章 247: She Devil Vs. the Wolf Pack

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Hidden Leaf Ravine.

November, x784.

A few minutes earlier, while the wizards of the allied forces made their way inside the enemy hideout, Mirajane, with Starrk and Lilynette in hand, ascended above the walls of the ravine.

"Let me go, you big tittied heifer!" Lilynette shouted as Mirajane had just flown past the highest point of the ravine.

While Lilynette shouted and struggled to free herself, Starrk only watch the scenery fly by. However, as soon as Mirajane flew past the top of the ravine walls, he swiftly drew the sword on his waist. Before he could use it to harm Mirajane, however, she noticed the sharp weapon being stabbed at the center of her back. So, with all her might, she pushed both Starrk and Lilynette away.

*Boom!* x 2

As a result, two craters were created on the ground on the side of the ravine opposite the hideout. And while she waited for the dust to settle from the collisions, Mirajane could not help but realize that she might have almost made a mistake.

'I have to be careful.' Mirajane thought to herself. 'I almost slammed them onto the other side of the ravine. If we cause too much damage above the hideout, there's a chance the whole thing could collapse.'

"Damn it, that hurt!" Lilynette shouted from inside the dust cloud. "I'm gonna make you pay for that!"

*Buzz!*

A moment later, a light green energy blast approached Mirajane at high-speed, while dispersing the dust cloud. However, with her [Magic Power Detection] active, she could tell that it was much weaker than the blue one that was fired at her and the rest of the allied wizards moments earlier.

So, instead of dodging, Mirajane simply swatted it away with the back of her left hand. Before she could counter attack, however, Mirajane slid to the left by a few feet.(approx. 1 m) At the same time, she turned her head just in time to see the blade of a katana cleave through the spot she had just vacated.

"*Sigh* Did you really have to dodge that?" Starrk, who had just swung his sword at Mirajane asked in a tired tone. "You're keeping me from sleeping, you know."

"Sorry." Mirajane replied in her much more demonic tone. "I'm not really into getting cut in half, you know."

"Yeah, I guess I can understand that." Starrk replied with a shrug.

"But seriously, just what are you?" Mirajane asked in curiosity. "I mean, that whole in your sternum and the one in that girl's stomach, those should be lethal."

"We're a couple of Master Mayuri's successful experiments." Starrk replied. "We were twisted from evil spirits, given a human form, and made into his personal weapons. But personally, I'd rather just sleep then commit all this violence."

"Starrk, we're not here to tell her our life story." Lilynette shouted as she flew next to Starrk. "If you wanna tell her what we are, capture her first. Then you can talk all you want while Mayuri is experimenting on her."

"Fine." Starrk replied, clearly not wanting to continue. "We have our orders, I guess."

An instant later, without a preparatory movement, a blue orb of energy appeared in front of the hole in Starrk's chest. Then, with a buzz she had come to be familiar with over the last few minutes, a blue energy blast was fired at Mirajane.

Dodging quickly, Mirajane flew alongside the blue [Cero], as Starrk called it earlier, as she approached the duo she had been tasked to defeat. Meanwhile, a similar light green orb of energy appeared in front of Lilynette's left eye before she fired a second [Cero] as well.

Like before, instead of dodging, Mirajane simply batted it aside. And continued her approach. Before she could reach the two, however, she heard the sound of static before she was once again forced to dodge a sword swing. This time, however, she dodged it by a much smaller margin. As a result, she was ready to counterattack.

Quickly turning around, with her hands coated in [Darkness Magic], a technique she has named [Suppression Arts], Mirajane threw a left hook into Starrk's torso before following up with a right hook at his jaw.

*Bang!*

"Urgh!" Starrk grunted in pain.

Though Starrk was unable to react to the body blow, he released his left hand from his sword's hilt just in time to block Mirajane's follow up attack. Then, with the flat of his blade, he blocked her following uppercut.

Unfortunately, because he was only holding it with one hand, his blade, and the hand he was holding it with were flung to the side. Taking advantage of the situation, Mirajane raised her right knee into Starrk's abdomen.

"Gahh!" Starrk grunted once again, this time coughing up a mouthful of blood.

Before Mirajane could continue her onslaught, however, Lilynette, with another [Cero] charging, approached her from behind.

'If I can't hurt you from a distance, hitting you up close should do the trick.' Lilynette thought to herself as she approached.

Unfortunately for Lilynette, Mirajane's [Magic Power Detection] was still active. So, she had been detected well before she was close enough to do any real damage with her [Cero]. And before she could unleash her attack, Mirajane's tail wrapped around her ankle.

"What the hell?" Lilynette exclaimed in confusion.

Before she could regain her bearings, however, Mirajane whipped her tail in Starrk's direction. As a result, Lilynette was slammed into Starrk at high-speed, pushing them a distance away. Luckily, Starrk reacted quickly enough to catch her. Unfortunately, however, both of Starrk's hands were now occupied.

Meanwhile, as Starrk and Lilynette slid through the air, Mirajane raised her right hand above her head and charged [Darkness Magic] into an orb that floated above her open palm. Then, just as Starrk managed to arrest his momentum, Mirajane lowered her hand, pointing it at Starrk and Lilynette.

"[Evil Orb]." Mirajane chanted as the orb of [Darkness Magic], which had grown large enough to completely engulf Starrk, flew towards her targets.

In normal circumstances, Starrk would have been able to defend himself from this attack, whether by firing a [Cero] at it or cutting it in half with his katana. Unfortunately, he was holding Lilynette to his chest, severely limiting his options. And considering that he did not have much time to consider, he did the only thing he could think of.

Instead of trying to counter, Starrk turned his back to the incoming orb of [Darkness Magic] and shielded Lilynette with his body.

"Starrk, what are you doing!?" Lilynette shouted, concern evident in her tone.

Before Starrk cold reply, however, the orb of [Darkness Magic] struck him in the back, driving him into the ground with Lilynette in his arms. Then, as soon as they made contact with the ground, the orb exploded. As a result, a pillar of [Darkness Magic] shot up from the point of impact and dispersed the clouds in the area.

Meanwhile, Mirajane slowly landed outside her spell's area of effect. Though the spell was not enough to kill the stronger of her two opponents, Starrk, she could tell that it did injure him heavily. And because he used his body to shield Lilynette, she took very little damage.

Considering that Lilynette could not harm her with her attacks, however, that fact did not bother Mirajane very much.

Eventually, the surging [Darkness Magic] settled. Just before it settled completely, however, Mirajane heard Starrk and Lilynette chanting in unison.

"[Give Chase, Los Lobos]."

With that chant, Mirajane could feel both Starrk and Lilynette's magic power skyrocket. Then, it felt as if they synchronized. A moment later, she found out why.

Once Mirajane's view was clear again, she saw Starrk standing alone at the bottom of the crater her attack created. On top of that, his appearance had changed drastically.

Firstly, the portion of the mask hanging around his neck was now gone. On top of that, he now had an eye piece that looked a lot like Lilynette's over his left eye that wrapped around the back of his head from the left while a pair of chains wrapping around the other side of his head held it in place.

His outfit had also gone through some pretty drastic changes, as well. Now, Starrk wore a grey, wolf fur-lined jacket over a white, double breasted vest. On his arms, he wore a pair of wolf fur arm bands that covered his entire forearm. Then, on his lower body, he wore a pair of tight, black pants with wolf fur covering the lower half of his legs.

And the last visible change was the fact that he was no longer carrying a katana. Instead, he held two ornate pistols with wolf fur holsters hanging at his waist.

"To think you would force me to take my [Resurrección] form." Starrk said. "I didn't think there was anyone strong enough to do that in your little group. Oh well, it looks like you're probably the strongest in your little team, right?"

"No, you're wrong about that." Mirajane replied. "I'm probably only the third strongest. Maybe even fourth. That weirdo, Guy, gives me a strange feeling, after all."

"Does any of that matter?" Lilynette's voice sounded from the pistols in Starrk's hands. "Just hurry up and kick her ass."

Hearing Lilynette's voice definitely surprised Mirajane for a moment. However, she remember that their magic powers synchronized not long ago. And now, that made perfect sense.

"You two were one being before Kurotsuchi's experiments, weren't you?" Mirajane asked.

"You're rather astute." Starrk replied while pointing the pistol in his left hand at Mirajane. "But that won't do you any good."

Just as he finished speaking, Starrk repeatedly pulled the trigger of the pistol in his left hand. As a result, he fired a number of blue [Cero] that were just as powerful as the ones he fired before he and Lilynette fused.

Mirajane, with her wings flapping quickly, frantically dodged all the incoming [Ceros] while slowly narrowing the distance. Before she could get too close, however, she once again heard the sound of static. Then, much faster than the last time, Starrk appeared behind her with his right pistol pointed at the back of her head.

Reacting quickly, Mirajane turned around and raised her hands with a sphere of [Darkness Magic] appearing between them.

"[Demon Blast]." Mirajane chanted after charging as much magic power as she could into the sphere, given the brief amount of time she had.

Then, at the same time, Starrk pulled the trigger of the pistol in his right hand while Mirajane fired a dark purple beam of [Darkness Magic] from the sphere between her hands.

In an instant, the two attacks collided and Mirajane was quickly pushed back. Not even an instant later, Mirajane was forced into the ground while the [Cero] exploded on impact. Then, before the explosion could subside, Starrk pointed his left pistol at the center of the explosion and rapidly pulled the trigger, firing many weaker, yet much faster, [Ceros] for good measure.

"Ha! Serves her right!" Lilynette's voice sounded out from Starrk's pistols once again. "She should have just taken your advice and let herself be cut by your katana before we took on our true power. Unfortunately, that was way too easy after we used our [Resurrección]. Maybe we should go find the people she said were stronger than her."

"For some reason I get the feeling you shouldn't have said that, Lilynette." Starrk said, using the pistol in his left hand to scratch the side of his head. "For some reason the image of a flag being pulled up a flag pole just ran through my mind."

"What the hell are you talking about, Starrk?" Lilynette asked in a confused tone. "And don't use me to scratch your head, your hair feels gross! When was the last time you washed it?"

"I don't know, but now I have a bad feeling about this." Starrk replied to Lilynette's first question while completely ignoring the second.

"[Take Over Magic: Satan Soul: Sitri]." Mirajane's chant sounded from the blue explosion of energy as if it were giving credence to Starrk's hunch.

A moment later, Mirajane's magic power flared and forcefully dispersed the raging energy's from Starrk's attacks.

"What the---" Lilynette said, beginning to exclaim.

Before Lilynette could finish her exclamation, Mirajane appeared behind Starrk in a burst of speed. Then, with her hands covered in [Darkness Magic] she threw a punch barrage into his back. And with the last punch of the barrage, she sent him flying high up into the sky.

"Damn it!" Starrk exclaimed while gritting his teeth from the pain.

A moment later, after regaining his bearings, Starrk turned around and looked at the spot where Mirajane should have been standing. However, she was nowhere to be found. A split-second later, though, he snapped his head upward.

Standing at the end of Starrk's new line of sight was Mirajane, now in her [Sitri Take Over] form, with an orb of [Darkness Magic] held in her right palm, that was pointed down at him.

"[Evil Shower]." Mirajane chanted as a large number of [Darkness Magic] bullets were fired from the orb in her hand.

At the same time, Starrk raised the pistols in both his hands and pointed them towards the incoming barrage.

"[Cero Metralleta]." Starrk chanted as he rapidly pulled the triggers of both his pistols.

As a result of his rapid firing, a number of [Ceros] were fired to intercept Mirajane's [Evil Shoer]. And with the speed at which he fired combined with how densely they were aimed, it would look like a blue wall was flying towards Mirajane to any onlookers.

Still, Mirajane's [Evil Shower] punched straight through the wall of [Ceros] heading towards her. And as for those that were not destroyed by her spell, Mirajane did not pay them any mind. As they would have sailed past her regardless.

Starrk's barrage came to an end when Mirajane's [Evil Shower] engulfed him, the [Cero] barrage unable to slow it down in the slightest, eventually sending him crashing into the ground once again.

This time, however, instead of only relying on one spell to finish off her opponent, Mirajane raised her left hand towards the spot where Starrk fell. Then, while continuing to pelt the spot where he landed with her [Evil Shower], Mirajane cast a second spell that overlapped with the first.

"[Darkness Stream]." Mirajane chanted.

A moment later, several thick tendrils of [Darkness Magic] shot up from the spot where Starrk fell.

With attacks from both above and below, Mirajane felt Starrk's magic power weakening as time went by. Then, after a few more moments, she felt his magic power signature vanish completely.

With that, she let her spells disperse as she cautiously made her way down to the impact site to see what was left of Starrk. And to her surprise, there was no body to be seen.

"Well, he did say that they were made from an evil spirit." Mirajane muttered to herself. "Maybe they were sent to the afterlife after they were defeated. If that's the case, I hope this will allow you to rest in peace."

With that, Mirajane dispelled her [Take Over]. And despite the fact that she did not take much in the way of damage and her magic power reserves were not depleted too severely, she staggered once she was back in her normal state.

"Well, using two spells that powerful, at the same time, really took its toll on me." Mirajane said with a wry smile on her face. "Either way, since the battle is over and I'm not really sure which way the others went in the cave, I guess I'll go stand guard at the shelter Alfonzo made."