A Present for Elfman

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Tenrou Island.

December 15, x784.

"Is this really how things end for us?" Bickslow asked while struggling at the top of the Tower of Dingir.

"Though he did not say anything in reply, Fried was currently thinking the same thing. Meanwhile, Rustyrose was watching the struggles of the two Fairy Tail wizards with an amused smile on his face.

"It should happen any time now." Rustyrose said. "Personally, I'm looking forward to the fireworks. In fact, I'm almost jealous that you get to see them from so close. Hahahahaha!"

Hearing that, Bickslow and Fried could only grit their teeth as they intensified their struggles.

"[Evil Shower]."

*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

At that moment, the base of the [Tower of Dingir], was bombarded by a volley of pink orbs of [Darkness Magic]. As a result, the tower began to tip due to a large chunk being blown away.

"What? Who's there?" Rustyrose asked as he watched his creation start to fall. "Show yourself."

A moment later, Bickslow and Fried were plucked out of the air by a silhouette moving at high speed. Then, they were gently placed on the ground a short while later.

"It looks like the two of you were in a little trouble, huh?" Mirajane, in her [Satan Soul: Sitri] form asked with a smile. Though, this smile was much more devilish in comparison to her usual smile.

"Mira… I'm glad you were nearby." Bickslow said as he instructed his dolls to reassemble.

"Indeed." Fried added. "Though, I must admit that needing to be saved is rather embarrassing."

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about." Mirajane replied. "We're part of the same guild. Helping each other is only natural, right?"

After speaking, Mirajane turned her attention towards Rustyrose.

"As for you, you'll pay for what you almost did to them." Mirajane said in a menacing tone. Then, without turning away from Rustyrose, she gave instructions to Bickslow and Fried. "I want the two of you to return to the camp. You can leave this guy to me."

"But we can still fight." Bickslow replied, sounding a bit indignant.

"I don't doubt that." Mirajane replied. "But Fried should have that injury taken care of."

In response to Mirajane's words, Bickslow turned to see the gash running across Fried's chest.

"*Sigh* I guess you're right." Bickslow replied in a resigned tone.

"It seems I have become a burden." Fried said while clenching his fists. "I can only pray that Laxus is not disappointed by my failure to attain victory."

"You can think about that later." Bickslow said as he instructed one of his dolls to hover next to Fried. "For now, let's get you back to the camp. And you should ride on one of my babies so that your injuries don't get any worse along the way."

With that, Bickslow began carefully helping Fried climb onto one of his dolls. Even so, he could not help but think back to the conversation he had with Levy and Gajeel in the hot spring.

"I would have never even thought about it before Gajeel said something.' Bickslow thought to himself as he shot a stealthy, skeptical gaze at Fried. 'But maybe those two really are gay. At the very least, Fried is. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But now I can't stop considering the possibility…'

"And do you think I'll allow you to leave, just like that?" Rustyrose asked, feeling irritated that he had been disregarded. "Belcusas, show them why leaving won't be so easy."

*Roar!*

Hearing Rustyrose's command, Belcusas roared loudly before charging forward at Bickslow and Fried, who were ready to flee the battlefield. Then, he lifted one of his massive arms to swat the two wizards out of the sky, along with all of Bickslow's dolls.

"You seem to be under a misconception." Mirajane said calmly as she appeared between Belcusas and her guild mates. "What about what I said made you think I was seeking your opinion?"

*Bang!*

After saying her piece, Mirajane calmly raised her right hand and stopped Belcusas swipe with little effort. Though, the ground beneath her did crater due to the immense strength.

"Oh, that was rather impressive." Mirajane said with a raised eyebrow. "I think you'll make a perfect [Beast Soul] for my little brother."

"Be careful, Mira." Bickslow said as he and Fried floated away from the confrontation. "That thing's defense is pretty strong. No matter what I did, I couldn't even scratch it."

"Also, his magic, [Arc of Embodiment], allows him to materialize anything he can imagine." Fried added while pointing at Rustyrose. "So, you need to be careful."

Thanks for the info." Mirajane replied with a smile.

*Roar!*

Belcusas roared once again and swung his other arm down at Mirajane, who he was unable to pull away from. However, just like the first time, Mirajane caught his swipe with little effort. Though, the ground cratered a bit more from the force.

"That was rude." Mirajane said with a slight frown. "Can't you see we were having a conversation? Someone needs to teach you some…"

As she got to that point in her speech, Mirajane threw a high kick at Belcusas. However, due to the Guardian Beast's immense size, she was only able to kick it in its lower abdomen. Even so, her kick, that detonated the flames on her legs upon impact, sent the hulking behemoth flying.

"…Manners." Mirajane said, finishing her sentence.

"What? How is that possible?" Rustyrose exclaimed in shock.

Wasting no time, Mirajane shot up into the air, using the flames on her legs as a type of jet propulsion to increase her speed. Then, with [Darkness Magic] coating her fists, she launched a barrage of punches into Belcusas' abdomen.

And to everyone's surprise, with every hit landed, Belcusas' armor dented before eventually starting to crack.

*Roar!*

On top of that, Belcusas' constant roars of pain were more than enough to let everyone know just how powerful the punches Mirajane landed over and over were.

"This is impossible." Rustyrose said as he swept his arms towards Mirajane.

With the swipe of Rustyrose's arms, dozens of black swords were created and fired in Mirajane's direction.

"Now I see where your creature got it's abysmal manners." Mirajane said as she felt Rustyrose's magic power flare. "Is it too much to ask for you to wait until I'm done?"

With that, Mirajane flew around to Belcusas' back. Then, while grabbing the back of its armor, she repositioned it so that at least a few of the swords would end up piercing the cracks in his armor.

*Roar!*

Once again, Belcusas' pain-filled roars echoed over the area as blod sprayed from the new stab wounds on its torso.

"How dare you!" Rustyrose exclaimed furiously.

"Oh, now that you mention it, I have to make sure that this thing doesn't die, right?" Mirajane muttered in response. "Thanks for reminding me. It won't be any good to Elfman if it's dead."

"You damn wench!" Rustrose bellowed furiously. [Arc of Embodiment: Pegasus Wings, Jet Black Sword]."

With that, Rustyrose once again sprouted a pair of feathered wings on his back while his right arm transformed into a claw shaped sword again. Then, he flapped his wings and charged at Mirajane.

"You're so stingy." Mirajane said playfully. "If you wanted your little pet back, all you had to do was ask."

With that, Mirajane let go of Belcusas' armor. Then, she put her hands against its back.

"[Evil Shower]. Mirajane chanted.

As she chanted, a pink orb of [Darkness Magic] formed between Mirajane's hands and the back of Belcusas' armor. Then, the [Darkness Magic] orb began releasing smaller orbs that propelled Belcusas back to the ground.

And as it just so happened, between the ground and Belcusas was Rustyrose. While avoiding the falling behemoth of a beast would be simple, he would also have to avoid all the [Darkness Magic] orbs that spread to either side of Belcusas.

"I fell into her trap." Rustyrose muttered with a frown. "Still, I can protect myself from those magic bullets with little effort. [Golden Shield]."

Raising his left arm, a golden shield materialized in front of Rustyrose's outstretched palm. Then, using the shield to defend himself from Mirajane's spell, he successfully avoided being crushed by Belcusas as it fell.

*Boom!*

A moment later, Belcusas crashed into the ground, face first, kicking up a dust cloud on impact. Meanwhile, Rustyrose continued to charge through the hail of [Darkness Magic] bullets with his [golden Shield] leading the way for him.

"Oh, not bad." Mirajane said as she saw Rustyrose approaching completely unharmed. "But what will you do about that?"

Hearing Mirajane's question, Rustyrose cautiously slowed down to take a look at his condition. And when he saw his surroundings, he was thoroughly shocked.

"How?" When?" Rustyrose asked.

Currently, Rustyrose was surrounded by a large number of stationary [Darkness Magic] orbs. In fact, these were all the orbs from the [Hell Shower] that did not hit either Belcusas or Rustyrose's shield. Instead of letting them slam into the ground, however, Mirajane decided that repurposing them for another attack would put them to better use.

'Alfonzo and Lici were right.' Mirajane thought to herself. 'With enough control, you can do all kinds of crazy things with your magic."

"I'll admit that shield was a good defense against my spell when you only had to defend from the front." Mirajane said as she spread her arms. "But I wonder what you'll do when the attacks are coming from all directions."

*Clap!*

"Hell Storm Convergence]." Mirajane chanted while clapping her hands forcefully.

Then, with the sound of her clap echoing through the area, Mirajane controlled all the floating [Darkness Magic] orbs to converge with Rustyrose as the convergence point.

Although Rustyrose manifested as many swords and shields as he could to defend himself. In the end, the number of [Darkness Magic] orbs were simply too numerous. Eventually, one of the orbs made it through his defenses, which led to a second doing the same.

By the time Mirajane's spell ended, Rustyrose was being rag dolled in the air, before falling to the ground in a smoking, unconscious heap.

"Maybe… I went a little overboard?" Mirajane asked herself as she landed next to Rustyrose's unconscious body and nudged him with one of her feet.

"Ugh…" Rustyrose groaned, mostly from the pain of being nudged by a flaming foot.

"Oopsie!" Mirajane exclaimed when she saw the smoke rising from the spot where her foot touched Rustyrose's jacket. Then, she took a step back and pretended like nothing happened. "Anyway, I should take these two back to the camp. Man, I really hope Elfman is there already, I don't want this thing to wake up before he can do the [Take Over]."

A few moments later, Mirajane, with Rustyrose slung over one of her shoulders and dragging Belcusas by one of its legs, made her way back to the base camp on foot.

Meanwhile, on another part of the island, Happy placed Natsu on the ground gently.

"Natsu, are you okay?" Happy asked in a concerned tone.

"Yeah, just wasn't expecting to be burned by that guy's fire." Natsu replied while rubbing his throat.

"Of course, you were burned by my flames. Hahahahahahahaha!" The blond man, Zancrow, said while laughing, and sounding absolutely psychotic as he made his way over to Natsu from the direction of the Grimoire Heart airship. "Why would you think a dragon would be able to digest the flames of a god."

At first, Natsu looked at Zancrow with confusion all over his face. However, a moment later, something seemed to click for the pink-haired Dragon Slayer.

"So, what you're saying is that you can eat my fire, but I can't eat yours, right?" Natsu asked while narrowing his eyes.

"Even though you are indeed as dumb as you look, I guess that was a simple enough concept for even someone like you to grasp." Zancrow said with a wide smile that showed off his teeth. "Now, you should just give up and let me tor--- Huh?"

Before Zancrow could finish, Natsu appeared in front of him with his right fist reeled back.

"Then, all that means is I'll have to beat you up the old fashioned way, right?" Natsu asked as he threw his punch.

And just as his fist started moving, Natu fired his flames from the back of his elbow, acting as a booster to add more force to his punch.

*Bang!*

Zancrow's head immediately snapped to the side when Natsu's knuckles landed on the side of his face.

"Damn you!" Zancrow bellowed angrily.

Unfortunately for Zancrow, his angry shouts did not slow Natsu down in the slightest. Instead, he received a barrage of punches, kicks, elbow strikes, and knee strikes that made his anger rise even more.

*Bang!*

Eventually, Natsu landed a punch strong enough to send Zancrow flying into the trunk of a tree.

"Get up." Natsu said, his magic power encompassing his entire body in the form of a flaming cloak. "If you think that's enough to punish you for attacking my guild, you've got another thing coming. No one attacks Fairy Tail and gets away with it without paying a price."

At the same time, Zancrow was slowly picking himself up. But when he heard Natsu's words, his anger spiked to a whole new level. Then, with black flames covering his fist, he punched the tree he slammed into. As a result, the entire tree was burned to ashes in a matter of seconds.

"I'm gonna enjoy torturing and killing you." Zancrow said, sounding absolutely livid, before he charged forward to re-engage Natsu.