To Galuna Island

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Hargeon.

July, x784.

A few hours after leaving the guild hall, Alfonzo, Elicia, Ultear, and Erza arrived in Hargeon. After arriving, they immediately made their way to the address where they would meet the contact for the quest.

Even though the client, as indicated on the quest sheet, was Moka, the chief of the only village on Galuna Island, he was unable to leave the island to meet with the wizards who accepted the quest. Instead, his presence was required to coordinate the defenses against the magical centipedes. In his place, his son, Bobo, would meet the wizards and guide them to the island.

"Are you sure this is the address?" Ultear asked as she looked at the building in front of her in disbelief. "I mean, he's the village chief's son, right?"

"That's right." Alfonzo replied. "But I'm definitely sure this is the address."

Just after getting out of the Escalade, the group of four Fairy Tail wizards found themselves standing in front of an old, run-down motel on the outskirts of Hargeon. Naturally, after seeing the accommodation, the four were surprised, to say the least.

"This makes me a lot less confident that we will actually get paid for this quest." Ultear muttered as she followed the other three toward the motel's entrance.

A few moments later, the four were standing outside of one of the motel's rooms. A few moments after knocking on the door, which Alfonzo thought he would punch a hole through with his gentle knock, the door was answered by a tan-skinned, middle-aged man with black hair, black eyes, and a mustache that grew down to his chin wearing a white t-shirt, black pants, black boots, and an emerald, green cape.

"Hmm… Can I help you?" The tan-skinned man, Bobo, asked after opening the door and observing the four people standing in front of him.

"Rather than you helping us, we came to help you." Elicia said with a cheerful smile.

"Huh?" Bobo exclaimed in confusion.

"We're members of Fairy Tail." Alfonzo replied. "And we've accepted the quest your father, Moka, posted about the centipedes."

Hearing that, Bobo scrutinize the four wizards in front of him with a critical gaze while rubbing his chin in contemplation.

"I see…" Bobo said after a few seconds of awkward silence. "Honestly, I was expecting some older wizards. There are hundreds of those centipedes and they've already severely injured a large number of our villagers."

"Severely injured?" Erza asked in surprise. "Have there been no casualties?"

"Not yet." Bobo replied while shaking his head. "The people of our village are much tougher than your average person."

In response, Alfonzo and Elicia tried their best not to roll their eyes. They already knew that Bobo was not human, just like the members of his village. So, they were not surprised that no one had lost their lives yet. Ultear and Erza, on the other hand, found it unbelievable that a bunch of normal villagers were still putting up a fight against such heavily stacked odds.

"Anyway, we're all S-Class wizards." Ultear said, coming out of her surprise. "So, I think the four of us will be more help than you expected."

"Really?" Bobo asked skeptically. "All of you are S-Class?"

"That's right." Alfonzo replied with a nod. "I'd offer you a demonstration… But if we showed you our more powerful magic right now, there's a good chance we'd end up destroying part of the town."

Shrugging as he spoke, Alfonzo, along with the three girls, smiled at Bobo confidently.

Feeling the confidence radiating from the four young adults in front of him, Bobo was closer to believing the quartet's claim. Either way, they were the ones who showed up for the S-Class quest posted by his father, so he had little room to doubt them.

"I guess only time will tell if what you say is the truth or not." Bobo said. "Either way, since you're here, we should get moving immediately. I don't know how much longer the village can hold on."

Dropping their confident smiles, Alfonzo, Elicia, Ultear, and Erza wore solemn expressions as they nodded in return. Then, the newly established group of five left the motel room after Bobo locked the door. A few moments later, Bobo checked out and the group boarded the Escalade before heading to the pier.

When they arrived at the pier, the four wizards from Fairy Tail expected to see a sailing vessel of some kind. However, what greeted them instead was a boat large enough to carry six people at maximum. On top of that, there was no sail to be seen. Instead, there was a pair of oars attached to the sides of the boat.

"Seriously?" Elicia asked in dumbfounded amazement. "Are we gonna row our way to the island?"

"Sorry." Bobo said in an embarrassed tone while scratching his fingers through his hair. "We don't have the funds to buy a better boat."

"And just how long will this boat ride take?" Ultear asked, not too keen on riding in such a small boat for an extended period.

"If the currents are on our side, about sixteen hours." Bobo replied after thinking about the answer for a few seconds.

"Oh, hell nah." Alfonzo said disdainfully. Then, he looked at Bobo before continuing. "Do you mind if I do a bit of modification to this… boat?"

"Huh?" Bobo replied in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Instead of replying, Alfonzo hopped from the pier and landed in the center of the boat. Then, he knelt down and placed his hands on the deck. A moment later, a dark grey, liquid metal began seeping from Alfonzo's hands. Then, it slithered toward the stern of the boat and began to take the form of an engine with a propeller, rudder, and a lever to control the rudder. Then, it secured itself to the back of the boat with clamps.

"Alright, I think we're ready to go." Alfonzo said with a refreshing smile.

"What do you plan to use for fuel?" Ultear asked curiously.

"I'll provide the magic power myself." Alfonzo replied.

"But won't that be draining?" Erza asked with a slight frown.

"A little." Alfonzo replied with a nod. "But with this, we should be around eight times faster than the oars could ever go. So, it should only take about two hours to get there."

It should be noted that the five passengers of the boat all had strength much greater than your average human. So, the speeds they could achieve by rowing the boat would be astonishing.

*Clap!*

"That means we won't have to sleep on this little boat." Elicia said happily.

While the four wizards discussed in a lively fashion, Bobo could only look on in surprise. He had heard of these magic engines during his time in Hargeon. Still, this was his first time to see one.

"Hey, Mr. Bobo." Alfonzo said, pulling Bobo from his musings. "We're ready to go whenever you are."

Snapping back to reality, Bobo looked at Alfonzo who was now sitting at the stern of the boat next to the engine. On top of that, the three girls were also sitting in the boat, clearly waiting for him to board as well.

"*Sigh* It feels like I'm getting old." Bobo muttered as he also hopped into the boat.

"I'll be counting on you for directions." Alfonzo said with a smile after Bobo was seated. "I'll have to control the boat, though. This thing will only respond to my magic power."

"I understand." Bobo replied with a nod. Then, he turned his attention to the open seas. "The faster we can move, the better. Hopefully, we can make it before nightfall. The centipedes rarely attack during the day."

With that, Bobo pointed in a certain direction.

"If you go straight that way, you'll end up on the shores of the island." Bobo said in a solemn tone. "And don't worry about going off course, I'll notice immediately if that happens."

"Got it." Alfonzo said, injecting magic power into the engine. "Then, let's go."

Like that, Alfonzo steered the boat away from the pier. Then, as the boat gained distance from Hargeon, Alfonzo increased the speed. Eventually, the bow of the wooden boat was lifted out of the watter As it rushed across the sea.

About ten minutes later, the boat started rattling from the stress of high-speed movement.

"Uh… Fonzie, the boat feels like it might fall apart." Elicia said, cautioning Alfonzo without seeming nervous at all.

"Oh, I forgot about that." Alfonzo replied nonchalantly.

A moment later, more of the same liquid metal, which was the Techno Organic Metal, flowed from Alfonzo's hand on the rudder. Then, it quickly coated the outside of the boat before hardening into something solid.

With that, the ride became more stable and the rest of the trip went on without issue. If not for…

"Good, now there should be nothing to slow us down." Elicia said happily, enjoying the sea breeze as it fluttered her hair.

"And Lici raises a flag." Alfonzo said in an exasperated tone.

"I'm starting to think you do this on purpose." Ultear said in an annoyed tone.

"Indeed." Erza replied with a nod. "The frequency is to high to be a coincidence."

'Raised a flag? Does it on purpose?' bobo asked himself, not following the conversation at all.

"Oopsie." Elicia said innocently while sticking out her tongue.

The fact of the matter is, Elicia has never once intentionally raised a flag. Instead, she still has the habit of saying what's on her mind without thinking. Though, she has improved greatly in that matter. However, whenever she slips, she seems to always raise a flag.

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

Three hours later, the boat carrying Alfonzo, Elicia, Ultear, Erza, and Bobo pulled up on the shores of Galuna Island less than an hour before the sun fell below the horizon with a few aquatic magical beast corpses dragged behind it on a raft made of ice.

"We should seriously prohibit Elicia from speaking when we take quests." Ultear said with a huff. "Seriously, we were attacked by four A-Class magical beasts in three hours. How is that even possible."

"It's not my fault." Elicia said with a pout. "It's not like I dropped bait or something. Besides, if you're so mad, don't eat the seafood when Fonzie cooks them."

Looking back at the corpse of the crab, shrimp, swordfish, and eel magical beasts, Ultear fell silent before looking away with a pout.

While Alfonzo and Erza smiled wryly at the back and forth between Elicia and Ultear, Bobo was amazed.

'We were attacked four times.' Bobo thought to himself. 'And each encounter was ended with a single attack. On top of that, they each killed one while making sure not to damage the meat. And I doubted that the were all S-Class mages. I guess I really am getting old.'

"Anyway, let's get to the village." Alfonzo said, dispelling the engine, the rudder, the boat's metal coating, and the chain connected to the ice raft. "It's almost dark. We should get there before those creepy crawlies start attacking.

Nodding with solemn expressions on their faces, the other four, with Ultear manipulating the ice raft to follow them from the beach, joined Alfonzo, heading away from the beach with Bobo taking the lead.

"How long is the walk, usually?" Erza asked as she used a sword to part the island's vegetation.

"It should only take about twenty minutes at this pace." Bobo replied. "We could probably do it in ten if we really tried."

"Then, I think we should try." Alfonzo said as he raised his right hand toward the limb of a tree. "[Metal Magic: Spike Volley]."

A moment later, half a dozen sharp, arm-length metal spikes formed around Alfonzo's outstretched arm like the chambers of a revolver. Then, they began to spin and rotate around his arm, firing once they were positioned above his arm.

*Screech!*

In the next second, the sound of something cracking, followed by the sound of flesh being punctured and a pain filled screech could be heard. After that, a large amount of green blood and cracked pieces of a hard carapace fell to the ground.

Upon contact with the blood, the ground began to sizzle, indicating that the blood was highly corrosive.

*Boom!*

A moment later, a 16'5" (approx.. 5 m) long centipede fell from the tree and crashed to the ground. After landing, it twitched continuously.

However, instead of inspecting the centipede, the group started to run toward the village.

As soon as they landed on the island, Alfonzo, Ultear, and Erza had stretched out their [Magic Power Detection] while Elicia started spreading her [Detection Threads] over every surface she could reach, including tree trunks and branches. Even though the attacks usually didn't start until night fall, there was no guarantee that the centipedes would not attack them as they approached the village.

"Centipedes are so gross." Elicia said with a mildly disgusted expression on her face. "I mean, all those legs are so… Eww!"

"And their even worse when they're that big." Ultear added. Then, she made the hand gestures for her magic. "[Ice-Make: Lance]."

Half a dozen sharp ice spears extended from the deep blue magic circle that appeared in front of Ultear's outstretched hands. Then, just like what happened with Alfonzo, a centipede fell from the trees onto the ground. However, instead of falling into a pool of its own corrosive blood, it smashed into a frozen pile of its blood.

"We must make haste." Erza said as she ran alongside the rest of the group. "I can feel a large swarm approaching a group of people…. But these people's magic power feels different."

"yeah, and they all have so much." Ultear said with a slight frown.

At that, bobo's eyebrow twitched in nervousness. However, without a word, he continued to run. Eventually, Alfonzo grabbed him and flung him over his shoulder.

"Hey, what are you---" Bobo exclaimed in surprise.

"We're speeding up." Alfonzo said, circulating his magic power throughout his body. "Don't bite your tongue."

Like Alfonzo, Elicia, Ultear, and Erza also circulated their magic power. Then, they all, at least, tripled their running speed and sped off toward the village.