Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Galuna Island.
July, x784.
While Erza was doing her best to repair the village walls quickly, and Alfonzo was trekking through the caves under the temple, Elicia and Ultear were rushing through the forest in the hopes of cutting off the centipedes that were rushing back to their lair.
"[Ice-Make: Rampart]." Ultear chanted as she was sliding toward the centipedes from behind.
*Bang!* *Crack!*
A moment later, a large castle wall created completely from ice appeared in front of the fastest of the centipedes, a twenty-six foot (8 m) long centipede, causing it to rush headfirst into the wall, cracking it in the process.
Stunned from the sudden impact, the large centipede did not even try to destroy the wall blocking its way. Instead, it immediately started trying to burrow into the ground. Unfortunately for it, Ultear had already expected that outcome.
"[Ice-Make: Floor]." Ultear chanted for a second time, freezing the ground all the centipedes stood on in an instant.
*Bang!* *Crack!*
Once again, the large centipede slammed its head into thick ice. After regaining its bearings once again, it finally turned back toward the ones who had been following it and its brethren since they left the village. This started a chain reaction as the rest of the thousands of centipedes also turned back towards Elicia and Ultear.
"Oh, they're not igging us anymore." Elicia said with a smile. "Taking pot shots at them from behind just didn't feel right. Now, we can slaughter them from up front."
"Although you're not wrong." Ultear said, not taking her eyes off the horde of centipedes. "But you're definitely not as innocent as you seem."
"Anyway, let's get to work." Elicia said, ignoring Ultear's character assessment. Then, she raised her hands as she chanted. "[Thread Magic: Lashing Threads]."
Moving forward toward the centipedes, Elicia swung her arms, using her threads as whips. However, instead of simply lashing the centipedes, her threads were cutting through them like a hot knife through butter.
Like she had done while defending the village, Elicia was forcing her threads to vibrate at a high frequency. Unfortunately, this used up much more magic power than usual. So, instead of keeping up the vibration like she did back at the village, she was starting and stopping it when her threads were in contact with a centipede.
Watching Elicia's display from behind, Ultear could not help but marvel at her skill.
'She's clearly running on fumes.' Ultear muttered internally. 'Well, fumes might be a bit of an over exaggeration. But still, she's low on magic power. Her battlefield awareness must be incredible. There's no way she can see all the centipedes around her considering how densely they are packed. Still, I haven't seen her threads simply bounce off of any of them. Even if there are other centipedes between her and the ones she's cutting down.'
Ultear was pulled from her internal musing when she felt a few of the centipedes drawing near to her. Then, she performed her usual hand gestures while narrowing her eyes at the incoming attackers.
"[Ice-Make: Gatling Gun]." Ultear chanted.
In the next instant, a six-barrel gatling gun made completely from ice started materializing next to Ultear's right hip. Then, once it was formed, Ultear's hands took hold of it and started its mechanisms. A moment later, the six barrels started rotating at high speed.
*Tat!* *Tat!* *Tat!* *Tat!* *Tat!*
*Screech!*
Moments later, small ice projectiles were tearing through the centipedes and freezing their blood before it could flow out. Meanwhile, a large number of centipedes were screeching in pain as parts of their bodies were blown apart by the high-speed projectiles.
'I'm glad I started practicing [Static Ice-Make] after I saw some of the designs Alfonzo came up with for magic guns.' Ultear mused. 'But after seeing this thing in action, I can understand why Master Goldstein wouldn't allow him to sell something like this on the market. Sure its weight is too much for the average person to use comfortably, but other than that, it's a killing machine.'
On the other hand, Elicia was moving acrobatically as she avoided the attacks of the centipedes and slashed them apart with her vibrating threads. Unfortunately, her magic power was draining quickly.
On top of having to make her threads vibrate to do any real damage to the centipedes' carapaces, she had to continuously create more threads every time they came in contact with the centipede's corrosive blood.
"*Pant* This is working, *Pant* but definitely not fast enough." Elicia said through ragged breaths. "I'll have to do something bigger. But this will probably drain me pretty close to dry."
Looking back at Ultear, Elicia could only smile wryly as she put her back against the ice wall Ultear created earlier..
"She looks like a much cuter HW Guy from TFC when she carries that gatling gun around." Elicia muttered as she spread her hands to either side. "She should be able to handle the rest. Still, I'll thin the numbers a little. [Thread Magic: Cat's Cradle Calamity]."
In the next instant, Threads ejected from Elicia's hands. Then, with the minute movements of her fingers, they started moving to do cat's cradle. However, the scale was massive. Spreading out In a semi-circle from Elicia's position, all the threads were vibrating at the highest frequency Elicia could manage with her remaining magic power.
As the forms of the cat's cradle changed, the centipedes they passed through were cut into irregular pieces. However, they did not fall apart immediately. Instead, they all froze in place until the spell ran its course.
Then, once a large area of the battlefield was cleared by Elicia's spell, and she used the last of her magic power to pull herself up to the top of the [Ice Rampart], all the centipedes in Elicia's range fell apart like 3D jigsaw puzzles.
"Well, that went about as good as I thought it would." Elicia said with a weak smile from atop the ice wall. "The rest is up to you now Ult.--- Whoa!"
Before Elicia could finish her sentence, the fatigue from using up nearly all of her magic power hit her, causing her to stumble forward. Unfortunately, she was standing pretty close to the edge of the wall and started falling back to the ground.
"Elicia!" Ultear screamed as she saw Elicia fall from the wall.
Just before Ultear could drop the gatling gun, she saw purple sparks of electricity appear around Elicia. Then, she watched as Elicia floated back to the top of the wall. Standing at Elicia's landing point was the man they came to support, Alfonzo.
"*Sigh* She's alright." Ultear said in a relieved tone. Then, she turned her attention back to the centipedes. "Now, you've all got to go."
As Ultear started shooting at the centipedes once again, Alfonzo caught Elicia in his arms.
"That was pretty reckless." Alfonzo said in a reprimanding tone with a gentle smile on his face. "You know better than to use up that much of your magic power on a chaotic battlefield, Lici."
"*Sigh* If I were alone, I wouldn't have." Elicia replied, nuzzling her had against Alfonzo's neck with a smile on her face. "But I was with Ultear, I knew she could handle the rest. Besides, I got myself out of harms way at the end."
"And almost fell headfirst to your death because of carelessness." Alfonzo reprimanded. "I know that Ultear could have saved you. But that would have created an opening."
"*Sigh* I know." Elicia said, hanging her head. "I didn't think things all the way through. And I should have just sat down and started recovering magic power once I was off the battlefield… Sorry for making you worry."
"*Sigh* Just be more careful in the future." Alfonzo said, his tone softening significantly.
"I will." Elicia replied with a nod. Then, she smiled brightly and kissed Alfonzo on the cheek. "Thanks for saving me, Fonzie."
"Don't mention it." Alfonzo replied. "Now, let me help Ultear deal with the rest of the vermin."
With that, Alfonzo sat Elicia down on the top of the wall. Then, he overlooked the battlefield. Seeing a few holes beyond the coverage area of Ultear's [Ice Floor], Alfonzo could only click his tongue.
Even though they could technically leave immediately after reporting to the villagers that the King Centipede was dead, it would leave a bad taste in his mouth to let the rest of the centipedes run wild on the island.
"We can think about that after we get a good night's sleep." Alfonzo muttered to himself as he raised his hands. "[Metal Magic: Bullet Storm]."
A moment later, bullet shaped chunks of metal appeared above all the remaining centipedes. Then, they started to spin before falling toward all the designated targets.
With bullets of ice and metal peppering them from ground level and above simultaneously, it took less than ten minutes to finish off the rest of the centipedes on the battlefield. As for the ones who escaped, Alfonzo had a good idea where he could find them. Still, now was not the time to go on a crusade to exterminate the rest of the centipedes. Instead, it was time to get some rest.
So, once all the centipedes were killed, Alfonzo took Elicia into his arms again. Then, he floated off the top of the ice wall and landed next to Ultear.
"You've got cuts all over and you're covered in blood." Ultear said as she looked at Alfonzo with concern.
"It's not that bad." Alfonzo replied with a smile. "The Techno Organic Metal is already working to close up all my wounds. And since none of them were all that deep, I'll be good as new in no time."
"I'm surprised you even let it get that close to do this much damage." Elicia said, finally noticing how beat up Alfonzo was after Ultear mentioned it. "I mean, you hate bugs so much."
"Well, there were two reasons for that, actually." Alfonzo replied with awry smile. "First, it was fast. I mean, way faster than anything that big had any right to be. And second, I was afraid of collapsing the cave if I used any attacks that were too big."
'I mean, that little [Railgun] shook the whole cave when it hit the wall…' Alfonzo thought to himself. 'I can only imagine if I used anything big enough to kill a thirty-three foot (10 m) long bug in one shot.'
"Anyway, why don't you hop on my back, Ultear?" Alfonzo asked with a smile. "I'll fly us all back to the village."
"Are you sure?" Ultear asked with concern. "You fought the king of the centipedes not too long ago. Do you have enough magic power?"
"You don't have to worry about that." Alfonzo replied. "If I were going to make the two of you float with my magic too, that might be a bit taxing. But I'll only be using it on myself. While I'll be using my physical strength to carry the two of you."
"If you say so." Ultear said, still sounding a bit concerned. Still, she got behind Alfonzo, hopped up and wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. Then, she rested her chin on his right shoulder before continuing. "But if it gets to be too much, don't push yourself. I'm not so exhausted that I can't walk."
"Don't worry, I won't." Alfonzo replied with a smile.
Turning his head to the right, Alfonzo gave Ultear a quick peck on the cheek. Then, he floated off the ground and started flying back toward the village.
About twenty minutes later, Alfonzo, Elicia, and Ultear arrived at the tree line around the village. When they did, however, they were totally flabbergasted.
"We've only been gone for an hour or so." Ultear said in an exasperated tone. "How did she manage to damage the wall by that much?"
When Erza first started repairing the crack in the wall she created, everything was going smoothly. However, as previously mentioned, Erza was not the best at controlling her superhuman strength. So, while trying to fit the materials in place, she ended up damaging the cracked wall even more, widening the damaged area of the wall by at least three times.
"In hindsight, it probably wasn't the best idea to leave the most destructive of us to guard the village alone." Elicia said with a wry smile.
"Says the first one to leave." Ultear jabbed.
"I was worried about Fonzie." Elicia said in her own defense.
"*Sigh* You two can decide whose fault it is later." Alfonzo said with a wry smile. "Right now, we should stop Erza from helping before she destroys the entire wall."
Agreeing with Alfonzo's statement, Elicia and Ultear nodded their heads as Alfonzo flew towards the base of the wall where Erza was doing her best to fix the wall. Unfortunately, she was only making the situation worse as time went by.
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Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Lupinus.
July, x784.
The morning after the battle with the centipedes took place on Galuna Island, Gray, Natsu, Happy, and Lucy were walking through the town of Lupinus and making their way toward the town hall. While Natsu and Happy were excited to complete an S-Class quest and show Laxus that he was wrong about them, Lucy was second guessing herself.
'Was it really worth it to break the rules of the guild for a map that may or may not lead me to a Golden Gate Key?' Lucy thought to herself. 'More importantly, we're gonna get punished regardless of completing this quest or not, aren't we.'
"Aww man, Happy!" Natsu said excitedly. "When we finish beating up that bear, do you think Alfonzo will cook it for us when we get back?"
"I hope so, Natsu." Happy replied energetically. "I heard that bear paw is really yummy. And this is an S-Class magical beast. I bet it will be super-delicious!"
Meanwhile, Gray was grumbling off to the side.
"No matter how I look at this, we're gonna be in trouble when we get back." Gray muttered. "I can't believe I got tricked and knocked out by this fire breathing idiot. Then, he somehow convinced me to help him kill the damn bear since we were already here. Not only Gramps, but even Ur is gonna put me through the ringer when she finds out about this."
"Oh, stop complaining, Gray." Natsu said in a disdainful tone. "If you're so scared, why don't you just go back. Lucy and I will take care of this without you."
"Who said I was scared!?" Gray shouted, immediately incensed by Natsu's comment. "I'll show you what a real ice wizard can do."
"Oh really?" Natsu asked with a smirk. "All I hear is a bunch of talk."
"What did you say you pink-haired mouth breather?" Gray asked angrily.
"I'll say it as much as you want me to after you put some clothes on, you perverted ice cube." Natsu shot back.
"I don't need clothes to kick your ass!" Gray replied.
"Oh yeah?" Natsu questioned, drawing nearer to Gray.
"Yeah!" Gray replied, pushing his forehead against Natsu's.
Meanwhile, Lucy watched the two with shock. She wanted to break them up, but she didn't know how. Her desire was even greater when the people of Lupinus started to gather and gossip. Eventually, she reached the limits of her shame and shouted at the arguing duo.
"Would you two knock it off?" Lucy shouted with a red face. "You can settle who is stronger by beating the Inferno Bear. Obviously, who ever does the most damage and lands the killing blow is the strongest!"
Taken aback by Lucy's loud shout, Gray and Natsu drew back from each other and looked at Lucy simultaneously. Then, they glanced at each other before snorting and looking at Lucy again.
"She's right." Gray said with a nod. "We can let our fists do the talking."
"Yeah, that bear won't know what hit it." Natsu said with a battle hungry smile on his face. "Then, I'll show you that I'm definitely stronger than you, Gray! Oh yeah, I'm all fired up now!"
"We'll see about that." Gray replied, wanting to get in the last word.
"Good, now that we've settled that, you really should put on your clothes, Gray." Lucy said as she pointed at all the people that had gathered around the group. "Unless you like showing off the goods to the public."
After hearing that, Natsu and Gray looked around at the crowd. Then, in a hurry, Gray picked up the clothes he had taken off while they walked and put them back on as if nothing had happened. Then, the group of four continued their trip to the town hall to meet Reno Fox, Lupinus Town's mayor.
Fifteen minutes later, the group reached the town hall. Then, after another hour, they completed their chat with Reno and made their way out of town hall.
"So, Alfonzo and Elicia completed a quest in this town eight years ago?" Lucy asked curiously. "They would have only been eleven, right?"
"Now that you mention it, I think that was their first B-Class quest." Gray said with his right hand supporting his chin as he tried to remember the details. "I remember them telling us about it after they got back. Come to think of it, that was around the time Erza joined the guild, too."
"Wow! A B-Class quest at eleven years old?" Lucy asked, sounding impressed. Then, she looked towards Natsu and Happy, who was riding on Natsu's shoulder. "Natsu, do you remember the story from back then?"
"Nah…" Natsu replied nonchalantly. "I didn't join the guild until July 7, x777. So, I wasn't even part of the guild back then."
"Oh, I see." Lucy replied with a nod.
Like that, Gray, Natsu, Hapy, and Lucy continued traveling to the last known area where the Inferno Bear had been spotted. Surprisingly, it was the old castle ruins where Alfonzo and Elicia fought the Lycan and found the rechargeable lacrima he used for his first magic vehicles.
After leaving the town, everything was going smoothly. Natsu was now able to pick up the scent of sulfur and wild beast. So, they knew they were on the right track. Unfortunately, about halfway to their destination, their luck ran out.
About a hundred sixty-four feet (50 m) ahead of them, a white-haired woman with a slim, yet voluptuous, figure of below average height wearing a sleeveless dark red dress with pink frills and a pink ribbon tied into a bow on her chest was leaning against a tree with her head lowered.
Although the quartet could not see her face due to her hair covering it from the side, the distinctive upward ponytail was more than enough to let them know who she was.
"Oh crap! It's Mira." Natsu muttered.
"Damn… Gramps must really be pissed off if he sent her after us."
"Huh? What's wrong?" Lucy asked, confused by Gray and Natsu's reactions. "What do you mean? Mira's so nice. Why do you two seem so scared?"
"You haven't been here long enough to understand, Lucy." Happy replied. "Mira may seem nice and sweet now. But you didn't see her before the accident."
"Accident?" Lucy asked in confusion.
"She almost made an irreversible mistake." Happy continued. "If it wasn't for Alfonzo and Natsu, things could have been really bad."
After he finished speaking, Happy started to pout as he crossed his arms.
"What makes it even worse…" Happy said sadly. "They left me behind when they went on their adventure to help Mira, Elfman, and Lisanna."
"Aww, come on, Happy." Natsu said, sounding a bit annoyed. "I apologized for that like a hundred times."
"If you had to apologize, you shouldn't have done it, Natsu." Happy said, sounding even more sad.
"More important than those two's argument." Gray said, picking up where happy left off. "Mira lost her S-Class rank after that whole mess as punishment."
"What did she do?" Lucy asked with trepidation.
"The same thing we're doing now." Gray replied. "No, I guess that's not right. But she brought Elfman and Lisanna with her on an S-Class quest. Which is against the guild rules."
Hearing that, Lucy gulped a mouthful of saliva. Then, she glanced at Mirajane in the distance just in time to see her raise her head and turn it in their direction.
"Oh man, we're in trouble." Lucy whispered as her body started to shiver.
Although Mirajane was wearing the pleasant smile everyone in the guild had gotten accustomed to over the last two years, the pressure she was releasing was suffocating. Even from the distance, all four could feel goose bumps starting to rise on their arms.
"You four have been very naughty." Mirajane said in a cheerful tone as she approached the group of four. "Stealing an S-Class quest from the second floor isn't good, you know."
"M-M-Mira… Natsu replied, trying to sound as cheerful as she did. "We only wanted to help the people of the town."
"That's quite admirable, Natsu." Mirajane said with an approving smile. "However, you still broke the rules. And Gray, I'm disappointed in you, too. You were sent to bring them back. Instead, you're here breaking the rules with them."
"No… Mira, that's not it." Gray said, feeling the pressure on him increase. "Natsu tricked me and knocked me out. By the time I woke up, we were already close to Lupinus."
"And you didn't try to stop them again after that?" Mirajane asked after nodding in acknowledgement.
Instead of responding, Gray lowered his head in silence, giving Mirajane all she needed as an answer.
"Holy crap, she's scary." Lucy said with her eyes open wide in disbelief.
"She's even scarier than she used to be." Happy added in a whisper. "And she was called the Demon Girl, Mirajane, back then."
"Demon Girl? *Gulp*" Lucy asked in a scared tone. "And you say she's scarier now?"
"A lot scarier." Happy replied with a nod.
As happy and Lucy whispered to each other, Mirajane continued walking toward the group.
*Roar!*
Just as Mirajane reached the halfway point between the tree she was leaning against and the group of four, an earth shattering roar could be heard from behind Mirajane, in the direction of the castle ruins. A moment later, the smell of sulfur intensified as a black and red blur started charging in their direction.
"what is that?" Lucy asked in a shocked tone.
"It's the Inferno Bear!" Gray shouted.
"Mira! Look out!" Natsu shouted as the Inferno Bear closed the distance.
"*Sigh* And that's why you're not ready for S-Class." Mirajane said without changing her expression. "Just look at how you're panicking. [Satan Soul: Sitri]."
Momentarily, Mirajane's figure was bathed in a bright white light. At the same time, the Inferno bear had completely closed the distance and was now standing behind Mirajane on its hind legs with its right claw positioned to smash down on her.
The group of four panicked even more when the Inferno Bear finally swung down its paw. However, to everyone's surprise, including the Inferno Bear, its paw stopped before it reached Mirajane.
A moment later, the glow around Mirajane receded. With her left hand raised, Mirajane had stopped the bear's claw without taking damage. Also, her appearance had changed greatly. For one, her hair had grown much longer. Secondly, she had a pair of curved horns on the sides of her head and there were dark marks and lipstick on her face.
On top of all those changes, her clothing had changed to a white and royal blue body suit with a long white dress coat over top of it held closed by a pair of belts around her waist and rib cage. On top of that, she wore a black cloak with a high collar. Then, there were her hands that seemed to have transformed into a pair of metallic claws.
Looking further down, her legs were now exposed with navy blue markings on her thighs. On top of that, her legs below the knee were engulfed in flames.
"That's… Mira's [Sitri Take Over]." Natsu said with cold sweat dripping down his forehead. "Even Erza can only reach a draw with her when she uses it."
"And considering how easily Erza kicks your butt, you wouldn't stand a chance." Gray sniped.
"Like you're any different." Natsu fired back.
Meanwhile, Mirajane tilted her head back and looked up at the 12'4" (4 m) tall Inferno Bear who just tried to attack her from behind.
"If you hadn't done that, you would have got to live a little longer." Mirajane said in a distinctively deeper and more demonic tone. "At least until someone who was qualified to take this quest showed up. But since you attacked me, I can't just let you go."
With that said, Mirajane clench her hand around the Inferno Bear's paw. Then she pulled it forward. At the same time, she performed a high kick with her flame covered right foot, landing on the Inferno Bear's chin and launching it into the air. After that, she seemingly vanished.
In the next instant, Mirajane appeared in front of the Inferno Bear and kicked it higher into the sky, repeating the process three more times. Then, she vanished from her spot once again and appeared in her initial location on the ground.
Once she was back on the ground, Mirajane raised her right hand and pointed its palm at the Inferno Bear, who had finally started to fall toward the ground again thanks to gravity.
"Holy Crap!" Gray exclaimed. "She treated that thing like a teddy bear."
"Argh!" Natsu shouted in excitement. "Now I really wanna fight it to. Man, I'm all fired up!"
"Wow, she's so strong." Lucy said absent mindedly as she watched Mirajane's display of power.
"Aye!" Happy said in agreement.
"Now, it's time to end this." Mirajane said as [Darkness Magic] began to condense in her palm. Once the concentration of magic power in her palm was satisfactory, Mirajane chanted her spell. "[Evil Shower]."
With that, a stream of dark purple energy bullets were shot from the orb of [Darkness Magic] in Mirajane's hand. Usually, the bullets would fly indiscriminately in the general direction of Mirajane's target. However, magic power control has been a focus of those who trained with Alfonzo and Elicia in the mornings. So, she had a fair amount of control over where those purple energy bullets ended up.
Though a few of the bullets missed their mark, soaring off into the sky, the majority of the bullets hit the Inferno bear, leaving a large number of bloody holes in hits hide. On top of that, the impact for the energy bullets were strong enough to stop its descent due to gravity.
However, when the spell ended, the Bear started falling again. Then, a few seconds later, it crashed into the ground.
*Boom!*
Upon impact, the area around the Inferno Bear was covered in a cloud of dust and debris.
Without waiting to confirm its death, Mirajane turned away from the Inferno Bear and started walking toward the group of wizards as she dispelled her [Take Over].
"Now, Gray, would you be a dear and put that bear on ice?" Mirajane asked with her usual, pleasant smile. "I'm sure if I asked nicely, Alfonzo would be willing to cook it for me. And Natsu, would you help him bring it back to the town? We need to let the mayor know what happened and catch the next train back to Magnolia, after all."
"Aye!" Gray and Natsu answered simultaneously.
"Oh great, now they're both talking like Happy." Lucy grumbled.
"Aye!" Happy said happily.
"Shut it, Cat." Lucy said in an annoyed tone.
I was too busy after work yesterday to write a chapter, So I'll make up for the missing chapters on patr3on after I get home from work today.
Read ahead at:
https://patr3on.com/SixthSense1029
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy the story.
Comments, Reviews, and Power Stones are always appreciated.