14

0.0

'Sequence Initiated: Beginning Self-Destruct Protocol.'

There was a phantom throbbing pain in her temples after the squall of perfume-induced wind swept over them, but whereas Erza had trailed in Naruto's wake a fraction of a second after he moved, unlike him, she faltered in her steps.

Her brown eyes widened as the runes proceeded to spell out their imminent end with large, glaring red numerals. It wasn't her intention to abandon Naruto to fight against the Ichiya-imposter alone, but she just couldn't tear her eyes away.

Erza hastily turned to the only one that was not engaged in combat.

"What is the meaning of this?"

Eve didn't so much as glance at her direction as he carried the unconscious Ren with one arm slung around his shoulder, heading towards the exit. "Desierto," he grunted. "Military surplus." His words came out breathless as he continued to hobble towards safety with the dead weight leaning against him.

It was only when he continued that Erza stilled.

"The measures are irreversible."

Unwittingly, she turned her attention back to the fight as a meaty thunk of metal piercing wood gave way to a peculiar cry of 'Gemi!'. Another thump followed as Naruto sent the other crashing into the wall. The alien-like duo promptly vanished in a familiar yellow glow; it was something which she had seen before with Lucy's summons.

One of her legs jutted out as her natural instincts incited her to rush forward and help, but Erza quelled whatever impulses she had and took a step back as the faintest smog of the perfume started to rise up around Naruto.

"I-I, the boss—" his eyes locked onto hers, "Help... Help is going to come. Just hang on until then." He visibly swallowed a gulp. "I'm counting on you."

Naruto's features settled into a grim frown, like a soldier ready to accept his inevitable fate. "Well, what are you waiting for?!" he shouted, his rough voice rising with a hint of desperation.

"Go! Get off the—"

His words of warning were cut off when his entire being dispersed in a thick, white shroud.

Erza blinked when Naruto disappeared despite having a measured guess that it might happen. During their short-lived discussion, she held a growing suspicion that the original Naruto had somehow switched himself with a clone before he boarded the airship.

It was one thing to hear of the blond's abilities, but seeing it first hand was nothing like what Mirajane told her. Initially, she believed that his copies were nothing more than blank husks that took on his guise, so it was unnerving to see how expressive they were; it was almost like the real Naruto. Even a thought-projection paled in comparison to his clones.

Erza tore her eyes away at where Naruto—or more accurately his clone—knelt previously in the midst of the rising red mist and dashed off. She was not intent on sticking around for the effects of Ichiya's pain perfume to consume her senses.

As she hurdled over the shattered remains of the plexi-glass barrier, her body glowed in an intense light that vanished the moment her feet touched the wooden panels of the deck. Now suited in a revealing set of black armour with leathery bat-like wings, Erza cut an imposing figure as she began to take stock of the situation, sweeping her gaze over her dazed and wounded allies.

Jura was currently being tended to by his guild members. The tall man was leaning heavily against Lyon with an arm over his shoulder, and with the other, staunchly pressing against the wound that Sherry was trying to look over.

"I'm fine," the Wizard Saint grunted sourly in response to Sherry's relentless meddling.

The woman would have none of it. Her flawlessly tousled hair was no longer perfect, a show of how frazzled she was. "Stop being so stubborn!" Sherry ripped off a portion of the hem of her dress and shoved it lightly against Jura's uninjured chest. "At least, let me stop the bleeding first!"

"Erza, what... what's going on?" Lucy asked her.

The blonde was caught in a tangled heap under the bare-chested form of Gray. He leapt to his feet as he surveyed the area, distractedly holding out a hand to help Lucy to her feet and regain her bearing. Lucy had her eyes squeezed shut, using her free hand to massage her temples.

"Ugh, I heard Natsu screaming. Is he all right?"

Erza sought her only other guild member not accounted for: Natsu. But when she found his prone form lying next to Wendy's with Carla crowding around them, she knew that it wasn't because his chronic motion sickness. No, it wouldn't have accounted for Wendy's sudden collapse; the younger Dragon Slayer was perfectly fine before the meeting. The only reason she could put together was that they were caught in the cross-fire of the earlier attack by the Ichiya-imposter.

It would have explained it.

Natsu had a very keen sense of smell, and it wouldn't be far-fetched for Wendy to have similar traits. They must have been much worse off than the others if they caught a higher concentration of Ichiya's perfume, even if it had been diluted by the wind Naruto had conjured.

Lucy's features froze in shock. "Natsu! Wendy!" She remained disoriented, but despite swaying on her feet, she prevailed with Happy's restless figure trailing after her.

Gray, on the other hand, stood rooted to the ground. His features were slack-jawed in disbelief as he stared over Erza's shoulders, at the ruined remains of the then immaculate cockpit.

"That's not... good."

"You are a master of the understatement, Gray-san," Hibiki said, engrossed with his Archive magic. His fingers were working furiously into the golden translucent terminal that hovered in the air before him. His eyes would dart between the screen and his surroundings, scowling as he did.

"Does sarcasm really help right now, Hibiki?" Eve asked.

The small host was crouched next to Ren, who despite inhaling the full concentration of Ichiya's perfume, was still conscious, but barely. In his hand, he held an odd little brown pouch which he held to Ren's nose. Debilitating shivers racked through his body.

Feeling the pointed stare Erza directed his way, Eve quickly answered, "Smelling salts. It's something Ichiya-aniki gave to us to counter his magic should something like this happen." His attention trailed towards the prone figures of Natsu and Wendy. "I have enough for the both of them, but could someone please do something about that cockpit first?"

The deadly red mist had already filled close to three-quarters of the large room and was starting to seep out from the minor cracks and holes caused by Naruto's attack.

"Fine," Gray said.

He stamped a firm fist into the palm of his hand. "Ice Make: Shield!"

A thick block of ice materialised and enclosed around the length of the cockpit, effectively sealing it shut. Gray took a moment to inspect his handiwork for any cracks before turning to the others.

"Uh listen, whatever that thing was inside, we got less than a minute to do something about it."

"That thing is a half-baked measure thought up by idiots who would rather die in a glorious explosion than be captured," Hibiki explained, his lips thinning into a line.

"Oi! T-This ship's going to explode?"

"And that's not the terrible part, the terrible part is—" Hibiki continued, ignoring Gray's question as his Archive console faded, "—that I can't even stall for more time." He sighed, leaning up to look over the airship's bulwark. "Landing Christina is out of the question. We have to evacuate using some other way."

Eve looked genuinely amused, motioning at her. "I believe Erza-san has already come to the same conclusion."

Erza shook her head. Now was not the time. She began relaying her orders, barking, "Happy, Carla!" The duo seemed surprised at being addressed. "Get Natsu and Wendy off the ship!"

There was a moment's hesitation where Carla looked like she was about to question Erza, but the feline must have sensed the urgency in Erza's voice. As her wings finally took shape, Carla grabbed her young charge by the back of her dress but stopped short of flying off.

"Naruto's still—Where is he?!"

Erza tensed at the mention of the blond. "He... will regroup with us later."

The feline put two and two together. "That idiot!" Carla scowled harshly before turning to the tomcat next to her. "Male-cat, let's go."

"A-Aye!"

Still confused as to the whole situation, Happy had no choice but to mimic Carla's actions and heft Natsu's larger frame before taking off after her. With Wendy and Natsu safe from harm's way, there were only two more casualties aboard that remained a cause for concern.

"Jura-san," Erza said, brown eyes regarding the taller man with a hint of reservation."Is it possible for you to—"

"You will find, Erza-dono," Jura grunted as he tried to stand on his own two feet. "That I am still quite capable despite my injuries." A strained but relieved smile followed. "As are my teammates." To Jura's immediate right, Lyon, having foregone the duty of being the man's support, had locked into a familiar pose Erza had seen before; it was reminiscent of the only other Ice-Make mage she knew.

"Ice Make: Eagle!"

The stoic young man's creation materialised with a soft chime akin to shattering glass. Instead of the smaller, agile eagles that she had seen him create before, the lone ice construct was larger and sturdier than its dive-bombing counterparts. It hovered in the air besides the airship, with Lyon sending a pointed look at the trio of hosts.

"Quickly, we don't have much time."

His words prompted another flurry of movement as Eve and Hibiki helped their half-conscious teammate aboard the precarious ice construct. Gray, amidst the hectic and strained atmosphere, looked awe-struck at his childhood friend's sudden change of heart.

"Lyon," he breathed. "You're using both hands, huh?"

The white-haired mage's lips twitched in a small smirk. "Isn't that how Ur taught us in the first place? I have—"

Sherry could no longer hide her anxiety. "Honestly, you two!" she hissed, dragging Lyon forcefully by the wrist. He winced. "You can have your little moment when we're off this death trap! Until then... snip it!"

"A-Ah, wait a minute," Lucy said. "W-What about us? That thing's kind of full, and there's still the three of us!"

"Nonsense, Lucy," Erza corrected her. "You have me."

"That's what I was afraid of..."

Ignoring her, Erza fixed a firm grip around the blonde's waist and lifted her off her feet. Lucy was surprisingly light, enough that Erza was able to fit her under an arm. The knight proceeded to hop up to the bulwark on the opposite end of the airship with Gray following suit. With Lyon at the helm of his ice construct, the eagle began pulling away from the airship as it ferried its passengers to safety. It wasn't exactly the fast vessel Erza had hoped it would be, but it was the best she could expect at the moment.

They probably had seconds left before the ship they were on exploded.

"Gray," she called out softly, aware that the other Ice-Make mage didn't have the means to create something like Lyon's dynamic branch of elemental magic. "Are you sure about this?"

"I might have a trick or two," he said. "But it's not like I've used it before for something like this." He looked down at the immense drop covered by the expanse of trees as far as the eye could see. "We'll see now, won't we?"

Seeing the confident grin Gray sent their way, her passenger paled. "T-This really isn't a time for you to test some half-baked—"

"Ice Make: Slide!"

Gray leapt off the railing as his haphazardly produced slide materialised out of thin air, with Erza trailing after him. She monitored his high-flying descent warily.

Gray was struggling to find his balance as his feet found no purchase on the slanted surface, unaided by the fact that he had to factor his construct having no base whatsoever to support it; it was free-falling just as fast as he was. His upper body pitched back and forth to the motions, and his hands were still awkwardly locked into position to create the path of the ice slide. It didn't take him long to get past the difficulty curve as he relaxed into a noticeable stance.

His whoop of joy was drowned out by the sudden explosion that rocked the tranquil peace of the Worth Woodsea.

The concussive shockwave swept over Erza and her passenger, throwing them off balance violently. Erza grunted as she was partially caught in the fringe of the explosion; she could feel the heat searing her back, and no doubt the wings on her armour had taken a beating as she struggled to right herself in the air. Erza did her best to ignore the pain, shielding Lucy with her body as the aftermath peppered her with debris. She was only distinctly aware that something had cut her head as a small trail of blood dripped freely down from her forehead, obscuring her vision.

"Lucy, are you—"

"M'fine... Gray," she said weakly, pointing down at the free-falling Ice-Make user. "Go get Gray..."

There was a distinct whoosh as Erza corrected her course and began an almost vertical descent, barrelling into Gray with her unoccupied side. Their rapid descent slowed dramatically before they were pulled back from the upwind and lifted up as the trio continued to glide in the air.

Lucy was unhurt, though the blast had charred a bit of her clothes, but she was spared from any lasting blemishes. Gray was faring better as he regained his bearing. Assured that her comrades were safe, she took stock of her surroundings.

"Well, shit..." Gray summarised succinctly.

The explosion had cleaved the large aircraft into two as the two ends started to plummet amidst a fiery blaze of reddish-orange. Similarly, pieces of debris—that had not been disintegrated by the blast—filled the previously calm skies, and from afar, those that were caught aflame rained down on the earth. It was frightening to see, but it was only amplified when the figures just beyond the falling wreckage were plunging to their deaths.

She then cursed.

"Gray, take Lucy!"

Aware of their perilous situation, Gray snapped into action as another slide materialised underneath his feet, the spell being held up by a single hand now instead of his usual two-handed approach. He had no more teething concerns when Erza dropped him atop his next platform, a hand still stretched out in front of him as he landed unevenly on both feet. Thankfully, his footing was a lot more assuring than his first attempt. Erza noticed the crude ice-skates he had created by attaching a thin blade of ice at the soles of his shoes.

The treacherous exchange in mid-air that followed was like an insane circus act.

Erza lowered Lucy down, hanging loosely by her hand as the blonde held on for her dear life, her feet dangling dangerously with only the soaring drop standing between her and the ground.

"Throw her!" Gray shouted.

Lucy's eyes widened at that, and for a minute, she looked like she was set to argue, but chose not to in the end.

"I'm sorry, Lucy..." Erza said.

Erza picked up her speed to match Gray's, and with a firm swing, tossed her into his awaiting arm. She watched with bated breath as Lucy collided against Gray's muscular frame, the Ice-Make mage himself doing well to hold his ground by not toppling over.

Lucy wound up safe in his arms, her eyes still tightly shut as she shivered. She wrapped her limbs around his upper body to lock her grip on her taller teammate, her arms clinging around his neck and her legs finding its way around his waist. The duo ended up in a risqué arrangement with Lucy's considerable chest smothering Gray's face. All the while, the Celestial Spirit mage was shouting at the top of her lungs about something the redhead couldn't hear given the sudden distance between them.

In that short space of time where Erza was sure that her teammates would be safe, she had already pulled away, folding her wings back to minimise the drag and dived towards the others still in free-fall. She dodged the occasional stray debris that fell in her path as her eyes sought the first thing that came into her line of sight. Instinctively, Erza stretched her hand out.

"Not me!" the small figure of Eve shouted, his features panicked-stricken and on edge. He continued his merciless plunge, struggling to right himself. "Ren!" he screamed. "Get Ren!"

The host in question had been pushed back further by the explosion, roughly a couple of metres or so below them. Hibiki could be seen trying to close the gap between him and his semi-conscious friend, though it seemed like a pointless endeavour. Not far from them, Lyon had hastily recovered by creating another ice eagle. Perched atop his gliding sculpture, he knelt close to the edge as he strained to lift Sherry—his hand being her only lifeline—aboard.

Lyon's desperation was obvious.

While he was stuck with Sherry, his eyes were frantically looking over at the rest, all scattered and falling around him.

"Erza, p-plea—" Eve tried to speak.

She ignored him as her reach could only seize the blond by the sleeves of his blazer. As Eve was yanked back by the sudden halt in his descent, there was a sickening snap as the socket in his shoulder joint gave way, his pained scream following not soon after. Erza winced, but quickly hardened her resolve. Such injuries could heal, but it was a small price to pay to avoid a far worse fate. She gingerly lifted him up, mindful of the injury as she secured a tighter grip on Eve.

Eve groaned, no doubt through the pained fog that clouded his senses, asking:

"The others?"

Just as she was about to answer, a blur of white and blue shot up from below them; the duo's nimble build and natural disposition for flying making them far more agile in the skies than her.

"Erza!" Happy's presence, together with Carla's, allowed her a momentary reprieve as they came to Hibiki's and Ren's rescue, and she could only assume that the two Dragon Slayers previously in their care were safe elsewhere. The blue cat's determined expression was a sight for sore eyes, and his impossible feat of seamlessly plucking Ren in mid-air despite the odds against him was nothing short of baffling. For once, it seemed that their luck had finally taken a turn for the better, but that was until Carla let loose a strangled yelp.

"You're too heavy," Carla groused at her passenger; a relieved but indignant Hibiki. "I c-can't fly!"

"I'm pretty light for a guy!"

Carla struggled to hover at her current altitude next to Happy and Ren, but even as her wings beat relentlessly, the two continued to drop bit by bit. Upon seeing the concerned and anxious looks sent her way, she reassured them with a firm nod. "W-We'll be fine," she gasped, grimacing. "I'll just have to do t-this another way."

With that, her wings stopped beating.

"A-Ah, Carla!" Happy shouted, and even Erza and Eve could not hold back their cries of alarm.

"Stop squirming or I just might drop you!" Despite everything, Erza could hear Carla chastising Hibiki as the host screamed a fearful protest. "Honestly, you're worse than Wendy!"

The feline proved to be more than capable as she pulled up at the last second of their steep descent, levelling out just a few metres off the ground. Although, their landing wasn't as smooth as she probably intended it to be. Instead, they crashed roughly on the ground, thankfully avoiding the trees in their path, before rolling to a complete stop.

An astounding feat if one was to acknowledge the dire circumstances.

"Jura, hold on!" a coarse voice yelled.

Well below Erza, Lyon had finally been able to drag Sherry up next to him as she huddled in close next to the white-haired man. His ice eagle pitched downwards, almost vertical, in a reckless attempt to catch up to their team leader.

Without a second thought, Erza did the same. There was a biting sensation that swept her face, as she pushed herself further. She tried to spare a thought for Eve's condition, but it brought another fragmented memory to the fore.

I'm counting on you.

Naruto's plea weighed heavy in her mind.

An ice-cold grip found its way around her heart as the foreboding realisation that neither she nor Lyon could reach the Wizard Saint in time. It looked like their attempts were in vain. Jura was too far away, dangerously close to becoming a red splotch on the earth.

For all their efforts, a reluctant smile reached Jura's lips.

'I. Will. Be. Fine.' He mouthed before he allowed his body to turn in mid-air; now facing the oncoming ground. The towering mage had not planned for his death, instead he locked his unoccupied hand into that of a gun, his features gaining a grim expression as he tried to concentrate on the timing of his spell.

"Iron Rock—"

His bellowing shout was drowned out by a thunderous boom that followed as the two halves of the ship finally hit the ground with an almighty crash. Away from the wreckage of the airship, stray fragments of the earth were flung away from the point of impact as a small plume of dust clouded the moderately-sized crater, shrouding Jura's body from their sight.

"Jura!" two cried out.

Lyon's calm and aloof mannerisms were effectively shattered at that moment, but he gained his usual brevity not soon after. Like Erza, he was forced to peter out of their downward spiral lest they meet a similar fate to their team leader.

The redhead's landing was considerably better than Carla's since she had the small luxury of finding a small clearing in the forest. Locking her legs shoulder-length apart, she bore the brunt of stopping the momentum from her flight with her knees, leaving a noticeable groove on the earth before she came to a complete stop.

"C-Could you let me down?" Eve pleaded softly.

She did so, letting the younger host find his bearing after the unyielding and erratic escape. Eve wobbled unevenly a few steps away from her before his knees buckled, struggling not to fall flat on the ground with his remaining good arm. Eve finally allowed himself to relax before he heaved—quite violently too.

"Are you all right?"

"I will be," Eve said, wincing as he slowly got to his feet. He held his injured arm in the other, his pained grimace giving way to a sombre determination. "I think we should hurry and check on the others first."

Erza nodded tersely. In an instant, a yellow glow came over her form before promptly vanishing, as her black wing armour was replaced by the usual Heart Kreuz armour and navy skirt.

"Come on."

0.0

"For what it's worth," Hibiki said slowly as he picked himself off the ground, embracing his saviour in his arm like one would carry a doll. "Thank you for saving my life."

Carla remained indifferent to his gratitude. "Don't look too much into it," she replied breathlessly, taking another deep breath to calm her nerves. "I still don't think much of you." She looked away. "The whole lot of you hosts, in fact."

"Now, that's a bit unfair, don't you think? You hardly even know us."

Just as she was about to respond, a loud cry stopped her.

"Carla!" The tomcat burst through the thick canopy of the forest with Ren in tow, the heavily-tanned man unfortunately being subjected to a gauntlet of thick and pointy branches in the process. As he neared their position, Happy suddenly stalled in mid-flight.

"O-Oh.."

"What's wrong?" Hibiki asked.

Happy looked up, his prior sober attitude misplaced by his usual air-headedness. "My magic's run out." Gravity finally won out in the end as the duo clattered to the earth with a loud oomph. Thankfully, they were only two metres off the ground.

"Honestly," Carla said as Hibiki set her back down on her feet, the handsome host having gone on to check on his injured teammate. "How could you not know beforehand that you're running out of magic?"

She meant it as an insult, but Happy just seemed glad that she was starting to address his presence. She resisted rolling her eyes at the thought. The tomcat showed amazing resilience as he righted himself almost instantly.

"That's because I—"

A deafening rumble, louder than the earlier detonation, rocked the forest for the successive time. Their heads turned due east to the sound, roughly a kilometre away, where the sight of the flaming wreckage that had been The Christina greeted them. The resulting crash released a small shockwave that swept past them, causing the small group to shield themselves with their arms as stray debris were tossed in their direction.

"Master Bob isn't going to be too happy about this," Hibiki said as it finally subsided. He slung an arm around Ren's frame, letting the man lean against him as they stood up. "At least his summer mansion is still intact. I hope..."

"Hold on, there's something over there too." Carla pointed just a bit to the north, away from the wreckage. Her eyes were able to pick out the plume of dust that drifted up towards the sky and the small figures aboard an ice eagle landing not far from the area.

"That must be Lyon and Sherry." Hibiki squinted, using his free hand to cover the top of his brows. "But I don't see Jura anywhere."

"You don't think that," Carla said, though not a stranger to speaking what was on her mind, she hesitated, "H-He's dead?" When it looked like neither Hibiki nor Ren was about to answer her loaded question, she turned to Happy. "Well?" she snapped, her anger finding a suitable outlet on the naïve tomcat.

Happy flinched back, ears downcast. "I-I don't know?"

Carla turned away from him, gripping her paws tight. "Regardless," she said, pointing to the north once again. "Wendy and Natsu should be there. We should check on them first and then regroup with the others."

Hibiki nodded before touching two fingers to his temples. "I'm on it."

"Wait, could you get through to Naruto as well?"

"Yeah, I think so." Hibiki suddenly looked sceptical. "What exactly happened to him?"

"H-How should I know? That good-for-nothing bum! It's one thing to run off in a middle of a mission this important, but to think that idiot would go about it by sneaking behind our backs is a whole other thing! He better have a damn good reason when he comes back or so help me..."

Still, Carla couldn't help the small shred of hope that their questionable team leader would come to their rescue.

0.0

"What a tough bastard," Cobra said.

The bastard in question was clad in a rudimentary armour. Rocks covered his person from head to toe, making him look like a golem. Bits and pieces of the rock armour started to fall off him—much like a second skin—as the bald man tried to weakly crawl out of the crater he had shaped from his death-defying plunge.

"Who would have thought that you'd be able to pull a stunt like this?" the artificial Dragon Slayer commented idly to his female companion.

A noticeable sheen of sweat glistened off her forehead before she quickly dabbed it with the back of her gloved hand. "And what does that mean?" Angel hissed. Her exhaustion was obvious; the strain of forcing her Celestial Spirit's ability beyond its intended time limit was taxing on both her reserves and her body.

Instead of turning towards her, Cobra chose to focus his interest on Jura's plight to crawl away from them with a hint of sadistic glee. "Well, you are the weakest out of the six of us. And yet, you were able to take out a Wizard Saint. Go figure..."

"And when did you all decide that I was the weakest?"

"Just something Racer and I agreed to," he said with a non-committal shrug. "He's second by the way. Not too far from you."

The Celestial Spirit mage eyed him critically. "And I suppose he agreed to that as well?" She waited for his response, but Cobra was oblivious to it. She then sighed. "You should probably kill him quickly while he's still weak. We wouldn't want a Saint remaining on their side."

By now, Jura had stopped moving, finally giving in to his grave injuries.

"Where's the fun in that?" Cobra asked, smiling brightly as he jumped into the crater. "It's kinda like he's an ant or something, and you have the power to decide how he dies. You could be boring and decide to end it quickly by foot—" He stomped down hard on the half-shelled rock that had initially been part of Jura's helmet, cracking the magically-hardened stone slightly. Seeing that it had more or less no effect, he frowned. "—or uh, not..."

Angel rolled her eyes in mock disbelief. "And you say I'm the weakest?"

"Shut up!" Cobra snarled. "Cuberos," he called out to his animal companion who slithered to his side, and gestured with a raised fist. "Strangle him! But you know, do it slowly! Make him suffer!"

"He probably won't seeing that he's unconscious."

Cuberos looked confused as its head snaked from one party to the other as if asking what it should do now, but the sudden appearance of Hoteye and Racer put a momentary stop to their squabble.

"I bring you good tidings and profit, my friends!" the taller mage shouted. Two prone bodies—a boy roughly their age and a young girl—were slung over his broad shoulders. The added weight didn't seem to deter his movement as he raised both arms at his odd declaration.

"Shut up, Hoteye! Racer, tell us who's the weakest out of the six of us?"

Racer nodded at Angel with his pointed chin. "She is. Then it's probably you, Hoteye, me, Midnight and Brain, I guess."

"I never agreed to that! You're a hell of a lot weaker than me!"

"Hoteye," Angel raised her voice to drown out Cobra's incessant tirade; the Wizard Saint suddenly all but forgotten now. "Is that who I think they are?" she hinted at the man's unconscious captives.

Instead of Hoteye's boisterous voice, Brain's dull monotone answered her as he made his presence known, flanked by a sleeping Midnight. "They are mages from the Light Alliance, but more importantly, Dragon Slayers." That had immediately grabbed Cobra's attention. "But one would serve a more important purpose than the other." Brain regarded Cobra with a small smirk. "You may kill the boy if you like."

"Cheh! An old-school Dragon Slayer? Probably wouldn't put up much of a fight anyway." Cobra ambled towards the pink-haired man that Hoteye had just dumped on the ground, nudging his head with his feet. "What about the other one? You want to keep her around like a pet or something?"

"No," Brain said. "She has a purpose that will be instrumental to help us obtain Nirvana. After that, you may dispose as her how you wish."

"It was fortunate that we just happened to stumble onto them in the forest, right?" Hoteye's eyes creased into slits as he beamed. "Just think of the profit a specimen as rare as her would be able to fetch in the black market. Although, I suppose it would be considerably less if she should unfortunately die."

Unknown to the rest but Cobra, the rhythmic thumps of someone's heartbeat were steadily growing faster. He looked down at his unmoving captive with a smile, staunchly pressing a foot atop his head.

Well, someone's mad.

"Oh, and what's so special about her?" Angel asked dully.

Hoteye bristled at her tone, looking scandalised. "This is a Dragon Slayer with the means to cure any illness under the sun! How could one not see how much we would gain from selling her?"

"And how was I supposed to know that?!"

"We should just kill her," Cobra said loudly. "I bet that'd make you mad, huh?"

His captive beneath him let loose a primal snarl as he glared up at Cobra from under his foot. Cobra lifted his foot to stomp down on his head again, but he had sluggishly rolled out of the way. It looked like whatever attack that had handicapped him earlier was still affecting him as he wobbled unevenly to his feet. His arms hung loosely at his side as his breaths got increasingly ragged.

Cobra laughed. "This won't even take a minute." Cuberos had slithered to his side, while the others just stood aside to watch the spectacle with detached interest. "Come on." He gestured rudely with his hand. "I'll show you what it's like to fight a real Dragon Slayer."

His spiky pink hair was messier than usual, causing his features to be partially shadowed by his fringe, but the sharp glare underneath pulled through. The man stood up straighter as he clenched his fists tight.

"I'll make you... eat your words!"

Side Note: This chapter was a bitch to write, but I hope you enjoyed it.

Your feedback for this massive action sequence of a chapter would be nice. Please give me your honest opinion, guys. I still have so much to learn before I can improve as an author.