Taste my Pain
Chapter 18
"One more wave!" Erza yelled out as she re-equipped into a new amour where she then attacked the closest men that tried to grab her from behind. Her sword held up high, she turned to look out to Gray and Natsu that were fighting against two men before releasing a spell. They were all fighting their way to see how the others were doing, but with the number of bandits that they were currently facing, it was difficult to know where they were going as they had no time to rest.
Each time they would move forward, another wave would come towards them which made the job that the girls had chosen quite suspicious.
Punching the thief charging towards him, Natsu pointed his nose up in the air as he took in a deep inhale. "I can smell Lucy! She's really close!" Natsu exclaimed as he ran ahead with the others following.
As they ran after Natsu, they could tell that they were almost there where the others were. In the distance, they could see flashes of light and the rapidly changing elements which signified Fairy Tail's presence.
Charles/Carla/Charle flying towards Wendy where she picked her up again, Wendy gave out another roar and dragged it through the air and forest. Her small body panting from lack of energy within her, she forced herself to continue in hopes of giving her two friends extra time to regroup before the next waves caught up to them.
"Wendy, are you alright?" Charles/Carla/Charle asked in concern as she looked down to the girl that was in her hold. Wendy looking up, she forced herself to smile before nodding her head. "I can still continue," she whispered before continuing what she was doing before.
As Natsu lead Team Natsu to Cana and Lucy who were standing back to back, they all saw how the two were glowing from Wendy's supportive side of her magic. Their steady progress showing Team Natsu how composed and united they are in defeating their opponents, the team knew better than to disrupt their focus and kept a distance from them.
"Just how many of these guys are there?" Gray sneered as he kept on using his Ice-Make magic to distance the bandits from Cana and Lucy. He was clearly running out of strength like the others, unlike Lucy, and he was getting much more tired each time he had to move to block an opponent's attack.
Not liking how the situation was slowly becoming, they all joined into one group without knowing. Their backs close to each other, Lucy found herself standing in the middle of the circle formation which made her narrow her eyes.
"It feels like we're back as a team," Erza proudly stated where Lucy frowned.
Standing awkwardly in the middle where her magic would obviously hit any one of them that were standing around her, Lucy refused to reduce her distance from Team Natsu. Her body buzzing from the adrenaline that she was feeling, she shook her head before jumping high into the air where she landed outside of the circle and whipped her whip across the air where it snapped and crackled to her harsh arm movements.
"I will not be the one standing inside of the circle while I'm still able to fight!" she boomed. She didn't want to get grouped together with a group who were cocky about their strengths and teamwork. She wasn't like them and she was much more independent than how she was before in the past.
Being a few hours since the beginning of their battle, the bandits all continued charging towards them in waves. Whoever their commander was, Lucy was estimating that they were fighting against five large bandit groups that wanted to increase their numbers.
One group of bandits followed by another, perhaps the news of their collaboration brought in more bandits that wanted to join in the fun. Imitation magic and Clone magic being the main reason to why more continued to come towards their way, Lucy had to give them props for making it so far.
"They haven't exactly given up, so what's going on? Why aren't they shivering their pants off?" Natsu complained as Lucy rolled her eyes. "As if they're able to shake that much that their belts unbuckle," Lucy thought in retort.
Doing a high kick which sent her opponent to the air where Wendy kicked him down, she knew far too well what they're trying to achieve. "They're trying to make us tired," she stated, not looking at Team Natsu.
She felt strange as she fought against the bandits ranging from all ages. Now relying on her whips and melee combat, she thought that it'll be fine by doing this. But as they continued to fight, she knew that everyone was getting tired at a drastic rate.
Once they fall onto their knees from exhaustion, it'll be game over for them. And she didn't want that to happen as she narrowed her eyes.
"Assemble, Wings of the Dragon!" Flying high to the sky, Lucy looked over the canopy of trees. They were fighting in the forests of some forsaken place and from the look of it, the place looked like something all types of bandits and thieves would hide in.
Looking up ahead towards the horizon, she widened her eyes. "There's a whole army over there!" Lucy notified where Cana cursed out loud. "Me and my bloody love for jewels and booze shopping," she scowled, telling herself off for choosing booze shopping over the comfort of booze at home.
As Lucy examined the army, it was estimated to be in the hundreds. Out of nowhere, a huge explosion erupted, and Lucy turned over to the left wherein the far distance bright lights of magic were seen. There, a figure flew up to the sky and Lucy widened her eyes. With eyes like a hawk, Lucy saw a girl with long crimson hair levitating with her eyes glowing red as something that like looked at an Exceed floated next to her.
"What in the world..." she whispered to herself before meeting eyes with the crimson-haired girl who looked shocked as much as she was.
The two of them noticed something on each other. They both were using Wings of the Dragon.
Before long, the crimson and her assuming partner vanished where the flashing magic vanished as well. Her hand up her head, she rubbed her temples in confusion. "Did the people call in backup for the job?" Lucy questioned before shaking her head.
Thinking about ways to finish off the job, the blonde finally had an idea. She remembered a spell that could knock out a large number of opponents from Starisha in which had told her that the spell that will take out a lot of her stamina, but with the seal removed, could recover her magic at a faster rate and should take out half of what it should be.
Flying higher into the sky, Natsu looked up at Lucy. "Luce, what are you doing? We should think this out!" Natsu yelled out as he punched a guy in the gut.
"Don't go grouping me into Team Natsu!" she snapped as she stopped flying. Looking down, she estimated the speed rate at which the enemy was coming to their direction.
Confirming her estimation, she opened her mouth to see. "Fire Dragon's Roar!" Lucy bellowed, releasing the burning flames from her open mouth. Hearing the distant yells of pain, she roughly guessed that it'll take half a minute to reach the others.
The others looking up to see what Lucy was planning from below, they waited. Their wave just then had been defeated, and they were waiting for the next.
"She must really hate you," Gray teased as he pointed over to Natsu. "Shut up, Ice Popsicle," he argued back. Stabbing his elbow into Natsu's hips, the raven gave the boy a taunt. "You wanna go, Flame Idiot?"
Before Natsu could even say anything, Erza interrupted the two by telling them to shut up.
Above them all, Lucy was focusing. "Focus..." she whispered as she closed her eyes. Urano Metria was a good idea to use but using that would only focus on a specific area. Poison Air Cage seemed like a good idea as well. Paralysing them seemed to get the job done and making them fight each other seemed good as well.
Focusing and gathering up all her magic, she opened her eyes quickly and started placing the plan in action.
First, knock out the next wave of people that are coming near them, then destroy them all. She didn't care if the attack hits Team Natsu, her hatred was just started to come out as her annoyance towards these bandits were at an all-time high. "Fire Dragon's Lava!" Lucy growled lowly as she pointed at the charging people. Watching all of them get knocked out, she let out a long sigh since it was now time to finish the job without any more fighting. "Shooting Stellarium!" Lucy yelled as her body started to glow a faint yellow.
Stars in different sizes and brightness's circled around her and soon came flying down to the ground, hitting countless people that were in the forest. As she continued to hold onto her magic, Natsu got cut by a small star that accidentally hit him where Wendy came running over to Natsu while Lucy was too busy focusing on her stars which were shooting down to the army of bandits.
When she no longer heard screaming and yelling from the distance, she stopped her spell and examined the area before her where there were no more standing bandits on the ground. All of them on the ground and passed out, she smiled to herself as she lowered herself towards the others.
Landing on the ground, she gave a smug smirk to Natsu, silently telling him to try to beat that. Walking away without any further words, she picked up Cana and began to fly off with Wendy and Charles/Carla/Charle following silently behind.
The two partners catching up to Lucy and Cana, Wendy looked over to Lucy whose eyes were filled with sadness where suddenly it flashed with anger. Her face concerned where she looked up to Carla/Charle/Charles, she heard Lucy whisper something out loud which made the two of them look at each other in bewilderment.
"I'll prove to them who's weak," Lucy said. All looking to each other with Lucy looking straight ahead, they all gave each other worried glances. "Lucy-san..." Wendy whispered in concern.
Soon reaching their appointed town, Lucy caught a familiar scent in the air which made her stop in her tracks and look over her shoulder in alert. A scent filled with darkness and unhappiness.
Her head looking around in suspicion since the scent that she was smelling was something from long ago, she narrowed her eyes as she placed Cana to her feet and scanned the area again. Something didn't feel right but not being able to recall the owner of the unknown scent which reeked of darkness and loneliness, she forced herself to look ahead as she and the others went to the mayor to claim their reward.
After a long discussion with the mayor who couldn't shut his mouth from boasting about his town, he finally let them leave.
"Lucy-san, we have enough money to stay at a hotel. Should we sleep here and return tomorrow morning?" Wendy asked as she looked up to the blonde mage.
Lucy nodded in agreement. "We should have a break. Besides, we might get into some trouble if we were to go on the train. Cana, don't you agree?" she asked while they walked around the town. "Agreed. Besides, I think we have a few things to sort out," Cana said looking at Lucy with a smirk that made Lucy go confused.
[Dreame 2019 Edition]
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