Job Gone Wrong (Nalu)

Chapter 8

"I have no idea."

Natsu stared out at the large maze in front of us. The stairwell continued going deeper, but it had lookout points at the end of each flight. Hideous beasts crawled, swam, and flew around the Labyrinth's core, attacking anything in their path. Colossal, glowing jade green gems jutted out of the dark stone walls in random places, filling the chamber with an odd green hue. A strange, misty fog clouded the lower parts of the darkness.

Natsu and I decided to continue downward, reaching a room with a dead end. After a while of searching for an abnormality in the room, we decided to go back up the stairs to look at the maze.

"What path should we take?" Natsu questioned.

"First, we should get rid of all of those monsters. Then we can get rid of the fog without having to worry about being attacked."

"Okay," Natsu nodded in agreement.

"Or maybe we could get rid of the fog first so that we can see everything clearly. Then we'd be able to see those creatures if they tried to fight us," I pointed out, pacing back and forth.

"Right," Natsu concurred, nodding his head again.

"What do you think, Natsu?" I questioned.g

"I agree."

"Are you even listening?" I asked, raising one eyebrow in annoyance.

"Yup."

"How do you feel?" I inquired, testing him.

"Yeah." He answered, causing me to groan and put my face to the palm of my hand.

"Natsu! This is important!" I told him frustratedly.

"Definitely."

"Forget it. Just use your fire to clear up that fog."

Surprisingly, he obeyed, causing the fog to clear. However, this caught the attention of every monster in the chamber. We spent a long time fighting monsters, so a great deal of our magic power was sapped by the time the last monster was defeated.  However, we didn't come out unscathed. I had somehow injured my ankle when fighting.

When Natsu approached me, he noticed my limping and a worried expression spread across his face.

"Luce, what happened?"

"My ankle... I don't know what happened," I replied, dazed.

Without another word, he picked me up bridal style and rushed through the abandoned maze.

"Natsu, slow down. You'll tire yourself out!"

"I can't, Luce. I wanna get out of here soon."

"I know, me too, but we'll make it out. I promise," I reassured him.

Natsu sighed, so I felt his chest rise and fall exasperatedly.

He continued, but at a slower pace. We still had to turn around and retrace his steps countless times. He even tried walking along the tops of the walls in the maze, but none of the paths we found lead to the center of the Labyrinth. Finally, we became impatient.

"Lucy, let's just bust through this maze already! I'm done with all of this crap!"

"We weren't supposed to break anything!" I warned.

"Do you want to get the book or not?" He disagreed.

"Fine, but let me help."

"Can you stand and walk?" Natsu asked worrriedly.

"I think so."

He let me down quietly as I stumbled around. Suddenly, his arm wrapped around me, settling my stance and allowing me to summon Taurus with the last of my magic energy.

"Hello again, Miss Lucy!" He cheered with a grin. "How can I please you?"

"Break down walls 'till ya find a book!" Natsu ordered eagerly.

"Lucy?"

"Yeah. Do what Natsu said."

"Alright! Let's get mooooving!"

After a while of Natsu and Taurus smashing through walls, we reached a central room with colossal statue of a beast near a pedestal. On the pedestal rested a large book.

"There it is!" I exclaimed, pointing at the book.

"All right!" Natsu shouted.

"Well done! I should probably get going. See ya later, Miss Lucy!" Taurus told me as he left.

As Natsu and I approached the pedestal, the beast statue moved its hideous head in our direction.

"Natsu! The statue moved!" I screeched, jumping onto him.

"What?" He echoed as he caught me. "Calm down, Lucy. I got this."

He carefully put me on the ground and charged at the stone creature.

"Fire Dragon Iron Fist!" He announced as he punched the beast with immense power.

It roared and swatted him away like a fly. His attack appeared to have no effect. The beast rushed him, and hit Natsu with a rock attack of some sort. Natsu took the hit, and somehow deflected it. The battle continued for a long time as Natsu distracted the hideous creature. This bought time for me to snatch the book from the pedestal.

The beast noticed this before Natsu did and attacked me relentlessly. I was able to dodge the first few times, but it hit me repeatedly.

I saw Natsu jump in front of me and take a hit before my vision went blank.

I was Unconscious.

Aaahhh it's been so long I'm so sorry! So, how is everything?

Also, comment ideas for this story! I'd love to hear them! Also, let me know if you have any story requests or something!

Love you all!