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— Dannis Martell —
"Laxus!"
"I know!"
We fucked up.
Yep, there was no way to sugarcoat this.
We fucked up.
After we left the mayor's office, we decided to do our own little investigating to find where the smugglers were hiding.
They already kidnapped 20 people, which means that the victims must be held somewhere in the city. It had to be big to hold that many people and isolated enough that no one would stumble onto them by chance.
Then there was also the question of how they leave the city itself. Apparently, this wasn't the first time something like this happened. These kidnappings have been going on for the past few months and every time, the kidnappers are always able to get out scot free.
Which means that they have a set system in place, a plan to get out of the city with the kidnapped people and doing so without attracting the attention of the local authorities.
Our investigations led us to scour some abandoned warehouses on the outskirts of the city. It was the most viable solution after all. However, after spending a few hours snooping around, we found nothing.
But it seems that our actions caught the attention of some nefarious thugs, which I assumed to be the grunts of the slavers.
We were ambushed as we exited the last warehouse that we were checking and were surrounded by around ten of them. We weren't worried of course. After all, my Clairvoyance made sure to warn me of their arrival.
Laxus and I just looked at each other before grinning like madmen. Could you blame us? It was a chance for a real clue. These thugs being absolutely dumb was a literal godsend.
5 minutes later, they all lay face down on the ground bruised all over. We made sure not to kill any in case they had any information.
And apparently they did, it wasn't hard to get the info out of them. Just a few threats here and there from Laxus about shocking their balls off would get anyone to talk.
What we learned was troubling. Evidently, the smugglers do get in and out of the city through the harbor. They disguise themselves as a merchant ship from Bosco with the intent to trade. But the shocking thing was that one of the slavers was a mage with Spatial Magic and access to his own pocket dimension.
According to the grunt, the mage is able to store anything inside this pocket dimension and any living creatures enter a form of stasis when put inside it. Apparently, he was a former rune knight from Bosco before turning into a slaver. Zenon, the guy said his name was.
Suffice to say, Laxus and I were shocked. To think someone with magic like that would squander their potential to become a slaver.
What a waste.
Another of their bosses was a guy named Dante, who was also a former rune knight. He had bone magic and was apparently considered pretty strong.
"How do we identify your ship?" I asked the cowering grunt as Laxus sparked his body in electricity to imply that the threat is still in the air.
"O-Our ship is red in color and it has three masts! Just go to the harbor! You won't miss it! In fact, we were scheduled to leave back to Bosco in 5 minutes!"
That last statement shocked the both of us.
"What?! You're already preparing to leave?! Then why the hell did you even bother to ambush us?!"
"Y-Yes! We heard some people were snooping around asking about us, so we only planned to rough them up before leaving. We thought they were just guards from the city! We didn't expect mages from Fairy Tail!" The guy said while crying a waterfall of tears.
"Tch, fuck this. Come on Danny, we have to go!"
I agreed of course, so we just left those mooks and immediately sprinted to the harbor, praying we could make it in time.
And that's where we found ourselves now, moving as fast as our legs could carry us towards the harbor. It's times like these that I wish my left eye could see much more than just a few seconds into the future. All this could have easily been prevented.
Unluckily for us, the warehouses were on the other side of the city, and the sound of a ship's horn in the distance told us that we wouldn't make it.
"They're going to leave the docks soon, Laxus! None of us will be able to do anything if they reach open water!"
"They're too far! None of our attacks can reach them!"
My mind began racing a mile a minute trying to think up a solution. Realistically, there was nothing I could do. Most of my attacks are close to medium range at best and Laxus doesn't have anything that could go that far.
"What if we combine our powers? You have more range than I do, if I can enhance your magic, will your attacks reach them?" I asked my partner, reaching the only conclusion I could think of.
"You mean something like a Unison Raid? But that isn't something that can be easily achieved Danny! Remember what happened last time?!"
"We don't have a choice! What about the kidnapped people huh? What's gonna happen to them if we don't do this?! If we can't stop the smugglers, who else will?!"
Laxus visibly clenched his teeth and clicked his tongue.
"Let's do it!"
Without further ado, the two of us stood side by side as we combined our magic as one. I channeled my pure darkness as Laxus called upon the dragon within him, something only possible due to Ivan's implanted Lacrima.
Lightning crackled in Laxus's palm before it formed into a large lightning bolt. I pumped my magic in as the lightning turned black and sparks crinkled through our raised arms. Blinding black light shined as we roared into the sky.
"Unison Raid: Lightning Dragon's Black Halberd!"
*BOOM*
A deafening boom of thunder echoed through the city that shattered the windows of nearby buildings as a black lightning bolt streaked through the air and impacted the hull of the ship. The sails from all three masts immediately ignited into flames as the lightning exploded in a burst of shock and thunder.
[Unison Raid Image]
Laxus and I stood panting on the streets as we admired our work. We had no worry for casualties among the victims since they were all safe in that mages' pocket dimension. We gave a quick high hive before rushing forwards to rescue the kidnapped and capturing the smugglers.
"Nice aim by the way!"
"Thanks!"
We reached the docks in record time only to see absolute chaos as the slavers were running around in utter panic as they tried to save themselves from drowning. Apparently, the ship only barely made it out of shore before our attack got them.
Then, a purple portal appeared in the middle of the harbor with two people exiting through it. They were completely soaked as they coughed out the seawater they must have inhaled from nearly drowning.
We could already tell that these two would be the leaders of the smuggling operation. They both had decent magic power in them and one would be the spatial mage that the thug mentioned about. We said nothing else as we immediately charged in, Laxus's form sparked with electricity as I unsheathed my new blade, Obsidian, already infused with Darkness Magic.
Recovering as they were, the two mages barely had enough time to react as Laxus tackled one of them and I engaged the other one to a fight.
I dashed in and raised my blade high, aiming to neutralize him with one blow. But the slaver was able to defend himself by growing sharp bone blades from all over his body, Obsidian clashing against his defenses. He then grunted in exertion as even more bones, as sharp as my own sword, grew out of his flesh that forced me back from our clash.
"Who the fuck are you?!"
"Dannis Martell, a mage of Fairy Tail. You're Dante, I presume?"
"Did you do this?!" He ignored me as he waved his hand around, referring to the injured slavers and ruined ship. "You goddamned Light Mages always ruin everything!"
The mage screamed in rage as sharp, spear-like bones were ejected from his body as they flew towards me.
My Clairvoyance told me exactly which way to go as I dashed around the pier, easily dodging the bone spears and parrying the ones that would hit me with Obsidian.
I then channeled more magic into the sword and sent a flying slash, a crescent wave of darkness that cut through the bone spears like butter as it made its way towards Dante.
The man then lifted up his arms as two bones portruded from his elbows. With a quick tug, he pulled out the sword shaped bones and used them to shield against the slash. A quick struggle happened between them which I used to my advantage.
Holding my sword in a one-handed grip, I raised my other hand as a sphere of darkness started to form. I kept increasing its power output and timed it exactly as my enemy dissipated my slash attack.
'Darkness Magic: Hell's Accompaniment'
The orb of magic flew through the air at high speeds before it stopped just right in front of the Bone Mage. Said mage immediately covered himself in layers and layers of armor after sensing the magic within my attack.
Half a second later, the orb expanded into ten times its size, consuming everything within it.
It was an attack that utilized the absorption aspect of my Darkness Magic. A sphere that would expand once it reaches its target, absorbing all matter inside. Leaving nothing more than a round crater from the impact.
[Hell's Accompaniment Image]
Some would say that the technique was too brutal, and in some cases it was. But no one would really care since these people are literally scum of the Earth. The Wizard Council had made it clear that Light Mages are allowed to use lethal action if we deem it so.
Even Makarov told me and Laxus one day that if it ever came to it, our survival was top priority. If there was ever any situation that threatened that, then anything was fair game.
I have no need to hold back since this isn't the Spatial Mage. I don't need to fear whether or not the victims would be returned if that mage dies. That's Laxus's problem.
That's why I have no qualms on killing this sorry excuse of a human being who would enslave another of his kind.
To send them straight to hell and accompany the devil for eternity. That's the goal of which I created the attack. Hence the name.
Noticing something within the crater, I narrowed my eyes.
'Looks like I underestimated him.'
Standing there in the middle of the hole was the mage, his armor all nearly gone and his shirtless form showing a missing arm.
It was a weakness of my magic that anyone with a sufficient amount of it could overpower my techniques. What this mage did was exactly that, sensing the nature of my attack to be AoE instead of the single pointed one that he expected, he centered all the magic he could to his arm and used it as a shield that would take most of the impact instead of the rest of his body.
A smart technique, one that would take a lot of juice. He's barely standing as it is.
"You're better than I thought. But it's obvious that you're on your last legs. Just give up."
"Huft…Huft…I won't…I won't go out that easy! Fuckin' die!!!!"
The mage swiped his remaining arm in my direction, unleashing a tornado of bone shards that decimated the ground that it traveled through.
I was unconcerned of course, since my left eye showed me what he would do just a few seconds ago. I lazily lifted an arm, creating a black hole that sucked all of the shards within it.
"No fuckin way…" The man commented in open shock as his face started to pale from the blood loss. "NO FUCKIN WAY!"
He screamed in utter defiance as he slammed his one remaining arm to the ground, resulting in a huge number of bone spikes emerging from the ground towards me. I jumped up, dodging all the spikes as I raised my blade high.
"Avidya Wild Slash!"
I swung Obsidian in a disorderly fashion, creating multiple dark slashes towards my opponent. Ordinarily, with his skill, he would've easily defended himself from my onslaught of attacks. But with one arm gone and fatigued as he was, the slaver could do nothing as my attacks skewered his body completely. He fell to the ground, dead.
I carefully landed back to the ground safely and not on a bone spike. I looked back to see how Laxus was doing, only to see the guy waiting by a bunch of crates in a bored manner. He was yawning exaggeratedly as he leaned on one of the crates.
"Done yet?" he asked with a mocking grin.
"Asshole."
Laxus just guffawed in laughter at my reply.
"Anyways, I took down the spatial mage and everyone from the pocket dimension got out safely. They watched your fight for a while before I told them to leave and get to the mayor's office. They should be there now."
"Good. Then let's get over there and finish the mission. I'm starving." I commented as I sheathed my blade samurai style before we walked towards the center of town.
"You know, I heard some people saying the shrimp parfait in this city is to die for. We could make a stop before we head back to Magnolia."
I gave a grin as the thought of good food got me instantly salivating.
"Sure. You're paying though."
"Agh, Dammit."
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AN: I hoped you enjoyed the fight. Twas a fun chapter to write.
Fyi, I put a small easter egg in this chapter. Can anyone find out what it was? Anyone who does so gets a kiss on the cheek. (Hint: it involves magic)