Returning to the Village

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

July, x784.

While Erza was doing her best to repair the village walls quickly, and Alfonzo was trekking through the caves under the temple, Elicia and Ultear were rushing through the forest in the hopes of cutting off the centipedes that were rushing back to their lair.

"[Ice-Make: Rampart]." Ultear chanted as she was sliding toward the centipedes from behind.

*Bang!* *Crack!*

A moment later, a large castle wall created completely from ice appeared in front of the fastest of the centipedes, a twenty-six foot (8 m) long centipede, causing it to rush headfirst into the wall, cracking it in the process.

Stunned from the sudden impact, the large centipede did not even try to destroy the wall blocking its way. Instead, it immediately started trying to burrow into the ground. Unfortunately for it, Ultear had already expected that outcome.

"[Ice-Make: Floor]." Ultear chanted for a second time, freezing the ground all the centipedes stood on in an instant.

*Bang!* *Crack!*

Once again, the large centipede slammed its head into thick ice. After regaining its bearings once again, it finally turned back toward the ones who had been following it and its brethren since they left the village. This started a chain reaction as the rest of the thousands of centipedes also turned back towards Elicia and Ultear.

"Oh, they're not igging us anymore." Elicia said with a smile. "Taking pot shots at them from behind just didn't feel right. Now, we can slaughter them from up front."

"Although you're not wrong." Ultear said, not taking her eyes off the horde of centipedes. "But you're definitely not as innocent as you seem."

"Anyway, let's get to work." Elicia said, ignoring Ultear's character assessment. Then, she raised her hands as she chanted. "[Thread Magic: Lashing Threads]."

Moving forward toward the centipedes, Elicia swung her arms, using her threads as whips. However, instead of simply lashing the centipedes, her threads were cutting through them like a hot knife through butter.

Like she had done while defending the village, Elicia was forcing her threads to vibrate at a high frequency. Unfortunately, this used up much more magic power than usual. So, instead of keeping up the vibration like she did back at the village, she was starting and stopping it when her threads were in contact with a centipede.

Watching Elicia's display from behind, Ultear could not help but marvel at her skill.

'She's clearly running on fumes.' Ultear muttered internally. 'Well, fumes might be a bit of an over exaggeration. But still, she's low on magic power. Her battlefield awareness must be incredible. There's no way she can see all the centipedes around her considering how densely they are packed. Still, I haven't seen her threads simply bounce off of any of them. Even if there are other centipedes between her and the ones she's cutting down.'

Ultear was pulled from her internal musing when she felt a few of the centipedes drawing near to her. Then, she performed her usual hand gestures while narrowing her eyes at the incoming attackers.

"[Ice-Make: Gatling Gun]." Ultear chanted.

In the next instant, a six-barrel gatling gun made completely from ice started materializing next to Ultear's right hip. Then, once it was formed, Ultear's hands took hold of it and started its mechanisms. A moment later, the six barrels started rotating at high speed.

*Tat!* *Tat!* *Tat!* *Tat!* *Tat!*

*Screech!*

Moments later, small ice projectiles were tearing through the centipedes and freezing their blood before it could flow out. Meanwhile, a large number of centipedes were screeching in pain as parts of their bodies were blown apart by the high-speed projectiles.

'I'm glad I started practicing [Static Ice-Make] after I saw some of the designs Alfonzo came up with for magic guns.' Ultear mused. 'But after seeing this thing in action, I can understand why Master Goldstein wouldn't allow him to sell something like this on the market. Sure its weight is too much for the average person to use comfortably, but other than that, it's a killing machine.'

On the other hand, Elicia was moving acrobatically as she avoided the attacks of the centipedes and slashed them apart with her vibrating threads. Unfortunately, her magic power was draining quickly.

On top of having to make her threads vibrate to do any real damage to the centipedes' carapaces, she had to continuously create more threads every time they came in contact with the centipede's corrosive blood.

"*Pant* This is working, *Pant* but definitely not fast enough." Elicia said through ragged breaths. "I'll have to do something bigger. But this will probably drain me pretty close to dry."

Looking back at Ultear, Elicia could only smile wryly as she put her back against the ice wall Ultear created earlier..

"She looks like a much cuter HW Guy from TFC when she carries that gatling gun around." Elicia muttered as she spread her hands to either side. "She should be able to handle the rest. Still, I'll thin the numbers a little. [Thread Magic: Cat's Cradle Calamity]."

In the next instant, Threads ejected from Elicia's hands. Then, with the minute movements of her fingers, they started moving to do cat's cradle. However, the scale was massive. Spreading out In a semi-circle from Elicia's position, all the threads were vibrating at the highest frequency Elicia could manage with her remaining magic power.

As the forms of the cat's cradle changed, the centipedes they passed through were cut into irregular pieces. However, they did not fall apart immediately. Instead, they all froze in place until the spell ran its course.

Then, once a large area of the battlefield was cleared by Elicia's spell, and she used the last of her magic power to pull herself up to the top of the [Ice Rampart], all the centipedes in Elicia's range fell apart like 3D jigsaw puzzles.

"Well, that went about as good as I thought it would." Elicia said with a weak smile from atop the ice wall. "The rest is up to you now Ult.--- Whoa!"

Before Elicia could finish her sentence, the fatigue from using up nearly all of her magic power hit her, causing her to stumble forward. Unfortunately, she was standing pretty close to the edge of the wall and started falling back to the ground.

"Elicia!" Ultear screamed as she saw Elicia fall from the wall.

Just before Ultear could drop the gatling gun, she saw purple sparks of electricity appear around Elicia. Then, she watched as Elicia floated back to the top of the wall. Standing at Elicia's landing point was the man they came to support, Alfonzo.

"*Sigh* She's alright." Ultear said in a relieved tone. Then, she turned her attention back to the centipedes. "Now, you've all got to go."

As Ultear started shooting at the centipedes once again, Alfonzo caught Elicia in his arms.

"That was pretty reckless." Alfonzo said in a reprimanding tone with a gentle smile on his face. "You know better than to use up that much of your magic power on a chaotic battlefield, Lici."

"*Sigh* If I were alone, I wouldn't have." Elicia replied, nuzzling her had against Alfonzo's neck with a smile on her face. "But I was with Ultear, I knew she could handle the rest. Besides, I got myself out of harms way at the end."

"And almost fell headfirst to your death because of carelessness." Alfonzo reprimanded. "I know that Ultear could have saved you. But that would have created an opening."

"*Sigh* I know." Elicia said, hanging her head. "I didn't think things all the way through. And I should have just sat down and started recovering magic power once I was off the battlefield… Sorry for making you worry."

"*Sigh* Just be more careful in the future." Alfonzo said, his tone softening significantly.

"I will." Elicia replied with a nod. Then, she smiled brightly and kissed Alfonzo on the cheek. "Thanks for saving me, Fonzie."

"Don't mention it." Alfonzo replied. "Now, let me help Ultear deal with the rest of the vermin."

With that, Alfonzo sat Elicia down on the top of the wall. Then, he overlooked the battlefield. Seeing a few holes beyond the coverage area of Ultear's [Ice Floor], Alfonzo could only click his tongue.

Even though they could technically leave immediately after reporting to the villagers that the King Centipede was dead, it would leave a bad taste in his mouth to let the rest of the centipedes run wild on the island.

"We can think about that after we get a good night's sleep." Alfonzo muttered to himself as he raised his hands. "[Metal Magic: Bullet Storm]."

A moment later, bullet shaped chunks of metal appeared above all the remaining centipedes. Then, they started to spin before falling toward all the designated targets.

With bullets of ice and metal peppering them from ground level and above simultaneously, it took less than ten minutes to finish off the rest of the centipedes on the battlefield. As for the ones who escaped, Alfonzo had a good idea where he could find them. Still, now was not the time to go on a crusade to exterminate the rest of the centipedes. Instead, it was time to get some rest.

So, once all the centipedes were killed, Alfonzo took Elicia into his arms again. Then, he floated off the top of the ice wall and landed next to Ultear.

"You've got cuts all over and you're covered in blood." Ultear said as she looked at Alfonzo with concern.

"It's not that bad." Alfonzo replied with a smile. "The Techno Organic Metal is already working to close up all my wounds. And since none of them were all that deep, I'll be good as new in no time."

"I'm surprised you even let it get that close to do this much damage." Elicia said, finally noticing how beat up Alfonzo was after Ultear mentioned it. "I mean, you hate bugs so much."

"Well, there were two reasons for that, actually." Alfonzo replied with awry smile. "First, it was fast. I mean, way faster than anything that big had any right to be. And second, I was afraid of collapsing the cave if I used any attacks that were too big."

'I mean, that little [Railgun] shook the whole cave when it hit the wall…' Alfonzo thought to himself. 'I can only imagine if I used anything big enough to kill a thirty-three foot (10 m) long bug in one shot.'

"Anyway, why don't you hop on my back, Ultear?" Alfonzo asked with a smile. "I'll fly us all back to the village."

"Are you sure?" Ultear asked with concern. "You fought the king of the centipedes not too long ago. Do you have enough magic power?"

"You don't have to worry about that." Alfonzo replied. "If I were going to make the two of you float with my magic too, that might be a bit taxing. But I'll only be using it on myself. While I'll be using my physical strength to carry the two of you."

"If you say so." Ultear said, still sounding a bit concerned. Still, she got behind Alfonzo, hopped up and wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. Then, she rested her chin on his right shoulder before continuing. "But if it gets to be too much, don't push yourself. I'm not so exhausted that I can't walk."

"Don't worry, I won't." Alfonzo replied with a smile.

Turning his head to the right, Alfonzo gave Ultear a quick peck on the cheek. Then, he floated off the ground and started flying back toward the village.

About twenty minutes later, Alfonzo, Elicia, and Ultear arrived at the tree line around the village. When they did, however, they were totally flabbergasted.

"We've only been gone for an hour or so." Ultear said in an exasperated tone. "How did she manage to damage the wall by that much?"

When Erza first started repairing the crack in the wall she created, everything was going smoothly. However, as previously mentioned, Erza was not the best at controlling her superhuman strength. So, while trying to fit the materials in place, she ended up damaging the cracked wall even more, widening the damaged area of the wall by at least three times.

"In hindsight, it probably wasn't the best idea to leave the most destructive of us to guard the village alone." Elicia said with a wry smile.

"Says the first one to leave." Ultear jabbed.

"I was worried about Fonzie." Elicia said in her own defense.

"*Sigh* You two can decide whose fault it is later." Alfonzo said with a wry smile. "Right now, we should stop Erza from helping before she destroys the entire wall."

Agreeing with Alfonzo's statement, Elicia and Ultear nodded their heads as Alfonzo flew towards the base of the wall where Erza was doing her best to fix the wall. Unfortunately, she was only making the situation worse as time went by.