Chapter 372: The Oración Seis Appear
Hibiki did not press for the specifics regarding Ultear's situation. Judging by her reaction just now, it was obvious she had a deeply unpleasant history with Brain.
"U-um... please don't count me in..." Lucy raised her hand, her voice trembling.
"I wasn't even counted to begin with," Happy added, also raising a paw.
"Rest assured, our operation does not require combat. All we need to do is find their base," Ichiya struck another pose as he spoke.
"Base?" Natsu asked, confused.
"Yes. We haven't found it yet," Ren stated.
"But we hypothesize that they have a temporary base set up inside the sea of trees," Eve added.
"If possible, we hope to gather all of them together in that base." Ichiya shifted into a new pose before continuing.
"Then what do we do?" Gray asked.
"Beat 'em up, obviously!" Natsu threw his hands in the air and shouted loudly.
"We have to fight in the end anyway..." Lucy sighed in defeat.
"What do we do once they are gathered?" Erza began to ponder the logistics.
"Throw magic inside, of course! Just throw whatever magic has the biggest blast! The best-case scenario is we block them inside their base and blow them away," Sorano said, clenching her fist. Ultear nodded continuously beside her, completely agreeing with the sentiment.
"So scary!" Lucy shivered violently upon hearing this. Natsu, on the other hand, had stars in his eyes; he was so excited that flames began erupting from his hands.
"We will use our guild's Pegasus, whose name echoes across the continent—Christina—to obliterate them along with their base!" Ichiya raised an arm, pointing a finger toward the sky, and spoke with immense pride.
"Ooooh!"
"A Magical Bomber?!"
Everyone exclaimed in surprise.
"I knew it!" Sorano said with a smug look on her face; she hadn't guessed wrong.
"Hey... the opponents are human beings, right? Do we really need to go that far?!" Lucy asked in shock.
"That is exactly how powerful our enemies are!" Jura said in a heavy tone from the side.
"Eek!" Lucy jumped, startled by his grave voice.
"Listen well. Even if a battle breaks out, you absolutely must not fight alone. To take on one enemy, we must maintain a minimum of two people at all times," Jura instructed everyone with utmost seriousness.
"Mm." Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Are they really that dangerous?!" Lucy's voice trembled.
"I'll protect you, Lucy," Happy said loyally.
"If I have to rely on you for protection, I'd be better off relying on myself," Lucy replied, her panic suddenly cooling upon hearing Happy's words.
"That's so mean, Lucy!" Happy covered his face, putting on a highly exaggerated expression of sorrow.
Lucy ignored Happy's performance entirely.
"Alright! I'm all fired up!" Natsu smacked his flaming fist into his palm, roaring with excitement.
Bang!
Natsu directly smashed the villa's front doors open and charged out first. His voice trailed back from outside: "I'll take care of all five of 'em myself!"
In the blink of an eye, Natsu had already run far away.
"Wait! Natsu!!" Lucy chased him out of the villa, but Natsu was already a considerable distance away.
"Good grief, that guy." Erza, who had also chased after him, shook her head.
"Should I call him impatient, or what?" Lucy sighed helplessly.
"You know, he definitely didn't listen to the strategy plan at all," Gray pointed out exasperatedly.
"That's Natsu for you!" Happy said cheerfully.
"Hey, hey!"
"That's awful!"
"Doors are meant to be opened, you know!"
The Blue Pegasus trio couldn't help but complain as they stared at the shattered front doors of the villa. This was their Guild Master's villa; how were they supposed to explain this to him when they got back?
"It can't be helped. Let's go," Erza said to the Fairy Tail group.
"Seriously, that idiot!" Gray cursed helplessly.
"Hurry up, we can't let Natsu steal all the glory," Sorano smiled.
"Let's go!" Ultear said, immediately breaking into a run to catch up with Erza and Gray, who had already set off.
"Wahhh..." Lucy wore an expression of sheer misery, but she still followed after them.
"Well, since it's come to this, let's go too." Seeing the Fairy Tail members running off, the Blue Pegasus trio quickly chased after them. They'd worry about the doors later.
"Good grief..." Jura sighed as he watched the group sprint away.
"Meeennn..." Ichiya let out a bizarre, unintelligible sound from beside Jura.
"Whatever the case, the operation has officially begun. Let us follow them," Jura said to Yuka, Sherry, and Ichiya.
"Understood, Jura-dono," Yuka and Sherry replied.
The four of them left the villa. Jura used Earth Magic to create a stone wall to block the shattered entrance, and then the four of them set off to catch up with the others who were already far ahead.
"Let's follow them too." Noah and Ur teleported outside the villa. Watching the distant figures of the group, Noah spoke to Ur.
"Mm." Ur nodded.
Noah glanced at the stone wall blocking the doorway. He would just have to explain things to Master Bob later.
Then, the two of them followed far behind the group.
"Ohoh! I can see it already! It's the sea of trees!" Natsu, who was running at the very front, had already spotted their destination: the Worth Woodsea.
"Hold on a minute, Natsu!" Gray shouted from behind him.
"No way!" Natsu rejected him outright.
"Idiot, don't run off on your own!" Erza shouted as she chased after him.
"Hehe, are you that upset that I beat you to it?" Natsu taunted smugly.
"What did you say?! You bastard!" Erza's face twisted into an expression of sheer rage. Natsu was so startled he nearly tripped and face-planted.
"Wait up! Everyone... is running... way too fast!" Lucy panted heavily as she trailed behind the group.
It wasn't that Lucy's stamina was poor; it was simply that the people in front of her were ridiculously fast, and she couldn't keep up.
"You really need to train more. Your stamina is still quite far from that of a qualified Fairy Tail member," Sorano ran casually alongside Lucy.
Ultear was also running beside them, her emotions completely stabilized by now. As the weakest member of the team aside from Happy, Ultear and Sorano didn't feel comfortable leaving Lucy behind, so they stayed by her side.
"Do you need to be carried like a princess?"
"I can hold your hand."
"Don't just leave my side so easily!"
Hearing Lucy's complaints, the Blue Pegasus trio immediately ran over and offered their assistance. Their stamina was excellent, much better than Lucy's.
"So annoying!" Lucy rejected them immediately.
"Let's hurry!" Sorano grabbed Lucy's hand and forced her to accelerate, while Ultear followed closely.
"Wah, not so fast!" Lucy's startled cries echoed through the air.
"What an energetic bunch," Yuka noted as Jura's group trailed behind.
Suddenly, a massive shadow fell over them, causing everyone to look up in shock.
"What the?!" Natsu, running at the front, also noticed the shadow covering him and reflexively skidded to a halt. Gray, who was right behind him, slammed directly into his back.
"Ugh! Don't just stop out of nowhere, you bastard!"
"Gah!"
Natsu was knocked over by Gray, and the two of them tumbled across the ground several times. They immediately scrambled to their feet, pressing their foreheads together as they prepared to brawl.
"Look!" Erza shoved the two of them apart with one hand each and looked up at the sky. Natsu and Gray followed her gaze.
A massive, blue airship with wings, shaped somewhat like a horse, was soaring through the sky.
"It's the Magical Bomber, Christina," Sorano noted, looking at the airship in the sky as she and Ultear caught up to the group.
"Awesome!" Natsu exclaimed in awe.
"Is that the legendary Pegasus?" Gray also sighed in amazement.
"It's so beautiful!" Lucy said.
"It's huge!" Happy, having flown over, chimed in.
"Alright, let's split up and find their base," Erza commanded.
"Huh? What's going on?" Natsu, who hadn't listened to a single word of the strategy plan, asked in utter confusion.
"You really..." Gray didn't even know what to say to him anymore.
Suddenly, a series of massive explosions erupted across the Magical Bomber Christina in the sky.
"What?!"
"Huh?"
"How could this be?!"
"Christina is...!"
Everyone cried out in shock, watching helplessly as Christina plummeted from the sky.
BOOM!
A colossal explosion detonated where Christina crashed. The ensuing shockwave hurled countless clumps of dirt and debris in every direction. Everyone was forced to stop and stare blankly at the crash site. Flames shot high into the sky, billowing massive clouds of thick smoke that completely obscured whatever was inside.
"The Magical Bomber was shot down?"
"What exactly is going on?"
The group was thoroughly bewildered.
At the very front, Natsu's nose suddenly twitched.
"Hey."
"Yeah, someone's coming. Snap out of it," Gray warned the group.
Everyone instantly grew serious, gathering their focus as they stared intently at the crash site of the Magical Bomber.
Step... step...
Amidst the roaring flames of the burning Magical Bomber, the sound of footsteps grew increasingly clear. Through the billowing smoke and dust of the explosion, five figures gradually emerged into everyone's view.
"Th-these guys are..." Lucy stammered in shock from the back.
"The Oración Seis!" Erza stated grimly.
The figures from the images Hibiki had shown them in the villa had now appeared right in front of their very eyes in the flesh. They were exactly the targets they needed to subjugate this time: the Oración Seis.
Aside from Midnight, who was sound asleep on a floating carpet, most of the Oración Seis wore highly arrogant expressions. However, the commander standing right in the center, Brain, remained completely expressionless.
"Hmph. A swarm of maggots has gathered," Brain said coldly.
"We heard your little plan, you know. Your trump card, the Magical Bomber Christina, has already been crushed. How does that feel?" The man named Cobra asked the Allied Force with a mocking smirk.
Everyone's expressions darkened considerably. They had just planned to use the Magical Bomber to annihilate the Oración Seis, only for it to be completely destroyed right in front of them in the blink of an eye.
~~~
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