Chương 4: It's a Promise
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— Dannis Martell —
"Hey Danny! Let's go on our first mission together!"
Dannis had just completed his morning training and sat down at the bar when he heard Laxus's voice across the guild hall.
It had been over 5 weeks now that he arrived at Fairy Tail, 5 weeks of training and fine tuning his magic and swordsmanship. And for the first time, he feels confident of his own strength.
There came bits and moments here and there where his magic would act up, but those moments came few now that he finally had a grip of his own magic. None of those moments were as big as the one that he had on the first day of Fairy Tail.
So when Laxus came in and offered to go on their first missions together, he immediately said yes.
The two of them met in front of the mission board and immediately started to scan the entire thing for jobs. What truly surprised Dannis was the fact that most of them were menial jobs with very miniscule pays.
[Clean up the attic of a house in downtown Magnolia. D-rank. 5,000 Jewels]
[Paint the outer fence of a farm. D-rank. 5,800 Jewels]
[Look after a two-month old baby while the parent goes out to buy milk . D-rank. 10,000 Jewels]
What the heck was with that last one?
"Most jobs are like this since the good ones are usually snatched up the moment they get on the board. That's why the more experienced mages usually just grab a bunch of jobs at the same time and take them one by one instead of waiting like this. At least that's what Gramps told me." Laxus conferred as they both kept looking for at least a decent job.
After all, there was no way that their first ever mission would take someone's dog to the park.
That was when one job caught his eye. It was pretty interesting and involved combat, which made it infinitely better than the rest of the jobs.
"Hey Laxus, what about this one?"
"Hmm? Let's see…" The yellow haired boy said as they both read the details read on the paper.
[Subdue a group of bandits that have been harassing the main road that leads to Bangor City. C-rank. 50,000 Jewels]
"Bandits, huh? Sure! Let's do it!"
Dannis nodded as he re-read the description of the mission. Apparently, a group of bandits had made camp nearby the main route that was used for commercial purposes. So the mayor of Bangor City had issued a request for Fairy Tail to subdue them.
When they took the request to Master Makarov to get it signed, the man himself just did it without hesitation.
"I've seen your spars and your training with Gildarts, brat. I'm sure you can handle yourself. Just make sure to be careful, okay?"
"Of course Master. We'll be back soon."
Makarov just mumbled a goodbye as he took a good swing of his drink. Dannis just smiled at that before he and Laxus went out to do their very first mission together.
The first thing they had to do before finding the bandits was to confirm the mission details with the person who published the mission, so meeting with the mayor was paramount.
That's why he and Laxus found themselves on a train en route to Bangor City, it was a 1 hour ride and so they just lounged in their carts to pass the time.
It didn't take long for the ride to be over, and they soon arrived at the mansion belonging to the mayor.
"Children? Children are the ones that accepted my request?!" The mayor sputtered in slight shock and annoyance. The mayor himself was this slightly overweight man with thinning hair and wearing triple-rimmed glasses. He wore a blue collared shirt and black slacks that hugged his body a little too tightly, showing off the layers of fat.
"Hey! Who're you calling a child you little-"
Dannis pulled Laxus back by his shirt and forced him back to his seat to prevent him from potentially butchering the mission before they even started. He then looked to the mayor and his assistant to try to at least convince them.
"We may be young, but we are capable. You requested this job to Fairy Tail and we belong to Fairy Tail." Dannis lifted up the back of his hand that had his guild mark to emphasize his words. "Master Makarov wouldn't have allowed us to accept this job if he believed we weren't capable of finishing it."
Dannis could see the old man grumbling to himself as if disbelieving that a pair of kids would be able to defeat a group of bandits. It was the assistant beside the man that looked to be a lot more reasonable, so Dannis addressed her instead.
"If you could please tell us the details of the mission, when the attacks started, how many are in the bandit group, the things that they have stolen from you. It would help us a lot if we knew more about the people we're supposed to subdue."
"Of course, Dannis-san." The assistant answered with a nod.
She then proceeded to give the information needed and make the mayor officialize the job contract. After that was done, Dannis took an irate Laxus out of the building as quickly as possible before any mishaps could happen.
"Okay to summarize, the bandits have been active for the last month. They mainly target the commercial roads that lead to the city since mostly merchants and wealthy people use those roads. Because of this, the economy of the city took a hit since trade lessened significantly due to the attacks. No wonder the pay is unusually high for a pretty simple job like this."
"So all we need to do is just kick their asses, right?" Laxus said with a grin as he punched his fist. "That won't be too hard!"
Dannis and Laxus then proceeded to walk out of the city towards the most likely location the bandits would be based at. Apparently the mayor had already pinpointed the 10 mile area that the bandit's camp had to be in. It was marked on a map that the assistant gave him.
So all they had to do was just get there and find them.
The one thing that Dannis noted 3 hours into the search was that the forests that neighbor the city had large trees with very thick leaves and bushes. He was forced to take point and cut down branches and shrubs to create a pathway for them to walk through the forests.
"What the hell is with this forest?!" Laxus complained loudly. "Isn't the mayor supposed to trim down the forests regularly? The hell is that fatso doing?!"
"I guess it's no wonder that the bandits managed to avoid capture this long, huh?" Dannis added as he held the map in one hand and his blade in the other.
It wasn't an exaggeration too, it's been hours and still they couldn't manage a glimpse of a single bandit.
"Argh! This is pissing me off! That does it!"
"Oh relax won't you? We've nearly covered the entire area that was highlighted in the map, so it should be somewhere around here-"
*CRACK*
In his rage, Laxus flared up his magic and hit one of the trees close to him with a thundering fist. The tree itself was launched back from its roots and the nearby leaves and bushes were ignited into flames by Laxus's power.
However, Dannis and Laxus had dumbfounded expressions as beyond the now exposed treeline behind the broken tree, they could see a camp filled with bandits that were milling about.
"Eh?"
The bandits themselves were surprised to see a flying tree that landed by their feet. The 15 something bandits looked down to the broken tree, looked up at the two children, and then looked back down at the tree.
There was a second of silence before clattering sounds of bandits and hollers could be heard from the entire camp as they scampered for their weapons.
Laxus just stood there in surprise that his sudden action revealed their target objective. He was then forced to focus back as a dark figure dashed past him to engage with the bandits.
"Good one Laxus!"
Dannis raised his blade before slashing it sideways, creating a crescent shaped wave of darkness that was unleashed from his blade.
"Darkness Magic: Avidya Slash!"
The wave of darkness met a trio of unprepared bandits as it sent them rocketing away from the area. Dannis continued his attack as he moved to engage another pair of sword-wielding bandits.
Laxus followed his friend's actions as his fist charged up with yellow lightning and he punched a running bandit in the face, his magic shocking the poor sod to a smoking heap.
Grins could be seen on both childrens faces as they made due on their goal to finish this off quickly.
Dannis covered his sword in dark energy as it took a black sheen. His magic extended the tip to the point the blade was three times its original length and he swung it sideways with one hand. Catching a group of bandits in the side as his sword cut through their iron swords like butter.
Laxus then ran in and used Dannis's victims as a foothold as he planted his feet on a wounded bandit's shoulder and jumped up high, his body sparkled with electricity.
"Take this! Thunder Meteor!"
Laxus's form was bathed in yellow lightning as he suddenly shot down to a group of bandits who were unfortunate enough to be his targets. Laxus landed with a thundering boom that ripped apart any tents or tables that were nearby.
Dannis just rolled his eyes at Laxus's apparent showmanship before he quickly cut down the last person that was standing.
"That was fun!" Laxus exclaimed as he climbed out of the small crater he created. Around it were the bodies of the bandits that were fully unconscious from Laxus's stunt. "We should do this again sometime!"
"Yeah, sure." Dannis commented dryly as he kicked the head of a groaning bandit to silence him. "I guess we should tie them all up and bring them to the mayor, right?"
Laxus tilted his head as he watched Dannis start doing just that. But there was something about his friend that he felt was different today. Something that changed during the fight.
"Are you okay, Dan?"
Dannis looked back at Laxus with a raised eyebrow. "Hm? Of course I am, why wouldn't I be?"
"I dunno, you just seem sort of…intense."
Dannis furred his eyes a little bit before sighing. "Right, sorry. It's just that these people reminded me of the ones that burned down my village." He paused as he saw Laxus's shocked look. "Right, I never told you what happened, did I?"
The next 5 minutes were spent with Dannis telling Laxus everything that happened before they met. Throughout it all Laxus just stayed quiet, with only the few clenched fists and angered looks on his face that told Dannis what he felt.
"That's when your grandfather found me. I had lost my parents, my home, and even my eye. But Master was the one who saved me by bringing me to Fairy Tail. It was pure luck too, since the Master told me he was on the way back from the annual meeting between guildmasters. He happened to pass by my hometown that was in the middle of a bandit raid. I'd probably have died if it wasn't for him."
"When I looked at those bandits, I just couldn't help remember everything that happened. The screams, the flames. I wanted nothing more than to hurt these people that want nothing more than to hurt others." Dannis conferred to his friend. "But then I remembered what the master told me."
Dannis then looked down on the ground as he sat by a tree that Laxus was leaning on. "Master helped me bury them and accompanied me the entire time I was grieving. He's a great man, your grandfather. I only hope to be half the man he is when I grow up."
"You will be." Laxus suddenly proclaimed.
"Huh?"
"I won't even pretend to know what it is you're going through, but I promise to always help whenever I can." Laxus said with a confident smirk as he raised an arm for Dannis to grab.
Dannis did just that with a resounding clap as Laxus pulled him up, their hands still connected. "Let's make a promise then, to always help and protect those who need it whenever we can. To never turn our backs on each other no matter what."
Dannis couldn't help the smile that formed on his face. It was a simple gesture, but one that meant a great deal to him.
"It's a promise."
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AN: First missions are done. Hope you enjoyed the story thus far.
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