A Railgun In Fairy Tail, Book 6: Apocalypse

Death On Your Mind

Bruises? Check. Cuts? Check. The feeling that she was thrown through several walls then beaten with a rusty metal bat? Check.

Mikoto had been feeling all of this ever since a week into the war. Not a day went by when she and her friends didn't run up against at least 3 Etherial Wyrms. And of course that's how it was today.

While Natsu, Gunha, Gray, and Accelerator were scouting the town up ahead, others had gone to scout the east and west of the company to ensure there weren't any enemies spying around nearby.

Mikoto thought it was a bit too obvious, of course there were enemies following them, the Etherial Wyrms weren't normal soldiers, they flew around EVERYWHERE. Laying their eggs wherever they felt like, usually laying them in areas they had taken over with help Mega Etherials, super intelligent Wyrms who acted as leaders to different large Wyrm groups. And the eggs hatched only after a few hours, sprouting out human sized baby wingless wyrms, all of them hungry to eat humans. They acted as foot soldiers for about 3 days before becoming full grown flying terrors.

And of course, while Mikoto had been scouting around with Gajeel that day, the had the misfortune to run into 10 full grown Wyrms along with about 50 baby ones. And after a hard fought battle and a few explosive moves, Mikoto and Gajeel had managed to take them down. Now they were on their way back, feeling battered enough to collapse.

"I swear.." muttered Mikoto as she walked in between the trees with Gajeel close behind. "I think those things are getting stronger every day."

"Those ones were larger then the ones we normally go against." said Gajeel. "Of course it would be harder."

"How's your arm feeling?"

Gajeel flexed his right arm which had been recently slammed against the ground by a large clawed foot. "Could be worse...it's not broken...gonna take more then that to get me down. Howabout you? You took on more of those things then I did.."

"I'll live.." Mikoto muttered as she eyed the multiple bite marks lining her arms. Luckilly, the babies weren't as venomous as their parents, but the beasts were so ferocious, it was like fighting a giant shredder. In the end, in order to take them down, Mikoto had to use electromagnetism to raise a large dustcloud of iron particles from the ground smash the creatures with a large wave of metal.

"Honestly." said Gajeel. "You look like you need a break or something...there hasn't been a single day where you haven't been fighting...even Salamander takes a break once in a while...you however, you fell down a hundred foot water fall, rode down a rough river, fought Jackal, then dragged yourself through 20 miles of forest, then fought that Slither guy and you're still going. That can't be healthy."

"I rested." said Mikoto.

"Yeah...for like 2 hours." said Gajeel. "That doesn't count in my opinion. You need a real moment to rest..you need some real sleep..you're not invincible."

"..."

Truth was, Mikoto wanted to keep in the field as much as possible. Her constant nightmares along with her episodes and freezing up. She felt like keeping in a state of constant action was a way to assure herself that she wasn't weak...it didn't do much to help, but it was better then remaining in her tent and staying awake in fear that she'd have another strange nightmare.

As much as she kept on trying to tell herself that they were just dreams, she knew they were more then that. It was Dravis trying to mess with her head...omens of the future provided by another unseen force. She had attempted to ask Elanis about these dreams...but for the longest while the Lord of Creation had remained silent for a long while...so long in fact, that Mikoto worried she might be dead or gone..however, as Mikoto still had the ability to sense Dravis's location (currently back at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, feeding on a combination of Zeref's magic and the strife of the world.) and she could still feel another warmth within her..as if there was another life within her...she guessed that Elanis definitely had not faded.