02 Last Stand

"LIGHTNING MAGIC: DYNAMO!" a large pulse of lightning rocketed out of Minato's body sending Lizardmen flying through the air. Minato then jumped back flipping as he did so, and landed against the bark of a tree and pushed off. He held out his hand and energy swirled into a condensed sphere in his palm. The Lizardman he headed towards used its ability and copied the magic before forming a Rasengan itself.

"ENERGY MAKE: RASENGAN!" both combatants roared. The attacks clashed, resulting in a large explosion of energy, but with the Lizardman having less experience in using Rasengan, Minato easily transformed his own into the upgraded version, Oodama Rasengan and a large sphere of energy formed as the Lizardman was sent flying into its brethren before a large dome of magic energy destroyed a large area.

Minato cart wheeled out of the way of a lightning bolt before he was kicked in the side by a Lizardman that appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. Minato soared through the air before he was hit in the chin by an upward kick. One Lizardman then vaulted off of another to gain a higher altitude before flipping and slamming its thick tail down on Minato. The blonde man righted himself and rolled along the ground so that he wouldn't hurt himself much, only for a lightning bolt to land near his body and send him flying into a tree.

Minato gasped in pain before leaning his head to the side as he avoided a sword that was summoned from another Lizardman. Minato lashed out with a kick and nailed the Lizardman in the knee causing the joint to break from the force. With the reptilian man down, Minato grabbed it by the tail and swung it towards the leader. The red scaled Lizardman caught its subordinate before throwing it away like a ragdoll before taking a deep breath.

"BLADES MAGIC: PIERCING RAIN!" a silver magic seal appeared in front of the Lizardman's jaws before it began to fire off a numerous amount of blades. Swords and knives flew from the seal. Minato quickly performed Yellow Flash to avoid the onslaught, but as he stopped, he fell to one knee in exhaustion. Taking advantage of the period of weakness, the red scaled lizard ran forth and crashed a powerful kick to the blonde's stomach.

Minato's eyes widened as he felt the air knocked out of his lungs. Another Lizardman summoned forth a spear using Kushina's Blades Magic and stabbed the spear through Minato's right arm, making the limb useless. Minato broke the head of the spear off and stabbed it into the head of one Lizardman before kicking it into the body of another.

"HIRAISHIN!" Minato yelled. Lightning exploded out of his body and suddenly Minato began moving faster than he had ever moved before.

"BLADES MAGIC: LIGHTNING ROD!" The blonde stabbed through many Lizardmen with his fists as well as Rasengans, the speed he was moving at allowing him to do so. As he cut them down, Minato suddenly stopped as he felt his magic power suddenly drop. The blonde panted as he fell to both knees now, he looked to see the lightning that surrounded his body began to move through the air and towards a large rod in the shape of a sword blade without a hilt, in front of the leader Lizardman.

"Such a close call, but I will be taking that child. The magic power from such a small human...it was unbelievable, if I can harness it, that human will be my weapon and then I will finally rule over the forest" the red scaled Lizardman laughed before grabbing the lightning rod. The leader chuckled as he and the surviving subordinates smiled widely.

"You put up a good fight, Kiiroi Senko...but this is the end for you" Minato panted before closing his eyes and then his body began to glow bright blue and electricity lanced off of his body, impaling through some Lizardmen and one stabbed through the leader's thigh.

"SHUNSHIN!" Minato suddenly vanished, a swirl of leaves and lightning were all that was left of his presence. The Lizardmen gasped in shock at seeing their prey dissapear.

"Grrrr...find him, sniff him out and then we'll kill him and the woman. Their son will be ours" the leader growled.

Kushina panted as she decided to stop to rest. As she did so, a few seconds later, she felt a tingle on her left arm. She looked to see a small tattoo in the shape of a lightning bolt, glowing electric blue. In a flash, Minato appeared next to her, panting and he was bleeding from the wounds he had gotten from the Lizardmen.

"I...told you...I promised I'd...come back" he panted, a large grin on his face. Kushina smiled as she wiped away the tears of happiness from her eyes before grabbing her husband and clutching the bundle in her arms tightly.

"Come on, we gotta keep moving" she urged him onwards. Minato nodded before following after his wife. They kept running...not even taking the time to realize they were running right into the thing that would result in their demise.

The beast was a gigantic dragon whose entire upper body was covered in black, round scales, which in turn were decorated by spiraling blue markings giving it a mystical look. Its lower body, specifically its belly, inner tail and legs, were a grey color and seemed to be rather smooth. It possessed a blunt, rounded head with four large and elongated plates extending backwards and had white beady eyes.

Its mouth was full of razor sharp teeth, and below it was an elongated protrusion pointing downwards. It had gargantuan, multi-layered wings, composed of the very same plates covering its whole body, which took on a formation reminiscent of a bird's feathers. Its massive tail split in two at its end, where the black plates disappeared and took on a double stinger-like appearance.

This was the legendary Dragon of the Apocalypse...Acnologia. The great dragon flew through the skies over the barren wasteland that was once a large city that it had recently destroyed. Growling to itself, Acnologia observed its carnage and gave a toothy grin.

'Ah, destruction of large, populated areas...my favourite past time' the Dragon of the Apocalypse thought to himself. It quickly left the area of the once large city, now soaring over a forest. Taking note of the secluded area, the black dragon descended, folding its wings to aid in its landing. After crushing a few trees in the process, the gargantuan reptile curled up to rest.

Using Roar of the Apocalypse took a great deal of magic power, an insignificant amount in Acnologia's book, but a great deal nonetheless and as such he would rest until he was back to full power then take off to destroy another city. As Acnologia was about to close its eyes, a twig snapped causing its eyes to widen. Turning its head, Acnologia bared its teeth ready to kill whatever came through the brush and dare to disturb its attempt to slumber. However, what came out was very unexpected.

Acnologia looked to see a red haired woman and a blonde haired man stumble out of the bushes before falling to the ground. The woman's red hair cascaded down past her shoulders, ending near just below her shapely ass. She wore a pure black top with long, orange sleeves and an orange skirt that ended just below her knees. She was covered in dust, leaves and a few twigs were caught in her hair as well.

The man didn't look that much better as his body was littered with slash wounds and there was a large burn mark on the back of his left shoulder from what Acnologia deduced to be from lightning, if the smell of ozone was any indication.

However, the thing Acnologia took note of was the orange bundle in the female's arms along with the fact that there was a large amount of blood pouring profusely out of a wound on the woman's stomach causing the red liquid to form a small puddle beneath her, staining the emerald green grass, crimson. Acnologia smirked as he stretched his claws out to eat the woman, but froze when he heard more rustling.

A multitude of Lizardmen walked out of the brush and smiled widely as they saw the downed woman, swords in hand. The red scaled leader holding the blood stained blade thus marking him as the culprit who stabbed the young woman.