We dedicate this chapter to karma7309, Animefansunite, NikkiTheOtaku, tt_reed,Stardust478, yoongiS_1225, Samantha_Modales, Mira_the_mad_shipper, and Ressa_27!! Thanks for commenting!!
Juvia POV
“Can’t say I ever thought I’d see us in purple,” Natsu said with disgust as he mounted his horse.
“Shut up, flame brain.” Gray scowled as he adjusted the Phantom Lord armor. Jellal looked just as uncomfortable and awkward in the armor but he wore it nonetheless. I laughed under my breath- they looked like they were more willing to put on a dress than to wear Phantom Lord armor. Once they were ready I kicked Pollux in the flanks, he and Castor had come back about five minutes after we finished taking out the Phantom Lord knights. We needed to hurry, if we weren’t inside the castle gates before word reached them that the Phantom Lord forces had been overrun by the town knights, we’d never get in. We had already lost precious minutes, battling those soldiers.
When we reached the cobblestone entry road we paused so that they could get situated, posing as wounded soldiers. It helped that there was blood on all of them. Natsu went as far as to lie across the saddle, arms dangling. Jellal hunched forward, as if barely holding on. We pressed on as fast as we could and paused before the massive castle gates.
“Open up!” Erza yelled and I looked over my shoulder as if we were being pursued. “It’s Erza Scarlet and Juvia Lockser. Lord Jose has sent us to retrieve our sisters!”
Four knights stared down at me from the wall above. The little peephole window slid open, and a man peered out at us.
“Hurry!” I said. “We just barely escaped. Let us in!”
The man’s small eyes shifted to the violet on Grays shoulder and then to the others. “I do not know those men.”
Natsu groaned and shifted.
“They said that they are mercenaries, hired by Lord Jose,” Erza said hurriedly. “But they’re no one to us. I simply believed you would want to take in your own wounded.”
Still, the man paused.
“Leave them here if necessary then,” I bit out, “but let us in already. You’re trying Juvia patience.” I lifted my chin and clamped my lips together. “Lord Jose will certainly be hearing-“
The man groaned and slid the tiny door shut. Perhaps he was a henpecked husband, and he’d decided to risk Jose’s wrath rather than my whining.
I heard the bolt lock clang, and the beam begin to slide. I felt the corner of my lip curling in victory, but then I bit the side of my cheek, regaining my angry edge. We needed to stay in character. We moved forward into the courtyard as if we intended to drop the injured soldiers’ reins into the gateman’s hands.
It was then we saw eight knights, hands on the hilts of their swords, advancing, two from either side. “No!” I yelled, “You’re spooking our horses!” Pollux and Castor, seeming to understand what we wanted them to do, reared on their hind legs, we leaned forward hard, determined to keep our seat. The men paused, surprised, confused, and when they came back down on all four hooves, they pressed forward, as if out of our control, trotting away, dragging the four mounts behind us. We were quickly on the other side of the courtyard. “Now,” Erza said lowly.
Our ‘wounded soldiers’ sprang from their horses, each drawing their weapons as we ran to the door and opened it. We all raced for the door, slamming and barricading it shut behind us, just as the men rammed up against it in pursuit.
“This way,” Erza said, running down the hall to the door that led to the dungeon.
“We I need to find a way to keep those gates open, or we won’t be able to escape,” Jellal said.
Gajeel nodded once. “Flame brain and I will go with them. Gray can help you.”
Gray nodded and turned to me. “Do you know of another way out of here?” he asked.
I thought back to my last visit. Did I remember someone leaving from the side, toward the back? When I looked back to see Levy and Lucy in the window?
“There might be a passageway, back there and to the left.” I pointed.
I watched, still a little stunned as he and Jellal turned and ran to the back of the building, in search of my alternative exit.
‘You had to go and fall for a guy who goes all-in for a cause….’ I thought with a sigh. ‘And the guy who has zero interest in you too.’
“Come on,” Natsu said, interrupting my thoughts and easing through the door. We crept down the stairs, taking a sputtering torch with us. At the bottom, Gajeel lit another torch, which he handed to Erza as we moved forward.
They hadn’t even bothered to lock the dungeon. A shiver of fear rolled down my back. What if they had moved them? What if they weren’t there? What if they were? What if their hands were paralyzed after spending a night hanging from them?
Gajeel and Natsu stepped into the room at the bottom of the stairs and then stood stock-still. I peeked around the corner. Of course, it had to be him. Of all of the Phantom Lord knights of course they choose the one that looks like freaking Goliath to guard two small girls.
“We’re here to retrieve our sisters. Lord Jose promised us their release.” Erza said, leaving no space for argument. They were in a cell behind the Hulk, sitting up at the sound of Erza’s voice. “Release them. Now. And send us off with the promised gold as well. We must be away.”
The guard didn’t move. He just stared at us so steadily, so coldly, I again imagined he was seeing right through me. “Who are they?” he asked, flicking his eyes toward Gajeel and Natsu.
“That doesn’t matter.” I said, edging a bit between Gajeel and him. If he recognized them as Jellal’s brothers...
“It matters to me,” he said, eyes narrowing.
“We are in love,” Gajeel said, stepping forward and slipping a hand in mine, Natsu doing the same to Erza. I struggled to keep my expression in order, lifting my chin as if I was verifying his words as truth. “Once we are safely at the border, we plan exchange our vows.”
‘Excuse me what?! He can’t possibly fall for tha-’
Lucy and Levy were now at the front of the cell, hands wrapped around the bars. I took in a little breath and cast them an encouraging smile.
The knight stepped closer to Erza and said lowly, “I thought it was Jellal who loved you.”
“He was,” Erza said, letting a wicked smile turn up the corners of my mouth. “He was so lovesick, he never saw that my heart had been claimed by another. It gave us an advantage in opening the gates this night. We have done what Lord Jose asked of us. Now honor our bargain.”
He whipped out his hand so fast I didn’t even realize it was his hand until I saw it pressing cruelly into the sides of Erza’s throat. I heard the slide of Gajeel’s and Natsu’s sword as three knights- just as large- appear from the shadows and attack us. I immediately whip out my sword and bring it up to block the on coming attack.
“Do you think I’m stupid,” he ground out. “You’re lying.”
Levy, Lucy, and I cry out as he turns Erza around and slammed to the stone wall. I could see Natsu and Gajeel doing their best to battle the massive Phantom Lord knights, but they were not faring very well since their magic was practically useless due to their enhanced armor. I jump back just in time as my attacker tries to slice me in half.
“What is going on here? Tell me now, and you might just survive this night.” He growled at Erza. From the corner of my eye I see Erza slip her hand under her cape, as if holding her chest, still trying to recover, then she unsheathed her knife and sliced his arm, then sprang away, raising the dagger between them.
“You little bitch!” he snarled, holding his bleeding arm for a moment before reaching for the sword strapped to his back.
I kept retreating, fiending, and dodging attacks from my own opponent as I tried to form a plan in my head. They’re really large, so they can’t be all that fast. I just need an opening...
“Juvia!” Lucy cried.
I glanced over to her and then to Erza, who was up against the wall, her leg pushing against the hulking knight who was trying to shove his sword into her throat. Erza’s leg trembled; sweat rolled down her flushed face. The giant knight’s face was red and sweaty too, determined.
‘That’s it!’ I jump away from another attack and keep retreating until I’m about a foot away from Erza’s struggle. Thinking he has me cornered he lunges forward, sword first, fully intending to pin me to the wall through my stomach. Leaping away at the last minute his sword stabs through Erza’s attacker, completely missing me. Using my attackers panicked shock in to our advantage Erza cups her hand around my foot and throws me upward. Spinning in the air I bring the heel of my foot down on his collarbone, effectively breaking it and causing him to drop his weapon.
Breathing heavily, we stumble forward to help Natsu and Gajeel but quickly realize that they managed to beat their opponents too. With trembling fingers I pull the ring of keys from the main giant’s belt, slightly afraid that he might not be dead, even though there was a sword still lodged in his back, like in some freaky horror movie. Gajeel, panting, wiped the back of his hand across his mouth and then stumbled over to the stairwell. He held his breath for a second, listening.
“Anyone coming?” Erza whispered.
“No,” he whispered back while walking back.
“But we’d better hurry up. I doubt the Phantom Lord guards are faking their own deaths, helping Jellal and Gray open the gates.” Natsu grumbled, bent over still trying to catch his breath. “Goddamn bastard was tough to beat without magic.” His eyes shifted from us to Lucy and Levy as I finally found the right key, shoved it in and turned it.
They came through the door and drew us into a fierce hug.
“That was freaking scary!!” Levy cried as she shot forward and wrapped her arms around me.
“I thought he had you there for a moment!” Lucy yelled while hugging Erza.
We didn’t hesitate to squeeze them back, then we turned to Gajeel and Natsu.
“Holy fireballs,” Natsu said in awe. “We might fight our way out of here, but then we’ll have to spend the rest of our lives defending the Fairy Tail gates, with four ladies as lovely as you behind them.”
I laughed and Erza rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Natsu, Gajeel, meet my sisters Lucy and Levy.”
“Hey.” Gajeel grunted, immediately looking away with red cheeks when Levy smiled shyly. I all but cried at the cuteness.
Natsu, on the other hand, wasted no time at all. He crossed the room as if he had all the time in the world, his eyes never leaving Lucy’s. He took her hand, and then bent to kiss her knuckles, his eyes still not leaving hers. I heard Lucy's breath catch in her throat.
“Natsu,” Erza said, pulling them out of their own little world. “We need to get up to the courtyard, right?”
His eyes sharpened, and the dreamy haze disappeared. Our fire knight was back. He turned, hurried over to the wall of weapons, and began shoving daggers into his belt. We did the same. “Are you decent with a sword too?” he asked over his shoulder to Levy and Lucy.
“Us? No,” Lucy said.
“They’re archers, remember?” Erza said.
“Ahh, right,” he said, eyebrow cocked. “Great!.”
“Yeah, yeah, Romeo,” I muttered, grabbing the two leather quivers of arrows from him and handing them to them. They already had the bows in their hands and were looking at them like they were some museum artifact- which, of course, they could’ve been. “Come on.”
My mind was on Gray again. We ran up the stairs and out the building from the side, edging around it.
Guards at the top of the castle were charging forward, to the front gates, when we first heard it. The sound was loud enough that it reverberated in our chests, a tremendous pounding. They were here, the town reinforcements, trying to storm the gates, to break them with a massive battering ram. The sound became rhythmic within a minute’s time, a tremendous pounding, a battle between trees.
Gajeel curved an eye around the corner, and it was all I could do to keep myself from throwing him aside and looking for myself.
“Juvs,” Levy hissed, and I immediately flattened myself against the wall again.
A knight ran by, not ten feet above us on the wall. I was sure all six sets of our eyeballs followed his every move. But his attention was outward, not inward.
“Oi, Juvia!” Gajeel said over his shoulder. He was moving out.
“Stay behind us,” Erza said to Levy and Lucy. There was little need to urge them.
Natsu and Gajeel, hunched over, scurried to an outbuilding twenty feet away, and after a second’s hesitation, we followed suit. But halfway across, I spotted them.
Gray and Jellal were under attack.
And in grave danger.
“Lu, Lev,” Erza mumbled.
They straightened, beside me, and Lucy’s wrapped around my upper arm. “Which is her’s?” I could practically hear her grin.
“Bluenette,” I whispered. But I couldn’t move. I was paralyzed by fear for them.
They were trying to keep six knights at bay, six more were coming from doors, and four men were drawing arrows on them from up above.
We were about to watch them die.
“Le-…
But they were already moving forward, calmly crossing the courtyard like they owned it, ignoring both Natsu’s and Gajeel’s harsh whispers. Their attention was on the archers above who were pulling back their bowstrings, taking aim. Both Lucy and Levy took aim, paused, sensed the wind, and revised their aim. Then they let their arrows fly.
I watched it, as if in slow motion, as their arrows shot past each other in an X shape, hitting their targets in the throat with death-like precision. But they weren’t done. Lucy was already on one knee, squinting and taking aim at the the other two as one turned, spotting us. She let the next arrow fly, and the arrow struck him in the chest, driving him backward, over the parapet wall. Levy was drawing a another arrow, and aiming it at one of the six Phantom Lord soldiers that Gray and Jellal were fighting.
“Stars above, I think I’m in love,” Natsu growled, running past me, sword drawn, to go to his brothers aid. Gajeel looked like he was thinking the exact same thing as he stared at tiny adorable Levy for a moment before running behind Natsu to help. Erza and I drew our swords and ran after him, shouting, trying to draw the attention of Gray’s and Jellal’s attackers. Gray tripped and fell to his back and stilled, watching his opponent as the man drew back his spiked ball.
I stumbled, watching him, and almost went to the dirt myself. But then I saw him dodge the pounding swing and leap to his feet from his back. He smiled and whirled, bringing his sword around, again at play, not yet beaten. His smile allowed me to take what seemed like my first breath since I spotted him, surrounded. Hope surged through me. We just might get out, I thought. We might win!
I ran forward, and clashed with the first knight, felling the jarring clang of our swords as Gray caught sight of me and mouthed my name but the battle too loud to make out the syllables. At the same time, Lucy and Levy took down two more knights from the walls with their arrows just as Erza narrowly saved Jellal from a death blow, I knew we were gaining.
Impossibly, we were gaining.
🍜🍚🍘🍙🍥🍣🍱🍤🍛🍝🍖🍗🍟🍔
OMLOMLOML I'M SORRY IT'S SHORT BUT YOU GUYS HAVE NO IDEA HOW EXCITED I WAS TO FINALLY PUBLISH THIS, BUT I'M EVEN MORE EXCITED FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER!!! I WON'T SPOIL IT BUT *SQUEEEE* I HOPE YOU LOVE IT TOO!!!
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE:
COMMENT YOUR THOUGHTS
VOTE
SHARE!!