Collapsing the Tunnel

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Rosemary Village.

April, x785.

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

In the air outside Rosemary Village, Alfonzo had just deflected a sweep of the most human of all the Crow Tengu's staff with Riot, swept Bedlam at his waist in the same motion, which the Tengu pulled his staff back to block, then used Riot to deflect the other end of the staff, which the Tengu had brought up to strike between his legs.

"Seriously uncool, man." Alfonzo complained, which the Crow Tengu ignored.

Instead, the Tengu began whirling his staff at high-speed. As a result, Alfonzo was forced to either dodge or deflect each attack, as he was unable to shorten the distance to land a decisive blow.

On top of that, with every contact of the two combatant's weapons, Alfonzo would send a current of electricity through his weapon. However, the Tengu seemed to be completely unbothered. In fact, from what Alfonzo could tell, the electrical current died out before it even reached the Tengu's hands.

"What the hell is that staff made of?" Alfonzo muttered in frustration.

At that moment, one of the Tengu surrounding the battlefield threw a throwing knife, aiming for the back of Alfonzo's neck.

"And why are these mother fuckers still here?" Alfonzo asked as he used his [Metal Magic to stop the throwing knife in place.

Then, in the next instant, the throwing knife turned around and sped towards the confused Crow Tengu who threw it, piercing it through the throat before it could react.

Seeing yet another of his brethren lose their lives, the Leading Crow Tengu's red eyes shined with anger. Then, with all his might, he raised his staff over his head and brought it down at Alfonzo's head.

Alfonzo, on the other hand, created two metal balls in Riot and Bedlam's path. Then, as he brought them up to defend against the incoming smash, they grazed the metal balls, shooting them at the Tengu at hypersonic speed.

"[Electromagnetism Magic: Double Railgun]." Alfonzo chanted as he put his tonfa in place to defend.

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

*Boom!*

*Caw~~~~~!*

In the next instant several things took place in quick succession. First, the two [Railguns] Alfonzo fired ripped through the Tengu's right waist and the outside of his left thigh. Second, The Crow Tengu's staff slammed into Riot and Bedlam, which Alfonzo had crossed over his head defensively. Third, Alfonzo was sent towards the ground at high speed, kicking up a dust cloud upon impact. And lastly, the Crow Tengu finally registered the pain from Alfonzo's attacks and released a loud caw of pain.

Meanwhile, the other Crow Tengu could only look at their leader with concern. At the same time, there were a few who looked at him with the desire to take his position now that he was so heavily injured. A moment later, however, the leading Crow Tengu's actions crushed those desires.

*Rip!*

*Caw~~~~~~~!*

With a pain-filled cry, the leading Crow Tengu ripped away the cauterized flesh around his wounds, causing large amounts of blood to spray from the wounds.

Naturally, this caused the surrounding Crow Tengu to be surprised. But what surprised them even more was the fact that the, now bleeding, wounds began to regenerate at high speed. Then, once their leaders wounds were healed to the point they were no longer bleeding, the Crow Tengu all cawed in excitement.

At the same time, the dust cloud on the ground had almost completely settled. And Alfonzo could be seeing trying to shake the dust out of his hair.

"Damn, that big son of a bitch is a lot stronger than I thought." Alfonzo muttered as he walked out of the dust cloud. "And that regeneration is a pain in the ass."

["Does that mean you're finally going to use us?"] Riot asked in an annoyed tone.

"Yeah, it does." Alfonzo replied as he held his [Soul Armaments] out to his sides. "[Run Wild with Destruction on your Fingertips. Usher in Pandemonium with Creation in Your Hands. Riot, Bedlam]."

Just as Alfonzo finished his chant, his magic power shot up to about five times its normal amount, putting pressure on everything in the area. IN fact, even the people in Rosemary Village felt as if the air had grown heavy. So, the Crow Tengu in the air were not having a particularly good time at the moment.

Then, as Alfonzo's tonfa melted down into liquid metal and covered his hands, he noticed that some of the weaker Crow Tengu had fainted and were currently falling from the sky.

Seeing this, the leading Crow Tengu powerfully flapped his wings and flew towards the one who was closest to hitting the ground.

"Nope, I already gave you all a chance to get out of this alive." Alfonzo said as he pointed his right index finger at the falling Crow Tengu. "But you spat on my good will."

In the next instant, Alfonzo's right finger elongated to twice its normal length. At the same time, a hole opened on its tip while electricity sparked along its length.

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

A moment later, all the Crow Tengu falling from the sky had large holes in the middle of their foreheads. Then, they all heard the sound barrier break multiple times in quick succession.

Once again, the leading Crow Tengu's eyes glowed red in anger. Then, he turned towards Alfonzo without losing any momentum and pulled his staff back to swing it horizontally, hoping to break Alfonzo in half with the blow.

"[Metal Magic: Circular Cutter]." Alfonzo chanted relaxedly.

In response, Alfonzo retracted his finger. Then, a spinning circular saw grew from the back of each hand. And just as the staff was in range, Alfonzo raised his left arm quickly, cutting through the staff easily.

Still, the Crow Tengu did not stop his assault, lifting his right leg to kick Alfonzo in the head. However, just like the staff, the Tengu's leg was easily severed when Alfonzo made a quarter-turn to the right and raised his right hand. As a result, The Crow Tengu lost everything from the knee down while his blood splattered all over the ground.

However, without stopping his turn, Alfonzo flung his now raised right arm at the Tengu's neck, ripping out a large portion of his throat in the process.

*Caw~~~~~~~~~!*

Seeing this, the remaining Crow Tengu in the sky cawed in anger before they charged at Alfonzo in unison.

Noticing the incoming attack, Alfonzo rose into the sky at high-speed, quickly ascending higher than the Crow Tengu, forcing them to change their flight path. Then, once he was at a safe height, he waited for the Crow Tengu to draw near.

"This should be high enough to not damage the ground, right?" Alfonzo muttered.

["That all depends on your control."] Bedlam replied with a grin. ["But since you're my wielder, you should be able to handle it. In fact, you probably would have been fine if you were even closer to the ground."]

"Probably." Alfonzo muttered. "But I wanted to have a bit more of a safety margin. Oh, they're here. [Electromagnetism Magic: Super Flare]."

With his chant, Alfonzo's body began glowing bright red. Then, in an instant, that red glow expanded outward, creating a sphere that engulfed all the approaching Crow Tengu, superheating their bodies.

As a result, most of the Crow Tengu were dead once the [Super Flare] ended. And those that were not died after falling to the ground.

Meanwhile, Alfonzo glanced down at the ground and was thoroughly surprised that the Crow Tengu's leader was not dead. In fact, his throat was regenerating while his leg was being regrown slowly as well.

"This guy's definitely a Cockroach Tengu and not a Crow Tengu." Alfonzo said in a surprised tone.

["Stop thinking something stupid!"] Riot ordered. ["Just finish him off already."]

["Riot's right."] Bedlam added. ["And while you're at it, you should take care of that tunnel running under the village, too."]

Hearing that, Alfonzo spread his detection spells. And he noticed that the Crow Tengu's corpses were mostly lying above the tunnel.

"I guess that will make a perfect mass grave for these brave warriors." Alfonzo said as he raised his right hand towards the leading Crow Tengu.

A moment later, purple light began to coalesce into an orb in front of Alfonzo's palm.

"Damn it, it's not the right color." Alfonzo grumbled as he continued to amass UV radiation. ["I should have changed the color from the beginning."]

A moment later, the purple orb turned into a bright blue color.

"Perfect." Alfonzo said, nodding at himself in satisfaction. Then, once he had gathered enough energy, he chanted his spell. ["Electromagnetism Magic: Big Bang Attack]."

With his chant, Alfonzo fired the blue orb of UV radiation down at the Crow Tengu's leader.

*Boom!*

Then, as soon as the orb reached the ground, it caused an explosion large enough that it could be seen from the village. At the same time, the ceiling of the tunnel running underground collapsed while the Crow Tengu Corpses fell into the hole.

As for the leader of the Crow Tengu, he was vaporized in the explosion.

"Oh, no…" Alfonzo said in a monotonous voice. "Look at this big ass hole I left in the ground. I'd better do something to fill it, or someone might get hurt. *Sigh* How could I be so careless?"

As Alfonzo spoke, he lowered himself towards the hole in the ground. Then, once he was floating about a foot above the surface, he stretched his arms forward. A moment later, liquid metal began pouring from his palms like he had turned on a tap, filling in the hole in the process.

"Damn, without you guys, I'd probably be ready to collapse after creating this much metal." Alfonzo said as he used his magic to shape the liquid metal into a thick cylinder that perfectly filled the collapsed portion without letting it spread any further.

["That's right, we all know you're practically useless without us."] Riot grumbled. ["Hell, you couldn't even beat that bird man without our help."]

Ignoring Riot's grumbling, Alfonzo continued filling the hole in the ground. Then, once it was filled, he created a thin layer of adamantine along the ceiling of the tunnel, making sure that none of the town's people would accidentally be infected by the liquid metal, which happened to be Techno Organic Metal.

Just a few moments after Alfonzo finished his work and had dispelled his [Soul Armaments'] release, Simon came running from the direction of the village.

"Alfonzo, what happened here?" Simon asked once he was within earshot. "We could see the explosion all the way from the village. On top of that, the whole area shook like there was an earthquake."

"Ah, sorry about that, that Tengu commanding the group was a lot stronger than I expected and I had to use more power than I wanted to kill it. And well… You know how things went after that."

'Even though I tried it out in training, it's hard getting used to the reduced consumption when the adrenaline is pumping.' Alfonzo thought to himself while maintaining his facial expression. 'If I used even a little more magic power in that last spell, I could have collapsed the area from here to the foot of the mountain.'

["You should have done it."] Riot cheered. And for the first time, he did not sound angry. Instead, he sounded like an excited teenager. ["That would have been sick as fuck."]

'I think this is the first time Riot hasn't sounded like my own personal version of Bakugo.' Alfonzo mused at Riot's tone.

["Although you're not wrong, riot, Alfonzo would have been deemed just as bad as the old Fairy Tail if he had done that."] Bedlam said.

["And who the fuck are they to judge him?"] Riot asked angrily. ["We should just kill all those powerless morons who think they have the right to judge the strong for their actions."]

'And it's gone.' Alfonzo thought to himself.

As Alfonzo spoke, he smiled sheepishly while simultaneously conversing with his [Armament Spirits] and patting out some of the dust still clinging to his hair. Meanwhile, Simon looked around the destroyed area with a blank expression.

"And what's with the metal under the surface of the ground?" Simon asked after looking around for a few moments.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that." Alfonzo replied while waving off Simon's concerns. "I just used it to fill in the crater. Wouldn't want anyone getting hurt if they come out here, after all."

Hearing that, Simon nodded in appreciation. Meanwhile, Alfonzo's thoughts were a little different.

'Probably shouldn't tell him that the metal is actually there to disrupt a massive [Transmutation Circle] that will kill everyone inside and turn them into a Philosopher's Stone.' Alfonzo thought. 'That might cause a little panic if it ever got out.'

"I see." Simon replied. "And what about Erza? Is she okay?"

"She should be fine." Alfonzo replied. "But I was planning to go check on her. She should be facing the other one of the leading Tengu right now."

"Then, please hurry." Simon said with concern lacing his tone. "I don't want anything to happen to her."

"Don't worry, Erza is strong." Alfonzo replied. "Really strong."

Despite his words, Alfonzo began levitating with his magic.

"Well, I'll see you back in the village." Alfonzo said as he started moving towards the mountain. "And I'll have Erza with me when we get back."

With that, Alfonzo shot off towards the mountain, leaving Simon standing in place with an anxious expression.