Ice Dragon Slayer/Chapter 38: First Encounter

In a much darker, more rugged part of Tenrou Island, Erza, Juvia and Manda continued their search for Mest, Wendy and Rodan, all of whom had yet to return to base camp. They had been searching for about half an hour, but had yet to find any trace of the trio. Although Manda suspected they would be safe since Rodan was with them, she still found it odd that they had not returned.
After a while of walking, a question popped up in Juvia's mind as she turned to Erza. "I was wondering about something. Do you happen to know what kind of magic Mest uses?"
"Ah yes. You're still somewhat new to the guild." Erza said. She thought back on it, but to her slight surprise, she couldn't remember. "You know, honestly...I'm not sure."
Manda cocked an eye. "I find that to be rather peculiar."
Erza sighed as she looked back ahead. "Yes, well..."
----Carla's eyes widened as she and Panther Lily raced through the forest. "Hold on! Are you implying that this Mest fellow might not actually be a member of the Fairy Tail guild?!"
"All I can say is that the first time I met him I got a strange feeling." Lily replied answered as he ducked under a tree root. "So I've tried to think about what I do and do not know about him. What I do know is crystal clear."
Carla glanced at him uneasily. "What? That doesn't make any sense. What are you getting at?"
"What I mean is this: I've barely spoken to him, but there are things about him I know with complete certainty, as if I can see them." the black Exceed said tensely. "His name is Mest Gryder. He's the Earthland pupil of my prince, whom you call 'Mystogan.' He competed in last years S-Class Trials, but he did not pass."
He paused for a moment. "...And that's all. I feel as though I should know more about him, but it's all just a haze."
Carla was livid at this. "I explicitly told Wendy she should by no means associate with that man!"
"Well we can't change that now, but hopefully our fears are invalid." Lily hoped.
Carla closed her eyes. I just hope that Rodan can protect her until we can find them."
----Wendy smiled as she picked several flowers from the edge of the cliff side. "I've never seen flowers like these before!"
She turned around to show Mest the flowers she had picked. "Their so pretty! You see-?"
Her eyes widened and she released a blood curdling scream.
Rodan's eyes shot open when he heard the scream and he quickly jumped to his feet. "What?! What's going on?! Are we under attack?! Don't worry! I'll find 'em and beat 'em to a bloody-"
What he saw almost made him stop dead. "...pulp?"
Mest was on his hands and knees and looked to be eating the flowers Wendy had picked while the young Dragon Slayer had jumped to the side and looked completely startled out of her mind.
"I must know! I must find out what these never before seen flowers taste like!" he said as he continued to munch down on the flowers.
"But the flowers are for looking at! There not for eating!" Wendy protested, still looking rather startled.
The two stopped when they felt someone watching them and turned to see Rodan, awake and standing, staring at them with surprise, awkwardness and a little confusion. Before they could explain anything, however, he just put his hands (wings) up and walked back to his rock.
"Forget it. I don't even want to know. But just so we're clear, you scared me half to death." he said as he turned around to rest on his rock again.
He stopped when Wendy abruptly appeared in front of him, jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug. "Oh, thank goodness! I thought you were seriously hurt!"
Rodan just chuckled and patted the girls head. "Relax kid. I ain't that fragile. Just got hit in the head a little too hard, but it's all good now."
As Wendy started to calm down, he glanced over his shoulder at Mest, who had calmed down from his little outburst and was staring out over the horizon with his back turned to them.
Rodan's brown eyes narrowed. 'What the heck was all that about? I know Wendy told me that he said he had a habit of acting all cuckoo whenever he wanted to learn something new, but still... Maybe Carla was right. I better keep a closer eye on this 'Mest' guy.'
----Elsewhere, Levy and Gajeel were in a really sticky situation. Yomazu, the humanoid, samurai goat had created a kanji symbol with his katana that was releasing a blaring noise that seemed to be keeping them at bay.
"It's so loud! It's killing my ears!" Gajeel shouted over the noise as he covered his ears. He then looked at the kanji symbol created by Yomazu. "He's using Magic Writing! That's just like what you do right Levy?!"
"I'm almost positive he's using Orient Solid Script Magic!" the bluenette shouted back, having to yell over the noise.
Suddenly, she noticed Kawazu, the humanoid rooster, rushing straight for her. Knowing that Gajeel wouldn't be able to hear her, she grabbed the stunned Dragon Slayer by the back of his shirt and pulled his out of the way just before Kawazu could land a hit. The rooster, who didn't seem effected by the noise Yomazu was making, jumped into the air and fired a barrage of small, round and white projectiles from his beak towards his opponents.
Gajeel cocked an eyebrow. "Are those...eggs?!"
As the eggs reached their designated targets, the began to crack before the two Fairy Tail wizards were suddenly rained on by egg yolks in the shape of fists. "Egg Buster!" Kawazu shouted as his attacks hit their marks.
Gajeel slowly lifted his head just in time to notice Yomazu charging at him midair with his katana raised. Black Steel barely managed to roll aside before the blade could hit him, the sword actually managing to cut through the ground he had just been lying.
'Ah man! I couldn't hear him coming over all the dang noise!' Gajeel thought with frustration. He quickly managed to duck when Yomazu swung again, his sword just inches from grazing his nose.
Levy tried to help her partner, but was immediately kicked away by Kawazu. Knowing that they wouldn't be able to fight efficiently over all the noise, Levy quickly made a motion with her fingers. "Solid Script: Silent!" she yelled.
The word SILENT appeared in the air and flew towards Yomazu's kanji. Kawazu managed to duck before the word could hit him, causing it to hit the kanji symbol. As soon as the two attacks collided, the symbol disappeared and the blaring sound had finally subsided.
"She turned down the volume on ya!" Gajeel said with a grin.
Yomazu snarled in anger. "How dare that insolent little girl erase what I have written!"
"My turn." Gajeel turned his arm into an iron club and punched Yomazu square in the chest, sending him flying.
The goat man flew past a stunned Kawazu, who managed to regain his focus and fired another barrage of eggs. Levy, however, was ready this time and made another finger motion. "Solid Script: Fire!" This time the word FIRE, made from actual fire, appeared and flew through egg projectiles, reducing them to crumbling bits of charcoal. Kawazu clucked in surprise.
Yomazu skidded his feet across the ground and managed to slow himself down before glaring hard at the Dragon Slayer. "You shall pay! Slice!" he roared. He slashed the air in front of him with his katana and a slashing wave flew out from his sword and actually manged to slice through several trees as it raced towards towards his opponent. Gajeel ducked down again before the wave could hit him.
The goat man grinned fiendishly as he adjusted his grip on his blade and swung again. "Slice!" he bellowed again. Another sharp wave flew towards Gajeel and actually managed to hit him this time. Gajeel growled in pain and fell to one knee, but he was able to survive the attack by activating his Iron Dragon's Scales just before he was hit.
Gajeel clutched his arm in pain as he raised his head to look up at Yomazu. "Man...this guy's intense." he panted.
Kawazu jumped into the air and fired his Egg Buster again at Levy. The Solid Script mage created another FIRE in the air and managed to burn through more of the eggs, but this time, there were just too many and the eggs that survived exploded in fist-shaped egg yolks and hit Levy, causing he to scream in pain.
Gajeel's eye's widened. "No Levy!" Suddenly, he felt something scratch his face that manage to make a cut in his iron scales. Yomazu sent a barrage of aerial slashes at Gajeel, who was completely stunned. 'I don't believe it! He's actually cutting through my scales!'
Yomazu reared his blade back and thrust it forwards, firing a piercing beam of white energy towards the Dragon Slayer. "Pierce!" he shouted.
Black Steel roared in pain as the beam grazed his left side and he clutched it in pain. The goat man then cloaked his blade in dark energy as glared at Gajeel. "Dark Sword: Narukami!"
Yomazu vanished in the blink of an eye before reappearing behind Gajeel. Before the Dragon Slayer could even react, an intense pain suddenly jolted through his already injured side, causing his scales to vanish as he slumped to the ground.
"GAJEEL!" Levy screamed in terror.
Yomazu huffed as he and Kawazu came together. "If the rest of the guild are as weak as these two, we very well may dispose of them all before the main force arrives."
"Lets take them all down." the rooster man added.
Gajeel rolled over on his stomach and growled in pain as he forced himself to sit up on his hands and knees. "...There's more of you scumbags?"
"Hehe, we're merely the reconnaissance team. The rest of Grimoire Heart will be arriving shortly." Yomazu chuckled darkly.
"Don't forget about us as well."
"Don't you forget that we were sent here to provide assistance too."
The two Grimoire Heart mages turned around and their grins grew larger when they noticed two figures approaching them from the forest.
"Oh, but of course we didn't forget." Yomazu replied to the first voices question.
"We were just softening them up for you." Kawazu added.
Levy staggered to her feet and helped Gajeel up. They turned their attention to two newcomers and their eyes widened in total shock.
The first figure looked liked an aquatic reptile that seemed to resemble a cross between a manta ray and a dragon. It had three horns on his head in a triangular arc, and had two cannon-like structures on its shoulders. It also had fins along its fore and hind limbs, as well as a long fin that ran down its back and tail, which had two smaller fins on it and its eyes were purple.
The second figure resembled a bipedal crab with a large left pincer and a slightly smaller right one. It had a red shell on its back with large spikes running down the sides and a yellow chest. It's arms and legs were covered in brownish red hair and it had red eyes.
The reptilian creature spoke in a deep, male voice. "So these are two of the humans those foolish Earth Defenders allied themselves with?"
"Gehehehehe. They don't look so tough to me." the large crab snickered in a slightly higher voice.
Levy, who was still supporting Gajeel, stared at the two creatures with slight horror until she regained her ability to speak. "W-who are you guys...?!"
"Who are we?" the green beast asked. "We are two kaiju who simply seek the annihilation the lowly species that has reduced our home world into a toxic cesspool."
"Kaiju...?" Levy repeated with confusion. Her eyes suddenly went wide when she got a good idea about who the two newcomers were. As much as she didn't want to believe it was true, she had to know for certain.
"A-are you...Earth Conquerors?" she asked nervously.
The crab creature cocked an eye and snickered again. "Oh? So they already told you about us, did they? Well, wasn't that nice of them?"
Now Gajeel's eyes widened. "Hold up! You mean these are the guys Godzilla was talkin' about?!"
"There's no doubt. They've got to be." Levy replied.
"Indeed we are. You may call me Dagahra." the large reptile said formally.
The mutated crab raised his left claw in the air. "And they call me Ganimes."
Gajeel growled at the two Conquerors impatiently. "How 'bout we just skip the intro and have you tell us what the hell you freaks are doing here and what you want?!"
Dagahra chuckled. "My, my. Humans can be very impatient, can't they?" He then stopped and regained his serious face. "We are here to complete an important task in order to achieve our goal of returning to Terra, and you two just so happen to be a part of the mission."
Levy stared at them with unease. "W-what mission...?"
"Ain't it obvious?!" Ganimes laughed. "We're here to crush you! But first, how about you tell us where the Earth Defenders are and we'll spare you by leaving you to these two!" He gestured to Yomazu and Kawazu, who were watching the exchange from a few feet away.
"Why do you want the Defenders?!" Levy asked, but she already knew the answer.
The mutated crab snickered. "What else? So we can crush them one by one!"
Gajeel's eyes got wide, then he glared hard at the enemy kaiju. "Like hell we will! Hey squirt, lets take these guys down a peg!"
Levy nodded, her eyes growing fierce. "Yeah! If you wanna get to them, you gotta go through us!"
Dagahra sighed. "Humans...always so quick to jump straight to violence instead of the diplomatic route." He then turned to the two Grimoire Heart mages. "Hold off for a moment. Let us take care of them for now."
Yomazu dipped his head with a grin. "Be our guests. Their all yours."
The Iron Dragon Slayer suddenly charged at the two kaiju. "Don't think we're gonna go down that easy! Iron Dragon's Sword!" Gajeel transformed his right arm into a long blade that revved up like a chainsaw and swung it towards Dagahra.
But just as it was about to land a hit, Ganimes caught it with his massive, left pincer.
Gajeel's stared in shock. "Seriously?!"
"Hehehe! Did you really think we're that dense?!" Ganimes laughed. He got a good grip on Gajeel's sword-arm and tossed him to the ground.
Black Steel growled in frustration and turned his arm into an iron spear. "Laugh at this you bastard! Iron Dragon's Lance: Demon Logs!" he roared as a barrage of iron spears shot out from Gajeel's arm and flew towards the crab.
Ganimes cocked an eye as the spears flew towards him. "Shooting metal spears from your arms? Hmm... How am I supposed to counter this?"
He then took a deep breath and shouted, "Bubble Cannon!" A torrent of golf ball sized bubbles fired out from his mouth and hit the spears. But instead of simply popping, the bubbles actually exploded once they made contact with Gajeel's attack, causing the iron spears to be destroyed as well.
Gajeel was completely flabbergasted. "How the hell did you..."
"Make my bubbles explode?" Ganimes finished. "To be honest, I have absolutely no clue! Gahahahaha!"
"Man, you're really annoying!" Black Steel roared as he charged again. "Iron Dragon's Hard Fist!" He swung his fist at the crab, who effortlessly blocked it with his right pincer.
Ganimes knocked Gajeel away before raising his massive left pincer with a shout, "Stone Hammer!" He then slammed it into the Dragon Slayer, smashing him face first into the ground.
"Gajeel!" Levy screamed. She tried to rush to her friends aid, but was suddenly knocked away by a tail swipe by Dagahra. She got her feet and made another finger motion. "Solid Script: Thunder!" The word THUNDER appeared and transformed into multiple bolts of lightning that shot towards the reptilian kaiju.
Suddenly, two large wings half the length of his body sprouted from Dagahra's back and he took off into the air, weaving around in midair to avoid the lightning strikes. Dagahra then fired a concentrated red beam of cackling energy from his maw and shouted, "Irabushan Beam!"
Levy saw the beam coming and quickly danced her fingers in front of her. "Solid Script: Guard!" she shouted. This time, the word GUARD in the form of a barrier appeared in front of her and managed to block the beam, but the force of the impact between the beam and the barrier caused Levy to fall to the ground.
Dagahra seized the opportunity. This time, the spikes on his shoulder actually opened up as blue energy began to cackle inside them. "You humans never stood a chance against us!" he bellowed. "Be gone you insect!"
Gajeel's eyes widened as he roared in a panic. "LEVY!" He tried to get up to help the bluenette, but was stopped when Ganimes stomped on his back, pinning him to the ground.
"You ain't goin' anywhere!" Ganimes laughed raucously in victory.
"BAREM CANNONS!"
Dagahra roared as two powerful blasts of blue energy shot from Dagahra's shoulder cannons.
Levy watched with wide eyes as the two massive blasts flew towards her with incredible. The Solid Script mage knew she wouldn't be able to dodge in time and waited for her end to come.
But it seemed fate had other ideas.
"GREEONNNGRRK!"
Levy heard a loud roar just before she felt something grab her by the back of her orange dress and yank her away just in time before the beams could hit their mark.
The petite girl finally opened her eyes when she felt her savior gently place her back on the ground. She turned around and was shocked when she saw a very familiar blue dinosaur smiling down at her.
"I suppose that's what you humans might call a 'close save?'" the dinosaur mused.
Levy's look of shock changed to a look of sheer happiness as she beamed up at the creature. The bluenette sighed with relief. "Thanks...Gorosaurus."
Ganimes and Gajeel were both incredibly shocked. "Aw crud! We've just got jacked!" the crab screeched.
"GREEONNNGK!"
Another roar followed by a red blur shot out from the forest and smashed into Ganimes' back, sending him flying off of the Iron Dragon Slayer. Gajeel turned his head on the ground when another familiar figure came to his side and gave a slightly painful chuckle. "Hehe... It's 'bout time you guys showed up..."
Baragon smirked. "Sorry to keep you waiting. We'll take these guys off your hands." He then turned to where his ally was helping Levy to her feet. "Hey Gorosaurus! You ready to take these fools down?!"
Gorosaurus turned towards the two Conquerors and growled. "It would be my pleasure."
Dagahra landed back to the ground and smirked. "So, you cowards have finally decided to show yourselves, have you? We were worried we would've had to burn this entire island to the ground to lure you out."
The red kaiju snarled at the reptilian Conqueror. "Leave it to someone like SpaceGodzilla to send common grunts to do his dirty work."
"Hey! Who're you calling common grunts?!" the revived Ganimes shouted in anger.
Dagarhra growled in anger. "You foolish Defenders will pay for your sins against your kind!"
With that, the four monsters charged.
----Fairy Tail OST: Fire Dragon vs. Flame God...
----Ganimes raised his left arm again swung it towards Baragon with a roar. "Stone Hammer!" The red kaiju quickly jumped to the side as the claw crashed to the ground before lunging forward and chomping down on the mutant crabs' right claw.
Ganimes flailed his claw around desperately. "Hey! Let go!"
"If you insist." Baragon growled through his teeth. Then, Baragon swung Ganimes by his right claw with his teeth and tossed him into a large tree. The red kaiju took a deep breath similar to Dagahra's, but instead of shooting out a red beam, scorching, reddish orange flames spewed from his mouth. "Magma Buster!"
Ganimes saw the flames coming and quickly sucked in a mouthful of air as well before he shot more large bubbles. "Bubble Cannon!" he shouted.
The two blasts of fire and bubbles collided and instantly erupted in an intense explosion. Ganimes had finally regained his composure when Baragon shot out from the dust with a roar.
Suddenly, to Ganimes' surprise, Baragon's claws became engulfed in flames as he delivered a flurry of fiery slashes to the crab kaiju. "Magma Slasher!"
Ganimes cried out in pain as he was continuously being pushed back by Baragon. Unfortunately, the torture didn't seem to end there.
Almost out of nowhere, a metal rod bashed into the crabs face and sent him crashing into a tree. Baragon turned to see the smirking face of Gajeel appear next to him. "You didn't really think I was just gonna sit on my ass and let you have all the fun by yourself, did ya?"
"Maybe I was thinking that." the Defender replied smugly.
Gajeel just chuckled and looked back at Ganimes as he started getting back up again. "What do ya say we call it a truce for now. I owe this freak here one hell of a beating."
Baragon looked at Gajeel for a moment, then back at Ganimes and smirked. "Sure, why not? Let's go!"
The mutated grab had managed to get back to his feet again and started rubbing his head in pain from being hit by Black Steel's last attack. He then looked up and almost paled when he saw both Gajeel and Baragon charging at him.
'Oh crab cakes...'
----Gorosaurus roared as he lunged at Dagahra, ready to snap his jaws down on the aquatic conqueror. Dagahra barely dodged the angry dinosaur and fired his Barem Cannon's again. Gorosaurus snarled in pain as he was hit in the side, but thankfully his rough hide knew how to take a beating.
Dagahra opened his wings and was about to take to the air again when he felt a sharp pain on his rear end. He roared in pain and glanced behind him to see Gorosaurus biting down on his tail and pulling him back to prevent him from taking off again.
Gorosaurus shot a quick glance behind the Earth Conqueror. "Now Levy!"
Dagahra quickly looked back to what was in front of him and noticed the Solid Script mage dancing her fingers in the air. "Solid Script: Bullets!" A barrage of orange projectiles shot out of her hands and struck the green reptile in the face, making him snarl in pain as he was forced back to the ground.
"You will suffer for that you worm!" Dagahra roared as he managed to free his tail from Gorosaurus' jaws and smashed it into the blue dinosaurs face. Dagahra's mouth glowed again. "Irabushan Beam!" he bellowed and fired another red beam from his maw.
Levy crossed her arms and spread them with a shout. "Solid Script: Fire!" This time, the word FIRE appeared above her head and shot a blast of blue fire towards Dagahra's attack. The two blasts instantly collided and began pushing against each other. Although Levy was putting everything she had into the attack, she felt herself slowly begin to weaken as Dagahra's beam slowly began to overpower hers.
Suddenly, the aquatic Conqueror was kicked square in the back by Gorosaurus' signature Kangaroo Kick, knocking him off balance and canceling out his beam.
That was all Levy needed.
The Solid Script mage's Heat Spell hit Dagahra square in the chest and sent him crashing to the ground. The kaiju slowly got back up and snarled in a mixture of pain and fury. "You both will suffer for that!"
Gorosaurus glanced at the bluenette. "You ready for a real fight?"
Levy nodded, her eyes abnormally fierce. "Yeah! Let's go!"
----Gajeel charged at Ganimes and took a swing at him and shouted, "Iron Dragon's Club!" His iron clubbed arm bashed Ganimes in the back on the head, causing him to stumble towards Baragon, who slashed at him with his claws.
Ganimes growled and swung his pincer at Baragon. "Stone Hammer!" The red kaiju jumped away from the attack and jumped into the ground, leaving only a large hole in the ground where he was standing. Ganimes cocked an eye. "Oh? So you really do dig. No wonder the humans back on Terra call you 'the Subterranean Terror'."
The Conqueror spun around when he noticed Gajeel rushing at him again and blocked another punch form the Iron Dragon. Gajeel jumped back and took a deep breath. "Iron Dragon's Roar!" he bellowed as he released his breath attack on the kaiju. Ganimes crossed his pincers and managed to block the massive tornado of metal shards, but the immense force of the attack pushed him back a little.
Ganimes chuckled. "Gehehe! Is that really all you got?"
Gajeel gave him a feral grin. "Not even close." The mutated crab stared at him in confusion, completely oblivious that Black Steel was looking at something behind him.
Suddenly, the ground began to shake and before Ganimes could even move, Baragon burst out of the ground and shot another torrent of flames from his jaws. "Magma Buster!" he roared. Ganimes screeched in pain when the flames struck him in the back.
Gajeel charged again while he was distracted and transformed his legs into iron pillars. "Iron Dragon's Guillotine!" The pillars stuck Ganimes square in the face and sent him flying again. Gajeel was ready to charge at him again, but was stopped when Yomazu appeared out of nowhere and tried to slash at him.
The goat man came to Ganimes' side while Kawazu and Dagahra joined them. "It wouldn't be much of a fair fight if it were four-on-two now, would it?" Yomazu asked.
Dagahra nodded as he watched Levy and Gorosaurus join Gajeel and Baragon. "Very well then. I suppose we should finish this together then."
Levy and Gorosaurus glared at their enemies with determination while Baragon glanced at Gajeel. "You ready for round two?"
Black Steel chuckled as he cracked his knuckles. "Like you even need to ask. Lets give these freaks a lesson their never gonna forget."
The two groups stared each other down with sneers. The second round was on!