Fire, Blood and Stars

Chapter 27

Erza was bored. And sad.

She was bored because there was nothing to do apart from staring at Deliora, or moving around the island. Miss First Guild Master (Erza felt it was improper to call her Mavis) and only dark mage of Fairy Tail, Zeref, were always off in some corner of the island. Erza had followed them once. Just once. She had never felt particularly inclined to follow them again.

What happens in a very well-constructed, hidden bondage dungeon stays in the very well-constructed, hidden bondage dungeon.

She was sad because she had not been able to convince her friends that she hadn't betrayed them. Even worse was the fact that they didn't shout at her or anything. They just gave her sad looks. She would have told Jellal to explain, but that stupid, idiotic moron had lost his damn memory! The only thing he remembered was the name Erza, which made her friends even sadder.

And, she wouldn't admit it, in fear of breaking the Fourth Wall, but she was also sad at being ignored for the past few chapters. Yes, it was petty, but couldn't she have had a tiny appearance?

Which is why she was given this appearance.

Now, let us cut back to our irregularly scheduled chapter. Laxus was facing the short man named Iago, who was now in a fighting stance.

"So, what magic do you have, shorty?"

"Do not call me shorty! That's discrimination!"

Laxus crossed his arms. "No it's not! I just said you're short. I never said being short is bad, or that short people are weak. Now, if I'd said that I was going to spare your life simply because you're short, that would be discrimination."

Iago dropped his stance and stumbled backwards in fear. "In that case, please discriminate, Lord Laxus!"

Laxus smirked. "That's what I thought."

Meanwhile, Gray had reached the room Gajeel was in with a gigantic hunk of metal in his hands.

"Hey, you! Are you Gajeel?"

"AAH PLEASE DON'T KILL ME- wait, you aren't Natsu?"

Gray sighed. Of course Gajeel only knew Natsu. Of course, whenever anyone thought of Fairy Tail, it was Natsu they thought about. No one thought about the utter-freaking hunk of man meat that was Gray!

"Sorry, what?" asked Gajeel, and Gray realized that he'd spoken out loud.

Seeing the confused look on Gajeel's face as the dragon slayer kept eating ice-cream, seeing the utterly stupid ice cream mustache that he had, Gray simply couldn't control his rage. He lifted the metal and slammed it on top of Gajeel.

That did not go as expected.

Gajeel caught the metal and ate it in a gulp. Laughing maniacally, he exclaimed, "You fool! Who attacks an iron dragon with a hunk of metal?"

Gajeel did not expect Gray to smirk. "Perhaps, someone who knows that the doors are made specially to stop you from eating them, because you're allergic?"

Flashback

Gray moved forward and came to face a wall. He punched it, expecting it to break. It did not.

"This isn't iron?", Gray semi-asked.

"Of course it isn't. What if Gajeel ate it?"

Gajeel's eyes widened before he doubled over and started coughing out the contents of his stomach, which was mostly ice-cream. He passed out, his skin bulging and contracting in a gruesome manner.

Gray cringed. That was probably too much. He proceeded to restrain Gajeel with a giant block of ice (no handcuffs this time. Who knew what kinks the dragon slayer had?), and went back the way he'd come. Some part of him was disappointed. Laxus must have defeated everyone important, judging by the time he spent talking to water girl. Deep in his thoughts, he didn't notice when he wandered into a control room that was being prepped to fire the Jupiter, and crashed into a tall mage who quite possibly wore lipstick.

Jose Porta.

Gray immediately brought his palms together, blades appearing along his forearm. He threw his arms forward, a wave of ice shooting immediately towards the evil Master of Phantom Lord. Jose turned around, his eyes widening, before throwing up a shield of darkness. The ice collided with it, applying pressure, but did not manage to get through. Gray narrowed his eyes before leaping in, slashing with his blades to separate the darkness.

Getting through the shield, Gray crouched to avoid a knife of pure shadow from driving into his shoulder. He snapped his fingers, and multiple blades of ice attacked Jose from all directions.

None of them managed to touch the evil mage, as he flipped backwards before conjuring similar blades of shadow which sped towards Gray. The ice mage slammed his palm on the floor, making an ice geyser erupt from it and block the blades.

He tried to bring his palms together, but frowned as they were tied up by ropes of darkness. He flexed his fingers in position, sending a football sized ball of ice at Jose. That was blocked too, and then another rope bound his neck and started strangling him.

Gray's eyes widened in genuine worry as he found he couldn't breathe. He furiously tried to think, but it was getting harder with each passing second and he was on the ground and he was pretty sure he was gonna die-

A hulking body tore the rope from his neck and wrists. "Ya okay, Fullbuster?"

"Laxus!"

"Come on, on your feet! We still have this guy to take down."

Gray stood up, his eyes focusing. He readied himself, and so did Laxus. Jose just laughed, he was one of the ten Wizard Saints, what did he have to fear from two brats?

Then Laxus pounced at him, and he just barely dodged it. The next punch missed by mere inches, and then he tripped over a black of ice. Jose's eyes widened as he just managed to catch himself, not being able to dodge the lightning infused punch that came next.

He could take both of them, and he knew that, but he needed to get his footing back for that, something which was becoming very hard to do. Laxus punched him twice more in quick succession, and then a hammer fell on his head. He grinned.

Bad move.

The hammer falling from the sky made Laxus wait, ready to hit after it broke. A shield immediately materialized above Jose's head and blocked it. When Laxus stepped in with his own punch, his arm was caught by Jose with ease. It took Jose two seconds to snap it and turn towards Gray.

Not one to be deterred by a minor broken arm, Laxus punched Jose from behind. Jose caught it without looking back and clamped down so hard that the bones crumbled. Then he extended a hand towards Gray, intending to lift him by the throat-

A low growl echoed through the room that was less than seventeen meters in length for dramatic effect.

Everyone froze. Their heads slowly turned to the doorway.

"H-h-hi, N-N-Natsu", whimpered out the Master of Phantom Lord, all traces of arrogance gone, before realizing that Natsu was in fact holding one of his ribs. Jose looked down to see that his chest cavity was completely open, before coughing up blood and fainting.

"I suspect I may have hit him too hard."

"No shit, Sherlock."

"Who's Sherlock?"

"... Never mind."