You crouch lower behind the bushes you were hiding behind, Hiro to your right, a Rune Knight to your left named Paul and five other knight behind the three of you. For years he'd been Hiro's right hand man, he was nice enough, blonde hair and brown eyes. But he was too serious for the two of you to really get along. Hiro, however, you got on fine with. Just like when he was a kid.
Right now, you were all watching a house. A small, wooden house in the middle of the woods that had taken you two weeks to find. Everything had told you so far that in there, in that house, was the man that tried to kill you and the Fiore all those years ago. But to you, it felt like yesterday. You could still remember the cackle of that awful man that caught you, twice, the cold, hard stones of your prison cell and worst of all, you can remember the feeling of the life being sucked out of you, slowly.
You shook your head, clearing it of any distant thought to the task a hand and looked over to Hiro, who was already looking at you. You both nodded at the same time and immediately the guards behind you started to move, circling the trees and trapping the house and its inhabitant.
The man, who you know knew was called Lin, in the house, was hard to find. There wasn't a lot of records on Lin but a month ago a Librarian informed us that his family could be traced back Oshibana Town, but no one there seemed to know anything about a Lin Allsopp. But that was because his family lived in the woods outside of Oshibana Town.
It was a smart move, he couldn't be traced, he never went into the town which made all of you believe you hit a dead end. It was when you were surfing to the next town over and saw a cabin in the woods near the town that gave you the idea to look further than the town. It paid off.
You both looked at Paul who tapped a finger to his lips as he too disappeared into the woods to circle the cabin. Hiro gave you a grin before doing the same. Hiro was a Rune Knight as well. A high ranking Rune Knight thanks to his power and training from a young age. Lahar took good care of him, and for that you were ever grateful.
The lights were on the house, and thick grey smoke was endlessly being pumped out of the chimney. But there was no sign of movement or even magic. You had all checked ever cabin in the surrounding woods, the only sign that this was the one you were all looking for was the markings on the door. The old symbol for his one-man guild, Dark Lightning. Two lightning bolts coming out of a cloud.
The plan was thoroughly discussed before coming here. Paul, as he wasn't known by Lin, would enter first. Me, Hiro and the other knights are to wait outside in case he tried to escape and it's our job to catch him so that he can stand trial, and then you could go back to Fairytail, to Laxus.
You watched patiently as Paul slowly emerged from the bushed, his back straight and his head held high as he approached the front door. Two knocks echoed clearly around the forest and the forest held its breath. You could barely see the door behind Pauls frame as it slowly opened.
"Hello," Paul greeted, "may I come in?"
A voice laughed and you immediately recognized the voice, "are you here to arrest me?" The voice goaded.
"Are you Lin Allsopp?" Paul asked, his hand going to his sword that was hanging off his hip.
"Why yes," the voice said merrily, "but wouldn't the lovely miss (Y/N) behind you been able to tell you that." I froze and Paul immediately drew his sword and took a defensive position. But his mere sword wouldn't stand a chance against Lin's magic. Lin held out a single hand and chanted a spell, "wind storm!"
Paul yelled as he went flying backward, he hit a tree hard and immediately went unconscious. Both you and Hiro jumped out of the bushes at the same time, and Lin flashed all of his teeth in an evil grin. He glanced between the two of you, and slowly stared walking towards the two of you and out the front door.
"I see you have your old little friend back," Lin grinned, he tilted his head as he looked at Hiro, "Hiro, was it? My, my, have you grown."
Hiro scowled, "and you're old." Lin's grinned dropped, his face stayed neutral however.
Lin clicked his tongue as his eyes turned to you, "you, however, haven't changed at all."
You shrugged your shoulders, "suspended state an' all. But we're not here for a catch up Lin. For what you did 7 years ago, you're going to be locked away for a long time."
Lin finally grinned again, "you'll have to catch me first. And we have some unfinished business," his grinned turned sickening as he took another step forward, "you were supposed to die 7 years ago, along with all those other mages. I never leave business unfinished." Again, he held out his hand and chanted a spell, "lightning storm."
You rolled your eyes as the lightning was shot towards you, caught it in one hand and shot it up towards the sky, "great idea. Shooting lightning at the person that rides it." You and Hiro both took a step towards Lin, who took a step back, as the other knights came out of the trees.
"This seems unfair," he pouts, "two against one." Before you could correct him, Lin spun around, spreading his fingers wide, aimed for the five other knights. "Hurricane!"
"MOVE!" You shouted towards them, but it was too late. Five beams of white light shot from his hand and hit the knights on the chest, making them go flying backwards, unconscious. When Lin turned around he was right.
It was two on one. But with the way it was going, he had more experience than you and Hiro. Hiro had just mastered the magic and you were down 7 years of training. Repeating the same spell, Lin started shooting numerous spells towards you and Hiro, and you both jumped to the side, away from one another. As soon as you hit the floor you jumped back up.
"LIGHTNING STORM!" You shouted, the spiraling yellow light shooting towards Lin. At the same time, you heard some else shout-
"-Tornado!" Hiro! The spells hit one another and combined, and became more powerful, and with renewed vigor, shot towards Lin with new speeds. Lin jumped to the side, but not before the spell hit his side, throwing him into the forest. Both you and Hiro ran forward, breathing heavily. You leaned forward and rested your hands on your knees as Lin came out of the trees.
Lin started clapping, "Bravo," he laughed, "I'm impressed. That was some powerful spell," bringing his neck to the side, he clicked it loudly and stretched his arms above his head, "now, it's my turn. WINDS OF DESTRUCTION!"
Your eyes widened as you recognized the dark magic and quickly went into defense, "WIND SHIELD." You raised your arms to protect your face from the flying dust, but the wind travelled around the barrier. When the spell passed over you looked over to Hiro who was gone. You looked forward to see him at the feet of Lin.
"Look!" Lin grinned, his face holding a deranged look, "I found someone! Now what should I do?" You took a step forward but Lin pointed a finger down and shoot his head, "na ah. I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"Let him go Lin," you seethed.
Again, Lin shook his head, "but where is the fun in that. I've waited 7 long years for this day. I never wanted to fight all these people, just you and your blonde boyfriend. But," Lin glanced behind you, "he isn't here. So I'll have to settle with killing you. But first, let's make this interesting."
Not letting your guard down, you reluctantly agreed, "what do you want?"
"You. Just you. I want to fight you, here and now with no interruptions. I will put Hiro," he pointed into the forest with his free hand, "behind some trees. And we duel like storm mages should." You nodded, "but for safe measure," his finger started to glow as he started chanting a spell under his breath. Before you could react, Hiro started glowing and then the glowing stopped, "there. If you go against the terms set Hiro will die."
You gulped and nodded, "just take Hiro into the woods so that we can get this over with," you said grimly. Lin grinned and quickly picked Hiro up, throwing him over his shoulder and taking him away from your sight. You sighed and quickly try to think of a plan. Going on the defensive wasn't going to stop someone that wanted to kill you. The attack would mean that if you wanted to go on the defensive, your magic power would be drained too much.
Lin waltzed out of the forest, almost as if he didn't have a care in the world. He stood in front of you, his thumbs tucked into his pockets, "rules are, there are no rules. It's a one on one battle. If you beat me, which I highly doubt, I'll leave you and the lightning slayer alone. If I win, which I will, I'm going to kill you."
You nodded, and shook your hands at your sides. You had never really had a one on one battle before. You were sure training and your escape attempt didn't count. Before you could even think flash of lightning thrown towards you, you barely had time to slide out of the way. The lightning hit the ground where you were standing, charring it, turning it black.
It was your turn to attack next, "Electric Storm," you shot your spell towards where you last saw Lin. Only the spell hit air. You let your guard down from a second, confused as to where he could have gone, only to of been hit behind. You yelled out in pain as your body was thrown to the floor. A hand flew to your head as another went to the floor to stop you from headbutting the ground.
A laugh sounded loudly behind you, you looked over your shoulder to see Lin. His eyes were feral, his hand pointed towards you. You blocked him out as you rolled out of the way as he cast the spell. The ground exploded on impact but you closed your eyes and jumped up.
"You won't get away with this," you coughed, dirt and dust still think in the air, "I won't let you get away with what you've done!" But you didn't realize you gave your position away, a spell burst through the dust before you could react it you right in the chest and sent you flying backwards. You hit the ground and started rolling in the dirt.
You groaned in pain as you heard footsteps slowly approach, the dust had finally settled. You struggled to open your eyes. Your whole body was in pain, you could barely move, let alone stand up to carry on fighting.
Lin leaned over you, staring into your barely open eyes, "once you're gone. I'm going to go after that blonde haired man that saved your ass 7 years ago. I'll tell him that he abandoned you again, and because of that you died," you tried to sit up but Lin put a foot on your chest and pushed you back down, "and because I would've killed all your friends here, he wouldn't know you were dead until I tell him."
Lin started to laugh manically, and your life flashed before your eyes. But what stood out the most to you was how you never got to talk to Laxus. What would he think if he found out you were dead? How would he react? It was then you realized something. Laxus wasn't going to have to think that way. Laxus was going to see you again and never find out that you were nearly killed again.
Your body felt like it was buzzing with renewed energy. You could see yellow out of the corner of your vision. Your body started getting lighter, to the point that your body felt like air. Your whole body was buzzing; it was then you realized something, you were lightning. Your whole body had become a yellow, electric force. The same one that you'd seen Laxus turn into.
This fight wasn't over. This fight was just starting.