Together

Chapter 34

The twelve hours were up and everyone had managed to defeat it after being able to see through its movements. By the end of it, the barren land was covered with blood and craters. The soldiers were left panting and sweating but they were relieved to see it all end. In fact, they were ecstatic to find that their magic ability had increased. Even Laxus and they could feel a new power surging in them.

The sound of clapping hands brought them back to attention. It was Lucy.

"Army General Lucy!" the soldiers saluted.

"Congratulations on finishing a day of training. Even though I can't see you guys, I'm guessing you guys all look pretty battered up," she chuckled.

"That goes without saying," Levy scoffed. "Is she an idiot?"

Laxus and the others glared at her and she took a step back. She didn't want to experience the same thing that Lisanna had.

"Just shut that mouth up of yours for once," Evergreen said, holding her fan to her mouth. "It hurts to breathe the same air as you guys."

"Evergreen!" Erza yelled.

"Stop fighting and pay attention to Lucy-dono," Jura said, narrowing his eyes at Levy. "Keep your snide comments to yourself."

They shut themselves up and looked towards the hologram of Lucy.

"As you guys might've felt it already, your magic ability has somewhat increased," Lucy said. "For the soldiers, your sparring techniques might've also gotten better. After figuring out the dummy's movement, fighting it had gotten easier. Yes?"

"Definitely," Lieutenant Ethan nodded his head.

"It was almost as if we could see it's future movements," another lieutenant said.

"I can't believe this impossible training is actually helping," a soldier laughed.

"Though she's strict, she's actually more helpful than those senior officers back at the castle!" another laughed.

"For the first twelve hours, you guys have learned persistence. In order to fight any enemy, no matter how strong they are or how big a force they are, you can never give up," Lucy said.

"So that's the reason she did that," Carla said, looking down from above.

"That's smart," Lily said.

"Lucy-sama has always been smart~," Frosch said happily.

"Aye~!" Happy agreed with a bright smile. "That's our Lucy!"

"I just hope that Sting learned something from it though," Lector sweat-dropped.

"For the second twelve hours, you guys learned to strategize. With a dummy that contained a millionth of my strength, there was no way you could completely defeat it within twelve hours. By calming down and slowly seeing through its movements, you guys learned to plan out different attacks under your captain and lieutenants. Congratulations again," she smiled.

The soldiers smiled proudly to themselves and then faced Lucy. The mages, too, looked at her fondly, with the exception of Natsu and the others, especially Laxus. Even though he couldn't touch her, he wanted to reach out to her and hold her. But seeing her radiant and proud smile for the soldiers that had completed the task, he couldn't help but smile back.

"Laxus, don't tell me you can't bear it already?" Evergreen teased from behind her fan.

"Shut up," Laxus said, his ears red.

"I can't believe that the mighty Laxus can act like a child," Sting laughed, holding his stomach.

Sting, the most childish one here is you, they all thought.