A big group of Fairy Tail Mages is marching towards the abandoned building, led by Makarov. Alex and Laxus are walking behind the old man while the other Mages are behind them.
There are a lot of town guards too behind the Mages. They move quickly after getting the report from Fairy Tail.
"Is this the place?" Makarov asks and Alex just nods.
"Alright. Let's leave the evacuation to the Guards." Makarov looks at the Guard Leader who nods and quickly orders his men to evacuate the citizens around this area.
"Alex, where's the building that connects to the underground rooms?"
"That one and that one." Alex points at 2 buildings on different sides of the road.
When he used Shukaku's Earth Sensing, he found out that only those 2 buildings are connected to the underground room. That means they built the underground rooms from those places then expanded them.
Makarov then assigns the Mages into 2 groups and orders them to raid the underground room through those 2 buildings.
The Guards also move to make sure no one from those 2 buildings escapes. They don't know which ones are truly involved, so it's better to catch them all and question them later.
"Master, should I block their escape tunnel that leads to the forest?"
"That's a good suggestion. Do it." Makarov approves Alex's suggestion, so Alex nods and uses his Magic.
"Take Over! Beast Soul: Shukaku! Humanoid Form!"
A yellow magic circle appears under Alex's feet and then his body also glows yellow. The ground beneath him turns into sand that climbs his body to complete his transformation.
Makarov is once again surprised by Alex's transformation because he never saw this beast before. It makes him curious about this beast's abilities.
Alex puts his hands on the ground and uses Shukaku's Earth Sensing skill to find the tunnel. He finds it quickly and senses that many people in the underground rooms are trying to escape through the tunnel now.
"Tsk! They sure are quick. Master, I'll go." Alex runs without waiting for Makarov's reply.
His speed is much slower than when he transforms into Matatabi. But it's still faster than average people even though his running form is very strange.
Because he has short legs when transforming into Shukaku, Alex can't run normally with just 2 legs or he'll be too slow. So he also uses his big and long hands to propel himself forward.
He now runs like a 4-legged beast although the sizes of the front and hind legs are too different. But it doesn't matter as long as he can run fast even with his heavy fat sand raccoon body.
Alex runs following the underground tunnel that leads to the forest. The path is crossing some buildings, so he needs to move around them a lot, but he still manages to catch up with the person running in the most front inside the tunnel.
After catching up to them, Alex quickly casts a spell to stop them. He moves quite far ahead of them until he gets out of the town. There's no building around here, so he can make his move freely.
Alex slaps the ground with his big Shukaku hand, creating a yellow magic circle on the ground.
"Earth Collapse!"
The ground in front of Alex crumbles and collapses instantly. He only collapses the ground above the tunnel to block it. But it can damage buildings, that's why he does it in an area without buildings.
Alex then jumps into the collapsed tunnel and the ground where he lands suddenly turns into sand. His body suddenly gets sucked into the sand very quickly and he disappears from the surface.
The people who run in the tunnel are surprised to see the tunnel in front of them suddenly collapse. They don't know what to do now and get even more panicked when suddenly a part of the collapsed ground that blocks their path turns into sand and a strange beast comes out of the sand.
"There really are a lot of you here." Alex looks around and sees more than 10 people are already here.
"W-who are you?" One of them suddenly asks.
"Me? I'm a Mage from Fairy Tail, ordered to stop you from escaping. If you surrender and return with me to the town's law enforcers, then I won't hurt you. But-"
Before Alex can even finish his speech, a man suddenly attacks him by shooting a rather big light bullet. It hits Alex's face and explodes.
"As if we'll give ourselves up."
Half of Alex's Shukaku face gets destroyed and sand falls from the destroyed part. The one who attacked him grins smugly, but then his face scrunches up when Alex's face recovers quickly.
"I see, I'll take it as a no then."
Alex extends his hands to the front and creates a yellow magic circle.
"Sand Coffins!"
The sand that Alex creates just now moves toward the enemies at a very high speed and captures them, binding their whole bodies, immobilizing them instantly.
"You better be obedient or I'll kill all of you by crushing your bodies."
Alex grins sinisterly, making the captured enemies shiver in fear. He looks really menacing in Humanoid Shukaku form, after all. Like a beast ready to eat them anytime.
To avoid problems, Alex chokes them until they pass out, just like when he defeats the Wyverns. It's easier to make humans pass out than Wyverns because their bodies are weaker, but he also needs to be careful or he might kill them.
After dealing with this group, Alex moves deeper into the tunnel while dragging the unconscious people behind him. He puts them together in a Sand Coffin that floats behind him as he runs.
As he gets deeper, he encounters more people that he captures immediately with his Sand Coffin spell. He doesn't give them any chance to fight back and he attacks as soon as they meet.
Catch first, question later. That's Alex's plan on dealing with these people. There are Mages among them, so it's better to not turn this into a kind of war to avoid damaging the town.
Luckily, the ones who tried to run away are those who are weak and mostly are not Mages. The strong ones stay behind to face the attacks of Fairy Tail Mages. After all, they also need to face a Wizard Saint over there.
Thanks to that, Alex can capture the escapees easily. He is also very decisive in apprehending them, so he can catch them quickly and reach the main battlefield in a short time.
In the main battlefield, the underground rooms have collapsed completely along with the buildings above them. There are many battles that happen in this area now.
The Fairy Tail Mages are fighting the enemies that also have some Mages. But there aren't many Mages among them, so Fairy Tail members are focusing on capturing the ones who try to run away.
Alex wants to help, but no one seems to have any problem. He can sense that there are 2 people among the enemies with high amounts of Magic Power, at least more than him and most of Fairy Tail Mages.
"Well, what do I expect?"
Alex looks at those 2 strong Mages that have been beaten up quite badly. Now they are being held by Makarov's gigantic hands. They are stronger than Alex, but compared to Makarov, they are still too weak.
The others are still fighting, so Alex decides to give them a hand, quite literally. He puts his hands on the ground and creates a yellow magic circle.
"Sand Monster Hands!"
Numerous small Shukaku hands appear on the ground below the enemies. The hands grab their ankles, stopping them from moving. The Fairy Tail Mages grin as they beat up the immobile enemies and finish their battles quickly.
It doesn't take long for everyone to defeat all the enemies. Now Alex can see why Fairy Tail is the strongest Magic Guild in Fiore. Even their normal members are strong.
It's just that they don't look that strong in the series because the main characters are just much stronger than the normal members. Well, almost all of those main characters have S-Class power, after all.
When those people join the Guild and grow stronger, Fairy Tail will get even stronger. Now, they are still strong enough. But most of the strong members are quite old, so Alex thinks they will retire soon.
Maybe that's why the members outside of the Tenrou Group aren't that strong in the series. It's because the current strong members have retired and the current S-Class that stays until the main story is just Gildarts.
While he thinks about that, Alex is called by Makarov. They've finished their job here, so they can return to the Guild and celebrate their success with a party as usual.
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Ch. 75: 1st S-Class Job Complete