanwhile, Gajeel had already eaten nearly half of the extremely long blade. Then, he yanked the rest of it out of Panther Lily's hand while he was confused.

"Hey, Alfonzo, can you keep the rest of this for me?" Gajeel asked as he tossed the remainder of Panther Lily's Bustermarm in Alfonzo's direction. "It will make a great midnight snack."

"Sure." Alfonzo replied as he caught the sword's hilt. "But I'll be taking the lacrima for myself.

"Whatever." Gajeel replied. "It's not like I have any use for them, anyway."

By this time, Panther Lily had finally come out of his confused state. Instead of retreating, however, he adopted a hand-to-hand fighting stance.

"Even if my weapon is gone, I will not give up as long as I have the strength to stand." Panther Lily said.

"That's the spirit." Gajeel said as he slapped his wings and darted towards his opponent. "[[Iron Dragon's Club]."

While flying towards Panther Lily, Gajeel threw a punch, his arm elongating as he did so. In response, Panther Lily calmly flapped his wings and avoided the iron fist narrowly. Then, once Gajeel's momentum brought him close enough, the Exceed threw a devastating right hook into Gajeel's ribs.

"Gah!" Gajeel grunted from the force behind Panther Lily's blow.

At the same time, Panther Lily winced in pain as he felt like the bones in his fist were about to shatter. Before he could recover, however, he was forced to flap his wings to avoid another punch from the Iron Dragon Slayer.

Like that, the back and forth between Gajeel and Panther Lily continued in midair. Though they were both able to fly, Gajeel was not experienced enough with aerial combat to catch Panther Lily. Meanwhile, although Panther Lily was able to land many successful attacks on Gajeel, to do any real amount of damage, he risked crippling himself.

"Well, it looks like this is gonna take a while." Alfonzo muttered as he looked up at the midair combatants. "I wonder if Lici found the key to the Anima yet?"

And just as that thought left Alfonzo's mouth, Elicia had finally caught up to Coco in the Castle's underground.

Edolas, Edolas Continent, Royal Capital.

"Hey, stop!" Elicia shouted as she swung down the corridors of the Royal Capital's underground area. "I'm not with the ones who want to use the Anima for evil. I promise, I'm not a suspicious person."

"Only a suspicious person says that." Coco replied while running at full speed.

"Oh, come on!" Elicia shouted back. "I'm from Earth land. There's no reason for me to turn the Exceed into lacrima crystals, is there?'

Hearing that, Coco started to consider Elicia's words. Before she could slow down, however, she ran through a door and ended up in an underground amusement park with Elicia following shortly afterward.

"Great." Elicia muttered, casting [Hiding in Plain Sight] as soon as she entered the amusement park. "I was hoping to stop her before we got here."

"Well, well, well… Look who it is." Hughes said, walking towards Coco from the depth of the amusement park. "It's quite amazing that you could get away from the captains for so long, Coco."

"Hughes…." Coco muttered as she skidded to a stop. "Ouch!"

"Oh my, it looks like you've hurt your feet." Hughes said in a carefree tone. "Now, it's time to end this game. Give back that amazing key you stole and your punishment will be lighter.""

"No.." Coco muttered as she tried to take a step back. "Ow!"

Unfortunately, the damage to Coco's feet from running around the stone floors barefoot for so long, mixed with the stop she just made, was too much for her to bare. As a result, she fell backward, landing on her butt.

"Now, now, don't be so stubborn." Hughes said as he approached. "I promise, His Majesty's generosity is amazing. Your punishment won't be too harsh."

At this point, Hughes' hand was less than an inch (2.54 cm) away from the key in Coco's arms. Before he could grab it, however, it, along with Coco, was yanked away from Hughes' grasp.

"You know what?" Elicia asked from the ceiling of the underground amusement park. "I think I'll take her with me, 'kay?"


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
SixthSense1029 SixthSense1029

I still feel like shit, but I wrote another one.

next chapter

Chapter 278: Command Tact

Edolas, Edolas Continent, Royal Capital.

November, x784.

After being yanked away from Hughes, Coco, who was now being held in one of Elicia's arms, blinked her eyes in confusion.

At the same time, Hughes retracted his hand slowly while his ever present smile began to twitch in annoyance. Then, he raised his head to see the one who got in the way of him completing his king's orders.

But when he caught sight of the one who stopped him, Hughes could not help but open his eyes wide in surprise.

"Amazing!" Hughes exclaimed with an amused smile on his face. "Knightwalker was right. You really do look amazingly similar to the late Captain Phyllis."

Hearing Hughes' exclamation, Coco finally snapped out of her daze. Then, she looked at the person who was holding her. And like Hughes, she also opened her eyes wide in surprise.

"Miss Elicia..." Coco muttered with tears in her eyes.

Although the person Coco was closest to in the Royal Army at present is Panther Lily, that was not always the case. In fact, before she committed suicide, Elicia Phyllis was the one who raised her. In fact, Coco saw her more as a mother figure than anything else.

Hearing the longing in Coco's voice, Elicia looked at her with a complicated expression. Though it was not to the extent that most of her weird admirers, she could tell that the little girl in her arms was drawn to her.

"*Sigh* I know what you're thinking." Elicia said, smiling at Coco awkwardly. "But I'm not the Elicia you know. I'm her counterpart from the world you've been stealing magic from."

Although she already knew that, coco could not help but feel a bit disappointed. Still, the way she gazed at Elicia made the Fairy Tail wizard feel a bit uncomfortable.

'Stop looking at me like that." Elicia thought to herself as she averted her gaze from the big, tear-filled eyes that stared at her. 'You're making me feel like I'm about to abandon a puppy.'

"As heartwarming as this is, I have orders to fulfill." Hughes said as he pulled a cylindrical magic wand with a flat disc and a spherical lacrima near its center from the inside of his uniform jacket. "But before I take you to see His Majesty, allow me to show you an amazing time at the Royal Capital's amazing amusement park!"

With that said, Hughes raised his wand like a conductor who was about to start directing an orchestra. Before he could wave the wand, however, a thin thread wrapped around it.

"Huh?" Hughes exclaimed in confusion, staring at the thread wrapped around his magic weapon.

"I'm not really a fan of amusement parks." Elicia said, a thread extending from the tip of the index finger of her free hand. "So, I'll take that, too."

Like that, Elicia jerked her index finger. At the same time, she retracted the thread extending from it. A moment later, Hughes' magic wand was held securely in her hand.

"Hey, give that back!" Hughes shouted angrily.

"No, I think I'll hang on to it." Elicia replied with a smile. "Fonzie might find the sigils interesting, after all. As for you, I'd rather not have you telling the rest of the army what happened here. So..."

As she spoke, Elicia slowly lowered herself and Coco from the ceiling. Then, once she reached the floor, the first thing she did was put Coco down on the floor right next to her. After that, she used her threads to strap Hughes' magic wand to her back. Then, she pointed both her hands at Hughes, who had turned around to run away.

"Thread Magic: Thread Entanglement]." Elicia chanted as she jerked her arms backwards.

In the next instant, threads from all directions rushed towards Hughes. Then, they wrapped him tightly from just below his neck to the bottoms of his feet.

*Thud!*

And due to the momentum from his attempt to run away, Hughes ended up falling to the floor, face first.

"Ow... That hurt." Hughes muttered. "I think I might have broken my nose."

"Alright, that's done." Elicia said with a refreshed expression. Then, she looked down towards Coco. "Now, what do you think about giving me that key?"

"Miss Elicia, you're back!" Coco cried as the tears finally fell from her eyes. Then, she dropped the key in her arms and threw herself at Elicia. "I missed you so much."

Sighing in exasperation, Elicia could only smile wryly as she used her threads to catch the key to the Anima before it slammed into the floor as Coco wrapped herself around her torso like a koala. Unfortunately, Elicia knew that she had to break this little girl's illusion. Before she could, however, another voice spoke first.

"Pathetic." An elderly voice said from the top of the tracks of the roller coaster in the center of the amusement park. "I advised His Majesty from promoting you to the Captain of the Third Magic War Division. It seems he should have heeded my advice."

"Byro!" Hughes exclaimed as he raised his head, revealing his face that was covered in his own blood. "Your timing is amazing. Now that you're here, we can get the key back."

"What do you mean 'we'?" Byro asked in a disdainful tone. "The Royal Army has no place for such a failure."

As soon as he finished speaking, Byro reached into his robe and pulled out a pair of vials. Then, he threw one of them down at Hughes, intending to finish him off before taking care of Elicia and Coco.

"Wait, are you serious?" Hughes asked with disbelief in his tone.

Before the vial could land on him, however, Hughes was dragged away from where he lay by Elicia's threads.

*Shatter!*

A moment later, the vial shattered when it hit the floor. Then, as soon as the liquid in the vial made contact with the floor, it burst into a torrent of searing hot flames that began spreading towards Elicia, Hughes, and Coco.

"I really don't like this kingdom." Elicia said while shaking her head. "Everyone is so cut-throat."

"You actually saved me?" Hughes asked, disbelief still in his tone.

"Yeah, I think Mystogan will have a use for you when all this is over." Elicia replied. "For now, you should wait outside. You'll only be in the way here."

"Huh? What do you---" Hughes began to question. "Ahh~~~~~!"

Before he could finish, however, Elicia flicked her fingers and sent Hughes flying through the air towards the entrance to the amusement park. Then, she patted Coco on her head, drawing the little girl's attention.

"I need you to get out of here, too." Elicia said gently. "Protecting you while fighting this guy won't be easy."

Though reluctant, Coco nodded her head before she released Elicia. Then, Elicia used her threads to move Coco to the entrance. Though, she did it much more gently than she did with Hughes.

A moment later, just before the flames from Byro's vial could engulf the spot where she stood, Elicia leapt backwards. Then, she shot her threads towards the roller coaster tracks where Byro stood and pulled herself towards it.

"Thinking to face me in close quarters? A good plan, indeed." Byro said as he watched Elicia approach his position at high speed. "But it won't be that easy."

A moment later, Byro threw the second vial he had been holding towards the flames. Then, before it could shatter on the floor, the heat shattered it first.

As soon as the liquid in the vial came in contact with the air, several violently spinning cyclones were generated. Then, before long, the cyclones swept up the flames, creating several flaming cyclones that rampaged through the area.

With the changes in the situation, Elicia was forced to catapult herself in a different direction. But to counter Elicia's new path, Byro threw another pair of vials that resulted in several more flaming cyclones appearing between himself and Elicia.

Undeterred, Elicia changed directions once again, circling around the first set of flaming cyclones to try approaching from the other side. And just like before, Byro threw out another set of vials to block her path.

"It's useless." Byro said as he watched Elicia scurry around the rapidly burning amusement park. "You should just give up and bring Coco and the key to me. At least your punishment will be swifter if you were to do so."

Instead of responding, Elicia continued to move around, trying to find a way through the flaming cyclones to reach Byro. At least, that is what Byro thought.

In reality, Elicia had cast her [False Appearance]] spell before she had her illusion fire her threads at the roller coaster tracks. Then, while Byro was distracted, she began moving around the park in a wide arch, hoping to sneak up on Byro from behind.

Unfortunately, the flames were spreading much faster than she expected. So, she could not get too close to her target.

"Well, this sucks." Elicia said from atop the park's Ferris wheel. "Although my threads are flame resistant, winds like that make them a little hard to control. Not that I couldn't though."

Deciding that going into the flames herself would be her last resort, Elicia placed her right hand on her hip while she scanned the amusement park for another way to deal with Byro. And with that action, she felt something touch her forearm. Looking down, she saw the magic wand she had taken from Hughes was still strapped to the back of her waist.

"Oh, this could be fun." Elicia said as she grabbed the wand by its handle. "But how do I make this thing work?"

Then, for the next few minutes, Elicia split her attention between controlling her illusion and trying to figure out the mechanism behind Hughes' magic wand. Meanwhile, Byro was growing impatient with how slippery his prey seemed to be.

"I've had enough of this." Byro said as he reached into his robes to pull out a new vial. Before revealing the vial, however, he froze after hearing the sound of something moving at high speed. "What is that?"

Looking around for the source of the sound, Byro eventually noticed the cars of the roller coaster climbing the steep incline that led to his position. On top of that, they were moving much faster than they should have normally been.

"She's using Hughes's wand, the Command Tact... But how?" Byro asked himself. "When did she have the time to? She's been scurrying around the park to avoid my flaming twisters."

Just then, Byro glanced in the direction where Elicia should have been. And sure enough, he saw her dodging between two flaming twisters. At that moment, however, his eyes opened wide when he saw her figure vanish after grazing the flames.

"An illusion? But when?" Byro asked, looking around frantically.

*Bang!*

Before Byro could find where Elicia was hiding, however, the roller coaster's front car crashed into him while he was distracted. Naturally, the impact sent Byro flying off the top of the tracks and soaring through the air.

"Finally figured it out." Elicia said happily as she watched Byro fly through the air. "Now, let's try the other move... What was it called again? Oh yeah, now I remember. [Hell Tornado]."

With her chant, Elicia waved the wand, Command Tact in a circular motion. Then, the tracks of the roller coaster began to disassemble themselves and reassembled into a spiral aimed at Byro. ON top of that, the roller coaster cars moved along the new set of tracks at ten times their normal speed.

Seeing the roller coaster approaching once again, Byro frowned in anger. Then, he once again reached into his robe and pulled out another vial. Instead of throwing this vial, however, Byro used his free hand to remove its cork. Then, he put the vial to his lips and drank the vial's contents in one gulp.

"I've had enough!" Byro roared as his body began to expand. "I no longer care about dragging you before the king. Instead, I will destroy you myself!"

As Byro's body expanded, his voice took on a much deeper tone. And after a few seconds, he had turned into an enormous octopus.

As soon as his transformation was complete, Byro spun in midair, blowing away not only the roller coaster cars, but all the tracks, as well.

"Almost forgot about that potion." Elicia muttered while watching Byro rampage around in his new form. "Either way, he should be easier to catch now, right?"

With that, Elicia raised her hands, ejecting a large number of threads from her finger tips. A moment later, the threads were divided into eight groups, with each group moving to secure a tentacle.

"You think these flimsy threads will be enough to stop me?" Byro shouted as soon as he noticed the incoming threads. At the same time, he followed them back to their source with his eyes. "Finally! I found you!"

With that, Byro began spinning like atop, cutting apart Elicia's threads as he made his way over to the Ferris wheel. Unfortunately, he did not notice that he was moving over a large number of the threads that Elicia had laid down beforehand just in case Byro found her position and decided to attack at a closer distance.

Thanks to the trap Elicia laid, Byro's rotation speed slowed gradually as he made his way closer to the Ferris wheel. Then, just as one of his tentacles was about to strike, more than likely toppling it in the process, he came to a complete stop.

"What?" Byro cried in surprise. Then, he finally noticed that all his tentacles were tightly bound. "How? When?"

"And that's the end of that." Elicia said, hopping down from the top of the Ferris wheel with her right leg raised high. "I would say it was fun... But then I'd be lying."

*Bang!*

Just as her words fell, Elicia's right foot, charged to the limit with magic power, slammed down on the top of Byro's head. Luckily for him, he was in the form of a giant octopus. Otherwise, the force behind Elicia's kick would have been enough to splatter his head and split the rest of his body down the middle.

But because he was in the form of an octopus, he was simply knocked unconscious rather than meeting a rather gruesome end.


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SixthSense1029 SixthSense1029

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