Storm's Fury vs Fist of the Wraith!
Everyone was shell shocked that Lazaro had been sent flying, Gray included. "Now hold on!" He called to the blonde newcomer. "I don't know who you are, but be careful. You can't let this guy touch you or else he'll do to you what he did to that bandit!" He walked up next to her and dropped into a stance of his own. "...Besides, he's from a dark guild with a nasty reputation. I'm not letting anybody take him alone."
"Noted." was all she said in response as she dropped into a stance. "Just don't chicken out on me later..." she added with a cheeky smile.
Gray couldn't help but smile. He couldn't help but like this girl's attitude. "I wouldn't give you the satisfaction." he shot back before Lazaro exploded out of the rubble; his clothing even more shredded.
"...Well now...isn't this an interesting development?" Lazaro mused aloud with a deadly serious tone. He turned to the girl. "...and who might you be, young lady?"
The girl grinned. "The name's Lightning. Lightning Dust." she replied.
Gray arched an eyebrow. 'huh...strange name...'
"Ya know... that mask of yours is pretty creepy. I think I'll smash it." She said casually. Then, she gestured for him to come closer. "...your move."
"You interrupted me when I was talking before... miss Dust..." he stated. "I hate being interrupted..." he hissed.
"Then let's see you do something about it!" Gray Challenged. He once again slammed a fist to his open palm. "ICE MAKE: SPIKES!" His spell ready, he slammed his fist into the ground, causing a large area of the ground between them to erupt with jagged Stalagmites made of ice.
Lightning's eyes went wide. "Whoa, sweet!"
Lazaro's hands were engulfed in a foul dark energy. "REAPER'S PALM!" he bellowed, actually charging into the attack. He slammed his palms into the approaching Ice spell and stopped it dead in it's tracks, shattering most of it. "You'll have to do better then that..." he taunted.
"Fine by me." Gray accepted; suddenly shirtless, much to Lightning's surprise. "I'm just getting warmed up!"
"Let's go!" Lightning declared. With that, Lightning and Gray charged Lazaro. He charged to meet them.
At the last second, Lazaro jumped into a flying kick; his heel skillfully crashing Into Lightning's chest, and then Gray's jaw. Both of them were down, for a moment. Gray was the first to recover as he charged back to throw a punch. Lazaro blocked with his forearm, only for a follow up roundhouse kick to connect with his face. Lazaro was stunned for a moment. Gray threw another punch which Lazaro once again blocked with a forearm. Gray's next punch impacted heavily against Lazaro's jaw, making a crack in his mask. His next move was to wrench Lazaro's arm.
Lazaro was quick to recover as he skillfully front flipped out of Gray's grapple and an open palm strike made Gray stumble back a few steps. His hands once again exploded in that foul black and purple energy and unleashed a flurry of punches that Gray was helpless against. "Round one..." Lazaro teased, the lept into a cartwheel kick, cracking hard against Gray's jaw. "Goes to me, Fairy Tailer...". He traced a finger across the crack in his mask. "You actually managed to crack my mask..." he breathed in disbelief. "I'll have to prepare a special death for you..."
Gray cursed under his breath. His vision was spinning and he could barely stand. It was like those strikes sapped his magic energy. This was getting bad; If he couldn't end this quickly, then this scumbag would just continue on his marry way... "I'm not done yet!" he roared defiantly. He threw a clumsy punch that Lazaro easily dodged by leaning back.
He countered the punch with a series of kicks to Gray's abdomen. One to the left, one to the right, one more to the left and finishing his assault with an upward kick to Gray's jaw sending him sprawling. "Just stay down!" Lazaro growled, showing his exasperation.
This is when Lighting charged back into the fray; Charging in with a jumping kick that Lazaro jumped back to avoid. then another. another. Each time, Lazaro jumped back to evade her attacks. Lightning smirked. Lazaro was starting to slow down. "Running out of juice are ya?" she taunted.
"I'm running out of something." Lazaro shot back. "...but it's not energy." Lazaro caught Lightning off guard with a flurry of punches. One to the knee, forcing her into an awkward stance. One to the jaw. Two to the chest. Upward kick and scissor kick sending her to the ground with a heavy thud. "I'm running out of patience!" he growled.
Gray charged back in, hoping to catch Lazaro from behind. This, however would not be, as Lazaro spun on his heel to face him. "You're starting to piss me off!" Lazaro hissed.
"Feeling's mutual!" Gray yelled back.
"Together!"Lightning called to Gray, who nodded in response.
"Time to take this punk out!" Gray confirmed as he Encased his arm in a heavy gauntlet of ice. Lightning's knuckle duster crackled with electricity. The two of them jumped back to evade a leg sweep before jumped forward throwing all their weight into a combined assault that Lazaro blocked with his forearms, though they did push him back several feet with the one impact.
"Disappear!" he bellowed. "Just get out of my way!" with surprising strength, he pushed them away, and threw a kick that nailed Lightning in the chest, then into Gray's jaw. His next attack was a spinning roundhouse kick to Lightning's head. "You die first!" Lazaro hissed, readying a strike to finish her off.
"I don't think so! ICE MAKE: GEYSER!" Gray shouted as he cast his spell, making a pillar of ice shoot up underneath Lazaro, Trapping him in the process.
Then it was Lightning's turn to surprise Gray once again as ethereal wings emerged from her back that crackled just like her fists. She launched herself into the air; leaving a contrail of lightning behind her. "THUNDERBIRD DIVE!" she called before launching herself back downward. With energized fists, she used what strength she had left to hammer Lazaro back down to the ground through the ice. Punch after punch; deeper and deeper she drove him.
Five feet.
Ten feet.
Fifteen.
Twenty...all the while, large cracks beginning to rake across the pillar of ice...
When only five feet remained, She launched herself back up in the air once more. This time, raising her leg as if for an axe kick. Her foot becoming the central point for the lightning to focus. "STORM'S FURY: HALBERD HEEL!!". With the booming sound of a thunder crack, Lightning's final attack shattered what remained of the ice pillar, causing it to collapse on top of them both.
His body ached. Almost every inch of him was in pain after the beating he took form Lazaro; but it was over. Right? He looked around to see that the other three were cleaning up the bandits. The one with the hat and cape was actually hog-tying them... He saw that the redhead was tending to the injured townspeople, and the tall one with the funky flowing hair was talking to someone, presumably the mayor of the town. Gray turned around to began digging his temporary partner out of the avalanche she had created. Eventually, he fished her out and piggy-backed her over to her friends. "I don't know who you ladies are, but thanks for the assist." he said, addressing the leader...at least... he thought the tall one was the leader.
........................................................................................................
Sunset was tending to an injured boy. Her hand enveloped in a warm golden glow. "You really can use healing magic. That's amazing!" he gushed.
"Oh, It's nothing special..." She insisted modestly, a bit of red fluttering across her cheeks.
The boy furrowed his brow in thought. "I'm pretty sure healing magic is super rare...". Really? a simple spell like that is considered rare? Sure, she was no doctor, but a simple spell for cuts and abrasions sets her apart?
Sunset looked over to see Lightning being carried over to Princess Luna by that guy that She had decided to team up with...who was now shirtless, for some reason... and both of them look like they had been to hell and back... "I don't know who you ladies are, but thanks for the assist." he greeted, addressing Luna.
"Of course, we were happy to help." Luna replied graciously. "How is she?"
"We both took a hell of a beating, but we took that masked creep down." He said. "She's just passed out from pushing herself too hard. A little rest and she should be fine."
Sunset approached them. "Here, let me take her..." she offered. Her eyes shone with a gentle green glow and Lighting Dust was gently lifted off of the young man's back.
"The name's Gray, by the way. Gray Fullbuster." he said.
"I'm Sunset Shimmer." She greeted, shaking his hand. "Nice to meet you, Gray." She gestured to each of her friends. "That's Luna..." Luna gave a respectful, yet regal nod. "...Trixie..." The silver haired girl in question had a smug grin on her face as she sat on top of a particularly large bandit hogtied on the ground. She gave him a sharp jab in the ribs with her heel before tipping her hat in greeting. "...and you've already met Lightning Dust."
"What guild are you with?" he asked casually.
"Guild? We're not with any guild." she answered, getting a surprised look from Gray.
"seriously?" he asked incredulously. "You girls have got some talent. I would have sworn that you were with a wizard guild like me. Why else would four wizards come here if not for a guild request?"
Sunset looked over at Luna and Trixie. The latter merely shrugged her shoulders.
"Uh...we just kinda found it by accident..." she admitted with an awkward grin. "We were lost in that forest there and were just looking for some kind of town to figure out where we are."
Gray gawked at her in utter disbelief. "You can't be serious!"
"Yup. We were sucked through some magic portal thing and were kinda dumped out here so we just wanted to figure out were we ended up." Trixie confirmed.
"On that front, this is Lilac Town; a farming town." Luna explained. "And for our efforts, The mayor has insisted that we stay for as long as we need to recover for free room and board."
"Cool." Sunset sighed. "That'll give us a chance to help them rebuild the damaged part of town while we wait."
"...Oh, your such a girl-scout, Sunset..." Lightning Dust groaned.
Sunset merely smirked. "That's how I role, deal with it." she said playfully.
Trixie looked up at Luna. "...Does that include food?" Luna nodded. "Yeah!" she cheered.
The Mayor nodded to Gray. "...It'll also give us time to secure your payment as well, Mr. Fullbuster." he said pointedly.
This drew Trixie's attention. "Payment?"
Gray nodded. "Yeah. the guild requests I mentioned before? it's how guild wizards make a living. By taking care of particular problems that the non-magic populace can't take care of on their own." He proudly pointed to the tattoo on his chest. "This mark means I'm a member of the Fairy Tail guild." he explained. "A few days back we got a request to take care of the bandits, who until now, were just harassing caravan drivers going in and out of town. Now I get here and now there's a dark guild thug burning the place to the ground."
"Yes. The masked one was a new comer who had arrived only this morning..." The mayor explained. "If we'd known a dark wizard would be here then the reward would have been higher..."
Gray waved it off. "Don't sweat it. At this point, you need the extra cash more then I do."
"Let me see if I have this right..." Luna said. "Guild wizards are like mercenaries? doing this jobs for money?"
Gray narrowed his eyes. "Don't say it like that; you make it sound like we hire out to anyone with money, and that's not the case."
"I meant no offense, Gray Fullbuster. I'm merely am trying to understand the way this is done." Luna clarified. "We do not have wizard guilds where we are from, so this is new to me."
Gray shrugged. "It's like this; There are magic guild all across Fiore, and they take on jobs that are sent out across the kingdom, but only if they are approved by the royal government and magic council." He explained.
Trixie was now very interested in guilds. "Does it pay well?" she asked.
Gray shrugged. "Well, depends on the job." he stated. "The pay changes depending on how dangerous the job is."
Sunset nodded in understanding. "So that's what the mayor meant when he talked about the payment being higher...?" she surmised.
Gray nodded. "You catch on pretty quick." he said with a friendly grin. his smile faded after a moment. "...then there are outlaw guilds that take on jobs like that masked freak did. Illegal jobs like assassination or just causing mayhem.". He paused his explanation to put his black t-shirt and white coat. "...Some of them don't even do it for money...they do it...just because they can. These outlaw guild are called "Dark guilds", and the lot of them should be dragged, broken and bloody, to a prison cell."
Sunset turned to Luna. "Maybe these 'Fairy Tail' people can help us get back home?" she asked. "...Call me crazy, but I think that we can trust them...well, this guy at least..."
Luna nodded. "...Yes, I am inclined to agree with you..." she then addressed Gray. "...Gray, could you take us to your guild? we wish to learn more of it."
Gray smiled and nodded. "Sure. there's always room for new faces around the guild hall. Lets rest up and we can head out later." he said.
Lightning Dust smiled. "Another hour or so, and I'll be ready to head out." she announced from her cot.
"Sounds good!" Sunset said with a smile.
Unknown to Gray or anyone else there, Lazaro lay limp in the pile of ice. "...Lightning Dust...Gray Fullbuster... we..." His eyes shone like burning coals piercing the blackness of the eye holes of his mask. "...will meet again..." slowly, he dug his way out. pushing through the agony that wracked his whole body. They would pay for this...in due time; Blood Diamond never lets those who cross them go unpunished.
...................................................................Else where...................................................................
The fields were empty... The cows were gone; so were the chickens...and the sheep... the entire farm was silent. no sounds of animals, the farmers were nowhere to be seen; but a lone young woman sat in a decadent arm chair in a room in front of a burned fire place. she poured herself a glass of red wine. she wore simple clothes, but anyone looking at her would say even at a first glance that she didn't belong there at all; but she smiled as if she hadn't a care. "...Enjoy our time apart while it lasts..." she whispered before taking a sip from the glass. her hand went up to the slightly glowing red tattoo over her collarbone. "...because I'm coming for you...my dear Trixie Lulamoon..."
She flicked a lock of her silver hair behind her ear as her eyes flickered red with an unholy hunger, and a sinister smile tugged at her lips revealing her sharp pointed teeth...
............