Chapter 32: Mission To the East

Salem's Pov

Right now, Kagura and I were in the woods away from town getting ready for our sparring match. She got in a stance and I also got ready as neither of us said a word as we had our stare down than quickly rush forward at each other.

She tried diagonally slashing me but sidestepped the attack and delivered a hard kick to her stomach which she blocked using her sheathed sword. I quickly used my cat tail to conduct a sweep to her legs making her temporality lose balance and gave her a hard punch that sent her a few feet away.

I wasn't going to give her room to breathe though as I went after her. She regained her bearings fast and dashed for me and my fist connected with her sheath making a shockwave and breaking the forest beneath us. We locked in this position and began a barrage of attacks. Kagura used her sword and it quickly my switched to my dinosaur arms to have more of an advantage. She got the upper hand and kicked me into the air.

I flipped and landed on the ground but Kagura zoomed past me and I felt a sharp pain across my body and kneed to the ground. She came at me again ready to deliver a downward slash but I rolled out of the way, making cracks on the ground. I performed a quick backspin and got myself on my feet and dodged a long-ranged slash from Kagura cutting down multiple trees.

We locked in close combat once again. I got the upper hand by getting a solid punch to her stomach, making flinch. I followed it with another punch to her cheek, then finished it with a hard kick to her stomach, knocking the air out of her. She crashed into a large boulder breaking it on impact. She came out of that dust cracking her neck with a small smirk on her face and I gave her a bring it on gesture.

She got into her slashing form stance and rushed at me fast. I was about to respond but I felt my body get really heavier all of a sudden. I quickly realised she used her gravity magic on me and she got a direct hit on me remaking me feel the pain from the quick slash plus with the gravity all heavy I face planted into the ground hard.

I could tell another attack was coming and her magic was affecting a good part of the area so I quickly transformed into my demi-rabbit form and burrowed into the ground. As I was on the ground, I felt a strong shockwave, likely due to her missing attack. Good thing her magic isn't affecting the underground.

"Fuck she sure hit hard." I flinched in pain as those two direct attacks did a number on me. "A few more of those and do for." I spat out a little blood and got my next attack ready.

I grabbed a good chunk of the underground and borrowed upwards to the surface near Kagura's location and flung it out while I quickly borrowed behind her and good thing her spell was off, probably to conserve energy. As expected, she took the bait and cut the and I came out and sneak attacked her with a strong kick to the abdomen sending a few feet away but she landed on her feet skidding along the ground clutching her abdomen in pain.

I turned just my head into that of the Rathalos. "Inferno Breath!" I released a huge blast of fire magic from my mouth straight at the sword mage.

"Gravity magic: Sky!" She quickly chanted as she and I flew up, making my aim off and completely miss her and doing a good amount of damage to the forest. But I turned into the Hybrid form of the Rathalos so I could fly properly.

"Flame Bombs!" I chanted as spat multiple fireballs at her and she kept batting them away using her sword.

"Gravity magic: Earth!" It got really heavy and I did a good job fighting it this time but Kagura increased the Gs and rocketed to the ground not before I quickly went back to normal with the Ankylosaurus tail.

I crashed to the ground and with my tail slamming hard on it, making a rock pillar directly hit Kagura, sending her to the air. I switched again but I had the Rathalos head and smirked.

"Hellzone!" I chanted and all the previous fireballs all came back and attacked Kagura making a huge explosion in the sky.

Suddenly Kagura launched at me with meteor speeds from the air with her strong form and I reacted fast by jumping out of the way, making her destroy a huge sum of ground. She was panting a bit with burn marks and her clothes ruined and I did stare a bit which she noticed and so she quickly attacked using her slash form but I dodged and my hair and feet transformed into that of the Zinogre.

I delivered a lightning kick to the side electrocuting her but she powered through the pain and the tip of her sword sheath hit my face, knocking me away far giving me a bloody nose.

But she wasn't done as she quickly rushed forward and made multiple slash forms and I quickly went to my Ankylosaurus hybrid form to help ease the damage. Once I landed and she was a few feet away I felt multiple pains but thanks to the transformation they were lessened but it still hurt and I was knocked out of the form.

Kagura increased the gravity around us again and I was on my knees. She rushed at me with the finishing blow but I made my hands into the glacier wolf's and froze and a good proportion of the ground made her slip and slide towards me and lose concentration with her spell which was a good opening for one last attack.

"Beast arm: Teostra!" I right hand morphed into the Teostra and it consumed a good amount of magic. "Fire dragon's Blazing Fist!" I chanted as dragon fire covered my arm and launched the girl.

She noticed this and was about to recast are spell but it was too late as my attack landed hard on her face making a fiery explosion as I slammed her to the ground. When the dust cleared, I was panting as I pinned her to the ground and kicked her sword away from her with the girl barely conscious.

"I-I win." I declared as I refrained my breath.

"I-I accept defeat." She admitted. "N-Now I w-would a-appreciate it if you got off me you l-little pervert."

"Seriously." I said as I got her and sat beside her.

"Don't think I know where your eyes are wandering off too." She pointed out as she also sat up.

I whistled and looked to the side after that comment. "But great spar Kagura. So, what is it now 3-1 with me leading~?"

"Hmph a minor setback I will catch up to you soon." She said with determination. "But I really hate your magic sometimes. Always switching from one creature to the next and each of them having unique magic." She huffed a little.

"That's what I love about it." I snickered. "But it's not like gravity is easy to deal with either. By the way Kagura, why don't you use your magic all that much in a fight anyway." I asked her.

"Well, I normally just use it for utility as it's not my main fighting style as I am a swordswoman first." She answered and she looked at archenemy. "Plus, my sword would be the key to achieving my ultimate goal so I need to train in sword play as much as possible." She finished darkly.

I hummed as I knew that she was a woman on a mission, a mission to kill Jellal. Now he understood Kagura's point of view in this whole story. If someone had killed his elder sister in his past life, he would want that person's blood too manipulated or not, and even if we reconcile somehow, I would never look at that person in a positive way ever again nor be anywhere near him/her without things going south. I can also see that Jellal is pretty much the biggest victim in this complicated case.

The problem here was Jellal is a wizard saint level mage and only got stronger with time. If Kagura were to face him she would get her pretty ass beat hard, well if Jellal decides not actually fight her that is and not just let her kill him. From what I've seen from the show the latter is most likely.

"Look Kagura. I don't really give people advice on how to live their philosophies but maybe you should work on your magic a little bit more if you want to get this strength you're looking for." I said and she just looked at me curiously. "Look, gravity is one of the four fundamental forces which make up the universe and there is so much more you could do with it than just making the area lighter or heavier hell a lot of them would actually help with your sword skills."

I thought about all the badass gravity users in media from Shiki Granbell from Eden zero, Chuuya Nakahara from bsd, Franklin Hall from marvel, Dante from black clover and hell Kagura can literally become this worlds version of Fujitora from one piece.

"Hm if it makes me stronger then I'll give it a shot and I take it you know a thing or two." She raised her eyebrow.

"Yep, I can help you for a price if you help me with my magic too."

"And what can I help you with?"

"You see there are two transformations I can't really control well." I thought of the Teostra and Quetzalcoatl. "Every time I pass a certain limit of time and end up going crazy and running out of magic. So, I want to find a way to use their power in small percentages so I could have better control. And since you can properly control the amount of gravity in your attacks, I figured you might have some pointers in that area." I finished.

"Hmm okay then it's a deal then." She gave me a small smile and nodded.

"Sweat." I gave a thumbs up then suddenly my phone started ringing. I found a way for it to link up with other lacrima.

"Junior." Morrigan appeared on the screen after I answered. "If you're done with your little playdate I need to get your ass to Mermaid Heel Marella has news for us." She instructed.

"Okay be right there." I replied and she cut the call. "Alright Kagura get your sword and let's go." She grabbed her sword and tried but was wobbly. "Want me to carry you~." She swung her sheath at me which I dodged. "Sheesh can't take a little joke huh."

She huffed and walked with me following beside her.

Sometime later

In Marella's Office at Mermaid heel.

"Honestly you two don't think you could go a little easier on each other." Marella sighed as she healed Kagura and I up with her water magic.

"I think it's cute that the junior found such a sexy little rival~." Morrigan teased.

"Miss Morrigan please refrain from such lewd comments." Kagura said, trying to keep a stern face.

"Aw~ don't worry kid I won't touch you I know my boundaries." Morrigan laughed a little but she was sprayed by water courtesy of Marella making me laugh a little at her.

"Morrigan-senpai please don't start this." Marella sighed. "Alright Kagura-chan my you please leave. I have important business to discuss with senpai and Salem here."

"Master I know this might be very sudden but I ask for your permission to stay but if you deny than it is very much okay." She bowed as she requested.

"Why Kagura-chan?"

"Please don't see this as eavesdropping master but three days ago, I heard you discussing details about the Taiyo country and about a special mission. The Eastern continents was my mother's ancestral home land so I'm very curious about the problems it's currently facing." She finished.

'Huh so she's just curious about her place of origins.' I thought.

"Okay fine permission granted." Marella agreed.

"Seriously?" Morrigan and I asked.

"Yes, I don't see any harm in allowing her to hear this plus Kagura is one of the most responsible members of the guild so it will be fine."

"Wow you really have a soft spot for this girl you." Morrigan raised her eyebrow.

"Not now senpai." Marella sighed. "Now Kagura-chan, to give a brief summary, we've been having demon troubles."

"D-Demon." Kagura muttered in surprise. "Like demons from the book of Zeref?"

"No Kagura-chan this is a real demon called a Cerberus straight from the underworld which is a realm which demons inhabit and were sealed away for thousands of years."

"But if they sealed away, how is it possible there's one lurking around?"

"Well mostly very weak demons have managed to cross to our world but stronger ones can find other means to temporarily crossover an example would be through passion. This one though is a unique case as it seems to be freely travelling between worlds." She finished explaining.

"I understand and one of it's main targets for travel is the Taiyo country?"

"Correct." Marella then turned towards me. "Salem-san, where is the Cerberus now?"

"Let me check." I checked my phone and it was still in Taiyo and has been there for like five days now." I answered and Kagura looked at me and then at my phone.

"Excellent, that brings me to what I wanted to tell Senpai and you. A little hiccup happened when making the final call for the mission."

"Of course. So what's going to happen now." Morrigan clicked her tongue in annoyance.

"After Acnologia attacked the fairy tail guild and destroyed their island it caused a lot of complications. For one, ships are very terrified to travel into and out of Fiore pass out of fear, so there's no available transportation. They estimated this will be a problem for 2 months."

"Wow, that dragon really sent ripples through this country." Morrigan hummed.

"A lot. Since ships aren't travelling in or out the country there is a huge decrease in trading leading to a slight economic recession. But on the political side." Marella shook her head.

"So, what now?" I asked.

"Well, I spoke to one to the four keys Raiden and she said she was experiencing some strange events." She then took out a lacrima. "Salem-san do you know what this is." A picture of a monster came up.

It somewhat resembled a woman but with a snake-like appearance on its lower body.

"Hang on." I took out my phone and went to the Taiyo anomalies. "Oh, it's a demon called the Viper queen." I said its name and it came from a dimension called Toukiden. I've never seen it if it was an animation, anime, manga or comic. Hell, if it was a game, I never played it.

"Well, Radian-san said she had fought this thing and it keeps coming back and spreading dangerous illnesses around most villages. I told her about you and she said she would like to know if you two could help with this case."

"I never thought the Shogun of lightning would be okay with my help." Morrigan snickered.

"Wait if transport isn't going to be available for 2 months so are we going to wait for that time or…?" I asked.

"If you accept the mission, I'll personally organise transport for the both of you ready in about a week." She smiled. "Well, Senpai, Salem do you too accept the mission?"

Morrigan and I looked at each other and nodded. "We are getting paid right."

"Yes, you two money hungry shapeshifters."

"Then okay." We nodded.

"Great. As for the Cerberus, Raiden had been put in charge of that by the magic council in Taiyo but I am sure you two could still help." Marella smiled then turned to Kagura. "Kagura-chan what's the matter?"

"It's just I'm just surprised as I didn't know Morrigan-san and Salem-san were given important missions." Kagura answered.

"So Junior are ready to explore a different continent~?" Morrigan asked.

"Hell yeah~."