Acnologia was starting to get genuinely irritated after being surrounded by Ankh and several of dragonkind's greatest fighters.
If it had only been the dragons, the true Dragon King could have dealt with them easily enough.
Between the strongest draconic body in existence and two divine powers built almost entirely for destruction, he had more than enough strength to crush them one by one.
The problem was Ankh.
Every truly dangerous attack Acnologia unleashed was intercepted by the one person on the battlefield who had no reason to fear divine power.
That forced Acnologia to hold back and constantly watch himself, while Ankh—who had shifted almost entirely into a defensive role—found the battle becoming remarkably comfortable.
It was like basketball.
Even the greatest superstar in the world could only carry a team so far if he had to force his way through five defenders alone.
Give him a squad of good teammates, though?
With everyone ganging up on one opponent, Ankh barely needed to worry about offense at all.
He only had to keep Acnologia's most dangerous attacks under control.
The dragons would handle the dragon-slaying part for him.
Even with Acnologia's near immunity to magic, there had to be a limit to how much punishment his body could endure when a pack of enormous dragons kept mauling him at point-blank range.
"ROOOAR—!"
After enduring attack after attack, Acnologia finally stopped stubbornly standing his ground.
His roar swept violently around him, forcing the surrounding dragons away before he shot upward like a black hurricane.
The others immediately gave chase.
Huge wings beat through the sky as the dragons followed him higher and higher.
The battle above continued.
Down below, Ishgar had already lost sight of what was happening on Guiltina's side of the battlefield.
Unfortunately, before its soldiers could even catch their breath, fighting broke out again behind them.
The Alvarez Empire's forces were aggressively closing in on Ishgar's retreat routes, clearly unwilling to give up on trapping the returning army.
Hyberion and the other councilors smashed open a path through the heavily equipped Alvarez troops, then remained behind to withstand wave after wave of attacks so more soldiers could escape.
Laxus and the others had been fighting almost nonstop since the Tartaros crisis began.
By now, every one of them looked utterly exhausted.
Still, they had no choice but to force themselves onward.
As Laxus supported Gray along the retreat, an enormous sandstorm suddenly rose ahead of them.
His eyes sharpened.
"DOWN!"
After so many battles, everyone's nerves were still stretched tight.
The moment they heard Laxus shout, they instinctively threw themselves to the ground.
Whoosh—!
In the next instant, countless swords formed from sand shot out of the storm like a torrential rain of blades.
Several soldiers who reacted too slowly were pierced straight through.
Their screams once again filled the battlefield.
"How dare you!"
Jura saw Richard—who had reunited with them earlier and fought beside them—take a sand blade through the arm.
Fury flashed across the Wizard Saint's face.
He slammed his staff into the earth.
A massive wall of stone immediately rose before them.
The dense storm of sand swords crashed into the barrier.
Jura turned his palm.
The stone wall reshaped itself into a gigantic fist and smashed into the hazy storm.
"So this is all a Wizard Saint of Ishgar amounts to?"
The stone fist rapidly lost momentum as it entered the swirling sand and soon collapsed helplessly to the ground.
At the same time, the storm condensed into the shape of a young man dressed in desert-style clothing.
A wicked grin covered his face.
Gray frowned when he recognized him.
"That's Ajeel, one of the Alvarez Empire's elites. We fought him on Tenrou Island."
"Elite?"
Ajeel laughed mockingly as he looked over their battered group.
"Seven years have passed. I am now one of the Spriggan 12, one of the twelve strongest people on the entire western continent!"
"And you?"
"You're still nothing but insects struggling to survive in the palms of people stronger than you, just like you were on Tenrou Island."
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING WEAK?!"
That was more than enough to set off both Natsu and Sting.
White light and crimson fire erupted as they charged Ajeel together and punched him directly in the face.
Ajeel did not even bother dodging.
He allowed both fists to strike him, contempt filling his eyes.
Their attacks simply punched through a mass of sand.
Yellow grains scattered everywhere.
Then the sand flowed back together, restoring Ajeel's body without so much as a scratch.
"I already told you…"
His grin widened.
"I've had seven more years than you!"
Ajeel laughed wildly and slammed both hands toward their faces.
Huge quantities of sand poured into Natsu's and Sting's mouths and noses.
Both Dragon Slayers struggled violently as the endless sand nearly suffocated them.
Fortunately, Jura immediately raised another mass of stone and scattered the storm around them.
Natsu staggered out of Ajeel's range, coughing heavily.
"He's strong…"
His expression became wary.
"Way stronger than he felt back on Tenrou Island."
"If you had spent those seven years training normally, perhaps we still wouldn't know who would win."
Ajeel spread his arms arrogantly.
"But unfortunately for you…"
His fingers curled into fists.
"This is the age of the Alvarez Empire!"
"Sandstorm World!!"
Magic Power far denser than anything he had possessed seven years ago erupted from his body.
The already overwhelming sandstorm thickened until no one could see more than a few steps ahead.
In an instant, the mages found themselves trapped in a world containing nothing but endless yellow sand.
This was the Desert King Ajeel's strongest amplification spell.
With sand everywhere, Ajeel gained an almost absurd degree of freedom inside the domain.
His body dissolved completely into the storm.
With their vision reduced to almost nothing, everyone could only remain close to their companions and avoid taking even a single careless step.
"Wendy! Sherria!" Laxus shouted while forcing his eyes open against the sand. "Can you blow this storm away?!"
No answer came.
The two girls, whose senses were especially sensitive to the air around them, were already covering their mouths and noses.
Their faces had begun turning purple.
This environment was practically torture for them.
Even Erza, Natsu, and the others were beginning to show signs of distress.
'I'll have to spend Magic Power and break this spell first.'
Laxus quickly abandoned his earlier plan to conserve his remaining strength for Ajeel himself.
Which was saying something, considering the day he had already endured.
He had started by annihilating Tempester during the city defense.
Then he rushed to Tartaros and fought God Serena.
Without resting, he moved straight into Bloodman's first and second phases.
Before he could even catch his breath, he was dropped directly onto another battlefield while practically running on empty.
There he instantly defeated Kiria, clashed with Kirin—one of the enemy's strongest fighters—and was then chased across the battlefield by Ignia when the Fire Dragon God suddenly appeared.
Frankly, this twenty-four-hour nightmare would have put even Natsu on the ground several times over with dramatic theme music playing in the background.
Yet Laxus was still standing.
And he was now preparing to add Ajeel to the list.
Just as he was about to continue his absurd winning streak, Laxus suddenly frowned.
One after another, his companions were swept away by streaks of golden light.
He stared for a moment.
Then the utterly exhausted Laxus released a long breath.
Finally.
Reinforcements!