"Water Slash!"
"Water Slash!"
Juvia and Lisanna attacked in perfect unison, their stances mirroring each other so closely that the people nearby did a double take. Nobody had long to stare, though, because magic was already going off across the whole line.
"Solid Script: Fire!"
"Purple Binding Net!"
"Mist Assault!"
"Sand Rebellion!"
"Pict Magic: Wolf Pack!"
"Lucy — Flying Kick!"
Lucy had told Rhodes she wanted no part in a fight this dangerous, and had genuinely intended to stay on the sidelines. Then she had drifted closer, and then closer still, and somewhere in that process the crowd had absorbed her.
The Avatar cult had planned to use their numbers strategically, spreading their formation wide to encircle and trap the enemy. But before the spread could finish, they realized the encirclement had somehow already closed.
Because Fairy Tail's mages had charged directly into the center of their formation.
The Dark magic cult had never seen tactics this aggressively senseless. Whatever residual unease Fairy Tail's reputation had produced dissolved immediately. The squad leaders shouted orders, tightening the ring, preparing to compress and finish this quickly.
A few minutes later, they understood the problem.
This was not Fairy Tail trapped in an encirclement. This was hundreds of cultists surrounding several dozen people who happened to be faster, stronger, and entirely uninterested in standing still. The front line had barely formed before the rear ranks were already scattered.
"What is wrong with these people?!"
"Stop them!"
"The Fairy Queen is a monster!"
Arlock watched his formation crumble and said nothing, leaning on his staff. D-6 stepped forward. "These aren't ordinary opponents. We need to move."
Briar was already walking. "I'll deal with them now."
The ordinary members rallied at the sight of their officers entering the field.
"Hold them!"
But the fastest of Fairy Tail had already pushed through.
"Not another step," D-6 said, blocking the path. Briar stopped beside him.
Natsu and Gajeel had both already fixed their eyes on Arlock behind the officers. Neither of them slowed down. They swung simultaneously without breaking stride.
A fire-wrapped fist and an iron-coated fist hit D-6 on either side of his head at the same moment. His mask shattered. His body swayed. He went down without a sound.
Gray watched this and said, "The other one's mine."
"Don't count on it!" Elfman surged forward and threw a punch at Briar. "Man!"
The punch hit nothing.
Briar had split into four the instant it landed, all four of her stepping around him as he passed through the gap.
"Another one this rough, how infuriating!"
"Though this big one is a little funny."
"And there's a shirtless one teaming up with him. Tragic."
"You're Gray, aren't you? I think I saw you at the Grand Magic Games."
"I like you a little."
Four voices, four expressions: fury, amusement, sorrow, affection. The noise was giving Elfman a headache.
"Splitting into four at once. Annoying."
"Two each, then," Gray said, stepping up.
Before either of them could move, two water blades swept in from the side, crossing each other as they sliced across Briar's chest.
"RIVALS!"
Briar hit the ground. Juvia's voice rang out directly behind her. "Daring to make eyes at Gray while Juvia is standing right here. You have made a grave mistake."
Gray watched in silence as his supposed opponent was lifted off the ground by a geyser that had appeared from seemingly nowhere. When Briar came back down, there was one of her instead of four, and she was unconscious.
The nearby cult members stared.
"Lady Briar!"
"She went down in seconds!"
"What happened to her?!"
Juvia had already shifted back to her usual composure and drifted close to Gray's side. "Gray, this is Juvia's newest creation. The Spring of Love."
Gray pressed his hand to his forehead. "Please rename it."
Juvia pouted. "Then..."
"Man!" Elfman, who had endured all he could, shifted into Beast Soul and crashed back into the crowd.
Cana flicked a card and put down the cultist trying to pull Juvia away, then turned on both of them while breathing alcohol fumes. "You two. Save the domestic dispute for after the battle."
Juvia spun around. "Is Miss Cana also a rival in love?"
Lisanna used a water spell that bore a striking resemblance to Juvia's own technique to knock three more people off their feet, and said with weary patience, "Juvia, focus."
A focused Fairy Tail was unstoppable.
The cult had the numbers and they had the conviction, but neither was enough to hold back the momentum of a few dozen mages who had been training under Rhodes for the better part of two months and were finally getting to hit something that hit back. The mass of black-robed figures was carved open by streaks of light in every color, and what had been positioned as an encirclement became a complete farce.
A breathless messenger broke through to the rear. "Lord Arlock! All of our officers, they've all been taken down!"
Arlock had already seen it. Directly ahead of him, a ball of fire and a mass of iron had broken away from the main fight and were tearing toward him at speed.
Around him, morale was collapsing.
"We're losing this fast? I didn't think Fairy Tail was this strong."
"Lord Arlock, the vanguard is finished!"
"Lord Arlock, the rear guard is breaking!"
"Lord Arlock—"
Arlock did not move. He stood with his staff, the iron mask giving away nothing. The stillness of him had a weight to it that quieted the nearest voices.
"It is fine," he said, his voice carrying the same authority as before. "The situation remains in hand. Once the offering is made, the purification will truly begin."
The messengers who heard it found something to hold onto in his composure, even as the battle continued to go wrong around them.
"Fire Dragon's Roar!"
"Iron Dragon's Roar!"
The eruption of deep crimson flames and the dark gray torrent of iron blades caught five or six cult members each, spinning them away, and drove straight toward Arlock.
Screaming. Scrambling. Shouted warnings.
Arlock raised his staff. Layers of barrier shields rose in sequence in front of him. The flames and the iron storm hit the outermost layer and shattered it like glass. They ground through the next layer. And the next. They tore through the defenses one after another, each layer slowing them further, until they reached the final barrier and spent themselves against it, stopping just short.
The soldiers who had scattered out of the way looked back. Some had lost consciousness from the shockwave alone.
Arlock had not moved from where he stood.
...
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