Fairy Tail - Twilight Empire

Chapter 26 - The End of the Plan

Erza caught Wendy as she was about to hit the pavement, huffing and puffing having spent all of her magic. The little Dragon Slayer had used almost all of her strength trying to throw whatever she could at Erza, manipulating the wind and air around Erza in ways she'd never thought possible. And all without Carla at her side.

Wendy had far to go, yet the potential within her was near limitless. If nothing else, the tournament showed her a guiding light a point where she could square off with even Natsu and Gajeel in combat.

"You-you're not even tired?" Wendy asked.

Erza smiled. "I burned through a fair bit of my magic to keep you on your toes. But I've seen you fight, Wendy, I knew how to counter most of your attacks, strong though they were."

"Maybe one day...I..." Wendy sighed wiping sweat from her brow.

Erza picked her up, carrying the young woman in her arms. "Come on. Let's go see what the boys are up to, it certainly sounds exciting."

Wendy nodded and Erza started toward the commotion.

It wasn't hard to find and was consuming far more of the abandoned district than Erza and Wendy's confrontation had. Buildings were completely obliterated and long stretches of scarring and scorching marked where Natsu and Gajeel had been. Erza followed the trail of the immense, combined magic power radiating off the two, culminating not in a fantastic display of fire and steel and crashing auras but two warriors slugging each other amidst debris and rubble.

Natsu stumbled after Gajeel narrowly avoided a punch but recovered by blocking Gajeel's kick and landing an attack of his own. Both were shirtless, bruised, cut, bleeding and still had a decent amount of magic left, given Gajeel's iron scales coating his arms and Natsu's flames sparking up his arms, too. Erza continued to hold Wendy, who was able to meekly watch while her magic slowly returned to her.

The fight would probably go on for some time. Erza checked her surroundings again, both impressed and nostalgic for the appearance of the place. Fairy Tail never intentionally left a giant mess behind after a quest, but something about seeing Natsu tearing through the place brought out a bit of raw emotion in her. She pursed her lips at the sight of it all.

In the near distance was a more official-looking building, as well as...

Well, it looked like a dilapidated version of their hotel building, making it stand out a bit as compared to the other places. And, was that building flooded? Erza leered to inspect further, but the sound of Natsu and Gajeel's colliding fists drew her attention back to the fight below.

Perhaps it was some Imperial testing ground or a facility they were still active in despite the ruined district, a place for guards to wait and lurk during the Battle Royale so contestants didn't get out of hand. They had such poor taste.

Natsu and Gajeel slid back from one another, giving themselves a moment to breathe, before diving back into their fight, sharp, draconic teeth bared in excitement.

***

Capricorn slid in front of Lucy as Axel darted back into the room, kicking aside Axel's diamond blade arm. Scorpio pushed Lucy back while Capricorn batted away more of Axel's attacks and Scorpio unleashed a huge blast from his Sand Buster on Axel, sending him flying through the opposing wall.

"Just look at how strong he is," Aquarius gushed.

"Yeah, yeah," Lucy said. "Look, you guys got it from here? We have to find Lector."

Capricorn nodded dutifully to Lucy. "Not a problem, ma'am."

"Look out!" Aquarius roared and shot a jet of water at a reemerged Axel, who was almost completely unaffected by the blast of mere water against his diamond coating. Capricorn still dodged the strike, but his kick did nothing against the diamond, nor did Scorpio's blast do anything.