C h a p t e r 2 : T h e F i r s t M i s s i o n
"Edlyn." I felt someone tapping on my shoulder, causing me to nearly jump out of my seat. I turned around and saw Natsu.
"Yes?"
"We're going on a mission. You need money to buy food..." He paused for a moment. He placed his hand on his chin. "Um... And things like that, right?"
He obviously couldn't think of anything else except for food. I stifled a laugh and said, "Uh-huh. But what exactly is the mission?"
"We have to kill several monsters in Mountain Hakobe. They're called Malvagio. Everything else about them is a mystery, because every single person who met the monster was killed."
A girl in short blue hair, Levy, I think, added, "Malvagio means evil in Italian. This quest will be very dangerous.
"How can Natsu, Gray, and I defeat 'several' Malvagios by ourselves?" I doubted. Is Master even going to let us do this on our own? I turned to him, but he didn't seem to be against this idea. "But Master..."
"Trust your teammates and yourself. If you cannot do that, you don't have to go, but if you don't, it'll be difficult for Natsu and Gray to go by themselves," the old mage said.
"I..." I turned to Natsu and Gray.
"Edlyn, it's alright if you don't want to go. Natsu and I will somehow manage it."
"Yeah, Edlyn, if you're tooscared, it's okay."
"I..." I started. "I'll go with you guys! I'll try my best."
"I'll protect you no matter what," Gray said.
"Thank you, Gray-kun..."
I stared into his dark-colored eyes. They were clear as crystals and filled with honesty. Our eyes met, making me blush a little. Then Natsu shoved away Gray.
"We will protect you!" he corrected Gray. The ice mage just stood there, rolling his eyes.
"I guess we're going then!" I said, and that's when the guild suddenly became silent. Everyone in Fairy Tail was looking at the same place. My attention transferred to the guild entrance.
I saw a girl, maybe a little older than me. Her semi-long, red hair was braided. She was covered in armor. What was shocking, was that she was carrying a large piece of something. It was white and sharp and shaped like a cone. This mysterious something was gigantic; the tip barely touched the ceiling. It was pretty wide too, maybe twenty or more times wider than average men.
"What is that...?" someone asked.
"Oh, it's a nail of the monster I defeated. I decided to bring it back here so we could sell it for money or something," the girl said.
A blue cat flew to me. "Edlyn, that's Erza Scarlet, and she's among the strongest of Fairy Tail..."
My eyes widened. "Really!? How old is she?"
"Seventeen. She's a little bit older than you and Natsu."
"She's intimidating," Gray whispered to me. "No one, no one, messes around with her in this guild. Well, besides Mirajane..."
"Wow... So she's like the Queen Bee, huh."
"Not exactly... She doesn't tell others to do her work for them. Instead, she's very independent," Happy explained to me.
"Oh. I want to be friends with her though!" I said.
"Are you nuts?!" Gray exclaimed. "She doesn't make 'friends', you know. She's independent, remem---"
I stood up and faced Erza. "Hi, Erza!" Then she looked back at me. Thanks to the monster's nail, the whole guild was quiet, unlike the other times, so my voice could be heard by her. "I'm Edlyn and I just joined the guild! I want to be friends with you."
Erza walked to me, slowly. Gray seemed to be afraid of her. "I'm going to the bathroom..." he whispered and walked away, to the opposite direction of the restroom. Happy went with him too.
"Edlyn..." she whispered into my ear. "I might be spending a lot of time with you from now on." She turned around and walked away.
I smiled in satisfaction. One more friend, yay!
"Okay, we'll be leaving tomorrow, so I think we should go home for now! We need a lot of time to practice and pack up, right?" I suggested.
"Yeah. I need to stay away from Natsu and rest for tomorrow."
Natsu gave Gray a dirty look. "You, ice princess!"
"Oh wait," Natsu said. "You have a place to sleep now, Edlyn?"
"Actually...no..." I sighed. I breathed in and yelled, "I NEED A PLACE TO STAY, AND THAT'S WHY I NEED TO GO ON THE MISSION!!!"
Apparently, Erza heard that. She walked up to me and said, "How about we live together? That way, we'll each spend less money."
I exclaimed, "That seems like a great idea! Do you want to come with us to the mission?"
"If that's okay with you."
"Hey, can I borrow one of the rooms...? I got kicked out yesterday, for stripping in the coin laundry...et cetera..."
"I own a house...but I want to live with you guys! We can build our house right next to mine. My house can be our temporary shelter while we construct the new house." Natsu came in as well.
"Yeah, we'll all live together!" I said.
"Aw... That's nice." Lisanna came in our conversation. "I wish I could live with you guys, too..."
"You can, um...what's your name?"
"Lisanna," she answered. "Thanks, but I don't think my sister and brother will let me..."
"You can," Mirajane said. "Don't worry about Elfman, I'll make him listen to me." She smiled evilly, sending us shivers.
"Yay!" Lisanna squealed and jumped in elation.
"It's going to cost so much money..." Gray complained. "But it will be fun to all be under one roof."
"Wait... Maybe the girls could have one room and the boys another! It's easier than getting one, two, three, four...five rooms," I suggested.
"How much is the reward?" Erza questioned Natsu.
"Um... 900,000 jewels."
"900,000...!?" we all yelled in unison.
"Oh, never mind, it's 9,000,000."
"WHOA!!!"
* * * * * * * * * *
White.
The first word that came to me. It was snowing like crazy here, at Mount Hakobe. The ground was covered in snow. My feet couldn't even reach the ground, making it hard to walk. It was like a quicksand. We needed to keep walking.
"I sense something..." Erza whispered.
We all faced different directions, getting ready for the fight.
"I'M READY TO KICK SOME BUTTS!!!" Natsu yelled and flame was in his hands.
"BAKA!!!" Gray punched Natsu's stomach. Natsu was about to fight back, until Erza glared at him.
We soon felt something change. The tension.
"It's somewhere around here..." Lisanna said. "Sh... I hear something..."
I listened closely. Nothing. I waited for a few seconds, then heard a footstep. It stopped for a while, then another footstep. The time between each footsteps got shorter.
Suddenly, the gray sky was covered in black clouds. The sunlight was now completely blocked.
"S-snowstorm...?" Lisanna looked up at the sky and said.
The air became thick as dark purple, mist-like thing spread. Although it was difficult to see now, my eyes caught a suspicious silhouette. I squinted my eyes and looked closely. It was definitely Malvagio.
It was shaped like a leopard and had spots like it, but its body was black and the spots were blue. The monster was very petite, compared to my expectation.
"Malvagio..." Natsu whispered.
"Oh-oh..." Gray said, looking at Natsu.
"I'M READY TO FIGHT, MANJU!!!"
Erza yelled, "NATSU!!!"
I was worried too. I looked at Erza, who continued, "IT'S MALVAGIO, NOT MANJU, YOU IDIOT!!!"
Gray and I facepalmed, while Lisanna just smiled.
"DIEEEEEE!!! Fire Dragon's Roar!" Natsu yelled and posed just like my Water Dragon's Roar, except, breathed out fire.
The Malvagio disappeared.
"Yay! I defeated it!" Natsu shouted merrily.
"That was it...?" I asked, confused.
We started to walk away, to kill the other four, until, the Malvagio appeared in front of us. "Did you think I would be defeated that easily?"
This time, the Malvagio wasn't the same. It was just...huge. The monster was covered in black fur, its eyes were purple, and it was standing on two feet instead.
"Maybe this is Malvagio's true form," Erza said. "We need a plan. Let's see what this monster can do first, then we'll get together for a strategy, alright?"
We all nodded.
"Hey, Malvagio!" Natsu yelled. "Fire Dragon's Roar!"
The fire hit Malvagio directly. However, the fire disappeared in no time. Did it absorb the fire?
"Fire Dragon's Roar!" The monster breathed out fire.
"Ice Make: Shield!" Gray pulled out his two hands out of the pocket and created a strong shield in front of us. However, the shield melted as soon as the fire hit.
"AHHH!!!" We were all blown by the impact.
"Water Dragon's Roar!"
My water hit the monster, but was absorbed, like what happened to Natsu's fire.
"Water Dragon's Roar!" The monster copied me, hitting all of us.
"WAAAH!!!"
I couldn't get up. The monster's 'Water Dragon's Roar' was much more powerful than mine.
"Malvagio's ability is copy, literally just copying your magic. Except...this monster's attack can be way more powerful than your own. It's...dangerous," Erza explained. "I have a plan."
I asked. "What's the plan?"
N e x t E p i s o d e
C h a p t e r 3 : T h e P l a n
What's Erza's plan? How will they defeat the Malvagios? Read the next chapter to find out. Update will be within a week.