Sky Sorceress: Savior of Exahelm

Chapter 20: Empty Halls of Exahelm Castle

Happy began to float over towards Natsu's back, but suddenly a magic bullet shot right through his chest. Natsu widened his eyes as time felt like it slowed down. Happy's wings vanished and he fell on the floor. The fire dragon slayer quickly bent down and held his partner, looking panicked.

"Happy! What happened?!" Natsu panics, seeing Happy looking drowsy and about to pass out. He then senses something and quickly looks at the other end of the room. More magic bullets began raining towards him. The fire dragon slayer quickly picks up Happy and leaps out of the way. He sidesteps a couple more as they all miss him. He holds his partner in a protective grip before looking up the stairs in front of him.

A slim angel with spiky gray hair and glasses entered the room, he was holding two crossbow-like magic guns that were blue. The angel smirks at the intruder. "Well now, so you're the one who took out Balrus? I'm impressed you have energy to spare." He snarkily compliments.

"And who the hell are you! What did you do to Happy?!" Natsu fumed, glaring right at the angel.

"Who am I?" Stark scoffs. "Don't you find my voice familiar? You heard that announcement earlier right?"

Natsu stares at Stark for a brief moment before tilting his head. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention to that."

Stark flinches and lightly scratches his forehead with one finger. "Tch. Are all you humans this mindless?" He insults. The angel then points at Happy. "As for your furball friend, it appears it only took just a single shot to render him unconscious." He explains as he lifts both his magic guns. "My magic bullets can drain the energy of anyone they strike."

Natsu proceeds to gently lay Happy down by a pillar before standing up and glaring at Stark once more, clenching both his fists. "You'll pay for that." He shot.

"Oh please, I know how you dragon slayer types fight." Stark mocks, twirling both guns as they turn purple. "You're only good at close range combat. I won't even have to move from this spot to keep you at bay." He taunts before opening fire at the fire dragon slayer once more.

Natsu backflips a couple feet away to avoid the magic bullets as they land in a line in front of him. He proceeds to propel himself forward towards the angel. Stark slightly adjusts his glasses with one arm and fires more bullets with the other. Natsu stops in place and tilts his body to dodge each shot. The pink haired mage leaps in the air and slams both his fists together.

"You're way more open if you leap that high, you fool." Stark insults, pointing both guns right at him. But he sees Natsu create a large fireball which causes the angel to raise an eyebrow.

Natsu looks down at Stark and smirks. "Jokes on you! I can do long ranged attacks too!" He then chucks the large fireball right at Stark. "Brilliant Flame of the Fire Dragon!"

The bright light of the flames reflects off of Stark's glasses as he remains calm. He proceeds to shoot two magic bullets as they directly hit the flame, causing it to burst in place. Before Natsu could react, a stray bullet grazed his left arm.

Natsu lands on the ground and clenches his arm. "W-what the?! My arm suddenly feels numb!" He exclaims.

"Don't you get it yet? My bullets drain the energy of those they strike." Stark explains once more, twirling his guns as they turn blue. "Now, I wonder what would happen if several hit you at once?" He smirks before firing several bullets directly at his opponent.

With no time to check on his wound, Natsu barely avoids the bullets. He stumbles on his feet and dodges a stream of them before widening his eyes in panic.

"Are you sure you wanted to dodge those?" Stark asks, glancing over at Happy. "He'll die."

Natsu turns around and makes a dash towards his Exceed partner as magic bullets make their way towards him. Right before they hit him however...