Chaos & Salamander

Chapter 54 - Something Fishy

Natsu's POV

Kumi lifted up a two finger hand sign and a row of jagged pointed rocks rose out of the earth towards me. I swiftly jumped at the last second and then propelled myself forward by kicking off the jagged rock. With my flaming fist raised, I punched her in the face. She skidded back a few metres. I charged for a second punch but she quickly put up a thick wall of stone. Her wall of stone was strong but it crumbled under my flaming punch.

As soon as her wall of stone fell, she quickly jumped back a few times to gain some distance and then dropped into a crouch. "Earth Wave" she chanted as she slammed her palms onto the ground. From her hands, the ground rumbled and formed onto a wave towards me. The wave was too wide for me to dodge but I burst into black flames. As the wave hit me, every single grain of earth disintegrated as soon as it touched my flames.

Kumi stood shocked for a moment before shaking it off and charging at me. She engaged me in hand-to-hand combat. I didn't need to use my magic to defeat this weakling so I fought her with my bare hands. As we were exchanging punches and kicks without magic, I heard Lucy hiss in pain which caught my attention. 'Someone hurt Lucy' I thought as I jumped backwards away from my fight to check on Lucy. I growled angrily as I saw the pain on her face as a light chain was wrapped around her arm. Lucy heard my growl and looked over to me. "I'm fine Natsu! Focus on your fight!" she quickly shouted and then suddenly I was punched in the face.

I returned my focus to Kumi and quickly grabbed her incoming fist. "Don't forget about your fight with me, Chaos" she said. My hand holding her fist burst into black flames and she pulled away while screaming in pain. Her hand was badly burnt by my flames. Seeing Lucy in pain has made me mad. A flash of fear crossed her eyes as she looked into my glaring eyes.

"Earth Rock Fist!" she chanted and a giant stone armoured fist burst out of the ground towards me. Before the fist reached me, I punched it with my flaming fist head-on. As soon as both fists collided, the stone fist cracked against mine before crumbling into a million pieces. Her magic was strong but it wasn't as strong as Wizard Saint Jura's Earth Magic.

Before she had a chance to react, I charged at her and punched her in the stomach hard. Hard enough for her to cough a bit of blood before dropping to the floor unconscious. As I was making sure she wasn't going to get back up for a while, I heard "watch out!" from where Lucy was and I quickly whipped my head around to see the golden exceed tackle her to the ground to dodge a magic bullet. I quietly sighed in relief that she didn't get hit.

As both Happy and the golden exceed were checking on Lucy, I walked over and stopped behind her. I hummed, silently asking if she was hurt. She craned her neck back to look at me and then took a quick glance behind me before looking back at me. "I'm alright Natsu" she replied but I noticed the spiral burn mark on her arm which made me growl. She looked down at her arm noticing the burn mark. "It's only a small burn. Wendy can heal this no problem and besides, it doesn't hurt" she said to reassure me. I couldn't argue with her because she doesn't seem to be in any pain, so I hesitantly nodded once.

After Celestia accepted Lucy's offer of joining, I watched them hug happily. Inwardly, I felt proud. 'About time Lucy got her own exceed' I thought. Suddenly I felt a presence nearby Kumi's unconscious body but when I turned to look, I found Kumi missing. I growled while trying to sniff the air for her scent, but it was like it vanished. "What's wrong Natsu?" Lucy asked as she looked up from her hug. "Earth Woman is gone" I responded without looking at her. I scanned my eyes around the whole area for Kumi.

Everyone looked towards where Kumi was and noticed she was gone. Lucy then looked around the area. "She abandoned her guildmates" she stated. She was right, the rest of Kumi's guild was still laying around unconscious. What kind of guild master would leave their own guildmates? Unless...she didn't disappear on her own. People don't just disappear into thin air except for that cloud guy, Zard. Something is really fishy about this and I'm not talking about Happy's fish.

"Is everyone alright?" Wendy asked as she walked over with Erza and Carla. "Heal her" I demanded as I pointed to Lucy using my eyes, wasting no time. Wendy rushed to Lucy in worry and began to heal her burnt arm. Lucy lightly sighed, "you worry too much Natsu" she said with a smile. I don't think I worry too much. It's natural to care for a close friend this much. "Alright everyone, let's round up the Dark Sirens members before heading home to Fairy Tail" Erza said. "Aye!" everyone except for me cheered. Life is going to be a bit more interesting now that Lucy has an exceed.