Dawn of Adventure {Book One of The Paths We've Traveled}

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Dance My Blades of Ice!

Erza and Gray stood side by side, breathing hard and making good use of the short reprieve granted to them. Gray's pants were torn and ripped, barely held together by the belt still somehow cinched around his waist. Erza had returned to her favored loose pants and cloth, not quite understanding why she seemed to fight better when she wore no physical armor but not about to argue with those odds.

Verlane and Ajax were in a similar state across the room, although they somehow seemed much more put together than the two weary wizards. Their suits were marred by tears and the left side of Ajax's pants still smoldered, but they were not quite as out of breath as their opponents.

"You can't win," Ajax stated for what had to be the hundredth time. "Give in. We may be tired now, but we are still stronger than you will ever be. So stop wasting energy and stop fighting."

"Dude, give it a rest," Gray groaned, cracking his knuckles and rolling his neck. "We're not going to give in, you're not going to give in, so let's just keep duking it out until we win. Which is what's gonna happen."

Verlane scoffed at the cocky wizard, twirling his wrist in a circle as he prepared his magic. "You keep saying that, but I sincerely doubt it. You're both what? Twenty? How can you think to compete against us when we've lived for centuries?"

"That's still something that's not quite clear to me," Erza interceded, summoning another sword to fill her left hand and match the one in her right. "How is it that you managed to stay here for a hundred years without anyone questioning you?"

"They said something about memory magic upstairs," Gray added, frost gathering around his fists. "But they never really explained it. He really just brought it up to threaten Lucy and say he was gonna erase her from everyone's memory."

"Did he now," Erza contemplated, eyes narrowing as she imagined just how many ways she would destroy these despicable monsters. Coming to a realization, she turned to Gray. "Do you know what they are?"

"Lying bastards?" Gray repeated before shrugging. "I dunno. They said something about demons, didn't they?"

Erza nodded. "They're demons who feed on ethernano. That's why they contained it; to become more powerful and stronger."

"And two mere humans could never defeat us in combat." Ajax stepped in, and the Fairy Tail wizards watched in quiet surprise as one of the wounds on his shoulder began to heal itself.

Then Gray smirked. "Well, someone obviously needs to do his research. I don't think I ever really introduced myself. Gray Fullbuster. I'm an Ice Make mage. But I got a little extra from my old man. Nothing really special." He allowed the black marks to take over his bare skin, covering his right side almost completely, much like when he had infiltrated Avatar. He bared his teeth. "Just a little Demon Slaying magic. Which means that you picked a fight with the wrong team bud. You really fucked up when you started hurting our friends. And now you're gonna pay the steep price.

"A Demon Slayer? Those haven't existed for many, many years," Verlane scoffed, crossing his arms. Gray shrugged.

"One thing you should know about Fiore; it contains a shit ton of lost magic. Dragon Slayers, God Slayers, Arc of Time, Sensory Link or whatever Meredy uses, and who knows how many other forgotten types of magic. Point is, it doesn't really matter if Demon Slaying magic hasn't been around for a bit. Cause I'm right here, ready to grind your ass into the dirt. And," he glanced sideways at the scarlet warrior by his side, "Erza might just beat me to the punch."

She rolled her eyes. "Let's just get this finished, hm? I'm beginning to grow tired of this endless game. And this place has no good strawberry cake. I would very much like to go home as soon as possible."